Coaches in college football are presented with a lot of pressure every season in the world of college football we live in. But each year there are a handful of coaches with a little extra pressure to perform well. Whether it’s trying to prove they belong in the head coaches’ seat or they are trying to build a first-year resume for an established brand, there is a handful of coaches expected to perform well and 2024 is no different. Here is my list of coaches that have a big 2024 season ahead.
Sam Pittman
Starting in the SEC we head to Fayetteville Arkansas where Sam Pittman is preparing to start his 5th year as the head coach of the Arkansas football program. Sam Pittman was seen as the perfect fit for the Arkansas program when hired. But after a couple mediocre seasons some are starting to wonder if he is the guy for the Hogs long term.
Sam Pittman comes into the 2024 season with a 23-25 record as the head coach of the Hogs. Pittman started his time as head coach in Arkansas in 2020. A tough year to start anything new but especially starting a head coaching tenure at a program expecting to win in the best conference in football. Pittman finished the 2020 season with a 3-7 record with a schedule consisting of all conference games.
In 2021 Sam Pittman had his best season going 9-4 while finishing 3rd in the west of the SEC with a 4-4 record in conference play. Pittman capped that season off with a outback bowl win and a top 20 final ranking in the coaches poll. A successful season by all marks for a second-year coach in a struggling sec program.
But since then, Pittman finished with a losing record in conference play and a 7-6 overall record in 2022. He followed that up with a losing season in 2023 going 4-8 in the regular season with a 1-7 record in conference play.
Pittman comes into 2024 with the number #31 ranked recruiting class and the #26 transfer class for 2024. Pittman has shown he can be a great recruiter for a program like Arkansas. Arkansas 2024 schedule consists of a couple top #25 teams and playoff contenders but get most of those at home pared with some easy non-conference games.
Arkansas has 4 non-conference games, 3 of those are non-power 4 teams. The 4th consists of a trip to Stillwater in week 2 to face off with Oklahoma St. Arkansas SEC schedule is not favorable to the Hogs. Their road games are vs lower to middle tier SEC teams with trips to Auburn, Miss St, and Missouri. Arkansas will host Tennessee, LSU, Ole Miss, and Texas. Arkansas will face off with Texas Am in their annual game in Arlington, TX. Playing at home will not guarantee wins for the Hogs but it doesn’t hurt having the home crowd on your side.
Billy Napier
From one SEC Program to another Billy Napier has more pressure on him than any other SEC head coach. Billy Napier is headed into his third year as the head coach of the Florida Gators. Billy came from Louisiana where he never had a losing season. At Florida he has yet to have a winning season.
Billy Napier is combined 11-14 as the head coach of the Gators, fans and boosters are getting impatient with where the Florida program is. Both of Napier’s seasons in Gainesville have consisted of losing records in conference. Some of those loses to teams Gator fan are not used to losing to like UK, Vandy, and UT.
Fans have questioned Napier’s ability to call plays for the offense in the SEC. Billy decided to keep these responsibilities for the 2024 season after a lot of doubts from fans in the 2023 season. Billy is bringing in the #13 overall recruiting class for the 2024 season. Billy has put together a good transfer class ranking #8 in the country. Billy has had a great 2 months in the transfer portal bringing in 5-star CB Cormani McClain and 4 star IOL Jason Zandamela from USC.
Billy will be judged more on what he does on the field with the 2024 season than any transfer or recruiting class he puts together after 2 losing seasons. Napier and the Gator faithful could be in for another rough season with the hardest schedule in the country.
The Gators play the 3 other power 4 conference programs in the state of Florida. The Gators open with Miami as their home opener in week one. They will host UCF Oct. 5th and take a trip to Tallahassee on Thanksgiving weekend. Gator fans hope that Billy can put together a dominant performance vs the state of Florida teams to get back to the best program in the state.
This will be a difficult task with playing a Miami team that brings in the #4 recruiting class of 2024 and a talented QB in Cam Ward. Miami is as desperate as the Gators to get back to their winning ways and hope to start the 2024 campaign with a win in Gainesville. They follow that up a couple weeks later vs a UCF team that brings in a lot of talent via the transfer portal while having a experienced head coach in Gus Malzahn that’s lead the Knights to two 9 win seasons before going down to 6 wins in 2023. Not to mention ending the year vs instate rival FSU, who is coming off a ACC championship and undefeated regular season in 2023.
The conference schedule for the Gators doesn’t get any easier. The Gators only have one non power 4 opponent in Samford. The Gators will host Texas Am and UK, they will visit Miss st and Tennessee all before November where the schedule gets insane. Billy will have his work cut out from him just getting to the month of November. If Billy drops a SEC game in September combined with loses to 2 instate rivals, fans and booster could get the buyout process started early.
