Week 5 Anxiety Rankings: Marcel Reed under pressure, can Jedd Fisch save Washington's offense?

There are very few things in life that can stir emotions within you like college football . For four months a year, millions of Americans decide to put their mental well-being in the hands of a collection of 18- to 24-year-old men they do not know personally. All they know is that they've chosen to wear their preferred uniform. Sometimes this decision brings joy. Other times it brings pain.

But what it always brings as kickoff draws near every week is anxiety. There's always the nervous energy of the unknown heading into a game. You can never be sure how things will go, and where the rollercoaster will take you. However, while we all feel it, some of us feel it more than others, and each week, The Anxiety Rankings aim to find the five most anxious places in the country.

Welcome to Week 5. Try to stay calm. You'll fail, but try all the same.

1. Marcel Reed

Not a lot has gone well for Texas A&M this season. The Aggies entered the year ranked in the top-10 of both major polls, but now find themselves unranked at 2-2, and it's not even October yet. Say what you want about Texas A&M teams failing to live up to expectations in the past, at least they usually waited until mid-October before letting everyone down.

Marcel Reed has received plenty of blame for the team's struggles, and it's hard to say he doesn't deserve some of it. He's thrown one touchdown to four interceptions in the team's two losses, and those numbers don't tell the whole story. His completion rate has tanked, and he's missing targets by yards, not inches.

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Things have been so bad that Mike Elko is being asked about the possibility of benching Reed in postgame press conferences. The good news for Reed is that Elko quickly dismissed the idea. The bad news is that your coach having to answer questions about benching you is often a sign that you could be benched soon, no matter how your coach responds. The fact that he answered so quickly means he already knew the answer. That means he'd already thought about it.

Now, it's not all Reed's fault. The offensive line hasn't exactly covered itself in glory. It's not only providing Reed with little protection, but it isn't doing a whole helluva lot in the run game either. Unfortunately, you can't bench your entire offensive line. Well, you could, but it'd probably make things a lot worse.

You can bench the QB, though, when you're looking for any kind of spark.

This week, things should be better. The Aggies are playing Arkansas , which is probably the worst team in the SEC. It has certainly performed that way so far. But that adds a little more pressure because what if Marcel doesn't have a bounce-back performance? What if he continues to struggle? Worse, what if the rest of the offense looks good, but Reed doesn't? If that happens, how long until we see Brady Hart start warming up on the sideline?

2. Jedd Fisch

Jedd Fisch is not just the coach at Washington ; he's the offensive coordinator. He's the one calling the plays on Saturday from the sidelines. The offense is his and his alone. That's great when the offense is working. When it isn't, it would be nice to have somebody else around to take the heat.

Fisch doesn't, and he's feeling that heat.

Washington has been one of the most disappointing teams of the season. Washington improved to 9-4 last season and kept Demond Williams at QB despite his attempts to transfer to LSU . Now you have to wonder if Washington is second-guessing its decision to fight Williams' attempted transfer as strongly as it did.

The primary reason Washington has disappointed is its offense. The Huskies are averaging 2.33 points per possession, which ranks 83rd nationally. Their 0.04 EPA per snap ranks 77th. Those numbers are misleading, though. One game against Eastern Washington is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. If we remove that game, the Huskies are scoring 1.73 points per possession with an EPA of -0.03 per play.

In layman's terms, they haven't scored more than 24 points in a game against an FBS opponent, and their FBS opponents have been Minnesota (lost at home by 25 to Mississippi State ), Utah State (lost to Idaho State ) and Washington State (1-3 on the season, with the lone win being Duquesne ). According to ESPN's FPI metric, Washington's strength of schedule so far ranks 131st nationally.

So they haven't played anybody, and they've played poorly against them.

Now that the struggling offense is on the road to face a USC defense that's been pushed around by Oregon and Rutgers . Obviously, it's far more acceptable to be pushed around by one of those teams than the other. So what if Washington goes on the road and struggles offensively against a Trojans' defense that nobody considers to be very good? What if you're 3-2 before having to play Iowa on a short week next week? With games remaining against Indiana , Oregon, Penn State and a Nebraska team that looks excellent so far? All of a sudden, your ability to make a bowl comes into question.

And if Washington fails to make a bowl? Well then, Jedd Fisch might have to give up play-calling duties to appease an angry fan base. Something he clearly does not want to do.

3. Illinois Fans

I speak from personal experience with this one. The last two seasons have been among the best for Illini football fans. The 19 wins the Illini had over those two years were the most they've ever had in consecutive seasons. For the first time in a long time, Illinois fans looked forward to fall Saturdays, but when you've spent decades as a perennial doormat in a sport, there's always that fear that any success you experience could be fleeting.

The fear is creeping up behind every Illini fan.

Bret Bielema's program experienced significant change over the offseason. Luke Altmyer, one of the program's most successful quarterbacks, moved on. Defensive coordinator Aaron Henry left for Notre Dame . Bielema had made the decision to change things on that side of the ball after he felt his defense had become too predictable. He then made an outside-the-box hire of former Montana coach Bobby Hauck, who was bringing a 3-3-5 defense to Champaign. Hauck had plenty of experience with the defense, but was never a play-calling defensive coordinator.

As a result of the change (or perhaps it was the other way around), Illinois' defensive personnel changed dramatically. A brand new defensive line was brought in, and other coaches left and were replaced by those more familiar with the new scheme.

Then, on Sunday, after losing to Ohio State 42-19, Bret Bielema announced that the program and Hauck had parted ways. After making a huge investment in the new scheme and coordinator, the experiment ended after four games. Illinois didn't wait until after the season, or even a bye week. Clearly, something was rotten in Denmark.

Of course, while few Illini fans are sad to see the move made (the defense has been abysmal), the move alone doesn't fix anything. At this point, Illinois is likely stuck with a bad defense all season long, and even though the offense has been outstanding once again, it's hard to win consistently with half a football team.

Meanwhile, looking around the rest of the Big Ten, Illini fans are seeing programs like Wisconsin and Nebraska look improved. Even in-state rival Northwestern looks much better than anybody expected. UCLA looks phenomenal. Suddenly, a schedule that seemed quite forgiving in August looks far more difficult to start in October. Outside this week's game against Purdue and contests against Michigan State and Maryland , Illinois may not be favored in any more of its games.

Bowl eligibility is not guaranteed. And if the Illini lose at home to Purdue on homecoming this weekend? That fear won't be creeping up on the fan base anymore. It'll overwhelm it.

4. Anxiety Bowl - Louisville at NC State

If you've followed his tenure closely, it wasn't a major surprise to see Jeff Brohm's Louisville team lose to Wake Forest last week. He's earned the nickname "Big Game Brohm" because of his tendency to get his teams to play at their absolute best against the biggest opponents when they're the underdogs. The flip side of that is they often suffer letdowns in games that aren't deemed "big games."

That's how you follow up a huge win against SMU with a home loss to the Demon Deacons.

Now the Cardinals are 2-2 and hitting the road to face another 2-2 team in NC State . There, they will find a team in a similar mental state, even if they reached the destination via a different path. The Wolfpack were embarrassed in their season-opener against Virginia , falling 34-8. Two weeks later, after a 73-0 win over Richmond , well, we all know how things ended against Vanderbilt .

CJ Bailey mismanaged a last-second play about as badly as you could, and Vanderbilt beat the Wolfpack in mind-blowing fashion. The good news for State is it bounced back with a win over Appalachian State last week. The bad news is the win wasn't nearly as comfortable as you'd like.

NC State led the game 28-10 at halftime, and things seemed to be going smoothly, but App State stormed back in the second half. The Mountaineers managed to tie the game 31-31 with just under 10 minutes left before the Wolfpack took control back. A field goal just under two minutes allowed everyone at Carter-Finlay to stop holding their breath.

Now, both fan bases head into this week's game knowing that it's an absolute must-win. Dave Doeren is already on the hot seat in Raleigh, and a home loss here would drop the Pack to 2-3 and 0-2 in ACC play. They'd be 7-12 in the ACC since the start of 2024.

A loss for Louisville would drop them to 2-3 as well, and 1-2 in the ACC. It would effectively signal the start of basketball season, as the Cardinals' chances of winning the ACC and earning a playoff berth would be damn near evaporated completely. The only energy you'll feel from the crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium will be of the nervous variety.

5. Cal Fans

There are few things in the life of a college football fan like the offseason after making a new coaching hire. That's when damn near anything is possible. When Cal moved on from Justin Wilcox and hired Tosh Lupoi, Cal fans were in a frenzy.

Immediately after the hire, Lupoi went to Hawaii to make sure star QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele returned to Berkeley. Lupoi then went to work putting together a transfer class that finished ranked 14th nationally and third in the ACC. The high school recruiting class was off to a wonderful start, too.

Cal was on the precipice of taking a huge leap forward from last season's 7-6 mark. Then the games arrived.

The Bears got run over by UCLA to start the season. The Bruins, another fan base living the offseason after a coaching-hire fever dream, looked far better than the Bears over 60 minutes. But, hey, it's the first game of a new season under a new staff. Nothing to get overly worried about. It's OK that JKS didn't look great.

Then the Bears struggled in a 21-18 win at Syracuse , but we don't apologize for winning ugly. A win is a win. That was followed by a 49-7 win over Wagner . Next was a Friday night game against a Clemson team that's looked sluggish all season. A chance for the whole world to get a good look at the new Cal Golden Bears.

Cal not only lost 24-10, but it looked hapless offensively. This season, the Bears' offense ranks 105th nationally in points per possession (1.91), 93rd in success rate (41.1%), and 94th in EPA per play (0.01). JKS ranks 87th among 134 qualified QBs in passer efficiency (135.6) and 97th in EPA per dropback (0.05).

All the optimism of a great season is gone. The first-time head coach and first-time offensive coordinator are struggling. The star QB is suffering a sophomore slump. And now, this weekend, you're in that awkward spot of being on the road for a nonconference game against a G6

_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/anxiety-rankings-week-5-texas-a-m-marcel-reed-washington-jedd-fisch/)._