Several high-profile college football coaches are facing job insecurity despite recent statements of support from their universities.
Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell are under pressure after their teams have struggled against top competition.
Large contract buyouts and a growing number of existing vacancies may lead some schools to retain their current coaches.

There’s always plenty of room on the college football hot seat. But you need to keep your head on a swivel to keep up with how quickly things can change for Bowl Subdivision head coaches. (See how things unraveled for James Franklin as the most recent example.)

A pair of embattled Power Four coaches, Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell, earned lukewarm endorsements this week but remain in the danger zone with five games left in the regular season.

Two factors to keep in mind when evaluating this year’s coaching cycle are the immense buyouts due to many Power Four coaches and an already crowded list of openings that could entice schools to keep the status quo and enter the hiring pool next winter.

Now that Billy Napier and former Alabama-Birmingham coach Trent Dilfer have been sent packing, Norvell and Fickell lead the updated USA TODAY Sports hot seat rankings:

Luke Fickell, Wisconsin

The facts are damning. Wisconsin has dropped 10 in a row against Power Four competition and 10 of 12 overall. The Badgers have been outscored 71-0 in the past two weeks, suffering back-to-back home shutouts for the first time since 1968. But the administration is still supporting Fickell, who drew a statement of confidence from athletics director Chris McIntosh and a commitment to increased financial resources. While this dials down the heat, Fickell still needs to show progress these next five games to warrant another season.

Mike Norvell, Florida State

The numbers look just as bad for Norvell. Since nearly making the College Football Playoff in 2023, Florida State is 5-14 overall and 1-11 in the ACC. The Seminoles have lost four conference games in a row, all by a single possession but none worse than Saturday’s late-night bellyflop at Stanford. As with Wisconsin and Fickell, FSU is “fully committed” to Norvell, athletics director Michael Alford said, but that will change if the Seminoles finish near the bottom of the ACC.

Hugh Freeze, Auburn

The clock is ticking on Freeze as Auburn heads to a third losing finish in as many years. The culprit is an offense that has no direction, no plan for its skill talent and no reason for optimism after failing to score more than 17 points in four SEC games. Auburn can reach a bowl game by beating Arkansas and Kentucky, but Freeze would have to add in an upset of No. 10 Vanderbilt or an even bigger shocker against No. 4 Alabama to buy another year. (Or maybe both.)

Brian Kelly, LSU

A massive investment helped pull Kelly away from Notre Dame but hasn’t yielded a breakthrough for the Tigers, who come in just ahead of Auburn for the title of biggest disappointment in the SEC. Again, the offense shoulders the blame: LSU hasn’t topped 24 points in six FBS games. The next two games against No. 3 Texas A&M and Alabama could determine Kelly’s future.

Jonathan Smith, Michigan State

Smith has been a poor fit for a program that has continued to drop down the Big Ten ladder since a monster 2021 season under former coach Mel Tucker. Smith was supposed to bring some consistency back to East Lansing after doing great work at Oregon State. But the offense has misfired, the defense ranks near the bottom of the conference and there are legitimate concerns that Smith has failed to construct the foundation needed to handle the rigors of life in the Big Ten.

Bill O’Brien, Boston College

The one-win Eagles have quietly been one of the biggest busts in the Power Four after reaching a bowl game in O’Brien’s debut. The heat is rising on the former Penn State coach after last weekend’s embarrassing loss to Connecticut, which followed a 41-point loss to Pittsburgh and a 31-point loss to Clemson. While Boston College hasn’t won eight games since 2009, the program seems as far away from ACC contention as ever now that O’Brien has failed to capitalize on last year’s promising start.

Bill Belichick, North Carolina

There are a few reasons why Belichick is unlikely to be fired even as North Carolina continues to search for a win against the Power Four. Belichick has a big buyout number, for one, and firing him after one season would also be hugely embarrassing for the school and athletics department. But the results are just abysmal: UNC has been outplayed and outcoached across the board, highlighting concerns that this challenge is too much for Belichick at this late stage of his career.

Brent Brennan, Arizona

Brennan inched his way off the hot seat with a 3-0 start but is back under pressure now that Arizona has dropped three of four in the Big 12. Two of those losses, in overtime to No. 10 Brigham Young and by a field goal at Houston, suggest the Wildcats are still capable of winning six or seven games during the regular season. That’s probably the baseline for Brennan to buy another year.

