People thought these teams would do really, really big things in college football this season.
At this point, all they have to do is get into one of the more than 80 bowls out of 134.
If you look at the preseason AP and Coaches polls, these are the five highest-ranked teams that will definitely not make it to a bowl game or need to get better at college football quickly to get to six wins.
Florida and UCLA are big names that are not on this list, but they also did not get a lot of attention in the preseason polls, so people did not expect them to do as well as these five.
5 Biggest College Football Disappointments: October Version
5. Wisconsin Badgers
It was not meant to work this way.
It was thought that Luke Fickell would bring the same kind of magic from Cincinnati to a Wisconsin school that was already very successful but had become a bit stale.
They struggled against Western Michigan and South Dakota, were blown out by Alabama, and lost after getting off to a good start against USC.
The 2-2 team should be able to beat Purdue and Northwestern, but Penn State, Iowa, Oregon, Nebraska, and Minnesota will all be close games, at best.
Iowa State will play in a bowl game. Yes, but they need to beat Minnesota first.
4. Auburn Tigers
You thought the time of Bryan Harsin would never end, right?
Keep it to yourself, Hugh Freeze made his name at Ole Miss by beating Nick Saban twice. So, whenever a job opened up, SEC fans fell head over heels for him. He was hired by Auburn before the 2023 season, but things are not going well.
The worst thing about starting 2-3 is that all five games have been at home. The Tigers have to play seven games in ten days. Three of them are away games, and one is at Alabama.
That is not all that bad. The next trip is to Georgia. No doubt, Kirby Smart’s team will be in a great mood.
Is Auburn going to a bowl game? Not at all. It will be very, very hard to win four of the next seven games. It will likely lose at Alabama and to Georgia, Missouri, and Kentucky on the road. Even if it wins one of those games, it will still likely lose to Texas A&M.
3. Virginia Tech Hokies
Both the AP and Coaches preseason polls had the Hokies just outside of the top 25. However, they were thought to be one of those “dark horses” in the College Football Playoff race.
The team has a lot of experienced players, Kyron Drones is a great quarterback, and…
It lost to Vanderbilt at home in OT to start the season.
That was bad, but the loss to Rutgers was even worse. The call at the end of the Miami game was fifty feet worse.
There is still time for the Hokies to win four of their last seven games, but they will be favourites against Clemson. Other games are a 50/50 chance at Stanford, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Duke, and their rivalry game against Virginia.
Va Tech might go to a bowl game. Yes, but come back if it drops this week’s Stanford game. Still, they might need to beat Virginia to get there.
2. Kansas Jayhawks
The Jayhawks were ranked 22nd in the preseason AP Poll and 24th by Coaches. They were going to be a problem for the Big 12 because they had a great offence, Lance Leipold was a great coach, and
There might be a problem with not having a real home game. The “home” dates are in Kansas City while the David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is being fixed up.
The team lost to Illinois, UNLV, and West Virginia by less than a score, so they can not win the close games. The loss to TCU last week was also a late one.
There is not much room for mistakes at 1-4. The good news is that Arizona State, Houston, Colorado, and Baylor are all very doable away from home. If the team wins all four of those games, they will be 5-7, which means…
Is Kansas going to a bowl game? Not at all. When it plays Kansas State and BYU on the road and Iowa State at home, it is likely to drop the game at Arizona State. It is too hard to get to where the play will be better.
1. Florida State Seminoles
Florida State football has had a rough go of it lately.
Poor Jordan Travis got hurt… The offence of the 2023 team got worse… Many things came together to keep a 13-0 ACC winner from making it to the College Football Playoff… It got bad for Seminole fans…
Georgia beat the version of the team that stuck around, even though they did not have anything to play for. The ACC grant of rights deal turned out to be as solid as ever, and then…
Georgia Tech lost their first game of the season in Ireland.
The No. 10 team in the country, which is the overwhelming favourite to win the ACC again and get a top four spot in the expanded College Football Playoff, can not seem to do anything right.
They have a terrible offence, a bad case of low energy overall, and a hurricane to add to the mix.
Being blown out 42–16 by SMU did not exactly boost optimism.
At 1-4, the next games are against Clemson, Duke, Miami, North Carolina, and Notre Dame.
Is Florida State going to a bowl game? No, let us make that frown look funny. The Seminoles should beat Charleston Southern and Florida to end the season if they can get their groove back. You can beat North Carolina, and… nope.
