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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most Important Games of the 2018 College Football Season – Part II: Football Boogaloo

God I wish.  Can you even fucking imagine how popular this would be?  I mean I only have a PS3 right now but would run out IMMEDIATELY to get a new system if EA Sports was putting out a new college football game.  I hear rumblings that another company is going to put out a game without licensing.  I don’t know how well that would work but hey, it’s something at this point, right?

So now I feel like a big dummy.  I could have waited a few days but noooooooooo I just had to jump the gun and post the first of this series of most important games of the season.  So what happens yesterday?  A big schedule dump.  ESPN.  FOX.  CBS.  The first three weeks are almost set now.  So now that those are pretty much set, I have a few announcements *clears throat*:

• I had the FAU-OU game on the right network, just at the wrong time.  This game will now start at Noon.  Nice start to the day I would say.
• Again I was right with the network on another one but REALLY had the wrong time.  Ole Miss-Texas Tech will now go off at noon from Houston rather than the weird 9:30 start time that ESPN has used the last couple of seasons on opening Saturday.
• We will not get to see Boise State-Troy because it is now on ESPNEWS.   BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
• I got USC-Stanford VERY wrong.  Not on ABC.  It’s on FOX.  Not in the afternoon.  At 8:30.  Yeah.
• Speaking of FOX again, UCLA-Oklahoma now begins at 1:00.  You see that right…1:00.  That is not very PVR-friendly but in this day and age, who gives a shit anymore.  Hell, I don’t even use my PVR as much as I have in previous years.
• I think I underestimated how bad Week 2 is.  Case in point: Colorado-Nebraska has been moved to ABC at 3:30.  Not reverse-mirror: national broadcast.  Yeesh.
• In Week 3, Washington-Utah and USC-Texas have slightly different start times but otherwise they are correct.
• On the other hand, Boise State-Oklahoma State was wildly wrong.  They are now at 3:30, probably on the specialty pack.
• We still can’t see Rutgers-Kansas but it has been demoted to FSN.
• And here’s something new: Southern Miss-Appalachian State is not on ESPN3.  It’s on ESPN+.  I will have to do a bit of digging to see if this is available to Canadians but I assume it isn’t because Jesus doesn’t love us.  Or is that the CRTC?

Alright, enough of the Ya Blew It section, let’s move on.  Now we get to what is truly speculative as 95% of games from Week 4 on have little to no information attached to them.  This is where I can REALLY screw things up.  So let’s begin shall we?

Week 4

Game of the Week: Texas A&M at Alabama (7:00, specialty pack) – Jimbo Fisher has a rough early going in his first season in College Station.  Clemson early on and then his first SEC game will be against Evil Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide Juggernaut Brigade.  If he can somehow, SOMEHOW, coax this team (which should actually be pretty good) into keeping this game close into the fourth quarter, then at least we can say he is already starting to earn his money from that fat contract he has or hasn’t signed yet.

Other Really Important Games: Georgia at Missouri (7:30, specialty pack) – First two games on the specialty pack this week.  Not good for you non-specialty pack people.  And the fact that Mizzou is near the top of this list is another interesting thing.  I think they will be wildly improved from last season and this has to be considered an early trap game for UGA.  I mean Georgia is the team to beat in the East by far but if they lose, say, two conference games then it is a complete free-for-all for that division.

Notre Dame at Wake Forest (Noon, ABC/TSN3) – I’m just going to say this here: this could be the game that makes or breaks Brian Kelly’s season.  Serious.  Let’s look at this: the Irish can lose to Michigan on the opening weekend and many will just say “Michigan’s back.”  So it buys the Irish a reprieve if that happens.  Then they have Ball State and Vandy in consecutive weeks meaning they should be 2-1, at worst, going into this game.  But the Deacs are a good team.  They will give Notre Dame a fight in this one.  But it’s also Wake Forest.  A team with not the greatest winning pedigree.  A loss here will fan the flames to the point of possibly no return.  Makes for exciting drama, no?

