The college football coaching hot seat is already heating up heading into Week 6. A handful of programs that entered the fall with real expectations are now facing questions about whether their head coach is the right person to lead them.

Some of these situations have been building for years. Others have changed fast over the first month. That said, three coaches stand out as being in the hottest seats in college football right now.

Shane Beamer has run out of answers at South Carolina

We have to start this list with Beamer, with all of the turmoil surrounding the Gamecocks. Given how things have started, it couldn’t be clearer: he is not going to turn this around.

The Gamecocks are coming off a brutal loss to Kentucky. They built a 17-0 lead, then lost 35-34 in overtime. That collapse came right after Alabama blew them out 49-18. Losing to the Crimson Tide is one thing, but squandering a 17-point lead against Kentucky is the type of result that ends tenures.

The general sentiment seems to be that South Carolina doesn’t have the money to move on from Beamer. His buyout is projected to be $22.6 million.

Even if that’s the case, anything can happen over the next couple of months. If things keep getting worse and more distractions pile up, like with Dylan Stewart around this team, it only makes sense for South Carolina to pull the plug.

Mike Locksley’s time at Maryland feels as done as it gets

If you watched the Nebraska-Maryland game, you saw a Terrapins team going through the motions in the second half. They looked checked out. They were not trying, and it appears they haven’t been trying over the past couple of games either.

Maryland held a lead around halftime against Nebraska and still lost 48-23. Before that, the Terrapins fell 54-3 to UCLA. Those aren’t close losses you can chalk up to bad breaks. They’re signs of a program that has stopped responding to its coach.

The most glaring part of this is the larger trend. Locksley has lost 11 consecutive games to Power Four opponents, and things don’t get easier from here. Maryland faces Ohio State this weekend.

Maybe Locksley gets fired after a blowout against the Buckeyes. Given how this team has looked, a lopsided loss in Columbus feels like the most likely outcome.

It’s time to start talking about Deion Sanders at Colorado

Initially, it felt like this could be a strong season for the Buffaloes. They opened with a win over Georgia Tech, and that result created plenty of early excitement in Boulder.

That excitement hasn’t lasted. Colorado’s highest point total against Power Four opponents is 14 points. That’s a staggering number for a program that has built its brand around flash and offensive talent.

The low point came against Texas Tech. The Buffaloes looked disgustingly bad on offense in a 29-7 loss, and they couldn’t generate anything consistent against the Red Raiders.

The biggest storyline around Colorado is the quarterback position. Sanders and his staff still cannot figure out who should be under center, and the offense has paid the price. When a team can’t settle on a quarterback this deep into the fall, everything else on that side of the ball suffers.

Considering where expectations stood after the Georgia Tech win, it feels like it’s time for Colorado to start over.