SEC Hot Seat Index: Who’s comfortable, who’s sweating as media days wrap up

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ATLANTA — When things are going well, there may be no finer job in the land than head football coach in a small college town. You’re celebrated every day, you never buy a meal, you bask in the warm glow of admiration and adulation. It’s a good life.

But oh, when things turn south, that’s when it gets ugly. The locals start putting for sale signs on your front lawn, slinging bricks through your window, sizing you up for everything short of the guillotine … and, in certain locales, we wouldn’t even rule that out.

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As we draw closer to the start of the 2025 season, it’s clear that there are some SEC coaches who enjoy the rapturous good graces of their community — Kirby Smart could get elected governor of Georgia on an off week — and some who are on the last of their current job’s nine lives. Here, in alphabetical order, are the coaches who are feeling the heat, to one degree (get it?) or another:

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

What? How does a nine-win season put you on the hot seat? When that’s your program’s worst season since 2007, that’s how. DeBoer has a bit of leeway still, given that he’s just been at Alabama for one year, but four losses — including one to Vanderbilt! — have shortened his runway considerably.

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“We fell short of making the playoffs. It’s as simple as that, right? Giving yourself a chance to go compete for a championship,” DeBoer said Wednesday. “Sometimes there’s ups and downs that you have to go through unfortunately that we had to experience. But in the end, we’re going to take advantage of the failures we’ve had and be better because of it.”

Seat warmth: Like an air-conditioned house in a Tuscaloosa July. Will be fine if everything works as it should, will be in real trouble if things go sideways.

Hugh Freeze, Auburn

This was not supposed to be the state of affairs on The Plains. After the disastrous Bryan Harsin tenure, the Tigers were supposed to get back on track with Freeze, who has experience both with high-powered offenses and with beating Alabama … which is enough to get you a job. However, losing seven games a year is not enough to keep your job, and that’s where Freeze is now, in the third year of a tenure that’s looking tenuous indeed.

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“We embrace the fact that that is what Auburn should be, in those (playoff) talks year in, year out,” Freeze said Tuesday. “It takes a little time to build it, and we’ve been doing that. Certainly I wish we would have won more games a few times, but the future is very bright in my eyes. We’ve been blessed everywhere we’ve been to win, and I expect nothing less than that at Auburn.”

The whole “plays too much golf” charge that’s swirled around him hasn’t helped. If he’s able to put Auburn back in the national championship conversation, someone will hook Freeze up with a membership to Augusta National. If not, well, he’ll have plenty of time to hit the links.

Seat warmth: Like simmering chili. Won’t take much to get it to a boil.

Brian Kelly, LSU

Similar to DeBoer, with the added weight of two more years at the helm; Kelly is driving a purple-and-gold Lamborghini he can’t seem to get out of third gear. The Tigahs haven’t yet made the playoffs under Kelly, and that simply won’t do. Moreover, they have all the advantages possible heading into this season — Heisman-worthy QB, top-ranked transfer class — so if Kelly can’t get it done with this crew right from the jump, the bayou is going to be rumbling.

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“We’re certainly looking forward to the opportunity. We open up with a great program in Clemson,” Kelly said Monday. “But we’ve also been 0-3 in openers at LSU under my watch. We needed to do some things differently this year. That is, embrace this opener.” And then pretty much every game after that, too.

Seat warmth: Like Tabasco sauce. Not a problem as long as everything stays in the bottle.

Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State

When you go 2-10 in your first year, there’s almost nowhere to go in your second year but up. And if you don’t go up, fast, you won’t get a third. Mississippi State lost every single one of its conference games last year, and this year draws Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and Ole Miss. Good luck!

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“For me and our guys, we understand what the gauntlet looks like,” Lebby said Wednesday. “That’s exciting. What a great challenge, what a great opportunity. Our guys will be excited to go chase it.”

And, hopefully for their sake, catch it.

Seat warmth: Like a smoldering campfire. You might have forgotten about it, but it’s still there, and could roar up at any time.

Billy Napier, Florida

There are some seats that are warm, some that are hot, and some that glow bright enough to be seen from orbit. Napier’s Florida gig falls into that final, nuclear category; after three seasons at The Swamp, he’s 19-19 — and that only after going 8-5 last season. This year’s slate includes LSU, Georgia and Tennessee, as well as ACC maybes Miami and Florida State. Isn’t it fun being a coach under pressure in the SEC?

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“This ’25 group is a new team. There’s new roles. There’s a new set of challenges, and I think it’s important that we stay the course,” Napier said Wednesday. “We plan our work and then we work our plan. It’s not about yesterday. It’s not about tomorrow. It’s about today, and we gotta follow through. I respect this group and their commitment. They take action every day. They continue to stack days.”

Napier is very good at the motivational-slogan game, but he’s going to need to be good at the actual football game, too.

Seat warmth: Gainesville in August. Or the surface of the sun, whichever is warmer.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma

The Sooners’ transition into the SEC has gone considerably less smoothly than Texas’ move. Venables has a 10-3 season in Oklahoma to his credit; unfortunately, it’s bracketed by two 6-7 ones. Between the on-field struggles and the inevitable comparison with playoff regular Texas, it’s not a great time to be Venables right now. And the Sooners’ 2025 slate includes Michigan, Auburn, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee … oh yeah, and the Longhorns too. Woof.

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“The last two years combined, you look at the total number of snaps in college football, we have some of the top numbers when it comes to playing for freshmen and sophomores,” Venables said Wednesday. “I really believe the experience that’s returning, along with the new additions, is going to put together a great product here this fall.”

Placing hope in young players … well, isn’t that what every coach does? But for Venables, the risk is more pronounced than ever.

Seat warmth: Leather seats in a hot car in summertime. Do not touch with bare skin.

This news was originally published on this post .

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