A new fave place for schadenfreude: Coaches Hot Seat

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Writing for On the Banks, and having the slightly tilted brain that I do, causes me to read all kinds of….”interesting” stuff on sports. Like a site called Coaches Hot Seat. To which I now subscribe.

With the – at the time- two worst teams in the Big Ten having just played, I decided to see what the hot takes on the two participating coaches were.

Enter Coaches Hot Seat.

For last week, guess which coaches – in the entire country! – occupied the numbers 1 and 2 spots. Go ahead, guess. Come on….play along!

Yeah, Mike Locksley at 1 and Greg Schiano at 2. From their last week’s ranking of Locksley:

Last week the athletic director said he and Locksley are “aligned.” I’m sure they are. So is a car with three flat tires.

He stays No. 1. At this rate they ought to retire the spot.

And the number two guy?

Greg Schiano had the week off, and Rutgers didn’t lose. Best weekend they’ve had in a month.

I get it, though. This is an interesting site, but it will rely on hot takes and being just a tad snarky. Worth the read.

Week 7 – October 9-10

It was interesting to see that in their rankings going into last weekend, there were seven Big Ten coaches among the top 18 spots, including several that have winning records. Jedd Fisch (UW, #3, 4-3), Luke Fickell (Wisc, #8, 4-2), and Lincoln Riley (USC, #9, 6-1) are top ten listings. Matt Campbell (PSU, #13, 3-4) and Barry Odom (Pur, #14, 3-4) round out the B1G hot seat occupants.

Of all 138 FBS coaches, the “safest” Big Ten coaches were Ryan Day at 105 (that low ????), No. 109 Bret Bielema (again but that high????), at 111 Dan Lanning, and Curt Cignetti at No. 133. Of the five coaches “safer” than Cignetti, only Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert was in a P4 conference.

Now, this week will change. The site updates every week using their own system, as they explain here:

Every coach gets scored across eight signals. Wins versus expectations. Performance against AP Top-25 opponents. Performance against primary rivals. Three-year trend. Fan sentiment. Fan heat. Salary pressure. Tenure. Then we apply the same rigor to coach #138 that we apply to coach #1.

How they judge “fan sentiment” or “fan heat” – among other categories – may be proprietary, but is at least worth considering. I like “wins against expectations” and “three year trend”. I’m actually asking the site writer, Mark Haines, how they do that. Also, their “rising” direction indicates a hotter seat; that is a curious one.

Week 8 – October 16-17

The top four in the list of Big Ten coaches didn’t move. Mike Locksley lost and is still at the top/hottest spot. Greg Schiano won and is still at No. 2; beating the hottest seat coach doesn’t get you very far. No. 3 Jedd Fisch also won, but beating Purdue – even on the road – doesn’t get it done, either. And Florida State’s Mike Norvell played Miami tough, but….a loss is a loss.

Looking just at the Big Ten, the top (maybe list it as the bottom?) four didn’t change; in fact, within the conference, the results pretty much stayed pat.

While first year (at their school) coaches seem to get a little slack, Matt Campbell doesn’t seem to be as fortunate. The folks in Happy Valley have pretty high expectations; he actually moved two spots hotter from the week before. Matt Rhule, despite a hot start, is getting some heat, too. Now in his fourth year, the Husker faithful want results….consistently good ones.

As for GS, the Coaches Hotseat take was, I think, fair:

Last week: No. 2 | Scorching

Greg Schiano went into College Park and beat the No. 1 coach in these rankings, and he’s still No. 2. I know, Greg. Life isn’t fair.

Rutgers trailed by 10 at halftime, outscored Maryland 24-7 after it, and won 37-30 for its first win over an FBS team this season. KJ Duff caught nine passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns, one of them with one hand.

The Scarlet Knights are 2-4 and 1-2 in the Big Ten. Two of those four losses came against UMass and Boston College, and these rankings have a memory.

Next up is a trip to Northwestern, which beat Penn State by 21. Enjoy the win, Coach. It might have to last a while.

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