Profiles in Disillusion follows the weekend's conquered favorites and other notables through the stages of grief.

Depression. Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson: Your team has lost five straight games after Saturday's 23-13 loss to UCLA, and seven straight to teams from outside of the state of Washington, securing back-to-back losing seasons at ASU for the first time in 62 years. What do you tell your team to keep the locker room positive and psych them up to salvage the season with an upset over hated rival Arizona?

"The good news is, there's only one game left," Erickson said.

Uh, thanks for the pep talk, coach. Other terms used by Erickson to describe various aspects of the Sun Devils' performance over the last two seasons: "Horrifying" and "frickin' ridiculous." No wonder his charges looked like they were in cut-myself-just-to-feel mode after coughing up six turnovers and two defensive touchdowns to the offensively-challenged Bruins. For Devil fans, the longer the Erickson era drags on, the worse it's beginning to smell.

Anger. Les Miles has brought two division titles, two BCS bids, four straight bowl victories and a national championship to LSU. But bungling a two-minute drill in a game with nothing but regional pride on the line? Tiger blog And the Valley Shook has seen enough:

That was immediately after the game, before the video surfaced showing Miles clearly indicating to his offense to spike the ball with one second left over post-game audio of the coach insisting "I don't know who told [quarterback Jordan Jefferson] to spike the ball," which ATVS finds "inexcusable." Tiger message boards wholeheartedly agree, if the much-longer-than-usual barrage of "Miles is on the hot seat" posts is any indication.

The good news for Les, relatively speaking: At least the mob will have the "throwback" uniforms to complain about this week at Arkansas.

Acceptance. Seven losses in eight games, six straight losses to a hated rival, two consecutive losing seasons after 40 years without even one sub-.500 effort: Some fan bases would be levitating with rage at such a rapid descent. Michigan, clearly, is not one of those fan bases.

Immediately following the Wolverines' calamitous finale against Ohio State, the Big House Blog congratulated the team on a hard-fought loss and expressed hope that the effort was enough to impress potential recruits; Maize and Blue Nation offered props to the beleaguered defense, in the process making the first recorded use of the phrase "Great job Greg Robinson" in the history of the Internet; and Spawn of MZone even tossed up a congratulatory shot of some saucy-looking OSU coeds along with best wishes to the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl. Has the whole world gone mad?!

In fact, it has: Just three posts later, Spawn of MZone's "faith in humanity is restored" by Detroit's second win of the season, a 38-37 thriller over the lowly Cleveland Browns. This is not a typo: The people of Michigan have now been reduced to looking to the Lions for gridiron inspiration. At long last, Rich Rodriguez, how much can one state be expected to take?

Denial. We haven't checked in with the Vanderbilt fan base at all this season, which at first glance seems awfully negligent of us -- remember, these guys did win a bowl game last year before returning to their familiar role as SEC doormats -- but on second thought, maybe we needn't have bothered after all: Going from "First bowl win in more than 50 years" to "winless in the SEC" barely seems to have raised a pulse in anyone associated with the Commodore program. A sparsely populated open thread for the Vandy-Tennessee game at Vanderbilt Sports Line seems more focused on potential success in the upcoming basketball season than anything else, and indeed, VSL has been all basketball since, with nary a hint of a post-mortem on the loss itself or on the dismal 2-10 season as a whole.

At least the commenter "Vandywatch" has maintained enough pride in the program to call for the head of one of the most respected coaches in the conference, Bobby Johnson:

"Put up a good fight." No. It was embarrassing. Our record since the Auburn victory LAST YEAR is 4 wins and 17 losses. Among those losses are several 'good fights' and Army. As I've repeatedly said -- IF this performance had occurred in a classroom, the professor would have been fired. Time to fire the coaching staff and bring a young, dynamic, exciting coach in here who can inspire his team, the fans and the community into filling 'little' Vanderbilt Stadium.

Yes, Commodores, one of your own fans just called for the firing of the coach responsible for half the bowl wins in your program's history. Yor team may have gone oh-fer in SEC games in '09, but let no one say you don't belong in this conference.

Elsewhere in Disillusion: Following Georgia's second-half self-immolation against Kentucky, Bulldog bloggers have visions of weedeaters. ... Arizona Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen bemoans what might have been in the Wildcats' double-OT loss to Oregon, and thankfully doesn't skimp on the melodrama. ... And speaking of double-OT losses (and melodrama), Notre Dame's loss to UConn was enough to make the Blue-Gray Sky get sentimental over the firedest coach in the country.