More like Mari-No Cristobal, am I right? And the Week 7 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on October 10, 2023 by guelphbossman

If you missed it this past Saturday, one of the most egregiously bad coaching decisions in college football history occurred.

Miami had Georgia Tech beat. All they had to do was kneel down with 33 seconds left in the game and they would have escaped with a win over the Yellow Jackets. Tech had no timeouts. This is about the easiest call to make. A horrible high school football coach could figure it out. Not Mario though.

The Canes instead ran the ball and fumbled. The fumble was close. Honestly, if it had been called not a fumble and the runner down initially, I think it would have stayed that way. Instead, Georgia Tech got the ball back and went down the field and scored a touchdown with only a couple of seconds left (that play alone was ridiculous as Haynes King seemed to scramble forever and then found a relatively wide open Christian Leary for the TD pass).

Immediately, some harkened back to Cristobal doing almost the exact same thing when he was the head coach at Oregon. Kind of the same situation where a kneel down would almost certainly have got them the win over Stanford. Instead, the Ducks ran a play, fumbled, Stanford recovered and would go on to win in overtime.

Whether Cristobal survives this is debatable. Even with Miami still at 4-1, some Canes backers will want him gone unless they can at least be ranked at the end of the season. Either way, that set of events will go down in college football infamy.

OK enough of Fumblegate or Kneelgate or Cristogate or whatever some idiot will come up with for this. It’s schedule time!

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee	7:00
Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State	7:30
Liberty at Jacksonville State	7:30

Here we go. Conference USA weekday action. All October. No Saturday games. It’s like somewhat southern fried MACtion except not as good. Also throw in a Fun Belt game and you got a decent night of football.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
UTEP at FIU	7:30
Sam Houston at New Mexico State	9:00

The latter half of the first early week Conference USA set of games. Nothing super important here although we will see if Sam Houston can get their first FBS victory in program history.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Wagner at St. Francis	7:00
SMU at East Carolina	7:30
Fort Valley State at Benedict	7:30

This is easily the weirdest schedule segment I have ever put on my blog. The first ever NEC game appears as Wagner travels to St. Francis. Also, a rare Division II matchup between Fort Valley State and Benedict. Why is this D-II game on this Thursday night? Hell, if I know but it’s football so I will watch.

Friday

		US	Canada
Tulane at Memphis	7:00
Fresno State at Utah State	8:00
Stanford at Colorado	10:00

TSN going with the late game and not the early game is certainly a choice. Two things though: CFL football is on in the early window and TSN probably wants to get in on the Colorado ratings early-season juggernaut.

Saturday Early

This is not as good as your normal Nooner schedule. It’s surprising since most networks are trying to avoid going up against USC-Notre Dame in the primetime window and Oregon-Washington in the afternoon window. And yet still, the best game in this timeslot is arguably Syracuse-FSU (although I think Georgia Southern-JMU will be the better game).

UPDATE: Syracuse-FSU has been added to TSN+.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
California at #16 Utah	3:00
#8 Oregon at #7 Washington	3:30
Wake Forest at Virginia Tech	3:30
UMass at #6 Penn State	3:30
Texas A&M at #19 Tennessee	3:30
Troy at Army	3:30
BYU at TCU	3:30
FAU at USF	3:30
Illinois at Maryland	3:30
Florida at South Carolina	3:30
Ohio at Northern Illinois	4:00
Iowa at Wisconsin	4:00

OK now this is a timeslot. A ton of choice. The undisputed game of the week lands here along with a bunch of other tasty college football platters for our consumption. UW-UO is that big game of the week (year?) and will have a huge impact on the Pac-12 going forward (and even the national championship picture). TAMU-UT could be low-key good and Iowa-Wisconsin might just be for the Big Ten West title. Let’s see if Iowa can put up some offense for once.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#14 Louisville at Pittsburgh	6:30
Wyoming at Air Force	7:00
Auburn at #22 LSU	7:00
Marshall at Georgia State	7:00
Arizona at #19 Washington State	7:00
#25 Miami at #12 North Carolina	7:30
#10 USC at #21 Notre Dame	7:30
Missouri at #24 Kentucky	7:30
NC State at #17 Duke	8:00
UAB at UTSA	8:00
#18 UCLA at #15 Oregon State	8:00

I already mentioned the big USC-Notre Dame game that appears here alongside UCLA-Oregon State which is another Pac-12 cannibalization game that I believe will keep the Pac-12 out of the College Football Playoff once again. You will notice that UF-SC is not on TSN+ even though it probably should be. I wonder if it’s an error in the current schedule as otherwise it would make absolutely no sense but would be right up TSN’s alley when it comes to college football broadcasting gaffes of the past.

UPDATE #2: Normally I would chastise myself for not waiting but didn’t have time to wait (thanks a bunch, Conference USA). Anyway, Mizzou-UK has been added to TSN+ as I thought would happen.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Montana at Idaho	10:30
San Diego State at Hawaii	11:00

Ho boy. Is it an interesting schedule? Sure. But there isn’t much meat on the bone here. It does give Canadians the rare opportunity to participate in the Hawaii Test though.

Hey, Watch This!

Oregon at Washington (3:30, ABC/TSN+) – I have mentioned the Pac-12 and how they tend to cannibalize themselves often. It’s happened a few times in the past few years already. And it’s already rearing its ugly head again. Wazzu beat Oregon State and then promptly lost to UCLA. So yeah, no guarantees for the winner here except the fact they should be in the Top 5 with a win and will remain among the (quickly shrinking) land of the undefeated.

USC at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – This might have been considered for Game of the Week if the Irish had been able to beat Louisville last Saturday. A Trojan win here keeps them in at least of a share of the driver’s seat to go to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Championship and conference supremacy. An Irish win and the Trojans cost themselves greatly and Caleb Williams’ chance at history could take a huge hit.

UCLA at Oregon State (8:00, FOX) – Man, this is truly the Pac-12’s week to shine. Five of the six teams in the games of the week reside in a conference that will be dead very soon. How sad. Anyway, the Beavers could put UCLA out of the mix at this point if they get the victory here. The Bruins would be the shock of the college football world if they could somehow make it to the Pac-12 Championship. It would also validate (finally) Chip Kelly’s hiring.

Missouri at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – I mentioned above that this game was not on TSN+ and only on the specialty pack at this point. That should change but until I see it I won’t post it. Anyway, this section drops off a bit of a cliff after the top three games. Both of these teams had their chances last week to make serious noise in the SEC. The Wildcats got blasted by Georgia and the Tigers couldn’t outlast one of the other Tigers in the conference (LSU). The winner here still has an outside shot at the New Year’s Six with the loser being relegated to the third tier of the SEC East behind the winner and, of course, UGA.

