Five college football programs on a concerning downward trend

The 2016 college football season has provided quite a number of surprises. Among them has been the ascension of several programs that weren’t even given a second through during the preseason. But on the opposite end of that spectrum, there has also been a dramatic descension from some of the NCAA’s all-time great programs.

Here’s a look at five teams on a downward trend.

5. Texas Longhorns

After 6-7 and 5-7 finishes in 2014 and 2015 respectively, there was some hope for a Texas turnaround in 2016. And after a thrilling season-opening three-overtime victory against Notre Dame, the Longhorns seemed to immediately reward that optimism.

A 41-7 victory over Texas-El Paso in Week 2 returned Texas to the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2013.

Unfortunately for the Longhorns and their fans, that’s where the good vibes would end, and the reality of their struggles under Charlie Strong would return.

Since their 2-0 start, Texas has dropped three straight games, losing to California, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma. They’ve fallen out of the AP Top 25, and questions about Strong’s job security have arisen.

In the face of mounting pressure and a return to losing, Strong has tried to convey a message of encouragement and determination.

“I want to win out because the players put so much into it. I want success for them more than anything,” Strong told ESPN on Saturday. “I want success for our seniors. When you see how hard they work, and you look at today and how hard they went out, they played for 60 minutes. When you play 60 minutes, good things are going to happen for you.

“We’ve just got to continue to work. It’s not desperate. You want to win, and you can’t lose three games in a row. We’ve just got to continue to work hard.”

Things for the Longhorns aren’t going to get easier any time soon however, with games against Baylor, West Virginia and TCU upcoming. And with the defense playing as poorly as it has, giving up 45-plus points in three consecutive games, road clashes against Kansas State and Texas Tech are no longer the shoo-in victories they appeared to be only a few short weeks ago.

Unless Texas can find a way to buck this recent trend and stiffen up on defense, they very well may be staring down the barrel at a third consecutive seven-loss season or worse. And quite possible the end of the Charlie Strong era.

4. Oregon Ducks

After starting 3-3 a season ago, the Oregon Ducks ripped off six consecutive wins and earned themselves an Alamo Bowl appearance. Despite the 47-41 loss to TCU, it was enough to earn AP and Coaches poll Top 25 rankings this preseason.

Did Oregon anticipate a run at the College Football Playoff in 2016? Probably not, but they did expect a run at double-digit wins.

Six weeks into the season and those hopes are already out the window. The Ducks have matched their loss total from a season ago, which includes three straight Pac-12 defeats and a 70-21 loss to No. 5 Washington on Saturday that was the second-worst margin of defeat in team history.

“I understand the frustration. I absolutely appreciate the passion,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens told Duck Insider on Monday. “We’re six games into the season and not where anyone wants to be. But there’s still an opportunity to turn this a little bit and see some positive results. As I talk to Mark, they go right back to work and get right back in it.

“Everyone is disappointed. I’m disappointed. The coaches are disappointed. The student-athletes are disappointed. There’s a lot of frustration. No one thought we’d be 2-4 or expected to be 2-4 halfway through the season. … We’ve got to get back to work and figure out how to turn these results around.”

For Oregon, this is extremely rare territory. The team has not lost more than four games in a season since 2007, yet they have already matched their first back-to-back four-loss seasons since 2006-2007. And with one more defeat, the Ducks will have seen their win/loss record decline for the third consecutive year — a drought the program has not experienced since the 1970s.

With games against Stanford, who is struggling in their own right, Arizona State and Utah all coming up, it does not bode well for Oregon to avoid such a fate.

3. Michigan State Spartans

It seems like every football team in Michigan is performing at a high level with the sole exception of the Spartans, who had been ranked in the Top 12 in both the AP and Coaches preseason polls.

Unfortunately for Michigan State, the wheels have completely come off the wagon in recent weeks, and they are now in the midst of their first three-game losing streak under head coach Mark Dantonio since 2009.

“This program’s been built on a pretty solid foundation. It’s taken nine years to do that,” Dantonio said via MLive following a 34-14 loss to BYU. “It’s taken that long to get to where we’ve been, and the ride up the mountain’s very difficult at times and that ride down sometimes is very quick.

“So the reality is that we’re a 2-3 football team. Should we handle ourselves with conviction … Those are the things we need to do to be able to turn this thing around.”

Michigan State not only finds themselves entrenched in a rare losing streak, but also on the outside of the AP Top 25. They are already guaranteed to lose more games than they have since 2013.

As if that reality weren’t bad enough for the sliding Spartans, their schedule gets no easier with games against Michigan and Ohio State still on tap. So unless they come up with at least one big upset, they’ll finish the season with fewer than eight wins. And on the opposite side of that coin, three more loses will secure the program’s worst record since Dantonio took over in 2007.

2. Stanford Cardinal

Stanford opened the season in the top 8 of both the AP and Coaches polls, and seemed poised to make a legitimate run on the legs of Heisman hopeful Christian McCaffrey.

After three relatively unconvincing wins over Kansas State, USC and UCLA out of the gate, the Cardinal ran into a buzz saw that was the Washington Huskies in Week 4.

Following a 44-6 shellacking at the hands of the Huskies, Stanford looked to rebound last week against the Washington State Cougars. However that did not happen, and instead the Cardinal were routed for the second consecutive week, getting embarrassed in front of their home fans to the tune of 42-16.

Stanford is now on the outside of the AP Top 25 looking in, but that’s really small potatoes compared to their other problems. The team is riddled with injuries, including one to the aforementioned McCaffrey, and has displayed a complete and utter inability to finish offensive drives.

“It’s tough because of the way that the national conversation has changed now,” Stanford coach David Shaw told ESPN following the team’s loss to Washington State.

“Because of the playoff and the expectations of postseason awards, that’s what people talk about. And that’s fine. But the goal for a football coach is to keep the view shorter than that. If you don’t take care of today, this week, the next game, then none of those other things are possible. The irony of it being that when certain goals become out of reach, it forces some people to finally start focusing on that shorter-term view.”

For Shaw and the Cardinal, they must begin to shift their focus. Many of their early-season goals are now beyond their reach, and with McCaffrey banged up, additional adjustments will have to be made.

1. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Entering the season, expectations were high for Notre Dame football. They were coming off a 10-win season, were ranked No. 10 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, and had some thinking national championship.

After six games, every single one of those dreams has been dashed. In fact, with the Fighting Irish now sitting at 2-4 after an embarrassing loss to North Carolina State, they’ve been completely crushed.

Gone are the hopes of a title, gone is a Top 25 ranking and gone are the ambitions of back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in 23 years. In their wake is uncertainty about the remainder of their schedule, the future of their head coach, and the direction of the program.

Following the team’s fourth loss of the season, Brian Kelly shouldered the entirety of the blame.

“I couldn’t find a way to win that game for you,” Kelly told his players in the locker-room after the game. “I apologize. I don’t … I gotta look hard at how I’m doing it to figure out a way to get a win for you guys, because you deserve it.”

Kelly’s most recent message was in stark contrast to the one he delivered following the team’s loss to Duke, in which he ripped his players and said “coaching had nothing to do with the outcome.”

The varying degrees of blame, the finger-pointing, and the dejection all tell the story for Kelly and Notre Dame. No one has any answers and things don’t seem to be getting an better. And while it’s unlikely Notre Dame parts ways with Kelly in the end, this has been a substantial tumble for one of college football’s most historic and successful programs.