College football winners and losers: Who has had the most disappointing start to this season?

September isn’t even halfway over and two teams ranked in the top 20 of the preseason AP Top 25 are staring at disappointing seasons.

No. 12 Clemson dropped to 1-2 with a 24-21 loss at Georgia Tech on Saturday on Aidan Birr’s 55-yard field goal as time expired.

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It was far from a fluke win, however. Georgia Tech led 13-0 in the first half and Clemson needed to score a touchdown with less than four minutes to go to simply tie the game.

The Tigers were No. 4 in the first AP poll of the season after winning the ACC a season ago. They’ve hardly looked on a playoff path. Clemson was outmatched in the second half of its 17-10 Week 1 loss to LSU, and then went the entire first half of its Week 2 win against Troy without scoring a touchdown.

QB Cade Klubnik entered the season as a Heisman favorite after he threw for 36 TDs and over 3,600 yards in 2024. So far through 2025, he’s thrown as many touchdowns (three) as interceptions and is completing fewer than 60% of his passes. On Saturday, he was 15-of-26 passing for 207 yards and his first-quarter fumble led to Georgia Tech’s first field goal of the game.

There’s still plenty of time for Klubnik to turn it around. But if he’s going to get going, he’ll need some help from his offensive line. The Tigers’ blockers have looked pedestrian far too often through the first three weeks of the season as Klubnik has regularly needed to leave the pocket.

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If you’re wanting to be an optimist about the Tigers, you’ll point to their College Football Playoff appearance in 2024 after a 34-3 blowout loss to Georgia in Week 1. But that team scored a combined 165 points over their next three games and reeled off six straight victories before losing to Louisville.

That Louisville loss was Clemson’s only ACC loss of the season. The Tigers have already matched that total in 2025 and there are games against No. 10 Florida State and 2024 regular season ACC champion SMU up ahead. This doesn’t currently look like a Clemson team that’s positioned to rip off seven straight conference wins.

Kansas State, meanwhile, is the first 1-3 team in college football. The Wildcats were the No. 17 team in the first top 25 and a favorite to win the Big 12 before losing their Week Zero opener to Iowa State in Dublin.

Things really haven’t improved from there. Kansas State’s lone win of the season came in Week 1 against FCS North Dakota, but even that was a nail-biter. The Wildcats needed a TD pass with 42 seconds left for the 38-35 victory.

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A week ago, Kansas State ran just eight plays in the second half as Army controlled the game. The Black Knights — who lost to FCS Tarleton State to open the season — had the ball for over 40 minutes and ran the ball 70 times to Kansas State’s 43 total plays in their 24-21 win.

Friday night, K-State lost 23-17 to the Big 12’s newest Wildcats. Arizona went up 17-3 in the first half before Kansas State tied the game at 17-17 in the third quarter. But after tying the game, Kansas State punted twice and turned the ball over on downs three times.

All three of those turnovers on downs came on incomplete passes to wide receiver Jayce Brown. QB Avery Johnson shined in a part-time role as a freshman in 2023, but he has struggled to take the next step as a passer over the last two seasons. Johnson was just 13 of 29 for 88 yards on Friday night and has rushed for just 62 yards on 25 carries through the first four games of the season.

But for as bad as things have been for Clemson and Kansas State in the early stages of 2025, it could always be worse. Just ask UCLA. The Bruins dropped to 0-3 Friday night with a 35-10 home loss to New Mexico. It was the Lobos’ first win over a power conference opponent since 2008.

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The Bruins have given up at least 30 points in all three of their losses as Nico Iamaleava has been sacked six times so far this season. The former Tennessee quarterback is also the Bruins’ leading rusher with 139 yards and is the only UCLA player with a rushing TD so far.

It was clear when Iamaleava transferred to UCLA this spring that he was joining a team that had a lot less talent than the one he quarterbacked to the playoff in 2024. And that has been very obvious on defense. Opponents are rushing for 244 yards per game against the Bruins and averaging 5.5 yards a carry.

UCLA is off in Week 4 ahead of a trip to Northwestern on Sept. 27 that could determine control of the Big Ten cellar. If the Bruins don’t beat the Wildcats, it’s hard to find more than one or two wins on the schedule.

Here are this week's winners and losers:

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Winners

Houston: The Cougars moved to 3-0 with a 36-20 win over Colorado on Friday night. QB Conner Weigman rushed for two touchdowns and was 15-of-24 passing for 222 yards as Houston outscored Colorado 20-6 in the second half. The Cougars are already one win away from matching their 2024 win total and are a real threat to make a bowl game in Willie Fritz’s second season.

Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza and WR Omar Cooper Jr.: Yes, it was only Indiana State, but take a second to appreciate Mendoza and Cooper’s stat lines in the Hoosiers’ 73-0 win. The Cal transfer was 19-of-20 passing for 270 yards and threw five touchdowns. Four of those went to Cooper as he had 10 grabs for 207 yards. The No. 22 Hoosiers host No. 9 Illinois in a very pivotal and must-see Big Ten matchup in Week 4.

Losers

Wisconsin: Look, few people thought the Badgers would go into Tuscaloosa and win with a backup quarterback. But Wisconsin was overmatched in nearly every facet of the game during its 38-14 loss to No. 19 Alabama.

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Wisconsin didn’t score an offensive touchdown until there was just 5:29 to go and Alabama had called off the dogs. The Badgers had just 209 total yards and QB Danny O’Neil threw two interceptions. Alabama, meanwhile, averaged more than twice as many yards per play while QB Ty Simpson was 24-of-29 passing for 382 yards and four touchdowns.

Kent State: The Golden Flashes were so, so close to getting their second win of the season. Kent State opened 2025 with a win total of 1.5 at sportsbooks following their 0-12 season in 2024. Kent State beat Merrimack to open the season and led Buffalo 14-0 in the first half on Saturday.

Alas, Buffalo scored 17 straight points to take the lead and got the game-winning TD with 1:03 to go. Kent State went up 28-24 with 2:38 to go after a 3-yard run by QB Dru DeShields capped a 21-play drive that went 93 yards and took over 12 minutes. But the Bulls responded by going 76 yards in eight plays and less than 90 seconds as Victor Snow caught a 22-yard TD pass from Ta’Qaun Roberson.