This Week in Coaching: Mounting heat on Scott Satterfield, Jeff Scott pleads for patience and a fizzled feud between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher

Two more Power 5 jobs came open this week, but don’t be surprised to see Twitter trending with more BREAKING NEWS firings again as soon as this weekend. 

We’ve had a Sunday sacking every week of the 2022 season so far, and somehow, Bryan Harsin is still employed at Auburn. 

So what’s next? Let’s take a look at the latest This Week in Coaching.

The Tigers continue to trot Harsin out each Saturday, with an imaginary guillotine hanging over the poor castigated head coach. Auburn has a road trip to No. 2 Georgia this weekend, so a move could come soon as a loss would leave Harsin with a losing record with the Tigers.

Or maybe not. 

Auburn is currently juggling a search for its next athletics director, so while Harsin’s fate seems inevitable, the uncertainty in timing only makes the situation even more embarrassingly awkward. 

But that’s just Auburn.

Meanwhile, another Power 5 job that could open this fall is Louisville. 

Just two years ago, Scott Satterfield had to mend fences with an angry fan base after he flirted with South Carolina’s vacancy. 

The heat has only ratcheted up on Satterfield with more poor showings on the field, as the Cardinals are 0-3 in ACC play in 2022. 

Satterfield inherited a tough situation following the failed Bobby Petrino 2.0 experiment, but after a surprising 8-5 season in 2019 in Year 1, the Cardinals are just 12-17 in the conference. 

They were upset by a banged-up Boston College team last weekend and were embarrassed in Week 1 at Syracuse. 

Louisville catches a break Saturday, playing at Virginia — the worst team in the ACC this season. 

But then the schedule gets dicey.

Road games at Clemson and Kentucky, plus tilts with Pitt, the reigning ACC Champs, Wake Forest, James Madison, perhaps the best team in the Sun Belt, and NC State. 

The Cards could very conceivably lose six straight games to end the year, which would spell the end of Satterfield’s tenure.

Thanks to an aggressive NIL collective, the Cardinals have a strong 2023 recruiting class. But there’s belief that the majority of those prospects are locked into Louisville, regardless of the head coach. 

We’ll certainly see if that’s true, but that notion has only further amplified a group of influential boosters’ desire to get their Prodigal Son Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm to return home. 

Elsewhere, several Group of 5 openings could occur later this fall. North Texas, Texas State, FAU and USF are all jobs potentially in play. 

Bulls head coach Jeff Scott, who is just 4-21 at South Florida, pleaded his case for patience to local media Wednesday. 

“Nobody likes where we are, but we’re not going to get to where we want to go just by continuing to push reset,” said Scott, who has just a single victory over an FBS team in four years. 

Scott, who received a two-year extension in January, pointed to USF’s tough non-conference schedule — made years earlier by a different AD — as a primary reason for their slow start in 2022. 

The Bulls were blown out by Louisville, and also took losses to then-No. 25 BYU, No. 18 Florida and ECU. 

“Not making excuses, but it is reality,” Scott said. 

“If our non-conference schedule, which was determined five years ago … if it was a little bit different than it is right now, we’re 3-2 and everybody’s high-fiving and feeling great.” 

In just over the last decade, USF is a program that has burned through ADs and school presidents — with three apiece. Scott is also the Bulls’ fifth head coach since 2010. 

He made the argument that because of where the program was at when he took over — one with no stability, infrastructure or modern facilities — he needs more time to build. 

“This is not a program that you can just come in two years and change a few things, and all of a sudden you’re winning 11 games,” he said. 

“It’s very easy to say, ‘Man, look at our record. We’re not doing what we want to do. We just need to blow it all up and start over.’ But that would be a mistake to do, because at the end of the day we are seeing progress.”

The Bulls will be underdogs in their final seven games of the 2022 season, so we’ll find out how strongly AD Mike Kelly believes in that “progress” if there are no tangible on-field results. 

A FIZZLED FEUD

Remember when everyone circled Texas A&M at Alabama as the GAME OF THE YEAR following the May mudslinging between Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher?

