LOoKING AHEAD: THE NEXT COACHES TO BE FIRED

As the landscape of college football continues to change, the coaching carousel, like many other aspects of college football, has grown in unpredictability.

Coaches with long and successful tenures at schools can be sent away after just one bad season or if a new and exciting coach is available for hire. Now through 2 official weeks of college football, we can start seeing the cracks in programs and whose seat is beginning to heat up. Last season a whole plethora of early season firings took place with 4 coaches of power 4 schools were given the boot before October, including Mike Gundy who after 21 years, 12 bowl game wins including 2 Fiesta Bowls, and only a 1-2 record in 2025, was fired. So for the 2026 season, let's take a look at whose seat is hottest right now and most likely isn’t going to make it to 2027. 

Mike Norvell

FSU's most promising season in recent memory came in 2023 when, in Mike Norvell’s 4th season, the Noles were just out of reach of the final 4-team college football playoffs.

In the final CFP ranking, they dropped out of the top 4 despite completing their undefeated season and winning the ACC championship game against 14th ranked Louisville. Despite this they were moved from 4th to 5th with Nick Saban’s final Alabama team taking their place.

This was the first and only time an undefeated Power 4 team has been left out of the CFP. In the season that followed, it was assumed Norvell and the Noles would come in with a chip on their shoulder and seek revenge. But it was a revenge tour short lived as they lost their season opener in Dublin to Georgia Tech and their home opener the week following to Boston College.

They finished the 2024 season 2-10 and 2025 5-7. Now Mike Norvell is in his 7th season and while he has seen great highs, he so far has 1-1 record in the 2026 season and improvement doesn’t look clear.

With the departure of Michael Alford, plenty of questions have arisen regarding Mike Norvell’s future in Tallahassee. But due to his lack of consistency, I don’t think that his time near the top is enough to justify keeping him in this time of change at FSU; his seat has been heated up too much, and his time will be done. I wonder if Miami beats the Seminoles this weekend, if it will be Norvells final game as FSU's head coach.

Mike Locksley

Maryland has more than plenty of resources, including the Under Armour CEO as a football alum who has donated more than enough to make the program successful. Yet Mike Locksley has only delivered mediocre season after mediocre season and constantly led a team that has choked in the 4th quarter over the past year. With the amount of money and resources he has, he hasn’t delivered a winning conference record in his 7 years. With what could be the powerhouse of the Northeast, Maryland is not taking advantage of their funding, and Mike Locksley's time looks to be over. After a rough loss against Ohio State a week ago, this Maryland team needs a change.

Greg Schiano 

It's hard to justify losing to UMass. A team that has never had a winning season in the FBS and their last winning season coming in 2010 in the FCS has never beaten a power 4 team…untill they played Rutgers. It really is hard for Greg Schiano to spin that loss into a positive. When you’ve had 18 years with the team(2001-2011, 2020-2026), and are winning below 500, in an era where coaches have come into historically terrible programs, I think it's time that Rutgers looks in a new direction. 

Dabo Sweeney

Yes I know, how could Clemson fire the man who won two national championships and made a bowl game every year during his time leading Clemson? Well for the very reason that winning two national championships raises your bar of success and ending a season 7-6 is not the caliber that a Clemson football team should be delivering. Dabo has delivered great success for the tigers but after that blowout loss to LSU, it might be time to send him packing. Its never a good idea to jump the gun and send someone out early but depending on this year’s results, it might be time for a change.