EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsEvery great story requires a great villain. Darth Vader. The no-nosed wizard who fights Harry Potter. The "Get him a body bag!" guy from "Karate Kid." The endless parade of bad guys whom Spider-Man is currently fighting in a theater near you.As we near kickoff of college football's 157th season, we all have our own personal lists of bad guys we would love to see melted into the floor like the Wicked Witch of the West. That scoundrel of a QB who torched your team in that bowl game your senior year. That dastardly DB who snagged the would-be TD pass that your alma mater needed in the closing seconds. That criminal of a coach that you know beyond any shadow of a sport talk call-in show doubt ratted out your favorite team to NCAA investigators.But who among those devilish dudes ranks among the most abhorred heels in college football history? For those answers, warm up your "boo!" voice, stretch that middle finger, find some spare golf balls to fling from the student section and read ahead as we present our list of College Football's All-Time Villains.10. Caleb WilliamsThere is no shortage of recent Heisman winners and contenders who could have taken this spot (see the Dishonorable Mentions list below and Misters Mayfield and Pavia). But Williams' story was a perfect storm of what everyone loves to hate about modern college football.He hit the transfer portal to move from Oklahoma to USC to follow head coach Lincoln Riley. He made what was then a record stack of NIL cash and starred in national TV ads during his own games when that was still something we'd never seen before. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2022, and when USC was eliminated from title contention in '23, he cried in his mother's arms ... and people loathed him so much they made fun of him over it. But he also didn't -- and still doesn't -- shy away from leaning into the mean side of social media, nor has he ever apologized for relishing his bad guy role.9. Deion SandersDeion Sanders is the only member of this list who has enjoyed two distinctly different villain eras, Prime Time at Florida State four decades ago and Coach Prime at Colorado in the here and now. I know of what I speak here, because I was at Clemson's Death Valley in 1988 when No. 2 stood at the bottom of The Hill taunting the Tigers as they ran down from Howard's Rock. He didn't just relish the boos from the rain-soaked 80,000 fans in attendance; he bathed in them. Then he proceeded to talk smack to both the Clemson bench and head coach Danny Ford. And then he snagged a punt and returned it 75 yards for a touchdown.Fast forward to 2023, when Sanders moved from Jackson State to become Boss Buffalo. If anyone thought he was divisive as a pre-internet player, he damn near broke the internet every Saturday as Colorado won a lot early, which many celebrated, then lost a lot late, which even more celebrated. And just like that day at Clemson nearly four decades ago, he has relished that role, too.8. Tim TebowTebow is the only member of this list who would also be included if we were ranking the all-time college football good guys. Maybe that's why so many dislike the man I like to refer to as the Swamp Hulk, because he is such a good guy and has always unapologetically worn that title on his very large shoulders.Very few quarterbacks have arrived at college football's highest level with a higher amount of hype than No. 15 did in 2006. The moment he stepped on campus in Gainesville, he even divided the Florida faithful, between those who wanted him to start immediately and those who recognized the team was winning plenty -- as in won a national title -- with Chris Leak behind center. Tebow's cult following became so large so fast that many simply became exhausted of hearing about him. That was especially true in the press box, where Tebow Fatigue likely cost him a chance to become just a second two-time Heisman Trophy winner. And if you are wondering that perhaps I should have ranked him higher on this list, please keep in mind that I travel with Tim every weekend during the fall with SEC Nation and I don't want him to throw me into a swamp.7. ESPNPerhaps you've heard, but we hate your team. It doesn't matter which team that is. We hate them all. I'm not supposed to tell y'all this, but we have meetings every week just to come up with ways to belittle and insult your favorite team. That's a lot of meetings. Because there are a lot of teams. But you know this must be true because social media tells you that every single Saturday of every single season.I have worked at ESPN for so long that in 1997 I had rocks thrown at me in Knoxville because I was wearing an ESPN jacket as a young television producer there to cover Peyton Manning's last home game, and I had just graduated from Tennessee a few years earlier. Why did the Vols faithful hate ESPN? They blamed the Worldwide Leader in Sports for its supposed Big Ten bias, which would ultimately cost Manning the Heisman Trophy and hand it to Michigan's Charles Woodson. Then, several decades later, I had a Crown Royal bottle thrown at me in Columbus because I again was wearing an ESPN jacket. Why? Because Buckeyes fans believed our SEC bias was the reason I was there to write a story about Urban Meyer's paid administrative leave. See? We hate your team. All of them. It's totally true.6. Notre DameThe Golden Domers have always gone about their business by following their own unique road, and as a result everyone on the main non-Irish highway has always resented them for it. From their continued life as a nonconference football independent that still plays sort of an ACC schedule to having their own personal television contract for the last few decades and their continued status as a lone wolf in the College Football Playoff selection room, Notre Dame has long wielded exclusive powers. And as much as the Irish's fan base has relished the role, all other fan bases hate them for it.For the Fighting Irish, this circle-the-wagons life is nothing new. A century ago, the Ku Klux Klan identified South Bend as the headquarters for insurgent Roman Catholics seeking to undermine the American way. Knute Rockne and his team responded by winning the first of the program's 11 national championships. Whether it's screaming "Rudy was offside!" or "These guys don't deserve to be in a national title game!" what is meant to hurt Notre Dame's feelings instead always ends up as fuel for the Irish's next football fire.5. 