OK that’s a new one (and the Week 4 College Football TV schedule)

Posted on September 21, 2022 by guelphbossman

Hey, remember when Lane Kiffin was fired on the tarmac while at USC? Good times. Well, Herm Edwards has just done one better.

After Arizona State’s horrible loss to Eastern Michigan, he was called over to the end zone by ASU athletic director Ray Anderson and ASU president Michael Crow. They had a brief conversation with Herm nodding a few times and then he said OK a couple of times and then was escorted off the field. It seems like he was fired in the fucking end zone after the game. That is impressive. The ASU brass are not messing around with this. I am honestly surprised Herm lasted this long. I guess he didn’t play to win the game in the end.

Coaches are getting fired left and right. It’s like the coaching hot seat is trying to out do realignment. Look, let’s just get to the games and try and move most of that shit to the offseason. Agreed?

Thursday

		US	Canada
West Virginia at Virginia Tech	7:30 PM
Coastal Carolina at Georgia State	7:30 PM
Chattanooga at Illinois	8:00 PM

Three games to start the week in college football. None of them super important. The best game actually might come from the Sun Belt as both Coastal and GSU are looking to somehow win the crowded East Division. The other game is between two Power Five teams who could be considered disappointing so far this year. The Mountaineers lost to Kansas and Tech lost to Old Dominion. I don’t know which loss is worse but they are both bad (as of this point). And with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football game being the Steelers and Browns, I can see not a lot of people watching any of these games (unless they are close, obviously).

Friday

		US	Canada
Virginia at Syracuse	7:00 PM
Nevada at Air Force	8:00 PM
Boise State at UTEP	9:00 PM

This is better than Thursday night’s sked for sure. At least here there is a team that should be ranked in Syracuse. They could be 4-0 if they can beat the Cavaliers which would feel crazy but there are always a few teams that surprise everyone and the Orange are definitely one of them. As for the other games, does anyone want to win the Mountain West Mountain Division? Boise State has looked poor and Air Force laid an egg against Wyoming last week. Utah State got destroyed by an FCS school and New Mexico and Colorado State have been predictably below-average. Maybe Wyoming is the team to beat in the division, who knows?

Saturday Early

The best early slate so far this season by a country mile. Clemson and Wake Forest square off in the first round of the ACC Atlantic round-robin, that will eventually include Florida State, NC State and possibly even Syracuse. I still believe College Gameday should have gone to Lawrence for Duke against Kansas. That would have been wild. Both teams are undefeated. I don’t want to guarantee that the winner will be ranked but they should be. Also, I am sure Nebraska is watching the Baylor-ISU game closely as Matt Campbell is one of their coaching targets, along with Mark Stoops and Gary Patterson. No, Urban Meyer is not going to coach the Huskers.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
UCLA at Colorado	2:00 PM
Notre Dame at North Carolina	3:30 PM
Middle Tennessee at #25 Miami	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Michigan State	3:30 PM
#20 Florida at #11 Tennessee	3:30 PM
FIU at WKU	3:30 PM
#22 Texas at Texas Tech	3:30 PM
Indiana at Cincinnati	3:30 PM
Toledo at San Diego State	3:30 PM
Georgia Tech at UCF	4:00 PM
#15 Oregon at Washington State	4:00 PM
Tulsa at #16 Ole Miss	4:00 PM
Arizona at California	5:30 PM

The Third Saturday in September highlights the afternoon timeslot. Too bad it’s actually the Fourth Saturday in September. Why the hell is the UF-UT rivalry even called the Third Saturday in September if you’re not going to SCHEDULE IT FOR THE THIRD SATURDAY IN SEPTEMBER? Dumb. If you had Wazzu undefeated and a challenge for Oregon, raise your hand. Now put them down because no one thought that. That could be an intriguing and close matchup on the Palouse. Somehow Cincy is favoured by more than two touchdowns against Indy. I feel a close game there. Finally, the Irish have a chance to prove that they are not going to struggle to go bowling this year although the Tar Heels are better than last season.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UNLV at Utah State	7:00 PM
#10 Arkansas vs. #23 Texas A&M (in Arlington)	7:00 PM
Northern Illinois at #8 Kentucky	7:00 PM
Iowa at Rutgers	7:00 PM
Marshall at Troy	7:00 PM
Wisconsin at #3 Ohio State	7:30 PM
Miami-OH at Northwestern	7:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at Purdue	7:30 PM
Charlotte at South Carolina	7:30 PM
Vanderbilt at #2 Alabama	7:30 PM
Boston College at Florida State	8:00 PM
Kansas State at #6 Oklahoma	8:00 PM

You’ll notice the only TSN game this week is here. And of course they simulcast the ABC game. Nice. TSN has President’s Cup golf and the CFL on during the afternoon so that meant college football is out earlier in the day. Oh and they also have curling and NASCAR pushing college football aside. I just wish they would do the ESPN game and not the ABC one for people that don’t have the specialty pack. Oh well. Wildcats-Sooners is always interesting as OU always seems to have trouble with KSU. And the Southwest Classic (I think that’s what it’s called) is in JerryWorld and this time both teams are ranked so the stakes are a bit higher this time around.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#7 USC at Oregon State	9:30 PM
Wyoming at #19 BYU	10:15 PM
Western Michigan at San Jose State	10:30 PM
#13 Utah at Arizona State	10:30 PM
Stanford at #18 Washington	10:30 PM

Wow the Pac-12 Network scored a big one. Or, you could say that USC-Oregon State was somehow relegated to the Pac-12 Network. I know they are doing this so that they can get a USC conference game early in the season since they need to show at least one of every team as per the contract. Thing is, Oregon State is probably just outside the Top 25 and USC is solidly in and may be the Pac-12’s best shot at the College Football Playoff this year. So not a good look. Well, it would be OK if the Pac-12 Network was shown in more homes but it’s not.

Big Games O’ The Week

Clemson at Wake Forest (Noon, ABC) – Many thought that this would be a huge early ACC game and they are right. Clemson, despite being ranked 5th in the nation, have looked shaky at times, especially at the quarterback position. Sam Hartman has looked great returning from injury but the Wake defense has been subpar. Why this didn’t get the ABC primetime spot, oh yes…the Big Ten. Say no more.

Florida at Tennessee (3:30, CBS) – This is the Vols’ chance to prove they are…well, at least the third-best team in the SEC East. The division is improving. The Gators are better. The Gamecocks are better. Vandy is playing well. Kentucky has been lights out so far this season. It’s not the case anymore that one team dominates and the rest kind of suck.

Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington) (7:00, specialty pack) – I don’t know if the Aggies are still stinging from the Appalachian State loss or the video that came out of their Midnight Yell practice that made fun of App State. All I know is that the swagger might be gone from this squad. Arkansas, on the other hand, survived Petrinomania last weekend in a game that shouldn’t have been as close as it was. So, really we have two teams who aren’t playing their best against each other inside a division that is still a damn juggernaut. Should be fun!

USC at Oregon State (9:30, YouTube) – The Beavers’ 3-0 start has to be shocking some people. And they’ve looked pretty good doing it. You know who has looked even better? Yep, the men of Troy. Again, I get why this game is on the Pac-12 Network but man does it suck from a visibility standpoint for the conference. No wonder USC and, at this point, UCLA are heading to the Big Ten.

Baylor at Iowa State (Noon, specialty pack) – Baylor lost once, to BYU, but has looked good otherwise. Iowa State is undefeated thanks to a sloppy game (that’s putting it mildly) beating Iowa for the CyHawk Trophy. Both teams have sights on JerryWorld in December so games like this are almost must-win. Plus, I’m sure many in the Cornhuskers athletic department will have interest in this game, as I mentioned above. If I’m Matt Campbell, I use that interest to get a bigger deal in Ames since I don’t know if I’d want to coach in Lincoln. Now if it was me, I’d take the massive contract, not give a shit, make them buy me out, and never work again but that’s just me.

Duke at Kansas (Noon, FOX Sports One) – College Gameday, you cowards. I have to lean Kansas in this one because Duke has had success in the past decade; the Jayhawks, not so much.

Psycho Game of the Week

UNLV at Utah State (7:00, CBS Sports Network) – Utah State is quite bad. Worse than pretty much anyone thought they’d be. Sure, the Rebels are a better team this season but until they become bowl-eligible, they will be considered a below-average program at best. Too many choices in the primetime schedule to this is an easy one to avoid.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Vanderbilt at Alabama (7:30, specialty pack) – As good as the Commodores have been so far this season, this is a whole different animal. I expect the Tide to punish Vandy all night.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Figured I would add another section to the blog posts. Feeling generous, I am. So here we go with some stats to send you into the weekend:

Since the Badgers upset Ohio State in 2004, Wisconsin is 0-5 in Columbus.
Oklahoma has lost six Big XII games in the last decade. Three of those have been to Kansas State.
Cincinnati is 17-5 in non-conference games since Luke Fickell was hired as head coach.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

9-4 this past week against the spread. That’s quite good if I say so myself. I picked WKU to lose but cover against Indiana. Same with LSU against Mississippi State. Unfortunately I also thought BYU would do that and that game wasn’t close. Can’t win em all. OK, on to this week’s picks:

Virginia Tech (+1.5) over West Virginia with the outright win
Virginia (+9) over Syracuse (but Cuse wins)
Buffalo (+6) over Eastern Michigan (but EMU wins by a field goal)
Central Michigan (+28) over Penn State (but the Nittany Lions win fairly easily)
Bowling Green (+30) over Mississippi State (the Bulldogs win by about three touchdowns)
SMU (+2) over TCU (with an outright win)
WKU (-31) over FIU
Texas (-6.5) over Texas Tech
Notre Dame (+1.5) over North Carolina with the outright win
Washington State (+6.5) over Oregon (but UO wins a close one)
Marshall (-3.5) over Troy
Iowa (-7.5) over Rutgers
Wisconsin (+18.5) over Ohio State (tOSU wins but it may be closer than we think)
Wyoming (+22.5) over BYU (Cougs win this but it’s close)

There you go. A lot of info for ya to peruse before your viewing commences. I’m hoping for another solid weekend of college football action. It’s never good when there’s a full slate of games and by the end you feel completely underwhelmed. Hasn’t happened often but when it does it’s such an empty feeling. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

SUPER MEGA HYPER OMNI POST! V4.0.1

Posted on November 30, 2020 by guelphbossman

This post is really long. Like seriously fucking long. So if you are not fully awake or have some caffeine in your system, you might want to wait to read this. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

I have done this three times before. It’s time for number four!

