Yes, it’s already the first mock draft of the year (along with some network change news)

Do I have time to do this? No. So why am I doing it? I honestly don’t know. I think I just feel I should put a bit more into the offseason portion of my blog. I mean it is half the year and there have been times I have gone dark for like a month. What will people read? The newspaper? Get the fuck outta here.

Honestly, I feel that even though this blog will turn 11 in a few months, I haven’t tried enough to take it to the next level, so to speak. Maybe not more posts but better posts. More informative stuff. It almost feels like this may be a make-or-break twelve months for me. With all the shit I have to do to get my career to the next step, it means there will be less and less time to do stuff I enjoy, like this blog. I always have to remind myself why I started this in the first place: to organize my own college football viewing. It allowed me to watch more college football than ever before and be efficient with it as well, while still making time for my kids. Then again, I ended up separated four months after the blog started so…..yeah.

So let’s just get on with the first mock draft of who knows how many leading up to the draft and hey how about that, look who’s going first overall.

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
3	New England	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
6	NY Giants	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
7	Tennessee	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Olumuyiwa Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
11	Minnesota	Dallas Turner, OLB (Alabama)
12	Denver	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
13	Las Vegas	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
14	New Orleans	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
15	Indianapolis	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
16	Seattle	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
17	Jacksonville	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
18	Cincinnati	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
19	LA Rams	Kamren Kitchens, S (Miami)
20	Pittsburgh	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
21	Miami	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
22	Philadelphia	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
23	Houston	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
24	Dallas	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
25	Green Bay	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
26	Tampa Bay	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
27	Arizona	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
28	Buffalo	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
29	Detroit	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
30	Baltimore	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
31	San Francisco	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
32	Kansas City	Tallies Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)

I am firmly in the camp that says that the Bears will trade Justin Fields. Whether it’s before the draft, during the draft, or after the draft, I don’t know. I just can’t see them passing up on Williams when they could get him AND a really good receiver for their first two picks. On top of that, they could get more picks that will help them later in the draft or in the following year’s event. Not quite a win-win but damn near close. The Commanders and Patriots also need quarterbacks desperately so they will be watching what the Bears do very closely…and possibly even calling them to inquire about how much it would take to trade for that top pick of theirs. Other interesting notes from this first kick at the can:

• The first team that doesn’t need a quarterback is the Cardinals and they are very much hoping the Bears take Caleb Williams since it will mean that Marvin Harrison Jr. will fall into their lap. Pairing him with Kyler Murray could be quite something for a moribund Cards’ offense.
• The Chargers need almost everything that isn’t the quarterback position. If I am them, I nab Bowers, pick another receiver up later on, and bulk up the offense. Win games in true Big XII fashion this coming season. It may be their only hope at getting close to a playoff spot.
• Any potential steals here? Not really but the Saints nabbing Latham at #14 would be good value as would the Eagles picking up Jared Verse at #22.

Will I do more mock drafts? Of course. When? I have no clue.

Now let’s look at the changes coming to conferences and broadcast networks in the Fall. There really is only one major change but it does have a domino effect. The SEC is now fully on ABC/ESPN/SEC Network/ESPN2/ESPNU (if they absolutely have to be) and ESPN+ because they are contractually obligated to be once a season (at least that’s the way the previous SEC contract played out). With the SEC on ABC, they will easily get the majority of the Saturday night games. Not all, but with 14 weeks worth of games, the SEC will get no less than ten of those.

So that domino effect…SEC had every evening ESPN game last year. I can’t see that being the case since that would compete directly with the game on ABC. So they should get a lot less of those and they should get filled with the ACC and Big XII. The American might end up actually getting more games on ESPN with this new arrangement which seems crazy but with the ACC and, to a lesser extent, the Big XII getting hurt by this from a Disney/ESPN perspective, the American Conference is ready to pick up a few pieces here and there.

The Big XII won’t cry about this though. For everything they will end up losing from ESPN/ABC, they will gain more than that quite possibly from the FOX side of things. Sure, the Big Ten will get many of the Big Noon Kickoff games. But beyond that? Remember, the Big Ten has a game a week on CBS, a game a week on NBC and eight games on Peacock. Also, you might see a couple of late night Big Ten affairs on the Big Ten Network. So there will be plenty of spots on FOX and FOX Sports One for the Big XII to fill in since there is no more Pac-12. The other conference that wins here? The Mountain West. They should get a lot more FS1 games with how things are shaking out.

So even though the SEC and Big Ten will start to dominate the landscape of college football, we might get more chances than ever to watch other conferences. Now if they can just figure out how to get FS1 games up here legally and Canadians won’t have any reason to complain about access to CFB games in the future ever again (other than the one Notre Dame game a season on Peacock and weird stuff like the Hawaii Tests).

Alright more posts to come but no football for over a month. The UFL starts in late March and I’m…honestly not that excited about it but it’s football so I am sure will watch some at some point since it’s football and I love football. Better than watching the news, right? Have a good weekend everyone!

What in the fuck is wrong with the Chicago Bears? The Week 5 NFL TV Schedule

Good lord, the Chicago Bears are awful. I would have said the Denver Broncos, they of the 70-20 boatracing at the hands of the Dolphins, would be worse but the Broncos just came back to beat the Bears this past Sunday. So yeah, the Bears are it.

What’s wrong in Chicago? Well, Matt Eberflus is already proving to be a bit of a disaster of a head coach. Not Nathaniel Hackett bad but pretty bad. Their offensive line is awful and their defensive line may be worse. Justin Fields might not be the guy but who knows because he gets beaten up damn near every game. Trading Roquan Smith last year is looking worse and worse every week. I don’t think there’s a position on the team that might rate higher than middle of the league.

And to top it off, the Bears are hell-bent on building a new stadium outside the city. It already feels like they are alienating fans with this decision and, of course, their poor performance on the field. Nothing is going right for this team.

However, if the season ended right now, the Bears would have the #1 pick and the #2 pick in the NFL Draft thanks to the trade this past draft that allowed the Panthers to draft Bryce Young in the first overall spot. So, maybe there are good things on the horizon? Probably not. It is the Bears after all.

OK let’s get to this week’s NFL schedule that starts off with…ugh….the Bears.

American Networks

Baltimore at Pittsburgh	1:00	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Rochester
New Orleans at New England	1:00	Buffalo, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
Carolina at Detroit	1:00		Minneapolis, Detroit
NY Giants at Miami	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Presque Isle
Philadelphia at LA Rams	4:05		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Boston
Kansas City at Minnesota	4:25	All affiliates (except Burlington)
NY Jets at Denver	4:25	Burlington

Canadian Networks

Baltimore at Pittsburgh	1:00	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Ottawa
New Orleans at New England	1:00	Montreal	Atlantic
NY Giants at Miami	1:00	Kitchener, Toronto, Atlantic		TSN1, TSN4
Carolina at Detroit	1:00		All affiliates (except Atlantic)
Tennessee at Indianapolis	1:00			TSN+
Philadelphia at LA Rams	4:05	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan		TSN1, TSN4
Kansas City at Minnesota	4:25	Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Atlantic

Primetime Games (and Morning Game)

Chicago at Washington	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN 1/+
Jacksonville vs. Buffalo (in London)	9:30 AM, NFL Network, FOX Buffalo, TSN4
Dallas at San Francisco	8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN+
Green Bay at Las Vegas	Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN 1/3/4/5/+

Notes on this there Sked

• Games not being shown here in Canada (unless you have the Scott Hanson Channel):
  • Houston at Atlanta
  • Cincinnati at Arizona
• Only two games! This is very good. It should be like this every week. Now there are four teams on byes this week so that certainly helps but still, the networks can figure this out (the Canadian ones at least).
• With the CFL having Saturday playoff games this year, it looks like the NFL could go all-in with TSN starting quite soon. Again, there will always be other things TSN must show but I could see three, if not four, TSN channels showing games in November and December. Hell, maybe they go crazy and put on two different games, plus another game on TSN+! Nah, they’ll never do that.
• So it looks like I have to wake up Sunday morning to watch the Bills. That’s just great.
• Compare the Sunday nighter which should get bonkers ratings to the Thursday and Monday nighters. Ugh. I know it’s a bit of a crapshoot with the TNF and MNF schedules but man, lately they’ve struck out more than they’ve hit on the games chosen.
• The ManningCast is on TSN+ on Monday night, not any of the regular TSN channels. Which I’m sure won’t piss off anyone. Nope. No way.

UPDATE: The London game has been moved from TSN1 to TSN4.

And that’s it. As is usual, the NFL has had their mix of great and not-so-great games. And sometimes those change depending on if you are a die-hard fan of one team. If you are a die-hard fan of more than one team…look, I’m not going to judge but that’s fucking weird and reeks of FOMO. Anyway, enjoy the games everyone!

The reins have been passed in Chicago – Week 5 NFL TV Schedule

It looks like Matt Nagy has finally figured out what to do in the Windy City.  He’s on a pretty hot seat right now so any decision he makes will be scrutinized.  So he finally pulled the trigger and ended the speculation.  Andy Dalton would………..not be the starting quarterback.  Sorry, Red Rocket.  The quarterbacking reins are being given to Justin Fields, the guy they traded up to get in what was one of the better draft moves this past draft.  It was also a move that many in the Bears organization will erase the stink of trading up to get Mitchell Trubisky a few years prior.  This is a smart move in my opinion.  Fields is the guy and if you trade up for a quarterback in the first round, chances are you are looking for him to start at some point during that rookie season.  So why not do it now?  The Bears are not a Super Bowl contender but could be just over .500 which may be enough for a playoff berth so do it and face the consequences.  He needs the game action to get used to it so no better time than the present.  Now let’s hope he doesn’t have the same ending to his rookie year as Joe Burrow did.

