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With Halloween less than one week away, there are some college football programs this year which are putting a big scare into their fans.
Meanwhile, other college football teams are riding a sweet rush of Halloween candy energy at the midway point of the season.
They don’t want the sugar rush to end for at least another month of the football season.
Which college football teams have been the biggest surprises of the 2022 season?
Let’s start with the good!
#5 – Kansas Jayhawks
Sure, the Jayhawks have lost three games in a row to drop to 5-3 after winning their first five games of the season. Coming off a 2-10 year in 2021, the team was briefly ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time in years. Kansas Jayhawk fans haven’t been this excited about their football program in 15 years. New head football coach Lance Leopold is a bona fide program builder, and he has things moving in the right direction in Lawrence, Kansas this season. Rock, Chalk, Jayhawks!
#4 – LSU Tigers
Now, wait a minute! LSU is the team which won a national championship less than three years ago with a 15-0 record. How can ol’ SwampSwami put this team at #4? Easy. After last season’s 6-6 debacle and the firing of lovable (but undisciplined) head coach Ed Orgeron, the LSU football team was down to just 39 scholarship players at the end of the season. Incoming head coach Brian Kelly from Notre Dame and his new staff had go out and find more players and then get this newly assembled team to learn how play together quickly in a brand new system. LSU fans will quietly admit that a 7-5 season would have been fine this year. After dismantling formerly unbeaten Ole Miss 45-20 last Saturday on national television, LSU’s next game (in two weeks) at home against Alabama is suddenly “Must see TV”. Raise your hand if you actually thought LSU and Alabama would be tied for the lead in the SEC West coming into Bama week in Baton Rouge on November 5. Yep, I’m still waiting!
#3 – Illinois Fighting Illini
Who? The 6-1 (yes, that’s correct) Fighting Illini have won their last five games and are ranked #17 this week in the AP and #16 in the SwampSwamiSports.com Top 25. Instead of perennial Big Ten West contenders Wisconsin and Iowa, it’s Illinois alone atop the division. Coming off a typical (for Illinois) 5-7 year in 2021, this year’s Fighting Illini team now has a chance to run the table and play themselves into the Big Ten championship game. It has been eleven years since Illinois has finished the regular season with a winning record. Former Wisconsin and Arkansas Head Football Coach Bret Bielema has Illinois talking bowls again this year – and it won’t be the Tidy Bowl this season, either!
#2 – TCU Horned Frogs
At 7-0, TCU is making believers around the country. “Fear the Frog” is not a joke in 2022. Coming off a 5-7 record and watching long-time coach Gary Patterson step aside in 2021, the Frogs gave the job to turnaround specialist, Sonny Dykes. The 52-year old coach made Louisiana Tech into a winner ten years ago. He did the same thing at the University of California (Berkeley) before landing with the top job at SMU in Dallas. Sonny Dykes then took his 2019 Mustangs to a 10-3 record (their best in more than 30 years). Now at TCU, the Frogs feature an offense which can score points from anywhere on the football field along with an improving defense. Should TCU run the table and somehow finish with a perfect record, the Horned Frogs will have earned a playoff spot this year!
#1 – Tulane Green Wave
OK, I’m a “homer” here. Last season, Tulane finished at 2-10. With the team on a bye this week for Halloween, the 2022 Tulane team is now 7-1 and ranked by the Associated Press at #23 (but #7 in the SwampSwamiSports.com rankings). Tulane had not made the AP Top 25 rankings since 1998! This is a team which went into Kansas State and defeated the now 5-2 Wildcats. They went to Houston and downed the perennial American Conference contender Cougars. Last Saturday in front of a capacity crowd at the team’s new on-campus football stadium in the Crescent City, the Green Wave rolled for 35 straight points in taking down long-time conference bully Memphis, 38-28. With three more conference wins, the Tulane Green Wave is playing themselves into major bowl consideration. Is there a better story at the midway point of the season? I think not! Happy Halloween, Tulane!
Now, it’s time to hand out some of the bad candy.
You know, that’s the stuff which you won’t save for yourself! It’s time to toss any kids dressed like these teams some of that candy corn, licorice sticks, and even a few of those nasty popcorn balls. Yuck!
