It's win or be fired for these five coaches

Perennial programs such as Michigan, Miami, Nebraska, Texas and USC have been forced to make coaching changes in the past few seasons. Just this past year, power five schools Baylor, Cal, Indiana, LSU, Minnesota, Oregon, Purdue and Texas decided that a change of control was best for their program.

USC decided two years ago that it was time to move on from the short Steve Sarkisian experiment. The Trojans decided to replace him with an Interim Head Coach Clay Helton. Helton took over and appeared to be on the hot seat after a sluggish 1-3 start, the Trojans then rattled off nine straight wins and a Rose Bowl victory and our seen as championship contenders going into this upcoming season.

So which major programs will be forced to make a change this offseason? I have some ideas. Here are five coaches that must win if they want to be at their respective program in 2018

Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech

Record:24-26

Many pundits applauded the Red Raiders when they hired Kingsbury in 2013, the former Texas Tech gunslinger called the shots for a Texas A&M offense that was led by Heisman winner Johnny Manziel. Kingsbury showed promise during his first year in Lubbock, starting the season 7-0. The Red Raiders were ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll before dropping five of their last six games to close out the year. It's been rough sailing for Kingsbury since then going 17-26 since that amazing start. While he has produced an electrifying offense, and a first round draft pick Quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) Kingsbury's defenses has done very little. His defenses have given up just over 2,000 points in 50 games. 

What Should Keep His Job: 7-5, the defense looking like it exists

                                              

Jim Mora, UCLA

Record: 41-24

Last year, many people thought UCLA at the very least contend for the Pac 12 South title and maybe even be a sleeper to make the college football playoff. Boy were they wrong, the Bruins went 2-7 in conference play only managing to pick up wins against lowly Arizona and Oregon State. The Bruins also got a really disappointing season from quarterback Josh Rosen, who came into the season off of a strong 2015 campaign and was a pre-season dark-horse to win the Heisman Trophy. Rosen suffered a shoulder injury just five games into the season. Derailing the Bruins. UCLA returns 15 total starters from last year including nine offensive starters. So there's no reason to believe they can't bounce back, but with USC looking like a championship contender and Colorado coming off an impressive season nothing will be guaranteed for the Bruins. Another season like last year might cause the boosters to grow thin with Mora.

What Should Keep His Job-Making a bowl game

                                                       
                                                         Rich Rodriguez, Arizona
                                           Record: 36-29
Remember when Arizona surprised everybody by going 10-4 in 2014? The Wildcats actually finished the regular season 10-2 before dropping the Pac 12 Championship game to Oregon and losing the Fiesta Bowl to Boise State. The Wildcats started the 2015 season off 3-0, but have since gone 7-15 including a dismal 3-9 season last year that included an eight game losing streak, the Wildcats lost seven of those games by 10 or more points including a 69-7 thrashing at the hands of Washington State. This is Rodriguez' sixth year in Tucson and while he had made a bowl game in his first four seasons he has also been a dismal 1-7 against division rivals USC and UCLA, he certainly needs to have a bounce back year, otherwise he could end up suffering the same fate he did at Michigan.

What Should Keep His Job: 6-6, win over UCLA, USC or Washington

Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M

Record: 44-21

You wouldn't expect Sumlin to end up on this list considering that he's produced a Heisman trophy winner, a number one draft pick, has made a bowl game every year and has twice as many wins as losses, but it sounds like patience is wearing thin for Sumlin in College Station. Since Manziel, Sumlin has been blessed with highly touted QB's Kenny Hill and Kyler Murray, both wound up transferring. Sumlin has had lots of NFL talent including Mike Evans, Miles Garrett and Cedric Ogbuehi, but he hasn't had quite the results Aggie supporters would like. His teams have started out 5-0 or better each of the last three seasons, but still ended the year with five losses. Sumlin has failed to beat LSU in his five tries and has lost four in a row to Alabama. He might have one of the best wide-outs in the 2018 draft class (Christian Kirk) but Sumlin has to at least make a step forward if he wants to stay in College Station.

