College Football Teams That Aren't as Good as We Thought They Were Going to Be
If a team has played two games so far this season—something most teams have done—that means it's completed 12.5 percent of its regular-season schedule.
For most teams, that sample is too small to say anything conclusive about their season, but for others, it is more than enough.
Specifically, that's the case for teams we looked fondly upon before the season. If we thought they might be a College Football Playoff contender, it can become clear after two games that they aren't. Even for a borderline bowl contender, the same case might apply.
The following teams represent both cases. They are not necessarily the teams with the worst records but the teams that have looked the worst—often against substandard competition—and do not appear to be getting better.
Their struggles have looked like the rule, not the exception. They are the teams that, quite simply, just aren't as good as we thought.
Withholding Judgement Until After Week 3
1 of 7
South Carolina
It would be easy to cast South Carolina aside after the Texas A&M debacle in Week 1, but Steve Spurrier's team got a solid win against East Carolina last week and has a chance to turn things around against Georgia this Saturday. The Gamecocks have enough talent to win that game, and doing so would give them the inside track on the SEC East, so for the time being, let's withhold judgement.
Texas/UCLA
Texas lost by 34 points against BYU last Saturday. UCLA just barely squeaked by Memphis. Whichever team loses when the Longhorns and Bruins meet in Arlington this weekend will be catapulted, in all likelihood, onto the proper rankings; but whichever team wins will score a season-defining victory. So, again, let's withhold judgement until the dust settles Saturday evening.
Washington
Yes, Washington struggled to win at Hawaii, but Hawaii is halfway decent. Sure, Washington struggled to put away Eastern Washington, but Vernon Adams is really good. This week, Washington gets an Illinois team that, despite being 2-0, appears to be pretty terrible. If the Huskies struggle against the Illini, I'll be ready to vault them onto the list. But for now? I am still holding out hope.
Iowa
2 of 7
Before the season, Iowa was being mentioned as a long shot College Football Playoff sleeper, and even though most of that—fine, almost all of it—had to do with scheduling, the Hawkeyes were still supposed to be an above-average-to-good football team.
Two weeks into the season, the Hawkeyes look more like a below-average-to-bad football team, a team that is lucky to be 2-0. They barely held off Northern Iowa in Week 1 before needing some fourth-quarter heroics to beat Ball State last Saturday.
Granted, Northern Iowa is one of the better FCS teams, and Ball State is one of the better group-of-five teams. That much is true. It's not like Iowa was losing to, well, let's say Central Michigan.
Regardless, the offense has looked as banal as ever, and the defense—thought to be the strength of the team—allowed 6.52 yards per play in the season opener. Even in the putrid Big Ten West, that won't be enough for Kirk Ferentz's team to win nine or 10 games.
North Carolina
3 of 7
Like Iowa, North Carolina was a trendy little sleeper pick throughout the offseason. Unlike Iowa, the Tar Heels were fancied in spite of their schedule—not because of it. After finishing last season with six wins in seven games, people thought this team could go far.
Those people were half right. This offense can certainly go far. Larry Fedora and Seth Littrell are a solid pair of play-callers, Marquise Williams and Mitch Trubisky are a solid pair of quarterbacks, T.J. Logan and Elijah Hood are a solid pair of running backs and Quinshad Davis and Ryan Switzer are a solid pair of receivers.
The Tar Heels defense, however, is an entirely different matter. After letting Liberty run up 346 yards and 29 points in the season opener, it allowed San Diego State to run up 509 yards and average 6.88 yards per play in a tight (31-27) win last Saturday.
UNC is the type of team you do not want your own team to play: dangerous enough to perform well for 60 minutes. But it isn't big enough along the lines or tough enough on defense to win double-digit games or contend for an ACC championship.
Losing Greg Webb to academic ineligibility was a crippling blow.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Northwestern
4 of 7
Northwestern has spiraled to new lows after College GameDay came to Evanston for last year's Ohio State game.
Before that, the Wildcats were 4-0 in 2013 after a 10-win season in 2012. After hanging close and losing to the Buckeyes, though, Pat Fitzgerald's team has gone 1-9 in its next 10 games.
This year's losses have been particularly hard to watch. Both came on Northwestern's home field, first to Cal (in a game where the Wildcats reportedly wore the wrong defensive play cards for two quarters) and last week to Northern Illinois of the MAC.
Opinions were split on whether Northwestern would be good this season, but enough people—this author included—were bullish on its chances that the 0-2 start comes as a surprise.
There's something rotten off the coast of Lake Michigan, and it doesn't appear to be going away.
Ohio State
5 of 7
It would be easy to blame everything on the quarterback, J.T. Barrett, a redshirt freshman who has tried his best (and played alright) but will never be able to replicate what Braxton Miller did in 2013.
But that's not the only thing going on here. It's not even the biggest thing going on here. An offensive line that replaced four starters from last season, when it had one of the best units in the country, has regressed more than anyone could have ever anticipated.
As a result, the Buckeyes have been forced to play a lot of max protect on offense, something Bleacher Report's Michael Felder took a look at earlier this week. This severely limits what Urban Meyer can (and wants to) do with his skill players, allocating one or two of them to stay in and block on every passing down.
The defense has looked decent (and should get even better when Noah Spence returns in Week 3), but people had Ohio State pinned as a playoff contender even after Miller went down because they figured Meyer's offense was good enough to overcome personnel losses.
Without a competent offensive line, that doesn't look like the case.
Vanderbilt
6 of 7
Not a lot of people thought that Vanderbilt would be good this season. But not a lot of people thought it would be terrible either.
Two weeks into the season, though, the latter premise looks to be the case. Gone are head coach James Franklin, receiver Jordan Matthews and cornerback Andre Hal, and as a result, the Commodores are 0-2 with a combined deficit of 78-10 against Temple and Ole Miss.
Derek Mason is a defensive coach first and foremost, but it is difficult to excuse an offense that's already gone through three quarterbacks (all in the first game) and is averaging 3.94 yards per play. Only five teams in the country boast a lower number, and those teams have combined to go 73-109 over the past three seasons.
Vanderbilt, in the same span, has gone 24-15
Washington State
7 of 7
It's hard not to root for Mike Leach, an offensive innovator who did wonders at Washington State last season, bringing the Wildcats to a bowl that not many (if any) people outside of Pullman predicted. This year's team looked like it could be just as good—maybe better.
Long story short: It is not.
Leach's team let Rutgers score a touchdown on the first play of the season, and things haven't improved much since. It lost that game (at home) to the Scarlet Knights, 41-38, before getting thoroughly outplayed in a road loss at Nevada last Thursday.
"I think we need to make sure we're sharper on their focus," Leach said this Monday, per Jacob Thorpe of The Spokesman-Review. "Right now we're a team that practices well, lifts well, trains well—we don't play very well and that's been our biggest problem."
Um…yeah, coach. Not playing well can be a pretty big problem.
And the schedule is only getting tougher.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
