Three top 25 teams lost in college football last weekend despite only one game featuring two top 25 teams. I’ve seen worst coaching than this past weekend, but there were still plenty of mistakes for our weekly Football IQ segment, which just never fails. From a dumb penalty to terrible end of half management to clock mismanagement, here are the five WORST Week 2 coaching decisions.

5. Florida substitution penalty

Normally, this is something I would let slide. It happens. However, Billy Napier had to make the list because the Gators have repeatedly made this mistake under him, so at this point, it’s about incompetence. In Florida’s 18-16 loss to the South Florida Bulls Saturday, they allowed a field goal drive in the first half that should have never happened.

USF threw an incomplete pass on a 4th and 2. However, under the detail-oriented head coach, Florida had too many men on the field. Yes, under Alex Golesh, USF runs tempo, and it can be difficult to stay with that, but Napier should have prepared for Golesh given the fact that the two faced off in 2022 when Golesh was UT’s offensive coordinator. As a result, it’s still a fail.

4. SMU settles for 57-yard field goal

It was a thriller Saturday when the SMU Mutangs and Baylor Bears reignited an old Southwest Conference rivalry. Baylor came back from a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to win 48-45 in double-overtime. Rhett Lashlee’s coaching wasn’t the reason SMU blew the lead. It was just a shootout, and that happens. However, his end of game management was horrible.

With the score tied at 38, SMU moved to the Baylor 49-yard line after a completion and a first down with 22 seconds left and two timeouts. Spike the ball, and you can prepare for three plays to get into field goal range. Instead, Lashlee ran no-huddle, and on first down, eight seconds ran off for just an incomplete pass. This is the one time you do spike the ball.

Afterward, though, it got worse. Lashlee dialed up back to back running plays to settle for a 57-yard game-winning field goal, which Collin Rogers, who had missed from 51 yards earlier, missed there. Rogers was 9-of-17 for his career from 50 yards entering the game, but he never hit one as long as 57. Lashlee was ridiculous for not being more aggressive at the end, and it cost his team.

3. Michigan burns two timeouts on early fourth quarter drive

Timeouts are valuable in any game, but when you’re down 21-13 on the road to a ranked team with over 11 minutes to go, you certainly need to save them. Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines didn’t get that memo against the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday. In the fourth quarter, after a Bryce Underwood scramble brought up 2nd and 1, Moore stupidly called a timeout because he didn’t like a play…ON SECOND AND ONE!!!!!!

Then, after getting the first down, Underwood was sacked, and Moore stupidly called a timeout again to avoid a delay of game penalty on a drive that was probably already over. All of a sudden, in a fourth quarter game, Michigan had just one timeout left. This allowed OU to run the clock when they got the ball back, which they did with a 78-yard drive that ended in a field goal.

Maybe a two-score game made those two timeouts irrelevant, but it altered the flow of the game. Brent Venables and OU had a lot more flexibility with how they operated on that final, long drive in which they scored, and Moore was left looking desperate. He wins our Les Miles college football clock mismanagement award of the week with that one.

2. Kentucky doesn’t know how to end the first half

One of the great fails of college football coaches is not having a plan for how to end a half. Mark Stoops and the Wildcats, trailing the Ole Miss Rebels 17-13 with the ball on their own 25-yard line, decided to play for halftime with a minute and five seconds to go. That was already stupid given the time, but after an 18-yard run on second down gave UK the ball near midfield, he changed his mind.

Unfortunately for Kentucky, Stoops didn’t have plays drawn up, so he was scrambling for a field goal, and that resulted in three penalties, killing the drive and sending them into halftime with no points. Two failed fourth downs in the red zone in the second half could’ve ended in field goals had they gotten a field goal here, and that would’ve led to a 32-30 win for UK. This was a major blunder by Stoops.

1. Kansas end of half mismanagement

Lance Leipold joined Mark Stoops in end of half failures, and this one cost the Jayhawks against the Missouri Tigers. Sure, Leipold was dumb to punt it late down 35-31, which led to a Mizzou score, but the game changed at halftime. After being up 21-6 in the first quarter, KU still led 21-18 late in the first half, and they had the ball on their own 23-yard line with 56 seconds left.

Initially, Leipold was unclear as to whether or not to play for the half, so he split the baby by calling a screen on first down. It got nothing, and Mizzou then used a timeout. He then called a stretch running play to get out of bounds, and on 3rd down, he let Jalon Daniels run it again so Mizzou could use another timeout with 36 seconds to go.

Naturally, Mizzou got the ball back, drove down the field and hit a field goal. This was the worst end of half management of the year in college football. Leipold either should have taken shots downfield or kneeled it three times to go into the half, but what he did is what allowed Eli Drinkwitz’s program to start taking control in the second half.