Outside of the College Football Playoff debate, there may not be a more discussed college football topic than whether a coach will be fired or not. It frames every result, too. How much did that win help the coach keep his job?
Or how much did that loss hurt job security? Entering the 2026 season, the narratives are already coming into focus. North Carolina's Bill Belichick entered the season on one of the hottest seats in the country and then went to Ireland and beat TCU.
One win won't save Belichick's job but it at least provided a reason to be optimistic a bounceback season was coming after a disastrous 2025 record. On the flip side, all it took was one loss for TCU's Sonny Dykes and North Carolina State's Dave Doeren to face criticism and questions about whether they are the right men to continue leading their programs. That's how fast things can change in college football.
We saw it play out during a wild and chaotic coaching carousel a year ago. By mid-October, Penn State, Florida and Virginia Tech had all fired their head coaches. Before the calendar turned to November, so, too, had LSU.
All it can take is one or two particularly embarrassing losses to push upset boosters and university decision-makers to pull the trigger. Which coaches are most at risk headed into the season? Using CBS Sports' offseason hot seat rankings, which rank coaches from 0 (most secure) to 5 (win or be fired), these are the five coaches on the proverbial hottest seats headed into Week 1.
The difference between returning for the 2027 season and heading to the unemployment line could only be a couple games. With that in mind, these are the make-or-break games. Auburn (in Atlanta), Week 7 vs.
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