For perhaps the first time in recent memory, every football coach in the Southeastern Conference goes into the football season with a free pass.
They better enjoy it because it won’t last long, maybe not even for the entire season. But a month and a half before fall camps open, there is not one SEC coach that will find his name on any of those “coaches on the hot seat” lists.
The obvious reason for this euphoric time is that so many coaches were victims of the swath of firings that swept through the conference at the end of last season. Joker Phillips atKentucky, Gene Chizik at Auburn, Derek Dooley of Tennessee and John L. Smith of Arkansas were fired at the end of the 2012 season. They were replaced by Mark Stoops, Gus Malzahn, Butch Jones and Bret Bielema. Two of the new coaches have proven track records and one, Stoops, is taking his first head coaching job, and one, Malzahn, has only one year as a head coach at a Sun Belt school.
Each of the new coaches will open this season under no pressure to win right away. Usually when you open a season you can count on the Vanderbilt coach to be on the hot seat but that’s not the case this season as head coach James Franklin comes into this season off a nine-win campaign — and with the longest active winning streak at seven consecutive games.
So in lieu of a coach on the hot seat, let’s take a look at the returning, established coaches and see if any of them could be nearing hot seat status if this season goes south.
Nick Saban, Les Miles, Steve Spurrier and Mark Richt? Are you kidding? They should be among the most secure head men in college football, which is not too surprising in the case of Saban, Miles and Spurrier but, despite his outstanding overall record, it is unfamiliar ground for Richt. TheGeorgiacoach seems to move onto and off of the hot seat on a regular basis. But 10 and 12 wins and an SEC East championship in the past two seasons have settled down the discontent among the Bulldogs more vocal fans.
Will Muschamp at Florida showed enough improvement last season to solidify his position, although the horrible showing in the Sugar Bowl didn’t help him at all. He needs to at least hold steady and not slip back record-wise to keep the heat off in Gainesville. But if the Gators even take a small step back it wouldn’t take much to set off the howls in Gainesville.
Kevin Sumlin made a big splash in his first year with Texas A&M but you have to wonder how much of the credit goes to Sumlin and how much goes to outstanding freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel. This could be a critical year for Sumlin and Manziel and it might be difficult to replicate the success of 2012. If neither is able to, the fans in Aggieland might look for somewhere to place the blame. And we know that the head coach is the most likely candidate at any school.
A strong finish in his first year in Oxford took any pressure that might have come on Hugh Freeze after his first year as head coach at Ole Miss. Things looked good for the Rebels when they got off to a 5-3 start, but then three straight losses had the Ole Miss season hanging on the edge. But Freeze pulled it out by clobbering Mississippi State in the season finale and Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl to secure his status for a while.
At Missouri, Gary Pinkel has 90 wins in 12 years coaching the Tigers and you would think that would be good enough. But in the competitive world of college football, sometimes good enough is not enough to satisfy the fan base. Pinkel had 10-plus wins in three of four seasons between 2007 and 2010 and tied for first in the Big 12 North three times and also won two bowl games during that stretch.
But wins have been a lot tougher to come by as of late.
The move to the highly competitive Southeastern Conference didn’t help Pinkel any and neither does the 13-12 record the past two seasons. Another mediocre season could ignite the hot seat despite Pinkel’s overall record. After all, college football is all about what have you done for me lately.
Finally, there is the puzzling case of Dan Mullen at Mississippi State. Mullen has changed the perception of Bulldog football. In his four seasons in Starkville, the Bulldogs have 29 wins, three consecutive winning seasons, three consecutive bowl trips and have beaten Ole Miss, MSU’s hated rival, three out of four times.
The problem for Mullen is he lost to Ole Miss badly last season and then had to watch as Freeze pulled in a highly-ranked recruiting class. That hasn’t put Mullen on the hot seat yet, but another loss to Ole Miss would not be recommended for job security in Starkville.