Many of college football's biggest preseason promises have already expired.
Entering Week 6, the panic meter is climbing for programs running out of explanations for on-field struggles, including several teams with hot-seat coaches. When the same problems surface every weekend, patience disappears and the excuses begin as program leaders run low on trust.
And for teams not considering a coaching change or battling through first-year issues with new staffs, their situations aren't any less frustrating given the stakes.
There's still time to change the conversation for some, but most of these panic-driven programs are nearing midseason with no clear answers given what's ahead on their respective schedules.
For this exercise, teams are given a panic meter score ranging from 1-5, with "5" being unfixable.
South Carolina
Record: 2-3 (0-3 SEC)
Panic meter: 5
Shane Beamer's tenure has run its course at South Carolina. Saturday night's loss to Kentucky was the program's eighth straight in SEC play and 12th in its last 14 games against Power Four competition. The Gamecocks haven't beaten a Power Four opponent since Kentucky last season, a span of 373 days, and have no semblance of confidence as a team. They've blown double-digit leads in three of their last four SEC games dating back to the debacle at Texas A&M last fall and can't seem to execute in crunch time on either side of the ball.
South Carolina keeps making the same mistakes, wasting opportunities and asking a defense with its own issues to cover for an offense with noticeable quarterback regression. The talent is there for LaNorris Sellers, but execution lacks. Beamer built belief in 2024 with a 9-3 finish, but the Gamecocks have been unable to sustain. The eject lever will soon be pulled in Columbia.
Maryland
Record: 2-3 (0-2 Big Ten)
Panic meter: 5
Humiliating defeats are becoming the norm at Maryland under Mike Locksley, whose days are numbered. Locksley hoped his team would respond over the weekend at Nebraska after their 51-point thumping at the hands of UCLA, but more of the same ensued during a 48-23 setback. With a trip to unbeaten Ohio State looming, it might get uglier for a program that invested substantial resources this offseason in roster retention to ensure Locksley had what he needed to turn things around.
Colorado
Record: 2-3 (0-3 Big 12)
Panic meter: 5
Colorado's offense is broken. The Buffaloes are averaging just 10.3 points per game against Power Four opponents and have already pushed Julian Lewis to the bench in favor of Isaac Wilson, who threw three interceptions in his first start. Deion Sanders dismissed several players following his team's 34-point loss at Northwestern last month, then began pointing fingers at "one glaring problem" on Saturday night in the aftermath of a 29-7 defeat against Texas Tech at Folsom Field. Sanders' team leads the Big 12 in penalties too, an undisciplined mess for a fourth-year coach staring down the barrel of his third losing season at the program.
USC
Record: 5-1 (2-1 Big Ten)
Panic meter: 4.5
Lincoln Riley tried his best to pull positives from USC's 41-27 loss to Oregon last month, an obvious sign of a coach feeling the pressure while attempting to stiff-arm growing narratives about his team. The truth? The Trojans squandered a golden opportunity at home against the beatable Ducks, who were down to their backup quarterback in the second half, who led four touchdown drives. Riley's not getting it down in Los Angeles at a program with heightened expectations after the loss dropped his record to 5-15 against top-25 opponents.
Nothing about USC's 4-0 start was particularly impressive considering the defensive failures, a unit Riley tried to fix during the offseason with the hire of Gary Patterson. Saturday night's win over Washington keeps faint CFP hopes alive for a program that still doesn't like to tackle and prefers finesse over flex.
Michigan
Record: 3-2 (0-2 Big Ten)
Panic meter: 4.5
Saturday's loss at Minnesota was damaging to Kyle Whittingham's cause with the Wolverines. It's early October, and he's already running out of steam. There's no time for a large-scale rebuild in Ann Arbor given the resources pumped into luring Whittingham away from Utah and having one of the Big Ten's high-end rosters. When you're paying your quarterback north of $4 million to be average, that's a problem. Michigan's lucky to not have a losing record after five weeks given the controversial ending against Western Michigan in the opener and the ugly outing against Oklahoma on offense the following weekend.
Penn State
Record: 3-2 (0-2 Big Ten)
Panic meter: 3.5
Maybe we should've seen this coming — Matt Campbell taking nearly his entire Iowa State team with him to Happy Valley and expecting to field a CFP-worthy team against a weekly grind within the Big Ten. He hasn't even faced a ranked opponent yet and remains winless against conference competition after Friday night's failure-to-show at Northwestern. That wasn't just a loss for the Nittany Lions; it was an indictment of this team being soft after being out-rushed by the Wildcats 413-38.
Quarterback Rocco Becht had another disappointing outing with multiple turnovers after getting off to a hot start against Marshall, Temple and Buffalo. Penn State's fallen from 14th in the country to unranked over the last two weeks and completely torpedoed any chance of its Week 6 White Out against USC from being in the national spotlight.
Arkansas
Record: 2-3 (0-2 SEC)
Panic meter: 4
The Razorbacks know they're stuck with Ryan Silverfield for the time being, but this was never going to be an easy rebuild in the SEC for the former Memphis coach. None of this team's three games against Power Four opponents have been competitive, which includes a 34-7 loss to Texas A&M in Week 5. The Aggies came into that one limping at Kyle Field and still managed a four-touchdown victory. It's so bad right now at Arkansas that Silverfield is already trusting the fanbase to stand behind the program.
"When I took this job ... people said, 'Man, we just want to see fight from the team,'" Silverfield said. "Look, we got our butts kicked, and it's not good enough ... we will be better, and if I know anything about Arkansas fans, they believe, and they're a bunch of fighters. And just keep believing in us. Keep showing up. Show up next Saturday. I love our fans. They should be mad. I'm pissed off myself."
Oklahoma
Record: 2-2 (0-1 SEC)
Panic meter: 3.5
No team in the country welcomed its open date more than the Sooners, who look unsure of themselves offensively as the John Mateer and Ben Arbuckle marriage quickly deteriorates. The former Washington State pairing simply hasn't found a rhythm on gamedays in the SEC, an unfortunate — and frustrating — reality for Brent Venables and the Sooners. Next up for Oklahoma is a showdown with Texas in Dallas, with the Longhorns coming off a 10-sack signature win at Tennessee.
Clemson
Record: 3-2 (2-1 ACC)
Panic meter: 3.5
Football in the Palmetto State has seen better days. Two of Dabo Swinney's four worst losses with the Tigers have come this season following Saturday night's 41-13 blowout against Miami. His offseason hiring of Chad Morris simply hasn't worked, despite ACC wins over North Carolina and Cal. Clemson ranks last in the ACC in total offense (321.2 yards per game), passing offense (183.6 YPG) and 15th in scoring offense (19.4 PPG).
Swinney didn't offer any quirky postgame remarks in Week 5 after the offense struggled again against Miami and the Hurricanes put the game away in the second half. Clemson's offensive line has underperformed, and turnovers (9) have been alarming.
"They are a really, really good football team," Swinney said. "That quarterback, he might be the first pick in the NFL draft, and he is surrounded by some really good players. ... They made the plays and we didn't. They were the better team."
Michigan State
Record: 2-3 (0-2 Big Ten)
Panic meter: 3
Pat Fitzgerald must've really wanted to coach again, realizing what he was getting into with the Spartans. Michigan State is struggling to generate explosives during this three-game losing skid and still has at least five games left on the schedule as a betting underdog. So far, the Spartans strikingly resemble what Fitzgerald's final few years at Northwestern looked like — a massive talent discrepancy showing up on the field.