What Should Keep His Job: 10 wins, 9 if he beats Alabama or LSU.

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

Record: 59-31

To be fair, Kelly does have one of the toughest jobs in college football. The environment and academic prowess of Notre Dame puts him in a situation that takes a certain type of coach to handle. Kelly doesn't need to win 10 games like Sumlin probably does or even make a major bowl game. He just can't afford to go 4-8 again. Notre Dame has some tough opponents on their schedule this year (as always) taking on Georgia, USC and Miami, but they also have some winnable games-Temple (who has a new coach), Boston College, North Carolina (new QB). The Fighting Irish return 15 starters (8 offensive, 7 defensive) and have a first round talent offensive lineman in Mike McGlinchey, but they will more than likely be handing the reigns over to sophomore quarterback Brandon Wimbush who has only thrown seven passes in his career so far. How quick Wimbush learns and how much he can win may decide if the Fighting Irish have a new coach in 2018.

What Should Keep His Job: 8-4

Johnson haters: Keep on hating, he will keep on winning.

The Dover International Speedway should just start calling Jimmie Johnson daddy. Johnson's stat line at Dover is legendary-31 starts, 11 wins, 16 top fives, 22 top tens and an average finish of 9.3. When Jimmy took the checkered flag on Sunday, he tied Cale Yarbrough for fifth most wins in NASCAR history. When Jimmie picks up his next win, he will tie Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip with 84 wins and Jimmie had done in a time where there has been a lot more competitive cars. Jimmie Johnson is to NASCAR what Tom Brady is to the NFL. His fans really love him and his haters really hate him. The only thing he's ever really done to deserve the vitriol is win, so let's dive into this and debunk some statements and beliefs commonly held by his haters.

DISCLAIMER-I'm by no means telling you that you should or have to root for him, you have as much as right to despise him as I do to love him, I'm simply just debunking ignorant statements.

STATEMENT #1-He gets all the television time.

This popped up on my Facebook the other day. 

    

       "Good lord DW and Gordon shut up or talk about other drivers not just the stupid 48"

We must not have been watching the same NASCAR race because around this time that this was posted, Ty Dillon and Kyle Larson were getting just as much, if not more attention then Johnson, and rightfully so. Television networks that broadcast NASCAR races don't always just mention Jimmie, and of course, I'm not going to make an argument without some facts. So enjoy this nugget courtesy of Joyce Julius & Associates who monitors the amount of television coverage each driver gets

Most Mentioned Drivers on TV

2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Driver

Interviews

Interview Time

Mentions

Keselowski B.	17	0:12:54	1,617
Truex Jr. M.	20	0:18:22	1,551
Larson K.	23	0:22:02	1,495
Busch Ky.	15	0:09:26	1,422
Harvick K.	13	0:09:36	1,355
Logano J.	15	0:10:50	1,275
Johnson J.	9	0:09:40	1,223
Elliott C.	10	0:05:58	1,085
Hamlin D.	5	0:02:57	1,006
Blaney R.	9	0:06:22	976
Earnhardt Jr. D.	9	0:08:22	868
Bowyer C.	4	0:03:14	779
Stenhouse Jr. R.	8	0:06:24	641
Kenseth M.	9	0:03:38	616
McMurray J.	4	0:02:32	597

Now, It is worth noting that this is only updated through the race at Kansas, meaning it is excluding the past three races, but still as you can see, not only has Jimmie Johnson not been the most talked about driver this year, but he's not even in the top five. He's only 138 mentions ahead of youngster Chase Elliott. It's also worth noting that all of NASCAR's races up to this point have been broadcasted by FOX which employs Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip. Not only do they mention other drivers, but they've mentioned others more than Jimmie. 

STATEMENT #2-Jimmie is not one of the greatest 

This social media post came immediately after Johnson won his seventh championship tying Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty for the most.

