In this week’s Thursday 10, we examine the Power Five coaches with the toughest climbs ahead of them.

This could be coaches who need to win now in order to keep their jobs – those who appear to be lame ducks – or those at programs where the jobs came with a significant roster deficit compared to the rest of the conference.

Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M: To explain Sumlin’s place on this list, we take you to Texas A&M Athletic Director Scott Woodward: “Coach Sumlin knows he has to win. He has to win this year. He has to do better than he has done in the past.” – Woodward on the Paul Finebaum Show.

Athletic directors are rarely that candid. With Woodward’s words, he confirmed one of the worst kept secrets in college football – Sumlin is on the hot seat. This list isn’t necessarily a group of coaches in trouble, but few coaches face more of a challenge in 2017 than Sumlin. He’s gone 8-5 three straight seasons at a place with outsized expectations. Boosters have circled for a while now. In order to keep his job, Sumlin will have to return to his 2012 form when the Aggies went 11-2 overall.

In the SEC West, with a defense filled with holes and likely a freshman quarterback, that's almost an impossible task.

Matt Rhule, Baylor: Unlike the previous Texas resident, Rhule has about as much job security as one could ever ask for. Baylor pulled Rhule away from Temple with a seven-year contract, almost an unheard of length in college sports. There’s a reason for that; Rhule is all but starting anew in Waco.

The ongoing sexual assault scandal and the wake of Art Briles’ firing left Baylor’s program in shambles. Baylor saw an exodus of talent from both its roster and its 2016 class following Briles’ departure, and Rhule had just under two months to put together an entire 2017 signing class last cycle. That means the Bears' roster is missing critical Big 12-caliber depth from two straight recruiting groups. That alone can cripple a program. Add to that the needed culture overhaul and the continually-hanging cloud over the program, and Baylor is a program that will likely take years to establish again.

Make no mistake, Baylor is a good job. It’s in a football-rich state with state-of-the-art facilities. It’s just going to be a few years – as a best-case scenario – for the Bears to contend for Big 12 titles again.

Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss: Freeze might maintain his innocence, but history suggests schools hit with a charge of “Lack of Institutional Control” eventually get hammered by the NCAA. That’s the position Freeze finds himself in as the leader of a program squarely in the NCAA’s crosshairs. The Rebels are already ineligible to go to a bowl in 2017, and much more stringent sanctions are likely coming down the road.

Ole Miss took a stand earlier this month and stood by Freeze. Freeze is arguably the most successful coach at Ole Miss in the last half century. It just hard to see a future in which the Rebels are competitive again in the near future – and when that happens, coaches lose jobs sooner or later.

Chris Ash, Rutgers: You can win at Rutgers. Greg Schiano and Kyle Flood proved that during the Scarlet Knights’ days in the Big East. Ash is a good coach, too. A well-respected coordinator at Ohio State under Urban Meyer, he earned a Power Five job at 41 years old for a reason. There’s just one problem: Rutgers is now in the Big Ten East.

A program with a roster just now turning over from being in the Group of Five – Rutgers’ 2017 recruiting class is its fourth in the Big Ten – the Scarlet Knights face a significant uphill climb in a division that features Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Michigan State. All four of those programs have been in playoff contention at least once the last two years. In fact, the Scarlet Knights combined to lose 224-0 against those four teams a year ago.

Rutgers is a place where you can recruit well (New Jersey is an underrated producer of talent) and eventually field a solid mid-level Big Ten team. But the gap between Rutgers and the rest of the Big Ten East is massive at the moment. Ash will do his best to close it. There’s just no telling if he’ll have the time to do so.

David Beaty, Kansas: Like Rutgers, Kansas is a place where one can conceivably win. Anyone remember the Jayhawks in the Orange Bowl? Yeah, that actually happened, and it’s only been 10 years! Since then, roster mismanagement has turned Kansas into a national laughing stock. It’s telling that Kansas’ defining moment of the decade, a win over Texas last season, triggered Charlie Strong’s firing. Kansas has been so bad, losing to the Jayhawks has turned into a damming indictment.

Beaty, entering his third year, unquestionably inherited a mess. Charlie Weis went heavy on JUCO transfers in a win-now move a few years ago, and the result was the Power Five’s worst roster when Beaty took over in 2015. And you know what? The Jayhawks have gotten better. 0-12 looked horrible in 2015, but Kansas won twice in 2016 and played teams like Ohio, TCU, and Iowa State to within a score. The only problem for Beaty is time. Progress in a project like this is painstakingly slow. Even if Kansas takes a huge step forward in 2017, it’ll likely only mean three or four wins. Fair or not, those results over a extended period cost coaches jobs.

