The Most Disappointing Teams of 2023 so far
By: Luke Brumm
Just as there are teams come out of nowhere and become good, there are just as many, if not more, that underperform. Texas A&M does this almost every year. Let's take a look and see which teams fall into that category as of this point in the season.
LSU
I know LSU is 5-2 and having a good season, but a lot of people had this team in the Playoffs, or at least in the SEC Championship. They could not even get to 1-0. I know they lost to a really good Florida State team, but still. They then picked up another loss to Ole Miss. This team was supposed to have one-loss max in the regular season. For what was being said preseason, LSU has definitely been disappointing.
Notre Dame
Another team that received some preseason hype was Notre Dame. Some people, including myself, believed that they were only missing a competent quarterback. Well they got more than that in Wake Forest transfer, Sam Hartman. He has been good so far, but not good enough to be competing for the CFP. The Irish already have two losses, to Ohio State and Louisville. Yes, they have been good, but not as good as advertised. I was expecting a little bit more from Notre Dame this season.
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Kansas State
Kansas State started the season ranked 16th after a successful 2022 campaign which saw them win the Big 12. They were supposed to build on that this year, but that hasn't happened. Kansas State is 4-2 with losses to Missouri and Oklahoma State. They still have games on the road vs Texas and Kansas as well. It will take a perfect rest of the season for Kansas State to have a shot at repeating as conference champs.
Arkansas & South Carolina
I'm grouping these two together for two reasons. One, they are both in the SEC, and two, they have had very similar seasons so far. The Gamecocks are 2-4 and 1-3 in SEC play while the Razorbacks are 2-5 and 0-4 vs SEC opponents. Not good for two teams with high hopes heading into 2023.
Arkansas was a top-15 team two seasons ago and had to deal with a lot of key injuries last year. They were looking to have a bounce-back season. South Carolina had a lot of hype after a decent 2022 season and even had College Gameday at their game in week 1 when they took on North Carolina in Charlotte. Safe to say these seasons haven't panned out as expected for these two programs.