Florida, LSU, Penn State, Oklahoma State and Auburn among programs seeking replacements this season

PublishedNovember 6, 2025 4:40 PM EST•UpdatedNovember 6, 2025 3:24 PM EST

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This year’s college football coaching carousel is off to a flying start. Top jobs at big name programs are unexpectedly open, with the Florida Gators, LSU Tigers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Oklahoma State Cowboys and Auburn Tigers searching for new hires, just to name a few.

One of the sport’s biggest and most accomplished coaches, however, doesn’t think simply firing the current head coach, especially on a whim, is necessarily the secret to turning a team around. And, with some exceptions, he might be right.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media this week, and addressed the rash of prominent firings this season. Instead of focusing on getting rid of who’s there, he explained, the more important question becomes, who do you have in mind to replace them? 

“Everybody wants to fire their coach,” he said. “Who you gonna hire? There’s all these jobs out there right now. Who’s everybody gonna hire? I don’t know. We’ll find out. Somebody’s gotta be the head coach. 

“The amount of ‘one week you’re a hero, the next week you’re a zero’ mentality that fan bases and people want to have — surely coaches want some security to what they signed up to go do.”

Despite what fans might think, he’s got a point.

Steve Sarkisian, head coach of the Texas Longhorns

HOUSTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 21: Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the Texas Longhorns leads the team to the field before the game against the Houston Cougars at TDECU Stadium on October 21, 2023 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Is It Possible To Guarantee Improvement With New Head Coach?

Sarkisian’s right that firing coaches only matters if the new coach is an improvement. Often, there’s no way to guarantee or know that ahead of time. But with the massive financial investments necessary to hire a top coach, it creates gigantic risk. For example, the total buyouts for fired coaches this season has reached an estimated $182 million. Just to fire the current head coach.

There are obvious situations where the status quo isn’t acceptable, or likely to improve to the degree fans and administrators expect. The UCLA Bruins, for example, were going nowhere quickly with DeShaun Foster, to the point where at one point in the season, they could have been considered the worst program in a major conference. But there are only a handful of coaches with track records of success that would excite fans of top-tier teams. And those coaches are either unlikely to move, would cost an exorbitant amount of money, or are being boosted by big NIL budgets that give them inherent advantages.

Sarkisian also brought up that expectations are often out of line with the reality of competition for limited playoff spots. 

“We work really hard, and I get it,” he continued. “We all want to win, and we’re all busting our tails to try to win and sometimes things don’t go your way — especially in our conference. It’s tough, so the idea that coaches don’t want some security in the jobs that they take, that doesn’t quite make sense to me. … 

“Somewhere in here, somebody has got to be willing to say, ‘Hey, let’s see if this can work itself out.’ … Not all 16 teams in the SEC are gonna go to the (College Football) Playoff. It’s just not reality.”

James Franklin might be the best example of a program overreacting to disappointment. Yes, this season has been a disaster in State College. Yes, they’ve struggled to beat top 5 or top 10 opponents during his tenure. But he’s clearly one of the most accomplished coaches in college football, and Penn State was a three-point loss away from reaching the National Championship game just a year ago. One bad stretch and he’s out? With what guarantee that his replacement, who will also surely command a massive buyout, will be a significant improvement?

What does improvement at Penn State even look like? Winning a title? Because since 2014, there have been just six programs to win a national championship. 

Ohio State is another great example. After the Buckeyes lost to Michigan late in the 2024 season, there were calls for Ryan Day to be fired. Loud calls. Then they blew out Tennessee and Oregon, dominated Texas, and handled Notre Dame. Now they have the longest winning streak in the country, are No. 1 yet again and look to be clear favorites to repeat. 

Again, sometimes firing the head coach is the obvious answer in the moment. But the more difficult answer is finding who’s going to replace them, and more importantly, guaranteeing that they’re a better option.