Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who let themselves down on the gridiron with my Week Five Villains:
Michigan: For the first time since the 1930s, Michigan has three losses on the season before the calendar turns to October. History-making loss 30-14 loss to Michigan that hands back the Little Brown Jug to the Gophers and makes Brady Hoke’s hot seat actually become a raging inferno.
Alas, Michigan fans can’t blame erratic QB Devin Gardner this week. He was benched during the week – a pretty bold move by Hoke, all things considered – in favour of former five-star recruit Shane Morris. Unfortunately, Morris wasn’t much better than Gardner’s been in his recent starts. The quarterback play was, once more, plagued by turnovers and interceptions and generally bad execution. Turnovers really killed the Wolverines.
I won’t be at all surprised if Hoke is fired before next Saturday. The wheels have fallen off the program in Ann Arbor and it’s time for some new blood. It may also be that Athletic Director Dave Brandon, about as unpopular as Hoke right now, is also shown the door. Certainly, that’s what Michigan fans will want after their team’s latest flop.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks pretty much dominated every facet of their home game against Missouri – a Missouri team, you might remember, who were beaten at home by Indiana seven days ago – but managed to give up a 20-7 lead with less than seven minutes to play, turning victory into defeat, handing Missouri a hugely improbable 21-20 win.
Apparently the Gamecock defense thought it was all over with seven to go and appeared to sit back and let Missouri’s offense, dormant all night, roar back into the game and ultimately win it. Combine that with a few ill-timed unproductive possessions for the South Carolina in the closing minutes of the game and you’ve got yourself one very frustrated Steve Spurrier.
Tennessee’s Offensive Line: Up front, the Volunteers were – and you’ll pardon the bad pun here – offensive. It’s bad enough that they were blown past by Georgia defenders seemingly play after play, but they were supposed to be protecting a backup quarterback, who’d previously only started one game.
Poor old Nathan Peterman barely had a chance to get the football away. During his time in the contest, he was pummelled again and again by Bulldog linemen and linebackers coming free off the edges and right down the middle. ESPN’s Brian Griese called it “dangerous” and it just about was.
Penn State: Christian Hackenberg completed less than 50% of his passes and threw a 49-yard interception return in the Nittany Lions’ surprising 29-6 loss at home to Northwestern. That was only half the story, because Hackenberg played behind a shockingly inept offensive line. When he wasn’t sacked outright, he was hurried and pressured.
Not a good week up front for the Penn State heavies, but their next game is Michigan in two weeks, and you probably couldn’t catch the Wolverines at a better/worse time – depending on your point of view – than right about now. Still work to be done in Happy Valley.
Boston College: Two weeks ago, they were the toast of the nation after knocking off USC in rather memorable fashion, but this weekend it was the Eagles’ turn to be knocked off. They were beaten by Colorado State out of the Mountain West Conference 24-21, after BC led 21-14 in the fourth quarter. The nation’s best running game accounted for a paltry 239 yards and couldn’t close out the contest when it really needed to in the fourth. A step backwards for Boston College.
Vanderbilt: By a long way, the Commodores are the worst team in the SEC. And probably one of the worst in the entire nation. James Franklin’s incredible work to build Vandy up into at least something of a competitive force in the country’s toughest conference has been undone over the course of five weeks this year.
Vandy’s latest loss came at the hands of Kentucky, who snapped a 17-game SEC losing streak, ironically beating the Commodores 17-7. Vanderbilt’s only score came on an interception return in the second quarter. Their offense could only muster 139 yards of total offense and turned the football over three times via QB Wade Freebeck. Not sure where this program goes.
Oregon State’s Defense: Look, there was a pretty solid Hail Mary thrown in the Arizona/Cal game last week, and when USC’s QB Cody Kessler heaved the ball long on the final play of the first half at the LA Memorial Coliseum, you figured that the Beavers defense would cover, right?
Well, kinda wrong. I mean, there were enough guys around the football, but none seemed to think of either knocking the ball out of bounds or else trying to disrupt Trojan receiver Darreus Rodgers from catching it. Which he did, for a 48-yard miracle touchdown that put the Beavers down 21-10 and USC went on to record a commanding 35-10 lead.
I don’t get how that sea of defenders couldn’t make the most obvious play there, especially after the weeks’ worth of press that the Pac-12’s earlier Hail Mary throw got.
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