Derek Mason, Middle Tennessee State

The former Vanderbilt coach is 4-14 overall with the Blue Raiders and 1-5 this season, with the one win coming by a point against woeful Nevada and with losses to Autin Peay, Kennesaw State and Missouri State. Firing longtime coach Rick Stockstill one year after he posted his sixth eight-win season has turned out to be one of the worst decisions by any Group of Five administration this decade.

Major Applewhite, South Alabama

The momentum developed under former coach Kane Wommack has evaporated since Applewhite took over entering last season. After making a bowl game in his first year, the Jaguars have dropped six in a row following a win in the opener and are one of three Sun Belt teams without a conference victory. Games against Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas State could get Applewhite back on track.

Blue Jays are in World Series for first time since 1993 with the chance to deliver a title to Canada.
Since President Trump’s new term began, he has floated the idea of making Canada the 51st state.
For some Canadians, the 2025 World Series ‘means everything to this country.

TORONTO — After George Springer’s mighty swing delivered the first World Series to be contested on Canadian soil since 1993, this city’s emotions have run the typical gamut.

Booze-aided joy. Disbelief. Tears shed over a generational moment other loved ones are not around to experience.

Yet as the Toronto Blue Jays prepare to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to Game 1 of the World Series Oct. 24, the home team’s status as a truly national team in the USA’s national pastime will come to the surface.

And it’s perhaps the culmination of a shift in both identity and attitude for Canadians the past 10 months: Mixing the passive with the aggressive.

The stereotype of the genteel Canadian is one the locals generally embrace, as easily as they open doors and politely defer. But in the months since President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on Canada, floated the notion of making the country the USA’s 51st state and overseen increasingly invasive searches at the Canadian border, a national shift in attitude has the natives suddenly a little more restless.

And suddenly, this World Series takes on a deeper significance beyond which team gets to four wins first.

“It means everything to this country. Especially with what’s going on with the United States. You know about it. They’ve been horrible,” says Michael Murray, 75, a former vice president of the Canadian Football League and Hockey Canada junior team official.

“Now, it’s water off our backs. We don’t care. If the news comes on, I hate to say this, but if they say Trump is going to be on next, I mute the TV.

“I’ve cleared my head of that space right now. And a lot of Canadians have. But we don’t care about that because we don’t want to mix politics with baseball.”

Murray’s attitude – a certain I-swear-we’re-not-mad-but-we-are mentality – captures the moment for certain Canadians: Rankled but proud. He spent $1,800 for a ticket to World Series Game 1, his wife urging him when he was hesitating. Murray was in attendance for Joe Carter’s Series-winning three-run home run in 1993, his age providing the perspective of how rare this moment is.

“At my age,” he says, “I won’t ever see it again.”

Nor will there likely ever be a USA-Canada engagement at such a moment in time. Any rivalry, such as it is, has mostly simmered on the ice, perhaps most notably in women’s hockey. Both countries are several notches above their international counterparts and an epic 2002 Olympic battle featured the lore of the U.S. women’s team allegedly stomping on the Canadian flag in their dressing room.

Now, this international World Series, in an increasingly isolationist era.

“I think Canadians will feel a greater fervor with the outcome. The saber rattling hasn’t stopped,” says Rick Halpern, a history professor and chair of American studies at the University of Toronto. “You’re going to see many, many, many people who are fair weather fans and many who are not baseball fans following this. Because it’s Canada vs. the U.S.

“There’s another discussion to be had about rivalry and the U.S. For a long time I thought, there’s no real Canadian identity, more defined by what it’s not: We don’t have guns. We’re not the U.S.

“It will be interesting to watch as this World Series plays out. What is Fox going to say about multicultural Toronto, where one of two Torontonians were born in another country?”

Elbows up, not for sale

“The more we choose to stand up as our most flag-flying, maple-leaf buying, local-adventuring selves, the more we are the True North, unbreakable, strong, and free.”

So says “Choose Canada,” a national campaign that has accelerated in the months since Trump’s inauguration was soon followed by words and actions.

It dovetails with the reemergence of an old phrase – “Elbows up” – coined by hockey legend Gordie Howe that became a popular hashtag this year. Originating from Howe’s habit of holding his elbows high in scrums for the puck in the corners of the rink, it captures Canadians’ willingness to abandon their default setting of non-aggression when events warrant.

That ethos crept into pop culture this year, what with comedian Mike Myers opening his coat to reveal a “Canada is Not For Sale” T-shirt in the outro of a Saturday Night Live episode in which he portrayed Elon Musk.

