College Football's Biggest Frauds in Week 7

Saturday, Oct. 15, 11:45 AM, 13 unbeaten FBS teams, 13 happy coaches, 13 sets of rowdy fans.

Oct. 16, 2011, 11:45 AM, 10 unbeaten FBS teams. Ten happy coaches. Three teams exposed. Michigan, Illinois and Georgia Tech all dropped from the elite unbeaten category and are in some trouble, but are they considered frauds? I think so. 

On the flip side, LSU and Alabama’s tenacious defense wreaked more havoc on the lower class of the SEC, Oklahoma and Wisconsin laid the smack down, Boise State remained on fire, Oklahoma State furthered Texas’ struggles, Stanford continued their dominance and Clemson was given a big scare.

Overall, an excellent weekend in college football, but in my opinion, the losses outweighed the wins and I’ll tell you why. 

The Michigan Wolverines

I smell trouble for Brady Hoke and the Wolverines.

The Michigan State defense was the first legit challenge for Denard Robinson and the Michigan offense, and they did not rise to the occasion. Denard put up a season low in rushing (42 yards) and completed only 37.5 percent of his passes for 123 yards.  He was sacked seven times and left in the fourth quarter with an upper-body injury.

The “improved” Michigan defense was also exposed. Edwin Baker ran for 167 yards and a touchdown and if it weren’t for several Michigan State fumbles, this could’ve been a lot worse. Kirk Cousins had a modest day with 120 yards and two touchdown passes to Keshawn Martin, but commanded a persistent attack all afternoon.

Whether it was the curse of Michigan State, who has now won four consecutive games over the Wolverines, Michigan was exposed as a fraud this week, and teams should key on the pressure put on Denard Robinson by the strong Spartan front.

Michigan next welcomes Purdue in a good game to get back to basics before travelling to Iowa and Illinois in back-to-back weeks. 

The Illinois Fighting Illini

The expression on Ron Zook’s face at the end of the game was a perfect culmination of the poor performance put forth by the then-16th-ranked team in the nation. Nathan Scheelhaase was shut down by an Ohio State defense that allowed 34 points to Nebraska one week ago.

They didn’t score their first points until the late fourth quarter and couldn’t stop the triumphant return of Buckeye running back Dan Herron. What’s worse is Braxton Miller completed only one pass on the day, and it didn’t come until the fourth quarter. If you can’t capitalize on that, you don’t deserve to be ranked. 

Illinois’ star receiver A.J. Jenkins could only conjure up 80 yards, 55 below his season average and had a key fumble that set up Miller’s only completion of the day, a touchdown pass to Jake Stoneburner. 

Illinois needs to step it up fast in Purdue next week and again at a tough Penn State team the week after before welcoming Michigan and Wisconsin. 

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Six-game win streak snapped. Season-low seven points in the second half. Season-low in first downs (17), rushing yards (272), pass completions (2) and passing yards (24). Held under 300 yards of offense for the first time this season and they did not complete a pass in the first half. Where do you start to criticize? 

Virginia was a team that defeated FCS William and Mary, a terrible Indiana team and Idaho in overtime prior to this game. How on Earth did this happen? Is this a fluke? Did Virginia see something nobody else did? Is Tevin Washington human?

The worst part was that Georgia Tech’s semi-decent defense could not stop Virginia’s mid-tier offense in the final six minutes at all. UVA had five first downs and totally killed the clock leaving Washington helpless on the sidelines. 

Now Georgia Tech has to travel to Miami and play a team that seems to be rapidly improving. They almost knocked off Virginia Tech and just beat a good North Carolina team in Chapel Hill. Then, after that they play host to Clemson and Virginia Tech. Paul Johnson has some work to do. 

The Texas Longhorns

So much for the new, young, run and gun Longhorns. Two losses in a row, swept in impressive fashion by the state of Oklahoma and five of their six remaining games are against teams with a .500 record or better. 

Texas had holes in their running game, passing game and special teams. They hung in there until the fourth quarter and had one bright spot in freshman Malcolm Brown., but it wasn’t enough David Ash, one half of the two-quarterback approach Mack Brown has been using was the only one of the two that saw the field, threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

This was the first-ever Mack Brown coached Texas team to lose when rushing for over 200 yards, and they haven’t won a conference game at home since 2009. When you can’t win at home, something is wrong, and in this case, several things are wrong. 

Texas’ offense will continue to flow after their bye week against Kansas, the worst defensive team in all of Division I football, but it’s their defense that needs the most work. 

The Baylor Bears

Robert Griffin III keeps breaking records, but another Baylor loss takes him out of the spotlight. RG3 threw for 430 yards against Texas A&M Saturday, a new single-game school record, but A&M Quarterback Ryan Tannehill one-upped him with 415 yards and six touchdowns, four of which went to Ryan Swope, a new school-record for him. 

The Bears defense was horrid, absolutely horrid. They allowed 55 points and 681 total yards of offense (415 passing and 266 rushing). When your offense is capable of doing that, it's one thing, but when your defense can’t stop anyone, it’s negated. The bad outweighs the good in this situation by a large margin. 

Baylor’s rushing offense is another subject to criticize. Out of 480 total yards of offense against A&M, only 50 came on the ground. Terrance Ganaway could not get anything going against a defense that averages 219 yards per game on the ground. That’s a big problem. Establishing a good, solid running game only opens up the passing game more for RG3 and right now, it’s a big problem that needs fixing.