College football season is right around the corner and that means a few things. First, there will most likely be fans in stadiums after last season saw empty arenas thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Second, Duck and Beaver fans will be able to load up that cooler and head down to their favorite games once again (depending on your team, a nice slice from Track Town Pizza or American Dream sounds pretty good). Third, we get to speculate which head coach is the likeliest to get fired.
The Pac-12 has plenty of candidates that are on the hot seat heading into this 2021 season.
A nifty website, coacheshotseat.com was referenced in USA Today and had quite a few Pac-12 coaches ranked in the Top 30 for hottest seats in college football. Clay Helton at USC ranked highest at No.2. This one has been coming for quite some time. Boosters and alumni are getting sick of the Trojans being an afterthought next to Oregon’s recruiting juggernaut. Would be surprised to see Helton gone if they can’t crack nine wins.
Chip Kelly clocks in at No.26 with a host of problems himself. University officials had high hopes for the innovative coach who flamed out in the NFL. NIL rules will make it more difficult for him to find recruits wanting to help him build something in Southern California.
A curious entry comes at No. 28 with Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith. No doubt Corvallis wants to see some improvement from a strange COVID year, but his uptick in recruiting will surely keep Smith’s job prospects safe for the time being.