In the back half of the schedule the Gators will face off vs UGA, go on the road to Texas, Host LSU and Ole Miss. The Gators will face 4 teams from the SEC that a lot believe are playoff contenders. 2024 is a make or brake season for Billy as head coach of the Gators. Fans won’t care how hard the schedule is they expect to win and to win now.
Kalen DeBoer
Kalen DeBoer was the coach of selection by Alabama administrators after legendary head coach Nick Saban decided to retire. Its never easy being the guy that follows THE guy. But that is what Kalen Debore has signed up for taking over the Alabama sidelines. DeBoer comes from Washington where he went 11-2 in 2023 and 14-1 with a trip to the national championship game.
Kalen knows how to coach and be successful in D1 football but as I’m sure he knows, coaching Washington in the now dissolved Pac 12 vs coaching the brand with the most success in the SEC and postseason over the last decade is very different. Kalen will have to prove to the Bama fans and the rest of the SEC, Alabama isn’t going anywhere. Tide fans will expect to win and do it like they’ve done for the last 20 years with championships.
DeBoer will have plenty of talent to work with on this Alabama roster with the #2 overall recruiting class in 2024 and the #3 overall transfer class. DeBoer will have the benefit of returning an experienced QB in Jalen Milroe. DeBoer put up crazy offensive numbers in Washington with a veteran QB Michael Pinix and fans hope this translates to his time at Alabama with Milroe.
DeBoer’s first season at Alabama will consist of 2 non power 4 conference games vs WKU and South Florida before they hit the road for their first big test of the season. In week 3 the Tide will travel the Wisconsin to take on the Badgers. This will be the first big test for DeBoer and the Tide.
The Tide get into conference play week 5 where they will welcome in the Georgia Bulldogs. A matchup that will have all the country’s eyes. They follow that up with a couple winnable games vs Vandy and Sout Carolina.
The back half of the schedule will get more difficult with trips to UT, LSU, OU while hosting Missouri, and Auburn. Playing 3 rivals this season DeBoer will hope to prove to them they are staying at the top and plan on going nowhere.
DeBoer success will depend deeply on the development of QB Milroe and If he can acquire and develop talent for years to come like Alabama has for the last decade. DeBoer’s time at Alabama needs to get off to a good start because of the depth of the SEC. Just a couple rough seasons can take you from the top to the middle of the pack in heartbeat.
Lincoln Riley
Lincoln Riley has a big season ahead in 2024. Riley came to USC in 2022 after having major success in Oklahoma stacking up a 55-10 record in his time there. Riley lead the Trojans to an 11-3 record in his first year as the USC head coach with a lose in the Pac 12 championship. He followed that up in his second year with a 8-5 record while going 5-4 in conference. All this while having a Heisman trophy winner and #1 overall NFL draft pick in Caleb Williams.
Riley’s had one of the most dominant offenses in the country in his time at OU and USC. But his time at USC has fallen off the deep end when it comes to the defensive side of the ball. In 2023 USC gave up 48 points to Colorado, 41 to Arizona, 48 to Notre Dame, 34 to Utah, 49 to California, 52 to Washington, and 38 to UCLA. Really hard to win in a power conference giving up that many.
I do give Riley so slack knowing he doesn’t coach that side of the ball but at the end of the day he hired that defensive coaching staff. Riley will have to get the defense cleaned up coming into their first season in the Big 10.
The 2024 schedule for the Trojans is not easy. They Kick off the season in Vegas vs LSU. USC goes to the big house in week 3. They will host Wisconsin, Penn st, Nebraska and Notre Dame. USC will visit Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, and UCLA. If they can win a couple of big games away from home USC should have a good season.
USC comes into the 2024 season with the #17 recruiting class and #19 transfer class. USC has several guys returning on both sides of the ball as well as hiring a new DC in D'Anton Lynn. He will have his work cut out to fix a bad defense. 2024 doesn’t need to end in a championship for the Trojans but they do need to compete for the Big 10 championship, be in the conversation for a playoff spot during the season and be competitive on defense.
Dabo Sweeny
Dabo Sweeny has had one head coaching job in college football, The Clemson Tigers. In his 16 years as head coach of the Tigers Sweeny has stacked up a 170-43 record. Dabo has taken Clemson from expecting to make a bowl to winning championships. At Clemson Dabo has racked up 8 ACC Championships and 2 National championships. A career that any head coach would take.
