It’s week six and there are still teams that haven’t won a football game. Pathetic? Actually, its fantastic. The worst in college football is just a click away!

Friends, I know there have only been five weeks of the College Football season, but Middle Tennessee’s 47-6 victory (a score that I predicted accurately) over absolutely pathetic Florida International is already on my list for the worst performance of the year. While MTSU looked only moderately pathetic, the mighty Golden Panthers of FIU managed just 145 yards of total offense - but hey, at least they were fair and balanced, with an overpowering 73 yards passing and 72 yards rushing. They had just eight first downs, were 1-15 on third down conversions and added four turnovers for good measure (two fumbles and two interceptions, naturally). Oh and the six points? The Florida International defense recovered a fumble in the end zone when trailing 47-0. Way to pitch in boys. The reason that Florida International is so bad? Clearly it is the inadequate facilities. Don’t worry Panther fans, help is on the way! A new $31 million dollar stadium is being built for a team that has won 10 total games since 2003 and is currently winless since 2005 (17 straight loses for those keeping score at home). Here’s is a thought for the Florida Board of Governors who approved the funding for this project: If you build it, the recruits are not going to come. It’s not the stadium! This program needs a makeover and it starts with hiring a competent coach who can go out and recruit in a state that produces some of the best football talent in the country. You better be sure that Mario Cristobal is that guy. If you are looking for inspiration please see Jim Leavitt at USF who has the Bulls tearing up the BIG EAST after building his program the right way.

One other quick note on this gem from the Florida International Game Recap: “Freshman QB Colt Anderson completed the first pass of his career to Trenard Turner for a loss of three yards in the fourth quarter.” Welcome to the program Colt, it’s going to be a long four years.

Let’s go to this week’s Game They Shouldn’t Play: North Texas (0-4) at Louisiana
Lafayette (0-5)

What we know: Ahh… the sweet smell of being winless. Currently, four of the eight teams in the Sun Belt are winless. I realize that conferences go in cycles and have down years, but then where do you classify this season? I know that a few of the teams have only been Division 1A for a short amount of time, but that is no excuse for failing to win any games. If you can’t win as a Division 1A, team then perhaps you should reconsider your transition. As a side note, I refuse to call Division 1A the Football Bowl Subdivision. Somehow I doubt that changing the name of the classification will ever take the stigma away from being in Division 1AA - excuse me, The Football Championship Subdivision. Do 1AA teams really feel slighted? Listen, victories against 1AA teams can now be counted towards bowl eligibility, which means 1A teams are now likely to have a 1AA team on their schedule. You want respect? Don’t cry about name changes. Win football games. Appalachian State was a good start but there is a long way to go.

The Teams:
North Texas hasn’t given up less than 30 points in any of its games. In fact, they have held only one opponent under 40 points (Florida Atlantic – the best team in the Sun Belt, which is the equivalent to being the world’s greatest minivan – which in my humble opinion has got to be the Dodge Caravan, but that’s a topic for another column) and have already given up over 65 points twice. I understand that giving up 79 points to Oklahoma and 66 to Arkansas may not seem so bad, but if you are trying to change the culture of a program, giving up 60+ twice is not acceptable. Not to be outdone, Louisiana-Lafayette has given up 28 or more points in every game this season.

The Match-up: Last years 16-7 North Texas win fits the recent trend in which ULL has lost 4 out of the last 5 meetings between the two teams. Despite the lack of wins this year, this is actually a battle of the Sun Belt’s best offenses. UNT is the Sun Belt leader in passing, averaging 330 yards per game behind junior QB Daniel Meager. ULL leads the Sun Belt in rushing at 238 yards per contest behind Michael Desormeaux,who moonlights as running back, but is also the teams starting quarterback.

The Prediction: There should be plenty of offense to go around as both teams will pull out all the stops to get a win. I’ll give ULL the edge at home and because they have managed to actually slow a few people en route to losing.

Final Score:ULL 42 UNT 37