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

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!

Alright let’s talk about IPTV – Week 6 College Football TV Schedule

More of you have been asking about this so I decided it is time to start discussing IPTV.  It’s not a new phenomenon but with everyone “cutting the cord” (which should actually be called “cutting the cable” if we’re being honest) it has become more an option for viewing television shows and, most importantly to some, live sports.  I am going to do this in a pros/cons method.  Let’s start with the cons first:

• You need good Internet for this so your cost for Internet service may go up.  If you don’t have good Internet, expect a lot of buffering and a lot of frustration.
• Channels sometimes will not work or will loop around to show the same 15 seconds of video or buffer quite a bit.  This can happen.  Remember, these channels are being picked up from various Internet sites so sometimes they don’t work so well.  Another frustration every so often.
• Many of the channels are not in English.  I mean if you speak another language then you could get a lot of channels from that country that you could never get through a cable provider here.  But if you don’t, you may have to wade through a lot of channels to find what you want (although there are relatively easy ways around this).
• The outlay can be expensive.  There are different ways to get IPTV services.  I use an Android box but you can also use your Smart TV (if you have one) or an Apple TV box.  This may not be cheap if you don’t already have one of these things.

And now the pros:

• A lot of channels.  Depending on the company you go with and the package you get (if they have multiple packages) you could get anywhere from 1,000 to over 10,000 channels.
• Pretty much every American sports channel you could want.  This includes all the ESPNs, FS1, Pac-12 Network, CBS Sports Network, etc.  Many have the SEC Network, ACC Network, Stadium and local FOX affiliates as well.
• Depending on how you get your IPTV, there are options to use a PVR-like feature as well.
• There are ways to sort channels or set a group of favourites (like I have) so that you don’t have to scroll through all the channels.  With mine, and many others I’ve seen, they are usually grouped by country which makes things a lot easier.
• It is a hell of a lot cheaper.  I pay approximately $13 a month for all this.  Compare that to a lot more for a normal cable subscription you would need to get even close to this, not including having to add expensive specialty packs.

So there you go.  Now you have a better idea to IPTV.  I will be honest: despite the frustration every so often with channels buffering or just flat-out not working, I have a lot more choice when it comes to college football and can watch at least 50% more games than I could in Canada in any one week.  And since I love to channel surf like a person from the 90s, I am surprised I haven’t worn out the batteries on my remote yet (although I know it’s coming).

So let’s get to the schedule.  That’s the reason you’re here, right?  I am going to include some games that aren’t on Canadian TV at this time for two reasons: 1) just in case they do end up on a channel all of us can get because with all the issues surrounding scheduling this season this can and has happened and 2) to give you an idea of a few of the other games you could get through IPTV (or some other means of getting these American channels).  Let’s get to it!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Tulane at Houston	7:30 PM

Holy shit Houston might get to play a game!  I am so waiting to see how Dana Holgorsen looks.  I am guessing he looks like he came off a full-week bender.

Friday

		US	Canada
Louisville at Georgia Tech	7:00 PM

Only one game on Friday night.  This will change soon but for now we get very little in the way of weeknight football.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#19 Virginia Tech at #8 North Carolina	Noon
NC State at Virginia	Noon
#4 Florida at #21 Texas A&M	Noon
Oklahoma vs. #22 Texas (in Dallas)	Noon
The Citadel at Army	1:30 PM

Alright here we go!  This is where we start getting some huge games.  Three games with ranked teams with two of them being ranked-on-ranked.  Arguably the biggest game in this timeslot is UF-TAMU but VaTech-UNC and the Red River Shootout are also huge games for different reasons.  And for everyone saying they should put the RRR/RRS on in primetime it will never happen.  The Cotton Bowl isn’t exactly in the nicest neighbourhood in Dallas and with the State Fair of Texas not being run this year, it means everyone in the stadium would be the only people in that area.  Not an ideal look for college football to be honest.

Also, Missouri-LSU was supposed to be the latest game of the week and to be shown at 9pm on TSN2.  However, with Hurricane Delta possibly about to wreak havoc on Louisiana and the Baton Rouge area in particular, the game has been moved to Columbia and to Noon.  It might end up on ESPN2 and might end up on a TSN channel.  As of now I see nothing but if something changes, I will update you.

UPDATE #2: I was right about Missouri-LSU.  They will now be on TSN2 at Noon.  NC State-Virginia will now no longer be on TSN2.  Yeah I think it’s an upgrade.  Thanks to reader Gordo for this information.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Texas Tech at #24 Iowa State	3:30 PM
#14 Tennessee at #3 Georgia	3:30 PM
UTSA at #15 BYU	3:30 PM
Kansas State at TCU	4:00 PM
Arkansas at #13 Auburn	4:00 PM

It’s an OK schedule with one really huge game.  Tennessee-Georgia is the huge game in this timeslot.  Another test for the Bulldogs and if they pass it they have to be considered true national title contenders and people will go back to trashing the Volunteers like they have up until the first game of this season.  TTU-ISU is, funny enough, an important Big XII game somehow.  The Cyclones could be the top team in the conference after this day.  Nice to see TSN putting games on three channels.  A definite step up from the norm so far this season and it makes me even want to not mention the odd changing of channels on the American end (like going from an ACC Network game to a ESPN2 game right afterwards).  Well, almost.