Instead of doing a full recap and then a full bowl projections post, I figured I would combine them into one insanely long post! Why? To save time! That is complete bullshit but that is what I have told myself every year so I will continue to do so. It was an…let’s call it an OK week of college football that contained a few exciting games. We are headed into an exciting finish to the season. Now we can see how COVID will wreak havoc on it since it will most certainly happen. We just don’t know when and to what team(s).

Let’s start with recapping the week that was. There were a few fun things that happened and I slept in way too long Sunday morning. A Fall tradition.

One of three ranked-on-ranked games on the week had Iowa State outlast Texas. The difference here was mostly one guy: Breece Hall. His work on the ground was a boon for the Cyclone offense as he was able to help ISU milk a lot of clock in this one. He is a lot like a Clone legend: Troy Davis. A great player who won’t get any Heisman hype because of the team he plays for. So now Iowa State has almost clinched their ticket to JerryWorld which will be a nice change from seeing mostly bluebloods in the Big XII Championship since it returned.
Florida beat Kentucky easily. Georgia beat South Carolina even easier this past weekend. The Dawgs have to be rooting for the Vols to win this Saturday over Florida to have any chance at being in the SEC Championship. I can see many UGA fans having a bad taste in their mouth for having to root for Tennessee but it is what it is. You know what? Blame it on COVID. It will make it feel a bit better.
You all saw it I’m sure. Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play in a Power Five football game. That, in and of itself, is a huge accomplishment. And of course Twitter, being full of very level-headed people, went crazy over it. Many loved it but there were some that said it was nothing but a PR stunt. Here is my take on this. Vandy had no kickers. They needed to find someone to kick the damn ball during their game against Missouri. Was Fuller the best option? Who knows but she was at least a decent option as she played for the Dores’ SEC Championship women’s soccer team. So let’s get to her kicking off to start the second half of the game which was her first opportunity to kick the ball. It was a squib kick that went a little over 30 yards. For people that don’t think it was a squib kick, give me a fucking break. The ball wasn’t on a tee, it was held by a player and the Commodores overloaded on the right side, where the squib went. They wanted to do something different to hopefully get anything going for them in this game. That was Fuller’s only kick of the game as Vandy was shutout 41-0 by Mizzou. I think people have to realize something about all this. Vandy is straight trash this season. No COVID excuses here: they are just awful. This felt like trying something different to try something different. That it was historic is icing on the cake. Now there seems to be other issues as Derek Mason was just fired and it sounded, from the words of Fuller, a few players and a couple of coaches, that there was no energy on the sideline most of the season and it’s like many had given up before the season had started. They need a jolt in Nashville to get this team at least being competitive in the SEC. And that might involve a complete rethinking of the football program at Vanderbilt. Thank you for coming to my college football Ted Talk.
LSU’s offense basically took the day off on Saturday. If it wasn’t for a late touchdown they would have been shutout by Texas A&M. It’s funny that a 20-7 dominating win over the defending national champions does very little to move the needle for the Aggies. I still think they have an inside shot at the College Football Playoff but will need to run their next two opponents off the field to convince The Committee.
Oregon blew it against Oregon State. But that wasn’t the story. The story was the Pac-12 officiating crew calling the game. Oregon goes offside (that anyone could see) and it’s not called. The Beavers scored a touchdown but it was called short. This meant another play had to be run where their quarterback got injured. This was all in the final minute. And the officials seemed to have no idea how to call anything. It was atrocious. I am sure they will get a pay raise for it.
In almost-upset news, Iowa almost gakked their game away to Nebraska in the annual Black Friday CornHub game. And this is not really a good Huskers program these days. They really have not been a contender for a long time (and no I don’t include that time they started 7-0 a few years back and then were terrible the rest of the way). I am sure they long for the days of Bo Pelini. Hell they may desire the Bill Callahan days! Scott Frost will be on a seriously hot seat to start next season and now some have to look back and take back their thoughts of basically poaching him from UCF as the Knights are still doing quite well under Josh Heupel.
The game that was created mere days in advance, put on late night on ESPN because of other cancellations, then moved into the ABC primetme spot due to MORE cancellations, did not disappoint. It was all Utah in the first half and then all Washington in the second half. The Huskies ended up holding on for the victory after taking a late lead and stay undefeated. This may only lead to a possible New Year’s Six bid but at this point I am sure Pac-12 teams are very happy to be playing (when they get the opportunity to play that is).
SMU got boatraced for most of the game by *checks notes* East Carolina? What the hell? It was 45-7 at the half for the Pirates. So either ECU is much better than most of us figured or the Mustangs are not nearly as good as many of us thought. I’m going to go with the latter so this doesn’t seem like a massive upset.
If you missed it, history was made in western New York. Buffalo Bulls running back Jaret Patterson went off on Kent State. Patterson scored eight rushing touchdowns, tying Howard Griffith’s 30-year-old record! He also came within 18 yards of Samaje Perine’s single-game record of 427 rushing yards. An absolutely unreal performance. And get this: Bulls head coach Lance Leipold had no idea he had tied the record and took him out for their final drive (where Patterson’s backup scored a touchdown). Worst part is Patterson will get no Heisman hype at all. But some NFL team will be very happy to have him on Sundays (and Thursdays and Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays).
A game that almost no one would have watched had a great finish in Big XII country. Baylor finally got their second win under first-year head coach Dave Aranda. It was a wild fourth quarter against Kansas State where 31 points were scored and the Bears scored with no time remaining. Hey remember early on in the season when the Wildcats were getting some contender hype? Yeah, neither do I.
Penn State and Michigan played football on Saturday. That’s almost all I can say about that. At least the Nittany Lions got their first win of the season.
Let’s get back to some insane football, Big XII Style. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech put on an (offensive) performance for the ages during the third quarter of their game. The two teams combined for five touchdowns in six minutes of play. Crazy! That included the Cowboys getting a touchdown off a Red Raider onside kick. The Pokes ended up winning, keeping their very slim Big XII Championship hopes alive.
And now to look at something that was not so good. Late in their game against NC State, Syracuse quarterback Rex Culpepper gets sacked on third and long. So now, with no timeouts, they have to run a play as there is less than 10 seconds remaining. Instead, he gets under centre, gets the ball, and spikes it. That is really the perfect example of Syracuse’s season.
Finally, a week after Northwestern beat Wisconsin to take full control of the Big Ten West, they get upset by Michigan State and look terrible doing it. College football, everybody!

Normally I would look at the conference championships and give out scenarios as to what may happen. With two weeks left, I won’t be doing that. Also, the fact most of the conference races are a mess doesn’t help. I will try and bring you this next week..

Alright, on to my bowl projections as of this moment, which may have no worth to them:

Sugar Bowl	CFP Poll #1 vs. CFP Poll #4	Alabama vs. Ohio State
Rose Bowl	CFP Poll #2 vs. CFP Poll #3	Notre Dame vs. Miami

Clemson out, Notre Dame in. I think the Irish win the rematch in the ACC Championship to clinch the #2 spot. Ohio State’s resume took a hit with the cancellation of their game but I still see them holding on to the #4 spot.

Which means the New Year’s Six has changed. But how has it changed?

Orange Bowl	ACC Champ vs. SEC #2	Clemson vs. Texas A&M
Fiesta Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	USC vs. Oklahoma
Peach Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	Florida vs. Cincinnati
Cotton Bowl	CFP At-large vs. CFP At-large/G5 #1	Iowa State vs. Georgia

A lot of changes. I already mentioned Clemson losing to Notre Dame again but with Miami in the Top 4, they are slotted in the Orange Bowl as the ACC representative. I have decided that Texas A&M might be picked instead of Florida for the Orange Bowl. I don’t know why, I just thought that. So that moves Florida to the Peach Bowl. Oklahoma, losers of the Big XII Championship, would still be high enough to get the Fiesta Bowl bid since The Committee obviously doesn’t want to put BYU in. Iowa State, now Big XII champions in my projections, go to the Cotton Bowl and face Georgia who replaces Texas as the final team in.

Now the rest of bowl season which is a shitshow with the pandemic and every team being bowl-eligible and no one knowing the criteria anymore and man I think I need to make myself a drink.

Outback Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Kentucky vs. Northwestern
Gator Bowl	SEC vs. ACC	Ole Miss vs. NC State
Citrus Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	Auburn vs. Indiana
Birmingham Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. G5	Mississippi State vs. BYU
Texas Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Missouri vs. TCU
Liberty Bowl	SEC vs. Big XII	Tennessee vs. West Virginia
Arizona Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Nevada vs. Buffalo
Sun Bowl	Pac-12 vs. ACC	Colorado vs. Boston College
Armed Forces Bowl	Big XII vs G5	Baylor vs. Liberty
LA Bowl	Pac-12 vs. MWC	Arizona State vs. San Jose State
Music City Bowl	SEC vs. Big Ten	LSU vs. Iowa
Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Big Ten vs. ACC	Wisconsin vs. North Carolina
Alamo Bowl	Big XII vs. Pac-12	Texas vs. Oregon
Cheez-It Bowl	Big XII vs. ACC	Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech
Military Bowl	American vs. ACC	Memphis vs. Virginia
Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Big XII vs. Big Ten	Kansas State vs. Nebraska
Independence Bowl	Army vs. Pac-12	Army vs. Utah
LendingTree Bowl	Sun Belt vs. G5	Appalachian State vs. SMU
First Responder Bowl	Big XII/ACC vs. G5	Texas Tech vs. Louisiana
Cure Bowl	G5 vs. G5	Florida Atlantic vs. UCF
Gasparilla Bowl	SEC/ACC vs. G5	Wake Forest vs. Miami-OH
Camellia Bowl	G5 vs. G5	UTSA vs. Fresno State
New Mexico Bowl	MWC vs. G5	Air Force vs. Louisiana Tech
Montgomery Bowl	ACC vs. American	Pittsburgh vs. Tulsa
New Orleans Bowl	C-USA vs. Sun Belt	Marshall vs. Coastal Carolina
Boca Raton Bowl	G5 vs. G5	Central Michigan vs. Charlotte
Idaho Potato Bowl	MWC vs. MAC	Boise State vs. Western Michigan
Myrtle Beach Bowl	G5 vs. G5	Ohio vs. San Diego State
Las Vegas Bowl	SEC vs. Pac-12	Arkansas vs. Washington
Frisco Bowl	G5 vs. G5	UAB vs. Troy

A few notes for your perusal:

Did you notice the missing bowl? I am guessing probably not. The Pinstripe Bowl has been cancelled due to concerns over COVID-19 and I have a feeling it won’t be the last.
The tie-ins actually work better this year with the pandemic parameters (pandameters?). Putting all the G5 teams into a pool after the conference tie-ins are satisfied and having all teams eligible makes it easier to fill in the bowls. Now the chances of me being right have gone way down because of it but that’s a different conversation.
Army, as far as I know, is still the only team that has accepted a bowl bid. They accepted it over a month ago. I am not joking.
I still have no idea if the Las Vegas Bowl is being run. The website says the 2020 Las Vegas Bowl will be run but it doesn’t mention a date. So I will keep it in until I find out otheriwse.
I still don’t understand the idea of split tie-ins. Just pick a conference and go with it. Or have a pool of teams to pick from like they have done this year (and I hope they do in the future). That would at least make more sense. Then again, nothing much makes sense this year.

Other than those few items, not much to talk about specifically about the bowl projections. A fair amount has changed in terms of what I am projecting but they aren’t wild changes. That might change starting this coming weekend. With only two weeks left in the regular season (kind of), much will happen over this time. The problem is, with all teams bowl eligible, I can’t see many accepting bowl bids until conference championship weekend.

UPDATE: The Sun Bowl, one of the longest running bowl games in college football, has been cancelled this year. See what I mean?

Now I figured instead of doing the conference championship scenarios, I will look into potential scenarios of the future and what they would like in this crazy 2020 season (using the current AP poll rankings).

The five-team CFP

I have advocated for one more team to be added to the College Football Playoff instead of going to eight which is what many want. What would that do this season? This:

Peach Bowl (play-in game): #4 Clemson vs. #5 Texas A&M
Sugar Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. Clemson/TAMU winner
Rose Bowl: #2 Notre Dame vs. #3 Ohio State

I would dig this. Doing the Peach Bowl on the opening day of bowl season would allow this to happen. Now, other things would have to take place because the schedule is a fucking mess but if it had been set up properly, this could occur. Ratings, baby!

The six-team CFP

Two teams added. OK. Let’s see how this could work out:

Orange Bowl: #3 Ohio State vs. #6 Florida
Peach Bowl: #4 Clemson vs. #5 Texas A&M
Sugar Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. lower-ranked winner from play-in weekend
Rose Bowl: #2 Notre Dame vs. higher-ranked winner from play-in weekend

Again, I could go for this for sure. Is it adding a game for two teams possibly? Yes. There are ways around this for sure. Like get rid of conference championships? Oh wait, that’s money in the conference’s pockets. Can’t do that. And yes, I have ISU predicted at #6.

The eight-team CFP

This is what people want. OK what would it look like for this season?

Peach Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. #8 BYU
Fiesta Bowl: #2 Notre Dame vs. #7 Cincinnati
Orange Bowl: #3 Ohio State vs. #6 Florida
Cotton Bowl: #4 Clemson vs. #5 Texas A&M

I mean this gets Cincinnati and BYU in so that would be a plus. I still kind of don’t like the idea of moving to eight teams but I know it will happen for the new CFP contract.

G-5 Playoffs

What if the Group of Five decided “Fuck it we are having our own tournament to crown a champion.” They won’t but I could see a lot of people watching these games. The quarter-finals would look like this:

Cincinnati vs. Buffalo
BYU vs. Liberty
Coastal Carolina vs. Tulsa
Marshall vs. Louisiana

I would watch the hell out of this, not going to lie. Now I assume that, at least for the quarter-finals, the higher-ranked teams would play at home but who knows.

Alright that is it. No more. A seriously long post is complete. Later this week I will try and piece together the college and pro schedules. I think I have a better chance of herding squirrels. Have a good week everyone!

Finally! – Week 7 College Football Recap

Posted on October 14, 2019 by guelphbossman

It wasn’t a ton of chaos but there was still a bit which makes Professor Chaos happy…I think. It was about damn time. We’ve needed some movement in the rankings since the first month-and-a-bit of the season had very little of that. So let’s get on to the recap:

Hold that Tiger! LSU had the biggest win in the biggest game as they beat Florida in a rivalry that seems to be blooming. And for once it’s all about LSU’s offense. It’s the one thing the Tigers have been missing for years but now that they have it, it is scary for other teams in the SEC for sure. After many failed attempts, LSU has arrived again. I am sure CBS is already working to get the Bama-LSU game in primetime. They’d be smart to give ESPN whatever they want to make that happen.

QUACK! QUACK! Oregon is starting to look like the dominating force they once were. The Ducks made easy work of Cal and has created a bit of a stranglehold at the top of the Pac-12. It is their Pac-12 North to lose now although we know how the Pac-12 has worked as of late. They are probably the Pac-12’s only College Football Playoff hope at this point.

Can’t blame Mark Richt for this one: Georgia never seemed in this one. South Carolina wasn’t dominating play but there certainly seemed like the better team. But Georgia had chances to win. And they could never capitalize on those. The playcalling of Kirby Smart was also strange especially down the stretch. Nothing went right for UGA and now their CFP chances have taken a huge hit.

I don’t know why I keep falling for this: Maybe it’s because I hope Bama will lose because it will create CHAOS. I honestly thought the Aggies would keep it close with the Tide. Boy was I ever wrong. Alabama keeps on rolling and very little seems in their way that could stop them (at least during the regular season).

Bronco Buster: I figured it would be Miami and Virginia for the ACC Coastal title. Well the Canes haven’t exactly lit it up so far this season. Both teams played quite well on defense and the Turnover Chain got to make a few appearances. The offenses were less than good in this one. However it was The U that did just enough to get into the division catbird seat. Or not. I don’t really know. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up a 7-way tie for the title with every team at 4-4. Oh wait, Georgia Tech is in that division. Six-way tie. Yeah, six-way tie.

Red River Battle Royale: Hey wasn’t that fun? It was a good game that started with a bit of a brew-ha-ha which prompted “The Gun Show” Mike Defee to give everyone an unsportsmanlike penalty. Can you imagine if the entire sideline got two warnings during the game. What happens then? Technically the entire team would be thrown out. That would have been something to behold. Anyway, the Sooners basically outlasted Texas in this one and has taken a big stranglehold on the Big XII that might only be broken by Baylor. Yes, Baylor.

You just got LAWRENCED! That sounds disgusting but may be true for some women on the campus at Clemson University. Florida State was never able to hang with the Tigers. In the end it was Trevor Lawrence who had one of his best games of his career as they annihilated the Seminoles. Clemson keeps on chugging and really has no roadblocks now to get to the CFP. Florida State is going to have to do some work to be bowl eligible and to save Willie Taggart’s job as he is on quite the hot seat now in Tallahassee.

Is Wisconsin’s defense that good? Their defense could be the best this century. Forget Clemson’s defense a year ago: this Badger D could be better. They are halfway through their season and have allowed only 29 points with four shutouts. Geez. Their game in two weeks with Ohio State could be something special. Interesting to see how Justin Fields does with this.

Baylor? Baylor! If anyone of you thought Baylor would be 6-0, put your hands down because I know you’re lying. Will they finish undefeated? I doubt it. But this is still a huge accomplishment for Matt Rhule and the Bears. And it took two overtimes to beat a fairly good Texas Tech team to remain unblemished. There is now a very real possibility that the Bears could be 9-0 when they play Oklahoma in November. This is the kind of chaos I love.

So is Utah finally going to get its chance? Kyle Whittingham and the Utes really do have the Pac-12 South by its balls. They have everything going for them and hold their destiny in their hands. Utah destroyed Oregon State on Saturday and looks to be set up to cause some major damage the rest of the way. And maybe this time the Utes will score more than 3 points in the Pac-12 Championship if they get there.

Biggest upset of the week goes to… Bowling Green. Yes, Bowling Fucking Green. In a game very few watched because of the schedule, the Falcons came in to their game against Toledo as 26.5 point underdogs. Yet they thoroughly whipped the hapless Rockets in spectacular fashion. First win for BG over Toledo in a decade to win the Battle of I-75. Nice.

Another close call for the Irish: Not saying USC is horrible but Notre Dame should have beaten pretty handily. This shouldn’t have been close yet it was. They don’t have a super easy schedule the rest of the way but all the games are winnable. They go 11-1 and they would have a really good shot at the College Football Playoff and, again, many people wouldn’t like that at all. Knowing this team, I can see one slip up the rest of the way to make The Committee’s job easier…well at least when it comes to the CFP. The New Year’s Six, not as easy.

Good lord Vanderbilt: What the fuck is going on in Nashville? Vandy loses big to UNLV. UNLV. Unbelievable. I think Derek Mason’s time as head man of the Commodores is about to come to an end as this could be the worst Vandy team since before James Franklin was coaching there.

Orange Britches! The Volunteers of Tennessee have won an SEC game! There had to be a few people out there who wondered when that would be said again. But against Mississippi State? I think the Joe Moorhead honeymoon is now over. I hate to say he may be on the hot seat but it’s getting warm. And Tennessee may not be as bad as we thought? I say that six days before they play Alabama in Bryant-Denny at night. Let’s hope they keep it within 30 so Saban gets REALLY angry.

Frost Warning: OK nobody thought Minnesota would be that good. But Nebraska is, yet again, worse than most people thought. You know, except for all those people who are going “Oh yeah I definitely didn’t think Nebraska would be that good. I figured they would be exactly where they are right now.” And then you see they have no proof of that and you then know you are talking to one of “those people.” The ones who tell everyone about what they did right but man, when it’s something wrong, they lack that one thing…what’s it called? Oh yeah, accountability. Wow, that took a bit of a dark turn.