Sickos Game of the Week

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Every conference network has their share of, let’s say, not-so-good games and this is certainly one of them. The Demon Deacons aren’t nearly as good as they have been in recent years and the Hokies are bordering on awful. Luckily for these two teams, Virginia and Boston College exist in the ACC. Honestly, there really aren’t too many seriously bad games that we can watch here so this will look better than most of the games that appear in this spot this season.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

UMass at Penn State (3:30, Big Ten Network) – Good god. I wonder if the Nittany Lions can put an 80-burger on the board in this one. This will be bowling shoe ugly for sure.

Wanna Bet?

Look, I had Texas-Oklahoma being close. And it was. A great Red River Shootout as it almost always is. Some of my other picks….well…I’m looking at that Miami over Georgia Tech pick and shaking my head. Not because it was a bad pick: it’s because of what you saw at the top of our show. So let’s move on to this week and not dwell too much on the past.

New Mexico State 24 Sam Houston 21

Florida State 49 Syracuse 14

Michigan 54 Indiana 27

James Madison 47 Georgia Southern 10

Texas A&M 33 Tennessee 24 (mild upset)

FAU 45 USF 25

Washington 34 Oregon 31

TCU 35 BYU 21

Wisconsin 30 Iowa 10

Pittsburgh 31 Louisville 22 (fairly big upset!)

Kentucky 27 Missouri 21

Notre Dame 38 USC 35 (OT)

Oregon State 31 UCLA 19

Alright we shall see how busy I get. I am sure to wtch a fair amount of college football on Saturday but it might not be my usual all-day affair. I hate to say I hope for somewhat shitty weather on Fall Saturdays sometimes but I do. It gives me all the excuses I need to stay inside and be a slob and watch football.

Also, small apology for the blog post coming out after the games commenced this week. Starting the week on a Tuesday certainly creates a time crunch even with a holiday Monday. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

I think I want to be the football commissioner

Posted on June 11, 2022 by guelphbossman

I don’t mean commissioner of the NFL. I mean commissioner of football. All of it…ok maybe not all of it. I don’t really need to deal with high school football. For now. So no worries, Texas, you can still go batshit crazy over a game being played by 14-17 year-olds. When you say it that way, ugh.

So I will go through some of the changes I feel should be made to make various leagues better. You may agree. You may disagree. You may not care. Whatever. I’m bored and trying to figure out how to do the schedule posts in a slightly different manner this year so this is what you get, dammit. Let’s begin.

Just don’t bother. How there are multiple arena football leagues I will never understand.

We need to take out the rouge for punts. I think it’s a dumb rule and I get that it has been around forever but still. I don’t mind if the receiving team didn’t get the ball way out at the 20 or 25 but had to start at the 10 instead. At least that’s some sort of “punishment” for allowing the opposition to punt into your end zone. But other than that, I think it’s dumb. And would it be missed? Doubtful.
Get rid of the salary cap. Why does it exist? They make it sound like a couple of the teams are super rich. Newsflash: none of them are. It’s either that or have one player on both sides of the ball be excluded from the salary cap calculations. Something has to change there.
Now let’s to a bit of a thorny issue. Expansion. I know the CFL (and many of their fans) are very hesitant to talk about this after being snakebitten before. Problem is, the American expansion, outside of Baltimore was completely dumb and never thought out. A team in fucking Shreveport? Who’s bright idea was that? So I figured I would come up with some potential candidates over the next decade and explain the rationale behind at least considering these cities/areas. Let’s start with Canadian locales:
- Quebec City – This is the first and obvious choice to everyone not named the Montreal Alouettes. They “claim” Quebec as their own when it comes to the CFL. It’s archaic. They don’t like it? Fold. You’ve done it before. Yes, there are issues with Quebec City but I am sure they would gladly expand Telus Stadium to at least 20,000 to make it CFL-ready.
- Moncton/Halifax – Ah, the Atlantic Schooners. Ready to take the field in 1984. 1984! Yeah they missed by only four decades. Good job. Realistically, either city would have to build a brand new stadium since even the sites of the Touchdown Atlantic games aren’t big enough for a full-time CFL team. But it’s doable.
- London/Saskatoon/Windsor/Waterloo/Victoria – No, I will not put Guelph there. I live in Guelph. There is no fucking way this city would support a CFL team. And no, they really did not support the Ti-Cats when they were here for one year. Remember, there were only like 12,000 seats. So stop. Saying that, I would be shocked if any of these other cities in this point could do it as well. A lot would have to be done to get these cities ready for that, not including a brand new stadium.
OK so realistically there are two Canadian spots. Now, how about CFL American Expansion 2.0? Hear me out. There’s a way this could work. Let’s start with not having some of the teams 50,000 miles away from the Canadian border. There’s a good start. Alright, here we go:
- Portland, Oregon – This seems to be the most obvious choice for a south of the border team. If they could use Providence Park (home of the Timbers), it would be perfect. 25,000 seat stadium, not too far from the border, an almost instant rivalry with the BC Lions. And other than those aforementioned Timbers and the Trailblazers, there are no other pro sports and probably won’t be. So this could be a win-win for the league and the city.
- Fargo/Grand Forks – Yes, North Dakota State football is huge here. But there’s nothing else. For miles. This would be the only pro game in town and with two good football stadiums (domed as well) it would make for a great atmosphere. Are the stadiums a little small? Sure but I am sure at least early on they could get around that.
- Syracuse – This is an interesting one since the Carrier Dome (or whatever it’s called now) might actually be too big for CFL standards. Almost 50,000 seats so it would be around Commonwealth Stadium size. And that stadium looks like shit when it’s less than half full. So they might want to watch it. Along with Fargo/Grand Forks, there might be an issue with the size of the field and how they would be able to go back and forth between that and an American-sized field.
- Spokane – This is a city that I don’t think is on anyone’s list. They have a stadium big enough (28,000 capacity) and really nothing in the area in terms of pro sports. They are not too far of a drive from Calgary (Google Maps tells me seven hours…OK so that’s relatively far). It feels like it could work. And we see horrible weather in Calgary and Regina anyway for games so seeing 12 feet of snow for a game in Eastern Washington state wouldn’t be a tough sell.
- Utah/Idaho/South Dakota/Montana/Wyoming – Like any state in the West that has almost nothing going for it that’s actually near the border (somewhat). So no, no franchise for Vegas at Sam Boyd Stadium where the field is hotter than the surface of the sun. Be realistic. Honestly, these spots aren’t totally realistic but some of them have big stadiums (Provo, Salt Lake City, Boise) that could easily handle a CFL team.
- Milwaukee – Hmmm…this is an odd one. Remember, there was a time when the Green Bay Packers would play at least one game every season in Milwaukee. That’s when the city had County Stadium. I doubt the Brewers would allow football to be played in their probably baseball-only stadium so this might have to be ruled out.
There are other cities you could consider like Omaha or Norfolk or some in the Vermont/New Hampshire/Maine area but really those are longshots.
The other part that many will hate to discuss is a relationship with the NFL. Most don’t want it because “I don’t want to deal with those damn ‘Muricans.” Well, at some point, there should be an agreement. If the CFL isn’t going to partner with the XFL (which is fine), they should at least talk to the NFL about some partnership agreement. This would help the CFL in the long run. Rules don’t have to be changed to mirror the NFL: it would just allow players on practice rosters to get real game action which can only help them and their NFL contract holders.

