Dan Wolken

USA TODAY Sports

Every year in college football, there's a team with significant expectations that just implodes. In 2013, it was Florida falling from 10th in the preseason poll to 4-8. In 2012, Southern California started at No. 3 and ended up in El Paso. The year before that, Texas A&M started in the top 10 and finished off a 7-6 season in a forgettable bowl game against Northwestern.

This year we already have our winner in that derby of derp: South Carolina.

The Gamecocks are a mess, and you wonder now if they'll rally and make even a minor bowl game or just pack it in for the year. After losing to Kentucky 45-38, the latter is looking more likely. Head coach Steve Spurrier seems like he'd rather be whacking it around Augusta National. His assistants have few answers. The players aren't real locked in either, as evidenced by talented receiver Shaq Roland missing a meeting and being left in Columbia.

And at 3-3 (2-3 in the Southeastern Conference), there isn't a whole lot left to play for other than pride. In the old days at South Carolina, that would have been enough. Before Spurrier arrived, bowl games were rare and nobody around Columbia had illusions of winning conference titles. Fans showed up and cheered every week, and even in the worst case scenario, they always enjoyed the party. Spurrier, though, has turned South Carolina into a serious football school with significant expectations. After three consecutive 11-win seasons, he believed he had built something that could sustain a certain level of success. The voters believed it, too, pegging South Carolina No. 9 in the Amway Coaches Poll (the Gamecocks even got one first-place vote).

But things have gone from bad (the 52-28 season-opening loss to Texas A&M) to worse in a hurry. Maybe things would have taken on a different tone if South Carolina hadn't blown a 20-7 fourth-quarter lead against Missouri. The Gamecocks would have ridden into Lexington at 4-1, still very much in the SEC East race, and probably played with a lot more passion and concentration. Instead, Kentucky brought the fire and earned a landmark victory for Mark Stoops.

Now South Carolina is teetering, and with road games at Auburn, Florida and Clemson remaining, this could go down as the biggest flameout season Spurrier has ever experienced.

(Disclaimer: This isn't a ranking of worst teams, worst losses or coaches whose jobs are in the most jeopardy. This is simply a measurement of a fan base's knee-jerk reaction to what they last saw. The way in which a team won or lost, expectations vis-à-vis program trajectory and traditional inferiority complex of fan base all factor into this ranking.)

1. South Carolina: Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but why in the world did the SEC media corps have the Gamecocks penciled in as the SEC East champions in the preseason? This is a team that lost its heart and soul in quarterback Connor Shaw, the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft in Jadeveon Clowney and another all-SEC caliber defensive lineman in Kelcy Quarles. That's a lot of star power to replace for any program, particularly one that isn't among the traditional powers. Throw in the fact that running back Mike Davis has been banged up all season, and you have the makings of the disaster we're seeing now. South Carolina just didn't have the depth of talent ready to step in without a drop-off, and in retrospect, there probably should have been a little more caution in the preseason analysis. Oh well. Still, for South Carolina fans that had visions of a College Football Playoff berth, this has been quite a comedown in a short period of time. The way the schedule set up, it certainly was possible for South Carolina to disappoint. But to become a complete dumpster fire before most of the really hard games? Nobody saw that coming.

2. Alabama: The Roll Tiders have spent plenty of time fretting the last few years, but it was almost sort of a faux concern because A) fans were mostly quibbling over style points and B) the response from Nick Saban's crew usually has been swift and thorough. Now, though, it's really time to worry. Alabama's slide back to the pack is subtle but real. Losing three consecutive games to ranked opponents is now a fact. The Crimson Tide aren't out of the championship race by any means, but a loss on Oct. 4 to a division rival means they no longer have a margin for error. And that was the kind of game Alabama at its peak wouldn't have lost. Ole Miss is a quality team, but the Rebels won because they did the little things better than Alabama. And that's not supposed to happen to a coach a detail-obsessed as Saban. Alabama is absolutely loaded with future NFL players, but they are clearly deficient in the secondary and just OK at quarterback. That's survivable if Alabama plays a clean game, but Saturday was a mess with eight penalties, two turnovers, two missed field goals and poor coverage on kickoff returns. That's not how the championship-level Alabama teams played and perhaps those are the first signs of some cracking in the foundation. Making the angst even worse: Auburn looks better than ever.

3. Oregon: Another year, another national title mirage. More concerning for the Ducks than the actual loss (31-24 at home to Arizona) or how it happened (an absurd penalty and crushing turnover) is just how flawed they look. They can't protect Marcus Mariota, and even if they could, the defense doesn't look stout enough to get through a playoff gauntlet. Oregon certainly had people fooled after running away with that Week 2 game against Michigan State, but there are just too many leaks to plug over the long haul to get back in the race. Big picture, Mark Helfrich is in the unenviable position of having to take the slings and arrows of not being Chip Kelly every time the Ducks lose a game. That's not unfair, either. Kelly was a special coach, and even he couldn't quite get Oregon to the top of the mountain. Maybe he would have eventually, or maybe he left at just the right time. We'll never know. And it could turn out that there's a half-step down from the Kelly era to the Helfrich era. But try explaining to Oregon fans, after the incredible success of the past several years, that it's OK to have a very good, consistent program that will strive to one day put it all together. Meanwhile, Oregon now faces a true elimination game against UCLA on Saturday. Both fan bases are miserable at the moment, coming off home losses to unranked teams that shattered preseason expectations, but the loser of that game ain't seen nothin' yet.

4. Wisconsin: If there was ever a program poised to keep rolling on after its homegrown coach turned SEC carpetbagger, it was the Badgers. With those tremendous facilities, that great fan base, such a competent athletic director and enough in-state talent to sustain success, why would anything be different under Gary Andersen than it was under Bret Bielema? But 18 games into the Andersen era, Wisconsin seems to have lost its mojo. The Badgers don't win close games anymore. They don't physically pound people. Aside from giving the ball to Melvin Gordon as much as possible (except when it mattered against LSU, of course), they don't really have an identity. After losing 20-14 to former Misery Index regular Northwestern, Wisconsin now has a four-game losing streak against Power Five opponents dating to last season. They're also in a real bind at quarterback, with former starter Joel Stave suffering from the yips (yes, really) and Tanner McEvoy not really able to get the job done (he was 4-for-10 for 24 yards against the Wildcats). It's hard to know what to expect going forward, since Stave's already shaky confidence couldn't have been helped after throwing the game-clinching interception Saturday inside the final minute with Wisconsin threatening to pull off a comeback.

5. Michigan: Even with all the ugly stuff that has been swirling around Ann Arbor, Brady Hoke has tried to project a positive attitude and pretend that this was fixable for the Wolverines. But now that they're 0-2 in the Big Ten, every week that passes only brings the program closer to the inevitable changes that are coming. The good news for Michigan, though, is that they actually improved on Saturday. They had more than 300 yards of offense, committed only one turnover and scored offensive touchdowns — multiple — against a Power Five defense for the first time this season. Of course, the bad is that the Wolverines lost to Rutgers 26-24 with Matt Wile missing a 56-yard field goal with 3:01 left that would have given them the lead. The most remarkable thing about Michigan's meltdown, which the Misery Index has gone over in detail for several weeks now, is that even under the worst possible scenario it didn't seem possible for the Wolverines to finish under .500. But after the Rutgers loss, the math looks bad. If you assume Michigan loses at Michigan State and Ohio State, that's six losses. Michigan would then have to sweep games against Penn State, Indiana, Northwestern and Maryland to go to a minor bowl game.

6. Southern California: When Steve Sarkisian got the USC job, it was both completely predictable and a major surprise. Why predicable? He had a history at the school. He can recruit Los Angeles. He's engaging with the media and has the same sort of laid-back, Pete Carroll vibe that works at a place like USC. But it was also something of a head-scratcher within the industry because Sarkisian's five years at Washington were fairly average: 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6 and 8-4. He went just 24-21 in the Pac 12. Not bad, but not great. His teams played below expectations more often than above them. Now he's at a place where the expectations are higher and the microscope is greater, and so far he's not off to a great start. Even with a roster low on depth because of NCAA sanctions, Trojans nation expects results and expects them quickly. What they've gotten so far are wildly inconsistent performances that were, frankly, typical of what we saw from Sarkisian's teams at Washington. One day they're beating Stanford on the road, the next they're giving up 452 rushing yards to Boston College. One week they look sharp against Oregon State, the next they lose focus and blow a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter to Arizona State, losing on a 46-yard Hail Mary as time expires. When Pat Haden hired Sarkisian, the idea was to elevate Sarkisian's coaching ability with the USC brand. So far, though, USC looks like a warm-weather version of Washington.

