SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index: Napier Era Symbolically Ends With Lagway Injury

As the final stretch of the season approaches, who is on the hottest seat?

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier gives an injured Florida Gators quarterback DJ Lagway (2) a hug after the game at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, FL on Saturday, November 2, 2024. The Bulldogs defeated the Gators 34-20. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun] / Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Welcome back to the SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index.

Week 10 of the SEC calendar saw a few coaches who were already in significant danger, suffer crushing losses. However, some coaches that needed big wins were able to get them in emphatic fashion. 

Let’s take the temperature of each SEC head coach with just a few games left in 2024. 

SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index - Week 10

Scorching: Billy Napier (Florida), Mark Stoops (Kentucky), Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State), Hugh Freeze (Auburn)

Napier needed to pull off a miracle against George if he wanted to get back in the good graces of Florida fans. Somehow, he was almost able to do it. If the Gators’ true freshman quarterback D.J. Lagway did not go down with an injury, Florida may have beaten Georgia. But instead, Lagway may be lost for the rest of the season, and the rest of Florida's schedule is brutal. Despite his team fighting hard for him, it seems like Napier’s time in Gainesville has symbolically come to an end. 

Stoops and Kentucky were not expected to walk into Knoxville and upset Tennessee, but the Wildcats only trailed by three points in the fourth quarter. But despite Tennessee playing another poor offensive first half, Kentucky was unable to take advantage and pick up what would have been Stoops’ first victory against Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel. The Wildcats are now 1-6 in the SEC and 3-6 overall. Unless Kentucky can win their last three games, they will miss out on going to a bowl game for the first time since 2015. Missing the postseason would accentuate the reality that Kentucky's program has peaked under Stoops, and it may be time to go in a different direction before things get worse.

Lebby finally got another win as Mississippi State defeated Massachusetts 45–20. However, the Bulldogs have still not defeated a Power 4 opponent this season and have looked like a disaster in Lebby’s first year. There are genuine questions as to whether or not Lebby is ready to be a head coach or if he should have gotten an opportunity like this as his first chance to lead a program. Last season, Mississippi State pulled the trigger on firing Zach Arnett in the middle of his debut season as head coach. The precedent is there for the Bulldogs to potentially do the same thing again this season and fire Lebby for his disastrous beginning to his tenure. 

Freeze had to be moved into the scorching section after Auburn’s home loss to Vanderbilt. It was the first time that the Tigers had ever lost to the Commodores at home. Auburn is now 1-5 in SEC play and has shown no signs of improvement throughout the season. Freeze still has a good reputation as a head coach and is recruiting strongly, but his team’s play on the field leaves a lot to be desired. The culture at Auburn seems to be teetering on the brink of collapse.

Hot: Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Sam Pittman (Arkansas)

Venables and Oklahoma finally had an offensive explosion that they had needed for weeks, except instead of doing it against a conference opponent, it came against FCS foe Maine. This win will not do much to move the needle in a positive direction for Venables. He desperately needs to win one of his final three conference games.

Pittman is right back where he started the season, on the hot seat. He bought himself some time with a marquee upset victory over Tennessee a few weeks ago, but since then the Hogs have shown the same concerning signs that put Pittman on the hot seat in the first place. The 63–31 blowout loss to Ole Miss marked the second consecutive blowout loss that Arkansas has suffered at home. If Texas does the same thing to the Razorbacks after their bye week, Pittman may not still be in Fayetteville to coach the next game against Louisiana Tech.

Warm: Empty

After Pittman moved back up into the hot section and Beamer picked up a huge win, this section of the heat index is vacant this week. 

Room temperature: Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), Brian Kelly (LSU), Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) Shane Beamer (South Carolina

Once again, none of these head coaches are in any danger of losing their jobs. However, they have each made their fan bases, angry with them for one reason or another. 

DeBoer and Alabama had a bye week before one of their biggest matchups of the season against LSU. If DeBoer and the Tide dropped their third game of the season against LSU, the negative noise in Tuscaloosa is going to be unbearably loud. DeBoer is still only in his first season, and he is having to follow the greatest coach of all time, but Alabama fans are impatient and they will settle for nothing less than championships. Those expectations may be unrealistic, but they are also reality, and DeBoer knew that when he signed. This week is a must-win for Alabama.

It is also a must-win for LSU. The Tigers also already have two losses and would be eliminated from playoff contention with a third. Kelly needs to show the Tigers’ fan base that he can get them over the hump. LSU has had a bad habit of losing big games during his tenure, and losing to DeBoar in his first season would not be a good look for Kelly, who is in his third season in Baton Rouge.

Drinkwitz’s Tigers were also on a bye week. They have a great chance to win their last four games of the season and finish 10-2. While Missouri has been a disappointment so far this season, another 10-2 record would be something to build on for the future for Drinkwitz.

Kiffin and Ole Miss just finished destroying Arkansas 63–31 to set up a showdown against Georgia. This is arguably the biggest home game of Kiffin’s time in Oxford. A win in this game would change everything for the Rebels this season. A loss would put the finishing touches on what has been a massive disappointment of a season for a team that had championship aspirations.

Beamer moves into the room temperature section for the first time this season with a massive victory over Texas A&M. The Gamecocks destroyed the Aggies 44–20 in front of an unbelievable crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium. This win is a powerful reminder of the heights that South Carolina can reach under Beamer. Now, they just need to start being consistent.

Ice cold: Kirby Smart (Georgia), Josh Heupel (Tennessee), Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Clark Lea (Vanderbilt), Mike Elko (Texas A&M)

These head coaches have the safest jobs and the happiest fan bases in the SEC.

Smart, Heupel, and Sarkisian each lead one-loss top ten teams that still have national championship aspirations and are in great positions to make the 12-team playoff field. Elko just lost his second game of the season, but it was just the Aggies' first conference loss. His debut season in College Station has still been a resounding success.

Lea continues to make his case to be the SEC head coach of the year with an upset victory on the road over Auburn. The transformation that the Vanderbilt football program has undergone under Lea is truly remarkable. The Commodores are 6–3 and bowl-eligible for the first time since 2018.

The SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index will fluctuate as the season continues. Stay tuned for an update next week.