ATLANTA — When things are going well, there may be no finer job in the land than head football coach in a small college town. You’re celebrated every day, you never buy a meal, you bask in the warm glow of admiration and adulation. It’s a good life.
But oh, when things turn south, that’s when it gets ugly. The locals start putting for sale signs on your front lawn, slinging bricks through your window, sizing you up for everything short of the guillotine … and, in certain locales, we wouldn’t even rule that out.
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As we draw closer to the start of the 2025 season, it’s clear that there are some SEC coaches who enjoy the rapturous good graces of their community — Kirby Smart could get elected governor of Georgia on an off week — and some who are on the last of their current job’s nine lives. Here, in alphabetical order, are the coaches who are feeling the heat, to one degree (get it?) or another:
Kalen DeBoer, Alabama
What? How does a nine-win season put you on the hot seat? When that’s your program’s worst season since 2007, that’s how. DeBoer has a bit of leeway still, given that he’s just been at Alabama for one year, but four losses — including one to Vanderbilt! — have shortened his runway considerably.
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“We fell short of making the playoffs. It’s as simple as that, right? Giving yourself a chance to go compete for a championship,” DeBoer said Wednesday. “Sometimes there’s ups and downs that you have to go through unfortunately that we had to experience. But in the end, we’re going to take advantage of the failures we’ve had and be better because of it.”
Seat warmth: Like an air-conditioned house in a Tuscaloosa July. Will be fine if everything works as it should, will be in real trouble if things go sideways.
Hugh Freeze, Auburn
This was not supposed to be…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/sec-hot-seat-index-whos-comfortable-whos-sweating-as-media-days-wrap-up-204012133.html
Author : Jay Busbee
Publish date : 2025-07-16 20:40:00
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