A lot of people will be charging around telling you that Lane Kiffin and the University of Southern California was the country's most disappointing team.
After all, they were pre-season ranked No.1. They had a great new running back from Penn State in Silas Redd. They had two can't miss receivers in Robert Woods and Marqise Lee. Oh, and they had a quarterback that could have gone in the top five of the 2012 draft in Matt Barkley, who was coming back to make a run at the title.
OUR ARGUMENT WHY NOT USC: USC was still struggling from the scholarship problems by Pete Carroll. They are struggling from a near-death penalty, and they are really were an overrated No.1 in the first place. Plus, losing Ryan Kalil to the NFL is enough to really, really hurt an offensive line. If you don't believe us, check out how many yards Adrian Peterson got in the NFL.
Some other people will say Florida State. Florida State smoked Clemson early on in the year to get the No.1-ranked spot, and everyone thought that they would run the table and get to the National Championship Game....including some of the ESPN College Gameday pundits. But FSU the next week lost to NC State and then at the end of the season proved their overratedness by losing to hated rivals Florida. In other words, they were 0-2 in their biggest match-ups.
OUR ARGUMENT WHY NOT FSU: It's a tight one, but here's our logic. Florida State's loss at NC State was a road loss in a tough environment, a week after an exhausting battle against Clemson. Oh, and the QB they were facing in Mike Glennon is going to be the top-rated QB in the 2013 Draft. And the end of the season loss against Florida? It was a rivalry game, and Florida's defense was quite simply on fire. You can't account for that. Yes, the result was certainly sad, but not disappointing. Unless you're FSU.
And then we get onto the University of Texas, replete with their Longhorn Network, a new Thanksgiving Game tie against TCU thanks to their refusal to play Texas A+M (they were furious at the Aggies decision to go the SEC - which in hindsight worked incredibly well for the College Station Crew), and an excellent team on both sides of the ball, bringing back a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. Sure, it was going to be a tough road to a National Championship Game, but we certainly thought that winning the Big XII was not beyond the Longhorns - particularly with West Virginia at home, Oklahoma coming off some major losses to the NFL, and Oklahoma State NOT featuring Justin Blackmon and Brandon Weeden.
OUR ARGUMENT WHY TEXAS WAS SO DISAPPOINTING
1) The record. A 9-4 record may not seem horrific, but when you give up 48 points in a home loss to West Virginia for loss No.1, 63 in the Red River Rivalry for No. 2, 20 at home to a suspension-ravaged TCU side in the Thanksgiving replacement for Texas A+M for No.3, and 42 to Kansas State for No.4, this is pretty horrible. Plus, the wins include winning controversially against Oklahoma State, giving up 50 points to Baylor, and sliding by 0-for-conference Kansas by four miserable points.
2) Defensively, it was awful. We don't know what Manny Diaz was coaching out there, but it certainly didn't seem to be the art of tackling. The amount of Texas tackles we saw out there where players were trying to bump a player to the floor instead of wrapping him up were terrible. Or they simply flat-out whiffed. It was comical. In fact, it was so comical that when Kenny Vaccaro was mentioned as a possible first round pick, we actually laughed. The team was 74th in the country in points against, averaging 29.2 points per game. So much for the SEC defense, Mack Brown. You should be grateful you decided not to play Johnny Football, sir.
3) Offensively, it was pretty dreadful too. Texas averaged 23rd in the country in total points scored, including 41st in passing and 51st in rushing. Wasn't Texas' rushing game meant to be a strength this year? We would like to point out the criminal underuse of speedster wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, who had 26 receptions ALL SEASON - less than his 2011 reception count (33). In a division where speed is an incredibly valued commodity. He went for 340 yards at a clip of 13.1 yards per reception. Now, think of what might have happened if Goodwin was passed the ball more. He also rushed for 140 yards in 13 attempts. That was also less than 2011 (22 carries). In other words, Harsin wasn't using his speediest option properly.
Nothing says it quite as much as this video...
Our solution is simple, but it's not nice. Fire Manny Diaz. Get a new defensive co-ordinator. And give Mack Brown an ultimatum - beat Oklahoma in 2013 or be fired.