1990 Miami HurricanesThere have been plenty of college football counterculture teams over the last 156 years, and in the high holy days of The U, every squad bucked the college football system. But only one team completely rewrote the rulebook in one afternoon. The defending national champions opened the 1990 season by suffering a stunning loss to BYU, but their only other blemish on the schedule was a midseason loss at Notre Dame in "Catholics vs. Convicts II."The Canes believed they still deserved a chance to win the natty in their home Orange Bowl but were instead sent to face third-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl. They beat the Longhorns 46-3 and spent their New Year's Day in Big D punctuating every big play with pointing, taunting and more dancing than you'd seen on an episode of "Solid Gold." Miami set team and Cotton Bowl records with 15 penalties for 202 yards, most of the flags for unsportsmanlike conduct. In the short term, sports columnists, commentators and fans around the country called for coach Dennis Erickson to be suspended or fired and presented the 1990 Hurricanes as the embodiment of everything wrong with modern college football. In the long term, this is the game ultimately inspired the NCAA to institute 15-yard penalties for excessive celebration.4. The BozThese days you might know Brian Bosworth as Barry Switzer's de facto escort at the Men's College World Series or the sheriff of Fansville. But in the 1980s, The Boz was college football's most polarizing figure. The All-America Oklahoma linebacker wore a mohawk haircut fashioned with razor-lined sides, all garnished with a do-rag. And who could forget his homemade T-shirt that turned "NCAA" into the acronym "National Communists Against Athletes" and added "Welcome to Russia!"These days, that would make him a folk hero. But in those days, bucking the system wasn't seen as such a heroic effort. Folks just thought he was a jerk, and it resulted in his dismissal from the Sooners. The Boz did not care. The reason he was on the sideline in that shirt during the 1987 Orange Bowl was because he had failed an NCAA steroid test. Had NIL existed 40 years ago, Bosworth would have been able to buy a ranch and sell all the "N.C.A.A." T-shirts he wanted.3. Johnny ManzielIs it a coincidence that television and movies became obsessed with antiheroes like Walter White and Kenny Powers at the exact same time Manziel was beating Bama, throwing up the makin' money sign and winning the Heisman Trophy? Maybe. But maybe not.Johnny Football rose to power as The App Formerly Known As Twitter was at the height of its powers. At the same time, that power was finding him in nightclubs when he was supposed to be working out the summer after winning the Heisman, with him posting at 1:48 a.m. ET "bulls--- like tonight is a reason why I can't wait to leave college station ... whenever it may be." After becoming the first freshman to win the stiff-armed trophy, then-Texas A&M athletic director Eric Hyman said to Manziel and his parents, "You're not a freshman. You're not a sophomore. You're a Heisman" -- and he was correct. To many, the lasting image of Mr. Football will be that of him holding a Roman candle in his mouth, drinking Dom Perignon and flexing in a Dallas nightclub after winning the Cotton Bowl ... when he was just 20. In 2026 that might be considered cute. In 2013, it was the lead story on TMZ.2. Lane KiffinThe Lane Train is worse at breaking up than Pete Davidson. But he also can't quit doing it. If you want to spend an uncomfortable hour, watch Al Davis' "I fired Lane Kiffin from the Raiders" news conference. At Tennessee, prospective students are shown Neyland Stadium, Ayres Hall and the giant rock on campus where it was painted "F--- Lane Kiffin" the night he bolted Knoxville for USC. He was fired from USC on the LAX tarmac. He was told by Nick Saban to go on and leave for Florida Atlantic instead of coaching in the national championship game because he was too distracted. And even after working so hard on changing how people viewed him, he couldn't help himself last fall when he exited Ole Miss for Magnolia Bowl rival LSU, and in the middle of what he continued to portray as an excruciatingly painful decision, he dropped a reference to "segregation" in a Vanity Fair interview when comparing his new gig to his old one.When LSU visits Ole Miss the night of Week 3, it's going to be all the worst parts of the Ole, er, Old Testament, but instead of raining fireballs from heaven, it'll be pouring Fireball out of airplane bottles.1. Steve SpurrierThe Head Ball Coach walked so the Lane Train could run. If you are a young college football fan, then the Spurrier you know is the folksy grandpa telling jokes at celebrity golf tournaments and touchdown club meetings. But back in the day, the HBC was The Visor. A hat-slinging, trash-talking, strut-walking winning machine who tossed the ball all over the yard as both a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and a national championship-winning coach. And after humiliating you on the field, he would pour verbal salt into your wounds.This is the guy who called FSU "Free Shoes University" after it was revealed that agents were giving Florida State players after-hours shopping sprees at Foot Locker. But he didn't stop there, not by a long shot. He took aim at Tennessee, a school he held an eternal grudge against because he was from there and didn't think the Vols had properly pursued him in recruiting, saying "You can't spell Citrus without UT." At the time, the Citrus Bowl was the postseason destination of the SEC's third-place team. And let's not sleep on his stint at South Carolina, where he routinely took photos with fans holding up five fingers because his Gamecocks once defeated archrival Clemson five years in a row. Says former Spurrier-coached-QB-turned-TV-host Jesse Palmer: "There is no greater example in the history of college football of the guy that if he was your coach, you love him forever, but if he was not your coach, then you hate him forever."Then again, Spurrier also angered Florida fans by taking the South Carolina job and then angered Gamecocks fans when he quit that job in the middle of a bad season. So even those who loved him most were at least for a time giving him the middle finger. It doesn't get much more villainous than that.Dishonorable mentions: Baker Mayfield, Diego Pavia, Vontaze Burfict, Connor Stalions, the NCAA, Hugh Freeze, Phil Fulmer, Ryan Leaf, Jameis Winston, Maurice Clarett
