Coaches On The Hot Seat: No, They Won’t Get Fired, But … WIN NOW
5. Mike Norvell, Florida State
It’s about as rough a start as any head coach could possibly deal with.
There were own-goal, off-the-field issues/misunderstandings with his players – that were fixed, but only after becoming national stories – and then his team loses at home to a mediocre Georgia Tech team, and then he suffers from getting the coronavirus, and then the Noles get obliterated by Miami in the worst performance in the history of the rivalry.
Beating Jacksonville State this week should help, but good luck finding the game before the season-ender at Duke that FSU will be favored.
4. Les Miles, Kansas
The Jayhawks scored first against Baylor, and lost 47-14.
It’s going to take more than a few recruiting classes and transfers to be merely competitive, but it’s going to take something magical to come up with a win this year.
Going back to the end of his days at LSU, he’s 3-12 in his last 13 games with Oklahoma State up next.
3. Dave Doeren, NC State
He cranked out five straight good years and two nine-win campaigns before clunking in 2019, but this season his Wolfpack have to make a big jump back up. This is an okay team, and it just got whacked around by a Virginia Tech squad missing over 20 players.
The opening weekend 45-42 win over Wake Forest was fun, but now his Pack have to go to Pitt, and then they have go to Virginia. There are built-in wins to get to at least five, and he’ll be fine after State gets to mid-November, but Doeren is now 3-9 in his last 12 games.
2. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
17-12 against Vanderbilt?
Give Jimbo a bit of a break since almost everyone is a bit funky to start the 2020 season, but …
At Alabama, Florida, at Mississippi State. Those are the next three games for the Aggies, and the performance against the Commodores isn’t going to come close to cutting it going forward.
The team is experienced enough and good enough to better, but after losing two of the last three to close out 2019, and going 1-8 over his first two seasons against Clemson, Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Auburn, and 1-1 against Mississippi State. It’s time to start beating the better teams.
1. Gary Patterson, TCU
Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is the only current coach who’s been at his school longer than Patterson, and the guy is about as made a man as it gets in the coaching world – at least outside of the Nicks and Dabos – but that 11-3 2017 season is a long, long time ago.
The Horned Frogs fought back and lost a good one in the opener against Iowa State, but throw that on the pile of recent tough defeats. TCU is now 3-8 in its last 11 games and 10-14 in the last 24.
At Texas, Kansas State, Oklahoma. That’s next for Patterson’s team.
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