All Aboard the Coaching Carousel! (and the Week 6 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on October 5, 2022 by guelphbossman

The fun-time coaching carousel has been filling up a bit earlier this year. None of us are used to this many coaches being shitcanned this early on. We are just into October and many of the good horses (or the one cool love seat thing that seems to be on every carousel) are going fast. And the tickets are EXPENSIVE.

This week it started with Karl Dorrell getting fired at Colorado which is no surprise because Colorado is easily the worst Power Five team out there. No team is close to their ineptitude so far this season. But the real bombshell came later the same day when Paul Chryst, he of the 67-26 record, seven straight winning seasons before this year, six bowl victories, and two New Year’s Six triumphs, was fired by Wisconsin. I knew he might be in a bit of trouble but that was shocking. And his buyout? Remember I talked about the tickets on this carousel being expensive? Yeah, his cost is around $11 million. My god. These buyout clauses are just completely absurd now and mean nothing to these schools anymore.

Anyway, this actually may be strategic on Wisky’s part. Jim Leonhard is the interim head coach and the prevailing sentiment is that they want to see what he can do over the final seven games of the season. If he can turn the ship around, there’s a good chance he will be named the permanent replacement. If not, well he had more than half a season and that would be enough of a barometer to know they have to send a Brinks truck to Lance Leipold’s house as soon as possible after the season ends.

I know, the coaching carousel is interesting. I wouldn’t call it fun. That would be a bit morbid. But enough of that; it’s schedule time and it starts on Wednesday this week and it’s not MACtion!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
SMU at UCF	7:00 PM

Tonight, we only have the one game. Technically this is a Week 5 game but the Mustangs and Knights both have this week as a bye week so you can all it a Week 6 game if you want. This is rescheduled because of Hurricane Ian.

Friday

		US	Canada
Harvard at Cornell	7:00 PM
Nebraska at Rutgers	7:00 PM
Houston at Memphis	7:30 PM
Colorado State at Nevada	10:00 PM
UNLV at San Jose State	10:30 PM

Is the highlight here the Nebraska-Rutgers game? Sure, I guess. The Huskers could be in the first in the Big Ten West for about 17 hours if they win this one. Speaking of that game, it’s the first of a doubleheader with three-hour fucking windows. Stupid FS1. I hope the early game goes to 16 overtimes now.

Dana Holgorsen might be on the hot seat if the Cougs don’t beat Memphis, Jay Norvell is hating life in Fort Collins and UNLV continues to try to look like a contender in the Mountain West! Makes up for the night before where there is no college football. It’s like they don’t want to compete with the NFL anymore. I mean it’s not a bad idea.

Saturday Early

A couple of good ones here with UT-LSU and Gameday going to Lawrence before TCU plays Kansas. It’s too bad they decided to go to that football hotbed of Bloomington, Indiana for Big Noon Saturday rather than Kansas. What the hell was FOX thinking? Oh that’s right…they’re hard for the Big Ten.

How about the Red River Shootout having both teams come in unranked? I’m sure if I went to ESPN’s website it would tell me the last time this happened but I have a feeling it was a looooooooooooooooooong time ago. We also have a couple potential sneaky-good games with Arkansas-MSU and Purdue-Maryland. So a relatively loaded start to the day.

Saturday Afternoon

For some reason the ABC afternoon game starts at 4:00. I don’t remember the last time that has happened. I mean it all comes out in the wash anyway but it’s odd this has happened this weekend for no rhyme or reason. CBS was hoping Auburn would have won last week to set up the AU-UGA game with both teams ranked. Alas, it was not to be and I have this feeling this will be an absolute drubbing.

I find it odd that Utah-UCLA, a game between two very good teams, is the FOX afternoon game which is basically the third best game most of the time in the FOX tripleheader. I would have thought it was heading to ABC in primetime. Again, the Pac-12 seems to be getting shafted and if things don’t change, we may have to get used to less coverage from that conference in this area.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Wyoming at New Mexico	7:00 PM
Air Force at Utah State	7:00 PM
James Madison at Arkansas State	7:00 PM
#5 Clemson at Boston College	7:30 PM
Iowa at Illinois	7:30 PM
#20 Kansas State at Iowa State	7:30 PM
Washington State at #6 USC	7:30 PM
#16 BYU vs. Notre Dame (in Las Vegas)	7:30 PM
South Carolina at #13 Kentucky	7:30 PM
Florida State at #14 NC State	8:00 PM
Texas A&M at #1 Alabama	8:00 PM

Not as big as the early sked but still pretty darn good. This is the one primetime game the SEC on CBS has and it’s….well, not as good as CBS had hoped for. The Aggies have been a major disappointment and the Tide are dominant. This could be over by 10:00.

BYU has a massive game in Vegas. A must-win for them. Lose this and it’s pretty much the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. Win and they stay alive for a New Year’s Six spot. Clemson-BC is a special game in Boston as it’s the Red Bandana Game. It’s in honour of Welles Crowther, a former BC lacrosse player who headed a rescue effort on 9/11 and got a lot of people rescued. He was known for wearing a red bandana and that’s what one of the people who were saved that day saw from the guy heading up the building when everyone was escaping down. Good to see this game in a huge national spotlight.

Finally, James Madison has a national game. Sure it’s the NFL Network but the Dukes are undefeated in their first FBS season. They really need to get rid of that archaic rule that says teams can’t qualify for a bowl game in their first season in FBS, transitioning up from FCS.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#12 Oregon at Arizona	9:00 PM
Fresno State at Boise State	9:45 PM
Hawaii at San Diego State	10:30 PM
Oregon State at Stanford	11:00 PM

This is….not a good late night schedule. Which means something wacky is coming our way. That’s the way it works in college football. I don’t make the rules.

TSN has their first quadrupleheader of the season which is always nice to see, especially for the non-specialty pack people. And let’s discuss the ESPN schedule this week. Early game. VERY late game. Nothing in between. What are they showing? Ah, that’s right. They have the Wild Card games in baseball this season. So as long as the second Wild Card game doesn’t go too far into extra innings, the Beavers-Cardinal game will start precisely at…11:00 eastern. This is almost as crazy as the Hawaii Test.

Big Games O’ The Week

Utah at UCLA (3:30, FOX) – Ya know, some people are going to bristle at this choice for top game of the week. Here are the facts: Utah is ranked #11 and is still the favourite to win the Pac-12 South. UCLA is ranked #18 and is undefeated. The winner here faces USC later in the season for the de facto Pac-12 South championship and, potentially a New Year’s Six or, dare I say it, College Football Playoff spot. So yeah, this is huge.

Tennessee at LSU (Noon, TSN3/TSN5) – Are the Vols for real (I refuse to ask if they are back…aw shit, I just did)? This is a big chance for them to prove it as the Tigers have started to claw their way back after a seriously shaky start under new head coach Jim Bob Brian Kelly. Tennessee can move up towards the Top 4 with a win here and an eventual showdown with Georgia. Maybe, LSU could put a scare in some teams…even…Bama? Wouldn’t that be something…that Saban would hate.

TCU at Kansas (Noon, FOX Sports One) – In your wildest imagination, did you think this could be one of the games of the week when this season started? No. No one did. Even TCU and Kansas fans thought that would be ridiculous. But here we are. Early October. Ranked TCU. Ranked Kansas. College Gameday in Lawrence. Its put up or shut up time for both teams. And man, if the Jayhawks pull this one out, they will be safely in the Top 15 and looking at heights that haven’t been seen around those parts since the magical 2007 season.

Florida State at NC State (8:00, specialty pack) – I’m sure many feel this is a game the Wolfpack will easily win to get back on track. This isn’t the Noles of the past five or six years though. These guys can play. I have a feeling this could very close. The ACC Network with a bit of a coup getting this one at this point of the season.

Washington State at USC (7:30, FOX) – A tiny bit surprised this didn’t end up on either ABC or ESPN but FOX gets a good primetime game here that actually will match up well with CBS’s offering. USC is on a roll and it feels like nothing will stop them. That’s why this is such a speed bump game for the Trojans. Win here and their game against Utah is probably one of the Games of the Year the following week.

Psycho Game of the Week

Wisconsin at Northwestern (3:30, Big Ten Network) – Another game where, at the start of the season, I never would have thought it would end up in this particular spot in the blog post. Northwestern is thankful that Colorado exists and Wisconsin has been a shell of its former self. Should be a fun one! And by fun, I mean horribly painful to watch.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Auburn at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – I have a feeling that this is going to get really bad, really fast for the Tigers. I also have a feeling that Bryan Harsin will not be fired after this one since everyone expects Auburn to get boatraced Between The Hedges.

Fun-Time Stats of the Week

Rutgers has lost all five of their meetings with Nebraska but every game the margin of victory has decreased. Last time they met, they only lost by 7.
Washington has lost the last seven times they traveled to Tempe to face Arizona State.
New Mexico has more wins over Wyoming than any other Mountain West team. They have beat the Cowboys 36 times.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

I made some picks last week. Some were good. I picked Illinois to cover the spread against Wisconsin. As for the rest don’t bother since I was horrible. Let’s just move on to this week’s picks that people should only use at Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

Nebraska (-3) over Rutgers
UNLV (+7) over San Jose State (SJSU will win in a close one)
Eastern Michigan (+5) over Western Michigan (WMU will win the battle for Directional Michigan though)
Oklahoma (+7) over Texas (and the outright victory)
Tennessee (-3) over LSU
Wisconsin (-10) over Northwestern
UCLA (+4.5) over Utah (but the Utes will win a very close affair)
Michigan State (+26.5) over Ohio State (but tOSU will win by approximately three touchdowns just to make it feel close for gamblers)
James Madison (-11.5) over Arkansas State
Wyoming (-3.5) over New Mexico
Iowa (+3.5) over Illinois (and the outright win)
Washington State (+13) over USC (Trojans win)
Oregon (-13) over Arizona

Alright we have the rare October Wednesday night game that doesn’t involve Sun Belt teams, nothing tomorrow night and then things really get into action on Friday. And it’s Thanksgiving this weekend! So enjoy the games and enjoy the turkey (or ham, if you don’t like turkey).

Someone might want to avoid airport tarmacs – the Week 2 Recap

Posted on September 13, 2021 by guelphbossman

The camera’s not on him all the time so I am sure he has that reaction a lot. And that reaction definitely came up the other night a lot. USC looked like complete garbage in most of their loss against Stanford. It feels like Kedon Slovis, after a promising start to his young career, has had his progress stall. A lot of that has to land on Helton. This team has had the talent to contend before and they have underperformed almost every season under his watch. It feels like, with ten games left in the season, that he will have to win at least eight of those to keep his job. And even then, that might not be enough. He is on one of the hottest seats right now for sure.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games (other than the top two), as is somewhat usual for Week 2. But, as per usual, it overdelivered giving us a wild weekend of football. Let’s go through the week that was!

Michigan 31 Washington 10 – What a game this was for the Wolverines. Washington is, to put it one word, awful. This team should have the talent to at least be sniffing the Top 25 and they are nowhere close. Maybe that loss against Montana wasn’t an aberration after all but more a warning for things to come in Jimmy Lake’s first full season at the helm. As for Michigan, this could be an interesting year in Ann Arbor with perhaps a shot at a New Year’s Six bowl? The next few weeks will tell a lot about this team.
Texas A&M 10 Colorado 7 – A classic Big XII matchup that had an absolute dearth of offense. Yes, the defenses both played well but the offenses were pretty bad. There were a couple of opportunities for the Buffs to extend their lead and they just couldn’t do it. The Aggies survived and may have lost their quarterback Haynes King for an extended period of time. A little bit of sweating in College Station going forward.
Oregon 35 Ohio State 28 – It felt that the Buckeyes would, at some point, comeback and win this one. I mean it’s Ohio State in the Horseshoe. They almost never lose there. Even without Kayvon Thibodaux, the Ducks played very well on defense for most of the game and didn’t allow tOSU to really get their offense humming. Oregon did just enough and Joe Morehead showed he still has quite the mind for offense as he called a masterful game.
Jacksonville State 20 Florida State 17 – For fuck’s sake Mike Norvell. If everyone thought it was bad during the Willie Taggart era, then strap in for this one. The Noles allowed JSU to stay close with their offense just not playing well at all. McKenzie Milton looked off and the running game was non-existent. But it looked like FSU would still hold on for the somewhat undeserving victory. Then it happened. The Gamecocks score on the final play of the game on a pass to the 20-yard line that the receiver was able to run in. No laterals. Not a Hail Mary. Just a pass and run. Norvell didn’t think to put more players closer to the goal line because there was, and I quote, “still six seconds and they were on their own side of the field.” What in the blue hell are you talking about, Mike? They only had one play left. That was it. Yes the tackling, or lack there of, was horrible there but no excuse not to put more players back there. What a fucking disgrace. And yes, Norvell is on a seat that’s only a couple degrees cooler than Clay Helton’s.
BYU 26 Utah 17 – The Cougars celebrated their acceptance into the Big XII by beating the Utes in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. BYU was superior in pretty much every aspect of the game. They look better than advertised, even with Zach Wilson gone, as Jaren Hall had a great game. Definitely quelled the worries of the Provo faithful over the quarterback position.
Coastal Carolina 49 Kansas 22 – As I’ve said before many times, I don’t have a horse in this entire college football race. I just hope to watch some exciting football and with the college game, I get that at least once a weekend during the season. Saying all that, I was kind of pulling for the Jayhawks to at least keep it close. They didn’t, but even in a 27-point loss, it felt like they have taken more strides in game two under Lance Leipold than they had in the previous two entire coaching regimes. That’s how bad things have got in Lawrence and how much ground they have to make up in the Big XII, now with extra BYU and AAC sauce.
TCU 34 California 32 – Now let’s go to a game that very few people watched but probably should have. I am not being facetious here. This was just a fantastic game from start to finish. Don’t think TCU played poorly or down to the Bears. They are a good team and could start moving up the rankings soon. California has had a rough start. Two good games played and no wins to show for it. Yes, starting with Nevada and TCU isn’t exactly a recipe for sure success but it has to be a bit frustrating to not be at least 1-1 at this point. I expect they will still be a bit of a player in the Pac-12 North though.
Alabama 48 Mercer 14 – Alabama beat Mercer. Ho hum. It was fun, though, to turn to TSN2 (yes this game was actually aired on TSN2) and see Nick Saban getting seriously pissed off at his squad after they went up 31-0. Only Saban.
Notre Dame 32 Toledo 29 – Toledo almost upset Notre Dame. In the hindsight is 20/20 department, it would have made more sense for Toledo’s quarterback, instead of running for that 30+ yard touchdown late in the game, to fall around the 1 and then drain the clock to allow the Rockets to kick the winning field goal. But they didn’t and Toledo’s defense decided to get a flag on almost every play, and the Irish made them pay. If Brian Kelly wanted to execute his team last week, I can’t imagine what he is thinking today. And all this was over on the ‘Cock! Yep, that’s right, it was on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, not on NBC proper. I’m sure no one was upset by this at all because college football fans tend to be rational people, right?
Miami 25 Appalachian State 23 – It was quite the exciting game down at Hard Rock Stadium and I wasn’t that surprised by it. People getting on the Canes have to realize that the Mountaineers are quite a good team. So not totally shocking for it to go almost down to the end. The most exciting thing to happen there that game, though, had nothing to do with what was happening on the field. A cat all of a sudden was shown dangling from the upper deck. No, I do not know how it got there or why it was dangling there. All the fans in the area were watching and hoping the cat didn’t get hurt or die by falling. The cat did fall…right into a guy holding an American flag who caught the cat in the flag. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Don’t be surprised if there’s a 30 for 30 Short on that one day.
Iowa 27 Iowa State 17 – Um, could this finally be the year that Kirk Ferentz takes the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Big Dance? This team is looking seriously good. No mistake that they looked overpowering compared to Iowa State on Saturday. And don’t think the Cyclones are out of it just yet. I think their College Football Playoff hopes, however slim, are probably squashed but a New Year’s Six spot is still theirs if they can win out the rest of the regular season. Don’t be surprised if both of these teams are playing on conference championship weekend in games that mean a whole lot.
Rutgers 17 Syracuse 7 – Don’t look now but the 2021 version of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team is 2-0. And looking pretty good doing it, especially on defense. Yes it’s early and yes the Scarlet Knights might be in the second toughest division in college football but things are finally looking up for a team that has been not a lot better than hot garbage since joining the Big Ten.
Arkansas 40 Texas 21 – Oh boy is Texas not back. The Longhorns were boatraced by Arkansas in a game that may not even been as close as the score indicated. I’m mistaken. Texas is back…..back bacon.
Pittsburgh 41 Tennessee 34 – At times this game was like snorting coke off a hooker’s ass, then taking a shot of absinthe, then getting on a motorcycle and gunning the engine to jump out of a plane. It was that ridiculous. At times both teams did everything they could to win, then not minutes later both teams would be trying their darndest to lose. Completely bonkers. In the end, it was a Volunteering that happened, not a Pittening. I’m sure fans on Rocky Top are not happy right now because Tennessee? Not back.
Oklahoma State 28 Tulsa 23 – I know people love to use the College Football Transitive Property. Team A beat Team B who beat Team C so Team A is better than Team C. It was almost to the point in this one where we’d have to say that UC-Davis was better than Oklahoma State because of that. Now Vanderbilt’s victory over Colorado State probably does fit. East Tennessee State beat Vanderbilt who beat Colorado State. So ETSU is better than CSU. Which may be true because the Rams got trounced by South Dakota State in Week 1. Ouch.
Houston 44 Rice 7 – Hey, who was possibly the only guy on the Internet to pick Rice to win this one? That would be me. And it’s a lesson to all you out there that I have mentioned multiple times before: do not use my picks to gamble with. You are playing with fire if you do so.
Army 38 Western Kentucky 35 – It seemed fitting that Army won on the anniversary of 9/11. WKU did not make it easy as they have a seriously prolific passing game with Bailey Zappe under centre. But Army’s option offense is, much of the time, too difficult to defend against because they don’t deviate from it, ever. Georgia Southern and Navy and Air Force, they have times were they pass the ball a decent amount. Hell, Georgia Tech has abandoned it altogether. Not the Black Knights. The option. That’s it. And it works most of the time.
Purdue 49 UConn 0 – The Huskies have not scored a point since Randy Edsall quit/retired. Not that they scored a lot of points anyway during his second tenure in Storrs. This is going to be a looooooooooooong season for that fanbase.

Recap complete! As I always say, some of the worst looking weeks on paper end up being some of the best to watch and this past weekend was a ton of fun to watch. You know what? Let’s bust out the first Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Oregon
#3	Georgia
#4	Texas A&M
#5	Oklahoma
#6	Iowa
#7	Cincinnati
#8	Notre Dame
#9	Clemson
#10	Penn State
#11	Ohio State
#12	Florida
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Wisconsin
#15	Iowa State
#16	UCLA
#17	North Carolina
#18	Virginia Tech
#19	Ole Miss
#20	Miami
#21	Arizona State
#22	Auburn
#23	TCU
#24	Arkansas
#25	Liberty

Always seem to be close to the AP Poll but there’s always interesting differences. Yes, I had Oregon moving all the way up to #2 and deservedly so. Also, I didn’t quite move Iowa into the Top 5 as many had (and AP did). Give it time and I’m sure they will get there. I try not to go crazy and overrate a team after one huge victory. That is why I only put Arkansas at #24. If they start stringing more victories together, then sure I will definitely move them up. They have to earn it right? Well, it is college football polls so “earning it” can be a very subjective measure.

Another recap done and getting in the football groove with Fall just around the corner. I will be going back to the normal college football schedule on Thursday, NFL schedule on Friday format that you all know and love (well, at least I think you love….I know you know). It’s getting slightly cooler (although it was quite humid today) and it is starting to feel a bit like football weather. I love it. Have a great week everyone!

2019 Bowl Game Rankings and Predictions!

Posted on December 18, 2019 by guelphbossman

It’s almost Christmas. Meaning it is bowl season! And then college football is over. This is sad. Maybe this is the year I finally get ripped in the offseason. Haha, I will believe it when I see it.

I’ve decided to stick with the College Football Broadcast Ranking System for the bowls this year. It works well. It separates the games that even the most casual of college football fans will watch from the ones that only the complete maniacs like myself would watch. Let’s begin.

10 out of 10! This is Saturday Night on ABC kind of games

Game of the week quality. So the College Football Playoff and the best two New Year’s Six games land here.

Fiesta Bowl – Ohio State vs. Clemson (Dec. 28, 8:00, TSN3/TSN5) – Chase vs. Trevor. Defense vs. Offense. Which isn’t quite true since tOSU’s offense is spectacular and the Tigers’ defense is still Top 10. But this really is the face-off that many want to see. This should be a very close, very exciting game between two undefeated teams. Now watch it be a blowout. My pick: Clemson 40-33.

Peach Bowl – LSU vs. Oklahoma (Dec. 28, 4:00, TSN3/TSN5) – They should never have the semi-finals on New Year’s Eve again. This day is perfect. Even when the College Football Playoff expands they shouldn’t do that. It also allows avoidance of many of the World Juniors games this year since the WJHC is in the Czech Republic (or is it called Czechia now?). Both semi-finals are good games but this will be the lesser of the two. Sorry Sooner fans. My pick: LSU 44-24.

Rose Bowl – Wisconsin vs. Oregon (Jan. 1, 5:00, TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) – I am glad this is getting quite a bit of hype. These two teams are fun to watch for very different reasons. And it’s the Rose Bowl…doesn’t it have to be a great game by default? My pick: Oregon 32-24.

Cotton Bowl – Penn State vs. Memphis (Dec. 28, Noon, specialty pack) – It’s not the Rose and Sugar at the top of the New Year’s Six list this year. This game is much more intriguing than the Sugar Bowl. Memphis is in the NY6 for the first time and we will see the first game where they are Norvell-less. It used to be these games were a no-win situation for the Power Five team but this is becoming less of an issue as the playoff gets older. Also, it’s James Franklin and hearing James Franklin makes you want to run through a brick wall. Very few guys can motivate like he can. My pick: Penn State 42-27.

9 out of 10! This is the SEC on CBS quality…normally

Arguably the biggest game of the day but goes here because the SEC is never on ABC (at least as the home team).

Outback Bowl – Auburn vs. Minnesota (Jan. 1, 1:00, TSN2) – One team is the team that ended Bama’s chances at competing for another national championship. The other team was very close to being this season’s Cinderella squad. Row The Boat vs. The Gus Bus. I am sad that this is going to be totally overshadowed by the Citrus Bowl starting at the exact same time. Why didn’t they schedule this to start at Noon? My pick: Minnesota 30-27.

Citrus Bowl – Alabama vs. Michigan (Jan. 1, 1:00, ABC) – This is the best non-New Year’s Six game (along with the Outback Bowl). Not surprised the Wolverines are in this game. But Alabama? It is honestly a bit of a shock to the system to see the Tide in a game like this. If they lose this game, could this be the worst season of the Saban era (other than his first in Tuscaloosa)? My pick: Alabama 34-30.

Las Vegas Bowl – Washington vs. Boise State (Dec. 21, 7:30, ABC) – And yet again this is the best pre-Christmas bowl game. And it is the much-ballyhooed Petersen Bowl. Final game for ol’ Chris Petersen before he returns in a few years because he missed coaching. I think the Huskies might keep this closer than many believe it will be as they will playing on a lot of emotion. My pick: Boise State 20-17.

Sugar Bowl – Georgia vs. Baylor (Jan. 1, 8:45, TSN1/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) – Normally this is the kind of game that would be the worst of the NY6 bunch. Not so this season. It should be a decent game and hey, it’s Baylor in a huge bowl game although I know that won’t sit well with some. Well tough shit. My pick: Georgia 26-16.

8 out of 10! I’ll call this ESPN…on Saturday…or maybe Thursday night…but not always Saturday late night

Still really good games. Must-see for college football fans at this point.

Alamo Bowl – Texas vs. Utah (Dec. 31, 7:30, specialty pack) – This could be higher but hear me out. Texas was supposed to better than this and are limping into this bowl game. Utah was on the precipice of going to the CFP and now aren’t even in the NY6. So I can see one, or both, of these teams not really caring as much as they should that they are in this particular bowl game. Also it’s the final college football game of 2019 and the time is not ideal for TV watchers. My pick: Utah 20-13.

Holiday Bowl – Iowa vs. USC (Dec. 27, 8:00, FloSports) – First season where we can see all the bowl games…legally! I know that FOX is trying to bolster FS1 by putting the better of their two bowl games on there but it still feels weird for this to be here. But at least they won’t be talking as much about coaching controversies or, hopefully, players sitting out this bowl game so they can actually call the damn game. And if it’s GUS and Joel then that’s even better. My pick: USC 26-10.

Camping World Bowl – Iowa State vs. Notre Dame (Dec. 28, Noon, ABC) – Notre Dame probably doesn’t want to be here. That’s too fucking bad though. If you think this sucks, hire Charlie Weis and get back to me with how it goes. Let’s hope the players, at least, are up for this one because the Clones definitely will be. My pick: Iowa State 20-7.

Liberty Bowl – Navy vs. Kansas State (Dec. 31, 3:45, specialty pack) – Navy is good again and Kansas State is also good again. I hope Chris Klieman has taught his guys how to stop the run. My pick: Navy 46-34.

7 out of 10! This is FOX territory. You could move this up 1 if GUS JOHNSON! is calling the game

Most college football fans should watch these games but we are getting eerily close to the equivalent of a game where Rutgers is involved (despite the fact they are in a Power Five conference).

Orange Bowl – Virginia vs. Florida (Dec. 30, 8:00, TSN3) – This might be the worst New Year’s Six game ever. No offense to the Cavaliers but they really don’t belong here. This is the shitty part of bowl tie-ins. Yeah you can figure out which teams are going where (for the most part) but then we get instances like this. Now watch the Hoos mop the floor with the Gators and prove me wrong. My pick: Florida 27-14.

Cheez-It Bowl – Air Force vs. Washington State (Dec. 27, 10:15, TSN1/TSN5) – The team that was one loss against Boise State away from being in the New Year’s Six conversation will face off against the Fighting Mike Leachs of the Palouse. How Troy Calhoun did not get any Coach of the Year consideration is baffling to be honest. Again, it’s another contrast of styles game so we shall see if the run or the pass reign supreme. My pick: Air Force 54-41.

