2015 College Football Headlines You Never Would've Believed 10 Years Ago
One quick glance at the latest AP Top 25 poll shows we're all living in a strange new world of college football.
The No. 2 team in the country was a consistently losing program for most of the last two decades. The No. 3 and No. 4 programs weren't even in Power Five conferences a few years ago. Two powers in the Top 10 haven't been known for the championship-level consistency they currently have.
Elsewhere, a pair of blue-blood programs have somehow shocked the country by putting themselves in the running for championships this season. Others are nowhere to be found in the rankings, including two of the most successful programs of the early 2000s.
This piece is based on one fun and completely hypothetical question—if you could take some college football headlines from the last few weekends and somehow show them to fans in 2005, which ones would stun them the most? (Excluding some of more obvious ones, such as the existence of a four-team, committee-voted playoff system and the painful death of the BCS.)
Here are 10 headlines I've come up with that would be surprising to read 10 years ago, especially considering the status of these respective programs at that time. Post some of your own in the comments below.
Texas' Win over Oklahoma Was a Huge Upset
1 of 10
Ten years ago, Texas was in the midst of what would be a national championship campaign for head coach Mack Brown and star quarterback Vince Young. In 2005, the Longhorns were fresh off a 45-12 rout over rival Oklahoma, which had already lost twice that season.
What a role reversal last Saturday would've been for a fan in 2005.
Oklahoma entered the Cotton Bowl as the undefeated championship contender, while mighty Texas limped into the matchup with only one win in five games. So when the Longhorns edged the Sooners in the annual rivalry game Saturday, it was a huge upset.
That scenario is crazy to imagine for Texas, which won at least 10 games each season from 2001 to 2009. Of course, Oklahoma was a strong contender in the early 2000s—except for that rough 2005 campaign—but a Texas win being such a big-time shocker would've been hard to imagine a decade ago.
For even more surprise, Guerin Emig of the Tulsa World notes the underdog Texas team rushed for more yards against Oklahoma on Saturday than Young and the championship Longhorns did in the same matchup in 2005.
Struggling USC Hasn't Won a Conference Title in Several Years
2 of 10
Texas' opponent in the 2005 BCS National Championship Game would also be in a surprising position to a fan from 10 years ago.
In 2005, USC was coming off an AP national title in 2003 and a BCS national title in 2004. Head coach Pete Carroll had the Trojans rolling, and they would win seven straight conference championships from 2002 to 2008.
But here in 2015, USC is several years removed from that dominant run. This year, the Trojans returned to a place of preseason promise, but they're now out of the Top 25 and will enter this weekend on their fifth head coach in 25 months following the latest news surrounding Steve Sarkisian, a former Carroll assistant.
USC hasn't won a conference championship since that 2008 season, and it's virtually out of the running this year after dropping a pair of games to Stanford and Washington—two teams that had bad losing seasons a decade ago.
Seeing how much of a mess USC football is right now would definitely be a shock to the system for someone 10 years ago.
Baylor and TCU Are the Big 12's Best Championship Contenders
3 of 10
Some of the teams that took Texas and USC's spots in national title contention would be hard to believe a decade ago—especially No. 2 Baylor and No. 3 TCU.
Baylor didn't go to a single bowl game between 1995 and 2009, as the Bears were regularly the doormats of the Big 12. In fact, when they won a pair of conference games in 2005, it was the first time Baylor had done that in the Big 12 era. These days, the Bears are the offensive kings of college football.
A decade ago, TCU was at the beginning of its "BCS Buster" candidacy under head coach Gary Patterson. The defensive-minded head coach is still in charge of the Horned Frogs, but now they're one of the big boys in the Big 12 after finishing last season with a lone loss to fellow title contender Baylor and a big-time bowl win over Ole Miss.
"The next championship claimed by this conference won't be won by the Longhorns or Sooners," Paul Myerberg of USA Today wrote in August. "It will be won by Baylor, once the league's annual laughingstock, or TCU, which has made the most of its opportunity to enlist in a power conference."
