Should I do a Draft Recap?

Yeah, why not. Not like I am stupidly busy with life.

Alright we made it through all seven rounds (and the various undrafted signees over the following 48 hours). It was a slog at time but there was some very interesting spots during the three days, especially night one. Let’s just do this point form, shall we? I don’t feel like putting a ton of effort into something that is done in a much more thorough fashion by some websites who go as far as rating EVERY PICK. Yeah I’m not doing that.

• The most stunning development of the draft, by a country mile, was the Atlanta Falcons and their pick at the #8 spot in the draft. I wondered if they would pick J.J. McCarthy in my final mock draft to back Kirk Cousins up for a season and then see where things are. I was right…the Falcons did draft a quarterback. That quarterback’s name, though, was Michael Penix Jr. People were stunned. Hell, Cousins was stunned. He certainly DID NOT LIKE THAT. This has all the makings of a three-ring circus so we shall see how things progress down in the heart of Georgia.
• Speaking of stunning, how about Penix being one of the six quarterbacks picked in the first 12 spots of the draft. Incredible. Easily a new record for the draft.
• Hey, look at me! I got the first four picks absolutely correct…as did I think almost everyone. It was almost a no-brainer as to who the first four selections would be and in what order they would go in.
• Now, as for the first stretch of the draft I would go with Penix at #8 since I figured he would go much later in the first round. As for bigger stretches, how about Ricky Pearsall at #31, Max Melton at #43 (again with those Falcons) and Ben Sinnott at #53 who I had going sometime after the third round. Yikes.
• Over 700,000 fans were at this draft. 700,000. I mean it wasn’t 700,000 different people but still. That’s an insane amount of people. And let’s be honest here: other than the people under the structure and close enough to be maybe caught on camera once, is it really that fun an experience? It looks awful to be part of unless you are close enough and feel like you are part of the “action” for lack of a better term. At least it doesn’t cost anything to go there so you could come and go as you please (as far as I know).
• I perused all three shows on Night One. Gotta say, Nick Saban was a breath of fresh air. Honest insight and gave you info that always seemed to be missing from previous draft broadcasts. NFL Network did their usual solid job. And if you want to know how ESPN did, as soon as I went over to that broadcast, the first thing I saw is Mel Kiper basically yelling right in Booger McFarland’s face. So yeah, I would go 1) ABC 2) NFLN 3) watching people on Twitter bitch and complain about all things draft-related but at least picks weren’t getting tipped early unless you were looking for it 4) ESPN.

Let’s get to the winners and loser of this draft:

Winners

• As I usually do, I will preface this with the fact that it is really too soon to truly understand the ramifications of this draft. Many pundits have been wrong. No one thought Tom Brady would be what he ended up being after being drafted 199th back in 2000.
• Da Bears – Caleb Williams was the no-brainer first overall pick. Getting Rome Odunze to pair with him eight picks later was a big pick. Then to pick Tory Taylor in the fourth round was a coup. Overall, a great draft from Ryan Poles.
• Da Vikings – This seems to be a bit more polarizing. As a friend of mine stated, he just wanted the Vikings to have a plan and stick with it. So if it’s taking J.J. McCarthy, then take J.J. McCarthy and don’t overthink it. Which they did. Then they moved up to get Dallas Turner in one of the best trade-ups of the draft. Including Khyree Jackson as their fourth-round pick means they actually got a lot of value with some of their picks, something many teams can’t say.
• Philly – Their secondary is going to be something to deal with. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were drafted lower than many thought they would be (including myself). And now with Vic Fangio running the defense? Watch out.
• Indy – They got quite the haul with their 2024 draft. And Adonai Mitchell actually picked around where he was supposed to be picked (if not a little later which makes him a bit of a steal). How about that?

Losers

• I don’t care what anyone thinks but drafting Michael Penix Jr. at #8 is a terrible choice. I mentioned it above and I am not going to go over it again. There’s a GM overthinking things and it was interesting watching him try to basically justify the pick to Arthur Blank (or at least that’s what it looked like).
• The Raiders – Now the Raiders, they needed a quarterback. Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell are not the answer unless one of them plays out of his mind this season. So did they trade up? No. They did get Brock Bowers which is a good pick but they need someone to throw him the fucking ball.
• Buffalo* – I put an asterisk here. When they didn’t trade up to grab Brian Thomas Jr. I thought, OK maybe they aren’t go to draft a receiver. Then they trade with the Chiefs to move down to #32 which is kind of weird. The Chiefs picking Xavier Worthy is so much less of a deal than many made it out to be, it’s laughable. According to some, Worthy is nine Puka Nacuas rolled into one. Get the fuck outta here. The Chiefs reached for Worthy according to almost everyone’s thoughts going into the draft so cut it with the “he’s a sure-fire HOFer with Patrick Mahomes” horseshit. THEN, the Bills trade down AGAIN to get out of the first round altogether. Sure, the Panthers also reached with their receiver pick but still, what was Brandon Beane trying to accomplish? And please, moving up on Day 3 of the draft means very little, admit it. So after all this, what do the Bills do? DRAFT A RECEIVER! Are you kidding me? I mean the guy is hilariously entertaining but trading down twice to do what you could have done the previous night all to move up some of your later picks? Oh yeah, real big brain stuff. Again, get the fuck outta here. Over………thinking. And that kind of thing pushes general managers out the door.

OK I have to calm down. Enough of the draft. I was getting pretty pissed off there at the end. Maybe it’s the residual from the Leafs losing in heartbreaking fashion…again. Being a Leafs fan and a Bills fan I should know the pain is coming. But even though I do, it still sucks. Big time.

Were there other winners and losers at this draft? Sure. I don’t have the time, energy or inkling to even go into that. Not my forte, so I dip my toe in the water and steer clear of the “experts” who do this for a living.

Now a little blurb about what is happening with Rogers and their NHL contract. Remember what I said years ago about it? Let’s step into the way-back machine and take a look, shall we?

My opinion was that Rogers would rue the day they made that deal. Not the cost (although it was a ton) but the length of the deal. Twelve years at the time. Now it took longer than I thought it would (and that’s because Rogers couldn’t do this before now becuase there was no interest) but Rogers is selling off the Monday Night NHL game package to Amazon. Yep, it’s only the last two years of the twelve-year contract but still, I had a feeling it would happen. I don’t think Rogers is getting the return on investment they desired and that’s obvious with this move. I am guessing they will be much less of a major player when the Canadian rights come up in 2026. Feels good to be right at least some of the time, especially when others don’t quite agree with you. Then again, I live in the middle of a hockey-mad country that just watched the first- or second-most popular team (depending on who you ask) get bounced from the playoffs….OK I’m not going back to that well. It’s done. Over with. Stop it, Bossman.

Soon enough I will get back in the groove of things. Most important games lists. Conference predictions. My (probably shitty) Heisman ballot. I know it’s only May but with the new college football video game coming out soon I am starting to feel it. College football is in the air (kind of). Have a great week everyone!

It’s the Final Mock Draft!

…..the final Mock Draft!

Yep, not kidding. This is it. I’m not going to do like four in a matter of six days or something ridiculous like that. I have a job and a life (sort of) outside of this blog. I also know things may change on the day of the draft (or more like opening day of the draft). Nothing I can do about that. Let the experts deal with it. Between ESPN and the NFL Network there has to be about 70 mock drafts ready to go in the half hour before the draft begins. So without further adieu, let’s get to l’ébauche finale:

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
3	New England	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
8	Atlanta	J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan)
9	Chicago	Laiatu Latu, EDGE (UCLA)
10	NY Jets	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
11	Minnesota	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
12	Denver	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
13	Las Vegas	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
14	New Orleans	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
15	Indianapolis	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
16	Seattle	Troy Fautanu, G (Washington)
17	Jacksonville	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
18	Cincinnati	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)
19	LA Rams	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
20	Pittsburgh	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
21	Miami	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
22	Philadelphia	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
23	Minnesota	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
24	Dallas	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
25	Green Bay	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
26	Tampa Bay	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
27	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
28	Buffalo	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
29	Detroit	Jackson Powers-Johnson, G (Oregon)
30	Baltimore	Graham Barton, G (Duke)
31	San Francisco	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
32	Kansas City	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
34	New England	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
35	Arizona	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
36	Washington	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
37	LA Chargers	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
38	Tennessee	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
39	Carolina	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
40	Washington	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
41	Green Bay	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
42	Houston	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
43	Atlanta	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
44	Las Vegas	Christian Haynes, G (UConn)
45	New Orleans	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
46	Indianapolis	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
47	NY Giants	Cooper Beebe, G (Kansas State)
48	Jacksonville	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
49	Cincinnati	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
50	Philadelphia	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
51	Pittsburgh	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
52	LA Rams	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
53	Philadelphia	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
54	Cleveland	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
55	Miami	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
58	Green Bay	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
59	Houston	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
60	Buffalo	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
61	Detroit	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
64	Kansas City	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
67	Washington	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
68	New England	Jonathan Brooks, RB (Texas)
69	LA Chargers	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
70	NY Giants	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
73	Detroit	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
74	Atlanta	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
75	Chicago	Christian Mahogany, G (Boston College)
76	Denver	DeWayne Carter, DT (Duke)
77	Las Vegas	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
78	Washington	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
79	Atlanta	Justin Egoigbe, DT (Alabama)
80	Cincinnati	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
81	Seattle	Tommy Eichenberg, LB (Ohio State)
82	Indianapolis	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
83	LA Rams	Spencer Rattler, QB (South Carolina)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
86	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
87	Dallas	Jermaine Burton, WR (Alabama)
88	Green Bay	Blake Fisher, OT (Notre Dame)
89	Tampa Bay	Cole Bishop, S (Utah)
90	Arizona	Zak Zinter, G (Michigan)
91	Green Bay	Nehemiah Pritchett, CB (Auburn)
92	Tampa Bay	Javion Cohen, G (Miami)
93	Baltimore	Jaylen Wright, RB (Tennessee)
94	Kansas City	Blake Corum, RB (Michigan)
95	San Francisco	Elijah Jones, CB (Boston College)
96	Jacksonville	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
97	Cincinnati	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
98	Pittsburgh	Jonah Ellliss, LB (Utah)
99	LA Rams	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
100	Washington	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

There are some strong opinions out there about this draft (like every draft) so let’s go through a few of them:

• The Vikings are going to trade up. This is a likely option but I don’t put trades in my mock drafts because I think dreaming up the trade packages would be insane. Saying that, I wouldn’t be surprised if they traded up to #4 or #5 to get J.J. McCarthy.
• The Cardinals are fielding a lot of trade offers. The top three picks are mostly set even though Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels seem to flip-flop in the second and third spots. The Cards are probably fielding a few offers but not as many as some might think. It will take a lot for them to trade down as they know they would get, arguably, the best overall player of the draft at a position they need.
• The Giants might be the toughest to figure out in the Top 10. Absolutely. They have all sorts of needs so there are probably 10-12 players on their board that they could conceivably take. I still like Dallas Turner at that spot but Terrion Arnold, Laiatu Latu, Brock Bowers, Quinyon Marshall and, hell, even Bo Nix could be picked at #6 by the Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-Men (done in extreme Chris Berman voice).
• If Brock Bowers isn’t picked Top 10 he will fall…FAR. I don’t think so. The Broncos, Colts, Bengals and Dolphins might all take a gander at the big man if he is still sitting in the back room after the tenth pick (which I think he will be).

Other than that there are questions that mostly don’t have answers at this point. Like will the Bills make a surprising leap up the draft now that Stefon Diggs has been dealt? Is Michael Penix Jr. poised to have the biggest leap up the draft boards in the past couple months? Will there be actual players involved in any of the trades over the next few days? It’s a crapshoot and not my expertise so I will steer clear of most of those questions (possibly, possibly and probably are my answers).

Reminder that the draft starts tonight at 8:00 and is emanating from Detroit. Moving the draft around has been fun so let’s see what it’s like in the Motor City. As per usual, ESPN and NFL Network will be doing the entire draft…all seven rounds. I have the ESPN draft pick is in ringtone on my phone but I am still debating which network to watch, at least for night one. I have leaned NFL Network in the past but I have done both over the past decade. It’s a game-time decision.

Finally, on the Twitter Machine (fuck you, Elon) I will be live-tweeting at least the first round and am hoping to do ALL SEVEN this year. Can I do it? Who the fuck knows. Around halfway through round five is where things usually go off the rails and I might struggle to keep going at that point. I mean I will but who knows if I will be posting tweets at that point or semi-conscious, staring at the bag of pretzels on my desk and wondering about important questions in life like “Would Nathan Peterman be successful in the CFL?”

Anyway, enjoy the draft, however much you watch of it.

Time for Mock Draft 3.A.0-5

The A stands for April. Or Awesome. Or Asshole. Whatever.

Mock draft time! And it’s three glorious rounds of (probably) incorrect picks. Lovin’ it! Let’s go!

First Round

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

Second Round

33	Carolina	Zach Frazier, C (West Virginia)
34	New England	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
35	Arizona	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
38	Tennessee	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
39	Carolina	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
40	Washington	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
41	Green Bay	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
42	Houston	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
43	Atlanta	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
44	Las Vegas	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
45	New Orleans	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
48	Jacksonville	Patrick Paul, OT (Houston)
49	Cincinnati	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
50	Philadelphia	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
51	Pittsburgh	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
55	Miami	Ja’Lynn Polk, WR (Washington)
56	Dallas	Trey Benson, RB (Florida State)
57	Tampa Bay	Adisa Isaac, EDGE (Penn State)
58	Green Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
59	Houston	Malachi Corley, WR (WKU)
60	Buffalo	Max Melton, CB (Rutgers)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
63	San Francisco	Brandon Dorius, EDGE (Oregon)
64	Kansas City	Jalen McMillan, WR (Washington)

Third Round

65	Carolina	Cedric Gray, LB (North Carolina)
66	Arizona	Sedrick Van Pran, C (Georgia)
67	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
68	New England	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)
69	LA Chargers	Ben Sinnott, TE (Kansas State)
70	NY Giants	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
71	Arizona	Leonard Taylor III, DT (Miami)
72	NY Jets	Devontez Walker, WR (North Carolina)
73	Detroit	Caelan Carson, CB (Wake Forest)
74	Atlanta	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
75	Chicago	Ja’Tavion Sanders, TE (Texas)
76	Denver	Javon Bullard, CB (Georgia)
77	Las Vegas	Jonathon Brooks, RB (Texas)
78	Washington	Austin Booker, DE (Kansas)
79	Atlanta	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
80	Cincinnati	Kiran Amedagije, OT (Yale)
81	Seattle	Christian Mahogany, OG (Boston College)
82	Indianapolis	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
83	LA Rams	D.J. James, CB (Auburn)
84	Pittsburgh	Roger Rosengarten, OT (Washington)
85	Cleveland	Junior Colson, LB (Michigan)
86	Houston	Kris Abrams-Draine, CB (Missouri)
87	Dallas	Renardo Green, CB (Florida State)
88	Green Bay	Khyree Jackson, CB (Oregon)
89	Tampa Bay	Beau Brade, S (Maryland)
90	Arizona	Andru Phillips, CB (Kentucky)
91	Green Bay	Jalyx Hunt, EDGE (Houston Christian)
92	Tampa Bay	Dominick Puni, OG (Kansas)
93	Baltimore	McKinnley Jackson, DT (Texas A&M)
94	Kansas City	Braelon Allen, RB (Wisconsin)
95	San Francisco	Kalen King, CB (Penn State)
96	Jacksonville	Johnny Wilson, WR (Florida State)
97	Cincinnati	Josh Newton, CB (TCU)
98	Pittsburgh	Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB (Clemson)
99	LA Rams	Calen Bullock, S (USC)
100	Washington	James Williams, S (Miami)

The top few picks seem set in stone. Maybe on in that specific order but those top four will, most likely, be the top four come draft night. As for some of the other picks, man there were some huge drops. Like Kris Jenkins. Only a few weeks ago, a fair amount of mocks had him in the first round. I don’t think he’s even being considered as a first rounder anymore. Almost the same with Byron Murphy II. I had him going fifth to the Chargers which may have been a bit high in retrospect. But for him to drop to almost completely out of the first round is an alarming drop. Sometimes it’s fairly easy to find out what has happened to lower a potential draftee’s stock and sometimes…well, sometimes who the hell knows. It just happens.

Potential Draft Day Trades

OK so these would include trades coming up toward the draft as well, not just the ones on draft opening night. And no, I can’t see the Bears or the Commanders trading their picks so let’s start with the #3 pick.

New England (#3) – Chances of the Patriots trading this pick are slim but considering the haul that some teams have received for a top 3 pick in NFL history, the right package might come along to entice them to trade down. I have a feeling it would take at least two first-rounders, two second-rounders, and at least one other pick.

NY Giants (#6) – Probably the highest pick with true potential to be dealt is the Giants at #6. The Giants desperately need help on both lines but there are a few options available meaning they could trade down a few spots and still get one of the guys they covet. A first-round pick swap would have to happen and the team trading with the G-Men couldn’t be far below the #16 spot for this to work. Other picks would come the Giants way as well.

Tennessee (#7) – This becomes a possibility if the Patriots trade down. The reason is, one of Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels would be available and there are a few teams that would love to trade up to get one of the two. That includes the Falcons, Vikings, Broncos and Raiders. Knowing that, the Titans could get a larger pick haul than the Giants even though the pick would be later.

NY Jets (#10) – The Jets are hoping that Aaron Rodgers will be healthy this year. And to help with that, they want an offensive lineman desperately. The hope is that one of Olu Fashanu or Joe Alt fall to them. If neither of them are available, I would fully expect the Jets to shop the pick and they could drop a fair way if they wanted to.

The Vikings feel like the most likely pick to move up since, for some reason, many are saying they really want J.J. McCarthy. I think it would be crazy to trade up because I think McCarthy, at least at this point, would be available to the Vikings at #11. Maybe I’m wrong with that. They would most likely just trade picks but they have one bargaining chip that some teams might not be able to ignore: Justin Jefferson. If the Vikings can’t extend Double J, then they might include him in a trade to see what they could get. Arizona would be a trading partner if (and only if) this was a possibility.

In non-draft news, the UFL has commenced their season. Not exactly a ton of fans for a couple of these games but some wacky shit happened. Jake Bates hit a 64-yard field goal to help his Michigan Stags beat St. Louis. Funny enough, it was on the same uprights that Justin Tucker kicked his NFL-record 67-yarder to beat the Lions a couple years ago. Then you had San Antonio punter Brad Wing throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 11 to the team’s centre Alex Mollette. So at least it’s entertaining, you have to give it that. And it’s football. A tiny appetizer before the CFL, then college football, then NFL season starts. So embrace it. Or don’t. I don’t care. I realize March Madness was on this past weekend so I can see why people might not watch.

OK I will do one more mock draft closer to actual draft day (which starts April 25th). And even then, most of my picks will be wrong. At least I can take solace in the fact that I will have close to the same record as the so-called experts have.

The college schedule is coming into form. It’s kind of tough with the changes coming up this season so for good parts of the schedule I have nothing to compare it to. So we shall see how that goes when I start doing my most important game posts. Anyway, I hope you all had a great Easter long weekend and have a great first week of April.

The ALL-NEW Mock NFL Draft Version 2 Dash 2024 along with a look-back

That intro sounds like when The (Big Money!) Match Game 1976 would air on Game Show Network. Why did they need to put the year in? When people were watching it live, were they so fucking stoned that they had to be reminded what year it was?

Anyway, I am starting this post a couple days after Selection Sunday. Now I am not an avid college basketball watcher but I know they screwed some of these picks up. And remember, when a conference gets a team in, they get more money. That’s important. The ACC got five teams in and Virginia was one of them and they may be one of the worst at-large choices ever. A few teams that were left out, most notably Oklahoma and Indiana State, were, by most metrics, better choices. But the ACC is THE big basketball brand and only having four teams in would look disastrous. Fully deserved, mind you. But still disastrous. Luckily, I don’t care as much as I do with college football but these tournament committees are fucking terrible in every sport.

Let’s get to the root of this post: the next mock draft. I know…two mock drafts before the end of March? Haven’t done that in quite a while. And, of course, quite a bit changed thanks to the Kreepy Kombine and scouts changing their minds as much as they change their underwear (so about once every four days). Here’s the newest mock draft, now expanded to two rounds for your pleasure.

First Round

1	Chicago	Caleb Williams, QB (USC)
2	Washington	Drake Maye, QB (North Carolina)
3	New England	Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU)
4	Arizona	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Ohio State)
5	LA Chargers	Byron Murphy II, DT (Texas)
6	NY Giants	Dallas Turner, EDGE (Alabama)
7	Tennessee	Joe Alt, OT (Notre Dame)
8	Atlanta	Malik Nabers, WR (LSU)
9	Chicago	Rome Odunze, WR (Washington)
10	NY Jets	Olu Fashanu, OT (Penn State)
11	Minnesota	Laiatu Latu, DE (UCLA)
12	Denver	Jared Verse, DE (Florida State)
13	Las Vegas	Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
14	New Orleans	Brian Thomas Jr., WR (LSU)
15	Indianapolis	Nate Wiggins, CB (Clemson)
16	Seattle	Bo Nix, QB (Oregon)
17	Jacksonville	Terrion Arnold, CB (Alabama)
18	Cincinnati	Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)
19	LA Rams	Cooper DeJean, S (Iowa)
20	Pittsburgh	Troy Fautanu, OG (Washington)
21	Miami	Kris Jenkins, DT (Michigan)
22	Philadelphia	Xavier Worthy, WR (Texas)
23	Houston	Jer’Zhan Newton, DT (Illinois)
24	Dallas	Jackson Powers-Johnson, OG (Oregon)
25	Green Bay	Graham Barton, OG (Duke)
26	Tampa Bay	J.J. McCarthy, QB (Michigan)
27	Arizona	Zach Frazier, OG (West Virginia)
28	Buffalo	Tyler Nubin, S (Minnesota)
29	Detroit	Darius Robinson, EDGE (Minnesota)
30	Baltimore	Adonai Mitchell, WR (Texas)
31	San Francisco	Taliese Fuaga, OT (Oregon State)
32	Kansas City	J.C. Latham, OT (Alabama)

Second Round

33	Carolina	Chop Robinson, EDGE (Penn State)
34	New England	Tyler Guyton, OT (Oklahoma)
35	Arizona	Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB (Alabama)
36	Washington	Xavier Legette, WR (South Carolina)
37	LA Chargers	Kamari Lassiter, CB (Georgia)
38	Tennessee	Cam Hart, CB (Notre Dame)
39	NY Giants	Michael Hall Jr., DT (Ohio State)
40	Washington	Payton Wilson, LB (NC State)
41	Green Bay	Amarius Mims, OT (Georgia)
42	Minnesota	Michael Penix Jr., QB (Washington)
43	Atlanta	Ennis Rakestraw Jr., CB (Missouri)
44	Las Vegas	Jordan Morgan, OT (Arizona)
45	New Orleans	Kingsley Suamataia, OT (BYU)
46	Indianapolis	Kamren Kinchens, S (Miami)
47	NY Giants	T.J. Tampa, CB (Iowa State)
48	Jacksonville	Ladd McConkey, WR (Georgia)
49	Cincinnati	Keon Coleman, WR (Florida State)
50	Philadelphia	Chris Braswell, EDGE (Alabama)
51	Pittsburgh	Edgerrin Cooper, LB (Texas A&M)
52	LA Rams	Bralen Trice, EDGE (Washington)
53	Philadelphia	Mike Sainristil, CB (Michigan)
54	Cleveland	Braden Fiske, DT (Florida State)
55	Miami	Troy Franklin, WR (Oregon)
56	Dallas	Paul Patrick, OT (Houston)
57	Tampa Bay	Cooper Beebe, OG (Kansas State)
58	Green Bay	Javon Bullard, S (Georgia)
59	Houston	Roman Wilson, WR (Michigan)
60	Buffalo	T’Vondre Sweat, DT (Texas)
61	Detroit	Christian Haynes, OG (UConn)
62	Baltimore	Ruke Orhorhoro, DT (Clemson)
63	San Francisco	Marshawn Kneeland, EDGE (Western Michigan)
64	Kansas City	Ricky Pearsall, WR (Florida)

Are there some changes? Absolutely? Are they Earth-shattering? Not really. Although you can expect at least one of these current second-rounders to rocket up draft boards for reasons that are sometimes, well, unknown or make no sense. By this point teams should know what they see in a player. So unless that player does something negative, they shouldn’t go from a consensus low-second rounder to a mid-first round pick in a matter of a little over a month. But hey, what do I know.

Also, what is with the sudden J.J. McCarthy hype? It has that feel of some people wanting McCarthy to go higher so they are basically willing it to happen. Any team that would consider drafting McCarthy in the Top 10 is obviously fine with extreme risk. Not saying McCarthy won’t end up being good but his college career has shown nothing that says he will be a top-end starter.

OK so years ago (nine to be exact), I used part of a mock draft post to talk about sites I enjoy. And it was definitely also about helping my blog in a way since I was still pretty green at the time (two years in). Let’s look back and see if I still feel the same way about these sites.

Matt’s College Sports Media Blog – Along with Matt’s College Sports on TV is still the premier site for college football and college basketball TV scheduling news and notes. I think he still likes Formula One racing which is great if you like that. He’s also a Bills fan which is pretty damn awesome.

Phil Steele – Still the best college football preview magazine. There are other good ones out there but nothing comes close. And his site fills in the gaps. I am assuming many hardcore college football fans subscribe to his site to get a lot of great stats and gambling info. I tried it for a couple of years and it was almost overwhelming. Still…worth it just to peruse all the free stuff he does put up, which is a lot.

A Rouge Point – This site does not exist anymore. Actually, it ceased to exist not even a year after I published this original post. It’s too bad since it was a great look at sports media coverage in Canada and posted NFL and NHL schedules for Canadian viewers.

Deadspin – Speaking of sites that are no longer around, this site might as well be. At one point it was one of the great sports sites on the net. It wasn’t long after I made the original post that things started to go downhill. A site that used to be brash and willing to take on all comers became a bunch of writers who thought they were the moral compass of a good portion of the Internet (especially sports fans). Even their best writers became insufferable. Then they all got fired/walked out in late 2019 when a company told them to stick to sports which made the site even worse. Now, it looks like they have been bought out, the staff was fired (again) and they look to be getting into the sports gambling industry. Ugh.

Awful Announcing – A site that used to absolutely skewer announcers (and sometimes athletes and sports organizations in general) has gone away from their bread and butter. They still throw up the occasional great article but aren’t as good as they were in their heyday.

LSUfootball.net – The first site I came upon when figuring out the sheer amount of games available for college football viewing…in the United States. Still a very informative site.

Alright another mock draft and post in the books. I assume most of you have March Madness brackets going. Chances of me going perfect ended at the end of the first game and I’ve already lost one of my Final Four picks. Good times. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How about I rank the bowl games now that they are complete?

Wait, WAIT! Look you’ve read some of my longer posts on here so don’t leave now. Honestly, this won’t be as long as some of the crazy-ass long posts I’ve done in the past. Plus, we can re-live some of Bowl Season’s greater moments together. Because let’s be honest: this wasn’t exactly the best Bowl Season ever. Not the worst mind you; but yeah, definitely not the best. So how about we just dive in and get started, OK?

1. Rose Bowl (Michigan 27 Alabama 20 (OT)) – This was one of the greatest College Football Playoff games of all-time. And funny enough, it still wasn’t exactly the cleanest game. Sloppy play by both teams made it so neither team could pull away. And in the end, the issue that caused Bama fits all game, poor snaps from center, came back to haunt them one final time. The low snap on 4th and Goal caused Jalen Milroe to panic and run up the middle to try and score. The play that was drawn up would have had a good chance of working if the snap had been perfect. Michigan finally erases so much CFP pain and will now have their chance at a national championship.
2. New Orleans Bowl (Jacksonville State 34 Louisiana 31 (OT)) – This feels like the validation of Jax State’s ascent to the FBS level. For some reason, some schools make it work and others (see UMass) can’t figure it out. The thing about this game is that it felt like the Gamecocks were throwing it away, literally. Three defensive touchdowns by the Cajuns kept them in the game. All it did though, is delay a backup kicker, who rarely played, kicking the game winning field goal for the Cocks. This is the perfect argument for why bowls do, and should in the future, exist.
3. Sugar Bowl (Washington 37 Texas 31) – The second of the two semi-final games was easily the worst…if you just watched the first 58 minutes or so of the game. Then the Huskies decided that maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuust maybe, they didn’t feel like going to the national championship after all. U-Dub was able to hold on when Texas almost seized that final chance and will now play for all the glory. Also, some people were actually introduced, truly, to Michael Penix Jr. for the first time. And I include people who report on college football as they were astounded by what he did despite the fact he did that in half the games this season.
4. Gator Bowl (Clemson 38 Kentucky 35) – Put your hand up if you thought Kentucky would be in one of the best bowl games of the year. Now put your hands down, you filthy liars. No one, not even Kentucky fans, thought that would be the case. That insane fourth quarter alone, with 42 points scored between the two teams, was enough to put this game in the upper echelon of this year’s Bowl Season.
5. Famous Toastery Bowl (WKU 38 Old Dominion 35 (OT)) – And the award for the most stupidly awesome bowl game of the year goes to this one. The Hilltoppers were down 21-0 just seven minutes in. I actually stopped watching for the next hour. I come back to see what’s going on and see the first touchdown of what would be the fourth-greatest comeback in bowl game history. How did it end? A blocked field goal in the fourth quarter, followed by another blocked field goal in overtime, leading to a walk-off field goal and then toast angels on the field. How can you not love college football?
6. Arizona Bowl (Wyoming 16 Toledo 15) – If you had said this bowl game would have been the one out of the two on at the same time to be the better bowl game I would have…well maybe not laughed but been intrigued by your logic. This game went up against the blowout that was the Orange Bowl so it was easy to tune into this game. This is the second straight year the Arizona Bowl has been a great game and Wyoming, this time, is on the better end of the score. A perfect end to Craig Bohl’s coaching career.
7. ReliaQuest Bowl (LSU 35 Wisconsin 31) – This ended up being a great battle, something that many thought wouldn’t be the case. The Badgers certainly showed up for this one after a lacklustre season. The Tigers didn’t even have the lead until their final touchdown with a little over three minutes to go. A good college football start to 2024.
8. Camellia Bowl (Northern Illinois 21 Arkansas State 19) – This falls under “It’s So Bad, It’s Good” territory. Not exactly the best of the best but the final portion of the game makes up for it with its sheer insanity. ASU went the entire length of the field to get within two, missed the two-point conversion, then recovered the onside kick! But it was flagged for offside in one of the biggest botched calls of the entire season which made Butch Jones go as red as a ripe tomato. Entertainment…that’s what we want from our bowl games, right?
9. Quick Lane Bowl (Minnesota 30 Bowling Green 24) – Minnesota threw for 26 yards and won this game. Hilarious. It helps that they could hand the ball off to Darius Taylor who went off for over 200 yards. Fun fact: the Gophers have now won seven consecutive bowl games. That has to be tops, no?
10. Pinstripe Bowl (Rutgers 31 Miami 24) – A good game at Yankee Stadium. Now I’m not huge on regular season games at baseball stadiums (as in they should be banned) but I am totally fine with them during bowl season. There was more scoring than many thought there would be but there was no stupidity from Mario Cristobal, which was also expected (by me).
11. Cure Bowl (Appalachian State 13 Miami-OH 9) – This game was played in atrocious weather. I fucking loved it. It was just a bunch of silly backyard-style football fun, if your backward was a swimming pool. At one point it felt like they were going for the bowl game fumbles record. Combined, the two teams ended up with 12. How either team got a kick off, I will never know.
12. Peach Bowl (Ole Miss 38 Penn State 25) – Most thought it would be a great matchup between the seriously up tempo Rebel offense against the Nittany Lions’ stout defense. It was not to be. The Fighting Kiffins shredded PSU and pulled away in the second half. So Lane is safe in the fans’ minds in Oxford. James Franklin…well I am sure there are many unhappy people in…(Un)Happy Valley.
13. Pop Tarts Bowl (Kansas State 28 NC State 19) – Let’s be honest here: all we wanted to see was what would happen at the end with the mascot. And it was fucking glorious. Whoever thought of this should get a MASSIVE bonus. Also, the game was pretty good with it being close nearly the entire way.
14. Alamo Bowl (Arizona 38 Oklahoma 24) – Man, the Wildcats are going to be a load in the Big XII next year. They went blow-for-blow with the Sooners and ended up leaving them in their dust thanks to causing six turnovers. Gotta hand it to Jedd Fisch: not many thought he would get the program to this point this fast. So is he the best coach out of the Bill Belichick coaching tree? Oh wait, Nick Saban did a few years under Belichick. So yeah Jedd you will always be second in this case.
15. Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Kansas 49 UNLV 36) – Speaking of teams who could be really good next year in the Big XII, the Jayhawks overcame being called for over 200 yards worth of penalties to almost put up a 50-burger. Jason Bean has been a god-send considering Jalon Daniels was injured most of the season. And he showed it in his final game throwing for six touchdowns. This was KU’s first bowl win in 15 years. Incredible. And don’t shortchange the Rebels who also had a pretty good game and great season.
16. LA Bowl (UCLA 35 Boise State 22) – Look, I think most were interested to see if Chip Kelly’s team would show up for what was basically a home game for them. And they sure did. The Bruins were able to stick with Boise until the second half and then pulled away for a relatively easy victory and a tiny bit of momentum going into the Big Ten next season.
17. Texas Bowl (Oklahoma State 31 Texas A&M 23) – Somehow, the Aggies, with all sorts of players not playing (for various reasons), came back from an 18-point halftime deficit to make things very interesting late. Also, Mike Gundy has won 10 games in a season EIGHT TIMES? Really? Wow. This guy should get more credit for what he’s done in Stillwater.
18. Armed Forces Bowl (Air Force 31 James Madison 21) – Some called it bad and I think it’s because the Dukes lost. Air Force showed why they were the Group of Five favourite heading into November. JMU tried to make a game of it but the Falcons’ run game was way too much for them. A perfectly good bowl.
19. Holiday Bowl (USC 42 Louisville 28) – Miller Moss took advantage of Caleb Williams opting out of this game by throwing for a Holiday Bowl record six touchdowns. I will be honest by saying that the amount of people online saying we have an early Heisman frontrunner irked me. This isn’t preseason hype: this is the end of the previous season hype. Ridiculous. Not saying he won’t be good but I wish some in college football media would pump the brakes sometimes since they sound like idiots every so often.
20. Gasparilla Bowl (Georgia Tech 30 UCF 17) – The slightly weird start time didn’t detract from a pretty good bowl game. Despite the loss and the 6-7 finish, you have to think the Knights thought this season was a success. Their first as a Power Five team and they showed they could compete. As for the Ramblin’ Wreck, well, I am sure they sent a postcard to Mario Cristobal for gifting them that win that essentially put them in this bowl game.
21. Birmingham Bowl (Duke 17 Troy 10) – I tend to rank closer games higher than offensive shootouts that end with one team winning by like 21. That’s just me. Very little is more exciting in college football than a chance for a team to tie or win a game late. Both teams had interim coaching staffs so we can use that as an excuse for this one although it feels like it’s happening more and more these days. Not a good trend.
22. Las Vegas Bowl (Northwestern 14 Utah 7) – A great ending for the Wildcats who wildly exceeded expectations this season. Utah just didn’t have the players to contend in this one. If you liked defense…well, you still might not have liked this one since it was more the offenses struggling than anything.
23. Liberty Bowl (Memphis 36 Iowa State 26) – There were some high hopes for this one. Iowa State was a better-than-advertised Big XII school and Memphis was at home. And it wasn’t a bad game but it felt like the Tigers were in control for most of it which kind of sucks the life out of a bowl game in the latter stages.
24. Hawaii Bowl (Coastal Carolina 24 San Jose State 14) – Pretty good game but drops a few notches because it wasn’t on Christmas Eve WHERE IT BELONGS.
25. Fenway Bowl (Boston College 23 SMU 14) – It was cold. It was wet. It was fun…for me to watch. Not for the players, coaches and fans, I’m sure. Well, at the time it was probably not too bad. I’ve played in games like that and it was fine until after the game. Then you feel like shit. You might feel less shitty if you win…but you still feel like crap. Anyway, this is a conference game next season! A-C-C! A-C-C! A-C-C! A-C-C!
26. Independence Bowl (Texas Tech 34 California 14) – After a full opening day of bowl games I was hoping this one would be good. Or fun. Or weird. It was none of the three. It was fine until about halfway through the second quarter and the Red Raiders rode away with it. Lack of drama drops this way down.
27. Military Bowl (Virginia Tech 41 Tulane 20) – This was a nasty weather game so you’d think I would rank it higher. There were a lot of fumbles and chaos so you’d think I would rank it higher. I don’t know what it was but this felt like not a very fun game to watch. I kind of stopped paying attention in the second half. I really didn’t think the Green Wave was in it nor did they care much to be there. And that can happen sometimes when your coach leaves for another school. Maybe that was the case here, I don’t know. Either way, it was meh.
28. Cotton Bowl (Missouri 14 Ohio State 3) – I was kind of hyped for this one, not gonna lie. I was thinking this would be quite the prove-it game for Mizzou and we would see if no Kyle McCord would be an issue for tOSU. I was right, for the most part, on both fronts, yet this game sucked. Luckily for the Buckeyes, their awesome defense kept them in it going into the fourth quarter but their offense was painful to watch. They should have found a student in the crowd to play quarterback since it would have been just as good.
29. Frisco Bowl (UTSA 35 Marshall 17) – Would this have been better if 14th-year senior Frank Harris had been able to play? It would have been a blowout rather than a relatively easy victory for the Roadrunners, that’s about it. Biggest take from this game? The starting quarterbacks were Cole Pennington for Marshall (Chad’s son) and Owen McCown for the Roadrunners (Josh’s son). I feel seriously fucking old.
30. First Responder Bowl (Texas State 45 Rice 21) – Not the greatest game to be honest as the Bobcats were in control for most of it. It was definitely helped, though, by the fans (especially the Texas State ones) who were jacked for this one. So jacked that they ran out of beer at the game. Five minutes into the third quarter. Yeah.
31. Idaho Potato Bowl (Georgia State 45 Utah State 22) – The Aggies looked pretty damn flat in this one. The Panthers, on the other hand, overcame their late-season collapse and get back to that early season form. Almost 650 yards of offense for GSU and they were way too much for USU. Even with the french fry bath, this was a bottom tier bowl game this season.
32. Myrtle Beach Bowl (Ohio 41 Georgia Southern 21) – A bit of a ho-hum affair kicked off Bowl Season this time around thanks to the Bahamas Bowl having to move to Charlotte. Ohio went up big and kept the lead the entire game. Nothing super interesting with this one.
33. Music City Bowl (Maryland 31 Auburn 13) – This game was over early and was done without Taulia Tagovailoa. So it was impressive. Just not interesting to watch after the first quarter.
34. New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State 37 New Mexico State 10) – I thought this would be a good game. I had high hopes for NMSU in this one. It was not to be. Fresno State cranked it up late and ran away with this one but even earlier on it didn’t really feel close as the Bulldogs showed the form that had them the favourite for about seven days to be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six. Oh well.
35. Duke’s Mayo Bowl (West Virginia 30 North Carolina 10) – Props to West Virginia for completing a good season, much better than most thought would happen. Neal Brown got mayo dumped on him. And that’s about it. The game was forgettable.
36. Sun Bowl (Notre Dame 40 Oregon State 8) – Boy, for a game that was sold out quicker than I think any other Sun Bowl ever, this game was an absolute dud. Notre Dame’s backups beat the ever-loving shit out of Oregon State’s backups. Ugh.
37. Fiesta Bowl (Oregon 45 Liberty 6) – I think we’ve found our new BYU. No, I don’t mean weird religious institution (even though they are). I mean a team that’s probably too good (most of the time) for their conference but not really good enough to be in the Power Five (or maybe even a better conference). Didn’t help that Oregon came in looking pissed off and after the Flames took a 6-0 lead it was all Ducks. 45 unanswered points and Bo Nix left as a record-setting quarterback. This was a trainwreck, really.
38. Citrus Bowl (Tennessee 35 Iowa 0) – Geez, where do I begin with this one? This was one of the most Iowa games of the season which is saying something. The offense was awful. The Brian Ferentz Experience has come to an end and I am positive most in Iowa City are thankful for that. What made it worse was two other games on at the same time. So I watched almost none of the second half. And I don’t feel bad about that at all.
39. 68 Ventures Bowl (South Alabama 59 Eastern Michigan 10) – I am starting to wonder why this bowl even exists. Even by ESPN Events standards, this is shit. I love more football but good God. The Jags just ran the Eagles off the field in another boring 68 Ventures Bowl which was called…like seven other things before this. This is perfect fodder for the Too Many Bowl Games crowd.
40. Boca Raton Bowl (USF 45 Syracuse 0) – This was one of the biggest beatdowns in bowl game history. Well at least I thought that until…I’ll get to that in a second. Anyway, I figured the Orange would show up. They did…technically. They were the opposition…technically. Other than that, USF, a middle-of-the-road American Conference team who played out of its mind for new coach Alex Golesh, beat the brakes off of Cuse. It was a pathetic performance, regardless of who was missing from the lineup. And speaking of players missing from the lineup…
41. Orange Bowl (Georgia 63 Florida State 3) – This picture encapsulates this game perfectly:

Mike Norvell looks like he wants to be anywhere other than where he was at that moment. This game is THE biggest win in bowl game history. So Georgia one-upped themselves. This game, and everything leading up to it, was a completely fucking mess of a shitshow and is a big part of what’s wrong with college football today. Florida State (and to a lesser extent, Georgia) being left out of the College Football Playoff, some even saying that FSU should boycott the game, some politician trying to force the CFP to put the Noles in (somehow), then all sorts of players opting out or transferring out (from both sides mind you). It all led to this travesty of a game. Even Kirby Smart, during the post-game press conference, told everyone “if this doesn’t show that there needs to be some change, then I don’t know what does.” I’m paraphrasing but he’s right on the money. When players can transfer, when coaches can leave a school to get hired somewhere else, what happens to a player’s NIL when they opt out of a bowl game…all this stuff needs to be dealt with. If it doesn’t, these bowl games will get less and less important. And this is after the playoff has already eroded the bowl system (a bit).

See? Not my longest post ever. So no complaining.

Well we’ve hit the end my friends. One last game. The national championship is tonight and, other than the weird all-star games with their weird rules, it’s the final college football game of the season. Cherish it. Even if it’s a blowout. Remember: the wait for the next season can be long and arduous. Enjoy the game everyone!

2023 Bowl Game Rankings and Predictions for those Bowl Games!

We are a little over a week away from Christmas. You have your Bowl Season schedule and now you need some Bowl Game rankings and Bowl Game predictions from your friendly neighbourhood Bossman.

Time to go back to basics…I think? After introducing the Play-by-Play Announcer Scale last year we are heading back in time to the broadcasting network scale. An oldie but a goodie but since much has changed in the past few years, there are a couple of newbies and some networks that just don’t broadcast college football anymore. So let’s get right into this!

Now one thing that will change is this will be in tiers. 8 tiers like last year but with networks instead of announcers. Let’s fucking go!

The ABC Saturday Night Tier

Game of the Year type games right here. The games that matter. In this day and age that means the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six.

Rose Bowl – #1 Michigan vs. #4 Alabama (Jan. 1, 5:00, TSN3) – This will get a lot of viewers. I am starting to wonder if ESPN kind of helped with all the controversy to get even more people to watch. Let’s be honest: these two teams may be the two most hated college football teams in the land right now. And they are both just fine with that. Expect this to be a very close and very exciting game. My pick: Michigan 36 Alabama 31.

Sugar Bowl – #2 Washington vs. #3 Texas (Jan. 1, 8:45, TSN3) – They should have had the Rose and Sugar as the College Football Playoff semi-finals from the get-go. But it’s college football so they sometimes trip over themselves figuring things out. They still haven’t learned from having games on New Year’s Eve where the ratings, while still good, were probably much lower than they could have been. Normally one CFP semi-final is a fair amount worse than the other. This is the case this year and it has nothing to do with the Huskies or the Longhorns. At least it feels like both game will be really good because it’s rough to watch a CFP game get out of hand (see 2022 national championship). My pick: Washington 27 Texas 24.

Peach Bowl – #10 Penn State vs. #11 Ole Miss (Dec. 30, Noon, TSN5) – Two teams with head coaches that their fanbase doesn’t fully trust. I kind of get it but, because it’s college football, many go overboard. I mean who is going to State College or Oxford and doing a lot better than James Frankin or Lane Kiffin are? It would be a tough sell at Penn State to get a truly elite coach and even tougher at Ole Miss. Honestly, both coaches will probably be around through the end of next season so fans might as well focus on this game and stop talking about their next hypothetical coach. My pick: Penn State 21 Ole Miss 14.

Orange Bowl – #5 Florida State vs. #6 Georgia (Dec. 30, 4:00, TSN1/5) – This bowl has gone off the rails and it’s two weeks away. Now we have some Georgia lawmaker wanting to make the Orange Bowl another semi-final. So how the fuck is that going to work, Jethro? The winners get together for a hot game of rock, paper, scissors? Or maybe a three-way Cage of Death match up in Barrow, Alaska. Televised LIVE by ESPN AND NO ONE ELSE of course. What a fucking shitshow. I’m almost ready for the 2024 season to start so we can be done with this season. My pick: Georgia 35 Florida State 25.

Alamo Bowl – #12 Oklahoma vs. #14 Arizona (Dec. 28, 9:15, TSN3) – Well hey look at this. Not a CFP bowl and not an NY6 bowl! I say it almost every year but the Alamo Bowl, on paper, is one of, if not the very, best bowl games outside the major bowls. I wonder what will happen with the tie-ins with the Pac-12 being history. Either way, a great game to watch even if you end up exhausted at work the next day. My pick: Arizona 42 Oklahoma 39.

The SEC on CBS Tier

I’m shedding a tear right now looking at that logo. Long live the SEC on CBS. Things will never be the same again.

Cotton Bowl – #7 Ohio State vs. #9 Missouri (Dec. 29, 8:00, TSN2) – One team who was one win away from being in the College Football Playoff against one team who played way better than anyone expected. I can’t see this game being done before Midnight. Thankfully it’s Saturday the next day. We shall see if the absence of Kyle McCord really does affect the Buckeyes. I think it will. My pick: Missouri 34 Ohio State 20.

Armed Forces Bowl – James Madison vs. Air Force (Dec. 23, 3:30, ABC/TSN2) – The best pre-Christmas bowl game and of course it features America’s (Eastern) Team, the James Madison Dukes (America’s (Western) Team resides in Las Cruces as you already know). As for the Falcons, talk about a horrible slide to end their season. They were at the top of the Group of Five mountain going into November and by Selection Sunday were an afterthought. My pick: James Madison 31 Air Force 10.

Pop Tarts Bowl – #18 NC State vs. #25 Kansas State (Dec. 38, 5:45, TSN3) – This has to be the bowl game with the most questions. Nothing to do with the two teams involved who did very well this season but were one or two bad losses away from causing potential chaos. No, I’m talking about the edible Pop Tarts Bowl mascot. You read that right. Edible. Mascot. We don’t even know what flavour it is. Watch it be a really shitty flavour like blueberry or the disappointing chocolate fudge one or grass and dirt. Wait, there’s a pumpkin pie one? That one then. Ugh, just the thought of that makes my stomach churn. My pick: Kansas State 36 NC State 28.

Fiesta Bowl – #8 Oregon vs. #23 Liberty (Jan. 1, 1:00, TSN3) – The worst of the New Year’s Six games and it’s really not even close. That seems to be the take everyone has, partly because Oregon is one win over Washington from being in the playoff and partly because many hate Liberty because of the university itself. Ugh. Oh well, I’d love to say this could be close. I just don’t think it will be. My pick: Oregon 52 Liberty 28.

Citrus Bowl – #17 Iowa vs. #21 Tennessee (Jan. 1, 1:00, ABC/TSN+) – It must look weird to have an Iowa game here but hey, the Iowa defense was one of the best in the country. Sure they couldn’t score for the life of them but defense wins championships, right? It feels like football is trying to do away with that adage. Look, at least the over/under isn’t as ridiculous as the last few Hawkeye games this season (it’s 36.5 the last time I checked which is still low but I digress). My pick: Tennessee 21 Iowa 14.

The Big Noon Kickoff Tier

Really good games that are approaching the SEC on CBS level except when they end up showing Indiana or Nebraska playing a team like Ohio State. Then it’s not so fun and you fear for Gus and Joel’s sanity.

Holiday Bowl – #15 Louisville vs. USC (Dec. 27, 8:00, FOX) – Of course the BNK section has to have the only FOX bowl game. I’m just happy they don’t have a bowl game on FOX Sports One anymore. Sure I can watch it but many Canadians can’t and I am a man of the people. Anyway, GUS won’t get to call any Caleb Williams on-field action because he’s not playing. Between players opting out and players transferring before bowl games, Bowl Season is becoming, I hate to say, a bit of a mess. Hopefully someone fixes it. They won’t though. My pick: Louisville 36 USC 19.

Guaranteed Rate Bowl – Kansas vs. UNLV (Dec. 26, 9:00, TSN2) – UNLV has been better than advertised this season. Barry Odom has done an unbelievable job in Vegas. And you know my thoughts on Lance Leipold and the direction of the Jayhawk football program. Hell, the renovations are going to be so big that it may cause them to have to play at least one game at Arrowhead Stadium next season. That wouldn’t have happened with the 2010s Kansas Jayhawks. This may end up being one of the most fun games to watch. My pick: Kansas 31 UNLV 27.

Duke’s Mayo Bowl – North Carolina vs. West Virginia (Dec. 27, 5:30, TSN5) – I don’t usually like picking sides. But there is something intriguing about the idea of Mack Brown being buried in Duke’s Mayo. OK wait, buried was the wrong word. I didn’t mean… My pick: North Carolina 45 West Virginia 42.

Liberty Bowl – Memphis vs Iowa State (Dec. 29, 3:30, TSN2) – This could be a bit of a track meet game if the Tigers get rolling in front of their home crowd. What I’m saying is: take the over. My pick: Memphis 49 Iowa State 40.

Sun Bowl – #16 Notre Dame vs. #19 Oregon State (Dec. 29, 2:00, CBS) – At one point this was going to be THE non-CFP/non-NY6 bowl game. Then we have D.J. Uiagalelei transferring. Jonathan Smith is now head coach at Michigan State. Sam Hartman might not play for the Irish. From a game that looked like it would be loaded with points, it might not end up being that way now. My pick: Notre Dame 23 Oregon State 21.

The Notre Dame and/or B1G on NBC Tier

Notre Dame games still hold a lot of reverance for fans and the Big Ten will slowly make their mark, especially with Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge calling their games.

Arizona Bowl – Wyoming vs. Toledo (Dec. 30, 4:00, The CW) – Yes the C Fucking W. They may go down in the list of notable networks that have broadcast bowl games like Mizlou Network and the American Sports Network. This bowl is sponsored by Barstool Sports so many won’t watch it just for that. I do kind of get it since it’s like watching a game at one of those sportsbooks in Vegas with 10,000 screens and odds on everything and anything. But it could end up being a good game and I don’t want to miss that, right? My pick: Toledo 33 Wyoming 27.

Cure Bowl – Appalachian State vs. Miami-OH (Dec. 16, 3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Even though it’s on ABC it might be overshadowed by other bowl games. Which is too bad since we have the MAC champs and the Mountaineers that are back after missing Bowl Season last year (in one of the craziest seasons in Sun Belt history). Don’t sleep on this matchup despite the fact it could be a bit of a defensive slugfest. Like if you enjoy Iowa football this may be your type of game. My pick: Appalachian State 20 Miami-OH 18.

ReliaQuest Bowl – #13 LSU vs. Wisconsin (Jan. 1, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The first football game of 2024 is also the first game on this list that is on TSN+ and the specialty packs. Also, if Heisman winner Jayden Daniels does decide to play, this shouldn’t be cloase at all. My pick: LSU 48 Wisconsin 13.

Music City Bowl – Auburn vs. Maryland (Dec. 30, 2:00, ABC/TSN+) – Auburn has been all over the place this year. The highs are always high playing in the SEC. The lows can be very low although a loss to New Mexico State doesn’t look as bad as some may think. This is the younger Tagovailoa’s final game at Maryland and I think he goes out with a bang against an inconsistent Tigers team. My pick: Maryland 49 Auburn 29.

Gator Bowl – #22 Clemson vs. Kentucky (Dec. 29, Noon, TSN2) – If the Tigers hadn’t had a hell of a November, this may have been an even matchup. But it won’t be. At least I doubt it. My pick: Clemson 41 Kentucky 15.

The Late Night ESPN Tier

Jesus Christ that looks horrible. Oh well, I don’t feel like finding another logo. Basically this tier is the ESPN game that’s not the SEC primetime ESPN game of the week. So it could be the Noon, 3:30 or late night affair. So still a pretty good game but a step below the rest.

Independence Bowl – Texas Tech vs. California (Dec. 16, 9:15, TSN+/specialty pack) – This feels like an odd pairing in Shreveport of all places. Maybe next season they can get the Sun Belt champ to play an SEC team here, like God (or the Bossman in various posts) intended. I’m going with the team that scratched and clawed their way to bowl eligibility and have a bit of momentum as they head to the ACC. My pick: California 41 Texas Tech 27.

LA Bowl – UCLA vs. Boise State (Dec. 16, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – This is going up against the rest of opening day of Bowl Season plus a few NFL games plus a couple of lower-level playoff games. So, yeah this isn’t exactly high up on anyone’s list of appointment viewing I’m sure. Considering Gronk is involved, my interest has dwindled even farther. Maybe it will be close and keep my attention. I don’t think it will be though. My pick: Boise State 39 UCLA 26.

New Mexico Bowl – Fresno State vs. New Mexico State (Dec. 16, 5:45, TSN+/specialty pack) – Hey it’s America’s (Western) Team, the New Mexico State Aggies! They ended up giving Liberty quite the run for the Conference USA Championship. They get a head coach-less Bulldogs squad that had the inside track to the Mountain West Championship and blew it because of a loss to, well how about that, New Mexico. The script writes itself. My pick: New Mexico State 44 Fresno State 31.

Texas Bowl – Texas A&M vs. #20 Oklahoma State (Dec. 27, 9:00, TSN5) – Usually this game has been a fairly good one so at least we have that going for it. Problem is you have a team that might not have one of the best running backs in the nation for the game up against a team that just spent a shit-ton of money to get rid of their old coach. It will be close only because neither team will be able to pull away. My pick: Texas A&M 28 Oklahoma State 23.

Birmingham Bowl – Duke vs. Troy (Dec. 23, Noon, ABC/TSN2) – This was looking like a really even game and the kind of game I love to see during bowl season. Instead, Duke loses their quarterback and I have a feeling the Trojans will run away with this one. My pick: Troy 36 Duke 20.

The FS1/ESPN2/ESPNU/SEC Network/ACC Network Tier

If you’re a college football fan you are watching these games. If not, well………

Fenway Bowl – Boston College vs. SMU (Dec. 28, 11:00 AM, TSN3) – It’s late morning football in what should be chilly BAW-stun. This could be considered the Mustangs’ first ACC game as they join the conference next season. I believe they will show the Eagles why they were coveted by the conference. My pick: SMU 48 Boston College 21.

Gasparilla Bowl – Georgia Tech vs. UCF (Dec. 22, 6:30, TSN5) – I don’t get the start time but whatever. The Knights have to consider their first season in the Big XII a success as they go bowling. And Brent Key may have just started the Ramblin’ Wreck’s ascent back up the ACC standings. This should be another good one but I will go with the home cookin’. My pick: UCF 22 Georgia Tech 17.

Hawaii Bowl – Coastal Carolina vs. San Jose State (Dec. 24, 10:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Coastal has had a great run recently so this season feels…a little blah by their now lofty standards. Much of that has to do with the rest of the conference catching up and, for some teams, passing them. I honestly have no real intuition about this game so I will pick the team that doesn’t have to travel clear across the entire country and then half the Pacific Ocean. My pick: San Jose State 45 Coastal Carolina 24.

New Orleans Bowl – Louisiana vs. Jacksonville State (Dec. 16, 2:15, TSN+/specialty pack) – The Ragin’ Cajuns are close to home where they have played in front of some good bowl game crowds at the Superdome. But the Gamecocks are playing in their first bowl game ever and are doing it with RichRod at the helm! No offense to Cajun fans but I have to go with my heart. My pick: Jacksonville State 36 Louisiana 28.

Military Bowl – Virginia Tech vs. Tulane (Dec. 27, 2:00, TSN5) – I am shocked at how well the Hokies did this season. And I was so close at getting my G-5 NY6 pick correct but the Green Wave fell in the American Conference Championship. I usually don’t feel good about teams whose coaches have left for (usually) greener pastures but I think this will be a very close and competitive game. My pick: Tulane 30 Virginia Tech 29.

The CW Tier

When it was announced The CW would be doing an ACC game most weeks, most laughed. I sure did. But holy shit, despite the average commentary, the sub-HD look and the overall lack of production values, they had a few games that hit it out of the park. So you can’t sleep on this station because you might miss a really good game!

Pinstripe Bowl – Rutgers vs. Miami (Dec. 28, 2:15, TSN3) – Ah, an old Big East showdown. Maybe years from now, when conferences hit 28 teams, some teams start to hate it and they break off into smaller conferences, like the Big East. Just a thought. I don’t trust Mario Cristobal to coach this team to a bowl victory as far as I can throw my car. My pick: Rutgers 34 Miami 19.

First Responder Bowl – Rice vs. Texas State (Dec. 26, 5:30, TSN2) – G.J. Kinne has done a fantastic job in San Marcos, coaching the team to its first bowl game ever. Rice did better than expected and could look even better next year in the AAC. This feels like the kind of game that should be on ESPNU that everyone will turn to because there’s the possibility of a fantastic finish. My pick: Texas State 45 Rice 39.

Las Vegas Bowl – Northwestern vs. Utah (Dec. 23, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Got to give the Wildcats kudos for a great season considering what things were looking like heading into it. But they are facing a Utah team that, if it weren’t for injuries, would have been in that super dogfight at the top of the Pac-12. I still think the Utes on most nights are safe pick and this is no exception. My pick: Utah 31 Northwestern 10.

Myrtle Beach Bowl – Georgia Southern vs. Ohio (Dec. 16, 11:00 AM, TSN+/specialty pack) – Ohio has Canadian quarterback Kurtis Rourke here so…wait…they don’t? Looks like Rourke entered the transfer portal and has already been picked up by Indiana of all the teams. So my Bobcats pick has to be changed to an Eagles pick since without Rourke I don’t think they have a shot here. My pick: Georgia Southern 32 Ohio 13.

Frisco Bowl – UTSA vs. Marshall (Dec. 19, 9:00, TSN3) – This is the same spot the Frisco Bowl was in last year. So yeah it’s not like they are getting amazing teams to come to Frisco (other than North Dakota State most seasons). At least it’s another Texas team here as the Roadrunners meep their way up the state to face the Thundering Herd. I see Frank Harris, in what his finally his final game, lighting it up one last time. My pick: UTSA 51 Marshall 27.

The Pac-12 Network Tier

They should have taken the two worst teams in football and had them play a “bowl game” on a weeknight at 11 Eastern on the Pac-12 Network. Just to show how little that conference network mattered. I don’t get it. You create a conference network and make it available to most people and people will watch. Hell, the Longhorn Network is still around and that thing is garbage. Yet, this network will die sometime in the late Spring (I assume) and pretty much no one will miss it because they COULDN’T FUCKING WATCH IT! Man. Anyway, this is the bottom tier. Still games I will watch but if you miss them it’s not the end of the world (at least watch the highlights though).

Famous Toastery Bowl – Old Dominion vs. WKU (Dec. 18, 2:30, TSN1/3) – This was supposed to be the Bahamas Bowl but because of renovations to their only stadium on the island capable of hosting this game, it had to be moved. Thus is the creation of the Famous Toastery Bowl. My hope is that the winning coach gets a whole whack of toast dumped on him. Or even French toast. Ugh that would be so sticky (especially if you include syrup which you should) but would be worth it for my entertainment. The game? It will probably be close only because these two are arguably the worst two teams to make bowl season. The closeness keeps it from the bottom. My pick: Old Dominion 23 WKU 20.

Camellia Bowl – Arkansas State vs. Northern Illinois (Dec. 23, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Despite the fact ASU has done better than I thought they would this season, their defense is still atrocious. They couldn’t stop a slight breeze. NIU loves to run the ball so despite the clock always moving this could see a lot of points. My pick: Northern Illinois 50 Arkansas State 38.

Idaho Potato Bowl – Utah State vs. Georgia State (Dec. 23, 3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Let’s follow one lowly bowl with another. Sometimes Boise gets a great matchup. This, I’m sure, does not qualify as one. GSU limped into the postseason on a 5-game losing streak. Make it six. My pick: Utah State 37 Georgia State 13.

Quick Lane Bowl – Minnesota vs. Bowling Green (Dec. 26, 2:00, TSN2) – Almost everything about this spot on the list is the same as last year. Same bowl. Bowling Green is in it. It’s on Boxing Day. Hell, it’s on a TSN station and only half-an-hour earlier than last year’s edition. Kind of creepy. I remember a time when the MAC champion would go here and face a fairly decent Big Ten team. I guess those days are gone. My pick: Minnesota 21 Bowling Green 14.

Boca Raton Bowl – Syracuse vs. USF (Dec. 21, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – USF might get a boost from being so close to home. That is until their defense hits the field and they have to try to stop the pass which they couldn’t all season. Look, their game against Alabama was wild and fun to watch but Bama struggled to throw the ball all day. Syracuse won’t. My pick: Syracuse 45 USF 14.

68 Ventures Bowl – South Alabama vs. Eastern Michigan (Dec. 23, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – Different name, same shitty bowl game. This is the second straight year the former LendingTree Bowl ends up in the bottom spot on my list. Even the Jag-you-ares playing in front of a home crowd isn’t enough to pull this out from the bottom rung of the ladder. I like EMU but this won’t be even remotely close. My pick: South Alabama 44 Eastern Michigan 9.

There you go! Bowl schedule, bowl rankings, bowl predictions: all complete. All there is now to do is watch the games.

As an add-on, there are some lower-level playoff games. Hell, let’s do another mini-schedule right here!

FCS Semi-Final: UAlbany at South Dakota State	Friday, 7:00
Division III Championship: Cortland vs. North Central (in Salem, VA)	Friday, 7:00
Celebration Bowl: Howard vs. Florida A&M (in Atlanta)	Saturday, Noon
Division II Championship: Harding vs. Colorado School of Mines (in McKinney, TX)	Saturday, 1:00
FCS Semi-Final: North Dakota State at Montana	Saturday, 4:30

All of these games are on TSN+ and the specialty pack except for the Celebration Bowl which goes to ABC.

It looks like other than one game, your boy Bossman can watch every game if he wishes. I most definitely will, thank you very much. And you too…enjoy the games. We’re almost ready to wrap up this season of college football season so get as much viewing in as you can.

What a Mess (and the Week 14 NFL TV schedule)

OK where do I begin here with the MILF Hunter? So The Athletic (I won’t say much about that website other than they believe much more highly of themselves than they probably should) reports that Zach Wilson does not want to start for the Jets. Would I blame him? No. The Jets O-line is basically papier-mache. Saying that, he’s a professional athlete and it is EXTREMELY rare to find the one that does not want to compete. And Wilson isn’t that guy.

So after seeing Tim Boyle (TIM FUCKING BOYLE) start and Trevor Siemian pass Wilson as the backup, Jets head coach Robert Saleh has finally seen the light (kind of) and put Wilson back under centre as the starting quarterback. Boyle has been released (and shouldn’t have got a shot in the first place) and Siemian can be the experienced backup. If…IF the Jets can somehow win their next three games, don’t be surprised if a certain recurring guest on the Pat McAfee Show makes his long-awaited return. That’s also if the Jets aren’t mathematically eliminated at that point as well which is a dicey proposition in the AFC as you will see later in this post. Look, the Jets do have a somewhat bright future if they can get some O-line help and have Rodgers for a full season. Barring that, it’s more agony for fans of the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets.

Huh, that’s two Jets introductions in a row. Must be a record. OK now let’s get to the schedule which does include the Jets and a very weird occurrence that’s never happened before.

American Networks

Jacksonville at Cleveland	1:00	All affiliates (except Burlington)
Houston at NY Jets	1:00	Burlington
Detroit at Chicago	1:00		Detroit
LA Rams at Baltimore	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
Seattle at San Francisco	4:05		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane
Minnesota at Las Vegas	4:05		Minneapolis
Buffalo at Kansas City	4:25	All affiliates

Canadian Networks

Jacksonville at Cleveland	1:00	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Ottawa	Windsor, London, Toronto, Atlantic
Houston at NY Jets	1:00		Ottawa
LA Rams at Baltimore	1:00	Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Montreal, Atlantic	Vancouver Island, Alberta
Detroit at Chicago	1:00			TSN1, TSN4
Indianapolis at Cincinnati	1:00			TSN+
Seattle at San Francisco	4:05		Vancouver Island, Alberta	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4
Minnesota at Las Vegas	4:05	Winnipeg
Buffalo at Kansas City	4:25	All affiliates (except Winnipeg)

Primetime Games

New England at Pittsburgh	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, FOX Boston, CTV2, TSN 1/+
Philadelphia at Dallas	Sunday, 8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/4/5/+
Green Bay at NY Giants	Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN 3/+
Tennessee at Miami	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/+

Just a Bunch of Schedule Notes

• The games that will not appear on Canadian television networks (or American ones you can view) unless you have Sunday Ticket or RedZone:
  • Tampa Bay at Atlanta
  • Denver at LA Chargers
  • Carolina at New Orleans
• Oh, the NFC South. The worst division in football. And all four teams are not being shown here. Sounds like justice to me.
• So you notice something about Monday night? Yeah, two games going on at the same time. The only thread between them? The ManningCast which is on TSN+. Get that, you can watch Peyton and Eli and whatever stupid guests they have try to watch and analyze two games at once. Interesting idea and again it’s a lookahead towards when the NFL expands (and they will expand, make no mistake about it).
• The Thursday Nighter. My god. The schedule maker must have thought this was hilarious. Then again, I don’t think he could have even envisioned two offenses so woeful. At least the Steelers got rid of Matt Canada and are opening up somewhat on the offensive side of the ball. The Pats? They might as well tank at this point and get that long snapper quarterback of the future since Mac Jones ain’t it.
• The Bills and the Chiefs get a national audience this week which is nice to see (only one really…Jags-Browns are close but no cigar). Now while the two teams are only two games apart in the standings, it feels like they are miles apart on how good they really are. The Chiefs are doing OK by recent KC standards but the Bills have been terrible at times. Just don’t have the Chiefs needing to score with 13 seconds to go since it might send the Bills (and their fans) over the edge.

Updated playoff picture time bitches!

AFC	NFC
#1 Miami (9-3)	#1 Philadelphia (10-2)
#2 Baltimore (9-3)	#2 San Francisco (9-3)
#3 Kansas City (8-4)	#3 Detroit (9-3)
#4 Jacksonville (8-4)	#4 Atlanta (6-6)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Pittsburgh (7-5)	#5 Dallas (9-3)
#6 Cleveland (7-5)	#6 Minnesota (6-6)
#7 Indianapolis/Houston (7-5)	#7 Green Bay/LA Rams/Seattle (6-6)

Not quite three-quarters of the way through the season but with 17 games there is no way to do fractions nicely so let’s just say we are in the home stretch. It’s December. Close enough. No one has clinched yet but there will be opportunities as I will state below. The NFC South is a complete fucking mess and I hate to say this but I hope the, ugh, Cowboys mop the fucking floor with whoever wins that sorry division. Pains me to even type that but I believe it.

Might as well get right to clinching scenarios. As you know, I do not include ties until the final week of the regular season and even then, only if I absolutely have to since otherwise the amount of scenarios goes through the roof. Let us begin.

Playoff Berth

• Philadelphia clinches with a win AND (an LA Rams loss OR a Seattle loss OR (a Minnesota loss AND a Green Bay loss) OR (a Green Bay loss AND a Detroit loss))
• Dallas clinches with a win AND a Detroit win AND a Tampa Bay loss AND a Seattle loss AND (an LA Rams loss OR a New Orleans loss) AND a Green Bay loss AND a Minnesota loss
• San Francisco clinches with a win AND (a Minnesota loss OR a Green Bay loss)

Elimination

• Arizona is eliminated with an LA Rams win AND a Green Bay win
• New England is eliminated with a loss OR a Houston win OR a Cincinnati win OR (a Las Vegas win AND a Buffalo win)

OK that Dallas scenario is insane. Would be fun if it happened!

Everyone have a great rest of the week and enjoy the games…even tonight’s affair.

DOBBS! – The Week 10 NFL TV Schedule

I’m a Bills fan as you know. And yes, Damar Hamlin returning to Cincinnati for the first time since last year’s horrific incident was a big story. But I have to admit there was an even bigger story coming out of the NFL this past weekend.

How about Josh Dobbs? He went from playing in Cleveland to being traded to the Cardinals to replace injured starter Kyler Murray to being traded yet again to the Vikings to replace another injured quarterback, this time Kirk Cousins who is out for the season. He joined the Vikings after he was acquired last Tuesday at the trade deadline. He had almost no time to prepare but no big deal, right? He was the backup to Jaren Hall. Well, Hall ends up getting a concussion in the first quarter so in comes Dobbs. He had to go over cadences with the offensive line since he hadn’t done that before and the O-line hadn’t heard him do it. Hell, he barely even knew most of their names yet.

So this ended up in disaster for the Vikings, right? Nope. The Vikings ended up scoring 31 on the Falcons, including the game-winning touchdown with 22 seconds left on a drive engineered by Dobbs. That win put the Vikings back not only in the playoff race, but back in the NFC North race which no one expected to happen. It would be something if they could make the playoffs and its not out of the realm of possibility if Dobbs develops a great chemistry with his teammates.

OK let’s get to the schedule, which does include the Vikings and Dobbs!

American Networks

Green Bay at Pittsburgh	1:00	Seattle, Spokane, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
San Francisco at Jacksonville	1:00		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
New Orleans at Minnesota	1:00		Minneapolis, Detroit
Cleveland at Baltimore	1:00		Buffalo, Rochester
Detroit at LA Chargers	4:05	Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland
Washington at Seattle	4:25		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane
NY Giants at Dallas	4:25		Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown, Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle

Canadian Networks

Green Bay at Pittsburgh	1:00		All affiliates
Cleveland at Baltimore	1:00	Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa
San Francisco at Jacksonville	1:00	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montreal, Atlantic		TSN1, TSN3, TSN4
New Orleans at Minnesota	1:00	Winnipeg
Houston at Cincinnati	1:00			TSN+
Detroit at LA Chargers	4:05			TSN1, TSN3, TSN4
NY Giants at Dallas	4:25	All affiliates (except Vancouver & Alberta)
Washington at Seattle	4:25	Vancouver, Alberta

Primetime Games (und das morgendliche Spiel)

Carolina at Chicago	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN 1/4/+
Indianapolis vs. New England (in Frankfurt)	9:30 AM, NFL Network, ABC Boston, TSN4
NY Jets at Las Vegas	8:15, NBC, CTV, TSN 1/3/4/+
Denver at Buffalo	Monday, 8:15, ABC, TSN 1/3/+

A Little Random Notes and Shit

• Hey, no one gets stuck with a shitty game while you know the rest of the country can enjoy a good football matchup (at least on paper). Unless you count the potential blowout with the Cowboys and Giants.
• Games not being shown up here in now suddenly cold Canada (at least where I’m from) unless you have the Reddest of Zones:
  • Tennessee at Tampa Bay
  • Atlanta at Arizona
• Only two games not appearing on Canadian television this Sunday and let’s be honest: I doubt many people give a shit about any of those four teams right now unless you are gamblers or fantasy football players. Hmmm…I guess that actually means a lot of people would care about those games. Well, get Sunday Ticket or RedZone or stop complaining then.
• With the CFL moving the first two rounds of their playoffs to Saturdays, it frees up more TSNs to show the NFL. That’s why you will see three (count em, THREE) TSN stations showing games on Sunday. This will change next week with the Grey Cup so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
• Oh, is this the worst Thursday Night Football matchup ever? It very well could be.

Hey, let’s look at what the updated playoff picture looks like:

AFC	NFC
#1 Kansas City (AFC West)	#1 Philadelphia (NFC East)
#2 Baltimore (AFC North)	#2 Detroit (NFC North)
#3 Jacksonville (AFC South)	#3 San Francisco (NFC West)
#4 Miami (AFC East)	#4 New Orleans (NFC South)
Wild Cards:	Wild Cards:
#5 Pittsburgh	#5 Seattle
#6 Cleveland	#6 Dallas
#7 Cincinnati	#7 Minnesota

How about the AFC North? I know we are only going into Week 10 but holy shit to have all four teams in playoff spots is pretty damn amazing. The Eagles already have a one-and-a-half game lead on the field in the NFC and looks like they may waltz to that number one seed in the conference. The AFC is a hell of a lot tighter as all seven current playoff teams are one-and-a-half games apart. Yes, the same amount that the Eagles lead the #2 seed Lions. Impressive. By the way, the Cardinals can already lose their shot at the #1 seed this weekend. I know…I’m shocked as well.

Wow, we had shitty weather yesterday in my neck of the woods. And I know many parts of Canada have had either freezing rain or snow already and we are still in early November. So good thing we have FOOTBALL to keep us company inside while the weather sucks outside. Enjoy the games everyone!

This kind of thing bugs me (and the Week 10 College Football TV Schedule)

Deion Sanders did it this past weekend. So did Pat Narduzzi. And other coaches have done it in the past.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about calling our your players during a press conference and basically running them down in front of the entire college football world. I honestly don’t get the point of it.

Let me start by being VERY clear here: I am not saying players don’t need the proverbial boot up their ass every so often. It’s part of coaching. As long as it’s not abusive, it will probably help in a player’s overall development. Players need to hear what they are doing wrong or otherwise how can they not do that thing wrong again? It’s the same with management in the rest of the working world (I won’t get into the fact that I estimate a good 70% or so of managers don’t know how to manage and that management is a skill because this blog post would end up taking you three hours to read). You have to help your team get better. It makes everything a bit easier, a bit better, and reflects well on the manager.

Saying all that, telling a ton of people that a player or group of players suck(s) is not the way to go about it. I get that coaches can be frustrated but doing that just makes you a bad manager/coach/mentor/teacher/trainer, etc. You do that in private.

Worst part of all this, in Sanders’ case, is Deion’s son is the quarterback and he verbally lambasted the offensive line in that press conference. Look, I agree: their offensive line is not good at all and Shedeur is getting his ass handed to him back there. So will these players step up and do a whole lot better or will they get pissed off and maybe allow a defensive lineman or two by a little bit easier? It’s not Shedeur’s fault but he may end up taking the brunt of this. Is it right to do this? No, but you never know how people are going to act when the coach tells everyone you suck and he has no faith in you.

As for Narduzzi’s, this may be worse. Unlike Deion, Narduzzi recruited all these players. They’re essentially his choices to play at Pitt. So if they don’t do well or don’t develop, he has to take at least a part of the blame as head coach and recruiter. So to throw them under the bus (or at least appear to) looks very poorly on him. And the players are obviously upset. Again, this really isn’t the way to push a player to do better. It may work but it would almost be out of spite rather than from Narduzzi’s choice words.

OK we are still in the midst of football EVERY DAMN DAY! So we must rejoice, no matter the quality of the games. Hey, Conference USA had a few good ones in October and now MACtion and the Fun Belt take over in the final regular season month of the college football season. Let’s get to that schedule which includes more weekday fun!

Tuesday

		US	Canada
Northern Illinois at Central Michigan	7:00
Buffalo at Toledo	7:30

Ah, it’s that time of year. MACtion on a Halloween night. By the time the games start, most of the kids are finished trick-or-treating so we can sit down and watch all four of these teams play, probably in relatively frigid temperatures, all for our enjoyment. God bless college football.

