Opinion: College Football's Week Nine Villains

Another weekend of college football is in the books, so let’s go through who let themselves down on the gridiron with my Week Nine Villains:

Texas Tech: The Red Raiders were on the wrong end of a huge drubbing from Texas Christian, going down 82-27, and perhaps signalling that the Kliff Kingsbury experiment is headed for an early end in Lubbock. Tech were jumped on right from the outset, giving up a school-record 785 yards defensively (including a school-record 7 touchdowns to Horned Frogs QB Trevone Boykin) and turned the football over four times when they were on offense. There aren’t many positives coming out of this.

Texas: The Longhorns were shut out 23-0 by Kansas State in Manhattan for the first time since October of 2004. The ‘Horns lost to the Wildcats for the fifth time in six games, and the programs are obviously headed in opposite directions at the moment. A rough campaign for Charlie Strong, and it doesn’t figure to get any easier. Looking through the remaining games on their schedule – Texas Tech next week, then West Virginia, Oklahoma State and Texas Christian – and I can’t say I’d decisively pick UT in any of them. A 3-9 season would be a major disaster in Austin.

Maryland: Their inaugural Big Ten campaign took a turn for the worse on Saturday afternoon at the hands of a rampant Wisconsin running game, which rolled up 311 yards and five touchdowns. The Terrapins didn’t get much support offensively, failing to crack the 200-yard barrier for total offense. It was a forgetful 52-7 game that was 52-0 inside the final minute of the game.

Ole Miss: At least until the last few weeks, it was always ‘Good Bo’ or ‘Bad Bo’ when you spoke about Rebels QB Bo Wallace. We’ve seen ‘Good Bo’ recently – until Saturday night in Death Valley, where the Rebels fell 10-7 to LSU and saw their chances at an undefeated season go up in smoke.  Wallace threw an ill-advised pass that was intercepted in the end zone by safety Leonard Martin, choosing the riskiest pass when he had a few other options to get the Rebels in range for a game-tying field goal attempt.

To be fair, the Rebels’ first loss of the season isn’t all on Bo Wallace. Not hardly. The defense, which has been sensational up to this point, didn’t do it’s part, giving up a surprising 264 rushing yards (including 113 to star back Leonard Fournette) when they’d allowed only a paltry 97.1 per game coming in. Not a good showing on either side of the ball.

Virginia: Somehow, the Cavaliers were hit with a substitution penalty coming out of a time-out. That’s bad however you look at it, but worse when you consider that this penalty came with North Carolina holding the ball, holding a slim 28-27 lead with 1:17 left to play, and facing a fourth-down-and-two field goal attempt. The ensuing penalty gave the Tar Heels the first down, allowing them to ice the clock. An absolute back-breaking coach killer for the Cavaliers there. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team pilfer away a chance at a win like that.

Michigan: Lost for the sixth time in seven games to Michigan State – you know, formerly their ‘little brother’ in football – and watched the Spartans run the score up late because, according to MSU coach Mark Dantonio, a Wolverine player threw “a stake or dagger” on the Spartan Stadium turf in the pre-game. So, the Michigan players are horrible at football and bad sportsmen, too? Not a good look for the maize and blue.