2026 College Football Fanbases That Should be Worried after Week 2

Two weeks into the season, you know this refrain is echoing through some football programs. Some teams are reeling at 0-2. Others are already colossal disappointments underachieving.

Then there are others who have an undefeated record written on paper. With a pencil. Just ready to be erased if they don't play much better real quickly.

Proud powerhouses, bottom-dwellers hoping things will change and some programs with new coaches have all experienced early-season letdowns. For most of them, at least, there's still time to turn things around.

If you're fans of these programs, it may be time to start counting down the days to basketball season.

Arkansas football fans have to be wondering if they're ever going to be good again.

The basketball program is on firm footing again with John Calipari at the helm, but football has been a revolving door of futility. From Bret Bielema to Chad Morris to Sam Pittman to Bobby Petrino, it's been bad and ugly.

The Razorbacks' coaching search zeroed in on Ryan Silverfield, who never really quite reached the level at Memphis that Mike Norvell did before him. Now, he's trying to build a program in the SEC arms race.

Last week, Silverfield got his first look at big-time football following a season-opening win against North Alabama. It was rough. The Hogs traveled to Utah and limped back after a 43-10 loss that could have been much worse.

No. 2-ranked Georgia follows this week, and if you look at that SEC schedule, it's extremely tough to find even a single win. If that's the case, Silverfield is going to be off to yet another forgettable start.

It's going to be an uphill battle to turn around the program in Fayetteville.

Every year, it's becoming more and more obvious the game has passed Dabo Swinney by.

The Clemson coach refuses to embrace the transfer portal. Teams all around him are lapping him. Swinney's stubborn pride is keeping the Tigers from remaining competitive in the new era. Right now, he's holding the proud program hostage.

If he doesn't adapt soon, the program is going to have to make the difficult decision to part ways with the legend.

Clemson was a top-five preseason team last year and limped to a 7-6 record. This year, it opened by getting absolutely obliterated by LSU in a game Lane Kiffin said was less competitive than when the Bayou Bengals' scout team simulated the other set of Tigers.

Playing backup quarterback Tait Reynolds against Georgia Southern, Clemson only beat the Eagles 22-7.

This year's rendition of Clemson looks like a bad football team so far. It might get uglier soon.

Maybe at this point, Florida State fans aren't exactly "worried." Maybe they want it to get bad enough to just end the Mike Norvell era, even though it's going to cost the school a lot of money.

It's been really bad for a really long time (relatively speaking) for a program used to winning big during the Bobby Bowden – and, to an extent, the Jimbo Fisher – era. Three years ago, the 'Noles were 13-1 and left out of the playoffs after Jordan Travis's season-ending injury.

They haven't been the same since Georgia torched them in the bowl game. FSU went 2-10 in 2024 and 5-7 last year. This season, they're 1-1, with a close loss to SMU, but they didn't look great in the season-opening 34-17 win over New Mexico State either.

Norvell's roster construction has been abysmal the past two years, highlighted by his inability to get the right portal quarterback (from DJ Uiagalelei to Thomas Castellanos to, now, Ashton Daniels).

A trip to Alabama this week probably won't bring with it any warm-and-fuzzies about the program, either, though Norvell's 'Noles did beat the Tide a season ago.

It feels like a matter of "when," not "if," the Norvell era ends.

Top QB Report Card Grades after Week 2 📝

Brent Key's Georgia Tech football program is built on toughness. So far, through an 0-2 start, that's been nonexistent.

The coach called out his Yellow Jackets for being "soft" after a stunning 14-13 loss to Colorado in Atlanta to open the season. The Buffaloes blocked a would-be game-winning field goal to win.

Things didn't get easier when Tennessee came to town in Week 2. While things were better on both sides of the ball, the Ramblin' Wreck wilted in the second half in a 45-24 loss. Key told ESPN television reporters heading into a two-score fourth quarter that he challenged his team.

That challenge fell flat as the Vols scored 14 points to pull away.

Perhaps the worst thing for the Yellow Jackets is that both losses were at home. Those were golden opportunities to make some national noise. Instead, a rebuilt team that traded quarterback Haynes King for Alberto Mendoza and grabbed Michigan RB Justice Haynes from the portal is trying to find itself.

It may be a rebuilding season for the Wreck.

Brent Venables has 10 wins in two of his four seasons as Oklahoma's head coach, but in case you forgot, there was some hot-seat talk prior to the 2025 campaign.

The Sooners reeled off a late-season run that ended in the College Football Playoff. That made aspirations even higher this year. They are used to winning on a national scale. Just because OU is now in the deep, rugged SEC doesn't change its program standards.

Last weekend's 17-10 loss at Michigan, though, is a huge red flag.

Quarterback John Mateer may get more unwarranted hype than any other quarterback in the country. Even though he is a tough player, he's always been a limited passer. That reared its head again in Ann Arbor. The Sooners don't have enough weapons around Mateer, but the fact is, the senior can't consistently get them the ball, anyway.

When you factor in how the offensive line got dominated against the Wolverines, there are several causes for concern when you look ahead to a schedule that includes No. 2 Georgia, No. 1 Texas, No. 8 Ole Miss, No. 9 Texas A&M, and No. 20 Missouri.

South Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi State aren't gimmes, either. This could be an interesting year in Norman.

