Big Ten Football Coaching Hot Seats - 2025 Season Preseason Edition

Hello, there! Welcome to another season of Big Ten coaching hot seats.

As usual, I'm here to rank the hottest seats among the Big Ten's 54 - please, stop expanding! - head coaches, offensive coordinators, and defensive coordinators. In doing so, I'm sure to offend multiple fanbases by insulting their beloved coach. Throughout the season, I will be checking in to occasionally update these rankings as coordinators show their complete inability to call plays and head coaches continue to lower the bar. If all goes according to plan, there will be no coach related scandals that we have to address and the worst thing I'll have to talk about is the Ohio State fanbase.

There are a few reminders to those who want to argue in the comments. That's fine and encouraged but let me refresh everyone.
· Special teams coordinators aren't included in the rankings. Not every team has a special teams coordinator and it's very difficult to judge the performance of special teams coaches from week to week due to the low play volume. If you want to complain about your special teams coordinator (or a position coach) have at it in the comments. This is the time and space to call for the O-line coach to be fired for recruiting 120 lb weaklings for pass protection.
· When there are co-coordinators, I'll be using the play-caller or senior most co-coordinator in case the head coach calls plays on that side of the ball. As a note, maybe if we stopped with the title inflation in college football, assistant coaches wouldn't need to be paid so much and universities could spend more money on professors or lower tuition? Just a thought.
· The preseason rankings of this list is pretty sparse. Several members of our top 5 are likely to return next year and the watchlist portion is barren. This is due to a couple of issues. Coordinators almost never enter a season about to be fired. If they were bad enough the year before they were replaced or have a very close relationship with their head coach (ie: Brian Ferentz). Head coaches will dominant the preseason rankings. By the end of the year, that ratio should flip with coordinators getting close to receiving their pink slips while several coaches escape thanks to exorbitant buyout tags. - or in "special" circumstances, a college football playoff championship.
· I'm not ranking a coordinator on the list that just entered year 1 of the job on the preseason edition. I'll wait until we have some evidence that they are a complete disaster of a hire before introducing them to the hot seat rankings.

Before we get into this season's rankings, let discuss last season's postseason results and how they've shaken things up among the hot seat rankings.

Some of you may recall the order of last season's post-regular season hot seat rankings. In the #2 spot was Ryan Walters who was promptly fired for his gross inability to operate a college football program. He was hired by Washington to be their defensive coordinator and I am hopeful he will once again grace the top 5 of our rankings soon.

At #3 was Walters' partner in crime, defensive coordinator Kevin Kane. Kane was let go alongside Walters.

In 4th place was Maryland defensive coordinator Brian Williams. Williams wasn't technically fired as his contract expired at the end of last season. However, he wasn't brought back and is now the defensive coordinator at Jacksonville State.

That's three of the top four gone. What about the #1 spot though? Insert Ohio State's vomit inducing CFP run.

Amidst death threats and a rampant bullying campaign of his wife and kids, Ryan Day managed to lead the Buckeyes to a CFP title. Some might even call it a national title. I won't go quite that far (I acknowledge Oregon as the one true 2024 national champion), but it was nevertheless an accomplishment.

Although we will never know for sure whether Day would have been fired had Ohio State fallen early in the CFP, we do know the fanbase had turned on him. We are talking batshit crazy, meth-addled ranting that makes me even more embarrassed than usual to be an Ohioan.

However, after a CFP title Buckeyes fans that were ready to tear Ryan Day to pieces and taunt his children have suddenly quieted. Perhaps they are just biding their time before reemerging from their caves. Whatever the case, we should all let Ryan Day and his treatment by the Ohio State fanbase be a lesson to us all. These coaches are human. Criticize their coaching ability all you want, but let's not stoop to personal attacks or involve their family members. Be better than Buckeye football fans.

**DISCLAIMER*** BoilerUp89 does not wish unemployment upon most people and asks that you remember these coaches are real people with a family. Watching the performance of some of these coaches is inappropriate for young children, degenerate gamblers, and fans with addiction problems. Big Ten football is not recommended for anyone and all viewers should watch it at their own risk.

