Another week of college football is in the books and, as usual in this wildly unpredictable sport, and whilst there were plenty of teams and individuals who got it done on the college gridiron, there were just as many who didn’t.
Here, then, are a few of those who could’ve and probably should’ve done better, my week 6 villains.
Click here for Andrew Kitchener’s heroes and villains so far this season.
ESPN Australia: one measly game of college football this week, the uninspiring Alabama vs Arkansas contest. There were chunks of time available on both ESPN channels on Sunday morning, but the brains trust opted to show replays. Not good enough. Live sport should always supersede replays.
Texas: Well, Charlie Strong is done in Austin. I don’t know whether he’ll get the hook during the season or afterward, but the experiment is over. The Longhorns defense, for which Strong was calling plays this week, gave up nearly 700 yards of total offense in a 45-40 loss to arch rivals Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl.
It’s simply not good enough. Longhorn fans will be clamouring for Tom Hermann, but is the Houston coach really going to want to come into a program that, at least externally – and probably internally, too – seems a downright shambles. Is anyone going to want to do that?
Rutgers: a 78-0 loss to Michigan in which the Scarlet Knights amassed just 5 passing yards and 34 rushing yards. Yep, you read that correctly. The Wolverines, on the other hand, rolled up more than 600. That Rutgers defense is about as useful as a chocolate teapot right now, and Rutgers can’t even blame Jim Harbaugh for running up the score.
He took his starters off the field at half time and basically ran straight-ahead between-the-tackles running plays all second half. Nothing tricky, Rutgers just couldn’t lay a tackle to save their lives. They were like traffic cones out there, and might’ve gone a long way towards Jabril Peppers winning the Heisman Trophy in December. Incredibly embarrassing for first-year head coach Chris Ash.
Stanford: throttled by Washington State in a 42-16 game that really wasn’t even as close as that. The Cougars dominated the Cardinal like they dominated Oregon last week, and Stanford, who were supposed to be playoff contenders are now in deep strife. They’ve been mauled in consecutive weeks by teams from the Evergreen State, and Christian McCaffrey’s Heisman chances have gone up in smoke, too.
Notre Dame: Head coach Brian Kelly went after his centre, who snapped the football often, in a hurricane, no less, to a quarterback in the shotgun. Of course things were going to go wrong in the midst of sideways rain and gale-force winds. The quarterback, DeShone Kizer, completed just 9 of 26 passes for 54 yards and the Irish suffered an embarrassing loss to North Carolina State.
Notre Dame is staring down the barrel of a losing season, and some of us couldn’t be happier. Kelly, who comes across as a hot-head at the best of times, is losing friends fast in South Bend.
New Mexico’s Pass Defense: Well, the Lobos managed to slow down Boise State’s do-everything back, Jeremy McNichols. The problem is, they spent so much time focusing on him that they forgot to cover receivers Cedric Wilson and Thomas Sperbeck.
The two seniors each had nine catches on the night. Sperbeck had 198 yards and two touchdowns whilst Wilson, a former quarterback, had three scored amongst his 155 receiving yards. Nearly all of that yardage came in the first half. No wonder Boise was up 42-7 at the half.
Michigan State: in one of the results I certainly didn’t see coming this weekend, the Spartans were handled with shocking ease by Taysom Hill and the Brigham Young Cougars at home in East Lansing. I thought BYU had a chance, but I didn’t expect them to run out 31-14 winners on the road. Not a good season for Mark Dantonio’s men, one year removed from making the playoff.
Neither Tyler O’Connor or Damion Terry looked impressive at quarterback and their run game wasn’t much to write home about, either. All told, the Spartans managed just 206 yards of total offense. Against BYU. Wow.
Oregon: has there been a bigger implosion this side of Texas than that of the Ducks? They lost a national championship game to Ohio State two years ago and since then have been downright horrible. Saturday was as bad as it’s been in Eugene in a very long time, losing 70-21 to a rampant Washington.
So much for head coach Mark Helfrich bringing in Brady Hoke to make the Ducks defense better. It hasn’t worked. They’re as bad as anyone in the country in most statistical categories, and it might actually get worse.
Sure, Oregon’s defense has never been anything to write home about, but their offense usually manages to score enough points to make up for a porous group. Helfrich’s offense this year simply doesn’t have the firepower. I doubt Helfrich is there in a year’s time, and I wouldn’t be surprised to
Houston: even with a few extra days to prepare for Navy’s triple-option offense, the Cougars lost 46-40 and with that loss to the Midshipmen went any chance they had of making the playoff bracket.
Throw in the continued rumours that head coach Tom Hermann is being headhunted by Louisiana State and Texas, and it hasn’t been a good week for the Cougars. They’ll rue this for a long time to come.
North Carolina: the Tar Heel defense had seven takeaways against Virginia Tech, and couldn’t convert nearly enough, losing 34-3.
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