The Misery Index Week 5: Cranky in Connecticut

Dan Wolken | USA TODAY Sports

Let's take the fan experience and miniaturize it to UConn athletics director Warde Manuel. A former player and administrator at Michigan, he watched his current school nearly pull off the upset of the year last weekend, only to see his alma mater come back and snatch a victory at the end. Then on Saturday, Manuel, who came to UConn from Buffalo, had to watch the program he helped build embarrass the one he inherited in February 2012.

Never mind the whole thing about the Big East falling apart last year, making the job at UConn a much different animal than the one he thought he was getting.

Much like UConn fans, Manuel is having to deal with a new reality in the landscape of college athletics, and there's urgency to maintain the school's brand if the dominoes start falling again. That's a big part of why UConn's downturn in football this season is so devastating, and frankly, unacceptable.

"No, I'm not (happy) … at all," Manuel told the Hartford Courant after a 41-12 loss to Buffalo. "We've got to get better. That's not how we should play. It's not my expectation of how we should play. We have to improve. There's no excuse for it. To play like we did a week ago and then to come here and play like we did today…It's just not acceptable."

Manuel was then asked about the future of coach Paul Pasqualoni and said, "I'm not commenting."

So there's that.

This has been an ugly season from the beginning for UConn, starting with a loss to Football Championship Subdivision member Towson, continuing with a loss to former UConn coach Randy Edsall (now at Maryland), then compounded by the Michigan heartbreak and Buffalo disaster.

And just think, the Huskies are only three seasons removed from playing in the Fiesta Bowl. That makes them an easy choice to be No. 1 in this week's Misery Index.

(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.)

(Disclaimer 2: By virtue of firing head coach Lane Kiffin early Sunday morning, USC is hereby excluded from this and future editions of the Misery Index since fans can now look forward to a new regime taking hold in 2014.)

1. UConn: The Huskies can stew over their 0-4 start during the bye next week, then get ready for a massive game against South Florida on Oct. 12. Why massive? This season is already depressing, but a loss to the hapless Bulls and it becomes downright humiliating. After that, UConn will face the American Athletic Conference's three best teams in succession: At Cincinnati, at UCF and Louisville at home. Best-case scenario right now is that UConn starts the season 1-7. How is that possible for a program that actually beat Louisville last season?

2. Oklahoma State: File this under the "blown opportunity" strain of misery. In the long run, the Cowboys will be fine. They'll win nine or 10 games, go to a really nice bowl and get back to complaining about Sports Illustrated in no time. But today, this has to feel awful. The Cowboys were tortured enough to miss out on the BCS championship game in 2011 by a hair, but on paper fans could convince themselves that this season at least gave them another crack at it if things fell the right way. Not that Oklahoma State looked like a worldbeater in September, but with the Big 12 wide open, home games against Baylor and Oklahoma to end the season could have been huge. Instead, the Cowboys went to Oklahoma State and lost, 30-21, to a West Virginia team that lost 37-0 to Maryland last week. No Big 12 title, no national title.

3. North Carolina: When you hire Larry Fedora, you sort of know the deal. His offense is going to score points – a lot of points – but everything else is up for debate. Let it be noted: We at the Misery Index are fans of Fedora; he's got a great system and carries himself/coaches with a quintessential Texas swagger. But there's no way to get around the fact that he coaches arguably the nation's most disappointing team at the moment. At ACC media days, North Carolina seemed miffed that it was picked to finish third in the Coastal Division behind Miami and Virginia Tech. But at 1-3, coming off a 55-31 home loss to East Carolina, it now seems like the Tar Heels were vastly overrated. Falling short of preseason expectations almost seems like a birthright for North Carolina football fans, but getting embarrassed at home by the directional school you snub your nose at is next-level misery. ECU racked up 603 yards, including 227 yards on the ground.

4. Purdue: Seriously, how did it get this bad? We knew things weren't great in West Lafayette, which is why athletics director Morgan Burke made the decision to fire Danny Hope after last season. But let's keep it in perspective. Purdue is actually coming off back-to-back bowl appearances, so it's not like the program has been completely awful. This, however, is the definition of dumpster fire: Getting outscored 169-65 by four Football Bowl Subdivision opponents in the first month of the season. And with Nebraska, Michigan State and Ohio State coming up, it's going to get worse before it gets better. In fact, it probably won't get too much better for a couple years as first-year coach Darrell Hazell tries to recruit at a higher level than Hope did and instill in the kind of hard-working culture that a program like Purdue needs to be successful. In the meantime, more losses like Saturday – 55-24 to Northern Illinois – are likely in store.

5. Notre Dame: This was a much better team when the world believed its defense was being inspired by the spirit of Lennay Kekua. But ever since linebacker Manti Te'o learned that his dead girlfriend wasn't real, the Fighting Irish haven't been able to stop anyone. In all seriousness, losing Te'o has turned out to be a much bigger deal than anybody envisioned. A defense that ranked among the nation's best with him last season has now become mediocre, blowing up all preseason expectations for a team that looked on paper like it had the goods to at least return to a BCS bowl. Now we know, Notre Dame just isn't very good and it appears this will be a massive comedown for a fan base that envisioned consistent national championship-type runs last season. Maybe that will still happen in the future, but this season smells like 7-5.

6. SMU: In examining the track record of June Jones, who is now in his sixth season, it is worth remembering how awful SMU was before he arrived. Between the 1987 "Death Penalty" and 2008, the Mustangs had exactly one winning season with a few one-win seasons mixed in and even an 0-12. So all in all, Jones has been a wise investment, even though it cost a significant amount of money – he makes $1.825 million per season, according to USA TODAY Sports' salary database – to lure him from Hawaii. But on the scale of things that make for miserable fan bases, paying a premium for mediocrity wears thin after awhile. Though the schedule hasn't been kind to SMU this season, Saturday was the third consecutive drubbing by an FBS opponent. After leading TCU 10-7 at halftime, the Mustangs got outscored 41-7 in the second half. Ouch. Jones has taken SMU to four consecutive bowl games, which is admirable, but there hasn't really been a breakthrough season as of yet, which has led to some frustration. It also didn't help that Jones was set to accept the Arizona State job before negotiations fell apart at the last minute, forcing him back to SMU. Let's see if the Mustangs can collect some wins in the American Athletic Conference and get back to a bowl, but for now, it's hard to see a lot of positive trends.

7. Tennessee: We are fundamentally against putting programs in Tennessee's situation on this list, but the Vols are making it very easy for their fan base to forget all the good vibes from the Summer of Butch, as their first-year coach charged through the state and promised a return to glory. Butch Jones is good, but he's not quite good enough to undo the damage done by Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley all in four games. For that, Jones should be – and will be – given plenty of rope by the Tennessee administration to turn things around, especially if his 2014 recruiting class materializes the way it looks right now on paper. Having said that, Tennessee's always impatient fan base is antsy about the on-field product, and things could have been downright apoplectic had the Vols not hung on for a 31-24 victory over South Alabama. After building a 31-7 lead in the third quarter, Tennessee's offense completely shut down and the Jaguars – a program that started from scratch in 2009 – actually had a first-and-goal in the final couple minutes to tie or potentially win the game. At 3-2, can Tennessee find three more wins on the schedule? If so, this season will be a success, but that's not looking like an easy task right now.

8. Southern Miss: There aren't many fan bases over the years that have been as proud of their program's accomplishments as those who support the Golden Eagles. Despite not having the resources or recruiting cachet of their in-state competitors, Southern Miss somehow put together 18 winning seasons in a row, culminating with a Conference USA title in 2011. But these days, Southern Miss fans are just beaten down and angry. Saturday marked the 16th straight loss for the Golden Eagles, and it occurred in ugly fashion – 60-7 against Boise State, a program they once envisioned standing with toe-for-toe as non-BCS powers. This falls more on the school's previous cash-strapped administration than first-year coach Todd Monken. Had Southern Miss scheduled more realistically, the losing streak would already be over. Instead, it took money games at Nebraska and Arkansas and now really faces a huge game next week against Florida International. If the Golden Eagles don't win that one, the streak could easily get to 20 before their next good opportunity.

9. Temple: It almost feels like the American Athletic Conference should have its own category this week. Problem 1: How does a team in a BCS conference (which the AAC is, this season) schedule a game at Idaho? Problem 2: How do you lose it?

10. Air Force: Holy mother of bad defenses. Since beating Colgate in the opener, Air Force has allowed 52, 42, 56 and 45 points the last four games, all against Mountain West opponents. Troy Calhoun has made a bowl game all six seasons at the academy, but at 1-4, it will take a miracle to rescue this mess. Despite the program's winning tradition, Air Force fans aren't terribly hard on the Falcons, given the nature of the school and the unbelievably high standards football players must meet day in and day out. But things can get squirrely if they lose to Army and Navy, and it appears the Falcons – who are essentially down to their third-string quarterback due to injury and attrition – are in serious danger of doing just that.

Others receiving votes (miserable, but not quite miserable enough): Michigan, South Florida, New Mexico.