College Football Rankings Week 11: This Year's Biggest Busts, SEC Edition

Each year in college football things don't quite turn out as the prognosticators predict. Certain teams and players always come out of nowhere to surprise or disappoint.

The 2011 season has seen its fair share of surprises and disappointments in the SEC. This has led to a player being dismissed and a coach being fired. 

Let's take a look at the biggest busts in the SEC this season. 

Florida Offense

The addition of Charlie Weis as Florida Offensive Coordinator promised to bring a more fitting offense to John Brantley and more production from the offense as a whole. However, the Gators ranks just 72nd in scoring offense.

After a fast start, the small Florida running backs have failed to bring a consistent ground game. Brantley has completed under 60 percent of his passes while throwing for just six touchdowns on the season.

System changes take time, but expectations certainly haven’t been met by the Gators.

Kentucky

No one expected Kentucky to be a world beater this season, but their play has been disappointing to say the least. After struggling to beat Sun Belt and MAC teams in its first two games, the Wildcat’s have struggled through SEC play.

Saturday’s game against Ole Miss was Kentucky’s first conference win of the season. The Wildcat offense has been difficult to watch this season. Their average of 18 ppg. ranks 114th in the nation.  

Mississippi State

Expectations were high entering the season for Mississippi State. Even in an extremely competitive SEC West, the Bulldogs were expected to make some noise, building off of their nine-win campaign last year.

Instead, Mississippi State came out of the gates slowly and sit at just 5-4 on the season. Things won’t get easier, either. The Bulldogs have back-to-back games against top 10 opponents next.

Ole Miss.

The disappointment at Ole Miss has resulted in the first head coach firing in the SEC this season. After back-to-back nine-win seasons, Nutt and Ole Miss have struggled to find success.

This year, the Rebels have managed only two wins—none in SEC play. Even against perennial cellar-dwellers of the SEC, Ole Miss has struggled. In games against Vanderbilt and Kentucky, the Rebels lost by a combined 40 points.

Ole Miss wasn’t supposed to be great, but Nutt coached teams have always been more competitive than this. 

Tennessee Running Game

Contributing to the Tennessee troubles on offense has been an inability to sustain any type of running game.

These problems were masked when Tyler Bray was putting up big numbers. Since his injury, though, Tennessee has had nothing on which to hang its hat offensively.

The Volunteers rank 118th out of 120 FBS teams in rushing ypg. 

Auburn Offense

Auburn’s offense was bound to take a step back in the 2011 season. No one was going to replace Cam Newton’s production.

Even before Newton, though, Gus Malzahn was able to get good offensive production out of a Chris Todd-led offense. So although a certain level of offensive regression was expected, an Auburn offense ranking 70th in ppg. was not. 

Alabama Kicking Game

This area may not have garnered much attention before Saturday, but it certainly is now. Among those close to the Alabama program, kicking has been an issue for a while.

Alabama kickers have missed eight field goals on the year. More specifically, long-range field goals have been an issue.

Alabama kickers are just 2-for-9 beyond 40 yards on the season and were 0-for-4 from that distance against LSU. 

Stephen Garcia

The 2011 season was supposed to be one of redemption for Garcia. In this, his senior year, Garcia had a chance to put his inconsistency in the past and lead the Gamecocks back to Atlanta.

Things didn’t quite go as planned. Garcia was benched in favor of Connor Shaw for the first game of the season before winning his job back.

Instead of bouncing back, Garcia threw nine interceptions in five games and was kicked off the team on October 11. It was a sad, but fitting, end to a career marred by on-field and off-field under achievement.