College football coaches on the hot seat in 2024

Heading into a historic 2024 college football season, these head coaches are facing the most pressure to right the ship before it's too late.

Time may be running out for these coaches heading into a historic 2024 college football season. / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

College football's coaching carousel isn't just a frantic period of weeks after the end of the season. It's a constant grind for coaches to prove themselves worthy of the investment schools make in them that goes on 365 days a year, and a historic 2024 football season will only add to the pressure.

This offseason, 29 schools changed their football coach, bringing the tally up to 125 total coaching changes in the last five seasons. That's a lot of money going to the wrong places, and with dollars getting tighter in the future, schools will have to be far more cautious in their decisions.

Here's a rundown of the schools that could be regretting their investments heading into this season.

College football coaches in 2024 on the hot seat

Sam Pittman, Arkansas

Since the Hogs' 9-4 mark in 2021, Pittman has gone 7-6 and then a meager 4-8 a year ago with only one conference victory, nowhere near where he has to be in the uber-competitive SEC.

That was Arkansas' worst win-percentage mark in football since 2013, and dropped Pittman to 23-25 overall. Another outing like that, and certainly anything less than a bowl game, could spell the end.

Dave Aranda, Baylor

Since winning a Big 12 title, Aranda is just 9-16 overall including a 3-9 record last season that started with a loss at home to Texas State and concluded with five straight defeats.

Predictably, he remade the coaching staff and made changes around who calls the plays, naming himself the defensive coordinator, and former Texas State coach Jake Spavital is running the offense. Another sub-.500 season could cost Aranda his job.

Billy Napier, Florida

Coming off a strong tenure at Louisiana, it appeared Florida found the man for the job. But two seasons in, Napier is just 11-14 overall with a 6-10 SEC mark and is yet to finish higher than fourth in the East Division, and is coming off a 5-7 campaign in 2023.

Florida brought in a strong transfer group and recruiting class, but it also plays the toughest schedule in college football this season chock full of ranked opponents.

Gators AD Scott Stricklin has expressed confidence in his coach, as he would, but if Napier can't meet the challenge of this schedule, it's hard to see him back in 2025, no matter how reluctant Florida might be to start over yet again.

Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech

A former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Texas Tech and TCU, among other stops, Cumbie has not translated a good interim stint as Red Raiders coach to his own program.

Cumbie has gone 3-9 in consecutive seasons at Tech, and his offensive prowess has failed to materialize, not placing above fifth in his conference in total production, which is difficult to understand given his Air Raid roots working alongside Mike Leach.

Clark Lea, Vanderbilt

Vandy hasn't been a winner in more than a decade since the days of James Franklin, and there's more pressure on Lea now given the school's investment in facilities upgrades.

Lea is just 9-27 in three years on the job and has amassed a mere 2-22 record in SEC competition. His job got a little harder after losing two key offensive players to the portal, too.

Kalani Sitake, BYU

This season will go a long way in proving whether the Cougars' 2023 failures were a bump in the road, or a symptom of an unwelcome change of momentum in the program.

BYU gave Sitake an extension after his 29-9 start, but he went 5-7 in the school's Big 12 debut, and his team is notably not being discussed in the title race of a more wide open conference.

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