The Biggest Disappointments of the 2022 College Football Season so Far

As we head into Week 6 of the college football season, we have a good idea of which teams are contenders. A handful of teams have drastically performed well below their preseason expectations too.

Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Michigan State, to name a few, are on the latter list.

Let's run through those and the other biggest disappointments of the 2022 college football season.

Things look a lot different in East Lansing than they did a season ago. Last year, Michigan State finished 11-2 and scored a Peach Bowl victory over Pittsburgh. In late November, amid a wild coaching carousel, the school awarded second-year head coach Mel Tucker with a 10-year, $95 million contract.

The deal made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport.

Heading into 2022, Sparty was expected to be a contender in the Big Ten East and sat at No. 15 in the AP preseason poll. The team brought back nine starters on defense as well as starting quarterback Payton Thorne.

But through six weeks, Michigan State is 2-3 and staring at a long season ahead. The Spartans opened the year with a pair of expected home wins over Western Michigan and Akron. But they are riding a three-game losing skid to Washington, Minnesota and Maryland.

It looks like the losses will only continue. This weekend, Michigan State will take on No. 3 Ohio State, which is a 27-point favorite.

Michigan State's run game has struggled significantly after replacing Kenneth Walker III in the offseason. Wisconsin transfer Jalen Berger has just 301 yards and four touchdowns. He hasn't eclipsed 100 yards rushing since MSU's Week 2 win over Akron.

Sparty ranks 99th in rushing nationally. Thorne has thrown for eight touchdowns and six interceptions for the nation's No. 73 passing attack.

After the Ohio State game, Michigan State has remaining matchups with Michigan, Illinois and Penn State, two of which are Top 10 teams. Sparty will likely be underdogs in all of them.

This year looks like it could mirror Michigan State's 2-5 season in 2020.

Nebraska had never had a winning season under fifth-year head coach Scott Frost heading into 2022, but there were reasons for optimism in Lincoln. One of the biggest was the fact that Frost overhauled his staff at the end of the Cornhuskers' 3-9 effort last year.

He fired four offensive assistants and hired offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who spent three seasons at Pitt. In 2021, Whipple helped quarterback Kenny Pickett become a Heisman Trophy finalist, and Pitt won the ACC title. The Panthers offense also averaged 41.4 points per game, which was third nationally.

Even with the changes, 2-3 Nebraska hasn't gotten much better.

In Week 0, Nebraska lost 31-28 to Northwestern in Dublin. Inexplicably, with Frost's team up 28-17 in the third quarter, he opted for an onside kick. Northwestern recovered and scored a touchdown to make it a one-score game. The Wildcats scored a go-ahead touchdown with 11:34 left to take a 31-28 lead, and the Huskers offense sputtered as the score held from there.

Things didn't get better over the next few weeks. In Nebraska's home opener against FCS North Dakota, the game was tied 7-7 at halftime. It was a one-score contest through the third quarter before Nebraska punched in two touchdowns in the fourth to win 38-17.

Nebraska's Week 2 game against Georgia Southern was the most disastrous of all, as the Cornhuskers fell 45-42 at home. With the win, the Sun Belt squad snapped Nebraska's 214-0 record when scoring 35 points or more at Memorial Stadium.

Unsurprisingly, Nebraska fired Frost less than 24 hours later on Sept. 11. It even incurred his full $15 million buyout, even though that was set to drop to $7.5 million had it waited until October 1.

Miami entered the year with high expectations. The Hurricanes finished 7-5 last season and played well late in 2021 behind freshman quarterback Tyler Van Dyke. They hired a new head coach in Mario Cristobal, who had a 35-13 record over five seasons at Oregon. The ACC media predicted Miami would win a wide-open Coastal Division.

But things haven't gone as planned.

The Canes are 2-2, including consecutive losses to Texas A&M and Middle Tennessee State. Before those, Miami had a shaky Week 2 outing against Southern Miss. Although the Canes won 30-7, they were only up 10-7 at halftime. The poor offensive outing even prompted boos from the home Miami crowd.

