The coaching carousel is about to heat up as the 2025 season reaches the month of November shortly. We’ve already seen several head coaches relieved of their duties this season, but Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith is holding on for dear life.
Many believe that if Smith loses to Michigan, especially by a large amount, he’s going to be the next head coach fired in college football.
However, Vegas disagrees.
Vegas actually disagrees so much that it believes a certain legendary two-time national title-winning head coach is more likely to be fired before Smith.
According to Bookies.com, Dabo Swinney is more likely to be the next head coach fired than Smith. The odds for Dabo to be the next coach fired are set at +1200 while Smith doesn’t have odds on the site, but he could technically be bet on in “the field” option at +900, but I don’t consider that giving the Spartan head coach better odds.
Is this surprising? Absolutely. Dabo has dominated the ACC for over a decade and he’s won two national titles and nine conference championships.
Smith, on the other hand, hasn’t won any titles, but was the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2022. The resumes aren’t remotely comparable, but Dabo raised the ceiling so much at Clemson, that even he finds himself on the hot seat despite previously being looked at as “untouchable” by most experts.
Now, 1.5 months into the 2025 season, Dabo looks like he could be out of a job sooner than a head coach who has a 4-11 record versus conference opponents since the start of 2024 and just lost to a 1-4 UCLA team by 25 at home. Mind you, Dabo just won the ACC and made the College Football Playoff less than 12 months ago. Make that make sense.
Smith’s signature win is a home victory over Iowa a year ago while Dabo has won on the biggest stage multiple times. But one is more likely to be fired first, and it’s not Smith.
Monitoring.