Alright, it’s NFL schedule time.  Let’s get to it!

Thursday

LA Rams at Seattle

8:20, FOX, TSN1, CTV Two

Sunday Morning

Atlanta vs. NY Jets (in London)

9:30, NFL Network, TSN4, CTV

Sunday Early

Miami at Tampa Bay	Buffalo, Rochester				Vancouver Island, Alberta, London, Toronto
New Orleans at Washington
New England at Houston	Burlington, Boston		Montreal, Atlantic	TSN4
Tennessee at Jacksonville
Philadelphia at Carolina
Green Bay at Cincinnati		All affiliates (except Minneapolis & Detroit)	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa
Denver at Pittsburgh
Detroit at Minnesota		Minneapolis, Detroit	Winnipeg		Ottawa

Sunday Late

Chicago at Las Vegas	Minneapolis, Detroit
Cleveland at LA Chargers	Seattle, Spokane, Cleveland			TSN4
NY Giants at Dallas		Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston		Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal	Atlantic
San Francisco at Arizona		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane		Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Buffalo at Kansas City	Sunday, 8:20, NBC, TSN 1/4/5, CTV Two
Indianapolis at Baltimore	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/3

Notes on the Sked

• We are getting to that time of year when during the week there could be some hockey and basketball on TSN.  On Monday night, TSN4 is showing a Raptors preseason game and should join the Colts-Ravens game in the second half.  On TSN5 there is a NHL season preview and fantasy draft show.  Yeah.  Again, they should join the football game in the second half.
• Four early games not showing anywhere in Canada.  That is unless you have Sunday Ticket or RedZone or both.  Or like me you can watch the British version of RedZone.  I believe I explained this last year but they show a main game in both the early and late timeslots on Sunday and when those games are in commercial breaks, they do highlights from the other games.  So kind of a hybrid model.  Not bad if RedZone is being screwy (which it sometimes does).
• Only one TSN station showing NFL games during the day on Sunday.  NASCAR and tennis rule the day for TSN.  At least they chose games that aren’t being shown in very many places in this country.
• Shockingly, the Chiefs enter the Sunday Night Football game looking like a relatively average team.  I wonder if the Bills are the favourites in this one.  And no they aren’t.  I guess it being in Kansas City puts the Chiefs as the slight 2.5 point favs.  Honestly, we have had more good primetime games than bad ones so far this season.  I sincerely hope that trend continues as it is so easy to check out of a primetime NFL game when it’s a blowout.
• Ugh, the London game.  Oh god and it’s the Falcons and the Jets.  Let’s see how early I will be waking up and actually getting in front of a TV to watch it.  My guess is sometime in the third quarter.

Yep, no need for very many comments on the schedule this week.  Hope you enjoy all the games!

The NFL: Now with MORE Regular Season!

“Ha ha ha, that’s a great one Bossman.  Now fuck off while I sleep on a bed of money.”  I’m just assuming that’s what Roger Goodell would say to that.

If you didn’t already know, the NFL has now gone to a 17-game regular season.  This hasn’t exactly thrilled the players and I don’t blame them.  Just one more opportunity to get injured during the regular season.  It means one less week of preseason football which is fine by me.  I still believe every team should have one road, one home and one neutral-site game during the preseason but that’s a conversation I’ve had many times before that no one wants to listen to.  It also means there will be no more .500 teams unless you get a tie during the season.  Somewhere Jeff Fisher is shedding a few tears.

Alright enough of that.  It’s more football that means something so that’s not a bad thing for the fans, right?  Now do fantasy football seasons extend by a week?  I better figure that out before, say, December.  Now, let me get to my NFL predictions for the season which sometimes I do well at and other times…not so much.  Here are the predicted standings! (* means I predict them to be a Wild Card team):

AFC East	NFC East
Buffalo 13-4	Dallas 9-8
Miami* 9-8	Washington 8-9
New England 9-8	NY Giants 5-12
NY Jets 4-13	Philadelphia 5-12
AFC North	NFC North
Cleveland 12-5	Green Bay 12-5
Baltimore* 11-6	Minnesota 9-8
Pittsburgh 8-9	Chicago 7-10
Cincinnati 6-11	Detroit 4-13
AFC South	NFC South
Tennessee 11-6	Tampa Bay 14-3
Indianapolis 9-8	New Orleans* 10-7
Jacksonville 4-13	Atlanta 6-11
Houston 2-15	Carolina 6-11
AFC West	NFC West
Kansas City 14-3	Seattle 12-5
LA Chargers* 10-7	LA Rams* 11-6
Las Vegas 8-9	Arizona* 9-8
Denver 7-10	San Francisco 8-9

Notes

• I always seem to talk about parity with the NFL but it may not be as much of the case this season. I have six teams winning at least 12 games and if I put it down to 11 wins, 9 teams fit the bill, which is over a quarter of the league.
• Where will the good division races be?  The AFC North, NFC East and, especially, the NFC West should have some excitement.  This time it’s not the Patriots but the Bills who will run away with the AFC East (for something completely different).  Same goes for the Chiefs and Bucs who should easily win their divisions.
• The NFC Wild Card race should be very interesting.  The Rams, if they don’t win the division, should get the top Wild Card (otherwise it would be the Seahawks in that spot).  The other two spots will have six teams competing for it.  One of those teams will win the NFC East as I have the Cowboys and Washington Football Team Of Fun And Frolic going down to the final week for the division crown.  I think the Saints pull ahead and are joined by the Cardinals but it won’t be easy for those teams.  It’s going to feel weird for a team to lose eight games and be over .500.  Again, cue the Jeff Fisher tears.
• The AFC should also have a great Wild Card Race.  Hey, maybe this extra game is a good thing.  Still not for the players but I digress.  The Ravens or Browns, whoever doesn’t win the AFC North should have an easy road to playing the worst division winner in the conference.  As for the other two spots, pick two out of the Dolphins, Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Chargers and Raiders.  That Week 18 (yes, WEEK 18!) should be phenomenal this season.  Now watch it be a dud with only one game meaning anything at all and it’s the Sunday nighter.
• It really is a question of how bad the Texans could be, not if they will be last.  Seventeen losses in a season?  That has to be in play in Vegas and the odds can’t be too bad for it, either.  And if they trade Deshaun Watson (or he is released because of the legal issues he faces), this team is dead in the water.  Gonna be a long year in H-Town.
• This could end up being the closest MVP race ever.  You’ve got Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray all in the mix.  Matthew Stafford in that Rams offense has to be intriguing.  Then you have Dax Prescott returning from a horrific leg injury after having an amazing start to the 2020 season.  And finally, possibly the last hurrah for Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.  In the end, I think Rodgers wins a close vote over Allen and Wilson.
• Rookies of the Year are always a crapshoot.  I know many will pick Trevor Lawrence and that’s not a bad choice.  I am going to go slightly down from there and say Justin Fields wins it and is the main reason the Bears are even in the playoff race in December and January.  On defense it’s even more difficult to predict.  I believe it will be Patrick Surtain II winning it although watch out for Zaven Collins as he could be a big dark horse possibility.

I have decided the new tradition of not putting a reason beside every playoff prediction is a good thing now with two extra Wild Card games.  This post would have got seriously long otherwise.  Alright let’s get right into the predictions:

Wild Card Round

(2) Buffalo def. (7) Miami

(3) Cleveland def. (6) LA Chargers

(5) Baltimore def. (4) Tennessee

(2) Green Bay def. (7) Arizona

(3) Seattle def. (6) New Orleans

(5) LA Rams def. (4) Dallas

Divisional Playoffs

(1) Kansas City def. (5) Baltimore

(2) Buffalo def. (3) Cleveland

(5) LA Rams def. (1) Tampa Bay

(3) Seattle def. (2) Green Bay

Conference Championships

(2) Buffalo def. (1) Kansas City

(3) Seattle def. (5) LA Rams

Super Bowl

(2) Buffalo def. (3) Seattle

I think this is a dream season for the Bills.  With their roster and Josh Allen at the top of his game and pretty much no holes in their lineup, this is the season for them two win it all.  After last year’s loss to the Chiefs, I believe they are playoff-hardened and ready to get some revenge.  The NFC will be a bit of a mess as I don’t think the top two seeds get to the conference championship.  The Rams, if they get on a roll, could go all the way with that offense.  I know they say defense wins championships but if the Rams can score over 30 a game in the playoffs they could do some major damage.  The Seahawks are another team to watch in the playoffs.  Let Russ cook and you got a problem.  In the end, I have my Buffalo Bills finally winning the Super Bowl that eluded them in the 90s and sending me into complete delirium.  I won’t know what to do.  Honest.  I’ll have to take a week off of work just to recuperate.

Next up is for all of you to just watch some damn college football!  We are 17 days away from Week Zero!  I keep checking for a TSN schedule but still nothing.  As soon as I find something I can complete what I have for Week Zero and finally do an actual schedule post: the first of the 2021 college football season.  Can’t wait!  And in the meantime, watch some CFL or preseason NFL to whet the appetite.  Have a great hump day, everyone!

Bossman’s Shitty Heisman Ballot: A tradition unlike any other

I don’t understand myself sometimes.  Why do I put myself through this?  I guess I’m just a creature of habit.  Like a dog who knows it gets fed at 4:00 every day.  Anyway, here is my (quite probably terrible) ballot for the Heisman for the 2021 season:

My Brutally Bad Heisman Ballot

1. Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma – Rattler is pretty much everyone’s favourite to win the Heisman this season.  We know what this means: either he runs away with it with no real challengers or something happens and he falls out of the Top 10.  With how I predict Oklahoma will do this season, I have a feeling he could approach some Joe Burrow-type numbers and run (not walk) away with the Heisman.
2. Sam Howell, North Carolina – Nice to see a player from a basketball school up for the Heisman.  All kidding aside, he will be the main reason my prediction (hopefully) comes true and the Tar Heels end up in the College Football Playoff.  He will be in tough to pass Rattler in the Heisman list but if he also puts up some Joe Burrow-like numbers it could become an interesting race.  A lot will have to do with how much these players play in the fourth quarters of some games.
3. D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson – Alright, let’s try this.  *clears throat*  Ahem…Oo-ee-un-guh-luh-lay.  Now you know.  And knowing is half the battle.  The replacement for Trevor Lawrence has huge shoes to fill but looked damn good in the game against Notre Dame last season.  So it wouldn’t be too far fetched to consider him a Heisman threat.  D.J. may need a conference championship (and of course some great performances throughout the season) to garner some true Heisman hype.
4. C.J. Stroud, Ohio State – Just like with Justin Fields a couple years ago, I am hesitant to put Stroud this high.  No real work at the college level along with a really good running game doesn’t look like Heisman material.  But with a very good Buckeyes team (again), he may get enough hype to carry him into November at the very least.
5. Bryce Young, Alabama – Yet another Bama quarterback on the Heisman watch list.  The Tide is the Tide so Young will get a lot of media play this season.  It’ll be up to him to come out from under Mac Jones’ shadow much like Mac Jones came out from under Tua Tagovailoa’s shadow.
6. Matt Corral, Ole Miss – OK hear me out.  The Rebels are going to be much better this season than they have been the past few years.  Like Top 25 good.  And nothing says the Heisman winner has to be on a team that’s Top 10.  With Lane Kiffin’s offense, the sky is almost the limit for Corral as long as he doesn’t have a 5-interception performance or something dreadful like that which kills his Heisman chances.
7. J.T. Daniels, Georgia – DJ, CJ, JT.  Part of me hopes those three are the top Heisman vote getters.  Daniels looked really good in the final few games of Georgia’s season.  He has to have a hot start to stay in the Heisman mix, even with the Dawgs opening against Clemson.
8. Kedon Slovis, USC – It feels like a prerequisite that a USC quarterback has to be at least on the Heisman preseason watch list.  Now if USC does what they did last year and continues that into this year, Slovis will probably be a big reason for it.  And despite the fact a receiver won last year, we all know the Heisman is predominantly a quarterback award.  Otherwise, Slovis might not crack the Top 10 but I have to be realistic and realize it’s not always about the best player to win the Heisman (despite the fact that’s the whole point of the fucking award but I digress).
9. Brock Purdy/Breece Hall, Iowa State – OK I am cheating a bit but does it really matter?  I don’t want to pick between these two since who knows who will have the better season.  Whoever has the better season obviously will have the better chance at the Heisman, despite the point I made above.  This also makes Hall the first non-quarterback on this list.  Congrats, I guess.
10. D’Eriq King, Miami – Back to quarterbacks (kind of).  Manny Diaz should have his best Miami team since he spurned Temple and went to South Beach.  If King can stay healthy, he may rocket up this list as he is a huge running threat along with having a good arm.

Honourable Mention

• Emory Jones, Florida
• Bijan Robinson, Texas
• Jayden Daniels, Arizona State
• D’Andre Swift, Georgia
• Casey Thompson, Texas
• Michael Penix, Indiana
• Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati
• Dillon Gabriel, UCF
• Malik Willis, Liberty

Good luck to the players on this list!  You might need it with my history with this list.  I’m not even going to bother threatening not doing this post again because I know I will.  As I stated above, I will never learn.

Guess what?  That was the final college football prediction post before the college football season begins!  Week Zero is only 20 days away.  No real huge games this year during the opening week but it’s still college football.  So I will watch it all.

I am hoping soon to get the Week Zero schedule up.  I have seen nothing from TSN although it is almost three weeks away so I got to give them a break for now.  I hope it will be up soon.  Even as I go on three years-plus doing the IPTV thing, I still plan to give out the most complete college football schedule for Canadians I can muster.  Can’t forget the roots of the blog.

So chances are I will be going with my NFL preview first.  Plenty of time before the season begins as we just had the Hall of Fame Game.  Man I’m really ahead of the game.  I shouldn’t jinx it.  Everyone have a great final day of the weekend!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – Part I (plus a blurb about the NFL Draft)

It’s been too damn long since I’ve written a post directed solely to college football.  Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd….this won’t be one either.  I did not do a full NFL draft review post because, honestly, I didn’t feel like it.  There are enough reviews of the draft so I can put a paragraph or two at the end of this post and that should suffice.  I will say it was nice to watch that.  And then to watch some actual college football?  An absolute delight.  The FCS, as a whole, has got a lot of publicity with this Spring season.  To play games on ESPN and even ABC is huge for some of those teams.  Don’t be surprised when realignment talk starts again (and oh it will), that some of these teams that got big national audiences in April and May surface as possible FBS teams.

Anyway, now to the task at hand: the upcoming 2021 college football schedules.  At least this year I am almost 100% positive that games won’t be cancelled except for reasons that aren’t COVID-related but those rarely happen.  I’m doing this a tiny bit later than I normally do so if for some reason you were waiting for these posts, I apologize.  As the saying goes, life sometimes gets in the way.  I will say the same thing I have said every year I have done this.  Very few of the games are confirmed.  I will try and note if they are in these important game posts.  A lot more should be set by the time I get to network-specific schedule posts but even then, it’s really a crapshoot once October comes around.

Saying that, there are a few probables.  Like let’s be honest here: the Iron Bowl will be on CBS.  The only way this doesn’t happen is if both teams are somehow under .500.  I’d bet everything I have (which isn’t much) on that not being the case.  So you can be rest assured some things will be the same as they’ve always been.

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

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

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

SOUND THE TRUMPETS!  Hear ye, hear ye!  It’s time for the commencement of the Bossman’s Blog college football blog posting season: the ranking of the weeks.  If you were looking for something similar to every other year then ho boy are you in for a shock…again.  For all that stays the same with college football, these weekly rankings have been changing a fair bit lately.  Just a reminder that I list the week and the date that corresponds to the Saturday of that week so you can follow along at home:

1. Week 10 (November 6)
2. Week 13 (November 27 – American Thanksgiving)
3. Week 5 (October 2)
4. Week 9 (October 30)
5. Week 1 (September 4)
6. Week 7 (October 16)
7. Week 12 (November 20)
8. Week 11 (November 13)
9. Week 8 (October 23)
10. Week 6 (October 9)
11. Week 3 (September 18)
12. Week 4 (September 25)
13. Week 2 (September 11)

First off, same as last year there are thirteen weeks to the regular season.  Do I like this?  I have not changed my stance from last year that no I do not like this.  Honestly I would prefer 14 if not 15 weeks in a season.  I understand there are issues there when it comes to the schools and players’ courses but for the health and safety of the players, this is a no-brainer.  Which means the NCAA will take another decade to figure this out.  For the first time since they did that Sunday night Notre Dame-Texas thriller years ago, Week 1 is really good.  Top 5 even!  There are some great games to start the season and that is what college football needs this season: a strong start.  American Thanksgiving moves up to second but still hasn’t regained its crown.  Weeks 10 looks ridiculously good.  Honestly, all of November is great, even the former SEC Sleepwalk Saturday which I really can’t call it that anymore because it’s a good week now.  October is a big drop from last year as it feels like we are really easing into the end of the season and then building to the November crescendo, if you will.  Then there’s September.  Ouch.  After Week 1 it’s a bit of a shitshow.  As per usual, there are a couple of potential games of the year in there with a lot of crap surrounding it.  Meaning at least one of those weeks will end up being the most exciting week of the year.  Why?  It’s what the college football universe has decided.  I don’t make the rules.

Now it’s time for the weekly breakdowns.  Many of the TSN times will be wrong but hey, it’s May.  If the game time has been confirmed it will be in bold.  Let’s GO!

Week 1

Game of the Week: Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC) – Wow this is quite the game of the week to start the season.  College football is seriously not fucking around.  I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s a neutral-site game which I am not the fondest of but I understand the reasoning behind them (spoiler: it’s money).  You can honestly say this game is a Game of the Year candidate right off the hop.  Let’s also be honest here: when the College Football Playoff expands to 8 teams, you could make the argument that this game isn’t nearly as big since a loss doesn’t even close to eliminate either of these teams from contention.  It will be interesting to see who gets the bigger start on the road to topple Bama from their throne.  Clemson is the favourite here but there will be a lot of questions after losing Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne in the NFL Draft.  Both teams are at least New Year’s Six or bust but the winner takes a step up in their bid for the College Football Playoff which is still four teams.

Other Really Important Games: Alabama vs. Miami (in Atlanta) (3:30, ABC) – Maybe the ACC and SEC should do an opening week ACC-SEC Challenge from now on.  Who the hell says no to this?  I mean yes it means that you will get a Duke-Vanderbilt game possibly somewhere but if you don’t want to head to the ACC or SEC Network then don’t.  No one is forcing you to.  But with the annual Labour Day game that seems to always end up being the SEC and ACC to opening up the day before Labour Day for college football and neutral-site games all over the place, this might be a good idea.  I’m sure there’s a party pooper out there that would say it’s a dumb idea but that might also be the same person who thinks scheduling games two decades out makes sense.  Anyway, Bama will probably win by three touchdowns.  NEXT!

Penn State at Wisconsin (4:00, FOX) – At least FOX has realized that opening weekend is a good weekend to at least try and get a good slate of games on.  Now if they can just realize that for the rest of the weeks during the regular season that only getting one good game to show with two mediocre ones after is not the greatest approach to grow a fanbase.  It looks like the Big Ten will be a huge part of FOX’s opening week which is no surprise since the B1G is to FOX like the SEC is to CBS (almost).  Both of these teams looking to rebound from bad years (at least for each of these programs).  The Big Ten West is always wide open so the Badgers have as good a chance as any team not named Illinois.  The Nittany Lions will be looking up once again at Ohio State so every game is huge and these are the games they have to win to have a shot at a division title.  I wish they would just do away with division titles but let’s not start that talk again.  Speaking of the Buckeyes…

Ohio State at Minnesota (Thursday, 8:00, FOX) – Will this be close?  Probably not but it’s an early Big Ten game on a night that Ohio State is not used to playing.  And now with no Justin Fields, we shall see if it’s steady as she goes for Ryan Day or a bit of stress and a higher blood pressure for Ryan Day.  See what I mean about FOX really stepping up this opening weekend?  This is the first Thursday night FOX college football regular season game ever if I’m not mistaken.

Indiana at Iowa (Noon, FOX) – The third straight FOX game and the third straight Big Ten game.  The Big Ten may have a good idea here with putting a few big conference games during Week One when pretty much no other conference is doing so.  I guess that’s the advantage of having nine conference games instead of eight.  Both of these teams have to be considered dark-horse contenders this season.  No one will put them in their College Football Playoff predictions.  Hell, I’m sure most won’t put either team in their New Year’s Six predictions.  I haven’t done my predictions yet but I have a feeling that will be the case with me.  And that’s fine since I wouldn’t mind either of these teams surprising a lot of people and being in contention late into November.

LSU at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – Four of the most important games of the week are on FOX (from what I believe).  That’s FOX’s entire weekend schedule.  Seriously impressive.  And something ABC does rarely and ESPN does never.  Here’s to hoping LSU is at least not worse than last year’s team (which they have the reasons why so I can give them that) and that UCLA is better than what they’ve been the past few years.  Many believe both those things will be true so we could be in for a great end to at least the Saturday portion of the 5-day Labour Day College Football Fiesta.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Ole Miss at Louisville (Monday, 8:00, TSN1/TSN4/TSN5) – Maybe some will consider this not so underrated.  Louisville was much better under Scott Satterfield this past season and, well, Lane Kiffin is Lane Kiffin.  But until either or both of these teams shows some serious Top 25 consistency, I can’t buy that we would be looking at one of the best games of the week.  Both teams have almost no chance to win their conference considering the teams on top but they could certainly put a scare in those same top teams if they are better than advertised.  We may look back at this game and realize this was, in actuality, a huge game in the battle for a New Year’s Six spot.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at UCF (Thursday, 7:30, TSN2) – Interesting that I have the chance to watch games on all sorts of different networks now and the best games of Week One will all be available quite easily in Canada.  C’est la vie.  Boise State has a very interesting part of the Mountain West’s new television deals (which started last year but really do come into play starting this season).  FOX gets ALL of Boise State’s home games on the season so there’s a good chance at least one time that the Broncos will get to the main network which would be huge for the conference.  CBS gets all of Boise State’s conference road games.  I don’t know if any of those will be shown late night on CBS (which is the plan at least once this season) but if I were them I would try and do so.  As for the other couple games that Boise State has, they can be shown anywhere.  Like this one, which will probably be on ESPN.  Bizarre?  Not really for a team that should have been picked up by the Big XII by now and is somewhat stuck in a Group of Five conference.  A good Group of Five conference but a G-5 conference nonetheless.

Worst Power Five Game: Oregon State at Purdue (3:30, Big Ten Network) – I had to go through a lot of games to find this one.  The next worst game?  Stanford and Kansas State in Arlington.  And this isn’t a part of Week One having a much better schedule than normal.  Week One is not really known for too many P5 vs. P5 games so it’s slim pickings trying to find a really bad one.  We will really see if either of these teams are worse than what they were last year: probably near the bottom of their conferences but honestly not that bad and a couple of breaks away from a bowl game.

Week 2

Game of the Week: Oregon at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – Hey, how about that?  Same two teams occupy the Game of the Week spot for Week 2 and have to be considered a Game of the Year candidate.  I will not refer to the Oregon Ducks as the defending Pac-12 North champions.  They didn’t fucking win the division.  They only went to the Pac-12 Championship because Washington couldn’t due to COVID.  See this would have been a great year for USC to have been Top 5 and looking at a College Football Playoff spot and it’s ruined by a 4-3 team.  Considering what some people want, Oregon would have to also be put in the CFP.  How stupid is that?  It’s really fucking stupid.

Other Really Important Games: Washington at Michigan (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Not fully confirmed for TSN2 but it will be on at least one TSN channel.  This could be a lot better than the two teams have been as of late.  Washington hasn’t hit the heights from early on in the Chris Petersen era.  And, Michigan is Michigan under Jim Harbaugh.  Usually good for at least 8 wins and a loss to Ohio State.  Big Blue can’t be as bad as they were last year can they?  No one thinks that but you never know.  This shows how bad Week 2 is since this may not even be an important game in the New Year’s Six story of the season.

Iowa at Iowa State (3:30, FOX) – Iowa State should be back in the Big XII title mix this season.  And Iowa has one of the longest tenured head coaches, Kirk Ferentz, who is good for at least one Ferentzing every season.  It’s why he gets these crazy contracts and great bonuses for a team that is almost never a Top 10 team.  Saying that, I would love to see one of these two teams on the precipice of the CFP because it needs some new blood, especially from non-blue blood programs.

Texas at Arkansas (7:00, specialty pack) – The first appearance of the specialty pack in this year’s important games series.  Not quite the Game of the Century of 1969…ok not even close to that.  But Arkansas is somehow trending in the right direction with one of the more popular coaches in college football nowadays and we get to see what Steve Sarkisian is really all about.  I sincerely hope he does well and doesn’t fall off the wagon again.  Now that doesn’t mean I want Texas to win the national championship.  I just mean I want Sark to have a good time in Austin and for people in Austin to give him a chance.  OK, I’m now officially worried for his well-being.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Missouri at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack) – This will be buried in the schedule but could end up being a gem for the SEC Network.  We have two teams that really are on the rise (and in the Cats’ case, again).  It’s never the case that the SEC East is wide open but you need to win games like this to have a shot at the division title.  Kentucky knows that from a few years back when they still had a shot in November to clinch a spot in the SEC Championship.  I kind of wish this somehow gets to ESPN or ESPN2 but I doubt it.  And no, it won’t go to CBS, I’m almost certain of it.

Best Group of Five Game: Liberty at Troy (2:00, ESPN+) – Yes…ESPN+.  It was either this or UTEP-Boise State which I have going to FOX Sports One which, yes, is a better network.  But the Broncos should win that one by about 50 whereas this game should be fairly competitive.  It will be very interesting to see if the Flames are as good as they were last season.  It was funny watching the begrudging respect from so-called open minded college football media members last year so I hope they do well again this season.  Maybe, Conference USA finally gets their act together and invites them (unless the Sun Belt or even, dare I say, the American gets to them first).

Worst Power Five Game: Rutgers at Syracuse (Noon, ACC Network) – Funny I had these same two teams in this exact same spot last season before shit went sideways.  At least this season it would go to the proper network, unlike last year where the rumour was it would be on FOX because FOX just doesn’t care about their primetime window nearly as much as they should.  Again, I had other options here.  The one that stood out most was Illinois-Virginia but I think that might end up being good.  Just the Bronco Mendenhall-Bret Bielema coaching matchup is intriguing in itself.  RU-SU has none of that intrigue.  Zero.

Week 3

Game of the Week: Alabama at Florida (3:30, CBS) – This will have serious national championship implications but I don’t need to tell you that.  Now could this end up as a primetime game for CBS?  Possibly and it wouldn’t surprise me if they do it just for the fact that it would then be on at night and not in the afternoon where the players (and fans) would bake in the Gainesville sun.  This is a rematch of the SEC Championship where the Gators honestly looked like they could beat the Tide which is surprising considering how good Bama was last year.  It was the only time where the Tide looked like they were in trouble.  I wouldn’t even mind seeing a Bama loss here as it would make the SEC season, if not the entire college football season, a lot more interesting.

Other Really Important Games: Auburn at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – OK we’re still doing good with the high-profile games.  A definite step down from the Game of the Week but still a great game.  It was also really the only choice for ABC in primetime, especially since Boise State can’t be on the network for any of their home games and I can’t see them putting Cincinnati-Indiana on in that spot (although that would be a great idea in my opinion).  Two teams who have definitely taken a step, or two, back from previous seasons.  This should be a highly heated matchup as a loss could be devastating and portend not-so-good things to come on their season.

Nebraska at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX) – The story of this game was almost too good to be true.  Nebraska was trying desperately to get out of this game.  Social media found out and, predictably, took a huge creamy dump all over the Huskers organization.  In the end, they relented and kept this game on the schedule.  This is Scott Frost’s biggest chance since coming to Lincoln to put a huge stamp on the program and show that they are turning the corner.  A win here, as unlikely as it seems, would be the jolt the program needs to get back to prominence.  Now watch the Sooners win by 60.

Cincinnati at Indiana (4:00, FOX) – I would say FOX is kicking ABC/ESPN’s ass early on.  I mean they are but when it’s a week like this it doesn’t exactly mean a whole lot.  It’s a pretty good drop from the second best game of the week which was already a drop from the Game of the Week.  Much like last year’s Week 3 (or what it was supposed to be) this week is such a shit sandwich.  Meaning there is a very good opportunity for it to be an exciting and crazy week of college football, something that happens at least once a season.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Oklahoma State at Boise State (3:30, FOX Sports One) – Could this end up on the main FOX network?  If they take all of their broadcast windows seriously, then yes.  Which is why I have this game on FS1.  At least it’s not like last season when the Broncos were slated to host Florida State on FOX at Noon Eastern, 10:00 in the morning local.  Not saying they won’t have to do that in the future to get that big national audience but it’s a tough introduction to Big Noon Saturday (if it had ended up happening).  Hey, maybe this game will end up at Noon.  May be a better option than Nebraska-Oklahoma even if it’s just to promote the Mountain West.

Best Group of Five Game: Coastal Carolina at Buffalo (3:30, ESPN+) – Look I’m going to be honest again here.  I go through the season, setting up these schedules based on what I believe will happen by using current TV contract info and what has happened over the past year or two.  This does not mean that all the “choices” I make are good ones or ones that I agree with.  I may change my mind even before I start doing these posts.  This feels like a game, if it were in October, would easily be on ESPNU if not ESPN2.  So between now and the network-specific posts, I may change my mind.  This will be the first test to see if the Chants are as good as advertised and potentially a Group of Five favourite for the NY6 spot.

Worst Power Five Game: Baylor at Kansas (Thursday, 8:00, specialty pack) – This is more for Kansas than it is for Baylor.  Not saying the Bears are great because it was a struggle last year in Dave Aranda’s first season in Waco.  But until the Jayhawks show they can contend for a bowl game on a consistent basis, they will be treated like the Big XII’s ugly redheaded stepchild.  The hope is that the hire of Lance Leipold to coach the team will be a good one.  It should be but we won’t see any of that good stuff this season.  They should feel lucky that they get to be on ESPN, even if it is on a Thursday night up against the NFL.

There you go.  The first three weeks are complete.  And it’s the first official blog post for what should be a much more normal college football season.  96 days to the start of a regular regular season.  With fans in the stands.  Maybe not full stadiums but man, hearing fans is so much better than the empty arenas.

Now, let’s have that quick talk about the draft.  It was nice to see fans there in Cleveland despite the chilly weather.  It was nice to see Roger Goodell there even though him in his barcalounger was pretty damn funny.  I wonder how many fans just farted their brains out on that chair on stage.  I followed along with my mock draft and saw it was crap after the first few picks, as per usual.  I got a couple right later on but was way off on some.  It is what it is.  I won’t do a recap.  There are too many out there and I might be repeating what they say.  The Jags got Lawrence.  The Jets got Wilson.  The 49ers reached for Lance (in my opinion) but it was a better choice than Mac Jones who ended up a Patriot.  The Bears may have made the smartest move in the draft.  Yes the same Bears who traded up to get Mitchell Trubisky traded up this time to get Justin Fields in a trade that most everyone thought was brilliant.  The team I cheer for, the Buffalo Bills, did alright.  Not great but then again, they didn’t have serious needs.  They just needed to shore up some areas.  All in all, it was a good watch and I enjoyed it, even watching Mel Kiper try valiantly to keep his blood pressure from going through the roof with some of the picks.

Alright this felt good.  It’s a bit cathartic to do this post.  I’ve been through a pretty crazy last 15 months and now that my life (and hopefully, soon, life in this province) is getting back to normal, this is one of the final parts that need to return, so to speak.  Make my life as whole as it was before my life turned upside-down (not that it’s an amazing life but it wasn’t bad at the time).  Anyway, have a great Victoria Day, whatever you decide to do and have a great (and short!) work week as well…unless you don’t work Monday to Friday.  In that case, still have a good week even if you aren’t working all those days.

Hey let’s talk about the draft

This year the draft snuck up on me again but for a different reason than last year.  Last year I was not quite two months unemployed and we were wondering what this dang Coronavirus was gonna do to us and how much of our summer it would ruin (spoiler alert: all of it).  This time I am a month-and-a-half into a new job and trying to make sure other responsibilities are taken care of.  Even though I am still worried about our softball team taking the field sooner rather than later, everything else feels different…but similar.  Anyway, enough of this, let’s get to the final mock draft shall we?

FIRST ROUND

1		Trevor Lawrence, QB (Clemson)
2		Zach Wilson, QB (BYU)
3		Mac Jones, QB (Alabama)
4		Trey Lance, QB (North Dakota State)
5		Penei Sewell, OT (Oregon)
6		Kyle Pitts, TE (Florida)
7		Ja’Marr Chase, WR (LSU)
8		Jaycee Horn, CB (South Carolina)
9		Justin Fields, QB (Ohio State)
10		Rashawn Slater, OT (Northwestern)
11		DeVonta Smith, WR (Alabama)
12		Jaylen Waddle, WR (Alabama)
13		Alijah Vera-Tucker, OT (USC)
14		Caleb Farley, CB (Virginia Tech)
15		Micah Parsons, LB (Penn State)
16		Patrick Surtain II, CB (Alabama)
17		Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, LB (Notre Dame)
18		Christian Darrisaw, OT (Virginia Tech)
19		Alex Leatherwood, OT (Alabama)
20		Teven Jenkins, OT (Oklahoma State)
21		Zaven Collins, LB (Tulsa)
22		Jaelan Phillips, DE (Miami)
23		Tyson Campbell, CB (Georgia)
24		Sam Cosmi, OT (Texas)
25		Daviyon Nixon, DT (Iowa)
26		Christian Barmore, DT (Alabama)
27		Jaysen Oweh, DE (Penn State)
28		Aaron Robinson, CB (UCF)
29		Jackson Carman, G (Clemson)
30		Gregory Rousseau, DE (Miami)
31		Kadarius Toney, WR (Florida)
32		Azeez Ojulari, LB (Georgia)

Let’s take a serious look at this

• Yes, only one round.  Why?  Well the biggest reason is I didn’t feel like doing more.  What’s the point?  Plus if I get even half these picks correct, I have to be considered some kind of Nostradamus.
• The Dolphins, Jags and Jets set themselves up well with two picks in the first round.  Now the Ravens joined them as they traded Orlando Brown to the Chiefs.  You gotta wonder if one of these teams will package two picks to move up in the draft.  I mean obviously not the Jets or Jags but maybe the other two teams.
• Back to a live draft.  In Cleveland.  I kind of hope it’s like 6 degrees just to see what Goodell does.
• Yes I have Mac Jones at 3.  Do I think that’s where he will go?  Yes.  Do I think that’s where he should go?  No.  He’s not a top 10 talent in my eyes and I think the Niners traded up and are doing a bit of a quiet version of the Mitchell Trubisky deal that the Bears did about half a decade ago.
• Trey Lance is another one that I am iffy about.  Honestly, it would not surprise me at all if the Falcons decided to trade down.  I am sure they are getting a lot of offers and Lance is another guy who I wouldn’t pick in the Top 10.  I would have picked Justin Fields at this spot but he has dropped down in the draft because…actually I don’t know.  I am sure it’s dumb.
• Speaking of Fields, I think he drops to the Broncos who are fucking ecstatic to get him at that spot.  I see him being a poor man’s version of Aaron Rodgers in terms of making certain teams pay for not taking him earlier.
• The Bengals will be smart to not listen to Joe Burrow.  He so desperately wants Ja’Marr Chase but he will have a tough time throwing to him with their toilet-paper-thin O-line.  Sewell is the right pick here.
• The Dolphins will basically have their choice of whoever the hell they want at #6.  I think it will be Pitts but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pick on of those three receivers either.
• I have Chase, Smith and Waddle going to the Lions, Giants and Eagles, respectively.  This is where I could see a team back in the draft trade up to get one of these guys.  I could see the Ravens doing something to move up, along with the Washington Team du Football and the Colts.
• As for other teams maybe moving up, I haven’t heard much other than almost every team trading with the Falcons to get to #4.  Other than the WTF going there to get a QB, I can’t see a team making a great trade to move up.
• The Bengals and Dolphins would be stupid to trade down, in my honest opinion, since both teams should get what they want and/or need at the #5 and #6 spot, respectively.  And since they aren’t the Houston Texans, they probably won’t trade down.

OK that’s about all.  Now we wait for tomorrow night.

As per usual, I should have some sort of draft recap post in the next week or two.  After that, soon enough it will be the most important games of the season as I finish up trying to figure out the schedule for the 2021 season.  If everything goes well (at least down in the U.S.) the season will begin in 122 days with Week Zero.  Keep our fingers crossed.

As for this province, I don’t know what to say.  Talk about a shitshow.  Nothing is going right.  All we can hope is that they get everyone their first vaccines as quick as possible so we can move into the second phase (for most).  Unfortunately, I can see some of our summer being taken from us (somewhat) again.  Sad but probably a reality.

Everyone, have a fun time watching the draft and a great end to the week.

So I’m back to doing mock drafts…

You know what sucks about being unemployed (other than financial ruin)?  The feeling of being so completely unproductive.  No matter what I do around the house or in my job hunt, it feels like I accomplish nothing.  So part of me needs to do stuff like this.  Mock drafts.  It feels almost disgusting to say that phrase.  Oh well.  I am doing a mock draft to basically keep myself busy.  And to feel like I have accomplished something with my blog.  So yeah, let’s see how this goes.  I’m sure after the first pick of this mock, I will be totally wrong with every other pick.  And I honestly don’t care.  Let’s get started.

FIRST ROUND

1		Trevor Lawrence, QB (Clemson)
2		Zach Wilson, QB (BYU)
3		Ja’Marr Chase, WR (LSU)
4		Trey Lance, QB (North Dakota State)
5		Penei Sewell, OL (Oregon)
6		Kyle Pitts, TE (Florida)
7		Jaylen Waddle, WR (Alabama)
8		Justin Fields, QB (Ohio State)
9		Micah Parsons, LB (Penn State)
10		Patrick Surtain II, CB (Florida)
11		DeVonta Smith, WR (Alabama)
12		Caleb Farley, CB (Virginia Tech)
13		Rashawn Slater, OL (Northwestern)
14		Christian Darrisaw, OL (Virginia Tech)
15		Azeez Ojulari, LB (Georgia)
16		Jaycee Horn, CB (South Carolina)
17		Christian Barmore, DL (Alabama)
18		Zaven Collins, LB (Tulsa)
19		Mac Jones, QB (Alabama)
20		Jalen Mayfield, OL (Michigan)
21		Alijah Vera-Tucker, OL (USC)
22		Jaysen Oweh, EDGE (Penn State)
23		Rondale Moore, WR (Purdue)
24		Teven Jenkins, OL (Oklahoma State)
25		Ifeatu Melifonwu, CB (Syracuse)
26		Carlos Basham Jr., EDGE (Wake Forest)
27		Joe Tryon, EDGE (Washington)
28		Kadarius Toney, WR (Florida)
29		Jaelan Phillips, DL (Miami)
30		Jamin Davis, LB (Kentucky)
31		Jackson Carman, OL (Clemson)
32		Levi Onwuzurike, DL (Washington)

Random Info

• At this point I really only have enough patience to do one round of the mock draft.  Maybe one day I will just say “fuck it” and do three rounds.  Or the whole damn draft!  Actually, no, I don’t think so.
• Trevor Lawrence is almost definitely going to Jacksonville.  I would be shocked if it worked out any other way.
• That puts the Jets in a position to either replace Sam Darnold at QB (which is what I think they will do), draft at another position (which is a possibility) or trade out of the spot if they get a sweetheart deal (which I can’t see happening but you never know).
• As for trades, I don’t include them in my mock drafts.  I’ve said it before but it seems ridiculous to try and predict a trade happening between now and draft day and what picks would be involved.
• What will be the order of quarterbacks taken?  I believe Zach Wilson will end up being the second quarterback taken.  I have the order Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields, Jones all going in the first round.  I am still a bit hesitant about Lance but the Falcons seem keen on him at this point and they need a quarterback.  Without the Kreepy Kombine, I believe players will move much less on teams’ draft boards than they did in the past when one less rep on the benchpress could rocket a guy down three rounds.
• Other than Lawrence there are no locks.  None.  And probably won’t be until at least the day before draft day.
• The other team to watch here is the Dolphins.  They would love another weapon for Tua but could look at some linebacking or O-line help.  My guess is they pick a WR but again, it’s a crapshoot as to who they pick.

Now I have a feeling my next mock draft will be my final one and done just before the draft.  We shall see how things work out.

I have got the entire college football schedule.  Now it’s just a matter of piecing together what it might look like.  This might be a bit tougher than normal since I don’t really have last year to look at and a few things have changed in terms of conference television contracts.  So there could be a lot of guesswork.  But that’s part of the fun.  For me.  I need help.

Anyway, have a great rest of the week!

UPDATE: I have a job!

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

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

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

College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six

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

Heisman Trophy

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

Just A Bunch of Predictions

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chiefs 35 Bucs 23.

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

Alright what do we have to look forward to:

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

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

Let’s talk about this shitshow – The Bowl Game Schedule

How many of the bowls in that picture either don’t exist anymore or were cancelled this year?  I shudder to think of it.  Maybe I should get a different graphic for next year.  For now it works because it shows how many bowls there usually are.  Somewhere in the 40 range.  This year it is under 30 and it’s almost a guarantee at least one more will be cancelled now that the schedule has been released.  It’s been a shitshow…even more than the season was, if you can believe it.

The biggest piece of horseshit when it comes to this is Army not getting into a bowl game.  They were tied in to the Independence Bowl, which ended up being cancelled.  So instead of being invited to another bowl game, they are left home…at 9-2.  That is completely absurd.  I know what some people will say.  “Well, the other games have contracts for certain conferences and they have to abide by that.”  Not saying you’re wrong.  What I am saying is the system is completely broken when a 2-8 South Carolina team “deserves” to go to a bowl game and Army does not.  All it says is one thing…MONEY.  That’s all.  The Power Five has money and the Group of Five has very little.  It has come to a head.  The College Football Playoff Committee is a joke and ESPN is being forced to parrot that because they are in bed with the whole thing.  It has gone off the rails and needs a refresh.  This is the kind of thing that might drive people away from watching.  Might.  Who knows…I mean it is football and in the United States, football is king.

Alright, so TSN kind of has their bowl game broadcast schedule up, kind of.  I don’t blame them for not being prepared for this since games were being cancelled two days ago.  Completely ridiculous.  I’m sure things will change on their end, but for once, it’s not really their fault.  Blame college football at large for this.  Anyway, here’s the fairly long (but not as long as normal) bowl schedule!

Monday December 21st

Myrtle Beach Bowl: North Texas vs. Appalachian State

2:30 PM

Again, why does this happen?  WHY?  On a Monday before Christmas.  Completely stupid.  Also, North Texas gets in a bowl game?  North Texas.  The Mean Green.  A team that was 4-5 this season.  This just blows my mind.

UPDATE #3: My pick, as I stated before was Appalachian State.  I said they would win 41-13 on Twitter.  Well App State won.  And they won by 28.  Just like I thought.

Tuesday December 22nd

Idaho Potato Bowl: Tulane vs. Nevada

3:30 PM

Another game on in the middle of a weekday afternoon before Christmas.  I get that you have to air these games some time but this ain’t it, pal.  Even with less games, ESPN completely messes this up.  The one good thing about this is that it’s a cold-weather bowl game.  And those are (almost) always fun to watch.

Boca Raton Bowl: UCF vs. #16 BYU

7:00 PM

If it wasn’t for that one loss, BYU might be in the New Year’s Six.  Instead, because they lacked a tie-in, they took the first bowl bid available to them.  Luckily for them, UCF should be a good foe, even if they aren’t the Knights of the previous few years.  A good primetime national showcase for two of the better non-Power Five teams.  Hey, maybe the American should invite BYU to join their conference.  Why not at this point?

Wednesday December 23rd

New Orleans Bowl: Georgia Southern vs. Louisiana Tech

3:30 PM

This was supposed to be the Conference USA champion facing the Sun Belt champion.  What in the hell happened?  Then again, with no fans, does it really matter?

Montgomery Bowl: Florida Atlantic vs. Memphis

7:00 PM

This was supposed to be the inaugural Fenway Bowl in Boston but it was moved here because of COVID concerns.  Two teams who were slightly better than some thought they would be land here.  Willie Taggart’s coaching sojourn is back the Group of Five level here but he’s doing a good job in Boca.  Memphis seems to always be near the top of the American.  This could be a sneaky good game (that won’t be shown on TSN…probably because of opening night in the NBA).

Thursday December 24th

New Mexico Bowl: Hawaii vs. Houston

3:30 PM

Christmas Eve was always the day of the Hawaii Bowl.  Unfortunately, this was one of the bowl game casualties of COVID-19.  Instead, we get Hawaii themselves playing on Christmas Eve.  Not as satisfying but the Rainbow Warriors are a fun team to watch.  A reminder that this New Mexico Bowl is being played in Frisco, Texas.  Why it wasn’t cancelled when so many others were?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Friday December 25th

Camellia Bowl: Marshall vs. Buffalo

2:30 PM

Christmas Day college football.  That hasn’t been a thing since the Hula Bowl and when the Blue-Gray Classic would be this day.  Two really good G-5 teams in this one so it can be considered a must-see for the die hard fan (for college football, not the Christmas movie).  It will be interesting to see if Lance Leipold gets any offers for Power Five jobs before this game.

Saturday December 26th

Gasparilla Bowl: South Carolina vs. UAB

Noon

This is bullshit.  South Carolina should just give up their spot to Army.  Actually, no.  UAB can give up their spot to Army…and then Army can put up a 70-burger on the Gamecocks.  Stupid SEC.

UPDATE #4: South Carolina has dropped out of this game.  No word on if there will be a replacement team or what.

UPDATE #5: The Gasparilla Bowl has been cancelled.  Hopefully, UAB gets to be put on some sort of a waiting list if there’s another cancellation.

First Responder Bowl: UTSA vs. #19 Louisiana

3:30 PM

UTSA made history as this is the second bowl bid they accepted this season.  The first one to the Frisco Bowl was gone once that bowl game was cancelled.  Funny how they were able to be moved into another bowl immediately.  It’s kind of like all this wasn’t planned…at all…in any way.  This is another game that has potential to be really good.

LendingTree Bowl: Georgia State vs. Western Kentucky

3:30 PM

Two decent Group of Five teams.  Look, it’s this or the World Juniors so if you’re not a hockey fan, then this is it.

Cure Bowl: Liberty vs. #12 Coastal Carolina

7:30 PM

This is EASILY the best bowl game outside the New Year’s Six in almost everyone’s opinion.  This game was scheduled for a few weeks ago where the Flames had to cancel and BYU filled in for them.  Now they get their chance against the Chanticleers, the feel good story of the college football season.  This is their chance to finish the best season in Sun Belt history undefeated.

UPDATE #9: TSN has come to their senses and will put one of the best bowl games of the season on TSN2 now.

Tuesday December 29th

Cheez-It Bowl: #21 Oklahoma State vs. #18 Miami

5:30 PM

Let’s call this the second best bowl game outside the New Year’s Six.  Both teams are probably not that happy to be here but they both played horrible at the wrong time to play themselves out of a conference championship chance.  The Mullet vs. The Manny here is a nice coaching matchup.

Alamo Bowl: Colorado vs. #20 Texas

9:00 PM

Big-time game of former Big XII conference foes.  Both of these teams should be ranked (I don’t get why Colorado isn’t, to be honest).  The Longhorns were about as good as many thought they would be this season, just missing out on a conference title and continuing to frustrated fans.  The Buffaloes were much better than advertising, harkening back to, well, I guess a couple years ago.

Wednesday December 30th

Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Wake Forest

Noon

This is the reincarnated Belk Bowl.  I miss the Belk Bowl’s hilarious Twitter account.  I mean the Duke’s Mayo Bowl account is good, but nothing beat the Belk Bowl.  So fun and entertaining.  Rest In Bowl Peace, Belk Bowl.

Music City Bowl: Missouri vs. #15 Iowa

3:30 PM

Iowa thought they had a bit of a hope to make the New Year’s Six.  They could have given them a better game but even the one that was scheduled could have been good enough to move up the rankings.  Unfortunately, it was cancelled due to Michigan’s ongoing issues with the Coronavirus.  They face Missouri here in a game that, on paper, shouldn’t be close.  Now watch it be a great one.

UPDATE #10: This game will no longer be seen on TSN5.

UPDATE #15: Due to COVID-19 issues at Missouri, this game has been cancelled.

Cotton Bowl: #7 Florida vs. #6 Oklahoma

7:15 PM

This should be a really good one.  Both teams have looked really good at times this season.  And both teams have had their shit moments, with the Gators losing to LSU during Shoegate and the Sooners dropping one to Kansas State early on in the season.  It will be interesting to see which teams show up as this is the kind of game where you see teams sometimes mail it in.

Thursday December 31st

Armed Forces Bowl: #24 Tulsa vs. Mississippi State

Noon

Hey Tulsa going to a bowl game!  Good for them!  Their reward?  Playing a Mississippi State team that was figured out about five quarters into the season.  Tulsa should win this going away.​

Arizona Bowl: #22 San Jose State vs. Ball State

Noon 2:00 PM

Because of the cancellation of the Sun Bowl, the Arizona Bowl goes to the main network and man do they get a good game.  Undefeated Mountain West champ San Jose State against MAC champ Ball State.  Honestly, it feels like the Group of Five have more interesting games than the Power Five contingent.

UPDATE #17: I don’t know why I put Noon.  I believe it’s Noon local time.  If it was Noon Eastern time, it would be a 10:00 am local start.  Actually, I wouldn’t put it past them to do that.  Anyway, this is on at 2:00 Eastern.

Liberty Bowl: Tennessee Army vs. West Virginia

4:00 PM

The Liberty Bowl has wanted the Volunteers there for years.  Now they finally get their wish.  It’s not really what they had in mind though.

UPDATE: Well that didn’t take long.  Tennessee has too many COVID positives, head coach Jeremy Pruitt among them, to play in the Liberty Bowl.

UPDATE #2: Army will replace Tennessee.  This is good.  How it came about is not.

Texas Bowl: Arkansas vs. TCU

8:00 PM

An old school Southwest Conference matchup here.  If the SWC hadn’t been such a crazy, destructive conference, I would say bring it back somehow.  Why not, right?

UPDATE #16: The Texas Bowl has been cancelled because of COVID issues at TCU.

Friday January 1st

Peach Bowl: #9 Georgia vs. #8 Cincinnati

12:30 PM Noon

Alright.  Look, I am glad to see the Bearcats here.  First time in the New Year’s Six.  This is good.  Saying that, the total disrespect for them, and all Group of Five teams, from The Committee (and college football as a whole) is appalling.  It needs to be fixed and seeing what happened surrounding the end of this season is a blight on the sport.  Anyway…this should be a very good game and you will see a very motivated Cincy team against, hopefully, a very motivated Dawgs team.  They are coached by Kirby Smart so I am going to go out on a limb and say they will be motivated as well.

UPDATE #6: This game has been moved up to Noon.

Citrus Bowl: Auburn vs. #14 Northwestern

1:00 PM

Northwestern had a great season, no doubt about it.  Auburn…it’s a season they would like to forget.  Gus Malzahn is now gone and we still don’t know who the new coach will be, since a few have already turned down the job.  Bo Nix really doesn’t look like the man for the job, at this point, at quarterback for the Tigers.  The offense has been rudderless.  Just a mess.  The Wildcats on the other hand, have to deal with the almost-yearly rumours of Pat Fitzgerald possibly going to the NFL or another coaching job.  Chances are it won’t happen but you never know.

Rose Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. #4 Notre Dame

5:00 PM 4:00 PM

Bama by 30?  Bama by 40?  Naw, Bama by 60!  You will hear that and more in the days leading up to this game.  And maybe for good reason.  I mean Clemson beat the Irish pretty badly in the ACC Championship.  The only hope is that this is a halfway competitive game.  Or not.  If it’s not, more pressure for this asinine setup to change.

UPDATE #7: This game has been moved up to 4:00.  Whether it starts at 4 or not is a different story.

Sugar Bowl: #2 Clemson vs. #3 Ohio State

8:45 PM 8:00 PM

Now this should be an exciting semi-final, despite people’s thoughts about tOSU’s 2020 season.  Expect a lot of good stuff from Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields as they look for this to be their second-last chance to wow the scouts in game action before the NFL draft.

UPDATE #8: This game has been moved up to 8:00.  It starting on time all depends on the two bowl games before it on ESPN.

Saturday January 2nd

Gator Bowl: Kentucky vs. #23 NC State

Noon

Could this be an interesting game?  Sure, it could be.  I do expect the Wolfpack to blow the doors of the Wildcats but you never know with these bowl games.

UPDATE #12: This game will now appear on TSN2 instead of TSN3.

Outback Bowl: Ole Miss vs. #11 Indiana

12:30 PM

Poor Indiana.  I honestly believed (as did many) that the Hoosiers would end up in the New Year’s Six.  But since they are a “basketball school” they would probably have to go undefeated to get in and forget the College Football Playoff for these guys.  They get Lane Kiffin’s Ole Miss Rebels.  Take Indy in this one.

UPDATE #11: This game will also air on TSN3.​

Fiesta Bowl: #25 Oregon vs. #10 Iowa State

4:00 PM

This is what I cannot stand.  I get the idea of bowl tie-ins.  I really do.  But this is supposed to be one of the top four bowl games of the season and it has a team that is BARELY in the Top 25 playing in it?  Come on.  Anyway, this should be part of a TSN tripleheader but this day hasn’t been set yet.  Expect this (and the other non-ABC games) to end up on a TSN station, I just don’t know which ones yet and most of that has to do with the World Juniors.

UPDATE #13: This game will now appear on TSN2 instead of TSN3.​

Orange Bowl: #13 North Carolina vs. #5 Texas A&M

8:00 PM

Yes another tie-in issue but at least Mack Brown’s boys are a pretty good team.  If it wasn’t for a puzzling loss to Florida State, UNC probably resides in the Top 10 with the Aggies.  This should be a great finish to bowl season, before the national championship.

UPDATE #14: This game will now appear on TSN2 instead of TSN3.

Monday January 11th

College Football Playoff National Championship

8:00 PM

We’ve had some good and some not-so-good championship games.  Let’s hope this is the former.

The breakdown for Canadian fans looks like the following:

• TSN – 24 bowl games (with 3 simulcasts from ABC)
• ABC – 4 bowl games
• CBS – 1 bowl game

With only 29 bowl games, TSN is showing almost all of them.  That is seriously impressive.  With no specialty pack, Canadians won’t have access to three games which isn’t too bad.  The only day where the schedule is not finalized, as I mentioned, is January 2nd.  My thought is that we won’t get less games on TSN but that the channels I have chosen might not be the right ones.  I will make sure to update this when there are updates to be had so always check the post out for the latest.

Alright I have a lot of posts to do with my rankings and the NFL schedule and I am sure a few others.  So gear up for more Bossman’s Blog this week.  Have a great week everyone!

Can’t say we didn’t see this coming – Week 9 College Football TV Schedule

OK we all know the facts here.  COVID-19 is a virus that has wreaked havoc in some areas of the world and has changed the way we live, possibly for a long time.  Also, sports have come back but with the amount of contact involved, some sports are more vulnerable than others to this pandemic.  Which brings me to Wisconsin.  Graham Mertz had a great game this past weekend.  Almost perfect passing the ball.  Wisconsin already looks good despite the fact they only played Illinois.

So now we find out that Mertz tested positive for COVID.  So he’s out for this coming week’s game.  Backup Jack Coan is dealing with a foot injury so he won’t play.  And now we find out that third stringer Chase Wolf has also tested positive for the Coronavirus.  So the Badgers are down to their fourth-string quarterback.  Wow.  So that means Danny Vanden Boom (great name by the way) gets the start on Saturday.  Luckily it’s Nebraska that’s the opponent.  But if Wisky loses to the Huskers, they can flush any College Football Playoff hopes down the drain no matter how much The Committee will give them some slack for what happened.  This will happen again this season.  Guaranteed.  Wisky is just the highest profile team so far.  What if it happens to a unit for Alabama or Clemson?  Shit will hit the fan then for sure.

UPDATE: So after that amazing intro, it was all for naught.  Wisconsin-Nebraska has been cancelled after more positive COVID-19 tests.

Alright, enough about the Wisky Covid situation.  Sounds like something the military would say in a battle.  Anyway, the schedule!

Thursday​

		US	Canada
South Alabama at Georgia Southern	7:30 PM
Colorado State at Fresno State	10:00 PM

We are getting close to football every day but we aren’t quite there.  Saying that, I am getting a bit more excited for weeknight football, especially weeknight football that lasts past midnight.  It’s not like these are huge games because they aren’t but it’s football so I will watch.  I mean what else are you going to watch?  Baseball is over.  I will let you know about the Thursday nighter later on this post but it’s not exactly a barnburner itself.  So instead you can sit down, watch the Sun Belt and then the Mountain West, and be happy.

Friday

		US	Canada
Minnesota at Maryland	7:30 PM

Hey remember when Maryland had two amazing games to start last season and everyone was heralding Mike Locksley as a great hire?  Since then, the Terps have been nothing short of awful and, surprisingly, a guy who could barely win a game at New Mexico has struggled at Maryland.  And by surprisingly, I mean not surprisingly.  At all.

Saturday Early​​

		US	Canada
Boston College at #1 Clemson	Noon
#20 Coastal Carolina at Georgia State	Noon
Purdue at Illinois	Noon
Memphis at #7 Cincinnati	Noon
#16 Kansas State at West Virginia	Noon
Michigan State at #13 Michigan	Noon
#5 Georgia at Kentucky	Noon

This feels like a lot of games where a ranked team is facing an unranked team where the ranked team should slaughter the unranked team.  Not exactly a stellar Noon schedule but I digress.

Memphis-Cincy could be the most interesting game since that is your best shot at an upset in this timeslot.  MSU-UM is a lot less important than it was before the Spartans’ upset loss to Rutgers.  The Sun Belt game isn’t huge but it will be interesting to see how long Coastal can keep this up.  I hope they make it so at least The Committee becomes a bit uncomfortable with the Group of Five selection for the New Year’s Six.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#4 Notre Dame at Georgia Tech	3:30 PM
#17 Indiana at Rutgers	3:30 PM
LSU at Auburn	3:30 PM
Northwestern at Iowa	3:30 PM
TCU at Baylor	3:30 PM
Texas at #6 Oklahoma State	4:00 PM
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM

What was thought to be a huge CBS game is now no longer nearly as big.  We shall see whether LSU has found their new quarterback and if Bo Nix can get back into the good graces of Auburn fans.  It could be a God-send for Brad and Gary though since this might end up being a pretty close game, something the SEC on CBS isn’t exactly known for these days.

One good thing about 2020 is it might have (MIGHT HAVE) killed reverse mirrors for good.  There is really no reason for them anymore in this day and age.  It’s really just a headache for all involved.  Most Americans get both ABC and ESPN2 in some form or fashion so it has become a moot point to use reverse mirrors.  Without specialty packs (as far as I know), this wouldn’t affect Canadians but man was it ever a crock of shit to deal with a reverse mirror that isn’t figured out properly and you got the same game on two different channels.

Saturday Primetime​​

		US	Canada
#25 Boise State at Air Force	6:00 PM
Mississippi State at #2 Alabama	7:00 PM
#3 Ohio State at #18 Penn State	7:30 PM
Navy at #22 SMU	7:30 PM
#24 Oklahoma at Texas Tech	8:00 PM

Ohio State-Penn State.  What else do we need to say?  How about that this matchup lost a LOT of its luster after last week’s crazy loss by PSU to Indiana.  ABC was hoping for a Top 10 matchup and won’t quite get it.  They should still dominate the timeslot though.

This feels a bit better than the afternoon timeslot.  But it’s close.  I am hoping there could get be some good games here and it looks like there might be some gems.  Alabama has to show they are still CFP-worthy and not fall to a Mike Leach speedbump, SMU has a test hosting Navy and could Air Force pull the upset and really cripple the Mountain West’s NY6 chances in its second week?

Saturday Late Night​​

		US	Canada
San Diego State at Utah State	9:30 PM
Western Kentucky at #11 BYU	10:15 PM

Pac-12 After Dark finally returns next week.  For now we get a Mountain West matchup and BYU’s march to….something.  BYU has ascended to #11 but they have to keep beating teams and beating them badly to keep in the Top 12 and have a legitimate shot at the New Year’s Six.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Ohio State at Penn State (7:30, ABC/TSN1) – No one should sleep on the Nittany Lions despite their crushing loss to Indiana.  James Franklin is still one of the better coaches in college football right now.  They have Sean Clifford at quarterback who is fairly underrated.  They have a team that could still sneak into the College Football Playoff (although the chances are slim now).  We know what can happen here.  PSU is still looking up at tOSU in the Big Ten East but the Nittany Lions hold their fate in their hands.  Win out and it’s off to Indianapolis.  Ohio State, on the other hand, is sneaking up on nobody despite the late start to the Big Ten season.  Justin Fields is still awesome and it looks like even with the loss of Chase Young to the pros, they have reloaded with another amazing defense.  This could end up being a Game of the Year candidate if Penn State leaves it all out on the field.

Memphis at Cincinnati (Noon, ESPN) – Another huge American Conference game.  You can expect one pretty much every week from now on from the conference who considers themselves part of the Power 6.  The Bearcats are definitely in the driver’s seat after their win over SMU last week.  But they can’t look ahead to, well, anything when a team like Memphis comes to town.  The Tigers have only lost once and have been a good team the past few years.  This is ripe for an upset.

Texas at Oklahoma State (4:00, FOX) – I would be surprised if even Cowboy fans thought that Oklahoma State would be this high up in the rankings at this point.  The Big XII has had a rough year and the Pokes are the only bright spot at this point.  Anyway, Tom Herman’s Longhorns could pretty much destroy the Big XII’s season on Halloween with an upset here.

Kansas State at West Virginia (Noon, TSN4) – OK it severely drops off a cliff after the first three games.  Somehow, WVU is 3-2 at this point of the season.  Neal Brown is doing a hell of a job in Morgantown.  And Chris Klieman may be doing even better in Manhattan.  One of these teams will actually have a legitimate shot at the Big XII Championship with a win here.  I do have to remember, however, that the regular season goes into mid-December now.  So I can’t be making too many crazy predictions when there is still a month-and-a-half left to go.

Indiana at Rutgers (3:30, BTN) – Fuck it, let’s go crazy here.  Undefeated (yes, UNDEFEATED) Rutgers hosts undefeated (yes, UNDEFEATED) Indiana.  Rutgers has never been in the games of the week section and I figured this was as good a time as any.  One of these teams will most likely be tied with Ohio State and Michigan at the top of the Big Ten East.  Going into November.  No that is not a misprint.

Honourable mention: Boston College at Clemson (Noon, ABC/TSN1); UCF at Houston (2:00, ESPN+); Arkansas at Texas A&M (7:30, SEC Network)

Some gambling fun and games

OK I got none of my upset picks correct.  For a bit, I thought SMU and Georgia Southern would pull it off but no.  As for the rest of my picks I was almost perfect so let’s see if we can keep that ball rolling this week.

Oklahoma State over Texas

Clemson over Boston College

Cincinnati over Memphis

West Virginia over Kansas State (big upset!)

UCF over Houston

Texas A&M over Arkansas

Indiana over Rutgers

Ohio State over Penn State

BYU over Western Kentucky

Utah State over San Diego State (let’s call it a mild upset)

Georgia State over Coastal Carolina (massive upset)

We are oh so close to football every day for like four weeks.  I can feel it!

Thursday Night Football again!  We get Atlanta heading to Carolina.  Not the greatest game but they can’t all be.  I have heard a few people marvel at the games that TNF gets.  I have to say that once FOX paired up with the NFL Network the quality of games improved a bit.  This is good.  It really has replaced Monday Night Football as the second-best night game of the week.  I’ve said this before and it may sound like blasphemy but I know MNF is an institution but to be honest, I could do without it.  I think most teams would agree as well now with the advent of TNF.  And in this COVID world, making things easier on the teams should be an idea worth looking into.

Will I watch like 26 hours of football this weekend?  No.  But I will do my best to watch as much as I can.  I’m sure I will have other plans at some point but it’s mostly a free weekend.  Not making excuses.  Just saying that some of my recaps might make it seem like I barely watched the game.  And that might be true.  Enjoy the games everyone!