College Football Hot Seat: Buyouts, Replacements, & Rumors For 2025

It’s never been more apparent that college football is a huge business worth billions of dollars. 

In the sport’s history, it’s probably never been more important to have the right staff in place than right now. Athletic directors are not afraid to fire their way out of a bad season, even if the decision will cost tens of millions of dollars.

With nearly 30 new FBS coaches in college football this year – more than 20% of the entire subdivision – you’d think that there’s a low ceiling on potential firings this year. 

But heavy turnover is the norm for coaches and players these days, which is why thousands of fans are already thinking hard about the staying power of their current coaches. That hot seat carousel just keeps on turning. 

Here’s a wide look at the FBS head coaches who may be on the hot seat in 2025. 

College Football Hot Seat: Billy Napier, Florida

Florida must love firing its coaches because it seems to load up an insanely hard schedule every year. This year, that includes road games at Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Miami, and LSU, plus home games against Florida State, Tennessee, and Texas. There’s also the annual Cocktail Party game against Georgia in Jacksonville. I almost feel bad for Billy Napier. 

This year, the Gators didn’t even make it to the hard part of the schedule before suffering their first loss. Florida was stunned by little brother USF in Week 2, leading to massive groans throughout Gainesville. 

If Napier can’t get past a good G5 team like South Florida, how in the world will these Gators manage life in the SEC?

Billy Napier Buyout: Unless he’s fired for cause, Florida owes Napier 85% of whatever is remaining on his current contract, which runs through the end of the 2028 season. 

That means he’d be owed approximately $19.35 million if fired at the end of 2025. 

Billy Napier Replacement Candidate: Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell is near the top of the list for a P4 job, and he has a good track record of recruiting the southeast. I expect he’ll be a shortlist candidate if Florida moves on from Napier. 

College Football Hot Seat: Trent Dilfer, UAB

NFL journeyman quarterback Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl in his only season as the quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens. After he was done playing, he leveraged his resume, wit, and self-deprecating charm into a long-running gig as a media analyst.

Dilfer joined the coaching ranks in 2019, taking the job at Lipscomb Academy, a private K-12 prep school in Nashville, Tennessee. 

After a 7-6 rookie campaign, Dilfer won 37 games from 2020-22. He also continued to make high-profile media appearances on “The Ryen Russillo Podcast” and elsewhere, gaining national publicity that is virtually unprecedented for a prep coach. 

That publicity helped him leverage directly to an FBS coaching job, where he jumped on with UAB in 2023. 

But Dilfer’s tenure in Birmingham was bad in 2023 and worse in 2024. The Blazers won at least six games in seven consecutive seasons from 2014-22. Dilfer went 4-8 in his inaugural season and beat only two FBS opponents last year. 

The fan base has quickly turned on him, partly thanks to unusual side comments and media interactions that have exacerbated the poor on-field results.

It’s tough to jump to the top of the college football hot seat conversation as a young G5 coach, but Dilfer did it. If he doesn’t hurry up and turn things around in Year 3, there’s a good chance he’ll be chased out of town. 

Trent Dilfer Buyout: Dilfer doesn’t have a structured buyout. If fired without cause, he will be owed the remaining balance of his five-year contract. Heading into 2025, that’s about $3.3 million.

Trent Dilfer Replacement Candidate: The top choice here is probably UL Monroe head coach Bryant Vincent, who was hired as UAB offensive coordinator in 2018 and served as the interim head coach for 2022 after Bill Clark left the Blazers for health reasons. 

UAB athletic director Mark Ingram opted to hire Dilfer instead of keeping Vincent, who worked as the New Mexico OC in 2023 before being hired by Monroe for this season. 

Since Monroe is historically a hard place to win, Vincent could parlay a decent 2024 season with the Warhawks into a better G5 job with more resources. Right now, he’s the active athletic director at Monroe in addition to his duties as head football coach – an administrative mess he’d surely like to escape from, if possible.

College Football Hot Seat: Butch Jones, Arkansas State

Jonesboro is not a destination in college football, so Arkansas State was probably happy to have a competent coach like Butch Jones on the sideline. His overall record isn’t great, but the Red Wolves did seem to be trending in the right direction at the end of 2024. They finished 8-5, including a bowl win over Bowling Green, earning Jones a modest extension that ran his new contract through 2029.

But 2025 has been a rough year for A-State, with no FBS wins yet as the calendar flips to October. 

Some Arkansas State fans have to be wondering if it might just be better to cut their losses.

Butch Jones Buyout: If Jones’ extension didn’t change his contractual buyout terms, then he’s owed $500,000 for every remaining year on his contract at the time he’s fired. 

If this is still true, and he’s removed at the end of the 2025 season, the university would owe him $2 million. 

Butch Jones Replacement: It’s been seven years since Major Applewhite was the head coach at Houston, and he might be itching for another crack at the big job. He’s currently working as an OC at Sun Belt West foe South Alabama, and has plenty of experience recruiting Texas and Louisiana, so this could be a decent fit.

Alternatively, Arkansas State could ask former head coach Gus Malzahn if he has any interest in returning to Jonesboro. The Red Wolves went 9-3 in his lone year as head coach there. 

College Football Hot Seat: Hugh Freeze, Auburn

Auburn fans live in a semi-permanent little brother mindset, so unsuccessful coaches can get jettisoned quickly. 

I’m skeptical Hugh Freeze will actually be fired during Year 3 in his return to the SEC, especially after opening the season with a win against a good Baylor team. But if he posts a third straight losing season, the seat will only get hotter from here. 

Hugh Freeze Buyout: $20.3 million. On the one hand, it’s not that big of a number, at least by SEC standards. 

On the other hand, how many of these buyouts does Auburn want to pay?

