College football winners and losers: Oregon and Texas A&M headline the most disappointing teams of the first 6 weeks
Somehow, the college football season is nearly half over.
Many teams across the country completed the first half of their 12-game seasons on Saturday. And we’ve already got a pretty good idea of who is in line for an underwhelming season. Here are our most disappointing teams of the first six weeks, headlined by two teams that were eyeing return trips to the College Football Playoff.
Oregon (3-2)
It’s incredibly hard to see Oregon as a national title contender. Yes, the Ducks were without Dante Moore, but Saturday’s game against UCLA is the perfect example of why you add an experienced quarterback like Dylan Raiola.
However, Raiola had one of the worst games of his career as the Ducks lost 17-15.
Raiola turned the ball over three times and was just 6-of-19 passing for 43 yards before he was replaced by Brock Thomas in the second half. Thanks to a fumble on the final play of the game as Oregon frantically tried to lateral the ball to no avail, the Ducks finished with seven turnovers.
Oregon may need to win out to have any chance at the College Football Playoff. (Photo by Al Sermeno/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)Al Sermeno/ISI Photos via Getty Images
Yet Oregon should have at least had the chance to send the game to overtime. After the Ducks pulled within two on a late fourth-quarter touchdown, UCLA stopped the game-tying 2-point conversion.
Oregon shouldn’t have needed to go for 2.
The Ducks only needed that attempt because they failed on a 2-point conversion after their first touchdown of the day. Had Oregon simply kicked the PAT in the first quarter, it would have needed a simple PAT to tie UCLA with 2:16 to go.
That falls squarely on the shoulders of Oregon coach Dan Lanning. Oklahoma State’s defense noted that they had cues on Oregon’s offensive plays in the Cowboys’ Week 2 win. This is a roster that has a ton of talent that simply isn’t being maximized.
Texas A&M (3-3)
The Aggies’ offense is sorely missing Collin Klein and KC Concepcion. Klein is now the head coach at his alma mater, Kansas State. Concepcion was a first-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns.
They were integral to the Aggies’ offensive success in 2025. But perhaps we underestimated just how much they mattered. Texas A&M’s offense is an absolute mess and had no shot on Saturday in a 27-6 loss at Missouri.
A&M had fewer than 80 yards in the first half and was incredibly fortunate to only trail by seven at halftime. In the second half, the offense wasn’t much better until the game was out of reach following Jamal Roberts’ game-clinching TD run.
Coach Mike Elko sounded a lot like a broken man in search of an offensive repair guide in his postgame news conference. He opened by saying it was "another extremely disappointing road performance" before responding with this when asked what gives him confidence about his offense’s ability to get on track.
"I mean, does this look confident to you?" Elko replied.
Texas A&M’s offense has struggled as the Aggies are .500 halfway through the season. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
He then went on to take a shot at the Aggies fans who are active on the well-known fan site TexAgs.com.
"Again, I mean there’s a difference to me between the fan base and social media," Elko said. "And so there’s one group that I really don’t care much about, [site owner Billy Liucci’s] cesspool can go be Billy’s cesspool. Our fan base, stay with us. Be behind us. We’re going to build something that we told you we’re going to build. We’re in a really bad spot right now but we’ll work our way out of it."
With games remaining against Alabama, Tennessee and Texas, we can safely say the Aggies won’t be making back-to-back playoff appearances. And their Week 12 game vs. Oklahoma could be must-see TV if you love offensive offenses.
Florida State (3-3)
Any reasonable Florida State fan would probably have taken a 3-3 record through the first six games of the season given the Seminoles’ schedule. But the way that 3-3 record has happened is cause for some serious disappointment.
In Week 1, the Seminoles forced four SMU turnovers yet still lost on a game-winning field goal. And what unfolded Friday night was even more disastrous than that.
The Seminoles took an early 14-0 lead and had first-and-goal at the Louisville 10-yard line with 10:53 to go before halftime. A three-TD lead was well within reach. Heck, a three-possession lead seemed like a given. Instead, FSU turned the ball over on downs after going for it on fourth down at the Louisville 2-yard line.
And then on the very next play, Louisville running back Isaac Brown did this.
ALL. THE. WAY 💨
Isaac Brown goes 97-yards to the house. The longest play in program history.
Watch on @espn#GoCardspic.twitter.com/UKU9qbJQfT
— Louisville Football (@LouisvilleFB) October 10, 2026
Brown’s TD was the first of 35 straight points for the Cardinals as they built their own 21-point lead. After that turnover on downs, Florida State punted the ball on five straight possessions and went three-and-out three times against a Louisville defense that’s allowing 5.6 yards a play and is outside the top 100 in scoring defense.
By the way, No. 4 Miami awaits in Week 7.
Washington (3-3)
Things seemed to be lining up for Washington’s first Big Ten win of the season Friday night. The Huskies were favored at home and No. 20 Iowa was starting backup QB Jeremy Hecklinski as Hank Brown suffered a shoulder injury in the Hawkeyes’ Week 5 loss to Ohio State.
Instead, Iowa opened the game with 27 straight points and Washington QB Demond Williams Jr. left the game with a rib injury and a potential concussion just before halftime. He didn’t return in the second half of the Huskies’ 41-24 loss.
Williams has powered Washington’s offense nearly by himself. In addition to throwing for nearly 1,400 yards, he’s the team’s second-leading rusher and one of only two players with multiple rushing touchdowns.
Now, Washington — who was ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Top 25 — faces the prospect of missing their most important player for multiple weeks as simply getting bowl eligible may be the season’s ultimate goal. Even with Williams on the field, Washington could be underdogs in at least four of its remaining six games.
Here are the rest of this week’s winners and losers.
Winners
Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons should absolutely be in the AP Top 25 on Sunday after moving to 5-1 with a 38-14 win at NC State. QB Gio Lopez is flourishing after his transfer from North Carolina and was 26-of-33 passing for 303 yards and three touchdowns in the win. The Wake Forest defense sacked CJ Bailey three times and held the Wolfpack to 15 rushing yards on 24 carries. Don’t be surprised if Wake is 8-1 ahead of a trip to No. 24 SMU on Nov. 14. This is a team that can absolutely make the ACC title game.
Missouri RB Jamal Roberts: The Tigers are letting Roberts eat. A week after he rushed 24 times for 211 yards and three touchdowns in Mizzou’s win over Florida, Roberts got even
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.