College Football 2015: Week Two Villains

For every hero there’s a villain, and college football is no different in that regard. Here are a few who let themselves down this weekend:

The NCAA: Boston College beat Howard 76-0 on Saturday afternoon, with Howard managing just eleven total yards – yep, you read that right, eleven measly yards – in a game that should never have been allowed to go ahead. The gulf between these small colleges and the big boys seems to increase year on year, and results like this are going to become the norm.

For mine, this business of smaller schools getting a big cheque and putting their obviously-outmatched kids on the field against the big-time programs is one of the biggest blights on the NCAA. The sad fact is that the Howard’s of the world are nothing more than speed humps, and one day, someone is going to get seriously injured, or worse, all for a large chunk of cash that the players themselves don’t get a slice of.

I know it won’t happen, but these sorts of contests should be banned. It’s the ugly side of early-season football.

Notre Dame: Dare I say it took something of a miracle for the Irish to get past Virginia. It’s actually crazy to think that the Cavaliers had the lead late in this one. Perhaps this was an inevitable letdown after the big performance against Texas last week, but Notre Dame didn’t look particularly good – and escaped Charlottesville with a lucky victory.

The injury to star QB Malik Zaire, who went off in the third quarter, is likely to put an end to their chances of reaching the playoff. Surely the Irish can’t survive their brutal schedule without their quarterback and first-string running back (Tarean Folston, who was injured last week, and is done for the year) both sitting on the sidelines watching. So much for the luck of the Irish!

Arkansas: a week after looking so impressive against UTEP, the Razorbacks were embarrassed 16-12 by Toledo, behind a former second-string Alabama quarterback named Phillip Ely. It’s the biggest upset of the weekend, and a game that the Razorbacks should never have lost, particularly when they outgained the Rockets 513-322.

The Razorbacks are the first FBS squad in a decade to have 500 yards of offense, one or less turnovers and score less than twelve points. The Arkansas run game, which we’ve all heard so much about, managed only a shade of three yards a go on thirty-one carries, and QB Brandon Allen was forced to attempt a whopping fifty-three passes.

Oregon: The Ducks had their chances but couldn’t convert against Michigan State when they really needed to. The loss in East Lansing drops Oregon to 1-26 all time in “true” road games – non-neutral site events like kick-off specials and Bowls – against opponents inside the AP Top 25. Their lone triumph against an AP Top 25 squad was versus Stanford in 2011.

Another stat worth mentioning in regard to the Ducks is that they’ve lost the last five games in which they’ve scored less than ten points in the first half. When Oregon can’t run their high-powered offense, as was the case against a suffocating Spartan defense, they’re in trouble. I would suspect that plenty of future opponents will be carefully analysing tonight’s game tape.

South Carolina: lost 26-22 at home against Kentucky, and you can pretty much rest assured that the knives will be out, sharpened and wielded in Steve Spurrier’s direction. The Gamecocks gave the Wildcats their first road win since 2009, after Kentucky had lost twenty straight. It’s going to be an uncomfortable week in Columbia, that’s for sure!

Tennessee: a victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat for the ages in Neyland Stadium. The Vols gave up a seventeen-point lead to lose on a Josh Dobbs interception in the second overtime frame. It’s the largest blown lead at home in program history. The loss drops the program to a woeful 2-34 in it’s last thirty-six games against teams in the AP Top 25. They’ve lost their last nine in a row to such teams.

The SEC: on a day when the stature of the Big Ten took a big leap forward, thanks to Michigan State’s victory over Oregon, the alleged best conference in the sport had a bad case of the stumbles.

Aside from Arkansas losing to Toledo at home, South Carolina's sputtering loss and the Tennessee debacle against Oklahoma, it took miracles – some minor, and some major – for Auburn to top Jacksonville State, Missouri to rally back against Arkansas State after being down at the half and Florida to scratch out a win over East Carolina, which was apparently bad enough that coach Jim McElwain felt the need to apologise. Not a great day for the boys from down south.