It happened last month to one of their league brethren.
It happened last week to a coach with more career wins than any active head coach in their league, save Brian Kelly.
SEC coaches know too well the demands of modern college football, where money drives everything more than ever — even as it’s been driving everything especially in that league for decades.
Eight Football Bowls Subdivision jobs are open right now; the consensus among coaches, agents and others in the know to FootballScoop this season is to expect two- or three-fold that many openings before this percolating carousel ceases its spinning sometime after the Christmas holiday.
Is college football’s “sudden” volatility newfound or recency bias?
“Well, when you’re in the moment right now, it feels like that. Feels like it’s a little crazy,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said Wednesday on the SEC’s weekly coaches’ Zoom. “But, yeah, I don’t know if I have proof of that. I haven’t done any comparisons or nothing that I know that you guys would be doing.
“But I just feel bad for the coaches that I know are really good coaches, and also the players and the staffs that are in those programs, and still have half a season to work through under intense situations and just feel bad for everyone involved in those programs.”
In an era of collegiate sports where the term student-athlete is used much less in conjunction with NCAA revenue sports, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian spoke with compassion about Penn State’s firing of James Franklin but likewise nodded to the bottom-line nature.
“Obviously, it’s a business and we all understand that. We all know what we sign up for,” said Sarkisian, who makes almost $11 million annually from Texas and would be owed some $60 million if the Longhorns fired him for wins and losses. “The biggest think I think about when I see coaches getting fired during the season is I think about the players, because they signed up to play for a coach and they, it’s kind of like, are you doing that because you think we can be better now? Or, are you doing that because you’re thinking about next year? That’s the first thing I think about.
“The second thing I think about, I’ll use Penn State as an example, and I’ve got a ton of respect for James Franklin. He’s a great coach, he’s going to land somewhere and they’ll be good again, wherever he goes. A year ago, they’re a Final Four team and they’re in a dogfight to go play for a national championship. Three weeks ago, 15 days ago, they’re a play away from being a top-2 team, arguably the No. 1 team in the country, and today he’s no longer the head coach. So, that should just tell you about the business that we’re in.”
Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Stanford, UAB, UCLA and Virginia Tech all are seeking new head coaches after parting with their incumbent leaders weeks — in the cases of UCLA and Virginia Tech a full month — before the 2025 season’s midpoint.
As Georgia coach Kirby Smart noted Wednesday, the gap is closed in FBS play — maybe not all the way down to the programs filling out the division’s 130-plus team membership — enough to foster impatience.
For every slow or stalling rebuild, or fresh disappointment amidst record financial investment into coaches and players, such as at Penn State, athletics directors, university leaders, boosters and fans, as well as peers, see Indiana’s immediate success.
Ohio State losing double-digit players from last year’s College Football Playoff title-team and still being the sport’s No. 1 team with an almost entirely new cast of stars.
“Yeah, there’s been a closed gap, I just don’t know if it’s the top and the bottom closing the gap. I mean, my assumption would be it’s top being closer to the middle,” Smart said. “But the bottom hasn’t come closer to the top, but, you know, again, I don’t know who you define the bottom as, so if you’re talking about the bottom 10%, I think the gap’s greater.
“If you’re talking about the median, the middle, then it’s probably closer. But… because there’s a lot of teams in the Power 4 that don’t have the capacity
to do, and they get poached, and they get picked over. Then there’s another middle section that has plenty of money, and they go and get you know, the top backups, whatever, and they get closer to them.”
Fourth-year Florida coach Billy Napier, who joins third-year Auburn leader Hugh Freeze as the SEC’s current hot-seat inhabitants, was asked Wednesday what his case would be for additional time to get the Gators program right, despite having a losing record overall at Florida and being winless against archrival Georgia.
“You know, I do… I do think that, that’s a reality in our profession,” Napier said of the pressure swirling around his status. “You know, I think that as a competitor, as a leader. You know, I think that it comes with the territory, right? So… I think you have to have the ability to focus on the things that are important today. You know, I think it’s… that’s the whole key here, is you gotta stack good days, and you gotta do a good job setting a great example for your players and staff. So, for me, ultimately, we gotta get consumed with what’s important now.
“And you live with the result on Saturday. You know, I think we all want better results. Even sometimes when we win, you know, … the product isn’t as good as we would like it to be. And, then, sometimes you can be proud of how you competed and played, and you played a good opponent, and you came up short.”