My god where do I start with this. U Sports is a mess. It has never meant less than it does now. Apologies to all the athletes playing university sports (I was once one, myself) but this is ridiculous. It’s like no one cares anymore. If there weren’t students who, every so often, went out to support these football teams, I’m sure everything would be shut down. I don’t know what the answer is to be honest. Realistically, joining the NCAA in some capacity would be difficult and the rule changes would call for a lot of money needing to be spent at these football stadiums…money that some of these schools don’t have. Really, though, until every conference has a serious TV partner (and no, local cable is not a serious TV partner), then nothing can change. Not being able to watch the games has been a bit of a death knell for U Sports. And no, just having the final three games on CBC is not nearly good enough.

Hell, I could put any other spring league here as well like the AAF. Can someone figure out how to run a proper league in the Spring? Because it feels like no one has a clue. Here are a few things that almost need to be done:

Have one league. The XFL and USFL competing means, probably, that both leagues will cease to exist in a couple years. Figure this shit out and combine forces. It’s not like everyone is clamoring for Spring football. It’s obvious they aren’t. So watching two leagues will be done by almost nobody.
Continue with having good TV partners. This is one thing that these leagues have somehow done well with. Keep that up.
Do not use just one stadium for all the games. It’s dumb. And it’s Legion Field which is a shithole. Someone should get their ass fired for that idea. I get that it saved travel expenses but if that’s the case, don’t have a fucking league in the first place. Which leads me to my next point…
Regionalize the teams. You want two divisions? Perfect. Have the teams in each division, at this point, be relatively close. This way, travel costs are cut down immensely. So don’t put a team in Birmingham then have them in the same division as a team in New York. It’s stupid.
Saying that, have more than eight teams. If you have twelve teams, you can have three divisions. Home and away inside the division is six games. Either two or four games outside the division and that’s it. Short season, not a ton of travel, and rivalries can blossom inside the divisions. When the league is making some serious coin, then expand and go elsewhere.
Do what I told the CFL to do: have a partnership with the NFL. A real one. Ask for players from practice squads so they can get some game experience. It’s worth it.

I actually don’t have too many things that I would want to change about the NFL. It’s great. And they’ve done a great job with tweaking things as the years have gone on. Take a look at overtime. Now it seems as fair and logical as it has ever been. Yes, it took time but we got there. Saying that, there are still a few more issues at hand:

I have discussed this at length before but here we go again. Division winners should only be guaranteed a top 5 seed. They shouldn’t automatically get a home playoff game in the Wild Card round because they were lucky enough to be in a shitty division. Also, the best Wild Card team, if they have a better record than the worst division winner, shouldn’t be penalized for having the audacity to be in a division with an even better team.
Stop making pass interference a spot foul. Some of these quarterbacks heave balls 40 yards down the field hoping for this call and some get it which is absurd. If they want to punish teams more than the 15-yard penalty that is done in college, then make it a 20-yard penalty (or spot foul if it’s less than a 20-yard pass). But making it a spot foul is too detrimental to defenses and defensive backs for merely trying to do their job.
The fumble through the end zone rule. Good lord. This goes for the college game as well. That should never be a touchback. I don’t know what the rule should be but that is honestly one of the worst in football. The ball should either be returned to the spot of the fumble or automatically put somewhere, like the ten-yard line. Penalizing a team that much for a fumble that isn’t recovered by either team is preposterous.

See, not too much right? Oh and don’t put a team in London. Please. I am not a fan of the early morning Sunday games.

Man, where do I start here? For a game that I love, I sure do want a lot of changes. So let’s just get to them and hope it doesn’t make this post so long that I need to include chapters.

I’ve mentioned this before but don’t stop the clock for first downs in the first and third quarters. You’d be amazed at how much time can be made up with this. Drop ten minutes off the average college game and a lot less games go over that magical 3.5 hour window.
Let the players taunt. Who gives a shit? Horns Down? Perfect. Do it. What’s the problem? We want to treat these kids as adults then tell them not to do stuff like this. Can the professionalism argument. It’s not like it happens 100 times a game. Besides, you want to stop the taunts? Score on them. That shuts them up real quick.
There needs to be two separate kinds of targeting fouls. I’m not the only one who has said this and the NCAA seems to be waffling over this decision. I don’t understand why. If there is clear intent to injure (or more like it definitely wasn’t accidental), it’s 15-yards and a 1-game suspension. If it is accidental or deemed to be not egregious, 15 yards and the offending player stays in the game. I get that it becomes up to the officials to call this and it might not be fully consistent but you have to start somewhere with this.
Can we stop with making overtime ridiculous? If they want to go college-style fine. Both teams get a chance from the 35-yard line. Keep going until one team wins. No 2-point shootouts. Hell, no need to even go to two-point conversions only after a touchdown. That’s fine. If we want full possessions, give both teams at least one shot. If it’s still tied, then it’s sudden death. Why does this have to be needlessly complicated?
Now to conference schedules. Have every conference play a nine-game conference schedule. What this does is two-fold. It heightens rivalries inside the conference and also makes non-conference games that much more exciting since you will see 25% less of them (approximately). This lends itself to bowl games as well as you might see a matchup that has never happened before and this also piques fans’ interest in these exhibition games.
I think the structure of college football when it comes to the players has to be adjusted. NIL has been a good thing. It is, however, getting to the point where these players are just being given money by the schools. OK then. If we’re being honest, college football is THE college sport. Brings in more money than any other sport by a wide margin. So it should be treated differently. Like why are players forced to carry an entire semester schedule? This leads to some cheating, some taking stupidly easy courses, some even in degree programs that are useless. So make it so they only have to take two or three courses during the Fall semester. Remember, they can always come back after being a pro or once their college career is over to finish all the credits needed. This way, you’d have less problems with academics (I think) and coaches would kind of get their way but not allowing said academics to get in the way of fielding a winning program.
A better way to determine first downs. Lasers? Microchips in the footballs? Something. Anything. It’s 2022. Come on guys. And while you’re at it, goal line cameras at all FBS stadiums!
Finally, the bowl/playoff system. I’ve kind of gone back-and-forth on this and even done different scenarios in the same season to show how things could be altered as to who wins in the end. This is very tough. If there were only a few bowl games (like 20 years ago or so), then this becomes less of an issue. But with the sheer amount of bowl games, they have to mean something. I mentioned above that nine-game conference schedules would help in this regard as it would create a bit more uniqueness when it comes to the bowl matchups. I think, though, in the end, despite the fact that the playoff is here to stay, it’s not the best option. Why do I believe that? Because it won’t stop at 8 or 12 or even 16. It will go to at least 24 and bowl games will either be cut altogether or used as sites for playoff games. We know this. It’s inevitable. It may take three decades but we will get there. Does this make the sport as a whole better? I don’t know if it does. If you want the bowl games to matter and you want to keep the exclusiveness of playing for a national championship to very few teams every season, then going back to a quasi-poll n’ bowl system would work best. Do it the way it was back in the 80s and 90s but add the plus-one game. Or do the four-team playoff after the bowls. I am not saying the current playoff is bad because it isn’t. I kind of like it even though many of the semi-final games end up being crap. But when we start talking about quarter-finals and first round games, it may lose its lustre. Actually, I know it will. Will it change the sport forever? We will find out soon enough.