Kansas’ administration knew what Beaty took over. It’s just rare that the foundation layer ever gets to reap the benefits of what they tried to build.

Mark Dantonio, Michigan State: Two years ago Michigan State’s magical season resulted in a College Football Playoff appearance. Flash to the present, and the Spartans are seemingly in shambles. Not only did Michigan State finish 3-9 a year ago, but arrest after arrest have rocked the program this offseason. The Spartans’ celebrated 2016 class has all but evaporated, and that’s the group that was supposed to restock the Spartans for another CFP run.

Only three FBS teams return fewer starters than Michigan State in 2017. Add in the off-field cloud and overall roster dearth, and Dantonio’s job looks considerably different than it did two years ago. Dantonio has proven himself one of the best coaches in the country over the last decade, and it’s going to take every ounce of that acumen to yank the Spartans back to national contention.

Lovie Smith, Illinois: The Illini made a splash hire with Smith a year ago. The former head coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Smith is well known and respected in coaching circles. But, he had not coached in college since 1995 when he was the defensive backs coach at Ohio State. Still, a big name coach in a state with plenty of recruiting talent should work out right? Well … one also has to consider that Illinois has managed three winning seasons since the turn of the century, none of which came consecutively.

Smith took over a roster without a singular vision – his predecessor Bill Cubit received only one season – and with an average recruiting class ranking of 58th nationally over the previous four years. Add in that Illinois has always been a basketball-first program, and things did not set up well for Smith. That showed in his first year at 3-9. And though the Illini were by no means terrible, the gap between Illinois and the rest of the Big Ten West was evident.

Smith’s recruited better since taking over – his first full class in 2017 ranked 46th nationally – but there’s still a long road toward respectability for the Illini. Smith can certainly coach. It just remains to be seen if the 59-year-old former NFLer has the patience to manage a complete turnaround.

Rich Rodriguez, Arizona: Not too long ago Rodriguez seemed like a genius again. A mastermind at West Virginia and a pariah at Michigan, Rodriguez seemed to find his fit with the Wildcats, reaching the Fiesta Bowl in his third season in Tucson. But the last two campaigns haven’t gone nearly as well, especially last year when the Wildcats lost eight of their final nine games to stumble to a 3-9 finish. Part of that can be credited to injuries, but it remains a mystery as to why a team that pushed Washington to OT in Week 4 would start losing games by scores like 69-7 (against Washington State) later in the year.

Rodriguez should still have some built up goodwill. He’s 36-29 overall with four bowl appearances. But Arizona has both a new AD and president, which changes the equation. The Wildcats, which return 14 starters, should be better next season. They’ll just have to get better quick for Rodriguez’s sake. He has cachet at Arizona, but that only lasts so long in college football.

Todd Graham, Arizona State: Like Rodriguez, Graham arrived at Arizona State five years ago and found immediate success. And like Rodriguez, Graham’s seen his program struggle the last two seasons. So, like Rodriguez, Graham enters 2017 with plenty to prove. The Sun Devils – much like the Wildcats – were decimated by injury last season and finished 5-7. When combined with a 6-7 campaign the year before, things are trending the wrong direction for Graham.

The Arizona Republic reported last week Graham would not receive a contract extension this offseason. That, in of itself, is not a big deal. But considering Graham’s contract has been extended by one year every other offseason of his tenure, it’s telling about where he sits in the eyes of the administration.

Graham is going to have to get his shovel out this season to get out of the hole he’s dug.

Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech: A beloved son in Lubbock, it’s hard to believe Kingsbury is on this list. But here we are. Kingsbury, now all of 37 years of age, went 8-5 in his first season and had the Red Raiders ranked in the Top 10 at one point. Over the last three years, however, Texas Tech is just 16-21 overall. The Red Raiders have failed to topple a Top 25 team during that stretch. If it wasn’t for a massive contract extension through 2020 – given in the summer of 2014 – Kingsbury might’ve lost his job following a 5-7 2016 campaign.

Kingsbury’s main trapping has been the inability to field a defense. The last three seasons the Red Raiders have finished 126th (2014), 125th (2015) and 128th (2016) in points allowed. Kingsbury remains a brilliant offensive mind – Texas Tech finished fifth nationally in scoring offense a year ago – but defense is an issue that Kingsbury seems at a loss to fix.

There are still plenty of people rooting for Kingsbury in Lubbock, but it won't matter if he can’t fix a defense that’s seemed irredeemable.