Are Any SEC Football Coaches on the Hot Seat?

The SEC is a pressure cooker when it comes to coaching.  Yes, the coaches in the SEC get paid "NFL coach" amounts of money.

There is a reason that three former NFL coaches reside in the SEC, while no other conference boasts more than one. 

These former NFL coaches unanimously say that they get paid nearly as much, and they get to have an off-season.  Beyond that, they don't have to deal with overpaid crybabies. 

However, high payrolls come with high expectations.  The fact that there has to be sixth-, fifth-, and fourth-place teams in each division means that there will be some unmet expectations. That is where the trouble starts for these coaches.

Some coaches can handle it, especially those with low expectations or those who have enjoyed consistent success.

Here is a rankling of the SEC coaches, from least vulnerable to most vulnerable.

Houston Nutt (Ole Miss)

The Ole Miss Rebels won exactly zero conference games last year.  One cannot go down from there. 

Houston Nutt has coached in the SEC for 10 years.  During that time, he didn't have a year without a conference victory. Ole Miss will win at least one conference game but probably a couple of more. 

Nutt consistently won the games he was supposed to out of conference, so no Appy State moments with him.  The record will improve and, for now, that's all the Rebs are hoping for. 

Besides that, Nutt handles the media and the public relations aspect of the job like a champ, and that goes a long way right now for the Ole Miss faithful.

Bobby Petrino (Arkansas)

Arkansas fans are aware of Petrino's penchant for not being at jobs for a long time.  However, after the scathing Petrino took leaving for Atlanta, he must win at Arkansas to even have anyone wanting to hire him away. 

Therefore, the Razorback faithful have two upsides to a bad year.  The first is that the fans are completely aware of the talent that went to the NFL last year (McFadden, Jones, Monk, Hillis, etc.) so there will be forgiveness for losing. 

Secondly, fans know that, unless Petrino wins big his first year (which everyone is picking against), the coaching situation will be stable for a while.

Les Miles (LSU)

How can Miles not be the safest coach on this list having just won the national title?  Well, for starters, new coaches are almost immune to firing unless they do something completely out of bounds.  That puts Nutt and Petrino above him.

But more than that, LSU's fan base has high expectations and there are still some who believe that Miles has been winning with Saban's players.  This next year will be the first year that it will be completely Miles' recruits (with a few redshirt situations).

There are those who will be quick to point that out if he has a bad year.  But barring disaster, Miles should be back next year.

Rich Brooks (Kentucky)

Not since Bear Bryant roamed the sidelines for a short while in the '50s has Kentucky been to back-to-back bowl games.

Say what you will about Florida State being down the past couple of years and the epidemic of suspensions that were doled out just before last year's bowl game, Kentucky has still won two straight bowl games. In Kentucky, that is exceeding expectations. 

Kentucky was about to fire Brooks before the 2006 season.  However, they didn't and if they weren't going to fire him after three losing seasons, they won't fire him for one after having the last two seasons he had. 

In fact, I think that he could be 1-7 in conference play this year if that one win happened to be Tennessee.  The Cats are on a long drought in that series.

Urban Meyer (Florida)

Meyer is in a good situation.  Florida will always be able to get talent because the state puts out so much and UF is the largest school in the state.

With Florida State and Miami down, Florida has even more of the pick of the litter than before.  With big name stars like Tebow and Harvin, that makes Florida even more appealing to recruits. 

The Swamp is also one of the toughest places for opponents to play, and Tennessee seems to fold up like an accordion when they play Florida.

In other words, Meyer could not show up and Florida would win eight (nine in some years).  Meyer would have to have a disaster year and there be no credible reason other than coaching for Florida to even consider making a change.  Given that Florida can sleepwalk to eight wins, it's hard to see that happening.

Mark Richt (Georgia)

Georgia is a trendy pick to win it all this year.  What happens if they have some ill-timed fumbles to lose a couple early, don't handle the adversity well, and then lose games they shouldn't as a result to finish at 7-5? 

There would be some soul-searching in Athens.  When the SEC expanded, the SEC East was dominated by Florida and, to a much lesser degree, Tennessee. 

Georgia has only gotten back in the conversation since Richt came. He is such a good ambassador for the school and a nice guy on top that it would be tough to fire him.

However, it would be hard not to conclude that he has reached his pinnacle and he can't win the big one if he takes a team with this much talent and blows it. 

Georgia fans seem to be aware of how tough their schedule is and are prepared to lose one or two.  That doesn't mean they want to—only that it won't be a surprise.  However, four losses are more could cause some problems because he hasn't won a national title and he has only won two conference titles.

Steve Spurrier (South Carolina)

South Carolina's athletic department made the strategic initiative starting with Holtz to bring in big-name coaches who are a little past their peaks but bring in discipline, reputation, and the will to win some they shouldn't.   It's worked out well for them. 