1 Northwestern Wildcats Offensive Coordinator Zach Lujan

2nd season
Salary: PRIVATE SCHOOL
Contract: PRIVATE SCHOOL
Buyout: PRIVATE SCHOOL

In a season that involved 2024 Purdue football, Northwestern had the least amount of offensive yards per game in the Big Ten. Only five teams in all of FBS had fewer yards/play than the Wildcats in 2024 (Kennesaw State, Kent State, Florida State, Air Force, and Temple). Not exactly a who's who of offensive juggernauts.

There's no denying that Lujan took over a bad situation in Evanston and that he needs time to get things moving in the right direction. However, there's a limit to how patient head coach David Braun can be. Braun got the job off a bowl appearance as the interim head coach.

When Northwestern opens the most expensive college football stadium ever in 2026, their alumni aren't going to fill their luxury boxes to watch Ferentzian offense. They would stay home and tell their butlers to bring more Malört to their game day parlors. Lujan has to show some progress this year.

2 wisconsin Badgers Head Coach Luke Fickell

3rd season
Salary: $7.8M
Contract: through March 2032
Buyout: 80% of his remaining contract (~$40M)

wisconsin is coming off their first non-bowl season since 2001. When athletic director fired coach Dad (Paul Chryst) and replaced him with Luke Fickell, the intention was to elevate the Badgers back to the top of the Big Ten. Instead of accomplishing that, Fickell's offense has failed to successfully replace the traditional backbone of the Badger's program: a steady diet of running plays behind a massive offensive line.

Fickell isn't out of time yet and has recognized the need for rapid improvement. He jettisoned offensive coordinator Phil Longo and his air raid to replace it with Jeff Grimes' more run heavy approach.

The seemingly automatic contract extension that the Uw athletic department gives out to their head coaches every season doesn't hurt Fickell's chances of coming back for 2026 either. The most recent contract extension however isn't a sign of confidence. Chryst got one the offseason before he was fired and it appears that every Badgers head coach gets one every year for continuity purposes. However, it means there is a massive buyout. If fired before the end of the 2029 season, Fickell is owed 80% of his remaining contract. This means that even another 5-7 season probably sees Fickell roaming the sidelines at Camp Randall for a year 4. I'm not entirely sure whether Fickell's $40 million buyout is the current cost or the cost at the end of the year. Given that his contract runs to March 2032, I suppose probably the former. In which case at the end of this season, it's only $38 million assuming he's paid monthly.

3 Maryland Terrapins Head Coach Mike Locksley

7th season
Salary: $6.1M
Contract: through 2028 season
Buyout: $13M at end of season

Maryland went just 4-8 last year with only a single win in Big Ten play - a one point stunner at home against USC. They lost to the likes of Michigan State and Northwestern. Mercifully they avoided Purdue to save us from that debacle (to the disappointment of the true sickos out there).

The 2024 season saw Locksley fire his offensive coordinator and allow the contract of his defensive coordinator to expire. When a coach is entering year 7 and coming off firing both of his coordinators, there had better be some decent highs in the past if he wants to survive another down season. Somehow I don't think two 8-5 (4-5 in the Big Ten) seasons qualifies. Time may be running out for Locksley.

Locksley signed a contract extension in 2023 that ran through the 2027 season with an automatic one year extension if the Terps won 7 games in 2023 (which they did). I've seen multiple buyout values for Locksley, but the number I trust is 65% of his remaining contract. Since his salary appears to be structured so that it increases by $300k per year, I think $13 million at the end of this season is the correct number.

4 Michigan State Offensive Coordinator Brian Lindgren

2nd season
Salary: $1.2M
Contract: through 2026 season
Buyout: $1.3M at end of season

The Big Ten had a lot of really bad offenses last year. Even some of the teams that got to play Purdue's defense couldn't score enough points to make up for their shortcomings in their other 11 games. Michigan State was one of those teams.

