ACC QUESTION of the Week : Which ACC hot-seat coaches most badly need a strong second half of the season?
Let’s start with this note at the forefront of our conversation: If you asked me right now, I do not think an ACC head coach will be fired in 2018. One might step away due to burnout or a sense that his situation isn’t working out, but I don’t think an athletic director in the conference will terminate a coach. That’s not a guarantee, but it is my sense of the situation right now.
Let’s continue with this point: Only four ACC coaches can be reasonably considered as being on any sort of hot seat: Larry Fedora of North Carolina, Bobby Petrino of Louisville, Paul Johnson of Georgia Tech, and Pat Narduzzi of Pittsburgh.
Of those four, Petrino and Johnson are more vulnerable. Petrino is getting smoked nearly every week. He probably needs to do at least something to avoid a complete collapse and ensure that he will stay on in 2019. Johnson is mired in a frustrating season, and if his next month is no better than the past two months, the grumbling surrounding the Georgia Tech program will intensify. I don’t think either coach is likely to be fired — Petrino because of the buyout, Johnson because of the good things he has done for his program and the way he sticks the needle into SEC schools — but those are the coaches who need to stabilize in the next five weeks.
There is another dimension to this conversation which deserves to be mentioned: While Mark Richt is not on the hot seat at all, a bad finish to 2018 means that if he suffers through a terrible 2019 season, his place at The U could become a lot more uncomfortable than anyone expected three months ago. Richt needs to do well in November to improve his long-range outlook. Willie Taggart at Florida State and Dave Doeren at North Carolina State both need solid Novembers to make sure their fan bases aren’t irate at the end of this season. They would make their lives a lot easier with good showings in the next several weeks.
Yet, those are 2019 and 2020 questions. If you have to choose hot-seat “fix this quickly” coaches in the 2018 ACC, Petrino and Johnson lead the list after Week 8.
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