Hot Seat Season: Norvell, Locksley, Sanders and the Price of Coaching Loyalty in 2026

College football's coaching carousel runs on one rule: win now, or get out. A month into the 2026 season, that rule is being enforced from Tallahassee to Boulder.

The Cautionary Tale Already Written

Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham is the warning sign every hot-seat coach should study. In January 2025, Dillingham had the Sun Devils in the College Football Playoff on the back of a Big 12 title, with Sam Leavitt, Cam Skattebo and Jordyn Tyson driving the offense, according to Fox News. Less than two years later, ASU sits 2-2 with what Fox News called an "anemic offense," fresh off a loss to Baylor, a team whose own coach was on a hot seat a month earlier. Programs do not stay fixed. Neither does job security.

Florida State's Norvell Needs Wins, Not Promises

Mike Norvell is the clearest hot-seat case in the sport right now. Florida State has fired its athletic director, suffered a power outage during its home opener, and stumbled to 2-2, according to CBS Sports. Industry sources told CBS Sports that Norvell "almost certainly" needs a win over Virginia to keep his job alive, with Louisville, Miami and Florida still on the schedule before a bye week. The number that makes this complicated: Norvell's buyout sits at $46.7 million, according to CBS Sports. That sum gives FSU's administration real incentive to find a path to keep him rather than write that check.

Locksley's Clock Is Reportedly Running Out

Maryland's Mike Locksley faces a blunter verdict. After back-to-back 4-8 seasons, a 2-2 start that included a 54-3 loss to UCLA has industry sources telling CBS Sports it is "a matter of when, not if" Locksley is fired, not whether he returns for a ninth season. Locksley is 39-51 at Maryland and would be owed nearly $10 million if let go, per CBS Sports. Maryland only recently increased its financial commitment to the program after years as one of the least-resourced schools in the Big Ten, and a coach can reasonably argue that one offseason of new spending does not undo nearly a decade of being outgunned. Maryland's next two opponents are Nebraska and fifth-ranked Ohio State, which is not where a program buys more time.

Colorado's Sanders Draws Fire Over Culture, Not Just Record

Deion Sanders has lost three straight after opening 2-0, and the criticism has moved beyond the scoreboard. On Fox News' "Don't @ Me," analyst Dan Dakich called the Colorado program a "Trojan horse" and "a house of cards," pointing to Sanders' own disclosure that he dismissed three players after some were caught laughing in the locker room following a loss to Northwestern and after players were seen on video mocking the size of Northwestern's crowd before the game. Dakich argued that kind of behavior would never happen in a program where players respect the coaching staff. That is one analyst's read, not a verdict. Sanders built Colorado from a three-win team into a nine-win Playoff contender in 2024, and backers of the program can fairly argue that a three-game skid in year three does not erase that turnaround. Whether this is a program unraveling or a rough patch in a longer rebuild remains an open question the next several games will answer.

Loyalty, or the Lack of It

The flip side of hot seats is coaches who leave winners behind. Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU before Ole Miss even played its first-ever Playoff game, and he has since returned to Oxford as the opposing coach, a moment the Indiana Daily Student notes will not be forgotten by Ole Miss fans. Brian Kelly did something similar, leaving Notre Dame for LSU after the 2021 season only to get fired midway through 2025. Curt Cignetti left James Madison for Indiana in November 2023 after building JMU into a Sun Belt power, but did it, in the Indiana Daily Student's framing, "the respectable way" by acknowledging the difficulty of the decision.

Contrast that with Kirby Smart at Georgia since 2016, Ryan Day at Ohio State since 2019, and Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame since the 2022 bowl season. The Indiana Daily Student points to these three coaches as proof loyalty still exists for programs willing to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the same math is playing out in the NFL. Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer is 1-2 after missing the playoffs last season at 7-9-1, and FanSided reports owner Jerry Jones' patience likely hinges on the next three games against winless Houston and Tampa Bay and a struggling Green Bay team.

Back on campus, NC State's Dave Doeren and Rutgers' Greg Schiano face softer versions of the same pressure after a loss to Vanderbilt and years of NIL-era struggles, respectively, according to CBS Sports. None of the four major college hot seats—Norvell, Locksley, Sanders or Doeren—has resulted in a firing as of this week. CBS Sports' sources expect that to change before the season ends.