Lists, Lists…..LISTS!

Posted on June 29, 2023 by guelphbossman

You’d think I was employed by Buzzfeed with all these lists I’m making.

So just like last year, I will add a few more lists to accompany the Most Important Games post. It should give you a good idea of the important games to watch (at least at this point) and maybe some games to avoid (unless you are a Sicko like me and will watch any football…even, yes…arena football!)

I know, I know, I have always stated my disgust for arena football but I have to admit it does have its own trashy charm to it. OK let’s just get to the lists, shall we?

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

I used to list a game like this for every week of the season. This time I will rank the top dozen games that should be considered underrated but very good and that didn’t rank in the Top 35 from the previous post.

Oklahoma vs. Texas (at the Cotton Bowl) (Week 6, Noon, ABC/TSN2) – First of all, I am not on drugs. Not many are talking about the Sooners and most are calling for the Longhorns to walk off to the SEC with a Big XII Championship title. Do you remember what game this is? It’s the god damn Red River Shootout/Rivalry/Game/Brawl/Drinking Contest. Many times it is ridiculous, crazy, wild and just plain dumbfounding. Don’t count OU out…at least in this one game…….oh the second thing. Yeah, ABC has picked up this game but the time hasn’t been set. It will be either Noon or 3:30 because the State Fair of Texas becomes a gangland shootout at night or something like that.
TCU at Kansas State (Week 8, Noon, specialty pack) – The rematch of last year’s Big XII title game loses a bit of its luster but should still be important in the grand scheme of things in the conference. I get it’s not Gary Patterson anymore but Sonny Dykes is already showing he can also make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Chris Klieman will get every opportunity to show off why he got a big extended contract and this is one of those opportunities at home in front of the Wildcat faithful.
Iowa at Wisconsin (Week 7, Noon, Big Ten Network) – As I said in the Most Important Games post, it feels like all the conference networks get at least one good game a season now. This could be that game, if it ends up there. Once again this could be for the Big Ten West title but it’s going to feel weird with Wisconsin not running the ball as much. Iowa, on the other hand, should be exactly the same, trying to win games 6-5.
Texas A&M at Ole Miss (Week 10, Noon, specialty pack) – Many will sleep on these two teams…wait, bad analogy. I forgot Petrino was at College Station. Anyway, two teams that many will cast aside but it’s almost a guarantee one of them will cause a bit of a stink in the conference. Also, take the over.
UCLA at Oregon State (Week 7, 5:30, Pac-12 Network) – Speaking of conference networks, here’s the worst of the bunch. That includes the Big XII’s non-existent network. Look, one of these two teams is going to be very good (I think) and will cause quite a few headaches at the top of the Pac-12 food chain (I think) and will end up being in the Pac-12 Championship (ehhhh, I don’t know).
TCU at Oklahoma (Week 13, Friday, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Black Friday will start with a game between a team who just got destroyed in the national championship and a team that normally is great and struggled to be bowl-eligible. Both teams will have something to prove and this could be their last real chance to do so (and make it count) this season.
Kansas State at Texas Tech (Week 7, 3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I guess it makes sense that the Big XII fills a good portion of this section after almost being shut out of my Top 35 most important games of the season. The Red Raiders always put up the points, no matter who the quarterback, head coach, or receivers are. And KSU can also do that when they want to. Should be a shootout (of sorts).
South Carolina at Texas A&M (Week 9, Noon, specialty pack) – More Fun Bobby! And Fun Shane…ok that one doesn’t have as good a ring to it. But BeamerBall 2.0 is a lot of fun to watch.
Arkansas at Ole Miss (Week 6, 7:30, specialty pack) – Could Sam Pittman be the most lovable coach in the game right now? Perhaps. He still feels like a bit of an underdog and you always root for the underdog, right? Wait…I’m getting something here….a message…ah, OK. Lane Kiffin doesn’t agree.
Minnesota at Iowa (Week 8, 3:30, FOX) – Row The Boat vs. Single-Digit Scoring. I am intrigued, I’m not going to lie. Plus we will see the best new tradition in all of not just college football but sports in general, the Iowa Wave.
Duke at North Carolina (Week 11, 8:00, specialty pack) – The Eastern version of the Victory Bell could be important once again. Both teams look like they could slot in anywhere from three to six in the ACC this year (with no divisions thank god). So a win here and maybe an upset or two somewhere else and one of these programs will duke it out for a conference championship.
Ole Miss at Tulane (Week 2, 3:30, specialty pack) – The game time is confirmed. I assume it heads to the specialty pack. Too bad because TSN would be smart to pick up this game. The Green Wave, who have to be considered to have the best odds to make it back as the best Group of Five team, hosting Ole Miss in what will be stiflingly hot weather in New Orleans…yeah I like Tulane’s chances but I still think it will be a close one.

Best Group of Five Games

Next up is our friends from the Group of Five. Three of them got invited to sit up at the adult table so overall this group is a tiny bit weaker. That just means other teams will have opportunities that they may not have had before. So let’s look at the best Group of Five games this season. And no, the Ole Miss-Tulane game above doesn’t count. This is full G5-on-G5 violence, bruh.

UTSA at Tulane (Week 13, 7:00, specialty pack) – As per usual, the American Conference should make up the bulk of this list. The defending Group of Five champion (and Cotton Bowl champion), Tulane is the favourite to do it again. UTSA is in its first season in the American but already could be the team to knock the Green Wave off their perch. Huge game where I have to favour Tulane only because it’s in New Orleans not the Alamodome where the Roadrunners have a huge home advantage.
Air Force at Boise State (Week 13, Friday, 4:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Not having FS1 will deprive Canadians of a lot of good Mountain West action. This should be the conference’s game of the year and the winner probably goes to the Mountain West Championship. Being on the Smurf Turf, I would give the Broncos the slight edge here.
South Alabama at Tulane (Week 1, 8:00, specialty pack) – This game is set for ESPNU on opening Saturday and, I can almost guarantee, will head to the specialty pack. The Jaguars (Jag-you-ares) came out of nowhere last season to almost win the Sun Belt. They are the favourites to win the conference and if they can pull the mini-upset here, could feasibly run the table. I guess I could say the same thing about Tulane.
Boise State at Fresno State (Week 10, 10:00, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – Hey it’s CBSSN’s first foray onto any of these lists. CBSSN is a nice palette cleanser really. It shows games you never would have normally watched. Plus it shows most of UConn’s games. I am liking CBSSN having the CFL. Yes it’s just a simulcast of TSN’s showing but it works. Kind of wish they would come up with at least their own play-by-play and analysis and just use the TSN visuals.
Tulane at Memphis (Week 7, Friday, 7:00, TSN2) – It’s the time of year when the American and ACC split most of the Thursday and Friday night games on ESPN and their dysfunctional family of networks. TSN tends to show more Friday night games because they can put it on TSN2 and not have it interfere with the CFL’s Friday Night Football. Anyway, yes, it’s the Green Wave again. Bored yet? They might be that good. Maybe even legit Top 12 good if everything falls right.
Boise State at San Diego State (Week 4, Friday, 10:30, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – And here comes Boise State again. I mean I want to say there aren’t two obvious frontrunners in the G5 but there are. Both the Broncos and Tulane should be in it to the end to see who gets that single spot.
South Alabama at Troy (Week 10, Thursday, 7:30, specialty pack) – Hey it’s not Tulane, Boise State, the American or the Mountain West! Let’s give the Sun Belt a lot of respect. They have become the third-best Group of Five conference and it’s a pretty wide gap between them and the two conferences below them, the MAC and Conference USA. The Battle for the Belt (so good to have a wrestling title belt as the rivalry trophy) should be for the de facto Sun Belt West title unless Louisiana or maybe Southern Miss has something to say about it.
Boise State at Memphis (Week 5, 3:30, specialty pack) – This might end up on ESPN or ESPN2 depending on how both teams are doing at this point. I could see it happening because ESPN made a point to trade with CBS for this BSU road game.
Tulane at East Carolina (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – I figured East Carolina would have to find someone to replace Holton Ahlers and his 245 passes per game. Instead they plan to completely turn to the running game and grind teams into the turf. If this somehow works, Georgia Tech fans are gonna be real mad.
WKU at Troy (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN+) – First Conference USA appearance and it heads to ESPN+. I have that this year for the first time so I am going to have a lot of fun and totally destroy my remote control this season with that. Kind of wish it even got to ESPNU so that the specialty packs could pick it up. I still think WKU and MTSU were foolish not to take the MAC’s potential invite as they are stuck now in arguably the worst FBS conference with not much in the way of rivalries.
San Diego State at Air Force (Week 5, 8:00, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – OK two teams that aren’t quite fitting the mold of the top G5 teams. Nice. And, if things go according to plan, we should see a bazillion yards rushing and the game might be over by 10:00.
Eastern Michigan at Toledo (Week 11, Wednesday, 7:00, specialty pack) – Finally we end this list with a MACtion game since I have to. MACtion is awesome. We also have Fun Belt now and whatever the American conference calls their weeknight games. Oh and Conference USA is doing pretty much all weeknight games in October. Crazy! Anyway, this could very well be the two best MAC teams so let’s call this the de facto MAC West championship.

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Games

Let’s bring back this section because these games are the ones many college football fans feast on. What is better than watching your hated rival lose to a Group of Five team? Not much. And I have always said, Group of Five teams, at least the better ones, should get their shot at Power Five teams to see what they are worth. If it wasn’t for that happening, very few teams would have moved up and the Power Five may have already separated from the rest of college football by now.

Ole Miss at Tulane (Week 2, 3:30, specialty pack) – This was already discussed above but it is the biggest G5 vs. P5 game of the season and hosted by the Group of Five team which is a rarity but happening more often these days which is nice to see.
UTSA at Tennessee (Week 4, 7:30, specialty pack) – The Roadrunners meep their way up the food chain to the American Conference this season and are already a contender for the league title (and perhaps a NY6 spot). The Vols will be really good this season but a UTSA win her would be massive for the program and for the college football season as a whole.
Boise State at Washington (Week 1, 3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Everything is confirmed except for if the game will appear on TSN. I believe it will but we won’t know for like another two months. Ridiculous. Washington is looking to ride their Heisman contender quarterback all the way, hopefully, to the College Football Playoff so a slip-up here would almost derail that entire plan.
WKU at Ohio State (Week 3, 4:00, FOX, confirmed) – Look, are the Hilltoppers going to win this? No. All we can hope for is for WKU to put a scare into tOSU. If, somehow, they ended up with the upset, it would be the biggest upset in the history of college football and you wouldn’t be able to convince me otherwise.
Troy at Kansas State (Week 2, Noon, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – OK now this one has intrigue written all over it. Troy is one of a handful of teams that has legit New Year’s Six aspirations out of the Group of Five. Kansas State is the defending Big XII champions but have a few question marks. This feels ripe for an upset.
SMU at TCU (Week 4, Noon, specialty pack) – The Battle for the Iron Skillet. This might be the best one yet if the Mustangs are as good as some say they will be. Not the favourite in the American so they will have to show out in games like this to catch voters’ eyes. This could be a good litmus test to see how far TCU has fallen from last year’s national runner-up team.
San Diego State at Oregon State (Week 3, 3:30, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – This could be a tasty affair if the Aztecs step up and prove they could be eventually Pac-12 worthy in football. Otherwise, you might hear a lot of chainsaws going in this one since Oregon State is definitely a dark horse contender this season.
SMU at Oklahoma (Week 2, 6:00, ESPN+, confirmed) – Ouch. Seeing this relegated to ESPN+ surprises me a bit but the Sooners are not the team they had been for the past few decades. The Sooners are going to try and come out of the gate swinging but don’t be surprised if the Stangs give them some trouble in this one.
UCF at Boise State (Week 2, 7:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Last year this would have been in the previous section. Now the Knights are in the Big XII but they may still be an underdog on this one. If I were a betting man I would put my money on the Broncos here as they are hoping to run the table and get back to where they believe they belong: as the top dog among the Group of Five.
East Carolina at Michigan (Week 1, Noon, Peacock, confirmed) – The debut of Peacock on these lists. I am sure at some point it will be available for Canadians but we aren’t quite there yet. Yeah I don’t think this will be really close but you never know. I wonder if ECU can run on this Michigan offense. If they can, the entire Big Ten will be watching tape of this game all season to see if they can replicate it.
UCLA at San Diego State (Week 2, 7:30, CBS, confirmed) – Nice to see the Mountain West appearing on CBS. The week before this we get Texas Tech/Wyoming and here we get a very interesting matchup that could easily lead to an upset, if SDSU has things going by the second week of the season.
UTSA at Houston (Week 1, 7:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – The Cougs have stepped up to the Big XII conference. Good for them. Problem is they start their first season back on the top tier of college football against one of the best Group of Five teams. The only thing helping Houston is that the game is in Houston and not San Antonio. I am sure Drunk Uncle Dana will be about seven Red Bulls in by the time this one starts.

Worst Power Five Games

Didn’t think I’d forget this section, right? These are the games that you can probably avoid, unless they are close. They fill conference networks (and really are the reason those networks exist but I will not complain about that) and even sometimes creep onto FOX or an ESPN2 or ESPNU. Sad but true. Spoiler alert: I will still watch most of these games.

Northwestern at Rutgers (Week 1, Sunday, Noon, CBS, confirmed) – What a way to show off the new Big Ten on CBS with a game between *checks notes* uh….Northwestern and Rutgers? My God that is not good at all. Who the hell is picking these games at CBS? The only thing I can think happened was that it was the last game remaining…like picking the last kid in dodgeball. Well, nothing else will be on at that time at least in a college football sense so guess what ol’ Bossman will be watching?
Stanford at Colorado (Week 7, Friday, 10:00, TSN2) – This is confirmed for ESPN2 but who knows if TSN will pick it up or not. Look I understand there is a lot of hype with Deion Sanders now coaching at Colorado. And that’s a good thing for that program. But they will struggle to be bowl-eligible this season. Now Stanford….that’s a different story. They are back to the days before Jim Harbaugh and then David Shaw resurrected this program. They may just be the worst Power Five team at this point. What a fall from grace.
Virginia Tech at Virginia (Week 13, Noon, specialty pack) – What happened last year at Virginia was tragic. Three players gunned down late in the season. UVA rightfully cancelled their final two games, including the Commonwealth Cup game against VaTech. Now they are back but this will not be an easy season for the Hoos, both on the field and emotionally. The Hokies are as bad as I have ever seen them be. Then again, I only mostly saw them as a Frank Beamer team. Beamerball, this is not. Look, I hate putting this game here but these two teams might be god-awful this season.
Rutgers at Indiana (Week 8, Noon, Big Ten Network) – Rutgers is, unfortunately, back to being Rutgers. And Indiana without Michael Penix Jr…well we found out they were bad. Both coaches will be on the hot seat with Tom Allen in the much hotter seat for sure. The loser might not win a Big Ten game this season.
Virginia at Boston College (Week 5, Noon, specialty pack) – As for non-Virginia teams in the ACC who probably won’t be going bowling, BC comes to mind. I can’t see them finding the magic formula especially with a young, relatively untested quarterback manning the ship.
California at Stanford (Week 12, 9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Ah, the worst of the conference networks. What a shitshow it is. Anyway, The Big Game will be anything but big this season as I already mentioned how bad Stanford will be and I don’t know how many people outside the Cal football program care about Cal football. A shame, really.
Colorado at Arizona State (Week 6, 9:00, Pac-12 Network) – Remember when ASU was the laughing stock of the Pac-12 for like a second? Everyone thought their ship was going to come crashing down. Well it did but other teams flew past them into the basement. That doesn’t mean this is some kind of comeback story, though. They still aren’t good and will be fighting for bowl eligibility. Wins in games like this are a must for that to happen.
Georgia Tech at Virginia (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – It feels kind of weird watching Georgia Tech play football when they aren’t running the Paul Johnson option offense. You know, I’m starting to think they never should have changed from that. Made them unique and helped them win just as often as they lost.
Virginia Tech at Rutgers (Week 3, 3:30, Big Ten Network, confirmed) – Hey let’s dip into some non-con action now. I would ask who the hell scheduled a game like this but it was probably scheduled back when the Hokies played their first season in the ACC.
Arizona at Stanford (Week 4, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – I have to be honest: Jedd Fisch has already exceeded my expectations for a) his coaching in Tucson and b) a guy named Jedd. This team is on the brink of getting back to postseason play for the first time in years. I will put the over/under on fans attending this game at 14,000.
Arizona State at California (Week 5, 9:30, Pac-12 Network) – I am still on the record saying that there should be a pure sports-style Netflix or Amazon Prime out there. One where you can add or subtract whatever channels you want based on sport, country, etc. Would it be the death knell to cable? No but it would be quite the flesh wound. By the way, this game has some pretty good Pac-12 After Dark vibes to it and could get wacky because both teams are just not that good.
Northwestern at Nebraska (Week 8, 2:30, Peacock) – I would be remiss if I didn’t include Nebraska somewhere on this list. They’ve fooled and many others over the past few years. So until they prove it, I will not take the bait. Nope, no more. I refuse to drink the Husker Koolaid.

Alright, done and dusted. A reminder that tomorrow is the end of the fiscal year for pretty much all the FBS schools. There are rumours that something on the realignment (oh god that word) front could happen by the end of the night or the very next day. Last year it was USC and UCLA to the Big Ten. Can’t see anything as big as that but you never know.

Well, I would like to wish everyone a great Canada Day weekend and Fourth of July celebration. We are less than two months away folks. Nice to be talking college football again.

Most Important Games of the 2023 College Football Season

Posted on June 25, 2023 by guelphbossman

Yeah I’m that fucking excited.

Spoiler alert: UConn does not appear on this list. If you were expecting them, I apologize for their absence.

Alright it’s time to start getting on the next season’s worth of college football posts and I always start with the most important games of the upcoming season. Remember last season when I did this post? I didn’t do three or four posts. I did one long-ass post. So guess what? No, we are not going back to three or four posts. It’s one massive post once again. I think it worked last year so I’m going back to the newer well rather than the older well that did me….well, over a bunch of years.

Now some might say “Bossman, it’s too early for this.” To them I say “Eat shit.” FBSchedules has their helmet schedules out and preview magazines are out. I’ve almost ready all of the Lindy’s one and I have the Athlon one ready to go right after. The Phil Steele magazine, the god damn granddaddy of them all, will be here in the next couple of weeks. So yeah I’m getting ready and yeah, it’s time to talk some college football.

Remember how this goes: I am listing the most important games that will shape the outcome of the entire college football season. Sure, Army-Navy is a huge game but unless either team is undefeated going into that one, the game means very little in the grand scheme of things, bowl-wise or other.

So boys and girls (maybe), how do we always start this post? That’s right, with the ranking of the weeks of the season. It is sponsored by the letter R and the number 0. Every year it is usually pretty close to the same. Week 2 is not all of a sudden going to be the biggest week of the college football season. It just never happens. So here are those rankings followed by some witty and potentially insightful banter (a reminder that the week is listed by the Saturday it corresponds to):

Week 11 – November 11
Week 13 – November 25
Week 10 – November 4
Week 4 – September 23
Week 8 – October 21
Week 7 – October 14
Week 12 – November 18
Week 6 – October 7
Week 5 – September 30
Week 9 – October 28
Week 3 – September 16
Week 2 – September 9
Week 1 – September 2

Sweet Jesus, Week 1 looks fucking awful. I mean it’s the first full week of the season so I will be all in but still…it’s like college football has taken several steps backwards from a few years ago when Week 1 was about the fifth or sixth-best week of the season and there were five or six HUGE games. This season, the opening week is highlighted by LSU/Florida State which is great. Then the quality falls off a massive cliff with the next biggest game being the annual Labour Day ACC clash, this time with Clemson and Duke. Woof. Three weeks in November, as per usual, are at the top with Week 11 being the top week this season. It was the same thing five years ago as the week is crammed with huge conference games. I don’t know if I can even call it SEC Sleepwalk/Sleepover/Shitbreak Week anymore as Week 12, the penultimate regular season week, is again near the middle of the rankings. Also, I don’t rate Week Zero. But it will be a ton of fun since it will be the first college football action in over 7 months. So yeah my eyeballs will be fucking glued to Navy/Notre Dame out in Dublin, Ireland, Hawaii/Vanderbilt and UMass/New Mexico State of course!

OK just like last year I will not be going week-to-week. I’m just listing the top games. The top 35 (up from 30) most important games of the college football season. I’ll do this list and then in late November we will all watch a team like Arkansas or Iowa or NC State play in a game that could send them well on their way to the College Football Playoff. It is what it is. Let’s get to the list! For this list, any confirmed broadcast info will be noted. Of course, nothing for TSN will be confirmed until like the night before any of these games because fuck you that’s why.

