15 worst college football teams of 2022

The good news is that former Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead takes over for Tom Arth, injecting much needed energy into a program that desperately needs it. Akron has gone 3-27 over the last three seasons (two wins over Bowling Green and one over Bryant). Moorhead will be able to improve an offense built around an experienced offensive line but will struggle to turn around a defense that was one of the absolute worst in the nation (the Zips gave up 39.5 points per game in 2021). I believe Moorhead will turn this around, but it won't happen this year. 

Arkansas State does have a couple of names you've probably heard of. Butch Jones was once the head coach at Tennessee and Cincinnati, and quarterback James Blackman was a starter at Florida State. That's the good news. The bad news is that the defense is horrible, which forces the Red Wolves to be one-dimensional on offense. They've got to find someone who can run the football, or this will be another season of getting rolled in a very good Sun Belt. 

Ball State will be breaking in a new quarterback, with John Paddock the leader to be the starter in the opener against Tennessee. He'll have the luxury of 1,000-yard rusher Carson Steele behind an experienced offensive line. The defense also is rebuilding, with just five starters returning from a squad that was 96th in the nation in total defense. If Paddock can develop, the Cardinals may find themselves in some shootouts. If he can't, those games become blowouts. 

Duke may be the worst Power 5 team this season. Mike Elko will be tasked with building back the Blue Devils after a tough couple of seasons that ended David Cutcliffe's 14-year era in Durham. Duke finished last in the ACC in both scoring offense and defense and lost their top rusher, passer, and receiver from last season. This is a work in progress, and their schedule isn't daunting, but don't expect the Blue Devils to compete for much in the ACC this season. 

Florida International, who won just one game last year, was hit hard by players transferring out as Butch Davis' program hit rock bottom. Mike MacIntyre takes over but will have to cobble together a team to try to get out of the basement of Conference USA. FIU lost their last 11 games of the 2021 season and returned just four starters. Duke transfer Gunnar Holmberg (7 TDs, 8 INTs) will take over the offense but cannot rely on one of the worst running attacks in FBS last season.

FAU left behind FIU in the recent realignment (FAU is heading to the AAC next year), which stings. Their final division matchup will be on Nov. 12th. 

Hawai'i is a mess. The defense was putrid last season and returns only one starter (linebacker Penei Pavihi) and will rely on several transfers in the secondary to begin the rebuild. The offense wasn't horrible and should show improvement with new head coach (and Hawaii football legend) Timmy Chang taking over. That's where the mess comes in. Former head coach Todd Graham was ousted after the state senate held hearings about players claiming he mistreated them and created a toxic culture. Also, the Warriors will be playing the next few seasons in a 9,000-seat on-campus stadium as a new Aloha Stadium is being built.

Chang's hire is huge, just for the culture change and fan confidence in the program. But it's going to take a few years to get the Rainbow Warriors anywhere near where he had them during his playing days.  

ULM got off to a promising start under new head coach Terry Bowden but would lose their final five games of the season. The lack of a passing offense led to the demise and will need to be addressed this season if they have any shot at reaching four wins again. The problem will be their schedule, which is brutal for a team trying to rebuild. They begin the season at Texas and then travel to Alabama two weeks later. Those paydays will help the Hawks down the road, but not this year. 

Most of the teams on the list have been in the dumps for the last few years, but Nevada isn't one of them. The Wolf Pack began last season 7-2 before the wheels fell off late in the season, including getting waxed 52-24 by Western Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl. So, why is an 8-win team last year predicted to be really bad this season? Head coach Jay Norvell left for Colorado State and cleaned house on his way out. Former Chris Alt assistant Ken Wilson takes over and will rely on running back Toa Taua until he can figure out who his quarterback is and what receivers he can rely on. The same scenario is happening on defense as Wilson scrapes together an inexperienced unit.

Nevada has a cakewalk to begin the season (New Mexico State, Texas State, Incarnate Word) before getting Iowa, Air Force, and Norvell's new team, Colorado State. 

