As the Football Bowl Subdivision begins playing Thursday night in all its weirdness and resilience, the college football world we are used to is going to look very different. In many places across the six conferences trying to play this fall, there will be no fans, no bands and no tailgates. It’s going to be strange.
But perhaps the strangest omission from the 2020 season will be the utter lack of anxiety and innuendo about the job status of various coaches whose teams lose more than their fans think they should. In a normal year, the coaching carousel is its own cottage industry, weaving together the interests of search firms, agents, news media and boosters.