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3. North Carolina: In a vacuum, the state's flagship university should not lose to a directional school very often. Then again, East Carolina is not your normal directional school, and North Carolina is not your standard underachieving state school with all of the resources and none of the know-how. Year after year, there's something extra mediocre about North Carolina. It's hard to quantify, though, until you look at the Tar Heels next to the product ECU is able to put on the field. And unfortunately for North Carolina fans, they have had to see that direct comparison made the last couple of years. It was bad enough for the Tar Heels to sit through last year's 55-31 beatdown by Pirates and be unable to offer much resistance. This year, though, was an even bigger embarrassment for North Carolina: 70-41 and an unimaginable 789 yards of offense given up to quarterback Shane Carden and company. ECU is really good, but that good? Meanwhile, this North Carolina team that started the season in the top 25 has proved itself to be a fraud. It trailed Liberty in the third quarter before rallying for a win, squeaked by San Diego State 31-27 and came out after a bye week and looked totally overwhelmed by ECU. Not a good team. Not a good program.​

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4. Virginia Tech: It was all a mirage, and it didn't even last long enough to enjoy. That's the realization for Virginia Tech fans today, and instead of talking about a Frank Beamer late-career resurgence and perhaps another special season, we're going to be talking about how ugly the inevitable end is going to look. The fact that 67-year old Beamer wanted and got a contract extension through 2019 in August indicates he has no plans to call it quits in the near-term. But after consecutive home losses to East Carolina and Georgia Tech, it's going to be tough to convince Virginia Tech fans that the product is on its way back toward ACC title contention — the way it looked just a couple weeks ago after that big upset win at Ohio State. In the more immediate picture, there's clearly a quarterback issue. Virginia Tech fans grew very frustrated last season with Logan Thomas, but Texas Tech transfer Michael Brewer also seems prone to making really bad decisions. Brewer had three interceptions against Georgia Tech — including the late pick that set up the Yellow Jackets' winning field goal as time expired — and already has eight this season.

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6. UConn: This is only Bob Diaco's first season, so it's not like he's going to be judged until the Paul Pasqualoni era has been completely fumigated from Storrs. It's going to take awhile. Still, this is just a brutal team to watch. Here's the offensive output from UConn's last three games: 223 total yards in a win over Stony Brook, 290 in a loss to Boise State and 132 in Thursday's 17-14 loss at South Florida. No, that's not a typo. The Huskies finished with 132 total yards, and even though the game was played in downpour conditions, they were sitting at 57 yards until marching down the field in the final two minutes. Adding insult to injury: The South Florida team that completely stifled them gave up 589 yards to N.C. State one week earlier. Unless UConn's offensive line gets a whole lot better — and they've barely looked FBS-level this season — there could be several more of these in the American Athletic Conference.

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8. Pittsburgh: Early on, the Misery Index identified Pitt as a team with great potential to befuddle the College Football Playoff selection committee and make a mockery of its plan to release weekly rankings. Regardless of whether Pitt was a true contender, the schedule set up perfectly for the Panthers to start 9-0 and rise all the way up the traditional polls despite not playing a top-25 opponent. It would have been a great test case to see how the committee would have handled such a team, especially from one of the so-called Power 5 conferences. Alas, Pitt became Pitt and lost 24-20 at home to Iowa on Saturday, ruining those plans. And it was a thoroughly senseless loss. Pitt had more first downs (24-17), more yards (435-311) and led 17-7 before falling apart in the second half. Though it wasn't terribly surprising to those familiar with the recent history of Pitt football, couldn't the inevitable meltdown at least have happened on the road?

9. Syracuse: Brace yourselves, Orange fans. It's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. The Misery Index knew there were problems with this Syracuse team from the get-go when it needed some semi-miraculous happenings just to escape the season opener with a double-overtime victory over Villanova. When Syracuse came back on Sept. 13 with a 40-3 road win at Central Michigan, however, it appeared Scott Shafer had used an early bye week to full advantage. Those good vibes didn't last very long. Syracuse experienced a big-time comedown at home against Maryland, losing 34-20. The Orange were never really in the game after the midway point of the second quarter despite piling up 589 offensive yards. That's hard to do. Now Syracuse gets to dive headlong into a stretch where it will play Notre Dame, Louisville, Florida State and Clemson over the next five weeks. Sounds like a blast.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca.../16006061/