10 college football coaches under the most pressure entering the 2025 season
As there wasn't much coaching turnover in the power conferences after the 2024 season, numerous coaches enter this season needing their teams to have strong performances. Not all of the coaches on the list below could be in immediate danger of losing their jobs. Heck, we have one first-year coach on the list. But here are 10 coaches who could really use great seasons.
Bill Belichick, North Carolina
This is no ordinary debut season for the former New England Patriots coach. Not only is Belichick the head coach of a college football team for the first time, it's his first college coaching job period. The six-time Super Bowl winner got his start as an assistant with the Baltimore Colts, though his father famously coached at Navy when Belichick was growing up.
How much of a learning curve will there be for Belichick in his first season? And will he find that he likes the college game just as much as he loved coaching in the NFL? North Carolina hasn't won an ACC football title since 1980 and hiring Belichick to replace Mack Brown was a move for short-term success. Simply going 6-6 and making a bowl game wasn't enough for Brown to keep his job after the 2024 season.
Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
DeBoer got the job of a lifetime when Nick Saban retired. But that job also came with incredibly high expectations. The Tide were 9-4 in 2024. That's a great season for a lot of college football teams. But it was the first time Alabama didn't win 10 or more games since Saban's first season in 2007.
Alabama missed out on double-digit wins with an ugly 19-13 loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The Tide can't blame a mass of opt-outs for that loss either.
Simply being in playoff contention again in 2025 isn't good enough in Tuscaloosa. Alabama needs to make the playoff as it breaks in a new quarterback and adds former Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb back to DeBoer's staff after the two worked together with the Huskies. A big key to 10 or more wins in 2025? Cutting down on penalties. Alabama averaged over 13 penalties per game last season.
Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
The former Cincinnati coach's move to Wisconsin has not led to much success. The Badgers were 7-6 in Fickell's first season in 2023 before falling to 5-7 in 2024.
The 2025 season arrives with a new offensive coordinator in former Kansas assistant Jeff Grimes and a new quarterback in Maryland transfer Billy Edwards. Wisconsin famously won with an offense predicated on an effective run game throughout the Barry Alvarez, Bret Bielema and Paul Chryst years. When Fickell arrived, the Badgers looked to throw the ball more often under former OC Phil Longo and simply didn't have the personnel to do it.
The share of run plays increased in 2024, but the results on the field didn't improve with them. You have to go back to 1991 and 1992 to find the last time the Badgers had consecutive losing seasons. And the 2025 schedule includes Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana and Illinois. There's not much margin for error.
Hugh Freeze, Auburn
Freeze has now had more losing seasons in his first two years at Auburn than he had in five seasons at Ole Miss before he was fired.
The Rebels were 5-7 in his final season with the school — the same record Freeze's Tigers posted in 2024. That was worse than 2023, when Auburn went 6-6 before losing in the Music City Bowl. Freeze wasn't shy about criticizing his team's quarterback play in 2024 and the Tigers brought in former Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold in the offseason. Arnold is looking for a fresh start after a rough season in Norman last year.
Freeze said at SEC media days that he expected his team to be in playoff contention. That'd be a big leap. Especially with a schedule that includes five teams that won at least eight games in 2024.
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
It's fair to call 2024 an abject disaster for Oklahoma State. The program has been a consistent winner in Gundy's two decades at the school and entered 2024 with 18 straight winning seasons. OSU was a favorite to win the Big 12 too.
Instead, the Cowboys went 3-9 and failed to win a conference game all season. Quarterback play wasn't very good and the defensive play was even worse. OSU gave up 6.8 yards a play and nearly 36 points per game.
The season led to two new coordinators and a revised contract for Gundy. The coach's salary and buyout was reduced, as Oklahoma State will owe him $15 million if he's fired within the next three years. That's not an obnoxiously large number, and it could make a coaching switch much more plausible if Oklahoma State again has a losing season.