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Bowling Green	7:00
Kent State at Akron	7:00

OK not nearly as good a MACtion night as the previous one but Bowling Green is way better than they probably had any right to be so far this season so there’s that.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Wake Forest at Duke	7:30
South Alabama at Troy	7:30
Mississippi Valley State at Bethune-Cookman	7:30

I figured the USA-Troy game would be for the Sun Belt West title but both teams have stumbled a bit. Now, the loser is pretty much out and has no shot at a conference championship game appearance.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Dartmouth	7:00
Boston College at Syracuse	7:30
Colorado State at Wyoming	8:00

Have you noticed there are never ranked teams playing on weeknights? It’s like the schedule makers understood the assignment. “Give them football but not great football teams.” Anyway, the hilariously awful bottom half of the ACC continues their march to…can’t even say mediocrity for this one. Loser will have it rough to become bowl eligible the rest of the way.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#12 Notre Dame at Clemson	Noon
Campbell at North Carolina	Noon
Wisconsin at Indiana	Noon
#3 Ohio State at Rutgers	Noon
Texas A&M at #11 Ole Miss	Noon
Arkansas at Florida	Noon
Jacksonville State at South Carolina	Noon
#25 Kansas State at #7 Texas	Noon
UConn at #19 Tennessee	Noon

Quite a few decent games here. I figured Notre Dame-Clemson was going to be a much bigger game but Dabo decided he’s allergic to NIL. KSU-UT could decide one of the teams going to the Big XII Championship. And…if you had said Jacksonville State would be the favoured Cocks in this matchup I would have thought you were on serious drugs. Not the unserious ones.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Georgia Tech at Virginia	2:00
Arizona State at #18 Utah	2:00
Army vs. #17 Air Force (in Denver)	2:30
#10 Oklahoma at Oklahoma State	3:30
Virginia Tech at #15 Louisville	3:30
Illinois at Minnesota	3:30
#14 Missouri at #1 Georgia	3:30
#4 Florida State at Pittsburgh	3:30
#23 James Madison at Georgia State	3:30
#21 Tulane at East Carolina	3:30
#9 Penn State at Maryland	3:30
Auburn at Vanderbilt	4:00
California at #6 Oregon	5:30

OK things start to pick up here. One big game against two ranked teams where Mizzou could shock the entire college football world. Plus another NINE games involving ranked teams. It’s rare to see that many ranked teams in one timeslot. Realistically, all the ranked teams should worry at least a bit as you never know when the underdog can rise up and bite you in the ass. Except for Tulane. I have a feeling they will do just fine with East Carolina.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Louisiana Tech at Liberty	6:00
Marshall at Appalachian State	6:00
#22 Kansas at Iowa State	7:00
#5 Washington at #24 USC	7:30
SMU at Rice	7:30
Purdue at #2 Michigan	7:30
Kentucky at Mississippi State	7:30
#13 LSU at #8 Alabama	7:45
Miami at NC State	8:00

Ah, the annual SEC on CBS primetime matchup between LSU and Alabama. A tradition unlike any other. Well, that tradition comes to an end on this night. Other than possible Ole Miss shenanigans, this game should determine the SEC West champion. The Huskies’ game against the Trojans looked much bigger a few weeks ago but USC has struggled mightily on defense and really should move on from Alex Grinch if they are to have any chance at becoming a true contender. Finally, it will be interested to see what happens if Liberty ends up the only undefeated Group of Five team. At this point, their schedule is so weak that they wouldn’t be able to pass most of the one-loss teams if that was the case. But there is a month left so you never really know what could happen.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Stanford at Washington State	9:00
Boise State at Fresno State	10:00
#16 Oregon State at Colorado	10:00

Big Mountain West game. Even with Boise starting the season off pretty badly, they still have a very good shot at getting back to the Mountain West Championship game. The Broncos will need a win down in the valley in Fresno to keep their hopes alive. The Bulldogs held on for a big win last week over UNLV and are sitting second behind Air Force for that other conference championship spot. Stakes are high.

Hey, Watch This

LSU at Alabama (7:45, CBS) – Don’t mind the bizarre start time. It may be something they are trying out for the future since even the slightest edge can help in the ratings war. This is CBS’s only primetime pick of the season and yet again, it’s the Tigers and the Tide. Unless Ole Miss makes a run, this is for the SEC West crown. LSU is going to be trying their damndest to be the first ever two-loss College Football Playoff team but they need a lot of help. First off, they need to take care of business in one of the toughest stadiums to play in as a visitor against one of the toughest coaches to ever play against. Easy, right?

Missouri at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – Both ends of the SEC on CBS doubleheader are the top two games of the week. Just like they drew it up. Mizzou has played way above their heads all season. Not saying they have talent. They do but Eli Drinkwitz has, I don’t know, finally figured things out and is doing the best coaching of his career. And if the Tigers win here, boy oh boy, there is going to be a lot of talk about this in the college football media and you probably won’t hear of anything else.

Kansas State at Texas (Noon, FOX) – This and the next game could be swapped and no one would bat an eye. This feels like a Big XII semi-final as neither team probably has a shot at going to JerryWorld if they lose here. I am sure GUS JOHNSON and Joel Klatt are praying for a close game here. They switched to the 3:30 game last week and, lo and behold, the Big Noon Kickoff game ended up being a classic. Poor guys. There’s only so much excitement you can infuse into a blowout, you know? Unless you’re Joe Tessitore and everything is exciting.

Washington at USC (7:30, ABC/TSN+) – Washington is still undefeated. It feels like they are trying not to be but they have pulled out some close ones against *checks notes* Arizona State and Stanford. OK then. Look, if the Huskies don’t put at least 40 on the board here, they should consider it a loss. USC’s defense is atrocious. Their offense, on the other hand…they can put up points in bunches so U-Dub better watch out and not fall too far behind early in this one at the Coliseum.

Sickos Game of the Week

Iowa vs. Northwestern (at Wrigley Field) (3:30, Peacock) – Look, I know. I am breaking my own rules here. We can’t this game (legally) up here. But the over/under is 29.5. TWENTY-NINE-AND-A-HALF. That is so fucking absurd. And yes, I would still consider betting the under. This feels like a game straight out of 1912. Maybe it’s a good thing we can’t see it.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

UConn at Tennessee (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – I think we have to consider that last season’s UConn Huskies football squad’s performance may have been a fluke. This team is not good again. Not as bad as the years before 2022. But still bad. Plus, the Vols need the warmup for when they head to CoMo the following Saturday.

Wanna Bet?

How about my two upset picks last week? Yeah, they were shit. As were my Oklahoma, Clemson and Oregon State picks. Yeesh. Let’s just get on to the new week and see if I can somehow do better.

Tennessee 56 UConn 6

South Carolina 31 Jacksonville State 17

Texas 34 Kansas State 28

Virginia 41 Georgia Tech 23

Utah 31 Arizona State 14

Florida State 43 Pittsburgh 20

Minnesota 23 Illinois 13

Georgia 30 Missouri 24

Auburn 26 Vanderbilt 19

Appalachian State 48 Marshall 21

USC 56 Washington 46 (small upset)

Alabama 42 LSU 37

Oregon State 34 Colorado 16

As is the usual, I will be on X/Twitter/Elon Musk’s money-losing venture this Saturday. I always hope to be able to interact with other college football fans because that is part of the fun of all this. It’s one thing to watch the games: bantering with others while doing it makes it more enjoyable. As long as no one acts like a complete asshat. Then it brings everyone down. That’s why I stick with college football Twitter (which is honestly OK to pretty good) compared to, say, NFL Twitter, which can be rough. Or political Twitter which is a fucking cesspool. Anyway, many hours of college football coming up for all of us. Enjoy the games everyone!

What the hell is going on with the running back position? Also, the Week 3 NFL TV Schedule.

No, I won’t post the picture of the injury. You want to see it (if you haven’t already) go find it yourself. And don’t be a fucking idiot about it like Drew Magary.

So what is going on with running backs these days? Sure, football is a passing game now but running backs still had use and there are still those running backs that can top 1,500 yards in a season every so often. But man, the running back position sure has changed in the last decade…a lot. First off, running backs are almost more important in the passing game nowadays. No, I don’t mean blocking (although that is important). Running backs need to be able to catch balls out of the backfield or else they are semi-useless to most coaches.

Secondly, running backs just aren’t getting paid as much as many other positions. Kind of shocking but it is a sign of the times. And leads me into my third point…running backs are getting injured at a bit of an alarming rate. Nick Chubb is done for the season after his injury this past Monday night and Saquon Barkley got injured as well on Sunday but, luckily, is only gone for maybe up to three weeks. Other running backs who are injured right now include Marlon Mack (torn Achilles), J.K Dobbins (torn Achilles), Jonathan Taylor (ankle), and Jeff Wilson Jr. (knee). Mack and Dobbins’ seasons are over. And there are at least a dozen other running backs with various issues that are anywhere from gametime decisions to being out for a week or two. I don’t get it. Most teams have natural grass now so that can’t be an issue.

I do remember when I was a running back years ago, though (a whole lot lighter and a whole lot more muscular than now that’s for sure). It did feel like every season I had an injury even if it was an annoyingly nagging one (like an ankle injury in grade 12). I still remember taking over for the running back who broke his leg and then in the next game, by the end of it, I was hobbling too after getting hit in the knee. So it comes with the territory to have nicks and bruises and cuts and shit like that. It just feels like more running backs (even at the college level) are getting injured and the average career of a running back might be shorter than ever. I don’t think the running back will go the way of the option where only a few teams use the running back often but I can see more and more teams running the ball a whole lot less in the future (or allowing their quarterback to run all the time….yeah looking at you Josh Allen…learn to fucking slide before you get killed).

Alright enough being sentimental (kind of) over running backs and my prior abilities to run without getting winded. It’s time for the NFL television schedule for Canadians.

American Networks

Tennessee at Cleveland	1:00	Cleveland
Buffalo at Washington	1:00	Buffalo, Rochester, Watertown
New England at NY Jets	1:00	Burlington, Boston, Presque Isle
New Orleans at Green Bay	1:00		All affiliates (except Minneapolis & Detroit)
LA Chargers at Minnesota	1:00		Minneapolis
Atlanta at Detroit	1:00		Detroit
Carolina at Seattle	4:05	Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit
Chicago at Kansas City	4:25		All affiliates

Canadian Networks

Buffalo at Washington	1:00	Vancouver, Alberta, Northern Ontario, Toronto
New England at NY Jets	1:00	Montreal, Atlantic
Atlanta at Detroit	1:00	Kitchener, Ottawa		TSN4
New Orleans at Green Bay	1:00	Saskatchewan, Winnipeg	All affiliates
LA Chargers at Minnesota	1:00			TSN+
Carolina at Seattle	4:05	Vancouver, Alberta, Saskatchewan
Chicago at Kansas City	4:25	Winnipeg, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Atlantic
Dallas at Arizona	4:25	Montreal		TSN4

Primetime Games

NY Giants at San Francisco	Thursday, 8:15, Amazon Prime, CTV2, TSN 1/4/5
Pittsburgh at Las Vegas	8:20, NBC, CTV, TSN 3/4/5
Philadelphia at Tampa Bay	Monday, 7:15, ABC, TSN 4/5
LA Rams at Cincinnati	Monday, 8:15, TSN1

Canadian-Style Notes for this football schedule…an NFL schedule for the third week of the season

• That was kind of wordy. Have to work on that.
• Games not being shown here in Canada (unless you have the Reddest of Zones):
  • Denver at Miami
  • Indianapolis at Baltimore
  • Houston at Jacksonville
• When is the last time a Cowboys game was barely available if you didn’t have RedZone or Sunday Ticket? That tells you how terrible the Cardinals are and that very few people want to watch them (until they get Caleb Williams and even then).
• I think from now on with the conferences not tied to the networks, we should see better games in both windows. I say that knowing that the Bears are playing the Chiefs in a late game that everyone can watch.
• Monday Night Football Kinda Sorta Doubleheader-ish thing this week again. Rams-Bengals only on TSN1 with the Eagles and Bucs on an extra TSN as well as ABC.
• Big time miss with the Sunday nighter. Honestly, this shouldn’t have been picked in the first place but what can you do.

Interesting start to the NFL season so far. When you have Kirk Cousins on pace to shatter every quarterback record known to man and the Vikings on pace for an 0-16 season at the same time, you know things have been a bit wacky to start. I wondered if I would have the same excitement that I did when I played fantasy football and gambled on the games and I actually do. Surprising, I know. We shall see if that will last the entire season. But for now, let us all enjoy the games everyone!