Well all in all it was a fun weekend of college football. So now let’s get to the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Alabama
#2	LSU
#3	Oklahoma
#4	Ohio State
#5	Clemson
#6	Penn State
#7	Notre Dame
#8	Wisconsin
#9	Florida
#10	Oregon
#11	Auburn
#12	Georgia
#13	Michigan
#14	Utah
#15	Boise State
#16	Arizona State
#17	Texas
#18	Baylor
#19	Missouri
#20	SMU
#21	Minnesota
#22	Washington
#23	Iowa
#24	Cincinnati
#25	Iowa State

That was quite the week in movements in the Top 25. Basically #1 is set and after that it is a complete gongshow and no one would be wrong with their own personal rankings (well, unless you put Illinois in your Top 25). Some would put Boise State higher up after a win over Hawaii but I don’t buy that…yet. Let’s be honest: their schedule will not help them and any hope of them getting to the CFP hinges on chaos above them (which I am fully for). This weekend helped but won’t be nearly enough. As a bit of an aside, what is with College Gameday going to State College instead of Dallas to showcase a Top 25 SMU team? The stories write themselves there. Nope, go for the Whiteout. Of course. Nothing against Penn State but this is another mark against the Group of Five and college football’s perception of those programs.

As for what I think the CFP combatants will be, here is what I think will end up being the rankings at the top (at this time):

Alabama
Clemson
Oklahoma
Ohio State
LSU
Utah
Georgia

The top three are basically set as long as they don’t mess things up royally. It’s the number four spot that will be under a lot of scrutiny. The rest of those teams all will or might have black marks on their resume. None of the Group of Five teams will be in this conversation and I am pretty sure about that. This basically says that Bama will beat LSU later on which means that the Big Ten would probably send its champ at that point. At this point, I think Ohio State but Wisconsin could be in the mix as well. Way too much football to play to make any definitive statements.

Alright, in the end, it was a good weekend of college football. Let’s hope for a lot more the rest of the way. Enjoy your week everyone!

Let’s take a look back at my predictions for Week 4

Posted on September 25, 2017 by guelphbossman

The recap this week will have a different tone to it. I will start with comparing all that I discussed during the schedule post this past Thursday and see how well all of those comments held up. This will go well, right?

Recap Time!

Temple-USF: Anyway, this is essentially for the AAC East crown and is one of very few speed bumps for this USF team towards the New Year’s Six spot.

Speed bump? Nope. USF won going away meaning any scares will happen in the final two months of the season and believe me, there will be at least one scare (if not an outright shitting of the bed).

Virginia-Boise State: Virginia has improved quite a bit so this won’t be the cakewalk that we’d be used to if these two teams met in the past. Now watch it end up being like 41-0 at the half for the Broncos.

OK at least I pre-empted this one with the comment about the Wahoos improving. That is an understatement as they ran away with this one. Broncos aren’t looking like the Mountain West power we are used to seeing them as.

The Saturday Early Schedule: There could be some sneaky good ones in here but nothing pops out at me.

Yeah I was pretty wrong with that. A lot of close games early on. On paper it looked pretty bad and in typical college football fashion it ended up being quite good.

Alabama-Vanderbilt: If the Bama-Vandy game is close into the fourth quarter they will get a TON of people flipping over to watch it. If the game is a blowout they will lose a lot of viewers late. I certainly hope for the former (and so does CBS Sports I’m sure).

Hey I got one right! No way anyone was watching that game past halftime other than some SEC homers. That was a dominating performance by the Tide.

UCLA-Stanford: UCLA has been up-and-down so far but could somewhat ruin Stanford’s chances at a Pac-12 title run with a win here.

Yeah Stanford easily pulled away from the Bruins in this one and continue to at least look like a possible factor in the Pac-12 North.

Mississippi State-Georgia: The Bulldogs of the MSU variety have been a pleasant surprise while the Bulldogs of the Georgia variety are starting to finally look like the team they always used to be under Mark Richt.

This one…this one was not even close. It did sound like Rogers customers had issues with watching this game early on. I don’t get this. It should be easy to figure out these scheduling questions yet they end up being botched a lot.

USC-California: Most of us (me included) believe the Trojans should mop the floor with the Golden Bears in the Golden Bears’ shit-tastic stadium but this is college football and that means there is always the potential for chaos.

I was wrong twice in the same sentence. USC did not mop the floor with Cal nor did the Golden Bears pull off the upset. Cal played well for a little over three quarters so they still have to be considered a decent enough team that could make a bowl this season. My choice of USC winning the national championship is still going strong but man they don’t make it easy.

Penn State-Iowa: I didn’t even include this in the games of the week. I am an idiot. It ended up being a classic won by PSU on the final play of the game. It was a great way to end my day of dismal predictions. I’m fine with being wrong if the result is some exciting college football.

Alright other than what happened above, we saw two quasi-upsets (TCU over Oklahoma State and NC State over Florida State) where it wouldn’t surprise me a month from now if these aren’t considered upsets at all. Not much movement at the top as you will see with this fresh Bossman Top 25:

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

Yes I moved Bama back up to #1. They throttled the Commodores whereas Clemson didn’t wake up until the fourth quarter against Boston College. Had to move FSU right out of the rankings of course. Oklahoma State moves down a bunch as well. Duke and Texas Tech move into the Top 25 and no, I don’t have Notre Dame in although they’re close. I am taking a wait-and-see approach with the Irish.

As of right now I have these four teams as my predicted four College Football Playoff teams at the end of the season:

USC
Alabama
Oklahoma
Wisconsin

Yes I know the Sooners also looked less than stellar in their win over Baylor but they have to be the favourite in the Big XII (unless TCU says something about it). Wisconsin has the easiest schedule of these four teams by far and should be favourites the rest of the way. USC and Bama, at this point, are obvious choices.

Alright enough college football recappin’. I will have the NFL recap tomorrow for you all professional football fans.

Let’s Hope for a Repeat, OK? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 21, 2017 by guelphbossman

Last Saturday was a great display of college football. Just awesome. I mean on paper it didn’t look like it would be that great but the games delivered. We need to all hope for a repeat. Sound good? OK.

It’s PVR time this weekend along with slopitch playoff tournament time meaning my viewing is going to be all fucked up. Still trying to figure out my own personal PVR question. Oh well I am sure once I figure it out, college football will be no longer available on cable.

Enough jabbering, let’s get to the sked! Also I will be changing the Bell and Rogers logos for specialty pack broadcasts to the new SP logo. This should cover all specialty packs. And yes I know some broadcasts (the BTN alternate game being the main one) that are only shown on one telco, say Rogers. If you know your specialty pack, then you should know the little nuances of them by now. It also makes it so I am not forgetting Eastlink, Shaw and god knows what other companies that are out there.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Temple at #21 USF	7:30 PM
South Carolina State at NC Central	7:30 PM

When I had looked at the schedules back in August, TSN had this game on their schedule. A ton of things have changed since then which makes me realize I can’t trust TSN’s schedule more than a few days in advance. Anyway, this is essentially for the AAC East crown and is one of very few speed bumps for this USF team towards the New Year’s Six spot. To add to the earlier point, as of this morning, nothing was showing on the specialty pack for Temple-USF. Good times.

UPDATE: A little late of an update but Temple-USF is finally showing up on the guide for the specialty packs.

Friday

		US	Canada
Virginia at Boise State	8:00 PM

Only one game on Friday evening. Virginia has improved quite a bit so this won’t be the cakewalk that we’d be used to if these two teams met in the past. Now watch it end up being like 41-0 at the half for the Broncos.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
NC State at #12 Florida State	Noon
UNLV at #10 Ohio State	Noon
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington)	Noon
Texas Tech at Houston	Noon
West Virginia at Kansas	Noon
UMass at Tennessee	Noon
Army at Tulane	Noon
Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech	12:30 PM

We are now at the beginning of the annual TSN step-up when it comes to airing college football games. Well step-up as in they show a ton of early afternoon games on Saturdays. Still, it’s a nice bonus for people who don’t get the specialty pack and for people that do get it, it isn’t really an issue to be perfectly honest. There could be some sneaky good ones in here but nothing pops out at me. Then again it’s September and we have to expect this kind of thing. In November (other than SEC Sleepwalk Saturday) we would expect more. But not now.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#1 Alabama at Vanderbilt	3:30 PM
Georgia Southern at Indiana	3:30 PM
Rutgers at Nebraska	3:30 PM
#5 USC at California	3:30 PM
#16 TCU at #6 Oklahoma State	3:30 PM
Boston College at #2 Clemson	3:30 PM
Duke at North Carolina	3:30 PM
Cincinnati at Navy	3:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at South Carolina	3:30 PM
#8 Michigan at Purdue	4:00 PM

Purdue is in one of the national broadcasts of the day. Purdue. 2017 is weird.

CBS is in an extreme position this Saturday. If the Bama-Vandy game is close into the fourth quarter they will get a TON of people flipping over to watch it. If the game is a blowout they will lose a lot of viewers late. I certainly hope for the former (and so does CBS Sports I’m sure).

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Georgia State at Charlotte	6:00 PM
UAB at North Texas	6:30 PM
#17 Mississippi State at #11 Georgia	7:00 PM
Syracuse at #25 LSU	7:00 PM
#22 San Diego State at Air Force	7:00 PM
#15 Auburn at Missouri	7:30 PM
#20 Florida at Kentucky	7:30 PM
#4 Penn State at Iowa	7:30 PM
Notre Dame at Michigan State	8:00 PM

This is probably a good week not to be able to watch games live. Then again many would have said the same thing about last week and look what happened. Fun, fun chaos! At least one of these games should end up being a dandy. I hope it’s not GSU-Charlotte.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Hawaii at Wyoming	10:15 PM
UCLA at Stanford	10:30 PM

Only two games on the late night schedule but we have some premier Pac-12 After Dark action with UCLA visiting The Farm to face Stanford. UCLA has been up-and-down so far but could somewhat ruin Stanford’s chances at a Pac-12 title run with a win here.

