No Mo Eaux & Rolo – Week 8 College Football TV Schedule

Ed Orgeron and Nick Rolovich are out at LSU and Wazzu, respectively.  Well, kind of.  Rolovich has been shitcanned immediately.  He, along with some of the assistant coaches, refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine and, therefore, cannot work in any capacity in a state government position, which Washington STATE head coach definitely is.  I honestly do not understand why someone wouldn’t get the vaccine but to each their own I guess.  Part of not doing that, though, is to give up the right to do certain things.  Like be the football head coach at a state university.  I mean it’s not like Rolovich doesn’t already have a lot of money but he’s not that old and has a lot of years left to coach but he’s going to be considered persona non grata for a while now.

As for Coach Eaux, that’s a different story.  He will coach out the rest of the season which I think is a completely stupid thing to do.  Nothing worse than the lame duck coach.  As for why he was fired?  Well, LSU isn’t nearly as good as they were but how could they be?  That 2019 team was one of the best college football teams ever.  No, it’s more than that.  See, Eddie has had a divorce lately and it sounds like he’s letting his dick do the talking a lot these days.  Like hitting on a married pregnant woman at a gas station whose husband just happens to be a high-ranking official at the same damn school he coaches at.  Like how fucking stupid can you be?  So yeah, I think they got sick of Coach O being a womanizing asshole who didn’t seem to want to put the team first (or second or third, for that matter).  Oh well, he won’t be disappointed since his payout is ridiculous.  Not exactly Bobby Bonilla-type money but he will make over $17 million through to the end of 2025.  Must be nice.

Anywho, enough of Shitcan City, more college football schedules.  Sound good?

Wednesday

		US	Canada
#14 Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State	7:30 PM

At least TSN understands the importance of weeknight Fun Belt!  This is a massive game in the conference and a Coastal win basically wins the East division.  App State winning doesn’t just put the Sun Belt in a bit of flux; it also kills the chances of one of Cincinnati’s competitors for the Group of Five New Year’s Six spot (if the Bearcats don’t get into the College Football Playoff).

Thursday​

		US	Canada
Florida Atlantic at Charlotte	7:30 PM
Tulane at #21 SMU	7:30 PM
Louisiana at Arkansas State	7:30 PM
San Jose State at UNLV	11:00 PM

Four games.  None of them really that good to be honest.  Chances are many will be watching the NLCS Game 5 or Thursday Night Football, even if the Denver Broncos aren’t as good as their record indicates.  But there could be some upset possibilities that could hamper some teams’ expectations.  A Mustangs loss to Tulane wouldn’t just hurt SMU: it would hurt Cincinnati as well as they need a good SMU team later in the season to keep their resume intact for a potential College Football Playoff spot.

Friday​

		US	Canada
Middle Tennessee at UConn	6:00 PM
Columbia at Dartmouth	6:00 PM
Memphis at UCF	7:00 PM
Colorado State at Utah State	9:30 PM
Washington at Arizona	10:30 PM

Technically this is a schedule of college football games on a Friday night.  I guess if you are into Ivy League football or UConn football (for some reason), then maybe this is the schedule for you.  Oh and we have Zona in the late night Friday window.  Ugh.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Illinois at #7 Penn State	Noon
UMass at Florida State	Noon
#16 Wake Forest at Army	Noon
#3 Oklahoma at Kansas	Noon
#2 Cincinnati at Navy	Noon
Northern Illinois at Central Michigan	Noon
Northwestern at #6 Michigan	Noon
Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Arkansas	Noon
Syracuse at Virginia Tech	12:30 PM

Fairly good start to the Saturday.  Not as great as last week but still good.  The biggest problem is quite a few games of ranked teams facing non-ranked teams where the unranked teams are really not that good.  I mean it’s either that or watching UMass face a not-so-good Florida State team and probably lose by 40 so take your pick.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Wisconsin at #25 Purdue	3:00 PM
#10 Oregon at UCLA	3:30 PM
LSU at #12 Ole Miss	3:30 PM
Western Michigan at Toledo	3:30 PM
Clemson at #23 Pittsburgh	3:30 PM
Maryland at Minnesota	3:30 PM
#8 Oklahoma State at Iowa State	3:30 PM
Boston College at Louisville	4:00 PM
East Carolina at Houston	4:00 PM
Mississippi State at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM

Definitely better here.  Yes, it’s still a few ranked teams against unranked teams but the games themselves are of much better quality for sure.  OSU tries to keep their inexplicable undefeated run going against ISU.  Chip Kelly sees his old Oregon team again at home at the Rose Bowl.  And for once, it’s Pittsburgh that’s ranked and Clemson that’s unranked.  Looks weird.  And yes, TSN is already done for the day early.  They have really done a lot less this year and it’s not a good sign for people who rely on regular cable (and no specialty pack) to bring them their college football fix.

Saturday Primetime​​

		US	Canada
#22 San Diego State at Air Force	7:00 PM
Tennessee at #4 Alabama	7:00 PM
#5 Ohio State at Indiana	7:30 PM
Georgia Tech at Virginia	7:30 PM
#18 NC State at Miami	7:30 PM
West Virginia at TCU	7:30 PM
USC at #13 Notre Dame	7:30 PM
South Carolina at #17 Texas A&M	7:30 PM

To say there are huge games in this timeslot would be a lie.  But there is some intrigue.  USC could surprise the Irish and the Hoosiers could do the same at home against Ohio State.  Tennessee might AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry I couldn’t type that without laughing.  I mean there’s probable and then there’s near-impossible.

Saturday Late Night

No late night sked.  Nothing.  The only game on at all after the 7:30 games is Hawaii’s home game against New Mexico State on their PPV channel.  I guess you could try and find a stream to watch it (or it may end up on Facebook somehow) but other than that, there is nothing on past primetime.  How fucking bizarre is that?  It’s like we are back to two decades ago when college football rarely headed into late night waters.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Oklahoma State at Iowa State (3:30, FOX) – Who thought Oklahoma State would be in the Top 10 at any point this season?  Now whoever has their hands up, put them down you filthy liars.  Once again, Mike Gundy has his Cowboys in great position at the midway point of a season with a slight possibility of getting into the CFP.  We have seen this story before and it has never ended well for the Pokes.  Funny thing is, they aren’t really doing it with offense this time around.  Their defense, especially for a Big XII team, has been great and has carried this team to the #8 ranking.  If things break their way, it would set up a huge Bedlam game at the end of the regular season.  As for ISU, they are still 4-2 and still have every opportunity to get back in the Big XII race and it could start with a home upset here.

Oregon at UCLA (3:30, ABC) – It’s about time that Chip Kelly has finally worked a bit of his magic in Westwood.  I guess he needed that time to recruit the guys he wanted to play his kind of ball.  And now he gets to face his old team in a game that could honestly break the Pac-12.  Oregon is ranked #10 and a loss by the Ducks would destroy any Pac-12 chances of doing anything other than their champ being one of “those teams” that get into the New Year’s Six when they probably didn’t deserve it.

San Diego State at Air Force (7:00, CBS Sports Network) – The Aztecs vs. The Academy.  This is SDSU’s chance to show they are the team in the Mountain West that replaces Boise State at the top.  But we all have seen what it’s like to play Air Force in Colorado Springs.  It’s at night which means it might be cold.  It’s against the option which always rough on a defense.  And the Falcons are a seriously good team who are also looking to put their stamp on the Mountain West.

Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State (Wednesday, 7:30, TSN2) – Man, when’s the last time there has been two Group of Five games in the Games of the Week list?  Other than last year when things were all messed up, I can’t remember.  Coastal is desperately hoping for a Cincinnati loss to give them an honest chance at the NY6 spot.  Unfortunately for them, their schedule doesn’t give them a lot of huge potential wins so beating teams like App State by a lot is a must.  The Committee will not give them any respect unless they are laying waste to their Sun Belt schedule.

Clemson at Pittsburgh (3:30, specialty pack) – Yeah it isn’t the greatest of weeks when this game hits the Games of the Week section.  Anyway, Clemson still has every opportunity to win the Atlantic division, amazingly enough.  Win out and they would be back in Charlotte again in December.  The Panthers could put an end to Coastal Chaos (at least for this season), if they continue to win.  I’ll say it again: the way they are playing makes their loss to Western Michigan more and more baffling every week.

Honourable mention: Wake Forest at Army (Noon, CBS Sports Network); LSU at Ole Miss (3:30, CBS);  USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC)

Wanna bet?

I didn’t do too badly, especially picking Baylor over BYU.  Some of my other picks were less than good but whatever.  It is what it is.  Here’s this week picks for you gambling degenerates to look and laugh at:

Ole Miss over LSU

Iowa State over Oklahoma State (upset!)

Coastal Carolina over Appalachian State

Oregon over UCLA

Notre Dame over USC

Wake Forest over Army

Air Force over San Diego State (mild upset)

Clemson over Pittsburgh

Ohio State over Indiana

Toledo over Western Michigan

UConn over Middle Tennessee (yes, I am calling for a UConn winning streak!)

Hey how about my Top 25 going into this week?  Why not, right?  Since I’m not doing the recap posts I can start including them here.  So here we go:

#1	Georgia
#2	Cincinnati
#3	Oklahoma
#4	Alabama
#5	Ohio State
#6	Michigan
#7	Oregon
#8	Penn State
#9	Ole Miss
#10	Michigan State
#11	Oklahoma State
#12	Notre Dame
#13	Iowa
#14	Coastal Carolina
#15	Texas A&M
#16	Wake Forest
#17	Auburn
#18	Kentucky
#19	NC State
#20	Baylor
#21	San Diego State
#22	SMU
#23	Clemson
#24	UTSA
#25	Arkansas

A few differences from my poll to the actual AP Poll.  I would have had the roles reversed for the Clemson-Pitt game: Clemson ranked and Pitt unranked.  I think Oregon should be firmly in the Top 10 and would cement their spot with a big win over UCLA.  I’m still skeptical of Oklahoma State but if they can pull out the win this week, I probably have them in the Top 10 for next week.

I don’t know if I will be on Twitter this weekend.  It did feel kind of freeing to not be on there this past Saturday.  But I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss it because I kind of did.  So we shall see.  Have a great rest of the week everyone!

So….so does this mean we could get THREE teams into the College Football Playoff? The SEC Preview Post.

Covid-19 is serious, SERIOUS shit.  I want to say no one denies this but some do.  They are idiots.  This pandemic has wreaked havoc on a lot of things: small businesses, travel & tourism, me finding work, sports.  And the college football world.  While a few conferences are sitting this one out, the SEC barged straight ahead into this season because it’s FOOTBAW and they wanna play FOOTBAW.  But even SEC schools are cognizant of what is going on and are doing their very best to make sure the virus doesn’t take hold with their football teams (and I guess the rest of the students as well).

Saying all that, the SEC has to be wondering if they could maybe….just maybe….get three schools into the College Football Playoff.  You know they thought that.  It’s evil but it’s true.  Not that it would happen unless you have 2007 chaos everywhere except the SEC.  But if this happened, the college football media would go crazy.  Danny Kanell might choke to death from his turtlenecks being too tight.  Paul Finebaum would have a grin you would not be able to wipe off his face.  Absolute insanity!  But no…it can’t happen.  Right?

This is the first of the conference prediction posts.  Only about a month-and-a-half late but better late than never.  Let’s get right to the predictions followed by some Ponderings Over a Cup of Sweet Tea:

	East	W	L
	Florida	8	2
	Georgia	7	3
	Tennessee	6	4
	Kentucky	5	5
	Missouri	2	8
	South Carolina	2	8
	Vanderbilt	1	9
	West
	Alabama	9	1
	LSU	8	2
	Texas A&M	8	2
	Auburn	8	2
	Mississippi State	3	7
	Ole Miss	3	7
	Arkansas	0	10

Ponderings Over a Cup of Sweet Tea

• The SEC is going with a 10-game, conference-only schedule.  This will make it arguably the toughest schedule in the nation.  It’s also why I have none of the teams going undefeated since I can’t see any team, especially losing months of training, being able to run the table in the conference that just means more.  So don’t look all shocked that I have Bama going 9-1.  They are still winning the SEC West so cool down.
• And yes, I have Florida at the top of the East.  Again, calm down, there’s a reason here.  With Jamie Newman deciding to forgo the season, the Bulldogs look very iffy on offense and could struggle most of the season.  The only other team that’s close here is Tennessee but the Vols could surprise many in this odd season.
• The Tide are going to have a lot of competition at the top of the SEC West.  LSU, TAMU and Auburn are all serious College Football Playoff contenders but unfortunately they had the audacity to be in the same division as the Alabama Crimson Tide.  What assholes.  I can’t see LSU doing what they did last year considering how many players they lost to the draft and graduation but if they can find another good quarterback, watch out.  I mean it is Coach O after all.
• Who the hell did Arkansas piss off to get that schedule?  Poor Sam Pittman is going to be lucky to be even close to a win with what he is seeing in 2020.  Good lord.
• Kentucky will not be as good as they were last season.  Not a chance.  You don’t lose a Josh Allen and a Benny Snell and expect to be just as good unless your team starts with A and ends in labama Crimson Tide.  This is what I wrote in last year’s preview.  Same thing this year although you can replace Josh Allen and Benny Snell with Lynn Bowden Jr.  That’s it.
• So will Auburn end up finally shitcanning Gus Malzahn since everyone seems to want it to happen?  No.  They won’t.  I mean if they do they are idiots.  Same goes with Jimbo Fisher at College Station.  Not gonna happen.
• Bowl teams?  Who the hell knows.  I don’t know the criteria anymore so until my final college football prediction post I won’t bother talking about them.  Hopefully by that point someone has an idea of what will happen.
• I have Florida facing Alabama in the SEC Championship which I assume will be in Atlanta.  I got the Tide winning this one and heading to whatever the College Football Playoff will end up looking like.  Again, I will get to all the bowl season nonsense in a later post since, from going through it myself, figuring it out requires knowledge of Advanced Calculus I think.

Alright finally got the first conference done!  Better late than never.  Next up will be the Sun Belt, who should get more prominent timeslots this season.

Tomorrow is the first Saturday of FBS college football.  It’s not many games but it’s some so I am psyched for it.  Soon enough we will have mostly full Saturdays to do nothing but watch college football and be very unproductive…if you call watching college football unproductive which I certainly don’t!  Have a great long weekend everyone!

I can’t think of an interesting headline for the SEC

Like nothing is going on.  Seriously!  Compared to last summer when there was Schianogate and all the other coaching changes this feels like a very quiet off-season.  And that’s a good thing.  Nothing about realignment or a big scandal or anything like that.  This is what the SEC should try to aspire to every off-season and just focus on continuing to make boatloads of money for each of the member schools.

So yeah we can focus on football here.  How about that?  Let’s get right to the predictions followed by some Thoughts A’Brewin (in a stoic Southern accent):

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Georgia	7	1	11	1
	Florida	5	3	9	3
	Missouri	5	3	9	3
	South Carolina	3	5	6	6
	Tennessee	3	5	7	5
	Kentucky	2	6	6	6
	Vanderbilt	1	7	4	8
	West
	Alabama	7	1	11	1
	LSU	7	1	10	2
	Texas A&M	6	2	9	3
	Auburn	5	3	8	4
	Mississippi State	4	4	8	4
	Arkansas	1	7	5	7
	Ole Miss	1	7	4	8

Thoughts A’Brewin

• Yes I know people will be outraged or think I’m crazy for not having Alabama go undefeated in the regular season.  Their schedule is a bit more difficult than last year’s so there’s that.  You have to look at their competition and some of the teams have improved that are on their schedule.  Saying all that, if the Tide go undefeated during the regular season then I won’t be surprised.  It’s not like I’m saying they will go 8-4 and head to the Outback Bowl so calm down.
• Georgia should, once again, be the class of the East Division.  Should be.  Florida is right on their heels and Mizzou (who may or may not be going bowling this season) is right there too after getting Kelly Bryant to replace Drew Lock.  The rest of the division still has a ways to go but don’t count out any potential upsets would could upset the apple cart at the top of the division.
• LSU and Texas A&M might be considered surprises for where they are but they shouldn’t be.  In almost every other division in the Power Five, they win the division title.  They just had the audacity of being in the SEC West.  Pricks.  Kellen Mond could end up being a legit Heisman contender and Coach O is one upset of Bama away from Bayou immortality.
• Arkansas is inching back towards being a good team in the SEC West.  If they stay the course and Chad Morris is allowed to do what he thinks needs to be done, expect this team to be bowling next season.
• Kentucky will not be as good as they were last season.  Not a chance.  You don’t lose a Josh Allen and a Benny Snell and expect to be just as good unless your team starts with A and ends in labama Crimson Tide.
• So will Auburn end up finally shitcanning Gus Malzahn since everyone seems to want it to happen?  They will be a Top 25 team at some point during the season and if they weren’t in the SEC West they would compete for division titles but that is not enough for many Tiger alumni and fans.  Ask Nebraska how well things have gone since they fired Bo Pelini for failing to lose less than four games in a season.
• Eleven bowl teams?  Yep that’s what I am calling for.  Don’t be surprised.  OK I lied.  Ten.  Missouri is still on the fence as to if they are ineligible or not.
• This feels kind of ho hum but I have UGA and Bama in the SEC Championship and the Fighting Sabans winning the SEC Championship yet again.  Obviously this puts the Tide in the College Football Playoff and the Dawgs in the New Year’s Six but expect other rumblings about a couple other teams (and you will see where I put them going just before the season begins).

Only two conferences to go!  Next up is the conference that really keeps me up at night, the Mountain West.  Then the final conference preview, the ACC preview, will be some time next week.

17 days to go until the first college football games of the year.  I am getting seriously pumped for the upcoming season.  Should be good, especially compared to a lacklustre 2019…well lacklustre in terms of college football which means it was still really good but it wasn’t wicked awesome.  Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Coach O-NO! – Week 5 College Football Recap

I could have gone with a lot of different titles for this recap.  I decided to go with this one.  Don’t know why.  What I do know, however, is that Ed Orgeron is now squarely on the hot seat after LSU’s stunning loss to Troy on Saturday.  And it wasn’t a fluke.  Troy looked dominating at times.  LSU just isn’t a contender anymore in the SEC West and many will point the finger at Ed Orgeron and even athletic director Joe Alleva.  They had opportunities to go a different direction but stuck with Coach O.  That may bite them in the ass considering LSU’s conference schedule kicks in to gear next week with a game at The Swamp against Florida (who has their own issues but nothing like this).  I can’t foresee a scenario where Orgeron is back next season but it does show that LSU has taken quite a few steps back as a program lately.

Now on to the rest of the recap which is chock-full of interesting and exciting tidbits thanks to another great weekend of college football.  Here we go!

This somewhat crazy weekend started Friday night with some Pac-12 After Dark action.  And my pick for the natty, USC, lost a very good game with Washington State.  So already some chaos.  I still think USC can run the table the rest of the way.  As for Sam Darnold, I think his Heisman chances took a huge hit since he was, quite honestly, not good in this one.  Yes, Wazzu is a bit better than advertised but it’s not like they have a crazy good defense.  As for the new frontrunner…

Saquon Barkley put on another show yet again.  Penn State rolled Indiana and looks awesome as they start Big Ten play.  I still see some tough games for them with the game against Ohio State being the one that has a big red circle on their calendar.  I can’t wait for a few weeks from now when some “experts” start talking about Barkley not being the frontrunner.  Every year recently it seems like people start getting sick of a guy who is playing so well that he goes way out in front.  It happened last year with Lamar Jackson, who had a couple bad games in the last four or five but kept the pedal down in the others.  It happened the previous year with Leonard Fournette who did end up playing two quite bad games and fell out of the running.  Oh well, 24-7 media means we get this kind of stuff.  It also means we get…

Calls for Butch Jones to be Lane Kiffin-ed at the Knoxville airport tarmac.  Which honestly would be one of the least surprising things to happen since Tennessee got blown the fuck out by Georgia.  It was pretty tough to watch.  A car wreck of a game for the Vols if you will.  They could do nothing.  Now maybe the Dawgs are better than advertised (they are a bit for sure) but Tennessee now has no chance to win the SEC East which they almost needed to keep Butch Jones as head coach next season.  Now?  Who knows but they better win way more than they lose the rest of the way or Jonesy may be taking his Champions of Life title belt to the unemployment line.  Speaking of the SEC East…

