2020 College Football, Head Coach Hot Seat Rankings

Hot seat rankings are popular every college football offseason. Check out 11 of the hottest seats.

In May, Bama Hammer ranked the SEC college football head coaches with hot seats for the 2020 season.

Like many media outlets, CBS Sports has been rating hot seats for years. Again this offseason, the CBS group ranked every FBS coach, including the 11 in the most precarious situations. Two SEC football coaches made the hottest 11 seats, list.

Just how good has the CBS group been with previous predictions? Their track record is pretty strong, particularly when considering the unpredictability of college football. In the 2015-2018 seasons, CBS named 18 college football coaches as occupiers of hot seats. Twelve of them last their jobs.

CBS uses six stages of rankings from zero to five, with zero being “untouchable” and five meaning “win or be fired.” All coaches rated at No. 4 or No. 5 make the hot seat list.

Prior to the 2019 season, CBS selected nine at-risk head coaches. Four of them lost their jobs. Two earned contract extensions. Of the others, only one made his situation more secure, Lovie Smith at the University of Illinois.

The CBS soothsayers may not be perfect but any college football coach on their list should be worried. Those in the most danger in 2020 are Southern Cal’s, Clay Helton; Chip Kelly at UCLA and Scott Frost at Nebraska. Joining the trio rated at No. 5 (highest risk) are Dana Dimel at UTEP, Randy Edsell at Connecticut and Derek Mason at Vanderbilt.

Of the six, most sympathy is given to Mason. Firings average happening in Nashville around every 4.5 seasons. Mason is respected by his coaching peers. It is just brutally hard to win at Vanderbilt. Chip Kelly and Scott Frost were expected to be coaching saviors at their new schools. For both men, the bloom is more than off the rose – the stem is parched and brittle.

In the next group rated at No. 4 is South Carolina’s Will Muschamp. Muschamp has some pretty high-profile company. Also at No. 4 are Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns, Manny Diaz of the Miami Hurricanes, Arizona’s, Kevin Sumlin, and Phillip Montgomery at Tulsa.

Muschamp cannot improve without recruiting more, above 3-Star, talent. Muschamp has made some progress but the Clemson juggernaut has been tough to compete against. Herman has been a disappointment at Texas, though 2020 might be different. Sumlin and Diaz have been far less than Arizona and Miami hoped.

What about other SEC head coaches? Nick Saban is, of course at zero, meaning untouchable, unless Greg Byrne wants to live under an assumed name in a faraway country. Sam Pittman has a honeymoon rating of No. 2. Others at ‘2’ are Mark Stoops, Jeremy Pruitt and Gus Malzahn. Jimbo Fisher and Eli Drinkwitz are rated as No. 3. Dan Mullen is a No. 1. Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach, Ed Orgeron and Kirby Smart join Nick Saban with ‘zero’ risk.

More detail of the CBS ratings is available here.

Take time to click on the CBS links above. The work deserves more complete attention.