As the 2025 college football season approaches, the pressure is mounting—not just for teams with championship aspirations, but for the individuals tasked with making those goals a reality. From high-profile quarterbacks expected to lead playoff-caliber programs to head coaches sitting on hot seats after underwhelming seasons, the spotlight has never been brighter for some. Whether it's a veteran coach needing a breakthrough year or a young player thrust into a leadership role, the stakes are high, and the margin for error is razor-thin.
Here's a look at the players and coaches facing the most pressure heading into the 2025 season—and what’s at stake if they don’t deliver.
Coaches
Mike Norvell (Florida St): Paced by a disastrous 2–10 2024 season at Florida State after going undefeated in the regular season the year prior. Mike Norvell heads into 2025 with enormous pressure after the worst Seminoles season in decades. This was followed by new coordinators and NIL hype. Norvell has to show that 2023 wasn’t an anomaly and that he actually has FSU on the right path for success.
Brent Venables (Oklahoma): must reverse declining momentum at Oklahoma after two sub‑.500 seasons. Venables came in right after Oklahoma was in a golden age from Lincoln Riley at the helm winning Big 12 championships and multiple 10+ win season under his belt. He was a hyped up defensive coordinator from Clemson that was one of the top coaches to target for a head coaching gig back in 2022. His overall record is 22-17 and 0-3 in bowl games. Not up to the Oklahoma standard by any mean even despite the transition to the SEC. New OC and Head Coach in Ben Arbuckle and John Mateer so the offense needs to be firing on all cylinders from week 1 on.
Lincoln Riley (USC): with high expectations and big contract it’s time for Riley to get USC back on track. The offense slumped to 31st nationally in EPA/play in 2024 which is Coach Riley’s specialty. Switching qb’s last year seemed to spark the offense a little more but is Jayden Maivia the guy he really needs? How about that defense, can they finally be a good to even mediocre unit this year? More questions than answers ad he needs to find those answers sooner than later. Another down year could spell trouble.
Brian Kelly (LSU): Despite strong recruiting classes, Kelly faces pressure to elevate LSU's performance, especially given their high-profile portal class and one of the top returning quarterbacks in all of college football. His record has actually been very good in his time in Baton Rouge but the expectations when coaching this team is always sky high. The last three coaches before him at LSU all won National Championship in their tenure so it seems like National Championship or bust. Also, if he loses another week 1 game and starts off on the wrong foot could that spiral him and his team losing confidence? Time will tell but they have the coaching and talent to win it all.
Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State): It’s fair to call 2024 an abject disaster for Oklahoma State. The program has been a consistent winner in Gundy’s two decades at the school and entered 2024 with 18 straight winning seasons. OSU was a favorite to win the Big 12, too. Instead, the Cowboys went 3-9 and failed to win a conference game all season. Quarterback play wasn’t very good and the defensive play was even worse. OSU gave up 6.8 yards a play and nearly 36 points per game. The season led to two new coordinators and a revised contract for Gundy.
Luke Fickell (Wisconsin): The former Cincinnati coach’s move to Wisconsin has not led to much success. The Badgers were 7-6 in Fickell’s first season in 2023 before falling to 5-7 in 2024. The 2025 season arrives with a new offensive coordinator in former Kansas assistant Jeff Grimes and a new quarterback in Maryland transfer Billy Edwards. Wisconsin famously won with an offense predicated on an effective run game throughout the Barry Alvarez, Bret Bielema and Paul Chryst years. When Fickell arrived, the Badgers looked to throw the ball more often under former OC Phil Longo and simply didn’t have the personnel to do it. Slated by most to have one of the hardest schedules in all of college football, this season could get hairy very fast for the Badgers.
Quarterbacks (And one other star) in the Spotlight
Quarterbacks generally get more attention and pressure. It comes with playing the position and being the “guy” for their team. That’s the player that touches the ball the most and usually in control of the team. Their play usually dictates more wins or losses so let’s take a look at some (and one other player) under the microscope for this upcoming season:
Carson Beck (Miami): transferring from Georgia to Miami, must rebound after a disappointing hampered 2024 campaign and recapture his first-round hype. Beck was in the spotlight this off-season got off the field issues as well so he needs to get back to focusing on football only so he can be the player he was two years ago slated for NFL stardom. A good place for him to do this is in Miami where they just had another transfer come in and light up the CFB world going onto being a number 1 overall pick.
Arch Manning (Texas): New starting QB for the Texas Longhorns. The hype machine is real—failure to reach the College Football Playoff could spark blowback in Austin. This hype is unfair to Arch because a majority of it is because of his last name. This isn’t saying his play is not good but we haven’t seen much of him being on the bench the majority of the last two years. Analysts and other coaches are on overdrive when it comes to talking about Arch but we all just want to see him play. Unfortunately, if he comes out and struggles a little early on, many people will give unwarranted hate. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders so he won’t let the outside noise get to him. Excited to see him on the field but the media might ruin him.
Drew Allar (Penn State): After a strong season but a key interception in the playoff semifinal, expectations are loftier than ever. Success could elevate him as a top-2026 draft pick. That interception could be the best thing to ever happen to Allar or the reason he struggles having PTSD from that being his lasting memory from 2025. He chose to come back to school after skipping being a potential top 10 pick so he absolutely needs to produce with the spotlight on him and the Nittany Lions all season. A lot of people have him designated to be one of the reasons Penn State can win it all and have him in the Heisman discussion during the preseason. If that’s not pressure then what is?
Nico Iamaleava (UCLA): With serious NIL backing and SEC expectations, stepping up from solid performance to star is mandatory. This seems self explanatory and any big college football fan knows about his situation from the offseason. Top recruit coming out of high school with a lot of hype. Started last season for Tennessee and played solid but not great. Demanded more money from NIL and talked to other teams about receiving more money while he was still on the team. Coach Heupel called his bluff and let him leave. Ruined his reputation with his teammates and coaches while also not getting the market he expected when leaving the team. Settled in now at UCLA and his pressure is through the roof. He needs to produce otherwise he will hear everyone else but this was his own doing of putting that extra spotlight on him. Can he prove himself right and others wrong?
Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State): Despite being one of the consensus top players in all of college football, this comes with extreme pressure to produce and one up his previous season which might seem far-fetched. Not to say Jeremiah Smith won’t produce on all this hype but it still comes with all the extra attention. Smith is already being deemed the best player in college football as a sophomore and he’s on the cover of the new college football video game. This comes with having to play TWO more seasons in college before even thinking about the NFL. Can he stay humbled and focused to improve upon last year? This will be one of the questions for him and Coach Day to answer during the rest of his time in college.
Conclusion
These are just some of the coaches and players facing extreme pressure during the 2025-2026 college football season. Whether it's a veteran coach needing a breakthrough year or a player in a leadership role that needs to ball out, the stakes are high, and the margin for error is razor-thin. More storylines will come throughout the season. It was a long and interesting off-season for the college football world but teams will start up camp soon enough. Football is on the horizon; we can almost taste it.
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