The Texas offense gained only 179 yards in last week's overtime win at Kentucky. Andy Lyons / Getty Images

It didn't take too long for us to spot this season's biggest disappointments. Two preseason top-five teams, Texas and Clemson, looked flawed in high-profile season-opening losses and haven't played up to their preseason hype at any point.

Penn State, the preseason No. 2 team in the country, had its College Football Playoff hopes tossed out the window five games into the season. There was a lot of optimism about a top-15 Florida team whose season went south with a Week 2 loss at home to USF.

With the season just past the midway point, now is an opportune time to take a look at some roster-building lessons we can learn from the teams that have failed to live up to expectations.

You probably read that to yourself and said, "Thanks, Captain Obvious." But expectations were sky-high for Texas (No. 1 in the preseason), Penn State (No. 2) and Clemson (No. 4) -- and to a lesser extent, Florida, which was ranked 15th in the preseason -- based on what was expected from each team's quarterback.

We are as guilty as others for hyping these players in the summer. Cade Klubnik (Clemson) was No. 1 in our 2025 college football quarterback tiers. DJ Lagway (Florida) was fifth, Drew Allar (Penn State) was sixth and Arch Manning (Texas) ranked 10th. But those four have not played -- or did not play in the case of Allar, whose season is over with a knee injury -- at a top-10 level this season.

Are these quarterbacks the only thing wrong with their offense? Not necessarily. Texas (5-2, 2-1 SEC) ranks 83rd nationally in yards per rush, its offensive line has been a mess, and its receivers don't look like difference makers. The Longhorns rank 76th in yards per play and 80th in scoring offense.

Florida (3-4, 2-2 SEC) ranks 84th in yards per rush and has been inconsistent all around -- enough so that head coach and play caller Billy Napier was fired this past week. The Gators are 83rd in yards per play and 104th in scoring.

Penn State's running game hasn't been as dynamic as it was last year despite returning standout backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, and the receivers are still as pedestrian as they were last season, even though the program attempted to upgrade through the portal. That's plagued the Nittany Lions during their four-game losing skid, which has left them at 3-4 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play.

Clemson (3-4, 2-3 ACC) ranks 100th in yards per rush, and the offense looked good only against two of the worst power-conference programs in the nation (North Carolina and Boston College). The Tigers rank 82nd in scoring.

While Klubnik, Lagway, Allar and Manning weren't in great situations in hindsight, the truth is they didn't make those situations any better with their play.

"The biggest thing I take away from (those teams' struggles) is QB play," a Big 12 personnel staffer said. "PSU, QB wasn't playing at a winning level. Clemson, QB has not played well or looked comfortable this year. Texas, young QB that's growing into his role. The role of the QB plus the timing of the overall age of your roster plays a big part in winning games."

If your quarterback isn't playing like "the guy" and is playing more like "a guy," then it's going to be difficult to play up to expectations.

Yes, a handful of teams can lose top-end talent and still compete at the highest level every year. Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia have done it for several years. Oregon is doing it now.

But not everyone is up to the task. We saw this last season when most observers overlooked how much Florida State lost from its 2023 ACC championship squad. The Seminoles were ranked in the preseason top 10 and finished 2-10.

No collapse has been that drastic this season, but we probably overlooked too many high-end departures at several programs this offseason.

A lot of people were high on Penn State after it reached the College Football Playoff semifinals last year, but they didn't account enough for the losses of edge rusher Abdul Carter and tight end Tyler Warren.

Not only were those the Nittany Lions' two best players in 2024, they were All-America talents who were top-15 picks in the NFL Draft. Penn State retained a key portion of its team but couldn't/didn't offset the loss of those two.

"I guess the thing you can learn from Penn State is they tried to replicate the Ohio State model," a Big Ten personnel staffer said. "And I think the key piece they missed is Ohio State brought in Quinshon Judkins, Caleb Downs, Will Howard."

Texas had 12 players drafted this past spring. It lost four of its five starting offensive linemen, including top-10 pick Kelvin Banks, and first-round receiver Matthew Golden.

That was brought up a bit this offseason, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Longhorns from being the No. 1 team in the preseason. Those losses are certainly being felt now.

South Carolina was a preseason top-15 team. Singular talents like quarterback LaNorris Sellers and edge rusher Dylan Stewart are tantalizing, but the Gamecocks lost five draft picks on defense, including first-team All-SEC standouts in safety Nick Emmanwori and defensive lineman Kyle Kennard, and some key pieces on offense like running back Rocket Sanders. South Carolina is 3-4 and has lost four of its past five games.

Let's remember to keep this in mind when evaluating teams next offseason.

When Florida State flopped last season, it was widely viewed as an indictment of their roster-building strategy, relying heavily on the transfer portal and the sort of culture (or lack thereof) that practice establishes.

There may be some truth to that. The sample is probably still too small to truly know, but this season, we've found that anyone is susceptible to a collapse.

Clemson brought in just four transfers. Tigers coach Dabo Swinney has long been opposed to utilizing the transfer portal and instead focuses on long-term development and program continuity. That's why there was so much optimism about Clemson in the preseason. A lot of talent was coming back from a team that won the ACC and gave Texas a good fight in the College Football Playoff last year. The Tigers lost their season opener to LSU, had to survive a fight from Troy and lost back-to-back games at Georgia Tech and at home to Syracuse.

Penn State brought in just eight transfers this offseason. The Nittany Lions' main focus was on retention. Penn State has won at least 10 games each of the past three seasons. There was an established culture there that several players on this roster contributed to.

But when adversity hit in the form of the double-overtime loss to Oregon, things spiraled after inexcusable losses to massive underdogs UCLA and Northwestern, and it cost coach James Franklin his job.

Clemson and Penn State are the two biggest disappointments of the season. Texas is up there as well. It's also a program that has been built mostly through traditional recruiting. Florida has done the same.

Building through high school players and supplementing roster holes still seems like the most sustainable path to winning at an elite level, but as this season has proven, it's not foolproof.

"However you're building it," an ACC personnel staffer said, "you need to make sure your personnel department, or whoever is doing the evaluations, knows what they're doing."

It will be interesting to see what those programs and others like them learn from seasons like this.

"To be honest, not really," a second ACC personnel staffer said when asked if there are any lessons to take from this season's disappointments. "I mean, (these teams) are always gonna have a s -- ton of money to throw around. (It's) just about spending it on the right kind of guys, not messing up the culture and getting the dudes to play hard and motivated."

What roster-building lessons can we take from college football's biggest disappointments?