The offseason is a time of hope for all sports fans. This year, everyone’s favorite team will right its ship, reach its potential (or beyond) and bring joy to the masses. We hope.

For teams, coaches and players, the hope of fans can translate into pressure and raise the temperature in uncomfortable ways. And when things don’t go well, hope can be replaced by disappointment and impatience.

Who in college football will be most impacted by these tendencies in 2026? We’re thinking about those with expectations that things can be better, that things better get better. There are teams looking for College Football Playoff berths, players who need to bounce back from down years and coaches who are on — or near — the hot seat.

Our college football reporters offer their thoughts on the teams, coaches and players who will have the most to prove this fall.

What team has the most to prove in 2026?

Andrea Adelson: Clemson. We could have put Clemson down as the answer to this question for the past four years, but this time we really mean it. There is no sugarcoating the disappointment from 2025, when the Tigers finished 7-6 despite having a veteran team filled with future NFL draft picks. Coach Dabo Swinney went more heavily into the portal this offseason, particularly on defense, and went back to his past to hire Chad Morris as offensive coordinator to try to fix a stagnant offense. But there are major questions across the board with so many veterans gone. Swinney and his players need to show they have the answers.

Adam Rittenberg: USC. Coach Lincoln Riley has asked for patience as he upgraded the front office and other areas of the program to create a path for sustained success. While other less-decorated teams have risen faster, USC has a roster in place with fewer transfers and an influx of elite recruits from the nation’s No. 1 class. The next step is obvious — the team’s first College Football Playoff appearance — but USC must navigate a very challenging Big Ten schedule that includes home showdowns against Oregon, Washington and Ohio State, and trips to Indiana and Penn State. USC needs an upgrade in performance, but in Year 5 of the Riley era, the time has come.

Jake Trotter: Until the past two years, Wisconsin had not suffered back-to-back losing seasons since 1991 and 1992 — Barry Alvarez’s first two years (and in 1993, the legendary coach went 10-1-1 and won the Rose Bowl). Under Luke Fickell these past two years, the Badgers have won just five Big Ten games total. They’ve been especially dreadful offensively. Still, Wisconsin refrained from making a coaching change and vowed to invest more heavily in football behind Fickell. Will that reverse the recent decline? Or, in the expanded Big Ten, with so many other winning programs, are the Badgers headed for extended second-tier status? This year could be telling.

Mark Schlabach: Alabama went 20-8 in coach Kalen DeBoer’s first two seasons, so it’s not like the Crimson Tide have fallen off a cliff since Nick Saban left. DeBoer accepted the unenviable challenge of replacing the GOAT, a job others turned down. Alabama fans aren’t used to losing four games in a season, so the Tide need to rebound in 2025. It won’t be easy with quarterback Ty Simpson and much of the offensive line moving on. Alabama hasn’t been able to run the ball or protect the quarterback, which is why DeBoer brought in new offensive line coach Adrian Klemm.

Bill Connelly: It has to be Alabama. Simpson had to carry the Tide offense at times thanks to the total lack of a run game, and now Simpson is gone and the line is almost completely new (and I’m not sure Alabama got what it needed up front in the transfer portal). The Tide will start an inexperienced quarterback with even less proven personnel. The defensive front seven is taking on a huge reset as well. This is a huge season for DeBoer, and he’s looking at his least proven roster yet in Tuscaloosa.

Eli Lederman: Texas Tech hit big on its financial investment in the transfer portal last fall to the tune of the program’s first outright conference title since 1955 and its first trip to the CFP. The question now: Can the Red Raiders do it again in 2026 and, in turn, show they’re truly here to stay as perennial contenders? Joey McGuire & Co. will return 14 starters in the fall and have filled key holes with ESPN’s No. 2 transfer class, headlined by quarterback Brendan Sorsby and the additions of defensive linemen Mateen Ibirogba, Trey White and Adam Trick to replace the dominant trio of David Bailey, Lee Hunter and Romello Height. But the sport’s recent history has shown the potential pitfalls of a year-to-year reliance on portal talent and Texas Tech’s to-this-point stellar talent evaluation will be tested again in 2026. An upstart renegade this time last year, the pressure now falls on the Red Raiders to prove they’re something more than a one-hit wonder.

What coach has the most to prove?

Adelson: It has to be Florida State head coach Mike Norvell. Nothing has gone right since the CFP snub following a 13-0 ACC championship season in 2023. Since then, Florida State has won only seven games in two years. Despite all that, the school’s administration opted to retain Norvell for a seventh season, but there is little doubt the Seminoles have to get back to the postseason. Norvell and everyone associated with the program know the past two seasons have not been acceptable. Florida State made structural changes to its personnel department and went heavy into the portal again to try to win now.

Rittenberg: Norvell is a good choice, but I’m going with the man he beat in last season’s opener: Kalen DeBoer. Although DeBoer rebounded from the Florida State loss and guided Alabama to the CFP, he did so with a deeply flawed team that was exposed in lopsided losses to Georgia (SEC championship) and Indiana (CFP semifinal at the Rose Bowl). Alabama just didn’t look like Alabama at the end of the season. DeBoer has had another offseason to improve key areas of the roster, adding transfers along both lines. He will be developing Keelon Russell, the first quarterback his staff recruited to Tuscaloosa. DeBoer isn’t a hot-seat candidate but faces pressure to deliver a team capable of advancing further in the CFP.

Trotter: Lane Kiffin bailed on Ole Miss and his Rebel players ahead of the playoff to bolt to rival LSU (and yet, people really still fault players for making decisions in their own best interest?). LSU is paying Kiffin $91 million to win national championships. Given the way he left his former team high and dry, and what the Tigers have invested in their roster, anything less won’t — and shouldn’t — be acceptable.

Schlabach: Matt Rhule signed a two-year contract extension with Nebraska through the 2032 season, so it’s not like he’s on the hot seat. But after his teams went 19-19 in his first three seasons, it’s time for Nebraska to start showing some life. The Cornhuskers haven’t won 10 games or more in a season since 2012. They’ve lost six games or more in eight of the past nine. Rhule retooled his offensive line and brought in former Georgia Tech assistant Geep Wade to take charge of that unit. Transfer guards Brendan Black (Iowa State) and Paul Mubenga (LSU) should help on the interior, as Nebraska revamps its offense after quarterback Dylan Raiola transferred to Oregon.