Another week of college football is in the books and, as usual in this wildly unpredictable sport, and while 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 seven villains.
Georgia: the Bulldogs are capitulating in Kirby Smart’s first season between the hedges in Athens. There’ve been some bad losses this year, but none worse than Saturday’s 17-16 loss to lowly Vanderbilt is about as horrendous as it gets.
Georgia gifted the Commodores their first SEC road win in more than three years. Emblematic of the Bulldogs’ problems was star running back Nick Chubb, who amassed just 40 rushing yards on 16 carries. Nowhere near good enough. It’ll be a long week for Smart and his staff.
Notre Dame: at home, under lights against Stanford – a Stanford without Christian McCaffrey – and the Irish still couldn’t get it done. At least the defence looked improved against the Cardinal, albeit a Cardinal team without their biggest weapon, but quarterback DeShone Kizer saved perhaps his worst game for primetime, making two costly mistakes to begin the third quarter, including an interception that was taken the other way for a defensive score.
Worse, he took a crucial sack on a final drive that had the Irish down at the Stanford 14-yard line after the Cardinal had scored 17 unanswered points to claim the lead. The 17-10 loss drops Notre Dame to 2-5 on the season and a bowl appearance seems to be an impossibility now. Looking at their remaining schedule, only Army looks like a game the Irish will enter as favourites.
Kyle Bambard: the North Carolina State kicker had a chance to give the Wolf Pack a big win over Clemson, but he pushed a late field goal attempt wide right as time expired. It was a costly miss, as Clemson went on to win in overtime.
Michigan State: it’s official, the Spartans are reeling. Their latest misstep on a season that’s fast slipping out of control was a 54-40 homecoming weekend loss to Northwestern, in which they pretty much let the Wildcats do whatever they wanted offensively. Remember just a year ago when that Spartan defence was one of the best in America? It’s been a sudden and shocking drop for Mark Dantonio’s men.
Rutgers: the Scarlet Knights might be making first-year head coach Chris Ash wish he’d never taken the job in Piscataway. After being thumped in consecutive weeks by Ohio State and Michigan, the Scarlet Knights lost 24-7 to Illinois. As if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s an ugly stat: in four Big Ten games this season, Rutgers has scored just two touchdowns. Brutal.
Virginia Tech: just when we thought the Hokies were seriously back under Justin Fuentes, they went and laid a major egg against Syracuse. The defence was horrible, allowing Orange quarterback Eric Dungey to personally roll up 417 yards of offense, condemning the Hokies to a surprising 31-17 loss.
North Dakota State: the five-time defending FCS National Champions fell from the ranks of the unbeaten this week, losing 19-17 to South Dakota State, which means that the Bison lose their grip on the Dakota Marker, which they’ve held since 2009.
Kansas: the Jayhawks, annual contenders for worst FBS program in America, lost their thirty-eighth straight road game in Waco, Texas, falling to Baylor 49-7. Hard to believe this is the same program that won an Orange Bowl and had Todd Reesing torching opposition defences under Mark Mangino less than a decade ago, isn’t it?
Mississippi State: the post-Dak Prescott era has not started out well for the Bulldogs, who lost to Brigham Young on Friday night in a messy double overtime game. Dan Mullen’s squad drops to 2-5 on the season and their chances of playing a Bowl game this year took a massive hit.
Miami-FL: in two short weeks, the wheels have fallen off the Hurricane wagon. First a dispiriting loss to Florida State courtesy of a blocked extra point and, a week later, a 20-13 loss to North Carolina in which the Hurricanes couldn’t stop Tar Heels quarterback Mitch Trubisky – granted, they’re not the first and won’t be the last team to have that particular problem this year seemed like they wanted to be anywhere other than on the field. Head coach Mark Richt needs to get things turned around quickly.
Josh Dobbs: the Tennessee quarterback was dominated by an Alabama defence that kept him to 92 passing yards, one interception and no touchdowns, and, when you take into account yardage lost via sacks, he ran for -31 yards.
UCLA: the Bruins lost 27-21 to Washington State without quarterback Josh Rosen. For all the early momentum that Jim Mora Jr created when he took over as head coach, the Bruins appear headed back to their old underachieving ways.
Mora’s seat is surely starting to warm up now, and it’ll get pretty damn hot with a few more losses. Remember when UCLA people thought hiring current Washington State head coach Mike Leach would be a bad idea? I’d rather be in Pullman than Westwood right now.
Arizona’s fans: the stadium was empty of all but a few diehard Wildcat fans and a fairly large contingent of USC fans by half-time, when the Trojans had a handy 34-7 lead. There’s a lot of apathy around this program, and, if you happen to know any Arizona alumni – as I do – then you’re probably hearing the same thing as I am, week after week: Rich Rodriguez needs to go.
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