The college football “coaching carousel” is an annual tradition in which coaches get fired, hired, and frequently move between schools. It’s especially notable when top-tier programs are seeking new leaders simultaneously, creating a kind of musical chairs effect for coaches. With massive job openings available simultaneously, the competition for top talent becomes fierce. Yet, they could end up trading one devil for another.

On November 9, college football insider, Adam Breneman hopped onto X and spilled why coaching firing mid-season can be a problem and how does LSU, Penn State and Florida State’s combined $124 million buyout decision played a role in it: “Florida State and Wisconsin might not be able to fire their head coaches this year, not because they don’t want to, but because there’s not enough coaches to hire right now. There are too many openings and not enough great candidates.”

The biggest reason for this hesitancy is a simple shortage of elite-level coaching talent. As Adam Breneman put it, there aren’t simply enough coaches to hire at the moment. Many top programs already have openings, and “every school with an opening right now is calling the same five names,” which are Lane Kiffin, Eli Drinkwitz, and John Sumrall, and some OCs like Brian Hartline or Will Stein. Coaches like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, and Steve Spurrier made it clear that no amount of green would bring them back.

The top coaches in the game are already at stable programs, being paid vast amounts of money to stay put. If a school with a good-but-not-great coach decides to fire them, they’ll have to compete with all the other schools looking for a superstar. This often leaves them with a limited pool of candidates and sometimes forces them to settle for someone who isn’t a guaranteed upgrade. It’s a classic case of risk versus reward.

Programs like LSU, Penn State, and Florida have already pulled the trigger on their head coaches in the last six weeks. The problem is, none of them has found its long-term replacement yet. As of today, nine Power Four programs (and twelve total across the FBS) are actively shopping for a new head coach. You can barely count on one hand how many true elite options exist in this cycle.

That shortage could be the reason Florida State’s Mike Norvell keeps his job with a dismal 4-5 record this season after going 2-10 last year. His $59 million buyout without a proper replacement would set the Seminoles back 3-4 years in the NIL era.

The same goes for Luke Fickell, the $25 million man. Wisconsin had a rough 2025 campaign, with a record of 3-6 and a 1-5 record in the Big Ten. Luke Fickell is fresh off breaking a six-game losing streak, but Wisconsin is still staring at the program’s worst finish in decades and a second straight losing season. Despite all of this, the university remains supportive of Fickell. They know that firing him, given the current market and his $25 million contract situation, could do even more damage in the long term.

In short, with limited coaching options and massive financial penalties, both programs may decide it is smarter to stay patient and wait for a better time to make a change. However, this is not always the case for head coaches of lower-tier programs.

Another day, another victim of the coaching carousel

On November 9, Samford University, a member of the Southern Conference (SoCon), announced that it had fired head football coach Chris Hatcher after a challenging season. Samford Vice President Martin Newton thanked Hatcher for representing the school with “dignity and class,” saying he appreciated everything Hatcher had done for the program. However, he also noted that the team’s recent results have not met our expectations. Moreover, the school felt it was time for a new direction.

The firing decision came after a difficult 1–9 start to the 2025 season. Hatcher had been with Samford for 11 seasons, finishing with a record of 62–59. He had some significant moments during his time there; the most notable one came in 2022, when he led the Bulldogs to an 11–2 record and their first-ever outright SoCon championship. Not only that, but he also ended up winning Coach of the Year, and he signed a four-year contract extension.

But after that high point, the Bulldogs started to crumble. They had a disappointing 2023 season and started 2025 with six straight losses. Their only win came in a close 24–22 victory over VMI, followed by three consecutive losses. The school decided it was time for a change to get the program back on track. When will all these firings stop? It is the hottest question in town. God knows.