College Football Hot Seat Rankings: How last year's nine coaches with jobs on the line fared
CBS Sports' 2025 released its College Football Hot Seat Rankings this week, assessing the job security of all 136 FBS coaches. Atop that list, our expert panel of voters identified nine coaches with their jobs on the line entering the season.
While these coaches certainly face pressure, it's important to remember that job security is fluid in college football. A few big wins can cool a coach's seat in a hurry, while a tumble down the standings can heat things up for another. To put things into perspective, we looked back at last year's list of coaches with jobs on the line to see how each fared, and the results were all over the map.
Three of the coaches CBS rated in the "4" and "5" ranges on the hot seat meter -- "start improving now" and "win or be fired," respectively -- saw their tenures end in the final weeks of the season. All three, coincidentally, came from Group of Five programs.
Those in power conferences fared significantly better than their Group of Five counterparts. In fact, BYU coach Kalani Sitake isn't the only one who moved into the "safe and secure" category.
Meanwhile, Arkansas' Sam Pittman and Louisiana Tech's Sonny Cumbie survived the axe last year, but find themselves right back under the gun this year.
Here's a look at the coaches who entered 2024 on the hottest seats, how they performed in their pivotal campaigns and where they stand entering 2025.
Sam Pittman, Arkansas2024 Hot Seat rating: 5 | 2025 Hot Seat rating: 4.22
What we said: If you just want to sit around, shoot the bull and have a beer, Pittman's your guy. This salt-of-the-earth coach is one of the most beloved figures in the profession. But winning percentage rules all, and in the hyper-competitive SEC, 2023's 4-8 mark doesn't cut it. That tied for the program's worst record since 2013. It's beyond coincidental that the last coach to win big at Arkansas, Bobby Petrino, was hired as offensive coordinator. If athletic director Hunter Yurachek makes a move, he's got a built-in interim coach ... maybe more than that.
How it went: Pittman did what he needed to do in order to save his job, albeit without instilling an immense amount of confidence that there are terrific days ahead. In winning all the games Arkansas should win, he earned a bowl berth -- and with that came a victory and an automatic one-year extension. Pull off another upset like last year's win over Tennessee, and perhaps Pittman will stick around even longer. But this still feels very much like a year-by-year situation.
Billy Napier, Florida2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | 2025 Hot Seat rating: 3.67
What we said: It just hasn't worked for Napier to this point. The Gators went 6-7 in 2022 with Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick, at QB. After a 5-7 season in 2023, the grumbling grew louder. Napier appeared to be exactly what Florida needed when he joined from Louisiana in 2022, but he's walking a tightrope now. The Gators' schedule -- the nation's toughest in 2024 and one of the most difficult of all time -- offers a rough road with 11 Power Four opponents (eight likely ranked). And they'll have to play an almost identical slate in 2025. A top-five transfer class should help, but Napier has to win now. He starts the season on a five-game losing streak. If he doesn't turn it around, AD Scott Stricklin may not get to make the next hire.
How it went: Considering the Gators were a mediocre 4-4 at the time, Stricklin raised some eyebrows when he confirmed Napier would return for another year in November 2024. Napier and the Gators responded to the vote of confidence with a successful late-season run. Former five-star quarterback prospect DJ Lagway entered the lineup, winning each of his four starts and defeating a couple of ranked opponents along the way. All of the sudden, the Napier-Lagway tandem has momentum and enters 2025 as a dark-horse playoff contender.
Dave Aranda, Baylor2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | 2025 Hot Seat rating: 2.22
What we said: Less than two seasons ago, Aranda was hot and Baylor was hotter. In his second season, Aranda won the Big 12 as the Bears won 12 games overall, including the Sugar Bowl. Since then, Baylor is 9-16. Another sub.-500 season probably won't be tolerated. Aranda was forced to reshape the staff in the offseason. For the third time in five years, he has a new set of coordinators. Aranda is back to calling the defense. Former Texas State coach Jake Spavital is running the offense, but his units haven't finished above 85th nationally since 2018.
How it went: Aranda inserted Sawyer Robertson into the starting quarterback role after a 1-1 start. While it did not immediately pay off, the move away from Dequan Finn may have saved his job. Robertson flourished as one of the Big 12's top quarterbacks and catalyzed a six-game winning streak. It was the highest-scoring unit of Aranda's tenure, and the breakout makes Baylor one of the many popular picks to contend for a conference title in 2025.
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | 2025 Hot Seat rating: 1.78
What we said: Lea has it all -- class, experience, energy, leadership qualities. Little of it has translated onto the field. Part of his 9-27 record in three seasons is Vandy being Vandy. A legacy of losing is hard to dig out from. Lea is not only pressured by his record but the facilities upgrade. Vanderbilt isn't spending all that money to go 2-10, which was last year's record. In three seasons, Lea has won three SEC games.
