College Football Teams Who Wish They Could Have a Re-Start to 2014 Season
If this were a video game, the reset button would have been pressed long ago by a number of college football teams.
Things never go completely according to plan, but for these nine schools it's almost been like the start of the 2014 season has resembled a worst-case scenario.
Embarrassing losses, subpar performances, unnecessary distractions—all of that contributing to an opening four weeks that won't be getting much play in the season-ending highlight video.
This isn't just about wins and losses, though. It's the way those losses have occurred, or how unimpressive the victories have been, as well as what those results say about the prospects for success for the rest of the season.
Type out a letter on a computer, and if mistakes are noticed early all it takes is a few clicks of the delete key. But here we have a scenario where the note is hand-written (using ink) and it's the only piece of paper available.
All is not lost...yet. But if these teams don't get the ship righted soon, there's no way they'll be able to avoid the iceberg on the horizon.
Florida State Seminoles
1 of 9
Wait a minute. A re-do on an undefeated start, which has extended a school-record win streak to 19 games?
When you're the defending champions, anything short of dominance at the outset is going to garner criticism, but Florida State (3-0, 1-0 ACC) has taken this to an extreme.
The first chunk of its national title defense has gone about as bad as it could expect while still having a zero in the loss column. From the struggles to beat an undermanned Oklahoma State in the opener to the late rally to top Clemson in overtime on Saturday, the Seminoles have been far from an ironclad No. 1 team.
The bad
FSU is tied for 111th nationally in rushing offense, at 109.7 yards per game, nearly half of its 2013 average of 203.1 that ranked 28th.
Karlos Williams is the leading rusher, with 177 yards, and while he'll be looked at as a hero after scoring the game-winning 12-yard touchdown in OT against Clemson, his other 41 carries have netted just over four yards per carry.
The Seminoles are also middle-of-the-road on defense, allowing 364.3 yards per game so far after finishing third overall last season.
And we haven't even mentioned the elephant in the room, or in this case the reigning Heisman winner who can't seem to keep himself out of the news for things other than football.
Jameis Winston had to sit out the Clemson win, first getting suspended for a half and then later the entire contest after blurting out a vulgar phrase on campus earlier in the week.
That was followed up by what Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde called "the latest what-is-he-thinking moment" when he showed up on the sidelines in full uniform Saturday despite not being allowed to play.
Winston will be back Saturday at North Carolina State, tapping in for Sean Maguire after an admirable but mistake-filled performance against Clemson. Winston has been much better on the field than off, but FSU as a whole is still a long way from looking like a team that's got a good chance of repeating as champions.
FSU remains No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, but now only has 34 first-place votes compared to the 57 (out of 60) it collected in the preseason poll.
The good
When able to play, Winston has looked nearly as good as during his Heisman season. He's thrown for 626 yards and completed 70 percent of his passes, and both he and Maguire have benefited from receiver Rashad Greene (24 catches, 418 yards, two TDs) and tight end Nick O'Leary (14 catches, 157 yards, one TD) developing into very reliable targets.
Fresno State Bulldogs
2 of 9
No sort of restart to this season would change the fact it has to play this year without arguably the best player in school history. Derek Carr is now slinging passes for the NFL's Oakland Raiders, where he got off to the same 0-3 start as his alma mater.
The bad
The Bulldogs (1-3) haven't been bad just because they've had to replace Carr and his massive amounts of passing yardage with contributions from two other quarterbacks, though.
Brian Burrell and Brandon Connette aren't responsible for the 541 yards per game Fresno has allowed to this point, a number that would be higher if it hadn't only yielded 375 yards to FCS Southern Utah in a 56-16 win Saturday.
Fresno faced maybe the toughest opening three games of any team in the country, visiting USC and Utah before hosting Nebraska. That trio is a combined 9-1 with wins at Michigan and Stanford.
The Bulldogs weren't expected to beat any of those teams, but they also weren't expected to lose so badly.
And some of that is on the offense, as it took coach Tim DeRuyter until the third game to decide on Burrell as the primary quarterback, leading to inconsistency as the other offensive players adjusted to a different guy calling the plays each series.
The good
Fresno still has as good a chance as any to win its division in the Mountain West, where the six teams in the West are a combined 7-14 (with only Nevada, against Washington State, logging a win over an FBS opponent).
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns
3 of 9
Three straight nine-win seasons under Mark Hudspeth had Louisiana-Lafayette looking like the next big thing at the mid-major level, especially since it had managed to hold onto Hudspeth.
Instead, the Ragin' Cajuns (1-3) are just another non-power program looking to bounce back in conference play with nothing better than a low-tier bowl game to look forward to.
The bad
ULL laid a major egg in its second game this season, losing 48-20 at home to a Louisiana Tech team that two weeks later would fall to an FCS school in its home opener.
