Lincoln Riley, Brent Venables Headline Coaches Overpaid in September

Six coaches enter October with more questions than wins that matter at schools paying a premium for answers. A few opened in the preseason top 15 with College Football Playoff expectations, while others began the year knowing slow starts could put their jobs in jeopardy .

There's still time to turn things around, but the warning signs are hard to miss: offenses without any semblance of confidence and defenses getting exposed. At this level, high-end salaries come with the expectation that a coach can fix those problems before they cost his team a season.

The next few games bring tougher opponents and fewer excuses. For the few coaches within this group already sitting on some of the nation's hottest seats, the coming weekends will decide whether September was a stumble or the beginning of the end.

Mike Elko, Texas A&M

Record : 2-2 (0-2 SEC)

2026 salary : $10.75 million

Ahead of schedule after reaching the CFP in Year 2 last fall, Elko raised the bar and must now live with it. Slight regression was inevitable given vast personnel changes, but you can't lose to Kentucky at home and not be reamed for it.

That lackluster effort was troubling enough before Saturday's 29-point beatdown at the hands of LSU, which further exposed the program's offensive deficiencies that have lingered since the end of last season. After all, it was Elko's decision to stick with Marcel Reed at quarterback this offseason and promote assistant Holmon Wiggins to offensive rather than hire from outside the program.

Aggies' last five games against P4 teams

Total yards

Marcel Reed's production

Result

at Texas (2025)

337

20/32, 180 yards, 2 INT; 71 rush yds

L, 27-17

vs. Miami (2025)

326

25/39, 237 yds, 2 INT; 27 rush yds

L, 10-3

vs. Arizona State (2026)

255

15/25, 163 yds, 3 TD, INT; 17 rush yds

W, 48-20

vs. Kentucky (2026)

423

26/49, 236 yds, TD, 2 INT; 80 rush yds

L, 31-21

vs. LSU (2026)

197

10/26, 106 yds, INT; minus-13 rush yds

L, 35-6

Brent Venables, Oklahoma

Record : 2-2 (0-1 SEC)

2026 salary : $10.5 million

Venables signed a new six-year deal  coming off last year's CFP appearance. Think Oklahoma is regretting that decision just a bit? The offense was bad last fall and has somehow gotten worse with a quarterback who has regressed more than any other player at the Power Four level. The Sooners' Week 2 loss at Michigan was telling, but Saturday's performance against Georgia was even more humiliating after John Mateer's string of mistakes.

Venables has some tough coaching staff and personnel decisions to make this fall to bring the Sooners out of the abyss with six games remaining against ranked opponents. Texas and the SEC's top-ranked scoring defense looms for Red River in Dallas, where a lopsided loss could force Venables' hand.

Lincoln Riley, USC

Record : 4-1 (1-1 Big Ten)

2026 salary : $11.5 million

The latest indictment of Riley came over the weekend in the form of a 41-27 loss to Oregon , his 15th in 20 games against ranked teams at USC . One of college football's highest-paid coaches hasn't delivered in Los Angeles, even after offseason staff changes this offseason promised a revitalization on that side of the football.

USC's 4-0 start wasn't impressive upon further inspection after the Trojans gave up 30 and 35 points to Louisiana and Rutgers , respectively. With a backup quarterback, Oregon made USC pay with a decisive 28-point second half. Time is running out for Riley to get things fixed with more tenure-defining matchups left on the slate against Penn State , Ohio State , Indiana and UCLA .

Mike Locksley, Maryland

Record : 2-2 (0-1 Big Ten)

2026 salary : $6.4 million

Why didn't the  Terrapins make a move  after a 51-point embarrassment at the hands of UCLA? Maryland pushed all its chips to the center of the table in support of its struggling coach last November despite clear signs the program was sinking under his watch.

The NIL boost led Maryland to retain quarterback Malik Washington and several other key players, in hopes that Locksley would deliver improvement in 2026. It hasn't happened. In fact, the team looks worse.

Shane Beamer, South Carolina

Record : 2-2 (0-2 SEC)

2026 salary : $8.2 million

It's been a calendar year since Beamer's last SEC win entering Saturday's home game against 24th-ranked Kentucky. The hot-seat murmurs are real , and another loss could reportedly bring change at the program. The Week 3 home loss to Mississippi State felt like a comprehensive exam that Beamer needed to pass, but the Gamecocks squandered a 16-point lead and then followed it up with whatever that was on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.

In the aftermath of the five-alarm fire, Beamer indefinitely suspended his best defensive player and knows his team needs to look in the mirror to fix what's going wrong amid an eight-game losing streak to Power Four opponents.

Rocky stretch for Gamecocks

- at LSU (Oct. 11, 2025): 20-10, LOSS - vs. Oklahoma (Oct. 18, 2025): 26-7, LOSS - vs. Alabama (Oct. 25, 2025): 29-22, LOSS - at Ole Miss (Nov. 1, 2025): 30-14, LOSS - at Texas A&M (Nov. 15, 2025): 31-30, LOSS - vs. Clemson (Nov. 29, 2025): 28-14, LOSS - vs. Miss. St. (Sept. 19, 2026): 41-34, LOSS - at Alabama (Sept. 26): 49-18, LOSS

Deion Sanders, Colorado

Record : 2-2 (0-1 Big 12)

2026 salary : $10 million

Coming off a 3-9 collapse, Sanders talked a big game with another transfer-heavy roster .

Four weeks in, Colorado is struggling to score with Julian Lewis at quarterback and embarrassed itself at Northwestern after players mocked the Wildcats' temporary "quiet as a library" stadium.

The opener in Atlanta offered brief hope for the Buffs, but it turns out Georgia Tech is a shell of what it once was without Haynes King at quarterback and Buster Faulkner calling offensive plays. Saturday's loss to Stanford dropped the Yellow Jackets to 1-3.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/lincoln-riley-brent-venables-college-football-coaches-paychecks-september/)._