2023 Pressure Check Rankings: Which SEC head coaches are under the most pressure this fall?
College football coaches, from Kirby Smart to Lincoln Riley, love to talk about how “pressure is a privilege,” and for some that’s true.
Coaches like Smart and Riley aren’t in any danger of ever being fired, but there’s a demand for their programs to be excellent. To win championships.
For others, there’s the burden of not meeting expectations, so they’re under pressure to win now or else risk finding their names on the coaching carousel come November.
So this week, we’re going to do a Pressure Check on every Power 5 head coach, starting with the SEC. This is not a hot seat list. It’s a pressure gauge — Low, Medium, High and Extreme.
Nick Saban, Alabama — High
Nick Saban nearly won a championship in a “rebuild year” in 2021, but with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner (quarterback Bryce Young) and the best defensive player in the nation (pass rusher Will Anderson), the Tide failed to even make the College Football Playoff.
Saban is the epitome of why this exercise is fun. He’s in no danger of ever being fired. He is Alabama football. Heck, he might be the most powerful man in the state. But make no mistake, the pressure is on the GOAT to win another title — especially since his mentor has become the master in the last two seasons.
Sam Pittman, Arkansas — Medium
Sam Pittman has solid job security for a guy that’s 19-17, but the Hogs’ affable head coach could use a bounce-back season after a frustrating 2022 campaign.
Arkansas lost four games by a combined nine points last year, and Pittman opted to overhaul the coaching staff and roster after a bad brew of program chemistry. The Razorbacks were among the most active teams in the transfer portal, and Pittman is confident a rebound season is store in 2023.
Hugh Freeze, Auburn — Low
After the disastrous Brian Harsin tenure, Hugh Freeze arrived on the Plains and quickly established some goodwill within the program. He retained key assistants like Cadillac Williams, signed a bunch of plug-and-play starters from the transfer portal and has Auburn in the mix to sign a Top 10 class in 2024.
The is the least amount of pressure Freeze will face his entire Tigers’ tenure, but at least he’s capitalizing on the long leash to start. Auburn has a cakewalk non-conference schedule in 2023, so if Freeze can bank an upset or two in the SEC, he’ll have Auburn positioned for s potential takeoff season next fall.
Billy Napier, Florida — High
Billy Napier hasn’t even coached a game yet in his second season with the Gators, and yet it feels like the pressure cooker is already heating up thanks to a turbulent start to his tenure.
Florida went 6-7 in 2022, upsetting Pac-12 champs Utah in the opener only to lose to Tennessee, LSU, Georgia and Florida State all in the same season for the first time in school history. The Gators were also upset by Kentucky and Vandy, and then had an embarrassing NIL fallout with former quarterback commit Jaden Rashada.
And yet, Napier is optimistic the program is “lightyears ahead” of where it was this time last summer. Despite 2025 QB Austin Simmons’ flip to Ole Miss, Florida has some strong recruiting momentum for the 2024 class, and there’s optimism within the program that the team will be better than expected this fall.
We’ll see. Florida’s win total hangs at just 5.5 in 2023, and it faces perhaps the nation’s toughest schedule in 2024. It’s hard to see where the wins are going to come from anytime soon.
Kirby Smart, Georgia— Medium
Medium you say? Kirby Smart is the best coach in college football right now. He’s won 29 of 30 games in the last two seasons.
Exactly! After winning back-to-back national champions, many are predicting the Bulldogs to three-peat — something that hasn’t been done since the 1930s. So yea, there’s some mild-to-medium pressure on Kirby to do something that hasn’t been done in over nine decades.
Mark Stoops, Kentucky — Medium
Mark Stoops is the best Kentucky football coach since Bear Bryant, elevating the program with multiple 10-win seasons for the first time in more than four decades, but the first of those 10-win seasons was back in 2018. Since then, the Wildcats have gone 8-5, 5-6, 10-3 and 7-6.
They faltered a year ago after talking all offseason about “Atlanta or bust,” so can Stoops can UK back near the top of the SEC East standings in 2023? He brought back Liam Cohen as OC and grabbed quarterback Devin Leary from the transfer portal. Considering Kentucky’s schedule is about to become much more difficult in a division-less league in 2024, this fall might be the last opportunity for Stoops to win double-digit games again for the foreseeable future.
Brian Kelly, LSU — Medium
Brian Kelly exceeded expectations in Year 1 at LSU, upsetting Alabama and winning the SEC West. It was the 14th time in Kelly’s career he won double-digit games as a head coach. The next step for Kelly is to win that elusive national championship. Could that happen in 2023? Maybe.
The Bayou Bengals have the makeup of a College Football Playoff contender this fall, and considering the last three LSU coaches all won a championship (Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron) there’s some pressure, albeit medium, on Kelly to do the same sooner than later.
Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri — High
The Tigers are 17-19 (just 11-15 in the SEC) with one bowl win in three seasons under Drinkwitz. And yet, Drinkwitz has the support from his administration. But for how long?
Drinkwitz has recruited well for Missouri and recently received a new indoor facility and a contract extension, but while the buyout is expensive ($20 million), the pressure is on Drinkwitz to deliver more wins.
Zach Arnett, Mississippi State — High
Rarely do first-year head coaches face as much pressure as Arnett, but the former Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator was hired under such unique circumstances last fall that it’s important for him to show he has the program on the right track this fall.
After Mike Leach’s sudden passing, Arnett was quickly promoted from interim to full-time head coach — as Mississippi State was without an AD at the time. Arnett was not hired by his new boss, Zac Selmon. He also made the decision to immediately deviate from Leach’s ‘Air Raid’ identity on offense.
Win and he’ll see his pressure-gauge drop considerably. But if the results aren’t there, MSU’s administration could opt to pull the plug immediately and go through an actual coaching search in 2024.
Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss — Medium
Lane Kiffin parlayed Auburn’s strong interest into a fat raise from Ole Miss this offseason, with the Portal King making close to $9 million annually now. The Rebels have become one of the destination programs for transfers and Kiffin’s troll game remains at an all-time high.
But by staying in Oxford, Kiffin is now expected to make Ole Miss a future College Football Playoff contender — this for a program that’s never even played for an SEC Championship. There’s pressure on Kiffin to live up to his new contract
Shane Beamer, South Carolina — Low
Shane Beamer is 15-11 at South Carolina with a win at Clemson, a home upset over a Top 5 Tennessee team and a bowl victory over North Carolina. Gamecocks fans should sign up for that sort of success every time. Sure, they want to be a perennial Top 25 team, and perhaps Beamer will get the program to that point, but South Carolina has won more than eight games just once in the last decade.
Beamer has the program trending in the right direction, and even if they slip a bit record-wise in 2023, the Gamecocks are recruiting like they did during the heyday of the Steve Spurrier era — particularly dominating the Palmetto State.
Josh Heupel, Tennessee — Low
Josh Heupel has carte blanche at Tennessee right now. He guided the Vols out of the ashes of the Jeremy Pruitt fire, and in Year 2, beat Crimson Tide, Florida, LSU and Clemson all in the same season.
The Vols play a fun, high-flying brand of football and just landed the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2023 class in 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava. One way or another Heupel’s pressure check will change in 2024 — for better or worse — depending on what happens this fall, but for now, his API is just fine.
Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M — Extreme
Jimbo Fisher is one of five active head coaches with a national title ring, and yet he faces as much pressure to win in 2023 as any head coach in America. Not even Fisher’s $77 million parachute buyout could save him if the Aggies fail to go bowling for a second-straight season.
Despite recruiting at a Top 5 clip, Fisher has yet to win 10 games at Texas A&M, and his record after five seasons is worse than his predecessor Kevin Sumlin’s. After years of offensive ineptitude, the situation became dire enough this offseason for Fisher to relinquish play-calling duties and hire Bobby Petrino as OC.
Still, the Aggies look primed for a rebound season (key pieces from the historic 2022 recruiting class like QB Conner Weigman, WR Evan Stewart and a host of 5-star DL are all back), but if that doesn’t happen, then check the price of oil around Thanksgiving because the Aggies’ big booster made decide to spend their way out of this situation.
Clark Lea, Vanderbilt — Low
Clark Lea isn’t going to compromise on his atypical (at least by today’s standards) plan to rebuild and rebrand Vanderbilt football, and that’s just fine with the Commodores’ administration.
Lea has the runway to execute his plan accordingly, and after snapping Vandy’s 26-game SEC losing streak last fall and nearly taking the ‘Dores bowling, he faces little pressure to do better than that in 2024. If Lea does manage to navigate Vandy to a bowl game this fall, he’ll have even more support to see his long-term plan all the way through.
2023 Pressure Rankings: SEC head coaches
- Jimbo Fisher
- Eli Drinkwitz
- Zach Arnett
- Billy Napier
- Nick Saban
- Sam Pittman
- Lane Kiffin
- Kirby Smart
- Brian Kelly
- Mark Stoops
- Josh Heupel
- Shane Beamer
- Hugh Freeze
- Clark Lea