Boca Raton Bowl – SMU vs. Florida Atlantic (Dec. 21, 3:30, ABC) – The Boca Bowl gets the ABC treatment! Nice! I still don’t know if Lane Kiffin will be coaching in this one but it is starting to look less and less likely as the game approaches. This also has SMU who is back, kinda, sorta. Being an elite Group of Five team is better than being a basement Conference USA team though, right? My pick: SMU 29-20.

Texas Bowl – Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State (Dec. 27, 6:45, TSN1/TSN5) – Why wasn’t Texas put here? This was their best chance since the Aggies left the Big XII and the bowl organizers fucked it up. Either that or one of the programs are still little bitches and won’t allow this to happen. Anyway, Canadian Chuba Hubbard could run wild in this one. My pick: Oklahoma State 37-32.

6 out of 10. We will put NBC here because they have to go somewhere.

Let’s be honest, NBC has very few games during a college football season. Like seven of them. But one or two are REALLY big games so on average, you have to put them above some other networks right? Plus all the Notre Dame fanboys would have a shit fit if I put NBC any lower.

Gator Bowl – Tennessee vs. Indiana (Jan. 2, 7:00, specialty pack) – This was supposed to be a different SEC team. I can’t even remember who it was but I know the Vols all of a sudden decided they wanted to be here rather than the Music City Bowl. I don’t know why there were just allowed to switch or that a bowl game could have allowed that but here we are. Anyway, I am interested at how much interest there is in the bowl games between New Year’s Day and the national championship, something that is back after a short hiatus. My pick: Indiana 37-36 (2OT).

Belk Bowl – Kentucky vs. Virginia Tech (Dec. 31, Noon, TSN3) – The final Belk Bowl. The best bowl Twitter account ever is done, for now, with sponsoring a bowl game. Knowing our luck there will be some weird company that steps up to sponsor this one. Or we get a hilarious one. Maybe Skoal wants to sponsor a bowl game. The Skoal Bandit Bowl. I’m smiling just thinking about it. My pick: Kentucky 24-17.

New Orleans Bowl – UAB vs. Appalachian State (Dec. 21, 9:00, TSN2) – I don’t get this tie-in. Really you should have a Louisiana team here no matter what. It’s a way to get a good crowd into the stadium since having less than half a stadium full is bad: in the Superdome it is so much worse. As much as I like what UAB is doing, I can’t see the Mountaineers taking it easy on them after barely missing the Cotton Bowl bid. My pick: Appalachian State 44-20.

Gasparilla Bowl – UCF vs. Marshall (Dec. 23, 2:30, TSN3/TSN5) – Weekday. Afternoon. Before Christmas. What do I always say about these games? My pick: UCF 46-30.

5 out of 10. Some hot ESPN2/ESPNU/SEC Network/ACC Network action right here!

These are the networks I really love to be honest with you. They provide a shit-ton of football on the specialty pack and at least once a week you get a great game on it. Well a great finish at least which is what we might have to hope for with this group of games. Also, we add the ACC Network this year!

Sun Bowl – Arizona State vs. Florida State (Dec. 31, 2:00, CBS) – Florida State barely got into a bowl game and fired their head coach. Arizona State did about as good as everyone thought they would and Herm Edwards has done great in Tempe. Now the question is how many will actually show up for this game. I put the over/under at 25,000 and that’s only because the Sun Devils are there. My pick: Arizona State 36-17.

Birmingham Bowl – Boston College vs. Cincinnati (Jan. 2, 3:00, specialty pack) – Luckily for this bowl game, it has been usually a good game in the past. Sucks that it is played in a dump like Legion Field but it could be worse. They could be at the Trop. Back to the game, the Bearcats should have no problem with the Eagles who finally fired Steve “The Dude” Addazio. About three years to late for many BC fans. My pick: Cincinnati 31-10.

Military Bowl – North Carolina vs. Temple (Dec. 27, Noon, TSN5) – Mack Brown in a bowl game in 2019. This tells you how crazy college football can be. The Tar Heels will have their work cut out for them as Temple is one of the most complete Group of Five teams around. I kind of hope it’s snowing for this one as we don’t get near enough bad weather bowl games. My pick: Temple 28-21.

Music City Bowl – Mississippi State vs. Louisville (Dec. 30, 4:00, TSN3) – The game Tennessee should have been in. Then they switched with Kentucky but Kentucky had already played Louisville for the Governor’s Cup so they switched with Mississippi State. So yeah I figured it out a few sections after I was struggling to remember. Bowl Selection Alzheimers. My pick: Mississippi State 37-23.

4 out of 10. FOX Sports One goes here although some could argue it should be higher.

Now that we can technically get FS1 games up here, I can’t use that as an excuse to put this in the 4 spot. FS1 is kind of all over the place so many times, ESPN2 has much better games but mostly ESPNU never has better games. I may have to rethink this for next season. For now, I don’t have time so here it is!

Pinstripe Bowl – Michigan State vs. Wake Forest (Dec. 27, 3:20, TSN1/TSN5) – Again, snow here would be fun. Wake Forest should be heavily favoured here but instead we will get everyone overrating Sparty. My wonder is if it will be Mark Dantonio’s last stand as MSU’s head coach. My pick: Wake Forest 47-34.

Mobile Bowl – Miami-OH vs. Louisiana (Jan. 6, 7:30, specialty pack) – Louisiana has a great run the last two seasons. If it isn’t for App State, the Ragin’ Cajuns are the best Sun Belt team around. Anyway, they go up against Miami-OH. The Cradle of Coaches probably won’t have a chance in this one and, to be honest, I can see many people taking a break before the natty by skipping this one. My pick: Louisiana 50-23.

Bahamas Bowl – Buffalo vs. Charlotte (Dec. 20, 2:00, TSN2) – This could end up being a fantastic game. Who knows? And I barely care because I won’t be able to watch it live. Oh well I guess it’s nice to see Charlotte in their first bowl ever and getting to go to the Bahamas. My pick: Buffalo 37-29.

Hawaii Bowl – BYU vs. Hawaii (Dec. 24, 8:00, specialty pack) – This is on Christmas Eve again. Where it belongs. This is an interesting game since most of the recruits on the islands go to, I believe, either Hawaii or BYU (and BYU even has a school in Hawaii somewhere). These two used to be conference foes but if it was BYU’s choice they never would be again because BYU is above the Mountain West/WAC in football I guess. My pick: BYU 26-24.

3 out of 10. CBS Sports Network or Big Ten Network type games. The whole “it’s about quantity, not quality” rule.

BTN, for some reason, gets one really good game all year and then a bunch of Rutgers games. CBSSN just has so many games but it’s all Group of Five so they have to be ranked this low. And now I can watch all these games which is really great, right? I think I need my head examined.

First Responder Bowl – Western Michigan vs. Western Kentucky (Dec. 30, 12:30, specialty pack) – Hey maybe this game will actually be played this time around. Saying that, it would be fucking hilarious if it was cancelled again. If that happened I could see this bowl just being jettisoned since it’s obviously bad luck. My pick: Western Kentucky 35-30 (if it doesn’t get cancelled).

New Mexico Bowl – San Diego State vs. Central Michigan (Dec. 21, 2:00, TSN2) – Jim McElwain did a fantastic job at Central Michigan this season. Rocky Long has been doing amazing work at SDSU for years. Top quality coaches here. I just…I don’t know. It feels like a game that’s just meh. A game that would struggle to get out of ESPN3 territory during the regular season. Nothing special. And to answer your question, yes, I will watch it. My pick: San Diego State 31-7.

Independence Bowl – Louisiana Tech vs. Miami (Dec. 26, 4:00, TSN5) – First game after Christmas. And it’s Shreveport, everyone’s least favourite bowl destination. This harkens back to like the 80s when no one really cared about things like this. Anyway, it’s the perfect bowl game for a team like Miami that barely made it to the postseason. And Louisiana Tech is almost at home for this one so hopefully the crowd is good. My pick: Louisiana Tech 21-17.

Armed Forces Bowl – Southern Miss vs. Tulane (Jan. 4, 11:30 AM, specialty pack) – I still wait for the day where Willie Fritz is picked up by a higher profile school. What he has done at Tulane is great. They are no longer a laughing stock and an easy out. Jay Hopson isn’t a slouch either. I do like the fact this starts late morning on the Saturday of Wild Card weekend. Morning college football!!! My pick: Tulane 40-20.

2 out of 10. This is some Pac-12 Network dreck over here.

The Pac-12 Network is now easily the worst of the conference networks. We don’t have a Big XII Network yet so once we get that in like 2031 we may finally get the definitive ranking. Anyway, most games on this network are pretty bad, especially for a Power Five conference. Yes, there are games that end up being great but the schedule is atrocious.

Redbox Bowl – Illinois vs. California (Dec. 30, 4:00, FOX) – It is a nice story to see Illinois in a bowl game for the first time in a few years. They are in an odd spot since they aren’t considered the worst of the Power Five bunch (even though they are in the conversation) but they are mostly forgotten in college football these days which is sad. Lovie Smith has finally done wonders in Champaign. Really though, this bowl game is between two average programs who have a good chance to be home for next year’s bowl season. My pick: Illinois 16-12.

Camellia Bowl – FIU vs. Arkansas State (Dec. 21, 5:30, TSN2) – Former Sun Belt foes (and I use that term really loosely) face off. Good chance this will be overshadowed by other game on this day, the first Saturday of bowl season. My pick: Arkansas State 36-33.

Cure Bowl – Liberty vs. Georgia Southern (Dec. 21, 2:30, CBS Sports Network) – The Cure Bowl is almost always near the bottom of the bowl rankings and this year is no different. At least they don’t have crazy competition to get viewers but the network won’t help things here. Even Liberty being in their first bowl game ever will be shit on because people just hate Liberty or they hate the man who doesn’t understand the concept of a burner phone, Hugh Freeze. My pick: Liberty 31-24.

Quick Lane Bowl – Eastern Michigan vs. Pittsburgh (Dec. 26, 8:00, TSN5) – MAC vs. Big Ten would have been better. ACC vs. Big Ten would have been better. Big Ten here would have been better, period. Thanks to stupid bowl tie-ins they didn’t have enough teams to get down to this bowl game. Oh well, at least it’s on in primetime. My pick: Pittsburgh 31-17.

1 out of 10. Or zero. Or negative numbers Who really gives a shit here? I sure don’t.

