Week 2 Anxiety Rankings: Dabo Swinney feeling the heat, Steve Sarkisian needs a breakthrough

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 2. Try to stay calm. You'll fail, but try all the same.

1. Dabo Swinney

This is about far more than one loss, as bad as Clemson's 51-10 defeat by LSU to begin the season was. This is the continuation of a trend for Dabo Swinney and his program. It's the fourth consecutive season the Tigers have lost their season-opener, and it's the second time in three years they've had their doors blown off. This year it was LSU; in 2024 it was Georgia winning 34-3.

You can try to hand-wave away the defeats by saying they're the first game of the season, and they're against elite teams. After all, Georgia was the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoff that year, and if not for a Carson Beck injury in the SEC Championship Game, the Bulldogs may have made a deep run, perhaps winning another national title. And this LSU team? Well, it certainly looked like a playoff team against Clemson. One that can make a run of its own.

The problem with this analysis, though, is that Clemson is supposed to be a national title contender too. Swinney certainly still projects that his program belongs among the elite, and can certainly adopt a condescending tone toward anybody who doubts him or his program.

Just ask Clemson beat writer Chapel Fowler of The State what happens when you question Swinney.

I'm not an expert, but I think any time you're hitting a reporter with a "did you play football?" after the first game of the season, it says far more about your mental state than theirs. Swinney is already on the defensive with 11 games to go (I did play in high school, though not particularly well, which I guess is a requirement for knowing how many games there are in a season in Dabo's mind), and it's not hard to understand why. He relented a bit this offseason and went into the transfer portal. He also tried to restore the past by bringing back old friend Chad Morris to run the offense and infuse more energy into the unit.

And none of it mattered against LSU. Clemson was crushed, and it was already playing musical chairs at quarterback after one game in which the offense managed a meager 145 yards. The loss dropped Clemson to 4-6 in 10 games against ranked teams since the 2023 season. They're 20-15 against Power Four competition in that time.

Clemson went 35-17 against ranked teams from 2011-22 and 119-23 against the Power Four. Only Alabama had a higher win percentage than the Tigers against the Power Four in that span. It's been clear to many outside of Clemson that the program has been moving in the wrong direction for a few years now, as Swinney has been slow to embrace the foundational changes to the sport that the transfer portal and NIL have proven to be. More and more, Clemson fans have begun to turn on Swinney as well.

Now I wonder if Swinney sees the writing on the wall, too. Nobody can deny what he's accomplished. He's been one of the greatest coaches of his era and did things with Clemson that nobody else has. But that will only carry you so far. Once fans taste success, it's difficult to swallow anything else.

The situation reminds me of the late Bobby Bowden era at Florida State. Bowden was the greatest coach in program history. He won two national titles, and from 1987-2000, the Seminoles won at least 10 games every season. But then came an 8-4 in 2001 and 9-5 in 2002. The Noles still won the ACC, but after returning to 10-3 in 2003, they never won 10 games again under Bowden. Still, Bowden hung on to the job through the 2009 season because he was Bobby Bowden, and Bobby Bowden was Florida State.

It's hard to associate Clemson football with anybody other than Dabo Swinney much the same way. But for how much longer? For the first time since his early tenure, Swinney's starting to feel the heat.

2. Steve Sarkisian

You cannot blame Steve Sarkisian if he's a bit nervous this week. There isn't a coach in the country who doesn't feel some nerves when they're preparing for Ohio State. And when you've lost to those same Buckeyes each of the last two seasons, it only turns the intensity up a notch. Add in the fact that this time you're playing them at your place, and the stakes get a little higher.

Because what if you lose to them again? Doing it at their place or a neutral site in two close games is one thing, but at home, where you have the advantage? People will begin wondering if you'll ever be able to do it.

It's not all that dissimilar to Texas' Georgia problem. Sark's Longhorns have been outstanding the last three seasons, going 35-8. That includes a record of 14-7 against ranked opponents, beginning with that 34-24 win at Alabama in early 2023. The problem is that you can break that record up into two categories.

Texas is 14-2 against ranked teams not named Georgia and Ohio State, and 0-5 against ranked teams named Georgia and Ohio State. If Texas and Sark are going to win a national title -- and make no mistake about it, that's the goal -- they need to figure out a way to win these games. Considering all the resources put into this year's roster, this feels like their best chance to do so.