Let's squat in The Land of Enchantment for a bit since both FBS schools are expected to have tough seasons. Starting in Albuquerque, where all kinds of issues surrounding COVID really held back the program. Head coach Danny Gonzales is entering his third season and has the defense improving, especially in the secondary. The offense is still a work in progress, but Kansas transfer Miles Kendrick was brought on to try to unlock its potential. The offensive line really needs to step up, or it will be another long year for the Lobos. 

After the Aggies reached their first bowl game in 57 years in 2017, nothing has gone right in Las Cruces. New Mexico State has gone 7-29 in the four years since — and that doesn't take into account a loss to Tarleton State in one of their two games in February after the canceled 2020 season. One thing they have going for them is new head coach Jerry Kill. Kill had success at Minnesota before medical issues forced him into retirement, but coaching on an interim basis at TCU last year gave him the confidence to try to run his own program again.

New Mexico State won two games last season and is replacing pretty much their entire starting unit from last year. Kill has worked miracles before (most notably at Northern Illinois) but will need time to turn this around. 

Two years ago, D'Wan Mathis was the starting quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs. After splitting time as the starter last season, he'll likely be the starter for the Temple Owls in their 2022 opener at Duke. He should be an instant improvement for an offense that was the worst in the AAC last season. The defense was also the AAC's worst scoring defense last season and got worse as the season wore on. 

This was a putrid team over their final seven games. They're undergoing a lot of changes this year under new head coach Stan Drayton. A switch to a 3-4 defense, plus replacing over a dozen starters, will call for a learning curve out of the gate. The good thing is the Owls have an easy September schedule; the bad thing is that Temple closes out against Houston, Cincinnati, and East Carolina. 

A 4-8 season was reason to celebrate in 2021 — marking the best season the Bobcats have had since 2014. Of course, three of those wins were against other teams on this list. Texas State hopes Layne Hatcher, who transferred from Arkansas State (one of those teams on this list), can unlock one of the worst offenses in the Sun Belt. The defense was also bad and lost a lot of talent in the offseason. Head coach Jake Spavital needs to show some more progress, or his time in San Marcos may end. 

Now we enter the U-schools in the New England area. The UConn Huskies went 1-11 last season, with the lone win coming in a 21-15 victory over Yale. That win over an FCS school was easily the best defensive showing of the season for a program that hasn't had a winning season in over a decade. Jim Mora Jr. arrives in Storrs to try to get this program out of the FBS cellar. That will be tough with games against Syracuse, Michigan, NC State, and Fresno State by October 1. The second half of the schedule is littered with teams off this list (FIU, Ball State, UMass) that could net them more than one win.

This program won the Big East Conference and played in the Fiesta Bowl in 2010. Since then, the Huskies have won more than five games once, had the 2020 season canceled due to COVID, and dropped to the AAC before going independent in 2021.

UMass won one game last season, and it was against the team you just read about: UConn. Both Rhode Island and Maine (FCS schools) rolled the Minutemen last season, as did woeful New Mexico State. This is a bad team with a lot of obstacles. Hiring former head coach Don Brown should be a boost to the program, as he went 41-19 in the mid-2000s when the Minutemen were in the FCS. Aside from a November game at Texas A&M, some winnable games are on the schedule — just like last season. Maybe they can win more than one of those games, including against FCS's Stony Brook.

If Duke isn't the worst Power 5 team, Vanderbilt may be. And the Commodores' schedule is much more brutal than the Blue Devils' schedule. Vandy travels to Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky and gets Wake Forest, Florida, and Tennessee in Nashville. That's a tall task for a team that fielded one of the worst offenses in all of college football in 2021. The offensive line is bad (their best player from last year transferred to 'Bama), and they have questions at quarterback (Mike Wright seems to have the job for now). The defense was also bad but has improved both in immediate talent and for the future through recruiting.

The Commodores won't be able to compete in an improved SEC East division. Winning one league game (they haven't done that since 2019) would be quite an improvement.