Week 4 didn’t just shake up the rankings. It put several head coaches squarely in the glare.
From South Carolina’s Shane Beamer to Florida State’s Mike Norvell, six programs are dealing with the kind of early-season results that make schools start staring at buyout figures. Maryland’s Mike Locksley absorbed the ugliest defeat of the bunch, while USC’s Lincoln Riley remains the most expensive name on the list by a wide margin.
At South Carolina, the damage came in a 49-18 loss at No. 8 Alabama on Saturday.
That was the Gamecocks’ seventh straight loss to an SEC opponent, and it extended a rough run against Power Four teams, with South Carolina now having dropped 11 of its last 13 in those matchups. The Gamecocks are 2-2 overall and 0-2 in SEC play after also coughing up a 16-point lead in a 41-34 home loss to Mississippi State the previous week.
Beamer owned it afterward. “This is on me,” he said.
The sixth-year coach is 35-32 at South Carolina, and last season ended at 4-8. Athletic director Jeremiah Donati also wasn’t the one who hired him.
A source close to Donati said last November that Beamer would get through the first half of 2026 before a review of his future. South Carolina’s next stop is a home date with Kentucky on Saturday at 4:15 p.m.
ET, followed by a trip to Florida.
Buyout: About $27.9 million if fired before the season ends, dropping to about $22.1 million at the end of December
USC’s latest loss came in a 41-27 defeat to Oregon at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday. The Ducks were down a quarterback in the second quarter after Dante Moore exited following a late hit, but they still finished stronger. The game was tied in the fourth quarter before Oregon pulled away late.
The Trojans are 4-1, but Riley’s record against elite competition remains a major issue: USC is 5-15 against top-25 teams under him, and he still hasn’t reached the College Football Playoff there. Before kickoff, national college football reporter Pete Thamel put the pressure in plain language: “If they lose Saturday, it's reasonable to say Lincoln Riley is on the hot seat,” Thamel said. USC gets Washington next, with Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana still ahead.
Buyout: About $72 million if fired now, making Riley the priciest name on this list
Maryland’s situation got ugly fast in a 54-3 home loss to UCLA, the most lopsided defeat of the group. It was also the Terrapins’ second straight home loss to a first-year coach, after Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin won in College Park a week earlier.
The numbers were brutal. Quarterback Malik Washington threw four interceptions, and two were returned for touchdowns.
Maryland ran for only 39 yards and allowed 475 on defense. By halftime, students were chanting “Fire Locksley.”
Now 2-2 in his eighth season, Locksley has watched Maryland go 4-8 in each of the last two years. The Terps still haven’t beaten a Power Four opponent since a win over Wisconsin on Sept.
20, 2025. Even so, Locksley said he believes the staff can fix this.
“I still have a lot of confidence in myself and the staff to get this thing fixed,” Locksley said. “That will have to be earned, I won't be able to claim it.”
Buyout: More than $9 million if fired before the season ends
Colorado’s Deion Sanders also took a loss in conference play, with Baylor beating the Buffaloes 23-13 in the Big 12 opener. Colorado is 2-2, and Sanders is 18-23 in four seasons there.
That came on the heels of a 41-7 loss at Northwestern, after which Sanders removed several players from the team following a postgame incident. After the Baylor game, he said the Buffaloes still haven’t played to their level.
“We're better than this. It seems as though we're better than our opponents, but the score does not dictate that,” Sanders said.
Colorado went 3-9 last season after finishing 9-4 the year before. Texas Tech, Utah and Oklahoma State are next. Firing Sanders appears unlikely, with the more realistic path being a resignation after the season ends.
Buyout: About $25.5 million, or 75 percent of his remaining base salary, if fired before the end of 2026, dropping to about $17.25 million in 2027
Rutgers finally got into the win column with a 58-7 home rout of Howard on Friday. That was Greg Schiano’s 100th victory at Rutgers, and it moved the Scarlet Knights to 1-3 after a rough opening stretch that included losses to UMass, Boston College and USC.
The problem is what comes next. No.
6 Indiana visits Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, and the schedule gets tougher from there.
Still, athletic director Keli Zinn has made her support for Schiano clear.
“Greg and I are on the exact same page with this: I want what he wants and he wants what I want,” Zinn said.
Buyout: About $17.3 million, based on the roughly $22.5 million left on his contract; the amount shrinks if he takes another coaching job
Florida State is 2-2 after beating Central Arkansas 34-7 on Saturday, and that win came against Norvell’s alma mater. But the Seminoles already had losses to SMU and Alabama, and the school fired athletic director Michael Alford before the Alabama game.
Norvell is 40-36 in his seventh season. Florida State followed a 13-0 regular season in 2023 with a 2-10 year in 2024 and a 5-7 finish in 2025. Virginia, Louisville and Miami are up next in October.
Buyout: About $48 million if fired now, dropping to about $45.6 million after the season; he’s owed 85 percent of his remaining salary
In Other News...
SEC Discipline Debate Just Put Alabama Fans On Edge
Around the SEC, the line between a hard edge and a costly lapse has become a bigger talking point, and Alabama fans have plenty of reasons to pay attention. Recent discipline decisions around the league have shown just how differently behavior can be handled from one incident to the next, whether it is a vulgar celebration drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct flag or a dangerous hit leading to an ejection and a later suspension.
For Alabama, the debate hits close to home because South Carolinas Dylan Stewart was suspended indefinitely after multiple incidents of misconduct in a game against the Crimson Tide. In the same stretch of weeks, Texas handled Colin Simmons with a brief removal from the game, while USCs Desman Stephens ended up missing more time after public backlash, a reminder that what happens in-game does not always stay there and that the conferences response can become part of the story too. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Faces An SEC Reality Fans Cant Ignore
The 2026 college football season has already turned into a reminder that preseason polls are only guesses, and the SEC has been the clearest example of that. Teams like Mississippi State and Kentucky were overlooked before the year began, yet both have climbed into the national rankings, while expected contenders such as Oklahoma and Texas A&M have slipped out after underwhelming starts.
For Alabama fans, that kind of chaos matters because it changes the entire feel of the league race. With roster movement and other modern variables making every week harder to predict, the old assumptions about who is safe, who is dangerous, and where the real pressure sits no longer hold up the way they used to. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama May Have One Clear Edge That Decides This Road Test
Road trips in the SEC tend to get sorted at the line of scrimmage, and this one looks no different for Alabama. The Crimson Tide enter the matchup with Mississippi State carrying what appears to be a clear edge in both offensive and defensive trenches, a profile that usually travels well when the crowd gets loud and the game starts to tighten. On defense, players such as Yhonzae Pierre and Devan Thompkins will be matched up against Mississippi States tackles, a spot where Alabama expects to make life difficult early.
Mississippi State, though, can still make this interesting if its pressure packages create chaos. Defensive coordinator Zach Arnett is likely to bring blitzes and force Alabamas quarterbacks, Keelon Russell and Kamario Taylor, to handle some fast decisions, and the turnover battle could end up carrying more weight than either side would like. If Alabama controls the line and avoids giving the Bulldogs extra chances, the Tide should be in good shape, but road games have a way of turning on one mistake. [Read more 🡒]