This offseason's coaching carousel has almost come to a stop. There will continue to be some new position coach hires through the spring and maybe even a few coordinators changing jobs. But barring an off-the-field episode that embarrasses the university, no more head coaches will be fired. If things don't turn around soon, though, several coaches could find themselves in hot water, on hot seats, and in various other states of uncomfortable employment-related warmth in 2015. Bob Stoops

After whooping Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Oklahoma came into 2014 with expectations of competing for a national championship. Instead, the Sooners went 8-5, their worst record since Bob Stoops’ first year as their coach, including a 40-6 annihilation in the Russell Athletic Bowl.

In a vacuum, a season such as this wouldn’t be cause to put someone on the hot seat. But Bob Stoops doesn’t coach in a vacuum; he coaches in Norman, Okla., where fans are keenly aware that he hasn’t won a national championship since 2000. OU supporters aren’t accustomed to waiting 15+ years for their next title.

Kirk Ferentz

During his 16 years in Iowa City, Kirk Ferentz has won 10 or more games just four times. The last time he did it was 2009. The Hawkeyes won 10 regular season games and the Orange Bowl. Since then, it’s been all they can do to break even in conference play and in 2012 they couldn’t even manage that, stumbling to a 4-8 record and missing out on a bowl appearance for the first time since 2000.

The 2014 iteration of the Iowa Hawkeyes wasn’t especially talented, but an extremely favorable draw from the Big Ten East made a 4-4 record in conference play difficult to stomach.

So what’s Ferentz’s master plan for turning things around? Hoping C.J. Beathard and Jake Rudock become the next Aaron Rodgers.

Good luck, Kirk.

Steve Spurrier

If you’d asked South Carolina fans a year ago what they thought about Steve Spurrier, you would’ve been hard-pressed to unearth anything but obsequious adoration. But minds changed quickly when a top 10 preseason ranking ended in a disappointing 7-6 campaign, underscored by three blown fourth-quarter, two-touchdown leads.

After losing the Clemson for the first time in five years, Spurrier threw the Gamecocks’ recruiting efforts into a tailspin by telling the press that he only planned to be around for 2-3 more years. And his reluctance to make badly needed staff changes while other SEC staffs made considerable upgrades has begun to make fans wonder if he’s still the right man for the job.

Al Golden

Al Golden dresses like a 10-year-old trying on his dad’s work clothes and, as it happens, that’s a rather apt metaphor for the work he’s done at Miami. With a 16-16 conference record in four seasons with the Hurricanes, Golden is out of his depth at a program that has won five national championships in the lifetime of today’s 31-year-old.

Still, Golden seemed to have put all speculation about his job security to bed when the Hurricanes got out to a 6-2 start in 2014, with promising freshman quarterback Brad Kaaya running the offense. But Miami lost its last five games, stumbling to a 6-7 finish that included a loss to Steve Spurrier’s not especially good South Carolina Gamecocks.

Derek Mason

How in the world do you end up on the hot seat after your first year coaching Vanderbilt? Lose all of your conference games by double digits, almost losing to UMass and Charleston Southern, and firing both of your coordinators at the end of the season. That’s how.

Mason doesn’t need to restore to restore the Commodores to Franklin era adequacy in 2015, but he does need to provide some ray of hope that the SEC isn’t going to chew him up and spit him out.

