The Josh Innes Show - Who Will Be The First SEC Coach Fired?

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

It's truly remarkable how much money SEC football coaches make. Imagine the pressure of coaching in that league. But, then again, is it really pressure? Sure, you may get fired after a few years. But, you'll get bought out and get to live the Coach O life. Anywho, who is the most likely coach to be fired first in the SEC? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I don't know if there's a more stressful job than that of a head coach in the SEC. I don't think it exists. I mean, college football and college basketball in general are stressful jobs. More so college football because more people care about college football. But it is a stressful thing. They don't give you any time, man. Let me play a couple commercials here. Let's get into that.

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Did she pay full price? Or that leather tote? Or that cashmere sweater? Or those knee-high boots? That dress? that jacket, those shoes. Is anyone paying full price for anything? Stop wondering. Start winning. Winners, find Fabulous for less. That's the thing. Like, I work in radio, right? And they're on a ton of radio jobs anymore.

But they're, I feel like this radio station I'm at is going to give me time, right? Like, I feel like they're going to give me time to find some numbers, find an audience, because they realize that, you know, I'm inheriting a situation that isn't the most ideal. You know, this isn't like going to St. Louis where you've got this legendary radio station that's, you know, down, but, you know, could go up. This isn't Nashville where it was kind of a sleeping giant. We're getting fucking pummeled. So I think they're going to give me time to figure it out. We don't even have a full show put together yet.

So, like, they'll give me time. And after three years or two and a half years or two years, because my deal's three years, you know, obviously you want to see some sort of growth pretty soon. But I've been on the air for a month, basically. In ratings world, I've been on the air for a month. So they're going to give me some form of leeway. Also, I don't make a fucking dime, relatively speaking, right? Like, I used to make a lot more money at every other job I've been at. As we've talked about on here before, I made more money.

Basically, the only other time I made less money than I do now base is when I first got to Houston and was making $35,000 a year. That is the only time I have made less than I am making now. That goes back to 2009, the end of 2009. So in November, that will be 16 years when I got to Houston, 16 years ago. And this is the lowest base pay I have had since then. So this is not an impressive salary, but I took it because I knew this was my chance to get back in, and I knew it was a place I wanted to be.

And I believed in the situation, right? So I took the job. I had nothing else. I had nowhere else to go. So what was I going to do? I said, you know what? They knew they had me over a barrel. I had no leverage whatsoever.

I was desperate for the gig, so I took it. And so it's a little bit different than your SEC coaches who are all getting paid, you know, at least $3, $4 million a year. I don't know what exactly the salary rankings are. But you know, the higher-end guys are making $10, $11, $12 million a year. Even the lower guys that you've never fucking heard of that are coaching at Mississippi State or Clark Lee at Vanderbilt. Those guys are all making, you know, huge sums of money that probably get into the $4 or $5 million.

I don't know what the, honest to God, for the life of me, I can't name the coach at Mississippi State. He just had like the biggest win they've had in forever. But I would imagine even he's making three to four million. Sam Pittman at Arkansas is probably making like five, six million. SEC football coaches salaries. Let's see here. I would imagine Kirby's the highest paid. Let's see.

As if I know him. With the name like Kirby, you can call them by their first name, right? Like, I've never met Kirby Smart. I don't know him, but instead of saying, well, I imagine Kirby Smart is making blank. I go, oh, Kirby. I would imagine Kirby is making this. But let's see. Now, this is from 2024, so maybe it's changed.

But let's see here. Let's see, Billy Napier. Like, the low end now is $3.1 million. Now, that's two years ago, so it's probably gone up a little bit. But Clark Lee at Vanderbilt is the lowest paid coach in the... the SEC at 3.19 million. So the low end is over $3 million. The high end is Kirby Smart, who's making 13.2. Sark is making over 10. Kalin DeBoer, boy, that buyout's going to be sexy, ain't it? He's making $10 million a year, and Brian Kelly 9.9, and I'm sure those things have changed.

Think about this. You want to hear something crazy. Mark Stoops, who's firmly on the hot seat at Kentucky, one of the longest tenured coaches in college football, who would have known? This dude is making $9 million a year, and he's had basically two good seasons at Kentucky. Now, you could say, well, that's Kentucky. They're not expected to be a great football program. They are not expected to be a top football program relative to an LSU or a Florida or an Ohio state, where it's like, hey, the expectations are national champions. But the expectations at Kentucky football, when you're paying a coach $9 million,

are better than, you know, five and seven, six, and six, right? So Mark Stoops, probably on the way out there. But if you look at him, he's the ninth highest paid coach in America. Now, again, this is 2024, so things have probably changed a little bit. But the ninth highest paid coach in America is Mark Stoops at Kentucky. And this guy doesn't win Dick. Lane Kiffin makes nine I mean look

Drinkwits at Missouri makes nine Josh Heipel makes nine Like that's the going rate for an SEC coach These buyouts are astronomical So you look at these guys And I bring up their salaries to tell you that even at the low end SEC schools You've got guys making four and a half

Shane Beamer at South Carolina Who probably makes more now I would imagine maybe you got a raise But like six and a half million Sam Pittman at Arkansas They don't win shit in Arkansas, $6.5 million. Hugh Freeze at Auburn, $6.7 million. My point being in all of this is these dudes make sick bank at the SEC.