Coach Dan Lanning's team is a straight-up mess right now. No amount of lip service is going to change that fact.

Quarterback Dante Moore appears to have regressed early in the season after nearly being a top-five NFL draft pick a season ago. Offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer hasn't been able to recapture the magic left behind by Will Stein, who is now Kentucky's head coach.

While the Ducks have as much defensive talent as anybody, they're allowing 33 points per game during a 1-1 start that saw them barely beat Boise State and lose to an Oklahoma State team that became the first team in history to snap at least a 10-game losing streak by beating a top-10 team.

This is a team that is capable of turning it around at any time to still make it to the College Football Playoff, but they've not looked anything like a team that has that in them yet. What a downer of a start for a team many thought would win the Natty.

Rutgers will never be mistaken for a juggernaut, but the Scarlet Knights haven't been terrible in Greg Schiano's second stint in New Jersey.

Though they didn't make a bowl game a season ago, they finished 5-7 after a pair of seven-win seasons. For the state university, that's a pretty solid stretch. It's been tough sledding since joining the Big Ten, but Schiano at least had them back to a respectable program.

This season feels like a monumental step backward.

Rutgers made national news in Week 1 when a UMass team that went winless a season ago dominated the Scarlet Knights in a 37-21 win.

Just when you thought maybe they were stunned, and it couldn't be that bad, they went on the road last week and could have beaten Boston College, but threw four interceptions on their way to a 28-21 loss.

That's likely the worst ACC team Rutgers fell to. They likely won't be favored in any of their remaining games except against Howard.

Moving to a Power Four conference isn't ever easy, but some teams (like SMU) may make it look that way. Others, like UCF and Cincinnati, have been middling since the move.

Since joining the Big 12, UCF is 7-21 in league play and just 16-23 overall.

They traded Gus Malzahn for Scott Frost a season ago, hoping Frost could rekindle the magic he had as the Knights' head coach that culminated in an unbeaten season and a (mythical) national championship. Frost bolted for his alma mater in Nebraska. He flamed out and is now back in Orlando.

It's been far from a smooth run. After last week's 12-7 loss to Pittsburgh, where the Knights couldn't muster any offense, there's reason for concern once again.

The Knights are sitting on a hot bed of recruiting talent in Florida. The clock is ticking on becoming competitive. The brass over a proud program has to be getting antsy. Even though Frost isn't on the hot seat yet, there needs to be some upward trajectory within the program.

There is reason to worry that once the Big 12 season starts, it's going to be more of the same from UCF.

With Dan Mullen at the helm a season ago, UNLV was one of the biggest Group of Five surprises in the nation, finishing 10-3.

If it weren't for two close losses to Boise State (including in the league championship game), the Runnin' Rebels would have won the Mountain West Conference.

After some team shuffling in the new Pac-12, the Rebels were the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West this season. There was plenty of excitement surrounding former 5-star quarterback and Auburn transfer Jackson Arnold coming to Las Vegas for his third-and-final shot at stardom.

After splitting the first two games between Memphis (27-21 loss) and Hawaii (21-6 win), they were drilled by North Texas, 44-6, last week in a game that really set a negative tone for the rest of the season.

Now, who knows what's going to happen in league play? Mullen's team has been a colossal disappointment so far.

Sorry, Vanderbilt fans, Pavia Power isn't walking through that door.

Like a few other teams on this list, the Vanderbilt Commodores are 2-0 so far this season, but like Washington and others, it sure has been ugly.

For whatever reason, coach Clark Lea is deploying a two-quarterback system so far, with another (like former star Diego Pavia) New Mexico State transfer – Blaze Berlowitz – splitting snaps with true freshman Jared Curtis.

That wouldn't be such an awful thing if Curtis wasn't a former 5-star quarterback who stayed home by flipping from Georgia to sign with the Commodores and become the program's best (and maybe most important) recruit ever.

You don't sign kids with his talent for them to watch from the sidelines, especially when the season hasn't started well. After a slogging 28-9 win over FCS opponent Austin Peay to start the season, Vandy out-dueled Delaware 35-26 last week.

Curtis accounted for three touchdowns against the Blue Hens, so maybe Lea will leave him in, take his lumps and let him develop. That would be the best move because things could get rough when league play begins.

This weekend's nonconference tilt with North Carolina State may be a season-swing game.

Two years ago, Washington nearly made it all the way back to the top of the college football world when it lost to Michigan in the national championship game.

Kalen DeBoer left for Alabama shortly thereafter. The Huskies nabbed Jedd Fisch from Arizona to usher in their move to the Big Ten. They haven't reached that level of success since then, but they've been on the cusp of being good.

At worst, U-Dub is a tough out in a strong conference. With Demond Williams Jr. returning for his junior year, Washington was expected to be very dangerous, led by one of the most dynamic players in the sport.

Like Michigan, Washington is 2-0. But after sleepwalking through a season-opening Apple Cup win over rival Washington State, the Huskies were worse in Week 2. Utah State threw an incomplete Hail Mary in the end zone that would have beaten the Huskies, who won 16-14.

Fisch has lots of teaching moments from the first two games. The Huskies still have all the goals in front of them, but they look far from playoff-worthy (or even like an eight-win team) right now.