Three teams are still finishing the race to the end of the 2024 season, but most are looking ahead to spring football and the 2025 season.

That includes the programs whose coaches now sit on a seat that could be sponsored by Char-Grill. There are five in particular who could really use a good year to avoid having to put their resumes on LinkedIn this fall.

Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State

He’s a man, and he’s no longer 40, and his teams are more likely to cough up 40 than score it any more.

Gundy’s tenure as the program’s coach has rarely been spectacular but usually consistent, until 2024. The Cowboys were picked by some to win the weakened Big 12 Conference after Oklahoma and Texas left for the SEC but instead tanked all the way to the league’s bottom, going 0-9.

And that was with nearly all their key players back. Gundy was about to lose his job but agreed to a restructured contract that eliminates the rollover clause and called for a slight pay cut. It also lowered the buyout in his deal.

Another year like 2024 and the former OSU quarterback will no longer be calling signals for the program.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma

Bowl games don’t mean what they used to because most programs are dealing with multiple opt-outs and portal departures, but the Sooners’ loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl was notable for two reasons.

One, because even with a diminished roster, a team good enough to beat Alabama by three touchdowns should be able to overpower a team full of guys majoring in thermonuclear engineering. Secondly, because it sealed the second losing year in Venables’ three seasons in Norman.

The former ace defensive coordinator at Clemson would be well advised not to try for three of four. Even the new six-year deal he inked in June 2024 and its hefty buyout might not be able to save him if he rolls another 6-7.

Lincoln Riley, USC

Underachieving with a talented roster? Check. Hostile relationship with big-city media? Check. The inability to fix persistent weaknesses? Check.

If you’re evaluating Riley on what he hasn’t done, you’ve hit just about every square on the bingo card. If you’re evaluating him on what the Trojans paid him $110 million to do over a 10-year contract—namely, win championships—then he’s falling way short.

Face it: USC should contend every year for the Big Ten title and contend a few times a decade for the national title. A reported buyout of around $80 million attached to Riley’s contract is helping keep him around, but that’s only going to last so long if this program keeps slumming in third-tier bowls at the end of every season.

Hugh Freeze, Auburn

Putting the Auburn coach on this list is by definition low-hanging fruit just because it’s Auburn. Putting Freeze on there is perfectly legitimate, considering how disappointing his early returns have been on the Plains.

Freeze is 0-for-2 in producing winning seasons and couldn’t even make it to a bowl game this year. At a program whose boosters don’t care to spend millions of dollars to buy out losing football coaches, Freeze can probably hear the clock ticking right now.

If Freeze can’t coax better play from his quarterbacks in 2025, Tiger boosters are going to dip into their buyout budgets again.

Mike Norvell, Florida State

From snubbed in 2023 to just plain awful in 2024. It’s hard to think of a program that experienced such a 180-degree change in fortunes as the Seminoles did.

They went from 13-1 and Atlantic Coast Conference champs—and snubbed for a spot in the 2023 semifinals—to 2-10 and ridiculed by everyone in the sport. That it was suing the ACC for mismanaging media rights and imposing huge exit fees while it went into the tank? Classic.

To his credit, Norvell donated $4.5 million of his yearly salary to help with NIL and also made sweeping staff changes. But if those don’t result in more wins in 2025, Norvell won’t be around for 2026.