Death, taxes and Luke Fickell actively ruining the Wisconsin Badgers football program. Despite the Badgers not scoring a single point in back-to-back weeks at home, the man still has a job. He is more of a contract than a head coach at this point in time. Fickell has become the rough equivalent of Tua Tagovailoa for the Miami Dolphins. Those things are so cooked, but they are still allowed to continue.
Once again, a few more head coaches could not handle the heat of being on the hot seat for another week. Florida moved on from Billy Napier after a conference win over Mississippi State. It seemed like Florida wanted to fire Napier before the bye ahead of The Cocktail Party... Jay Norvell is out of a job, too. Folks were happy to see him go at Colorado State after a dismal 2-5 start to the year for the CSU.
With another beating on the horizon at Oregon, will Fickell do the improbable and keep stayin' alive?
5. Michigan State Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith
This may be a bit of a stretch, but it does not look like the Jonathan Smith era in East Lansing is going to work out. It may only be year two for him leading the Michigan State Spartans, but ooh child, things aren't gonna get easier for him and his once-promising quarterback Aidan Chiles. Michigan State may have gone undefeated in the non-conference, but have lost four games in a row, all in Big Ten play...
It feels like one of those situations where a quality head coach left his plucky alma mater to go get the bag, only to get burned. This happened to Rich Rodriguez two decades ago when he left West Virginia at the peak of its powers to take over at previously downtrodden Michigan. In Corvallis, Smith was a legend. In East Lansing, he looks like a guy who is never going to rise to Mark Dantonio's level.
Michigan State has invested too much money in this to punt this soon, but the outlook is not great...
4. Boston College Eagles head coach Bill O'Brien
The game has passed Bill O'Brien by. Midway through year two in Chestnut Hill, the Boston College Eagles have become Booty Cheeks University. They beat Fordham in Week 1, and have lost every game since, including to Michigan State in the non-conference. The Eagles feel directionless without Tommy Castellanos at quarterback. O'Brien may be a New England guy, but he does not feel for long.
The shame in it all is this was the former star offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, the guy who helped bring Penn State football back from the dead, and the greatest coach in Houston Texans franchise history. Boston College may not be the best of jobs, but coaches like Jeff Hafley have shown that you can at least win there. This is the worst team in the ACC, which says something.
The fact Stanford looks like a more competent team than Boston College is why O'Brien needs to go.
3. Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell
While O'Brien and Smith may get another year or so to figure it out at the helm of their respective college football programs, Mike Norvell getting the vote of confidence from athletic director Michael Alford on Monday morning sure was rich. This is a head coach who does not recruit and only tries to win in the transfer portal. His players do not respect him, because he cannot win conference games.
Since winning the ACC in 2023, Florida has won precisely one league game over the last two years. Yes, Florida State stunned Alabama in Week 1, but that might prove to be the biggest anomaly of the whole college football season. Upgrading at quarterback to Tommy Castellanos, as well as hiring Gus Malzahn and Tony White as your two star coordinators has not made the least bit of difference here.
Florida State should be the ACC's best program, but Norvell has forgotten how to win league games.
2. Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell
As shocking as it may seem, Fickell is no longer sitting on the hottest seat in college football. He may have earned that right after the Maryland loss, and definitely after the Michigan defeat, but the guy has staying power. Better yet, he has the worst coaching contract in the Power Four, blessed with an athletic director who is trying to save his hide and a university president who could not care any less.
Fickell is a disgrace to all that is Wisconsin football. This program used to mean something to a lot of great people. Instead, he has destroyed it to something beyond all recognition. The fans have grown apathetic. The administration believes it can operate above this. If the Badgers do not fire Fickell after the Oregon game and ahead of the second bye before Washington, you are free to boycott this team.
The boosters must accept Fickell is the worst thing to happen to Wisconsin since when Kareem left.
1. Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze
Since Wisconsin athletics could not possibly be bothered to do the right thing and just put Fickell out of his misery, the hottest seat in Power Four college football this week belongs to Hugh Freeze of the Auburn Tigers! Do you need a burner phone? How about a tissue? The man has become a letdown-filled excuse machine for the SEC's most fractured fan base. This is why you can never hire golf guy...
Rather than putting in the extra work to maybe even think about winning a league game, Freeze spent more time on the links than Shooter McGavin trying to locate a Pepsi. With four straight losses to Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Georgia and now Missouri, Freeze's constant complaining about getting screwed by the refs is falling on deaf ears. He no longer leads the Tigers at Auburn, but the Cry-gers.
8-4 was a realistic goal for this team, but that is now the best the Tigers can even hope to achieve.