Stanford at Oregon (3:30, ABC) – I feel bad for poor Oregon State and Cal in the Pac-12 North.  They have these two teams, plus the two Washington schools, to deal with every season.  No wonder neither program has done anything of note in years.  As for this game, it’s game one of the Pac-12 North Round Robin of Doom and Destruction that is sure to knock every team out of the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six yet again.

Florida Atlantic at UCF (Friday, 7:00, specialty pack) – Going out on a bit of a limb but I am saying that this could be the Group of Five game of the year right here.  Inter-Florida battle.  The Lane Train.  New coach in Orlando.  All kinds of storylines going into this one.  Should be fun.  Plus it gets the ESPN national broadcast so it shows that both of these programs are starting to get a lot of respect from the media.

Wisconsin at Iowa (7:30, ABC) – Will Wisconsin be as good as last season?  Probably not so I don’t have the worry of saying they will run the regular season table (which they did) and then lose the Big Ten Championship (which they did) and still make it to the CFP (which they didn’t).  Two out of three ain’t bad.  And we all know how the Fighting Ferentzes do in big B1G games.  Wouldn’t call it an upset if Iowa won but it’s definitely not being expected here by anyone, probably even most Hawkeye fans.

TCU at Texas (3:30, specialty pack) – Is Texas back?  Is Texas back?  IS TEXAS BACK?  I get that ESPN and FOX (especially ESPN) desperately wants Texas to be back.  To be good again.  Even great again.  But this narrative is so tiring.  Meanwhile, Gary Patterson is one of the best coaches of this era and tends to not get as much love for what he’s done with a Horned Frogs program that I think has been in every single FBS conference that has ever existed.  OK maybe not the MAC.  But still.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Pittsburgh at North Carolina (3:30, specialty pack) – OK hear me out.  I fully expect one of these teams, if not both of them, to not be very good this season.  But saying that, this could be a very close, very good game.  The proof comes from some of the games these two teams have played since Pitt joined the ACC.  It was either this or Texas Tech-Oklahoma State.  I stand by my choice.

Best Group of Five Game: Florida Atlantic at UCF (Friday, 7:00, specialty pack) – See in Other Really Important Games section.

Worst Power Five Game: Kansas at Baylor (Noon, FSN) – I foresee Kansas being in this section a lot.  At least we aren’t subjected to it this time around.

Week 5

Game of the Week: Ohio State at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – Not just Game of the Week but potential Game of the Year.  You can make the argument that the Big Ten could all come down to this one game and you probably wouldn’t be far off.  Both teams will have potential Heisman candidates.  Should be a lot of offense.  Interesting thing is that even a loss here might not kill their CFP chances which is crazy since in 99% of games the loser of a game would destroy any chance of a possible national title.

Other Really Important Games: Stanford at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Two very good early season games on in primetime.  This is when you know the college football broadcasting gods are shining down on us, the lowly viewers.  Brian Kelly may be pulling out all the stops at this point to secure his job.  And David Shaw is David Shaw.  I am sure he could have a loaded gun pointed at him and he would still look like he is as calm as someone watching a Bob Ross marathon (although not quite as sleepy…that shit works for insomnia I’m tellin ya!).

Ole Miss at LSU (Noon, TSN5) – This year’s Ole Miss squad reminds me a bit of Urban Meyer’s first Ohio State team: a team that was pretty damn good but wasn’t going anywhere thanks to being on probation/sanctions/whatever they call it now.  As I said, a bit.  They aren’t nearly as good as that team that probably would have had a good shot at winning the natty.  But this time will be better than last year’s that is for sure.  Oh and Orgeron Hot Seat Watch 2018 continues here.

Florida at Mississippi State (7:00, specialty pack) – The return of Dan Mullen to Starkville.  I hope he gets a really good reception from the Bulldog faithful.  He deserves it for taking a pretty bad program and turning it around rather quickly.  It will be interesting to see if he follows the path of his predecessor, Jim Bob McElwain.  Start off good, tail off a decent amount and then something happens and you’re out of a job after it looks like you made sweet, sweet love to a shark.

Florida State at Louisville (3:30, ABC) – Maybe giving a bit too much love to the Cardinals here.  I honestly don’t know how well they will do this season without all-world Lamar Jackson.  I’m giving them the better of the two daytime ABC spots because I have a feeling Bobby Petrino would have figured things out by now (sans a potential Alabama massacre to start their season) and the Noles will be rebounding quite nicely after a not-so-good year last season.

Michigan at Northwestern (Noon, ABC) – I am still torn as to which game should get the mid-afternoon timeslot and which should get the supposed Noon death spot.  I will go with the Big Ten here since to be honest, they draw better than any conference without the words Southeastern and Conference in it.  Michigan will be obviously overrated coming into this one and Northwestern will be underrated.  Almost always how it is.  How these teams are at this point of the season will dictate where this game ends up.

USC at Arizona (9:00, specialty pack) – Yes I have this game at the odd 9:00 timeslot.  I know at some point again this season, ESPN will play around with three-hour timeslots, knowing they won’t work but doing them anyway.  Really it’s an excuse to say the games didn’t end at 2:30 in the morning, they ended at 1:00 in the morning.  Either way, the people staying up to watch it (on the east coast) are quite possibly insane (like me) or it’s their job to report on these games (unlike me).  Anyway, Khalil Tate could end up being the real story here since he has to be a Heisman frontrunner coming out of the gate.  Unless the Wildcats suck, they will get more national attention than they have in years.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Virginia Tech at Duke (Noon, TSN3) – Even when Duke wasn’t that good, they seemed to give the Hokies fits for some reason.  The Dookies (aha) should be better this season and Tech may be an outside national title contender if their offense can put some points on the board (since we all know the Hokies defense should be solid as per usual thanks to Bud Foster).

Best Group of Five Game: Toledo at Fresno State (10:30, TSN2) – I see people looking at this and thinking I have no idea what I am talking about.  Let me explain my thinking here.  TSN2, at this point, has a 10:30pm window that night for college football.  I have ESPN using their funky three-hour windows this week meaning they would not have a game at 10:30 that night.  The only other ESPN2/ESPNU game that night would be this one.  And for the G5, it’s a very good one.  Toledo will try to keep making it into the New Year’s Six as they have been one of the consistently good MAC teams for the past decade or so.  Fresno State tries to build off of last year’s success.  Should be good.

Worst Power Five Game: Oregon State at Arizona State (8:00, Pac-12 Network) – Hey maybe Herm Edwards will keep ASU doing well this year.  Crazier things have happened.

Week 6

Game of the Week: Auburn at Mississippi State (Noon, specialty pack) – I would say there is a possibility this moves to the SEC on CBS afternoon slot but LSU-Florida is there so no, that won’t happen.  This despite the fact this game has two potential dark horse CFP contenders.  I could also call this the SNEAKY-GOOD UNDERRATED GAME of the week but I made a solemn vow to myself that never shall these two paths meet, Amen.  Anyway, loser probably forfeits their chance to usurp Alabama as the king of the SEC West (for this season).

Other Really Important Games: Notre Dame at Virginia Tech (3:30, ABC) – Many would say this should be the game of the week.  I would but Notre Dame is still a bit of a mystery to me (and many others).  I am interested to see how many times Brian Kelly’s possible shitcanning comes up.  I am putting the over/under at 9.

Florida State at Miami (8:00, ABC) – A few of the most recent games between these two programs have been fantastic.  ABC is surely hoping this continues.  Also lately it has been a night game recently so I am assuming it ends up here and ND-VT gets the afternoon spot (but I can see them easily switch spots).  So get ready for ample talk of: Bobby Bowden, Jimmy Johnson, Jimbo Fisher, Wide Rights 1, 2 and 3 and Butch Davis.  We may hear more of that than actual talk about the game just as an FYI.

Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas) (Noon, FOX) – Time once again for the Red River SHOOTOUT.  I wish they would stop being idiots about this kind of thing.  Like if you were to look at gun crime statistics for Washington, D.C. for when their NBA team was called the Bullets and when it was called the Wizards, I am sure you will see no discernible difference between the two.  Anyway, for once, this feels like we are almost back to way it was last decade when both teams were in the Top 25 and the result was almost always weird and wacky (and devastating for the higher ranked team).  The Sooners will be there for sure: will Tom Herman have his team trending back towards glory by this point?

Clemson at Wake Forest (7:15, specialty pack) – This feels like the type of game that in 2019 would be potentially moved to the ACC Network to anchor the primetime slate.  And when it comes up some would say it’s a bit of a coup to get this game there for the ACC Network.  In the end it would be good because it would get a huge game out of the way early and allow ABC/ESPN to air more Clemson (and perhaps Wake Forest) games down the stretch.  We’ve been through this with the SEC Network and especially the Big Ten Network so it’s old hat at this point.  Should be a good game though!  Don’t expect the Tigers to run away with this one.

Washington at UCLA (8:00, FOX) – This will be one of those weeks where FOX gladly takes a back seat to ABC/ESPN and doesn’t go all out to get the best games (at least on paper).  Not saying this one won’t be good but FOX is sure hoping Chip Kelly brings his magic early to Westwood since the Huskies will still be (arguably) the team to beat in the Pac-12.

LSU at Florida (3:30, CBS) – They might as well put a camera on each head coach since that’s what will be talked about for at least half the game.  I am sure Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson wouldn’t want to do that (and would instead, you know, want to call the action) but their hands will be tied.  Dan Mullen was a huge hire in Gainesville and the Ed Orgeron Hot Seat Tour continues in earnest.  Should be good fun.  Honestly, CBS should switch this with the Auburn-MSU game but the storylines for this one will be too big to ignore (unless Gus Malzahn or Joe Moorhead maim a football player during practice or something).

Utah at Stanford (10:45, TSN3) – Some late-night TSN action!  Expect a bit more of this type of thing this year as TSN spreads their coverage out a bit more than in past years (more evening and late-night games, less going all-in at Noon).  If Kyle Whittingham EVER wants to get his team over the hump to the Pac-12 Championship (and possibly the Rose Bowl) these are the games they must win.  And it won’t be easy against Cool Hand Dave and his Cardinal crew.

Northwestern at Michigan State (Noon, TSN2) – Man there are a LOT of good games this week.  This is why this is the best week of college football before November.  This is another game that could go in the underrated category since everyone seems to underrate Northwestern every season but it’s a bit too good to go there (plus I will continue to follow my own rules, as ridiculous as they may be).  First week with two TSN games in the best games of the week since Week 1.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Missouri at South Carolina (Noon, specialty pack) – One of these teams will be at least an 8-win team and will cause serious waves in the SEC East.  I guarantee* it (*guarantee is not guaranteed).

Best Group of Five Game: San Diego State at Boise State (3:30, specialty pack) – I think ESPN will make a bit more effort to put big Mountain West games on either in the afternoon or in primetime, even if they end up on ESPNU.  This is one of those games.  It behooves ESPN to do this because it will make for more eyeballs on the late-night games where people would rather sleep.  Haha, what a joke.  Sleep?  On a college football Saturday?  What the hell is that?

Worst Power Five Game: Illinois at Rutgers (Noon, BTN) – Kansas and Oregon State would have spots here if we got FS1/FSN or the Pac-12 Network was something worth getting.  Since that’s not the case, Rutgers will be the King of the Power Five Basement Television Games Seen in Canada.  I need to work on that.  A little too wordy.

Pretty much halfway through the season now.  I am assuming a few more gametimes will come in over the next week.  After Week 3 though it is a tiny bit of a crapshoot with many games going on a 12-day hold where networks have up until 12 days before the Saturday to select which games will be on that week.  So there is a good chance none of this correct.  I hope that’s not the case but no guarantees.

As for preview magazines, I finally got one: the Street & Smith one.  I will be getting Athlon’s later this week and then the Lindy’s magazine in a week or two.  I am also getting the Phil Steele preview (of course) but going the digital route this year so I actually get it before the end of July (which I always hate).  Makes it so I can’t take it into the shitter and read but oh well, some sacrifices have to be made.  Have a good rest of the week everyone.

Well that escalated quickly – Week 1 College Football Recap

ESPN hyped the absolute shit out of college football’s opening weekend.  So of course everyone, including myself, wondered if the weekend would live up to the hype.  To everyone’s glee, it certainly did.  College football should take note of this and replicate it as best they can next season.  Having Sunday and Monday night games also made it a must-see weekend where I watched almost every minute of it.  To be honest, I don’t know how I am functioning right now.  But I would have kicked myself if I had missed that weekend-plus of football.  It was so crazy and a lot happened in the top 25 that sometimes doesn’t happen in three weeks combined.  I would say it was good practice for what the season will bring us but that’s like saying you’re about to learn how to swim without water wings and they drop you in the ocean from a cruise ship.

Anyway, let’s go over what was undoubtedly a great five days of college football.  I’ll do the same format as I did with the schedule and see if that works.

Thursday

• It all started Thursday night where Appalachian State made many Vols fans shit their pants. What a close game that the Mountaineers probably should have won.  Brent Musburger was right in saying the Volunteers survived.  Funny thing is, after all that happened, Tennessee may move UP in the rankings.
• Indiana started REALLY slowly but showed why they are a solid middle-to-low-end Big Ten team in their win over Florida International.
• Guess who is (technically) leading the SEC East right now? If you guessed the Vanderbilt Commodores you’d be wrong…STUPID!  You so stupid!  Somehow Vandy gacked the game away against South Carolina who won it on a pretty long field goal with almost no time left.  This meant that Will Muschamp yelled at his team about 15% less after the game.  They deserved it.
• I thought if Wake Forest had lost to Tulane then my prediction of them making a bowl game would have gone in the toilet. They won.
• Lamar Jackson went ham on Charlotte. Eight first half touchdowns!  I know it’s just Charlotte and they really don’t even belong in Conference USA but good lord that’s amazing.  Maybe Louisville will have something to say about Clemson and Florida State’s recent ACC dominance.
• If you haven’t seen Western Kentucky’s entrance to their opening game, look it up.   Except for the one guy that started the pileup.  I don’t think he thought it was too funny.
• UConn barely got by Maine. I don’t see how that gives the Big XII any confidence in them.

Friday

• Christian McCaffrey made an appearance and, other than highlights, no Canadian got to see it. I sure hope that changes next year.  Oh, by the way, he still looks like a really good football player.
• Michigan State didn’t look too good against Furman but they too may move up the rankings.
• Well there goes one of my winless predictions. Eastern Michigan destroyed Mississippi Valley State.
• First FCS-over-FBS upset of the year belongs to the Great Danes of Albany as they upended Buffalo.
• Uh-oh. Temple loses to Army.    The Black Knights may sneak into a bowl.  Temple better hope that was an aberration since it does not look good on the resume.  On top of that, the Owls were told they will not be invited into the Big XII.  A bad day overall.
• The Rocky Mountain Showdown was more like a Rocky Mountain Beatdown. Colorado beat Colorado State pretty damn easily.  Hey, maybe the Pac-12 will be really tough this year from top to bottom.
• Toledo-Arkansas State ended up only in SD for us. Up until early last week it was showing up on the TSN schedule.  Then it was removed.  Eventually it showed up on Rogers and Bell schedules but only in SD.  Someone dropped the ball.

Saturday Early Afternoon (and Morning)

• I caught most of the Georgia Tech-Boston College game from Dublin Saturday morning. Was too busy to watch it all the way through but I did catch the last five minutes which were great.  A good start to the day.
• Jimmy Harbaugh put a royal beatdown on up-and-coming Tweeter Nick Rolovich and his Hawaii program. Wasn’t even close.
• I don’t get the Big Ten Network and it didn’t seem to matter as Ohio State also decided to open up a can of whoopass, this one on Bowling Green.
• Well guess who is Rowing The Boat? Western Michigan pulls off the big upset of Northwestern and now I can’t really see how they won’t be at least 11-1 if not 12-0 going into conference championship week.
• And speaking of possibly going 12-0, unless Houston coughs one up, they seem destined to make the College Football Playoff Committee’s job difficult after starting their season with a win over #3 Oklahoma. Impressive doesn’t even start to tell how good this win was.  Big XII, just invite them already and make this a conference game next season.
• Back on the upset conversation, how about South Alabama? They pull off one of the biggest opening day upsets ever, beating Mississippi State when the Bulldogs’ short field goal on the final play doinked off the left upright.
• So Navy pulled a quarterback out of the crowd in their game against Fordham. He had to get out of his uniform whites and into his football uniform to get to the sidelines once Tago Smith went down to injury.
• The Justin Fuente era started well, I guess. They beat Liberty but it took almost three quarters for them to get going.  They won’t get that same leeway in the Battle at Bristol next week.

