Sundays in the fall have a new nickname in college football: “Black Sunday.”
Why? Because over the past three weeks, high-profile programs have been firing head coaches left and right — including LSU (Brian Kelly), Penn State (James Franklin), and Florida (Billy Napier).
Which head-coaching vacancy is the most appealing? The “Big Noon Kickoff” crew debated that very question on Week 10’s edition of the show.
“It’s a layup [to go to LSU],” Brady Quinn said. “You got the governor, who’s concerned about this. You don’t think you’re going to get all the support in the world from the state of Louisiana if you go to LSU? Let’s look at the history, too. Les Miles, Ed Orgeron and Nick Saban before that all won national championships [there].”
LSU fired Kelly after a 49-25 loss to now-No. 3 Texas A&M at home last week and a 5-3 start to the season. The Tigers went a combined 34-14 under Kelly from 2022-25. LSU has made the College Football Playoff just once since 2014, which was when it won the 2019 National Championship.
Meanwhile, Urban Meyer feels that a different SEC school, one that he won two national titles with as a head coach (2006 and 2008), is the best opening.
“I’d say LSU and Florida [are the top openings] because of the talent level and talent pool within a three-hour radius of your school, but I would say Florida [is the best opening] just because of the dysfunction right now at LSU,” Meyer said. “They [LSU] don’t have an Athletic Director … they better get an AD in place pretty quick because really good head coaches will walk away from that and say ‘I’m not sure I want to do that.’
So, how would Meyer rank the top-three openings?
“Florida No. 1, LSU No. 2 and Penn State No. 3 [is how I’d rank it],” he said. “I just think it’s a little harder to recruit at Penn State now just because the population shift has gone down south. You can’t just say [we’ll recruit in] Western Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and New Jersey; that’s kind of where they used to get their players … but it’s very close.”
Florida fired Napier after the school’s 3-4 start to this season. He posted a combined 22-23 record since 2022. The Gators have never appeared in the College Football Playoff (2014-present).
Other vacant head-coaching positions in the sport include Oklahoma State, UCLA and Arkansas, among others.
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