Against Texas A&M, the team's offensive struggles continued. The Canes failed to find the end zone all game and even missed two field goals in the first half. They had chances to tie it on two late-game drives but fumbled and then turned it over on downs to give TAMU a 17-9 win.

With how much 3-2 Texas A&M is struggling, this loss looks even worse for Miami.

But the most embarrassing loss came in Week 4 to Conference USA's Middle Tennessee State. Miami entered as 25.5-point a favorite but struggled throughout. MTSU had a 24-10 lead at halftime and shocked the Hurricanes on the road 45-31. The Blue Raiders defense forced three turnovers, including two picks of Van Dyke.

Miami is coming off a bye this week and will face North Carolina at home Saturday. The Canes are 3.5-point favorites, but UNC has won the last three in the series. The remaining schedule doesn't get much easier with games against Duke, Florida State, Clemson and Pitt.

Wisconsin finished 9-4 last season and was a favorite in the Big Ten West heading into 2022. Head coach Paul Chryst was entering his eighth year as Wisconsin's head coach, holding a 65-23 record. The Badgers had double-digit wins four times during that span and had made it to seven consecutive bowl games, having won six.

But following a 2-3 start, Wisconsin fired Chryst. The move was a shock, given that the Badgers have never had a losing season under him.

But it looks like Wisconsin could finish below .500 for the first time since 2001, when Barry Alvarez—who is now the Badgers' athletic director—was the head coach.

Wisconsin's first loss came in Week 2 at home against Washington State. Although Wisconsin put up 401 total yards on offense, outgaining the Cougars by 148 yards, the Badgers defense gave up 10 unanswered points in the third quarter. Wisconsin had 11 penalties for 106 yards and had three turnovers in the loss.

The team dropped its last two to Ohio State and Illinois. Against the Fighting Illini, the Badgers scored just 10 points in the first half and were shut out the rest of the game.

Following the 34-10 loss to the Illini, the school fired Chryst.

Wisconsin's offensive struggles—despite the hiring of new offensive coordinator Bobby Engram and Chryst's decision to give up the play-calling—might've put the nail in his coffin. Here's what Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had to say on WJOX-FM:

“This year Paul Chryst made some changes in the offseason. Gave up offensive coordinator, gave up play-calling .... was more of a CEO, all in an effort to get the offense up and running. The changes haven't worked. The offense is stuck in neutral. And the defense is struggling a little bit because they lost eight starters. .... The loss to Illinois is what really what shook people at UW, including athletic director Chris McIntosh.”

We'll see how Wisconsin does the rest of the season under interim head coach Jim Leonhard.

Baylor finished last season as the Big 12 champion, defeating Oklahoma State 21-16 in the conference title game. The Bears' two regular-season losses kept them out of the College Football Playoff, but they still finished with a Sugar Bowl victory over Ole Miss.

Heading into 2022, Baylor was expected to compete for the Big 12 title once again. The Bears were returning 12 starters and ranked 10th in the preseason AP Poll.

But Baylor has dropped out of the Top 25 and sits at 3-2 through six weeks.

The Bears lost 26-20 in double overtime in Week 2 to BYU and fell 36-25 last week to Oklahoma State at home. Baylor trailed 16-3 at halftime of the latter game, and although it scored 22 points in the third quarter to make things more competitive, the Bears defense gave up 17 points to put the contest out of reach.

Baylor is fifth in the Big 12 standings, sitting behind three undefeated teams in Kansas, Oklahoma State and TCU, as well as 4-1 Kansas State. It still has games against ranked opponents, including vs. Kansas, Kansas State and TCU.

Unless the team runs the table, Baylor's 2022 will be a step back from last year.

Brent Venables' first season in Norman isn't quite going as well as expected. The Oklahoma Sooners started the season as the preseason No. 9 team, and it looked like they were the Big 12's best shot at making it into the playoff.

