College Football 2011: The 5 Hottest Coaching Seats After Week 3

There are a few prominent college coaches who have started the 2011 season 0-2, but it seems the only two people want to talk about are Georgia’s Mark Richt and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly.

There may be no other coach who has to deal with the “Hot Seat” rumors more than Richt right now.

Whether it’s fair or not that he’s getting that kind of treatment is up for you to decide.

Here’s a look at five college coaches who better make sure they have a fire extinguisher.

5. David Cutcliffe, Duke

You can understand getting blown out by Andrew Luck and Stanford. What you can’t understand is losing at home to Richmond.

David Cutcliffe is now 12-26 at Duke and there are no signs of immediate improvement.

After showing some promise in 2009, the Blue Devils declined in 2010, going 3-9, and their start to this season isn’t very promising.

With five or six winnable games on the schedule, some thought this could be the year Cutcliffe could guide the team to a bowl, but it’s going to take a major turnaround for that to happen.

4. Mike Riley, Oregon State

Often times, when you see those 'most underrated college coaches' lists, you see Oregon State’s Mike Riley on them. But now, after losing the team’s top player Jacquizz Rogers and dealing with quarterback troubles, Riley is staring at a big uphill battle this season.

Riley has packed on some solid job security with his performances in the past, but after last year’s 5-7 campaign, there aren’t going to be many fans who will be tolerant of another letdown season.

Judging from the way the Beavers played in a shocking loss to FCS school Sacramento State and the way they followed up in a shutout loss at Wisconsin, it doesn’t look like this team has what it takes to get very far this season.

How long before we start hearing the Chris Petersen to Oregon State chatter?

3. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

Last season, we overlooked the losses to Navy and Tulsa and chalked it up to first year jitters. That was fine, there wasn’t much hype then.

But after a summer of ESPN specials and magazine cover stories, a lot more was expected out of a team that returned 17 starters and went into the year with a Top-20 ranking.

0-2 was not on the itinerary.

The opening loss at home to South Florida was bad; the last-second collapse at Michigan was worse.

I hope Kelly doesn’t think that just because it’s his second season, he’s allowed to have an off year.

With Michigan State and Pittsburgh waiting on the horizon, Kelly better make sure he finds a way to avoid an 0-4 start.

2. Frank Spaziani, Boston College

I know the Central Florida program has improved tremendously under George O’Leary, but I’m sorry, if you’re a respectable BCS program, you can’t go down to Orlando and lose 30-3.

That just can’t happen.

Especially not when you’re coming off a home loss to a mediocre Northwestern team that didn’t even have its most important player.

Sorry Spaziani, you’re just not getting it done.

Jeff Jagodzinski set everything up for you and you blew it.

8-5, 7-6, now likely 6-6 or 5-7.

The decline has to stop.

1. Mark Richt, Georgia

Mark Richt began the season with a lot of critics and he’s done his best to give them as much ammunition as possible.

Georgia not only lost to Boise State, a team that SEC fans view as second-class college football citizens, the Bulldogs lost their division showdown with South Carolina, getting overrun by Marcus Lattimore and the Gamecocks on their home field.

Richt is 0-2 and staring at a rapidly dwindling group of supporters.

If the Bulldogs don’t get things turned around soon, the Richt critics may finally get what they’re hoping for.