'Hot seat rankings' for all 16 SEC coaches as beginning of 2026 college football season draws nearer
Fox News · R · trust 39/100
Video Trey Wallace explains the lofty expectations for Lane Kiffin | Don't @ Me w/Dan Dakich Trey Wallace explains why Lane Kiffin has such lofty expectations put on him for his first year of coaching at LSU.
At the beginning of every college football season, there are always a few questions that are on every fan's mind.
One of which is "who looks like they can win it all every season," but since I already addressed that earlier this week , I'm here to tackle the second most popular question: which coaches are on the hot seat heading into fall?
More specifically, I wanted to look at every coach from the SEC and give them a "hot seat ranking" based on their job security in 2026.
PERCEPTION IS REALITY, AND THE SEC NEEDS TO START WINNING AGAIN BEFORE IT CONTINUES TO PUFF OUT ITS CHEST
I will be lumping all 16 SEC coaches into one of five categories that should give everyone an idea of where these guys stand before the start of the season.
We have a lot to get to, so let's get this hot seat party started.
Head coach Pete Golding of the Ole Miss Rebels looks on in the first half against the Miami Hurricanes during the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 8, 2026. (Getty Images)
The SEC has six "new" coaches among its ranks in 2026, and the reason I put a heavy set of quotations around that word is because some of these guys have already been coaches in the conference.
Obviously, Lane Kiffin was previously at Ole Miss for six years and even had an infamous stop in Knoxville for one season to coach the Tennessee Vols, but if we want to get technical, the Rebels have a "returning" SEC coach of their own in Pete Golding.
The colorful successor to Kiffin in Oxford guided Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2025, but 2026 will be his first full season, so I'm including him here.
None of these guys are getting fired in their first season, so they earned themselves a ranking almost completely removed from the rest of the guys on this list.
Sure, if Kiffin has a first-year implosion and finishes 6-6, he will certainly be sitting on a blazing hot seat coming into 2027, but no one else is even close to that talk right now.
Enjoy it, men. Odds are you will never feel this secure in your job again.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart reacts to a play during the first half of the team's NCAA college football game against South Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
The seat can't get much colder than this, and ironically enough, these two coaches sit on opposite ends of the royalty spectrum in the SEC.
Kirby Smart has earned every bit of the job security he has going for him, as the Georgia Bulldogs head coach enters year 11 of his storied career in Athens.
In 2021, the man delivered a national championship 40 years in the making to a starving fanbase then followed it up with another the very next year just for good measure.
Though Georgia fans aren't thrilled with their recent lack of CFP success, the Dawgs are still reigning SEC champs and look like the favorites to win the league again in 2026, so Kirby's seat is ice cold.
For Clark Lea, just the fact that he had Vandy of all programs knocking on the door of the Playoff last season means his seat couldn't get any colder.
For crying out loud, the man won ten games at Vanderbilt, something no coach has ever done in program history.
When you couple that with the fact that guys like Diego Pavia, Eli Stowers , and a smattering of offensive linemen aren't in Nashville anymore, fans rightly expect the Commodores to take a step back in '26, cooling the seat even more for Lea.
Vandy could go 2-10 this year and I still don't think Clark Lea will be packing his bags. Now THAT'S job security.
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian walks into Camping World Stadium ahead of the Citrus Bowl against the Michigan Wolverines in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 31, 2025. (aAustin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
These three coaches are sitting on some pretty cool seats, all things considered.
While the situations aren't perfect, they can't get much better for at least two of the three names in this category.
Mike Elko led the Texas A&M Aggies to an 11-win season and a Playoff berth, and for a fanbase desperate to shed those pre-World War II championship taunts, it feels like a step in the right direction.
When you pair the winning with A&M's historic recruiting class that is brewing for 2027, Elko is as cool as a cucumber.
The same goes for Eli Drinkwitz, who experienced a bit of a step back in 2025, but still won eight games and has things trending up in Columbia.
Drinkwitz earned a massive extension after being courted by a few big boy job openings like Florida and Penn State, and while that doesn't always guarantee job security (as I'll explain later), it is a nice bonus to help keep the seat cool.
Steve Sarkisian is the outlier here, as I almost put him in the next category.
I don't believe Sark is in any danger of losing his job, hence the cool seat, but the expectations for this season are so high that, should he fail to deliver, we could be having an entirely different conversation 365 days from now.
But that hasn't happened yet, so for now, Sark and Texas are rolling and 2025 should be considered just a minor blip on the radar.
Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel yells to an official during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Georgia , Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Things start warming up in this category; perhaps these coaches are starting to sweat through their team-issued polos.
No coach in this category is in any immediate danger of being fired during the 2026 season, but a bad start could really raise those temperatures in a hurry.
For three of the four coaches here, it's all about expectations.
DeBoer, Heupel, and Venables have all been solid to very good…
Read the original at Fox News →
Open in TruthVane →