College Football Coaching Hot Seat After Week 2: Examining Situations at Florida State, Clemson and More
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We’re just two weeks into the 2026 college football season and there’s already buzz about head coaches on the hot seat and potential replacements who are generating interest around the country. While no changes are imminent, there are a few situations among Power 4 programs worth monitoring.
Ahead of Week 3, let’s examine the college football coaching hot seat right now.
1. Mike Norvell, Florida State Seminoles
The firing of Florida State Seminoles athletic director Michael Alford seals Mike Norvell’s fate in Tallahassee. He needed to engineer a significant turnaround in 2026, which was always going to be difficult given the Seminoles’ schedule, and it is already apparent the talent and coaching both are not there for that to happen. A new athletic director will want to bring in his own head coach, so it might be wise for Norvell to already start thinking about putting his home on the market.
Related: Insider Reveals How Many Wins Mike Norvell Needs to Avoid Being Fired
2. Greg Schiano, Rutgers Scarlet Knights
There have been a lot of miserable lows in the recent history of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football program. However, losing to UMass and Boston College by a combined 23 points feels like it has to be nearing rock-bottom. Keep in mind that matchups against USC, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Penn State are still ahead on Rutgers’ schedule. This team is going to lose double-digit games in 2026. Taking a massive step backward from last season’s 5-7 campaign has to be enough for Rutgers to decide it needs to clean house, so it should only be a matter of time until Greg Schiano is canned.
3. Lance Leipold, Kansas Jayhawks
The 38-21 loss at home to Missouri made it pretty clear how far away the Kansas Jayhawks are from even challenging for a winning record. Another losing season would be the third consecutive under head coach Lance Leipold, with 2023 (9-4) the only time he’s posted a winning record. The 62-year-old head coach has just seemed to be out of his depth at this level, and while Kansas might not be one of the more enticing jobs that will likely become available this year, the standard has to be higher than a sub-.450 winning percentage.
4. Dave Aranda, Baylor Bears
With how competitive Louisiana Tech looked in Week 2 against LSU, it is not out of the question that the Bulldogs could cause some problems for the Baylor Bears on Saturday. It also feels like a must-win game for Dave Aranda considering that his program still has to race the rest of the Big 12 Conference, with at least 6 matchups where the Bears will be underdogs. After going 5-7 last season, a repeat of that seems squarely on the table in 2027, and his overall record at Baylor (.493 winning percentage) isn’t enough to survive that.
5. Luke Fickell, Wisconsin Badgers
Luke Fickell’s Wisconsin Badgers will probably be 2-1 after hosting Eastern Michigan on Saturday. The real question is, how many more wins after that are realistic. The badgers can certainly dispatch Michigan State (Oct. 3), Rutgers (Nov. 7) and Purdue (Nov. 21), but everything outside of that is a coin-flip at best. Five wins isn’t enough of a payoff to justify Wisconsin spending $20-plus million on the team this season, especially after Fickell went a combined 9-15 in the two seasons prior. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if there’s a quiet Badgers coaching search that begins in early November.
Related: Insider Names Potential Wisconsin Badgers HC Target if Luke Fickell is Fired
6. Dabo Swinney, Clemson Tigers
A year ago, Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers decimated the North Carolina Tar Heels (38-10) and then finished the season with a 7-6 record. Fast forward to 2026, Clemson basically has even odds to beat North Carolina on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium. We’ve long felt that Clemson wouldn’t fire Swinney because of everything he’s done for this program, but a loss to Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels would truly be an all-time low point in the Swinney era. If Clemson loses in Week 3, we think the talk of potential retirement will start to leak out in a slow drip that eventually ends with Swinney stepping down at the conclusion of the season.
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