College Football 2011: Notre Dame, Auburn and the Teams You Need to Forget About

It’s almost unfair to write a team off after just one week of play. However, sometimes you can just tell when a certain squad simply doesn’t have what it takes to go very far.

Because college football rankings are an inexact science we have a tendency to build teams up in the preseason, and then when they fail to meet our excessive expectations we jump all over them and call them frauds.

It’s already happened again this year.

Notre Dame took a beating after losing to South Florida in Week 1, and it seems like the whole college football world has turned on them.

The Irish don’t look as good as originally advertised, but they certainly aren’t the only team.

Here are a few notable schools that don’t appear to be in store for very big campaigns in 2011.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Brian Kelly’s decision to start Dayne Crist backfired when Crist failed to get the Notre Dame offense into the end zone in the first half against South Florida on Saturday.

Crist was promptly benched in favor of Tommy Rees, but Rees couldn’t do enough to dig the team out of the hole Crist had put them in.

Now it’s Rees, who went 4-1 as a starter last season, who gets the call against Michigan, but you have to wonder if he has the ability to get this Notre Dame team back on track before it’s too late.

Notre Dame’s next three opponents - Michigan, Michigan State and Pittsburgh - all present tough challenges, and it doesn’t look like this is really the top-20 team that we were promised.

The Irish should eventually right the ship, but given all that was expected of them this year, it’s quite fair to start throwing that 'fraud' label out already.

Auburn Tigers

After losing so much talent off of last year’s title team, we all figured that Auburn wouldn’t have an easy time trying to defend the national championship, but wow, I doubt anyone thought the Tigers would come so close to losing to Utah State in their home opener.

If it weren’t for a perfectly placed onside kick, Gene Chizik’s team would now be sitting at 0-1 with a lot more explaining to do.

Instead, the Tigers have managed to hold onto their dignity after another late-game victory, but we’ll have to see how long their winning streak lasts.

This is a team that’s young and inexperienced in all the wrong places - quarterback, offensive line and defense - and it’s going to be a continuous uphill battle for them all season long in the SEC West this year.

Auburn welcomes in No. 16 Mississippi State this week, and you better believe that the Tigers are going to need a much better effort to slow down the Bulldogs' dangerous duo of quarterback Chris Relf and running back Vick Ballard.

Florida Gators

The Will Muschamp era got off to a strong start with a 41-3 victory over Florida Atlantic last weekend, but beating one of the worst teams in the FBS is not exactly something to brag about.

Quarterback John Brantley had a decent game, completing 70 percent of his passes but also throwing two interceptions. This has to raise a couple red flags, especially after the disastrous season he had last year.

This Florida team still has the athletes on offense like Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps to score some points, but with a new-look offensive line, it’s going to be interesting to see how the team transitions to Charlie Weis’ new system.

It’s hard to put a lot of trust in Brantley yet, and he’s really going to be the make or break player for this team.

I’m still not sold.

Let’s see how he does against Tennessee, LSU and Alabama before we get too excited.

Texas Longhorns

After a head-scratching 5-7 campaign in 2010, Texas started off this season fresh with a 34-9 victory over Rice in Week 1.

While the win gets the Longhorns moving back in the right direction, this team still doesn’t look like one of those vintage dominant Texas teams that we’ve seen in the past.

The defensive front seven, led by the likes of defensive tackle Kheeston Randall and linebacker Keenan Robinson, is one of the strongest in the country, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough offensive playmakers and it’s still hard to trust quarterback Garrett Gilbert.

Texas should rebound and get back to a bowl game this year but it’s tough to see them competing with the three top teams in the Big 12, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.

Miami Hurricanes

After a disappointing loss to Maryland on Monday night, Miami coach Al Golden made the decision to give Jacory Harris back his starting quarterback job, even though his backup, Stephen Morris, looked pretty decent in the loss.

The Canes will now depend on Harris to get the offense going.

The senior signal-caller does have a nice safety valve in running back Lamar Miller, but he is going to have to start making better decisions with the football if he wants to lead this Miami team into contention for an ACC Championship.

After all that the team has been through over the last month, it’s hard to rationally think that Golden can keep his team in the ACC race for very long.

The upcoming game against Ohio State on September 17 will tell us a lot about this group.

Georgia Bulldogs

Georgia came into the season with a lot of hype, with Aaron Murray being widely praised as the best quarterback in the SEC. However, the Bulldogs fell flat in Week 1, being thoroughly outplayed by a more talented and better coached Boise State team in the Georgia Dome last Saturday night.

The loss exposed a lot of the Bulldogs’ biggest weaknesses.

The secondary is soft, Murray can’t handle the big stage yet, the team misses A.J. Green and the running game doesn’t look like it can cut it in the SEC this season.

Georgia has the chance to make a statement when the Bulldogs host No. 12 South Carolina this weekend, but if they lose to the Gamecocks and start 0-2, it will be a major blow to their hopes of winning the SEC East this year.

USC Trojans

USC is in its final year of a two-year postseason ban, so in a way, a lot fans around the country have already put the Trojans out of their mind.

Still, even if they were eligible to win the Pac-12 this year, it doesn’t look like this team has enough offensive pieces to get the job done anyway.

Sure, quarterback Matt Barkley and wide receiver Robert Woods are a deadly passing combination, but besides those two, there really isn’t much to get excited about.

This team has some highly regarded pro prospects like Barkley, safety T.J. McDonald and offensive tackle Matt Kalil, so you should still keep an eye on them from a scouting standpoint, but this just isn't the type of squad that’s going to help USC regain its swagger.