SEC hot seat rankings zero in on five college football coaches facing heat

USA Today

23-07-2025

No SEC football coaches were fired last year. What's the encore to that? Buckle up for a particularly spicy hot seat, with coaches like Oklahoma's Brent Venables and Auburn's Hugh Freeze facing heat.
No SEC football coaches were fired a year ago. What's the encore to that? Buckle up for a particularly spicy hot seat this season.
Proud programs like Oklahoma, Auburn and Florida starve for success at a level their current coaches haven't supplied. The hot seat doesn't end there, either.
On this edition of "SEC Football Unfiltered," a podcast from the USA TODAY Network, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams identify their top five SEC coaches on the hot seat.
Their lists each feature the same quintet of coaches, although they disagree on the ordering.
At the top of the list, they agree on the coach sitting on the hottest seat in the SEC. He's a coach who won nine games in 2021, but he's been unable to match that previous bar of success.
SEC football coaches' hot seat ranking
Mark Stoops (Kentucky)
Toppmeyer's ranking: No. 5 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Adams' ranking: No. 2 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Why he's on the list: Stoops enters Year 13 at Kentucky. He's the longest-tenured coach in the conference. He once seemed unfirable, but he's coming off a 4-8 season that ranked as his worst in more than a decade, and the 2025 outlook doesn't look much better.
Momentum hasn't stalled. It's reversed. The combination of SEC expansion, elimination of divisions, and big spending by conference peers didn't do Stoops any favors, either. Perhaps, a new coach would galvanize fundraising for Kentucky football.
Stoops' best protection is a buyout that currently checks in at about $40 million.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF: Big Ten's plan to rig playoff runs into SEC road block
WHICH BRIAN KELLY?: Dabo Swinney hilariously thought LSU's Brian Kelly sang country music
Billy Napier (Florida)
Toppmeyer's ranking: No. 4 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Adams' ranking: No. 3 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Why he's on the list: Don't expect Napier to be Steve Spurrier or Urban Meyer. But, is it too much to expect a Dan Mullen-level season or two? Mullen twice won at least 10 games at Florida. Napier's eight wins last season are his high.
The good news for Napier: The Gators finished 2024 playing as well as they ever have for him, and athletic director Scott Stricklin continued his steadfast support for Napier.
The bad news: Napier's 19-19 record at Florida gives him the fewest victories for any Gators coach after three seasons since Charley Pell, whose ill-fated tenure began in 1979. Florida faces one of the nation's toughest schedules, and Napier's buyout will shrink to about $20 million by the end of the season.
Brent Venables (Oklahoma)
Toppmeyer's ranking: No. 3 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Adams' ranking: No. 4 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Why he's on the list: Oklahoma awarded Venables a raise and a lengthier contract after 10 wins in 2023. Now, Sooners fans must be wondering: Why?
Venables' other two seasons coaching this blue blood resulted in losing records. Meanwhile, rival Texas experienced little trouble transitioning to the SEC. That adds up to a pivotal Year 4 for Venables, who soon will be working for a new athletic director. Joe Castiglione, who hired Venables, is retiring.
Oklahoma, like Florida, must endure a brutal schedule.
Venables scrambled staff duties after last season's flop. He took over defensive play-calling. He hired Ben Arbuckle from Washington State as his offensive coordinator, and he tapped hired former Senior Bowl executive Jim Nagy as Oklahoma's general manager. Consider the Sooners all-in on this improve-or-be-fired season for Venables.
Hugh Freeze (Auburn)
Toppmeyer's ranking: No. 2 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Adams' ranking: No. 5 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Why he's on the list: Here's a trivia question: Name an Auburn coach who endured three consecutive losing seasons and got invited back for Year 4. It's a trick question. The answer doesn't exist. Freeze has produced two losing seasons in a row. He cannot endure a third.
Freeze's current buyout of about $17 million is skimpier than some others on this list. Auburn paid more to fire Gus Malzahn, who never had a losing season.
Last fall, Freeze could point to recruiting gains as a reason to remain optimistic, even as Auburn repeatedly blew opportunities in winnable games, and losses mounted. Recruiting has stalled, though. In Year 3, Freeze cannot expect an Auburn fan base starved for success to remain patient. It's time to win.
Sam Pittman (Arkansas)
Toppmeyer's ranking: No. 1 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Adams' ranking: No. 1 on hot-seat list of SEC coaches
Why he's on the list: Ah, remember the good ol' days, when Pittman delivered a takedown of Texas in 2021 en route to a 9-4 record? Pittman has been an effective bridge away from the miserable Chad Morris era, but it's approaching time for this bridge to connect to whatever comes after Pittman.
Arkansas' 7-6 record last season marked a rebound and included an upset of Tennessee, but neither the performance nor the program's recruiting inspires belief that a return to Pittman's pinnacle awaits. Player retention remains an issue, too.
Pittman recently told On3 he wants to coach three more seasons, but he's protected by the smallest buyout of any coach on this list.
Arkansas will face Arkansas State, Mississippi, Memphis and Notre Dame in the season's first month. That four-game stretch can either solidify Pittman's footing, or leave him packing his bags for his retirement home on Lake Hamilton.
Where to listen to SEC Football Unfiltered
Apple
Spotify
iHeart
Google
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. John Adams is the senior sports columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Subscribe to the SEC Football Unfiltered podcast, and check out the SEC Unfiltered newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox.