We are five weeks through the 2024 season, and some teams are certainly off to better starts than others. College football has never been more demanding, and coaches are expected to find success almost instantly.
In 2024, coaches will get two or three years to have success with their program. If they don’t show “reasonable” growth in that time period, they’ll get the hook, and someone else will replace them and try to do the same thing.
With the halfway point of the 2024 schedule approaching in the Big 12, we have several coaches who are in pivotal stretches of their tenures with their respective programs. Who’s seats are warming up as we flip the calendar to October? Who’s impressed through the first four or five games and has a bit more leeway heading into the back half of the year?
Let’s take a look at the Big 12 hot seats heading into Week 6.
Whose Seat is Heating Up?
Dave Aranda, Baylor
Things have not gone according to plan for Baylor through the first five games of the season. The Bears find themselves at 2-3 on the year and their back-breaking loss at Colorado felt like a moment where Dave Aranda might’ve lost the team a bit. We saw some fight out of them late against BYU, but if the losses keep piling up in Waco, it might be time to fire up the coaching search.
Neal Brown, West Virginia
After a 9-4 campaign a season ago, Neal Brown appeared to have bought himself some time with the folks in Morgantown. However, after opening up the season with a blowout loss to Penn State and a loss to Pitt in the Backyard Brawl, his seat is warming once again. A 32-28 win over Kansas in Week 4 kept the flames at bay, but it might take a miracle to get him through the month of October. Over the next four weeks, WVU faces Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State, and Arizona. If he’s 2-6 after that slate, he’s probably gone.
Lance Leipold, Kansas
What Lance Leipold has done at Kansas over the past few seasons has been among the most impressive rebuild jobs that we’ve seen in college football. However, it appears that Andy Kotelnicki’s departure has severely handicapped his offense. Kansas is off to a dismal 1-4 start this season and doesn’t appear to be bowl-bound at this point. Will Leipold get the axe? No, but he might be forced to make a change at offensive coordinator quicker than he’d hoped.
Scott Satterfield, Cincinnati
After going 3-9 a season ago, Scott Satterfield has Cincinnati sitting at 3-2 and well on their way to topping their win total from last year. However, the Bearcats should be 4-1, if not 5-0, at this point in the season. Blowing a 21-point lead at home against Pitt is unforgivable. You just can’t do that as a head coach. And while the 44-41 loss at Texas Tech this past weekend is something that is easily glossed over as a reasonable loss, the Bearcats had a 14-3 lead at one point and lost control of the game. Satterfield needs to get this team above .500 if he wants to stick around in the Queen City.
Whose Seat is Cooling Off?
Kalani Sitake, BYU
Perhaps the only Big 12 coach feeling more pressure than Kalani Sitake coming into the 2024 season was Baylor’s Dave Aranda. While BYU’s transition into the Big 12 would give most coaches an excuse to struggle, the Cougars are a proud football program with expectations of making a bowl game every season, at the very least. The good news for Sitake is that things could not have gotten off to a better start for his team this season, as BYU sits at 5-0 and ranked 17th in the country. The Cougars are setting up to be a legitimate Big 12 contender this season, and that’s an exciting prospect, considering it is just their second season in the league.
Deion Sanders, Colorado
Last week’s win 48-21 win over UCF was a staple victory for Deion Sanders and his staff — and the long-lasting effect it could have on the narrative surrounding his program could be huge. After a blowout loss at Nebraska, it felt like there was widespread doubt on the ceiling for this team in 2024, even with All-American level talents like Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. Coach Prime is in no danger of losing his job at Colorado, and as long as the Buffs remain nationally relevant, that will likely continue to be the case. But, given the pressure that he’s feeling to succeed, being 4-1 right now has to feel pretty dern good.
Brent Brennan, Arizona
Replacing the head coach that just led your program to its best season in decades — and perhaps school history — is a tall task. That’s exactly what Brent Brennan is facing in 2024, and with a 31-7 loss to K-State in Week 3, it appears his seat might be heating up before he even got settled. However, the Arizona team that came out of the bye week and thumped a Top-10 Utah team is something that could keep Brennan in Tuscon for quite some time. The Wildcats were physical and disruptive on defense, and they were precise and efficient on offense. Those qualities will win a lot of games in the Big 12, and if that is the team that Arizona puts on the field week-in and week-out, Brennan will probably get very comfortable in that office.
