College Football Hot Seat Coaches Having a Good Spring

It's never too late to get off the coaching hot seat, right? Who says your fate has to be determined?

Spring practices are a time for optimism. It's a fresh slate and a chance to start over. For coaches on the hot seat, that opportunity to start from scratch couldn't come soon enough. 

In the following slides are five head coaches who are not only looking to turn things around in 2015, but who have a real chance at doing so. Maybe a coach is getting an important player back from injury or settling an important position battle. Some coaches on here are recruiting lights-out or seeing significant improvement with key players. 

These are the coaches on the hot seat who are having a great spring. 

Al Golden

J Pat Carter/Associated Press

Miami head coach Al Golden needs to have a good 2015. What does "good" mean? Bringing home a Coastal Division title*, which would be the team's first since joining the ACC, would be a start.

(*Technically, Miami won a share of the division in 2012 but was serving a postseason ban and thus did not compete in the ACC championship.) 

Miami has the college equivalent of a franchise quarterback in Brad Kaaya, who amazingly still hasn't been on campus for a full year. As Jared Shanker of ESPN.com writes, Kaaya looked like a seasoned vet in the Hurricanes' spring game: 

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Given the settings, Brad Kaaya could have joined his offensive teammates and idly coasted through the Miami spring game. Yet the sophomore quarterback -- and it’s worth reminding he hasn’t even been on campus a full year -- was intent on rallying the Hurricanes in the second half. It didn’t matter that it was only the annual intrasquad scrimmage, the final and often most-fruitless spring practice. The spring game was providing an opportunity for Miami to rebound and finish strong.

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Golden is also successfully building toward the future. The Canes have the No. 1 class for 2016, according to 247Sports. Bleacher Report colleague Sanjay Kirpalani explained earlier this month how Golden and his staff have put together such a strong class so early on: 

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Of the ‘Canes 18 [now 19] commitments in the 2016 class, 12 are from players who are from a trio of counties—Dade, Broward and Palm Beach—that are in close proximity to Miami’s campus in Coral Gables.

The nine combined commitments that Miami has in the 2017 and 2018 classes all hail from the same trio of counties in South Florida.

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Paul Rhoads

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Would Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads be fired after another losing season in 2015? Perhaps, but consider that more than one outlet—ESPN.com and CBSSports.com—ranked Iowa State as one of the toughest jobs among Power Five conferences. 

Ames is a tough place to win, put simply. The school has been good about what constitutes realistic expectations. Rhoads is a great coach, too. 

The Cyclones, however, are off to a nice start in the spring. Wide receiver Quenton Bundrage is back after missing all of last season with an ACL tear. According to offensive coordinator Mark Mangino, Bundrage is looking good. 

"I'll be honest, his quickness has improved," said Mangino, per Tommy Birch of the The Des Moines Register. "I think the rehabilitation on the knee that was bad that he injured, he's gained some more overall lower body strength and he looked very quick to me."

Combine Bundrage with sophomore-to-be Allen Lazard, and Iowa State has one of the better one-two receiver combos in the Big 12. With another year in Mangino's offense, the Cyclones have the weapons to be a bowl-eligible team. It's now on whether the defense can finally get up to par. 

Tim Beckman

LM Otero/Associated Press

Slowly, steadily, head coach Tim Beckman has turned Illinois around. After an awful 2-10 record in his first year, Beckman has led the Illini to four and six wins, respectively, in the following seasons. 

Still, even though he was given the green light to come back in 2015, Beckman's seat is hot on a consistent basis. To eliminate any and all hot seat talk, Illinois might have to improve by another two wins. 

“I want to compete for a championship,” Beckman told Chris Emma of CBS Chicago. “That’s what everybody wants this program to be. I’m not here to go to bowl games; I want to go to Lucas Oil.”

Beckman's sights have to be set high, but perhaps a more realistic vision of the program would be getting to a bowl game for the second straight year. 

Offensively, this team has the firepower to do it. Running back Josh Ferguson and receiver Mike Dudek are two of the more underrated players in the Big Ten. Quarterback Wes Lunt, provided he can stay healthy, has shown flashes of greatness. 

There's actually some excitement around the program now that things are trending in the right direction. As long as the offense keeps developing under coordinator Bill Cubit, the defense, which has been a liability, won't have to see a dramatic improvement to win games. 

Mike London

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Virginia looked like it had finally turned a corner last season under head coach Mike London. The Cavaliers started 4-2, and both losses were close and to respectable opponents (UCLA and BYU). 

Then, things fell apart. Virginia lost five of its final six games—and three of those losses came by a touchdown or less. 

All things considered, Virginia was a better team than its record indicated, but 2015 is about finishing. Otherwise, London might be finished himself. 

There are some good pieces in place, though. Freshman All-American safety Quin Blanding is back. Maurice Canady, an All-ACC selection, joins him in the secondary. 

On offense, Greyson Lambert has established himself as the starting quarterback, even though he had an up-and-down 2014. With a go-to leader, Virginia's offense should in theory be more consistent next season. Perhaps London's team can go from being so close to actually being eligible for a bowl.  

Les Miles

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LSU coach Les Miles is perpetually in this weird state where he's not quite on the verge of being fired, yet it seems no one is fully satisfied with how things are going. 

The crux of that frustration falls on the quarterback spot. There's a heated battle going on this spring between Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris. Last season, neither separated himself from the other, though Jennings was essentially the go-to guy. 

To date, Miles said neither quarterback has emerged as the true No. 1 yet but that Harris has looked sharper. 

 “The offense definitely improved,” Miles said via Sheldon Mickles of The Advocate. “This was probably the best offensive scrimmage we’ve had (this spring), and certainly you can say they may have bested the defense today. It was very competitive.”

Even with the loss of defensive coordinator John Chavis, the Tigers shouldn't have much of a problem putting together a quality group. It's the offense that can no longer afford to be a liability. Even a marginal improvement could help there. From the sounds of it, Harris is coming into his own little by little. 

That would be huge news. 

Ben Kercheval is a Lead Writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand.