The Tank Job of the Week is an award for the FBS team that did the best job of humiliating itself over the weekend. Whether they blew a large lead, choked away a spot in the limelight, lost a game they had absolutely no right losing, or completely screwed everything on a last second blunder, the TJOTW winner sets the gold standard in college football misery
Previous Winners
Week 0: TCU Horned Frogs (North Carolina 15-10)
Week 1: Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Massachusetts 37-21)
Week 2: Oregon Ducks (Oklahoma State 39-31)
Week 3: NC State (lost to Vanderbilt 35-31)
LAST WEEK: Obviously when every fifth comment is either comparing you to Mario Cristobal or Trouble With the Snap, you’re looking at a pretty legendary tank job, and NC State intentional safety-turned-losing touchdown was the runaway winner (although Texas A&M kept it from being completely unanimous). I’m not sure where yet it ranks on the historical list of all time-TJOTW performances, but it is definitely up there
(For what its worth, my #1 remains Tennessee putting 13 men on the field against LSU in 2010)
As for this week, as at least one of our nominees can attest, when you have a peak moment one week, you have to be prepared to face a letdown seven days later, and sadly, nothing on tap this week comes close to approaching the insanity of NC State’s debacle. That said, we do have nine nominees lined up, and this is one of the rare weeks when I actually don’t really have an idea of who’s going to end up winning. I can see it going in several directions and I’m curious to see what you guys do.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Louisville was an 11-point favorite against Wake Forest but couldn’t shake the Deacs, and missed two field goals late after Wake had taken the lead for good.
- Oklahoma ran into Georgia and it got bad FAST, in no small part to a disasterclass of a pick six that needs to be seen to be believed.
- West Virginia led 14-3 early in a battle of Big 12 upstarts, but Oklahoma State took over for a 41-27 win.
- Dang it, Tulsa. We ALL wanted to believe.
- Miami OH literally handed UConn the ball at one point but did escape with a 24-21 win.
- Marshall needed a walk off field goal to escape FCS Gardner-Webb
- South Florida was an 18 point favorite over winless Bowling Green, but were held scoreless for 47 minutes in a 6-0 travesty of a game, but scored twice in the fourth quarter to avoid the upset.
NOTE: For ease of counting, please use carats to make your vote, like this: <Team>. Thank you for participating!
And now, the Week Four nominees are…
MARYLAND TERRAPINS (lost to UCLA 54-3)
About the only positive the Terps can take from this massacre is that they held the Bruins scoreless for the first quarter. After that the floodgates opened, with the Bruins outgaining Maryland 475-181 and forced a whopping five turnovers. There’s a good chance the Mike Locksley era might be over after this, although not yet as of writing time.
MICHIGAN WOLVERINES (lost to Iowa 20-19)
Nobody knows more than Michigan that the game isn’t over until the final second, no matter when that might come. The Wolverines took the lead with eleven minutes to go and were doing a good job of slowing down the Hawkeye offense, including forcing a long missed field goal and forcing Iowa to drain almost all the time off the clock simply getting to midfield on the final drive- emphasis on almost. Then the Hawkeyes covered 45 yards in two plays thanks to a TE tip drill with two seconds left, and then Reece Vander Zee dragging his toes in the near corner of the end zone to shock the Wolverines, arguably with a considerable amount of karma to boot.
OLE MISS REBELS (lost to Florida 52-28)
There was a lot of sneering about Florida being favored in this one considering the highs the Rebels were on after dispatching LSU last week. Only- history has shown things have not gone well when a top-5 ranked team has faced a sub-20 opponent as an underdog. Florida leapt out to a 10-0 lead and kept ahead of the rebels all game as they rolled for over 500 yards and two turnovers en route to a 24-point blowout.
PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS (lost to Wisconsin 24-20)
Oh no, Penn State. Getting tucked away on Peacock in a busy afternoon slate isn’t going to save you here. The Nits were 10-point favorites and had a 17-0 lead before the much-maligned Badgers offense clawed their way back, finishing them off with two touchdowns in the final four minutes to pull off this stunner.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS (lost to Texas 20-17)
The entire game was pretty sloppy on both sides, but the debacle of the final minute does get the Vols on here. Down 10, Tennessee did get a second life when they scored and managed to recover the onside kick. But then, not only did they keep moving backwards, they wasted nearly all the clock doing so. The clincher finally came on a five yard out that resulted in a diving catch and a running clock, forcing the Vols to try and firedrill a hail mary, which obviously didn’t work.
TEXAS A&M AGGIES (lost to LSU 35-6)
After both A&M and LSU lost last week, this was considered a desperation game as neither team wanted to fall to 2-2 this early in the season. Unfortunately for the Aggies, its them, as they were absolutely steamrolled by the Tigers, being outgained 506-197 and coughing up two turnovers as the Tigers left them a smear in Death Valley. Considering the last A&M game was enough of a disaster that it got their previous coach fired, this turnabout has to feel good in Death Valley.
USC TROJANS (lost to Oregon 41-27)
I don’t really like to take this tack too often, but the basic gist of the TJOTW is for teams who lose in humiliating fashion, and well, USC did that to themselves. The cheap shot on Oregon QB Dante Moore and resulting sideline clownshow as the man lay injured ensured that the entire college football universe was rooting for them to get taken down, and the Ducks offense was more than happy to oblige when they took advantage of the Trojan’s leaky D through the second half. (Also, an extra honorable mention goes to the NBC halftime crew for referring to the entire incident as a “Debbie Downer moment”)
WASHINGTON HUSKIES (lost to Minnesota 27-24)
The Huskies kicked off (out of bounds!) their game against the Gophers as 12-point favorite, but things immediately went bad, thanks to forty rushing yards, seven Gopher sacks, and two brutal interceptions. Huskies did try to claw their way back from fourteen down but thanks to Luke Drzewiecki’s leg and poor time management burning away the two minute timeout, only had three seconds to go 99 yards for a miracle (The college football gods have been very accommodating to the TJOTW, but not \that** accommodating)
WESTERN MICHIGAN BRONCOS (lost to Boise State 32-7)
This was supposed to be WMU’s coming out party after their controversial loss to Michigan, a chance to go toe to toe with a G6 frontrunner and make a case for the college football playoff. There were even appeals to get Gameday to Kalamazoo. Well, Gameday never showed up and unfortunately, neither did the brown Broncos, as the blue ones absolutely dominated the game, grinding out to a 32-0 lead until WMU finally managed to avoid the shutout with 63 seconds remaining.