I don’t believe Dabos job is in jeopardy at Clemson, the worst he has done since 2011 was a 9-win season. But I do believe there is pressure on him to succeed in his way of coaching that he’s stuck to. Dabo has been known for being strict on how he recruits and uses the portal.
Dabo has used the portal the least of any power 4 conference head coach and its not even close. He has only gone and signed a couple of guys from the portal since its genesis. The portal has been such a big part of building roster for so many teams in college football its hard to believe you can go without it, but that’s what Clemson has done.
Dabo has taken 1 player in the portal in both 2022 and 2023. He has 0 transfers for the 2024 season. If Dabo is going to be this ignorant to the portal, he must win. If we see Clemson start to slip in the middle of teams in college football fans will start to get annoyed with Dabos approach. Something that worked 5 years ago doesn’t mean it will in 2024 with how the games evolved.
Clemson does return their starting QB, Cade Klubnik and talented RB Phil Mafah. Dabo will have to prove his approach still works from the start in 2024 as they face off vs Georgia in week 1. One of the things that has contributed to Clemson’s success in past years has been the schedule. 2024 is no different. After week 1 they have App st, NCST, Stanford, Virginia, UL, Citadel at home. While taking trips to FSU, Wake Forest, VT, and Pitt. Anything below 8 wins would be a failure of a season for Clemson. They will need to have at least 10 wins with the schedule if they want to be apart of the playoffs(unless they win the ACC outright).
Mario Cristobal
Mario Cristobal comes into his 3rd season in 2024 as the Miami head coach. Mario was hired in 2022 following his time at Oregon where he went 35-12 over 4 years. Mario took over a program with rich history in the game of college football hoping to bring them back to the top.
In his first two seasons as Miami Mario finished with a 5-7 record in 2022 and 7-6 in 2023. Cristobal struggled to get Miami’s offense going in his first year in Miami. He averaged 24 points a game in the 2022 season. Finishing the season with 5 wins with a loss to a MTSU team at home.
In the 2023 season Mario was able to improve that number to 30 points a game adding two more wins to the resume compared to the year before. Although they did take a step forward in beating a team like Clemson, they still had losses vs Georgia Tech and NCST. These are programs Miami expects to beat every year.
In a weaker conference like the ACC a lot of people thought that Mario would have Miami back to the top in no time, but a couple middle of the pack seasons has some doubting in Marios ability to bring Miami back to college footballs best.
On the bright side Mario brings in the #4 overall recruiting class and the #13 transfer class. Mario was brought into Miami in part because of his ability to recruit. He did great work in the 2024 class bringing in 1 5-star prospect and 14 4-star prospects. 8 of those being top prospects in the state, a state loaded with talent that every team in the country tries to recruit.
Marios best get in recruiting was getting highly talented QB Cam Ward who came to Miami from Washington St. Ward completed 67% of his passes last year while stacking up a 25-7 TD-INT ratio. Ward is also talented on the ground partnering with his arm. Ward stacked up 8 TDs rushing in 2023.
Miami has a schedule very manageable in 2024. They do have a tough opening match up headed to the Swamp week one for a rivalry game on national TV. But Florida has struggled as much as the Canes if not more in recent years. They have home games vs FL A&M, Ball St, VT, FSU, Duke, Wake Forest. They play on the road vs UF, USF, Cal, UL, GT, and Syracuse. If they can win their games they are going to be favored in and win 1 vs UF, UL, FSU, I can see an 8-9 win season for the Canes.
Shane Beamer
Shane Beamer comes into his 4th season in 2024 as the Gamecocks head coach. Beamer has a 20-18 record, has head coach in Columbia. Beamer has a 7 win and 8-win season in his first two years in Columbia before going 5-7 in 2023.
Beamer has yet to have a winning conference record in the SEC as head coach of the Gamecocks. Going 3-5 in 2021, 4-4 in 2022, and 3-5 in 2023. Beamer has not had the football gods on his side when it comes to the Gamecocks schedule. A schedule that has consisted of UGA, UK, UT, AM, and Clemson most years. To Beamers’ credit they have not had an unacceptable loss to a non-power 5 or bottom SEC team.
With the SEC going away from divisions it doesn’t get any easier in 2024. The Gamecocks will host Old Dominion, LSU, Akron, Ole Miss, Texas AM, Missouri, and Wofford. While taking trips to UK, Alabama, OU, Vandy, and Clemson.
Beamer brings in the #22 recruiting class and #15 transfer class for 2024. Beamer and the Gamecocks will look to build talent and depth in a SEC conference littered with both of those. Beamers biggest win in Columbia was beating #8 Clemson in 2022. Beamer will look to add another signature win to that resume this year with plenty of opportunities on the schedule.
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