Ask Farrell: Which team suffered worst Week 1 loss?
It was a disappointing opening weekend for half the teams that played – because they lost – but four national powers in particular turned in a really lousy performance.
Early on Saturday, Texas went to Maryland looking for payback after the Terps came to Austin last year and won by 10 points. But the Longhorns failed, again. They lost to a lower-level Big Ten school and the offense continued to disappoint.
Then there was Michigan. The Wolverines have a new quarterback in Shea Patterson, a transfer from Ole Miss, and some new coaches on offense. But Michigan looked like a mess on that side of the ball, even now into coach Jim Harbaugh’s fourth season. The offensive line was dominated and Patterson did not turn in a great performance as the Wolverines still look for a spark.
Miami and Florida State also went down, both pretty much in ugly fashion. Hurricanes quarterback Malik Rosier completed only 15 of 35 passes and he threw two picks. Miami had only 296 total yards.
Florida State fared no better, falling 24-3 to Virginia Tech at home where the Seminoles only had 92 rushing yards. On Monday, first-year coach Willie Taggart accused Virginia Tech players of faking injuries to slow down Florida State’s attack.
We ask Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell to weigh in on which program had the most disappointing performance in Week 1 ...
“To me it was Miami but it’s a tough call. I thought the ‘Canes would handle LSU fairly easily to be honest and had the Tigers pegged with a losing start midway through their season. So is LSU that good or is Miami that bad? I think it could be a combination of the two.
"Can the ‘Canes rebound and end up as division winners this season? I am not sold on that anymore. Florida State was disappointing but I didn’t expect it to dominate Virginia Tech even at home, and I picked Notre Dame to beat Michigan. No one figured Texas would lose to Maryland again, but the Longhorns are not supposed to be contenders in the Big 12 this season.
"The preseason hype around Miami was the largest among the four teams we are talking about and thus their loss was the worst.”