So there's more pressure. There's no pressure on dickhead radio guy who comes to Detroit to make nothing. Like, I could probably stick around forever because, like, who gives a shit? Right. They're like, I make so little money here that I am inconsequential salary-wise. Like, this is the way to fly under the radar. Just don't make any money. The second you make money, especially in radio, the current state of radio now,

the second your ass is making any money, you become a target. I make so little money base right now that I am not even a target. I don't think I'm a target. That's what always fascinates me when you see people get fired, like these mass layoffs at radio companies. And they go, well, you know, they fired like, you know, four people from, I don't know, Austin, and four people from Omaha and Nebraska. And you're like, if your company is allegedly billion dollars in debt, like Odyssey, right? One of these radio companies like Odyssey.

And your company's allegedly billions of dollars in debt and your stock prices are through the floor right now, like the lowest they've ever been, how is firing somebody who makes $37,000 a year in Des Moines going to save anything? Like, why are those the people to get fired? Like, you would think, like, if you're going to fire anybody, like, hey, what about the people that make, you know, 500,000? and maybe that would make it dent. But when you're billions of dollars in the hole anyway, like money's not even real at that point, right? Like when you're that far in the hole,

when it's billions of dollars, hundreds of millions to billions of dollars allegedly in debt and in the hole and your stock prices are pennies, who gives a fuck at this point? It's funny money. It's fucking monopoly money. Do whatever the fuck you want to do?

Just go with it. But anyway, and I think about companies like Odyssey who do that, you know, like you see people get fired all the time and you're like, ah, well, I can't imagine that person was making that much. Now, the argument would be, well, you fire a bunch of people that make $50,000, $60,000 a year, and it will add up. Will any of that truly add up when you are hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole? I don't know. Like, at that point, you just kind of ride with it, right?

I don't know. But I bring that up, again, to get into the SEC coaches thing. So this story, basically it's to say this, that in the SEC, in terms of overall salary, The lowest it goes in terms of national ranking is 59th. Clarkley is allegedly 59th. Now, again, that could very well be different now because they've had a good year, I believe, since. Actually, this is just, I'm talking about 2024, like it was 10 years ago. Like, these are probably pretty accurate.

Like, I was thinking that it was like 2027 right now. I have no idea where my brain's at. But you've got Clarkley, who's 59th in America and salary. But if you look at the high end, the upper end of the SEC, the top nine coaches in the SEC. They are all within the top 15 of coaches across the country. So there is pressure. There is huge pressure. And really, a lot of that pressure was created by one Nick Saban. I think Nick Saban put so much pressure on other coaches in the SEC because when someone gets hired, they are hired and compared to Nick Saban. You know, not everybody's going to win six national titles and be the

greatest college football coach ever. Like, not everybody can do that. But, you know, not everybody can do that. But when you hire Josh Hyple at Tennessee, or you hire Lane Kiffin at Old Miss, or you hire Brent Venables at Oklahoma, you are hiring those guys because you want that guy to be your Nick Sabin. And when he's not your Nick Sabin, you get a bunch of boosters that have like bottomless pits of cash. And they're like, all right, fuck this guy. You're fired. And we're bringing in the guy that can be the next Nick Saban. So you don't have a long window. And like Billy Napier at Florida was a great is, like he's going to get fired. Billy Napier. There is not a scenario where Billy Napier is long-term going to be the head coach at Florida.

Like, Brian Kelly's going to be the head coach at LSU for at least a couple more years, right? He makes a ton of cash. They're never going to lose enough to fire him, right? Like, unless they fall off a cliff this year and win four games and put the pressure on, and then the next year you lose seven games, then you might fire him, okay? But I also don't believe Brian Kelly's ever going to get to a point where he's winning fewer than eight games in a season at LSU. Not that that's the gold standard, but the more teams you put in the play, the better schedules you play. Winning eight or nine games can kind of keep you around, right? You can survive.

Like, imagine you're these SEC coaches that got fired over all these years before there was a playoff because you're not Nick Sabin. And maybe you won eight games or nine games, but it wasn't good enough because you weren't Nick Sabin or you weren't Kirby Smart. Imagine you look at those situations now and you're like, you're like, you're motherfuckers. You mean to tell me that we're going to have a playoff. And then pretty soon we might have a playoff that's, you know, 16 teams and 20-something teams and 30-something teams. And basically being at an SEC school with, I don't know, nine wins almost guarantees you a spot in a new playoff if it ever comes to 32 teams. They're going to put almost every nine-win, good-schedged SEC team they can in a tournament. You're like, I could have made the playoffs every fucking year, but instead I happen to coach in an era where two teams made the championship game and everybody else was a failure.

