Auburn HC Hugh Freeze vs FSU HC Mike Norvell: Who's on the hotter seat going into 2025 CFB season?

The start of the college football season is still three months away, but for coaches on the hot seat, Hugh Freeze and Nike Norvell, the start of the season could not come soon enough.

Coach Freeze and the Auburn Tigers are coming off a 5-7 season, missing the postseason for the second time in three years. For coach Norvell and the Florida State Seminoles, it was even worse, sliding from playing the Orange Bowl after the 2023 season down to 2-10 in 2025.

Which coach is under more pressure in 2025? Here is a look at both coaches on the hot seat entering 2025.

Hugh Freeze, on the hot seat to improve in year 3

Coach Hugh Freeze is going all in in 2025. After two underwhelming seasons at Auburn, with an 11-14 combined record and a loss at the Music City Bowl after the 2023 season.

Freeze will be welcoming transfers Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma), Eric Singleton Jr. (Georgia Tech), Xavier Chaplin (Virginia Tech) and Horatio Fields (Wake Forest), among others. In total, the Tigers are getting 19 new players through the portal so far.

The Tigers struggled on offense for most of last season, scoring 23.6 points per game, No. 93 in the nation. With Arnold and Singleton in particular, Auburn expects to get a more explosive passing attack. Much of their season will depend on their ability to score more points in 2025.

Mike Norvell and FSU need a bounce-back season

After finishing the regular season undefeated in 2023 but getting shut out of the College Football Playoff, everything went south for coach Mike Norvell and the Florida State Seminoles. The school lost to Georgia at the Orange Bowl after several opt-outs.

With a very different roster, the Seminoles then lost the season opener against Georgia Tech in Ireland in 2024 and would never recover, finishing the season with a 2-10 record, quickly putting Norvell on the hot seat.

The Seminoles will look very different again, leaning again on the transfer portal ahead of the 2025 season. Norvell already revived the program once, but this time, he'll have to do it while on the hot seat.

Whose seat is hotter: Hugh Freeze's or Mike Norvell's?

While Florida State's fall from grace in 2024 was dramatic, Mike Norvell has won at Tallahassee before. He is a season removed from going undefeated, so even after a two-win season, he may have some support inside the school.

Auburn is looking to get back into CFP contention, and while Hugh Freeze is entering only his third season on the job, some analysts believe Auburn could be a dark horse in the vaunted SEC. The pressure will be higher on Freeze in 2025.