College Football's Five Worst Teams

In all of the hustle and bustle of rankings, conference titles, and playoffs, it’s easy to get caught up thinking too much about the teams in the top 25.

Who’s going to be in the top four? Who’s going to win the SEC? The Big 12? The Pac-12? These are all questions we ask ourselves daily as we habitually scan the latest polls.

It’s important to know who the best teams are.

But in order to appreciate how good these teams are, it’s just as important to know who the worst teams are.

The bad teams help us keep perspective when we become frustrated about the fact that our favorite team didn’t win by 50 points every game.

So take a minute and think about the little guys; they’re football teams, too.

Here are the five worst teams in college football:

5. Kent State Golden Flashes, Mid-American

Record: 1-9 (0-6 MAC)

Before we begin, let’s pause to appreciate an awesome name like the “Golden Flashes.”

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OK, now we can get started. I’m going to take it a little easier on Kent State than I will on any other team on this list. Kent State is 1-9, but they’ve played a tough schedule, by Kent State standards.

Five of their ten opponents have winning records, including ninth-ranked Ohio State.

So for a team in the MAC, that’s not a cupcake schedule. However, Kent State has looked spectacularly incompetent while playing through it.

Averaging only 15.3 points and 306 yards a game, and yielding 29.5 points and 435.4 yards defensively, the Golden Flashes have been unable to compete with anyone not named Army (who’s currently 3-7). Kent State has simply looked outmatched in nearly every game they’ve played.

They’ve put up a fight, but just couldn’t overcome their significant offensive struggles.

Maybe if they could play a schedule comprised of teams like the ones on this list, they might be looking at a better finish to the 2014 season.

4. UNLV Rebels, Mountain West

Record: 2-9 (1-5 MWC)

Raise your hand if you knew that UNLV went to a bowl game last year. Well, they did, you can look it up. And even though it was a loss, head coach Bobby Hauck seemed to finally be changing the culture of football in Las Vegas, snapping a three-year streak of two-win seasons with a very pedestrian 7-6 mark.

Unfortunately, last year is looking more and more like an anomaly for a historically bad football program.

The Rebels are sitting at 2-9 after narrowly beating Northern Colorado and edging Fresno State in overtime. They’re averaging just 20.3 points and 380.3 yards a game while surrendering 37.6 points and 513 yards a game.

They’ve committed seven more turnovers than they’ve forced, and even lost 42-23 to a BYU team without its star quarterback last weekend.

It’s been a hard fall back into terribleness for UNLV, but even sadder is the fact that no one is that surprised.

3. Eastern Michigan Eagles, Mid-American

Record: 2-8 (1-5 MAC)

Believe it or not, the Michigan Wolverines are not the worst football team in the state. That title belongs to Eastern Michigan.

Brady Hoke should write Chris Creighton a hand-written thank you letter.

Yes, Chris Creighton is the Eagles’ head coach, and no, you haven’t heard that name before, because the most significant thing he’s done in his career is lead Eastern Michigan to a 2-8 record in his first season as an FBS coach.

To be fair, he did take the reins of a program that has only played in two bowl games ever, and maybe he can make Eastern Michigan somewhat respectable.

But he’ll have to do better than scoring just 13.6 points a game. His offense has been horrendous, averaging just 275.7 yards a game, and the defense hasn’t been any better.

The Eagles have been shredded by every offense they’ve faced to the tune of 39.4 points and 503.2 yards a game.

They’ve been pulverized by the likes of Michigan State and even Florida, the ultimate sign of weakness this season.

2. Georgia State Panthers, Sun Belt

Record: 1-9 (0-7 Sun Belt)

By far the youngest program on the list, Georgia State football was founded in 2010. And this Sun Belt baby hasn’t quite learned how to walk yet.

Or barely crawl, really.

It’s been tough sledding for the Panthers, who are now a combined 1-21 in their first two seasons in the Sun Belt Conference.

To make matters worse, their brother, Georgia Southern, is sitting at 8-3 (7-0 in the Sun Belt) and will likely win the conference in its first season playing FBS football. It’s not great to be a Georgia State fan right now.

The Panthers’ only win came in their opener against FCS opponent Abilene Christian, a game in which Georgia State made a ten-point, fourth quarter comeback to win 38-37. It’s been all downhill from there.

Georgia State has surrendered at least 30 points in every game, gives up an average of 500 yards on defense, puts up only 24.1 points and 383.3 yards per game of their own, and to top it off, they boast the nation’s worst turnover margin at minus-18.

They are terrible; plain and simple. You have to wonder how two teams only three hours apart in the state of Georgia can be so completely different.

And they’ve only won one game in two years. Did I already mention that?

1. SMU Mustangs, American Athletic

Record: 0-9 (0-5 AAC)

By far the worst team in college football. The teams listed above are quite bad, make no mistake, but the Mustangs make them all look like Super Bowl champions.

You won’t believe these numbers I’m reading to you, but I assure you, they are 100 percent true: 10 points and 274.1 yards per game offensively, 43.1 points and 528.2 yards per game defensively, and they boast a minus-13 turnover margin.

Hey, that’s less turnovers than Georgia State! That counts for something, doesn’t it?

SMU ranks either last or in the bottom five of pretty much every statistical category, especially the most important one: the win column.

SMU is the nation’s only remaining completely defeated team.

If you have the time, try to find some of the footage of this year’s SMU team. And then be sure you don’t watch more than 30 seconds of it, because what you’ll see will just make you sad.

These Mustangs look like the post-Death Penalty SMU teams from the late 80s. They just look smaller than every other team, unable to tackle, run, catch, or really do anything positive.

The season, already spiraling out of control, only worsened when head coach June Jones resigned after a 0-2 start this season, even after winning seven or more games in four straight seasons from 2009 to 2012 while apart of the C-USA.

SMU just can’t seem to catch a break.

Maybe they need to move back to the C-USA. We know paying for players isn’t an option.