Well, the feud fizzled at the SEC Spring Meetings, and now, the whole kerfuffle is straight yesterday’s news, as both coaches are dealing with more pressing in-season issues.

“That’s over with,” Fisher said on Monday. 

“He and I are in great shape. We’ve moved on. We’ve moved on. We’re in good shape, we’ve moved on.”

Saban dealing with quarterback uncertainty, as he isn’t sure whether Crimson Tide star Bryce Young will play against the Aggies on Saturday night as he nurses a shoulder injury. As for Fisher, he is actually beefing with local media who continue to pepper him with questions about A&M’s listless offense.  

After a 42-24 loss at Mississippi State, Fisher is under pressure to make changes to an Aggies attack that hasn’t looked like a modern offense in five seasons under the former Florida State head coach. 

Fisher calls the plays, and has shown an unwillingness to adapt, adjust or simplify his antiquated scheme, which has resulted in Texas A&M’s offense being about as spicy as milk. 

That’s your Oct. 8 storyline right now. 

Despite all their blue-chip recruits, the Aggies can’t generate explosive plays. They don’t have a quarterback. They’re going to get housed in Tuscaloosa — ironically, regardless of whoever plays quarterback for the Tide.  

It’s a good thing Fisher has $86 million guaranteed on his contract because, while the feud is over, Nick Saban is going to cash some checks on his behalf this weekend. 

COORDINATOR OF THE WEEK TO WATCH

North Carolina at Miami isn’t among the marquee games, but it’s an important Saturday for Hurricanes first-year offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. 

Gattis has come under fire down in Coral Gables, as Miami’s offense sputtered through September and quarterback Tyler Van Dyke looked nothing the league’s preseason pick for All-ACC. 

After a 2-2 start, the Canes are averaging just 23 points per game against FBS competition. Van Dyke was benched in the loss to MTSU. They’ve thrown for just four touchdowns, with three interceptions. They rank No. 114th nationally in explosive plays over 20 yards. 

The good news for Gattis, who won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant at Michigan in 2021, is that Miami’s offense should find success (and confidence) against a porous North Carolina defense. 

The Tar Heels can light up the scoreboard (45.4 points per game), so Miami will need to match touchdowns — especially with its own defensive concerns (6.1 yards per play allowed is the worst in the ACC). 

But Gene Chizik’s defense has typically obliged this fall. UNC is last in the ACC in yards allowed, it doesn’t force many turnovers and can’t get off the field on third down. The Tar Heels are surrendering nearly 200 yards rushing per game. 

Gattis has had two weeks to prepare for UNC. He needs to have a well-executed gameplan, and answers for a group of guys looking for some confidence. 

He seems to understand the stakes, too, saying earlier this week, “We’ve got to up our level. … We’ve got to come together. 

“We’ve got to find out what our players to do best. We’ve got to do that. And we’ve got to do that not just Monday through Friday, but that’s got to show up on Saturdays. I think that’s a very key, important piece in the development phase. It’s just making sure that we’re able to go out there and execute things the way they should be on Saturday. That’s on us as coaches. 

“We’ve got to do a great job of developing these guys and instilling confidence and allowing those guys to go out there and play confident.” 

DID YOU KNOW?

In a major Pac-12 matchup on Saturday, No. 18 UCLA hosts No. 11 Utah at 3:30 p.m. (EST) in the Rose Bowl.

After handily beating Washington last weekend, Chip Kelly’s Bruins are quietly 5-0 and look like a contender out West.

If UCLA — just 1-point home favorites — win Saturday, it will be 6-0 for the first time since 2005. 

The Bruins head coach that season? Karl Dorrell, who was just fired at Colorado on Sunday. 

It’s the only year in Dorrell’s coaching career he won more than seven games (10-2) or a bowl game. 

QUOTABLE

“The ball kind of got rolling last year. The one big one I remember was USC the second week of the year, and my question would be if it’s that bad, why didn’t you do it a year ago or a half year ago. But that’s the world we’re living in right now. I’m not surprised but disappointed.”

— Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz on the early season firings of Scott Frost at Nebraska and Paul Chryst at Wisconsin.

He’s not wrong. If you’re making a coaching change in September or early October, you should’ve made a change after last season.