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

Posted on October 26, 2022 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

Thursday

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

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

Friday

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

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

Saturday Early

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

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

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

Saturday Afternoon

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

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

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

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

Saturday Primetime

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

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

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

Saturday Late Night

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

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

Big Games O’ The Week

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

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

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

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

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

Psycho Game of the Week

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

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

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

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

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

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

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

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

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

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

Oh. Hell. YEAH! Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey, how about some more lists of games?

Posted on July 1, 2022 by guelphbossman

No, no, this won’t be bad, I promise you. OK, promise is a strong word. It will be fine. No need to worry. Look, I will just get right to the lists and then if you want to tell me afterwards that it was all bullshit then I may listen.

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

Let’s start with the games I would consider underrated or sneaky-good. These games are not in the Top 30 list but should be very good (and close) games. Now watch half of them be blowouts. Let’s begin.

Cincinnati at Arkansas (Week 1, 3:30, ESPN, confirmed) – A lot of college football fans (including myself) are looking forward to this one. Let’s just see how good the Bearcats still are after their glass ceiling-shattering performance of 2021. And the Hogs are no slouch either. This gun be good.
Kentucky at Tennessee (Week 9, 7:00, ESPNU) – These two teams feel like the only ones that can truly challenge Georgia in the SEC East (no offense to Florida). Whether this gets off of ESPNU is another story but if at least one of these teams is doing really well, I would think that would be considered.
Pittsburgh at Miami (Week 13, Noon, ABC) – This could be a massive game if either team plays above their talent this season. Pitt is coming off an amazing ACC title run and Miami feels like they may be starting to actually get back to those 80s and 90s Hurricane squads. Now watch both teams be 6-5 and this game mean absolutely jack shit.
Tennessee at LSU (Week 6, Noon, ESPN) – I am sure Tigers fans will be pissed off that this game isn’t at night since ALL GAMES AT DEATH VALLEY SHOULD BE AT NIGHT according to them. Not saying it’s a great atmosphere but you have to be realistic. Both teams will need this early conference win to have any hopes of a potential New Year’s Six berth.
Michigan State at Penn State (Week 13, 3:30, ABC) – Chances of this being part of a huge Big Ten doubleheader after tOSU-Michigan are slim. Who knows where this game will land when it comes to importance. I assume at least one of these teams will have an outside shot at an NY6 slot going into this week.
Tennessee at Pittsburgh (Week 2, 3:30, ABC, confirmed) – Wow, I have the Volunteers in a lot of these games. Their season could be the most volatile of all teams, at least in the SEC. We are looking at anywhere from five to maybe ten wins for this squad. If they do get to double digit wins, fans in Knoxville are going to build a statue (a small one but still a statue) of Josh Heupel in front of Neyland Stadium.
Kentucky at Ole Miss (Week 5, 7:30, SEC Network) – Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Lane Kiffin is entertaining. And he brings an offense that could average 40 a game if he wanted to really let go of the reins. The Wildcats are no pushovers and it is a bit of a surprise that Mark Stoops hasn’t been offered a more prominent head coaching position. Maybe after this season he will get that if the Cats hit heights that have never been achieved in Lexington.
Arkansas at BYU (Week 7, 10:30, ESPN) – Honestly, this could be one of the most fun games to watch all year. Two great coaches, two teams that score a lot of points, and two great fanbases (no matter what you think about the people of Provo). BYU’s only possible chance at the New Year’s Six is to win games like this and they have to hope the raucous crowd at LaVell Edwards Stadium will help them in this one.
Baylor at Texas (Week 13, Friday, 3:30, ABC) – This could game could end up being even more important than Bedlam, which is saying something. There are even some that say that this could be foreshadowing a rematch the following week at Jerrah’s house. I mean I’m not one of them but there are some out there.
Purdue at Wisconsin (Week 8, Noon, ABC) – Alright, hear me out. Is Purdue now a Top 25 team? Debatable. Could they make some noise in the Big Ten West? Absolutely. And someone has to challenge the Badgers, right?

Best Group of Five Games

Let’s give the G5 some love! These games are ones that only include Group of Five teams (so no G5 vs. P5 games here). Something tells me the American Conference will show up a lot here. Oh, and by the way, I am also not putting BYU games in this section. To me they are a Power Five team.

Cincinnati at UCF (Week 9, Noon, ESPN) – For the second straight fucking year, Cincinnati and Houston do not play each other during the regular season. I honestly don’t get how the AAC does their schedules but it’s fucking bonkers. This means that this game ends up being the G5 game of the year and it might not even mean anything if UCF isn’t improved. Let’s hope the Gus Bus has a full tank and is ready to go.
Fresno State at Boise State (Week 6, 3:30, FS1) – The first game on any of these lists that we won’t be able to see here (unless you have IPTV or an illegal stream or something that most of us can probably easily find). And no, there is no way it can be moved unless FOX decides to put it on the national network because all Broncos home games are on FOX, FS1 or FS2.
Boise State at Air Force (Week 8, 7:00, CBSSN, confirmed) – Here’s the other part of Boise’s TV contract. Their road games must be on CBS or CBSSN. They are the special team of the Mountain West, make no mistake about it. They are the ones that bring in the eyeballs. Considering what has happened in realignment, the conference might want to add a couple teams to strengthen it and potentially weaken another FBS conference because soon enough, the Broncos will go to another conference and not change their mind.
Cincinnati at SMU (Week 8, 4:00, ESPNU) – Every year lately I have heard that SMU might put it all together and make a run. SMU has the pass offense to do some great things. SMU’s defense is good enough to stop the best American Conference teams. Blah, blah, blah. Until they actually do these things, I won’t believe any of the hype. If they keep this close, colour me impressed. I mean they do have the offense to do so but they have to keep the Bearcats under 50 points to have a shot here.
Houston at UTSA (Week 1, 3:30, CBSSN, confirmed) – I’m kind of surprised that CBS picked Arizona-San Diego State instead of this game for Week 1. Houston is the one team that many believe could knock Cincy off their perch but UTSA was amazing last year. Such a fun ride watching the Roadrunners reel off eleven straight wins and give them a much deserved national spotlight. This game will show all of us which of these two teams (if not both of them) are ready to do some damage again this year. Maybe I should have put this at #4. Too late now.
East Carolina at Cincinnati (Week 11, Friday, 7:30, ESPN2, confirmed) – Now here’s a team in ECU that likes to throw the ball all over the damn field. I’m sure Mike Houston’s strategy is to throw the ball until Holton Ahlers’ arm falls off…and then make him use the other arm. Bet the over.
Air Force at Utah State (Week 6, 7:00, FS1) – Both teams rolled past Boise State last year and don’t want to give up that top spot in the Mountain West. One team has to lose here, though, since the NCAA would rather have 53 overtimes of two-point conversions than a tie.
Appalachian State at Coastal Carolina (Week 10, Thursday, 7:30, ESPN, confirmed) – The Fighting Mullets are back to see if they can go back-to-back-to-back double digit win seasons. And let’s be honest: App State is always at the top of the Sun Belt heap (or near it). I love late season weekday night college football and the Fun Belt may be the top conference in providing it (no offense, MACtion).
UTSA at UAB (Week 10, 6:00, Facebook) – Yes, Facebook. There’s a reason these two teams (with four others) are leaving Conference USA for the American Conference next season. It’s the TV contract. It has been horrifically bad basically since the conference was created and nothing they’ve done has made it any better. And with these teams leaving, don’t think ESPN or FOX will step up to pick up games from this woebegone conference that may have completely lost its way and dropped to the bottom of the FBS pecking order.
San Diego State at Fresno State (Week 9, 10:30, FS1) – Your Mountain West Squared Division Championship (probably). Winner most likely ends up as the road team for the Mountain West Championship and the loser will go to Albuquerque or Boise or some other odd bowl destination. I know I’ll be watching…until about 2 in the morning.

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Games

A new section this year! I figured I would put in just a few of these games. Group of Five teams always dream to have their shot at a Power Five team and every year there are legitimate possibilities for upsets among these games. Some P5 teams hate scheduling the better G5 teams for this reason.

Cincinnati at Arkansas (Week 1, 3:30, ESPN, confirmed) – I already covered this in the last post so I won’t bother here. But yeah this should be a good one.
Fresno State at USC (Week 3, 10:30, FOX, confirmed) – Late night FOX football is back! And if USC wants to be considered back in the Pac-12 saddle, these are the games they have to win. The Bulldogs are no pushover and they are almost feeling like the Pat Hill Anywhere, Anytime, Fresno State of the 2000s.
Appalachian State at Texas A&M (Week 2, 3:30, ESPN2, confirmed) – Is App State the best Sun Belt team again? A win here might confirm that. They are usually a fun team to watch but this is a brutal early season trip that won’t be easy. Almost 110,000 crazy fans (and if you’ve seen the Midnight Yell, you know they’re crazy) will make sure of it.
San Diego State at Utah (Week 3, 10:00, ESPN2, confirmed) – Last year these two teams played a hell of a game in front of a not-even-half-filled Dignity Health Sports Park all the way in Carson, the former home of the formerly homeless Los Angeles Chargers. The Aztecs pulled off the upset in triple overtime. This year, yeah, the MUSS will be loud and Rice-Eccles Stadium will be full so SDSU better be ready for a much different atmosphere this time around.
Boise State at Oregon State (Week 1, 10:30, ESPN, confirmed) – I can’t see the Broncos having two straight mediocre seasons. So expect fireworks in this one. I implore you to stay up late for this one since it should be good. Also, there’s a good chance this game makes it to TSN although that is not confirmed at this point obviously.

Worst Power Five Games

Honestly, this is one of my favourite sections to look at because it tells me the games I should avoid. Unless they are really close late in the fourth quarter and I will bite my tongue and go and watch it because I am a deranged college football fan.

