The Tank Job of the Week is an award for the FBS team that did the best job of humiliating itself over the weekend. Whether they blew a large lead, choked away a spot in the limelight, lost a game they had absolutely no right losing, or completely screwed everything on a last second blunder, the TJOTW winner sets the gold standard in college football misery

Welcome back everyone!  There was a time where the TJOTW wouldn’t even bother with a Week Zero vote, because with like six mostly gimme games being played there was really no need to. And then a certain Program Savior decided the best way to start his comeback redemption year was to onside kick up 11 against a team that would go 0-11 for the rest of the season and here we are.

The 4^th Annual Scott Frost Memorial Week Zero Tank Job of the Week Vote?   Meh, probably too wordy.  

Anyways, there were eight FBS games this weekend (none of which were FCS tuneups!), and we ended up with five nominees.   I’ll be honest- most of these would probably be honorable mentions if even brought up at all on a normal week, but I gotta make do with what I got and let’s be honest, when the spotlight shines that much more exclusively, the screwups do seem that much bigger.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
-      The FCS actually had a full slate of games this weekend and OH MY GOD did they go and just set the whole thing on fire.  u/SchizoidMan1989 runs a TJTOW spinoff on the FCS forum and I’m sure he’s feasting after that trainwreck.  Highlights include Northwestern State losing to NAIA Louisiana Christian, Idaho giving up a “Hail Mary” to Cal Poly (is it even a Hail Mary if nobody actually remembers to defend it?), and Villanova letting William & Mary score three times in the last two minutes to go from up 10 to tied to losing in regulation.
-      Yahoo sports ran an article on the aforementioned Northwestern State loss and referred to them as a Big Ten team because the absolute state of sports journalism in 2026.
-      I’m pretty sure more people will respond to this post than actually attended the USC/San Jose State game.
-      Just a friendly reminder that Oregon has been eliminated from the last two playoffs by a combined score of 97-43.  You might ask what this has to do with Week Zero and that’s because Oregon continues to have Zero national championships.  In fact, we could rename the whole thing Week 0regon National Championships in their honor.

NOTE: For ease of counting, please use carats to make your vote, like this: <Team>.  Thank you for participating!

And now, the Week 0regon National Championships nominees are…

HAWAI’I RAINBOW WARRIORS (lost to Stanford 37-27)
Well I guess turnabout is fair play.   One year after handing Stanford the Week Zero TJOTW (or rather Stanford handed it to themselves with a revolutionary new clock management style known as “utterly screwing yourself”), the Warriors found themselves down 23-7 entering the Fourth quarter.   And then they stormed back, rattling off three touchdowns in nine minutes to take the lead and prime the Cardinal for back to back years.   Only this time the Hawaii defense folded like a cheap paper fan, gave up the lead, and then iced the game when Micah Alejado had the ball blasted out of his hands and returned for another TD.  And then… Hawai’i just kinda gave up.   I get there was only like a minute left and it was a two score game but come on, man.  Crazier things have happened.

JACKSONVILLE STATE GAMECOCKS (lost to North Dakota State 33-7)
Obligatory FCS loss but… wait, what?   NDSU is an FBS team now?  Oh… ohhhhh noooooooo…

NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK (lost to Virginia 34-8)
About the only good thing about this game from NC State’s perspective is they didn’t have to go to Brazil for it to happen.  Virginia went full on belt-sander to butts on the Pack, outgaining them 413-168 and dominating possession nearly 2-1.  On the offensive side, third year QB CJ Bailey only managed half his career passing yards per attempt and the team as a whole coughed up two turnovers.

TCU HORNED FROGS (lost to North Carolina 15-10)
Frogs were 8 point favorites and lost to a team they had paved 48-14 last year.  And for a while it looked like they were going to handle business again.  But then between unable to finish drives, leaving field goal points off the board in favored of foiled fourth downs, a botched snap leading to a soccer-goal safety, and loads of dumb penalties, the Frogs let this one get away from them, with the final blow coming on a jumped offsides.  And now TCU needs to deal with the fallout- losers of the Dublin game haven’t been known to rebound very well.

