Softest Remaining Unbeatens Heading into Week 5
Not all undefeated teams are created equal.
Some (such as Texas A&M) have won road games against teams ranked in the national top 10, and others (such as Oregon) have proved their worth against the reigning Rose Bowl champion. Their records don't belie how well they've played.
For other post-Week 4 undefeateds, that is not the case.
This list is not a simple aggregation of the undefeated teams with the softest schedules. Who each team has played was one of the biggest factors, but if a team has looked dominant against inferior competition, it would not be fair to brandish it "soft."
Baylor, for example, has played a whole bunch of nobodies this season. It has also won by an aggregate score of 178-27 and outgained its opponents by 778 total yards (1,248-470). It has looked the way it's supposed to look, despite a rash of offensive injuries.
The teams on this list have not. There is time for them to fix their problems—Michigan State, after all, was a soft 3-0 after struggling against Western Michigan and South Florida and beating Youngstown State last season—but they will have to get better quickly.
8. UCLA (3-0)
1 of 8
Best Win: vs. Texas (20-17)*
Worst Win: vs. Memphis (42-35)
UCLA's offensive line is the epitome of soft. Softness internalized. Softness personified. Softness pushed around by teams each week.
And it's been that way for more than two years.
The Bruins finished No. 122 (third to last) in the country with 3.71 sacks allowed per game in 2012. They "improved" to No. 108 with 2.77 sacks allowed per game in 2013 but have regressed to No. 120 with 3.67 sacks allowed per game this year. They're also allowing 10.33 tackles for loss per game, which is tied with SMU for dead last.
Elements of this team are not soft. The defensive front seven, for example, will eat you alive. It is ranked inside the national top 15 and considered an outside threat to make the playoff for a reason.
Based on what we've seen, however…cue up Mr. Softee.
*Played on a "neutral" field in Arlington, Texas
7. Duke (4-0)
2 of 8
Best Win: vs. Kansas (41-3)
Worst Win: at Troy (34-17)
Troy is not just a bad team; it's a really, really, really bad team.
It's a team that lost to UAB by 38 points. It's a team that lost to Georgia by 66 points. It's a team that lost to Abilene Christian by…who cares: It lost to Abilene Christian!
Why, then, did Duke barely squeak by Troy, 34-17, in Week 2? Why did Troy lead 14-3 in the second quarter and trail by seven points with 17 minutes left to play? Why did it have 396 yards of offense?
Were the Blue Devils physically exhausted from a Week 1 showdown with Elon? Or was there something else at play?
David Cutcliffe's team won the ACC Coastal last season and has looked good in its other three games, which explains why it doesn't rank higher on this list. We'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Its four-quarter game at Troy, however, is as bad as any performance you will find on this list. And it can't just be expunged from the record.
6. Washington (4-0)
3 of 8
Best Win: vs. Illinois (44-19)
Worst Win: at Hawaii (17-16)
Washington has been a difficult team to peg.
The one-point win at Hawaii looks awful at first glance, but the trip out to the islands is more taxing than people realize, and UW was playing without suspended starting quarterback Cyler Miles.
The seven-point win against Eastern Washington looks awful at first glance, but EWU quarterback Vernon Adams played legitimately out of his mind, and the Eagles won at Oregon State last season.
The 31-point win against Georgia State looks good at first glance, but Washington was trailing 14-0 at halftime against a program that has never beaten an FBS opponent.
What the heck is going on in Seattle?
We won't find out the answer until Saturday, when the Huskies host Stanford in a game the Cardinal must win after losing to USC.
Win or lose, Chris Petersen's team will be off this list come Sunday.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
5. Arizona (4-0)
4 of 8
Best Win: vs. Cal (49-45)
Worst Win: at UTSA (26-23)
Arizona should not be undefeated right now. The Wildcats know that as well as anybody. It took a Hail Mary from Anu Solomon to Austin Hill as time expired to beat Cal in Tucson last weekend, and if they ran that play 100 more times, they might never get the same result.
Rich Rodriguez's team didn't look especially unbeatable before that game, either. UTSA took Arizona down to the wire in the Alamodome, and even though the Roadrunners are scrappy, they also lost to Oklahoma State by 29 points in Week 4. Larry Coker's team is good, but it's not nearly beat-a-major-conference-contender good.
(Same goes for Brian Polian's team at Nevada.)
The Wildcats are definitely frisky, but the defense isn't there for it to compete in the Pac-12 on a weekly basis. Like last year, they feel more like a team capable of upsetting a conference title contender (as they did against Oregon) than an actual conference title contender.
Next year, though, should be the year that Arizona finally makes the leap.
4. Penn State (4-0)
5 of 8
Best Win: at Rutgers (13-10)
Worst Win: vs. Akron (21-3)
Everything written on the first slide about UCLA's offensive line can be applied to Penn State's (save how long it's been a problem).
The Nittany Lions rank No. 110 in the country with 3.32 yards per carry this season, and those numbers were even worse before they beat up on UMass in Week 4. In two games against non-MAC opponents (UCF and Rutgers), Penn State has rushed 61 times for 121 yards.
That is just…wow.
Christian Hackenberg has willed this team to a 4-0 record, but even he has been prone to fits of bad decision-making, having thrown more interceptions (five) than touchdowns (four) through four weeks. The defense deserves credit for how good it's looked, but even so, it would have lost at Rutgers if not for an epic meltdown by Gary "Turn" Nova*.
Penn State is trending upward, but it's not moving as fast as its record might have you think. James Franklin will get PSU to a bowl game, but this offensive line cannot hold up during Big Ten play.
It did, after all, barely hold up at home against Akron.
*Obligatory hat tip to The Solid Verbal podcast for that nickname
3. Georgia Tech (4-0)
6 of 8
Best Win: at Virginia Tech (27-24)
Worst Win: vs. Georgia Southern (42-38)
Yeah, yeah, yeah: Last week's win at Virginia Tech was nice. Kudos to Paul Johnson, who took another step toward keeping his job.
I'm still not buying it.
The Hokies were sapped after a road win at Ohio State and a home loss to East Carolina, which played at least a small (and probably a big) part in how bad they looked. Michael Brewer also gifted Georgia Tech a touchdown in a game that came down to the last play.
Before winning in Blacksburg, the Yellow Jackets struggled to beat Georgia Southern in Week 3. GSU is a pretty good team (just ask Florida), but it's not one a legit ACC contender should be scraping and clawing to beat on its home field. The same goes for FCS Wofford, which hung around with Georgia Tech in Week 1.
We'll learn more—but not everything we need to know—when the Jackets host Miami in Week 6 after a bye this coming week.
2. North Carolina State (4-0)
7 of 8
Best Win: at South Florida (49-17)
Worst Win: vs. Georgia Southern (24-23)
Georgia Tech almost lost to Georgia Southern in Week 3, but N.C. State really almost lost to Georgia Southern two weeks earlier.
The Eagles led the Wolfpack by 14 points, 17-3, after two quarters and held a 23-17 advantage with less than two minutes remaining. Jacoby Brissett bailed out his team with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Matt Dayes, but it was a troubling start nonetheless.
The following week, against an Old Dominion team that's admittedly underrated, N.C. State didn't look appreciably better, getting outgained by nine yards (504-495) in a 46-34 home win.
Brissett and Co. got on track with an impressive road win at South Florida (if there is such as thing) and a blowout over FCS Presbyterian, but this team still looks a lot like, well, N.C. State. Its undefeated record cannot be taken seriously until it plays a viable opponent.
(Fortunately, its next two games are against Florida State and at Clemson.)
1. Cincinnati (2-0)
8 of 8
Best Win: vs. Toledo (58-34)
Worst Win: vs. Miami, Ohio (31-24)
Cincinnati waited a couple of weeks to begin its season, having only played two games thus far. It did manage to win both of those games, and it did look fairly good in the process.
But it also showed a few troubling signs.
Specifically, the Bearcats allowed Toledo to make a massive comeback in the third quarter of the first game, and quarterback Gunner Kiel fell back down to Earth against Miami (Ohio) in the second. Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer referred to Cincinnati's pass offense as "the test…the one that we're all shooting for" during Monday's press conference, per Doug Lesmerises of Cleveland.com, but that's only the case if the Week 3 version of Kiel shows up.
The Week 4 version of Kiel will get pummeled in Ohio Stadium.
According to the F/+ ratings at Football Outsiders, Cincinnati has been the worst undefeated team through four weeks. It ranks No. 57 in the country in that metric, and its rushing attack ranks No. 114 in the same site's S&P+ offensive ratings.
Like the rest of the teams on this list, the Bearcats have time to improve. And they definitely have the talent.
Right now, though, they have not proved anything to anyone.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