Sunday

		US	Canada
East Carolina at UConn	Noon

Some special Sunday college football during the season! I say this with a little hesitation though as I remember how this worked out last year with Georgia and South Carolina moved to a Sunday. It was an awful game. Almost completely unwatchable. So hopefully this is not that kind of game.

UPDATE #3: This game is not appearing yet on the specialty pack. Not surprising since it was a rescheduled game but I assume it will appear by gametime. Whether it appears on the guide is a totally different story.

Games to set your eyeballs on

TCU at Oklahoma State (3:30, TSN2) – Compared to the biggest game of the week the first three weeks of the season, this may be considered a bit of a letdown. But, it is a Big XII game which means the score will be 50-something to 40-something and the game will take four-and-a-half hours. So at least you will get, technically, more football than other games of the week have provided. I know, I am REALLY stretching here but I do honestly believe this should be a good game to watch.

Mississippi State at Georgia (7:00, specialty pack) – Unless Bama-Vandy ends up being a dandy (see what I did there), CBS might regret not picking this game instead. The Bulldogs of the MSU variety have been a pleasant surprise while the Bulldogs of the Georgia variety are starting to finally look like the team they always used to be under Mark Richt.

Alabama at Vanderbilt (3:30, CBS) – OK so it’s not like CBS’s mistake back when they picked the Egg Bowl over the Iron Bowl and the two Mississippi schools ended up shitting the bed in the two weeks coming up to that game. The Commodores have a great defense and you never know what could happen. If they can keep the Tide close for three quarters then it may end up being panic time (maybe not for Bama but definitely for its fans).

USC at California (3:30, ABC) – For once it’s the afternoon timeslot that is stacked. Another game pitting a really good team (USC) against a surprising team (Cal). Most of us (me included) believe the Trojans should mop the floor with the Golden Bears in the Golden Bears’ shit-tastic stadium but this is college football and that means there is always the potential for chaos.

Michigan at Purdue (4:00, FOX) – Purdue is one of the games of the week. Let that sink in. Purdue. Not since Drew Brees was around those parts has this team been competitive in the Big Ten. They get their shot to prove that they truly are a team to be reckoned with and not a flash-in-the-pan over the first quarter of the season. Helping them will be the fact that Michigan has not looked good at all in their first three wins.

Honourable mention: Penn State at Iowa (7:30, ABC); Washington at Colorado (10:00, FOX Sports One…cue my disgust); NC State at Florida State (Noon, ABC/TSN5)

Some gambling fun and games

Wow were my picks ever bad last week. Like worse than usual. LSU over MSU? Stanford over SDSU? KSU over Vandy? Pitt over OSU in my upset special? Yeesh. It’s why I never ended up being one of those old-school books that you used to see on the TV at like 12:30 in the morning starring a guy with slicked back hair who always had a GREAT PARLAY OPPORTUNITY and AN AMAZING LOCK OF THE WEEK and CAN’T MISS BETS. That and the fact I am bald.

Georgia over Mississippi State

Penn State over Iowa

UCLA over Stanford

Oklahoma State over TCU (predicted final score 58-49)

Florida State over NC State

Notre Dame over Michigan State

USF over Temple

Boise State over Virginia

South Carolina over Louisiana Tech (although I think it will be close)

Alabama over Vanderbilt

Florida over Kentucky (poor Wildcats)

Last I checked, none of the specialty packs were up for Saturday and even tonight’s Temple-USF game wasn’t showing for Bell Fibe. Ridiculous. It’s the same old shit every week. The schedules are done at least six days in advance of the games if not more. How can this be this much of an issue? Maybe I should just phone Bell and Rogers and ask the intern that I am sure they put on specialty pack scheduling to ask some questions.

UPDATE #2: Everything is now appearing on the specialty packs. Took enough time.

Also, there’s a Thursday Night Football game tonight. I know you’re not excited. Want me to make you even less excited? It’s the Rams against the 49ers. Yeah I’ll pass. Enjoy the college games everyone and keep tuned here for updates over the next 36-48 hours.

The Game…did anything else happen this past weekend? – Week 13 College Football Recap

Posted on November 28, 2016 by guelphbossman

Yes tOSU fans were pretty happy afterward

If you had believed College GameDay, there was nothing else on that day. Oh, maybe a couple coaching changes. That’s it. Nothing else. That 5-hour GameDay was absurdly long. They could have gone with 4 and it would have been plenty. Worst part is, The Game was awesome. So the hype kind of justified it. So expect longer GameDays in the future for bigger games. Speaking of The Game, did I mention it was amazing? Double overtime. Two missed field goals in regulation. Controversy over a spot in double overtime. Curtis Samuel running about 50 yards to gain a little over ten to be just short that set up the fourth down that had that controversial spot. Crazy. And so good. It’s why we watch college football: for games like these. I do think it would have been better as the 8:00 ABC game but I understand tradition has it at Noon on ABC. Remember, realignment and money has robbed the game of a lot of traditions so let’s not quibble over this one. It did make it tough to get through the rest of the day thought I will say that. Energy was an issue later on.

Warning: this post will be long. Viewer discretion strongly advised.

Tuesday

The week started on Tuesday with some MACtion. Ohio clinched the MAC East with their win over Akron. Then Miami-OH completed the most incredible in-season turnaround ever. They had started the season 0-6. With their win Tuesday night over Ball State they finished 6-6 and became bowl eligible. Very impressive.

Thursday

LSU beat Texas A&M on American Thanksgiving night and that was the secondary story. Ed Orgeron was the main story all night. Whether LSU was going to take the interim tag off or hire someone else. The intrigue would last into Saturday morning. We will get to that in a bit.

Friday

NC State ruined North Carolina’s chances of going to the ACC Championship and made the Commonwealth Cup the next day meaningless with their win over the Heels. Other than a skirmish in the middle of the game, nothing much of note here. The Wolfpack became bowl eligible much to the chagrin of the 5-7 crew.

Memphis with the mild upset of Houston. Again nothing really of note except the constant reminder that Tom Herman was probably coaching his last game on the Cougar sideline.

Missouri beat Arkansas in front of, well, a lot less than a sell-out. I kind of wonder if Mizzou fans long for the days of the Big Eight. Not the Big XII, the Big Eight.

Northern Illinois beat Kent State to go to 5-7 and start the slew of conversations about which teams had better APRs and how many spots would be available after all eligible teams were selected. I love college football, I really do. But this APR nonsense is stupid. A few less bowl games, that’s all I ask.

The Apple Cup was so incredibly non-competitive. Did Mike Leach realize it was a big game? Washington clinched their spot in the Pac-12 Championship and come very close to clinching one of the coveted four College Football Playoff spots.

Western Michigan continued their dream season, beating Toledo and clinching the MAC West title. They go into the MAC Championship undefeated and as big favourites to get the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six. However, we do know that the MAC Title game has been rife with upsets since it began so don’t rule anything out.

Texas played awful, again. Poor Charlie Strong.

Iowa laid a beating on Nebraska, guaranteeing Wisconsin the Big Ten West crown. At least Wisconsin’s game the next day still had meaning since Wisky is still in the hunt for a CFP spot.

Texas Tech beat Baylor and the Bears’ season will end in a whimper. Many were wishing that they didn’t become bowl eligible at all. Many should be thankful The Committee didn’t have to make any sort of decision on them. Also, Patrick Mahomes plays video game football. He should play on Sundays. Maybe the Browns need a…you know what, don’t bother.

Boise State loses inexplicably to Air Force. This means another game on Saturday, this one the Wyoming-New Mexico affair, means nothing now. Black Friday college football not helping Saturday college football any.

All Arizona State needed was a win to go bowling again. The Fighting RichRods beat them pretty handily and won the Territorial Cup. Also, one Sun Devil fan wasn’t impressed with me over Twitter. That surprises me so much since Twitter is such a bastion of friendliness and great debate that never goes over the line or gets personal. Notice the italics.

Southern Miss also pulled an upset, beating Louisiana Tech meaning they would become bowl eligible. The APR spots were dwindling FAST.

Oh and Tubs is as good as done in Cincinnati. Can’t see the Bearcats retaining Tuberville after their loss to Tulsa who came back from quite a ways down to force overtime and then win.

Saturday REALLY Early

Five hour GameDay and The Game. Oh and some coaching carousel fun. Luckily for our sanity, Charlie Strong was fired early on by Texas (no surprise). It sounds like Tom Herman was demanding around $6 million a season (or more like his agents were demanding this). LSU balked and refused to wait for any counter-offer. So they went ahead and removed the interim tag from Ed Orgeron and made him the permanent head coach. Then Texas hired Tom Herman to the surprise of no one either.

Saturday Early

The Game was good. I mentioned it above. Forgot to mention Jim Harbaugh’s rant on the officiating after the game. Epic. And will cost him some money. However, there were other games on Saturday. No really!

Rutgers lost. Again. Which made Maryland bowl eligible. The APR schools are decreasing more and more. Actually made me a smile a bit.

How about those Kentucky Wildcats? What a game against Louisville and they pull it out with a last-minute FG to upset the Cardinals. Mark Stoops has done a great job building the program in Lexington. Also, this pretty much makes it so the Fighting Petrinos will not be in a New Year’s Six bowl. Also, I don’t think Lamar Jackson is a shoo-in anymore for the Heisman. Three straight weeks of less-than-Heisman performance and some good performances by other great players has made this a race again.

Another meaningless game but considering it’s a rivalry game, it does feel somewhat important. I’m talking about Clean, Old Fashioned Hate. Georgia and Georgia Tech. And the Ramblin’ Wreck spoiled yet another COFH game by beating Georgia Between the Hedges again. Bulldog fans already wondering if Kirby Smart is the right guy for the job.

Pittsburgh beat Syracuse 76-61…in football. It shattered the previous mark for points in a regulation game by almost 20. Every time I turned back to the game, someone else had scored. It was the only reason I was watching this game. Such a defense-optional game to the extreme.

Indiana and Northwestern did what they had to do: win to become bowl eligible in their rivalry games. To be honest, I am sure very few people watched these two games.

