College football insider predicts this head coach will get fired next

Looking over what has been an active college football coaching carousel, a noted ESPN insider predicts what coach is next to get fired.

This college football program will be next to fire its head coach, according to a noted ESPN insider. | USA Today Sports | Imagn

College football has already seen an active, and expensive, coaching carousel with still a few weeks left in the regular season, and it’s expected that more high-profile programs are going to make a decision that will put more head coaches out of a job.

Who’s next on the chopping block going forward? That dishonor could land on Mike Norvell, the current head coach at Florida State, according to ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel.

“Mike Norvell is squarely in the cross hairs. I think he’s 2-12 in the ACC in his last 14 games. That speaks for itself in that realm,” Thamel said on the College GameDay podcast.

Norvell appeared to have Florida State on the cusp of a national title run just two years ago, when his team finished the regular season undefeated and ACC champions.

From there, it seemed inevitable the Seminoles would be one of the teams selected in the final four-team College Football Playoff.

That is, before the selectors shocked the world by taking one-loss, SEC champion Alabama over the Seminoles in a wildly-controversial decision. Since then, the Noles have been in free fall, going just 6-15 in the time with just two conference wins in those 14 games.

How Florida State got here

The season started as well as it could for Norvell, beating top-ten ranked Alabama in a wild Week 1 upset that for a time had observers believing that he had dragged the Seminoles back into relevance after a miserable 2-10 season the year before.

Florida State did start 3-0, but won those next two games against overmatched Kent State and East Texas A&M before what became a four-game losing streak, and five losses in six games, falling to 4-5 overall with a lousy 1-5 record in ACC competition.

And once again, the school is apparently having to engage in back-room conversations about the future of its football program and its head coach.

Insiders have reported that Florida State decision-makers were considering Norvell’s future in recent weeks, with only a very generous buyout being the reason why they had not parted ways with the coach.

Norvell would cost the school an estimated $58.4 million, a number that would be the second-highest buyout for a coach in college football history.

Can Norvell right the Seminoles' ship?

There may still be a faint hope for Norvell to save his job, as the Seminoles face three more regular season games that seem winnable on paper.

Florida State hosts Virginia Tech this weekend before finishing on the road against NC State and away against rival Florida. Two of those three have fired their head coaches, and the third, NC State, is just 2-3 in conference play.

Sure, a 7-5 season wouldn’t be what Seminole fans expect every season, but it would be a lot better than what transpired a year ago.

If not, Norvell could end up being the latest in a longer-than-usual list of prominent head coaches who have been given the push in an active firing cycle this year.

“I’ve never quite seen a carousel like this,” Thamel said, before adding: “We’re still gonna have a few busy Sundays before this is all said and done.”

More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | Schedule | Teams

Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Rankings | Picks