What each SEC football coach has to be thankful for on Thanksgiving | Goodbread

Mom's turkey is the centerpiece. Her sides are so good, the leftovers will dazzle for days. The wine is being passed around, and at this table for 16 are the football coaches of the SEC. What do they have to be thankful for? Besides family and friends, life and love, they've got some occupational blessings that also can't be taken for granted. Here's what each has to be thankful for in 2025:

D.J. Durkin, Auburn

Will Muschamp. Thanks to the former Florida coach's firing in 2014, the Auburn gig isn't Durkin's first interim rodeo.

Bob Petrino, Arkansas

The quarterback position. His disastrous interim run surely won't get him the Razorbacks permanent head job, but he can coach quarterbacks anywhere.

Frank Wilson, LSU

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry. By pushing AD Scott Woodward out the door, Wilson has a better chance of surviving LSU's athletic department-wide reset, even if it's not as the permanent head coach.

Billy Gonzales, Florida

Florida State. As bad as things have gone for the Gators this year, a win over the Seminoles would send the interim coach out on the players' shoulders.

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama

Ty Simpson. The Crimson Tide coach's second season had to be better than the first. It's a playoffs-or-bust expectation in Tuscaloosa, and Simpson is a big reason Alabama could be on hand for the postseason party.

Steve Sarkisian, Texas

Defense. Notwithstanding the Arkansas shootout, it had to save the season in Austin.

Mark Stoops, Kentucky

The coaching hot seat. Why is that anything to be thankful for? If you're Stoops, that means you're back for 2026. And it's better to be on the hot seat than unemployed.

Shane Beamer, South Carolina

Dabo Swinney. Nothing like the in-state rival's coach talking his way into a deeper hole to take attention off your own had season.

Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri

The Missouri state legislature. There's not a state in the country that's passed more school-friendly NIL laws.

Clark Lea, Vanderbilt

Diego Pavia, of course. Absent the transfer quarterback from New Mexico State, the greatest revival of Commodores football anyone's ever seen would never have been possible.

Brent Venables, Oklahoma

Alabama. The Sooners' win over the Crimson Tide just might've stamped its College Football Playoff ticket.

Josh Heupel, Tennessee

Nico Iamaleava. Think about it: had the ex-Vols quarterback never left Tennessee, expectations for the 2025 season would've unquestionably been higher. And the results no better.

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Jimmy Sexton. The super-agent is doing some of his best work this year, and Kiffin is at the center of the windfall.

Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State

Arkansas. Without the worst team in the SEC, he might still be 0-for-the-league after almost two seasons.

Kirby Smart, Georgia

Toughness. Georgia just plain isn't as talented as most of Kirby Smart's recent Georgia teams. But grit will carry the Bulldogs to the CFP anyway.

Mike Elko, Texas A&M

All the coaching jobs that have come open mid-season. Between that and the stellar year the Aggies have had, Elko got a fat extension before completing two seasons in College Station.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: What each SEC football coach has to be thankful for on Thanksgiving