“Canadians act out of character at times. Going into the corners is one of them,” says Halpern of Elbows Up. “It quickly became a national catchphrase in terms of posturing back to the United States. There’s no way this is going to become a 51st state.

“And if they were ever to try anything, it’d be protracted guerrilla war.”

One stanza of the government ad touting all things Canada – “local-adventuring selves” – is particularly germane to the Blue Jays’ status as Canada’s team. Flocks of Jays fans cross the border into Detroit and Seattle for road games, and a fair amount could be heard at T-Mobile Park during Games 3-5 of the American League Championship Series.

Yet those influxes belie a broader reality: An estimated 4 million fewer Canadians will travel to the USA this year, resulting in an estimated $4.3 billion in lost tourism revenue as locals opt to sit here in their safe Canadian homes.

“You feel a little bit more hesitancy before you go over,” says Giancarlo Lima, 20, a Blue Jays fan who attended ALCS Game 7. “People are willing to be more conscious buying Canadian products. You see more people traveling within Canada, kind of diverted from running to the States if you want to see sports or something else.

“People have been finding other options in Canada, taking advantage of what they have here a little more because of that.”

The border concerns certainly stretch beyond snowbirds and day trippers worried about going back and forth. Halpern’s daughter got married in June in Massachusetts, though the guest list was lighter than projected.

“Almost all our Canadian friends passed,” says Halpern. “My wife and I’s friends from Venezuela and Mexico passed. Professors have passed on research trips. They are concerned about having laptop searched, phone and social media inspected.

“And also just a feeling this is not a right time. They will go somewhere else. Even crossing the border, we’ve had (U.S.) border officials apologize. Which is incredible.”

‘We’re all North America’

Certainly, there’s plenty of Canadians for whom sport isn’t necessarily a metaphor, and the USA not necessarily an at-least-temporary adversary. Many are simply quizzical about their southern neighbor’s rhetoric and regulations, while others are unbothered.

“I don’t care, man. I love America. They’re a good country, man,” says Joe, a 39-year-old lifelong Torontonian who did not divulge his last name. “We’re both different countries and each country has their pros and cons. I don’t look at political leaders versus life, right?

“America’s good. And Trump, whether you like him or hate him, he’s looking out for his people, whether you agree or disagree. I don’t feed into the narrative of, ‘Oh, Canada vs. the U.S.’  We’re all North America. We’re all one.”

It is just business, and Joe is a businessman, he says, and goes on to note he also has no problem with the Dodgers’ gargantuan payroll, that teams should pay players what they can afford.

Besides, the Blue Jays’ total payroll, including luxury tax, approaching $300 million isn’t exactly chump change. It helps when you have the whole country to yourself, both in territory and support.

In a sense, a Blue Jays championship in this moment in time would almost be a fusing of two significant moments of national pride in recent years: The Toronto Raptors’ 2019 NBA championship, and Canada’s victory in February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, when Connor McDavid beat the USA with an overtime goal in the final, weeks after Trump’s inauguration.

It would be raucous and wild in Toronto, where riot police were deployed ahead of ALCS Game 7 just in case. And will resonate coast to coast, a national team celebrated at a time of national tension.

“From east to west – from Vancouver all the way out east – this is our team,” says Josh Antonio, a 26-year-old fan who attended ALCS Game 7. “I think after all the country’s been through the past seven or eight years, I think it would liberate us. It would make the whole entire country come together, just like we came together for the Raptors.

“This is for all of us.”

Nineteen games this weekend feature teams ranked in the US LBM Coaches Poll.
The SEC hosts the only three matchups between ranked opponents.
No. 10 BYU, another undefeated team, faces a road test at Iowa State.

There’s a full slate of games on tap in college football this weekend. With only three ranked teams in an open date, there are 19 games involving teams in the US LBM Coaches Poll rankings for our panel of pickers to consider.

Of course, this also means there aren’t many matchups of ranked opponents. There are in fact only three, and not surprisingly they’re all in the SEC. No. 3 Texas A&M puts its unblemished record on the line at No. 19 LSU, No. 8 Mississippi heads to No. 11 Oklahoma, and No. 12 Vanderbilt plays host to No. 14 Missouri.

Other games of note include one of the other remaining undefeated squads, No. 10 Brigham Young, also hitting the road to Iowa State. Key contests in the Big Ten include No. 2 Indiana hosting resurgent UCLA and No. 23 Illinois traversing the Rockies to take on Washington.