Hugh Freeze Replacement Candidate: Dan Mullen has returned to college football after a short-sighted 2021 firing in Gainesville. It’s safe to assume he didn’t come back to coach at UNLV for 10 years. A Freeze departure could open the door for Mullen’s return to the SEC. 

College Football Hot Seat: Luke Fickell, Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the most successful and consistent programs of the last 20 years. It also has a historical identity that tends to endure from one coaching staff to another.

Neither of those things has been true since Wisconsin brought Luke Fickell up from Cincinnati. The Badgers have struggled to remain competitive in a divisionless Big Ten that no longer provides an easy Big Ten West schedule. 

Fickell has also tried to move Wisconsin toward more modern spread offensive principles, with little success thus far.

Everyone knows Fickell is a good coach. But if he’s trying to jam a round peg into a square hole, the ending may be predetermined.

Luke Fickell Buyout: $40 million. This feels like a number big enough that Fickell is functionally safe, short of an epically bad year. 

Luke Fickell Replacement Candidate: Lance Leipold. The current Kansas head coach is from Jefferson, Wisconsin. He played and coached at Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater. Whenever the Badgers make their next coaching move, it seems inevitable that Leipold will be the lead candidate. 

College Football Hot Seat: Mark Stoops, Kentucky

Mark Stoops has cultivated a reputation for doing less with more at Kentucky. Discounting 2020 for its COVID strangeness, Stoops posted seven consecutive winning seasons from 2016-23. 

Unfortunately, the bottom fell out in 2024, and the Wildcats finished next to last in an SEC that’s suddenly deep and divisionless. Kentucky can no longer count on a lighter SEC East schedule, which could be a destabilizing factor. 

Stoops deserves far more latitude after a decade of building the program and good work. That said, it’s virtually impossible these days to say when power programs will throw in the towel with an underperforming coach. 

Mark Stoops Buyout: $37.5 million. If Stoops’ history won’t save him in the event of a challenging 2025, maybe his hefty buyout will. Kentucky would owe Stoops nearly $40 million if it fired him this year. 

Mark Stoops Replacement Candidate: Jon Sumrall is a former Kentucky linebacker (2002-04) who returned to Lexington as a positional coach in 2019 before taking the Troy job in 2022. He promptly won two conference titles and upgraded to Tulane for 2024. At this point, a power-conference job offer is a mere formality.

Brent Pry, Virginia Tech (Fired)

Virginia Tech keeps losing ground regionally to other programs, and that slippage didn’t get any better under Pry’s tenure. 

Pry was on thin ice coming into this year and coaching for his job after a 0-2 start. When the Hokies got beat down on their home field by Old Dominion, everyone knew what was coming. 

Brent Pry Buyout: $5.825 million. 

Brent Pry Replacement Candidate: This is pretty spicy, but how about former UVA head coach Bronco Mendenhall? One of the worst-kept secrets in the region is that Mendenhall left in part because of disagreements with UVA leadership. Nobody actually thinks he’s a bad coach, and leading Tech back to prominence would be a heck of a revenge plan. 

Current William & Mary head coach Mike London would probably get an interview here, too. But frankly, Tech will probably have to take a chance on another guy like Pry – a hot up-and-coming assistant from a major regional program that’s ready to move up to the head chair. 

Deshaun Foster, UCLA (Fired)

Foster wasn’t a particularly effective coach, but he was also in a terrible situation. UCLA football is the second-most interesting college football program in a city that prefers entertainment drama first and professional sports second. UCLA’s modern infrastructure and NIL lag far behind many of its Big Ten peers. 

Foster never had a chance. The Bruins ran Chip Kelly out of town, and Foster is no Kelly. 

Deshaun Foster Buyout: $6.43 Million. UCLA owed him 70% of his remaining salary from his original $15 million contract.

Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (Fired)

There’s no good way to fire a beloved 20-year coach, but it was time for Gundy to leave Oklahoma State. 

You just can’t have an offensive coach with an offense this bad. 

Mike Gundy Buyout: $15 million. Gundy’s buyout was $25 million a year ago, but he agreed to a smaller buyout as an acknowledgement that 2024 was awful. Oklahoma State now has a flat rate to buy him out at $15 million through the end of the 2027 season; then, the number drops to $10 million in 2028. 

Mike Gundy Replacement Candidate: Zac Robinson, Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator. The former Pokes quarterback has mostly worked on the NFL side of things, but he was the rumored No. 1 replacement option for Gundy during the ’24 maelstrom. If things don’t improve in Stillwater, I suspect he’s still the administration’s go-to guy. 

Sam Pittman, Arkansas (Fired)

Arkansas was already flirting with a change after 2024, so it wasn’t terribly surprising to see Arkansas jump into the coaching carousel early after giving up 56 points and 643 yards of offense to Notre Dame. 

Sam Pittman Buyout: $9.55 million. Pittman’s contract and buyout are pretty complicated. His buyout is based on whether or not the Razorbacks are above or below .500 since the start of the 2021 season. After the dicey start to this year, he’s a few games underwater. 

That means Pittman is owed only 50% of his remaining contract, whereas he’d get 75% if Arkansas was north of .500. 

Because Pittman was under contract through 2027, and an automatic $250,000 raise kicked in after beating Texas Tech in the Liberty Bowl last year, that brings Pittman’s annual salary to $5.5 million. Factor in a pair of potential $1.3 million retention bonuses, and I have the remaining value of his contract clocked at $19.1 million. Half of that gets us the $9.55 million buyout – and honestly, someone should double-check me on that. Isn’t math great?

Sam Pittman Replacement Candidate: As a WVU guy, I regret to inform you that second marriages are en vogue these days. Should Arkansas look to move on from Pittman, the easiest and most convenient replacement is already in-house: acting head coach and offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino.