The college football season is not even a month old and already the pressures of the game are turning up the heat on a number of coaches. Expectations are a reality of coaching at the college level and three weeks is enough for football programs to get a pretty good read on where they stand and which direction they are trending in. The first firing of the 2014 college season came after Week 4 so it is never too early for coaches to really feel the pressure.
For the following four head coaches: welcome to the hot seat!
Bret Bielema
Arkansas Razorbacks
Consecutive losses to Toledo and Texas Tech would put most head coaches on the hot seat, not to mention an SEC coach that has a tough enough schedule in his own conference. It was one thing to lose to a decent MAC team by a narrow margin at home in a mistake-filled performance but to back that up with an even worse one against Texas Tech has a lot of hog fans nervous.
Things didn’t get any better following a loss to the Red Raiders when Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury called out the Arkansas coach. Kingsbury was asked about how the Red Raiders managed to beat the Razorbacks and said that the Arkansas coach “got his ass kicked twice in a row”. He also said that it’ll happen again this week and the odds indicate that as they are a touchdown home dog to Texas A&M.
The thing is that Arkansas had been seen as a program on the rise but they’ve taken some big steps back this season. They can’t run the ball, which is supposed to be Bielema’s signature, quarterback Brandon Allen is mediocre – at best – and the defense is surely not SEC caliber. If Bielema’s team continues to look worse as the schedule gets tougher, he’ll be gone by the end of the year.
Charlie Strong
Texas Longhorns
Everybody knows that Strong is a talented recruiter and head coach, but the job is measured by wins and losses – even if the losses come by a single one on a missed extra point. A new athletic director at Texas will only make the hot seat Strong sits on even warmer. Regardless of what people say about his job security (and how strong it is), the schedule is about to get a lot tougher over the next two weeks with No. 24 Oklahoma State in town this week followed by a trip to face No. 3 TCU. Texas could be in big trouble and if things go south leaving Strong to face the music.
Paul Rhoads
Iowa State Cyclones
It’s not that Iowa State was expected to be one of the top teams in the country but rather the way they have stumbled out of the gate. They’re looking like a program in complete disarray and Rhoads is on the hot seat.
The Cyclones had no problem beating up on Northern Iowa in their opener but they followed up that win with a tough loss to Iowa, who isn’t even that good this season, and then lost to Toledo this past week. The bottom line is that the Cyclones were a doormat when they hired Rhoads and while they showed a bit of a pulse in his first season (going 7-6), they have just six wins in their last 27 games. That’s not good enough.
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Mike London
Virginia Cavaliers
The Cavaliers opened the year with back-to-back losses to UCLA and Notre Dame before finally getting a win over William & Mary and while it’s hard to call out London for consecutive defeats at the hands of teams ranked in the top 15, the reality is that he was already on the hot seat. A win over Notre Dame would have really eased the pressure but the failure was yet another painful sting in the London era. His fate is all but sealed.
Virginia will host Boise State before getting a two-week break leading up to a trip to Pittsburgh. He needs to have an amazing run in the ACC to keep his job.
