Pete Thamel, ESPN: Four coaches on the hottest seats ahead of 2022 season

ESPN college football writer Pete Thamel announced four coaches who are on the hot seat for the 2022 season. They are Scott Frost, Bryan Harsin, Herm Edwards, and Geoff Collins.

As college football becomes a bigger business, expectations are higher for coaches. In particular, Power 5 coaches have high standards that they need to strive for. The game is also changing faster than it ever has before, making it difficult for coaches to keep up.

As Pete Thamel writes, it’s naïve to think that coaches won’t be fired in a given cycle for any reason.

“So any notion of a slower season in the industry of hiring and firing college football coaches is as naïve as ignoring the profound impact that the past few years have had on the future of college sports,” explained Pete Thamel.

Scott Frost, Nebraska

Record at Nebraska: 15-29 (four seasons)

Pete Thamel, like everyone else, knows that Nebraska coach Scott Frost is on the hot seat for the 2022 season. A native son who won a national championship as a player at Nebraska, Frost returned after turning UCF around from winless to perfect in two seasons flat.

The problem is that things haven’t gone like that at Nebraska. Scott Frost, now entering his fifth season, hasn’t made a bowl game. At a program as proud as Nebraska, that isn’t acceptable and Frost knows it.

“New athletic director Trev Alberts knows all this history and brought Scott Frost back this year with a salary cut by $1 million and a buyout that’s essentially cut in half after Oct. 1 to $7.5 million,” Pete Thamel explains Frost’s buyout. “Was this fiscal prudence? A contractual Hail Mary for a favorite son? Or just delaying the inevitable at a more tolerable buyout?”

Bryan Harsin, Auburn

Record at Auburn: 6-7 (one season)

You don’t have to be an insider to know that Bryan Harsin is on the hot seat at Auburn. There was an argument about whether he should be hired in the first place and after a frustrating first year, there was a coup attempt. Harsin fought back, but as Pete Thamel knows, that doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods.

“All signs point to Auburn’s infamous puppeteers — the cosmic forces outside the athletic department — as eager to oust Harsin in his second season after hamstringing his tenure through the ham-handed inquiry this February.”

“The soon-to-be-expiring contract of athletic director Allen Greene looms as an equally blinking sign of Auburn’s athletic intentions as the failed coup of Harsin. Greene is twisting in the wind, as the silence around his contract, which runs out in January 2023, speaks volumes about Auburn’s plan for him going forward. It’s extremely rare for a school to have an AD essentially working with less than a year remaining on his deal,” Pete Thamel explained.

Herm Edwards, Arizona State

Record at Arizona State: 25-18 (four seasons)

Pete Thamel includes Arizona State coach Herm Edwards on his list of coaches in trouble. If things were just based on wins and losses, Edwards would probably be fine. No, the Sun Devils haven’t played to their potential, but they’re a winning team under Edwards. The problem is that they’re facing NCAA violations.

Many people think the only reason why Herm Edwards hasn’t been fired already is that the Arizona State athletic director, Ray Anderson, is his former agent. Since then, numerous staffers have been pushed out and thrown under the bus over NCAA violations.

“ASU has a bad roster, underwhelming staff and the Pac-12’s worst recruiting class in 2023,” Pete Thamel writes. “All that, and a milquetoast 25-18 record under Edwards. ASU passed on starting over when the scope of the potential allegations against Edwards became apparent. Instead, they’ve emboldened the aggrieved staffers who claim they got pushed out for not cheating, who have been overloading NCAA investigators with evidence of the violations under Edwards’ watch. And the only people who don’t see this ending poorly are in the president’s and AD chairs in Tempe.”

Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech

Record at Georgia Tech: 9-25 (three seasons)

Geoff Collins made sense when he was hired at Georgia Tech. Collins is a Georgia native who wanted to embrace Atlanta’s culture. The problem was that he had to transition from Paul Johnson’s triple option to a spread offense. It hasn’t gone well.

Pete Thamel acknowledges that this has made the Georgia Tech job a harder job than usual. The roster turnover that he inherited was insane. At the same time, he’s still losing games that he shouldn’t be losing.

“Still, considering the caliber of school, location of campus and radius to top talent, it’s amazing that the Georgia Tech program is awash with so much apathy. Collins has losses to The Citadel, Temple and Northern Illinois, which meant his buzzy marketing hasn’t translated to the field.”