College Football – The News About Losing

College Football Disasters – Week Two, 2009

With College Football Week Two solidly in the books, one doesn’t have to look far for programs headed for disaster.

Colorado Bust-a-lows
After losing at home to Colorado State on opening day, the University of Colorado Buffaloes went on the road to get their program back on track.  Unfortunately, their plane landed in Toledo, where the Mid-America Conference Toledo Rockets play.  Being in Toledo is bad enough by itself, but when the Buffs hit the road to return to beautiful Boulder, CO, they were the proud owners of an 0-2 record, courtesy of a 54-38 pounding by the Rockets.   After building a winning program out of prairie dust at Boise State, CU Coach Dan Hawkins is having difficulty winning with star recruits.  And if Hawkins doesn’t have enough to look forward to, the Beefaloes are set to play Wyoming, West Virginia and Texas in the next three weeks.  Hawkins may have that next job search well underway before the end of September.

Notre Dame  Losin’ Irish
Speaking of coaching problems, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis should be headed for the unemployment line before too long.  After taking a late lead over Michigan in Ann Arbor with and with possession of the ball, Weis called for two passes – both of which fell incomplete, stopping the clock.  This left Michigan with enough time to drive the field and score a touchdown with 11 seconds remaining to defeat the Irish.  Had Weis even called one running play, Michigan would have been compelled to use a time out and almost certainly would not have had the time remaining to get into the end zone to claim the win. 

Fortunately for most College Football enthusiasts, there were some terrific games.  Michigan knocking off Notre Dame was certainly enjoyabe and entertaining.  Southern Cal also emerged as the primary candidate to unseat Florida as the nation’s best college team with a solid win on the road against Ohio State.  UCLA also held up the PAC-10 honor by defeating a rebuilding Tennessee Volunteer program on the road in Knoxville. 

Texas, Alabama, BYU
On the other hand, several embarrassments were also shared with ticket-buying, television watching fans.  Although #2 Texas managed to keep it close vs. Wyoming, they wound up crushing the Cowboys in Laramie 41-10.  Who paid who to stage this game is an unanswered question.   The Alabama Crimson Tide took the weekend off with a 40-14 victory over Florida International.  Florida International must have shown up ready to play water polo.  Brigham Young blasted Tulane 54-3 and the Cal Bears dispatched Eastern Washington 59-7 a game not as close as the proverbial score might indicate.  The winning schools deserve mention (and ridicule) for scheduling and charging admission to see these poundings.

Washington Huskies
Thankfully, the University of Washington recorded its first win since late 2007 by topping Idaho at home.  The Idaho Vandals are best known for helping other schools rebuild their football programs and seemed all too happy to contribute their expertise to help out the Huskies.  Congrats to new UW Coach Steve Sarkisian for at least getting the Huskies out of the fog for the next seven days.  Sark and the Huskies stand to get smacked back to reality next Saturday as they take on #3 USC.

Washington State Cougars
And the other Washington school worthy of note when talking about losing football games, Washington State came out on the (very) short end at home against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.  It didn’t take the Cougars long to figure out how to lose this thing as they gave up a whopping 35 points in the first 30 minutes.  It was also Hawaii’s first win over a BCS conference school in seven tries.  Word has it that the Rainbows are trying to schedule in Colorado for early next year.  Interestingly, Washington State took a $450K settlement to get out of a game against Ohio State and then brought in the Warriors to take the date. 

Look for the First Worst Futility Rankings coming out on Wednesday in this space.  Among others, Duke and New Mexico State managed wins over Army and someone called Prairie View A&M respectively.  Still, there is plenty of losing to share so join us mid-week for all the fun!