College Football Hot Seat: 10 Head Coaches Who Deserve One More Year

In the modern college football world, head coaches are fired so fast it makes your head spin. Fanbases and boosters demand wins and expect them to come immediately, and every season thereafter.

However, I think a little leniency and patience can pay off in the end. If the Virginia Tech Hokies hadn't given Frank Beamer another chance in the late 80's, that program wouldn't have become the powerhouse it is today.

I think more athletic directors should follow that example, as opposed to taking the Notre Dame Fighting Irish route of three years and you're done. As such, here are 10 college football head coaches who are currently on the hot seat, but deserve (at least) one more chance to prove they can still win.

Rick Neuheisel, UCLA Bruins

I'm not done apologizing for Rick Neuheisel. Yet.

For the fourth straight year (Neuheisel's only four years at UCLA), the Bruins have gotten to four losses before they notch their fourth win. In his tenure at UCLA, Neuheisel is just 18-25, with a pitiful 10-20 record in the Pac 12 and only one winning season (7-6 in 2009).

So why should UCLA Bruins' athletic director Dan Guerrero stick with him? Well, other than UCLA, Neuheisel has won everywhere he has been. He led the Colorado Buffaloes to back-to-back top 10 finishes in the mid-90's. A few years later, he led Marques Tuiasosopo and the Washington Huskies to a 11-1 season culminating with a Rose Bowl victory and a No. 3 finish in 2000.

Before he started at UCLA, he had only one losing season in eight years as a college head coach. Yes, he's struggled mightily. But with a few years out of the college football world, perhaps he needed some time to readjust. He's a proven coach. Giving him one more chance just might pay off big.

Frank Spaziani, Boston College Eagles

I think it's unfair to even consider Frank Spaziani to be on the hot seat after just two and a half seasons as a head coach (especially considering he had a 16-11 record after his first two) but that seems to be the general consensus.

The fact of the matter is, the Boston College Eagles won at least nine games in each of their first five seasons in the ACC (under Tom O'Brien and then Jeff Jagodzinski) and played in the ACC Championship Game twice during that time. Since Spaziani took over, there has been a steady decline, as the Eagles were 8-5 in his first season, 7-6 in his second, and now sit at 1-6 at this point in the 2011 season.

Still, Spaziani is a fledgling head coach, and his team has been to bowl games both of his full years in Chestnut Hill. After the way his team rallied from a 2-5 start last season, there's reason to believe this year's Boston College team may have a late run in them as well.

Spaziani did an excellent job as the defensive coordinator at Boston College for ten years. His players love him, and he is (or at least was) popular with the Eagles' faithful. Most importantly, let's remember: With a tiny stadium and below-average support, Boston College is not an easy place to win.

Tom O'Brien, North Carolina State Wolfpack

From Frank Spaziani, it's easy to make the transition to his former boss Tom O'Brien, whose seat with the North Carolina State Wolfpack is glowing just as red hot as Spaziani's. I'm not as far behind O'Brien as I am most of the coaches on this list. When I say one more year, I literally mean it in this case.

It took O'Brien three unsuccessful seasons in Raleigh before O'Brien led North Carolina State to a bowl game. Unfortunately, the main cog in the Wolfpack machine was Russell Wilson, and though he's still wearing red, he's doing so a thousand or so miles northwest.

While I think letting Wilson go was foolish, his success with the Wisconsin Badgers is not as much proof of an error in O'Brien's judgment as some think. The Badgers have a much better all-around team than the Wolfpack.

Mike Glennon has been doing pretty well in this, his debut season. If the Wolfpack can finish strongly and make a bowl, and then Glennon does well next season, there might be some vindication for what is now a very questionable decision to let a second-team All-ACC quarterback go.

Mack Brown, Texas Longhorns

I feel ridiculous even including Mack Brown in a hot seat discussion when he led the Texas Longhorns to a perfect 13-0 regular season record and berth in the BCS Championship Game in the 2009-2010 season, but hey, that's college football. There are much higher expectations at places like Texas.

From a Longhorns fan's perspective, I can see the cause for concern. After coaching at Texas for 12 years and never completing a season in Austin with less than nine wins, Brown's Longhorns went 5-7 last season. And this year, they've started just 4-2, and looked like they didn't belong in the same division (let alone the same field) as their rival Oklahoma Sooners.

Still, those 12 years (and his last six years with the North Carolina Tarheels) show that he is an excellent head coach. Everybody has a slip-up sometime, so it's actually impressive that Mack Brown went 18 straight years without one. Texas has had top five recruiting classes each of the last three years, and are currently wrangling what might be the best in the country in 2012, so there's no reason to panic yet.