And where the anxiety comes in is: what if they don't? It's not just that they've lost to Ohio State again; it's that they still have to play six more games against currently ranked teams, including three more top-10 teams. A win here is a major boost to confidence and playoff hopes. A loss reduces your margin of error quite a bit, and shakes your confidence a bit.

3. Bryce Underwood

Two things can be true at the same time: Bryce Underwood's Hail Mary touchdown was a phenomenal throw. The kind that makes you say "oh, OK, that's why this dude was a five-star recruit." Also, very few of the other throws he made earlier in the game inspired that same level of confidence.

Seriously, it's never a great sign when your new coach is telling the media that you're still the starter after a win, but that there are no guarantees you'll remain the starter all season. Underwood's response to finding out did little to ease potential concerns.

So you're Bryce Underwood. The joy of your game-winning touchdown was short-lived because of the circumstances surrounding it, as well as your overall performance in the game. The questions that dogged you about your accuracy and ability to run the offense continue to be asked.

And now you have to face Oklahoma this weekend. The same Oklahoma that made your life hell last season. Underwood went 9/24 for 142 yards against the Sooners last season. It was only his second career start, and his first on the road, so it was understandable. Still, you were probably hoping for something a little more confidence-inspiring last week, but instead, you're in the situation you find yourself in now.

Having to face the same defense that dominated you last season, while knowing your new coach is already considering the fact that he may have to bench you.

4. The Big Ten

There's quite a bit on the line for the Big Ten this week when it comes to The Narrative. After winning its third consecutive national title, the conference wasn't shy about projecting confidence all offseason. What stood out, though, was that others outside the Big Ten finally relented.

The same voices who had long questioned the league finally had to admit: "You know what, maybe it is the best conference in the sport right now." 

But we're all one weekend away from everybody changing their minds on that.

The Big Ten has three games against the SEC this weekend, and it isn't favored in any of them. Ohio State is an underdog on the road to Texas, while Michigan and Minnesota are both home underdogs to Oklahoma and Mississippi State, respectively.

While the Ohio State and Michigan games are the "big ones," there's an argument to be made that it's the Minnesota game against Mississippi State that means more to The Narrative. The argument in favor of the SEC as the best league has centered on how deep it is compared to the Big Ten. That's why the league is always crowing about strength of schedule and how difficult it is to survive an SEC schedule.

So what happens if a Mississippi State team that is 2-22 in SEC play since 2023 heads north to Minnesota (remember, the SEC is afraid to play above the Mason-Dixon Line) and beats a Minnesota team that nobody considers to be one of the Big Ten's elite, but is consistently finishing in the top half of the league? The same Minnesota that is 14-9 at home against Big Ten teams since 2021?

That would certainly give the SEC some ammunition when it comes to the depth of its league, wouldn't it?

Furthermore, it's not as if the Big Ten had an incredible start to the season. Michigan had its close call with Western Michigan. Oregon struggled with Boise State. Nebraska, Northwestern, Michigan State and Washington all flirted with disaster against G6 teams too. Rutgers did a lot more than flirt with it, losing by 16 at home to a UMass team that went 0-12 in 2025 and had lost 16 straight.

The Big Ten also has games against Boston College (Rutgers), Oklahoma State (Oregon), Wake Forest (Purdue), Duke (Illinois) and Iowa State (Iowa) this week, and it's only favored in three of them.

Nobody had a problem calling the Big Ten the best conference in the country during the offseason, but if it has another mediocre go of it in Week 2, they won't have a problem changing their minds about it, either.

5. The ACC

I wrote about this in the CFP Vibe Check earlier this week, but the ACC's hopes of getting an at-large into the College Football Playoff field took a pretty big hit in Week 1. While the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 combined to go 6-3 in nonconference games against Power Four competition, the bulk of that damage came at the expense of the ACC.

It went 1-5.

This week, the league plays five more games against Power Four teams. Another poor performance would make things extremely difficult. The league would essentially be looking at a scenario in which Miami needs to finish the regular season 12-0, and then somebody like SMU or Virginia (neither plays Miami, but they do play each other) goes 11-1. In that scenario, even the loser of the ACC Championship still has a decent shot at getting one of the 12 spots, but even that wouldn't be guaranteed.