Two weeks of college football are down. Some teams have thrilled and some have fizzled. TSS associate editors Bart Doan and Terry Johnson join staff writer Kevin Causey in our weekly roundtable to discuss teams that need to right the ship immediately before their season is lost.
Before you read our roundtable make sure to bookmark our college football page where you can find all of our CFB articles.
Question: Which college football team needs to “right the ship” immediately?
Bart Doan:
On Twitter @TheCoachBart
The reason it’s Auburn is because they have something to play for still in terms of accomplishing their lofty goals. Maybe we find out that they were simply sleepwalking in between a national television game against Louisville and heading to LSU in nearly yakking it to Jacksonville State of the FCS last Saturday.
Or maybe something just isn’t right. Jeremy Johnson looks exactly like a guy who hasn’t played much meaningful football until this year. I never understood the automatic hype there. Still, he’s got to be better. Against JSU, he was missing fairly basic reads and seemed to be throwing it come hell or high water wherever his pre-snap decision told him to go.
Obviously it’s not all on him, but he has to be markedly better to say the least. And he and the team had best make haste.
Kevin Causey:
On Twitter @CFBZ
Even though they were underdogs in their opener, I don’t think any Louisville fans saw their season starting at 0-2. The Cards took a leap of faith in bringing back Bobby Petrino. Then they backed up a brinks truck to pay for a defensive coordinator that seemed to be on the outs at his current job.
Petrino and Louisville finished a respectable 9-3 in the regular season last year. That included losses to Clemson and Florida State.
Guess who Louisville’s next game is against? It’s Thursday against Clemson. Yep, that Clemson. The one who has Deshaun Watson at QB and is ranked No. 11 in our latest Top 25 poll. After Clemson, they get Samford but then they have road trips to NC State and FSU.
The Cards are looking down the barrel at a potential 1-5 or 2-4 start. Louisville is the team that is most in need of getting their ship righted ASAP. It would help if they stopped somebody on third down as they are allowing opponents to convert on 46.88% through two games. They also need to hold onto the football as they lead the ACC in turnovers.
Terry Johnson:
On Twitter @SectionTPJ
It’s got to be Wyoming, which has lost 10 of its last 12 games.
Let’s be honest: the Cowboys have been absolutely awful this season. Sure, no one expected them to win the brutally tough Mountain West Mountain Division, but no one thought they’d finish dead last, either. Although the ‘Pokes returned just 10 starters from last year’s squad, I felt that they had enough talent to open up the season with a pair of “W’s.”
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. With two games already in the books, Wyoming is still looking for its first victory.
The losses have been pretty painful to watch. In the season opener against North Dakota, the Cowboys had trouble moving the ball, running just four plays in UND territory in the first three quarters. The following week, Wyoming rebounded to run for 430 yards, yet still lost to Eastern Michigan (2-10 last year) by 21 points.
As the last paragraph demonstrates, there are problems on both sides of the ball that need to be addressed right away. While that might sound like an overreaction to a slow start, it’s worth noting that the ‘Pokes best chance for a win this season will come against New Mexico on Sep. 26 and Appalachian State the following week. If Wyoming comes up empty in those contests, it might not post a victory in 2015.
If that doesn’t scream out, “Urgent!”, what does?