OK that’s about enough. There are more things I probably missed and things I, at some point, wanted to mention and just plain forgot. Oh well. My application is ready. I’ll send it off to….that’s probably the first thing I have to figure out. Probably ESPN. They run things don’t they? Anyway, have a great weekend everyone!

OK this is a new one – Week 4 College Football Recap

Posted on September 27, 2021 by guelphbossman

I don’t think I have ever seen something like this before. And it sounds like most of college football media had never seen it before either.

Let’s see if I can wrap my head around all that happened here. K’Vaughan Pope, Ohio State’s senior linebacker had been grumbling about lack of playing time. Totally understandable. So during this weekend’s game against Akron, Pope tried to enter the game but another linebacker waved him off. So Pope decided to head towards the locker room until someone from the Ohio State staff brought him back to the sideline. What happens next seems ridiculous. Pope gets back to the sideline, briefly argues with a coach, throws his gloves into the stands and starts taking his jersey off. He had a further conversation with another coach who then got someone to take Pope off the field and to the locker room. While the game was still happening, Pope tweeted “Fucc Ohio State.” He deleted that tweet, then tweeted “Good lucc to my teammates” (I see he did well in English class). Yesterday he apologized and instead of quitting said he was taking some time off. Ohio State removed him from the roster anyway. That is so completely insane. In a way, though, it speaks to the pressures some of these athletes are under. We don’t know how he’s doing in school or what his family life is like or anything else going on with him. Things could be going poorly away from the field. No excuses for doing what he did but there may be reasons behind it.

So yeah, some excitement at least in a game where Akron was blown out of the water by Ohio State. Normally I would do recaps of my predictions during this week’s recap but instead I will do just a straight recap of a rather insane weekend of college football. Let’s begin.

Week 4 Recap Time!

Fresno State 38 UNLV 30

Oof. For a good part of the game the Rebels were handling the Bulldogs and it felt like it would be one and done in the Top 25 for the surprising Fresno State. But they were able to get ahead and hold on for the victory and, amazingly enough, may be the Mountain West’s best hope for the New Year’s Six. I will be glad to say I was very wrong with my prediction for this team.

Oregon 41 Arizona 19

This was actually a close game a few minutes into the fourth quarter. I am not joking. Arguably, the worst Power Five team in the nation kept things close with a Top 5 team. The Ducks did make quick work of them in the final 12 minutes but still. I’d say this looks bad for Oregon and the Pac-12 but this isn’t shaping up to be a normal year.

Oklahoma 16 West Virginia 13

It was so bad this night for Spencer Rattler that Sooner fans were chanting for his backup and openly booing him. Worst part is he didn’t do that bad. One interception and a few bad passes and the fans made it out like he threw two pick-sixes in succession. I will say this though: this team does not look like a national championship contender in any way, shape or form. At least their defense was better, right?

Oregon State 45 USC 27

To the USC fans who gave me shit last week: you can all suck it. Kedon Slovis was merely pedestrian and the Trojan defense was fucking atrocious. It’s a sad state of affairs in L.A. (at least for one team). As for the Beavers, it’s a better start than most believed and they could be looking at 7-1 or even 8-1 going into November if they play like this. Another strange occurrence of this football season that is already starting to feel like the norm.

Louisville 31 Florida State 23

Oh my. It’s not a matter of if but when Mike Norvell will be shitcanned. I mean Louisville is turning out to be a decent team so no shame in losing to them. Let’s just look at the Noles schedule coming up: vs. Syracuse, at North Carolina, then vs. UMass. So they could conceivably be 0-6 when they host the Minutemen who are god awful. Will Norvell be gone by then? I think many Noles fans hope so, so that the coaching search can start sooner rather than later, knowing they will have to compete with at least one team (USC) for potential head coaches.

Washington 31 California 24 (OT)

The Huskies may actually be back in the hunt in the Pac-12 North. And it’s not like they deserved to win this one since they didn’t but the Golden Bears made enough mistakes to allow Washington to get the duke with the final mistake, a fumble near the goal line in overtime, being the difference.

Arkansas 20 Texas A&M 10

Man, the Hogs may be for real, folks. They built a 17-0 lead until late in the first half and then the defense took over. If you put money down on the Razorbacks being the team that might have the best shot to usurp Alabama in the SEC West then congratulations. Also, maybe you can help me with my NFL picks since they are, well, let’s say less than good.

NC State 27 Clemson 21 (2OT)

What a huge upset that has turned the ACC upside down…sort of. Clemson really hasn’t looked good at all so far this season and it showed here. Their offense can’t get anything going and D.J. Uiagalelei is not looking like the heir apparent that many thought he would be. As for the sort of comment, the ACC was already in a mess and this makes things worse for the conference as a whole.

Baylor 31 Iowa State 29

OK the Cyclones fooled a lot of us. Matt Campbell doesn’t look like the guy who will head to USC to try and turn around their fortunes. All this could change if ISU runs the table the rest of the way. The real surprise here is Baylor who, at the very least, looks like they will be bowl bound this season. Dave Aranda is showing why he finally deserved a shot at his own head coaching gig.

BYU 35 USF 27

BYU is slowly moving its way up the rankings. They may regret allowing the Bulls to get so close but if they keep winning then the New Year’s Six is a lock for them.

Bowling Green 14 Minnesota 10

Ouch. The same team that went toe-to-toe with Ohio State for three quarters earlier this season looked overmatched against who I (and some others) thought would be the worst team in FBS this season. This also hurts Ohio State as their win over Minnesota may mean almost nothing if the Gophers continue to struggle.

Arizona State 35 Colorado 13

Hey, the Buffaloes finally scored a touchdown! I don’t think anyone thought they’d be as good as last year’s surprise showing but the offense is putrid in Boulder. Arizona State, on the other hand, is motoring along and could luck out based on everyone else in their division struggling at times so far this season.

UTSA 31 Memphis 28

This was a great game that not many people would have ended up watching (even though they could have). The Roadrunners are the surprise Group of Five team for some but I figured they’d be really good. OK, not this good. Honestly, they may very well be a game against UAB later this season away from a perfect regular season and a potential New Year’s Six bowl. This all for a program that didn’t start playing football until 2011.

Notre Dame 41 Wisconsin 13

It looked close for three quarters. We were getting ready for a fantastic fourth quarter at Soldier Field. Then the Fighting Irish went crazy, scoring 31 points in the final frame to completely decimate the Badgers. It was a very impressive showing and proved this team could be a tough out the rest of the way.

