This wasn’t supposed to be a huge year on the coaching carousel unlike last year’s wild ride. But at just the midway point of the season, the sport has already had a ton of activity with Nebraska, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Colorado and Arizona State all firing coaches. There are a few other coaches who are also sitting on a really, really hot seat. Expect more coaching turnover to happen this month and to carry over to the end of the 2022 season.

Here’s The Athletic’s latest assessment after talks with numerous industry sources about the FBS coaching landscape.

AAC

Philip Montgomery, Tulsa: It’s Year 8 for Montgomery and he’s had only three winning seasons. His career record is 40-50. He’s done a pretty solid job overall and closed last season with a four-game winning streak to finish 7-6 and stick around for another season. The school handed him a two-year extension through 2024 right before its season finale. This year, though, things started very shakily with a loss at Wyoming, and Tulsa is just 2-4. Aside from a win over FCS Jacksonville State, the Golden Hurricane won a close one against a struggling NIU squad and against FCS Jacksonville State before losing three in a row, including a 32-point blowout loss against Navy. Going 4-2 in the second half isn’t unrealistic; of Tulsa’s remaining opponents, only Memphis and Tulane have winning records. The school didn’t want a change last year, and barring the bottom dropping out over the next two months, it probably won’t now, either. But this is one to monitor. Temperature check: Kind of warm.

Jeff Scott, USF: USF has tried to be patient with the former Clemson assistant after his dismal first two seasons, in which his team went 3-18 overall and 1-14 in AAC play. This season hasn’t gone much better — on paper, at least. The Bulls are 1-6. The kind of good news for Scott is that USF almost won at Cincinnati last week and played Florida close, losing by only three in Gainesville. The defense has to get better if things are going to improve. Games at Temple, at Tulsa and against SMU appear to be the Bulls’ best hopes to get to four wins. Short of that, it might be a tough sell to expect more patience from the USF brass. Temperature check: Getting warmer.

Ryan Silverfield, Memphis: The former O-line coach was a hot commodity before getting the Memphis job. Silverfield was a key piece in this program’s rise. He had a solid first two seasons considering his tenure began in the pandemic, going 8-3 and then 6-6.  This year his team got off to a good start, opening 4-1, and had a big lead at home against Houston before the Cougars had a wild comeback in the last two minutes. That was followed by a 47-45 overtime loss at ECU to drop Memphis to 4-3 with Tulane and UCF, a combined 12-2, up next. There is already a lot of chirping locally about Silverfield’s stability. We think Silverfield should be safe barring a terrible second half of the season, but for a program that had six consecutive seasons of eight wins or better before he took over, and just getting bowl eligible doesn’t mean what it used to. Temperature check: Getting warmer. 

ACC

Scott Satterfield, Louisville: This one has taken quite a turn since his first season, when he did a terrific job rallying both the locker room and the fan base in the wake of the dreadful tone of the Bobby Petrino era. Satterfield had won big at his previous job, Appalachian State, where he won 40 games in his final four years, then he sparked the Cardinals from two wins to eight in his debut season. However, when his name was in the mix for the South Carolina job, some Louisville power brokers were really irked. Since that first season, he’s had consecutive losing years and is 3-3 so far this season.

The good news: He’s putting together potentially the best recruiting class in school history. The not-good news: After Louisville lost to struggling Boston College, his seat got a lot hotter. Winning last week at Virginia for the Cardinals’ first ACC victory, and doing it without star quarterback Malik Cunningham, helped, but the pressure will remain for the rest of the season. We hear his athletic director is still in his corner, but some influential people around the program are not. This feels like a steep hill to climb considering that after Louisville plays Pitt, the remaining five games are all against teams that have been ranked: Wake Forest, James Madison, at Clemson, NC State and at Kentucky. Temperature check: Pretty hot.