Longest-tenured SEC coaches over the past decade

Thinking about contract durations, I was curious how many SEC coaches made it past 5-6 years at a program in recent history. Not sure if anyone else finds this interesting, but figured I’d share anyway.

The following is a list of the longest-tenured coaches in the SEC since 2016 (the past 10 seasons). Once I got to less than 5 years, I only listed coaches who were active at the program going into this year:

Bold - Active head coach of program going into 2025 season
Italics - No longer active head coach of program at start of 2025 season
* - Fired during 2025 season

Bob Stoops - 18 years (technically Big 12)
Nick Saban - 17 years
Mark Stoops - 13 years
Les Miles - 12 years
Kirby Smart - 10 years
Gus Malzahn - 8 years
Dan Mullen (MSU) - 8 years
Derek Mason - 7 years
Eli Drinkwitz - 6 years
Jimbo Fisher - 6 years
Lane Kiffin - 6 years
Sam Pittman - 6 years*
Kevin Sumlin - 6 years
Shane Beamer - 5 years
Bret Bielema - 5 years
Hugh Freeze (Ole Miss) - 5 years
Josh Heupel - 5 years
Butch Jones - 5 years
Clark Lea - 5 years
Will Muschamp - 5 years
Ed Orgeron - 5 years
Steve Sarkisian - 5 years
. . .
Brian Kelly - 4 years*
Billy Napier - 4 years*
Hugh Freeze (Auburn) - 3 years
Kalen DeBoer - 2 years
Mike Elko - 2 years
Jeff Lebby - 2 years
Brent Venables - 2 years

Some takeaways:
- The median tenure for active SEC coaches going into 2025 was 5 years.
- Only 2 active coaches (Kirby Smart and Mark Stoops) have been at their programs for more than 6 years.
- Smart and Stoops are also the only coaches hired since 2007 to last more than 8 years at an SEC program.

Not that we needed another reason to criticize long-term contracts, but SEC coaches are highly unlikely to last more than ~6 years at a program.. at least in recent history.