Florida didn’t exactly look like world beaters against Vanderbilt.  Vanderbilt is not a bad team but the Gators are supposed to better than they have been.  Alabama is going to have a ton of fun in the SEC Championship.  Speaking of conference championship games…

Florida State won’t be in one this season.  Yes they beat Wake Forest in a conference game but they barely won it.  Losing Deondre Francois has proven to be devastating for this team.  Maybe next year is a phrase almost never uttered in Tallahassee but it is for this year’s Seminoles.  A team that may not have to wait until next season is…

Miami.  They looked really good on Friday night against Duke and look like they may FINALLY get to an ACC Championship Game.  Only took over a decade and they are the sole reason why the Noles and Canes are in opposite divisions (thanks a bunch ACC for confusing division names).  A team that doesn’t have issues making conference championship games…

Bama has absolutely crushed their last two opponents.  Vandy the previous week and this past Saturday, they beat Ole Miss 66-3.  Seriously?  There is no team close in the SEC.  Not even in the same area code.  There are other teams that are pulling away early…

San Diego State has already locked up the MWC West Division.  I know mathematically they haven’t but man they have an easy division.  The only thing keeping USF from winning the AAC East is a possible massive War on I-4 matchup with UCF (only if the Knights can keep things going).  And USC, despite their loss, is probably still the heavy favourite in the Pac-12 South.  So yes, even among craziness of college football, there are certain things that seem very certain.  Other things that are becoming certain even if many thought it wouldn’t be the case…

Clemson is making a strong case for heading back to the CFP National Championship for Bama-Clemson III.  They have made ABC Saturday Night Football their playground as they have beaten Louisville and Virginia Tech in impressive fashion.  Unless they lose in an upset (which is entirely possible), they should be going to the ACC Championship to try and begin their road to repeating as national champion.

No lead-in to this paragraph.  Oklahoma State was exposed last week against TCU and didn’t look like a top-tier Big XII team against Texas Tech this time around.  Bedlam will still be big but I don’t think it will be a precursor to the Big XII Championship anymore.

Going back to the Group of Five, it is still very interesting.  As of this point, San Diego State and USF are the front-runners for the New Year’s Six spot.  But lurking in the weeds is UCF and Navy from the American, along with Troy from the Sun Belt, and the ultimate under-the-radar team at this point, UTSA.  For once we could have an amazing race for that one spot since the first three years of the College Football Playoff it hasn’t been too exciting come mid-November.  It’s almost like we hope that a team like Western Michigan last season blows a gasket and loses.  It’s sad but kind of true because in the end, we hope for a bit of chaos (there’s that word again) because it keeps things exciting.  Having Clemson-Bama III might make for a great championship but the lead-up to it will be not as exciting as it could be if a lot had happened before that.

Alright, now up is the Bossman Top 25 and from what I can see, very few of my choices match the true AP Top 25.  And it’s only September.  Here’s my rankings:

#1	Clemson
#2	Alabama
#3	Washington
#4	Penn State
#5	Oklahoma
#6	Georgia
#7	Wisconsin
#8	Washington State
#9	Michigan
#10	Auburn
#11	TCU
#12	Ohio State
#13	Miami
#14	USC
#15	Oklahoma State
#16	Louisville
#17	USF
#18	Florida
#19	Virginia Tech
#20	San Diego State
#21	Utah
#22	West Virginia
#23	UCF
#24	Notre Dame
#25	Oregon

Yep, I put Clemson back on top.  And that may stay that way for a while since all of Bama’s future SEC conference opponents (other than Auburn) seem to be falling by the wayside meaning their strength of schedule is taking a hit.  To me, #3 through #7 are interchangeable.  Just waiting for the shoe to drop for some of them in that group.  I think the only one I am missing that is on the AP list that I don’t have is NC State.  I have them just outside my Top 25 but it wouldn’t surprise me if soon enough they are pushing up the list (until they face Clemson that is).

You will see my NFL recap tomorrow and then I am still deciding whether to do another post on Wednesday or not.  Don’t want to overload the blog with useless crap (which some could say is a somewhat accurate statement about my blog’s history).  We shall see.  Enjoy your week everyone.