The 8 Power 4 programs who are in college football hell heading into the 2026 offseason
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I don’t say “hell” lightly. I try not to say it at all, but hey, sometimes, it just fits.
As it pertains to college football, “hell” can’t be confused with purgatory. Some teams exist just fine in purgatory and don’t ever necessarily feel like the situation is dire enough to start throwing around the “H-word.” To be in college football hell, one must understand context. It’s more than just bad vibes. It’s vibes that feel like a certain form of torture is imminent. Whether that’s having an under-performing coach on an insane contract or having a team that can’t seem to get out of its own way, college football hell comes in a variety of forms.
To get out of hell, one can get a breakthrough season or hire the right coach. Indiana was firmly in college football hell for decades, but it hired Curt Cignetti and found a way to replace apathy with dominance. Kentucky was in college football hell the last couple years of the Mark Stoops era, but hiring an offensive-minded, 30-something coach who has dominated the transfer portal has changed the offseason mood in Lexington. Michigan was in college football hell, then Kyle Whittingham bailed the Wolverines out.
Talk to a fan of a team in college football hell, and you’ll probably confirm that notion within the first minute of that conversation. A groan, an exasperated sigh, a Hail Mary plea to the college football gods, etc. You get it. You can smell the desperation on them.
For these 8 Power Conference teams, college football hell is all too real:
Arkansas
Wait a minute. Didn’t Arkansas just hire a new coach in Ryan Silverfield? Isn’t 2-10 supposed to be a thing of the past? It could be, though it’s worth noting that none of Arkansas’ 5 first-year coaches in the 21st century reached a bowl game. Silverfield didn’t suddenly shift the mood because he wasn’t the splashy hire that Arkansas fans hope for when the coaching carousel began. A team with 3 winning seasons in the 2020s has had moments of hope, but 23 1-score losses in the 2020s has felt like torture. One of those nail-biter losses happened, ironically enough, against Silverfield. Perhaps that could prove to be a good omen. But a non-splashy transfer portal class has some skeptical about the new Arkansas head coach, who has never endured a rebuild quite like the one that awaits in Fayetteville. It didn’t help that as recently as September, AD Hunter Yurachek admitted that Arkansas’ NIL efforts weren’t set up well enough to win a national championship in football. That’s a crushing thing to hear from a person in power.
Cincinnati
Originally, I had Boston College as my last team in but decided that a pivot to Cincinnati made sense. After all, Bill O’Brien’s “what’s up, Trevor” line from this past season provided me more entertainment than any single press conference soundbite. Cincinnati might’ve just had another multi-win improvement that saved Scott Satterfield’s job, but it also just lost its promising quarterback, Brendan Sorsby, to flushed-with-cash Texas Tech. A 9-18 record in 3 years in the Big 12 doesn’t suggest that the Bearcats are anywhere close to the place that they were at the start of the 2020s when they became the first and only Group of 5 team to reach the 4-team Playoff. Satterfield also fired both coordinators, which usually isn’t the best sign for a head coach’s future. An underwhelming transfer portal class didn’t exactly squash the notion that Satterfield’s days could be numbered and a job that once looked attractive post-Luke Fickell could be a tougher sell.
Clemson
You had me at “he hired Chad Morris to run his offense.” Ask aforementioned Arkansas or recently hell-departed Auburn (promising new coach) about that. That alone would make Clemson a worthy inclusion of this list, but the Tigers are in hell because the team that Dabo Swinney bragged about breaking Clemson out of its 2020s funk couldn’t even win 8 games. Mind you, that was after it started at No. 1 in the FBS in percentage of returning production. Clemson didn’t pay $60 million to fire Swinney after his disastrous 2025 season. Even worse, he repeatedly defended his ways and all but dared AD Graham Neff to fire him by declaring that he’d find work elsewhere if his time was up. It’s not. Instead, Swinney still has the power to do things like … hire Morris. Clemson fans will defend Swinney to the ends of the earth for those 2 titles, but deep down, they know what everyone else does — the game has passed him by.
Florida State
What if I told you that a coach coming off a 2-year stretch with a 7-17 record and a 3-13 mark vs. ACC competition is still owed $45.6 million if he’s fired at the end of the 2026 season? Would you say that’s hell? It certainly feels like it. Mike Norvell’s got twice as many seasons without bowl berths (4) as he has bowl berths (2). That’s not lost on FSU fans, plenty of whom wanted him canned at the end of 2024. The fact that 2025 started off with a win against Alabama but still finished with a 5-7 mark was inexplicable. Teams who rank in the top 1/4 in FBS in both yards/play and yards/play allowed aren’t supposed to be 5-7. But whether it was special teams miscues or late-game execution failures, FSU endured another nightmare season. Even worse, it had to watch Miami make a run to the national championship for the first time in 23 years. It’s burning hot — and not in a good way — in Tallahassee.
Mississippi State
I’m not saying that the Jeff Lebby era is doomed, but consider the context of this stat. Mississippi State‘s fanbase hasn’t witnessed a home SEC win since the Mike Leach era, AKA 2022. It was actually the 39-33 overtime win against Cadillac Williams-led Auburn, which included the famous clip of Leach taking chairs away on his own sideline. Lebby might need to follow suit because after getting a late invite to the Mayo Bowl as a 5-win team, he’s 7-18 heading into Year 3. The decision to bring his predecessor, Zach Arnett, back to Starkville to run the defense is intriguing, but Mississippi State fans watched countless blown opportunities with what felt like an improved team in 2025. Meanwhile, Bulldog fans got to celebrate the Lane Kiffin departure … only to watch Ole Miss nearly reach the national championship without him in what was its best season in program history. Will that ramp up the pressure on Lebby in Year 3? It depends who you ask, but it’s worth noting that his boss, AD Zac Selmon, hired Lebby after they worked together at Oklahoma. Meaning another losing season in Year 3 might not mean a change at head coach is imminent. We’ll see if that’s the case, but it’s not bold to say that there are likely sad cowbells in hell.
Nebraska
I’m old enough to remember when “Year 3 Matt Rhule” was going to have the Huskers competing for a Big Ten Championship. Instead, “Year 3 Matt Rhule” gave us a few things. It gave us Nebraska’s 9th consecutive season without a win vs. an AP Top 25 team, it gave us a season-ending injury/subsequent departure of prized QB1 Dylan Raiola and it gave us a 2-year Rhule extension to prevent Penn State from poaching him from a 7-6 team. By the way, the 2-year extension means that beginning in 2030, Rhule will earn $12.5 million annually in the final 3 years of his contract, which now runs through 2032. If he’s fired, he’s owed 90% of the remaining contract, which means that this is what he’s owed if he’s fired at the end of these seasons:
- End of 2026: $63,900,000
- End of 2027: $54,900,000
- End of 2028: $44,550,000
- End of 2029: $33,750,000
- End of 2030: $22,500,000
- End of 2031: $11,250,000
Yes, a coach who has a 2-25 record vs. AP Top 25 teams who lost 6 games in 5 of his 6 seasons as a Power Conference head coach will still be owed $33,750,000 if he gets to coach another 4 seasons. If that’s not college football hell, I don’t know what is.
UNC
Hell is opening up social media and wondering what ridiculous thing the 73-year-old coach’s girlfriend did in a given week. One could stomach that if it included some Year 1 promise. Instead, it included a 4-8 season in which Bill Belichick beat 3 FBS teams who had a combined 8-28 record. Woof. That’s not what you’d draw up for a coach on an 8-figure annual contract. The silver lining of Belichick’s disastrous Year 1 was supposed to be that his reported interest to get back to the NFL would prevent UNC from forking over a significant buyout. But so far, Belichick hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of NFL coaching carousel talks. Any sign of UNC becoming the “33rd NFL team” is nonexistent. UNC’s hope of avoiding punching bag status seems unlikely as long as Belichick (and Jordon Hudson) are at the controls.
Wisconsin
You know you’re in rough shape when your fanbase is disappointed by an athletic director’s decision to run it back and invest more resources into his personnel. That’s how bad it’s been for the aforementioned Fickell in Madison. A program that had a slam-dunk hire is now in one of the worst possible situations. It’s not just that Wisconsin can’t keep a quarterback healthy. It doesn’t have any sort of identity heading into Year 4 with Fickell. Take transfer portal class rankings for what they are, but all of those “increased resources” led to Wisconsin currently having the No. 44 class, which is 2 spots behind Fickell’s old school, Cincinnati, who couldn’t even keep Sorsby. Yeah, it’s rough. Wisconsin missed a bowl game in consecutive years for the first time since 1991-92, and there’s no sign that improvement is imminent. Fan support fell off a cliff at Camp Randall Stadium, which is no longer a feared venue like it was throughout the 21st century. That’s a troubling place to be as Wisconsin tries to find its footing in a Big Ten that’s currently in a golden age.
And keep an eye on Tennessee and USC
I’m not willing to put either team in “hell” status just yet. After all, Tennessee just had 4 consecutive 8-win seasons for the first time since 2001-04. Let’s not act like Josh Heupel is Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt, both of whom put the Vols in hell. But it is worth noting that a troubling whiff at quarterback and an overhauled defense have more questions than answers ahead for Heupel in Year 6. That’s after consecutive disappointing endings, albeit with Tennessee’s first Playoff berth. Heupel going 0-3 against Tennessee’s top rivals (Alabama, Florida and Georgia) would be a disastrous development after he failed to beat an FBS team with a winning record in 2025.
USC, on the other hand, continues to recruit like a program that’s earning annual Playoff berths. He signed the No. 1 high school class, he kept the promising Jayden Maiava at quarterback and he posted a 7-2 record in the Big Ten. The irony, of course, is that not only has Riley not reached the Playoff at USC, but the Oklahoma program that he left just got there for the first time under Brent Venables. While USC cares less about Oklahoma than Oklahoma cares about USC (specifically Riley), the clock is ticking on Riley. He lost the best defensive coordinator he had in D’Anton Lynn, who took the same position at Penn State. Watching the majority of Riley’s defenses has been hell, which could continue even with Gary Patterson set to take on that role. A buyout that’s Jimbo Fisher level doesn’t have an immediate end in sight, either. A 7-6 USC season with a dreadful defense would have USC firmly on this list.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
