The first third of the 2026 college football season has already separated the comfortable from the vulnerable, and a handful of coaches are feeling the heat hard as Week 5 approaches. A few rough Saturdays, a few ugly numbers, and now the pressure is real.
Mike Locksley might be staring at the sharpest edge of that pressure in College Park. Maryland’s 54-3 loss to UCLA last weekend only poured gasoline on an already tense situation.
Locksley has been in charge since 2019 and is 39-51 overall with the Terrapins. In Big Ten play, Maryland is 17-49 under his watch, and the program has gone 4-8 in each of the last two seasons.
If the school makes a move, Locksley would be due a $9.2 million buyout. But the schedule is not offering much relief, with Nebraska and No.
5 Ohio State up next.
Deion Sanders is in a different kind of spotlight, but the results have cooled fast. When Sanders arrived at Colorado in 2023, he was the center of the sport’s attention, bringing with him Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and a flood of national buzz.
The Buffaloes went just 4-8 that first year, but there was still optimism because of the portal activity and the star power in Boulder. Then came the breakthrough: a 9-4 season in 2024 and a Heisman Trophy for Hunter.
Since Sanders and Hunter moved on to the NFL Draft in 2025, though, Colorado has slipped badly. The Buffaloes are 5-11 since 2025 and just 1-9 in Big 12 play.
Their latest setback was a 41-7 loss to Northwestern, a game that also featured the benching of starting quarterback Julian Lewis. Next up are No.
12 Texas Tech and No. 13 Utah.
Rutgers is also in a rough spot, and Greg Schiano’s return has not produced the kind of stability the program hoped for. The Scarlet Knights opened the season with a stunning home loss to UMass, a team that was nearly a 30-point underdog.
That result fit into a broader slide: Rutgers has dropped 10 of its last 13 games, and since Schiano came back in 2020, the program has managed only two winning seasons. The Scarlet Knights did show some fight against USC a few weeks ago, but now they have the defending champion Indiana Hoosiers coming to town this weekend.
Lincoln Riley’s situation at USC comes with a different flavor, but the questions are just as loud. Since taking over in 2022, the offensive-minded coach has not produced much in the way of payoff.
USC opened the 2023 season 6-0, but since then the Trojans are 22-16. Riley still has not taken USC to the College Football Playoff, even with NFL-level talent on the roster, including 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
After a home loss to Oregon and player antics that have raised concerns about leadership and morale, the Trojans are heading into a brutal run with Ohio State, Indiana and UCLA all looming.
In Other News...
USCs First Real Test Exposed A Problem Trojans Fans Know Too Well
USCs first real test of the season brought the kind of reminder Trojans fans have seen before: the Coliseum can be loud, the offense can move the ball, and still the game can slip away when the pressure rises. Oregons 41-27 win in Los Angeles ended USCs 10-game home winning streak and left the Trojans with the familiar frustration of coming up short in the kind of matchup that tends to define a season.
Jayden Maiava put together a productive night, throwing for 326 yards and accounting for three touchdowns, but the late interception was the kind of mistake that can change the tone of a high-stakes conference game. Oregon had its own answer under center, with Dylan Raiola stepping in after an injury to the starter and delivering two passing touchdowns, and USC was left once again trying to sort out why its biggest tests so often expose the same old flaw. [Read more 🡒]
USCs Washington Showdown Just Got More Personal For One Trojans Starter
The No. 18 Trojans are getting ready for a primetime meeting with Washington at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it brings back the teams first matchup since 2024. It is the kind of late-night West Coast stage USC has come to expect, with the Huskies arriving as a familiar but still dangerous opponent and Demond Williams Jr. and Dezman Roebuck lined up as the names most likely to shape the conversation on offense.
There is also a little extra edge attached to this one for one USC starter because Washington coach Kalen DeBoer has already talked publicly about former linebacker Deven Bryants move to USC. That adds a personal layer to a game that already carries plenty of intrigue, especially with the Huskies trying to sort out how to handle a Trojans defense and the Trojans knowing they will need to be sharp against a quarterback-receiver tandem that can change the feel of the night quickly. [Read more 🡒]
USC Must Rework Its Linebackers At The Worst Possible Time
USC is suddenly having to reshuffle its linebacking group after Desman Stephens II was handed a one-game suspension for a targeting hit on Oregon quarterback Dante Moore. The timing is rough enough on its own, but it lands in the middle of a stretch where Lincoln Riley is already trying to steady the defense and sort through the aftereffects of a high-profile game.
Riley addressed the situation during a Sept. 28 media appearance, noting the need to adjust the depth chart while also pointing to the broader lessons from the Oregon game. For a defense that is still trying to find more reliable execution, losing a key piece for even one week only sharpens the urgency heading into the next round of games. [Read more 🡒]