Luke Fickell, Ohio State Buckeyes

Seriously guys? The instant gratification status of the college football world has impelled some to call for Luke Fickell's head already.

It's absolutely ludicrous. Fickell has been leading the Ohio State Buckeyes for less than a year now, and they still have a winning record at 4-3.

It's not like he came into an easy situation, with the program facing serious investigations, the longtime and beloved former head coach being ignominiously forced out in the midst of spring practices, and several of the key players like Dan Herron being kept off the field for several games (with Terrelle Pryor of course heading to the Oakland Raiders).

I know technically Fickell is just an interim head coach. But interim head coaches don't coach a full season. If the Buckeye administration picked a new coach, they would essentially be firing Fickell. I don't think they will do that to a Buckeye alum, who came into a very rough situation.

Turner Gill, Kansas Jayhawks

The jury's still out on Turner Gill as a college football head coach. Yes, his Kansas Jayhawks are 2-5, with a defense that strongly resembles Swiss cheese (with more holes, though).

But Gill did a good job with the Buffalo Bulls, taking them to their first bowl game ever (got to love the fact that it was a black coach who did so, 50 years after the Bulls rightfully refused a Tangerine Bowl bid when they were told their black players wouldn't be able to play in the game).

But I digress. Gill has only been with the Jayhawks for two years, and he came into a program that was declining rapidly in the waning years' of Mark Mangino's tenure. Kansas has never been an easy place to win anyway, and the turmoil surrounding the Big 12 the past few years could not have helped that.

Gill deserves at least one more year. He oversaw much improvement at Buffalo, he could very well do the same thing for the Jayhawks.

Jeff Tedford, California Golden Bears

Let's take a second to review the current NFL players that have come through the California Golden Bears football program under Jeff Tedford: Aaron Rodgers, Jahvid Best, DeSean Jackson, Kyle Boller, J.J. Arrington, Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett. Just to name a few.

You can take this in one of two ways: the fact that Tedford has not gotten the Golden Bears to a BCS game or a Pac 12 Championship with such talent could suggest that he is lacking as a head coach. But the fact that he groomed such players makes me think he knows what he's doing.

Even though he's never quite gotten Cal over the hump, Tedford has had success in Berkeley. Last season was the first of his nine at California where the Golden Bears didn't finish with a winning record. And, his teams finished ranked in the top 25 for three consecutive seasons from 2004-2006, arguably getting robbed out of a Rose Bowl bid by Mack Brown's politicking in 2004.

Tedford has had a bad past few years, but he's done well overall, and let's face it, he gets and develops a lot of talented players. If his Golden Bears (who sit at 4-3) return to a bowl game this year, he deserves another chance.

Mark Richt, Georgia Bulldogs

Winning in the SEC is just plain hard. So even though Mark Richt is under fire after his Georgia Bulldogs went 8-5 in 2009 and just 6-7 a season ago, I think he should be commended on the fact that he's led Georgia to a bowl game every season he's been in Athens. 

Every college football program has its ups and downs, and Georgia is currently trying to escape a down time. After starting this season 0-2 (with a beating at the hands of the Boise State Broncos), Georgia has rallied well with five straight wins. 

The fact that Richt led the Bulldogs to at least 10 wins six times between 2002 and 2008 (with the lone exception being a nine win season in 2006) is very impressive. He's been a winner throughout his time at Georgia, so they should trust him enough to stick with him.

Mike Riley, Oregon State Beavers

With the Oregon State Beavers sitting at just 2-5, I have to imagine Mike Riley's seat is giving him blisters at this point. After the Beavers failed to make a bowl game for the first time since 2005 last season, I doubt too many people are pleased with Riley in Corvallis after the poor start to this season.

Still, Riley has done enough good things with the Beavers to warrant one last chance next season. As previously implied, he led Oregon State to four straight bowl games from 2006-2009, with his team finishing in the top 25 three of those four years (2006-2008).

Moreover, Riley has put a number of players in the NFL, namely Matt Moore and Derek Anderson. Perhaps I shouldn't, but I still believe Riley can get the job done for Oregon State.

Joker Phillips, Kentucky Wildcats

Like many of the coaches on this list, Phillips is in the very early stages of his head coaching career. I'm a big believer in giving new coaches ample opportunity to prove themselves.

After a mediocre opening 6-7 season ending with a Compass Bowl (these names are getting more and more embarrassing) loss, Phillips' Kentucky Wildcats are just 3-4 this year.

After Rich Brooks led the Wildcats to at least seven wins in each of his last four seasons as their head coach, I can see why Kentucky fans would be concerned about this slight regression. But Phillips was excellent as their offensive coordinator, and he's just getting his feet wet as a head coach. He deserves a few more years of evaluation before his seat really heats up.