https://theathletic.com/1948213/2020/07/...ed-article

- Cover photo is a NFL coach Dennis Green-led team in Evanston.
- Army went 0-13
- Florida and Iowa went winless in the last 50 years
- Two former ND coaches make the list: Lou Holtz & Tyrone Willingham
- South Carolina averaged <8 PPG under Lou Holtz in ‘99

Quote:For starters, I limited candidates only to teams that did not win a game in a season. By my count, 68 teams fit that description. I then looked at a bunch of other factors: how their offensive and defensive scoring ranked among other D-I teams, average point differential, bad losses and any other nuggets that measured a team’s futility.

25) ‘79 Florida (0-10-1)
24) ‘99 South Carolina (0-11)
23) ‘73 Iowa (0-11)
22) ‘97 Illinois (0-11)
21) ‘98 UNLV (0-11)
20) ‘98 Hawai’i (0-12)
19) ‘80 Northwestern (0-11)
18) ‘17 UTEP (0-12)
17) ‘76 Texas Christian (0-11)
16) ‘97 Rutgers (0-11)
15) ‘81 Colorado St (0-12)
14) ‘00 Duke (0-11)
13) ‘03 Army (0-13)
12) ‘87 Kansas St (0-10-1)
11) ‘19 Akron (0-12)
10) ‘08 Washington (0-12)
9) ‘73 Army (0-10)
8) ‘99 Buffalo (0-11)
7) ‘98 Kent St (0-11)
6) ‘78 Northwestern (0-10-1)
5) ‘15 Kansas (0-12)
4) ‘73 UTEP (0-11)
3) ‘80 Oregon St (0-11)
2) ‘81 Northwestern (0-11)
1) ‘05 Temple (0-11)

Pleasantly surprised to find UF on the list and not UCF lol

(07-24-2020 10:15 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  - South Carolina averaged <8 PPG under Lou Holtz in ‘99

That was a bad team with a really difficult schedule. Only one non-power opponent, East Carolina, who was 9-3 that season, and only one opponent who finished the season with a losing record, Vanderbilt, who was 5-6.

Iowa was actually pretty awful in the 60's and 70's, going 20 straight seasons without a winning season. Of course Iowa's schedules were a lot tougher back then. No FCS teams. No MAC teams. Lots of Pac-8 teams. Many Iowa teams in the 60's and 70's could easily had a winning season with today's schedules.

When Hayden Fry finally turned Iowa around in 1981, he still had to do it with a non-conference schedule at that time of Nebraska, UCLA and Iowa State in a 11-game season. Hayden finally said this crazy, he starting replacing the UCLA's with the UTEP's and NIU's on future schedules.

Hayden's assistant Bill Snyder learned this lesson well, and when Snyder moved on to be the head coach at KSU, he started loading up his non-conference schedule with cupcakes, a model that unfortanetely the rest of the BCS teams ended up copying, with a few exceptions.

(07-25-2020 08:37 AM)goofus Wrote:  Iowa was actually pretty awful in the 60's and 70's, going 20 straight seasons without a winning season. Of course Iowa's schedules were a lot tougher back then. No FCS teams. No MAC teams. Lots of Pac-8 teams. Many Iowa teams in the 60's and 70's could easily had a winning season with today's schedules.

When Hayden Fry finally turned Iowa around in 1981, he still had to do it with a non-conference schedule at that time of Nebraska, UCLA and Iowa State in a 11-game season. Hayden finally said this crazy, he starting replacing the UCLA's with the UTEP's and NIU's on future schedules.

Hayden's assistant Bill Snyder learned this lesson well, and when Snyder moved on to be the head coach at KSU, he started loading up his non-conference schedule with cupcakes, a model that unfortanetely the rest of the BCS teams ended up copying, with a few exceptions.

But he still played a tough ooc In those decades of 80’s & 90’s:
Iowa St yearly
Arizona
Colorado
Miami
Penn st
North Carolina St
Tennessee
Oregon

Usually only one cupcake per season: Tulsa, Hawaii in H&H’s
One and does with Drake (85) Cincinnati (1990) etc
And several games with NIU. I think 2 for 1’s.

(07-24-2020 11:02 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Pleasantly surprised to find UF on the list and not UCF lol

And UCF did go winless (2015).

(07-25-2020 09:37 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(07-24-2020 11:02 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Pleasantly surprised to find UF on the list and not UCF lol

And UCF did go winless (2015).

As strong as UCF is now, it's hard to fathom a winless Knights team from only a few years ago.

Far be it from me to tell others how bad their teams were, but as someone who followed the MAC last year to see Akron's winless season I'll tell you that I'm shocked that Miami in 2013 wasn't only off the list but behind Akron. That Miami season defied all logic, I shudder the thought of at least 25 college football teams worse than that hell. A few facts:

We averaged 9.8 points per game while giving up 36.7 on average, and we never scored more than 17 in a single game. Only four of our twelve losses were within two touchdowns and even then that makes those four seem much closer than they were.
Averaged 225 yards against 484 on defense. Passing averaged a whole 124 yards per game.
Sagarin put us dead last in FBS at 224 of 252 DI teams, behind numerous non-scholarship programs and FCS teams with over 10 losses that same season.

And a few observations:

Our head coach didn't believe strength training worked, thinking it made players slow. You can probably guess how well our lines did. It wasn't until three seasons later under our new coach that we were semi-capable of standard passing schemes.
Towards the end of the season ESPN put our punter (who to be fair had a good season) as one of our key players at the start of the game.
I was in band that season and was dressed in my uniform getting into my car on the way to one of the last games of the season. Someone in the parking lot who clearly played football just took a look at said "we're sorry."
At one point on 4th and 23 we ran a QB draw play. It didn't work.

(07-24-2020 11:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(07-24-2020 10:15 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  - South Carolina averaged <8 PPG under Lou Holtz in ‘99

That was a bad team with a really difficult schedule. Only one non-power opponent, East Carolina, who was 9-3 that season, and only one opponent who finished the season with a losing record, Vanderbilt, who was 5-6.

It didn't help matters none when five of the six QBs they played that season missed time due to injury, and at times they were one snap away from having to play a single wing offense due to having nobody else to put at QB. They actually had a decent defense with a bunch of players who went on to play in the NFL, but they couldn't do it alone.

(07-25-2020 09:42 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 09:37 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(07-24-2020 11:02 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Pleasantly surprised to find UF on the list and not UCF lol

And UCF did go winless (2015).

As strong as UCF is now, it's hard to fathom a winless Knights team from only a few years ago.

And 2004. It's amazing that a team could have hit bottom twice in this century and had the peaks that the Knights have had.

(07-25-2020 12:31 PM)whittx Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 09:42 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 09:37 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(07-24-2020 11:02 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Pleasantly surprised to find UF on the list and not UCF lol

And UCF did go winless (2015).

As strong as UCF is now, it's hard to fathom a winless Knights team from only a few years ago.

And 2004. It's amazing that a team could have hit bottom twice in this century and had the peaks that the Knights have had.

That's one of the things that differentiates G5 teams from P5. One or two outstanding recruiting classes and/or one stud QB and you can ride the wave for a short time. When those guys leave you don't have the depth to sustain success.

The trick is to find a conference with a sudden need for another member when you happen to be at one of your peaks and hope they have a short memory.

(07-25-2020 04:44 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 12:31 PM)whittx Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 09:42 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 09:37 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(07-24-2020 11:02 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  Pleasantly surprised to find UF on the list and not UCF lol

And UCF did go winless (2015).

As strong as UCF is now, it's hard to fathom a winless Knights team from only a few years ago.

And 2004. It's amazing that a team could have hit bottom twice in this century and had the peaks that the Knights have had.

That's one of the things that differentiates G5 teams from P5. One or two outstanding recruiting classes and/or one stud QB and you can ride the wave for a short time. When those guys leave you don't have the depth to sustain success.

The trick is to find a conference with a sudden need for another member when you happen to be at one of your peaks and hope they have a short memory.

Or in UCF's case have a coach that lost his skills in a hurry. For the most part, UCF had been successful in CUSA before going to the Fiesta Bowl their first year in The American and sharing a conference title the next year before going 0-12