Holtz got them to bowl games, which they had not been accustomed to seeing.  Spurrier was able to build on that and finally beat Florida and Tennessee (which Holtz couldn't do). 

With these two coaches, South Carolina now has recent wins over Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Clemson.  But fans have come to want more. 

They are starting to long for a Richt, Meyer, or Miles of their own...someone who is at his peak.  But Spurrier is low-maintenance and, by comparison to some of his peers, cheap.

South Carolina doesn't want to visit the old days, though, just in case they get stuck there again.  Spurrier can't afford to go 6-6 again.  I don't think he will.

Tommy Tuberville (Auburn)

Auburn and Tuberville have had a rocky relationship.  Tuberville usually has job offers in the off-season.  He would have probably left if the buyout weren't so high. Auburn seems like they would cut him in a second if he had a bad season.

The question is, will he?  Probably not.

However, if Auburn loses to Alabama, the fans are going to realize that the self-inflicted wounds of the Alabama coaching carousel (Franchione, Shula, Price, DuBose) has come to an end and the Alabama dominance in the series is likely to return.

Nutt at Arkansas was 5-5 against Tuberville and could bedevil him from Ole Miss in the future.  LSU isn't going away.  Mississippi State beat Auburn last year, and Petrino is certainly capable. 

Auburn's path had been fairly clear in years past, with only one dominant program in the SEC West to contend with in LSU.  However, things are about to get much tougher.

Sylvester Croom (Mississippi State)

Let's be frank.  Croom will get a couple of breaks if he has a bad season because of the fact that Miss. State is a perennial SEC cellar-dweller and because of the political fallout for firing a minority coach. 

However, Miss. State is still the only school in the SEC to have even hired a black man, and they stuck with him in the low times.  That will blunt the political fallout to a large degree. 

While many have overlooked certain obvious things in this story because it feels good, the truth is that Miss. State was 4-4 in conference last year. Two of those wins were improbable upsets that won't happen again.

One of the reasons Nutt was hired at Ole Miss was because he was 9-1 against Miss. State.  Without those three wins last year, Miss. State is 1-7 and Croom is probably gone. The 45-0 loss at LSU was really probably more indicative of this team than the upset win over Auburn. 

Croom will be back to one or two conference wins and it could be trouble.  The other wildcard is whether the first year AD would pull the plug so early into his career.  We'll know soon.

Bobby Johnson (Vanderbilt)

Vandy seems to realize that their best hope is to be competitive and win a big one once in a while (Georgia 2006, Arkansas 2005, Tennessee 2005).

While they would love to win their four non-conference games and two conference games to make a low-end bowl, that's tough to do at Vandy, especially when one of the non-conference games is Wake Forest. At least in the last two or three seasons, it's been a topic of conversation.

If Vandy goes back to winning two games per year, Bobby Johnson will be seen to have done all he can do and that new blood needs to come to finish the job of "getting over the hump." 

That would be too bad, given that Johnson could have won some games at a different school that doesn't have as many obstacles to winning.  If Vandy fires you, your stock goes way down.

Nick Saban (Alabama)

While many think that Saban is somewhat untouchable, I don't believe that.  The Bama faithful are not keen on losing to the likes of Louisiana-Monroe.  They also have grown tired of losing to the outmanned Miss. State team. 

For the money they are paying, they are looking to do better than a 6-6 regular season.  The off-the-field issues are getting frequent and embarrassing too.  Bama fans are ready for this to stop already. 

If one were to only look at record and discipline, Saban's first year looked a lot like Shula's career, except Shula NEVER lost to a team like Louisiana-Monroe.  If Saban had his same reputation but was making half the salary, he could afford another bad year.

However, in the fishbowl that is Alabama football and at his very lofty salary, there will be a lot of handwringing if he has another season like the last one.  He may just find that the coaching carousel at Alabama has claimed another victim.

Phil Fulmer (Tennessee)

Tennessee fans are very restless.  Phil Fulmer is not a great coach, and most of them know it.  If not for the instantly famous Clint Stoerner fumble in 1998 that allowed Tennessee to escape a sure loss vs. Arkansas, Phil would not have the national title on his resume that has allowed him the extra leniency to be spared the ax.

The problem is that he hasn't even won a conference title since then.  Florida is probably just as good as when Spurrier was there and Georgia has upgraded.

The entire SEC West has also improved, making UT's draws from that side of the bracket tougher as well.  Rocky Top fans have grown uncomfortably accustomed to third place in the SEC East.

But just when it looked like Phil might have been about to go last year, UT caught some breaks and wins the East.

After Florida and Bama beat Tennessee, UT needed Florida to drop at least three games.  So, completely out of Tennessee's control and thanks to LSU, Auburn, and Georgia, that happened.

Had any one of those Florida losses been wins, Florida is in the SEC championship game and Fulmer is likely gone. 

But one can't walk through rain without eventually getting wet.  Fulmer can't keep on getting breaks just before the ax falls.  Eventually, it will not miss.