College football is back, which means we need to take a look at who is on the hot seat in the SEC. The 2018 season was quite unusual since no coaches were fired (credit to me for punting on SEC Hot Seats 2018 early on). However, this season should be different and here are the SEC coaches who are in trouble in 2019.

Gus Malzahn once again begins the year on the hot seat. Even after Malzahn and Auburn  won the SEC West in 2017, the Tigers dropped their final two games to finish the season 10-4. In 2018, Auburn once again entered the season with high expectations as they were ranked ninth and tenth, in the AP and coaches’ polls, respectively. The Tigers’ offense, led by senior quarterback Jarrett Stidham, did not quite live up to their billing. Marred by poor offensive line play, the unit never became as explosive as expected. After back to back losses to Mississippi State and Tennessee, Auburn found themselves out of the SEC race with a 1-3 conference record. The Tigers would regroup and defeat Ole Miss and Texas A&M, however, fell to rivals Georgia and Alabama by double-digits. Auburn went on to play in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. While it was not the bowl destination they hoped for when the season began, Auburn showed up and played like a team many expected to see. The Tigers throttled an overmatched Purdue team with a flurry of big plays. The starters were pulled in the third quarter and Auburn cruised to a 63-14 victory.

A Music City Bowl victory is not going to create much optimism going into 2019. Neither is the inexperience at quarterback. Redshirt freshman Joey Gatewood and freshman Bo Nix come in highly touted, but neither has seen extensive collegiate action. Malzahn named Nix the starter this week.

Oh, and the schedule.

Auburn makes trips to Florida, Texas A&M, and LSU throughout the season, all of which will likely start the season in the top 15. Then there are rivals Georgia and Alabama, whom the Tigers will host in two of the final three weeks of the season.

Can the Gus Bus stay the course?

After the Hugh Freeze firing and the NCAA sanctions coming down, it is safe to say Matt Luke did not inherit the best of situations. However, Luke was hired to make the best of a bad situation. In 2018, that was not the story.

In the first quarter with 14:49 remaining, Ole Miss led Alabama 7-0. A little over a minute later, Alabama running back Damien Harris scored on a forty-three yard touchdown run. From that point on, Ole Miss’ 2018 season became irrelevant.

Final score: Alabama 62 Ole Miss 7

Ole Miss would win only one SEC game, a 37-33 victory over lowly Arkansas (more on the Razorbacks later).

Despite having an offense that scored nearly 34 points per game, the Rebels did not win many games because they had a defense that was far more inviting than tailgate you would find in “The Grove”. The Ole Miss defense gave up 483 yards per game.

Luke made changes to his staff this offseason, bringing in former Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez to lead his offense and former Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre to lead his defense.

Rodriguez has led successful offenses throughout his career which has included stints at Tulane, Clemson, West Virginia, and most recently, Arizona. Rodriguez was fired for off-the-field reasons briefly following the 2017 season. While at Arizona, he built a high-powered offense around the talents of quarterback Khalil Tate. In 2017, Tate threw for fourteen touchdowns and ran for twelve more. Rodriguez will be in charge of re-tooling a Rebels’ offense which lost quarterback Jordan Ta’amu and four of his top five receivers from last season (WR AJ Brown, WR, DaMarkus Lodge, WR DK Metcalf, and TE Dawson Knox). Another huge loss is All-SEC left tackle Greg Little, who went in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

The Rebels are coming off their two-year bowl ban and a bowl win would ease the pressure on Luke. The biggest challenge will be revamping the troublesome defense from a year ago. MacIntyre has the unenviable task of improving that unit in his first defensive coordinator role since 2009, when he was at Duke.

Chad Morris is entering his second season at Arkansas. His first season left plenty of room for improvement, posting a 2-10 record and going winless in the SEC. The hot seat talk may be a bit presumptuous, but Morris needs to show improvement this season.

The Razorbacks’ offense should get a boost from transfer quarterback Ben Hicks who played for Morris at SMU. Hicks is SMU’s all-time leader in career passing yards and touchdowns, most of which came under Morris.

Week 2 will be a pivotal game for Morris and Arkansas when they go on the road to play Ole Miss. The winner will see themselves with a real shot at bowl eligibility, while the loser could be headed for another losing season.

Make sure to check back each week to see who is on the Hot Seat. In this league, you just never know.

OUTTA HERE!