College Football Message Board: Four Coaches’ Increasingly Hot Seats

College football fans are a loyal bunch, passionately supporting their programs through thick and thin. The pageantry of game day is usually an unmatched experience, and it’s impressive that most don’t think twice about spending hours out in the elements (both hot and cold) just to add three more sitting inside a stadium getting emotionally invested in the outcome of an event dictated by 18- to 24-year-olds.

But the one thing most fans secretly, and not so secretly at times, love to do more than anything involving this sport—fire a head coach.

No matter if you’re a powerhouse SEC program or a MAC school on a shoestring budget, complaining about who is in charge—especially when a promising campaign begins to dawdle toward irrelevance—might as well be a real national pastime at this point. Heck, this is largely the reason why message boards are still thriving after coming into prominence at the dawn of the internet age.

As a chaotic Week 4 gives way to the calendar turning a page to October, this is an apt time for this phenomenon to flourish. The hot seat appears to be fully lit under coaches at a number of schools. It’s slightly surprising we haven’t seen the carousel start spinning after recent losses like it did about this time last year.

The Monday Morning Message Board is always here to help make sense of the weekend that was and all the complicated feelings which flow from results few expected. While this typically involves examining posts that fans fire off which lie on the far end of the spectrum of rationality, this week we’re turning the tables to examine a few coaching situations with posts of our own and look at why boosters in some places might as well start passing the hat around at the tailgate this Saturday.

Shane Beamer, South Carolina

The situation: You didn’t have to search hard to find Gamecocks fans who wanted Beamer out at halftime of the Alabama game Saturday night, with a blown coverage resulting in a South Carolina touchdown at the end of the second quarter that helped to cut into the Crimson Tide’s 32-point lead at the time. While the program has alternated good years with bad ones over the course of Beamer’s six seasons, it sure appears that improving on 2025’s 4–8 record to keep that trend going could be a bit of a challenge based on what we’ve seen so far from this team. On top of getting blasted in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to the point where one of the roster’s best players, edge Dylan Stewart, acted out and was suspended, the Gamecocks blew a 16-point lead the week prior in their SEC opener against Mississippi State. Worse, NFL-caliber talents like QB LaNorris Sellers have shown plenty of regression on the field while the development path for others such as receiver Nyck Harbor haven’t matched the hype they had when first arriving on campus. There’s a lot of in-state attention being paid to the backslide going on down the road at Clemson, but Beamer won’t escape it against a conference slate that offers few places for relief.

The record: 35–32 overall, 16–26 in SEC

The buyout: Just shy of $28 million

The SI Message Board post: “If South Carolina hurries, it can hire Manny Diaz before Florida State tries to.”

The verdict: The Gamecocks don’t quite have the resources of some of their competitors, but if Kentucky found the resolve to move on from Mark Stoops at an even higher price tag, there should be some real questions being asked by a fairly new athletic director (Jeremiah Donati) if the program can do better with someone else in charge.

Lincoln Riley, USC

The situation: On the opposite coast at the other USC, the recent Oregon game was largely viewed as a referendum on the Riley era that he failed to earn a passing grade for. The Trojans were once again sloppy with key penalties on Saturday night, lacked the mental and physical resolve that their opponents had in trying circumstances and could not find a way to beat the Ducks despite very obvious vulnerabilities. As much as Riley has preached about alignment at the school, having a roster ready for the rigors of the Big Ten and how the time to win is now (USC literally bought billboards in L.A. proclaiming as such), it all sounds much more like the boy who cried wolf to cardinal-and-gold supporters who have heard the refrain time and again without the tangible results showing up on the field. If an Oklahoma State team with a completely new roster full of Group of 6 players can beat Oregon this season but USC cannot after five seasons of trying, the heat dome over Southern California is not reserved just for the warm weather in town as of late.

The record: 39–19, 12–8 in Big Ten

The buyout: In the $70 million range

The SI Message Board post: “Mike Tomlin could be Pete Carroll 2.0.”

The verdict: The Trojans will need to run the table against the rest of the Big Ten slate and likely split games against Indiana and Ohio State. Going 9–3 may kick the can on a decision down the road, but most around USC seem ready to turn the page on a hire that had all the hallmarks of being a slam dunk but will go down as an airball.

Mike Locksley, Maryland

The situation: The Terps allowed UCLA to come across the country to drop 54 points on them and average a whopping 6.8 yards per carry in a game that sent much of the fan base scurrying to do literally anything else on Saturday. Malik Washington, a prized recruit who Locksley made a big deal about keeping in the fold after a solid freshman year, threw four interceptions against the Bruins and fronts a pretty inconsistent group on the side of the ball the head coach largely oversees. Maryland may only be favored in one more game this season and is coming off losses to two head coaches with ties to the school and area. Plus, Locksley’s biggest asset of being able to recruit players from the DMV area is essentially rendered moot with NIL and revenue sharing almost always being the top factor in building rosters now.

The record: 39–51, 17–49 in Big Ten

The buyout: $9.2 million before the end of the year.

The SI Message Board post: “Does anybody know if New Mexico’s Jason Eck likes crab cakes?”

The verdict: It would be a slight surprise if Locksley made it to the end of the season at this point, with fans checked out and boosters agitating for a change. It is a Big Ten job and anybody who can make the Terps look competent could well have a statue built of them.

Maryland coach Mike Locksley reacts during a game. — Maryland coach Mike Locksley has one of the hottest seats in the country. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Luke Fickell, Wisconsin

The situation: The Badgers just scored the biggest win of the Fickell era, scoring twice in the final minutes to stun Penn State in Happy Valley. They have what amounts to an old-school Big Ten West schedule this year and have made a proper investment in the roster, so it’s not absurd to think about Madison, Wis., hosting one of the rare instances where a head coach actually coaches his way off a hot seat.

The record: 20–22, 11–17 in Big Ten

The buyout: More than $21 million

The SI Message Board post: “Are we staring at a football oasis that is going to go away the closer we get to it or was beating the Nittany Lions a sign of things to come?”

The verdict: Fickell’s buyout would be among the largest any Big Ten school has ever paid and things didn’t exactly work out the last time new athletic director Shawn Eichorst had to fire a football coach (axing Bo Pelini at Nebraska and replacing him with Mike Riley). Ironically though, this might be the perfect time for Wisconsin to actually change head coaches given the number of candidates (Wisconsin native Tim Polasek at North Dakota State, Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert, Badgers alum Eck, among others) who would be perfect fits for the job. Everyone involved would desperately like Fickell to work out so they don’t have to go down that road, so finishing strong against a fairly weak conference schedule should be plenty to see the coach through to 2027. Drop a few games and barely make a bowl however, and there is very likely to be an opening.

PODCAST: Listen to Sports Illustrated’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, hosted by Pat Forde, on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s college YouTube channel or on SI TV.

Add us as a preferred source on Google