College football's most disappointing teams of 2015

ASU opened the season ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll, but its year started off on the wrong foot with a loss to Texas A&M. While they did have big wins vs. UCLA, Washington and Arizona, the Sun Devils finished the regular season 6-6.

Gus Malzahn's team opened the year ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll, but quarterback and defensive issues haunted Auburn for most of the season. The Tigers barely made a bowl game and finished the regular season 6-6 with their only SEC wins vs. Kentucky and Texas A&M.

Boise State opened the season ranked in the polls, but its quest for an undefeated season ended in Week 2 with a loss at BYU. The Broncos finished the year with four losses.

Cal missed out on a bowl in 2014 but had high hopes this season with top NFL prospect quarterback Jared Goff leading the offense. After opening the season 5-0, the Bears lost five of their next six games. They still managed to make a bowl at 7-5.

Cincinnati received some votes in the preseason, but the stacked AAC ate up the Bearcats. They finished the year 7-5 with an invite to the Hawaii Bowl but struggled against competitive teams.

It's tough to fault the Blue Devils for a 7-5 season, especially when the ACC basically admitted that they should have been credited with a win vs. Miami. However, it was a disappointing year for the fact that Duke started the season 6-1 before losing four consecutive games in the ACC, including a 66-31 blowout loss vs. rival North Carolina.

Georgia fans probably would have just settled for an SEC East Championship after Mizzou took the crown the last two seasons. The Bulldogs opened the season ranked No. 9, but the loss of star running back Nick Chubb all but halted their offense. Losing to Florida on Halloween, and effectively losing out on the SEC East crown, ruined their year. Head coach Mark Richt was let go following the season.

Georgia Tech opened the year ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll, but defensive deficiencies and a brutal schedule caused them to finish 3-9. The highlight of the season was a win vs. Florida State.

Head coach Bill Snyder's teams are known for doing more with less, but the Wildcats couldn't overcome their talent deficiencies this season. After opening the year undefeated, they lost six straight games in the Big 12. Three wins to finish the year got them into the Liberty Bowl, however.

Some expected more from Bobby Petrino's team, with the Cardinals getting votes in preseason polls. Their season opened with three consecutive losses, and it was difficult for them to dig out from under their start. They still salvaged their year by going 7-5 with an invitation for the Music City Bowl.

LSU fans always have national title hopes, and now we know that the school administration does too after the late-season Les Miles decision fiasco. The Tigers looked like a major contender at midseason, starting the year 7-0, before a three-game losing streak with blowout losses vs. Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss. Another top recruiting class and the return of elite running back Leonard Fournette should put the Tigers in the thick of things again next season.

Head coach Randy Edsall knew 2015 would be a make-or-break season, and the Terrapins certainly broke. Maryland won only three games, and Edsall was fired.

Head coach Al Golden had already lost the Canes fan base before the season started, and he was fired after losing 58-0 to Clemson. The team finished the year 4-1 after his firing, including a controversial win vs. Duke on a kickoff return at the end of regulation. Finishing 8-4, Miami accepted an invite to the Sun Bowl and has high hopes for next season with new head coach Mark Richt at the helm.

Key losses on all over the field didn't prevent the Tigers from opening the season in the top 25 with quarterback Maty Mauk returning. Mauk started the year terribly and was eventually suspended indefinitely for off-field issues, and the Tigers showed one of the worst offenses in college football. They failed to make a bowl at 5-7, with major late-season distractions.

The hiring of head coach Mike Riley was curious, to say the least, and started with a Hail Mary loss to BYU. Nebraska lost four more games by one field goal or less and also suffered a terribly disappointing 55-45 loss to Purdue. Despite a 5-7 record, the Huskers accepted an invite to the Foster Farms Bowl.

NC State ran the table on a subpar out-of-conference schedule to start the year 4-0 but went 3-5 in the ACC. The Wolfpack didn't have any great wins to hang its hat on and is a heavy underdog in the Belk Bowl vs. Mississippi State.

The defending national champs opened the season as the overwhelming favorites, getting all 61 first-place votes in the AP Poll. Their offense sputtered for much of the year, but a favorable schedule still allowed them to survive undefeated until they played Michigan State late in the year. They finished on the outside looking in on the College Football Playoff.

Some poll voters didn't expect much of a drop-off despite the loss of Marcus Mariota, as the team opened No. 7 in the AP Poll and No. 5 in the Coaches Poll. Transfer quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. played well, but the defense really let the Ducks down. They lost three games in the early part of the year but finished the season on a high note with wins vs. Stanford and USC.

The Gamecocks seemed like a contender in the SEC East, and that thought was strengthened after taking down North Carolina in the first game of the season. Then they lost four of their next five games, and coach Steve Spurrier decided to hang up his visor early. After a big opening-game win, South Carolina only won two more games.

Tennessee opened the season ranked No. 25 in both polls and certainly did take a step forward by going 8-4. Still, some prognosticators had higher hopes for the team. The Vols lost to Oklahoma in double overtime early in the year and also suffered very close losses to Florida, Arkansas and Alabama.

The expectations in Austin are always great, but it's probably too soon. Charlie Strong's team had another rough year, finishing 5-7 and missing out on a bowl for the second straight year. The Longshorns' season will be remembered for beating Oklahoma in the Red River Showdown, but Strong is likely facing a make-or-break season in 2016.

With early-season wins vs. Virginia, UNLV, BYU and Arizona, true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen was all the rage to start the year. The Bruins looked like potential title contenders but lost their following two games vs. Arizona State and Stanford, along with two more games late in the year.

Coach Steve Sarkisian's off-field issues were a major distraction for the talented Trojans and might have undermined a potentially great season. USC's brutal schedule didn't help, as the team lost to Stanford twice, as well as Washington, Notre Dame and Oregon.

The Hokies had a frustrating season after receiving votes in the polls during the preseason. A key 23-20 win in the final week of the season still made them bowl-eligible in head coach Frank Beamer's final year.

After getting votes in the preseason polls and starting the year 3-0, the Mountaineers crashed. Their defense failed them in four straight losses vs. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU. A final-week loss to Kansas State was their most disappointing showing of the year, but they still finished 7-5 for a Cactus Bowl invitation.