Duke at Kansas (Week 4, Noon, FS1) – Oh my, look at what we start with. This is absolutely disgusting and glorious all at the same time. Watch it be one of the games of the year with a ton of offense and a close finish.
Duke at Georgia Tech (Week 6, 12:30, FSN – Regional) – It feels like Duke is going to be in this section a lot. Poor Blue Devils football fans thought they were out of this basement. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Don’t worry, though: college basketball is only about three-and-a-half months away.
Arizona State at Colorado (Week 9, 3:30, ESPN2) – Kind of surprised this isn’t a Pac-12 Network game. I mean, it could end up being that so I should stop before I make any guarantees. I’m wondering if by this point we know the fate of good ol’ Herm Edwards since it is just a matter of time before he is shitcanned down in Tempe.
Duke at Northwestern (Week 2, Noon, FS1, confirmed) – Should I just put all of Duke’s road games on this list? Luckily for most Canadians, you don’t have to subject yourself to this one since you can’t get FOX Sports One.
Indiana at Rutgers (Week 8, 3:00, BTN) – Ah, Rutgers our old friend is back in the list they are so very accustomed to. I mean I guess rabid college football fans are happy that they get the Big Ten Network as part of their normal cable packages now. I do miss the Big East, though. What could have been.
Colorado at Arizona (Week 5, 5:30, Pac-12 Network) – There we go. The Pac-12 Network has made their first appearance here. Many are saying Zona will be better than last year. Well no shit. They couldn’t be much worse. They made Kansas look competent last season.
Virginia at Duke (Week 5, 3:30, ACC Network) – Hey, how about one more Duke game? First ACC Network appearance. Three conference networks down, one to go.
Kansas at Texas Tech (Week 11, 7:00, FS1) – If the Big XII had a network AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Sorry, I couldn’t finish that sentence. FOX Sports One might be the most extreme of channels when it comes to game quality. They always get at least one very good game a season and then they get this. Sometimes on the same day. Imagine being on that Zoom call when they figure out announcer assignments and you are praying you aren’t being sent to Lubbock. Good times.
Virginia at Georgia Tech (Week 8, Thursday, 7:30, ESPN, confirmed) – Not all Thursday night games are made equal. I’m sure there’s a Sun Belt game on at the same time that would be much more intriguing.
Illinois at Northwestern (Week 13, 7:00, FS1) – Hey maybe one of these teams will be bowl-eligible by this point so it won’t feel so bad.

Alright, that wasn’t too bad, eh? Maybe I will go this route again this coming year. We will see about that.

So it looks like everything is calm right now and HOLY SHIT, USC AND UCLA ARE GOING TO THE BIG TEN! What in the fuck? OK then, I think this kind of derails my immediate posting plans. I may have to just do an analysis of this because this is realignment insanity. This is what we call college football media crack-cocaine.

Well…have a great Canada Day weekend everyone (or, if you are reading this south of the border, have a happy Fourth of July weekend). Stay tuned for the next post!

1. Bring in Texas and Oklahoma. 2. Make even a pissed off Texas A&M comply. 3. ????? 4. Profit!

Posted on July 26, 2021 by guelphbossman

We are not just inching towards super conferences now. If Texas and Oklahoma are admitted to the SEC then college football is on a bullet train to super conference land! We may be witnessing the biggest and possibly last huge realignment spree for a while. This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you are happy with the potential of super conferences and these teams breaking off from the NCAA (or at the very least, FBS), you can thank Greg Sankey, the current commissioner of the SEC. He is a guy that sees the future for what it is and plans to put the Southeastern Conference in front of it all. This post could look entirely different starting as early as next season if he gets his way (and UT and OU gets theirs and TAMU really doesn’t get theirs at all).

How about we get right down to the predictions that Just Means More (teams) followed by Texas Barbecue Thoughts (and whatever the fuck they eat in Oklahoma):

	Conference		Overall
East	W	L	W	L
Georgia	7	1	10	2
Florida	5	3	9	3
Kentucky	4	4	8	4
Missouri	4	4	7	5
Tennessee	2	6	5	7
South Carolina	1	7	3	9
Vanderbilt	0	8	2	10
West
Alabama	7	1	11	1
Texas A&M	6	2	10	2
LSU	5	3	9	3
Ole Miss	5	3	9	3
Auburn	5	3	8	4
Arkansas	3	5	6	6
Mississippi State	2	6	6	6

Texas Barbecue Thoughts

Wait, they will eat barbecue as well in Oklahoma…slathered in Jim Ross’s BBQ sauce.
I’ve done this before with not-so-great results. But I don’t learn from my mistakes so I’m doing it again. Bama does not have an easy schedule (which is par for the course in the SEC West) and I can’t see them going unscathed. I have them losing to Texas A&M but still winning the division. This would mean not being #1 and you’ll have to wait to see where I have them after the conference championships in another post. Again, don’t be pissed. It’s not like I have them going 6-6 and heading to the Independence Bowl.
I have Georgia winning the East division by a healthy margin. Again, it all comes down to the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party between the Dawgs and Gators and I have UGA winning that one and then winning the title going away. Kentucky and Missouri will be good once again but good isn’t good enough to win the SEC East.
Yes, I said the Aggies would beat Bama. Problem is they have a brutal schedule and I see them losing two other games, conceding the division to the Tide. How dare they be in the SEC West!
LSU, Ole Miss and Auburn are all potential Top 25 teams (or just outside the Top 25) with Arkansas improving under Sam Pittman. And Mike Leach will have an exciting brand of ball down in Starkville. Damn, the SEC West is a minefield.
When is Tennessee going to turn it around? Be back, as you will. It won’t be this season and I don’t know when that will happen. UT (the one in Knoxville) routinely falls behind most of the SEC teams when it comes to recruiting and they can’t seem to get any traction or a really good head coach (or a head coach who becomes really good) to move them up the conference ladder. Would it surprise me to see them make a bowl game? No but it’s not going to be exactly a New Year’s Six game or a bowl game in the state of Florida.
Auburn is an interesting case. They finally shitcanned Gus Malzahn despite the fact he’s done pretty good work on the Plains since he arrived. But it wasn’t enough even with beating Bama a few times. Now they have Bryan Harsin, previously of Boise State, to try and push the Tigers to that next level. The only way that happens is if Bo Nix can become the quarterback he was supposed to be and the rest of the offense follows his lead. Otherwise I may even be generous giving them eight wins.
Eleven bowl teams! And maybe even twelve if they need Tennessee for some reason.
Alabama-Georgia again? Yep. Crimson Tide winning a close one again? Yep. Does this put Bama in the CFP? You’ll have to see. But you can probably make a good guess at the answer.

We are down to four conferences left in the prediction posts. Next up is a conference that really doesn’t know what to do although with a new commissioner hopefully they will be better…the Pac-12.

Still 33 days to go until the first college football game of the season. Why the hell does it feel like it’s taking so long to get there? Considering the season we came off of, I am thinking a lot of fans will be seriously pumped for this season Have a great week everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2021 College Football Season – Let’s Go For Two!

Posted on May 30, 2021 by guelphbossman

I hate what they have done to college football overtime. I was fine when they said you had to start going for two starting with the third overtime. Would I prefer they make the teams start at the 30 or the 35 rather than the 25? Yes but I am OK with the way that is. Now it has become a two-point conversion shootout starting with the fifth overtime. Why? Because one stupidly awesome game went to seven overtimes and it was a classic? Seems like a serious overreaction to me (and probably many others). It has got to the point that maybe the NFL overtime is starting to look a bit better. I never would have said that even a couple of years ago but here we are.

So normally, I do the first post of this series and a day or two later more schedule updates appear changing my original guesses already. It would make me feel a bit dumb. This year? The same fucking thing happened! God damn when will I ever learn? Anyway, it was the mother of all schedule dumps. Like a crazy amount of games were set. Let’s look at what has changed with the first post in this series:

Penn State-Wisconsin I had right in terms of it being on FOX. But it’s not on at 4:00. It’s the BIG NOON SATURDAY game for Week One.
Now here’s a headscratcher. Iowa-Indiana is not the BIG NOON SATURDAY game on FOX. It’s not even on FOX. It’s on BTN. BTN! At 3:30 in the afternoon. It has to be due to the amount of appearances that one or both of these teams are perceived to have later on in the season on BTN since all Big Ten teams must have a minimum of two BTN appearances on the season with one of those appearances being a conference game. That’s the only thing I can think of since this is FOX or ESPN/ABC worthy in my opinion.
I was sooooooo close with LSU-UCLA. It’s on FOX. In primetime. But not at 8:00. It’s at 8:30. To me that seems like a weird time but I guess FOX is fine with the game ending probably around midnight if not a little later. Not like they have anything other than TMZ and infomercials to show afterwards on most of their affiliates.
Again, so close with one. Boise State-UCF is on at 7:00, not 7:30. My guess is it will be on at least one TSN station.
Oregon State-Purdue is now on FS1 in primetime. Big deal.
ABC nabbed CyHawk for their afternoon game.
Liberty-Troy has moved to primetime. But it’s still on ESPN+. So in the end it doesn’t matter anyway.
I totally forgot about how the ACC Network does Week 2. They show four games, starting at 11 in the morning to fit them all in so they don’t have to send a bunch to a regional FOX Sports Network (hmmm…should I call them Bally’s now?) or, even worse, ACC Network Extra which they are loathe to do. Anyway, it’s not at noon, it’s at 2:00 and should be on the specialty pack.
Cincinnati-Indiana has been picked up by ESPN/ABC. It will probably air on ABC and is definitely scheduled for Noon.
Oklahoma State-Boise State will be on FOX Sports One. But now it’s at 9:00. In the evening. Why? Because there is a game at 12:30 Sunday morning! Yep, for you crazies that can watch this game, San Jose State and Hawaii kick off after midnight and won’t end until about 4 in the morning. That’s crazy. I will watch at least three quarters of that.
Hey Coastal Carolina-Buffalo isn’t being relegated to ESPN+! It’s on at Noon, probably on the specialty pack here. Good to see some respect for these two schools.
Speaking of respect, let’s look at the absolute lack of respect ESPN/ABC has for the Kansas Jayhawks football program. Like no respect at all. They aren’t the Thursday night ESPN game. They aren’t even available to Canadians. Hell, it isn’t even available to most Americans. It’s on at 3:30, Saturday afternoon…on ESPN+. Yeah. That’s sad. But understandable.

I will probably make this same mistake next year because I’m an idiot who never learns.. Let’s just get to the second part of this series.

Week 4

Game of the Week: Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin (in Chicago) (Noon, FOX) – This kind of tells you what kind of weekend this will be, on paper. Not saying these aren’t two good teams because they are. But the Badgers are always juuuuuust on the outside looking in and don’t feel like an elite team. And the Irish are considered an elite team more often than they actually are. Not saying I wouldn’t be surprised if either team is in contention for the College Football Playoff late in the season but this being the game of the week means we aren’t looking at a ton of great games. Now watch this one go to like four overtimes and be an instant classic.

Other Really Important Games: West Virginia at Oklahoma (7:30, ABC) – Will the Sooners finally get over the top now with Spencer Rattler in his second year at quarterback? That is the question for Boomer Sooner this season as they could be in for a special two-season stretch (before Rattler goes to the NFL as a high first round pick). Unless they can get yet another great QB, this may be the best two-year stretch possibility for Lincoln Riley’s boys (before Riley gets an offer from the Dallas Cowboys that he can’t refuse). As for the Mountaineers, they have Dana Holgorsen. That’s fun enough since you are assured of him going off on the refs or his players or his coaches or the other team’s coaches or the other team’s players or the fans at least once a game. That’s what happens when you down six Red Bulls by lunch.

