Greg McElroy names major college football head coach who is on the hottest seat

The ESPN expert isn't a supporter of firing a coach unnecessarily this cycle, but believes several more power conference jobs could open up here soon

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier and LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly | Doug Engle / USA TODAY NETWORK

On Tuesday morning, ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy included a segment on his YouTube show titled 'Who's on the hot seat?' which broke down the names he believes are next in line to lose their jobs as this grueling 2025 coach carousel continues.

LSU bid sayonara to its head coach, Brian Kelly, matching Penn State in shoveling out a buyout figure in the $50 million range. Clearly, it's no holds barred when it comes to firing coaches, and buyouts be darned. So, knowing how bloodthirsty their SEC brethren have been, McElroy just had to include Auburn and fledgling head coach Hugh Freeze on his list.

"Hugh Freeze at Auburn," he stated as part of his hot seat segment. "Look, 4-4 right now in 2025, they got their first SEC win. He's just 6-15 in the SEC in his tenure, and there were four straight losses."

Auburn did snap the losing streak with a 33-24 victory at Arkansas that included some promising offensive flashes. However, Greg McElroy believes more work is to be done if Freeze wants to remain a Tiger.

"While I think that they've kind of downplayed everything, I think it's really important for Hugh Freeze, he's got to beat Vandy and/or Alabama," McElroy declared. "I think that would be plenty to give him another year."

With Kentucky and Mercer still on the schedule, plus opportunities for ranked wins against Alabama and Vanderbilt, Auburn still has a six, seven or even eight-win regular season still ahead of them, which is part of the reason McElroy says that he would probably just keep Hugh Freeze after this season anyways.

Given the cycle, given what's going on right now, if I were Auburn, I would hold tight, I would not make a move," McElroy added. "I would give Hugh Freeze another year. I think Hugh Freeze is a good football coach. I know it hasn't worked up to this point, but I think you can point to some very very very close losses and that's a hard thing to kind of stomach."

Greg McElroy is preaching patience and keeping the faith that Auburn is right on the edge of where they want to be under Freeze. But also, he wouldn't want to mess around with this wild coaching carousel that's already spinnin' like a top.

"I don't think at this point it'd be wise for them to get engaged in the coaching carousel," he said.