February is a month filled with hope across college football.
It’s a time for fresh starts at programs that have hired new coaches, for exhales at schools where existing coaches barely held on after dodgy seasons and to dream about what might be possible with a new batch of recruits and an arsenal of incoming transfers. At this point in the year, almost everyone still believes.
Reality lurks somewhere beneath the surface. Waves of optimism and possibility can only do so much to obscure the cold, hard truth: There are plenty of coaches that will enter the 2026 season with seats that are somewhere between warm and scalding, and there are plenty of new hires who need strong starts to justify the choices their athletic directors made during the coaching carousel.
Our panel of experts cuts through the noise to examine which individuals have the most to prove this fall:
Which coach is under the most pressure heading into the 2026 college football season and why?
Michael Cohen: Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
Widely viewed as a strong hire by athletic director Chris McIntosh following the shocking decision to fire head coach Paul Chryst partway through the 2022 season, Fickell has been unable to replicate the remarkable success he enjoyed at Cincinnati. From 2018-22, Fickell won an incredible 53 games with the Bearcats, who were part of the American Athletic Conference at that time, and even guided them to the College Football Playoff in his penultimate season. Few young coaches, if any, were held in higher regard than Fickell when he accepted the job at Wisconsin.
Since then, though, almost nothing has gone according to plan for Fickell, who needed a public vote of confidence from McIntosh last fall amid widespread rumors about his job security. The Badgers finished 7-6 during Fickell’s first season in 2023, but they’ve finished below .500 each of the past two years. Injuries and questionable talent identification at quarterback have paired with a revolving door at offensive coordinator to leave Fickell in a precarious spot entering the 2026 season.
Laken Litman: Lincoln Riley, USC
Riley is entering his fifth season in Los Angeles and doesn’t have much to show for himself. No conference championships, no CFP appearances. Perhaps his greatest feat in his tenure thus far is that he coached Caleb Williams.
There’s a feeling that things have changed entering the 2026 season, though. USC has the nation’s top recruiting class. This is huge considering the Trojans haven’t claimed the No. 1 class since Pete Carroll was there. While some younger players from this freshman class might have opportunities to contribute early, Riley has veterans on both sides of the ball who he can rely on, which is also a plus. This includes starting quarterback Jayden Maiava, as well as running back King Miller. Regardless of the talent, though, Riley has to be the one to get his team into gear. Otherwise, his seat will really heat up.
USC coach Lincoln Riley speaks at a press conference at the John McKay Center. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
RJ Young: Deion Sanders, Colorado
Sanders enters a year when he once again turned over the roster and lost good players to great programs — like offensive tackle Jordan Seaton to LSU and corner back DJ McKinney to Notre Dame. He retained former five-star quarterback Julian Lewis and added innovative offensive coordinator Brennan Marion to his staff, though. Those last two principals in the play might define Coach Prime’s season.
Another losing season at Colorado might not be enough for athletic director Fernando Lovo to begin a search for a new head coach, but it isn’t going to do much to cool frustrations in Boulder. “Prime Time” needs a fast start because his program hasn’t won a single game since Oct. 11, 2025 — a ranked matchup against a depleted No. 22 Iowa State.
Which first-year coach needs to get off to a strong start in the 2026 college football season and why?
Litman: Pete Golding, Ole Miss
Ole Miss coach Pete Golding during the 2025 College Football Playoff. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
This is his first head coaching gig, and he’s following Lane Kiffin. Golding has already gotten a taste of what things are going to be like after stepping into the job early when he assumed the role during the Rebels’ recent CFP run. Kiffin bolted for LSU right after the regular season, leaving Golding to figure things out when the lights were brightest. Ole Miss has a tough 2026 schedule — and hosts Kiffin and LSU in Oxford on Sept. 19. Winning that game will be crucial in keeping fans happy.
One massive edge Golding has in his first full season as the program’s head coach is that star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss will return after receiving an injunction to play a sixth season, as will star running back Kewan Lacy and a loaded transfer portal class. They’ll need a strong start to the year to prove Ole Miss is still a top program without Kiffin running things.
Young: Lane Kiffin, LSU
Kiffin left a program he led to its first CFP appearance — and arguably its best modern season — to take a job at a rival that had just fired its head coach and athletic director within three months of each other. LSU then paid Kiffin bonuses for each of Ole Miss’ CFP wins in 2025 while making him the second-highest-paid coach in the sport. Finally, the Tigers opened their checkbook to assemble the most expensive transfer portal class money could buy, highlighted by offensive tackle Jordan Seaton (Colorado) and quarterback Sam Leavitt (Arizona State). Opening with a record short of 4-0 — which would feature wins against Clemson, Louisiana Tech, Ole Miss and Texas A&M — is his only option.
Cohen: Alex Golesh, Auburn
Auburn coach Alex Golesh talks to the fans at Neville Arena. (Photo by Stew Milne/Getty Images)
At 41 years old, Golesh is certainly one of the fastest-rising coaches in the profession given the work he did as head coach at South Florida from 2023-25, a three-year run that included 23 victories at a school that only won four games over the preceding three seasons combined. His 9-3 overall record and 6-2 conference mark this past fall meant that Golesh was always going to be a central figure in the coaching carousel — especially when considering he had the chance to bring star quarterback Byrum Brown with him to a new locale.
Even with his rising stock, Golesh needs a strong debut at Auburn to placate a fan base that has been unhappy for nearly a decade. Five consecutive losing seasons under predecessors Hugh Freeze (15-19 overall) and Bryan Harsin (9-12 overall) were preempted by a noticeable decline across the back half of the Gus Malzahn era, which began bathed in glory courtesy of a national championship game appearance in 2013. Given his youth and relative inexperience (he’s only been a head coach for three seasons), Golesh will need to start quickly to get the fans on his side.
In Let’s Debate, our experts tackle and explain the hot-button issues fans care about.
