Week 2 barely has a chance to settle in before the heat starts climbing on a few college football head coaches. Some teams are rolling. Others are already giving off the kind of early-season smoke that makes everybody around the program start checking the temperature.
The most uncomfortable situation on this list belongs to Dabo Swinney. Clemson’s 2026 season opened with a 51-10 blowout loss to LSU, and that came after a 7-6 finish last year, his worst season since 2010.
Swinney then got into a war of words with a media member after the LSU game before Clemson came back and beat Georgia Southern 22-7 in Week 2. Even with the win, the pressure isn’t going anywhere.
His buyout would be $57 million if he were fired in 2026.
Rutgers is in a rough spot too, and it started immediately. The Scarlet Knights opened with a 37-21 loss to UMass, snapping a 16-game losing streak for the Minutemen, even though Rutgers was a 29.5-point favorite.
Greg Schiano’s group then dropped a 28-21 game to Boston College. The schedule does them no favors either, with two top-12 teams coming up in the next three games.
If Schiano is fired after the season, the school would owe him roughly $18.5 million.
North Carolina has won both of its first two games under Bill Belichick, beating TCU and East Tennessee State to go 2-0. On the field, that’s the right start.
But the program has been dealing with turmoil away from it, and those off-field issues could end up defining the tenure if they keep hanging around. If North Carolina fires Belichick at any point before Dec. 31, 2027, the school would owe him everything he was set to be paid up to that date.
Mike Norvell looks like the next coach who could really feel the squeeze. Florida State opened with a win, but it was a shaky 34-17 effort against New Mexico State, and then came a 27-24 loss to SMU.
The Seminoles had a bye in Week 2, but Alabama is next, and the program already made a move by firing its athletic director, which only adds to the sense that the head coach could be under even more scrutiny. His buyout is set at $45.6 million after this season.
Dan Lanning is the one who may surprise some people, but the concern is real. Oregon entered the year ranked No. 2, and Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt went as far as calling the Ducks the clear best team in college football.
"There is a clear number one," Klatt previously said. "And I honestly don't understand why this is not more unanimous.
If you actually evaluate rosters out there and what's coming back. Everyone else out there has a question.
Everybody.... Guess who doesn't have questions?
Not one. Oregon.
Oregon is No. 1 in the country, and quite frankly, it's not close."
The Ducks opened with a narrow 34-27 win over Boise State, then lost 39-31 to Oklahoma State, a team that had been on a 12-game losing streak and had just lost to Tulsa. That kind of result is exactly why Lanning’s name is in this conversation. The buyout may help protect him, since Oregon would owe 100% of the remaining money on his contract if it fired him without cause.
Week 2 is still very early, and that matters. Most of these situations can change fast. But right now, Swinney, Schiano, and Norvell all need results in a hurry, Belichick has to keep the off-field noise from swallowing the good work on the field, and Lanning has to prove Oregon’s loss to Oklahoma State was a one-off instead of another sign that the Ducks are coming up short when the expectations are highest.
In Other News...
Mike Norvells Future Just Got More Uncomfortable For Florida State Fans
Public pressure around coaching searches has a way of spilling far beyond the sideline, and Mike Norvell is the latest Florida State coach finding his personal space pulled into the conversation. With speculation about his future already hanging over the program, even something as ordinary as a box truck at his residence becomes part of the surrounding noise, another example of how closely the sport watches coaches when their standing starts to wobble.
Florida State fans have seen this kind of scrutiny before, and college football keeps proving that a coachs job security can become a public spectacle long before any official decision is made. The attention does not stop with football, either, as similar media fascination shows up in basketball and other sports whenever uncertainty builds, which is exactly why every small detail around Norvell now feels bigger than it ought to be. [Read more 🡒]
Florida States 2027 Schedule Just Changed The Mike Norvell Debate
The ACCs release of its 2027 football conference opponents gave Florida State a clearer look at the road ahead, and on paper it shapes up as a manageable slate. The Seminoles are set to host Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami and Stanford, while visiting Cal, Clemson, North Carolina and Syracuse, with the league again scheduling nine conference games and five of them in Tallahassee. Florida State also already has non-conference games lined up against Florida and ETSU, leaving one more out-of-league slot to fill.
Compared with the tougher look of 2026, the 2027 setup stands out as the kind of schedule that can matter when the conversation turns to Mike Norvells future. Florida State will still have to deal with Clemson on the road and Miami coming to town, but the overall balance of the league slate gives the Seminoles a better chance to build momentum, and perhaps a better backdrop for the debate over where the program is headed under Norvell. [Read more 🡒]
Florida State's Mike Norvell Reality Just Got More Complicated
Florida States football turbulence is now tied to a much bigger reset inside the athletic department. University leadership is putting the focus on restructuring the whole operation and strengthening revenue generation and business functions, rather than rushing into a quick verdict on Mike Norvell. For now, the preferred approach is to let the season play out while the administration sorts through how it wants the department to look moving forward.
The timing leaves Norvell in a familiar but uneasy spot, with fan frustration still simmering after the recent losses. Florida State is also preparing to redefine the athletic director role around business expertise and a broader organizational overhaul before naming a successor to the recently dismissed AD, which means the football decision is unfolding inside a larger administrative rewrite. In other words, the coachs future is still very much in play, but it is no longer the only issue driving the conversation. [Read more 🡒]