Another week, another Power Four head coach fired. As Wisconsin fans are hoping desperately that Luke Fickell is the next one to go, patience is either a virtue or the sign of an empty promise. Until proven otherwise, Wisconsin's feckless athletic department and university administration are just going to let Fickell wear it. He needed to go over a month ago, but might now survive the season...
Brian Kelly was the latest Power Four head coach to be fired, joining the ranks of DeShaun Foster, Brent Pry, Mike Gundy, Sam Pittman, James Franklin and Billy Napier in the unemployment line. Other head coaches probably need to go before the start of next year, but there is an outside chance that Fickell is miraculously given the benefit doubt and will get to lead this team in 2026 after going 2-10...
Rather than scream ourselves Tom Coughlin purple like Kelly often would do, it is getting hot in here!
5. Michigan State Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith
There seems to be some calm before the storm, but somebody has to crack this top five. It might as well be Jonathan Smith... Despite going 3-0 in the non-conference, Michigan State may not win a league game this season. The Spartans are in the midst of a dreadful 0-5 skid in Big Ten play. The chances of them beating Michigan were there, but this team is almost certainly not going to a bowl.
Perhaps this job is harder than we ever realized? Maybe Smith decides to take his ball and go home back to Corvallis? The believers in Beav-town surely miss him. Clearly, this hire was a big swing and a miss by the Michigan State athletic department. With J Batt taking over as their new athletic director, he will want to hire his own guy if this thing sinks to the bottom of Lake Michigan. Smith is in trouble...
He might survive this season, but Smith is not doing anything close to what was expected out of him.
4. Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze
With a win over an already dead for rights Arkansas team, Auburn is back in the win column, baby! Man, does it feel good? Not really... Hugh Freeze is not the answer down on The Plains. While he did finally rip the band-aid the walking train wreck of a quarterback he decided to bring to town in Jackson Arnold. While Auburn may improve to five wins with Kentucky coming to town, six wins is it.
Diego Pavia owns Freeze's soul like the entity Robert Johnson sold his to at the infamous crossroads. Auburn may get Alabama at home this year in the Iron Bowl, but the Crimson Tide are a national title contender. Freeze may get to run it back for one more season, but Auburn could be delaying the inevitable. This team needed to go 8-4. That is all it is capable of now, but 6-6 is far more likely here.
Freeze may need to go at the end of the season, but Auburn might have even bigger problems ahead.
3. Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell
Utter apathy is the only reason why Luke Fickell's seat has cooled off a bit. It had to have been the cascading Oregonian rainfall associated with Saturday's loss to Oregon in Autzen amid Liquid Sunshine. The Badgers were not hopelessly embarrassed heading into their bye. Awful weather was a massive factor in Wisconsin's ability to cover the gigantic spread, as they only fell to the Ducks, 21-7.
Still, we all know a bad head coach when we see one, and Fickell is rotten to his core. The only problem with moving on from him now, besides the massive buyout of course, is Wisconsin may not have as good of an opening as anyone associated with this program may expect. Again, LSU firing Brian Kelly opened up a can of worms nobody in Madison anticipated. Fickell might be able to hold on.
If it appears to be the case, Wisconsin will regret this decision worse than passing on Jim Leonhard.
2. Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell
Just like Luke Fickell, Mike Norvell got the dreaded vote of confidence from his boss in Michael Alford. This should feel like empty-calorie nonsense, but Florida State appears to love itself some Mike Norvell even more than Wisconsin does Fickell. Just like Fickell, Norvell is struggling to win games over Power Four competition of late. That 2023 season looks to be a total outlier for him now.
The reason Norvell is just slightly higher up than Fickell on this list is the expectations of the Florida State job, when compared to Wisconsin. Again, while it is is possible to take either of these teams to the playoff, you can actually win national titles in the modern college football era at Florida State. Wisconsin would need something miraculous for that to ever happen, hence Norvell being higher up.
Florida State needs to rip the band-aid off here, but it might not come until after the season is over.
1. Boston College Eagles head coach Bill O'Brien
You know what? Let's put Bill O'Brien on blast. Although he is only in his second season at Boston College, the Eagles might be a worse Power Four than even the Badgers. Outside of the post-apocalyptic football world going on in Stillwater, Boston College is about as cooked. Boston College is 1-7 on the year and currently riding a seven-game losing. They beat Fordham in Week 1. That is it.
Boston College is so bad that even hapless Michigan State beat them. The idea of hiring O'Brien at the team seemed like a good one, but it has blown up in BC's face catastrophically. This is worse than Auburn, Florida State and Wisconsin being bad. They are anonymously bad. Nobody is paying attention to Oklahoma State any more. People are done with Michigan State, too. Welcome to Hell!
There is not a sadder bag of crap of an athletic department in the Power Four than Boston College.