Instead of the Texas-Oklahoma duopoly, the Big 12 is currently led by the "Revivalry" between Baylor and TCU. But don't worry, 2005 fan—most of us are still getting adjusted to this.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Utah Is a Power-Conference Leader
4 of 10
Seeing Utah with a high ranking in the polls wouldn't be completely hard to believe for a 2005 fan. After all, the Utes finished No. 4 in 2004's final AP poll with an undefeated season under head coach Urban Meyer.
But the Utes holding that same spot during October would be far from normal, along with the fact they're no longer a trendy mid-major.
Utah got involved in the conference realignment craze—one that would take quite a while to explain to someone 10 years ago—and joined the Pac-10 with former Big 12 member Colorado to create the Pac-12. Under Kyle Whittingham, Meyer's replacement, Utah posted a strong 9-4 record in 2014 and took advantage of the West Coast powers' struggles in 2015 to grab a Top Five spot.
"The Utes are not going to blow many Power Five-caliber teams out of the water, but they’re plenty capable of dominating and controlling games even if the final score is closer than you expected waking up Saturday morning," Bleacher Report's Bryan Fischer wrote. "Since joining the Pac-12, they typically don’t lose by much, either."
Utah went from BCS Buster to power-conference member to a major player in the race for both conference and national titles. The Utes are a long way from the surprise story they were under Meyer in 2004.
Some Think the Alabama Dynasty Is Finished
5 of 10
When Alabama lost to Ole Miss last month in a thrilling and downright weird matchup of SEC West powers, the "end of a dynasty" narrative covered the college football media landscape.
But before diving back into that debate, explain to the fan in 2005 how Alabama had a dynasty in the first place.
Ten years ago, Alabama was in an anomaly of a season under embattled head coach Mike Shula, as the Tide won their first 10 games before falling in back-to-back weeks to rivals LSU and Auburn. This came between a pair of six-win campaigns for Alabama, which hadn't won an SEC title since 1999.
But former LSU head coach Nick Saban came to Tuscaloosa in 2007, turned Alabama into the nation's most dominant program in recruiting, won a national championship in 2009 and went back-to-back with championships in 2011 and 2012. In the last two seasons, the Tide haven't played for the national title, but they've been in the thick of the race almost the entire way.
Alabama fans were frustrated with a losing streak to Auburn and several average seasons in the early 2000s. Now they're clamoring to get back into the national championship game after a two-year absence. Have fun explaining that one.
Auburn Continues to Struggle on Defense
6 of 10
While Alabama fights to stay in the national championship picture this season, rival Auburn needs to turn its fortunes around on a side of the ball it once dominated.
In the 2005 season, Auburn was coming off a perfect 2004 SEC championship campaign in which it was shut out of the BCS National Championship Game. Those mid-2000s Tigers teams under Tommy Tuberville were built on consistent, championship-caliber defenses that almost always ranked inside the top 10 nationally in the major metrics.
But an up-and-down Auburn program that has won championships and suffered through ugly seasons in the last five years has been known for its offense a lot more than its defense.
Auburn is currently ranked 87th nationally in total defense and 108th in rushing defense. And those numbers are with returning defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who had two highly successful years as Tuberville's coordinator at Auburn in 2006 and 2007.
Now that Auburn's once-efficient offense under head coach Gus Malzahn—who was still coaching high school football a decade ago—is underachieving, the Tigers are facing a crossroads heading into a Thursday night matchup at Kentucky, the surprising second-place team in the shifting SEC East division.
Michigan and Florida Are Surprising Contenders
7 of 10
The two biggest positive surprises of the 2015 college football season have to be Michigan and Florida, two powerhouse programs that are inside the Top 12 under their new head coaches.
But the fact Michigan and Florida are surprisingly contending for titles this season would raise a few eyebrows a decade ago.