Follow-up losses at Ole Miss and Boise State weren't as surprising, but the relative lack of competitiveness in those setbacks (falling 56-15 and 34-9, respectively) have the Cajuns wishing they could go back to mid-August and try to spot the warning signs during training camp.
If that were possible, the first thing Hudspeth and his staff would do is triple up on the drills dealing with turnovers. ULL has given the ball away 10 times in four games, with quarterback Terrance Broadway being the biggest culprit with seven interceptions on just 131 attempts.
The Cajuns have only forced one turnover and are 110th in total defense. That should go down as they enter Sun Belt play, but a lot will need to improve for them to repeat as conference champs.
The good
Sophomore running back Elijah McGuire has been one of the few bright spots for ULL's offense, but he's had to be creative to produce. He's rushed for 241 yards and two touchdowns, and with the Cajuns trailing early at Boise State on Saturday he ended up becoming their best pass option with 10 catches for 106 yards.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Michigan Wolverines
4 of 9
Michigan fans were hoping a restart to Saturday's game would have been the option taken when heavy rain and lightning delayed the inevitable midway through the fourth quarter of the 26-10 home loss to Utah.
The bad
The lengthy break also allowed for supporters of the Wolverines (2-2), whether huddled in the breezeways of Michigan Stadium waiting out the storm or back in their maize-and-blue dens, to wonder if there was a way to start over, or just scrap, the whole Brady Hoke era.
Hoke went 11-2 in his first season, and since has gone 17-13. Since starting 5-0 last year, the Wolverines have lost eight of 11, and in 2014 they've somehow managed to look both really good and really bad in the short time frame.
A new offensive coordinator, Doug Nussmeier, was brought in to retool the offense, yet against power opponents that unit has managed zero offensive touchdowns.
Sports Illustrated's Colin Becht weighed in on the season by noting how even in a down year for the Big Ten, Michigan doesn't look like it can compete:
"With losses to Notre Dame and Utah sandwiched between victories over Appalachian State and Miami (OH), the Wolverines have yet to offer any reason to believe they are improved from last year’s 7-6 squad or the 8-5 team of the year before. That lack of progress explains why coach Brady Hoke's job security rests somewhere between "slim" and "none." Sure, realistically Michigan cannot win a strong Big Ten every year, but if the Wolverines prove to not even be able to compete during one of the conference’s worst years, it’s very hard to see Hoke returning for a fifth season.
"
The good
The struggles on offense have overshadowed a much-improved defense. Michigan actually ranks eighth in total defense, at 261 yards allowed per game. The run defense is also eighth, at 80.25 yards yielded per contest, and opponents have only rushing for two TDs.
Northwestern Wildcats
5 of 9
A 1-7 finish to last season, after starting 4-0, seemed like the worst it could get for Northwestern. It was wrong.
The bad
The Wildcats (1-2) opened the season with back-to-back home losses, the first coming against a California team that was 1-11 a year ago and had lost 16 straight to FBS teams.
A 23-15 setback to Chicago-area little brother Northern Illinois the following week was even more harrowing, an embarrassment made worse by NIU alumni taking out an ad in the Chicago Tribune laying claim to being the city's "big time college football team."
The Wildcats at least showed they could beat a directional in-state school, but even their 24-7 win over FCS Western Illinois wasn't easy. They were outgained, managing just 283 yards on offense.
Northwestern's offensive approach has had to be retooled a few times already, first when top receiver Christian Jones went down with a season-ending knee injury during training camp and running back Venric Mark left the program in August. Quarterback Trevor Siemian is playing through a leg injury, and threw for only 117 yards on Saturday.
And here's the worst part: the schedule will just now start to get difficult, first at Penn State and then home for Wisconsin.
The good
Saturday's win over Western Illinois showed that the future should be bright for Northwestern, as it got three rushing touchdowns from a pair of true freshmen (Justin Jackson and Solomon Vault) who weren't on the depth chart for the season opener.
Ohio State Buckeyes
6 of 9
Urban Meyer probably wishes he could have hit a restart button way back in training camp, particularly during that ill-fated practice on Aug. 18 when Braxton Miller re-injured his shoulder on a pass and ended up getting lost for the season.
But that's just one of the things that have gone wrong for Ohio State (2-1) this season.
The bad
Miller's replacement, redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett, hasn't been great, but he's also not been the only source of concern.
While he's thrown five interceptions (including three in the Buckeyes' upset home loss to Virginia Tech) he also tossed a school-record-tying six touchdowns the following week, and he's been doing all that behind an offensive line that is putting Barrett's health at risk with its inability to block.
Miller has been sacked eight times in three games, and the Buckeyes have allowed 18 tackles for loss despite facing only one team (Tech) that was known for defensive pressure.
Even more unsettling has been the performance—or lack thereof—from OSU's vaunted defensive line, which came into the season with tons of hype and hasn't come close to living up to those accolades.
