We’re now past the one-month mark in the 2015 season, which means we can more accurately predict which coaches will live to see another year and which might get the pink slip. These 11 coaches have marched ever closer to the unemployment line.
T-10. Paul Rhoads (Iowa State), Darrell Hazell (Purdue)
Two years and one month in and it seems fair to say the Darrell Hazell experiment is not working out for Purdue. This season already includes a 10-point loss to Marshall and a seven-point loss to Bowling Green at home. The team’s only win is against FCS Indiana State. In fact, two of Hazell’s five wins since taking over the program have come against Indiana State. He came close to upsetting Michigan State, but alas, college football is not horseshoes nor hand grenades.
As for Rhoads, the only thing that seems to be keeping him employed is that dubious $20-million contract that will keep him signed until 2021 (ouch). He has just three conference victories since 2013 (two against Kansas). And he still has six-and-a-half years left on his contract. Yikes.
9. Steve Spurrier (South Carolina)
The Old Ball Coach hasn’t done anything to convince the masses that he should stave off retirement any longer. His back-to-back-to-back 11-2 finishes seem like a lifetime ago after a disappointing 7-6 record last year and a discouraging 2-3 start in 2015. This season already includes a home loss to Kentucky, a 32-point drubbing in Athens and a lifeless loss to Missouri. We get that Spurrier is gung-ho on coaching until he physically can’t (which may never happen), but at 70 years old he seems overmatched for the job’s rigors.
8. Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech)
Like Spurrier, Frank Beamer is another coach up there in years whose time has come and gone. His track record at Virginia Tech is unimpeachable — 233 wins, hasn’t missed a bowl since 1993 — and it’s understandably hard to show a legend the door. But Beamer averaged just 7.3 wins a season from 2012-14. He’s also entering that Bobby Bowden Zone of inanity, saying things like his nonconference games were just exhibition games (after a loss to East Carolina, no less). The Hokies are 2-3 and might not even make a bowl game this season.
7. Derek Mason (Vanderbilt)
The impact James Franklin had on long-downtrodden Vanderbilt can’t be stated enough, and has only been further exacerbated by what his predecessor hasn’t been able to accomplish. In 17 games, Mason’s five wins have come against UMass, Old Dominion, Charleston Southern, Austin Peay and Middle Tennessee — and lost at home to Temple and Western Kentucky in successive season openers. Mason is still without a conference win and it doesn’t seem hopeful that he’ll get one in 2015. Even for Vanderbilt, that’s pretty bad.
6. Charlie Strong (Texas)
It seems crazy to put Strong on the hot seat just five games into his second season, but this is Texas, and this is the state of Longhorns football in 2015. Strong’s Longhorns were blown out by Notre Dame and TCU — the latter of which truly signifies the power shift in the Big 12 — and fell in heartbreaking fashion to Cal and Oklahoma State thanks in large part to special teams blunders. At 1-4, Strong might not be long for Austin.
5. Butch Jones (Tennessee)
For all his lauded recruiting and expectations, Jones’ Vols have fallen flat on their face this season. It started with a home loss to Oklahoma, in which they saw a 17-0 lead disappear, and continued with similarly gutting losses to Florida and Arkansas. And Jones’ conservative coaching should take the blame for a good chunk of each of these losses. Jones should have had UT ready to compete in his third year and instead they’re toiling. Might it be time for another change in Knoxville?
4. Randy Edsall (Maryland)
Were Maryland’s consecutive 7-6 records in 2013 and 2014 a momentary stall in the Edsall Era, or a permanent plateau? At 2-3, the first month of the Terps’ 2015 season has answered resoundingly that it’s the latter, including a 21-point loss at home to Bowling Green and two-straight blowout losses to West Virginia (45-6) and Michigan (28-0).
3. Mike London (Virginia)
London’s seat was arguably the warmest in the Power 5 when the season began, and it started as expected with a sound loss to UCLA. Week 2, however, was a different story, and it seemed like London was about to punch his ticket for at least one more year with a huge upset win over Notre Dame. But the Irish’s last-second, go-ahead touchdown ended UVA’s hopes and took the wind out of London’s team’s sails — the Cavaliers fell to Boise State by 42 at home two weeks later. One heroic touchdown might have been all it took to put the nail in London’s coaching coffin.
2. Kyle Flood (Rutgers)
Many find it curious why Flood wasn’t just outright fired after an investigation found he improperly contacted a professor, instead of receiving his three-game suspension and $50,000 fine. And his firing might still come in time as a flurry of player arrests have marred the early season. On the field, Flood did guide the Scarlet Knights to a successful 8-5 campaign in their inaugural Big Ten season, but the first month of this season included a home loss to Washington State and a 28-3 defeat to Penn State.
1. Al Golden (Miami FL)
Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Wait, yes, it is a plane, and it’s flying “Fire Al Golden” banners! Miami fans have already made their opinions on Golden loud and clear and his margin for error is tighter than it’s ever been. It’s hard to imagine just how short his leash would be if Miami blew the Nebraska game (if he even still had a job at all). The deflating loss to Cincinnati did not help, and one or two more crushing losses might be all it might takes to oust Golden.
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