Sure, Michigan slumped to a 7-5 record in 2005, but Lloyd Carr's teams were consistently ranked in the Top 15 during the early 2000s. The program's trajectory after the departure of Carr would be hard to believe, especially the Wolverines' losing seasons in 2009 and 2014.
The 2005 Florida team, on the other hand, was a preseason Top 10 team under new head coach Urban Meyer. The Gators would win the national championship one year later and take home another title in the 2008 season. The end of Meyer's reign in Gainesville and the mostly disastrous tenure of Will Muschamp were unexpected developments.
But under Jim Harbaugh and Jim McElwain, Michigan and Florida are back in the hunt for their respective conference championships again and have reclaimed their share of the spotlight as top-tier programs. The shock would be finding out this hasn't always been the case for the Wolverines and the Gators in the past decade.
Michigan State Is One of Ohio State's Toughest Challengers in the Big Ten
8 of 10
The fact Ohio State, Meyer's current team, is the No. 1 team in the country wouldn't be an earth-shattering revelation to our 2005 fans. But the fact Michigan State is a big threat to Ohio State's reign atop the Big Ten at the moment would be.
In 2005, Michigan State was in the midst of its second of three straight losing seasons under head coach John L. Smith. But after his replacement, Mark Dantonio, had a few years to get things rolling in East Lansing, Sparty has become one of the more consistent powers in college football.
The Spartans won the most regular-season games in school history (11) in 2010, starting a run in which they have won double-digit games in four of their last five seasons. Imagine the confusion of a fan in 2005 who finds out Michigan State is underachieving so far this year as a Top 10 team with a target on its back.
"We're a 6-0 football team, and I keep saying across the country, you watch what goes on every week and there's tough games out there and people are struggling," Dantonio said this weekend, per Mike Griffith of MLive.com. "And I do believe we're getting everybody's best shot. But I'm sure next week will be a great football game."
This weekend, Michigan State will look to avoid its first loss of the season against a surprising Michigan team—not the other way around. That would've been unheard of in the early 2000s.
Clemson Is a Consistent ACC Power
9 of 10
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney went on a tirade Saturday afternoon about "Clemsoning"—the term used to describe the Tigers' tendency in the past to lose games they should win.
Clemsoning wouldn't have been out of place a decade ago. Swinney's predecessor, Tommy Bowden, was the author of the program's struggles with underachievement. Clemson could never get over the hump in the ACC, failing to take home a championship through some frustrating seven-, eight- and nine-win seasons.
But Swinney's anger at the Clemsoning perception is justified. As SB Nation's Bill Connelly notes, Swinney has his currently undefeated Tigers playing some of the most consistent football in the power conferences.
"[Clemson] went 32-7 from 2012-14, with three top-15 finishes (the first time they did that consecutively since 1988-90) and marquee bowl wins over LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma," Connelly wrote. "And despite wholesale turnover in the trenches, Clemson enters mid-October with perhaps the most complete team in the country."
Instead of a middle-of-the-road team on the national landscape like it was under Bowden, Clemson is currently in the Top Five and has all the pieces to be a playoff contender. Feel free to leave your Clemson jokes in the past.
Duke Is Ranked
10 of 10
On Sunday, Duke pushed into the AP Top 25 following a blowout victory at Army. It marked Duke's first visit into the polls this season and ensured the Blue Devils would be ranked at least one time in their third straight season.
College football fans back in 2005 might be the most surprised by this headline than any other.
Yes, Duke—the same program that had back-to-back winless seasons in 2000 and 2001 before winning just four games from 2004 to 2007 under Ted Roof—is a Top 25 team nationally.
Under former Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe, the Blue Devils have been to three straight bowl games. They won 10 games and played for an ACC championship in 2013. Duke followed that up with a nine-win campaign last season. Its only loss of 2015 was a defensive struggle to an undefeated Northwestern team.
For most of the 2000s, Duke was somehow worse than a laughingstock. Now it's a contender in the ACC's Coastal division and competing for its second championship game trip in three seasons.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