7. LSU: If there were a ranking of spoiled fan bases, the Tigers would have to be at or near the top. Think about this for a moment. Since 2000 when Nick Saban first stepped on campus, the Tigers have experienced two national titles, four SEC titles and nine double-digit win seasons. When you're on a run like that under Saban and now Les Miles, anything short of perfection becomes unacceptable, and there's a strong assumption of perpetual success. But a confluence of circumstances in the SEC West has left LSU as the division's weak sister, and this is now officially a rebuilding year. The only problem is, LSU fans don't do rebuilding years. An entire generation of fans has been born and entered high school since the last one. And unless LSU can turn things around soon — which, judging by their 41-7 loss at Auburn seems far-fetched — this is going to be a very interesting conclusion to the season because it will combine intense pressure with a likely job opening at Miles' alma mater, Michigan. Will Miles look at the situation and conclude that a fresh start would do everyone some good, or will he spin this forward into a learning experience for a very young team? Either way, LSU is coming up on a series of opponents that could turn a brush fire into an uncontrollable blaze: Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Alabama. The way LSU is playing right now, 5-4 by mid-November might be optimistic.

8. Navy: Very quietly, the Midshipmen have become one of the most disappointing teams in college football. It's hard to blame them, of course, because military academies are so different than the rest of college football. The external factors that can affect a team's success are not the same in Annapolis as they are in Auburn. Still, this was supposed to be a very good Navy team — perhaps the best one since Ken Niumatalolo took over the program in 2008. With a dynamic quarterback coming back in Keenan Reynolds and a lot of upperclassmen at key positions, this team looked like a lock to get to a bowl game for the 11th time in 12 years. But something has clearly gone wrong: Navy is sitting at 2-4 and likely yielding the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy following a 30-21 loss at Air Force on Saturday. Some of that is the schedule. It just didn't set up well for Navy this year, starting with Ohio State and not really getting a breather until next weekend against VMI. But the Midshipmen also are minus-4 in turnover ratio, and they measure successful seasons by getting to bowl games and beating the other service academies. They're very much in danger now of going 0-for-2.

9. Tennessee: Since arriving in Knoxville, Butch Jones has racked up recruiting wins and moral victories, but the kind the actually count in the SEC are still in short supply. And now the jig is up with Tennessee fans. Saturday's 10-9 loss to Florida wasn't anything like Jones' two losses to Georgia by a combined six points. It wasn't like hanging in there at Oklahoma or coming up one play short against a good Vanderbilt team last year. It was a bad loss. A bad loss to a mediocre Florida team that couldn't move the ball until switching to freshman quarterback Treon Harris in the fourth quarter. When Tennessee took a 9-0 lead with 2:21 left in the third quarter, it felt like 90-0. That's how impotent Florida was on Saturday. Still, the Vols couldn't get it done because they had 22 true rushing attempts for 73 yards and yielded six sacks on quarterback Justin Worley, allowing Florida just enough of an opening to come back. The narrative attached to the Vols is that they're on the verge of becoming a factor with all that talent Jones is recruiting, but they may be closer to two years away than one. Getting to 6-6 will once again be an uphill battle, and long-term, Jones desperately needs to find a quarterback for next season and beyond with Worley's eligibility set to expire and no other viable options currently on the roster.

10. UMass: It's one thing to be bad, it's another thing to be the worst team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and yet UMass has managed to create a category of misery all its own. The Minutemen are officially allergic to victory. The trend started in Week 2 when they led Colorado 31-20 in the third quarter before losing 41-38. It continued the following week at Vanderbilt when they carried a 31-20 lead into the final nine minutes, only to see the Commodores block a punt and return it for a touchdown, score again with 1:08 left to take the lead, then hold the Minutemen to a 22-yard field-goal attempt to send the game into overtime — which, of course, they missed. UMass followed that with another heartbreaker against Bowling Green, losing 47-42 after fumbling on its last possession with a chance to win the game. But none of that compares to what happened Saturday when the Minutemen took a 41-14 lead against Miami of Ohio — a team that had lost 21 consecutive games — before completely collapsing in a 42-41 loss. Despite being unable to add to its early lead, UMass still led 41-28 with fewer than 10 minutes remaining but couldn't hold on as Miami scored touchdowns with 6:16 and 2:58 left. Just like at Vanderbilt, UMass had a chance to come back and win on the final drive, but time ran out as their last play got them all the way to the 2-yard line. Even for a program that hasn't had any real success since joining FBS, this is almost too much to take.

Honorable mention: BYU, Miami, UCLA, Colorado, Vanderbilt, Maryland, Texas, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Illinois, Southern Miss, North Carolina, Texas ​

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