College football: Predicting the last-place team from every Power Five conference
Which college football teams from the Power Five conferences are bound to finish at the bottom of the league standings this season?
The talk is always on the best of the best in college football’s Power Five conferences, and rightfully so. Discussion on the College Football Playoff and the powerhouse schools brings out energy and passion in the fanbases. It’s exciting and community-building for the sport.
However, not everyone’s season goes according to plan. Some fall below expectations due to injuries, poor play, or outside circumstances. A handful of schools are rising in the early years of a coach’s tenure.
Others, unfortunately for them, place last in their conferences. It’s a brutal outcome for the long season, and hellacious year, of preparation, battle, and results. Teams just don’t have enough to stay competitive, especially in the lopsided landscape of college football.
For the Power Five conferences, this stands out more than any other FBS school. A handful of conferences have multiple last place divisions so two teams, in some cases, will have the worst overall spot in their league. So, who’s going to be the worst of the worst in 2021?
ACC: Syracuse
The ACC, besides Clemson, North Carolina and maybe Miami, is going to be complicated. Most of the conference is just fodder for the Tigers and Tar Heels, fighting for third, fourth, fifth, and so on in their respective divisions.
The ACC Atlantic has a few contenders for last place, especially with Clemson guaranteeing everyone at least one loss on their resume before faltering elsewhere. Someone will ultimately drop to the bottom, though, and that’s Syracuse.
Remember when the Orange was relevant a few years ago? They were 10-3 in 2018, rolling to No. 15 in the final top 25 of the season. It seemed like a breakthrough signal for a school long known for basketball; perhaps not at the highest level to succeed, but nonetheless a positive sign.
Since then, Dino Babers’ team is 6-17, including 1-10 in the shortened COVID-19 season. Not great.
The head coach could be on the hot seat if Syracuse has another rough go-around, which is on the horizon. They have a cupcake non-conference schedule planned against Ohio, Rutgers, Albany and Liberty, so this team could start 4-0 … then finish 0-8 inside the ACC. The offensive line is bad, Tommy DeVito had a weak stretch behind the poor front and may lose his job to Mississippi State transfer Garrett Shrader, and the defense, while bringing back most of last year’s starters, is just awful. Maybe the experience sneaks in a few wins in conference play, but the Orange are in pole position to be the ACC Atlantic’s worst.
As for the Coastal Division, Duke is going to have a hard time managing their schedule. They have three soft nonconference games, with Northwestern sprinkled in the middle. It could be a 3-1 start to the year, which is fine, but the ACC schedule ramps up the intensity on the 2-9 team from one year ago.
Granted, transfer Gunnar Holmberg is the new quarterback, but how he performs is unknown, and the team around him is underwhelming. The offensive line allowed a laundry list of sacks in 2020, hurting the passing game and failing to establish the run. Defensively, there isn’t much to note. Perhaps another year of experience will help but by how much?
The Blue Devils have a bit more upside because of their returning starters, though, so they could edge Syracuse in overall record.