We’re only a couple of weeks into the 2003 college football season, and already we have seen some teams fall from preseason hype to the dungeon of disappointment and vice versa.
One thing is for sure. The college football season is a roller coaster ride for most teams, and the team that stays on top the longest will be the national champion.
Let’s take a look at the most overrated teams in Division I-A.
4. Maryland, North Carolina State, Virginia
These three schools are primarily known for their basketball teams – as are most members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. However, a few pollsters thought they deserved a ranking in the Top 15 of college football polls.
Maryland became the first ACC school to fall from its ranking at No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25. The Terrapins lost their opener to an upstart Northern Illinois team 20-13, and last week Florida State, the only football school in the ACC, defeated Maryland 35-10. The “Turtles” showed they couldn’t hang with the big boys last year and couldn’t even hang in a mediocre ACC field. Maryland doesn’t have it this year either, and the turtles should hide in their shells until basketball season.
N.C. State started 2003 with a 59-20 win over Division I-AA opponent Western Carolina and were ranked as high as No. 11 before falling to Wake Forest 38-24 last week. Phillip Rivers had a career high passing for 433 yards, but the Wolfpack’s defense looks more like a herd of sheep.
Virginia rounds out this group of ACC disappointments. Granted the Cavaliers routed perennial ACC (basketball) power Duke 27-0 in the season opener. Virginia rose to No. 15 before South Carolina trounced the Cavaliers 31-7. The Cavaliers starting quarterback Matt Schaub missed that game with a shoulder injury, but you can’t get a win over a team that squeaked out a 14-7 win over UL-Lafayette?
3. Purdue, Penn State
Purdue and Penn State were both ranked in the Top 25 because of that Big Ten bias that runs in the polls.
Purdue was ranked No. 20 until losing to Bowling Green, 27-26. The Boilermakers have to learn a lesson from other Division I-A schools. Don’t schedule a Mid-American Conference team as your first opponent. Purdue shouldn’t have lost the contest, but a tune-up game is always good for team self-esteem.
Penn State opened its season with a 23-10 win over a Temple team that couldn’t punch its way out of a wet brown paper bag. That earned them the No. 25 spot in the polls. What were they thinking?
Joe Paterno showed again that he’s gotten too old to be a college football coach with a 27-14 loss to Boston College in Happy Valley. Joe Pa needs to retire and take up the fine art of golf.
2. Notre Dame
I know the Irish won their season opener against Washington State, but a 29-26 win over the Cougars is what Notre Dame fans want to see out of Tyrone Willingham in his second year. Willingham will drag the Irish down with him in a sophomore slump. The No. 14 Irish will be destroyed and eventually drop out of the rankings after playing four teams currently ranked in the Top 12, including a visit to the Big House against No. 7 Michigan on Saturday.
1. Auburn
The Tigers are the most overrated team in college football this season. The Sporting News hyped Auburn as its preseason No. 1 team and were ranked in the Top 6 to open the season by most preseason polls. Southern California pulverized the Tigers 23-0 in front of 86,063 rabid fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium. That was excusable because USC was a Top 10 team, but a 17-3 loss at Georgia Tech dispelled the myth that the Tigers were any good as they fell out of the Top 25.
This tragedy couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy than Tommy Tuberville. He became the head jerk of the Southeastern Conference when Steve Spurrier left for the NFL. However, Tuberville lacks something that Spurrier brings to the table. His team was superior both on paper and on the field. And who knows, when LSU hosts Auburn on October 25, Tuberville could be coaching his team to save his job instead of competing for the SEC Western Division crown.