There has been unprecedented turnover among coaches in college football’s upper echelon in the past two years. Turnover is common—the “hot seat” is an old trope for a reason—but power-conference schools don’t typically make changes before November. U.C.L.A., Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Colorado State, Oregon State, and Florida have all already fired their coaches this season. Penn State fired its coach, James Franklin, even though his team won about seventy per cent of their games, and last season made the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. Penn State began this season ranked No. 2 in the nation. But apparently it made more sense to pay Franklin nearly fifty million dollars not to coach than it did to watch him lose another close game to a top-ten opponent. (Franklin had a .160 winning percentage against those.)journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter