Another week of college football is in the books 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 are a few teams and individuals who could’ve and probably should’ve done better, my week four villains:
Vanderbilt
Commodores, I don’t care how good your win over Kansas State was last week, the “We want Alabama” calls throughout the week weren’t smart. It was always going to be tough beating the Tide, despite how well the Vandy defence has been playing this year, but did anyone think the Tide would come out and post a 59-0 win?
This was ugly for the Commodores; they were out-gained by 599 yards, managed just three first downs, and were a combined 7-22 passing for 38 yards and a pick.
Oklahoma State
The Cowboys’ loss to TCU in Stillwater was shocking because Mike Gundy’s men basically trailed from start to finish. Their high-octane offence never got going, and the questions we had about their defence were answered in the form of 44 Horned Frog points.
OK State will now need to run the table in order to reach the Big XII championship game and win that to have a shot at the college football playoff. That means beating Oklahoma in the Bedlam game, which is no certainty this year.
Florida State
Missing their star quarterback Deondre Francois, the Seminoles lost to North Carolina State in Raleigh and are 0-2 to start the season for the first time since 1989. The Seminoles are now on the outside looking in at the ACC race.
Kentucky
Thirty-one years have passed since the last time the Wildcats beat Florida and they are finding new and inventive ways of losing to the Gators, this time surrendering a late touchdown to a wide-open receiver to lose 28-27.
The last time Kentucky beat Florida, the Berlin Wall still stood, Penn State were the national champions and the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX.
Oregon
The Willie Taggart-led revival in Eugene is on ice this week after the Ducks lost 37-35 to Arizona State, giving up 489 total yards in the process. It’s the first time the Ducks have lost to the Sun Devils in ten years. Same old story at Oregon: sensational offence – Justin Herbert was brilliant again – and bad defence.
Missouri
It goes from bad to worse for the Tigers. They were belted 51-14 by Auburn and dropped to 1-3, their only win being a less-than-convincing opening day performance against Missouri State. With Kentucky and Georgia to come in the next fortnight, the Tigers might not win another game until they face Idaho on October 21.
Nebraska
A few days after their athletic director was fired, the Huskers were locked in a huge fight with Rutgers entering the fourth quarter. Yes, they pulled out a 27-17 win, but it was an unconvincing one to say the very least, and it’ll do little to calm the sense of unease in Lincoln.
It’s fair to say that the first month of the season has taught us that Mike Riley isn’t the coach to lead Nebraska back to national prominence, Tanner Lee isn’t the quarterback Huskers fans hoped he would be and hiring Bob Diaco as defensive coordinator has been an unmitigated disaster.
Tennessee
Speaking of unmitigated disasters: the Volunteers. When you’re a SEC program coming off a heartbreaking loss a week ago and you need all 60 to beat Massachusetts, who’ve lost 14 of their last 15 games against FBS opponents, it’s safe to say that things aren’t going very well at all.
Butch Jones would’ve probably been fired on the spot if the Vols had lost. As it is, he’ll be lucky to survive another week of people calling for his head. And as listless as his team looked on Saturday, perhaps change in Knoxville wouldn’t be the worst thing ever.
UCLA
The Bruins are going nowhere fast, except backwards. After Josh Rosen’s first week heroics against Texas A&M, they’ve beaten Hawaii, then followed that up with losses to Memphis and now Stanford, dropping their tenth straight to the Cardinal 58-34.
The Bruins’ run defence was atrocious, giving up 263 yards to Bryce Love alone. Rosen threw for 480 yards and three scores, but also two interceptions.
With a brutal schedule for the coming month – Colorado, Arizona, Washington and Oregon – it’s very likely that we’ll be hearing more about head coach Jim Mora’s job security, or lack thereof.
Michigan State
The Spartans turned the football over three times Saturday night against Notre Dame and lost 38-13 despite leading in time of possession and out-gaining the Irish by 141 yards. Turnovers were the story, with Notre Dame scoring twenty-one points off their three takeaways. Penalties didn’t help either as they were flagged nine times for 67 yards. A sloppy effort all around.
Bret Bielema
The Arkansas coach drops to 0-5 against Kevin Sumlin and Texas A&M, and there will be plenty of speculation about his job security. It seems like we’ve been talking about Bielema on the hot seat for two seasons or more.
Perhaps the only thing that is saving Bielema from being ousted by the Razorbacks is a contract buy-out that’s at $15.4 million now and slides back to $11.7 million after January 1.
Boise State
What’s happened to the Broncos? They’re mediocre in 2017, something we don’t often say about the team from Idaho’s Treasure Valley. Their surprising 42-23 loss to Virginia on Friday night was ugly. They couldn’t run the ball to save their lives and the inability to extend drives put pressure on the defence, which Virginia quarterback Kurt Benkert dissected with relative ease.
Alarmingly for Broncos fans who’re conditioned to expect more, Boise are 2-4 in their past six, and 5-5 in their past ten. They’ve scored just 13 offensive touchdowns in four games – a far cry from the high-scoring, freewheeling offence that we’ve come to love.
This might be the first year since 2001 that the Broncos don’t make an appearance in the Top 25 polls. Head coach Bryan Harsin is definitely going to feel the heat this week.
Hey, supercoach? Choose your own ultimate NFL team and compete with other players for cash prizes in daily competitions on any match. If you’re after the best odds on the NFL, PlayUp is your best bet. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
The extraordinary episodes after his life as an American Football hero quite overshadowed the career of O.J. Simpson, who has died at the age…
The Kansas City Chiefs, steered brilliamtly at the end by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, downed the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime to secure…
San Francisco 49ers will make their eighth appearance in the Super Bowl after a stellar season from a team stacked with real talent across the whole line-up.
The Chiefs are no longer strangers to playing matches in February. What was once a multi-generational 50-year drought has become an almost yearly tradition.
Daniel Faalele and Mitch Wishnowsky have kept their Super Bowl dreams alive, with Baltimore and San Francisco winning the divisional round playoff.
Six-time NFL champion Bill Belichick has agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots, bringing an end to his 24-year…
