The 2022 head-coaching carousel went mostly as expected, at least with outright firings.
Four coaches entered the college football season on the hottest seats — Nebraska’s Scott Frost, Auburn’s Bryan Harsin, Arizona State’s Herm Edwards and Georgia Tech’s Geoff Collins — and all four lost their jobs by November. There were other somewhat expected firings, such as Colorado’s Karl Dorrell, and some voluntary coach movement, such as Scott Satterfield moving from Louisville to Cincinnati, and Jeff Brohm from Purdue to Louisville. The carousel also provided some surprises, such as Paul Chryst’s ouster at Wisconsin and Ken Niumatalolo’s at Navy.
The number of changes (24) stood out, but the overall cycle wasn’t particularly notable.
There aren’t as many obvious hot-seat candidates at Power 5 programs entering the 2023 season. The Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 could see no shuffling at all. But the potential exists for some notable changes, especially in the state of Texas, if things go poorly for deep-pocketed programs. Texas A&M owes Jimbo Fisher an incredible sum of money. Steve Sarkisian is only in his third season at Texas. But both will enter the fall with pressure to perform better.
Another potential Tier 1 job to watch is Florida, which has cycled through coaches since Urban Meyer resigned. The Gators have had four coaches since 2011 and certainly would like to establish continuity with Billy Napier. But after a rough first season, the Jaden Rashada mess and a murky outlook, Napier will need to deliver this fall.
Here’s the early look at the coaching hot seat, broken down by conference and in two main categories: obvious hot-seat candidates and those to keep an eye on when the season kicks off. As in past years, I’ve included a few coaches who aren’t in danger of being fired but could be retirement candidates.
Let’s get started.
ACC
Hot seat: Dino Babers, Syracuse
Keep an eye on: Jeff Hafley, Boston College
Possible retirement: Mack Brown, North Carolina
Syracuse: Babers appears here for the second straight year, even though Syracuse rebounded last season to finish 7-6. The Orange dropped six of their final seven games after a great start, though, recording their lone win down the stretch against a 3-9 Boston College team.