Alright that was a fun and crazy weekend. How about a Top 25? Alright, here you go:

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

I thought of putting Boston College or Kentucky in the Top 25 but had Maryland, Wake and NC State in the final three spots. You could debate those five teams in any order and it would make perfect sense. I have the Irish at #6 and don’t understand how they are barely in the Top 10 of the AP Poll after their big win over Wisconsin. Yet Arkansas, who won by less, rocketed up 8 spots. How do you not think there’s an SEC bias of sorts when shit like that happens in the polls? I still believe polls shouldn’t start until after Week 1’s games are completed, at the absolute earliest. I am sure almost no one in college football media would agree even if some say they would because rankings are talking points and sometimes they need them when they don’t have some Tom Rinaldi-esque story to talk about.

So that was a great college football Saturday. It has been a great season so far. I hope I haven’t jinxed it by saying that. Have a great week everyone!

Well this certainly makes things interesting – Week 9 College Football Recap

Posted on November 2, 2020 by guelphbossman

Look I knew that Trevor Lawrence being out due to a positive COVID-19 test would be huge and would hamper Clemson’s offense a bit. But man, I didn’t think the defense would be affected as much. Clemson had to come back from 18 down to beat Boston College. This does not bode well for next Saturday night’s game against Notre Dame where they will be without Lawrence again. DJ Uiagalelei looks like the quarterback of the future but he will have to seriously step up to combat the Irish’s fairly stingy defense. Makes thinks a lot more interesting next weekend for sure.

Alright let’s get to the final recap that doesn’t include Pac-12 After Dark or MACtion. Things are really starting to heat up. Let’s go!

Don’t write off Oklahoma just yet. We knew the Sooners would have a bit of a tough road to even get to the Big XII Championship, let alone the New Year’s Six. The losses to Kansas State and Iowa State definitely did not help. I mean yes they didn’t lose by much and were competitive in both games. But a loss is a loss and even in this pandemic year, two losses pretty much ruins a College Football Playoff opportunity. As for the Red Raiders, who the Sooners destroyed, even with every team being bowl-eligible, I can’t see them being selected for one unless they win most of the rest of their games.

I think most of us thought Oklahoma State would win. And, of course, I was one of them. This game was all over the place but Texas was carrying things most of the way in the first half. Problem was it didn’t lead to, well, a lead. The Cowboys actually went up by 11 in the third. Texas immediately started their comeback with a kickoff return for a touchdown and then a long drive in the fourth to take the lead. The Pokes needed a field goal late in the fourth just to get to overtime. But man, they looked awful in overtime. Six plays that gained no yards. Brutal. This effectively eliminates the Big XII from the CFP picture…at Halloween.

Could Ohio State-Indiana become the pivotal Big Ten game of the season? Don’t be surprised. Indiana made sure that Rutgers didn’t get that Schiano magic once again (except for that eight-lateral touchdown that didn’t count that would have been one of the greatest touchdowns in college football history if it had counted). The Buckeyes are still damn good as they showed in holding off a game Penn State team. So this brings us to November 21st when the Buckeyes host the Hoosiers. As of this point, this looks like the most important Big Ten game of the season by a country mile. Are there any teams really close to these two? You could argue Wisconsin could be but we haven’t seen much of them yet after their game against Nebraska was cancelled due to a ton of positive COVID tests within the Badgers team. Other than that, nah. Tom Allen should get a big raise if somehow he is able to coax a win over tOSU from his Indy squad.

Let’s talk about Atlantic Coast Conference contender, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Brian Kelly has a damn good team in South Bend this season. Well, the offense is good, not great, to be honest. But the defense has been phenomenal and has mostly carried this team to a 6-0 record. The Irish are solidly in the College Football Playoff conversation. That will make a lot of people cringe due to their hatred of everything Notre Dame. But really, they are two games against Clemson (probably) from being in the Final Four. Georgia Tech is still improving…slowly. It takes time to do what Geoff Collins is doing in Atlanta and it’s a good thing to see he is getting that time.

Yep, Cincinnati is still undefeated. Not totally surprised but man have the Bearcats looked good this season. Let’s be real here: the Bearcats being in the American Conference will probably make it so they are excluded from the CFP. Saying that though, they are now #6 in the country. If a few things happen to the teams above them then who knows? Honestly, it’s not like the Bearcats have a tough schedule the rest of the way. If they can mow down the opposition and look good doing it, they may not fall out of the Top 10 and may be close enough to sniff that rarified air of the College Football Playoff which would be a huge news story going into December.

Back to Big XII Upset Watch. The other upset of the day in the Big XII came in Morgantown. The West Virginia Mountaineers kept Kansas State from doing much of anything all day and ran away with a huge win. This may have ruined KSU’s chances of getting to the Big XII Championship but considering the way the conference has been this year, who the fuck even knows anymore. I am sure Drunk Uncle Dana was at his Red Bull-infused best during this one.

Well we know there will be a new champion. Man has the bloom come off the rose quickly in Baton Rouge. LSU got boatraced by Auburn in a game that was never close. And it’s not like Auburn is great because they aren’t. Bo Nix has been underwhelming this season and yet looked almost like Auburn Cam Newton in this one. LSU’s defense couldn’t stop anything. Again the SEC on CBS was a complete waste of time to watch. Maybe it’s not a bad thing the contract will be going to another network in a few years.

Yes, a Mike Leach team didn’t score a point. Yep, it looks like it took one game for the SEC to figure out the Air Raid. Alabama toasted Mississippi State to the tune of 41-0. And that’s with Bama only getting two touchdowns in the second half. It feels like it was years ago when that massive win over LSU happened and it’s looking worse and worse every week…for both teams. The Pirate is going to have to do something slightly different or it could be a long year in Starkville for the Bulldogs.

How about the crazy finish in Tulsa? Or more like the refs robbing East Carolina? Tulsa never led until their touchdown with 29 seconds left. But it shouldn’t have even got to the point where the Golden Hurricane could take the lead. It had looked like Tulsa’s T.K. Wilkerson fumbled with the Pirates recovering the ball, essentially ending the game. Somehow the replay booth said Wilkerson recovered the ball when he hadn’t. This allowed the drive to continue and for Tulsa to get the winning score. My hope is that the replay official is at least suspended for that mistake since that cost ECU a victory. Problem is, the officials almost never get punished. And you wonder why people hate the refs. There’s one reason why.

Is Georgia any good? Like I honestly don’t know after this weekend’s horrible performance against Kentucky. They won 14-3 but the Wildcats are a complete disaster on offense so it’s not like the UGA defense had a tough fight out there. Stetson Bennett only threw 13 passes and had 2 interceptions. A horrible day all around. They should feel lucky to escape Lexington with a win. With the Cocktail Party coming up, the Bulldogs have to be considered the easy underdog here (no pun intended).

Lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllet’s get ready to RUMBLE! Oh man did you see that halftime brawl between Florida and Missouri? Florida players were pretty upset at a non-call when Missouri defenders should have been called for roughing the quarterback. Then Dan Mullen comes sprinting off the sideline at the officials, screaming his damn head off. This gets some of the players involved and then the fists starting flying. For football, it was quite the brawl. Then, as heads into the tunnel for halftime, Mullen acts like a babyface wrestler riling up the crowd. So fucking hilarious. I’m not saying we need more brawls in football because we definitely don’t. But Mullen to me is a great personality and we need more coaches and players showing personality (without getting violent of course.

Well the Tar Heels to the College Football Playoff train just crashed into a wall. Many of us wondered if the loss to Florida State was just a speedbump on North Carolina’s season. Well, maybe that wasn’t the case. Virginia’s win over the Heels means UNC’s chances at the College Football Playoff, New Year’s Six…hell, the ACC Championship game are pretty much gone. Don’t get me wrong: I still expect Mack Brown to get this team to seven or eight wins this year. Which is a step in the right direction. But they are obviously still a year away from truly contending.

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

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

Yes I have Alabama at #2. They have looked really good but compared to Clemson I don’t think they measure up…yet. Cincinnati is at #5 but we know what their schedule is like so this might end up being their peak ranking. The first CFP Rankings don’t come out for over three weeks due to this season being a bit of a mess. There is a possibility Cincinnati is barely in the Top 10 at that point even if they are undefeated. It’s just the way things are unfortunately. This is mostly because the Pac-12 starts their season (finally) this coming week and expect teams to move up the rankings rapidly if they do well. With the Big XII already a shitshow, there could be room for a Pac-12 champ in there if a few things happen above them. But there will have to be an undefeated season in there first. Without that, there is no possible way, in my opinion, that a Pac-12 team gets into the CFP. As for BYU I have them at #9 and the AP Poll has them the same and I feel that their ceiling is #12 or #13 unless a lot of chaos happens. This is due to their quite weak schedule which is an unfortunate byproduct of the pandemic.

Football. Every. Day. That’s right. Every day between Wednesday and the day before American Thanksgiving. And that day is the only day off between now and the end of November. Let’s drink it in and enjoy this! Saying that we are a little late to the party but we know what starts Wednesday night: MACtion Baby! If it wasn’t for the American election it would have started Tuesday night but hey, good things come to those who wait, right? Have a great week everyone.

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

Posted on October 12, 2020 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

And now for the rest of the recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

The worst rule in football (college or pro) + the Week 2 College Football Recap

Posted on September 11, 2018 by guelphbossman

God I hate this rule and it seems like most other people do. Let me set this up for you if you didn’t see it:

A little less than four minutes left in the game, Texas A&M with the ball at the Clemson 25. Quarterback Kellen Mond (who had a really good game) hit Quartney Davis in stride and Davis bolted down the sideline for the pylon. He fumbled the ball just before the goal line and it appeared to go out-of-bounds before the pylon. The officials thought otherwise. They thought it went through the end zone instead. It looked like they were wrong but there really wasn’t an angle that could conclusively reverse the call. So Clemson gets a touchback. That’s the part I absolutely hate. Normally a ball gets fumbled out-of-bounds, the offense gets the ball where it went out. Not so with the big, bad end zone. In that case you lose possession entirely. It is flat out stupid and one of the more serious “penalties” you can get. My thoughts are that the offense should get the ball but back out at the 20 or 25. So they are penalized by the ball going back out quite a few yards but they retain possession. Texas A&M ended up scoring a touchdown a few minutes later but would not get the two-point conversion and lost by two as Clemson just held on.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games. And the marquee games they had weren’t that good (other than the aforementioned Clemson-Texas A&M). Not to say there weren’t any big moments because there were. Let’s go through the week that was!

I have to admit: I was wrong about Arizona State and Herm Edwards. Kind of. They played well against Michigan State and won on a last-second field goal thanks to some brilliant clock management by Edwards. They have already won more games than I figured they would. I still don’t think they will go bowling so watch them now go like 9-3 and sniff around the Pac-12 South title. Because things go that way for me like this.
Kansas won a game…ON THE ROAD! Yes for the first time in a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time (46 games was the length of the road losing streak), the Jayhawks conquered a team on the road. And they blew Central Michigan out. Wasn’t even close. I mean they still aren’t a good team but this has to be good news for a fledgling program like this.
Speaking of streaks ending, how about dem Kentucky Wildcats? 31 straight losses to the Florida Gators. THIRTY-ONE! The last time they beat Florida, Top Gun was the top box office movie. Yeesh. Anyway, good on the Wildcats who honestly did look like the better team all night against a now panicking Gators squad. They still don’t have the quarterback position figured out. Until they do, Dan Mullen may struggle in his first year in Gainesville.
Hot seat time. Step right up Larry Fedora! The Tar Heels looked outmatched and outplayed against East Carolina. Yes, the same East Carolina team that lost the previous week to North Carolina A&T. The Aggies are a good FCS team but come on. Seriously? If Fedora survives this season it will be a complete shock.
Ole Miss put up 76 points this weekend. However, it was against Southern Illinois. Also, they allowed 41. The Landshark Defense this is not. I can see at least one SEC opponent putting a 60-burger on the Rebels.
Penn State recovered from their scare in Week 1 to blow Pitt out of the water. Not altogether surprising although many were wondering if the Panthers would be competitive and be giant killers like they have the past two years. They still get their shot later in the year with games against Miami and Virginia Tech.
The annual battle for the Cy-Hawk Trophy ended up being boring as shit. Iowa won 13-3 in a game that really wasn’t that exciting to watch and didn’t come down to the wire either.
On the other hand, Eastern Michigan stunned Purdue by beating them on a game-winning field goal at the buzzer. So maybe they are Purdon’t again.
Scott Frost’s debut was ruined by the Colorado Buffaloes as they won a thriller over Nebraska 33-28. It had the buzz of an old-school Big 8 matchup that many people loved (and probably why it got the afternoon ABC timeslot). Having that Akron game cancelled will probably come back to haunt the Huskers this season as I really don’t see a way (other than an upset or two) for them to get to six wins now since they only have an 11-game regular season.
A tale of new head coaches. Kevin Sumlin looking awful as Arizona obliterated by Houston. Chip Kelly not looking a whole lot better as the Bruins followed up a loss to Cincinnati with a shitkicking by Oklahoma. Joe Moorhead, on the other hand, had his Mississippi State Bulldogs run roughshod over Kansas State in a game that was never close.
What I thought would be the game of the week was a dud. Stanford beat USC in a ho-hum game that never really took off. At least Bryce Love got some rushing yards in this one after San Diego State buried him in Week 1.
Oh and how could I forget Florida State? The Noles got a MASSIVE scare from Samford of all teams. The Bulldogs led late into the fourth until FSU went ahead and then got a pick-six for good measure. Twitter was going insane at that time thinking it could have been one of the upsets of the century. I would have had to have agreed.