Read on to see where our staff members think upsets might happen.

College football picks for Week 9

Ohio State coach Ryan Day has gone from facing job insecurity to becoming a national championship coach in less than a year.
Despite past losses to rival Michigan, Day’s job is now considered secure after winning a national title.
Day has made key coaching and player decisions, including hiring defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and developing quarterback Julian Sayin.

It’s catnip for the college football masses, an intoxicating rush for those living it and those vicariously experiencing it. 

But understand this: the unofficial early start to the hiring/firing season is also a distraction from a unique story playing out on the field. One with a direct connection to last year’s hiring/firing season. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ryan Day: the bulletproof coach. 

Never has an Ohio State coach done so little against bitter rival Michigan, and become more secure in his job despite it.

From the worst Ohio State loss to Michigan in the modern era of The Game, to should’ve been fired, to national championship coach. 

To the untouchable coach confidently navigating a tumultuous time in his profession.

And that’s just the beginning of this unrecognizable tale from 11 months ago, when Day stood on the field at Ohio Stadium while his team fought with Michigan players at midfield after the crushing loss. 

He couldn’t move, and looked dazed in the moment. It was surreal and uncomfortable and everything you’d expect from a coach whose program hadn’t beaten the one team it must since before the pandemic season.

Yet there was Day earlier this week — while Ohio State was beginning bye week preparation for next week’s game at Penn State — delivering the unthinkable. Or maybe just saying what he knows is true.

“We’re now getting into the stretch run of the season,” Day said, “And then obviously some playoff football.”

My god, how can you not love this game? Less than a year ago, Day was all but fired after losing at home to Michigan, the scarlet and gray world crashing all around him. 

Now he’s a national championship coach, with the No. 1 team in the nation — and he has the chutzpah to stand at his weekly news conference and all but declare the remaining five games prep time for the real deal in the College Football Playoff. 

Penn State and Purdue? Not going to happen, fellas. UCLA and Rutgers? Please. 

And Michigan? Day sure is making decisions and coaching like a guy who’s free from the clutches of all things maize and blue, no matter the recent history. Free of the lunatic fringe in Columbus stalking his house and tormenting his kids at school and generally making his life miserable because of one lousy game.

When you’re holding that national championship trophy, it not only provides (temporary) immunity, it’s a rare injection of confidence and bravado in a profession that’s week-to-week. 

Lose an elite defensive coordinator to your conference rival Penn State? Who cares, just go out and hire one of the NFL’s best defensive minds over the past two decades and give him full control of a unit that had only three starters returning. 

All new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has done is build the best defense in college football, a unit that has given up four touchdowns in seven games. Four. 

Yeah, it’s stupid good. 

So is the transition at the most important position on the field, where Kansas State transfer Will Howard won a national title as a one-year mercenary hire and left the Buckeyes with zero experience heading into 2025. But instead of hitting the transfer portal again for a quick fix, Day chose redshirt freshman Julian Sayin to run the show, and the quarterback who had 12 career pass attempts coming into the season, is now on the short list to win the Heisman Trophy. 

Sayin is completing 80% of his passes (that’s not a misprint), and has a touchdown to interception ratio of 19-to-3. He averaging 10 yards per attempt, and 12 yards per completion and has a streak of 125 passes without an interception. 

Sayin is getting better with every game, and Day is getting better with every decision, every move further away from the disastrous rock bottom of his coaching career. 

From you’ve got to fire him, to the top of his profession in 11 months. What a long, strange road it has been — in such a short time.

His profession has never been more unsettled, filled with more uncertainty in the ever-changing world of college football. Two blueblood jobs (Penn State, Florida) are officially available, and more are likely on the way. 

LSU, USC, Florida State, Auburn, and on and on and on. Who knows where it all ends.

Every coach everywhere is in the crosshairs of win-now-or-else. Except the one coach who could’ve been fired last season but wasn’t.

The one coach who is now bulletproof heading into the most important stretch of the season. When big games are won and lost, and coaches are fired and hired.

“All of these games, all of these decisions,” Day said. “Everything we’re doing is just going to be ramped up and amped up at a higher level.” 

Yeah, stupid good. 

It wasn’t the time he tossed a pass to some fan in the first row because he thought one of his Dallas Mavericks teammates would be waiting.

It wasn’t even when he took a handoff and eventually laced his first career shot, a jumper from the top of the key.

It came early in the second quarter, when he held the ball on the left wing. Flagg was being guarded by last year’s Rookie of the Year, Spurs guard Stephon Castle, a hyper-athletic and active defender.