Saturday Afternoon

What the hell is up with Notre Dame? The program is in shambles. Brian Kelly is now actually looking for other coaching possibilities despite the fact the AD hasn’t fired him or doesn’t seem to want to. One of Kelly’s captains had two egregious personal fouls that were missed and should have necessitated him being kicked out of the game. A complete mess. Worst part is, the Irish have the talent to have at least gone bowling. They need to start over and it starts with shitcanning Kelly soon. Oh and USC is good. Adoree Jackson is REALLY good.

The Iron Bowl was more of a Tin Foil Bowl. Nothing much to see. Bama won. Auburn was close for almost three quarters despite the fact they played terrible. It is obvious to anyone that after the Tide, there is no team in that conference that is even close to elite. They will have the worst New Year’s Six representative (unless Florida upsets Alabama in the SEC Championship…which I highly doubt).

In Canadian university football, Laval won the Vanier Cup again. In front of what looked like less than 10,000 fans. Not a good look for the newly rechristened U Sports. We can put part of the blame on Rogers for their piss-poor coverage up until the week of the game. Not surprising at all.

Ole Miss had a shot to go bowling but came up with egg on their face (see what I did there). They lost the Egg Bowl to Mississippi State. And by lost, I mean got destroyed. The Bulldogs now become a potential APR bowl team.

Navy put a whole whack of points up on SMU. Along with the Middies, Pitt (as I mentioned above), and Middle Tennessee all put up 70+ points on the day. Crazy.

Penn State clinched the Big Ten East by beating Michigan State easily. They are probably the worst of the three top Big Ten East teams (PSU, tOSU, Michigan) but thanks to their improbable upset of Ohio State earlier in the year, they get a chance to win the Big Ten title and put a MASSIVE monkey wrench in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Boston College is bowl eligible after beating Wake Forest. Both teams aren’t that great but were helped with soft schedules. I will say Dave Clawson has done a good job in Winston-Salem whereas Steve Addazio, not so much. I think it’s time to let him go and start fresh, especially with a lot of good head coaching candidates out there.

Saturday Primetime

Clemson laid a beating on South Carolina to win the battle of the Palmetto state. Clemson is one win away from the CFP. WILL MUSCHAMP! has done a great job in Columbia with that many freshmen and sophomores. The Gamecocks will be a LOT better next season.

Your winner….and NEW Champion of Life….the Vanderbilt Commodores! Derek Mason’s squad pulls off the upset of Tennessee and is going bowling the right way (not through the back door as many said they would). I think Butch Jones is another guy who should be fired. Whether he is or not, I don’t know. Many crowned the Vols this season’s SEC East champs back in the pre-season. I didn’t fall for it. Then again I picked Georgia. Yeah.

UCLA lost to fall to 4-8. How is Jim Mora getting no heat? This has to be one of the most disappointing seasons in college football this season.

Colorado beat Utah to clinch the Pac-12 South, meaning USC would not have a chance to beat Washington twice this season. The Buffs could also put a huge wrench in the CFP if they beat Washington on Friday.

Western Kentucky destroyed Marshall and is a very underrated Group of Five team…again. Marshall has fallen from grace fast. Doc Holliday should have pushed for another job last season when he was a hot commodity. Too late now.

It took Florida State a while but they were able to pull away and beat Florida. If they could have erased either the loss to Louisville or the loss to Clemson they would have been almost a shoo-in for a NY6 bowl. Not anymore.

Saturday Late Night

I don’t know what Wyoming and San Diego State were thinking. They still had an outside shot at the Group of Five New Year’s Six spot if they both won tonight. But they both looked awful. Worse than awful. New Mexico ran all over the Cowboys and Colorado State put 63 on the board against the Aztecs. This means the Mountain West is officially out of the G-5 race. Boise State is now kicking themselves after losing to Air Force the previous day.

Alright after a mostly great day of college football, it is clear Alabama will go to the College Football Playoff. Even if they somehow lose to Florida in the SEC Championship, they will still hold a spot. Clemson and Washington, I believe will also go with wins in their respective conference championships. It’s that number four spot. I will be doing a post later this week on what is really my final bowl projections before Conference Championship week. I honestly believe that Ohio State will end up being #4, no matter if Wisconsin or Penn State wins the Big Ten Championship. Is it right? That is up for debate. I think there will be a lot of debate this season on who the #4 team should be. This all basically goes to shit if Clemson and Washington lose. So having that happen would be a lot of fun. It means The Committee would earn their money…which is none.

Tomorrow I will have my NFL recap and then the aforementioned rankings/bowl projections post on Wednesday. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Well that escalated quickly – Week 1 College Football Recap

Posted on September 6, 2016 by guelphbossman

well that escalated quickly

ESPN hyped the absolute shit out of college football’s opening weekend. So of course everyone, including myself, wondered if the weekend would live up to the hype. To everyone’s glee, it certainly did. College football should take note of this and replicate it as best they can next season. Having Sunday and Monday night games also made it a must-see weekend where I watched almost every minute of it. To be honest, I don’t know how I am functioning right now. But I would have kicked myself if I had missed that weekend-plus of football. It was so crazy and a lot happened in the top 25 that sometimes doesn’t happen in three weeks combined. I would say it was good practice for what the season will bring us but that’s like saying you’re about to learn how to swim without water wings and they drop you in the ocean from a cruise ship.

Anyway, let’s go over what was undoubtedly a great five days of college football. I’ll do the same format as I did with the schedule and see if that works.

Thursday

It all started Thursday night where Appalachian State made many Vols fans shit their pants. What a close game that the Mountaineers probably should have won. Brent Musburger was right in saying the Volunteers survived. Funny thing is, after all that happened, Tennessee may move UP in the rankings.
Indiana started REALLY slowly but showed why they are a solid middle-to-low-end Big Ten team in their win over Florida International.
Guess who is (technically) leading the SEC East right now? If you guessed the Vanderbilt Commodores you’d be wrong…STUPID! You so stupid! Somehow Vandy gacked the game away against South Carolina who won it on a pretty long field goal with almost no time left. This meant that Will Muschamp yelled at his team about 15% less after the game. They deserved it.
I thought if Wake Forest had lost to Tulane then my prediction of them making a bowl game would have gone in the toilet. They won.
Lamar Jackson went ham on Charlotte. Eight first half touchdowns! I know it’s just Charlotte and they really don’t even belong in Conference USA but good lord that’s amazing. Maybe Louisville will have something to say about Clemson and Florida State’s recent ACC dominance.
If you haven’t seen Western Kentucky’s entrance to their opening game, look it up. Except for the one guy that started the pileup. I don’t think he thought it was too funny.
UConn barely got by Maine. I don’t see how that gives the Big XII any confidence in them.

Friday

Christian McCaffrey made an appearance and, other than highlights, no Canadian got to see it. I sure hope that changes next year. Oh, by the way, he still looks like a really good football player.
Michigan State didn’t look too good against Furman but they too may move up the rankings.
Well there goes one of my winless predictions. Eastern Michigan destroyed Mississippi Valley State.
First FCS-over-FBS upset of the year belongs to the Great Danes of Albany as they upended Buffalo.
Uh-oh. Temple loses to Army. The Black Knights may sneak into a bowl. Temple better hope that was an aberration since it does not look good on the resume. On top of that, the Owls were told they will not be invited into the Big XII. A bad day overall.
The Rocky Mountain Showdown was more like a Rocky Mountain Beatdown. Colorado beat Colorado State pretty damn easily. Hey, maybe the Pac-12 will be really tough this year from top to bottom.
Toledo-Arkansas State ended up only in SD for us. Up until early last week it was showing up on the TSN schedule. Then it was removed. Eventually it showed up on Rogers and Bell schedules but only in SD. Someone dropped the ball.

Saturday Early Afternoon (and Morning)

I caught most of the Georgia Tech-Boston College game from Dublin Saturday morning. Was too busy to watch it all the way through but I did catch the last five minutes which were great. A good start to the day.
Jimmy Harbaugh put a royal beatdown on up-and-coming Tweeter Nick Rolovich and his Hawaii program. Wasn’t even close.
I don’t get the Big Ten Network and it didn’t seem to matter as Ohio State also decided to open up a can of whoopass, this one on Bowling Green.
Well guess who is Rowing The Boat? Western Michigan pulls off the big upset of Northwestern and now I can’t really see how they won’t be at least 11-1 if not 12-0 going into conference championship week.
And speaking of possibly going 12-0, unless Houston coughs one up, they seem destined to make the College Football Playoff Committee’s job difficult after starting their season with a win over #3 Oklahoma. Impressive doesn’t even start to tell how good this win was. Big XII, just invite them already and make this a conference game next season.
Back on the upset conversation, how about South Alabama? They pull off one of the biggest opening day upsets ever, beating Mississippi State when the Bulldogs’ short field goal on the final play doinked off the left upright.
So Navy pulled a quarterback out of the crowd in their game against Fordham. He had to get out of his uniform whites and into his football uniform to get to the sidelines once Tago Smith went down to injury.
The Justin Fuente era started well, I guess. They beat Liberty but it took almost three quarters for them to get going. They won’t get that same leeway in the Battle at Bristol next week.

Saturday Mid-to-Late Afternoon

Thanks LSU. Now my national championship pick looks terrible. Then again, Wisconsin’s defense came to play. They didn’t totally shut down Leonard Fournette but he definitely didn’t look like a Heisman candidate for most of the game. Brandon Harris, however, was terrible. Just didn’t look comfortable at QB and it showed. All the Tigers have to do to make it back to the CFP is run the table. Easy right? Oh, and cue the Fire Les commentary.
The SEC’s Tour de Failure almost continued as Texas A&M blew a pretty big lead to UCLA to allow the Bruins to force overtime. The Aggies won in the first extra period but it shouldn’t have even been that close.
Louisiana Tech almost made it another upset of an SEC team as they came oh so close to beating Arkansas, losing by 1 in the end.
Penn State’s kicker is ridiculously big…for a kicker at least. Hilarious to see him lay out kick returners although it is a distinct Nittany Lion advantage.
Staggered start times work great (a few websites have preached about this). I agree (as long as I am home to watch the games). Georgia-North Carolina got the later afternoon start time on their own and took advantage of it. UGA came back from a deficit to beat the Tar Heels and Nick Chubb looks like an early true Heisman candidate with his second half performance.
The Bronco Mendenhall era started with the worst Power Five loss to an FCS team in recent memory, losing to Richmond and not being even close.

