After another week of college football, we are able to better understand the best teams this year but more importantly, rank the biggest losers.
1) Boston College
This was the year for Boston College. In my last Chairgatin’ Podcast I discussed how good BC was this year and one of the Belly Up contributors even went as far as mentioning their contention for the playoffs. Starting out 3-0 for the season, Boston College got ranked No. 23 and it appeared they were a forced to be reckon with; that is, until last weekend. After taking an embarrassing 30-13 loss at Purdue, BC has rightfully dropped off everyone’s radar.
This was not a good loss by any means. This was a loss to a team that had previously not won a game and held losses from the likes of Northwestern and Eastern Michigan. This was a Big Ten bottom-feeder in a down year for the Big Ten. To be fair, we might have all over-hyped Boston College a little too early. Sure, they were undefeated but only with wins against UMass, Holy Cross and a relatively close with against Wake Forest. Even with one loss under their belt, I don’t see BC getting any more than 4 more wins on the season. They are this week’s biggest losers in college football solely for finding a way to lose to the embarrassing Purdue.
2) Virginia Tech
If we want to talk about an ACC hopeful letting all of us down, Virginia Tech has to be mentioned after their performance last weekend. After dismantling Florida State in week 1 and stomping William & Mary the next week, Virginia Tech looked like the true challengers of Clemson for the ACC title. That persona quickly faded away however after the No. 13 Hokies got upset by Old Dominion, 49-35.
In a game that shouldn’t have even been close, Virginia Tech went into the 4th quarter with a 28-21 lead. In a spectacular comeback however, the 0-3 ODU rallied by scoring 28 points against the Hokies 7 to win the game. Unlike Boston College, I still haven’t completely lost faith in Virginia Tech for some reason. Maybe because I was really hoping they would be the first team to beat Notre Dame this year. Regardless, Virginia Tech took an embarrassing loss that should have never happened and completely dropped out of the ranking. They will have a long up-hill battle from here on out.
3) TCU
As an Austin resident, the last thing I want to hear is, “Texas is back.” I have heard it for far too many years from a team that is consistently overrated. That being said, TCU did not help my argument last weekend. After starting their year with high-hopes of competing for the Big 12 title, the Horned Frogs have now taken two consecutive losses in embarrassing fashion. I ignorantly believed they could beat Ohio State but of course, they took a 40-28 loss to the No. 4 team in the nation. That wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as what came this last weekend however.
After 4 years of dominance over the Longhorns, TCU ended their streak with a 31-16 loss in Austin. I have to give credit where credit is due. The Longhorns have finally shown they might be on the upward climb everyone has been waiting for. After taking a tough loss to open their season to the mediocre Maryland for the second straight year and a close win over Tulsa, Texas has bounced back with big wins over No. 22 USC and No. 17 TCU in the past two weeks. Should they be ranked No. 18 while teams like the Aggies completely drop out? Absolutely not but I understand the revenue to be made from the Longhorn’s success. Nevertheless, Texas is looking like a 6 or 7-win team this year while TCU is probably experiencing a down-year.
4) State of Oklahoma
This is where things get controversial. Surely, there will be fans reading this article thinking,
“How the hell is the state of Oklahoma a college football loser in week 4? OU is ranked No. 6!”
Although the Sooners quickly silenced any doubt about their capabilities this year without Baker Mayfield from their new star-quarterback, Kyler Murray, Oklahoma nearly lost all hope for a playoff spot last weekend. After dominating their opponents in the first 3 weeks of football, the Sooners nearly squeaked by with a 28-21 overtime win over Army. Although Army looks like a fine team this year, they also opened their season with a 34-14 loss to Duke. The Sooners should just be thankful they only dropped 1 spot in the rankings.
The real reason the state of Oklahoma made my college football biggest losers list this week however was from Oklahoma State’s performance. The No. 15 Cowboys got Poked to death by the unranked Texas Tech Raiders 41-17. To be fair, Tech seems to have bounced back this year in a big way with their freshman QB Alan Bowman, as they are now ranked No. 25 and seem to only be trending up. Although I was fairly harsh on the Houston Cougars last week after their loss to Tech, it may have come somewhat prematurely as they scored 32 more points than OK State. The state of Oklahoma now only has 1 ranked team and the 2-2 Tulsa Golden Hurricane are far off in the distance after an embarrassing loss to Temple. No matter how you spin it, this was not a good week of college football for the state of Oklahoma.
5) Rutgers
When deciding which team to include for the 5th spot of my college football biggest losers list this week, an entirely different Big Ten team initially came to mind, Nebraska. The Cornhuskers took a 56-10 ass-whoopin’ from the No. 19 Michigan last weekend for their first 0-3 start since 1945. New head coach Scott Frost said, “I honestly believe this is the bottom,” and I don’t know if there’s any other way to put it. That being said, I am giving Nebraska the benefit of the doubt as it’s their first season with a new head coach. Rutgers on the other hand, does not have that same luxury.
The Scarlet Knights have been consistently bad to mediocre at best since joining the Big Ten and not even good when they were in the “G5” American Athletic Conference the year prior, if were being honest. Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, Rutgers has won a total of 19 games and an impressive 34 loses. That being said, the Scarlet Knights seem to be exceptionally bad this year. In all fairness, they did open their season with a win to arguably the worst team in college football, Texas State.
Since then, Rutgers took a 52-3 pounding by Ohio State and managed to lose to Kansas, something that is truly impressive for any P5 school. In a somehow less embarrassing loss, Rutgers was taken down by the G5 Buffalo, 42-13, at home. Although Buffalo is undefeated this year, the only other team to get beaten by UB worse, which includes Temple and Eastern Michigan, was Delaware State and still, the Knights only scored 3 more points. Rutgers has continued to hoist the mantle of absolute worst P5 team in 2018 and has furthered my argument that they do not belong in the Big Ten, or any competitive conference for that matter.
