- Coaches are lining up for their failure money amid what’s promising to be a wild coaching carousel.
- Billy Napier, Hugh Freeze, Mike Norvell and Luke Fickell headline the hot seat. Brian Kelly trying to play catchup.
- Did Notre Dame just clinch a College Football Playoff bid? Irish set up nicely.
James Franklin’s $49-plus million buyout could soon look like chump change.
Mike Norvell’s rump now roasts on the hot seat after a fourth consecutive loss, and his buyout would check in at more than $58 million at season’s end.
Elsewhere in the South, Auburn’s marching toward “Fire everybody!” mode after a fourth straight loss, and Florida fans are booing Billy Napier and chanting for his firing even in victory. LSU, do you maybe want in on this buyout bonanza?
* Oprah voice *
You get failure money! And you get failure money! And you get failure money!
Here’s what lingers on the brain after Week 8:
College football coaching carousel about to get wild
This twirl of the coaching carousel is set up to rival that 2021 spin that saw LSU, Southern California, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, Miami and Notre Dame hire coaches, among others.
That raises the question for any program thinking about firing its coach: Who ya gonna get?
Florida would’ve been better off firing Napier a year ago, when he’d shown his hand and the carousel was quiet. The Gators would’ve been the best job on the market if they’d made a move last fall, and Lane Kiffin wasn’t tied up in the College Football Playoff.
What must be done eventually should have been done a year ago.
At Auburn, Hugh Freeze plays a broken record stuck on the same lousy song, and it goes something like this: The Tigers can’t close, the Tigers can’t score, this once-entertaining program has become a bore.
Or, to put it in terms athletic director John Cohen could understand, Auburn’s car has become a jalopy sitting on flat tires with a battery that’s been dead for years, and there’s no need to turn the key, because this thing won’t start.
How’s this for a silver lining, Auburn? The schedule’s about to ease up. With any luck — not that Auburn should count on that — the Tigers could finish 7-5 for its first winning season since firing Gus Malzahn. Pop the bubbly, and fork over the failure money.
There’s no silver lining to be found up in Wisconsin, which has mustered a grand total of 20 points in four Big Ten losses. How quickly can Franklin get to Madison?
First College Football Playoff qualifier emerges
Did anyone notice if Notre Dame fired the confetti gun after its 34-24 victory against Southern California? Because, folks, I do believe the College Football Playoff has its first qualifier.
If you think I’m jumping the gun, let me read off Notre Dame’s November schedule: Boston College, Navy, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Stanford.
OK, OK, so Navy’s undefeated, but if you want a preview for how that’s going to go, see if the 2024 Army-Notre Dame game is streaming on Peacock Classic.
Brian Kelly must be wondering why he gave up the cushy independent lifestyle for the SEC.
Marcus Freeman’s Irish are set to coast into the playoff at 10-2.
Big Ten playoff picture clears
Nick Saban spent some time on “College GameDay” trying to identify the headliner of the Big Ten’s second tier. Truth is, it really doesn’t matter.
With Nebraska and USC losing, the Big Ten’s playoff picture came into focus. Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon have a clear runway to qualification, but three teams is looking like the conference’s cap.
The path to a fourth bid would be two-loss Michigan getting hot and upsetting No. 1 Ohio State in the regular-season finale.
Did UCLA solve its problem?
Put aside the playoff race, because the Big Ten’s fourth-most entertaining team has become upstart UCLA, which apparently shed the problem when it fired DeShaun Foster. The Bruins stayed hot by beating Maryland for a third straight win behind interim Tim Skipper.
Considering how crowded this coaching carousel is shaping up to be, should UCLA maybe let it ride with Skipper as the skipper in 2026?
Three and out
1. My bold mid-October prediction: A team will be snubbed from the playoff that possesses better credentials than any of the “snubs” from last season.
2. The winner of next week’s Missouri-Vanderbilt game will become a stronger playoff contender than Texas, Penn State, Clemson or LSU. Imagine thinking that in August. Penn State and Clemson are out of the hunt, while Texas and LSU limp on as wounded masqueraders.
3. Saban’s wife, Miss Terry, joked on “College GameDay” she and her husband are having “too much fun” to jump back into coaching, but, she added, “I haven’t heard a number yet.” She also said she had “no doubt” her husband could win an eighth national championship if he resumed coaching. Penn State, just skip Nick Saban’s agent and proceed straight to Miss Terry with your best offer.
Keep up with the latest news and analysis from college football’s top two conferences: Check out our Big Ten Hub and our SEC Hub to get school-by-school coverage from across the USA TODAY Network.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.