We’ve seen quite a weekend of college football action, and seem set for some shake-ups in when the new rankings are released. There were plenty of players and teams who let themselves down this weekend. Here are just a few of them:
Les Miles: the Louisiana State head coach cannot find a quarterback to save his life, and I wonder how the Tigers’ season would be going if they didn’t have Leonard Fournette in the backfield. Fournette’s been dominant these past three weeks, and he’s really needed to be, because QB Brandon Harris had a shocker of a day, going 4-15 for 80 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. There’ll come a time in this season when Miles needs to get more from his passing game, and if Harris is the best they have, I worry when that time arrives. Miles seemingly can't recruit passers!
Texas Tech’s defense: the Red Raiders hung with Texas Christian a week ago, but were blown out of the water by Baylor, giving up a combined 118 points and 1430 total yards to their two in-state rivals. Kliff Kingsbury has the offense rolling nicely at Tech, but really needs to do something about their defense. It’s woeful at the moment.
UCLA: the Bruins lost to an Arizona State team that had been destroyed by USC a week earlier. Freshman QB Josh Rosen wasn't the chief offender here. Rather, it was the defense, which gave up 200 rush yards and a further 273 through the air, on the arm of Arizona State QB Mike Bercovici. This was a night where the Bruins had a serious chance at rising in the national rankings, and they laid an egg. And this Trojan fan didn’t mind watching it all unfold, either.
Georgia: how many times have we believed the hype coming out of Athens, Georgia, only to be bitterly disappointed when the Bulldogs put on an absolute shocker on game day? Too many times to count – and once more today. Mark Richt’s men were never in the hunt against an Alabama squad clearly out to send a message. And send one, they did. Georgia were horrible in all phases of the game.
Ole Miss: can someone tell me who the team that were beaten about by Florida are, and what’s happened to the Rebels squad who beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa just fourteen days ago? There was little similarity between this week’s Ole Miss and the Ole Miss from the Tide game. Rather than lighting it up, they were lit up, down 25-0 to Florida at half time, and unable to produce anything worthwhile against a committed Gator team. It wasn't so much that Ole Miss lost, just how they were dismantled. Yes, Florida are good, but the story here is how bad the Rebels were.
Ohio State: who knows what might’ve transpired if the last play from scrimmage hadn’t been a bad snap, and a broken play, resulting in a football tipped away in the end zone to preserve a 34-27 Ohio State lead in Bloomington. Thank goodness, also, for Ezekiel Elliott, who carried that team on his shoulders this week, and got them across the line. Nothing else worked. Once again, the Buckeyes looked listless on offense, except when they handed it off to Zeke. And, you know, the Hoosiers aren’t exactly a brilliant defensive squad. The Buckeyes were lucky to win, and deserve to lose their No. 1 AP Top 25 ranking this week.
Nebraska: the Corn Huskers are getting inventive as far as the way they are losing games in 2015. They’ve come out on the losing side three times this season – once on a Hail Mary against Brigham Young, once in overtime at Miami and, this week, by giving up a game-winning touchdown with ten seconds left to play. That they lost to a bad Illinois team is another story entirely. Talk about a tough initiation for new head coach, Mike Reilly.
Notre Dame: it was a big comeback against Clemson that fell short, and now the Irish are on the cusp of missing out on whatever chance they still have of making the playoff bracket this season. Despite dominating in terms of total yardage, 437-296, the Irish turned the football over far too often – four times, in all – in key moments in that game, and you’ll never beat good teams doing that. Clemson, for their lacklustre performance last time out against Louisville, are increasingly looking like a good team.
Michigan State: the second-best team in the nation, at least according to the AP Top 25, could barely beat a 1-3 Purdue squad from twenty-one points up. Like their Big Ten cousins, Ohio State, the Spartans are barely going through the motions at the moment, and their one big win, over Oregon, doesn’t seem quite as big as it once did.
Texas: the beleaguered and besieged Longhorns gave up 602 yards of offense to Texas Christian in a disastrous 50-7 rout orchestrated by TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin. If Charlie Strong wasn't on the Hot Seat prior to this week, then he surely is now. It wasn't quite a thrashing of historic proportions, but Saturday’s performance certainly won’t fill anyone associated with the program with any sort of confidence about the future direction. It was bad. Like, really bad.
Georgia Tech: the Yellow Jackets were popular pre-season ACC picks but have lost three straight – Notre Dame, Duke and now North Carolina – to end any hope of such a result this year. They’ve dropped like a rock outside the national rankings, too, and their sharp decline means there’s probably only two ACC squads left with a shot at the playoff, Florida State and Clemson.
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