College football Week 7 lived up to the high expectations…and then some. However, as some teams were showcasing their College Football Playoff qualities in top-tier matchups, some programs continued to fall short of the required standard, putting their head coaches in danger of an early contract termination.
Heading out of the weekend’s action, who are the college football hot seat coaches?
5 Coaches on the College Football Hot Seat
Gus Malzahn, UCF
The rose-tinted glasses are starting to fall away from the eyes of UCF Knights fans. After two nine-win seasons in the AAC, Gus Malzahn led the program into the Big 12 last season and continued their run of bowl eligibility. However, six games into the 2024 campaign, and rather than being one of the conference frontrunners, Week 7 brought a second successive Big 12 loss.
UCF fans have become accustomed to seeing high-scoring offenses in recent seasons, but the Week 7 defeat to the Cincinnati Bearcats saw the Knights score just 13 points for the second consecutive week. A change of quarterback from KJ Jefferson to Jacurri Brown didn’t provide the offensive spark that Malzahn was hoping for.
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The Week 7 defeat takes UCF to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference. They now have to face the Iowa State Cyclones on the road, followed by a visit from the BYU Cougars to Orlando. They’ve also got road games at the Arizona State Sun Devils and West Virginia Mountaineers before the season finale against Utah. College Football Network’s Football Playoff Meter doesn’t expect the Knights to win any of those games.
Which might be a bonus for Malzahn and his status as one of the college football hot seat coaches, given that the last three defeats have come with UCF being the favored team. During his tenure, the Knights lost 12 games when they were the betting favorite. He now has 19 total losses in four years.
Trent Dilfer, UAB
Trent Dilfer has been a regular fixture on our college football hot seat coaches article. At this point, it feels very much a question of when and not if the Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the exceptional high school coaching resume is relieved of a duty that he simply isn’t worthy of.
Dilfer was an eye-opening hire by the UAB Blazers ahead of the 2023 college football season. One and a half campaigns later, it looks less eye-opening and more bone-headed as a program that had been a perennial Group of Five power in recent seasons has become one of the most troubled and unwatchable in the nation.
The UAB head coach has presided over a reign of questionable decision-making (including infamous former Florida QB Jalen Kitna), some interesting sideline shenanigans, and most importantly, a stretch of bad results that looks to culminate in the program’s worst record since 2013.
Week 7 saw the Blazers brutalized by the Army Black Knights in a 44-10 loss. The team now has losses of 34, 51, 23, and 26 points this season as part of a 1-5 campaign. The loss means that Dilfer comes out of this weekend with a 5-13 record as a head coach.
Joe Moorhead, Akron
The Akron Zips gave Joe Moorhead a contract extension at the start of the 2023 college football season in an attempt to ward off attention from other programs wanting to lure the highly regarded offensive coordinator to that vacant position at their outfits. The powers that be behind the MAC bottom-dweller believed Moorhead was taking them in the right direction.
However, that hasn’t really come to fruition. Moorhead has two 2-10 seasons with a 1-7 MAC record on his resume, and there’s nothing we’ve seen this season that would suggest the team can outstrip that performance by the end of this year. The Zips ranked 127th for both offensive and defensive scoring ahead of their Week 7 loss to the Western Michigan Broncos.
Even worse, they blew a 17-0 lead in that defeat, their sixth loss of the year. The Zips have played three MAC games without a win and still have Eastern Michigan, Buffalo, Northern Illinois, and Toledo still to come. The November 19 game at Kent State may be the only legitimate opportunity to get a win this year.
Previous head coach Tom Arth was fired after less than three seasons at the helm due to a 3-24 record. After their most recent defeat, the Zips have a 5-26 record under Moorhead. Just because you signed a contract extension over a year ago doesn’t give you a free pass from the college football hot seat.
Will Hall, Southern Miss
Following a 3-9 campaign a year ago, there were rumblings and murmurings about whether Will Hall would return to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles football program for 2024. After what was referred to as a “collective” decision, his services were retained under the premise of:
“Even if the record isn’t where we want it to be, we don’t think we are that far away from getting there.”
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It turns out that the program was a long, long way from getting there. A 7-6 campaign in the first season in the Sun Belt seemed to have given Hall some leeway, but that and the culture that he has cultivated within the Southern Miss football team won’t carry him beyond this season and likely long before then.
After the Week 7 defeat to Louisiana-Monroe (the Golden Eagles were 6-2 with a two-game win streak over their Sun Belt foe), Hall’s team is 1-5 and 0-2 in the conference. They haven’t beaten an FBS team since Nov. 9, 2023. The defense is porous, and the offense is anemic. Time, and hope, are both running out for Hall.
Mack Brown, North Carolina
After four consecutive defeats, including a 0-3 start to ACC play, was Week 7 the last time we saw Mack Brown on the North Carolina Tar Heels’ sideline? The pressure is building on the veteran head coach, and after he offered to walk away from the team following the “embarrassing” defeat to the James Madison Dukes, it might be the moment to call time on his tenure.
While not being the dictionary definition of a college football hot seat coach due to a likely retirement rather than dismissal, the performances this season have definitely not been up to the standard expected of the program. You always want to see legendary figures of a sport go out on a high. Sadly for North Carolina, it might have a season or too two late with Brown.
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