Saturday Primetime

Kentucky was up 25 on Southern Miss. They ended up losing. I think Mark Stoops is done unless a miracle happens. Also, Wildcat fans are already checking out when basketball season starts.
UMass kept it real close with Florida for three-and-a-half quarters. What in the hell was wrong with the SEC this weekend? The highlight of this one was clearly Steve Spurrier’s speech after the field was named after him. Despite what many South Carolina fans think, Spurrier being back as head coach would be great for the game.
You know, early on I thought USC would keep it close with Bama. And the way they were playing, that looked like a good prediction. Then the Tide turned it on, ran away with the game and gave Lane Kiffin a measure of revenge on USC (for his shitty head coaching while he was there).
The class move of the week: Nebraska lines up for their first punt with only ten men. Their punter, Sam Foltz, had been killed in an auto accident during the summer so in his memory they lined up one man short and took the delay of game penalty. Have to give Fresno State credit as well as they declined the penalty. A great and poignant scene.
The night ended (pretty much) with Clemson almost Clemsoning the game away against Auburn. I don’t know what the hell Dabo Swinney was thinking but it tells me that he has no faith in his kicker at all.

Sunday

Notre Dame-Texas basically made it so that every Labour Day Sunday for at least the next decade will have a college football game. That was an absolute thriller of a game. Hell, the Irish even tied it up late and sent it to overtime with a blocked extra point returned for two. The Longhorns sewed it up in the second overtime period on Tyrone Swoopes’ rushing touchdown. Is Texas back? Is Notre Dame going to be not as good? Maybe. It is week one remember.

Monday

Wow, way too many sections here. Won’t have this problem going forward. Anyway…Ole Miss built up a 22-point lead and many thought, at the very least, they would hold on to upset the Noles and give the SEC a much needed boost after a pretty bad weekend. Instead, they blew that lead pretty quickly and ended up losing.

So there you go. Opening weekend in the books and what a weekend it was. To be honest, this coming weekend won’t be nearly as good. It’s almost impossible unless there are some crazy finishes to accompany what is arguably the weakest slate of college football all season. I should have the schedule up tomorrow since it’s almost already set (I am honestly shocked).

And then we get the NFL starting up as well on Thursday night! I should have the NFL schedule, as usual, up on Friday for Week 1 of the NFL season. Football is back. Finally. It took long enough.

Week 1 Recap – Sponsored by Bell (and perhaps Rogers) and what the hell happened Monday night?

Posted on September 8, 2015 by guelphbossman

To say I was pissed off would be an understatement. First off, the Monday night Ohio State-Virginia Tech game was originally supposed to air on TSN3. It was removed at some point over the weekend and replaced with the FIBA Americas Basketball tournament since TSN has been pushing that thing to the moon despite the fact I’m sure the ratings aren’t that good for it. However, I was fine with that. TSN is a sports network and has the right to put whatever they want on there and make programming changes as they see fit. Putting the basketball game on what I found out was four of the five channels makes absolutely no sense but oh well.

So I figured hey, I have the U.S. College Sports Package, I’m sure it will be put there instead. I can’t find it. What the fuck? So I ask a Bell CSR about it and she goes on about how Bell has no control over the entire package and that ESPN can move and remove what they want which I can’t see being fully true. Why ESPN would remove one of the biggest college football games of the early season off of a package that does nothing but college football for a few months I don’t know. That’s why I believe someone at Bell dropped the ball (and possibly Rogers too). Knowing TSN switched their programming, they should have looked at all the OPEN FUCKING CHANNELS for the specialty pack and, oh I don’t know, picked one to put the game on. Too hard? Evidently it is. Finally I called back a third time and a CSR stated that she saw it on her guide there so it should show up tonight even if it doesn’t appear on the guide (something about updates not fully updating the guide or some shit like that). Guess what? No fucking game. Anywhere. I didn’t even bother calling back because I am sure I would have said something I regretted later. So yeah, pissed off, angry, upset, disappointed, you name it. My worry is that this will happen again during the season since almost no one with any fucking brains seems to understand how to run a seemingly simple package focused on college football. If it was hockey this would have been resolved in minutes.

Phew! OK enough of the bad, on to the good (for the most part). Time for the college football Week 1 recap. Before I get into individual game reviews, I’d like to look at something that affected a lot of games on the weekend. I mean were the gods pissed off that college football was starting? Look at the weather delays and postponements and cancellations. LSU’s game with McNeese State and Toledo’s game with Stony Brook were cancelled and many games had lightning delays with the game at Georgia finishing early. Crazy. I don’t remember this many games being affected by weather (other than from a hurricane) ever.

Alright on to the news and notes and recaps and shit and insanity (and I will pretty much stick to the games I actually got to watch…mostly…and do it in somewhat chronological order):

Battle for the Carolinas – It was actually not much of a battle. More of a stalemate when the Red Carolina pulled it out in the end over the Blue Carolina. At least this way the Head Ball Coach didn’t have to make his team walk home from Charlotte.
Upset City – Holy crap did we ever start early with this. FIU upsets UCF. You know, the team that beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl only two seasons ago? Yeah that team. Worst part? UCF could still win the American and the Group of Five New Year’s Six bowl spot.
Not so Big XII – OK I know it’s only Oklahoma State (where Mike Gundy is the man!) but they should have been able to have their way with Central Michigan. The fact they didn’t doesn’t bode well for the middle-of-the-standings teams in that conference.
Now THAT’S the Vanderbilt we know and love – Speaking of boring games, I was pretty shocked that WKU wasn’t piling the points up on a mediocre Vandy defense. Instead, the Dores stayed in it to the end but we all knew the Hilltoppers would prevail right?
Hey did you hear Jim Harbaugh was hired to be the head coach at Michigan? – OK I get it, it’s a big deal. But did FOX ever blow their load on that game between the Wolverines and Utah. They must have sent 90% of their college football staff. We get it. You want the Big Ten badly and this was your way of showing how “good” you are. Well until we get FOX Sports One in this area, I hope FOX gets no more contracts. The Big XII and Pac-12 are good enough for them at this point.
Not the best way to start Trevone – I have Boykin as my pick to win the Heisman. That was not the way to start. They barely beat Minnesota. Not that the Gophers are bad (and they have a great coaching staff btw), but TCU is ranked #2 in the nation. They might want to act like it.
Congratulations to Charlotte – The 49ers start their first season in FBS with a win over Georgia State. And yes, Georgia State has staked claim to the worst team in the FBS. Do they play Idaho? If they do then that will be the Bizarro National Championship.
They sunk our battleship – Western Michigan tried rowing the boat till they couldn’t row any more. Instead, Sparty sunk the damn boat by half-time and allowed them to float around like that jabroni in Titanic before letting them drift away. Or something like that.
Bizarro SMU – Chad Morris you evil genius. What have you put in the water at SMU to allow the Mustangs to be tied with Video Game Briles and his Baylor Bears Express at one point? Yes they ended up losing by 35 but SMU might be fun to watch this season. Oh and Baylor will be fun to watch. Their game against TCU should be awesome (and hopefully I don’t have to PVR it since I can only add three extra hours to a program).
Of course Army had to lose to an FCS team – I know they’re a service academy but they just aren’t at the level of the other two. When they are constantly losing to FCS teams and, well, pretty much every other team in the FBS, it gets to the point where you wonder why they aren’t planning a move back to FCS. They could easily join the Patriot League since the rest of their sports are there too. It wouldn’t be the most patriotic move but if any more realignment takes place, they should consider it.
Petersen came thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close – How Boise State let Washington stay in that game is beyond me. The Huskies were terrible for more than 2.5 quarters. I have Boise running the table and now I am worried about that selection.
The annual SEC Stats Padding FCS Game of the Year Results – Lightning saved ULM from being destroyed even further by Gerogia. Ole Miss beat the holy hell out of UT-Martin. Missouri took care of Southeast Missouri State. And finally the gods allowed some mercy to the FCS brethren by making it impossible for LSU to beat the snot out of McNeese State. In the end I much prefer these types of games in September than in November when the other half of the SEC teams do it. I get why they do it. I just don’t like it.
David Shaw. Welcome to the hot seat? – I don’t know but man did the Cardinal look bad against Northwestern. Full marks to Pat Fitzgerald’s team as they have shown that they may cause some problems in the Big Ten West this season. But still, Stanford should have pulled this out. Many had them as Pac-12 North champs. I didn’t buy the hype and right now I am looking good (for at least one of my predictions).
Speaking of basketball season – Is it here yet? Kansas fans want to know. To lose on a bobbled snap when you are trying to spike the ball so that you can get the field goal unit on the field…that is beyond ridiculous. And on top of that it was to South Dakota State. Not NORTH Dakota State (which would have been fine really). And somewhere Charlie Weis is eating a greasy cheeseburger and smiling (and still collecting paycheques).
Mike Leach can’t be happy – And he shouldn’t be. His pass-happy offense should have put up at least 500 yards passing against a Portland State team that will struggle to compete in the Big Sky this season. Instead, Wazzu is trying to book their basement spot early in the Pac-12 North.
I am putting in my resume to become a “Clock Management Technician” – What Fun Bobby Petrino was thinking late in the game against Auburn I don’t know (my guess is it had to do with motorcycles and pussy). Anyway, it is inexcusable in this day and age to be that bad at clock management yet it comes up at least a dozen times a season. Worst part is it kind of wrecked their inexcusable comeback against an Auburn team that looked like it was going to drop 50 on the Cards. And who the fuck OK’d those uniforms for Louisville? Fire that idiot immediately.
The Rosen One – Whoever came up with that nickname is a genius (I think it was Joel Klatt who is one of the few people at FOX I like listening to). And he looked every bit the part against Virginia. Then again it was Virginia. Mike London, it’s going to be a long season for you just so you know.
Did you see that Hail Mary? – Wow, what an ending to the BYU-Nebraska game. How that came about is amazing itself. Bronco Mendenhall’s balls are obviously the size of grapefruits for him to run the ball with that little time left to set up for the Hail Mary. Why the Huskers defenders didn’t knock the ball down I don’t know. More amazing than the Hail Mary? How blonde Mendenhall’s hair is. Like freaky blonde. Actually that’s more scary than anything. And somewhere Bo Pelini was smiling. Not because his new team won (although Youngstown State almost upset Pitt) but because of the ending. And the Huskers will somehow lose exactly four games this season in the most hilarious rendition of Groundhog Day in sports ever. Worst part of all of this is BYU losing Taysom Hill for the season.
Did I call it or did I call it? – Oh I called it. I said Temple would break the longest losing streak (in terms of years) in college football to one team by beating Penn State. And they did. Here’s how Christian Hackenberg’s day went: Sack, sack, sack, run for your life, throw the ball away, short completion, hand the ball off two times, sack, sack, pressure, repeat. He was sacked ten times. His QB Rating was 3.2. He was flat-out awful. Not that the rest of the team was much better. Also, good to see Temple looking like a contender in the American for once. Don’t be surprised if they are seen during Conference Championship week going for a conference title.
Well that took a while – Man did Tennessee look like they were struggling against Bowling Green. Don’t get me wrong, Bowling Green is one of the class teams of the MAC but Tennessee was ranked #25 to start the season. They haven’t done shit in half-a-dozen years! They finally pulled away in yet another weather-altered game (I was so glad I didn’t have to use the PVR this weekend).
OK maybe Craig Bohl will be on the hot seat – Shutout against North Dakota (not even North Dakota STATE which would have been fine) in the first half? Inexcusable. Unless Bohl gets the Pokes to at least five wins and in contention to possibly go bowling, he may be shown the door which is a MASSIVE fall from grace considering where he came from.
So much for “neutral site” – I don’t get these so-called “neutral-site” games that are anything but. 90% of the fans (I may be lowballing) were Aggie fans when Texas A&M played Arizona State. They can paint these neutral-site games in whatever way they want but games this close to a team’s home should be considered a home game, period. Either that or make them truly neutral-site and make sure a team doesn’t get to play in its own state during a regular season “neutral-site” game. Netural site my ass. Other than that, the Aggies did the same thing they did last year on opening weekend: upset a fairly highly-ranked team who had visions of something bigger. Hell, I pegged the Sun Devils for an 11-1 team this season. I think that prediction can be flushed down the shitter now.
A scare in Lexington – Man Kentucky allowed the wrong team to get back in the game. Hulk Hudspeth’s Ragin Cajuns tied it up late in a game the Wildcats should have finished off early. The fact that they pulled it out doesn’t mean much since Kentucky does not look improved at all over last season. Mark Stoops better not feel too comfortable considering his ass is on the hot seat if he can’t turn this program around (and make people forget that basketball season starts in about two-and-a-half months).
They are who we thought they were – And even more so. I didn’t think Texas would win but sweet baby Jesus did they ever get their asses handed to them in South Bend. Yes Notre Dame will be better this season and could sneak into a New Year’s Six bowl but they aren’t Alabama. Texas is going to struggle and unfortunately, Charlie Strong is probably going to pay for it.
Bama shows why they are still one of the best – No panic. They just went about their business knowing that eventually they would put the game away. And they did. The surprise has to be the fact that the Badgers struggled to run the ball. Corey Clement was an absolute non-factor. The bread and butter of Wisky’s offense (the line of scrimmage) may be the worst it has been in years. I figured they wouldn’t have too tough a time at least winning their division but I could be dead wrong on that front.
Hey did you see that Ohio State–Virginia Tech game? Because we didn’t. – I’m still bitter about that.