The quartet of Michael Bennett, Joey Bosa, Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington were being billed as "at or near the top of any in the country," according to Bill Rabinowitz of the Columbus Dispatch.
But that unit hasn't even had a chance to play together because Spence suspended for the first two games and then reportedly failed another drug test and didn't suit up on Sept. 13 against Kent State.
OSU could very easily be 1-2, needing a second-half surge to beat Navy in its opener. Now it heads into a challenging visit from Cincinnati before embarking on a Big Ten schedule that features road games against teams that are a combined 12-3.
The good
Though it's not producing yet like last year's Carlos Hyde-led group, OSU's run game (44th nationally at 195.3 yards per game) is slowly coming around. Barrett had to carry the load in the first two games, but in the shutout win over Kent State on Sept. 13 freshman Curtis Samuel and sophomore Ezekiel Elliott combined for 165 yards on 22 carries.
That tandem has 312 yards and four touchdowns through three games, averaging 5.78 yards per carry.
Rice Owls
7 of 9
Losing major pieces from last season's Conference USA title team all but ensured 2014 was going to have some hiccups early on, but coach David Bailiff couldn't have envisioned this rough of a start for Rice (0-3, 0-1).
The bad
The losses at Notre Dame (48-17) and Texas A&M (38-10) were understandable, though not necessarily acceptable. But then came Saturday's home and Conference USA opener, against FBS newcomer Old Dominion, which should have signaled the start of the Owls' turnaround.
Instead, Rice lost 45-42, wasting a great comeback that saw it score two touchdowns in less than seven minutes to tie the game, only to watch Old Dominion march 67 yards in just over a minute for a game-winning field goal.
Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle wrote that the Owls were playing without five starters, then saw several more get injured in the game.
Rice is 122nd in total defense, compared to 30th a year ago, and is off to its worst start since opening the 2009 season with nine straight losses.
The good
The Owls' schedule is far less daunting over the next month. First is a trip to Southern Miss—which can vouch for how quickly things can fall apart after going 1-23 in the two seasons after a 2011 C-USA title—then games against Hawaii and Army.
Rice has at least six winnable games left this season, meaning a third straight bowl appearance (something the program has never had) is still very possible.
SMU Mustangs
8 of 9
Hmm, where to begin with SMU...
So much has gone wrong with the Mustangs (0-3) this year, instead of hitting reset on the season it might be better to just delete the file and move on to figuring out how to make things better next year.
The bad
Following two horrible losses, June Jones abruptly resigned, leaving SMU under the guidance of an interim coach while athletic director Rick Hart searches for a full-time replacement for Jones.
Hart posted an open letter on SMU's Web site on Sept. 17 detailing as such:
"We don't have time to burn, but we do have time to be thoughtful and creative. Within the next two weeks, we will likely engage a search firm and confirm the role of the search committee. While we want to be inclusive, we must also be nimble and ensure confidentiality, or we will not be successful in attracting top candidates.
"
Not the kind of statement Hart probably wanted to have to make before the first month of the season was even in the books. But when Jones quit after SMU was outscored 88-6 and managed minus-16 rushing yards in its first two games, it more or less signaled the 2013 season was lost and needed to be stripped for parts.
The good
The Mustangs weren't much better in their 58-6 home loss to Texas A&M on Saturday, but they at least moved the ball a bit. Not much, but some, despite allowing eight sacks and working with their third and fourth quarterbacks of the season.
Vanderbilt Commodores
9 of 9
The lengthy weather delay that caused its opener to start nearly two hours after its scheduled kickoff should have been the first sign that 2014 was going to be a rough season for Vanderbilt (1-3, 0-1 SEC).
The bad
After waiting out that delay, the Commodores then got blown away at home by Temple, a team that was 2-10 the year before. They followed that up with an even more uninspiring 41-3 home loss to Ole Miss to open SEC play, then needed 14 points in the final nine minutes (and a missed 22-yard field goal by the opponent) to avoid falling to Massachusetts two weeks ago.
You know it's been a rough year when Vanderbilt is actually coming off its best performance of the season, and that still resulted in a two-touchdown home loss to South Carolina despite leading 14-0.
First-year coach Derek Mason was left with a thin cabinet after James Franklin left for Penn State, but it was hard to envision it would go this bad at the outset. Vandy has used four quarterbacks, including two freshmen, and they've combined to complete less than 50 percent of their passes with six interceptions.
And Vandy still hasn't set foot outside Nashville but will be on the road for three of the next four starting with Saturday at Kentucky and then Oct. 4 at Georgia.
The good
Kick returner Darrius Sims gave Vandy fans something to be excited about in the loss to South Carolina, returning a pair of kickoffs for touchdowns. The first, a 91-yarder, opened the game, then he followed it up with a 100-yard score midway through the third quarter.
Sims is fourth in FBS in return average, at 36.5 yards per kickoff.
All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
