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The LSU Tigers’ decision to part ways with head coach Brian Kelly on Sunday marks the third SEC coach to be fired thus far in the 2025 college football season. According to prominent ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum, he may not be the last SEC coach to lose their job by season’s end. Sam Pittman, Billy Napier, and now Brian Kelly round out the names of SEC coaches to lose their jobs thus far. However, there are others who certainly seem to be on the hot seat that Finebaum believes could very well lose their job if things continue to go downhill. In particular, Auburn’s Hugh Freeze has quickly emerged as a coach who could very well be on the outs if the remainder of the 2025 season goes downhill. Some believe that Freeze may have saved his job momentarily by winning in Week 9 against Arkansas. However, Finebaum sees Auburn’s Week 10 game against Kentucky and head coach Mark Stoops as a game to watch, as the losing coach in the game could very well be looking for a new home in short order. ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 30: Sportscaster and ESPN personality Paul Finebaum sits on the set of SEC Network prior to the 2025 Aflac Kickoff Game between the Syracuse Orange and the Tennessee Volunteers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 30, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) More news: Nick Saban Emerges as Potential Coaching Candidate for LSU “We’re nowhere near the end of that,” said Finebaum during an appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” when asked if Brian Kelly’s firing would be the last of the high-profile coaches to be fired this season. “I mean listen, if you’re sitting there in Kentucky this morning and your program is just crashing and burning, are you going to be able to sell your fan base on, ‘Hey, listen, we just can’t afford to buy the coach out’? That makes you look like you’re not even in the same league as everybody else. “Rightly or wrongly, Auburn, would we be having this conversation if Auburn hadn’t come back in the second half? I mean, I don’t think anyone is really safe anymore. That’s the conclusion of the last couple of weeks. I hate to keep saying the same thing, but we are seeing the same thing every couple of weeks, things we’ve never seen before.” More news: Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman Gives Brian Kelly Brutal Reality Check The bottom line is that Brian Kelly’s firing should certainly be a warning for every floundering program in the SEC to turn things around in a hurry if they want to avoid being let go. After all, Kelly was judged on an incredibly harsh scale over his time at LSU compared to most programs, being let go after going 34-14 at the program. Both Auburn and Kentucky sit near the bottom of the SEC standings. So it certainly wouldn’t be overly surprising to see either Freeze or Stoops lose their job following a loss in Week 10 based on how this college football season has gone thus far, making for an incredibly intriguing matchup between the two teams on Saturday night. For more on the NCAA, head to Newsweek Sports.
