Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who let themselves down on the gridiron with my Week Two Villains:
The Big Ten: Well, talk about going out with a whimper rather than a bang. I wrote last week that the oft-maligned conference had a chance to reverse national perception with some key games this week.
Well, they dropped the ball on that. Michigan State gave up 28 straight points to be humbled 46-27 by Oregon, Michigan were embarrassed 31-0 in South Bend by a rampant Notre Dame team and Ohio State rarely ever challenged Virginia Tech in Columbus, en route to a 35-21 defeat that was sealed with a late Pick-6 score by the Hokies.
As if that wasn’t enough, Purdue of the Big Ten were beaten 38-17 by Central Michigan from the Mid-American Conference and another MAC team, Northern Illinois, dispatched Northwestern 23-15.
Even Big Ten teams who managed to win on the weekend didn’t do so with much authority: Nebraska needed a late score to beat McNeese State 31-24, and Iowa only just squeaked past Ball State, 17-13.
I can’t remember a worse weekend for Big Ten in recent memory. The already-battered conference took another flurry of gut-punches today, and is way, way down. Embarrassing, atrocious, demoralising stuff.
Texas: Yes, I know their starting quarterback was our injured, and, sure, two linemen were suspended midweek, but…wow. It’s never good when your backup, making his first start, is doing so behind a patched-up line, and the Cougars pretty much had their way during a resounding 41-7 victory in Austin.
A year ago in Provo, BYU notched a school-record for rushing yards in a 40-21 victory over the Longhorns, which brought about the sacrificial lamb firing of defensive coordinator Manny Diaz. Well, this year was probably worse, at least scoreboard-wise.
The Longhorn defense let BYU quarterback Taysom Hill run through them for 99 yards and three touchdowns, including a 30-yard run that involved him leaping over Texas safety Dylan Haines, vision that’ll end up on a lot of cable sports networks over the next few days.
The Texas offense wasn’t much better, giving up four turnovers and managing only 258 total yards against a Cougars defense that, all credit to them for turning up today, isn’t exactly the nation’s best and brightest. I’ll bet Charlie Strong is hoping QB David Ash, out with concussion issues, is good to go next week.
Vanderbilt: Lost to Temple last week, were crushed by 41-3 by Bo Wallace and the Ole Miss Rebels. The Commodore defense gave up 540 yards in total, but at least their offense managed to only turn the football over once, after doing so seven times to Temple last week. The departure of James Franklin, who is at Penn State now, seems to have thrown Vandy into a downward spiral.
Washington: Yes, the Huskies won. No, the Huskies did not look like Pac-12 contenders in their 59-52 win over the Division II/FCS Eastern Washington Eagles. You can probably guess from the score that there wasn’t much defense played in this one. Sure, EWU are one of the better FCS schools, but the Huskies were still embarrassed on defense, giving up 572 yards including 476 passing yards (and 7 touchdowns) to Eagles QB Vernon Adams.
UCLA: The Bruins are 2-0 to start the season, but they didn’t look particularly impressive last week at Virginia and needed a fourth quarter score to survive lowly Memphis for a 42-35 victory. A 394-yard/3 touchdown passing effort from QB Brett Hundley probably masks a few things for the Bruins, whose defense gave up 469 yards to Memphis. Jim Mora’s squad not the best team in Los Angeles.
Jordan Williamson: The Stanford kicker missed two pretty easy shots that would’ve likely been the difference between the Cardinal winning and the eventual loss to USC. Not having a kicker you can rely on forces coaches to change the game plan, opting to punt where it might otherwise be worth attempting a long field goal. Williamson left six points out there on the field, and they only lost by three. Do the math.
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