The CFB season is about to K/O, here are 11 teams looking to turn themselves around
Posted by UFreak in 
….but dont bet on any of them, unless you just REALLY like losing your money!
In the history of the Rose Bowl, just one school between the Big Ten and Pac-10 has never smelled the roses: Arizona. With the conference so open this season, the Wildcats have a chance to snap their dubious drought. But be careful what you wish for. In their 32 years as a member of the Pac-10, the Wildcats have come painfully close to reaching the big stage only to fail each time. We look back on the school’s biggest heart breaks. Other BCS teams that historically fail?….They are right here:
10. Iowa State
Yes, we are aware the Cyclones made it to a bowl game last year. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean jack in college football anymore. After a 22-year bowl drought ended in 2000, the Cyclones have squeezed into five other bowl games. But when they’re bad, they’re really bad. From 2006-08, ISU was 9-27. They played in the Insight Bowl last year, but only after earning three of their six wins against North Dakota State, Kent State and Army – still finishing 3-5 in the conference.
9. Kentucky
After setting an NBA record for first round draft picks from the same team (5), Kentucky’s basketball program put itself back among the nation’s best. Finding out that football scholarships are simply loaned to John Calipari wouldn’t surprise us in the slightest. The number of players Kentucky had picked in the first round in the last decade of the NFL Draft? One.
The Wildcat’s best years are most known from the days of coach Paul “Bear” Bryant after World War II; he apparently exhausted his team so much that they couldn’t make a bowl game for 20 years after he left. Unbelievably, the Cats got to No. 8 in the AP poll in 2007 – only to choke the season away and end up 7-5. This tells you everything you need to know about UK football. On top of that, Kentucky has lost 25 straight games to Tennessee. Even worse, their new head coach’s name: Joker. This looks promising.
8. Northwestern
As if wearing purple jerseys weren’t shameful enough. Embarrassing themselves even before they step on the field, the Wildcats usually play like they look. One of the only football records Northwestern holds is the longest losing streak ever (34 games from 1979-82).
Their last bowl victory was in 1949 but that’s not even the worst part; it was their only bowl victory, EVER. This egregious record is not from lack of trying. The Wildcats have now lost 7 straight bowl games, including the 1996 Rose Bowl (talk about a miracle) and two heartbreaking overtime losses in the past two years. Which will happen first? A Wildcat bowl win or a Cubs World Series championship?
The Wildcats actually had a good 2009 season, ending up in the Outback Bowl. But naturally Northwestern lost most of its offensive weapons and is projected to finish toward the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
7. Minnesota
Known mostly for their hockey prominence, Minnesota is constantly struggling for success in other athletic endeavors. Football has not been kind to the Golden Gophers. Since a share of the national title in 1960, Minnesota has been underground. For example: Since 1967, Goldy has won the Little Brown Jug from Big Ten rival Michigan a grand total of three times.
The good news: Minnesota has made it to 4 bowl games in 5 years by padding their nonconference schedule with patsies. The bad news: They lost all of them, including the worst blown lead in the history of FBS bowl games in 2006. This loss led to the firing of coach Glen Mason. Their new coach Tim Brewster holds a losing record and zero bowl victories. If only football were played on ice.
6. Mississippi State
The Mississippi State Bulldogs enter our list as another SEC cream puff. The Bulldogs have only won one SEC championship in their entire history. We’ve seen nearly eleven different presidents since Mississippi State won their only title in 1941. MSU seems to be a gravesite for coaches. A coach hasn’t left Mississippi State with a winning record since 1954. And there have only been two coaches in the entire program’s history with winning records against SEC opponents.
No wonder the SEC is so good: They get an extra bye week each year. At least Dan Mullen is a very competent coach who showed promise in his first season. But the Bulldogs lost almost all the pieces from their offense last season and play at LSU, at Florida, and at Alabama. Go figure.
5. Baylor
With a nice run in March Madness, some people may have remembered the existence of Baylor athletics. It would take a beautiful mind to remember the last time Baylor was relevant in college football. No one can seem to find the magic touch, as Baylor has produced a losing record over the last 15 seasons and 3 different coaches. Being in the so-called “Football capital of the world,” even the losses are bigger in Texas.
And playing in the treacherous Big 12 South with the likes of Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, that streak of losing seasons doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. There almost appears to be a curse over the program as, poised for a breakout year in 2009, star QB Robert Griffin went down with a torn ACL in the third game of the season.
4. Washington State
Right now, the Cougs are the worst BCS team in the country after going a dreadful 3-22 in Paul Wulff’s two seasons in Pullman. In 2009, WSU ranked 119th (out of 120) in total offense and dead last in total defense and all of their 11 loses were by double digits.
They haven’t made a bowl game since 2003, a year after head coach Mike Price left his alma mater high and dry to bolt for Alabama. But hey, that’s nothing compared to their 50-year bowl drought that mercifully ended in 1981. As Wulff is finding out, it’s tough getting blue-chip recruits to come play in the middle of nowhere when your program’s claim to fame (or infamy) is Ryan Leaf.
3. Vanderbilt
Playing in the most powerful conference in the NCAA, the Commodores have not won a conference championship since 1923. In the entire program history, they have appeared in only 4 bowl games. Conversely, no other SEC team has appeared in less than 14. The Commodores have only had one winning season in the past two decades and only four in the past half century. The Dore-mats were already projected by many to go winless in conference this season, and their head coach Bobby Johnson just resigned weeks before kick off. Can they just forfeit their games now?
2. Indiana
If you thought Minnesota was an atrocious Big Ten football team, you must have forgotten Indiana even had one. We don’t blame you, of course, the Hoosiers have been to just nine bowl games in their history. They can legitimately count their successful seasons on their fingers, and have been to one bowl game since 1993. IU hasn’t beaten Michigan or Ohio State in over 20 years.
Last season showed some promise as the Hoosiers started 3-0. Then the planets realigned and Indiana dropped eight of their last nine games to once again secure a spot at the bottom of the Big Ten. Somewhere Bobby Knight just tossed a chair. The good news? They can’t go any lower.
1. Duke
Duke is all kinds of atrocious on the gridiron, having won only three bowl games in their entire program history – the last one coming a whopping 50 years ago. And they’ve been home for the holidays every year since 1994. Duke’s been almost all downhill since Steve Spurrier left to coach Florida in 1990 after leading the Blue Devils to respectability. They haven’t had a winning football record since 1994, but have gone completely winless three times since then.
That includes a 23-game losing streak from 1999-2001 because, as head coach Carl Franks mildly put it, “Winning football games has certainly been harder than I anticipated.” Yeah, that’s an understatement. This past season’s 5-7 record was such a success head coach David Cutcliffe was offered the job at Tennessee. Cutcliffe turned the job down; apparently he’s a glutton for punishment.