College football powerless rankings: 5 biggest losers from Week 7 — Oof Tennessee

The college football rankings where you don’t want to be No. 1. Ranking the biggest losers from Week 7, including Tennessee.

Most eyes were on the Alabama-Georgia game this weekend. That does not mean there was not any bad football because there was plenty. From the ACC to the SEC, there was plenty of bad football to go around. Most of the bad games surrounded one common theme; awful quarterback play cannot win games for you.

In Auburn’s loss to South Carolina, Gus Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chad Morris need to figure out what Bo Nix is at quarterback. It might not be the best idea in the world to have the true sophomore drop back and throw over 40 times in one game. Nix’s receivers left a lot of receptions on the turf, but those three interceptions were on Nix.

KJ Costello continues to descend into the sunken place. Costello has one touchdown and eight interceptions during the Mississippi State Bulldogs’ three-game losing streak. Opposing defenses are dropping seven or eight men into coverage and Costello can’t stop throwing to the wrong jersey.

For every college football expert that bought into the Tennessee hype, they forgot Jarrett Guarantano was the starting quarterback for the Volunteers. It is not Guarantano’s fault both interceptions went for touchdowns, but he threw them both.

For those who do not believe there is an exception to every rule, watch a Virginia Tech game. In this need for transformational quarterback play, the Hokies put the boots to Boston College this weekend throwing the football all of 15 times. Quarterback Hendon Hooker had more rushes (18) than pass attempts (15).

Boston College could not run the football or stop the run. Was this game the end of the scrappy Eagles? That remains to be seen, but Boston College still cannot run the football.

Those were some bad performances; these were the worst of the week.

College football powerless rankings

5. Georgia

The Georgia Bulldogs realized rather quickly in their 41-24 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide they cannot break into the room of the elite of college football until they have elite quarterback play. Stetson Bennett IV is a great story and it is awesome that this young man has come from nowhere to play quarterback for the Bulldogs. However, Bennett is limited and those limitations were exposed Saturday night.

Alabama has defensive limitations including an inconsistent pass rush. However, the secondary is strong despite having three new starters. Running back James Cook got loose on a mismatch against a linebacker for an 82-yard reception, but that was about it for big plays. All three of Bennett’s interceptions were outside the pocket on the run.  The former walk-on does not have the arm strength to get the ball where he wants while on the run. The Bulldogs need JT Daniels to be ready sooner than later before they lose another game with Bennett.

4. Notre Dame

The initial reaction to Notre Dame’s 12-7 victory against Louisville was, “they must play Clemson next week, so they did not want to put a lot on tape.” The strategy makes sense except the Irish don’t play the Tigers until November. The Irish offense was anemic and vanilla against a defense that had surrendered over 40 points in two of its first four games.

There are positives to the game. There’s coach-speak, “a win is a win.” Also, the Irish played a clean game with no turnovers and just three penalties. The defense stifled an offense averaging nearly 400 yards of offense per game. Outcome aside, this is not a referendum on Notre Dame itself, but of Notre Dame’s ability to compete with and possibly defeat Clemson.

This game was a no-confidence vote the Irish could do either. True, it was unusually windy in South Bend, but Ian Book‘s inability to get the ball to wide receivers down the field is troubling. The running game will not matter much if Book cannot throw the ball down the field, taking advantage of one on one coverage. Book’s limitations against a defense that is not very good do not bode well for the Irish against Clemson.

3. Mississippi State

Mississippi State’s drubbing of LSU and quarterback KJ Costello looking like a first-round draft pick both seem like a season ago. The Bulldogs scored 44 points against LSU and just 30 points in the three games since. Instead of playing man defense like Bo Pelini and LSU decided to do, everyone else is playing zone. That has left KJ Costello baffled and confused.

Costello has been benched during this three-game losing streak during games twice and has thrown one touchdown pass and eight interceptions. There were times against Kentucky where the Wildcats dropped nine players into coverage and rushed just two. The Standford grad transfer has been unable to make heads or tales of the coverages he’s seeing.

2. Tennessee

When many college football experts predicted that Tennessee would make this quantum leap this season, how much did they trust quarterback Jarrett Guarantano? The fact that both interceptions ended up being returned for touchdowns were not his fault. However, those were not the best decisions. Guarantano has not developed into the quarterback the Volunteers hoped he would.

When the Volunteers played Georgia, it was obvious Jeremy Pruitt and Tennessee’s offensive staff had little trust Guarantano could make enough plays to win the game. It was their hope Guarantano would not lose the game. Guarantano’s inconsistent quarterback play might not be the worst part of Tennessee’s quarterback situation. There is no one good enough to bench him for shows how bad the Volunteer quarterback room is this season.

Pruitt’s offseason should include signing a top-level quarterback out of high school and finding a good grad-transfer.

1. Georgia Tech

No one thought the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were going to compete against the Clemson Tigers. Clemson is the best team in college football, and the Yellow Jackets are rebuilding. But 73-7? No one saw that coming either. That score demonstrated the distance between the top and bottom of the ACC. It also proves that Clemson is not playing this season. That loss to LSU in the title game stung, and the Tigers took it personally.

Trevor Lawrence demonstrated against Georgia Tech exactly what you want in a quarterback throwing five first-half touchdowns. This beat down demonstrates clearly how far the Yellow Jackets have to go before being anywhere close to Clemson. The Tigers’ reserves dominated Georgia Tech in the second half 21-0. The Yellow Jackets are bad, and the Tigers are on a mission.

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