Dumpster Fires of the Week: The Big Ten burns

It was a week of great action in college football, but along with those talented stars and fantastic plays, we must recognize the week's most awful.

1. Big Ten

This is a repeat appearance for the Big Ten. You might think that I was picking on the poor conference – except:

• Iowa lost to Iowa State;
• Indiana lost to Bowling Green;
• TCU embarrassed Minnesota;
• Washington smashed Illinois; and
• West Virginia beat Maryland.

Oh, and Purdue played Notre Dame tough for a half. The only saving grace for the B1G was that Penn State played Rutgers, so at least the league was guaranteed one win.

Nebraska and Penn State are the league's only undefeated teams left. That’s it.

2. USC’s run defense

The Men of Troy, including Mel Kiper's hyped top five pick Leonard Williams, traveled to Chestnut Hill and got mack trucked by the Boston College running game. BC managed only 142 yards last week against Pittsburgh, but the Eagles smashed USC for more than 400 yards rushing. Just a pathetic display a week after holding Stanford to 134 yards rushing.

3. Texas Tech’s run defense

Arkansas ran all over Texas Tech like it was a game in the 1970s, pounding out 430 yards rushing to just 60 yards passing.

Coach Bro in Lubbock might want to think about paying some more attention to the defensive side of the ball. Tech could be facing an awful season in Big 12 play if their defense does not rally and improve.

4. Texas' captains

So, apparently, despite having handled coin toss situations for years and having played football at the very least through high school and three years of college, Texas' captains got confused about coin toss strategy. The officials even tried explaining to the UT players that they'd be kicking off twice, but it didn't matter.

Charlie Strong could be in for a long season.

5. Georgia's red zone offense

Trailing all day against South Carolina, UGa finally gets a big play from the defense, which was being shredded by the passing greatness of Dylan Thompson. A nice interception by Damian Swann gave the Bulldogs the ball at the South Carolina 4.

You have arguably the best running back in the country in 220 pound Todd Gurley, a real power back. Yet, in a tragic example of overthinking, offensive coordinator Mike Bobo calls some kind of ill-conceived fake that ends up with an intentional grounding call and inevitably forces a failed FG attempt.

Georgia's playoff run no longer has any margin for error.

-Atlantasooner