One of the most unique aspects of getting fired as a college football head coach is that you don’t actually have to lose many games to lose your job. Jim Tressel had an .810 winning percentage at Ohio State when he lied to the NCAA. Mack Brown had a .767 winning percentage at Texas and his players loved him, but it wasn’t enough to keep his job. Most recently, Bo Pelini shouted his way out of the job at Nebraska where he had assembled a .713 winning percentage but didn’t mind his manners.
You don’t have to lose to be fired as head coach of a college football program, but if you don’t win, it’s virtually a guarantee that you won’t be around much longer. Here is a look at five college football coaches set up for failure that could be fired this season.
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State Cyclones
A remarkable upset over Oklahoma State in 2011 and another underdog win over Texas two seasons ago are the high points for Rhoads at Iowa State but the bottom line is that he won’t be there much longer if there isn’t serious turnaround this season. Rhoads has had his share of big moments with the Cyclones but his 29-46 overall record includes a 2-16 mark in conference play over the past two seasons. While the 10-year extension he signed back in 2011 has kept him employed, the quality of players at Iowa State just isn’t good enough to really make a mark on the Big 12. He’s in line for another losing season and that could be enough to force him on to the unemployment line.
Mike London, Virginia Cavaliers
Expectations for the Cavaliers were high last season when they won four of their first six games but they struggled the rest of the way and finished with a 5-7 record that many people thought would be enough to land London on the chopping block. London survived to coach another year but Virginia fans have grown restless over the past couple of seasons.
Another disappointing year in the ACC will almost definitely mean London exits at some point in 2015. It won’t help his case that Georgia Tech is by far the best team in the Coastal Division or that Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Duke are all expected to be pretty good too, so London could be set up to fail.
Mike Leach, Washington State Cougars
His eccentric personality makes him fun to watch but the 12-25 record that Washington State has compiled since he took over certainly isn’t pretty. Results are ultimately what he is being judged on. The Cougars have had trouble competing with the top teams from the Pac-12 over the last couple of seasons and while nobody expects them to challenge for a conference title, a .500 record might be considered the absolute bottom line for Leach and his staff. The problem is that Wazzu doesn’t have the quarterback or receivers to really get that done and that’s the underlying problem.
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Derek Mason, Vanderbilt Commodores
Mason is only entering his second season at Vanderbilt but last year’s disastrous 3-9 season was simply unacceptable. Unless the team improves dramatically this year, there could be major changes. The Commodores took major steps forward under former head coach James Franklin, so regression to one of the worst records in the program’s history definitely wasn’t a good thing. Playing in the SEC certainly doesn’t help the former Stanford defensive coordinator and it could turn out that this is a case where he simply wasn’t ready for such a high-profile gig. Mason was set up for failure from the get-go coming in after Franklin and he’ll need a miracle to get Vanderbilt going back in the right direction to save his job.
Willie Taggart, South Florida Bulls
There was so much optimism when Taggart took the job at South Florida in 2013 that it’s definitely surprising he is already on this list. However, that’s what has happens when you win six of 24 games over your first two seasons leading the program. That type of production just won’t cut it in the mediocre American Athletic Conference. It doesn’t look like he’s got the parts to turn it around this year, so another disappointing record this season appears to be inevitable. If that’s the case, it’ll spell the end of his tenure with the Bulls.