Clemson at NC State (3:30, ABC) – I could see this moving to primetime but it really has more to do with how many Big XII game would appear on ABC in the primetime timeslot all season (or at least how many they believe will appear there). The first three games listed this week cover the top three timeslots so you can kind of figure out where all the hype will be. This could be Dave Doeren’s final chance to get his program-defining win. Pull this off and he will never have to pay for another drink in Raleigh again. It also puts the entire conference in an interesting spot as Clemson is their hope for the CFP until another team steps up. Most believe it will be NC State’s interstate rivals, North Carolina, but the Wolfpack are known for their upsets over the past two decades. Just ask Florida State.

Tennessee at Florida (3:30, CBS) – Can Tennessee just be back already? It took so damn long for Texas to be back and now they aren’t quite back again so who knows if the college football media will be asking that question (that I will not type here) all season. Luckily for the fans (and haters) of Texas, that question is no longer asked. For Vol fans, it’s becoming the conversation every day in Knoxville. Until this team truly competes in the SEC East (and no, being third doesn’t count as competing) this may be the most annoying, pathetic fanbase in college football. So maybe, just maybe, they can pull this off and look like the program that everyone on Rocky Top desperately wants them to be. Now watch them lose this one by 40 and we wonder if they can beat a down Vanderbilt squad.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Nebraska at Michigan State (3:30, BTN) – You are looking LIVE…at two programs who are struggling, one more than the other. The Huskers feel like an afterthought now that they have been in the Big Ten for a while and for good reason. Their fans long for even the days of the Big XII, forget the Big Eight. And let’s be honest: other than the one year where Sparty went to the College Football Playoff, it’s not like they have been setting the college football world on fire the past couple of decades. This could be a very good game that could propel one of these programs back into prominence. This will almost assuredly go to the Big Ten Network.

Best Group of Five Game: Marshall at Appalachian State (Thursday, 7:30, specialty pack) – Two of the Group of Five’s stalwarts meet here in a much deserved Thursday night ESPN spot. Both teams had weird years this past season but that’s to be expected since the whole damn season was kind of weird. Expect both of these programs to at least flirt with the Top 25 most of the season. This should be an early Group of Five New Year’s Six elimination game as I am sure both teams will come into this undefeated (or in App State’s case, maybe a close loss to Miami early on).

Worst Power Five Game: Kansas at Duke (Noon, specialty pack) – Good god. You have to be some kind of masochist to want to watch more than maybe a few minutes of this game. Kansas is Kansas and Duke is nowhere near the heights they got to a few years back. You can easily avoid this one. I wouldn’t be surprised if doesn’t even go to the ACC Network and gets relegated to ACC Network Extra even if they have a timeslot available for them.

Week 5

Game of the Week: Ole Miss at Alabama (Noon, TSN5) – I have this game on ESPN2. Seriously. Look, there is a limit as to how many times a team can appear on the SEC on CBS. Otherwise Bama would appear like 8 times every season (the max is five by the way). This could still move to ESPN or even CBS so who knows. Ole Miss is expected to start the season either just inside or just outside the Top 25 and besides, it’s Lane Kiffin getting another shot at Nick Saban. He would be a God in Oxford if the Rebels can win this game.

Other Really Important Games: Cincinnati at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – I’m honestly confused as to why some Irish on NBC games are on at 2:30 and why some are on at 3:30. There is really no rhyme or reason as to why these happen the way they do. Maybe they anticipate a hot newscast on this night. Anyway, this game is ripe for an upset…kind of. If Cincy upset Notre Dame would it be considered an upset? If it was up to me, I would have put this game on in primetime. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, they don’t draw so that would be a no go.

Indiana at Penn State (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4) – This does not feel like a Noon Big Ten Game. At all. This is the kind of game that is usually on ABC in primetime. Or should be especially after last year’s amazing finish. I can honestly say that maybe, just maybe, it’s the Hoosiers, not Penn State (or Michigan or Michigan State) that will be the team that will finally knock Ohio State off their perch atop the Big Ten East. Seeing the Hoosiers win this game and run the table into November would be great because it would make some TV executives at Disney a trifle nervous.

Michigan at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – Is Jim Harbaugh still special enough to warrant a BIG NOON SATURDAY timeslot? I could see this being moved, especially if the brass at FOX decides that the Big XII has a game they could show instead here. Or maybe they do another Pac-12 morning kickoff like they did with Arizona State-USC last year. This has to be a bounce-back season for the Wolverines. If not, what happens to Kaptain Khaki? Could he be fired? For the first time during his tenure in Ann Arbor, it would make sense to at least consider it, especially after last season’s disastrous season.

Texas at TCU (6:30, FOX Sports One) – Again, don’t be surprised if this, among almost every game this week, gets moved from where I have it. The Big XII has quickly become the major conference that Canadians rarely see. Not that they care down there if Canadians get to see their conference or not but it’s the same in the States. With no conference network, they are being left out in the cold. And their expansion blunder of a few years back is still being felt. They’ve already gone to Disney to look for a contract extension and ESPN/ABC said no. The contract ends after the 2025 season and with other TV contracts also ending around that time, realignment talk will heat up yet again. The conference is in trouble and really hinges on what Texas and Oklahoma decide to do. Expect a lot of changes in the next few years.

Florida at Kentucky (Noon, specialty pack) – Remember when the Wildcats were SEC East contenders? It wasn’t too long ago. Kentucky could be primed for another breakthrough and the fans in Lexington are chomping at the bit to see that happen. At some point, some team has to break the Florida-Georgia stranglehold in the division and what better year than this one? Right now, I have this on the SEC Network because I honestly had no idea where to put it once other better timeslots started filling up. I could see this somehow getting to ESPN or ESPN2 though since I have the SEC Network with four games during this week.

Arizona State at UCLA (3:30, specialty pack) – It feels like we are getting less and less late night games that are any good. I mean it won’t stop me from watching them but I’m used to a few each year at least. This is supposed to be the season where we finally see what Chip Kelly can do in Westwood. A good Bruins team is always welcome in college football. The Sun Devils are also expected to be quite good so maybe we will see a logjam at the top of the Pac-12 South. Not like that hasn’t happened before, am I right? Guys? Hello?

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Tennessee at Missouri (Noon, specialty pack) – No, we aren’t looking at two amazing teams. Or even one. But man, for such a good week, there are a lot of games (outside of the ones I listed above) that look like they won’t be close at all. I’d love to call this a SEC East eliminator game. But it’s not. With two teams so closely matched, though, it should be fun to watch and could be the surprise game of the early timeslot (if not the whole week).

Best Group of Five Game: Nevada at Boise State (10:00, FOX Sports One) – Could FS1, of all channels, have one of the best lineups this week? Look there were a few choices I could have put here instead of this one. Houston-Tulsa and Liberty-UAB fit the bill as well but neither really scream “Top Group of Five game.” Plus I am a bit fascinated with FOX’s foray into the Mountain West, mostly because I can see all the games now. This could end up being very lucrative for the conference as long as FOX continues to invest heavily into college football.

Worst Power Five Game: Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech (Noon, specialty pack) – I mean it’s not a bad game per se. But with the rest of the Noon options (and there are a lot of them), I can’t see this game getting many eyeballs.

Week 6

Game of the Week: Alabama at Texas A&M (8:00, CBS) – God damn this could be a MASSIVE game this season. Jimbo Fisher has guaranteed a win over Bama (not the smartest idea in the world but hey, gotta shot your shot). Even with the loss of Kellen Mond, this could be the Aggies year to get into the College Football Playoff. And now with probably a full house in College Station, the 100,000 plus members of the 12th Man will make life very difficult for the Tide. CBS has chosen this week to be the SEC doubleheader with the primetime game so it’s almost assured that this will be the pick.

Other Really Important Games: Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas) (Noon, FOX) – Back where this belongs…almost. Depending on how the Aggies look early on, this could be considered the true GOTW. I’m still waiting for the day the Cotton Bowl collapses during the Red River Shootout. It’s going to happen and it’s going to be a tragedy that could be avoided by either fixing the fucking place or moving this game to JerryWorld. There’s almost no doubt in my mind this ends up being the BIG NOON SATURDAY pick by FOX.

Georgia at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – Wow, does CBS ever get an amazing doubleheader this season. Saying that, the Tigers aren’t the Tigers they have been in the past. Unless Bo Nix all of a sudden figures things out, Auburn will be middle of the pack, at best, in the SEC West. Still a good team but not close to contending in the always extremely tough SEC West. I just wish they would do away with divisions. Don’t get me wrong, the SEC East champ is usually good but who wouldn’t have enjoyed Bama playing LSU or TAMU playing Mississippi State or Ole Miss playing Auburn or any one of those combinations in Atlanta in December?

Maryland at Ohio State (Noon, TSN4) – This is guaranteed for Noon and almost a shoo-in to be on ESPN. Will this be close? Eh, who knows. OK I am pretty positive it won’t be. But if there’s any year where Ohio State could be vulnerable, it is this one. If the Terps can’t keep it close this time around they may never do so. I’m sure there are many who long to be back in the ACC, regardless of TV money.

Florida State at North Carolina (Noon, ABC/TSN2) – No, this isn’t here because it’s the Noles. I probably don’t have to say that anymore and it is sad that FSU just can’t seem to get over the hump and get back to the way they were. You never know, though. They beat the Heels here, it’s massive and could lead to huge things for this squad. North Carolina is in New Year’s Six or Bust mode this season as the NY6 is their floor. Anything less would be a disappointment with Sam Howell a serious Heisman contender.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: LSU at Kentucky (Noon, TSN1) – No, I’m not joking with this. The Tigers will be close to the bottom spot of the Top 25 and the Cats will be just outside looking in, at least at the start of the season. This is probably a bigger game for Kentucky than it is for LSU as there is no way that Ed Orgeron’s guys will be competing for the SEC West this season.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at BYU (10:30, specialty pack) – Is this considered a Group of Five game? I’m going to say it is. BYU seems to be in this no-man’s land when it comes to where they belong. I know they want to be Power Five and they should be Power Five but they aren’t quite there yet and until they are invited into a conference or get closer in reputation to Notre Dame, they won’t be. It is usually a lot of fun when these two teams meet. I am looking forward to Provo After Dark which sounds like a show on at Midnight on Vision TV or some other religious network where they do nasty things like drink coffee or say “fuck.”

