College FB Plus: Few Ayes for Texas
It has been an tough two weeks for fans of the Texas Longhorns.
A week ago, the Horns squandered a 28-7 first quarter lead against arch-rival Oklahoma in a 55-48 loss, which was followed by another frustrating loss (32-24) loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday.
Against Oklahoma State, Texas had --and lost--leads of 17-3 and 24-13.
Add an unexpected 40-21 loss to former arch rival Arkansas earlier in the season and you have another rocky, non-descript (4-3) start for new Longhorn coach Steve Sarkasian, who was brought in to fix what is broken with Texas football.
Here's the problem.
That's not supposed to happen at Texas--at least not more than once every generation
Now it happens every season, with the Longhorns out of title consideration by Halloween.
This is the University Texas, located in a world class city (Austin), with the resources and the facilities to match any university in college athletics.
Texas is not supposed to be mediocre in ANYTHING, especially football, which produced dynastic runs under Dana Bible, Darrell Royal and to some extent Mack Brown, who was the fb coach the last time Texas football was in the spotlight dance--the 2009 national championship game against Alabama.
That was 12 years ago.
Since then--crickets.
Since 2011, Texas has had five or more losses 7 times.
It has lost 3 or more games every year since 2010.
Herman is the third Texas fb coach in the last 8 years, replacing Tom Herman, who replaced Charlie Strong, who replaced Brown who was semi forced out after a 16 year run which produced a solid 158-48 run and Texas last national championship in 2006.
Texas has also had 3 athletic directors in the past eight years, with Chris Del Conte guiding a department which has Texas moving from the Big 12 into the SEC within the next few years.
Sarkasian came out of the recycled bin from Alabama, where he re-energized his career as Nick Saban's offensive coordinator on a national championship team.
Seven games into his tenure in Austin, Sarkasian has the Longhorns in the mediocre category again.
Whether it is trend or just some adjustment to another new coach is the question of the day at UT.
Despite the meltdowns and setbacks of the past few weeks, there may be some bright signs on the horizon. High School QB Arch Manning, regarded as a generational player with the Manning family heritage, reportedly has Texas on his short list of colleges.
That could be a game changer for Sarkasian and Texas.
But for now, there are few AYES being heard about the quality of Texas football.
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Who's Hot
Cincinnati is still unbeaten and getting more entrenched in the Top 4, which is necessary to be in the CFP semifinals.
But the Bearcats know they must not slip, which is why a 56-21 win over UCF might be the story line Coach Luke Fickell's team follows as it makes its way through the rest of the American Athletic Conference season.
The Undefeated
As we make the halfway turn in the college football season, only 11 of 130 teams remain unbeaten.
By Conference:
AAC
SMU 6-0
Cincinnati 6-0
ACC
Wake Forest 6-0
Big 12
Oklahoma 7-0
Oklahoma State 6-0
Big Ten
Michigan State 7-0
Michigan 6-0
C-USA
UT-San Antonio 7-0
MWC
San Diego State 6-0
SEC
Georgia 7-0
Sun Belt
Coastal Carolina 6-0
And this from my friend and colleague Ivan Maisel of On3.com
You couuld make an argument that the best team in California is San Diego State, the best team in Texas is UT-San Antonio and the best team in The Carolinas is Coastal Carolina.
This year? Yes, you very well could.
UConn
The Huskies snapped an 11 game losing streak by beating Yale, 21-15. But it took two failed Hale Mary passes into the end zone--the last as an untimed play after a UConn penalty provided Yale an extra opportunity--to pull off the victory.
UCLA
The Bruins beat Washington 24-17 on Saturday to improve their record to 5-2, which is the first time the Bruins have won as many as a five games in Chip Kelly's tenure in Westwood.
They also beat Washington in Seattle for the first time since 2014.
Small steps.
Who's Not
Boston College
The Eagles' had a week off after their first loss of the season (19-13 at Clemson) but came up flat in the second half against North Carolina State, parlaying a 10-7 halftime deficit into a 33-7 loss.
"We didn't play well,'' said BC coach Jeff Hafley. "We didn't and that's the truth.''
True that.
Oregon and Clemson
Both teams won over the weekend, but both posted victories which showed why Clemson is already out of the CFP picture and Oregon sits on the edge of elimination
In Friday night's thrillers, Clemson had to eke out another last-second finish with a 17-14 win at Syracuse, while Oregon came up with a last second goal line stand to edge California, 24-17 in Eugene.
Both schools are last year's news football wise.
Iowa
The Hawkeyes 15 minutes of fame as a Big Ten contender are coming to an end after a 24-7 home loss to unranked Purdue on Saturday.
The loss snapped a `12-game winning streak for the Hawkeyes and knocked them out of the No. 2 slot.
It was a win for Purdue against its highest ranked opponent since it won at No. 2 Notre Dame--in `1974.
""The bottom line is that we didn't get it done,'' said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz.
Arizona
The Wildcats lost to Colorado 34-0, extending their losing streak to a nation's longest 18 games.
Who's Hot, Who's Not (Both)
Tennessee fans who pelted Ole Miss and coach Lane Kiffin with debris in the final minutes of a 31-26 loss in Knoxville.
The fans, irate over a close call which ended a potential game-saving TD drive, littered objects including golf balls at Kiffin, a former UT head coach.
One of the golf balls was a range ball, showing the caste system of UT fans
One would have expected a brand name golf ball such as Titleist or .Callaway.
Good News, Bad News
Rhode Island was unbeaten going into Saturday's game at Towson and the Rams were lamenting an 8 hour bus trip to the game.
No problem.
New England Patriot owner Robert Kraft, knowing that his team had a home game on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, gifted the Patriots' team plane to the Rams for the trip to Baltimore.
Only problem. Towson posted a 28-7 win.
No truth to the rumor that the Rams had to take buses back to Kingston, after the game.
Play it Forward (Games of Note coming up)
Oregon at UCLA---Dangerous game for Ducks, who still have Final Four aspirations.
Clemson at Pitt--Pitt is sizzling, while Clemson is luke warm at best
Tennessee at Alabama--Vols looking better, but not hot enough to handle the incoming Tide in Tuscaloosa.
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