Recap complete! It actually turned out to be a pretty good weekend considering the shitty schedule. We get that every year at least once. I am assuming one of the other crappy weeks will give us some crazy game results. Anyway, here’s the return of the Bossman Top 25:

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

As per usual I am close to the current polls but have a few differences with one really big one. I have Georgia leapfrogging Clemson for #2 at this point. Clemson will have ample opportunity to move back in front but I think Georgia’s utter destruction of South Carolina looked better than Clemson’s close call with Texas A&M. Also I have Arizona State at #26 so just off the list. And Michigan State at #22. OK so some things are different.

Another recap done. Now with Hurricane Florence being a complete bitch and causing damage along the East Coast (especially North Carolina) a few games have already been postponed or cancelled with no future date available. I see another year where teams reschedule games for conference championship week which I hate. The reason I hate it is that if there are teams that are bowl-eligible and are left out because another team got a second chance to play a game that was cancelled earlier in the year, then that’s pretty shitty. Some programs desperately need the publicity, extra practices, potentially more money from going to bowl games where some programs can take a year off. Plus it creates scheduling nightmares and more games that we won’t be able to see up here so there’s that. I think that’s what we are headed for. Either way, the most important thing is that these people are safe in the regions affected. I know there have been evacuations already and there are sure to be more so hopefully it ends up being not as bad as many believe it will be.

Same old, same old with the college football schedule Thursday and the NFL schedule Friday. No NFL recaps this season. There are a ton of them on the web. Also, my fantasy team won big opening week. I hope I haven’t jinxed myself with that proclamation. Enjoy the week everyone!

And yet another huge injury – Week 6 NFL Recap/Rant

Posted on October 17, 2017 by guelphbossman

First J.J. Watt. Now, Aaron Rodgers. Both of them are considered among the best players in football right now. Both are now out with serious injuries. Now, Rodgers may not be out for the entire season. He has surgery on his collarbone this week and I think the hope is that he could be back late in the regular season. Without him, the Packers are just…well, average really. He is the one guy that makes this team go. And we all know what happens when you lose a star quarterback and have to replace him with backups without much experience.

So now the Packers have to go with Brett Hundley. However, we all know they are shopping around for a guy that can hold the fort until at least the last couple weeks of the season. Do they do the unthinkable and pull the trigger on Colin Kaepernick…ok that was REALLY bad phrasing. But honestly, this is not a situation where you need to sign a backup because you are down to your starter and that’s it for QBs. This is at least a 2 month thing we’re talking about here. There could be worse things to do than sign him. I don’t know how Packer fans would react to this to be honest. Then again, if they started rolling off victories I don’t think the shareholders (meaning the community) would give two fucks about who is quarterbacking.

OK what was that garbage during the Pats-Jets game? That overturning of the touchdown by Austin Sefarian-Jenkins was such a bullshit call it boggles the mind. Did he lose control of the ball? Yes. Did he regain control? It sure looks like it. And in the end, it doesn’t matter because the call on the field was a touchdown. You need (say it with me now) INDISPUTABLE EVIDENCE to overturn a call. We didn’t have that. At all. There is no definitive argument there. It’s like if they had called it a touchback on the field, how do you overturn it? You really can’t no matter your opinion. In the end, the replay officials botched the call completely and it affected the outcome of the game. The Jets probably would have tied it up. Then who knows what happens. If we can’t even get replay correct then what is the fucking point of having it?
Cleveland still sucks. I feel I could just keep this in every recap post from here on in.
What is going on in Atlanta? I mean I know these things happen but still. They were looking like world-beaters in the first three weeks. Like they had something to prove after last year’s Super Bowl debacle. Then they went up against a really good Buffalo Bills defense. So we give them some slack on that. Then they lose to the Dolphins? The Dolphins? Ugh. And now they have to go to New England in primetime. This is not shaping up to be the start that the Falcons wanted or needed.
Don’t look now but the Eagles and Redskins lead the way in the NFC East. It’s early but the Giants don’t look like they are doing anything this season and the Cowboys…well, who knows how they will react to the distraction that is Ezekiel Elliott. Now that he is/isn’t suspended/not suspended the Cowboys will have to adjust/not worry going forward. Easy right? Jason Garrett’s red hair is going to turn grey at this rate.
Maybe the Cardinals aren’t as bad as they have looked. A solid victory over the Buccaneers puts them back at .500 and in the thick of the Wild Card race (and perhaps even the NFC West race). Could Adrian Peterson, of all people, be the catalyst to a move up the standings? He sure looked more like the AP of old on Sunday that’s for sure.
And then there were none. Undefeated teams that is. The Chiefs lost a tough one to the Steelers so the 1972 Miami Dolphins can pop the corks a little earlier than usual. Which is good because then it’s less of a spectacle than when a team farther into the season loses their first game and guys like Mercury Morris remind us (AGAIN!) that they are the only true undefeated team. Thanks a bunch Merc. Now fuck off.
Speaking of the NY Giants, that has to be considered an upset for what they did to the Broncos on Sunday night. They thoroughly outplayed them in all aspects and looked like the contender everyone thought they would be. What the hell took them so long?

Can we go one week without an off-the-field controversy? Please? I get that they are newsworthy but it does get tiresome. It would be nice for something different for a change. So let’s have all the players, coaches, GMs, other staff, media, and Trump agree to a seven-day moratorium on being idiots (at least when it comes to the NFL) so that we can refresh and recharge. We, as fans, sorely need it.

Alright, more way-too-early playoff seedings. Here we go!

1	Kansas City (AFC West)	1	Philadelphia (NFC East)
2	Pittsburgh (AFC North)	2	Minnesota (NFC North)
3	New England (AFC East)	3	Carolina (NFC South)
4	Tennessee (AFC South)	4	LA Rams (NFC West)
	Wild Card Teams:		Wild Card Teams:
1	Buffalo	1	Green Bay
2	Miami/Denver	2	New Orleans/Atlanta/Washington/Seattle

A little over a third of the way through the season and the AFC is starting to look closer to the way it has been lately (and what many experts expected it to be). At some point over the next few weeks, the better teams (your Kansas Citys, Pittsburghs, and New Englands) will probably pull away from the pack. I can see a bit of race for the AFC Wild Card brewing but honestly, 10 wins will probably nab you a playoff spot from this group guaranteed.

As for the NFC, Aaron Rodgers’ injury has a domino effect that could end up seeing Minnesota being the biggest benefactor. A team that probably really has no right to be looking at a 10+ win season may do just that because they have the Bears (who have overachieved to get to 2-4) and the Lions (who looked awful on defense against the Saints) along with the aforementioned Packers in their division. For once, they may end up being lucky being in the NFC North. Carson Wentz and Jared Goff leading teams into the postseason is exactly what the NFL wants and still proves that selecting a quarterback in the draft is very much high risk/high reward. The Eagles and Rams are proving that.

No college football tomorrow night. Kind of makes me sad. Except when it’s a shitty game and then I don’t care.

The Super Bore Recap

Posted on February 8, 2016 by guelphbossman

Good lord that was sloppy. Super Bore is the perfect name for that game. It’s too bad considering the storylines coming in to it. Let’s begin the recap shall we? I will go over some tweets I did and saw (my Twitter handle is @LikeABauce1978) and go through the game with the help of them.

Betty White – She resurrected the dab and made it appropriate for white people to do it all in two seconds. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.

Phil SEEMS – To pair a guy like Jim Nantz with this tool is something that bugs me about sports broadcasting in general (and something I have touched on before): why can’t they have two good guys in the booth? I just don’t understand it.

The MVPs – It was kind of cool seeing all the living Super Bowl MVPs there despite the fact it made the opening ceremonies start approaching Olympic-length. I am also sure the NFL is VERY happy that neither O.J. Simpson nor Aaron Hernandez were Super Bowl MVPs.

Tom gets no respect – Poor Tom Brady. Getting no respect from the fans. The only Super Bowl MVP booed. Wait I take that back. It’s not poor Tom Brady. He’s got it all. Kind of a shame he gets the reactions he gets but he has put some of that on himself.

Peyton likes Gatorade – It would have been better if they announced Peyton’s previous Super Bowl MVP award and cut to a camera shot of him in the can taking a pre-game dump.

The first Broncos drive should have been a harbinger for things to come – Hindsight being 20-20 we should have seen how craptastic the Super Bowl was going to be after the Broncos first drive stalled and Brandon McManus had to hit the field goal instead. If there was a tagline that would have been attached to this game it should have been Stalled Drives.

OK we get it Jim – Did Nantz get some sort of kickback for every time he promoted the halftime show? He was talking about it at the 7 minute mark of the first quarter. It was ridiculous.

Helen Mirren – If you didn’t get the opportunity to see the Helen Mirren commercial on drunk drivers do so. It was fantasic. Her telling drunk drivers they are basically pieces of shit was awesome (in her own British way).

The Mike Carey Curse – Man this guy is officiating kryptonite. Even when he gets it right (according to most), the officials go in the opposite direction. For example, the first Carolina challenge should have been successful. It was a catch. But the booth said there was not enough evidence to overturn. I don’t know what they were looking at but that was their call. Carey had (as far as most of us could tell, correctly) said it should be overturned and called a catch. The refs did not concur. Poor Mike.

Where was this Cam all season? – Is what most teams were asking. He was pretty bad. It was punctuated on two plays. First, the fumble thanks to Von Miller’s strip sack on him that was recovered for a Broncos touchdown. And second, when he fumbled late and looked like he quit on the play and didn’t dive for the ball. Two plays that, during the season, seemed like ones that would never happen. He just seemed off. Who knows why. Not saying the Broncos’ D wasn’t good (because it was awesome) but Cam just wasn’t Cam. Frustrating if you’re a Panthers fan (or a Panthers’ bandwagon jumper).

Aqib Talib – The only guy among the Broncos defense that didn’t have a good game was this guy. If Commissioner Gingerhammer’s two-strikes-and-you’re-out rule had been in effect (two personal fouls and you’re ejected), Talib would have been gone pretty damn early. I’m surprised he played this poorly but it was arguably the only thing that kept the Panthers in the game offensively.

Kony 2012…plus four – Talk about a coming out party. No I’m not talking about various members of the Denver defense. I am talking about Kony Ealy who burst onto the national scene with his performance in a losing cause. He was the Panther defense for a good part of the night. If Carolina had somehow won the thing, he would have easily taken home the MVP trophy. He was that dominating.

Oh that halftime show – It was great. Except for the part when the white guys were involved. That part wasn’t that good. Honestly, why do they keep putting acts on that really have no reason to be there. I’m sure at least one member of Coldplay wondered why the FA Cup final was being played in San Francisco. Also, they aren’t the type of musical act to get fans to stay hyped during a long halftime. Beyonce and Bruno Mars are the types of acts they want. They should always go back and look at Michael Jackson and see how a show should be done. Or the Justin Timberlake one. Finally, if Beyonce had had a wardrobe malfunction it would have been the greatest halftime show in the history of ever.

But let’s look at the positives – I went to the 1996 Grey Cup in Hamilton. The game most people know for three things: 1) the crazy amount of snow (hence the nickname the Snow Bowl), 2) the insane catch by Downtown Eddie Brown and 3) the late Doug Flutie fumble controversy that propelled the then-hated Argos to victory. Lost in all this was the fact that the halftime show at that event was The Nylons. Yes, The Nylons. And not, for you How I Met Your Mother fans, Robin Daggers. So yeah, maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.

Does Ted Ginn (n Juice) hate contact THAT much? – He looked like he was petrified every time a defender got within three yards of him. It’s actually quite surprising but underlies the fact that he will never be more than a #3 receiver and that’s probably the big reason. It’s sad because he has so much speed.

Wade Phillips – To be honest, if they could have, the MVP should have gone to Phillips. The guy did a masterful job with the Broncos defense all season but especially in the playoffs. He is a classic case of excellent coordinator but mediocre-to-bad head coach.

Super Bowl Babies – Who in the holy fuck gave the greenlight for that ad campaign? “Hey guys, let’s talk about fans of the winning team fucking each others’ brains out after the game and making babies.” It was creepy and ridiculous. This NFL Family advertising thing has to end and yesterday.

Marshawn Lynch – It looks like he won’t be getting fined anymore. In the third quarter, he sent out a cryptic tweet with his shoes tied up on a wire and a peace sign emoji which seemed to signal he was done. Richard Sherman tweeted about it being an honour to have played on the same field as him so it looks like we have seen the last of Beast Mode. Frustrating but entertaining all the time.

Eli’s reaction – Good lord that was comedy gold. Eli’s reaction to the Broncos essentially clinching the win was good. His reaction compared to everyone else in that box was priceless. He looked like he saw a ghost. Basically, now he can’t be the family favourite anymore in any way since Peyton is either the same or better than him at EVERYTHING (except beating the Patriots more often than losing to them).

Somebody is gonna get paid – And that somebody is Von Miller. Man what a game he had. And he becomes a free agent. He should get big bucks. My guess is he will be the highest paid defensive player by the time the Hall of Fame Game comes around in the summer.

Peyton ain’t goin’ to no Disneyworld – He’s gonna get shitfaced with a whole batch of motherfucking BUDWEISER!!!! That guy is marketing gold. It’s amazing how a guy who looks like he has zero personality and a brother who looks like his IQ might start with a 6 could be such an amazing sports marketer. The guy’s a genius and so smooth with throwing in little verbal cues to all his sponsors. The hug and kiss with the Papa John’s guy was probably the icing on the marketing cake (although it was a bit odd).

And that’s all there is folks. Denver wins 24-10 in a rather mediocre game. The end of another football season. Other than the NFL draft there is almost nothing to keep us occupied until the summer. This means that someone, somewhere, must do something stupid to garner some news for the Shield since they almost don’t seem to care whether the news is good or bad.

I plan on doing my first crack at the NFL Draft in the next week (now that I know the exact order). Tennessee…you are now on the clock.

Bossman's Blog

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

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