Eight jobs changed hands last season
Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma State, Penn State, UCLA and Virginia Tech all changed head coaches during the 2025 season. Eight programs, one calendar year. That figure is the baseline for what follows, because the 2026 season opened last weekend and the same arithmetic is already running inside several athletic departments.
Mike Norvell sits closest to the edge. His Florida State record reads 39-34 across six seasons plus one game in 2026, and the shape of it matters more than the total: 10-3 in 2022, 13-1 in 2023 with a playoff snub attached, then 2-10 in 2024 and 5-7 last year. The Seminoles opened with a 34-17 win over New Mexico State. SMU and Alabama arrive later this month, Louisville and Miami land back to back in October, and the bye week that follows is the natural review point. Below .500 by then and the conversation ends.
Try it for $0.99.
Beamer stayed, and now owes a season
Shane Beamer had an exit available last year. Virginia Tech, where his father built the program and where he once worked as an assistant, opened its job while South Carolina was going 1-7 in SEC play on the way to 4-8. He did not chase it. That reads now as a bet on himself, and at 33-30 over five seasons he has to cash it. The Gamecocks should reach 3-0 before the schedule turns hard: Alabama on the road, then Tennessee at home, Oklahoma away and Texas A&M at home inside three weeks. Georgia visits in November.
Luke Fickell survived 2025 at Wisconsin on 4-8 overall and 2-8 in the Big Ten, with the Badgers held to 14 points or fewer in nine of their ten conference games. That offensive number, more than the record, is what makes his position look untenable. The draw is kinder this time, with no Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon or Michigan on it, which also removes the alibi. Notre Dame at Green Bay on Sunday gives an early reading, and it is not the sort of opener a coach at 16-21 asks for.
Resources buy patience, not much of it
Lincoln Riley is 36-18 in four seasons at Southern California and paid like a coach expected to do more with what he has. The Trojans handled San Jose State 42-26 and now host Ohio State, Oregon and Washington while travelling to Indiana and Penn State. Bill Belichick went 4-8 in his first year at North Carolina, six Super Bowl rings counting for nothing in the ACC, and opened with a laboured 15-10 win over TCU in Ireland. The trip to Clemson in week three will say more. Deion Sanders, 16-21 across three seasons in Boulder after a 3-9 collapse, could join the list by early October if Texas Tech runs Colorado over.
Discover the rest of our college football news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply