Lists, Lists…..LISTS!

Posted on June 29, 2023 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

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

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

Best Group of Five Games

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

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

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Games

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

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

Worst Power Five Games

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

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

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

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

Hey let’s storm the field (and give you the Week 9 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on October 26, 2022 by guelphbossman

First off, remember this classic? It was awesome. So the powers that be decided to quash the possibility of it ever happening again. Instead, we get a nine-overtime affair that made me want to pour bleach into my eyes.

Anyway, as you can see from the pic, the Aggie faithful stormed the field after the win. It was a big win. An exhausting one, even for the fans who were there for over five hours. Now, rushing the field like this is now fined by certain conferences. And the fines can be hefty. LSU was just fined a quarter of a million dollars for their fans rushing the field after the Tigers thoroughly destroyed previously undefeated Ole Miss. It was a big win.

Here’s the dilemma from what I see: seeing fans rush the field can be, most of the time, an amazing visual. They are just so happy their team pulled off the victory. Can there be dangers to it? Absolutely. And there can be altercations. Look at that asshole Jermaine Burton who punched a female Tennessee fan after the Vols’ win over Bama. He said he was scared. Bullshit. He could have punched any fan and chose her. Funny he didn’t choose a bigger guy who might have taken offense to it and retaliated. Look, my point is this…I don’t think rushing the field should be fined. At all. That sounds crazy but I believe it. Now, if something happens when the fans rush the field, then the school should be punished (as long as it was not someone from the opposing team doing something wrong). And the fines should be hefty. Forget $250,000. Start at $500K and go up from there. And if students cause issues at games when they storm the field? Guess what? Pack your shit and fuck off to another university. Instead, we have these blanket fines that do nothing really except move money from one coffer to another coffer. Dumb.

Alright, let’s get down to some schedules, shall we?

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia Tech at #24 NC State	7:30 PM
Louisiana at Southern Miss	7:30 PM
#14 Utah at Washington State	10:00 PM

Two pretty important games here. NC State has to win here to have any chance to move back up the rankings and perhaps sneak into the New Year’s Six. Utah has the same issue going for them although they are closer to the Top 10 which basically guarantees a spot. OK make it three important games since Louisiana has to keep pace with Troy and South Alabama in the Sun Belt West.

Friday

		US	Canada
Yale at Columbia	6:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at FIU	8:00 PM
East Carolina at BYU	8:00 PM

Kind of a lacklustre night to be honest. I guess you could see some importance in the Cougs’ game since a loss might actually have them struggling to make a bowl game this season.

Saturday Early

Massive early game in State College. You could still consider it a Game of the Year candidate. This is a prove-it game for Penn State. Win this and it puts all the tough games they’ve had behind them and puts them in a great spot to make the College Football Playoff. A tOSU win means it comes down to them and Michigan for any Big Ten CFP possibilities.

If you had told me that Toledo and Eastern Michigan would be facing off in late October, essentially, for the MAC West championship I would have thought you were on some great drugs. But that is the case. EMU has shocked a lot of people this year. Chris Creighton has done a great job in Ypsilanti. It also helps that every other team in the division (other than these two) has looked below-average at best.

Syracuse has a potential speed bump game to get back on track as they host the Irish and honestly it feels weird to see Oklahoma face Iowa State where neither team is ranked.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Rutgers at Minnesota	2:30 PM
#17 Illinois at Nebraska	3:30 PM
#10 Wake Forest at Louisville	3:30 PM
Florida vs. #1 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Temple at Navy	3:30 PM
#20 Cincinnati at UCF	3:30 PM
Northwestern at Iowa	3:30 PM
#9 Oklahoma State at #22 Kansas State	3:30 PM
#8 Oregon at California	3:30 PM
South Alabama at Arkansas State	4:00 PM
Missouri at #25 South Carolina	4:00 PM

No huge games but a lot of games of importance in this timeslot. OK fine you can say Oklahoma State-Kansas State is huge but there are still a lot of things that could happen in the Big XII with one possibility being that the conference cannibalizes itself and no one makes it to the College Football Playoff.

Illinois is actually on ABC! And they are the reason they are there! Bert doing a great job in Champaign and a win here puts them into a showdown with Purdue for the Big Ten West as long as no other screwy things happen…meaning something will happen. Yes there is an odd start for the Big Ten Network game and no, I don’t know why although I haven’t taken too hard a look to find that out.

Some are saying Georgia may be looking past Florida. I know I would if I was Georgia. I can’t see the Gators doing anything here but you never know as the Cocktail Party can get weird some years. Finally, South Alabama is in a nationally televised game on Saturday probably for the first time ever. They should easily beat ASU in this one. Maybe they are a dark horse for the NY6.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
UAB at Florida Atlantic	7:00 PM
#19 Kentucky at #3 Tennessee	7:00 PM
Colorado State at Boise State	7:00 PM
Coastal Carolina at Marshall	7:00 PM
#10 USC at Arizona	7:00 PM
Michigan State at #4 Michigan	7:30 PM
Baylor at Texas Tech	7:30 PM
Arizona State at Colorado	7:30 PM
#15 Ole Miss at Texas A&M	7:30 PM
Pittsburgh at #21 North Carolina	8:00 PM

In almost any week of any season, UK-UT is the SEC on CBS Game of the Week (and potentially the primetime choice). But with the Cocktail Party this week, they are “relegated” to the primetime ESPN game. Still a good slot. Plus, this game is an elimination game. Winner has a shot at the SEC East and the loser has to hope to make up ground to get a nice January bowl game.

Speaking of relegation, USC is on the Pac-12 Network this week. OK, they are at Arizona who, while improved, is still not that good a team. But when you see that Arizona State and Colorado are on ESPNU (which is slightly better if you ask me), it makes you scratch your head a bit. I know the Trojans were picked for the P12N to fulfill their contracted amount of appearances on the network and this game was as good as any to put there. Still…it feels odd to see a Top 10 team on a conference network, especially the worst conference network around.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Nevada at San Jose State	10:30 PM
Stanford at #12 UCLA	10:30 PM
San Diego State at Fresno State	10:30 PM

The Spartans actually have a big game here. By the time the calendar turns, they might be the favourites to represent the West Division in the Mountain West Championship. Also, the Bruins look to bounce back and maybe get back into the Top 10 against the Cardinal who may have a tough decision with David Shaw ahead. Not saying Shaw will be fired this season (or even in the offseason) but something has to give here as the team has been pretty bad for a few years now.

Big Games O’ The Week

Ohio State at Penn State (Noon, FOX) – Just a reminder that this game is at Beaver Stadium so it gives the Nittany Lions more of a chance than if it was at the Horseshoe. This might not be exactly easy for the Fighting Ryan Days but a win here will put them into a one-game showdown in a month against Michigan for the Big Ten East and may put them at #1 in the first College Football Playoff poll on Tuesday.

Kentucky at Tennessee (7:00, specialty pack) – I’m sure there are many who wished this game would have been on TSN instead of the Michigan State-Michigan game but yeah, a good Big Ten game will almost always rate higher for TSN than a game from any other conference. As I said above, this is an SEC East elimination game so the stakes are high. It will be interesting to see if the Vols have a letdown after their big win over Alabama a couple weeks ago or if the Cats can get up for this game, dealing with a loud Knoxville crowd.

Oklahoma State at Kansas State (3:30, FOX) – FOX has quite the lineup this week. I know some marvel when I say that but it honestly doesn’t happen often. It probably helps that it’s only two games this week that lead into the World Series which starts after this game. This is part of the Big XII gauntlet that is happening before our eyes that involves more than half the conference (and maybe not even Oklahoma). FOX is probably hoping this game doesn’t go to a bunch of overtimes since we know it would be moved to like FOX Business Network or some channel no one in the world gets.

Notre Dame at Syracuse (Noon, ABC/TSN5) – The Cuse looks to rebound from their tough loss to Clemson. Meanwhile, Notre Dame continues their roller coaster first season under Marcus Freeman. A win by Syracuse here still keeps them in the hunt for…something. A New Year’s Six at-large spot perhaps? The Irish are just trying to make their season feel like it’s less of a failure than it has been and one where 2023 looks optimistic.

Cincinnati at UCF (3:30, specialty pack) – It feels like most years this is a battle between the top two teams in the American. I would have said Houston at the start of the season but yeah I whiffed on that one pretty hard. Tulane may have something to say about that first sentence and they may get their shot in the AAC Championship if they can keep playing as well as they are. Until then, this feels like the winner is in the driver’s seat for the Cotton Bowl spot.

Psycho Game of the Week

Arizona State at Colorado (7:30, specialty pack) – You have got to be some sort of masochist to spend more than one minute watching this one. I guess maybe hoping for some weird score like 5-3 could get you interested in this but otherwise, it is so easy to avoid this abomination.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Georgia Tech at Florida State (Noon, specialty pack) – This might seem like a bit of a surprise but I have this feeling that the Noles will come into this one a bit angry and ready to beat the absolute shit out of whoever they face. The Ramblin’ Wreck are playing better not under Geoff Collins but at some point their lack of talent will come to the forefront. This is the game that will happen.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Last time UAB traveled to Boca Raton to face FAU they were embarrassed 49-6.
This is the first time in four years that Ole Miss has had to play back-to-back road games.
NC State has lost five straight to the Hokies.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

For some reason I can delve into picking NFL games (which I still do from time to time on top of fantasy football) but when it comes to college football I draw a blank. I can’t seem to come up with a way to pick games other than just pick them off the top of my head for the most part. That’s something I would never say when my late night betting show commences. I wonder what the most ridiculous channel to put that on would be. OMNI?

Louisiana (+1) over Southern Miss (and the outright win…why is Southern Miss even favoured here?)
Louisiana Tech (-6.5) over FIU
Toledo (-7) over Eastern Michigan
Boston College (-7.5) over UConn (only 7.5? Who is making these odds?)
Oklahoma (-1) over Iowa State
Minnesota (-14) over Rutgers
Navy (-13.5) over Temple
Louisville (+3.5) over Wake Forest (big upset pick!)
Florida (+22.5) over Georgia (UGA will cover but the Gators will make things interesting for about three quarters)
Kentucky (+12.5) over Tennessee (the Vols will win a tight one)
Coastal Carolina (+2.5) over Marshall (and they will win outright)
Ole Miss (-2.5) over Texas A&M
UCLA (-16.5) over Stanford (only 16.5? Yeah I’m not getting some of these)

Let’s see how much of a tool I look like with these picks. Anyway, I will be on the Twitter machine for most of the day (I think) so catch me there if you want. Hey, I got a secret for ya. Come closer….

There’s football every day between tomorrow and November 22nd!

Oh. Hell. YEAH! Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey let’s look ahead (and also give you the Week 8 College Football TV schedule)

Posted on October 19, 2022 by guelphbossman

I tend to do most of my psychic work in the offseason…or when looking at bowl projections. Neither of which I do very well. So yeah sounds like a great idea to do it again in the middle of the season right? I never learn.

Will the SEC send a team not from Alabama or Georgia to the College Football Playoff? Tennessee and Ole Miss are both looking the real deal this season. The Vols already pulled off a big upset with their win over the Tide. The Rebels get their shot next month. Tennessee still has to get by Georgia to win the division. So maybe we could be looking at a Vols-Rebels SEC Championship? Honestly, I don’t think so but you never know.

Does the Big Ten still come down to The Big Game? Yes. I think Illinois is doing great and Purdue might end up being the new power in the Big Ten West but it still all comes down to the The Big Game between Michigan and Ohio State. Winner probably wins the conference and heads to the CFP. Loser to the New Year’s Six and the Rose Bowl. I don’t see another scenario unless one of the teams is upset before then.

What’s going to happen with the Pac-12? If Oregon loses this Saturday to UCLA then it will be either the Bruins or Trojans with the only shot for the College Football Playoff. How sad is that for this conference? USC and UCLA leave in 2024 and there are a lot of rumours that Oregon and Washington will follow, possibly for that same season. It’s been bad for the conference for a while but they somehow are coming up with new lows. I assume they poach the Mountain West for at least two teams to stay at the Pac-10 going forward but it won’t be the conference that it’s been in the past, much to Bill Walton’s chagrin.

Is TCU the Big XII’s only hope? No, nor are they a good choice either. I can’t see the Horned Frogs running the table. There is a much better chance of Oklahoma State or even Texas having a shot. A lot would have to happen for the Longhorns to be in contention but it could happen. Me? I’m hoping for chaos and a two-loss team in the CFP. Wouldn’t that be wild?

Who’s the next coach to be fired? It feels like it will be Bryan Harsin and that it will happen any day now. I think he will be after the next coach to be fired. I believe the next coach fired will be Neal Brown instead. It hasn’t been an abject disaster in Morgantown but Brown has shown no signs of improving this program. With Texas Tech and Kansas possibly passing them in the Big XII pecking order, they maybe sitting in the basement by the end of 2022.

Who will win the Heisman? I think if Tennessee goes undefeated through the regular season, it’s Hendon Hooker’s Heisman (Triple H) to lose. One loss or a really bad game from Hooker and it opens the door to like half-a-dozen others, including C.J. Stroud, Dorian Thompson-Robinsion, Bryce Young and Caleb Williams.

Alright that’s enough predictions for now. You didn’t come for that (I don’t think). You came for schedules, right? So let’s get right to them!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Georgia State at Appalachian State	7:30 PM

Before the season this felt like it could be huge in deciding the Sun Belt East. Not so much anymore.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Virginia at Georgia Tech	7:30 PM
Troy at South Alabama	7:30 PM

The highlight here, honestly, is what could be the Sun Belt West title game. South Alabama is WAY better than advertised and Troy has improved from last year as well. Also, Georgia Tech might actually be favoured in a conference game as the Hoos come to Atlanta. Wouldn’t have been that way with Geoff Collins still in charge, I can guarantee that.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Harvard	7:00 PM
Tulsa at Temple	7:30 PM
UAB at WKU	8:00 PM

Nothing of serious importance although it could be interesting to see what happens in Bowling Green (not the university, the town). Winner there stays in the hunt to get to the Conference USA Championship game.

Saturday Early

I would say this is a good appetizer for the games later on but there’s a main course mixed in there. Syracuse travels to Death Valley East with legitimate upset aspirations. They win here and they turn the ACC (and college football in general) kind of upside down. What many would have picked as the game of the afternoon at the start of the season could look like an absolute blowout. Could Iowa lose by 50? Quite possibly.

Kansas still getting no love. ESPN2 for a big game against Baylor? Come on man. What really is perplexing, though, is UT-Martin getting on to TSN. UT-Martin? I get that Tennessee is good but there are a few other games that could have gone there…like the KU-BU game I just mentioned!

Saturday Afternoon

If UCLA and USC don’t get to the Victory Bell game in November both undefeated then the Bruins’ game against Oregon here might be the Pac-12 Game of the Year (and their best chance to put a team into the College Football Playoff).

You may notice that the UNLV-Notre Dame game isn’t on this list. That’s because this is the one game this season that NBC moves to Peacock. I hope the Rebels somehow win. The Longhorns and Pokes might be in a quasi-elimination game, especially if TCU keeps winning. Ole Miss and Purdue have landmine games where an upset or two wouldn’t be a total surprise.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Boise State at Air Force	7:00 PM
#24 Mississippi State at #6 Alabama	7:00 PM
Minnesota at #16 Penn State	7:30 PM
UCF at East Carolina	7:30 PM
Texas A&M at South Carolina	7:30 PM
Pittsburgh at Louisville	8:00 PM
#17 Kansas State at #8 TCU	8:00 PM
Colorado at Oregon State	8:00 PM

Two underrated teams no more as Kansas State travels to Fort Worth to face an undefeated Horned Frogs team. This is absolutely massive for both teams and would have been on FOX if FOX didn’t have baseball that night.

The rest of the primetime schedule could be considered a bit weak unless the Bulldogs can put a scare into Bama. The ABC primetime matchup is very weak considering some of the games that are on this Saturday. I don’t get it sometimes with these picks but at least the network won’t lean on the Big Ten all the time like they’ve been doing in recent years. FOX has taken up that mantle.

Also, we have what might as well be the de facto Mountain West Mountain championship between Boise and AFA. And we have another Pat McAfee night on ESPN2. Great…..

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
San Diego State at Nevada	10:30 PM
Washington at California	10:30 PM
Montana at Sacramento State	11:00 PM

OK so the primetime schedule might be weak in spots but this is brutal. Meaning either Cal is beating the Huskies or Nevada ends the Brady Hoke era at SDSU. Otherwise this is a fucking joke. Oh, plus we are stuck with the Sacramento Test this week. And no, that’s not a test of Sacramento Kings’ fans’ patience.

Big Games O’ The Week

UCLA at Oregon (3:30, FOX) – There are a few games that could occupy this top spot but I picked the one which I believe has the most at stake. If the Bruins win, it sets them up perfectly for the Battle for Los Angeles against their crosstown rivals, USC. A loss and, quite frankly, the Pac-12 could be sitting out the CFP yet again. As I said, huge stakes.

Syracuse at Clemson (Noon, ABC/TSN4) – The Orange Dream Season Express rolls on here as The Fighting Babers look to pull off the upset of all upsets. And we’ve seen that D.J. Uiagalelei has had poor games in the past. A Cuse win here would throw everyone’s ACC predictions into a dumpster (and then that dumpster to be set on fire).

Kansas State at TCU (8:00, FOX Sports One) – This still will not get as much attention as the Texas-Oklahoma State game earlier in the day and I think that suits these two teams just fine. A TCU win keeps their CFP hopes very much alive whereas a Kansas State win puts a bunch of teams back in the mix for the Big XII title game at JerryWorld.

Mississippi State at Alabama (7:00, specialty pack) – Some are actually wondering why Mississippi State is in the Top 25. I think if the Bulldogs had any semblance of a running game they’d be clearly in the Top 20 and contending for an SEC West title. Instead, they have Will Rogers throw the ball a million times and hope for the best. Classic Mike Leach. I kind of hope this is close but don’t be surprised if it’s over by 8:00.

Texas at Oklahoma State (3:30, ABC) – ABC’s ongoing love affair with the Big Ten, despite the fact they will be leaving the network soon, pushes a game like this to the afternoon timeslot. I don’t think many thought Texas would be in a game that, if they win, could put them in the driver’s seat to get to the Big XII Championship. Kansas State, TCU and even Kansas will watch this game with quite a bit of interest.

Ole Miss at LSU (3:30, CBS) – Ole Miss can’t have this be a speed bump game. LSU is better than they were last year and may be shaking of the early season shitshow and are playing good ball under Brian Kelly. The Lane Train needs to mow teams like this down knowing that Bama is coming down the line.

Minnesota at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – Is it one of the big time games you’d want to see in the ABC Primetime window? No. This could end up being a good game though. And James Franklin certainly wants his Nittany Lions to play well after the disaster that was their game in Ann Arbor last weekend.

Psycho Game of the Week

Arizona State at Stanford (4:00, Pac-12 Network) – Two terrible Pac-12 teams here. This is the second straight week the Pac-12 has appeared in this section. And it won’t be the last. I honestly do wonder if David Shaw will get to 2023 considering how poor Stanford has been this year (and the past couple of years).

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Iowa at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Yep, I am officially calling it. This could get VERY ugly. Iowa’s offense is anemic and shouldn’t fare too well against the Buckeye defense. They might cover the 29 point spread by 1:00.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Kansas’ last win over Baylor was fifteen years ago. They have also ten in a row to the Bears against the spread.
Notre Dame is 30-6 vs. the Mountain West.
Appalachian State has never lost to Georgia State in eight meetings. They’ve also won seven of those games by double digits.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

I don’t consider myself a gambler. Mostly because I’m not very good at it. I’m sure I am not too far away from some of the experts though in terms of success. Remember that guy on the late night commercials? What was his name? I want to say Cash Palmer. Anyway, him, along with a bunch of other guys who I wouldn’t hire to mow my townhouse lawn, would hock their picks at like 3 in the morning to degenerates who figured they couldn’t do this themselves. I assume all those guys are dead or in an old folks’ home. Anyway, enough of that. Call me Boss Bucks, or something equally stupid, and let’s get the show on the road.

Georgia State (+9.5) over Appalachian State (the Mountaineers win a nailbiter)
Troy (+3) over South Alabama with the outright win
Tulsa (-13) over Temple
UT-Martin (+37.5) over Tennessee with the Vols still winning by four touchdowns
Baylor (-8) over Kansas
Army (-7) over ULM
Liberty (+6.5) over BYU (the Cougs will win this game though in a close one)
Maryland (-13.5) over Northwestern
Boston College (+20.5) over Wake Forest (the Deacs cruise to a relatively easy victory)
Vanderbilt (+14) over Missouri (Mizzou will win the game)
Mississippi State (+21) over Alabama (Tide win after Bulldogs keep it close for three quarters)
UCF (-5) over East Carolina for the road victory
Nevada (+7) over San Diego State (with the Aztecs winning)

The Bossman Top 25!

It’s back! I figured it was about time to whip out a set of rankings for everyone. It’s early so there isn’t a reason to debate but I’m sure some of the spots will make you do a double take. Here we go:

#1	Georgia
#2	Tennessee
#3	Ohio State
#4	Michigan
#5	Clemson
#6	TCU
#7	Ole Miss
#8	Alabama
#9	Oregon
#10	Oklahoma State
#11	Syracuse
#12	UCLA
#13	Utah
#14	Wake Forest
#15	USC
#16	Kansas State
#17	Kentucky
#18	Penn State
#19	Cincinnati
#20	NC State
#21	Illinois
#22	North Carolina
#23	Texas
#24	Purdue
#25	Mississippi State

I’m sure some will look and say why is Tennessee in the #2 spot. Or why is TCU ahead of Alabama. Or why UCLA is not in the Top 10. Look, as I say every year, these things will work themselves out. It’s still early remember. We are only at the halfway point. Come mid-November, then some true debates can be had but until then, it’s just preference. Unless someone puts Alabama at #20 because they don’t like Bama. In that case, that’s fucking stupid.

It’s a little late to get the blog posted and I apologize for that. Just been feeling under the weather and I’m sure how crappy it’s been outside hasn’t helped matters. Looking forward to another great week of college football. Enjoy the games everyone!

Alright let’s wrap this up in a nice, neat little package

Posted on August 21, 2022 by guelphbossman

Oh man did you actually believe that? LITTLE? Have you not noticed what I’ve been doing the last little while? Oh this will not be a little package I assure you; but it will be an important package of information that you, the college football fan, would like to see (I hope).

So yes, you will see what I believe the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six will look like. You will get bowl projections from yours truly. You will also get my Heisman ballot which is usually a big steaming pile of horseshit. And you will get my coaching hot seat list which, honestly, is usually pretty good if I say so myself.

Let’s get right to it with the top of the pyramid (scheme)…the College Football Playoff predictions. You probably have a good idea from the conference predictions as to who will end up here and you also know that there is a good chance I will fail miserably with one of these picks:

December 31st	Fiesta Bowl	#2 Ohio State	#3 Georgia
December 31st	Peach Bowl	#1 Alabama	#4 Clemson

New Year’s Eve semi-finals. Will they never learn? Anyway, Bama is the easy call here as I see them running the table and then beating UGA in what may be the biggest SEC Championship ever (and that’s saying a lot). This also means that Georgia is probably a fairly easy call as well. Sure, they will lose to the Tide but if they go in at #2 (which I expect them to) and lose to #1 (which I assume Bama would be) then a drop to #3 is as far as they will go. No way they are leaving out a one-loss Big Ten champ so tOSU gets in and takes advantage of one of Alabama or Georgia having to lose to get to the #2 spot. OK take advantage is a strong phrase since being #2 means very little other than avoiding #1 until, potentially, the title game. Clemson ends up beating out Texas A&M, Michigan and NC State, all one-loss teams who didn’t win their division, rather easily to grab the final semi-final spot. Oregon would have their shot at the Pac-12 Championship but lose to Utah making The Committee’s job (at least for these two games) rather straightforward.

Now we will go to the New Year’s Six bowl games where, thanks to the NFL, none of them are on New Year’s Day. Eat shit, Rose Bowl.

January 2nd	Rose Bowl	#6 Michigan	#10 Utah
January 2nd	Cotton Bowl	#11 Oregon	#8 Houston
December 31st	Sugar Bowl	#5 Texas A&M	#9 Baylor
December 30th	Orange Bowl	#7 NC State	#12 Notre Dame

As always, it’s debate time. Every year which is fine as long as the debates devolve into some stupid Twitter spat. Only one conference championship loser is getting in here and that’s Oregon. They’ll be high enough in the rankings (potentially in the Top 4) going into Conference Championship weekend that there is no way they drop out of a NY6 bowl. Houston won’t be this year’s Cincinnati but they will be this year’s Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six and they will coast to get here. Michigan is going to have another good year but they have the audacity to be in the same division as Ohio State. Assholes. This will be enough to keep them out of the CFP. Same goes for TAMU and NC State. What were they thinking being in a division with other good schools. And you wonder why I hate divisions. We could have a tOSU-UM rematch and a Clemson-NCST rematch for conference championships. Talk about a lot more being on the line and a hell of a lot more intrigue.

Utah, with their win over Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship, gets the other Rose Bowl spot opposite Michigan. Luckily, they should ascend to somewhere around the #10 ranking that I have them in so they will look like they belong. Baylor also gets the benefit of a good bowl tie-in and I have them facing their old Southwest Conference foe, the Aggies of Texas A&M. Just like Utah, the Bears will be good enough to belong here and not spark any crazy debate about bowl tie-ins. The only debate will be for the final spot. Look, it’s Notre Dame. If the Irish go 10-2, they are not being left out of this group of bowl games. As much as some of you want that to be the case, it never will be (until the CFP structure changes). They beat out UCLA, Oklahoma and Marshall. Very few, other than those schools’ fans, will be super upset they were left out.

Now it’s time for the rest of BOWL SZN. At least I know these bowls won’t be cancelled…I hope.

January 2nd	Citrus Bowl	#17 Tennessee	#18 Michigan State
January 2nd	ReliaQuest Bowl	Florida	#20 Minnesota
December 31st	Music City Bowl	Ole Miss	#22 Purdue
December 30th	Gator Bowl	Arkansas	#19 Pittsburgh
December 30th	Arizona Bowl	Boise State	Northern Illinois
December 30th	Sun Bowl	Louisville	Oregon State
December 30th	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Kentucky	Penn State
December 29th	Alamo Bowl	#15 Oklahoma	#13 UCLA
December 29th	Cheez-It Bowl	Iowa State	Miami
December 29th	Pinstripe Bowl	Iowa	Florida State
December 28th	Texas Bowl	LSU	#21 Texas
December 28th	Holiday Bowl	Virginia Tech	#24 USC
December 28th	Liberty Bowl	South Carolina	#23 Oklahoma State
December 28th	Military Bowl	Wake Forest	#16 UCF
December 27th	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Nebraska	Kansas State
December 27th	Birmingham Bowl	Auburn	#25 Cincinnati
December 27th	First Responder Bowl	Colorado State	Troy
December 27th	Camellia Bowl	Coastal Carolina	UAB
December 26th	Quick Lane Bowl	Maryland	Miami-OH
December 24th	Hawaii Bowl	BYU	Fresno State
December 23rd	Independence Bowl	Memphis	Army
December 23rd	Gasparilla Bowl	Boston College	Tulsa
December 22nd	Armed Forces Bowl	TCU	UTEP
December 21st	New Orleans Bowl	#14 Marshall	UTSA
December 20th	Boca Raton Bowl	Appalachian State	Florida Atlantic
December 20th	Idaho Potato Bowl	San Diego State	Toledo
December 19th	Myrtle Beach Bowl	Georgia State	Liberty
December 17th	Frisco Bowl	San Jose State	South Alabama
December 17th	Las Vegas Bowl	Mississippi State	Arizona State
December 17th	LendingTree Bowl	Louisiana	Kent State
December 17th	LA Bowl	Washington	Air Force
December 17th	New Mexico Bowl	Utah State	Western Michigan
December 17th	Fenway Bowl	North Carolina	SMU
December 16th	Cure Bowl	East Carolina	UNLV
December 16th	Bahamas Bowl	WKU	Central Michigan

More bowl games! Honestly, I don’t care nearly as much as I used to. It’s more football at this point. Once the 12-team playoff (or whatever it ends up being) comes to fruition, I will be interested to see what happens to some of the lower-level bowl games. Hey, as long as Canadians can see most of these games on TSN then there’s no real problem. Let’s look at a few points from that long table of information I just posted:

Only two games between ranked teams? Good lord. UT-MSU at the Citrus and Oklahoma-UCLA at the Alamo and that’s it. Those two bowls are used to having fairly big matchups. It would probably be more of a shock if the Bahamas Bowl had a Top 25 matchup (although it would definitely intrigue me that’s for sure).
I’m not bothering with listing bowl tie-ins and or conferences that couldn’t fill their bowl quota or even 5-7 teams that I have in to fill the bowl games that don’t have two teams.
Some of the other good matchups after the Citrus and Alamo:
- Ole Miss-Purdue in Nashville
- Arkansas-Pitt at the Gator
- Iowa-Florida State playing in the cold of the Bronx
- Wake-UCF in the Military Bowl
- LSU going into Longhorn country (kind of) to play Texas
- Marshall-UTSA in Nawlins
- Nebraska-Kansas State in a Big Eight matchup in Tempe
The Husker one is very interesting because they have the longest Big Ten bowl drought. Can you fucking believe it? I would have bet money that it was Rutgers or…Rutgers. Nope. The Huskers went to the Music City Bowl in late 2016 and haven’t gone back to a bowl game since. Wow.

History states at least one of the CFP semi-final games will not be that good. I hate to do this to the Tigers but sorry, Bama should win that one easy. The Buckeyes will have big problems with the Dawgs but in the end, they will punch their ticket to the national title game to lose to the Tide who will be back on top once again. No real surprises here.

So now that COVID is…well not behind us but it is not nearly as serious as it was, we can really get back to normality. That means that the college football head coaches are getting shorter leashes again, folks! The shitcanning season will be upon us at some point this Fall!

And when I mean short leashes I mean seriously short. Like maybe a foot long. Some athletic directors are now realizing that the college football world is pretty much fully back to normal and they have some time to make up. Some coaches received reprieves in the past two seasons thanks to the pandemic but that leeway is fucking gone now.

Look I don’t want to toot my own horn but I usually do fairly well with this list. So let’s just get right down to it, shall we? If you recall, the order is from most likely to be fired to most likely to keep their job. They are also categorized in a few different sections. Let’s go!

Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning

Geoff Collins (Georgia Tech) – This should be a surprise to absolutely no one. The experiment to move away from the option to more of a pro-style offense has failed spectacularly in the ATL. I honestly see no possible improvement here and a possible in-season firing. Needed to keep his job – Get into the final few weeks of the season with at least a mathematical possibility of going bowling. Prediction – He’s going to get shitcanned some time in November in the midst of a ten-loss season for the Rambling Wreck.
Karl Dorrell (Colorado) – Can we say that weird 2020 season was an aberration? I think we can as the Buffaloes are dropping down the ladder once again in the Pac-12 as realignment goes wild everywhere. Needed to keep his job – Have a shot at bowl eligibility going into the final two games. Prediction – A whole lot of frustration for Dorrell, the Buffaloes, the other coaches, alumni and current students. And no job for Dorrell…he may end up not coaching the final game of the season.
Neal Brown (West Virginia) – Brown’s first year in Morgantown was considered a success. Last year’s, not so much. And with an improving Big XII around them, I see them falling even farther in Brown’s third year when he has most of his recruits in. Not looking good for a guy who was a big up-and-comer not too long ago. Needed to keep his job – Not continue the downward slide. Prediction – I remember going to Wet n’ Wild as a kid. It doesn’t exist anymore. But it had some cool waterslides. That is how ol’ Neal is going to feel this season. He’ll end the season on the unemployment line.
Mike Bloomgren (Rice) – No one is really expecting Rice to be a power player in football. Saying that, they had to the American Conference next season and I can’t see Bloomgren being the head coach. Other than a couple of good seasons, he’s done very little in the Houston area and has fallen FAR behind their neighbour. Needed to keep his job – Something more than what I feel they will do this year. Prediction – The bloom has come off the rose (ha ha) and he will be looking for a new school to coach at for 2023.
Herm Edwards (Arizona State) – It feels inevitable that, at the very best, Herm will be done at the end of the season. Their recruiting issues are well known and it may end up being the NCAA coming down hard on ASU (and, eventually, Herm himself). It won’t help his cause that the Sun Devils won’t be as good as they were last year. Needed to keep his job – I don’t know if there is anything short of a Pac-12 title that would save his job (and even then). Prediction – Herm is shown the door before the last game of the season as the powers that be in Tempe decide it’s time to rebuild again.

Probable Shitcanning

Dino Babers (Syracuse) – How long has Dino been on the hot seat? Everything was looking golden in 2018 for Babers but since then…yeesh. I’m not saying Syracuse is a destination spot for coaching but you know things are getting tense within the athletic department with this. Needed to keep his job – The Orange to recapture at least some of that 2018 magic. Prediction – Dino will be a coordinator somewhere next year.
Scot Loeffler (Bowling Green) – I’m sure there are times where Scotty (Scoty?) would love to be back at any of the schools he used to be at. This is his first head coaching gig and it has been a rough one to be honest. Even though Bowling Green isn’t exactly a hotspot in college football, at some point the athletic director will be done with the team not performing. 7-22 isn’t exactly the type of record that keeps a job. Needed to keep his job – 4 or 5 wins and look competitive inside the MAC. Prediction – Double-digit losses and a pink slip.
Danny Gonzales (New Mexico) – Speaking of tough places to coach, here are the Lobos looking at potentially another coaching change on the horizon. Definitely a spot a younger coach in the West would maybe take a shot at. Beware though: the last time UNM won at least ten games was four decades ago. Unfortunately between them and NMSU, the state is a dead spot for college football. Needed to keep his job – Close to bowl eligibility. Prediction – Three wins and a tough decision to be made from the higher ups.

Possible Shitcanning

Seth Littrell (North Texas) – Littrell hasn’t done bad in Denton. Five bowls in his six seasons there is pretty darn good for a team in Conference USA. Problem is he has lost every single one. It truly does feel like they are kind of stuck in the middle of the conference and that’s getting some people antsy. Needed to keep his job – At least 5 wins and competing for bowl eligibility near the end of the season. Prediction – That’s exactly where I have the Mean Green. I think he probably survives the season but the leash will be extremely short going forward.
Bryan Harsin (Auburn) – This was considered a coup when the Tigers plucked him from Boise State. His first season on the Plains was…rocky to put it mildly. There was an attempt to get him ousted after last season ended. Obviously it didn’t work but there are some thinking maybe he just doesn’t fit at Auburn (or the SEC for that matter). Needed to keep his job – A winning record and better recruiting. Prediction – I got the Tigers winning 7 to stay out of the basement of the SEC West. That should be enough to save him at least into ‘crootin season. That’s where he needs to improve or otherwise he may not see the 2023 season on the field at Jordan-Hare.
Ken Niumatalolo (Navy) – It is tough putting Ken on this list, I’m not going to lie. Problem is, Navy has been pretty bad for three of the past four seasons. That 2019 season where they won 11 games seems like a fluke, almost. I’m sure it would take a lot to fire Niumatalolo but another season like the previous two and who knows. Needed to keep his job – At least 6 wins. Prediction – I have the Middies only winning three so this could be a very interesting offseason in Annapolis.
Terry Bowden (ULM) – I might get some flak for this one. I know he’s only been in Monroe for a season. I do think this year the Warhawks are going to be one of the worst teams in the FBS. Maybe there is someone on his staff who will take over for him next year so that ULM brass will feel OK to fire him? I don’t know but this doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere in a much-improved Sun Belt Conference. Needed to keep his job – Improvement from the previous season. Prediction – As I said, they won’t be good. I have them predicted at 1-11. I can see this being done relatively quietly in the offseason (Terry’s shitcanning that is).
Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee) – Stockstill has been at Middle for what seems like forever. And it doesn’t feel like anything would happen because of that. Saying that, the Blue Raiders need to do something since they have been mediocre most of the last few seasons. They also turned down a (possible?) invitation to the MAC so this is their chance to become the best of a not-so-good bunch. Will Rick lead them through that though? Needed to keep his job – Got to be bowl eligibility really. Prediction – I got MTSU winning 5 games which will make for some very interesting offseason chatter in Murfreesboro.
Greg Schiano (Rutgers) – This isn’t the Schiano that went 56-33 in his final seven seasons during his first run in Piscataway. That was in the Big East and Rutgers is…well, they definitely aren’t in a conference like that anymore. Still, fans were hoping for something a bit more from a guy who runs blitzes during kneel down plays. Unfortunately, I think this won’t be that year. Needed to keep his job – Real bowl eligibility, not the 5-7 you are a smart school kind. Prediction – I have the Scarlet Knights regressing a bit this year. Whether Schiano returns has a lot to do with whether they think they’ve truly bottomed out and if they believe they can get a good coach in.
Jake Spavital (Texas State) – Has anyone ever expected the Bobcats to do anything of significance on the football field? Really, that lack of winning culture could be the one thing that gives Spavital one more season at the helm. Needed to keep his job – 5 wins and some meaningful November football. Prediction – 4 wins and a short leash into 2023.

Doubtful Shitcanning (although it still could happen)

Jeff Scott (USF) – Not a whole lot has gone well for the former Clemson coordinator down in Tampa. Remember when the Bulls were #2 in the nation? Not even Pepperidge Farms remembers that I don’t think. What it does say, though, is that you can win at this school. Now it’s just a matter of how long the USF athletic department will give Scott to truly turn things around. Needed to keep his job – Stay out of the American Conference basement. Prediction – They aren’t going to a bowl game but expect them to win around four games and be quite clear of the bottom rung of the AAC.
Scott Frost (Nebraska) – It has become a difficult job to recruit players to Lincoln. I think Frost has finally figured it out and the Huskers, at the very least, should be back bowling this season. Now watch them completely tank. Needed to keep his job – Bowl-eligibility at the very least. Prediction – No Kool-Aid this time but I have the Huskers winning eight games. Don’t laugh.
David Shaw (Stanford) – I remember when Shaw was getting Stanford to bowl games and contending in the Pac-12 on a consistent basis. Make no bones about it, he’s still a great head coach. Give him time and he will have the Cardinal back on top of what will be the Pac-10 going forward. Needed to keep his job – Look better than the 2021 season. Prediction – I have Stanford winning 4 games but the bottom of the Pac-12 North is crowded so an upset or two isn’t out of the realm of possibility for this team. Shaw is safe for another season at the very least.
Mike Norvell (Florida State) – Things are finally looking up in Tallahassee. For real this time. It would have to get really bad for the Noles this season for Norvell to be let go. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility at the very least. Prediction – Eight wins and a new lease on life. Teams won’t have it easy against this team this season.
Tom Allen (Indiana) – I would put Tom farther up this list as Indiana was BAD last year and won’t be a whole lot better this season. Thing is, his buyout is huge so unless the Hoosiers absolutely have to fire him, he won’t be let go. Needed to keep his job – Don’t do something illegal or unethical. Prediction – Other than punching the coach of the opposing team, I can’t see Allen doing anything bad. Yes I only have them winning three games this season but that doesn’t really matter here in the grand scheme of things.

One of these days I have to go back and see how truly successful I have been at this hot seat list. I still think the numbers will back me up.

Now from a normally good section (for me) to a notoriously horrible section (for me). My Heisman ballot is back. And I don’t know if it can be any worse than what I have done for the past few years. But, I always give it my all so here’s another edition of Bossman’s Heisman Trophy Ballot If He Got a Vote (which he most certainly should not):

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Heisman Ballot

C.J. Stroud, Ohio State – Last year’s ballot was horrifically bad but I did have Stroud in at #4 (and Bryce Young at #5). So it wasn’t all bad (but mostly it was). I have the Buckeyes getting to the National Championship and he will be the main reason why. It will be a close race this year, I believe, but Stroud will put up the numbers and get the big victories that put him over the top.
Bryce Young, Alabama – Yes, I do have the Tide winning the national title this year. It still won’t be enough to not join the list of players who had a shot at pulling an Archie Griffin and came up short. Unlike everyone else on the list, he won’t make it easy on the other contenders. The only thing holding him back is how many other Heisman candidates this team has. They are loaded.
Caleb Williams, USC – It was a huge coup for Lincoln Riley to convince Williams to follow him from Oklahoma to USC. Among the contenders, Williams may have the toughest job helping turn around a 4-8 team so quickly. This is one of the few instances where a team only being so good might end up costing a player during a Heisman campaign.
Will Anderson Jr., Alabama – I believe Anderson is the best defensive player in the country and it’s really not even close. He’s also one small part of the reason that I think Bryce Young won’t win the Heisman. He will take some of the votes that would have been thrown Young’s way. It could work in reverse as well. Anderson could be primed to be the first defensive player in a long time to win the Heisman Trophy but all the good Bama players, including Young, makes it a bit more difficult for him.
D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson – Should we try this again? Why not. *clears throat* Ahem…Oo-ee-un-guh-luh-lay. Just like last year. And just like last year I have him #5 in my Heisman rankings. He will have to show some serious improvement and I am betting he will. It will help that he will have a better team around him that will be competing fort he College Football Playoff. I think we will have a good idea what kind of season he will have once September ends.
Tyler Van Dyke, Miami – This guy looked like the real deal down the stretch last season and could have been considered the best ACC player the last few weeks of the regular season. The Canes will be better but, as per usual, doing better will help a lot. If the Canes can somehow win the ACC title, Van Dyke’s chances might soar.
Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma – A fantastic quarterback at UCF. And thanks to TransferPortalMania, he ends up in Norman, replacing Caleb Williams (and, sure, Spencer Rattler). Being the quarterback for the Sooners is always a pressure situation but the pressure should be a lot less this season which may allow Gabriel to thrive.
Bijan Robinson, Texas – Running backs still get shafted, to an extent, when it comes to Heisman voting. It takes a phenomenal year for one to win it and you have to pair it with no outstanding quarterbacks. An uphill battle for sure. But if there’s one running back who could break through this season, it could be the new king of dijon mustard, Bijan Robinson. He will be the guy who makes the Texas offense go so if they win even 9 games this year, look for him to get a lot of attention from voters.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ohio State – Hey, how about the guy who had a breakout game for the ages at the Rose Bowl? He will have arguably the best quarterback in the country throwing to him. As we know, that’s a plus and a minus when it comes to the Heisman. At the very least, he is the highest rated receiver coming into the season so that counts for something.
Hendon Hooker, Tennessee – This may feel to some like an out-of-nowhere kind of pick. Hooker showed what he could do running a decent Vols offense. With Tennessee having a lot more talent on that side of the ball this season, he may have some crazy stats. If Tennessee somehow gets to a New Year’s Six bowl, he will get a ton of hype.

Honourable Mention

TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State
Jahmyr Gibbs, Alabama
Braelon Allen, Wisconsin
Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
Quinn Ewers, Texas
Spencer Rattler, South Carolina
Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina
Jordan Addison, USC
Devin Leary, NC State

I am going to wish the players on this list good luck since there is a chance the winner is nowhere to be found here. Because I am terrible at this.

All the predictions I have are now complete! In about five months or so I will find out how poorly I did.

Next up will be…hold on let me check my notes…yes….YES……YEEEEEES! College football is back! Week Zero! I mean it’s just Week Zero but still….WEEK ZERO! I will have the schedule up at some point early in the week. I’ve already been asked about the specialty packs as it pertains to this coming Saturday. My guess is they won’t show anything since normally they don’t because…who knows but I will chalk it up to some sort of incompetence since what they (Bell and Rogers) tell me makes no sense. I will keep everyone updated. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

Everyone in the pool! – Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 4, 2020 by guelphbossman

Except for you Old Dominion. And you UConn. Yeah I don’t think so New Mexico State.

Pretty much the full roster of FBS teams will finally start playing football this week. The Pac-12 and MAC commence play and we get IMMEDIATE MACTION! You have to wonder if the Pac-12 has any shot at the College Football Playoff because of their late start to the season. It’s just so messed up a season that no one really knows at this point.

We are now starting almost a month straight of FOOTBAW on every day! Rejoice all you college football hooligans! Now the schedules get seriously stacked…or at least we see a lot more games this week than we have all season. Let’s go!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Miami-OH	7:00 PM
Ohio at Central Michigan	7:00 PM

MACTION!!!!!! It has finally returned. Tonight there are six MAC games, most on any weeknight in history. We only get two of these games up here. But it will be nice to have some Wednesday night football. Also it’s a palette cleanser for Americans after last night’s, um, festivities (for some…maybe…OK no one knows).

Thursday

		US	Canada
Wyoming at Colorado State	9:00 PM

Only one game. It is technically football but I can see a LOT of eyeballs moving to NFL Thursday Night Football.

Friday

		US	Canada
#11 Miami at NC State	7:30 PM
San Jose State at San Diego State	9:00 PM

Despite Miami’s loss to Clemson, they are almost in the Top 10 and could sneak in with a win over the Wolfpack. They need the win to keep pace with Notre Dame in the ACC (man that sounds so weird).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
~~Air Force at Army~~	11:30 AM
West Virginia at #22 Texas	Noon
#25 Liberty at Virginia Tech	Noon
Nebraska at Northwestern	Noon
~~Tulsa at Navy~~	Noon
Michigan State at Iowa	Noon
North Carolina at Duke	Noon
Arizona State at #20 USC	Noon
#23 Michigan at #13 Indiana	Noon

Not a ton here as it really is the appetizer to the rest of the day which is MUCH better than this timeslot. Huge game in Bloomington as the Hoosiers host the Wolverines, hoping to get into the Top 10 for the first time since 1967. That’s insane. AFA-Army could be a surprise game that could also be over by 1:30. Also, we have Pac-12 Bacon & Eggs Breakfast! 9:00 AM local start for ASU and USC. Wow. Hate to say it but the Pac-12 needs to do this a few times a season. Maybe this will be the impetus to re-explore getting Texas and/or Oklahoma (along with other Texas or Oklahoma schools) into the conference.

UPDATE #2: I should just call these COVID updates because that’s what all of them are. Anyway, AFA-Army has been cancelled due to COVID issues at Air Force. Who knows what happens now with the Commander-In-Chief Trophy.

UPDATE #3: Man, what’s up with the military academies? Because of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing at Navy, the Tulsa-Navy game has been postponed and will probably be cancelled due to there not being an open date that both teams could reschedule this for.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Houston at #6 Cincinnati	3:30 PM
Maryland at Penn State	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Illinois	3:30 PM
#8 Florida vs. #5 Georgia (in Jacksonville)	3:30 PM
Fresno State at UNLV	3:30 PM
Kansas at #19 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
~~Arizona at Utah~~	3:30 PM
Texas Tech at TCU	3:30 PM
#14 Oklahoma State at Kansas State	4:00 PM

Now this gets good. The Cocktail Party! Another three games involving a ranked team. Makes for quite a good afternoon slate which I won’t call great because it isn’t. UMD-PSU, Minny-Illinois and FSU-UNLV aren’t exactly must-watch. Considering we are into November now, these are not really the kinds of games that would even come close to highlighting anything. But, we have all the conferences now so at least that’s something. And we could look back at some of these games and realize they were pivotal to a conference’s season. You never know.

Oh and you may be wondering why you don’t see the Wisconsin-Purdue game here. That’s because, for the second straight week, Wisky has a game cancelled because of too many positive COVID-19 tests. If they miss one more game, they are no longer eligible to be in the Big Ten Championship. That could make things a bit more interesting in the Big Ten West.

UPDATE #5: Arizona-Utah now cancelled due to positive COVID tests and contact tracing. This is starting to get out of hand.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
~~Louisiana Tech at North Texas~~	7:00 PM
#7 Texas A&M at South Carolina	7:00 PM
UCLA at Colorado	7:00 PM
Baylor at #17 Iowa State	7:00 PM
Stanford at #12 Oregon	7:30 PM
Rutgers at #3 Ohio State	7:30 PM
#1 Clemson at #4 Notre Dame	7:30 PM
Tennessee at Arkansas	7:30 PM

Game of the fucking year right here. Massive, massive game in South Bend and NBC will actually win a primetime timeslot for the first time in a long time. Stanford-Oregon should be a good one as this could be the game that puts David Shaw back in the conversation of best coach in the game and ruins the CFP chances of the Pac-12 favourite in their first week. Don’t sleep on Baylor-ISU as that could be VERY interesting. TAMU-USCe could also be a big-time matchup as it has the feel of a Gamecock upset. A damn good primetime slate overall to be honest.

UPDATE #4: CBS Sports Network’s schedule is getting decimated this weekend. LaTech-UNT has been cancelled due to ongoing COVID issues at North Texas.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
~~Washington at California~~	10:30 PM

One game we can see here. But it is the first time we get Pac-12 After Dark and it ends a day where, for the first time ever, the Pac-12 has games in all four timeslots. And we know how weird it gets when Washington plays Cal (for some odd reason).

UPDATE: Washington-Cal has been cancelled due to multiple positive COVID tests among the Cal players.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Clemson at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Was there any doubt this is the Game of the Week? And putting it in primetime was a smart move by NBC as they should win the timeslot easily. The Irish are at #4 and despite all their haters, their defense has been on fire. Brian Kelly is again having a great season at the helm and would look even better if Ian Book had a full four quarters of good football one of these games. As for the Fighting Dabos, this is Clemson’s biggest test this season. Win this and they probably run the table, get to the ACC Championship where they may end up facing…the Irish again. It definitely won’t be as easy this year for the Tigers as it has been in the past few years.

Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party! It’s time to give an open bar to Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson. They deserve it. Well more like Brad deserves it putting up with some of the inane and biased commentary of one Mr. Danielson. I know I would probably not change the channel…more than 20 times. Anyway, the winner here has basically clinched the SEC East since no other team is close to these two. It feels like old hat at this point since ever since Missouri somehow went back to back as division winners it has been Gators and Dawgs.

BYU at Boise State (Friday, 9:45, FOX Sports One) – The Mountain West is getting a lot of play now that they have a contract with FOX. Problem is, all the games so far and in the near future are on FS1. Not good for Canadians. This is the biggest game of the season for the Cougars. They win this, they should move up in the rankings and could be well on their way to running the table. It would also put The Committee in an awkward position as BYU could be good enough to get an at-large bid to the New Year’s Six. As for Boise, they really can’t lose a game if they want to go to the NY6 themselves thanks to the truncated season. So this is huge on the blue (and probably cold and slippery) turf in Idaho.

Michigan at Indiana (Noon, FOX Sports One) – Indiana at #13. Are we seeing the emergence of a potential football power? Who knows but I would honestly consider the Hoosiers a very tough out regardless the rest of the way. Man FS1 getting some great games this week which is surprising since many of these would end up on FOX normally. Indiana losing would put Ohio State in the driver’s seat with literally no one near them in the Big Ten East.

Oklahoma State at Kansas State (4:00, FOX) – I feel kind of weird putting a Big XII game in this section at this point of the season. It’s not like the conference has been great this season. Saying that, this is a supremely important game since the winner has a leg up in the race for the trip to JerryWorld. OSU being at #14 tells you all need to know about this season so far since they are not a #14 ranked team. A Wildcats win will easily put them in the Top 25 again. Maybe this time they won’t immediately lose and fall out of the Top 25.

Honourable mention: Miami at NC State (Friday, 7:30, TSN1/TSN4); West Virginia at Texas (Noon, ABC/TSN3); Liberty at Virginia Tech (Noon, ACC Network).

Some gambling fun and games

How about my West Virginia over Kansas State pick! And….well…..ugh. I missed on a couple others and looked foolish with my Oklahoma State pick. But hey we are on to a new week with new picks so let’s do this!

Miami over NC State

Virginia Tech over Liberty

Florida over Georgia (mild upset)

Oklahoma State over Kansas State (hope they don’t let me down again)

Clemson over Notre Dame

Indiana over Michigan

BYU over Boise State

Texas over West Virginia

Washington over California

Cincinnati over Houston

Louisiana Tech over North Texas

Thursday Night Football is upon us again and hey this could be pretty good. Green Bay at San Francisco. I am very interested to see if the Packers can run away with an honestly pretty bad NFC North (don’t let the Bears’ record fool you). Now I am sure FOX would have preferred a Niners squad that isn’t all over the place and not nearly as good as their record indicates but c’est la vie. Honestly, Monday Night Football is the one thing I don’t watch nearly as much anymore. If they took it off the air, I don’t think I would miss it. Crazy I know but it rarely has good games anymore. I would say “Poor ESPN” but it’s ESPN so no. I think I have said the same thing for the past few years.

I, as per usual, will be on Twitter this Saturday although I have to take breaks throughout the day. I am showing my age. But I do enjoy interacting with people online and it adds to the day of watching 14+ hours of college football (which may or may not require some caffeine assistance). I try my best to not get into online arguments because people who are willing to go into full argument mode are not ones to even debate because you can’t win a debate against an idiot. Enjoy the games everyone!

A CFP without Bama? – Week 14 College Football Recap

Posted on December 2, 2019 by guelphbossman

It is true: the Alabama Crimson Tide will not be in the College Football Playoff this season. This will be the first time this has ever happened if you can believe it. We will get to the recap of what happened in the Iron Bowl including what is going on in that picture above when we get to it.

As per tradition (I think I did this last year for the first time) I will be using the Thanksgiving Day schedule template to do the recap. This should go well, right?

Thursday

Mississippi State 21 Ole Miss 20

7:30 PM

You cannot make this shit up. Ole Miss is bailed out by a ton of penalties on their final drive where they final score a touchdown. So what happens next? Receiver Elijah Moore pretended to pee like a dog and was given an unsportsmanlike penalty. It was tacked on to the PAT which the Rebels then missed, allowing the Bulldogs to win the Egg Bowl and become bowl eligible. That will go down as one of the all-time boneheaded moves in college football history.

Friday

Virginia 39 Virginia Tech 30

Noon

The Commonwealth Cup and the ACC Chaos Division title goes to the Hoos. I was definitely one of many who thought the hire of Bronco Mendenhall was perplexing at the time but man has it turned out great for the Cavs. This also means that the Coastal division has had every team win the division once over the last seven years. Crazy.

Texas 49 Texas Tech 24

Noon

This was actually a pretty good game well into the third quarter and the Horns pulled away (as they should have). Tom Herman is going to be on quite the hot seat going into 2020 as this has to be considered nothing short of a disappointment for this team.

Ball State 41 Miami-OH 27

Noon

Meaningless game won by Ball State. You have to wonder about Miami-OH as they have a total lack of momentum going into the MAC Championship on Saturday.

Central Michigan 49 Toledo 7

Noon

Central Michigan, with the beatdown, clinches the MAC West and will face those Redhawks in the MAC Championship. Good job by Jim McElwain in his first season in Mount Pleasant.

Iowa 27 Nebraska 24

2:30 PM

Iowa wins this one on a last-second field goal yet again. The Huskers will be home for the holidays for the third straight season. Sad times in Lincoln. I will not drink the Husker Kool-Aid next season (now watch me forget that and have them going 10-2 again).

Missouri 24 Arkansas 14

2:30 PM

Despite the Mizzou win, it was announced that they would their bowl ban was upheld by the NCAA. So they aren’t going bowling anyway and now they are without a head coach as Barry Odom was fired yesterday. I wonder if CBS is starting to regret always showing this shitty game on Black Friday and will try and get the SEC to move another game to this date instead next season.

Memphis 34 Cincinnati 24

3:30 PM

Slow start but the Tigers pulled away late to beat the Bearcats and set up…a rematch the next weekend on the same field. If Memphis wins, they pretty much lock up the Cotton Bowl bid. If they lose, then Cincinnati is back in the Group of Five fray along with Boise State and Appalachian State.

Boise State 31 Colorado State 24

3:30 PM

Not surprising that the Broncos won. It’s surprising that they struggled with a team like the Rams. They host Hawaii on Saturday and have to win and get some help in the American Championship to go to the Cotton Bowl.

Washington 31 Washington State 13

4:00 PM

In what seems like a broken record, the Cougs beat Wazzu yet again for the Apple Cup. It meant nothing really but Chris Petersen’s continuing ownership of this series over Mike Leach is at least somewhat baffling at this point.

West Virginia 20 TCU 17

4:15 PM

This was about the least Big XII game ever. More like a Big Ten game from the 70s. In the end, we have something that doesn’t happen very often: a postseason without TCU. Going to be feel kind of odd, not gonna lie.

UCF 34 USF 7

8:00 PM

Not like the War on I-4 editions of the past that is for sure. No chance for UCF to go to the New Year’s Six so their consolation is a bowl game and a win here. Charlie Strong might be out as head coach as we are at that time of season where the firings come quick.

Saturday Early

Georgia 52 Georgia Tech 7

Noon

Speaking of games that weren’t close, here’s a great example. Not that anyone thought it would be the case. Biggest thing coming out of this one was George Pickens, who had already sat out the first half, was ejected in the second half for a senseless punch-up with a Georgia Tech player and will miss the first half of the LSU game. I guess sometimes the game gets the better of these kids but still, that could be a tough one to swallow for a UGA offense that needs all the help they can get.

Ohio State 56 Michigan 27

Noon

tOSU is still Michigan’s kryptonite. Another destruction at the hands of the Buckeyes and people are talking about Harbaugh’s future yet again. Even when it was close into the second quarter, I thought that maybe this would be different. Boy was I wrong. Ohio State might have already clinched their spot in the College Football Playoff even if they lose to Wisconsin on Saturday. That’s how dominant they have been this season. The Wolverines will probably be in a Florida-based bowl yet again (but not the Orange).

Indiana 44 Purdue 41 (2OT)

Noon

Indiana won and has won eight games this year. This is how you know college football always comes up with crazy things every season as the Hoosiers could end up being a nine-win team and ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 going into 2020.

Clemson 38 South Carolina 3

Noon

Hate to see that TSN had such a weak schedule and that this ended up being one of the games they had. This game was not close from the jump and Trevor Lawrence showed why he still has to be considered one of the best college quarterbacks in America. The Tigers now head to Charlotte to face Virginia in a must-win to be in the Top 4 once again.

Marshall 30 FIU 27 (OT)

Noon

Hey at least it was a fun, close game right?

Tulsa 49 East Carolina 24

Noon

Didn’t matter. Wasn’t close. I wonder if even Tulsa and/or East Carolina alumni were watching this one in the fourth quarter. I am going to go with no.

Kentucky 45 Louisville 13

Noon

Nice to see these two programs playing pretty well these days. Despite the loss, Scott Satterfield has emerged as one of the Coach of the Year candidates. Mark Stoops is still rollin’ in Lexington and it’s amazing to think that football in the state of Kentucky (remember WKU had a great turnaround season as well) is doing a lot better than many other states. Something you never hear about when you think of Kentucky.

Northwestern 29 Illinois 10

Noon

The Illini shouldn’t have had problems with the Northwestern offense but they did. Their loss, much like Northwestern’s win, didn’t mean anything at least. Now we start something new: Pat Fitzgerald on the hot seat. Will be an interesting 2020 in Evanston.

Syracuse 39 Wake Forest 30 (OT)

12:30 PM

Yes, a nine-point victory in overtime. The Orange got a field goal in their turn and then had a pick-six to end the game. Strange victory to end a disappointing season in western New York. The Deacs have basically blown any shot at going to the Orange Bowl now.

Saturday Afternoon

Temple 49 UConn 17

3:00 PM

UConn’s final game in the American Conference was yet another loss. Other than a couple of seasons, the Huskies struggled mightily in the conference and now start as an Independent next season.

Wisconsin 38 Minnesota 17

3:30 PM

In some serious FOOTBAW WEATHER in Minneapolis, the dream season came crashing down for the Gophers. Their loss to Wisconsin probably also means they are out of the New Year’s Six. A tough end to what was a great season. Wisconsin, on the other hand, can try and beat the juggernaut Buckeyes and hopefully cause some chaos in the College Football Playoff.

Auburn 48 Alabama 45

3:30 PM

This ended up being the game of the day and one of the best games of the year. The Tide now cannot make it into the College Football Playoff and are not even a guarantee for the New Year’s Six (although I think they will end up there). As for the pic at the top of the post, that was Saban being irate over the officials saying that Auburn had one second left in the first half when they shouldn’t have had enough time left after a Tiger ballcarrier was tackled. Auburn made the long field goal and then Bama missed a field goal to tie it up late which provided the difference in the score. The game essentially ended when the Tide were called for an illegal substituion on a punt which would have given the ball back to Alabama. The punter lined up near the sidelines and the Crimson Tide sideline was confused and it cost them as they had 12 men on the field. Huge upset and just a fantastic display of what is good about college football.

Duke 27 Miami 17

3:30 PM

If we could put multiple ACC teams in Shreveport I’d be all for it.

Baylor 61 Kansas 6

3:30 PM

Baylor didn’t need the “style points” in this one but it serves as good momentum going into the biggest game in school history.

Penn State 27 Rutgers 6

3:30 PM

Rutgers was only down 7-6 at one point. OK so maybe style points do matter a bit although the Nittany Lions are still poised to go to either the Rose Bowl or the Orange Bowl.

Boston College 26 Pittsburgh 19

3:30 PM

Well the Eagles won so they go bowling this season. And on Twitter I had mentioned that this probably gave Steve Addazio another year on the job. I was wrong. He was fired yesterday. I guess they got sick of the mediocrity but when, other than a season or two, have they not been mediocre?

Michigan State 19 Maryland 16

3:30 PM

Yes Sparty won but they looked bad doing it. Now watch them blow out their opponent in the bowl game.

Florida Atlantic 34 Southern Miss 17

3:30 PM

Huge game here that, if Southern Miss had won, would have taken us into some Conference USA tiebreaker action. Alas, the Golden Eagles did not win and lost the division title to UAB. Florida Atlantic already had the division won but now clinched home field for the conference championship.

SMU 37 Tulane 20

4:00 PM

Compared to previous games between these two teams, this came off as an average game that bordered on unwatchable.

Notre Dame 45 Stanford 24

4:00 PM

Yes Stanford is not going bowling. No, David Shaw will not be fired. Yes, Notre Dame is going bowling. I don’t know if they will get into the New Year’s Six considering the teams ranked above them (despite the fact the Irish could top out at #9). Will Brian Kelly be around next year to try and get Notre Dame back to the promised land?

Tennessee 28 Vanderbilt 10

4:00 PM

Not even close this one. The Vols really wanted this one and it showed. Maybe it’s time to believe in what Jeremy Pruitt is doing in Knoxville. Vandy on the other hand is in an interesting situation. With coaches already being fired, don’t be surprised if Derek Mason’s name is added to that list.

Oregon 24 Oregon State 10

4:00 PM

Poor Beavs. They really had their chance the previous week against Washington State with that amazing comeback that came up just short. They tried and didn’t look too bad against their state rivals but could not win the Civil War and a chance to go to a bowl game. The Ducks will now try to destroy the final Pac-12 CFP chance in the Pac-12 Championship.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

North Carolina 41 NC State 10

7:00 PM

What a way to become bowl-eligible. Mack Brown completes the turnaround and the Tar Heels rout the Wolfpack to win the in-state rivalry and will be going to a bowl game for the first time in three years. Talk about a feel-good story as many thought the Brown hiring was not a good idea and talked about his age being a factor working against him. Well he got the last laugh for sure.

LSU 50 Texas A&M 7

7:00 PM

And I was right. LSU destroyed the Aggies. Joe Burrow probably clinched the Heisman with his performance in this one, including breaking the SEC record for most passing yards in a season. LSU has probably also clinched a spot in the Top 4 regardless of what happens in the SEC Championship.

Navy 56 Houston 41

7:00 PM

Since Memphis won their match yesterday, it meant this really didn’t mean a lot. Don’t tell that to Navy who hung a 50-burger on Houston. In two weeks they have Army in a game that means a lot to the players even if it means nothing to the bowl season schedule.

Kansas State 27 Iowa State 17

7:00 PM

I still think Nebraska-Iowa is the real Farmageddon but whatever.

Louisiana 31 ULM 30

7:30 PM

This was actually a great one to watch. ULM had missed an extra point earlier so were down one with a chance to win and they missed the field goal. It also means ULM didn’t become the 80th team to become bowl-eligible this season. Louisiana might have been looking ahead to their huge showdown with Appalachian State next weekend.

Florida 40 Florida State 17

7:30 PM

I honestly forgot this game was even on. I am sure a lot of fans felt the same way.

Utah 45 Colorado 15

7:30 PM

A really slow start here by the Utes and I wondered if maybe this was it for their own dream season. Instead they revved things up and pulled away with ease. They will most likely be #5 when the CFP Rankings come out and it will all come down to the Pac-12 Championship to see if they get to the CFP.

Oklahoma 34 Oklahoma State 16

8:00 PM

The only thing that was going right for the Pokes in this one was Mike Gundy’s hair flowing in the wind.

San Diego State 13 BYU 3

9:00 PM

San Diego State might be the quietest 9-3 team in the land. Rocky Long continues to do an amazing job with the Aztecs as they churn out good team after good team. BYU is already contracted to go to the Hawaii Bowl whereas SDSU will find out where they go in about six days’ time.

Arizona State 24 Arizona 14

10:00 PM

Kevin Sumlin has to be feeling the hot seat in the desert. Not saying the Wildcats have ever done anything of note on the football field but still, another bad season with a player of Khalil Tate’s talent is not going to put you in a positive light.

San Jose State 17 Fresno State 16

10:30 PM

Nice to see the Spartans finish with five wins since they are not known for their football prowess at all. And I know that the stadium is going to be renovated soon but having one side, the hard camera side if you will, be just grass looks really bush league, pun not intended.

California 28 UCLA 18

10:30 PM

By this point I was pretty exhausted. Watching the Bruins play poorly again was something I just didn’t feel like doing. So I mostly watched the other games on at the time and ignored this one.

Hawaii 52 Army 31

12:30 AM

Going to be honest: I went to bed when the score was 38-31 for Hawaii. I knew it was close but I just couldn’t stay awake any longer. I think I made a good choice. I would have been somewhat miffed if the game had been close or gone to overtime but I figured making it to almost 3 in the morning is a feat onto itself, no?

Bowl Eligibility

These are the teams that clinched bowl eligibility this past week of college football:

Ohio

Mississippi State

Kent State

Liberty

Boston College

North Carolina

Michigan State

No games other than conference championships this coming weekend so we don’t have that weird instance where a team loses a game due to usually hurricane conditions and makes it up on the final weekend of the year (conference championship weekend). Come to think of it, were there any weather-related cancellations? I don’t know if there was which is pretty remarkable since the past few years have been mired with them.

Coaching Carousel

Cue Homer Simpson goes to Clown College music.

So what is happening on the ol’ coaching carousel? Let’s take a look.

Get this. There was basically a petition to bring Greg Freakin’ Schiano back to Rutgers after he seemed to show no interest in the open head coaching spot. In the end, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse (I guess) and he is back in the place where he brought Rutgers very close to the promised land in the only time Rutgers was ever any good at football.
Matt Luke was shitcanned at Ole Miss. Their loss to Mississippi State was the final straw. Wait, no, it’s the way it happened that was the final straw. Luke seems to have a bit of a lack of control over his team and it showed there. He is now gone.
Barry Odom was dismissed at Missouri. No real surprise there. Who will replace him? Who the hell knows but, as someone pointed out on Twitter, the name better rhyme with Barry.
Charlie Strong is actually out at USF. Again, not a surprise. I see him coming back as a coordinator somewhere since no team will pick him up as a head coach at this point.
Steve Addazio out at Boston College even after they became bowl-eligible yet again. It makes me wonder if this decision had been made at least a week ago and they didn’t announce anything until after Saturday’s game.
Bob Davie resigned at New Mexico. After all the shit that was happening in Albuquerque, this feels like him quitting before he was actually fired for some sort of pride reasons.
Frank Wilson was fired at UTSA after another brutal season. No one thought the Roadrunners would contend in the Conference USA but they thought they’d at least be competitive. At this point it’s them and UTEP battling for the worst team in the division. Even Rice has surpassed them.
Only a season-and-a-half after that massive upset of Virginia Tech, Old Dominion fired Bobby Wilder after their worst FBS season to date.
And finally, Chris Petersen has stepped down at Washington. This is a huge shock! Jimmy Lake will replace him for the bowl game.

Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:

Lane Kiffin – Arkansas might be interested in him. Lane back in the SEC! Sign me up! He is also getting interest from Florida State which would be very interesting.
Shane Beamer – He will get a lot of looks because of his last name, whether you like that or not. The obvious fit would be at Old Dominion since he would be able to recruit well in that area.
Willie Taggart – Supposedly the former Seminoles head man is interested in returning to USF. Whether the Bulls feel the same way about him could be a different story after his failures in Tallahassee.
Mike Norvell – This guy is the top choice to go to a Power Five school. Arkansas seems to be the favourite to get him but now that Missouri and Ole Miss are looking for head coaches, he could end up at one of those schools.
Billy Napier – Ole Miss might want to look at what Napier has done at Louisiana. This team is one of the premier Group of Five teams and it was a quick turnaround after Mark Hudspeth’s firing.
Willie Fritz – It would take quite a bit to pry him away from Tulane as he is still looking to get the Green Wave over the hump and into a true contender in the AAC. A lot of schools would be definitely interested in him with Missouri probably at the top of this list.
Bryan Harsin – Don’t laugh. Especially if USC does actually fire Clay Helton which they haven’t…yet.
Bill Clark – Everyone is also looking at Clark for what he has done at UAB. He is seemingly an expert on taking a program from scratch and making it a contender. Maybe Florida State takes a flyer on him since Clark would be better off at a southern school (Ole Miss and Arkansas could also be possibilities).
Mike Leach – His name comes up all the time for job openings at the end of every year. If a school could give him at least a couple of years to put his vaunted offense in it may work like it did on the Palouse. Boston College might look at Leach although Leach at Florida State would bring all kinds of hilarity.

Are there more possibilities? Absolutely. I won’t list them all though. Later in the week will be the bowl projections post, conference championship weekend schedule post and the NFL post. Have a great week everyone!

ARE….YOU……..READY? – Week 14 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 28, 2019 by guelphbossman

Footballgasm 2019 has arrived! There is so much god damn football between American Thanksgiving and the end of the weekend. I freakin’ love it! Pretty damn sweet if you ask me. I wish Canadians would do this as well but I can’t see them corresponding Thanksgiving with football unless it’s like two CFL games. Definitely no college football that is for sure.

The schedule will be done in the annual Thanksgiving Footballgasm style. Every game is not important but everything gets its own section. Yeah. I know. Crazy, right? And if you don’t remember, first logo is the American network and the second logo is where you can see the game in Canada. You should know that by now though. Let’s get started!

Thursday

Ole Miss at Mississippi State

7:30 PM

Ole Miss will not be going bowling this year again but this time it’s because of their record, not being under some sort of sanctions. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, need this Egg Bowl win to be bowl-eligible. A Rebels win would make the season a success for many Rebels fans.

Friday

#24 Virginia Tech at Virginia

Noon

Winner of the Commonwealth Cup gets their opportunity at the ACC Goliath, Clemson. There’s also a decent chance that the winner here will get the Orange Bowl slot no matter what happens in the ACC Championship.

Texas Tech at Texas

Noon

Big game here…haha, just kidding. This means absolutely nothing as Texas is bowl-eligible and Texas Tech can’t qualify for the postseason. Poor choice by FOX but I have a feeling they were very limited here. You have to wonder about Tom Herman’s future in Austin after this season that is a huge disappointment.

Miami-OH at Ball State

Noon

Ball State is playing for pride since the best they can do is go 5-7. Miami-OH clinched the MAC East last week so they are just looking for momentum in this one going into the MAC Championship.

Toledo at Central Michigan

Noon

A Central Michigan win here clinches the MAC West crown A loss and Western Michigan will represent the MAC West in Detroit despite their loss earlier this week to Northern Illinois.

#17 Iowa at Nebraska

2:30 PM

This game means everything for the Huskers as a win has them bowl-eligible. They will have a tough time here at Faux Farmageddon against a tough Hawkeyes team who really doesn’t have a shot at the New Year’s Six despite sitting at #17 in the CFP Rankings.

Missouri at Arkansas

2:30 PM

So after posting the bowl projections I find out that the NCAA upheld Missouri’s postseason ban. So this means 1) I have to change my bowl projections and 2) this game means nothing. Who knows what will happen with Barry Odom after the season but I can pretty much guarantee that he won’t get the Bret Bielema treatment that Bielema got two years ago after this very same game.

#19 Cincinnati at #18 Memphis

3:30 PM

Game of the year for the Group of Five. The winner here is way out in front for the Cotton Bowl bid. Also if the Tigers win, they clinch the AAC West title aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand a rematch with Cincinnati back in Memphis. A Cincinnati win here, coupled with a Navy win over Houston and the Middies complete their incredible comeback from last year’s disastrous season and will head to Cincy for the AAC Championship although probably not a Cotton Bowl bid (although they still have a chance if a few other things happen). If it’s anything like a couple of the important American Conference games of the past few years, it should be a wild one.

#20 Boise State at Colorado State

3:30 PM

Boise State is hoping that the winner of the previous game will end up losing the conference championship game as that would leave the Broncos as, probably, the team going to the Cotton Bowl. That’s if they can get by Colorado State who will not be going bowling this year but at least improved on last season.

Washington State at Washington

4:00 PM

For the first time in a long time, this game means nothing. Both teams sit at 6-5, are going bowling, and have no chance in the Pac-12 North. FOX is 0-for-2 today with their selections.

West Virginia at TCU

4:15 PM

TCU needs this one as they are at five wins. The Mountaineers are at four so will be home for the holidays. So it really is all about the Horned Frogs and if they can slip into bowl season.

UCF at USF

8:00 PM

In the past this had been one of the games of the weekend. This year, instead, we get a game that has no bearing on anything. UCF is going bowling; USF is not. Charlie Strong might be out as Bulls head coach after this one so that will be discussed a mere ten thousand times during the telecast. This is part of the doubleheader on TSN2 on Black Friday which constitutes the only games on TSN on Black Friday.

Saturday Early

#4 Georgia at Georgia Tech

Noon

This tends to be the issue with this weekend of college football. Games that have very little stakes end up on big-time networks like ABC or FOX or ESPN because of contracts with the conferences. My guess is this is the case here. Georgia needs to win but probably will anyway but their spot in the College Football Playoff hinges more on the SEC Championship game against LSU. Also, with The Game at Noon as well, no point in putting a huge matchup here on ABC.

#1 Ohio State at #13 Michigan

Noon

This is a massive game (as it has been recently) with a lot of different scenarios in play. An Ohio State win almost guarantees that they would be in the CFP no matter what happens in the Big Ten Championship. It also makes it so TTUN has no chance of being in the NY6. A Wolverine win may put Michigan into the New Year’s Six and may knock the Buckeyes down to the NY6. tOSU has won the Big Ten East already so they may still end up in the CFP even with a loss here. So much riding on this game. This is arguably FOX’s Game of the Year and, of course, in the Noon timeslot. I am surprised College Gameday hasn’t started already although since it’s in Minneapolis they will probably just do the normal three hours.

Indiana at Purdue

Noon

This game means nothing except that it’s for the Old Oaken Bucket. Purdue is out, Indiana is in. INdiana if you will. Otherwise there’s no other stakes here.

#3 Clemson at South Carolina

Noon

TSN with a really weak schedule considering what they have done in the previous few years. This sucks for people that don’t have the specialty pack. South Carolina is strictly playing for pride here. They beat Clemson here and they have state supremacy and make it so Clemson has no chance at the College Football Playoff. Clemson has to win out no matter what.

FIU at Marshall

Noon

Both of these teams are bowl-eligible but will not go to the conference championship game. There are better options at this timeslot unless this game is close late.

Tulsa at East Carolina

Noon

Sweet Jesus. Both teams are home for the holidays. I wouldn’t bother. I mean I will end up somehow watching at least three minutes of it but I don’t recommend it to anyone.

Louisville at Kentucky

Noon

Again, another game that means very little except state pride. Nice to see the Cards playing well again as Scott Satterfield has to be considered a Coach of the Year candidate.

Northwestern at Illinois

Noon

How the tables have turned. This time around it’s the Illini that are bowl-eligible and the Wildcats who are out of the fun. I wonder if Pat Fitzgerald is now on the hot seat in Evanston, a sentence I didn’t think I would ever say.

Wake Forest at Syracuse

12:30 PM

Wake needs the win here to have any chance of getting into the New Year’s Six in the Orange Bowl spot. Syracuse was a massive disappointment and are not bowling this season. Don’t see this game up yet but it should show up on the specialty pack soon enough.

Saturday Afternoon

UConn at Temple

3:00 PM

Good God really? Temple is in, UConn is most definitely not. Look elsewhere.

#12 Wisconsin at #8 Minnesota

3:30 PM

This is for the Big Ten West. College Gameday is in Minneapolis. This really is the biggest game in Minnesota Golden Gophers history (unless they win and it will be next week’s game). The loser of this game is probably eliminated from the New Year’s Six as well. Minny needs this for any shot at the College Football Playoff.

#5 Alabama at #15 Auburn

3:30 PM

I kind of hope the Tigers can keep things close here just so CBS has a good game to air. Auburn winning means they have a good chance at the New Year’s Six. A Bama win has to be convincing since it is their last game before whatever bowl they go to. It’s their only chance (other than chaos above them) at the CFP.

Miami at Duke

3:30 PM

Man a lot of these games mean nothing. This is another one. Unless there is another eight-lateral-kickoff-return-touchdown at the end, this may not be your best option.

#9 Baylor at Kansas

3:30 PM

Baylor’s last regular season game and a must-win to keep their slim College Football Playoff hopes alive. Kansas, despite improvement, is not bowl-eligible.

Rutgers at #10 Penn State

3:30 PM

A Penn State win here probably clinches a bid to either the Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl. Rutgers is Rutgers.

Boston College at Pittsburgh

3:30 PM

Hey a game that actually means something, at least for one team. The Eagles need a win or else they do not play in a bowl game and it might be the end of Steve Addazio in Chestnut Hill. Pitt has nothing to play for and at least they aren’t going to the ACC Championship somehow.

Maryland at Michigan State

3:30 PM

For the first time in a long time, the Spartans are fighting for their bowl lives on the final weekend of the season. Maryland, who was in the Top 25 at one point this season, will finish 3-9 with a loss.

Southern Miss at Florida Atlantic

3:30 PM

The Conference USA West Division title hinges quite a bit on this game (but not all of it). FAU is already going to the Conference USA Championship for the second time in three seasons. But Southern Miss has to win this and hope Louisiana Tech loses. If that happens, they will replay this game the following weekend. If they lose, LaTech and UAB both have a chance to win the division title where the tiebreaker is probably a game of rock, paper, scissors.

Tulane at SMU

4:00 PM

Both teams here are bowl-eligible. SMU, despite their breakout season, will not be going to the AAC Championship. Neither will Tulane obviously as improvement is slow-going in New Orleans.

#16 Notre Dame at Stanford

4:00 PM

Do the Irish have a chance to go to the New Year’s Six? Yes but it’s slim. A huge win over Stanford here would help. The Cardinal are home for bowl season for the first time in quite a few years. Actually it has never happened under David Shaw and it was way back during Jim Harbaugh’s second season on The Farm.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee

4:00 PM

Tennessee could end up 7-5. That feels wrong. But they have done well under Jeremy Pruitt and they may have finally found their way back up to the top of the SEC East. Vandy will have to make a decision on Derek Mason after the season is over.

Oregon State at #14 Oregon

4:00 PM

The Civil War! On Pac-12 Network. Alright then. The Beavs have to be heartbroken after last Saturday’s loss to Washington State. But they can make up for it with a win here that would make them bowl-eligible and they would do it against their state rival. Oregon doesn’t need a win here, per se, but it would basically guarantee them the Rose Bowl spot.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

North Carolina at NC State

7:00 PM

This game means everything to the Tar Heels. Win and they are going bowling which is a huge turnaround from the last two years of Larry Fedora’s term as head coach. Mack Brown has done wonders with the program and infused it with a sense of confidence not seen in a long time. The Wolfpack will try to play spoiler as they have seriously disappointed this year and will not be going to a bowl game.

Texas A&M at #2 LSU

7:00 PM

Chances are LSU romps in this one. No way it will be the 74-72 slugfest of last year and not only because the overtime rules have changed. Who am I kidding, there’s always a chance. But it’s a very slim one as the Aggie defense has to stop the potent LSU offense in what will probably end up being a tune-up for the Tigers on their way to Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

Navy at Houston

7:00 PM

This could be massive…if Memphis loses to Cincinnati on Black Friday. Otherwise it means nothing has Navy and Houston are going in opposite directions this season.

#23 Iowa State at Kansas State

7:00 PM

Two 7-4 teams playing in weather that will be frigid at best. There’s a chance for footbaw weather and if that’s the case would probably be a fun watch.

ULM at Louisiana

7:30 PM

The one time Louisiana gets a primetime national spot and it’s for a game that means little. They have clinched the Sun Belt West division and will meet Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Championship. For ULM it’s a big deal since a win means bowl eligibility as they continue to improve under Matt Viator.

Florida State at #11 Florida

7:30 PM

Wow. If you had told me that Florida State and Florida would end up on the SEC Network on the final weekend of the season I would have thought you were trying to troll the fans of those two schools. But here we are. Game means little except for pride and perhaps the final push for Odell Haggins to keep the head coaching position on a permanent basis.

Colorado at #6 Utah

7:30 PM

Colorado must win this game to become bowl-eligible. Of all games, this one. Up against Utah who has dreams of the College Football Playoff dancing in their heads. Can’t see a bump up from #6 unless something happens above them (or the Utes throttle the Buffs) so really it all comes down to next Friday night’s Pac-12 Championship game. Win that and, in my opinion, they have to garner serious consideration for the Top 4. No guarantees though.

#7 Oklahoma at #21 Oklahoma State

8:00 PM

FOX has done a lot better with their games today than on Black Friday that is for sure. The Sooners need this win badly if they want to have any chance at the College Football Playoff. Hell, a loss here even hurts their New Year’s Six chances so a lot on the line here for them. For the Pokes, it’s spoilin’ time.

BYU at San Diego State

9:00 PM

So for like the fourth straight year, CBS Sports Network shows college basketball after their afternoon game and then goes to this odd timeslot in the evening. And they have always been unlucky with it as everyone of those games have been unimportant. This one is no different as both teams are bowling anyway with the Cougs already slotted into the Hawaii Bowl.

Arizona at Arizona State

10:00 PM

Usually the Territorial Cup has something to it other than bragging rights. Like a broken record, I will reiterate that this game is really not that important in the grand scheme of things.

Fresno State at San Jose State

10:30 PM

Both teams are not going bowling so not much in terms of stakes here. Not that people have other great options so if it’s close it will get some eyeballs.

California at UCLA

10:30 PM

Man I know the end of this day is usually a mild ending but this is ridiculous. There’s like no games that mean anything but I guess it does allow people to get to bed after all that football they have watched.

Army at Hawaii

12:30 AM

Uh, check the starting time. 12:30 in the morning. AFTER midnight! Wow. If you stay up and watch this you are a true college football fan. I’ll see if my body can handle doing this since that means being up until almost 4 in the morning.

Some gambling fun and games

No point in having the Games of the Week section since I went through every game that could be televised above. With the amount of games that do have stakes this post would be so ridiculously long, even longer than my last post that was long on purpose. I called the Navy win over SMU last week which I am proud of but goofed on the Texas over Baylor pick. Hey, you can’t win em all right? This is a special few days so you get more picks from the Bossman. Here we go.

Mississippi State over Ole Miss

Virginia over Virginia Tech

Toledo over Central Michigan

Nebraska over Iowa (upset!)

Memphis over Cincinnati

Boise State over Colorado State

TCU over West Virginia

Georgia over Georgia Tech

Michigan over Ohio State (yes, I am going out on a massive limb here)

Clemson over South Carolina

Wake Forest over Syracuse

Wisconsin over Minnesota

Alabama over Auburn

Baylor over Kansas

Penn State over Rutgers

Pittsburgh over Boston College

Michigan State over Maryland

Florida Atlantic over Southern Miss

Notre Dame over Stanford

Oregon over Oregon State

NC State over North Carolina

LSU over Texas A&M

Navy over Houston

Louisiana over ULM

Utah over Colorado

Oklahoma over Oklahoma State

Army over Hawaii

Plan your days accordingly. Otherwise you will get nothing done. In the end though…FOOTBAW!

NFL Turkey Day games are here as well! Here are your details of these three games today:

Chicago at Detroit (12:30, FOX, CTV2, TSN4/5)
Buffalo at Dallas (4:00, CBS, CTV2, TSN4/5)
New Orleans at Atlanta (8:00, NBC, CTV2, TSN4/5)

I am so damn excited for all this football. Hope you are too. Enjoy the games everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2019 College Football Season – Part Tres

Posted on June 5, 2019 by guelphbossman

No pic. Just straight Nostradamus-like scheduling action. You know, if Nostradamus was right like 4% of the time. Let’s just get on with this blog post shall we? It’s the nitty-gritty part of conference play right here. I would say the meat of the college football season sandwich but that is incorrect. Let’s just say really good toppings like onions or jalapenos. Here we go!

Week 8

Game of the Week: Michigan at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – Is it crazy to think we could have another instance of the Big Ten East coming into the season with four teams in the Top 15? I say no. Penn State and Michigan State are a step below Michigan which is a step below Ohio State but I can still foresee this being the case. I mean one of these teams will surely drop like a stone (somewhat), right?

Other Really Important Games: LSU at Mississippi State (3:30, CBS) – Joe Moorhead has kept the Bulldogs going after the departure of Dan Mullen. No easy task for sure. I also like the fact he has lost a lot of weight doing intermittent fasting, something I have started doing myself. Definitely gives me hope since it’s not easy. As Moorhead put it when asked how he gets to the time when he can eat, “Water and hope.” Don’t be surprised if Florida-South Carolina ends up here instead although a lot will have to do with how LSU and Florida are doing and not really the other two teams.

Ohio State at Northwestern (Friday, 8:30, FOX Sports One) – At one point, the rumour was that ABC would have air this one on a Friday night. It would be ABC’s first Friday night college football telecast that wasn’t after American Thanksgiving in God knows how long. And honestly it would have been warranted. Instead, to the chagrin of college football fans in Canada, it will air on FOX Sports One. Talk about a kick in the junk.

Oregon at Washington (7:30, FOX Sports One) – Fuck, two in a row? OK let’s not get too pissed off here: this is just a guess remember. So this game could end up on FOX for all we know. Or it could end up on TSN. We just don’t know. Hell, I am still a bit worried about the ACC Network’s entry into the fray this season.

Florida at South Carolina (7:00, specialty pack) – This should be a competitive match. Operative word being should be. Florida is supposed to be seriously good so we will know by now whether the Gators are a Top 10 team with national championship aspirations or barely a Top 25 team who was overhyped and overrated. At this point I have no TSN games this week. It’s happened often before. Not as much lately though so this may end up there.

Tennessee at Alabama (Noon, specialty pack) – OK this game…

West Virginia at Oklahoma (3:30, FOX) – …and this game…

Kentucky at Georgia (7:30, specialty pack) – …and this game are here for one reason. The road teams are all pretty good teams; one coming off a seriously good season (especially for their program), one who should still be good but lost key parts (like their quarterback and head coach) and one who is on the precipice of getting back to some semblance of the glory days. Problem is they are playing three of the best teams in college football. The reason these games are here is because an upset, while not crazy, would seriously upset the college football apple cart.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: UCLA at Stanford (Thursday, 9:00, specialty pack) – Alright hear me out. Stanford has been at least good for about, what, a decade now? And they aren’t about to stop. It will only take a matter of time for Chip Kelly to get the players he wants playing the system he wants and it may end up being a version of his Oregon teams all over again. Or, and hear me out again, this could all blow up in my face and I look like a complete idiot. Either or.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at BYU (10:30, specialty pack) – Nice to see BYU back in this spot and yes, I do consider BYU a Group of Five team despite their national championship in ’84 and the fact that most years they are a very competitive team, even with Power Five schools. But in 2019, you really can’t make the argument that they should be considered a Power Five team. Maybe in their own spot between the two groups but not a full-fledged member.

Worst Power Five Game: Oregon State at California (11:00, Pac-12 Network) – Wow that’s…..that’s pretty bad.

Week 9

Game of the Week: Notre Dame at Michigan (Noon, ABC/TSN1) – I have this game on ABC as of right now (and TSN1). But I do wonder if FOX will try their best to get this game. Considering their best game will usually be at Noon this season and this is one of the three Games of the Week it does make a lot of sense. And no I am not being a Big Ten homer or Notre Dame homer by saying this. These two programs bring in a lot of viewers and a lot of the time, that is the name of the game.

Other Really Important Games: Auburn at LSU (3:30, CBS) – Unless CBS wants to save one of these two teams for later in the season because of the cap on number of appearances (5 during the regular season) then there’s no way this isn’t the SEC Game of the Week on CBS…or the SECGOTWOCBS for those who love ridiculous acronyms. And Auburn will be happy with all this since it means they avoid the dreaded Death Valley at night when things usually don’t go LSU’s opponent’s way.

Wisconsin at Ohio State (3:30, FOX) – This has already been earmarked for FOX. I have it in the 3:30 timeslot but considering the importance this game may have, I can see it going on at Noon. By this point we will know of Ryan Day is more of a Lincoln Riley who steps right in and doesn’t lose a step or if he is a tOSU version of Luke Fickell who just can’t get it right and struggles mightily.

Penn State at Michigan State (Noon, TSN3) – The Big Ten has a LOADED schedule this week. Three of the top four games from one conference. Unprecedented…I think. Anyway, this is also a game that could end up on FOX although for now I see it being an ESPN game shown on TSN3 up here in the GWN (Great White North). This could be an interesting 12-day hold for FOX and ABC/ESPN if the five aforementioned Big Ten teams are all really good at this point of the season.

Washington State at Oregon (3:30, specialty pack) – Reverse mirror fun! I have this game pairing with UCF/Temple. I give the AAC game the ABC spot since that is the one we would get in Ontario. Go far enough west and that may change. This should be quite the pew-pew kind of game. And having Mike Leach coaching is always a fun time, no? Just don’t ask Craig and Adam James.

Mississippi State at Texas A&M (7:00, specialty pack) – This will take a big back seat to the Auburn-LSU game but don’t be fooled: this should be a damn good game. I don’t know if you can say either of these teams are underrated or overlooked anymore though. Neither of these programs can sneak up on anyone anymore. And I have gotten used to the cowbells now. Doesn’t faze me at all. Now if a team starts a vuvuzela tradition then I won’t be too pleased.

Texas at TCU (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Another time where ABC’s primetime game isn’t near the top of the list. This happens sometimes because ABC has contracts with the Big Ten, ACC, Big XII and Pac-12 and all of them have to have at least 2 games (if I am not mistaken) on in primetime. Normally the Big Ten gets the rest of the primetime affairs unless a really juicy matchup from another conference falls in their lap. I am wondering if I should have some brisket in honour of this matchup.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Syracuse at Florida State (7:30, specialty pack) – Alright this is great and….of course it goes to the ACC Network. At least we get this right? I am crossing my fingers that Rogers and Bell don’t fuck this up.

Best Group of Five Game: UCF at Temple (3:30, ABC) – The other half of one of the better reverse mirrors in recent memory. I assume that if this comes to fruition that this is the game we would get in the eastern part of the country. Temple has to break in a new coach this season. It was supposed to be Manny Diaz and then 17 days later he bolted back to Miami for what he considered his dream job. So coaches can leave on a whim yet players have to sit out a year unless they are graduate students. Yeah makes perfect sense, right? Anyway, they ended up poaching Rod Carey from Northern Illinois so they weren’t fully left out in the dust. Carey had been one of the better MAC coaches in his time there.

Worst Power Five Game: Texas Tech at Kansas (3:00, FOX Sports One) – This was the exact same matchup last year in this spot (although last year it was Week 8, not Week 9). I can’t see either team being any good so this is an easy choice. I feel good for them though since they were upgraded from FS2 to FS1. Progress!

Week 10

Game of the Week: Florida vs. Georgia (in Jacksonville) (3:30, CBS) – It’s Cocktail Party time! For the first time, really, in quite a while, this could be a matchup between two Top 10 teams with national championship aspirations. Which is good since otherwise the results are all over the place and completely wacky and having nothing to do with the rankings of the teams coming in. So get whatever booze you like ready and have a couple while watching this one. Should be fun!

Other Really Important Games: Virginia Tech at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – NBC going with the weird 2:30 start times again. Just have to hope that both teams are as good as many experts feel they will be. Otherwise this should fall way down the list. So Brian Kelly and Justin Fuente: don’t make me regret putting you this high up on the list!

Utah at Washington (3:45, specialty pack) – This is the time they used last year for the late afternoon start on ESPN. I am just assuming it will be the same this year. Another matchup between the two best coaches in the Pac-12 not named David Shaw. One team might partially derail the other team’s season…this is what I would say if the Pac-12 wasn’t a God damn minefield to begin with. I wouldn’t be shocked to see no one come out of the regular season in this conference unscathed yet again.

Oregon at USC (7:30, FOX) – Again, I don’t have the answer to who gets first selection on which weeks between FOX and ABC. This goes up against the final game on this list so it’s not like one game is much better than the other (at this point). This might just come down to numbers: as in the number of times each conference gets games on ABC and FOX. So get out your slide rule (that was even before my time) or abacus (also before my time) and you can too can figure out all the weird intricacies of the college football broadcasting schedules.

TCU at Oklahoma State (3:30, ABC) – The Gary vs. The Mullet. Should be good. We hope. This should be a great Big XII matchup between two often overlooked teams because the Big XII has OKLAHOMA AND TEXAS and eight other teams (according to many people). Two great head coaches and maybe a pew-pew-pew offensive outburst? I’m game for some normal Big XII action!

Miami at Florida State (7:30, ABC) – How many times will Wide Right be mentioned? Over/under set at 4.5. I get it. It was a huge deal. But it was three decades ago. And these teams play each other every year. So move on to something else. Anything. I am sure Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit can think of something.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: West Virginia at Baylor (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – Now this….this should be a game where the over/under is at about 90 and you still think of taking the over. I hope they shoot the lights out since that’s what the Big XII is for right?

Best Group of Five Game: Houston at UCF (7:00, specialty pack) – I was tempted to include this in the Other Important Games of the Week section. This game could be that good and it wouldn’t surprise me if it somehow ended up on ABC considering this is one of the worst weeks of the college football season. This game might stand out as well if both teams come in undefeated.

Worst Power Five Game: Kansas State at Kansas (Noon, specialty pack) – If this was a really good slate of games, this game would be on FS1 or ESPNU at best. Instead I have this as the ESPN game at Noon. The Sunflower Showdown has also been relegated to one of the least important rivalries in Power Five football. Kansas hasn’t been good for a decade and who knows what the Wildcats will be like without Bill Snyder. Chris Klieman was a genius at North Dakota State so maybe he can pull something off and get a buzz going in the Little Apple once again. Until then, this is the spot you get.

So this section had a couple of amazing weeks and a not-so-good week. But it’s still college football dammit so I will watch. And when I finally move to IPTV it will get seriously out of hand. If I somehow have access to ESPN3 or ESPN+ it’s over for me. I might as well shut down my phone and tell my kids to head to their mom’s for the day at that point.

I gotta get on buying those preview mags! They have to be in stores already, no? If so, I will buy one and that will start me on my college football reading for the next three months. At least the Phil Steele one is ordered. Hopefully I get it before July. Otherwise it will be too late to find out who the complete liability is on the UTEP offensive line. College football can’t come quick enough but these magazines surely keep me occupied for much of the summer.

The CFL starts next week. I will definitely watch some of it until late August when it’s COLLEJ FOOTBAW time. I should really get to another game to be honest with you. Especially now with tailgating being “legal” it might be more fun. Either that or there will be more drunk people around the stadiums before games. I am fine with this as long as I remind myself to look down and dodge the random piles of puke every 50 metres. Enjoy the rest of the week everyone and I will get the final post in this series up as soon as I can.

Most Important Games of the 2019 College Football Season – Part I

Posted on May 29, 2019 by guelphbossman

I can finally seriously post about college football again! Not draft stuff: actual college football blog posts. It feels almost cathartic to me to be honest. Schedules are now pretty much out although games will change days as we go along. FBSchedules has started to release their popular (to me at least) helmet schedules. And I ordered my Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine. AND I am also looking to when other preview mags will appear in stores. So yeah, I am starting to think about college football.

Starting a lot earlier with the posts this year as well. And by a lot earlier I mean one day earlier. As for accuracy, do not take these lists as gospel. As the season goes on, it may turn out that some teams are way better than I thought and vice versa. It happens. For example, FOX has made it so the best games will definitely be the Noon games on their broadcast network this season. Not that we needed proof since this is what happened last year as well at least half the time. But let’s say that, for reasons that would always be unclear, FOX moved The Game (Ohio State vs. Michigan for the uneducated college football fan) to the 4:00 EST time slot and put, oh, Northwestern-Illinois in at Noon instead. One of two things would have had to have happened:

Northwestern is Northwestern and Lovie Smith somehow made Illinois a Top 25 team, or
To the pure joy of almost every non-Big Ten fan (and every fan outside Ann Arbor and Columbus), Ohio State and Michigan both suck.

So at this point I feel safe putting The Game there instead of the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, uh, I mean, um *checks Wikipedia* the Land of Lincoln Trophy. Seriously? That sounds so boring.

Disclaimer: Just so you know, some of the broadcast info may change between now and the time I do my network-specific posts. I said it above and I have to say it again. And I understand that. Bear with me. Or don’t. I don’t care. (Note: this disclaimer has been entered in this post every year since the beginning of Bossman’s Blog time…since I am sure people might gripe about my non-accurate information)

For the second year in a row, the Important Games list will be broken down week-by-week and then as per the following:

Game of the Week – This is my opinion of the game of the week. It may differ from your opinion. That is OK. Because the next part is…
Other Really Important Games – See? One of these games might be your game of the week choice.
Sneaky-Good Underrated Game – Some games are underrated. I will try to find one each week that could fulfill that criterion.
Best Group of Five Game – Pretty self-explanatory but has to have TWO G5 teams involved.
Worst Power Five Game – Just like above, except the opposite (with two P5 teams involved).

The “Other Really Important Games” section is the one section where the number of games I include may vary. In some weeks you will only see one or two. Others there may be like seven. We pretty much know which weeks will have better games and which ones won’t so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Let us begin the way I always begin this ordeal/exercise: the weekly rankings. Normally it is the same every year but, lo and behold, this year we see something different. Interesting… (remember, I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week):

Week 14 (November 30 – American Thanksgiving)
Week 7 (October 12)
Week 9 (October 26)
Week 12 (November 16)
Week 8 (October 19)
Week 4 (September 21)
Week 11 (November 9)
Week 6 (October 5)
Week 5 (September 28)
Week 13 (November 23)
Week 3 (September 14)
Week 1 (August 31)
Week 10 (November 2)
Week 2 (September 7)

First off, 14 weeks instead of 13. More college football? Sounds good to me. A couple of years back when Week 1 was huge, many wondered if it was a harbinger of things to come. Not so. This year’s Week 1 doesn’t have many huge games at all. To be completely honest, Week Zero has, arguably, one of the games of the year with Florida and Miami facing off. American Thanksgiving is back on top, beating out the second-best week (Week 7) by a good margin. Not to say Week 7 isn’t good. It is (along with Weeks 9, 12 and 8). But here’s the craziest thing. SEC Shitbreak Week is not the worst week though this season. Not even close! It is only the fifth-worst week. It may have got to the point that I can’t make fun of the SEC (and any other conference) playing FCS teams that week…oh come on I will still do that but I have to tone it down a bit. For the second consecutive year, Week 2 is the worst and it is the worst by a mile. I would honestly even rate Week Zero higher just because of the one good game. Problem is, they have two potential games of the year. Then the week falls off a steep cliff. It’s the secondary games that are making it look seriously bad. But it’s still college football so I will watch of course. I am sure Bell and Rogers will not show Week Zero games so fingers crossed the UF-Miami game ends up on a TSN station or two.

Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns. I will be guessing with quite a few of them, especially when it comes to TSN coverage. I will be using last year’s schedule as a basis for this but I know it won’t be fully accurate. Keep that in mind. At least the lists of games I will be presenting should, for the most part, be important games throughout the 2019 college football season. Let’s go!

Week 1

Game of the Week: Auburn vs. Oregon (in Arlington) (7:30, ABC/TSN3) – So I see ABC has moved to all 7:30 start times for it’s primetime games. Not that it matters to me since I am up until like 2 in the morning anyway but for many people, to have the game done around 11 is huge. By the way, this game is the biggest by a fair bit for Week 1. Means that the emphasis is back off opening week, somewhat. And what we have here is two dark horse contenders for the national title. A loss here is a huge blow to their CFP chances.

Other Really Important Games: Georgia Tech at Clemson (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – The ACC Network starts out with a bang as they scored this game for opening Thursday. Been a while since two teams that were this good played on opening night. It’s a lock that the Tigers will be a great team again this year despite all the losses on defense. It will be interesting to see how Georgia Tech fares in their first game under new coach Geoff Collins. The Ramblin’ Wreck could throw an insanely huge monkey wrench into the season right off the hop with an upset here.

Houston at Oklahoma (Sunday, 7:30, ABC) – Glad to see ABC continuing to do the Labour Day Sunday games still. Always nice to have some football on a day where there will be, well, nothing but perhaps drinking. I am very curious as to how the Dana Holgorsen experiment will go in H-Town. And I am sure the broadcasters will mention it a few thousand times as well. I can’t see an upset here but Houston is notoriously a tough out for most teams.

Northwestern at Stanford (7:00, absolutely fucking nowhere up here) – I am taking a guess here with this one as I have it on FOX Sports One which means Canadians would, for the most part, not be able to see it. FOX might decide to put this in either the 3:30 or 7:30 timeslot, however, considering that this week is weak. Stanford has no excuses now about jetlag and their body clocks being earlier since this would be an afternoon game most likely.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Boise State vs. Florida State (in Jacksonville) (7:00, TSN2) – This is going to be an interesting year for the Seminoles. They have had two bad seasons (in FSU terms) in a row. This is the kind of high-profile game they need to win. On the other side of the field, Boise State gonna Boise State. A win here and they take the early lead in the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six.

Best Group of Five Game: FIU at Tulane (Thursday, 8:00, CBS Sports Network) – Hear me out here. Both of these teams could end up being good, in a G5 sense. Butch Davis and Willie Fritz have done nice jobs here and hope to continue their ascent (and potentially a new Power Five job down the line). Also, this is probably the only time you will see FIU or Tulane in this list so enjoy!

Worst Power Five Game: Oklahoma State at Oregon State (Friday, 10:30, specialty pack) – Oregon State is here again in the Week 1 WGOTW (Worst Game of the Week). So it’s OSU Bowl II: Mulletmania this time around. The thing is this is better than the Best G5 game which pretty much never happens. Anyway, this will probably end up being late Friday night in the middle of the Labour Day Weekend-Plus Footballgasm so I can see it being easily missed. I mean I will watch it but that’s not saying much.

Week 2

Game of the Week: Texas A&M at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – Funny that this is the worst week of the college football season by far yet has two great games. I picked this one juuuuust over the next one. After last year’s game, this year’s one should get a lot of hype and who knows what Jimbo will cook up for his Aggies when they head to Death Valley. A TAMU win here blows the national championship conversation wide open.

Other Really Important Games: LSU at Texas (7:30, ABC) – I honestly thought FOX would try to snatch this one up. I guess they are looking at other games instead. Plus, their assertion that the best games will be on in the Noon timeslot means this may not have fit (and it would have been disgustingly hot in Austin for an 11:00 am kickoff). Anyway, this is another huge early matchup with College Football Playoff implications. Consider these two teams dark horses who could do serious damage to their more accomplished counterparts (Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively). The winner here gets an early jump on all the national championship hype. The loser will have their coach on an undeserved hot seat for a bit.

Stanford at USC (8:00, FOX) – USC should be back in the mix this season. And Stanford has David Shaw at the helm, still, so they will be good as well. It wouldn’t surprise me to see either team win here and take the early catbird seat in the Pac-12. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Clay Helton was put on a scorching hot seat by the local fanbase if the Trojans can’t win this one at the Coliseum.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: West Virginia at Missouri (19:00, specialty pack) – See what I mean? After Tigers-Longhorns, the game quality falls off a steep cliff with only Stanford-USC an important enough game to list. I had to choose between this game and the San Diego State-UCLA possible late-night thriller but went this way instead. The Mountaineers will not be nearly as good as they were last year. Losing Will Grier isn’t something you just shrug your shoulders and yell “NEXT!” to the next QB in line. You could say the same thing for Missouri and Drew Lock. So there is a possibility that a game that last year would have been like a 60-57 shootout with no overtimes will be a 17-14 defensive battle this time around. Either way it should be close.

Best Group of Five Game: Marshall at Boise State (Friday, 9:00, specialty pack) – This game was actually moved to Friday night to get a national audience. And rightfully so. A win for the Herd on the blue turf would be massive for a conference that has yet to put a team in the New Year’s Six. After this game is over, we will know if Boise is a NY6 contender or not.

Worst Power Five Game: Arkansas at Ole Miss (3:30, specialty pack) – With the CBS announcement of gametimes for the SEC Game of the Week this season, it looks like the ESPN sublicensing arrangement is over. So CBS, for whatever reason, will not have games for Weeks One and Two. I guess they have too much rodeo and dirtbiking to show on the main network. I guess it saves them from having to send an entire crew for this game.

Week 3

Game of the Week: Clemson at Syracuse (7:30, ABC) – This could potentially have national championship implications. No seriously. Clemson has a tough schedule to start the season. Syracuse is not a pushover anymore thanks to Dino Babers. And when was the last time Syracuse hosted an ABC primetime game? I haven’t done any research on this but I am going to say never. After actual research, I found out they played Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium five years ago in primetime on ABC. Other than that, I was correct. A pat on the back for me.

Other Really Important Games: Alabama at South Carolina (3:30, CBS) – If you don’t think the Tigers-Orange game in (not quite) Western New York isn’t the game of the week, maybe you are looking at this one. The only way this ends up possibly matching any potential hype is for the Cocks to keep it close and keep at least some viewers glued to it. At the very least it should be an amazing atmosphere as the South Carolina faithful are raucous for SEC games.

Oklahoma at UCLA (3:30, ABC) – If UCLA is better in Year Two under Chip Kelly, this could end up being quite the barnburner out at the Rose Bowl. If this game was in Norman I don’t even know if this would make the list to be honest. There are many possibilities as to where this could end up. Right now I am leaning ABC but FOX could pick it up. My thoughts are, though, that since FOX wants the best game to be on in the Noon timeslot, it effectively makes it so the Big Ten and Big XII are bigger gets for FOX (in their mind) than the Pac-12.

Florida at Kentucky (7:00, specialty pack) – I had pegged this as the SEC Game of the Week on CBS until it was just announced that Bama-SC would be getting that spot. Oh well this should still be good. You could make an argument that this might be the most important SEC game of the day (unless South Carolina pulls off an earlier upset). Nothing like seeing a great head coach named Stoops on the sideline. Mark? Oh yes. Bob? Absolutely. Mike? Um let’s move on.

Stanford at UCF (Noon, ABC/TSN5) – Will UCF be the Group of Five darling again? I’m just glad they aren’t claiming another national championship after last year’s bowl loss. But, until someone else steps like perhaps Boise State, they continue to lead the pack. This can be another program-defining win if they can pull this one off against the Cardinal. And we all remember what Stanford is like in Noon EST/9am PST starts right?

Florida State at Virginia (7:30, specialty pack) – Yet another appearance of a game on the ACC Network! Nice! The new network is getting a lot of good games early on which is probably key to their growth. And yes, both of these teams SHOULD be good. The Noles won’t be nearly as bad as they were last year and the Hoos will probably win some big games early on and be bowl-eligible again. This game is probably bigger for UVA since the Coastal Division is a bit more wide open than the Atlantic and the Clemson juggernaut. And by a bit, I mean a lot.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa at Iowa State (Noon, FOX Sports One aw damn) – Cy-Hawk! I can honestly see this game moving to FOX or being picked up by ESPN but for now I have stuck it here barring any new announcements. I wonder how long of an extension Kirk Ferentz will get if the Hawkeyes can win this one. I put the over/under at 11 years.

Best Group of Five Game: Miami-OH at Cincinnati (Noon, specialty pack) – To be honest, the early season doesn’t usually give us a bunch of good G5-on-G5 violence. The previous week has a huge Marshall-Boise matchup. The first week got FIU and Tulane of all teams. We definitely get something more like the latter this week. Miami-OH in a Game of the anything is a rarity. I mean Cincy could be scary good and will challenge UCF for the AAC East crown but this feels like it could be a blowout in the making.

Worst Power Five Game: North Carolina at Wake Forest (Friday, 6:00, TSN2) – Such an odd time for an early-season college football game. I can see it moving to the specialty pack so that TSN can show Sportscentre and probably Fishing with Italo Labignan. This is the weird non-conference affair between two conference foes that was scheduled a while back. This is the way some of the Power Five teams will get around the rule of having to play a certain amount of Power Five teams or something like that. And as we have noticed, not a single other program has gone this route since. Don’t want to say it’s a dumb idea but it honestly makes no sense in the grand scheme of things.

There you go. The first three weeks are complete. And it’s the first official blog post by yours truly for the 2019 college football season. We are getting close, friends. Only….87 days left? Ugh. That’s way too long. Have a great hump day everyone.

2018 Bowl Game Rankings and Predictions!

Posted on December 15, 2018 by guelphbossman

It’s almost Christmas. Meaning it is bowl season! And then college football is over. I guess I can finally get in shape in the college football offseason. But man pizza is so good…among other things.

I’ve decided to go back to the College Football Broadcast Ranking System for the bowls this year. It worked well this year and really spreads the games out between must-see even for casual fans and games that only true college football psychos like myself would watch. Let’s begin.

10 out of 10! This is Saturday Night on ABC kind of games

Game of the week quality. So the College Football Playoff and the best two New Year’s Six games land here.

Orange Bowl – Alabama vs. Oklahoma (Dec. 29, 8:00, TSN5) – Tua vs. Kyler. The Heisman Showdown. Tagovailoa spent most of the season in the Heisman catbird seat. Kyler turned it on late in the season and overtook Tua for the Heisman. This should be a very close, very exciting game. Now watch it be a blowout. My pick: Alabama 34-32.

Cotton Bowl – Clemson vs. Notre Dame (Dec. 29, 4:00, TSN5) – Actually it’s kind of nice that the College Football Playoff semi-finals are on the 29th and not New Year’s Eve. Maybe ESPN has learned from when they were on NYE. That was a disaster. It also stays away from the World Juniors which is huge on TSN usually up until dinner. Both semi-finals are good games but this will be the lesser of the two. Sorry Irish fans. My pick: Clemson 29-17.

Rose Bowl – Washington vs. Ohio State (Jan. 1, 5:00, TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) – Despite the fact this will be the Urban Meyer Story on ESPN, I am guessing it will be a good game. Besides, it’s Chris Petersen in a bowl game. That’s always fun! My pick: Ohio State 49-44.

Fiesta Bowl – LSU vs. UCF (Jan. 1, 1:00, TSN3/TSN5) – January 1st has the two best New Year’s Six games this season. But one isn’t the Sugar Bowl. UCF is back in the NY6 and looking to make it 27 wins in a row. LSU is almost in a no-win situation here but the Knights are good and people respect them so at least a loss wouldn’t look so bad. Also, no hot seat for Ed Orgeron! That’s a great Christmas present right there. My pick: LSU 45-38.

9 out of 10! This is the SEC on CBS quality…normally

Arguably the biggest game of the day but goes here because the SEC is never on ABC (at least as the home team).

Sugar Bowl – Georgia vs. Texas (Jan. 1, 8:45, TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) – One team who was close to ending Bama’s perfect season. The other team is back. This game won’t be done until midnight. I am going to be so tired at work the next day. Oh well, got to get my final college football fix in now while I can. My pick: Georgia 36-29.

Camping World Bowl – West Virginia vs. Syracuse (Dec. 28, 5:15, specialty pack) – This is the best non-New Year’s Six game. Not surprised the Mountaineers are in this game. But Syracuse? What Dino Babers has done in Western New York is very impressive. And I think they solidify arguably their best season this century here with a huge victory. My pick: Syracuse 38-23.

Alamo Bowl – Washington State vs. Iowa State (Dec. 28, 9:00, specialty pack) – And right after WVU-Cuse comes this game. Wazzu has to be the big favourite with Gardner “70’s Pornstar” Minshew and “Crazy” Mike Leach. But you never, ever sleep on the Cyclones who have had two straight good seasons in…well I don’t know how long. I don’t think it will be enough to beat the Cougs but it will be close. My pick: Washington State 36-34.

Peach Bowl – Michigan vs. Florida (Dec. 29, Noon, TSN5) – The worst of the New Year’s Six games and I think it’s a good one. That is not a popular sentiment here that is for sure. I know everyone and their mother wanted UCF here to play Florida. Well tough shit. My pick: Michigan 34-21.

8 out of 10! I’ll call this ESPN…on Saturday…or maybe Thursday night…but not always Saturday late night

Still really good games. Must-see for college football fans at this point.

Music City Bowl – Auburn vs. Purdue (Dec. 28, 1:30, TSN1/TSN4) – I know it seems weird putting an Auburn-Purdue game here. But the teams should be pretty evenly matched. It also means we get a ton of talk about Jeff Brohm going elsewhere or Gus Malzahn getting shitcanned despite the fact that neither of those things will be happening. Hmmm….maybe I put this game too high. Too late now! My pick: Auburn 41-35.

Citrus Bowl – Penn State vs. Kentucky (Jan. 1, 1:00, ABC/TSN1) – Kentucky has been so good this season. Mark Stoops has done a fantastic job in Lexington. But I honestly think the Nittany Lions, the best team not to make the New Year’s Six, will win this one going away. My pick: Penn State 50-30.

Gator Bowl – Texas A&M vs. NC State (Dec. 31, 7:30, specialty pack) – This will probably, technically, be the last college football game of 2018. Definitely for Canadians that is the case. I don’t understand how the Wolfpack weren’t ranked in the Top 25. Maybe that’s why I am not on The Committee My pick: NC State 29-25.

New Mexico Bowl – Utah State vs. North Texas (Dec. 15, 2:00, TSN2) – The first FBS bowl game of the season and it is arguably the best pre-Christmas bowl game. This might be your ARENA FOOTBALL BOWL GAME OF THE YEAR! So for the love of God, take the over. My pick: Utah State 52-47.

7 out of 10! This is FOX territory. You could move this up 1 if GUS JOHNSON! is calling the game

Most college football fans should watch these games but we are getting eerily close to the equivalent of a game where Rutgers is involved (despite the fact they are in a Power Five conference.

Liberty Bowl – Missouri vs. Oklahoma State (Dec. 31, 3:45, TSN2) – Former Big XII Warfare here. Missouri is just a better version of last year’s team. They can put a boatload of points up on the board but also give up a boatload. And I think offense is really the only thing Mike Gundy understands. For the second straight pick, take the over. My pick: Missouri 43-41.

Las Vegas Bowl – Fresno State vs. Arizona State (Dec. 15, 3:30, ABC) – The team that was one UCF loss away from the Fiesta Bowl facing the Fighting Herms. I will say it again; I was so wrong about the Sun Devils this season. How Herm didn’t win the Coach of the Year I don’t know since he damn well deserved it. Saying all that, I still think they will be boatraced by the Bulldogs. My pick: Fresno State 35-13.

Redbox Bowl – Oregon vs. Michigan State (Dec. 31, 3:00, FOX) – I have a feeling this game will be overlooked by many. Why? Partly because it’s on FOX and most wouldn’t look there to find a bowl game. Also, the Liberty Bowl may end up being way more exciting. Don’t sleep on this one though. This could end up being a great game as long as both teams show up ready to play. My pick: Oregon 28-21.

First Responders Bowl – Boise State vs. Boston College (Dec. 26, 1:30, TSN2) – The first bowl game after Christmas. And I honestly don’t think it will be that close. Cue the “Fire Addazio” chants and posts on message boards. My pick: Boise State 45-18.

6 out of 10. We will put NBC here because they have to go somewhere.

Let’s be honest, NBC has very few games during a college football season. Like seven of them. But one or two are REALLY big games so on average, you have to put them above some other networks right? Plus all the Notre Dame fanboys would have a shit fit if I put NBC any lower.

Pinstripe Bowl – Miami vs. Wisconsin (Dec. 27, 5:15, specialty pack) – These two teams met in the Orange Bowl last season. My how the mighty have fallen. Or almost-mighty I guess. I have to pick Wisky here just because of the cold weather. I hope it’s a skating rink to be honest (as long as there are no major injuries). My pick: Wisconsin 28-20.

Dollar General Bowl – Buffalo vs. Troy (Dec. 22, 7:00, TSN3) – Another good G5-on-G5 matchup. This one also has conference champions facing each other, only one of three games featuring that (the others being Bama/Oklahoma and NIU/UAB). This belongs with a couple other bowl games as the best pre-Christmas fare. Buffalo’s offense vs. Troy’s defense. Should be fun to watch. My pick: Buffalo 39-32.

New Orleans Bowl – Appalachian State vs. Middle Tennessee (Dec. 15, 9:00, TSN2) – I still believe a Louisiana team should have been slotted here. Kind of like Hawaii always playing in the Hawaii Bowl if they are bowl-eligible. It’s one true way to get a really good crowd into the massive Superdome. Oh well, this should still be not bad but the Mountaineers should pull away late in front of an OK crowd. My pick: Appalachian State 44-31.

Outback Bowl – Mississippi State vs. Iowa (Jan. 1, Noon, TSN2) – This has to go up against a New Year’s Six game and a really good New Year’s Day staple in the Citrus Bowl. It has to stay close to be considered a good game. I think it will be since Iowa is underrated in my estimation. My pick: Mississippi State 45-38.

5 out of 10. Some hot ESPN2/ESPNU/SEC Network action right here!

These are the networks I really love to be honest with you. They provide a shit-ton of football on the specialty pack and at least once a week you get a great game on it. Well a great finish at least which is what we might have to hope for with this group of games.

Sun Bowl – Stanford vs. Pittsburgh (Dec. 31, 3:00, CBS) – Pitt came close to winning the ACC Championship. And by close I mean Clemson beat them pretty bad after the Panthers kept it close in bad weather for a half. This may be one of David Shaw’s worst Stanford teams. That’s pretty amazing considering they still made a bowl game with ease. My guess is about 15,000 show up to see this one. My pick: Stanford 29-27.

Birmingham Bowl – Wake Forest vs. Memphis (Dec. 22, Noon, TSN1/TSN3) – Luckily for this bowl game, it has been usually a good game in the past. Sucks that it is played in a dump like Legion Field but it could be worse. They could be at the Trop. Back to the game, this should be relatively evenly matched and that’s the only reason it would be this high on the list. My pick: Wake Forest 32-27.

Boca Raton Bowl – Northern Illinois vs. UAB (Dec. 18, 7:00, TSN5) – UAB should mop the floor with the Huskies. I mean they won Conference USA, they have the National Coach of the Year in Bill Clark. They are as complete a team as any in the Group of Five. But NIU stifled Buffalo who has a crazy good offense. So who knows what will happen here. I don’t think the Huskies will do it two games in a row though. My pick: UAB 36-10.

Quick Lane Bowl – Georgia Tech vs. Minnesota (Dec. 26, 5:15, specialty pack) – It’s the Paul Johnson farewell game. He is finally retiring after being an option legend for years. Minnesota has their own special coach in canoeing enthusiast P.J. Fleck who is light years away from retirement. Should be close but I love the option offense so I am going with the Ramblin’ Wreck. My pick: Georgia Tech 27-20.

4 out of 10. I have to grudgingly put FOX Sports One here.

If we don’t get one of these games, one of them will be an AWESOME game and we will kick ourselves for not watching it (or not being able to). That’s how I feel with FOX Sports One and for God’s sake can we at least get the FS1 games on the specialty pack next season? Please? This will be like the third straight year I’ve asked this.

Belk Bowl – South Carolina vs. Virginia (Dec. 29, Noon, ABC/TSN1) – This is going to be easily overshadowed by the Peach Bowl on at the same time. Interesting to see one of the angriest coaches on the sidelines against one of the calmest. Gotta go Bronco in this one. My pick: Virginia 37-28.

Armed Forces Bowl – Army vs. Houston (Dec. 22, 3:30, TSN3) – Army has had a great run the last two seasons. I still contend if they had beat Oklahoma, this season changes immensely for the Black Knights. Anyway, they go up against an Ed Oliver-less Cougars team. Army should win in a walk. My pick: Army 52-28.

Holiday Bowl – Utah vs. Northwestern (Dec. 31, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – This could end up being a fantastic game. Who knows? We won’t until we see the highlights. My pick: Utah 35-30.

Hawaii Bowl – Hawaii vs. Louisiana Tech (Dec. 22, 10:30, TSN1) – This isn’t on Christmas Eve. Going to be honest: it feels weird. I’m surprised Nick Rolovich doesn’t get more kudos for the coaching job he has done out on the islands. Two bowls in three years is pretty darn good for a program that had fallen on hard times. They get to face their old WAC foes in Louisiana Tech. No wonder the WAC fell apart with those kinds of distances. My pick: Hawaii 38-35.

3 out of 10. CBS Sports Network or Big Ten Network type games. The whole “it’s about quantity, not quality” rule.

OK maybe I am a little down on BTN because I don’t get that network but how often do you see quality games on there? Same goes for CBSSN. OK full disclosure, I would watch the shit out of BTN games if I was able to get BTN because I watch way too much college football and that’s not a problem right? RIGHT? ANSWER ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Military Bowl – Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati (Dec. 31, Noon, TSN2) – Wait. This game gets pretty much its own timeslot and some of the games above share one? That makes no fucking sense. Look, if you have read my blog, you know my pick on this one. My pick: Cincinnati 42-17.

Texas Bowl – Baylor vs. Vanderbilt (Dec. 27, 9:00, TSN2) – Matt Rhule has done a fantastic job at Baylor. As has Derek Mason at Vanderbilt. Top quality coaches there. I just…I don’t know. It feels like a game that’s just meh. A game that would probably end up on ESPNU or the SEC Network anyway during the regular season. Nothing special. And to answer your question, yes, I will watch it. My pick: Baylor 32-16.

Bahamas Bowl – Toledo vs. FIU (Dec. 21, 12:30, TSN2) – First off, I hate that this is on during the day before Christmas. Dumbest. Thing. Ever. But nothing beats the sponsor for this bowl game. Makers Wanted. What is that? It’s an industrial park in Elk Grove, Illinois. Seriously. That could very well be the most insane sponsor for a bowl game ever. My pick: FIU 49-23.

Camellia Bowl – Georgia Southern vs. Eastern Michigan (Dec. 15, 5:30, TSN2) – I still wait for the day where Chris Creighton is picked up by a higher profile school. What he has done at Eastern Michigan is insane. Almost Bill Snyderian. That doesn’t matter here as Georgia Southern should destroy the Eagles (the other ones) with their option offense. My pick: Georgia Southern 38-16.

2 out of 10. This is some ACC Network dreck over here.

This is the last year I can use this rating here. Then the new ACC Network will move up the chain. Which means something else goes here. I’ll figure that out when the time comes. But yeah you have to be a serious college football fan to watch these games.

Arizona Bowl – Nevada vs. Arkansas State (Dec. 29, 1:15, CBS Sports Network) – Last year this bowl had the New Mexico State Aggies. It was a great story to see them go to a bowl for the first time in 57 years. And the bowl game itself was great. Went to overtime. Fantastic. That’s why this game will pale in comparison with last year’s. No big stories like NMSU. My pick: Arkansas State 25-23.

Frisco Bowl – San Diego State vs. Ohio (Dec. 19, 8:00, TSN2) – I don’t know if these two teams have ever played each other. For the past decade, these are two of the better Group of Five teams but neither have been able to get over the hump and be considered the premier team in any year. Also, the combined age of the two coaches is about 140. My pick: Ohio 24-20.

Idaho Potato Bowl – BYU vs. Western Michigan (Dec. 21, 4:00, TSN2) – Another game on during the day on a weekday but at least it starts late afternoon. So not as bad as the scheduling of the Bahamas Bowl. But still not great. I think they do that to hopefully make it not nearly as cold as it could be on the blue turf. Two years ago it didn’t matter as it was ice out there. Thing is, it was one of the most exciting bowl games of the season. I kind of hope for that again. I am such a prick sometimes. My pick: BYU 39-37.

Independence Bowl – Temple vs. Duke (Dec. 27, 1:30, TSN2) – The Independence Bowl almost always falls down to this level (or lower). Poor Shreveport with their relatively shitty bowl. I mean there’s complete whiteout conditions and it produces a great bowl game. And for twenty years after that, I am sure everyone compares this bowl to that game and it never delivers. Well, almost never but it might as well be never. My pick: Duke 44-32.

1 out of 10. Or zero. I don’t care. It’s football. I might watch. That’s the best I can do. This is the FSN regional or ESPN3 game that, for some odd reason, magically appears on the specialty pack. Most of the time you didn’t need or ask for this game.

There is a good chance I am putting these games on the PVR. If they aren’t close I might watch about five minutes of them. There is only so much I can take. I am an insane college football fan and even I can only take so much. In April I will be regretting treating these bowl games like shit.

Cheez-It Bowl – California vs. TCU (Dec. 26, 9:00, TSN2) – Yes we have crossed the line when it comes to bowl game sponsors. Soon enough we will have an Omaha Steaks Bowl and it will be nowhere near Omaha. Worst part of all this? The players don’t even get a box of Cheez-Its in their bowl loot bags. Seriously? Give them some fuckin’ Cheez-Its! My pick: TCU 42-31.

Gasparilla Bowl – USF vs. Marshall (Dec. 20, 8:00, TSN1/TSN5) – So they finally took the game out of TropiCAN’Ta Field. Yet they still end up with a relatively shitty matchup. This bowl selection year was bizarre. I don’t even think this will be good as the Bulls are quite good and in a good G-5 conference. Marshall is OK but in a pretty shitty conference (overall). Watch it rain the entire time. My pick: USF 31-13.

Cure Bowl – Tulane vs. Louisiana (Dec. 15, 1:30, CBS Sports Network) – The worst bowl game of the bunch. Second year in a row for the Cure Bowl. And to top it off this has two Louisiana schools and there’s a Louisiana bowl on later that night. Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? Also, I can’t see this being too competitive. Man I am in a bad mood once I get to the end of these bowl games. My pick: Tulane 44. Louisiana 24. Attendance 10,000.

So there you go! The bowl schedule and rankings are done. So now you can enjoy the games!

And yes I know this is being posted after the bowl games have started. I will assure you that I have PVR’d all the games and have only watched the Celebration Bowl so far. Let’s hope a lot of the rest of the games are as exciting as that one was. Have a great bowl season everyone!

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

Posted on October 8, 2018 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

And now for the rest of the recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: David Shaw

Hey let’s storm the field (and give you the Week 9 College Football TV Schedule)

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Hey let’s look ahead (and also give you the Week 8 College Football TV schedule)

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Everyone in the pool! – Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

Best Group of Five Games

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Games

Worst Power Five Games

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Wednesday

Thursday​​

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Thursday