It has been a relatively steady college football season to date, even with such seismic moments as Texas A&M losing to Appalachian State and Auburn getting routed at home this past weekend. With that being said, there has been a few shockers this year and some teams that are vastly underperforming expectations.
Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz talked about the programs that have surprised him the most to start the season. He said that Kansas, off to a 3-0 start, has been a pleasant surprise. He also rattled off several other programs including Kentucky, Minnesota and Rutgers as teams that have exceeded expectations.
(Remember that Holtz coached at Minnesota for two seasons prior to taking over at Notre Dame in 1986).
Holtz’s comments were part of his weekly appearance on the Crowd’s Line which he co-hosts with former college and NFL standout Mark May. The duo of Holtz and May were popular fixtures on ESPN’s college football programming for a long time.
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In addition to the programs that have been a surprise, Holtz also highlighted the seven programs that have disappointed him the most to start the season.
“The disappointing teams…Colorado, not only are they 0-3, Mark, they aren’t very competitive whatsoever,” Holtz told May on the Crowd’s Line.
“Navy being 0-2, Northwestern 1-2. I thought after Northwestern won the first game against Nebraska, they’d come on and have a very good year.
“Purdue being 1-2, there is no way Purdue should be 1-2. They’re very talented. Last week, they scored with 40 seconds to go to take the lead and then they get a 30-yard penalty on their tight who wanted to prove how he was a man, whatever the case may be. But it hurt hurt the team because low and behold they end up losing the ball game on basically the last play of the game.”
Then Holtz, who won a national championship in 1988 with the Fighting Irish, just had to include his former program. Under first-year head coach Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame was a bit lackluster in their season opener at Ohio State and were simply flat a week later in their loss to Marshall.
It has not been a strong start for Notre Dame, although there is still plenty of time left for the Fighting Irish.
“I think I’d have to put Notre Dame as a disappointment,” Holtz said.
“They’re 1-2 but the fact that they were No. 5 in the country in preseason makes them a little bit disappointing.”
Holtz also said that UConn (0-3) and South Carolina (1-2, 0-2 SEC) were big disappointments this season.
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The poor start from South Carolina is a surprise for Holtz, who coached the Gamecocks for six seasons before retiring in 2004.
“They got blown out by Georgia and that game really surprised me,” Holtz said.
“That game is always close. It doesn’t matter about the records, it is such an intense rivalry because they are so close to one another.”
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