The Spartans opened the 2024 campaign with a 16 point outing against FAU. They looked slightly more like a Big Ten team against Maryland the following week (27 points) and Prairie View A&M in week 3 (40 points). They cracked the 20 point threshold just two more times the rest of the season. Once against Purdue (a paltry 24 points - least by a FBS opponent) and once against Iowa in a surprising game that saw MSU defeat the Hawkeyes 32-20. That's a total of four "good" offensive games with 2 coming against teams that would later fire their DC and a third against a FCS school.

Lindgren has been with Jonathan Smith since the 2018 season at Oregon State, but if the Spartans can't figure out how to move the football in year 2, their string of seasons together is either going to come to an end of Smith will be looking for a new job of his own following the 2026 season.

5 Southern California Trojans Head Coach Lincoln Riley

4th season
Salary: ~$10M (PRIVATE SCHOOL)
Contract: through 2031 season
Buyout: ~$88M (PRIVATE SCHOOL)

Riley has the worst contract in college football. That fact alone will almost certainly save his skin if USC has another disappointing season in 2025.

This is really a placeholder for the USC coordinators who will get fired if Riley has to rearrange the decks chairs on the U.S.C. Titanic at the end of the 2025 campaign. With a new offensive coordinator in Luke Huard (Riley calls the plays anyway) and defensive coordinator D'Anton Lynn entering year 2 after actually upgrading USC's defense in year 1 to 57th in FBS for points per game allowed, it's too early to put either of them on the hot seat for the preseason. USC donors aren't paying Riley 8 figures a year for 7-6 records though. If they found the money for this contract, they can probably find the money for a buyout. Especially with inflation these days. $88 million is like $5 back in January 2025.

Michigan Wolverines Head Coach Sherrone Moore (2nd season). Moore is the only name to enter the season on the watchlist portion of our rankings. While it's valid to state the Moore isn't likely to be fired anytime soon (or even this year), there's enough to look at and wonder. Moore already had to fire his first offensive coordinator and year 1 saw the Wolverines slip from 15-0 all the way back to 8-5. The win against Ohio State was really nice, but that merely buys Moore some breathing room. Another step backwards with the overall record and a loss to Ohio State at home would see his seat temperature rise considerably. Especially when you consider Moore has already been suspended by the NCAA for three games.

These are pretty conservative estimates of the number of wins a coach should need to avoid getting his pink slip at the end of the season. It takes into consideration longevity, contract situation, athletic department, recent success, and situation under which they were hired. Braun and Foster require a higher number of wins than similar counterparts due to how they received their jobs. This number obviously does not consider off the field issues that a coach may encounter. Most head coaches are likely to return even if they fail to reach these thresholds. Coordinators will only be considered safe in the 2nd half of the season when their unit has accomplished enough on the field.

2 - Purdue Boilermakers HC Barry Odom

3 - Indiana Hoosiers HC Curt Cignetti

4 - Michigan State Spartans HC Jonathan Smith

5 - Illinois Fighting Illini HC Bret Bielema, Ohio State Buckeyes HC Ryan Day*, Northwestern Wildcats HC David Braun

*offer valid this year only

6 - Maryland Terrapins HC Mike Locksley, Minnesota Golden Gophers HC P.J. Fleck, Nebraska Cornhuskers HC Matt Rhule, Rutgers Scarlet Knights HC Greg Schiano, wisconsin Badgers HC Luke Fickell

7 - Iowa Hawkeyes HC Kirk Ferentz, UCLA Bruins HC DeShaun Foster

8 - Oregon Ducks HC Dan Lanning, Washington Huskies HC Jedd Fisch

9 - Michigan Wolverines HC Sherrone Moore, USC Trojans HC Lincoln Riley

All about the postseason - Penn State Nittany Lions HC James Franklin

That's it for this year's preseason edition of the Big Ten football hot seat rankings. Let us know in the comments what BoilerUp89 got wrong and why Ryan Day will be fired after going 11-1 but losing to Michigan.