The second-last weekend of the regular season for 2015 provided us with plenty of villains. Here's the best of that bunch:
South Carolina: the Gamecocks fell to 3-8 for the season after a stunning 23-22 loss – at home, no less – to FCS opponent The Citadel. With the Gamecocks in the middle of a coaching search to identify Steve Spurrier’s successor, the question is, who on earth would want to go there? Not exactly a great destination at the moment. This was a bad day for the proud Gamecock program.
Southern California: all around, not a great day for schools whose initials are USC. The Trojans went into Autzen Stadium – the scene of one of their greatest victories four years ago – and were never really in the hunt against a resurgent Oregon squad. QB Vernon Adams Jr. torched the USC passing defense again and again, throwing for six touchdowns, a record against a Trojan defense. Surely, Justin Wilcox, the oft-maligned defensive coordinator is on his last legs at the Coliseum?
Despite the 48-28 loss, the Trojans are somehow still alive in the Pac-12 South. They’d want to play much better against UCLA next week than they did this week.
Houston: the Cougars turned the football over four times en route to their first loss of the season, a surprising one to UConn.
Louisiana State: in the blink of an eye, the Tigers have lost three games in a row and maybe, just maybe, Les Miles is indeed coaching for his job in Baton Rouge – as media reports during the week suggested – where things have gone from bad to worse to something approaching catastrophic.
Their loss two weeks ago to Alabama was tough, but not unexpected, a loss last week to Arkansas was a source of great frustration for the fan base down south, and this Saturday’s 38-17 loss to Ole Miss will sting more because LSU actually out-gained the Rebels but three turnovers doomed them to another loss. Needless to say, it will be a very interesting week for Les Miles and company.
Ohio State: the Buckeyes haven’t looked right all year, and the defending national champions fell at the first real hurdle of the season – apologies here to Minnesota, Indiana, Virginia Tech and others – losing to a Michigan State squad who, simply put, were better prepared and wanted the win more.
The Buckeyes couldn’t stop the Spartan ground game, which gouged them for more than two hundred yards, and could never put MSU’s two inexperienced quarterbacks in a position where they needed to make big plays through the air to win the game. Nor could the Buckeye offense do much in the face of a brilliant defensive effort, holding that star-studded group to a paltry 132 total yards of offense.
After the game, Ezekiel Elliott, the running back to steamrolled defenders last year during the Buckeyes run to an unlikely national championship, proceeded to rip the coaches for not giving him enough carries, and said he wouldn’t be back in Columbus next year. He touched the football twelve times and publically accused the coaches, led by Urban Meyer, of not putting the team in a position to win. Truth or not, airing your team’s dirty laundry in front of a packed media scrum isn’t the way to go. Fair chance he’s lost a few fans in Columbus after that.
It’s an interesting point that Elliott raises, though, and you could certainly make an argument for the Buckeyes seeming listless when in possession without their former offensive coordinator Tom Herman, who is now head coach at Houston. Based on what OSU did last year and Houston are doing this year – despite their first loss of the year today – Herman is a very hot commodity. After losing his services after the National Championship run, Ohio State haven’t quite had the same potency as a year ago.
Oklahoma State: they had a clear shot at the Big XII championship and a likely berth in the College Football Playoff Final Four, but didn’t really show up against Baylor. Their defense was particularly bad, surrendering 699 total yards of offense. And, with that loss, the conference race just got a whole lot more interesting.
Florida: the Gators needed overtime to pull out a decidedly shaky victory over Florida Atlantic University, and if there’s any hint that the College Football Playoff Committee actually pays attention to how a team wins and who they beat, the Gators deserve to plummet big-time when the rankings are released in the week. This was an ugly win by a team ranked eighth in the nation. They deserve to be outside the top ten, at a bare minimum.
Alabama fans: the Tide’s game against lowly Charleston Southern appeared on the SEC Network on Saturday, and didn’t Alabama fans light up social media in complaint? The way they were going, you’d think they’d been forced to play on a channel that doesn’t broadcast to America. News flash, folks: the rest of your conference regularly plays games broadcast only on the SEC Network. The Tide plays one a season – if that – and basically every other game ends up on CBS, and you’re complaining? Please. Ask Missouri or Georgia or Vanderbilt fans how they feel.
Maryland: the Terrapins had a 21-3 lead at home against Indiana, and then allowed the Hoosiers to outscore them 44-7 in what turned out to be a bleak 47-28 loss on Senior Day for the Terps, who handed Indiana their first Big Ten win of the year.
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