Ohio State at Michigan (Week 13, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Chances are this is essentially for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Next year, this might be for a first-round bye in the CFP. How times change. Either way, this is unequivocally the biggest game of the season and the one where FOX sends basically everyone that works under the sports umbrella to work on the 83-hour BIG NUDE SATURDAY.
LSU at Alabama (Week 10, 8:00, CBS) – Alabama is pretty much the go-to pick for CBS’s lone primetime game of the season for the SEC and this year will be no different. This is the final SEC on CBS primetime game and should be a great one as these two teams are, once again, the pillars of the SEC West. The winner here is almost guaranteed (jury is still out on Ole Miss and TAMU) a spot in Atlanta to try and dethrone Georgia (probably).
Michigan at Penn State (Week 11, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – This game, like the first game on the list, could have national championship implications. It really is just a hair below the top two games on this list. FOX is hitting it out of the park with big games this season. I think the Big Ten might be just fine not being on ESPN/ABC going forward.
LSU at Florida State (Week 1, Sunday, 7:30, ABC, confirmed) – Two games in the top four for LSU means they will have a very tough road to get back to having some semblance of a shot at the College Football Playoff (or even the New Year’s Six). This seems like it could finally be the year that FSU returns to the top of the ACC mountain as Mike Norvell has his most talented team in Tallahassee. I love seeing ABC put a great game on the night before Labour Day. At least Week One can always rely on that.
Georgia at Tennessee (Week 12, 3:30, CBS) – If Joe Milton III continues to throw piss rockets like he did against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, this could ascend to Game of the Year territory. The Vols may have the best chance to beat the Dawgs with the game being at what should be a raucous Neyland Stadium. Not confirmed but I would be shocked if this isn’t CBS’s choice for the SEC on CBS this week.
Penn State at Ohio State (Week 8, Noon, FOX) – Man, GUS JOHNSON is getting a great set of games this season to call (if my predictions hold up). This is the final game on this list in the three-team Big Ten East Round Robin Tournament El Fantastico to determine which team (if not two) go to the CFP. I would say the Nittany Lions are pretty good underdogs here but they finally have a quarterback who looks like he can throw the ball downfield a bit so you never know. tOSU has question marks at QB so this could be quite the interesting matchup.
Florida State at Clemson (Week 4, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Could the Noles be the favourite here? It’s possible. Unlikely but I wouldn’t go much past a pickem for this one. With the Big Ten leaving ESPN/ABC, these primetime ABC slots open up a lot. And really, it is still the biggest timeslot of the week. This is the year the ACC has to hopefully grab as many of these as possible as next year…yeah, the SEC may end up with all of them.
Tennessee at Alabama (Week 8, 3:30, CBS) – Not going to lie: it is going to feel very weird when the SEC isn’t on CBS every Saturday afternoon. I guess that’s where a huge Big Ten game will go but I can’t see them getting most of the big games because FOX gets their pick of the litter most weeks. Going to be very interesting to watch going forward. Man, I thought figuring out this year’s schedule was difficult. Next year’s is going to seriously tough.
Ohio State at Notre Dame (Week 4, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – The first non-conference affair on this list and it is a juicy one. Both teams should be undefeated coming into this one unless the Irish have an inexplicable loss like they had last season to Marshall or Stanford. If Touchdown Jesus pulls this one out, expect Sam Hartman to rocket up most Heisman lists.
Texas at Alabama (Week 2, 7:00, specialty pack) – This game is confirmed for ESPN but I have this funny feeling TSN won’t pick it up. Call it a CFL or US Open-based hunch. We shall see though. Let’s be clear: the Horns were fucking robbed of the win last year by the referees. This time they will have a chance to make up for that but it is not easy winning in Tuscaloosa. Ask almost every team that’s travelled there in the past decade-plus.
Utah at USC (Week 8, 7:30, ABC) – Hey, the Pac-12 has joined the party. This is the swansong season in the conference for the Trojans and they are hoping to win the conference championship in their final year. Winning games like these is a must for that to happen. This could be the game that either elevates Caleb Williams to college football history and only the second player to win two Heismans or destroy his chances at repeating.
Ohio State at Wisconsin (Week 9, 7:30, NBC) – Yeah I think NBC will get a couple good Big Ten games and this will be one of them it sounds like. Wisconsin has a new head coach and a new quarterback and a new offensive coordinator that won’t run the ball as much as Wisconsin is supposed to. Hmmm…that is going to feel very unAlvarez-like. At least the kids will get to jump around after the third quarter, testing the structure of Camp Randall like a bunch of engineers.
Washington at USC (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – Again, I have this feeling that TSN will not show this game and that it will head to the specialty pack, much to the chagrin of regular Canadian cable subscribers (which I am not one of). It feels like either this game or the aforementioned Utes-Trojans game will be the game of the year in the conference and will decide at least one of the championship game participants (thanks to no divisions). It’s too bad FOX has their premiere game every week at Noon since this would be a great pick as their game of the week.
Ole Miss at Georgia (Week 11, 3:30, CBS) – Wouldn’t it be something if the Fighting Kiffins of Oxford upset UGA here? The entire college football world would be flipped upside down. And you know how I love upsets. We need another 2007!
Utah at Washington (Week 11, 3:30, TSN2) – Alright, the first game I predict will hit TSN that isn’t already on ABC. Kind of sad that TSN barely cares about their college football contract until bowl season when they suddenly show almost every bowl game despite also showing every World Juniors hockey game. Crazy. If Cam Rising is able to return for opening week then this could be a massive game. I am hoping for his sake (and for Utes fans’ sake) that is the case.
USC at Notre Dame (Week 7, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – The traditional yearly matchup is back again and even with the Trojans moving to the Big Ten, this matchup will continue. By this point in the season, both of these teams should be in the Top 15 looking at a potential College Football Playoff berth. The loser here loses that and perhaps an NY6 spot.
Alabama at Texas A&M (Week 6, Noon, TSN3/TSN5) – OK I am sure you are looking at this and wondering if I suddenly developed brain damage. I truly believe that the Aggies will be a ton better than they were last season when they essentially bottomed out under Jimbo Fisher. Plus, the Aggies always play the Tide tough so they could throw a big-ass monkey wrench in the entire SEC West picture here with a win.
Notre Dame at Clemson (Week 10, 3:30, ABC) – OK so this is confirmed for ABC but the time is not confirmed. I am guessing it will be on in the afternoon with Kansas State-Texas being the ABC Primetime game. This could end up being switched if both the Irish and Tigers are undefeated going into this one. For once, Clemson isn’t the ACC favourite. It’s kind of refreshing. It will be interesting to see if Cade Klubnik, the next man up at quarterback, can lead the Tigers back to the promised land. I don’t see it but then again, I thought D.J. Uiagelelei was going to be the guy and he’s now out in the boonies of Oregon.
USC at Oregon (Week 11, 7:30, ABC) – Speaking of Oregon, the Trojans head there on Remembrance Day night (or I guess it’s Veterans Day down in the States). Yet another tough test for the Trojans. We all know what’s going to happen though. The best four or five Pac-12 teams will beat on each other and no team will get out unscathed so no team will go to the CFP yet again. That conference just loves to cannibalize itself.
Ole Miss at Alabama (Week 4, 3:30, CBS) – A bit of an early shit-test game for the Tide. A game that they should win but they may have trouble with because their opponent is so damn pesky and annoying. I mean it is Lane Kiffin’s boys so you expect the Ole Miss offense to chug along. Bet the over.
Oregon at Utah (Week 9, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Could the Utes fall back to the middle of the pack if they don’t have Cam Rising to start the season? Quite possibly. I mean seeing this game in the Top 25 games of the season means I clearly think Rising will be ready to play on opening night. If not, pray for the Utes since it could be a long season (comparatively…I mean they will still win 8 or 9 games regardless).
Washington at Oregon State (Week 12, 10:30, TSN2) – Hey remember when I mentioned D.J. Uiagelelei? Here’s where he ended up. The metropolis of Corvallis. The Beavs might actually have a contender if D.J. can do what he was supposed to do at Clemson. On the other side of the line, Michael Penix Jr. should be considered the Heisman favourite since I can’t see voters giving it to Caleb Williams again (unless he has an all-timer of a season).
Texas A&M at LSU (Week 13, 3:00, specialty pack) – I actually have this game on the SEC Network. Yeah it may sound weird but this has happened before. And that final week of the regular season is ridiculous for scheduling anyway. At least one of the conference networks ends up getting a beauty of a game. Now if this is somehow for the SEC West title then yeah, it won’t even sniff the SEC Network. But I feel it won’t be so it will end up there.
Oregon at Washington (Week 7, 8:00, FOX) – Last year’s game was crazy with the Huskies having a huge comeback win to keep their Pac-12 hopes alive and ruin Oregon’s. I wonder if Mario Cristobal wishes he was back in Eugene considering how piss poor his Miami Hurricanes did in his first season back with his alma mater.
Utah at Oregon State (Week 5, Friday, 9:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – And finally we get a game that, well, Canadians won’t get (unless you have IPTV or find some probably illegal stream). You know, for a stadium that’s been under construction and only holds 27,000, those games in Corvallis can sound VERY loud. Then again, when they start that chainsaw, that’s loud enough. You ever been near one of those? Sweet fucking Jesus they are loud with great ear protection so I can imagine what it’s like being within twenty feet of the thing.
LSU at Ole Miss (Week 5, Noon, TSN2) – A lot of people will feel like this is a game for second place in the SEC West but with Bama’s QB questions, this could hold a lot more importance than that. Not saying the division is a free-for-all but I have these two teams, Bama and even the Aggies having legitimate shots at winning the division so they can be pummeled by UGA in the SEC Championship.
Iowa at Penn State (Week 4, 7:30, CBS, confirmed) – The first game on this list that has the Big Ten on CBS (man that sounds weird). This is confirmed and I believe the Penn State Whiteout Game is also confirmed. To say it’s an intimidating sight for a visiting team would be an understatement.
South Carolina at Georgia (Week 3, 3:30, CBS, confirmed) – This may be the first game that feels like it might not be that close. Saying that, Shane Beamer has the Gamecocks playing great football and they have the enthusiasm and work ethic to give the Dawgs a very tough time. Problem is they are playing this game between the hedges and not at Williams-Brice. If UGA can’t win this by a bunch, the rest of the SEC East should take notice.
Oregon State at Oregon (Week 13, Friday, 8:30, FOX, confirmed) – This could be one of the biggest Civil War games ever. Oh wait, I can’t call it’s the Civil War, can I? Anyway, the winner of this game probably will have a good chance to be in the Pac-12 Championship.
Kansas State at Texas (Week 10, 8:30, FOX) – It took until the thirtieth game to get a Big XII conference game. Look, as much crap as the Pac-12 has taken over the Spring (and rightfully so), the Big XII might be at its weakest in a long time unless a few programs step up (Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor) or maintain what they did last season (Kansas State, TCU, Kansas). This conference should feel lucky that the Pac-12 is in such dire straits. The latest rumor has Colorado and Arizona headed to the Big XII and it wouldn’t surprise me but from a football standpoint…woof.
Texas A&M at Tennessee (Week 7, Noon, TSN3) – OK maybe I should have stopped at 30. No, no, I promised 35 for some strange reason and dammit I am going to pull through. I am actually looking forward to Texas A&M’s season for one reason…Bobby Fucking Petrino. At some point you know it will be a disaster in College Station. It is bound to happen. Until then though you have one of the best offensive minds in college football trying to push this Aggie team to the next level. Just tell him to steer clear of motorcycles and young female former athletes-turned-office staff.
Texas at TCU (Week 11, 7:00, FOX) – What a run the Horned Frogs had last year (if you don’t include the thrashing they took in the national championship game). They probably won’t be as good this season. To lose who they lost and somehow come back and do what they did would be almost impossible. Saying that, the Longhorns should not take this team lightly as they have struggled in the past with them even when TCU wasn’t that great. We should also definitely know by this point whether Quinn Ewers has completely taken that quarterback job or if Arch Manning’s time has arrived in Austin.
North Carolina at Clemson (Week 12, 7:30, ABC) – Look let’s not look past the Tar Heels. They have a Heisman candidate at quarterback in Drake Maye and sometimes that is enough to propel a team to an extra win or two, which is pretty much what UNC would need to get to the ACC Championship. Death Valley East is still Death Valley East and playing there at night is very difficult for opponents. But again, don’t look past the Heels and Mack Brown.
UCLA at USC (Week 12, 8:00, FOX) – Time once again for the Victory Bell and it is gonna feel weird. Final Victory Bell in the Pac-12. No DTR means possible trouble for the Bruins and if they can’t find a quarterback to lead them this season then this game has no right to be in the Top 35.
Clemson at South Carolina (Week 13, 7:00, TSN2) – My hope is that TSN does pick up the ball a bit for the final week of the season like they used to. It was 2019 when they were doing double digits’ worth of games for the final college football weekend. Now, we are lucky to get 4 or 5 which is crazy since there’s almost nothing to compete with it in the live sports arena. Anyway, it’s the Battle for the Palmetto State and it is usually a fun game that can get way too rough at times. Should be good. I hope.

Finished! Top 35 games of the season. I am sure there will be some that end up not coming close to being as important as I thought. That’s the nature of the game. Can’t always be right with these things. I will have another blog post shortly highlighting some other good (and perhaps not-so-good) games this season coming up shortly. 62 days left until Week Zero! Sure it’s not the best college football you will see all season but it will be college football so yeah I’m gonna fucking watch it all if I can! Have a great week, everyone!

Nebraska Cornhuskers Football is a Dumpster Fire (oh, and the Week 3 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on September 16, 2022 by guelphbossman

Alright, a little background info on your faithful blogger: I am an accountant and I also have a background in mathematics. Just figured I’d mention that at the start so when I say I am completely perplexed by the absolute stupidity of Trev Alberts and the Nebraska athletic department you know I come from a place of at least a bit of experience. When Trev decided to shitcan Scott Frost a few days ago rather than wait until October 1st, it cost the school an extra $7.5 million. Yes, I know, buyout clauses of that magnitude are stupid but that’s a conversation for another day. It’s just a waste of money, though. Like why bother? The season is shot. Let him coach three more games and then fire him during the postgame interview. Then hire whoever you want. But no, do it the dumb way. Maybe they can convince Bo Pelini and his dreadful four-loss seasons to return to Lincoln.

Enough of that nonsense. Let’s just get to the damn schedule while I wonder if anyone at Nebraska understands that more money is better than less.

Friday

		US	Canada
Florida State at Louisville	7:30 PM
Air Force at Wyoming	8:00 PM

Two games tonight with one being slightly more important than the other. Florida State has a chance to go to 3-0 and put Scott Satterfield back on the hot seat which is actually a fireplace.

Saturday Early

Look there are no big games in this timeslot, I’ll be honest. But I will say I am a bit intrigued with the OU-NU game. Will this be an asskicking for the ages or will the Huskers come out fired up as they try to look good for whoever their new coach will be *COUGH*Urban Meyer*COUGH*. How UConn ends up in an ABC game every year stuns me but I can tell this week that there weren’t exactly a ton of options so I will give ABC a break; however, TSN does not get a break. This game is on TSN1 AND TSN4? What in the fuck? Put another game on TSN4, idiots.

Finally, you will notice we have MORNING COLLEJ FOOTBAW! The ACC Network is doing their annual four games in one day thing so they have to start early since I am sure no team would volunteer to start a game at 10PM local time. Although I could be wrong there.

Saturday Afternoon

Cougs-Ducks is easily the biggest game in this timeslot. A few years ago, PSU-AU could have been but the Tigers aren’t exactly the Tigers of old. Also, this is Penn State’s first time on CBS in 22 years but it wasn’t even a national telecast. The last national telecast on CBS was a year earlier when they beat Miami in a great game.

Let’s see if Marcus Freeman can get his first win, if Kansas can stay undefeated and if ULM can stay within 50 of the Tide. Also, these three-hour windows. Not only is the ACC Network doing it but the Pac-12 Network is also doing it. Just stop. Start the games earlier if you have to, just enough of this nonsense. Unless you are Navy or Army or maybe Air Force you aren’t finishing a game in less than three hours.

Finally, Appalachian State basically stole the College Gameday host spot from Texas A&M with their upset win this past Saturday. I assume Gameday would have gone to College Station for the Aggies’ game against Miami but that was obviously not confirmed. Problem is, App State plays on ESPN+ this week. Couldn’t they have moved that game to ESPNU at least? Seems dumb to me.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Mississippi State at LSU	6:00 PM
Texas Tech at #16 NC State	7:00 PM
Toledo at #3 Ohio State	7:00 PM
#11 Michigan State at Washington	7:30 PM
Maine at Boston College	7:30 PM
Nevada at Iowa	7:30 PM
UCF at Florida Atlantic	7:30 PM
#23 Pittsburgh at Western Michigan	7:30 PM
SMU at Maryland	7:30 PM
USF at #18 Florida	7:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at #5 Clemson	8:00 PM
Montana State at Oregon State	8:00 PM

Oh my god, MORE three-hour windows? It’s like the networks are trying to torture me. Nothing big here although we all remember what Western Michigan somehow did to Pitt last year, at Pitt. This year it’s in Kalamazoo so things could get wacky. I have noticed that the games on Bally haven’t been showing up on the specialty packs. I will have to watch for this and see if it continues. I would say I could ask a Rogers or Bell rep but that would be futile.

UPDATE: Looks like Maine-BC is not on the specialty pack anywhere. Interesting that now that it’s Bally Sports and not FOX Sports Network, the games aren’t appearing. Instead, UTSA-Texas appears. Where is that game? The Longhorn Network. I don’t get it. But there you go. Probably a better game to watch to be honest.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#13 Miami at #24 Texas A&M	9:00 PM
San Diego State at #14 Utah	10:00 PM
Fresno State at #7 USC	10:30 PM
North Dakota State at Arizona	11:00 PM
Eastern Michigan at Arizona State	11:00 PM

You’re reading it correctly. FOX QUADRUPLEHEADER! This is such a glorious thing. I wish they did it more often but I understand networks’ need to go to local news at some point. I would say there is an Upset Alert in Tucson but would future Mountain West member NDSU beating Zona be a big upset?

Big Games O’ The Week

BYU at Oregon (3:30, FOX) – When is the last time BYU has been in the Game of the Week? Maybe when they scheduled a game with Coastal Carolina on a few minutes notice back in 20COVID. Oregon, and the Pac-12, could be in a heap of trouble here if they lose and there’s a good chance that could happen. The Cougs are looking to use this as a springboard to be ranked high enough to be picked for a New Year’s Six bowl, which won’t be easy this year.

Miami at Texas A&M (9:00, specialty pack) – Once the Aggies lost, they lost Gameday and the GOTW spot on this blog. The latter is definitely more important than the former. Miami feels like a team that, all of a sudden, not many people are talking about. You could see them make some real waves in the ACC and a win here would give their NY6 chances a boost and really hamper the Aggies’ chances.

Penn State at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – Penn State will soon be a regular on CBS but this is a rarity at this point. Auburn could put a massive dent into the Nittany Lions’ potential New Year’s Six hopes. An Auburn loss might make Bryan Harsin’s hot seat a little hotter for sure as this experiment hasn’t exactly worked out as planned.

Michigan State at Washington (7:30, ABC) – The Huskies are having a much better start than last year although that “effort” against Montana to start the 2021 season couldn’t have been worse. This could end up being an underrated game as I see Sparty maybe having some problems with the noise at Husky Stadium. And have you seen how steep the stands are there? Gives me memories of The Aud in Buffalo and the insanely steep upper deck they had.

Psycho Game of the Week

Vanderbilt at Northern Illinois (3:30, CBS Sports Network) – I mean I guess you could be kind of interested in the Dores potentially going to 3-1 which is something probably very few people predicted. But yeah, unless it’s close, hard pass.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

UConn at Michigan (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4) – I’ll say it again: TSN putting this game on two channels is moronic. I get it’s Michigan but this could be an epic blowout. I hope it is to be honest. Stupid TSN.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Let’s see how I did last week. First pick was…..OK let’s skip this part. No, don’t go back and look at them. Let’s just move on. This week’s picks (against the spread)!

Cincinnati (-20.5) over Miami-OH

Oklahoma (-11.5)….-11.5? ELEVEN-AND-A-HALF? Alright then. Oklahoma (-11.5) over Nebraska

Western Kentucky (+6.5) over Indiana (but the Hoosiers to win)

Old Dominion (+10) over Virginia (Cavs will pull out the close win though)

Notre Dame (-10.5) over California

BYU (+3.5) over Oregon (Ducks win by a field goal)

Ole Miss (-16) over Georgia Tech

Houston (-10) over Kansas

Washington State (-16.5) over Colorado State

LSU (+2) over Mississippi State (and the outright win!)

NC State (-10.5) over Texas Tech

Michigan State (+3.5) over Washington (and an outright win)

Texas A&M (-5.5) over Miami

I am looking forward to another great weekend of college football. I’ll be on the Twitter machine for a good portion of the day. I’m trying to be healthier though so I can’t eat like I used to eat on these days. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was some good food but I can’t eat as much of it. Enjoy the games everyone and enjoy your weekend!

Someone might want to avoid airport tarmacs – the Week 2 Recap

Posted on September 13, 2021 by guelphbossman

The camera’s not on him all the time so I am sure he has that reaction a lot. And that reaction definitely came up the other night a lot. USC looked like complete garbage in most of their loss against Stanford. It feels like Kedon Slovis, after a promising start to his young career, has had his progress stall. A lot of that has to land on Helton. This team has had the talent to contend before and they have underperformed almost every season under his watch. It feels like, with ten games left in the season, that he will have to win at least eight of those to keep his job. And even then, that might not be enough. He is on one of the hottest seats right now for sure.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games (other than the top two), as is somewhat usual for Week 2. But, as per usual, it overdelivered giving us a wild weekend of football. Let’s go through the week that was!

Michigan 31 Washington 10 – What a game this was for the Wolverines. Washington is, to put it one word, awful. This team should have the talent to at least be sniffing the Top 25 and they are nowhere close. Maybe that loss against Montana wasn’t an aberration after all but more a warning for things to come in Jimmy Lake’s first full season at the helm. As for Michigan, this could be an interesting year in Ann Arbor with perhaps a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl? The next few weeks will tell a lot about this team.
Texas A&M 10 Colorado 7 – A classic Big XII matchup that had an absolute dearth of offense. Yes, the defenses both played well but the offenses were pretty bad. There were a couple of opportunities for the Buffs to extend their lead and they just couldn’t do it. The Aggies survived and may have lost their quarterback Haynes King for an extended period of time. A little bit of sweating in College Station going forward.
Oregon 35 Ohio State 28 – It felt that the Buckeyes would, at some point, comeback and win this one. I mean it’s Ohio State in the Horseshoe. They almost never lose there. Even without Kayvon Thibodaux, the Ducks played very well on defense for most of the game and didn’t allow tOSU to really get their offense humming. Oregon did just enough and Joe Morehead showed he still has quite the mind for offense as he called a masterful game.
Jacksonville State 20 Florida State 17 – For fuck’s sake Mike Norvell. If everyone thought it was bad during the Willie Taggart era, then strap in for this one. The Noles allowed JSU to stay close with their offense just not playing well at all. McKenzie Milton looked off and the running game was non-existent. But it looked like FSU would still hold on for the somewhat undeserving victory. Then it happened. The Gamecocks score on the final play of the game on a pass to the 20-yard line that the receiver was able to run in. No laterals. Not a Hail Mary. Just a pass and run. Norvell didn’t think to put more players closer to the goal line because there was, and I quote, “still six seconds and they were on their own side of the field.” What in the blue hell are you talking about, Mike? They only had one play left. That was it. Yes the tackling, or lack there of, was horrible there but no excuse not to put more players back there. What a fucking disgrace. And yes, Norvell is on a seat that’s only a couple degrees cooler than Clay Helton’s.
BYU 26 Utah 17 – The Cougars celebrated their acceptance into the Big XII by beating the Utes in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. BYU was superior in pretty much every aspect of the game. They look better than advertised, even with Zach Wilson gone, as Jaren Hall had a great game. Definitely quelled the worries of the Provo faithful over the quarterback position.
Coastal Carolina 49 Kansas 22 – As I’ve said before many times, I don’t have a horse in this entire college football race. I just hope to watch some exciting football and with the college game, I get that at least once a weekend during the season. Saying all that, I was kind of pulling for the Jayhawks to at least keep it close. They didn’t, but even in a 27-point loss, it felt like they have taken more strides in game two under Lance Leipold than they had in the previous two entire coaching regimes. That’s how bad things have got in Lawrence and how much ground they have to make up in the Big XII, now with extra BYU and AAC sauce.
TCU 34 California 32 – Now let’s go to a game that very few people watched but probably should have. I am not being facetious here. This was just a fantastic game from start to finish. Don’t think TCU played poorly or down to the Bears. They are a good team and could start moving up the rankings soon. California has had a rough start. Two good games played and no wins to show for it. Yes, starting with Nevada and TCU isn’t exactly a recipe for sure success but it has to be a bit frustrating to not be at least 1-1 at this point. I expect they will still be a bit of a player in the Pac-12 North though.
Alabama 48 Mercer 14 – Alabama beat Mercer. Ho hum. It was fun, though, to turn to TSN2 (yes this game was actually aired on TSN2) and see Nick Saban getting seriously pissed off at his squad after they went up 31-0. Only Saban.
Notre Dame 32 Toledo 29 – Toledo almost upset Notre Dame. In the hindsight is 20/20 department, it would have made more sense for Toledo’s quarterback, instead of running for that 30+ yard touchdown late in the game, to fall around the 1 and then drain the clock to allow the Rockets to kick the winning field goal. But they didn’t and Toledo’s defense decided to get a flag on almost every play, and the Irish made them pay. If Brian Kelly wanted to execute his team last week, I can’t imagine what he is thinking today. And all this was over on the ‘Cock! Yep, that’s right, it was on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, not on NBC proper. I’m sure no one was upset by this at all because college football fans tend to be rational people, right?
Miami 25 Appalachian State 23 – It was quite the exciting game down at Hard Rock Stadium and I wasn’t that surprised by it. People getting on the Canes have to realize that the Mountaineers are quite a good team. So not totally shocking for it to go almost down to the end. The most exciting thing to happen there that game, though, had nothing to do with what was happening on the field. A cat all of a sudden was shown dangling from the upper deck. No, I do not know how it got there or why it was dangling there. All the fans in the area were watching and hoping the cat didn’t get hurt or die by falling. The cat did fall…right into a guy holding an American flag who caught the cat in the flag. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Don’t be surprised if there’s a 30 for 30 Short on that one day.
Iowa 27 Iowa State 17 – Um, could this finally be the year that Kirk Ferentz takes the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Big Dance? This team is looking seriously good. No mistake that they looked overpowering compared to Iowa State on Saturday. And don’t think the Cyclones are out of it just yet. I think their College Football Playoff hopes, however slim, are probably squashed but a New Year’s Six spot is still theirs if they can win out the rest of the regular season. Don’t be surprised if both of these teams are playing on conference championship weekend in games that mean a whole lot.
Rutgers 17 Syracuse 7 – Don’t look now but the 2021 version of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team is 2-0. And looking pretty good doing it, especially on defense. Yes it’s early and yes the Scarlet Knights might be in the second toughest division in college football but things are finally looking up for a team that has been not a lot better than hot garbage since joining the Big Ten.
Arkansas 40 Texas 21 – Oh boy is Texas not back. The Longhorns were boatraced by Arkansas in a game that may not even been as close as the score indicated. I’m mistaken. Texas is back…..back bacon.
Pittsburgh 41 Tennessee 34 – At times this game was like snorting coke off a hooker’s ass, then taking a shot of absinthe, then getting on a motorcycle and gunning the engine to jump out of a plane. It was that ridiculous. At times both teams did everything they could to win, then not minutes later both teams would be trying their darndest to lose. Completely bonkers. In the end, it was a Volunteering that happened, not a Pittening. I’m sure fans on Rocky Top are not happy right now because Tennessee? Not back.
Oklahoma State 28 Tulsa 23 – I know people love to use the College Football Transitive Property. Team A beat Team B who beat Team C so Team A is better than Team C. It was almost to the point in this one where we’d have to say that UC-Davis was better than Oklahoma State because of that. Now Vanderbilt’s victory over Colorado State probably does fit. East Tennessee State beat Vanderbilt who beat Colorado State. So ETSU is better than CSU. Which may be true because the Rams got trounced by South Dakota State in Week 1. Ouch.
Houston 44 Rice 7 – Hey, who was possibly the only guy on the Internet to pick Rice to win this one? That would be me. And it’s a lesson to all you out there that I have mentioned multiple times before: do not use my picks to gamble with. You are playing with fire if you do so.
Army 38 Western Kentucky 35 – It seemed fitting that Army won on the anniversary of 9/11. WKU did not make it easy as they have a seriously prolific passing game with Bailey Zappe under centre. But Army’s option offense is, much of the time, too difficult to defend against because they don’t deviate from it, ever. Georgia Southern and Navy and Air Force, they have times were they pass the ball a decent amount. Hell, Georgia Tech has abandoned it altogether. Not the Black Knights. The option. That’s it. And it works most of the time.
Purdue 49 UConn 0 – The Huskies have not scored a point since Randy Edsall quit/retired. Not that they scored a lot of points anyway during his second tenure in Storrs. This is going to be a looooooooooooong season for that fanbase.

Recap complete! As I always say, some of the worst looking weeks on paper end up being some of the best to watch and this past weekend was a ton of fun to watch. You know what? Let’s bust out the first Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Oregon
#3	Georgia
#4	Texas A&M
#5	Oklahoma
#6	Iowa
#7	Cincinnati
#8	Notre Dame
#9	Clemson
#10	Penn State
#11	Ohio State
#12	Florida
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Wisconsin
#15	Iowa State
#16	UCLA
#17	North Carolina
#18	Virginia Tech
#19	Ole Miss
#20	Miami
#21	Arizona State
#22	Auburn
#23	TCU
#24	Arkansas
#25	Liberty

Always seem to be close to the AP Poll but there’s always interesting differences. Yes, I had Oregon moving all the way up to #2 and deservedly so. Also, I didn’t quite move Iowa into the Top 5 as many had (and AP did). Give it time and I’m sure they will get there. I try not to go crazy and overrate a team after one huge victory. That is why I only put Arkansas at #24. If they start stringing more victories together, then sure I will definitely move them up. They have to earn it right? Well, it is college football polls so “earning it” can be a very subjective measure.

Another recap done and getting in the football groove with Fall just around the corner. I will be going back to the normal college football schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday format that you all know and love (well, at least I think you love….I know you know). It’s getting slightly cooler (although it was quite humid today) and it is starting to feel a bit like football weather. I love it. Have a great week everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – Let’s Go For Two!

Posted on May 30, 2021 by guelphbossman

I hate what they have done to college football overtime. I was fine when they said you had to start going for two starting with the third overtime. Would I prefer they make the teams start at the 30 or the 35 rather than the 25? Yes but I am OK with the way that is. Now it has become a two-point conversion shootout starting with the fifth overtime. Why? Because one stupidly awesome game went to seven overtimes and it was a classic? Seems like a serious overreaction to me (and probably many others). It has got to the point that maybe the NFL overtime is starting to look a bit better. I never would have said that even a couple of years ago but here we are.

So normally, I do the first post of this series and a day or two later more schedule updates appear changing my original guesses already. It would make me feel a bit dumb. This year? The same fucking thing happened! God damn when will I ever learn? Anyway, it was the mother of all schedule dumps. Like a crazy amount of games were set. Let’s look at what has changed with the first post in this series:

Penn State-Wisconsin I had right in terms of it being on FOX. But it’s not on at 4:00. It’s the BIG NOON SATURDAY game for Week One.
Now here’s a headscratcher. Iowa-Indiana is not the BIG NOON SATURDAY game on FOX. It’s not even on FOX. It’s on BTN. BTN! At 3:30 in the afternoon. It has to be due to the amount of appearances that one or both of these teams are perceived to have later on in the season on BTN since all Big Ten teams must have a minimum of two BTN appearances on the season with one of those appearances being a conference game. That’s the only thing I can think of since this is FOX or ESPN/ABC worthy in my opinion.
I was sooooooo close with LSU-UCLA. It’s on FOX. In primetime. But not at 8:00. It’s at 8:30. To me that seems like a weird time but I guess FOX is fine with the game ending probably around midnight if not a little later. Not like they have anything other than TMZ and infomercials to show afterwards on most of their affiliates.
Again, so close with one. Boise State-UCF is on at 7:00, not 7:30. My guess is it will be on at least one TSN station.
Oregon State-Purdue is now on FS1 in primetime. Big deal.
ABC nabbed CyHawk for their afternoon game.
Liberty-Troy has moved to primetime. But it’s still on ESPN+. So in the end it doesn’t matter anyway.
I totally forgot about how the ACC Network does Week 2. They show four games, starting at 11 in the morning to fit them all in so they don’t have to send a bunch to a regional FOX Sports Network (hmmm…should I call them Bally’s now?) or, even worse, ACC Network Extra which they are loathe to do. Anyway, it’s not at noon, it’s at 2:00 and should be on the specialty pack.
Cincinnati-Indiana has been picked up by ESPN/ABC. It will probably air on ABC and is definitely scheduled for Noon.
Oklahoma State-Boise State will be on FOX Sports One. But now it’s at 9:00. In the evening. Why? Because there is a game at 12:30 Sunday morning! Yep, for you crazies that can watch this game, San Jose State and Hawaii kick off after midnight and won’t end until about 4 in the morning. That’s crazy. I will watch at least three quarters of that.
Hey Coastal Carolina-Buffalo isn’t being relegated to ESPN+! It’s on at Noon, probably on the specialty pack here. Good to see some respect for these two schools.
Speaking of respect, let’s look at the absolute lack of respect ESPN/ABC has for the Kansas Jayhawks football program. Like no respect at all. They aren’t the Thursday night ESPN game. They aren’t even available to Canadians. Hell, it isn’t even available to most Americans. It’s on at 3:30, Saturday afternoon…on ESPN+. Yeah. That’s sad. But understandable.

I will probably make this same mistake next year because I’m an idiot who never learns.. Let’s just get to the second part of this series.

Week 4

Game of the Week: Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin (in Chicago) (Noon, FOX) – This kind of tells you what kind of weekend this will be, on paper. Not saying these aren’t two good teams because they are. But the Badgers are always juuuuuust on the outside looking in and don’t feel like an elite team. And the Irish are considered an elite team more often than they actually are. Not saying I wouldn’t be surprised if either team is in contention for the College Football Playoff late in the season but this being the game of the week means we aren’t looking at a ton of great games. Now watch this one go to like four overtimes and be an instant classic.

Other Really Important Games: West Virginia at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC) – Will the Sooners finally get over the top now with Spencer Rattler in his second year at quarterback? That is the question for Boomer Sooner this season as they could be in for a special two-season stretch (before Rattler goes to the NFL as a high first round pick). Unless they can get yet another great QB, this may be the best two-year stretch possibility for Lincoln Riley’s boys (before Riley gets an offer from the Dallas Cowboys that he can’t refuse). As for the Mountaineers, they have Dana Holgorsen. That’s fun enough since you are assured of him going off on the refs or his players or his coaches or the other team’s coaches or the other team’s players or the fans at least once a game. That’s what happens when you down six Red Bulls by lunch.

Clemson at NC State (3:30, ABC) – I could see this moving to primetime but it really has more to do with how many Big XII game would appear on ABC in the primetime timeslot all season (or at least how many they believe will appear there). The first three games listed this week cover the top three timeslots so you can kind of figure out where all the hype will be. This could be Dave Doeren’s final chance to get his program-defining win. Pull this off and he will never have to pay for another drink in Raleigh again. It also puts the entire conference in an interesting spot as Clemson is their hope for the CFP until another team steps up. Most believe it will be NC State’s interstate rivals, North Carolina, but the Wolfpack are known for their upsets over the past two decades. Just ask Florida State.

Tennessee at Florida (3:30, CBS) – Can Tennessee just be back already? It took so damn long for Texas to be back and now they aren’t quite back again so who knows if the college football media will be asking that question (that I will not type here) all season. Luckily for the fans (and haters) of Texas, that question is no longer asked. For Vol fans, it’s becoming the conversation every day in Knoxville. Until this team truly competes in the SEC East (and no, being third doesn’t count as competing) this may be the most annoying, pathetic fanbase in college football. So maybe, just maybe, they can pull this off and look like the program that everyone on Rocky Top desperately wants them to be. Now watch them lose this one by 40 and we wonder if they can beat a down Vanderbilt squad.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Nebraska at Michigan State (3:30, BTN) – You are looking LIVE…at two programs who are struggling, one more than the other. The Huskers feel like an afterthought now that they have been in the Big Ten for a while and for good reason. Their fans long for even the days of the Big XII, forget the Big Eight. And let’s be honest: other than the one year where Sparty went to the College Football Playoff, it’s not like they have been setting the college football world on fire the past couple of decades. This could be a very good game that could propel one of these programs back into prominence. This will almost assuredly go to the Big Ten Network.

Best Group of Five Game: Marshall at Appalachian State (Thursday, 7:30, specialty pack) – Two of the Group of Five’s stalwarts meet here in a much deserved Thursday night ESPN spot. Both teams had weird years this past season but that’s to be expected since the whole damn season was kind of weird. Expect both of these programs to at least flirt with the Top 25 most of the season. This should be an early Group of Five New Year’s Six elimination game as I am sure both teams will come into this undefeated (or in App State’s case, maybe a close loss to Miami early on).

Worst Power Five Game: Kansas at Duke (Noon, specialty pack) – Good god. You have to be some kind of masochist to want to watch more than maybe a few minutes of this game. Kansas is Kansas and Duke is nowhere near the heights they got to a few years back. You can easily avoid this one. I wouldn’t be surprised if doesn’t even go to the ACC Network and gets relegated to ACC Network Extra even if they have a timeslot available for them.

Week 5

Game of the Week: Ole Miss at Alabama (Noon, TSN5) – I have this game on ESPN2. Seriously. Look, there is a limit as to how many times a team can appear on the SEC on CBS. Otherwise Bama would appear like 8 times every season (the max is five by the way). This could still move to ESPN or even CBS so who knows. Ole Miss is expected to start the season either just inside or just outside the Top 25 and besides, it’s Lane Kiffin getting another shot at Nick Saban. He would be a God in Oxford if the Rebels can win this game.

Other Really Important Games: Cincinnati at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – I’m honestly confused as to why some Irish on NBC games are on at 2:30 and why some are on at 3:30. There is really no rhyme or reason as to why these happen the way they do. Maybe they anticipate a hot newscast on this night. Anyway, this game is ripe for an upset…kind of. If Cincy upset Notre Dame would it be considered an upset? If it was up to me, I would have put this game on in primetime. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, they don’t draw so that would be a no go.

Indiana at Penn State (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4) – This does not feel like a Noon Big Ten Game. At all. This is the kind of game that is usually on ABC in primetime. Or should be especially after last year’s amazing finish. I can honestly say that maybe, just maybe, it’s the Hoosiers, not Penn State (or Michigan or Michigan State) that will be the team that will finally knock Ohio State off their perch atop the Big Ten East. Seeing the Hoosiers win this game and run the table into November would be great because it would make some TV executives at Disney a trifle nervous.

Michigan at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – Is Jim Harbaugh still special enough to warrant a BIG NOON SATURDAY timeslot? I could see this being moved, especially if the brass at FOX decides that the Big XII has a game they could show instead here. Or maybe they do another Pac-12 morning kickoff like they did with Arizona State-USC last year. This has to be a bounce-back season for the Wolverines. If not, what happens to Kaptain Khaki? Could he be fired? For the first time during his tenure in Ann Arbor, it would make sense to at least consider it, especially after last season’s disastrous season.

Texas at TCU (6:30, FOX Sports One) – Again, don’t be surprised if this, among almost every game this week, gets moved from where I have it. The Big XII has quickly become the major conference that Canadians rarely see. Not that they care down there if Canadians get to see their conference or not but it’s the same in the States. With no conference network, they are being left out in the cold. And their expansion blunder of a few years back is still being felt. They’ve already gone to Disney to look for a contract extension and ESPN/ABC said no. The contract ends after the 2025 season and with other TV contracts also ending around that time, realignment talk will heat up yet again. The conference is in trouble and really hinges on what Texas and Oklahoma decide to do. Expect a lot of changes in the next few years.

Florida at Kentucky (Noon, specialty pack) – Remember when the Wildcats were SEC East contenders? It wasn’t too long ago. Kentucky could be primed for another breakthrough and the fans in Lexington are chomping at the bit to see that happen. At some point, some team has to break the Florida-Georgia stranglehold in the division and what better year than this one? Right now, I have this on the SEC Network because I honestly had no idea where to put it once other better timeslots started filling up. I could see this somehow getting to ESPN or ESPN2 though since I have the SEC Network with four games during this week.

Arizona State at UCLA (3:30, specialty pack) – It feels like we are getting less and less late night games that are any good. I mean it won’t stop me from watching them but I’m used to a few each year at least. This is supposed to be the season where we finally see what Chip Kelly can do in Westwood. A good Bruins team is always welcome in college football. The Sun Devils are also expected to be quite good so maybe we will see a logjam at the top of the Pac-12 South. Not like that hasn’t happened before, am I right? Guys? Hello?

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Tennessee at Missouri (Noon, specialty pack) – No, we aren’t looking at two amazing teams. Or even one. But man, for such a good week, there are a lot of games (outside of the ones I listed above) that look like they won’t be close at all. I’d love to call this a SEC East eliminator game. But it’s not. With two teams so closely matched, though, it should be fun to watch and could be the surprise game of the early timeslot (if not the whole week).

Best Group of Five Game: Nevada at Boise State (10:00, FOX Sports One) – Could FS1, of all channels, have one of the best lineups this week? Look there were a few choices I could have put here instead of this one. Houston-Tulsa and Liberty-UAB fit the bill as well but neither really scream “Top Group of Five game.” Plus I am a bit fascinated with FOX’s foray into the Mountain West, mostly because I can see all the games now. This could end up being very lucrative for the conference as long as FOX continues to invest heavily into college football.

Worst Power Five Game: Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech (Noon, specialty pack) – I mean it’s not a bad game per se. But with the rest of the Noon options (and there are a lot of them), I can’t see this game getting many eyeballs.

Week 6

Game of the Week: Alabama at Texas A&M (8:00, CBS) – God damn this could be a MASSIVE game this season. Jimbo Fisher has guaranteed a win over Bama (not the smartest idea in the world but hey, gotta shot your shot). Even with the loss of Kellen Mond, this could be the Aggies year to get into the College Football Playoff. And now with probably a full house in College Station, the 100,000 plus members of the 12th Man will make life very difficult for the Tide. CBS has chosen this week to be the SEC doubleheader with the primetime game so it’s almost assured that this will be the pick.

Other Really Important Games: Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas) (Noon, FOX) – Back where this belongs…almost. Depending on how the Aggies look early on, this could be considered the true GOTW. I’m still waiting for the day the Cotton Bowl collapses during the Red River Shootout. It’s going to happen and it’s going to be a tragedy that could be avoided by either fixing the fucking place or moving this game to JerryWorld. There’s almost no doubt in my mind this ends up being the BIG NOON SATURDAY pick by FOX.

Georgia at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – Wow, does CBS ever get an amazing doubleheader this season. Saying that, the Tigers aren’t the Tigers they have been in the past. Unless Bo Nix all of a sudden figures things out, Auburn will be middle of the pack, at best, in the SEC West. Still a good team but not close to contending in the always extremely tough SEC West. I just wish they would do away with divisions. Don’t get me wrong, the SEC East champ is usually good but who wouldn’t have enjoyed Bama playing LSU or TAMU playing Mississippi State or Ole Miss playing Auburn or any one of those combinations in Atlanta in December?

Maryland at Ohio State (Noon, TSN4) – This is guaranteed for Noon and almost a shoo-in to be on ESPN. Will this be close? Eh, who knows. OK I am pretty positive it won’t be. But if there’s any year where Ohio State could be vulnerable, it is this one. If the Terps can’t keep it close this time around they may never do so. I’m sure there are many who long to be back in the ACC, regardless of TV money.

Florida State at North Carolina (Noon, ABC/TSN2) – No, this isn’t here because it’s the Noles. I probably don’t have to say that anymore and it is sad that FSU just can’t seem to get over the hump and get back to the way they were. You never know, though. They beat the Heels here, it’s massive and could lead to huge things for this squad. North Carolina is in New Year’s Six or Bust mode this season as the NY6 is their floor. Anything less would be a disappointment with Sam Howell a serious Heisman contender.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: LSU at Kentucky (Noon, TSN1) – No, I’m not joking with this. The Tigers will be close to the bottom spot of the Top 25 and the Cats will be just outside looking in, at least at the start of the season. This is probably a bigger game for Kentucky than it is for LSU as there is no way that Ed Orgeron’s guys will be competing for the SEC West this season.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at BYU (10:30, specialty pack) – Is this considered a Group of Five game? I’m going to say it is. BYU seems to be in this no-man’s land when it comes to where they belong. I know they want to be Power Five and they should be Power Five but they aren’t quite there yet and until they are invited into a conference or get closer in reputation to Notre Dame, they won’t be. It is usually a lot of fun when these two teams meet. I am looking forward to Provo After Dark which sounds like a show on at Midnight on Vision TV or some other religious network where they do nasty things like drink coffee or say “fuck.”

Worst Power Five Game: Georgia Tech at Duke (12:30, specialty pack) – Two straight weeks for the Ramblin’ Wreck in this spot. The thing is they aren’t even that bad. But last week was a pretty good schedule, at least in the Power Five and this week the next worse choice would be Wake Forest-Syracuse which isn’t nearly as bad as this.

We are almost halfway through the season now (with these posts). With only thirteen weeks this season I had to have one longer post because of it. It will be the final one. The final two posts are usually the most difficult since almost none of the games are scheduled this far out, at least from a Power Five perspective. So the chances of me getting many of these predictions wrong are quite good. Just letting you know in advance.

It’s getting close to College Football Preview magazine season. Or maybe it has already started and I just don’t know about it. I have an Athlon subscription now so I am just waiting for that one to come in the mail. If there are others available I will check Indigo to see if I can get it. As for the Phil Steele magazine, I am going back and forth whether to order it or get the online version (if they have it this year). I love the magazine, don’t get me wrong. It’s an awesome read and has a shit-ton of information. Problem is, it shows up sometime in late July at the earliest which doesn’t help me at all with my predictions and makes it tough to read before the season begins (yes I am one of those insane people who try to read that magazine front-to-back). So we shall see. Anyway, have a great upcoming week and let’s hope the warm weather is here to stay and that we can forget what it was like on Friday.

How my predictions did, short Super Bowl preview, and a few other things

Posted on January 28, 2021 by guelphbossman

College football is pretty much done for the season (kind of…I will explain this towards the end of the post). The NFL is almost done for the season. I have made the decision to not do as many mock drafts this year. I will do at least one, just before the draft but that may end up being all. I have no idea when the CFL will begin. If they are planning a 2021 season then it will begin in late May. It would be nice to have a season after not having one in 2020.

But let’s get to the main crux of this post: how good or bad my predictions were. I always assume I did bad so when I do good, I feel good. Set the bar low and you will always leap over it. I should be a motivational speaker (a la Matt Foley). Alright let’s get on with this:

College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

I don’t even know if I need to go through this since I did it before the Big Ten and Pac-12 even decided to play:
- Clemson – Picked them #1 and they ended up #2 and avenged a regular season Trevor Lawrence-less loss against Notre Dame in the ACC Championship. One for one.
- Alabama – I figured this was a no-brainer. I will say I was a bit surprised at how dominant they were though as they rolled to #1 and the national championship.
- Oklahoma – I had them #3. Unfortunately the Big XII was trash so the Sooners fell just outside of the Top 4. And by just outside, I mean WAY outside (even though they were still Top 10).
- Texas A&M – If the Irish hadn’t beat Clemson earlier in the year, Jimbo would finally get his chance to win the big one in College Station. #5 ain’t bad, right?
How about my New Year’s Six picks? Not as good. But I am taking a pass here. Having two conferences not in my predictions made it near impossible to match what actually happened. Saying that, I REALLY whiffed on LSU. I figured they wouldn’t be as good as last season but that was quite the drop.
Let’s see, I had Cincinnati ranked….#25. Damn. I thought App State would run the table and finally get to a New Year’s Six bowl. Instead, Coastal Carolina took the conference, and the college football viewing public, on a ride that few will forget.
I had BYU, Georgia and Virginia Tech being just on the outside of the NY6 looking in but playing in good bowls. BYU was awesome all season, Georgia was also really good despite not winning the SEC East and VaTech wasn’t that bad (but not nearly as good as I thought they would be). So I did well with these three picks.

Heisman Trophy

I had Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields as my #1 and #2. Hey at least they were in the Top 10 at the end.
I didn’t have DeVonta Smith on my list. I had put his teammate, Najee Harris on the list, and he ended up as a finalist. I have a feeling a lot of experts didn’t have Smith on their list so this non-expert feels just fine.
My picks were mostly OK but I missed BADLY on some. I mean Bo Nix at #8? Myles Brennan and Adrian Martinez in the Honourable Mention section? Sweet Jesus. Brutal. Nothing more to say here.

Just A Bunch of Predictions

Normally I would split the good and the bad and the hot seat stuff into separate sections. I’m not going to bother here

So many in the media said the Ivy League cancelling Fall sports would be the catalyst for FBS being entirely cancelled. Guys like Dan Wolken. It’s amazing who keeps employed in this day and age but we have all seen sports media go to shit so it’s not surprising.
I couldn’t figure out which conferences were starting their schedules or when and at one point I had the MAC and Mountain West completely opting out and playing in the Spring. What a gongshow.
I have said a few times that the Spring season will not happen. And now it is starting to look more and more like I will be correct. As of this point, I believe about 15% of the FCS schools have opted out with a few weeks still to before the season begins.
I figured Texas A&M would lose two games and they would be close and I was bang on.
Normally the guys in the Doubtful Shitcanning section of my Coaching Hot Seat list do well. Let’s see how that went this season. Dino Babers and Syracuse were awful. Matt Viator was fired and then Tom Herman was also fired at Texas. So yeah, not a good time for that list.
I should apologize to Philip Montgomery though. Man was Tulsa fun to watch this season and came very close to upsetting Cincinnati in the AAC Championship and putting Coastal Carolina in the New Year’s Six. I thought Tulsa would win one game. Yikes.
I said you would see a lot more Sun Belt football on television this year. I was right. Which is good because you got to see a lot of Coastal Carolina. That’s a good thing.
One more Coastal Carolina point. I don’t know if there has been a bigger surprise in college football in a long time. Jamey Chadwell deserved every accolade he got (and some he didn’t get). If they repeat this next year, look for another conference to take a closer look at the team from Myrtle Beach (OK they are in Conway, but close enough).
Somehow, no one picked up Billy Napier to coach at a bigger school. I am a bit surprised. But Louisiana is very happy he is staying for at least one more season since the Ragin’ Cajuns have become one of the new standards of the Sun Belt (and the Group of Five to a lesser extent).
Marshall. An amazingly hot start that went to shit during their last three games. And it cost Doc Holliday his job. They are now hoping another coach from the Nick Saban coaching tree can put this program over the hump.
I should have gone all-in with Oklahoma in the Big XII. Yes, Sooner fans. At least plan out your trip to JerryWorld in December every year for the next few. Nothing is going to change.
Can anyone win at Kansas? I am hoping that I am right that next year is the year that Les Miles can pull them out of the basement but I’m not so sure.
Notre Dame almost won a conference in their first try! Good for them. I guess the ACC doesn’t like that so Notre Dame will not be in a conference again starting in 2021. Poor Irish.
I had the top 4 in the ACC correct. NC State did well as the fifth best team in the conference so I missed on them. But beyond that? Ugh. Again, I fell for the Florida State Koolaid. Damn it.
Nice to see BYU do so well. That game against Coastal Carolina was a fun contest that was set up TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE. See college football? It can be done.
Full disclosure: Liberty did WAY better than I ever thought they could have. But I think that happened to most people, including Liberty fans.
I almost nailed the American conference except for Tulsa, which I mentioned above. Had Navy improving, Tulane getting a bit better, Temple struggling, and USF not being good. I’ll give myself a pat on the bat and a wee bit of scotch.

I had no predictions for the Big Ten and the Pac-12 because they are stupid and started late and thought everyone would follow them. Same with the MAC and Mountain West. God, I hope we don’t have to deal with this again. So yeah, the amount of predictions that I am looking at is a rather short list but there’s not a whole lot I can do. Also, I am not even going to bother doing a Stassen score since I didn’t have a full set of predictions.

Am I going to even gauge how well I did? No. No point. It was a mess this season. Let’s forget about 2020. I know I am trying to. Now, we are 211 days away from the 2021 FBS season beginning. Maybe I should try and improve my life in that time. We’ll see.

The Pro Bowl would have been this Sunday but somehow we have received some luck and it won’t happen. The Pro Bowl fucking blows. I don’t understand why it continues like it does now. Make it completely different or just abolish it already. Anyway, there will be some weird Pro Bowl Celebration show airing on ABC, TSN1 and TSN5. It starts at 3. Who knows what it is. I doubt I will watch it.

As for the Super Bowl itself, we have Tampa Bay and Kansas City. I was hoping for Buffalo but they had a great season nonetheless. The game will air on CBS, CTV, and TSN 1, 4, and 5 on February 7th. Right now, KC is the 3 point favourites. That could (and probably will) change between now and game time). I am not going into a huge preview. Instead I will just give my prediction.

Chiefs 35 Bucs 23.

I believe Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offensive weapons will be too much for Tampa’s defense. The game should be close into the second half but I see KC pulling away, giving the Chiefs their second straight Super Bowl win. So even though the Buccaneers are the first team ever to play the Super Bowl at their home stadium, I think we will have to wait at least another season before a team wins a Super Bowl at their home stadium.

Alright what do we have to look forward to:

How my NFL predictions panned out. I already took a look. Not good.
Spring football schedAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No. I can’t see us getting any of those spring games up here and really, I don’t care. And I don’t mean the normal Spring Games that most of the programs have. I’m talking about quite a bit of the FCS (and New Mexico State) playing Spring football. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of it got shut down to be honest with you.
Conference tournament schedule leading up to March Madness. This could be very interesting because we know March Madness is different this year. Will the conference tournaments be different? I’d be surprised if they weren’t.
Then a pretty big break until the NFL Draft. I will have a mock draft close to draft time. I may have one earlier than that but at this point I haven’t determined if I will do that or not. If you want mock drafts, there are plenty out there. My favourite is from the site WalterFootball.com. A lot of great analysis there.

So not much coming up over the next three months. As per usual. Remember, the Senior Bowl and Polynesian Bowl college all-star games are still scheduled for this Saturday. UPDATE: The Polynesian Bowl will not be shown on Saturday on CBS Sports Network. However, the Hula Bowl, another college all-star game, will be shown on CBS Sports Network. This game will be at 9:30 on Sunday. Then that’s it, that’s all for college football for the 2020 season (kind of…I don’t really count the spring schedule as the 2020 season). Have a great weekend everyone!

Let’s talk about bacon – Week 6 College Football Recap

Posted on October 12, 2020 by guelphbossman

If you know what you are looking at then chances are your blood may be already starting to boil. If not, let me explain.

Late in the Arkansas-Auburn game, Arkansas had the lead but Auburn was driving for a score, only needing a field goal to win. The play above is where things really go off the rails. Bo Nix takes the snap and immediately fumbles it. He picks it up and then immediately spikes it. First of all, you can’t do that in college football. That’s considered intentional grounding. What’s worse is that Nix spiked it behind his foot. So that is a backwards pass…a lateral if you will. At this point, a few officials blow their electronic whistles, one official definitely doesn’t, and one official throws a bean bag. In the aftermath of this, an Arkansas player eventually recovers the ball. So of course this is chaos already.

The referee calls it intentional grounding. Of course many know that there is more to this than that. And some are perplexed because the NFL does not have that rule about fumbling the snap (as far as I know). The play gets reviewed. It is pretty obvious the spike was behind Nix so it’s technically a fumble. What does the replay official conclude? He sticks with the call of intentional grounding, basically to bail out the officials on the field. What a fucking joke. According to Terry McAulay, retired official who does the rules for Sunday Night Football, said that because the Arkansas player continued to play through the whistle to recover the ball and that an Auburn player also continued to play at that point, that the whistle is irrelevant and that Arkansas should have been considered to have had an immediate recovery. Instead, Auburn gets their chance at the field goal and hits it to win, robbing the Hogs of a deserved win. So the SEC doubles down hours later about the rules. And probably nothing will happen to either the replay official or the officiating team on the field. This was not a missed call that was bad but really didn’t affect the outcome of the game. It certainly did. And Arkansas will not get the win they deserve. Sad.

As for the rest of the weekend it was the best weekend so far. A low bar for sure but there was a lot of exciting football. Kept me glued to the TV for over 11 hours. Let’s get down to recapping all this shall we?