Flagg attempted a lazy pass that Castle deflected, and scooped, racing down the court for a transition layup. Flagg, rather than letting the mistake go, compounded it by committing a foul for an and-1 opportunity.

It was proof that the standards here would be different.

The highly-anticipated debut of the No. 1 overall selection was uneven — Flagg didn’t score his first points until the first possession of the second half — but, just like he did at Duke and just like he did in the preseason, he did the small things that can contribute to winning.

The Mavericks fell to the San Antonio Spurs, 125-92, but Flagg’s performance should nonetheless give Dallas plenty of optimism.

Though he started the game just 1-for-9 from the field, Flagg caught fire at the end of the third quarter, making three consecutive shots. He finished with 10 points.

He also hustled on defense and hauled in 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. He tried to push tempo up the floor. These are all traits the Mavericks will encourage Flagg to hone.

And for Dallas, which will be without star point guard Kyrie Irving for, at least, the majority of the regular season as he recovers from a torn ACL, it makes total sense to be patient.

The early portion of the season allows Flagg to get acclimated while the Mavericks face relatively low external expectations. It will allow Flagg to make mistakes, just like that second quarter turnover.

To prove that point, all Dallas needs to do is look to its opponent Wednesday night. San Antonio was deliberate with phenom Victor Wembanyama, putting him on a minutes restriction during his rookie season in 2023-24. The Spurs encouraged Wembanyama to bulk up and work on his body, to learn the speed of the NBA game.

Wembanyama dropped 40 points on 15-of-21 shooting (71.4%) Wednesday night and scooped up 15 rebounds. He might blossom into an MVP candidate as soon as this season and is already the odds-on favorite for Defensive Player of the Year.

Wembanyama and Flagg are very different players, so the progression won’t be exactly the same.

But Flagg won’t turn 19 until late December. He will likely learn something new every single game he plays early on.

That alone should have the Mavericks excited plenty.

Sean Payton had a limited response after ‘Mr. Unlimited’ unloaded on social media.

One day after Russell Wilson, Payton’s quarterback once upon a time, evidently called his former boss ‘classless’ on X, the Denver Broncos head coach weighed in. Previously, Payton intimated that he’d hoped to avoid facing New York Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, who recently replaced Wilson as that team’s starter.

“Look, the euphoria, the way that game unfolded, that was strictly about Dart,’ Payton said Wednsday, three days after Denver needed a record-setting fourth quarter to defeat the Giants, 33-32.

‘That was in no way shape or form anything that was directed at Russ. I might be able to see how he might have perceived that. But coming off that win and watching how (Dart) played, that wasn’t any intention at all.”

Dart passed for 283 yards and three touchdowns Sunday and ran for another score against Denver’s strong defense as the Giants built a 19-0 lead after three quarters. They led 26-8 with roughly five minutes to go before the Broncos stormed back, becoming the first team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to overcome a deficit of at least 18 points with six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter before prevailing in regulation.

Payton, the Giants’ offensive coordinator when they reached Super Bowl 35 following the 2000 season, expressed his admiration for the franchise and Dart immediately following the game.

‘I have a ton of respect for that organization. I spent four of my early years there coordinating. Super Bowl. First game in this stadium before 9/11. Close with the Mara and Tisch family,’ he said.

‘They found a little spark with that quarterback (Dart). I was talking to (Giants owner) John Mara not too long ago and I said, ‘We were hoping that change would’ve happened long after our game.’”

Wilson − and many others − interpreted that as a slight directed at him.

‘Classless… but not surprised,’ Wilson wrote in an uncharacteristically acerbic tone on his official X account. ‘Didn’t realize you’re still bounty hunting 15+ years later through the media.’

The latter part of the tweet was a shot at Payton and the ‘Bountygate’ episode with the New Orleans Saints, whom he coached from 2006 to ’21, minus the 2012 campaign − when Payton was suspended by the league in the aftermath of the scandal.

Wilson played two seasons for the Broncos, including 2023, Payton’s first in the Mile High City. They had a tense relationship throughout what was effectively an arranged marriage, Wilson benched at the end of that season. He was cut shortly thereafter, a move that forced Denver to eat a record $85 million dead cap charge.

Bo Nix was drafted last year to replace Wilson and led the Broncos to the playoffs, something Wilson didn’t manage to do during the two seasons after he was obtained from the Seattle Seahawks in a costly 2022 trade.