Like imagine yourself. I'm trying to like Dan Mullen. like Dan Mullen at Florida I know that Dan Mullen had some worse seasons than nine wins but there were plenty of dudes that could win nine games in the SEC 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago plenty of dudes who could do that.

You can just get enough talent and roll out of bed win eight or nine games, play a tough schedule, get your ass into the dance. Now, almost anybody again. There's no need to fire anybody because most of these guys are going to stay around and fight for playoff spots as the playoff continues to expand.

But anyway, the list. is this. It is Billy Napier versus the field. Who will be the first SEC coach fired? It's hard to believe that Billy Napier's been there four years, by the way. I think he was the sexy name that people in Baton Rouge wanted when they hired Brian Kelly. He was doing big things over at Louisiana Lafayette, or they call themselves Louisiana, which is dumb. You are not Louisiana. You are Louisiana Lafayette. but let's see he has the he is the most likely guy to get whacked I mean look he was going to get whacked last year and then they finished strong at the end of the year and kind of bounce back but here's the question this is from a podcast SEC football unfiltered who will be the first in the SEC Billy Napier or someone from the field okay Adams the person on this

podcast it's risky business picking Napier to win something but I'd take Napier to win this competition to be the first SEC coach fired. Florida faces a brutal schedule with four consecutive ranked opponents on deck. Three of those games will be played on the road. Napier won't be the last SEC coach fired this season, but he'll be the first. I look at, like, I don't know. He may be that. Well, I think Stoops will also get fired. But I don't think Stoops, and I don't know

what his buyout is. But I would imagine Stoops will probably be, I wouldn't take Stoops to be the first. but he'll be in there too. Like if you just had to say which coaches are going to get fired, all right? I don't think Jeff Leby just bought himself all sorts of goodwill by winning that game against Arizona State. So Jeff Leby ain't getting fired. Clark Lee ain't getting fired. Shane Beamer ain't getting fired.

Sam Pittman may get fired. I would put Pittman on the list of May. Hugh Freeze is not getting fired. Mike Elko's not getting fired. Brent Venables is not getting fired unless they fall off a cliff. Josh Hypole, Eli Drinkwitz, Lane, Mark Stubes, Brian Kelly. Kalin DeBore may get fired. I doubt it, though.

There's too much of a buyout. Sark ain't getting fired and Kirby ain't getting fired. So out of the 16 SEC coaches, the ones that have a realistic shot of being fired this year, would almost be expected to be fired are Sam Pittman in Arkansas, Napier at Florida, and Mark Stoops at Kentucky. I think those three guys are almost guaranteed. Like there is nothing those guys can do. I mean, you talk about Florida's schedule.

Florida wins the next four games or goes three and one in these next games, really losing that game to South Florida kicked them in the balls. Because you could have gone 2 and 0 in the early games and survived those, then go 3 in 1 in your tough stretch year. And you're still a one-loss football team and you're 5-1 and you've beaten three-ranked teams. So unless they go perfect in that stretch and you're a 9-10 win team, I'm going to guess that the dude's out. And I think he's coaching like a guy.

Like, he knows it's probably the end of the road. Sam Pittman probably knows it's the end of the road. Arkansas is never going to be a power program, but they should be better than winning six fucking games and accepting it every year. They have too much money involved in the program. They got Tyson money and Walmart money. They got cash. If their basketball program can go out,

like, if I'm Sam Pittman and I say our basketball program go out and hire Calipari, like I know there's fucking money and I know they're one of my ass out of here. Like, I know my time is ticking. So, Pittman's going to be gone at the end of this year. Napier's going to be gone at the end of this year and Stoops. I would say that Stoops and Pittman are locks to be gone. They just make too much money for the results they're getting. And it's probably just time for somebody new because Mark Stoops has been in fucking Kentucky for like 17 years.

It's absurd. And then I would say, if I rank the top three from number one, most likely, to number three, I'd say Stoops is the most likely to get fired Even more so than Napier Because Napier could almost do something to save it I don't think Stoops can I'd go Stoops

I'd go Pittman Because maybe Pittman wins eight games And they're like I'll fuck it But I just think Stoops has been too long at Kentucky They don't win enough at Kentucky He makes $9 million a year The ninth highest paid coach in the country Kentucky's obviously got money to pay a coach

They're not going to keep paying a guy who can't win Dick $9 million. That is stupid. So I'd say Stoops is number one, Pittman and Napier. But Napier can probably play himself into number one. They get their ass kicked against LSU. After losing to South Florida, they roll into Baton Rouge

and get their ass kicked where they're a nine-point underdog somehow. He might get fired tomorrow or Monday. Anyway, more to come.