The college football coaching hot seat for 2021 was supposed to be crowded.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, sources widely expected schools to be hesitant to make coaching changes, mindful of the cost for already-crunched athletic department budgets. Just wait for 2021, they said. It will be wild.
Then, South Carolina fired Will Muschamp, and Vanderbilt soon followed in jettisoning Derek Mason. Illinois (Lovie Smith) and Arizona (Kevin Sumlin) were next. Then a big, somewhat unexpected domino at Auburn, which dumped longtime hot-seat resident Gus Malzahn.