College football seems to be getting less patient every year, and what used to be a long runway for coaches at the top programs in the country has been shortened to a launch pad. If you don’t have the program meeting expectations within a couple of years, the pressure will mount quickly.
Consider that the CBS Sports Hot Seat Rankings released earlier this week includes Florida’s Billy Napier with a second-highest rating possible (4 out of 5) as he prepares for just his third year at the helm in Gainesville. Napier was included in this exercise last year as we spotlighted some Year 2 coaches facing pivotal campaigns under the category of “Needs to Show Improvement” following a 6-7 debut season in 2022. The Gators did not show improvement, falling back to 5-7 in 2023 and missing out on the postseason for the first time since 2017.
But there is also the potential for Year 2 to be the season in which a coach finally puts it all together to make a big leap. Urban Meyer did this in his second year at Florida, and Nick Saban did so as well during Year 2 at both LSU and Alabama. Dan Lanning had a stellar Year 2 at Oregon last season, with the Ducks knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff right up until the final moments of the Pac-12 title game, and Kalen DeBoer had such a successful Year 2 at Washington he got hired by Alabama after guiding the Huskies to a national runner-up finish.
With the transfer portal and NIL forever changing the timetable fans have for expectations of success, Year 2 has never been more important. The honeymoon is over, and no matter what happened in Year 1, there is an expectation for a step forward. Below we have sorted some notable situations into three categories considering both the stakes of the job and…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-coaches-entering-year-2-who-are-facing-defining-campaigns-in-2024-season/
Author : Chip Patterson
Publish date : 2024-07-11 14:58:01
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