The Sooners brought back 10 starters from last year's 11-2 team. Venables also added some talented guys from the transfer portal, including former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel. He threw for 8,037 yards and 70 touchdowns over three seasons with the Knights.

But through five games, the Sooners are 3-2, including 0-2 in Big 12 play over the last two weeks. They lost 41-34 to Kansas State at home in Week 4 and fell 55-24 to TCU last week.

Unfortunately, Gabriel left the TCU game early in the second quarter with an apparent head injury. He was attempting to slide when he took a shot from TCU's Jamoi Hodge, who was ejected for targeting.

As of Thursday, it was unclear whether Gabriel would suit up for Oklahoma's Week 6 rivalry game against Texas.

The Sooners have contests remaining against undefeated Kansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Venables was expected to pick up where Lincoln Riley left off in 2021.

Instead, it looks like Oklahoma is on the verge of losing more than two games in a season for the first time since 2014.

Texas A&M was expected to give Alabama trouble in the SEC West this season. After all, the Aggies were one of just two teams to beat the Crimson Tide last year. Texas A&M also made noise in the offseason by landing the nation's No. 1 recruiting class for 2022, which was 247Sports' highest-rated ever.

Texas A&M was ranked No. 6 when Week 1 arrived. But things quickly went downhill in College Station.

In Week 2, the Aggies lost 17-14 at home to Appalachian State in a game they entered as 18-point favorites. The Mountaineers had 82 offensive snaps compared to TAMU's 38, and App State outgained Jimbo Fisher's team 315-180. The victory marked App State's first win over an AP Top 10 team since it moved to the FBS in 2014.

Following the loss, Fisher made a change at quarterback, starting Max Johnson over Haynes King in Week 3. King threw two interceptions in the season opener against Sam Houston State and had no touchdowns in the loss to App State.

Under Johnson, the Aggies looked improved as they beat then-No. 13 Miami 17-9 at home. Johnson threw for 140 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. They then came from behind to defeat Arkansas 23-21 in Week 4.

But Texas A&M followed that with a 42-24 loss to Mississippi State to drop to 3-2. The Aggies trailed the entire game, only managing to pull within 11 points twice after halftime. The loss marked the second time in two seasons that Texas A&M has fallen to Mississippi State.

Texas A&M has another shot at Alabama this week but is a 24-point underdog. On the rest of the slate, the Aggies have to face Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn and LSU. A losing season might be enough to put Fisher on the hot seat at Texas A&M.

Things aren't going well during Marcus Freeman's first season in South Bend. Notre Dame entered the year as a playoff contender, returning 15 starters from last year's 11-2 team. Although the school hadn't had a new head coach in over a decade, elevating Freeman from defensive coordinator was supposed to make the transition from Brian Kelly a bit smoother.

But through five weeks, Notre Dame is 2-2 and out of the playoff conversation. The Fighting Irish lost 21-10 to No. 2 Ohio State in Week 1, a game in which ND had a 10-7 lead. The loss didn't knock the Irish out of the playoff, but their subsequent loss certainly did.

In Freeman's home opener in Week 2, Notre Dame lost to Marshall 26-21, which marked the Irish's first loss to an unranked, non-Power Five team as a Top 10 squad since 1996 (Air Force). It also snapped Notre Dame's 42-game winning streak against unranked foes as a ranked team.

What's worse? Notre Dame lost its starting quarterback, Tyler Buchner, to a shoulder injury in the Marshall game.

Notre Dame rebounded well, beating Cal at home and an undefeated UNC team on the road. But ND's remaining games might limit the Fighting Irish's win total. They'll face No. 16 BYU in Las Vegas this week and get games against Syracuse and Clemson and a regular-season finale on the road vs. No. 6 USC.

Freeman is a great coach, and he will do great things at Notre Dame. But 2022 is not his year.

Odds provided by DraftKings and accurate as of Thursday.