Here are my five biggest under-performing teams in college football. They are each deserving of (sorry, Charlie Brown) a rock in their Halloween sack come Monday evening, October 31.
#5 – Wisconsin Badgers
Wisconsin was the AP’s Preseason #18 team and currently is at 4-4 on the year. The team’s head football coach, Paul Chryst, was fired in early October after the team’s former coach, Bret Bielema, led Illinois to a rare win in Madison. The Badgers finished 9-4 last season, so expectations may have been a bit too high for this club. The panic began after the Badgers team lost a home game to Washington State (now 4-3). Then they were blasted at Ohio State (52-21) and were flat in losing at home to Illinois (now 6-1). After paying their former coach millions to end his contract early, there may not be very many “Pay Days” around Madison next Monday night for Badger fans!
#4 – Oklahoma Sooners
Yes, OU has recovered back to 4-3, but all of the howling heard in Oklahoma in September wasn’t just the wind sweeping down the plain! Oklahoma doesn’t lose a lot of football games – especially early in the season. The Sooners lost three in a row to Kansas State, at TCU, and to Texas in the annual Red River Shootout game in Dallas. All of those teams are tough outs, but OU fans were in full panic mode. The team lost former head coach Lincoln Riley to sunny USC. He was replaced by Clemson’s defensive coordinator, Brent Venables. Venables apparently left his defense in Clemson, because OU is #116 in the nation (out of 131 major college teams) in total defense. On Monday, Boomer Sooner fans need to tackle their Halloween candy with better form than we have seen early in the season!
#3 – Michigan State Spartans
Sparty’s coach, Mel Tucker, earns a cool $9.5 million per season. The fans better like him, because he still has eight more years on his ten year deal. Michigan State is 3-4 (and just 1-3 in the Big Ten) in 2022 after being ranked #15 in the AP’s Preseason Poll. The Spartans are equally bad on offense and defense this year. They are #104 (out of the 131 upper division schools) in offense and ranked the same on defense. Yikes! Make sure and throw a little more candy to any Michigan State trick-or-treaters as their fans could use a little more energy in order to survive the football season.
#2 – Miami Hurricanes
Talk about a team which has let everyone down! The “U” was ranked #16 in the AP Preseason Top 25, but the 3-4 Canes have imploded as the season has unfolded. Unlike Michigan State, Miami’s offense (#33 nationally) and defense (#34) are good enough to win games – at least on paper. Miami’s heralded new coach, Mario Cristobal, came to the school from the University of Oregon with high hopes. Last Saturday in a home game against ACC conference foe Duke, Miami gave up eight turnovers (five fumbles and three interceptions) in a 45-21 loss. On Halloween Monday, make sure and stuff the candy way down in the bags for Miami fans so that they don’t lose possession of it!
#1 – Texas A&M
The AP’s #6 Preseason team, 3-4 Texas A&M needs a 12th man plus, perhaps, a 13th and 14th man this Saturday night to help end the team’s free fall against 7-1 Ole Miss. Things have been so disappointing in College Station that the school’s high rollers (and there are apparently quite a few of them) may be giving thought on whether to buy-out the ghostly guaranteed contract of head football coach, Jimbo Fisher. There are $86 million reasons why I don’t think this is likely to happen, but we live in weird times. The Aggies absolutely stink on offense (#107 nationally). The defense (usually quite formidable) has allowed 180 yards on the ground per game in 2022 as opponents have identified this weakness. Uh oh! This Saturday night’s opponent, Ole Miss, is nation’s third best rushing team at 250 yards per game on the ground. The dedicated faithful Aggie fans need to save their voices, so please consider skipping this Friday night’s midnight “Yell Practice”! Save it for Saturday night’s game. It will take the infamous Texas A&M 12th Man to contribute a wall of noise to help confuse the Ole Miss Rebels’ potent running game and, perhaps, help save the Aggies football season.
On Halloween evening next Monday, it may not be very hard to find the Texas A&M fans.
If the Aggies lose to Ole Miss, they will be the ones wearing a rather conspicuous maroon and white paper bag on their head.