Predicting when the remaining 8 undefeated college football teams lose
After Week 7 featured three undefeated college football teams losing, only eight remain unbeaten, but when will their first losses come?
Coming into this past weekend of college football action, there were 11 undefeated teams remaining throughout the country. Given the way that things had transpired throughout the start of the year with upsets everywhere, that seemed like quite a lot to still be left without a loss on their record. Apparently, the college football deities agreed and started picking off the unbeaten like flies.
The South Florida Bulls were the first to almost suffer that fate, needing a fourth-quarter surge to get past the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. However, it was instead the Georgia Bulldogs that were the first unbeaten to fall last week. Not only did Jake Fromm and Co. suffer their first loss of the season, but they did so in a game that was never in doubt, LSU commencing total domination of the Dawgs.
The damage wasn’t done after that, however. Next to fall was the West Virginia Mountaineers and, like the Bulldogs before them, they were never really all that close to picking up the win in Will Grier’s worst game of the season to date. Then, finally, the Pac-12 After Dark crew got a little taste of this medicine as the Colorado Buffaloes tasted defeat for the first time this year at the hands (swords?) of the USC Trojans.
With how things played out last week, there are now eight remaining undefeated teams in college football. Obviously, it’d be a wild ride to see multiple teams finish the season with an unbeaten record, but we know that’s almost impossible to happen. Put simply, most (if not all) of these teams are going to lose.
Having that in mind, let’s look at these eight remaining undefeated teams in college football and predict when their first losses will come.
South Florida Bulls (6-0)
Remaining Schedule: vs. UConn | at Houston | vs. Tulane | at Cincinnati | at Temple | vs. UCF
It took Blake Barnett quite a while to find a college football home, making stops at Alabama and Arizona State previously. However, the nomadic quarterback has finally settled and he’s now leading the South Florida Bulls to an impressive season to this point. The 21st-ranked team in the country sits with a 6-0 record and has aspirations to not only stay unbeaten but to usurp rival UCF in the process to win the AAC this year.
Having said that, this is a South Florida team that has been far from perfect this season and that has been on the wrong end of some close calls. Most recently, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane took the Bulls to the absolute edge in a Week 7 Friday matchup as South Florida needed a late field goal to secure the win. What’s more, that was the Bulls’ third one-possession victory on the season, showing that they have a tendency to let teams keep things close.
That isn’t to say that this Bulls squad isn’t good, because they are. Despite his long journey to this point, Barnett has put forth some truly impressive efforts this season and the team around him has playmakers on both sides of the ball. Where they struggle, however, is with their consistency and, on a few occasions, how they handle pressure.
While some might say that late-season games against Cincinnati or UCF might be the Bulls’ first loss, though, I believe it comes sooner than that. South Florida must go on the road against a stout Houston team that can both score in bunches and has stars on defense. Playing that game away from home, I don’t think the Bulls survive with an unblemished record.
First Loss: Oct. 27 at Houston