UNLV REBELS (lost to Memphis 27-21)
This was a fun game between what’s supposed to be two of the better G6 teams, and it even turned into a delightful little track meet for a good part of the middle.  But the stretch… woof.   Memphis just dangled that win out there for UNLV to take, and on three consecutive drives the UNLV line collapsed and Jackson Arnold took four brutal, preventable sacks that killed momentum each time.   Just a tough way to lose what might just amount to a playoff elimination game.

I just told my girlfriend the "that dog would bite you!!" UGA joke (wonderful woman, but zero laughs), and it got me to wondering:

What's the oldest joke you remember hearing about a college football team?

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For anyone unfamiliar, the joke, direct copy pasta from a subreddit like 13 years ago:

"Two guys were at a University of Georgia football game when one of them looks down at the Georgia Bulldog sidelines and sees Uga, the school mascot, licking himself like dogs like to do. The guy smiles, leans over to his buddy while pointing at Uga and says, "Man, I wish I could do that".

His friend looks back at him in surprise and says, "Man, that dog would bite you!""

(mods, lmk if need reflair from "casual")

Coming this Saturday, September 5, the Georgia Bulldogs will kickoff their 2026 campaign by hosting the Tennessee State Tigers at 3 PM EDT in Sanford Stadium.

As of this typing, the high temperature forecast for Sanford Stadium is 98°F with a max heat index of 105°F, per the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

Will that be the hottest game the Dawgs have ever hosted? Let's dive into the numbers.

I used weather observations gathered from the Athens Ben Epps Airport (KAHN), which is located roughly 2.7 miles east of Sanford Stadium, per Google Maps. These observations are collected from the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), which is an automated weather station located onsite at the airport. This is an official weather observation station recognized by the National Weather Service.

I know this does not represent on-field temperatures, which are often (much) warmer, but there is no official data for that. Another limiting factor is that KAHN only has data going back to 1944. University of Georgia football dates back to 1892, so admittedly, there is ~51 years of data not accounted for here. Heat index is also not accounted for here. This only looks at high temperature data.

Here are interesting statistics drawn from this data. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see a chronological list of the games.

• Since high temperature records began at KAHN (1944), UGA has played in 19 September home games in which the high temperature was at least 90°F. The Dawgs have a 16-3 record (0-3 record in the SEC) in this September heat.

• Of those games, only two of them had a high of at least 95°F. Dawgs are 2-0 (0-0 in the SEC) in those games.

• Of those two games, the hottest September game ever recorded in Sanford Stadium was 97°F (a victory over Baylor on 9/16/1972).

• 2018 is the only season on record in which Sanford Stadium hosted multiple 90°F+ September games (two).

Could this Saturday be the hottest game ever played Between the Hedges? Stay tuned.

9/22/1945: Murray State (90°F, W 49-0)

9/16/1949: Furman (90°F, W 25-0)

9/23/1961: Alabama (92°F, L 6-32)

9/16/1972: Baylor (97°F W, 24-14)

9/12/1981: Cal (90°F, W 27-13)

9/18/1993: Texas Tech (91°F, W 52-37)

9/20/1997: NE Louisiana (94°F, W 42-3)

9/5/1998: Kent State (93°F, W 56-3)

9/4/1999: Utah State (93°F, W 38-7)

9/17/2005: ULM (91°F, W 44-7)

9/8/2007: SCAR (93°F, L 12-16)

9/6/2008: Central Michigan (91°F, W 56-17)

9/18/2010: Arkansas (92°F, L 24-31)

9/1/2012: Buffalo (92°F, W 45-23)

9/10/2016: Nicholls State (94°F, W 26-24)

9/1/2018: Austin Peay (94°F, W 45-0)

9/15/2018: Middle Tennessee (91°F, W 49-7)

9/7/2019: Murray State (95°F, W 63-17)

9/7/2024: Tennessee Tech (91°F, W 48-3)

• TCU-North Carolina from Ireland, average of 4.9 million viewers (10% more than last year’s Iowa State-Kansas State)
• NC State-Virginia, average of 3.2 million viewers
• MEAC-SWAC Challenge (Howard-Alabama A&M) on ABC, averaged 1.2 million viewers

https://x.com/espnpr/status/2094905351225147443?s=61&t=6Bx3tD-mSTjm4jbTxJLP_g

We’ve seen the comments. We know you have thoughts about the AP Top 25 poll. Now it’s your turn. The AP Fan Poll is open for submissions.
https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll