Josh Pate names college football teams that were the biggest disappointments in 2025

The 2025 season has come and gone, with all that remains crowing a champion following the College Football Playoff. But it’s not to early to label the biggest disappointments from the season. In fact, that’s exactly what college football analyst Josh Pate did on a recent episode of Josh Pate’s College Football Show.

He named the three most disappointing teams in the country. He did not pull punches.

All three came from Power Four conferences. The expectations differed for each of the three, but all three had at least some playoff hopes going into the year. Let’s dig in.

Clemson went into the year with a returning starter at quarterback in Cade Klubnik. He was a guy many thought could contend for the Heisman Trophy if all went well.

The defensive line, meanwhile, was loaded with elite talent that had some serious experience going into the year. There was talent at every level. Then it all went wrong. Pate explained.

Josh Pate: “Not everyone agreed with this, but I had the opinion that this was sort of maybe a last dance situation. Because I viewed 2026 and beyond as the edge of a cliff. From a roster certainty standpoint, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. So I looked at 2025 as the year they had to get it done.

“And not only did they not get it done, they imploded. They lost to LSU and they squeaked by Troy, then lost to Georgia Tech, then lost to Syracuse. When they lost to Syracuse that one was done. That was Steve Angeli Syracuse, that was before the quarterback got injured and ended the season. Syracuse housed them at home. And so they started the season 1-3 and it was just a bad, bad time. So that had to be my most disappointing team, but not my only disappointing team.”

Florida ended the 2024 season on a strong note, winning four straight games to reach eight wins under coach Billy Napier. Quarterback DJ Lagway was electric during that stretch.

So expectations were high for the program headed into 2025. The season never got off the ground, eventually resulting in the firing of Napier. Pate admitted he swung and missed on Florida with his preseason predictions.

Josh Pate: “I got a little taste of Florida at the end of last year and they convinced me to buy them, and I didn’t check the expiration date. I don’t know what else to say. Very, very poor shopping on my part. And they end up 4-8.

“And the worst part is DJ Lagway just never even remotely came close to what I thought he was. One of the things that will live in infamy was me doing my SEC quarterback preseason power ratings, which we may never do again, because I had Lagway No. 1 and he finished — I can’t believe that’s real — he finished with a 16-to-14 touchdown to INT ratio.”

Penn State was coming off a deep playoff run the year before and had a returning starting quarterback in Drew Allar. It also had a loaded backfield and had seemingly made strides to shore up a weakness at receiver with a nice transfer portal haul.

But the pressure seemed to get to Penn State early. And once it cranked up, it really cranked up. James Franklin was fired midseason and the season went off the rails. It was hard to see coming.

Josh Pate: “Think about what they were last year. They were in the semifinal. They were one play or so away going the other way of being in the national championship game and most of those pieces return and you’ve got a two-headed, 1,000-yard per tailback caliber backfield. Quarterback’s back again. We’ve got really good transfer portal talent infusion at wide receiver, which was one of the last remaining hurdles for this team. And then defense we just casually went and added Jim Knowles. All the signs were there.

“To the point where everyone said, ‘I don’t know how Penn State doesn’t make the playoff.’ Remember once upon a time for Penn State was they lose the Oregon game and the Ohio State game, they’re 10-2. That’s worst case. Finished just a few games short of worst case.”