"Congrats Jimmy on having your 7th handed to you!!! Announcers PLEASE don't compare Jimmy to Earnhardt or Petty ,not with these chase championships!!! Not even the same type of racing!! Different cars, different driving, different format."

Yeah announcers! And don't you dare compare Lebron James to Michael Jordan or Tom Brady to Joe Montana because even though they have been the best during their generation but they played different types of games! Maybe  even with different balls and different rules.

This is just straight silly talk first off it wasn't handed it to him, it's not like he took Carl Edwards out, it was a racing accident between Edwards and Logano that took Edwards out in the closing laps while he had the title in sight. What Johnson haters don't remember is he had actually had three titles slip away from him, which means he could have ten championship,

While Earnhardt's impact on the sport might be more significant, it's worth noting that Jimmie has more wins (84 to 76) and has won two or more races in each of his sixteen seasons whereas Earnhardt had four seasons during his 21 years of racing full-time that he either had two wins or less and had two season where he is winless. Like I said, I'm by no means saying Johnson is necessarily better than Earnhardt, but when you look at the statistics there's no way you can logically say that you can't make that argument

Now we can argue about the system of NASCAR until we are blue in the face, but saying that Johnson doesn't deserve to be at least considered as one of the greatest is absurd. You don't have to say he's the greatest, even I'm not convinced he is, but to say he should not be considered one of the greatest is just pure hatred and ignorance talking

STATEMENT #3-Jimmie would have only won three titles without the playoffs and we wouldn't even be saying that he's one of the greatest.

Had NASCAR never switched to the old format, here is who the champion would have been each and every year.

2004	Jeff Gordon
2005	Tony Stewart
2006	Jimmie Johnson
2007	Jeff Gordon
2008	Carl Edwards
2009	Jimmie Johnson
2010	Kevin Harvick
2011	Carl Edwards
2012	Brad Keselowski
2013	Jimmie Johnson
2014	Jeff Gordon
2015	Kevin Harvick
2016	Kevin Harvick

Which means Jimmie would have only three titles, Kevin Harvick would have three, Carl Edwards would have two and Jeff Gordon would have seven.

Lebron James and Michael Jordan would also have zero championships without the NBA Finals.

That statement is also irrelevant.

Now, while the "traditional standings" looked like this at the end of each respective season, you can't say with certainty that this is how it would have played out under the old format. 

Drivers know that they are racing in the "playoff format" so they don't focus on traditional points. The new format encourages drivers to be more aggressive and to attempt to chase wins. The mindset needed in the old format and the new one are completely different. If a driver goes into the season knowing that they need to be consistent all season and cannot rely on just getting a win to get into a ten race playoff and get hot at the right time to win a championship. You would see drivers maybe be more conservative. You can make the argument that Jimmie wasn't trying to be the "traditional" champion because he had no need to be. Had that format still been in place, it would have changed the mindset of him and many other drivers. So don't fully believe every time you hear someone say "Jimmie would have only won three championships without the chase"

STATEMENT 4-Earnhardt's seven championships mean more.

This stupid picture keeps appearing on my Facebook timeline

First off, how does anyone know that this engine didn't blow up? Comparing Dale and Jimmie is like comparing Lebron and Jordan, You can make a valid argument either way. If Johnson came first, we would be saying that there's no way Dale could ever pass him just like we are saying there's no way he can ever exceed Earnhardt. Earnhardt fans, like Jordan fans also don't like when someone threatens their guys legacy.

It is so difficult to compare guys from different eras, because so many things are different. Earnhardt would have struggled in Jimmies era, Jimmie would have struggled in Earnhardt's and Petty would have probably struggled in both. You can hate Jimmie Johnson all you want to, but he's not done winning races and chances are he's got at least one more championship in him.

You have every right to hate him, but if you want people to think you aren't completely ignorant. Please just think before you mention him.