Hot Seat Roulette – Who’s Hot, Hot, Hot And Who’s Warming Up?

Hot Seat

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Jim Quist @ACCTheQ –

There’s only one hot seat worth sitting on and that’s in your vehicle on a cold winter’s morning. When it comes to your job, especially if you’re a head coach then it’s the last place you want to be. When your name comes up it usually means the situation has been building for a while so getting out of the jam won’t be easy. Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports took a close look at all 130 FBS head coaching positions and determined just how warm their seats might be. It didn’t take long to find our first candidate among ACC coaches. It was an automatic first check and it shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are only two coaches that received what can best be described as flame-throwing marks in the list.

When it comes to heat, Dodd slipped some Atomic Balm into the straps of a couple of other coaches in the ACC as well. Apparently, they aren’t ready to be sent packing just yet so the numbers are a little lower in these instances. A bad season ahead may be all that it takes to whip out the propane and propane accessories for the other coaches.

ACC Nation Radio – On 24/7

Hokies football fans have been less than thrilled with the shenanigans in the program since Justin Fuente took over from Frank Beamer. Everything from a hyper transfer portal to flirting with other programs to losing to rival Virginia has all but cast Fuente’s feet in concrete for a one-way ride down the New River. Too many questions, not enough answers.

Hot Seat

Well, here it is the season to end all seasons, or is it? Can Fuente get the ball rolling in the right direction? Will things click this season and can Virginia Tech beat Virginia plus end up with a bowl bid? Plenty of coaches have taken a few years to get things in order before the program has taken off. But then again, maybe Fuente is ready to throw in the towel and make his way out west. A lot rides on this season for Fuente, the program, the fans and even Whit Babcock who could take a ding as AD if things end up going south.

Two other coaches are moving toward uncomfortable seating accommodations in their jobs. Duke’s David Cutcliffe and Syracuse’s Dino Babers are sitting right in the middle of Dodd’s heat scale. Again, with good reason but there are some factors that allow both coaches to continue their journeys.

Listen To Or Watch ACC Nation Podcast

Cutcliffe has moved Duke football slowly, but surely into the limelight. There’s always the argument that it’s a basketball school but in that generalized statement you’d be overlooking all of the other sports in which Duke has been dominant. Granted, basketball has been the major player but realistically, it’s not the only one. It’s a challenge to draw recruits to a school with under 7,000 and a stadium that seats around 40,000. Not impossible, just challenging. Cutcliffe has done much more with little to nothing than most people could in the same situation.

When it comes to Dino Babers anyone with a skill for observation could tell you that it was going to take more than 3 years to turn the corner at Syracuse. The frustration comes into play with people who remember some of the stellar players of the past. Everything longs for a return to glory but it’s wise to remember that the good old days aren’t coming back with the way things have changed in college football. You either throw a lot of money at it in hopes some sticks or you settle in with a great deal of patience waiting for things to come to fruition. For now, pick the latter as it’s much more realistic.

How are the rest of the ACC’s head coaches doing? Overall, not bad but I don’t agree with a couple of his scores. Take a look at Dodd’s ‘2021 College Football Hot Seat Rankings: Evaluating the job security of all 130 FBS coaches‘ at CBS Sports.