Worst Power Five Game: Georgia Tech at Duke (12:30, specialty pack) – Two straight weeks for the Ramblin’ Wreck in this spot. The thing is they aren’t even that bad. But last week was a pretty good schedule, at least in the Power Five and this week the next worse choice would be Wake Forest-Syracuse which isn’t nearly as bad as this.

We are almost halfway through the season now (with these posts). With only thirteen weeks this season I had to have one longer post because of it. It will be the final one. The final two posts are usually the most difficult since almost none of the games are scheduled this far out, at least from a Power Five perspective. So the chances of me getting many of these predictions wrong are quite good. Just letting you know in advance.

It’s getting close to College Football Preview magazine season. Or maybe it has already started and I just don’t know about it. I have an Athlon subscription now so I am just waiting for that one to come in the mail. If there are others available I will check Indigo to see if I can get it. As for the Phil Steele magazine, I am going back and forth whether to order it or get the online version (if they have it this year). I love the magazine, don’t get me wrong. It’s an awesome read and has a shit-ton of information. Problem is, it shows up sometime in late July at the earliest which doesn’t help me at all with my predictions and makes it tough to read before the season begins (yes I am one of those insane people who try to read that magazine front-to-back). So we shall see. Anyway, have a great upcoming week and let’s hope the warm weather is here to stay and that we can forget what it was like on Friday.

WOO PIG! – Week 7 College Football Recap

Posted on October 19, 2020 by guelphbossman

OK we might have to finally agree that what Sam Pittman has done so far this season at Arkansas has been remarkable. I mean they should be 3-1 if it wasn’t for an absolutely all-timer of an atrocious call. They looked good against Ole Miss on Saturday and it feels like it has been a long time since the horrific Chad Morris days. Now I’m not saying they are ready for Alabama (almost no one is) but they could cause some serious issues for other SEC teams this season. It’s nice to see the Hogs back to playing well. It’s been too long. It was also nice to see someone like Stewart Mandel, who made light of the fact that there were six elite coaches in the SEC West and then Pittman, have to eat crow (especially since The Athletic, by and large, have become a bunch of sanctimonious pricks). Alright let’s get on to the rest of the recap:

Man, that offense is for real: Alabama had the biggest win in the biggest game as they beat Georgia in a rivalry that is quickly becoming the SEC’s best. And, man did you see that Bama offense? No matter what teams put up against the Tide, they can’t seem to stop their offense. Ole Miss failed as did the Dawgs. Saying that, I am sure it was a coup for CBS as they had by far the biggest game of the year so far and had it in primetime. CBS has been quite brilliant with putting their primetime game early on in the season (Notre Dame-Georgia was the other one) getting massive ratings. As for UGA, don’t count them out. Just know that they are a tier below the Fighting Nick Sabans (who got to coach after three negative COVID-19 tests).

CHANTS! That is pronounced “Shawnt”. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers were able to pull out a huge victory over #21 Louisiana and will almost certainly be ranked this week. It’s now a definite that their game against Appalachian State, if both teams keep this up, will be for the Sun Belt East, the Sun Belt (essentially) and perhaps a look at the New Year’s Six. That would be a boon to the Sun Belt who is still looking for their first NY6 representative.

Can we blame Gus Malzahn for this one? Auburn never seemed in this one. South Carolina wasn’t dominating play but it felt like it was just a matter of time before they pulled this one out. And it’s not like Auburn didn’t have chances to win. They did, and they could never capitalize on those. Many will want to blame Gus but Bo Nix has been nothing short of awful so far this season. What Malzahn does next with the quarterbacking situation is what will determine his fate after this season.

OK so what does Mike Leach do now? Not that I thought they would absolutely win but they looked dreadful on offense again. I honestly thought the Bulldogs would at least be able to move the ball. Boy was I ever wrong. Texas A&M keeps on rolling and very little seems in their way that could stop them…from getting to the New Year’s Six.

The Pittening: It has happened and with no divisions we can pretty much safely say that Pitt will not be going to the ACC Championship. The Canes have played well (except against teams that rhyme with Blemson). Even though it was only a 12-point win for The U, this did not feel close. The Canes are still trying to keep pace in second place to try and get that other spot opposite Clemson in the ACC title game (to get their asses kicked again, probably).

Time to watch the Cougars: Of the BYU variety. For three quarters it looked like Houston was ready to pull the rug out from the BYU party (with no alcohol or caffeine). Then Zach Wilson decided to declare himself a Heisman contender with a bonkers fourth quarter. BYU’s 22 fourth quarter points put away the Fighting Holgorsens and kept them undefeated. Even with the rest of the conferences starting shortly, you have to watch out for this team. Can you keep them out of the New Year’s Six when they’re undefeated? I don’t think you can but it will put The Committee in an interesting position.

You just got LAWRENCED! That sounds disgusting but may be true for some women on the campus at Clemson University. This game was rough to watch. Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne and the vaunted Clemson offense absolutely annihilated poor Georgia Tech. Clemson keeps on chugging and really has no roadblocks now to get to the CFP until they face Notre Dame in November. Georgia Tech still has work to do but they are, this game notwithstanding, on the right track now under Geoff Collins.

Is Notre Dame’s defense that good? Their defense could be what keeps the Irish going this season. They had to be as their offense sputtered against Louisville, of all teams. Only 46 points allowed through 4 games so far and I can’t see Pitt or Georgia Tech putting up a boatload of points against them. Geez. Their game in three weeks with Clemson could be something special. Interesting to see how Trevor Lawrence does against his first truly good defensive opponent this season (no offense to Miami).

SMU? SMU! I am sure there are some people who thought SMU would be 5-0 at this point but not many. Will they finish undefeated? I doubt it. But to be honest, they are, right now, the Group of Five favourite to go to the NY6 despite Cincinnati ranking higher than them. It wasn’t easy to keep that unblemished record as Tulane gave them all they could handle and took them to overtime. Next week’s game against Cincinnati could decide one of the entrants in the AAC Championship game.

Oh North Carolina, no! Mack Brown looked like they had a relatively easy road to the ACC Championship (as long as they took care of business against Notre Dame later in the season). They had everything going for them and Florida State, yes, FLORIDA STATE snuffed that all out. The Seminoles got out to a huge 31-7 lead going into halftime and held on to beat the Tar Heels by 3. Embarrassing on the Heels’ part to allow FSU to get that far out in front for sure. Despite there being no ACC Coastal division, most of the conference IS the ACC Coastal division (apart from Clemson and Notre Dame at this point).

Is this considered an upset? I don’t know. Honestly, I am leaning towards no. Yes, Tennessee was ranked and it was in Knoxville but Kentucky’s defense has been pretty dominant this season. They continued that trend by catching a lot of passes from Jarrett Guarantano. Problem for the Volunteers is that’s their quarterback. Not good.

Hey what about the Hokies? Not saying Boston College is horrible but they were pretty much boatraced by Virginia Tech. It was kind of close early but the Hokies blew it wide open in the third. They don’t have a super easy schedule the rest of the way but all the games are winnable until they host Clemson in early December. Look, if they end up with two losses, both to Top 10 teams at the time, and somehow win the ACC Championship that could make for some fun chaos. The Big Ten and Pac-12 are watching this team closely hoping they shit the bed just once more to ease their minds.

Good lord Kansas: So Les Miles has COVID so he couldn’t show up to coach the Jayhawks against West Virginia. This meant the spread changed from the Mountaineers as 23 point favourites to just 21.5. Fucking hilarious. Not that it mattered since they still lost. Well it may have mattered to degenerate gamblers but other than that, yeah, nobody gives a shit.

Thoughts and prayers to the Orange: The Orange of Syracuse lost to Liberty. No I am not lying. And Liberty ran roughshod over Syracuse. This wasn’t really that close at all. So now what does the Cuse have up next? Well it’s the ACC so it can’t be too b…oh my god. They play Clemson next. Pray for Dino Babers. As for Liberty, they are 5-0. Hugh Freeze is doing an amazing job in Lynchburg. This means next year he will be back in the SEC. Vanderbilt, perhaps?

A palette cleanser: Alright we aren’t looking at the Memphis or UCF of the past few years. But when they face each other, you just have that feeling it will be special. No exception here. This game was fucking amazing. UCF took the lead. The Tigers roared back with a big third quarter and then the fourth was absolute drugs. Memphis scored two touchdowns in the final 3:45 to win this one. It’s amazing how often that it’s the American conference that just blows everyone away with a fantastic game that people keep talking about.

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

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

Not a ton of movement in the Top 25 to be honest. Really though, past #1 and #2 (and maybe the Irish at #3) you could put almost any combination and you could be considered somewhat correct (well, unless you put Kansas in your Top 25). Some may bristle at me putting BYU at #10 but let’s be honest: this may be as high as they get. Their schedule will not help them and any hope of them getting to the New Year’s Six hinges on chaos above them (which I am fully for). This weekend helped but they need much more. Also, I get that there is a Top 25 match between Michigan and Minnesota this coming weekend (welcome back, Big Ten by the way…oh yeah and the Mountain West). But there are no fans at College Gameday so why go there? Instead, head to Myrtle Beach. Coastal Carolina is in the Top 25 for the first time and there is probably not a better chance to go there than now. Nothing against Minnesota but this is another mark against the Group of Five and college football’s perception of those programs.

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

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

Posted on October 12, 2020 by guelphbossman

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

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

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

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

And now for the rest of the recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

A CFP without Bama? – Week 14 College Football Recap

Posted on December 2, 2019 by guelphbossman

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

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

Thursday

Mississippi State 21 Ole Miss 20

7:30 PM

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

Friday

Virginia 39 Virginia Tech 30

Noon

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

Texas 49 Texas Tech 24

Noon

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

Ball State 41 Miami-OH 27

Noon

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

Central Michigan 49 Toledo 7

Noon

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

Iowa 27 Nebraska 24

2:30 PM

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

Missouri 24 Arkansas 14

2:30 PM

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

Memphis 34 Cincinnati 24

3:30 PM

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

Boise State 31 Colorado State 24

3:30 PM

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

Washington 31 Washington State 13

4:00 PM

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

West Virginia 20 TCU 17

4:15 PM

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

UCF 34 USF 7

8:00 PM

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

Saturday Early

Georgia 52 Georgia Tech 7

Noon

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

Ohio State 56 Michigan 27

Noon

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

Indiana 44 Purdue 41 (2OT)

Noon

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

Clemson 38 South Carolina 3

Noon

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

Marshall 30 FIU 27 (OT)

Noon

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

Tulsa 49 East Carolina 24

Noon

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

Kentucky 45 Louisville 13

Noon

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

Northwestern 29 Illinois 10

Noon

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

Syracuse 39 Wake Forest 30 (OT)

12:30 PM

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

Saturday Afternoon

Temple 49 UConn 17

3:00 PM

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

Wisconsin 38 Minnesota 17

3:30 PM

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

Auburn 48 Alabama 45

3:30 PM

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

Duke 27 Miami 17

3:30 PM

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

Baylor 61 Kansas 6

3:30 PM

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

Penn State 27 Rutgers 6

3:30 PM

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

Boston College 26 Pittsburgh 19

3:30 PM

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

Michigan State 19 Maryland 16

3:30 PM

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

Florida Atlantic 34 Southern Miss 17

3:30 PM

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

SMU 37 Tulane 20

4:00 PM

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

Notre Dame 45 Stanford 24

4:00 PM

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

Tennessee 28 Vanderbilt 10

4:00 PM

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

Oregon 24 Oregon State 10

4:00 PM

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

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

North Carolina 41 NC State 10

7:00 PM

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

LSU 50 Texas A&M 7

7:00 PM

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

Navy 56 Houston 41

7:00 PM

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

Kansas State 27 Iowa State 17

7:00 PM

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

Louisiana 31 ULM 30

7:30 PM

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

Florida 40 Florida State 17

7:30 PM

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

Utah 45 Colorado 15

7:30 PM

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

Oklahoma 34 Oklahoma State 16

8:00 PM

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

San Diego State 13 BYU 3

9:00 PM

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

Arizona State 24 Arizona 14

10:00 PM

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

San Jose State 17 Fresno State 16

10:30 PM

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

California 28 UCLA 18

10:30 PM

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

Hawaii 52 Army 31

12:30 AM

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

Bowl Eligibility

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

Ohio

Mississippi State

Kent State

Liberty

Boston College

North Carolina

Michigan State

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

Coaching Carousel

Cue Homer Simpson goes to Clown College music.

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

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

Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:

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

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

I have a proposal – Week 11 College Football Recap

Posted on November 12, 2019 by guelphbossman

You probably know this already but Chad Morris has been fired as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. No surprise there. Arkansas has been awful this season. No denying that. While pretty much every other team not named Vanderbilt is improving in the SEC, the Razorbacks are getting worse somehow. Chad Morris was supposed to be the savior (somewhat) for this program and at least get it back to playing in bowl games every season if not actually competing for the SEC West title. But in what may be the worst coaching job in the state since John L. Smith was brought in for a short (and disastrous) period of time, nothing went right in Fayetteville (and sometimes Little Rock). Their shellacking at the hands of Western Kentucky on Saturday was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Not saying Morris would have been back next year since he probably wouldn’t have been but there has to be a huge shot to the ego to be fired during a season. Basically the school is saying you aren’t even good enough to coach this already shitty team for the rest of the season. You are so bad that we have to replace you now.

Earlier this season, Rutgers finally shitcanned Chris Ash. It was about a season or so too late but at least they finally did it. So I have a proposal here that I think may have been said before but hear me out. As much as people say there are too many bowl games, people obviously watch them since they usually get more viewers than anything else on at that time, other than the NFL or World Juniors. So why not add another postseason game? Here’s what I think: have the two worst Power Five teams face off to figure out the bottom team of the year. Arkansas vs. Rutgers! Who says no? And play it in a spot where there is a good chance of horrible weather like Montana. Someone will broadcast it for sure. And I will watch it. Let’s make it happen!

Alright enough of Relegation Bowl 2019. On to the recap of what was an amazingly crazy week of college football. I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable weeks of college football this year. My only hope is that the last few weeks of the regular season are just as good (if not better).

Recap

Minnesota had a nice win over Penn State in chilly conditions in Minneapolis in one of two battles of undefeated teams. Row The Boat, indeed. It was a historic victory for a program not known for playing big-time college football. This means that the Golden Gophers’ hopes for the College Football Playoff are still alive. And with Iowa, Northwestern and Wisconsin left on their sked, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Fighting Flecks are in the Top 4 come conference championship weekend. As for PSU, they aren’t out of things yet but they have to win out and get a LOT of help.
Clemson clinched the ACC Atlantic with a relatively easy win over NC State in primetime. It was actually a close game for all of like a minute and then the Tigers were off to the races in a horribly boring affair. It was weird to see the primetime sked be so much worse than the earlier two timeslots but there we had it. If you needed to get anything done on Saturday, that was probably your chance.
A very slow start for Georgia turned into a bit of a rout when they scored 27 unanswered on Missouri to pick up the win. They still have two more big games against Auburn and Texas A&M coming up that could put other teams back in the SEC East race. The Dawgs would have to lose both though and I honestly can’t see that happening.
Oh yeah there was a kind of big matchup down in Tuscaloosa. Talk about an instant classic. Two of the best coaches in the game. Two of the best quarterbacks (although Tua was obviously in pain late in the game). Two of the best offenses and defenses in the game. And it was a great game. LSU was way up by halftime but there was always that feeling that Alabama could come back. And come back they did. They made a game out of it with Tua Tagovailoa’s gutsy play. But the Tigers were too much and Joe Burrow may have clinched the Heisman with his performance. Yes it wasn’t under the lights but it was still an amazing game that will be remembered for a long time and may, dare I say it, knock Bama out of the College Football Playoff.
In Big XII news, Baylor BARELY beat TCU. It was looking for a while there that the Horned Frogs had the Bears’ number. The Bears needed a FG late and then some overtime heroics to win this one. So I just assume the Bears fans’ blood pressure is through the roof for most of this one and will continue to be until they lose (if they lose).
Illinois was down 28-3 to Michigan State and all the hope for Illini fans seemed to be draining. Then they started the biggest comeback in program history, about to tie up the game after a touchdown aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they miss the extra point. Oh no. But they persevered and scored late again to pick up the massive win over the Spartans and become bowl-eligible for the first time in five long years. Amazing how keeping Lovie Smith (and his glorious beard) on for another year (after really not deserving another year) has led to hope inside this program.
Appalachian State ended up with what was not really an upset as they beat South Carolina in a close one. Can you imagine what would be going on right now if App State hadn’t looked like shit against Georgia Southern? You would have been seeing the Mountaineers as a good possibility as the first ever Sun Belt team to get to the New Year’s Six. Now? They need some help.
Could the Oklahoma freakin’ Sooners somehow get back into the CFP race? They sure could. I mean their game against Iowa State was pretty tough to watch and they struggled at times but they won and in the end that’s what matters…kind of. They are just lucky that ISU went to the Mack Brown School of Two Point Conversion Plays. They need to figure out that defense though as they can’t play like that against Baylor this Saturday or otherwise it will be lights out. Then again, Baylor struggled to score against TCU so…who knows.
Your 2019 Ohio State Buckeyes are a God damned juggernaut. They mopped the floor with Maryland dropping SEVENTY-THREE POINTS on them. Their path to the Big Ten Championship is now very simple. Don’t lose to Penn State and they will basically win the Big Ten East and head to Indianapolis.
So what can we make of the Tennessee Volunteers this season? They looked OK, I guess, against Kentucky and were able to eek out a win. They’ve been all over the place this season with some great games and truly awful ones. Amazingly enough, through all this, the Vols are one win away from being bowl-eligible and maybe, just maybe, they are back to building something good in Knoxville.
UCF lost to Tulsa. No New Year’s Six for you!
There was one more game with two ranked teams going at it and it was a close one as well. Iowa and Wisconsin played some classic Big Ten West football against each other and very few watched it because it was on at the same time as LSU-Alabama. Couldn’t this have been a night game? Anyway, the Hawkeyes missed on the two-point conversion late and Paul Chryst’s Badgers survived and now remain the only real challenger to Minnesota in the division.
Wow Boise State is making it very difficult to give them the New Year’s Six spot. Or is it that Boise State is making it tough to keep them out of the New Year’s Six spot? Probably a bit of both. They probably should have lost that game against Wyoming but somehow, someway, pulled out the win in overtime. They are still right in the thick of the hunt for the Group of Five spot and it would not surprise me to see them get it if they can blow through the rest of their schedule.
Oh Kansas State. It’s like they couldn’t handle the rarified air of the Top 25. I get that it’s been a struggle since 109-year-old Bill Snyder left the program but hopefully Chris Klieman has them back to where they had been during the Snyder era. And Texas is back……in the Top 25 (I think).
Florida beat Vanderbilt. In other news, sometimes we get snow in the winter.
Wake Forest had a ton of trouble with the Bud Foster Hokie defense and now will be out of the Top 25 (I think). So who in the hell is going to go to the Orange Bowl out of the ACC? It’s going to be an unranked Virginia I think. Sad. I think it’s about time to cut back a bit on the bowl tie-ins since that is ridiculous.
Finally, SMU put up almost 60 points on East Carolina. Unfortunately, East Carolina put up a bit more than 50 on the Mustangs. Not good for a team that is hoping for a wing and a prayer and a chance to somehow get to the AAC Championship.

We are now getting into the real important part of the season. OK not as important as American Thanksgiving Footballgasm time but still important. This past weekend, though, led to some big changes in the polls. That’s the way these things go in November. Here’s my Top 25:

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

Something has happened at the top and more is to come. Unless something weird happens, both LSU and Georgia won’t get to the CFP. LSU is almost a shoo-in at this point unless they don’t just shit the bed but fill the bedroom with diarrhea. Clemson wins out and they are essentially a lock. Ohio State is the same. I still think Ohio State blows it against Michigan though. I am going to continue to drink the Kool-Aid and say Michigan will finally break the streak this season. The most important thing here though? Indiana is in the Top 25. Every year it seems there has to be a basketball school in the Top 25. Last year it was Kentucky. The few years before that was Duke. Lately, that is the case. I would love to see Indiana win out and get in the conversation for the College Football Playoff because I like the discomfort of a team like that being in the mix. The media, as much as they they say otherwise, do not want these non-traditional football powers in these big games. Except for the ones who love controversy like it’s crack.

So this post is a day late so I won’t hype the Monday Night Football game (not that I ever hype it). But last night’s game was great. One of the best MNF games in a long time. And now there are no undefeated teams. The ’72 Dolphins can pop that champagne.

We got some MACtion tonight! Eastern Michigan and Akron tussle starting at 6:00 on the specialty pack and Western Michigan faces off against Ohio starting at 6:30. The games aren’t early because of the CFP Rankings Show. It’s because the weather is supposed to be bad so they are starting the games an hour or so earlier than normal. It is supposed to frigid in Ohio tonight so don’t expect to see packed stands there. Then tomorrow night is another set of MACtion games both on the specialty pack: Northern Illinois-Toledo and Bowling Green-Miami-OH.

Tomorrow we got some bowl projections (which aren’t early anymore). Thursday it’s another weekend-plus of college football and its TV schedule. Finally, the NFL gets the sked treatment on Friday. Enjoy your week (and the games) everyone!

You know what time it is? WEEK 1 OVERREACTION TIME! Oh and the Week 2 TV Schedule as well.

Posted on September 5, 2019 by guelphbossman

Who saw that coming for Tennessee last Saturday? What’s Jeremy Pruitt’s future with the team? Should people dump garbage on his lawn because they are upset? Overreaction? Absolutely! But some people think that and are serious about it. Week 1 of the college football season is always chock full of these tasty nuggets. Like these:

UCLA will lose almost every game this season. Not so fast. One game against one of the better Group of Five teams does not a season make. Now if the Bruins lose to San Diego State this Saturday then yeah maybe you can start to panic.
The SEC is terrible! The SEC is a lot like many of the Power Five conferences: the top three-to-six teams are good to great and the rest are mediocre to trash. No difference here.
Boise State has clinched the New Year’s Six spot. Uh, no. I will admit the Broncos are a great contender but UCF is still the favourite and I still have Memphis as my choice.
The Pac-12 has no chance at going to the College Football Playoff. Um, Oregon is not the only good team in the Pac-12. Now apologize to Utah and Washington THIS INSTANT!

Alright Week 1 is in the books and it’s time for Week 2’s schedule and yeah, it’s pretty bad. Sorry guys.

Friday

		US	Canada
WIlliam & Mary at Virginia	8:00 PM
Wake Forest at Rice	8:00 PM
Marshall at #24 Boise State	9:00 PM

A huge Group of Five game starts the week as two New Year’s Six contenders clash on the blue turf of Boise. Still got to favour Boise State in this one but you never know as they always struggle at least once year when they shouldn’t. The Deacs are playing Rice in one of those not-so-odd-anymore Power Five at Group of Five games as well. And yes, there is no Thursday college football. Don’t want to compete with opening night in the NFL since no one would watch the college game (I hate to say that but it’s true).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Ohio at Pittsburgh	11:00 AM
Cincinnati at #5 Ohio State	Noon
Vanderbilt at Purdue	Noon
UAB at Akron	Noon
#21 Syracuse at Maryland	Noon
West Virginia at Missouri	Noon
Old Dominion at Virginia Tech	Noon
Army at #7 Michigan	Noon
Charleston Southern at South Carolina	Noon
Western Carolina at NC State	12:30 PM

As per usual, a boatload of games in the early timeslot. And yes, one game starts at 11 in the morning. You can thank the ACC Network going with stupid three hour windows in their second week of existence. Ridiculous. So if you are an ACC fan you will miss the first quarter of multiple games almost guaranteed. A few good ones early on with UC-tOSU and Army-UM the two biggest (although the over/under for Cuse-UMD could be seriously high). I am going out on a limb and saying Western Carolina-NC State will appear on the specialty pack although I see nothing yet in any of the guides.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
USF at Georgia Tech	2:00 PM
#12 Texas A&M at #1 Clemson	3:30 PM
Central Michigan at #17 Wisconsin	3:30 PM
Eastern Illinois at Indiana	3:30 PM
Illinois at UConn	3:30 PM
Southern Miss at Mississippi State	3:30 PM
#25 Nebraska at Colorado	3:30 PM
Grambling at Louisiana Tech	3:30 PM
Murray State at #3 Georgia	4:00 PM
New Mexico State at #2 Alabama	4:00 PM
ULM at Florida State	5:00 PM

One of the games of the year right here in this timeslot. The Aggies will make a massive statement and upset the college football apple cart if they can somehow beat Clemson. Here you see the continuation of the weird ACC Network times. If you are using a PVR this may get frustrating but I know it’s because there are so many ACC non-conference games this week, more than any other week by a country mile. The rest of the games are technically college football games so let’s all hope they are at least close going into the fourth quarter. Also we have the debut of the NFL Network as they will be broadcasting Conference USA games this season. Interesting contract but hey, it could work for the conference as they need some sort of quasi-national audience so they don’t fall behind the rest of the Group of Five conferences.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#18 UCF at Florida Atlantic	7:00 PM
BYU at Tennessee	7:00 PM
#6 LSU at #9 Texas	7:30 PM
Western Michigan at #19 Michigan State	7:30 PM
Tulane at #10 Auburn	7:30 PM
UT-Martin at #11 Florida	7:30 PM
Buffalo at #15 Penn State	7:30 PM
Eastern Michigan at Kentucky	7:30 PM
Arkansas at Ole Miss	7:30 PM
Miami at North Carolina	8:00 PM

Not exactly stacked but this does contain another potential Game of the Year as LSU travels to Austin to play the Longhorns. Again, don’t need to belabour the point but this could lead to College Football Playoff chatter (along with New Year’s Six chatter). Yes, Miami-UNC could be good considering how the Tar Heels have already looked impressive and Miami…not so much. Also the Cougars of BYU travel to Knoxville to face a team with the most frustrated fanbase in college football. Other than that there are a few decent games and some dreck. Can’t win ’em all.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Minnesota at Fresno State	10:30 PM
#23 Stanford at USC	10:30 PM

Not much of a late night sked but two pretty good games, at least on paper. Clay Helton better pray his new quarterback, true freshman Kedon Slovis, figures things out quick or Helton’s days may be numbered…and by numbered I mean single digits. The other game should be close as Minnesota looked shitty against South Dakota State and should be better against a good Mountain West team in the Bulldogs.

Games to set your eyeballs on

LSU at Texas (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – This is the only game on TSN this week and it’s the game of the week. Honestly this isn’t a huge deal since there is only one other game that could warrant GOTW status. But we know what happens on weeks like this. Usually absolute chaos and/or some fantastic finishes. Anyway, we have to say that this is a huge game that could shape both teams’ seasons. The winner has a leg up on hopefully getting to the College Football Playoff whereas the loser almost has to look at the New Year’s Six (unless more chaos happens later on in the season).

Texas A&M at Clemson (3:30, ABC) – Survive this game and the Tigers don’t have much to stop them from winning the ACC Atlantic Division. Before I continue, can they either make the divisions make more sense geographically or get rid of divisions altogether? That would be great. Don’t think this will be an easy one for the Dangerous Dabos since TAMU might be improved from last year when they took Clemson to the limit. I still think this would be a monumental upset, though, if the Aggies can pull it out.

Cincinnati at Ohio State (Noon, ABC) – Man, does this ever drop off after the first two. But ABC does have the top three games of the week officially. Time to celebrate? I’d say no. Honestly I can’t see this game being close but it does mark the return of Luke Fickell to Columbus. And now the Bearcats are actually a good team. Still though. I won’t regret putting this game on the list since there isn’t much to pick from.

Army at Michigan (Noon, FOX) – Hey, finally a non-ABC game. Fantastic. I hope FOX really doesn’t care about this week since this is not good as their best game. Saying that, remember what the Black Knights did in Oklahoma last season. They almost pulled off the monumental upset of the Sooners. Now if they can somehow finish things off this year it would do two things: have everyone saying Michigan still sucks and putting Army squarely in the New Year’s Six conversation. Actually there will be a third thing. Jimmy Harbaugh will go back to the hot seat list which he is almost never off of anyway.

Stanford at USC (10:30, specialty pack) – Look, USC is an interesting story so far this season. And now they have lost their starting quarterback for the season and will have to start a true freshman. But this is USC so you know they always have a chance. Plus, the Cardinal didn’t exactly look like world-beaters against Northwestern last week. Don’t be surprised if around 1:30 in the morning, many eyeballs are on this game because it’s close.

Honourable mention: Buffalo at Penn State (7:30, FOX); Syracuse at Maryland (Noon, specialty pack); Marshall at Boise State (Friday, 9:00, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

Like last year at this very same time, I will say that Florida State losing wasn’t a bad pick on my part since they should have won. Picking Oregon was also not a bad pick since that was a great again against Auburn. Other than that I did amazing last week. So let’s get to another week of fantastic (or not fantastic) picks that are straight up and not against the spread:

Boise State over Marshall

Penn State over Buffalo

Texas over LSU (upset pick!)

Clemson over Texas A&M

Michigan over Army

Ohio State over Cincinnati

Syracuse over Maryland

USC over Stanford (another upset pick!)

Tennessee over BYU

Arkansas State over UNLV

Wisconsin over Central Michigan

As of now I see nothing on the guide for the specialty pack. Nothing. I know the games are coming but don’t see them yet. Frustrating. Maybe that will change by the time the games start tomorrow. I wonder if it’s due to nothing on tonight for college football. Who the fuck knows. Either way, the schedule I have above (less the one game on FOX Sports Network) should appear as I have said it will.

The reason no college football tonight? The NFL is back baybee! The opening game for this season (which is the NFL’s 100th season) is the Packers and the Bears. We will get a good idea of if Aaron Rodgers can co-exist with new head coach Matt Lafleur. Also we will get a good idea of Vic Fangio was the reason for the Bears’ success last season. The game is on NBC, CTV2 and all the TSNs except TSNs 2 and 5.

I will be on the Twitter machine again this weekend. I made it to the end last Saturday. I felt very proud of myself. It means I know I’m ready for the season. Now I have to hope a late night game doesn’t go to like five overtimes otherwise I will be a brain-dead idiot on Sunday. Enjoy the games everyone!

What an unbelievable Saturday…and Friday…and Thursday night – Week 13 College Football Recap

Posted on November 27, 2017 by guelphbossman

So I have decided to do this recap differently as well, using my scheduling post to go through the week that was. And what a week it was in college football.

So much happened and I am exhausted just thinking about it. Smiling, but exhausted. A lot of football to watch and I was glad to do it. I will remember this week in a few months where this is no college football and none on the horizon. Dark times, my friends. Here we go!

This recap will consist of the scores alongside what the broadcast information was. We shall see if this ends up being easier than the normal recap I do. The answer, I am sure, is no but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

Thursday

Ole Miss 31 Mississippi State 28

7:30 PM

Mississippi State had an outside shot at a New Year’s Six bowl game. This loss sealed their fate. The one thing everyone will be talking about with this Egg Bowl is Nick Fitzgerald’s injury. It was gruesome and tough to watch. If you haven’t seen it, let’s just say it’s an ankle injury and leave it at that. He will be back next season so at least it wasn’t a career-ender. But still, tough on that kid for this to happen. And on top of that, Dan Mullen coached his last game in Starkville as Florida hired him as their new head coach. Rough week for the Bulldogs.

Friday

Toledo 37 Western Michigan 10

11:30 AM

Toledo dominated WMU and if it wasn’t for an upset at the hands of Ohio they may have been in the New Year’s Six mix. Instead they will head to Detroit for the MAC Championship for the first time in over a decade. That seems shocking to me considering how good the Rockets have been the past decade.

Pittsburgh 24 Miami 14

Noon

Is this 2007? Pittsburgh did the same thing to a #2 team back then by foiling West Virginia’s national championship hopes. They may have hampered the Canes’ hopes with this win but The U can still get in to the College Football Playoff with a win in the ACC Championship on Saturday. One of the best parts of this was Pat Narduzzi at halftime basically saying this would happen. Gutsy. Anyway, this may have usurped Syracuse’s upset of Clemson as Upset of the Year.

Central Michigan 31 Northern Illinois 24

Noon

With Toledo blowing WMU out this game became not important at all to NIU. And then the Chippewas beat the Huskies anyway.

Houston 24 Navy 14

Noon

Nothing important here although I am seriously wondering if Navy goes to the Army-Navy game as an underdog.

Missouri 48 Arkansas 45

2:30 PM

Bret Bielema was fired on the field after the game. That’s insane. And classless. The Razorbacks are in disarray and I don’t know of a prominent coach will go there now considering what just happened. I am guessing Bielema will take a one-year break from coaching to head to the booth.

UCF 49 USF 42

3:30 PM

Possibly the best Group of Five game ever. This game was bonkers. So much scoring, especially late in the game. Have to give the Bulls credit, they kept it close. UCF might be the best G-5 team of the CFP era but they still have a tough AAC Championship against Memphis coming up.

San Diego State 35 New Mexico 10

3:30 PM

Not important although surprising how far New Mexico fell in one season.

FIU 41 Western Kentucky 17

7:00 PM

FIU has been surprisingly good this season. In all the Lane Kiffin hoopla, people forgot that Butch Davis came to Florida International and has turned the program around quickly as well.

Virginia Tech 10 Virginia 0

8:00 PM

This was not a good game. Possibly the only good thing about it was it was done in about three hours.

Texas Tech 27 Texas 23

8:00 PM

This game was significantly longer than the VT-UVA game that was on at the same time. The Red Raiders pulled it out at the end to become bowl-eligible and crush the spirits of many 5-7 teams.

Saturday Early

Memphis 70 East Carolina 13

Noon

Good god. Memphis-UCF is going to be fun next week. Whatever you do, take the over.

Georgia 38 Georgia Tech 7

Noon

Georgia proved why they are still possibly deserving of a CFP spot. Or Georgia Tech proved why they should stay home for bowl season. Probably a bit of both.

SMU 41 Tulane 38

Noon

If you saw the end of this game, it would have infuriated you. Temple was on the SMU 2 with a few seconds left. For some unknown reason they called a run play, and it looked like the QB crossed the plane of the goal line for a touchdown with no time left. This would have sent Tulane to a bowl game. The referee called the runner down just outside the goal line. Replay couldn’t see the obvious that he had to have crossed the goal line with the ball. In the end, the Green Wave will be home for the holidays because of a completely botched call. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for replay and getting calls right. But when the officials AND the replay officials both fuck things up then we have a serious problem.

Florida State 38 Florida 22

Noon

Florida State won this easily. Both teams are god-awful. Now let’s hope Florida State has to go to Shreveport since there are other ACC teams that deserve to go to better locales because they had better seasons.

Purdue 31 Indiana 24

Noon

Can’t call them Purdon’t anymore! Purdue has had quite the bounceback season under Jeff Brohm who I am sure will be courted by some of the football powers in college football. Feels weird to put Purdue in my bowl projections just so you know.

Ohio State 31 Michigan 20

Noon

FOX had to be happy that almost no other game was relatively close (and the two that were were games of lesser importance overall). tOSU keeps on trucking with this win and now they could legitimately be one win away from the College Football Playoff which seems absurd for a team that allowed Iowa to score 55 points on them. It’s not 2007. It’s not 1990. But it is this decade’s crazy college football year for sure.

Louisville 44 Kentucky 17

Noon

This was revenge for last season. Pure and simple.

Boston College 42 Syracuse 14

12:30 PM

Syracuse’s late-season collapse is one of the more confusing aspects of a season full of confusion and chaos. How Dino Babers’ squad went from what was at the time the upset of the year (and may still be labelled as such by some) over Clemson to being an ACC also-ran in a matter of a a little over a month is mind-boggling. Babers is probably squarely on the hot seat now for next season.

Saturday Afternoon

Auburn 26 Alabama 14

3:30 PM

This game pretty much lived up to all the hype. Auburn is the real deal and Bama can be slayed. In the end this could mean that both teams make the College Football Playoff but for now let’s drink in the chaos, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

NC State 33 North Carolina 21

3:30 PM

I think I watched about 28 seconds of this game.

Wisconsin 31 Minnesota 0

3:30 PM

Here’s another game I watched very little of. It felt from about the halfway mark of the first quarter that there was no way Wisconsin was losing this. Now they are one win over Ohio State away from being in the College Football Playoff (like I said at the start of the season…kind of).

Fresno State 28 Boise State 17

3:30 PM

Fresno State’s win means the Mountain West has no shot at a New Year’s Six bowl. These same two teams meet again in Boise this Saturday. You know what, I can buy the arguments against conference championships. Here’s a prime example. It’s why Bedlam was moved a few weeks up; to avoid having a rematch in back-to-back weeks.

Oklahoma 59 West Virginia 31

3:30 PM

Man the Sooners put a hurtin’ on the Mountaineers. And what was all the horseshit with the captains carrying Baker Mayfield’s jersey to midfield for the coin toss. He didn’t fucking die. He wasn’t paralyzed from a hit. He wasn’t in an accident. He wasn’t wrongly convicted of a crime. He got suspended for grabbing his junk and telling the Kansas sideline to fuck off. And the suspension lasted…two plays. What a joke. He will still win the Heisman and we will all forget about this in a few weeks.

Kansas State 20 Iowa State 19

3:30 PM

What a fantastic finish here. Nothing really to play for but KSU marching down the field (which is kind of unlike them) and scoring on the final play of the game was awesome to watch and part of what makes college football so great.

Penn State 66 Maryland 3

3:30 PM

I’m not sad I don’t have BTN. Honestly.

Michigan State 40 Rutgers 7

4:00 PM

So Rutgers on FOX eh? How did that work out? Can we just reform the Big East already?

Vanderbilt 42 Tennessee 24

4:00 PM

The Sadness Bowl. Remember folks, we have seen history this season. Arguably the worst Tennessee team ever. And they aren’t even the Champions of Life anymore. What a shitshow.

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

Oregon 69 Oregon State 10

7:00 PM

The Ducks scored 69 points. Giggity.

Louisiana Tech 20 UTSA 6

7:30 PM

A surprisingly good game that was a close defensive battle. Watching a team battle for their bowl lives on the final regular season weekend is always great to watch. LaTech’s win pretty much put the nail in the 5-7 teams’ coffins for this season.

Clemson 34 South Carolina 10

7:30 PM

This wasn’t even close. I think many were kind of hoping for more chaos after what we had seen the previous 48 hours. It was not to be and Clemson should be #1 come Tuesday.

LSU 45 Texas A&M 21

7:30 PM

Kevin Sumlin’s last game at Texas A&M wasn’t a good one. And can you call what Ed Orgeron has done in Baton Rouge this year a quiet 9-3? You almost have to. He has proven that he was probably the right guy for the job all along.

Stanford 38 Notre Dame 20

8:00 PM

Not quite the beatdown most people are calling this but it really wasn’t close. At all. Stanford pulled away and then heard about Washington pasting Washington State so now they get to go to the Pac-12 Championship. Could they get in to the New Year’s Six with a win? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Washington 41 Washington State 14

8:00 PM

What is Wazzu’s problem with Washington? They seem to almost always fall flat in the Apple Cup. And this was their chance to solidify a NY6 spot. Instead they will be in a lesser bowl and might see their coach leave to go elsewhere.

BYU 30 Hawaii 20

9:00 PM

I honestly didn’t watch much of this game. Both teams were worse than last year. BYU’s fall from at least being an above-average team is stunning really.

Air Force 38 Utah State 35

10:15 PM

This ended up being a close game. I will be honest…I went to bed just before 1:00 AM. I was actually footballed out (and battling a bit of an illness).

Bowl eligibility

The following teams clinched bowl eligibility this past weekend:

Temple

Florida State (kind of…they are almost assured a win against ULM on Saturday so they might as well be included here)

Duke

Texas Tech

Purdue

Middle Tennessee

Louisiana Tech

Buffalo

UCLA

Utah

And UL-Lafayette and New Mexico State can clinch this Saturday. Good lord. Well I guess my bowl projections past the CFP and NY6 are going to change a bit. Plus this basically eliminates any 5-7 team from playing in a bowl game. By my count, at least one 6-6 team will not be invited to the party. Again, I will reiterate my bowl plans and that this should happen starting next season. Just sayin’.

Coaching Carousel

Can you hear the circus music (in your head)? I know I can. The coaching carousel is always a bit wacky but this is bordering on absurd now.

It started with Chip Kelly being hired as coach at UCLA. We knew it would start a domino effect. We didn’t realize that the dominoes would be covered in gasoline and set on fire. Here’s what has happened since then (these are in no particular order):

Many Florida fans thought Kelly was going to Gainesville. When that didn’t happen they made an awesome hire but getting Dan Mullen to move over from Mississippi State. Now a huge opening at an SEC school that might get a great Group of Five coach.
Bret Bielema was fired basically on the field after the Hogs’ loss on Black Friday. Pathetic. You couldn’t do it the next day? It will be interesting to see who the new AD and head coach will be there because they have a major image cleanup to do.
Texas A&M, not surprisingly, shitcanned Kevin Sumlin. Other than the Manziel years he didn’t quite get to the spot where many Aggie faithful thought he’d be. But it looks like he may end up in Tempe because…
Arizona State fired Todd Graham. Why? Couldn’t be because of this year. They did well. The previous two not so much and it felt like he would had to have had a better shot at the Pac-12 South to keep his job for next season.
Matt Luke had the interim tag taken off at Ole Miss. Interesting. If he wins 8 or more games next season (which is entirely possible) this will be considered one of the best coaching moves of 2017.
Mike Riley was fired at Nebraska. Again, not surprising. Let’s get the Scott Frost takes going now!
Kliff Kingsbury was…NOT fired at Texas Tech. That win over Texas probably saved his job. Next year the leash will be much shorter. I think seven wins at least or he’s a goner.
Kansas also did not fire their head coach. Why? Who knows. I think it’s time to seriously consider bringing Mark Mangino back. Who cares if he’s a shitbag.
Ty Detmer was let go as offensive coordinator at BYU. Yeah because the offense was the only problem. Right.
David Bailiff was let go by Rice. Not a surprise. The Owls were awful this year and hadn’t been consistent in the past few years under Bailiff.
Joey Jones is gone at South Alabama. He couldn’t build off that bowl game appearance and has since been passed by almost every team in the Sun Belt save Coastal Carolina (who’s new) and Texas State.

So who’s going where now? Well let’s just say the hiring season started with a bang…if by bang you mean nuclear bomb explosion:

Tennessee hired Greg Schiano. Or tried to. People literally went fucking crazy in Knoxville. Hell, even the wrestler Kane (who may go by Mayor Kane soon enough) chimed in saying it probably wasn’t a good idea to hire ol’ Greg. Why? People said he knew more than he told when he was at Penn State about the goings-on of one Jerry Sandusky. Other people ripped on other issues that have happened with Schiano at the helm. You want to know the real reason? It’s because he was average, at best, as a head coach. Derek Dooley would be a better hire than this guy. If they need a defensive coordinator, by all means, give the guy a shot but not as a head coach. Some guys just aren’t meant to be the main man. So now Tennessee is back to the drawing board.

Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:

Mike Leach – A lot of people in Knoxville want Leach to coach the Volunteers. Whether he wants to go there is a different story.
Mike Norvell – This is the next big thing (along with Scott Frost) in college coaching. Tennessee would be a good fit but don’t be surprised if Mississippi State gets him now that their spot is open.
Scott Frost – He is almost a shoo-in to go to Nebraska.
Jeff Brohm – What he has done at Purdue has been spectacular. Whether he would be a fit in the SEC is another story. Arkansas might be the only fit here.
Kevin Sumlin – Looks like he is heading to Arizona State.
Lane Kiffin – Isn’t he going to be the coach of every team that needs a coach. Either him or…
Jon Gruden.

I am sure there are more possibilities but I don’t feel like listing them at this time. Tomorrow I will have my bowl projections up then it’s back to the normal college schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday bit. Enjoy your week everyone!

It’s time for SEC SLEEPWALK SATURDAY Y’ALL! – Week 12 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 16, 2017 by guelphbossman

Yep it’s “that” week of the college football season. The one that many loath…at least compared to the other weeks of the season. It is highlighted by the SEC, for the most part, playing cupcakes. I hate this. I am of the opinion that these types of games should be restricted to September and October. And what I mean by this is the FBS vs. FCS games. Don’t get me wrong, I know upsets can happen but other than bad SEC teams being beaten, this never happens. What I wouldn’t give for Mercer to pull the upset of all upsets this coming Saturday. We can all wish right?

I’m not going to get too much into how terrible this weekend is. But it is. Not gonna lie. You’ll see.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Buffalo at Ball State	7:00 PM
Tulsa at USF	7:30 PM

It starts with a night to forget…kind of. Only thing of real interest here would be if USF can keep going so that the War on I-4 means something. It would suck balls if USF loses and the main game on Black Friday is ruined.

Friday

		US	Canada
Middle Tennessee at Western Kentucky	8:00 PM
UNLV at New Mexico	9:30 PM

Oof. I mean I’m PVRing it. Whether I watch most of it is another story.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Cincinnati at East Carolina	Noon
Virginia at #3 Miami	Noon
Rutgers at Indiana	Noon
Minnesota at #23 Northwestern	Noon
Texas at West Virginia	Noon
ULM at #6 Auburn	Noon
#15 UCF at Temple	Noon
Mercer at #1 Alabama	Noon
#24 Michigan at #5 Wisconsin	Noon
#16 Mississippi State at Arkansas	Noon
The Citadel at #2 Clemson	12:30 PM

A lot of games here. However, only one that’s semi-important and that’s Michigan-Wisconsin. That’s where Gameday is and it’s a Noon FOX game this week. That tells you right there what kind of week it is. TSN2 doing the same thing they kind of did last week. Showing college football games on TSN2 all day with a gap in the middle for something probably hockey-related. Oh well. C’est la vie.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
San Jose State at Colorado State	3:30 PM
Kentucky at #7 Georgia	3:30 PM
Purdue at Iowa	3:30 PM
Illinois at #9 Ohio State	3:30 PM
#4 Oklahoma at Kansas	3:30 PM
Kansas State at #13 Oklahoma State	3:30 PM
Syracuse at Louisville	3:30 PM
Navy at #8 Notre Dame	3:30 PM
Maryland at #17 Michigan State	4:00 PM
Wofford at South Carolina	4:00 PM
UAB at Florida	4:00 PM

OK then. A lot of ranked teams in action but playing teams that are definitely not ranked. #17 MSU gets…Maryland. #4 Oklahoma battles…Kansas. #9 Ohio State plays…Illinois. Man. At least we have a few upset possibilities with UK-UGA, Navy-ND, and KSU-OSU in this timeslot.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Army at North Texas	6:30 PM
Boston College vs. UConn (in Fenway Park)	7:00 PM
#20 LSU at Tennessee	7:00 PM
Texas A&M at Ole Miss	7:00 PM
Missouri at Vanderbilt	7:30 PM
#19 NC State at Wake Forest	7:30 PM
California at #22 Stanford	8:00 PM
UCLA at #11 USC	8:00 PM

We go from a huge primetime slate last week (which yes, it did disappoint but still, the games were important) to this. The Pac-12 must be thrilled to have FOX and ABC primetime all to themselves…to show The Game and The Battle for Los Angeles. Normally at least one of those games would be big ones. Not so much this year as Cal and UCLA have dropped off a bit. Not the greatest primetime sked for sure but there could be some good ones here.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Air Force at #25 Boise State	10:15 PM
Utah at #18 Washington	10:30 PM
Nevada at San Diego State	10:30 PM

Air Force has a chance to knock the Mountain West out of any New Year’s Six talk if they can beat the Broncos. Not easy though with it being in Boise on the blue turf. Utah-Washington is OK. It is nice to see TSN pick up some late-night Pac-12 After Dark even if the Pac-12 has almost officially been eliminated from CFP contention.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Michigan at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – I don’t remember the last the time the game of the week was a Noon affair. Even Thursday and Friday nights have gotten better games in the past. Oh well. The Fighting Harbaughs could really put a wrench in the Big Ten’s College Football Playoff plans with a win here (or next week against Ohio State). This is Wisky’s last chance before the B1G Championship to lay a hurtin’ on an opponent and show they are worth a spot in the Top 4.

Kentucky at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – If Mark Stoops’ Wildcats don’t decide to shit the bed, Brad Nessler could finally get a really good game to call. Poor Brad has been stuck with a bunch of crap (other than the Florida Hail Mary win over Tennessee) to call with Gary Danielson who also seems to be checking out of games early. It’s sad for CBS which is known for usually having great games. This may be the second biggest game of the week but it doesn’t mean it’s super important (although a Georgia loss all but eliminates them from the CFP).

Virginia at Miami (Noon, ABC) – Again I ask…when is the last time when the top games of the week mostly appeared at Noon? This is going to blow fans’ minds I am sure. Anyway, Miami may bristle a bit at being #3 (and I don’t blame them). All they can do is keep winning. Win out and they go for glory. That’s it, that’s all. Bronco Mendenhall should be one of several Coach of the Year candidates for what he has done with the Wahoos this season. They had no real right to be this good but overperformed and coaching is a huge part of that.

Navy at Notre Dame (3:30, NBC) – It really drops off a bit of a hill after the first three. And the first three weren’t that huge to begin with. Anyway, Navy, at least in the past decade, has given Notre Dame fits. This should be no different. I am honestly wondering if the Midshipmen will go into the Army-Navy game as the underdog for the first time in a LONG time.

UCF at Temple (Noon, specialty pack) – It’s a nooner smorgasbord! UCF has to win this or else they might be overtaken by a surging Memphis Tigers team. I mean it looks like they would have to face Memphis in the conference championship anyway but I am sure they would rather do it in Orlando than at the Liberty Bowl where dreams go to die.

Honourable mention: Kansas State at Oklahoma State (3:30, specialty pack); UCLA at USC (8:00, ABC); NC State at Wake Forest (7:30, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

Go back and take a look at my picks last week. LOOK AT THEM! Man I was good. Except for Tennessee. Fuck those guys. Thankfully the Butch Jones Experiment is over there in Knoxville. Let’s go with some fresh new picks this week:

Wisconsin over Michigan

Miami over Virginia

Georgia over Kentucky

NC State over Wake Forest

USC over UCLA

Notre Dame over Navy

Oklahoma State over Kansas State

UCF over Temple

Washington over Utah

LSU over Tennessee

Texas over West Virginia (which might be considered by some as an upset)

Hey at least the guides are up right! WOOHOO! Now full disclosure, I expect at least one upset this weekend. It will happen. It has every year before now in this weekend before American Thanksgiving. And it’s still college football. But I will not give a weekend its due when it is that much worse than the weekend preceeding and coming after it.

Thursday Night Football. Can they end this already? I am sick of it. Many others are sick of it. It’s played out. Hopefully next season the NFL, in some sort of common sense move, at least cuts back on the Thursday nighters. Like take four or five out of the schedule. Opening night, American Thanksgiving and say, ten other Thursdays. Bingo. You’ve already made the season a bit better without too much trying. But they won’t. Too much money right? And that’s what it is all about! Anyway, Tennessee faces Pittsburgh tonight in a game that should be genuinely good. Let’s hope for the NFL’s sake it is. Because if this is a matchup that fans can’t enjoy then shut it down, turn off the light, set the security system, lock the door and fuck the hell off.

Oh boy this will be an interesting weekend. Going back to the PVR method. That sounds vaguely sexual. Anyway…I have jammed my PVR with about 40 hours worth of football. I figured taking a break would make it easier for the ass whoopin’ it will receive this weekend, courtesy moi. I am praying to whatever television and PVR gods there are to please make this work. It really is the last time this season I will have to use the PVR even close to this extent. I’ll even provide a shiny new remote control in a few months if all goes well! I mean my remote is near death anyway so it’s a no-brainer but don’t tell them that!

Alright, NFL sked tomorrow as per usual. Enjoy the games everyone!

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Knoxville

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It’s time for SEC SLEEPWALK SATURDAY Y’ALL! – Week 12 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night