Every year, fans start out the season with unbridled enthusiasm for their college football team. Some teams surprise and others end up disappointing their fans. This list highlights the teams that have not lived up to their preseason expectations and whose fans have been delivering surrender cobra’s throughout social media during the 2016 season….
#5 Arizona Wildcats (2-5)
The Wildcats weren’t supposed to be great this season but we thought they’d be pretty good as we ranked them 32nd in our pre-season poll.
So far they are just 2-5 with their only victories coming against Grambling State and Hawaii. In the Pac-12 they’ve gone 0-4, and they’ve also added an out-of-conference loss to BYU. They played BYU, Utah, and Washington relatively close, but last week they got bombed by USC 48-14.
The season is quickly unraveling for Rich Rodriguez, who surely didn’t think this would happen during his fifth year in the desert.
#4 UCLA Bruins (3-4)
Let’s stay in the Pac-12 for our next team. UCLA is another team that we thought would be a borderline Top 25 team this year with a chance to do great things. Looks like we were wrong.
Through seven games, the Bruins are 3-4 overall. They lost to a surprisingly good Texas A&M team in week one, and then fell to Stanford, but it’s the last two losses that have hurt the most. In consecutive weeks they fell to Arizona State by 3 and Washington State by 6. UCLA isn’t that far from being a pretty good team, but it just hasn’t learned how to win.
The offense ranks 9th in the Pac-12 in total offense and 10th in scoring offense. The Bruins also have the most turnovers in the league and are 10th in third down conversions. The Bruins need to find their offense before it’s too late.
#3 Michigan State Spartans (2-4)
What a roller coaster season this has been for the Spartans. They started the season with the highest of highs beating Notre Dame, but then it all came crashing down with losses to Wisconsin, Indiana, BYU, and Northwestern. The Spartans have hope of turning it back around but with Michigan and Ohio State still on the schedule, it’s going to be tough.
The Spartans are dead last in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game. They are also one of the least explosive teams in the conference as they rank in the bottom five in offensive plays of over 10 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, and 40 yards.
If the Spartans want to turn their season around, they need to find the answers….quickly.
#2 Oregon Ducks (2-4)
Our third Pac-12 team makes the list! We aren’t picking on the teams out West, but a couple of things have happened. The bottom feeders of the league have gotten better, and the leaders have gotten worse. One of those leaders was Oregon. Six games into the 2016 season, the Ducks have yet to win a conference game!
Oregon has losses to Colorado, Washington, and Washington State, and it doesn’t appear to be turning it around. The Ducks have given up 41 points to Colorado, 51 to Washington State, and 70 to Washington!
Oregon is currently 127th out of 128 teams in total defense, and also ranks 125th in scoring defense. It’s not hard to figure out what’s wrong with Oregon. The bigger question is how the Ducks fix what ails them.
#1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-5)
Proud Notre Dame has fallen on hard times this season. They are 2-5 with losses to Texas, Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina State, and Stanford. Unlike Oregon, they aren’t getting blown out but they aren’t winning. They have lost those five games by a total of 28 points or 5.6 points per game.
So what’s wrong with the Irish? One of our writers took a stab at figuring it out earlier this week. You can’t force winning onto your team, you have to let them figure it out. Right now, there is something that Brian Kelly isn’t doing right, and he needs to step back, and get it figured out before he’s looking for another job.
Miami and Navy are on the horizon. They are good teams, but they are teams that Notre Dame has more than enough talent to beat. If the Irish can turn around their season, they have to start with the Hurricanes this weekend.
