SEC's hot seat belongs to Florida's Will Muschamp

It's an annual exercise around here to survey the SEC landscape and determine which football coaches are under the greatest pressure entering the season.

Some years, it's a long list. This time around, it's pretty much one and done.

Will Muschamp of Florida is entering a make-good season. Everybody else is safe … or as safe as you ever are in the SEC.

OK, it's in Dan Mullen's best interest to build on last year's fast finish, where Mississippi State won its last three games, including an overtime victory over rival Ole Miss. And even though he's only been on the premises for one season, Bret Bielema isn't being paid $3 million-plus at Arkansas to go 3-9 again.

But the pressure on Mullen and Bielema is nothing compared to Muschamp. When it comes to coaching hot seats, his is on fire.

In this profession and in this conference, things can change in a flash. You're only as good as your last game. For everything Nick Saban has accomplished at Alabama, some Crimson Tide fans have taken note that he's riding a two-game losing streak.

It is a league in constant transition where football coaches are concerned. Remember Gene Chizik? In 2010 he won a national championship at Auburn. Two years later, he was out of a job.

The bulk of SEC coaches should get a pass this year. Half the league's coaches have been in their current jobs three seasons or less. Derek Mason of Vanderbilt is a rookie. Butch Jones, Mark Stoops, Gus Malzahn and Bielema are entering their second seasons, and Kevin Sumlin and Hugh Freeze are in year No. 3.

As cutthroat as the SEC may be — and there's no question about that — it's hard to put somebody on a hot seat after no more than two seasons.

There are exceptions, of course. Derek Dooley was so clueless at Tennessee that he was on a short leash entering his third year with the Vols in 2012. By midseason, he was a buyout waiting to happen.

Last year, Gary Pinkel of Missouri was unquestionably on the hot seat. His Tigers had gone 2-6 in their inaugural season in the SEC in 2012, and many of us wondered if his coaching system would transition from one conference to another.

Pinkel answered those concerns by coaching Missouri to the SEC East title last season and hanging tough with eventual national runner-up Auburn in the SEC Championship game before losing 59-42. There's nothing like jumping from 5-7 one season to 12-2 the next to turn a hot seat into a cool cushion.

And then there's Muschamp. After three seasons of wildly inconsistent football, he knows the score. He's only 13-11 in SEC games and 22-16 overall. He went from 11-2 and a Sugar Bowl berth in 2012 to just 4-8 last year, the first losing season at Florida since 1979.

He's facing an uphill battle. The Muschamp/Florida marriage has been a rocky one from the start. He's a defensive coach by training and Gators fans have been spoiled by potent offenses for the past quarter-century.

Steve Spurrier used to take pride in hanging what he called "half a hundred" on opposing teams. In the heady years between 1993-96, the Gators' average margin of victory was 24.3 points. After the failed Ron Zook experiment, Urban Meyer brought the spread and more gaudy offensive stats to Gainesville.

While Muschamp's defenses have been strong, he hasn't been able to get it right on offense. His future with the Gators may very well hinge on his hiring of Kurt Roper to run the offense. But changing coordinators is a desperate move that seldom works.

Muschamp should get the benefit of the doubt for cleaning up many of the messes left behind by Meyer — the arrests, the coddling of star players, harboring a nut job such as Aaron Hernandez for three years, etc.

But this is the SEC. Good deeds off the field are nice, but it's what happens between the lines that really counts.

For Will Muschamp, it's win or else.

David Climer's columns appear on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. Reach him at 615-259-8020 and on Twitter @DavidClimer.

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