UDPATE #3: A bizarre update.  It looks like UTSA-BYU and TTU-ISU have switched TSN stations.  I don’t get why.  I am not even going to try and contemplate it.  It just is what it is.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Temple at Navy	6:00 PM
#2 Alabama at Ole Miss	6:00 PM 7:30 PM
#7 Miami at #1 Clemson	7:30 PM
UTEP at Louisiana Tech	7:30 PM
Florida State at #5 Notre Dame	7:30 PM

And a Game of the Year candidate in this timeslot.  For only having six conferences playing, we are getting quite the treat on this day.  At one point, some would have said we have another potential GOTY candidate.  Uh, not so much now.  The Seminoles are pretty bad and Notre Dame at least looks really good so far this season.  I mean it should be a blowout but you never know (spoiler alert: I think most of us know).  I have also shown two games that probably won’t be shown up here unless specialty packs decide to start showing games.  I am still a bit confused as to what is happening with Bell Fibe and Satellite but I know Rogers, Cogeco, and Eastlink still don’t have any college football on their Super Sports Pack.  Maybe that will change once all the conferences are back but I am not holding my breath as you have kind of figured out by now.

UPDATE: Bama-Ole Miss has been moved to 7:30 but will still air on ESPN.  It might now end up on TSN2 as well.

UPDATE #4: Miami-Clemson now moved to TSN2 which actually does make sense now that Texas Tech-Iowa State is on TSN2.  Both ABC games.  Also, Bama-Ole Miss does get to TSN but it’s TSN3.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Miami at Clemson (7:30, ABC/TSN3) – Can Miami shut the haters up with a win here?  Probably.  A win here would be their biggest in a long time for The U.  I mean I know there are some people who would say if all the teams were playing that the Canes would not be in the Top 10.  I disagree.  D’Eriq King has been a revelation and the defense has held up very well so far.  Normally I would say this is Clemson’s biggest hurdle of the season but they have Notre Dame and Virginia Tech still left on the schedule.  This won’t be an easy run to the College Football Playoff this time around for the Fighting Dabos.

Tennessee at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – Tennessee absolutely needs the win here.  Let me explain.  Despite the fact the Vols have played well, many still don’t believe they will even be in the Top 25 at the end of the season.  A win here would prove that UT is for real.  Georgia is coming off an absolute hammering of Auburn so for their sake you gotta hope it’s not a letdown spot.  Not that they will act that way but you never know.  Here’s to hoping Brad and Gary get a decent game for once.

Florida at Texas A&M (Noon, TSN3) – Look I know what happened last weekend with the Aggies and Bama.  But it’s a new week and you have to wonder if the Aggies will be playing angry in this one.  Don’t be surprised if Texas A&M keeps this close or somehow wins it.  Florida needs the win to continue to convince AP voters (for now) that they belong in the Top 5 because as soon as the other conferences begin, they won’t want to be moved down the list for no reason other than other teams have shown up to play.

Virginia Tech at North Carolina (Noon, ABC) – Who would have thought that Clemson would not have an easy road to the ACC title for once?  It is honestly nice to see some true competition in that conference for the first time in a few years.  Both of these teams have looked good so far this season but not great.  The Tar Heels, in particular, have struggled a couple times, most notably needing a pick-two to finish off Boston College last weekend.  The Heels don’t have Clemson on their schedule so this could be the biggest game for them until a back-to-back nightmare scenario in late November/early December as they get Notre Dame and then Miami.

UTSA at BYU (3:30, TSN2) – OK yes it kind of falls off a cliff after the first four games on the list.  But this is a statement game for both teams.  BYU looks to stay undefeated on their hopeful march to the New Year’s Six.  UTSA, on the other hand, is in new territory, for them.  They have never been on this list (congrats by the way) and have never had as hot a start as this.  An upset here and we have a new contender in Conference USA.

Honourable mention: Pittsburgh at Boston College (4:00, ACC Network); Tulane at Houston (Thursday, 7:30, ESPN); Oklahoma vs. Texas (Noon, FOX)

Some gambling fun and games

Hey, I picked an upset correctly!  That still doesn’t mean you should use my picks for anything other than entertainment but I am impressed with myself.  Anyway, here are more picks for you gambling heathens out there.

Houston over Tulane (upset?)

Texas A&M over Florida (yeah this would be an upset)

Oklahoma over Texas (this would be a mini-upset I believe)

North Carolina over Virginia Tech

Pittsburgh over Boston College

Tennessee over Georgia (another upset!)

Clemson over Miami

BYU over UTSA

Louisville over Georgia Tech

Virginia over NC State

Iowa State over Texas Tech

This is what I put in this very post last year: I can’t see the schedules up anywhere past tonight.  I am kind of happy I don’t have to deal with this anymore (except for the purposes of this blog) but I have my own problems with IPTV.  Or more like problems most people are having with IPTV with many channels not working.  I keep telling myself “It’s cheaper than cable…just deal with it.”  Although that’s seriously tough at times.  So you can see that IPTV isn’t exactly the utopia that some may say it is.  But it’s better than what I had.

Hey, hey some Thursday Night Football again.  We really have not had good games so far.  I mean sure some may have been close but it’s not like we are getting some great matchups.  But now FOX is in the game and you can tell because things ratchet up considerably.  There is a bit of luck here but still we have a good game coming up.  Now just because two good teams face each other doesn’t mean we will have a good game.  But look at tonight.  We have a big NFC showdown between the Buccaneers and Bears.  The Bucs were expected to be this good and have been despite Tom Brady being relatively average (for him) so far.  And the Bears…well.  They have an amazing defense and now with Big Dick Nick behind centre they might have something going on offense.  I do feel a tiny bit bad for Mitch Trubisky, though.  It wasn’t his fault the Bears traded up to get him.  But still I think this may be the end of the line for him in the Windy City.

I will be live-tweeting most of Saturday (@TheBauceman).  College football Twitter, for the most part, can be pretty fun.  Unlike political Twitter which is a complete and utter shitshow.  Should be another fun Saturday.  Enjoy the games everyone!