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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 5 villains.
Butch Jones and Tennessee
Surely it’s only a matter of time now. Butch Jones has to be done in Knoxville. Whether the decision is made public this week – and there’s going to be plenty who believe it should happen as soon as possible – or the University of Tennessee waits until the offseason, it’s inevitable. Saturday was the final nail in Jones’ orange coffin: the Vols fell 41-0 to Georgia and it wasn’t even that close.
The meltdown started with Quinten Dormady throwing an interception on the first play of the game, which really set the tone for things. Nothing went right for the Vols, offensively or defensively. They were booed at times by their home fans, not many of whom waited for the end of what was the worst home loss in the long history of Neyland Stadium and for Jones and his staff, that’s not the sort of record you want to have attached to your name.
Mississippi
The Rebels were belted 66-3 by a rampant Alabama outfit in Tuscaloosa. The fact that the Tide were playing offensive guys way down the depth chart against the first-team Ole Miss defence late, and still scoring points has to be a worry for interim head coach Matt Luke and his staff. Saturday night’s Ole Miss team looked nothing like the one that’s beaten Alabama two out of their last three games.
Mississippi State
It wasn’t a good Saturday for football programs from the Magnolia State. A little before Ole Miss was crushed by Alabama, the Bulldogs were belted all over the place by Auburn, crushed 49-10, giving up more than 500 yards of offence. Dan Mullen’s men had no answers from the outset. Mississippi State’s big win two weeks ago against LSU (which isn’t looking that great now – see below) has been followed up by two bad losses. Clearly, the Bulldogs aren’t anywhere near as good as we thought.
Louisiana State
The Bayou Bengals are an upper echelon program in the Southeastern Conference. Well, so we’re led to believe. They didn’t look like one on Saturday night, when Ed Orgeron’s men lost to Troy. Yep, Troy from the Sun Belt conference. It was a listless and insipid performance from a team who should be much better than they are. Orgeron is going to feel some serious heat this week, and deservedly so, at 3-2 heading into a daunting SEC schedule.
Iowa
The Hawkeyes followed up nearly beating Penn State at home by losing 17-10 on the road at Michigan State. The worst thing about the loss? Akrum Wadley, who has averaged 84.5 rushing yards per game this year behind a very experienced offensive line, managed just 30 yards on twenty touches. All told, with sack yardage included, the Hawkeyes totalled 19 yards. Not at all acceptable for a program built on hard running.
Southern California
Friday night on the Palouse was not a happy hunting ground for the Trojans, who lost for the first time in a calendar year, falling 30-27 to Washington State in what was a fairly uninspiring offensive performance.
Quarterback Sam Darnold showed, at last, that he is human. The Trojans lost what felt like 12,000 offensive linemen, and for whatever reason offensive play-caller Tee Martin resolutely failed to feed the ball to running back Ronald Jones, who looked dangerous in his limited touches – including a searing 86-yard touchdown run – so it’ll be a rough week in Los Angeles for head coach Clay Helton.
Darnold’s Heisman campaign seems to have come to a shuddering halt and, extraordinarily, he has more interceptions through four games this season than he had all of last year. A few more picks and I guarantee we’ll hear the ‘Darnold isn’t ready for the NFL’ talk, and that talk might just be right.
The good news for USC? They get Oregon State this week – a chance for a nice bounce-back game.
North Carolina
The Tar Heels, who were 8-5 last year, dropped to 1-4 in 2017 after a 33-7 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday. It’s going to be a rough season, with Notre Dame, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech still to come.
Rutgers
The Scarlet Knights were walloped 56-0 by Ohio State on Saturday night. The addition of the Piscataway, New Jersey program might have worked well for the Big Ten in terms of adding the New York City/tristate area market to the conference footprint, but it’s been an unmitigated disaster on field.
Brigham Young
The Cougars led Utah State 21-7 in the second quarter, then the wheels fell off. Their next 13 possessions featured four interceptions, three lost fumbles, two punts, three turnovers on downs and a field goal. Absolutely brutal. They ended up losing 40-24 and face Boise State in what is absolutely a must-win game on Friday night.
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