Dumpster Fires of the Week: Tar Heels defenseless
Tough calls to be made with many schools going all out.
1. North Carolina D
When you see a score of 68-50 between Georgia Tech and North Carolina, you figure it's a hoops score. But no, that was an actual football game. The Yellow Jackets scored on eight out their nine last possessions as the UNC defense apparently hid in a smoldering dumpster rather than tackle anyone.
2. Illinois
In a bad Big Ten, Illinois is the No. 1 smoldering wreck. The Illini have only two wins, one over Charleston Southern, which might actually be a candy bar and not a university. It's clear now why Illinois was trying to raid Penn State for talent. The Illini have none.
3. SEC's spread dominance
The theory that you cannot beat the SEC's elite teams running the spread has taken a hit this season. Texas A&M beat Alabama, should have beaten LSU and could easily have beaten Florida. (That was Johnny Manziel's first game, remember.)
A mobile quarterback, good wide receivers and a good offensive line can put points up on any defense. So, while 255-pound linebackers try to chase Ryan Swope as a slot WR all game, let's think about the six consecutive national championships that the SEC has won:
*Two excellent offensive football teams coaches by Urban Meyer running a zone read spread attack.
*Two titles against badly overrated Ohio State teams. (Ironic in retrospect.)
*One against a Texas team missing its starting quarterback – and we now know how bad Garrett Gilbert is.
*One title with the Platonic archetype of a zone-read spread QB in Cam Newton.
*One title against itself.
I also think the five-week layoff helps defenses prepare for complex offenses and hurts spread schemes, which require timing and playing time to get in sync. (For instance, Urban Meyer has admitted that if Florida had played Oklahoma in 2008 a week after the conference championship games, the Gators would have been completely unprepared for OU's no-huddle offense.)
4. Derek Dooley's orange pants
Derek Dooley just lost a quadruple overtime game to a hapless Missouri team that actually printed up T-shirts after beating Kentucky. Dooley is apparently going to be fired any minute now, so we have to ask: Where do all the horrible pairs of Tennessee orange pants go? Dumpster fire to the rescue.
5.Tommy Tuberville losing his mind
Actually, t's easy to see how almost losing to the Weishawks would drive any coach mad, and Texas Tech somehow gave more than 300 yards rushing to the vaunted Kansas ground game while being dragged to OT.