College football’s patience problem is getting worse, and the 2026 season opens with a familiar group of coaches feeling the heat before a snap is played.
The sport has made it clear in recent years that bad seasons do not buy much grace. By November in 2025, eight power four coaches were already out of work, and 15 Bowl Subdivision coaches had been fired over the course of the season.
The total tab for buyouts hit a record $270 million. That’s the backdrop for a fall where instant results will matter almost everywhere.
At Florida State, Mike Norvell sits near the top of that pressure list. The Seminoles came out flying last season, shocking Alabama 31-17 in Week 1 and then rolling past East Texas A&M and Kent State to start 3-0.
But the bottom fell out after that. FSU won only two of its final nine games, and Norvell’s six-year mark in Tallahassee now stands at 38-34.
Thirteen of those victories came during the program’s playoff run in 2023, and since then the Seminoles have won just seven games while finishing in the bottom five of the ACC in back-to-back years.
North Carolina is asking a lot of Bill Belichick in Year 2, even after a first season that went nowhere fast. The Tar Heels brought in 70 new players and still finished with four wins and five double-digit losses, missing a bowl for the first time since 2018.
The off-field noise didn’t help, either. Belichick now faces another roster overhaul with 60 new players, and UNC is projected to finish 15th in the 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference.
The schedule is tougher, too, with Notre Dame and preseason ACC favorite Miami both coming to Chapel Hill. And before camp even opened, another issue landed when general manager Michael Lombardi was placed on leave as part of a school investigation.
Belichick’s original five-year, $50 million deal included $10 million in annual base and supplemental pay, though only the first three years were guaranteed, leaving the school on the hook for roughly one year’s pay if it moves on after the season.
Shane Beamer is back at South Carolina with a roster that gives him a real chance to rebound, but the standard is higher now after last season’s stumble. The Gamecocks finished 4-8 and 15th in the SEC at 1-7, after opening the year ranked No. 13 in the AP Top 25 and then dropping out of the poll after a Week 3 loss to Vanderbilt.
South Carolina lost six of its final eight games. Beamer still has pieces to work with, including quarterback LaNorris Sellers, edge rusher Dylan Stewart and receiver Nyck Harbor.
Luke Fickell has already said the quiet part out loud at Wisconsin: he knows the seat is hot. The Badgers went 4-8 in 2025, their second straight losing season for the first time since the early 1990s.
The program also hit lows it hadn’t seen since the 1970s, taking shutout losses to Iowa and Ohio State in back-to-back weeks. Fickell is 17-21 at Wisconsin and has not come close to matching the success he had at Cincinnati.
The Badgers open this season against Notre Dame at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
Bill O’Brien heads into Year 3 at Boston College after a sharp drop-off from his first season. The Eagles went 7-6 and reached the Pinstripe Bowl in his debut, but 2025 brought a 2-10 finish and left Boston College ahead of only Syracuse in the ACC.
The Eagles’ wins came in the first week against Fordham and the last week against Syracuse, with 10 straight losses in between. That kind of collapse leaves little room for another misstep.
Maryland’s Mike Locksley is also under the microscope after back-to-back near-identical seasons. The Terrapins finished 4-8 overall and 1-8 in Big Ten play in both 2024 and 2025, leaving Locksley 37-49 over eight seasons in College Park.
His best stretch came with consecutive 8-5 seasons in 2022 and 2023, when Maryland also won its third bowl game in as many years. At Big Ten media days, Locksley said the tough days are behind the program and pointed to what he called one of the most talented rosters of his tenure.
In Other News...
Florida State Is Sending A Clear Fall Camp Message
Fall camp in Tallahassee has carried a consistent tone so far, and it is one Florida State has been eager to reinforce. The Seminoles have leaned into competition, accountability and a team-first approach, with players and coaches stressing that roles will have to be earned and that no one is guaranteed anything based on reputation alone.
Kam Martin and Mike Norvell have both helped set that standard as the Seminoles work to build on what came before them. The message around the program is simple enough: leadership matters no matter where a player sits on the depth chart, and the group has to buy into the same standard if it wants to move forward together. [Read more 🡒]
FSU Faces A Bigger 2026 Test Than Fans May Realize
Florida States 2026 schedule is shaping up as more than a routine grind, and the early look at the opponents skill talent explains why. The Seminoles are set to run into some of the ACC and in-states most dangerous offensive players, with a mix of proven backs and explosive receivers waiting on the other sideline. For a program trying to keep pace in a conference that keeps loading up at the skill positions, those matchups will matter as much as the bigger brand names.
Among the names already standing out are Floridas Jadan Baugh and Miamis Mark Fletcher Jr. and Malachi Toney, the kind of players who can tilt a game even when the matchup feels ordinary on paper. The broader point for FSU is simple: the 2026 slate is not just about whether the Seminoles can handle the usual heavyweight games, but whether they can survive a run of weeks where one missed tackle or one busted coverage could change everything. [Read more 🡒]
Florida States Final Scrimmage Raised One Big Question Before The Depth Chart
Florida State wrapped its final fall scrimmage with the kind of mixed review that usually tells coaches as much as it tells fans. Mike Norvell said the defense was the sharper side, and the line work under Terrance Knighton and Nick Williams stood out as the group that kept breaking up what the offense wanted to do. It was the latest reminder that camp is moving out of the evaluation stage and into the part where the Seminoles start sorting out what they really have.
On the other side, the offense had stretches it will want back, but Ashton Daniels gave the staff a steady presence even in an uneven setting. Norvell pointed to Daniels efficiency and leadership as positives, which matters now that Florida State is heading into the phase where the depth chart and the tighter position battles should start to take shape. For a team still trying to sharpen its identity, the final scrimmage left one question hanging: how much of the roster is already settled, and how much is still up for grabs? [Read more 🡒]