How it went: The biggest win in program history might have been enough to earn Lea another look on its own. The shocking triumph over No. 1 Alabama was just the first of three SEC wins (matching Lea's aforementioned career total) in the best season of Commodores football since the James Franklin era of the early 2010s. With entertaining quarterback Diego Pavia and arguably college football's top tight end in Eli Stowers back for another go, 2025 will be the most highly anticipated Vanderbilt football campaign in at least a decade, if not much longer.
Kalani Sitake, BYU2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | 2025 Hot Seat rating: 1.11
What we said: Did the Big 12 expose BYU, or was 2023 a dip in the Cougars' fortunes? This season will go a long way toward answering that question. BYU gave Sitake a contract extension in 2021 (through 2027) after a 29-9 run from 2018-20. The Cougars promptly went 5-7 in their first season in the Big 12, beating only three FBS teams. Without Texas and Oklahoma, the league is wide open. BYU is being mentioned nowhere near the top of contention. Since going 11-1 in 2020, the Cougars have declined each of the next three seasons. Beating Arizona and Oklahoma State at home in back-to-back October weeks seems like a must.
How it went: Nobody cooled their seat quite like Sitake. Picked in the preseason to finish 13th in the Big 12, he led the Cougars on a ferocious run to playoff contention and only narrowly missed a spot in the conference championship game after a couple of late-season heartbreakers. On-field success and recruiting victories make BYU a rising force in this wide-open conference, but quarterback Jake Retzlaff's uncertain status creates a dark cloud over the 2025 season.
Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | 2025 Hot Seat rating: 5
What we said: A successful interim run at Texas Tech in 2021 did not translate. Cumbie has led consecutive 3-9 seasons at Louisiana Tech. Worse, his offenses have finished no higher than fifth in Conference USA. It's hard to remember Cumbie, part of Mike Leach's Air Raid tree, was once the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the country at TCU.
How it went: Cumbie sits on the hottest seat in America, this year's evaluation concluded. All nine voters assigned a rating of "5" to his job security after a third-straight season under the .500 mark. Louisiana Tech took a step forward in the win column with five victories, but it was not the prettiest brand of football. Once again, the offense was abysmal, ranking 118th nationally (and seventh out of 10 in CUSA). That overshadowed a defense that was actually quite solid with just 21 points allowed per game. It's bowl game or bust in Ruston this fall.
Stan Drayton, Temple2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | No longer with program in 2025
What we said: Drayton was an uninspiring hire from the start. He had never been a coordinator and was most famous for being a running backs coach at Mississippi State, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas and the Chicago Bears. Temple is a city school in a pro town that has to have everything go right to win. The Owls have been 3-9 in each of Drayton's two seasons. He has beaten only four FBS programs during that time.
How it went: Temple went 3-9 for a third straight season to conclude the Drayton experiment, though the embattled coach only tallied seven of those losses before his exit. Opportunities to build much-needed momentum were few and far between, and a tough early-season schedule (which opened with losses to Oklahoma, Navy and Coastal Carolina) only put Drayton further behind the eight ball. Accomplished Sam Houston coach K.C. Keeler is in as his replacement.
Mike Neu, Ball State2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | No longer with program in 2025
What we said: Sometimes it's hard to believe Neu has lasted this long. He has one winning season in his eight at his alma mater, including the last three in a row. AD Jeff Mitchell said it would have cost the school $2 million to part ways. SEC ADs find that much in between the couch cushions. Neu's record calls into question how much Ball State wants to win in a wide-open MAC.
How it went: Neu's buyout dropped to $550,000 when Ball State finally pulled the plug. His three wins last year were the program's fewest since 2017 and marked the fourth straight year in which Ball State's victory total decreased. Just five years ago Neu led the Cardinals to the MAC title, but that was always an outlier in the program's middling history as a perennial sub-.500 operation. Mike Uremovich jumped up from the FCS as Neu's replacement.
Will Hall, Southern Miss2024 Hot Seat rating: 4 | No longer with program in 2025
What we said: An uneven start to Hall's head coaching career can be viewed a couple of ways. In three seasons, he has gone 3-9 twice with a 7-6 sandwiched in the middle. That included a seven-game losing streak in 2023. There are holes all over the field, particularly at wide receiver and quarterback. Departed running back Frank Gore Jr. lined up in the Wildcat to mitigate the QB play last season. Florida State transfer Tate Rodemaker will battle incumbent Ethan Crawford. One of them has to be a difference maker or this could be Hall's last season.
How it went: Southern Miss was the second team to make a coaching change last season and was just hours away from being the first. The Eagles parted ways with Hall after a horrid 1-6 start, and the leadership change did nothing to prevent a 1-11 disaster of a season. A seven-win campaign in 2022 proved to be a blip on the radar in what was otherwise a failure of a three-plus year stint. Southern Miss hired reigning Sun Belt champion Charles Huff away from Marshall at the end of the season.
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