Saturday Mid-to-Late Afternoon

• Thanks LSU. Now my national championship pick looks terrible.  Then again, Wisconsin’s defense came to play.  They didn’t totally shut down Leonard Fournette but he definitely didn’t look like a Heisman candidate for most of the game.  Brandon Harris, however, was terrible.  Just didn’t look comfortable at QB and it showed.  All the Tigers have to do to make it back to the CFP is run the table.  Easy right?  Oh, and cue the Fire Les commentary.
• The SEC’s Tour de Failure almost continued as Texas A&M blew a pretty big lead to UCLA to allow the Bruins to force overtime. The Aggies won in the first extra period but it shouldn’t have even been that close.
• Louisiana Tech almost made it another upset of an SEC team as they came oh so close to beating Arkansas, losing by 1 in the end.
• Penn State’s kicker is ridiculously big…for a kicker at least. Hilarious to see him lay out kick returners although it is a distinct Nittany Lion advantage.
• Staggered start times work great (a few websites have preached about this). I agree (as long as I am home to watch the games).  Georgia-North Carolina got the later afternoon start time on their own and took advantage of it.  UGA came back from a deficit to beat the Tar Heels and Nick Chubb looks like an early true Heisman candidate with his second half performance.
• The Bronco Mendenhall era started with the worst Power Five loss to an FCS team in recent memory, losing to Richmond and not being even close.

Saturday Primetime

• Kentucky was up 25 on Southern Miss. They ended up losing.  I think Mark Stoops is done unless a miracle happens.  Also, Wildcat fans are already checking out when basketball season starts.
• UMass kept it real close with Florida for three-and-a-half quarters. What in the hell was wrong with the SEC this weekend?  The highlight of this one was clearly Steve Spurrier’s speech after the field was named after him.  Despite what many South Carolina fans think, Spurrier being back as head coach would be great for the game.
• You know, early on I thought USC would keep it close with Bama. And the way they were playing, that looked like a good prediction.  Then the Tide turned it on, ran away with the game and gave Lane Kiffin a measure of revenge on USC (for his shitty head coaching while he was there).
• The class move of the week: Nebraska lines up for their first punt with only ten men. Their punter, Sam Foltz, had been killed in an auto accident during the summer so in his memory they lined up one man short and took the delay of game penalty.  Have to give Fresno State credit as well as they declined the penalty.  A great and poignant scene.
• The night ended (pretty much) with Clemson almost Clemsoning the game away against Auburn. I don’t know what the hell Dabo Swinney was thinking but it tells me that he has no faith in his kicker at all.

Sunday

• Notre Dame-Texas basically made it so that every Labour Day Sunday for at least the next decade will have a college football game. That was an absolute thriller of a game.  Hell, the Irish even tied it up late and sent it to overtime with a blocked extra point returned for two.  The Longhorns sewed it up in the second overtime period on Tyrone Swoopes’ rushing touchdown.  Is Texas back?    Is Notre Dame going to be not as good?  Maybe.  It is week one remember.

Monday

• Wow, way too many sections here. Won’t have this problem going forward.  Anyway…Ole Miss built up a 22-point lead and many thought, at the very least, they would hold on to upset the Noles and give the SEC a much needed boost after a pretty bad weekend.  Instead, they blew that lead pretty quickly and ended up losing.

So there you go.  Opening weekend in the books and what a weekend it was.  To be honest, this coming weekend won’t be nearly as good.  It’s almost impossible unless there are some crazy finishes to accompany what is arguably the weakest slate of college football all season.  I should have the schedule up tomorrow since it’s almost already set (I am honestly shocked).

And then we get the NFL starting up as well on Thursday night!  I should have the NFL schedule, as usual, up on Friday for Week 1 of the NFL season.  Football is back.  Finally.  It took long enough.