Billy Napier, Florida
Napier entered the 2024 season on the hot seat after a disappointing first two seasons in Gainesville. The Gators were just 4-4 in the SEC but 8-5 overall and scored wins over LSU and Ole Miss in November as part of a four-game win streak to end the season.
Their schedule could again be one of the toughest in the country, but there are reasons for optimism. QB DJ Lagway impressed as a freshman and could make a big leap in 2025. The defense also gave up fewer than 20 points in each of those four wins to end the season after Texas and Georgia put up a combined 83 in the previous two games.
The Gators are sleeper contenders for both the SEC title and College Football Playoff. But a step back from a promising end to 2024 could lead to more questions about Napier's job status.
Mike Norvell, Florida State
Florida State's drop from 2023 to 2024 was absolutely remarkable. After narrowly missing the final four-team playoff because of Jordan Travis' leg injury, the Seminoles were an abysmal 2-10 in 2024 with just one win over an FBS opponent.
The biggest reason was the offense. Former Clemson and Oregon State QB DJ Uiagalelei struggled mightily and so did Brock Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek after Uiagalelei was sidelined for the season. FSU averaged just 15 points per game.
Former UCF coach Gus Malzahn has been brought in as the Seminoles' new offensive coordinator and the team added Boston College QB transfer Thomas Castellanos. He's got experience in the ACC, but also was replaced midseason last year.
The Seminoles had over 30 players transfer out after the season but added 23, including former Oklahoma RB Gavin Sawchuk and ex-Tennessee WR Squirrel White. The offense should be better for a number of factors, but mainly because it can't be much worse. However, simply getting back to 6-6 isn't good enough in Tallahassee.
Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Pittman had a very blunt answer when he was asked about job security at SEC media days.
'I'm going to say this, the only ramifications of someone constantly having you on this list or this list, whatever other list, is recruiting,' Pittman said. 'That's the only thing. It seems to affect us a little bit more in the state of Arkansas because they're up on the Razorbacks. They see more.
'Now, how can we stop that? We win more games. That's what we can do. Look, most everything a guy brings on him, he brings on himself. Most things that come out, you earn it. Now, you may disagree with some of it, all that. But I've earned it. I have. To get off that, we've got to win more games.'
Is another season above .500 good enough to quiet any discussion about Pittman's job status? The Razorbacks have won all three of their bowl games in his five-year tenure and were 7-6 in 2024 after going 4-8 in 2023.
Lincoln Riley, USC
USC's record has gotten worse in each of Riley's three seasons. The Trojans were 11-3 in 2022 before going 8-5 in 2023 and 7-6 in 2024. The trend simply can't continue.
The defense improved a season ago, but that coincided with a drop-off in offensive production. After Caleb Williams starred in 2022 and 2023, USC struggled for consistent quarterback play as Jayden Maiava replaced Miller Moss in November.
Maiava returns, but has a lot of new faces on offense with him. Three of the team's top receivers transferred along with offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon and running back Quinten Joyner.
Reloading the offense is key, as is continuing the defensive improvement because the Trojans' Big Ten schedule isn't a cakewalk. There are road games at Illinois, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Oregon. USC won just one road game in all of 2024 — and that was in Los Angeles at UCLA.
Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Venables has certainly treated the 2025 season as a make-or-break year. Oklahoma went 6-7 for the second time in his three seasons as the Sooners scored just 24 points per game thanks to inconsistent quarterback play.
The Sooners made a late 2024 change at offensive coordinator and hired Washington State's Ben Arbuckle to run the offense after the season was over. Arbuckle's arrival then led to the transfer of former Washington State QB John Mateer.
Mateer had 44 total touchdowns in 2024 after taking over for Cam Ward in Pullman. He should immediately be an upgrade at QB and former Cal RB Jaydn Ott could be a 1,000-yard rusher if he stays healthy.
A home game in Week 2 vs. Michigan should be a great early test of Oklahoma's offensive rebuild, and Auburn visits in Week 4. Oklahoma has a realistic shot of being 5-0 before its annual rivalry game against Texas. And that start may be necessary for Venables' job with games against South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri and LSU over the second half of the season.
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