And now for the rest of the recap

A great game down in College Station this past weekend. Texas A&M won over Florida in a game many would call an upset. I have to agree especially since Florida was a Top 5 team and I picked the Aggies to win in an upset (which makes me feel good). Instead the Aggies gutted out a last-second walk-off field goal win and now their College Football Playoff aspirations are legit. As for Florida, ugh…. When you think they are about to be a threat to Georgia in the SEC East, something like this happens. It definitely won’t be easy for the Aggies the rest of the way in the SEC West but if they can somehow win out, then you have to take them seriously. Also good for Jimbo Fisher for finally getting a signature win as the Aggies head coach.
Another upset occurred early in the day in a game that had to be moved because of Hurricane Delta (Burke?). Missouri held on to beat the defending champs from LSU in a game moved from Baton Rouge to Columbia. Everyone kind of knew the Tigers (of LSU) weren’t the same team but many their defense has looked terrible so far. But you have to give Mizzou some credit. If it wasn’t for them finally finding a starting quarterback in freshman Connor Bazelak, this game would have been an easy LSU win. I am positive now that there will be rumblings of Ed Orgeron being fired because it’s college football and many fans are shitty people.
How about that game down in the other Death Valley (or the first Death Valley depending on which Tigers you prefer)? Many felt the Canes would have a chance against Clemson. Man were they ever fucking wrong. This was not close, in any way, shape, or form. Clemson just looks that much better than everyone in the conference. Saying that, they do have new conference mate (for this season), Notre Dame later in the season which should be a banger. As for Miami, they should still be fine. It’s one blemish but they can work their way back into the New Year’s Six pretty easily if they run the table the rest of the way. OK so pretty easily is a strong term.
And there is the unluckiness that is Pitt. It was the Pittening yet again. Kicker Alex Kessman made a 58-yard field goal with 40 seconds left just to send their game with Boston College into overtime. Then, after BC had scored a TD and Pitt scored one of their own, Kessman missed the extra point. You can’t make this stuff up. Poor guy probably wanted to crawl under the turf at that point.
Alabama beat Ole Miss. OK not a big deal. What was amazing was Lane cutting the brakes off his offense and going nuts with it. And it worked. The Tide could not keep up with the Rebel offense. It’s too bad the Rebel defense was equally as bad. Although let’s be honest: Alabama’s offense is seriously good. Not quite Clemson good, but arguably the best in the SEC. And now Evil Nick Saban is 21-0 against his former assistants. The student has not surpassed the teacher yet.
Let history show that the Tennessee football Volunteers led Georgia 21-17 at the half in this game. Again, the Vols allowed the the Dawgs to close out the game on a huge run, this one 27 points, but it’s still not a bad thing to see the Vols at least somewhat competitive. They may be a year or two away from contending in the SEC East but the fans can see the light at the end of that tunnel. Now they just have to allow Jeremy Pruitt to continue to improve things in Knoxville and it will work out (possibly).
I didn’t think Florida State could keep it close. Like not at all. But they were surprisingly effective until late in the second quarter. But the Irish were still way too much for the Noles. They are a legit contender to go to the ACC Championship. Mike Norvell is struggling so far at Tallahassee and it will be interesting to see if he gets the same amount of chances as Willie Taggart got before he was dumped.
Back to games that were completely bonkers, look no further than the Red River Shootout. And a shootout it was. This game went to four overtimes and it felt like neither team wanted to win despite the fact they were putting up some gaudy stats. Finally, Spencer Rattler didn’t fuck up and Sam Ehlinger couldn’t get it done and the Sooners pulled off the victory. Still, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see neither of these two teams in the Big XII Championship in December.
That Virginia Tech-North Carolina game was more of a Big XII game than pretty much all the Big XII games on Saturday. A hilariously poor showing of defense on both teams’ accounts. North Carolina was able to pull away late but it wasn’t pretty. The Tar Heels can’t afford to be like that on the defensive side of the ball when they play Notre Dame later on in the season or it could be a long day for Mack Brown and the boys from Chapel Hill.
Don’t sleep on the BYU Cougars. The Cougars are 4-0 and look like they will probably be 7-0 when they get into November and their game against Boise State. They are solidly in the Top 25 but will need to win and win big to move up the rankings. Winning by a touchdown over UTSA won’t cut it, despite the fact the Roadrunners are going to be at least a contender to go bowling if not an outside shot at being a thorn in UAB’s side for the Conference USA West crown.
Iowa State keeps trundling along in the Big XII after that horrible opening loss to what is really a good Louisiana team. The way things are going, it wouldn’t surprise me (and shouldn’t surprise others) if the Cyclones were heading to Dallas for the Big XII Championship in about two months.
What the hell happened at Mississippi State? They looked great two weeks ago against LSU and then can’t do anything in their previous game and were even worse at Kentucky. 300 yards passing and 2 points. So of course Mike Leach is already starting to blame some of the players. This usually takes like two or three seasons to occur: it’s happening in two weeks in Starkville. Yikes.
Another great game just happened to be Temple’s first game of the season. No I’m not kidding. And they played the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of college football, Navy. Navy doesn’t know if they want to be good or they’re really fucking bad. All I know is this ended up being a close finish after Navy took a fairly large lead and then allowed the Owls to crawl their way back for a chance to tie late. I am sure Ken Niumatalolo secretly drinks heavily after games like this.
USF…what can you say? They got throttled by East Carolina. Yes, the East Carolina football Pirates. The Bulls are so bad that when I tweeted about them being bad, a few people replied and agreed and they’re USF FANS! Wow.
Finally, Charlotte took down North Texas. That’s not really news. The news is about the graphics used on the ESPN scoreboard. Charlotte has a C with a pickaxe in the middle of it. North Texas has UNT with an eagle. Yes, it was a C followed by a UNT.

Alright that was seriously fun. And soon enough we will get college football that lasts past 2 in the morning, like God intended it. Oh man, there goes my sleep, which has already been bad but is about to get much worse.

Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Clemson
#2	Georgia
#3	Alabama
#4	North Carolina
#5	Notre Dame
#6	Ohio State
#7	Oklahoma State
#8	Florida
#9	Cincinnati
#10	Auburn
#11	Miami
#12	Penn State
#13	BYU
#14	Oregon
#15	Texas A&M
#16	Tennessee
#17	Wisconsin
#18	SMU
#19	Louisiana
#20	Michigan
#21	Iowa State
#22	Virginia Tech
#23	Kansas State
#24	Marshall
#25	Minnesota

Yes there are some differences between my rankings and the AP Poll, as usual. I have Georgia at #2 and Notre Dame down at #5. The Irish should move up just for the fact that I doubt we will have two SEC teams in the top three (I hope). As for #6 through #12, pick the teams out of a hat to figure out the order. A lot can happen the rest of the way and at this point, no one team is that much better than another. And how about Marshall at #24. I know the AP Poll doesn’t have them in there but man they deserve to be there in my humble opinion. Also, yes I have BYU at #13. It sounds like they probably won’t move that much further up from there but they are still undefeated and shouldn’t fall unless they lose.

Hey guess what we have? FUN BELT! Yes, weekday Sun Belt action is back and it starts on Wednesday night. 8:00 but who knows if Canadians can get it. And it’s a big one. Coastal Carolina and Louisiana. I love weekday football. Honestly, and I know I rail on the NFL being on Thursday but between late August and early January, the more football the better. Have a good week everyone!

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

Posted on September 4, 2020 by guelphbossman

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!

So close, Mack. So close. – Week 5 College Football Recap

Posted on September 30, 2019 by guelphbossman

There are some that don’t understand the reasoning behind Mack Brown’s call near the end of the game. I do, though. Mack Brown is trying to build the North Carolina program back up. Winning this game would have been huge for the team. Was the playcall the best one? Not really but that’s not the point here. Chances are if they did go to overtime, it definitely favours Clemson. Not saying the Heels couldn’t have pulled it out in OT but I like them going for it. Take the risk. Too many coaches play it safe and it’s more to save their own hides rather than make a statement. I get that too but I wish more coaches would have a spine and take more risks…not a ton more, just a few more.

Other than that, was it a awesome weekend? No. No it was not. In college football parlance, it was rather mundane to be honest. Let’s get to the recap.

It looked like some crazy football could happen with what went on Friday night. California was hosting Arizona State as the only undefeated team left in the Pac-12. But remember…you play…to win…the game. And that’s what the Sun Devils did. A close game but they were able to hold off Cal and, for now, put the Pac-12 on the outside looking in for the College Football Playoff. The conference has to hope for some chaos elsewhere to get back in the race.

Notre Dame put on show against Virginia. The Irish never looked like they were in trouble in this one. They still have a few difficult games left (USC, Michigan, Duke) but they don’t have a seriously difficult one left this year. If they win out, they could be an outside choice for the College Football Playoff depending on what else happens. That should piss the anti-Notre Dame folks off but they would be firmly in the Top 10 all season. As for UVA, this isn’t a bad loss for them as they still have to be considered the favourite in the ACC Coastal division.

Hey guess what? Maryland cancelled classes so that students could fill the stadium for their huge game against Penn State. They should have just let the kids have a long weekend. Penn State put a colossal beatdown on the Terps, winning 59-0. The Terps couldn’t do anything right and the Nittany Lions, consequently, looked like everything they did was near-perfect. I mean I get that PSU is an outside contender for the New Year’s Six but it shouldn’t have been this much of a lopsided game. The Terrapins had no life it seemed. And now they look like they will struggle to get to a bowl game after all the early season hype. Mike Locksley has quite the job ahead of him.

Another game that many thought would be closer went down on The Plains (see a pattern here?). The Bulldogs were boatraced by what seems like a seriously good Auburn team. And yes Bo Nix looks like the real deal. Not amazing but the kind of QB that can do enough to propel a team to victory. Hell, even Bully, the Bulldogs’ mascot, was hit by an Auburn player after being pushed out of bounds. So yeah, MSU was beaten on all fronts on Saturday.

Minnesota is quietly undefeated. They don’t have a true Heisman contender. They barely beat all the teams in their non-conference schedule. So them holding on to beat Purdue to start their conference was a slight surprise but not enough to even put them in the Top 25. But the way things are going, don’t be surprised if they are 8-0 when they host Penn State in early November. P.J. Fleck doing some work in the Twin Cities rowing that damn boat.

I think Virginia Tech is going to be in tough to keep their bowl game streak alive which is at 26 seasons right now. They were knocked around by Duke and have looked terrible in Bud Foster’s final season as defensive coordinator. And I get they are in the ACC but their schedule isn’t exactly easy and now they have to win four of their final eight to go bowling. Part of me wants them not to make it so other teams get an opportunity, I’m not gonna lie.

Bama has absolutely crushed pretty much all their opponents this season. They just destroyed the Ole Miss recently. That matters little at this point. What will be more important is what they do when the tougher games begin. That starts in two weeks when they travel to College Station to play Texas A&M. And now that they are #1 in the AP Poll (and rightfully so), they become a bigger target and all it takes is one loss to get many of the media pundits talking about Bama’s demise and shit like that. Let’s start with them not making the CFP for once and then MAYBE we can discuss it. Until that point, there’s no point. Saban is Saban and always has the horses to be in the Top 4.

Ohio State laid a beating on Nebraska. I, along with many others, fell for the preseason Husker hype. As for Ohio State, this team is really good and could make a case for being #1 at this point. They still have a very tough schedule left but it wouldn’t be a total surprise if they did run the table. Ryan Day is looking like the right choice in Columbus. Back to Nebraska, that was the worst loss by a team who hosted College Gameday ever. That’s pretty sad. Saying that, I had them not doing that great early on and then winning almost all of their conference games after the Ohio State game. I mean it could still happen but they are not inspiring hope that is for sure.

Wake Forest is sneaking up on everyone in the ACC. They were the first 5-0 team in FBS after beating Boston College. Honestly, there is a possibility that the Deacs could be 9-0 when they head to Clemson to face the defending champs. Again, not a team of stars but very few holes and Dave Clawson is one of the better coaches in America right now. I would love to see them get some New Year’s Six chatter and soon enough they will if they keep winning.

UCF annihilated UConn but has given up their spot as the New Year’s Six favourite from the Group of Five conferences. That honour goes to Boise State. For now.

Michigan might actually be good. Who knows? But it was just Rutgers they beat so that is not a barometer of anything. It’s Rutgers after all. It also was the end of the Chris Ash era in Piscataway as he was finally shitcanned, probably more than a year after he should have been fired in the first place.

The other ranked-on-ranked game was Washington hosting USC and it was the bad Trojans that showed up as the Huskies looked like they were never in trouble all game. More are calling for Clay Helton’s dismissal. Keyshawn Johnson talked about Tarmac in an Instagram post, referencing Lane Kiffin’s firing on an airport tarmac. So yeah, things not going well in southern California.

Alright enough recappin’. Time for another Bossman Top 25. I am sure you might bristle at some of my rankings. I will explain below:

#1	Alabama
#2	Clemson
#3	Georgia
#4	Ohio State
#5	Auburn
#6	LSU
#7	Notre Dame
#8	Wisconsin
#9	Oklahoma
#10	Florida
#11	Penn State
#12	Texas
#13	Washington
#14	Iowa
#15	Oregon
#16	Michigan
#17	Utah
#18	Boise State
#19	UCF
#20	Virginia
#21	Oklahoma State
#22	Texas A&M
#23	Arizona State
#24	Michigan State
#25	Wake Forest

Yep, I put Alabama at #1. Yeah I know I had them farther down last week but things change. And honestly they are looking better than Clemson at this point of the season. I could also say the same thing about Georgia and Ohio State but I am not ready to pull the trigger on those yet. And also remember that this is on September 30th, not what I think it will be at the end of the year. Plus you have Auburn and LSU right there close to the top and at some point they may all become interchangeable and no one’s opinion would be truly wrong. There’s still plenty of games to separate all these teams and, as per usual, I hope for chaos because chaos in college football is fun.

See you back on Thursday for the college football TV schedule. Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

Guess who’s back. Back again. Big East’s back. Tell a friend. – Week 9 College Football Recap

Posted on October 29, 2018 by guelphbossman

Remember this conference? It still exists in a basketball sense. But the football conference met an ignominious end a few years back (and is now the American Conference, the best of the Group of Five conferences but let’s not talk about that right now). I mean let’s just look at we have as we finished Week 9 of the 2018 college football season when it comes to old Big East schools:

West Virginia is #12 in the AP Poll and could be a dark horse College Football Playoff contender.
Syracuse is #22 and in the Top 25 for the first time in god knows how long.
Boston College is #24 and arguably the second best team in the ACC Atlantic division.
Miami and Virginia Tech have struggled but were both ranked at some point this season and had great seasons last year.
Temple is going to be bowl-eligible and Pitt might end up being that getting a gritty win over Duke this past weekend.
Rutgers………….ok let’s just stop while we’re ahead.

Can’t say that about the former Big Eight or Southwest Conference can you? Nah. Best former conference out there and it’s not even close. I mean they win nothing for that but still. I kind of wish the Big East was back in college football.

Look let’s just get right to the recap as it was a crazy week in college football…well, crazier than usual. It started slow and sped up really fast as the afternoon went on. Let’s get going!

Don’t write off Penn State just yet. We knew the Nittany Lions would have a tough road to get back into New Year’s Six contention. It was a good start to hold on to beat Iowa though. Their game against Michigan will decide whether they have a legitimate shot or not. As for Iowa, they are in a disastrous Big Ten West that has fallen on hard times. But technically someone has to win it right? So Iowa has as good a shot as a few other teams in that division but still…not a good look.

The Cocktail Party started strong and ended with a bit of a whimper. Kind of like how most cocktail parties go right? Starts strong as everyone is drinking and having fun. Then at some point people slow down and some people start vomiting and others leave and the party fizzles out. Those vomiting, early-exit people were the Florida Gators this weekend. They started well. Kept pace with Georgia for a little over three quarters. Then it all went to shit and the Dawgs proved they were the beasts of the SEC East…until next week when that’s on the line against Kentucky.

Bedlam could be super important again. The Oklahoma State Cowboys pulled off the upset of the week by taking down Texas (who is still somewhat back). This means that Bedlam will be important as if the Fighting Mullets can somehow beat Oklahoma as well that would mean the Pokes still have a shot and that West Virginia could be the favourite going to the Big XII Championship at JerryWorld. A lot still has to happen for that to occur but don’t rule it out as we have already had a few weeks that were completely off the rails this season. Also, I would definitely take Mike Gundy in a fight over Tom Herman. Herman looks like a bulldog but I think Gundy has a bit of Ric Flair in him and would do anything to get the W.

Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame! Notre Dame had no problem with Navy. So really, despite what anyone might think, if the Irish win out, they are in the College Football Playoff. As for Navy, they will have shockingly win out to just be bowl-eligible. Wow, what a fall for the Middies. I wonder if it’s more an anomaly than anything but to see them sink like a stone in the American like this is stunning.

CLANGA! Mississippi State, in front of tens of thousands of cowbell-ringing fans, upset Texas A&M and continued Jimbo Fisher’s up-and-down first season at College Station. The Bulldogs have also had an up-and-down season in Joe Moorhead’s first kick at the can in Starkville. And because of that, neither team has a chance to dethrone Bama at the top of the SEC West. Not that that was going to happen but both fanbases thought they would at least have a shot going into November.

Wazzu in the catbird seat. Yes. Wazzu. Washington State. The Cougs. That team. Out in Pullman. They are the Pac-12 North’s last hope to get to the College Football Playoff. So they are putting all their eggs in the Mike Leach basket. Interesting. Anyway, that Air Raid train kept rolling as Washington State kicked a game-winning field goal late in the fourth to beat Stanford in a game that about 17 people watched on television.

And then there was one. Well one in the American conference. And by one I mean one undefeated team left. And that’s UCF. This is because Houston basically beat the holy hell out of previously-undefeated USF. Now it looks like we are going headlong into a UCF-Houston AAC Championship match to probably determine the Group of Five New Year’s Six representative. Then again, there is still a few weeks left so who knows what the hell will happen.

Yes there was a shirtless guy in the stands reading a book… It’s the perfect microcosm for a Florida State fan this season. The Noles got boatraced by Clemson in Florida State’s worst home loss ever. Let’s be honest: Clemson has woken up and is now seriously looking like a national title contender. Saying that, Florida State has fallen on hard times…at least compared to what they are used to in Tallahassee. Willie Taggart isn’t on any hot seat but next season may be his final shot to start the turnaround.

How about the crazy finish in CoMo? So the Wildcats had looked terrible for about 59 minutes against Mizzou. They did not look like a team on the cusp of being in the Top 10. Then they drive down the field down 5. Looks like the final play of the game. Incomplete pass! But the Tigers were called for defensive pass interference. Kind of a chintzy call but nothing you can do now. UK gets an untimed down and gets a touchdown on the final play to pull out the improbable victory. It means their game next Saturday against Georgia is for the SEC East title. Put up your hand if you figured this would be the case. Now everyone put your hands down because you are all dirty liars.

Remember what I said about the Big East? How about the Cuse! They put a 50-burger up on NC State (51 to be exact) and are looking damn good. Dino Babers finally (FINALLY!) has this team playing the way he wants them to. He’s always been known for his high-tempo offenses and now it’s finally working. They probably have no shot at the New Year’s Six but they are in the Top 25 so if they keep winning then it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

And now to the other half of the Apple Cup… Yeah Washington is not going to the College Football Playoff. That is a guarantee now. Especially after their awful performance against Cal. Yes Myles Gaskin was out but still. Hell, Jake Browning didn’t even finish the game because Chris Petersen pulled him. Not exactly looking like a team that is a top contender.

And your Big Ten West leaders… Your Northwestern Wildcats. No kidding. Northwestern’s upset win of Wisconsin has put them in the driver’s seat (somehow) in the Big Ten West. Never has winning the Big Ten East been so important as it is now since it seems there aren’t any seriously good teams in the West.

Alright, enough recappin’. Let’s get to the Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Clemson
#3	Georgia
#4	Notre Dame
#5	LSU
#6	Michigan
#7	Oklahoma
#8	UCF
#9	Washington State
#10	Ohio State
#11	Penn State
#12	Kentucky
#13	West Virginia
#14	Florida
#15	Texas
#16	Utah
#17	Houston
#18	Iowa
#19	Syracuse
#20	Virginia
#21	Utah State
#22	Boston College
#23	Fresno State
#24	Texas A&M
#25	Washington

Yes I have Georgia at #3. They looked good against Florida who was also ranked in the Top 10. LSU is down at #5 but could be #1 if they beat Bama on Saturday so this still doesn’t mean a whole lot. The first CFP Rankings come out tomorrow so I am sure my Top 4 won’t be the same Top 4 The Committee has and I don’t care. The Irish probably have the “easiest” route to the College Football Playoff at this point. Win out and they are in, no questions asked. Or at least there shouldn’t be. We shouldn’t sleep on Washington State, especially if they run the regular season table. The Pac-12 is a complete shitshow but the perception changes if the Cougs can sneak into the CFP. Also, remember that Ohio State is lurking in the weeds. As for UCF I have them at #8 and the AP Poll has them at #9 so at least they have moved up a bit. They still need a lot of chaos above them to move up.

Football. Every. Day. That’s right. Every day between now and the day before American Thanksgiving. And that day is the only day off between now and November 29th. Let’s drink it in and enjoy this! Saying that we have some MACtion tomorrow night. Kent State-Bowling Green and Miami-OH-Buffalo on the specialty pack. It continues Wednesday night with Ball State-Toledo, also on the specialty pack. In celebration of this, maybe I should include an extra post this week. Sounds like a plan, Bossman. Sounds like a plan. Enjoy your week everyone.

TEXAS. IS. BACK. – Week 6 College Football Recap

Posted on October 8, 2018 by guelphbossman

I think we can finally say it now. Texas is back, y’all!

Many of us have tried to hold back after good ol’ Joe Tessitore said Texas was back a couple years back after Texas beat Notre Dame on Labour Day Sunday. Since then, while it hasn’t been disastrous, it sure hasn’t been good. Not by Longhorn standards at least. Yes, the Sooners have a fairly porous defense for a contender. But you can’t look past Texas did, especially when it comes to two players: Sam Ehlinger and Cameron Dicker. The former has finally put together a performance worthy of semi-immortality (at least in terms of Austin feats). Dicker the Kicker on the other hand booted the game-winning field goal and a moment that may be remembered for a long time, especially if the Horns seriously make a run at something this season. The Sooners are now not in the Big XII driver’s seat. Texas and maybe even West Virginia have the edge on them now. Oklahoma is finally Stoops-less for the first time this century as Mike Stoops was fired as defensive coordinator. Maybe that was a bit premature but the Sooners have struggled on defense.

This was just the tip of the crazy iceberg this past weekend. A few upsets that has turned parts of the college football world upside down. Let’s get down to recapping this shall we?

And now for the rest of the recap

That wasn’t the only upset on the week (as I just mentioned). Florida pulled off what has to be considered an upset at this point, beating LSU in a fantastic game. The Gators are also back…at least to being contenders in the SEC East. It’s a huge setback for the Tigers since they were looking at possibly being undefeated going into November and their yearly SEC on CBS primetime matchup with Alabama. This changes a lot of things in the SEC West for sure.
Another upset happened in College Station. Texas A&M beat Kentucky in overtime in front of a raucous crowd. A low-scoring affair where the Aggies stymied the Wildcat offense. Problem was it seemed like Kentucky wouldn’t go to Benny Snell when the game was on the line. If it wasn’t for UK’s defense, the game never would have made it to the extra period anyway. I was right with my pick and I wonder if Kentucky will fade back into the pack now.
How about that game down in south Florida? Miami pulled out the huge victory over Florida State, which looked like the dominant team for most of the first three quarters. They are not quite in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal as they still have Virginia Tech in their way. That would be the last hurdle to a rematch with Clemson (probably) in the ACC Championship. As for the Noles, that was tough to watch. It finally looked like they had found their game but couldn’t close the door on the Canes. They should still get to a bowl game but it isn’t guaranteed at this point.
Many were worried about Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence coming into this past weekend’s game against Wake Forest. His concussion the previous game was definitely a cause for concern. He erased all doubts as the Tigers pasted the Deacs 63-3.
NC State easily beat Boston College despite the close score. Now the Wolfpack have a date with Clemson in two weeks in a game that MAY end up on ABC in primetime. Right now the ABC primetime game has a 7:30 start which would mean it’s a Big Ten game. ABC has changed this to 8:00 before so it may happen here. UPDATE: As I am almost finished the blog post, I find out that ABC is going with a Big Ten game in primetime instead. I think this is the first update in the history of any recap I have done.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are a really good team. I know some of you really do not want to hear that since Notre Dame, to some of you, is like some evil corporation of evil people. I get that it got tiring to hear about them well into the 90s. So let’s just watch and see how this one plays out, alright? I still see them losing a game somewhere down the line which will make things even more difficult for The Committee. An undefeated Notre Dame is a shoo-in for the College Football Playoff.
And the upsets kept coming. Mississippi State thoroughly dominated Auburn in all facets of the game and beat them handily. This is more like the Bulldogs team we figured we would see most of this season. Also Nick Fitzgerald is now all the all-time leader in rushing yards for a quarterback in the SEC. He unseated some Tim Tebow guy at the top.
Alabama laid the wood to Arkansas. That wasn’t the big story though. The story is how Tua Tagovailoa is on a blistering pace to win the Heisman and he’s basically a part-time player at this point. I don’t think he’s even played in the fourth quarter of a game this season.
Back to the Big XII, West Virginia easily beat Kansas and Will Grier had another good game. Because of everything else happening in college football, no one is really noticing the Mountaineers slowly moving up the chain and possibly being a dark horse for the College Football Playoff. Also, if it weren’t for Tagovailoa, Grier might be getting much of the Heisman hype himself.
Scott Frost is not having a fun homecoming in Lincoln. The Huskers’ loss to Wisconsin dropped them to 0-5, the worst start in program history. This season is basically a lost cause but man, Nebraska has to win a few games or else Frost will be on the hot seat come the offseason, something no one saw coming.
In yet another upset, Iowa State beat formerly ranked Oklahoma State. They were ranked at the time and are nowhere near the rankings now. In retrospect, this was a pretty crazy and fun weekend of college football.
Washington struggled a bit with winless UCLA but in the end pulled out the win. The Apple Cup is, a bit surprisingly, looking like it could be a good matchup with a lot at stake. Wazzu is doing really well this season and Washington may end up being the Pac-12’s last hope at getting a team in the College Football Playoff. It is a month-and-a-half away though so a lot can happen in the meantime…
Like Stanford being upset by Utah (yes, another upset). Bryce Love did not play and his Heisman hopes are probably gone now. So are the hopes of Stanford doing anything of note this season. Heck, the New Year’s Six is probably out of their reach now already. Not good for David Shaw.
Yet ANOTHER upset as Michigan State laid an egg against a tough Northwestern team. Clayton Thorson had a massive game and have basically made it so Sparty has no hope at the Big Ten East crown.
Finally, San Diego State took down Boise State. So UCF is now way ahead in the driver’s seat in the race for the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six. Their goals are higher than that but let’s be honest: the chances of them getting into the Top 4 are zero unless there is massive chaos above them.

What an amazing weekend. God I love those Saturdays that just have a bunch of crazy crap happen in the world of college football. Let’s hope for more, right?

Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Alabama
#2	Notre Dame
#3	Ohio State
#4	Georgia
#5	Clemson
#6	Washington
#7	West Virginia
#8	UCF
#9	Michigan
#10	Penn State
#11	Texas
#12	Wisconsin
#13	Oklahoma
#14	Miami
#15	LSU
#16	Florida
#17	Colorado
#18	Oregon
#19	Auburn
#20	Texas A&M
#21	Kentucky
#22	NC State
#23	Iowa
#24	Stanford
#25	Washington State

Yes there are some differences between my rankings and the AP Poll. I have Notre Dame at #2 and Clemson down at #5. Clemson will definitely move up if they beat NC State in two weeks. As for #6 through #14, pick the teams out of a hat to figure out the order. A lot can happen the rest of the way and at this point, no one team is that much better than another. Yes I have Washington State at #25. They are playing well and could cause a lot of noise in the Pac-12 North (much to the Pac-12 head office’s chagrin).

Hey guess what we have? FUN BELT! Yes, weekday Sun Belt action is back and it starts this Tuesday night. 8:00 on TSN5. And it’s a big one. Appalachian State and Arkansas State. I love weekday football. And to be honest, I am actually starting to like Thursday Night Football, NFL-style. Shhhhhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone. Have a good week everyone!

		US	Canada
Old Dominion at Virginia	2:00 PM
South Alabama at UCLA	2:00 PM
California at Notre Dame	2:30 PM
#20 Ole Miss at Georgia Tech	3:30 PM
New Mexico State at Wisconsin	3:30 PM
#22 Penn State at Auburn	3:30 PM
Vanderbilt at Northern Illinois	3:30 PM
Colorado at Minnesota	3:30 PM
#12 BYU at #25 Oregon	3:30 PM
Kansas at Houston	4:00 PM
UT-Martin at Boise State	4:00 PM
ULM at #2 Alabama	4:00 PM
Liberty at #19 Wake Forest	5:00 PM
Marshall at Bowling Green	5:00 PM
Colorado State at Washington State	5:00 PM

Bossman's Blog

A lot of college football (and perhaps a bit of miscellaneous crap that I think warrants a post)

Tag Archives: College Station

Most Important Games of the 2023 College Football Season

Nebraska Cornhuskers Football is a Dumpster Fire (oh, and the Week 3 College Football TV Schedule)

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Someone might want to avoid airport tarmacs – the Week 2 Recap

Let’s talk about bacon – Week 6 College Football Recap

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