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The coaching carousel starts earlier and earlier every season, it seems.
While there haven’t been any coaching changes in the SEC thus far in the 2024 season, there are some potentially looming large as the year goes on.
Now that we’ve made it past the halfway point of the season, it’s worth taking a look at the SEC hot seat index and where each coach stands.
Here’s our SEC Hot Seat Watch after Week 8 of the college football season:
Inferno
Brent Venables, Oklahoma
Yes, Venables just got a big contract extension ahead of the 2024 season (kudos to his agent for locking that up). But we all know the SEC has deep pockets. When you have SEC money, you don’t have much patience when your team fails to live up to expectations. Let’s just say Oklahoma is not living up to expectations.
The defense is solid, but the offense is a trainwreck. And honestly, that might be offensive to trainwrecks. (We here at Saturday Down South apologize to any trainwrecks we might have offended with our previous comments.)
Oklahoma is a disaster. The defensive players are going to mutiny against the offense if things continue the way they’re going right now.
Sam Pittman, Arkansas
Pittman faced a very tough situation coming into this year. There was basically nothing within reason he could do to save his job. A win over Tennessee a couple of weeks ago was nice, but was that going to give him an extra year in Fayetteville? Probably not.
He’s one of the good guys in college football, but he’s probably going to be looking for a new job this offseason.
Heating Up
Hugh Freeze, Auburn
Bryan Harsin never started a season 2-5 or went 0-4 to start SEC play. Just wanted to get that out there. Actually … one more Harsin vs. Freeze stat, sorry. Harsin was 9-11 through his first 20 games at Auburn. Freeze is now 8-12 through 20 games.
Yes, Freeze probably took over a bigger mess than Harsin did, but the results just haven’t been there. Payton Thorne doesn’t take care of the football the way he needs to. The winning plays just aren’t there.
Is Freeze the guy to turn things around on The Plains? It’s starting to look less and less like that’s the case.
Holding Steady
Billy Napier, Florida
A win over Kentucky was great, don’t get me wrong. But will it ultimately be enough to save Napier’s job? Probably not. Keep in mind that Florida’s next 4 games after the upcoming bye week are against Georgia, Texas, LSU and Ole Miss. The “Fire Napier” calls might have cooled off for a minute, but there are still some very tough games coming for the embattled Florida coach.
Cooling Down
Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State
After a few embarrassing losses to start the season, Lebby’s Bulldogs have at least shown some fight in recent weeks. A 41-31 loss to Georgia wasn’t bad, per se. No, there are no moral victories in the SEC, but showing some fight against Georgia and Texas A&M in back-to-back weeks has at least quieted some of the calls for Lebby to be fired during his first season at the helm of the program.
Shane Beamer, South Carolina
I’m not sure this seat was ever all that hot, but man, this team fights for Beamer. The Gamecocks are a team no one wants to see on their upcoming schedule. Yes, they sometimes make some frustrating mistakes that cost them chances to win, but they make other teams earn every point.
Eli Drinkwitz, Mizzou
It’s always an adventure for the Tigers. They’re the living embodiment of the “Why can’t you be normal?” meme. But the fact of the matter is Mizzou currently sports a 6-1 record and has plenty of winnable games coming down the stretch. If Drinkwitz can get this team to 9 or 10 wins again this season, he’ll cement himself as a fixture in Columbia.
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt
Honestly, Lea should receive some SEC Coach of the Year buzz for the job he’s doing with Vanderbilt. The Commodores are 1 win away from bowl eligibility, which is a sentence I didn’t think I’d be typing at all this season, let alone entering Week 9. Diego Pavia is a superstar for this program and Lea is pushing all the right buttons. He’ll be back in 2025 and beyond barring an epic collapse to end the year.
Time to Start Talking About It
Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
Yeah, I said it. Do I think the Tide are really going to fire DeBoer after his first year? No. But the honeymoon phase is also 100% over following Alabama’s loss at Tennessee on Saturday.
Fans were already frustrated by a loss at Vanderbilt and a narrow home win over South Carolina. Now the Tide’s Playoff hopes are in doubt. This is the first time the Tide have lost 2 games before November since 2007. In case anyone needs a reminder, that was Nick Saban’s first year at the helm of the program. (And Saban took over a program in much, much worse shape than the Alabama squad DeBoer inherited.)
Again, just to be clear, I don’t think DeBoer will be fired after this season. But if he loses more games, Alabama fans will be restless entering 2025. Thanks to Saban, they’re used to a certain amount of success in Tuscaloosa these days.
There’s a reason you don’t want to be the guy who follows “The Guy” at a program.
Mark Stoops, Kentucky
Stoops and the Wildcats have been one of the most wildly inconsistent teams in the league this year. Hang with Georgia all game? Beat Ole Miss in Oxford? Done and done. Lose to Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Florida? Yes, yes and yes.
For a while there, it looked like Stoops might be able to be a Kentucky lifer. But after his flirtations with other jobs in recent offseasons and with his constant grumblings about Kentucky’s NIL situation, it’s at least worth wondering if he’s starting to wear out his welcome in Lexington.
Cold as Ice
Kirby Smart, Georgia
Steve Sarkisian, Texas
Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
Brian Kelly, LSU
Josh Heupel, Tennessee
Mike Elko, Texas A&M
Yeah, none of these guys are getting canned any time soon. They’re all thriving and won’t be discussed beyond this short blurb for the foreseeable future.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
