College Football Hot Seat Coaches: Win NOW, Or Else
These five coaches will likely hang on to their respective jobs with an okay final record, but they all need to put together a strong string of wins in a big hurry.
5. Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri
Up Next: Abilene Christian
It’s one thing to get trucked by Georgia or Florida or Alabama – that’s life in the SEC – and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to lose on the road against a good Kansas State squad. It was the way Mizzou lost in the 40-12 debacle.
222 yards of total offense, four turnovers, little run defense – it was a rough day in Manhattan.
There are plenty of winnable games on the schedule – Abilene Christian, Vanderbilt, New Mexico State – to get in range of a bowl game, but that’s not were the program is supposed to be in Year Three.
Drinkwitz went 12-1 in his one season at Appalachian State. He’s now 12-13 at Missouri.
4. Jeff Hafley, Boston College
Up Next: Maine
Hafley’s offensive style of play is interesting, but there’s no running game and the passing attack isn’t doing enough to make up for it.
After two straight six-win seasons to start, he’s now 0-2 with a tough late loss to Rutgers followed up by a dud against Virginia Tech. Those were two winnable games, and it’s going to be a heavy lift now to get to six wins and a bowl game even with a few baked-in sure-thing wins on the slate.
3. Ken Niumatalolo, Navy
Up Next: at East Carolina (Nov. 24)
He’s been so great for so long as the head coach at Navy since the end of 2007. He has 105 wins, took care of Army last year, and he’s not that far removed from a fantastic 11-2 season. However, since then he’s 7-17, and this season hasn’t shown any semblance of promise.
The Midshipmen are 0-2, the running game isn’t working, and starting out with a 14-7 loss to Delaware and 37-13 home loss to Memphis is a huge problem with a relatively brutal schedule – Temple the only game Navy is likely to be favored in – the rest of the way.
2. Mike Bloomgren, Rice
Up Next: Louisiana
He was supposed to use what worked at Stanford – where he was the offensive coordinator and key assistant for seven years – to another elite of the elite academic institution and win. 1) That’s not quite working at Stanford now, and 2) it’s been rough getting the running game going at Rice.
The Owls have gone 12-32 in just over four seasons, but to be fair to the start of 2022, getting blown out by USC isn’t anything to get into a twist over, and the 52-10 blowout over McNeese State was solid.
With Louisiana, Houston, and UAB up next, this is a big stretch to potentially change everything around.
1. Karl Dorrell, Colorado
Up Next: at Minnesota
The 4-2 run in 2020 was a pleasant surprise during a rough time. Colorado ran well, it came up with some strong wins, and it seemed like a good tone was set in the regular season. However, Dorrell has gone 4-11 in his last 15 games, and worst of all, the team appears to be have gotten worse.
The only thing more shocking than Colorado being a 17.5 point underdog to Air Force was that it wasn’t even close to getting to the mark in an ugly 41-10 loss. That came off a tough 38-13 home opener against TCU.
The defense has allowed 710 rushing yards in the first two games, the offense hasn’t shown up, and now the Buffs get Minnesota and UCLA before the Pac-12 schedule its a tad more manageable. Even so, Colorado likely won’t be favored in any game the rest of the way.
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