Dumpster Fires of the Week: Bigger in Texas

Only some truly terrible performances are keeping the ACC officials off this week's list. ACC refs, you are on notice.

1. Texas

Texas’ drubbing at the hands of a two-win Iowa State team reminds me of the 1996 Sooners. Winless heading into the Red River Shootout, the Sooners beat UT in OT, and it looked like John Blake had turned the corner in Norman. Three bad seasons later, Blake was no closer to turning that corner.

UT looked awful in Ames. The Longhorns have an inept offense and no quarterback, and Charlie Strong continues to make bizarre coaching decisions. At a minimum, UT’s lookingat a coaching overhaul on offense while hoping that Shane Buechele can be a effective starter at QB as a true freshman.

This season appears lost, as UT is facing a tough road to get to 6-6. Missing a bowl would really hurts their young starters’ development.

2. Texas Tech's defense

When your offense and special teams score 53 points – including 31 in the first half – you kind of expect to win the football game, even in the current age of inflated scores. However, Texas Tech's defense has now given up 63 points (Oklahoma State's pick-six excluded) on defense in back-to-back games. Not even OSU tipping its hand helped the Tech defense, which gave up big running plays to J.W. Walsh and big passing plays to Mason Rudolph.

Coach Bro’s season isn’t derailed yet, and the Red Raiders' last three games are all very winnable. Only Kansas is saving Tech from setting all-time records in defensive sucking.

3. Vanderbilt

We established last week that Vandy is no longer the worst team in the SEC, an that honor belongs to Missouri.

Now, Vandy apparently has a good, "SEC-caliber" defense. So, what are we supposed to make of Houston completely dominating the Commodores and putting up a number that no one in the SEC, including Ole Miss, could match?

It’s one thing to lose to a good AAC team. It’s another thing to get shut out and dominated.

4. Georgia's offense

More bad football in the SEC East. Back in early October, UGA was a top 10 team. Now, after being demolished by Alabama and Florida, UGA looks like a very average team in a bad division.

The Bulldogs started Faton Bauta at QB against the Gators, which I can only presume is Greyson Lambert’s Jedi name. Why else would you start your third-string QB for the first time against UF’s talented defense? UGA bumbled its way through the game, making all the mistakes to allow UF's limited offense to score 29 points while only scoring three.

UGA has now tried all three QBs on its roster, and they are all bad to average. In the hub of the greatest metro talent base in the nation, how did UGA get this bad at QB? Sounds like it is going to cost nice guy coach Mark Richt his job.

5. Nebraska

As a relatively long-time OU fan, it’s somewhat sad to see what has happened to Husker football. (The first college game I remember really watching was the OU-Nebraska game featuring the famous Spencer Tillman leap).

The Cornhuskers just gave up 55 points in a loss to Purdue. The Boilermakers' only previous win was over FCS foe Indiana State. The likely scenario for the 'Huskers is a 4-8 record and a finish at the bottom of the Big Ten West, the conference's much weaker division.

Right now, hiring Mike Riley looks very, very suspect, and not just because he appears to have left Oregon State in terrible shape.

-Atlantasooner