Lincoln Riley, Deion Sanders and Kyle Whittingham: Inside the jobs that could shake up the coaching carousel

What was initially expected to be a slow college football coaching cycle began to pick up steam over the weekend with NC State and Baylor firing their longtime head coaches on back-to-back days.

That makes three FBS openings heading into Halloween weekend, and there are several other jobs worth watching as the season enters the stretch run.

This is the latest we're hearing at CBS Sports on the open jobs, the status of coaches on the hot seat and even a job that could cause an earthquake in the 2026 carousel.

There is not a situation that elicits more intrigue or industry questions than what will happen between Lincoln Riley and USC. The heat was turned up on Riley after the Trojans lost to Oregon a month ago, and the simmer turned into a near-boil with a disastrous 24-7 loss to Wisconsin last week.

Does Riley, a Texas native, look for an exit ramp and pursue the just-vacated Baylor job to restart his clock? Is there another job in Texas that could open that could present a similar opportunity?

In that scenario, it would help USC get out from what is believed to be an onerous $70 million buyout if…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/