Alright, hopefully you enjoyed my novel. I was actually pretty tired Sunday morning from watching all that college football on Saturday. And there were no late-night games on. I guess I am just rusty from eight months off.

I should have next week’s schedule up tomorrow or Thursday (as long as Bell and Rogers cooperate). I will have the NFL schedule up by Friday as well so you are prepared for the weekend. My PVR is going to get a workout for sure. Luckily this week, according to my calculations, should be the worst weekend of the season in terms of game quality.

Ouch that seat is hot. And then sometimes the seat is so hot the coach might as well be on fire.

Posted on August 20, 2015 by guelphbossman

It’s the annual pre-season Coaching Hot Seat Watch, sponsored by Bo Pelini. If Bo loses four games this year at Youngstown State he may just go insane. Just warning the nice people of Youngstown, Ohio.

Anyway, this list is ranked from most likely to be fired to least likely to be fired, with the ones at or near the top possibilities for mid-season shitcanning. Here we go:

Tim Beckman, Illinois – He saved his job by winning on the final day against Northwestern to become bowl-eligible last year. I predict the Illini to not be bowl-eligible this season and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was fired near the end of the season. This just really has not worked from the beginning for Illinois.
Mike London, Virginia – How has this guy not been fired? By scraping out wins at the most opportune times. I think the act has worn thin though. Some Hoos fans might be longing for the days of Al Groh for Christ’s sake. Anyway, it ends near the end of the season for Mister London.
Norm Chow, Hawaii – Poor Norm. He took over a destitute program and has tried his best to turn it around. The Fighting Rainbow Warrior Surfer Dudes can’t seem to get it together. Also, there is a big recruiting hurdle they can’t seem to get over. All this adds up to Norm getting fired (although I could see a “surprise” retirement being announced during the season).
Al Golden, Miami – Everyone sees a bit of a renaissance this year for The U (well mostly everyone). I don’t buy it. I think Golden could be the first one fired but I feel he will coach out the string regardless. Another hire that looked golden (see what I did there) at the time and has not worked out at all.
Willie Taggart, USF – You know, for a guy who is supposedly a recruiting genius, he sure has struggled to recruit in the hottest of hotbeds when it comes to college football, that being the state of Florida. Like shooting fish in a barrel…ok that was a really bad analogy. Anyway, I don’t know who will take over (does anyone have Jim Leavitt’s number?) but it may be a few years before this program gets back to respectability.
Derek Mason, Vanderbilt – I really want to give this guy a chance to prove his mettle at the toughest school to coach at in the SEC. But James Franklin he is not. I think the Dores peaked (for now) with Franklin and Mason is better suited as a defensive coordinator with another Power Five conference school.
Ron Turner, FIU – I really don’t know why the Golden Panthers hired this guy. He was clearly a dud at Illinois so why did he get another shot? My guess is because they royally fucked up with Mario Cristobal (who should still be there) and this was the best they could get. Another program that has a long climb ahead of them…without Turner.
Paul Petrino, Idaho – No, having the last name Petrino doesn’t assure you success. To be honest, when it comes to Idaho, I don’t know if Nick Saban could taste success here. Maybe it’s time to cut their losses and head to the Big Sky and forget the FBS for a while.
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State – It’s a tough go in Ames for sure. Almost no chance to be in the top three year-after-year in the Big XII. Then again, ISU barely gets bowl-eligible. A change may be good just to revitalize the program a bit.
Darrell Hazell, Purdue – He is so wishing he was back at Kent State now. He jumped at the absolute first opportunity to get out of the MAC and into the big-time and he’s paying for it. Dude should have waited at least another season or two (although the way Kent State has been it may have been a decent decision).
Charlie Strong, Texas – Many Horns fans want Strong gone yesterday. I think they would be wise to give him a chance but he better produce something this year or else the leash will be VERY short going into next season. He could be the earliest firing in FBS history (in 2016) if he can’t improve this team.
Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech – Staying in the Longhorn state but looking at a very different program, there is a bit of unrest in Lubbock. Sure Kute Kliff has the looks but does he have the coaching mettle to get this team back to bowl-eligibility on a consistent basis. I don’t think he does but I believe he will survive this season.
Mike MacIntyre, Colorado – It’s too bad the Buffs are probably the worst Power Five team in the land. Nothing is going right in Boulder. I guess you could say there is a bit of improvement and it’s better than it was when Jon Embree was at the helm but still. This team needs to right the ship or Mighty Mac may not survive the off-season.
Trent Miles, Georgia State – I have this feeling Miles is going to get at least another year in Atlanta. They move to whatever Turner Field will be next season (I believe) so the hope is that there is even a glimmer of excitement once they get there. If things don’t improve relatively quickly, Miles won’t last…through 2016. He’s probably safe for now though.
Paul Haynes, Kent State – Hey speaking of Kent State, here’s Darrell Hazell’s replacement there. Let’s be honest; other than catching lightning in a bottle that one magical year (2012), the Golden Flashes have been Golden Terrible, never being much of anything in the entirety of the program’s history. So maybe Paulie should get a break. He will this season but beyond that is anyone’s guess.
Doug Martin, New Mexico State – Speaking of shitty football programs, we come to Las Cruces (put it into Google Maps). Another hiring that surprises me since Doug Martin wasn’t good at (surprise, surprise) Kent State a few years back. Another place that no one wants to seem to come to. Lucky for NMSU, the basketball team is so good that they may still get that mythical invite to the Mountain West (or at least a full Sun Belt invite for now).
Kevin Wilson, Indiana – This is the year Big Kev finally puts it all together (kind of). I am positive he will get the Hoosiers to bowl-eligibility this year, proving Indiana isn’t just a basketball school (for 2015).

There. All done. I’m sure other coaches will get in trouble for banging a hooker or shooting up heroin or, God forbid, having bad recruiting practices. But for now, these are the (not so) Lucky 17.

Next up is my Heisman ballot (I will never get an actual Heisman ballot) and then final bowl projections before the season starts. Holy shit, the first game (albeit an FCS one) is 9 days away! FINALLY!

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Commodores

OK that’s a new one (and the Week 4 College Football TV schedule)

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Let’s take a look back at my predictions for Week 4

Let’s Hope for a Repeat, OK? – Week 4 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Sunday

Well that escalated quickly – Week 1 College Football Recap

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early Afternoon (and Morning)

Saturday Mid-to-Late Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Sunday

Monday

Ouch that seat is hot. And then sometimes the seat is so hot the coach might as well be on fire.