There have been a raft of college football head coach departures in recent weeks, but don’t even begin to imagine that the firing element of hiring and firing season is close to being over. There are several head coaches looking over their shoulders right now. Heading out of the Week 13 action, who are the college football hot seat coaches?
5 Coaches on the College Football Hot Seat
Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
“I have every confidence that he will respect and honor the foundation that has been set for our football program over the years while embracing the exciting opportunities ahead.”
When Wisconsin Badgers’ Director of Athletics Chris McIntosh secured the services of Luke Fickell from the Cincinnati Bearcats, he anticipated a football future brimming with success. Why wouldn’t he? After all, he arrived in Madison after leading an unprecedented era of football at his previous stop.
However, Fickell is looking at the wrong end of Wisconsin football history after allowing the Nebraska Cornhuskers to end their record bowl drought. The Badgers haven’t had a losing season since 2001, part of an exclusive club that has already dwindled by one member with the performances of the Oklahoma State Cowboys this year. They’re 5-6 ahead of the season’s final week.
Fickell was clearly feeling the pressure prior to the loss to Nebraska, snapping at local reporters when asked about play-calling duties. “Why does it matter? I don’t think it’s really important. I guess it gives you the ability to point the finger at someone.”
For now, most Wisconsin fans are pointing the finger at the head coach as the prospect of a losing season adds even more intensity to their rivalry game with the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Week 14.
Gus Malzahn, UCF
Welcome back to the college football hot seat, Gus Malzahn. We’ve been keeping the seat of the UCF Knights’ head coach warm while others have taken center stage, but he’s been under pressure throughout the 2024 college football season. After losing to the West Virginia Mountaineers, another team with a coach feeling uncomfortable, the focus is firmly back on him.
The loss to West Virginia takes UCF to 4-7 on the year, meaning they’ve failed to accomplish bowl eligibility for the first time since George O’Leary was fired during an 0-12 season.
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Things aren’t quite as bad as that for Malzahn and the 2024 Knights, but for a team with expectations of a Big 12 title challenge this year, it is simply unacceptable.
During Malzahn’s tenure, UCF has lost 14 times when they were the betting favorite ahead of the game. The program has now lost 23 games during his four-year stint as the head coach. Even if they win their season finale against Utah, they’ll end the year with the worst record for the program since 2015. That could be enough to see the end of Malzahn’s time at the helm.
Kenni Burns, Kent State
Heading into Week 13 of the 2024 college football season, the Kent State Golden Flashes hadn’t lost to the Akron Zips at home since 2018. Coming out of Week 13, that distinction no longer applies after a dismal 38-17 defeat, which means that the Wagon Wheel belongs to the Zips for the second successive season under Kenni Burns.
That is just the tip of the iceberg for Burns and his status on the college football hot seat. The defeat to Akron means that Kent State will have lost 11 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history. If they can’t beat Buffalo on the road next week, they’ll go winless through a season for the first time since 1998. Burns’ record is currently 1-22.
Yes, this Golden Flashes team is going through historical levels of terrible. Even Pete Cordelli didn’t lead the team to such desperation, but he was fired after the winless 1993 season after that is the direction that Burns is headed for based on the on-field product alone. However, there’s more than football at play with his position on the college football hot seat.
This week, it was revealed that Burns is being sued by Hometown Bank for nearly $24,000 in unpaid credit card debt. That was followed by a rumor that linked the Kent State head coach to gambling debt. With a combination of off-field issues and a lack of results, Burns could find himself out the door far more quickly than his current contract expiration of 2028.
Mike MacIntyre, FIU
Remove the final two seasons of the Butch Jones era, and Mike MacIntyre owns two of the worst seasons in FIU Panthers’ recent history. The last two campaigns have resulted in a 4-8 finish, and there is a chance that he will guide the team to a third consecutive four-win season. Expectations at FIU aren’t as high as those of some other Florida teams, but they have to be higher.
They’ve certainly got to be higher than losing to first-year FBS outfit, the Kennesaw State Owls. After failing to put points on the board in the first quarter, FIU rattled off 20 second-quarter points to take the lead into the half and carried a nine-point lead long into the fourth quarter. Yet, a late collapse led to just the second Kennesaw State win of the 2024 college football season.
MacIntyre has a history of producing the goods in Year 3 with a program, but if these are the goods, then FIU might want to find a new head coach. They’ve played some close games in CUSA, nearly taking down Jacksonville State in Week 12. Until they get over the hump and emerge victorious from those games, however, their head coach will be on the college football hot seat.
Like Burns above him on our college football hot seat list, there are some off-field issues surrounding MacIntyre late in the 2024 season. Former players have been outspoken about their time at the Panthers, led by Reggie Peterson, who described FIU under the current head coach as like “a Ponzi Scheme” while referencing physical, verbal, and mental abuses at the program.
Ryan Walters, Purdue
We try to keep this weekly column fresh, bringing different names into focus as the hiring and firing cycle ebbs and flows in November. However, such is the dire state of the Purdue Boilermakers football program right now that Ryan Walters feels destined to remain rooted to the college football hot seat after suffering another defeat in Week 13.
Hired on the back of his stingy defenses at the Illinois Fighting Illini, Walters’ team ranked 129th in the nation for points allowed during the 2024 season heading into Week 13 of the 2024 college football. Although they “only” allowed 24 points against an average Michigan State Spartans offense in Week 13, they’ve averaged 37.5 points per game given up this season.
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Walters fired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell after a sluggish start to the season, but that hasn’t changed the fortunes of the program. Although they put up 49 on his former team, they could only score 20 points on a poor Northwestern Wildcats team. They went scoreless against the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes, with just 10 points vs. Penn State in Week 12.
Walters is now 5-18 overall as the Purdue head coach and has just three Big Ten wins on his resume. With only an Indiana Hoosiers team looking to rebound from their first defeat of the year left to play, there’s a good chance the Boilermakers end the year with a 1-11 record, the worst for the program since 2013.
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