5 College Football Coaches on the Hot Seat Entering 2015 Fall Camp
When highly touted college football players don't live up to the hype, the worst that normally happens to them is that they get benched. The scholarship still remains, as does their place with the team.
College football coaches aren't so fortunate.
A bad year or two, and the man in charge of a program ends up packing his office and looking for employment elsewhere. For coaches, the severance included in their contract is no small consolation to the fact that their career track has taken an unexpected turn due to a termination.
Every season, we see coaches at the FBS level either get fired or forced to resign after a less-than-stellar season, the level of which depends on the school they're leaving. Last year, there were three coaches who were fired or quit during the year, while another three were shown the exit after the regular season.
Who is most likely to face that fate in 2015? Take a look at the five coaches whose seats are hottest heading into the season.
Tim Beckman, Illinois
1 of 5
Year at school: 4th
Overall record: 12-25
Tim Beckman is coming off the best year of his brief tenure at Illinois, though 6-7 isn't normally something a power-conference program would be raving about. But since it involved as many victories as his first two years, as well as three Big Ten wins (compared to two from 2012-13), there was cause for celebration.
But Beckman hasn't been able to use this recent success as a stepping stone to build off, not when his offseason has been clouded with controversy. And some of it was brought on by himself.
In February, Beckman used his time at the podium normally reserved for raving about the latest recruiting class—which at 47th (per 247Sports) was the highest-ranked group he's pulled in—to call out local media for not promoting his program enough with their coverage.
"Beckman asked in no uncertain terms that the media abandon objectivity and jump aboard the Illini bandwagon," Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote.
That was only the start of Beckman's bad offseason. During spring practice, he saw his best player, sophomore wide receiver Mike Dudek, suffer a knee injury that will keep him out until at least October. Then multiple former players accused Beckman of mistreating them during their careers, a topic he awkwardly dodged during Big Ten media days in July.
On-field progress aside, Beckman might be doing more harm than good to Illinois. Unless he has a strong performance this season (against a schedule with seven bowl opponents, four of which are on the road) his time in Champaign could be ending soon.
Al Golden, Miami (Florida)
2 of 5
Year at school: 5th
Overall record: 28-22
Al Golden has a lot going for him, both in terms of what he led Miami through in the past, and what he's steering them toward in the future. It's the present that's making Golden's future tenuous at best, putting heavy pressure on him and his Hurricanes to succeed in 2015.
When Golden was hired away from Temple in December 2010, the Hurricanes were under investigation by the NCAA for various alleged violations. The program self-imposed a bowl ban in Golden's first two seasons, both of which would have resulted in an invite to a postseason game, then once Miami had gotten out from under the NCAA cloud, it won nine games.
However, in that 2013 season, the Hurricanes began 7-0 but fell apart in the second half of the season, unable to overcome the loss of star running back Duke Johnson to injury. A blowout loss to Louisville in the program's first bowl game since 2010 got the process started on warming Golden's seat.
It got even hotter after he went 6-7 last year, starting 6-3 and then dropping four in a row including the Independence Bowl to South Carolina.
The one thing that could be saving Golden beyond this season—barring a major drop in wins—is strong recruiting for 2016 and beyond. The Hurricanes' 2016 class has 21 commitments, including nine of the 4-star variety, and is ranked No. 9 in the nation by 247Sports. The 2017 class, with nine pledges already, is ranked second.
Whether those recruits would stick around following a disappointing 2015 season (or after a coaching change) remains to be seen.
Mike London, Virginia
3 of 5
Year at school: 6th
Overall record: 23-38
Since making its first bowl appearance in 1984, Virginia hadn't gone more than two seasons without getting an invite. That's until the past three years, all of which have resulted in sub-.500 records under Mike London.
London got to a bowl in his second season in 2011, losing the Chick-fil-A Bowl to Auburn to finish an 8-5 campaign, but since then it's been mostly bad. The Cavaliers dipped to 2-10 in 2013 (including their first winless conference mark since 1981), before going 5-7 last year.
Virginia entered its 2014 finale with a chance to get a bowl bid, playing rival and fellow 5-6 squad, Virginia Tech, on the road. London went into that game with some extra confidence, as athletic director Craig Littlepage announced two days prior that London would return for the 2015 season, regardless of that final outcome.
The Cavs lost 24-20, allowing a touchdown with 1:48 left.
London isn't getting any favors from his schedule in this critical year. Virginia opens at UCLA and also faces Boise State and Notre Dame in the first month of the season.
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Willie Taggart, South Florida
4 of 5
Year at school: 3rd
Overall record: 6-18
Willie Taggart started slowly at Western Kentucky before turning around his alma mater and leading it to consecutive seven-win seasons. At the age of 36, he was getting mentioned as one of the hottest young coaches in the country, and South Florida felt he was the perfect fit to get its sliding program back on track.
The Bulls' brass didn't flinch much after Taggart's first team in 2013 went 2-10, since that's the same mark he had in 2009 with Western Kentucky. But after a 4-8 record last fall, during which South Florida ranked 121st in total offense, the atmosphere was quite different and far less favorable than when Taggart was hired.
"Presiding over it all is an athletic director, Mark Harlan, who didn't hire Taggart, and a new football administrative overseer, former Arizona coach Dick Tomey, whom some fans have deemed the interim coach-in-waiting," wrote Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times.
Knight noted that Taggart has used five starting quarterbacks and made numerous staff changes in his two seasons. Mike White, who was last season's primary starter at quarterback, transferred in the spring. Ironically, it was to Taggart's old school, Western Kentucky.
Kevin Wilson, Indiana
5 of 5
Year at school: 5th
Overall record: 14-34
Football has never been the most popular sport at Indiana, and as long as Hoosiers remains a cinematic classic, it's unlikely to ever surpass basketball in the collective hearts of fans. But the school would like to be at least somewhat competitive on the gridiron, something that's rarely happened in Kevin Wilson's four seasons.
The 5-7 record from 2013 is his best to this point, with last year's squad dipping back to 4-8. But that was partly due to some bad luck in the injury department. Running back Tevin Coleman ran for more than 2,000 yards last season, but quarterback Nate Sudfeld needed surgery in October, causing the offense to become too one-dimensional.
Coleman is now in the NFL, and while Sudfeld is back, he's one of only 12 returning starters. The Hoosiers added a nice piece in UAB running back transfer Jordan Howard, but on the other side of the coin they dismissed leading tackler Antonio Allen after he was arrested on drug charges.
Indiana has a schedule that could make getting to six wins (and securing the program's first bowl win since 2007) a possibility, but anything short of that will probably lead to Wilson being let go.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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