College Football Week 10 Discussion Thread

SB Nation

We’ll get into the college football games this week a little later in this article, but first, I wanted to bring up something that will probably impact the Green Bay Packers this offseason. A LOT of college football head

coaches are getting fired.

Open Power 4 Jobs

LSU
Florida
Penn State
Virginia Tech
Arkansas
Stanford
UCLA
Oklahoma State

Already, there are eight openings in the top four conferences of college football. These jobs pay very well. For perspective, even Virginia Tech, a mid-level ACC team, has approved $30 million per year in additional spending over the next three seasons on the football team. I would be surprised if they didn’t spend around $10 million per year on their next head coach. Mind you, first-time head coaches in the NFL make around $3-4 million per season.

I was told on good authority that Matt LaFleur’s first contract with the Packers was under $5 million per year. It’s been reported that Brian Callahan, the first coach fired in the NFL in 2025, made around $3 million per season in his buyout (NFL buyouts are typically in full). NFL coaching salaries are not publicly disclosed in the same way as NFL player salaries, because of the salary cap and the NFLPA’s league-wide updates, or college football coaching salaries, because they are matters of public record since most major programs are part of the public school system.

Remember, new Packers president and CEO Ed Policy didn’t extend either Matt LaFleur or general manager Brian Gutekunst this offseason. In the case of at least LaFleur, his camp would be dumb to not use the exploding market in college football as leverage.

This wouldn’t be the first time that the Packers have had a coach flirt with the college world. Remember, Mike McCarthy was floated as a name that could be interested in the Texas Longhorns opening back in 2013. Mid-season the next year, McCarthy signed a multi-year extension with the team. This is just how the business is done.

This is your warning to not be stressed out when a rumor pops up in November about LaFleur being on some team’s “hot list.” He’s a young, successful coach who was in college football as recently as 2014. Because of the volume of jobs that are going to be open, without the pipeline of talent providing new rising talents at the college level, schools are not going to be afraid of being told no several times when they pursue candidates this year. Every booster thinks he’s going to pay for the big fish, so no stone is going to be left unturned by search committees.

Make no mistake, though: LaFleur is probably going to get PAID this offseason and ensure multi-year job security.

Power 4 Jobs to Watch

Auburn
Florida State
Wisconsin
Baylor
North Carolina
Maryland
Kentucky
NC State
Michigan State

Beyond the jobs that are already open, these are jobs that have a good chance of opening between now and the end of the season. In total, that’s 17 (!) Power 4 jobs, before poaching, retirements, etc. ever become a factor. Like I said, there’s a lot of desperation in college football right now and a lot of money.

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Now, let’s get into our regularly scheduled programming, covering the top prospects available (via the consensus draft board) in top-25 matchups. We’ll also be tracking where the Packers send their scouts when that information becomes available this weekend.

#9 Vanderbilt @ #20 Texas (11 am CT, ABC)

Vanderbilt
- #111 TE Eli Stowers
Texas
- #30 LB Anthony Hill Jr.
- #45 OL Trevor Goosby
- #62 CB Malik Muhammad
- #98 TE Jack Endries
- #137 RB Quintrevion Wisner
- #156 S Michael Taaffe
- #162 ED Trey Moore
- #209 RB C.J. Baxter
- #246 OL D.J. Campbell

What a matchup between low and high expectations. Coming into the year, the belief was that Arch Manning was going to be the top quarterback in this draft class. Now, it’s extremely clear that he’s not even going to declare. The Longhorns were hoping to go on a national championship run, but currently sit with a 6-2 record and are coming off back-to-back overtime games against unranked Kentucky and Mississippi State.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has beaten ranked LSU and Missouri in their last two games, despite having few NFL prospects on their roster. If Vanderbilt can clear Texas, they have a good chance of finishing the season 11-1, leading to a likely rematch against Alabama — the one team they have lost to this season — in the SEC Championship Game.

#17 Cincinnati @ #24 Utah (9:15 pm CT, ESPN)

Cincinnati
- #93 DT Dontay Corleone
- #103 LB Jake Golday
- #173 TE Joe Royer
Utah
- #7 OL Spencer Fano
- #23 OL Caleb Lomu
- #140 LB Lander Barton
- #168 S Tao Johnson
- #184 ED John Henry Daley

A lot of people tuned out Cincinnati when they fell 20-17 to Nebraska to start the year, but they have been on a tear since then and come into this game at 7-1 with a perfect 5-0 record in Big 12 play. Their top player by far is nose tackle Dontay Corleone, who will have the tough task of going against an elite Utah offensive line this week. If you stay up for the game, keep an eye on that matchup.

Utah isn’t a pushover, either. They lost to a loaded Texas Tech team, which is up near the top of college football in terms of transfer portal spending, and dropped a rivalry game to undefeated BYU by three points. After the BYU loss, they responded by beating Colorado 53-7. Colorado had NEGATIVE yards at the half of that game, when the score was 43-0. Utah eventually called off the dogs and played their backups, but still outgained Colorado 587 yards to just 140.