I will watch these if I can. I am a working man after all. I am an insane college football fan and even I can only take so much. In April I will be regretting treating these bowl games like a pile of diarrhea.

Frisco Bowl – Utah State vs. Kent State (Dec. 20, 7:30, TSN2) – I like the way this bowl is set up. Small-ish stadium. Football-mad state. The actual game though? Meh. It’s football and it’s on opening night so I will watch but it’s not high up on my list and they are lucky to have the audience to themselves. My pick: Kent State 39-36.

Idaho Potato Bowl – Nevada vs. Ohio (Jan. 3, 3:30, TSN2) – I always find it interesting that they make the MAC go to bowl games like this. And the Potato Bowl is always far down both conferences’ lists of where to send teams. Let’s be honest here; it’s Boise. Yes the blue turf is fun but other than it turning into a skating rink or them playing in a blizzard, this game, which is after New Year’s on a weekday in the afternoon, isn’t exactly must watch.. My pick: Ohio 47-31.

Arizona Bowl – Wyoming vs. Georgia State (Dec. 31, 4:30, CBS Sports Network) – The worst bowl game of the bunch. CBS Sports Network seems to own this spot with this bowl or the Cure Bowl. And to top it off, this game is around dinnertime on New Year’s Eve. Geez talk about a shitty spot for a lower-tier bowl. My pick: Wyoming 37-27.

So there you go! The bowl schedule and rankings are done. So now you can enjoy the games!

And hey I am posting this before bowl season begins! Nice change from last year and it means I am on the ball (for once).

A CFP without Bama? – Week 14 College Football Recap

Posted on December 2, 2019 by guelphbossman

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

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

Thursday

Mississippi State 21 Ole Miss 20

7:30 PM

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

Friday

Virginia 39 Virginia Tech 30

Noon

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

Texas 49 Texas Tech 24

Noon

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

Ball State 41 Miami-OH 27

Noon

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

Central Michigan 49 Toledo 7

Noon

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

Iowa 27 Nebraska 24

2:30 PM

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

Missouri 24 Arkansas 14

2:30 PM

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

Memphis 34 Cincinnati 24

3:30 PM

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

Boise State 31 Colorado State 24

3:30 PM

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

Washington 31 Washington State 13

4:00 PM

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

West Virginia 20 TCU 17

4:15 PM

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

UCF 34 USF 7

8:00 PM

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

Saturday Early

Georgia 52 Georgia Tech 7

Noon

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

Ohio State 56 Michigan 27

Noon

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

Indiana 44 Purdue 41 (2OT)

Noon

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

Clemson 38 South Carolina 3

Noon

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

Marshall 30 FIU 27 (OT)

Noon

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

Tulsa 49 East Carolina 24

Noon

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

Kentucky 45 Louisville 13

Noon

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

Northwestern 29 Illinois 10

Noon

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

Syracuse 39 Wake Forest 30 (OT)

12:30 PM

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

Saturday Afternoon

Temple 49 UConn 17

3:00 PM

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

Wisconsin 38 Minnesota 17

3:30 PM

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

Auburn 48 Alabama 45

3:30 PM

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

Duke 27 Miami 17

3:30 PM

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

Baylor 61 Kansas 6

3:30 PM

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

Penn State 27 Rutgers 6

3:30 PM

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

Boston College 26 Pittsburgh 19

3:30 PM

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

Michigan State 19 Maryland 16

3:30 PM

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

Florida Atlantic 34 Southern Miss 17

3:30 PM

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

SMU 37 Tulane 20

4:00 PM

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

Notre Dame 45 Stanford 24

4:00 PM

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

Tennessee 28 Vanderbilt 10

4:00 PM

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

Oregon 24 Oregon State 10

4:00 PM

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

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

North Carolina 41 NC State 10

7:00 PM

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

LSU 50 Texas A&M 7

7:00 PM

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

Navy 56 Houston 41

7:00 PM

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

Kansas State 27 Iowa State 17

7:00 PM

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

Louisiana 31 ULM 30

7:30 PM

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

Florida 40 Florida State 17

7:30 PM

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

Utah 45 Colorado 15

7:30 PM

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

Oklahoma 34 Oklahoma State 16

8:00 PM

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

San Diego State 13 BYU 3

9:00 PM

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

Arizona State 24 Arizona 14

10:00 PM

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

San Jose State 17 Fresno State 16

10:30 PM

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

California 28 UCLA 18

10:30 PM

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

Hawaii 52 Army 31

12:30 AM

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

Bowl Eligibility

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

Ohio

Mississippi State

Kent State

Liberty

Boston College

North Carolina

Michigan State

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

Coaching Carousel

Cue Homer Simpson goes to Clown College music.

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

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

Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:

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

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

Well it took about two months but we finally got it! – Week 9 College Football Recap

Posted on October 28, 2019 by guelphbossman

Oh. Yes. Was it the craziest weekend in college football history? No. But it was damn good and it led to a LOT of change in the Top 25.

Look let’s just get right to the recap to talk about the craziest week of the 2019 season. Saturday started with a banger and it just kept going from there. It’s the kind of college football Saturday I love to see. Let’s get to it!

Don’t write off Oklahoma just yet. We knew the Sooners would have a bit of a tough road to the College Football Playoff. The loss to Kansas State, however, was a bit shocking. I mean yes, they came back from being down three scores to within a crazy onside kick of having a shot to win. But it’s still a loss to an unranked team and those aren’t always forgivable. As for the Wildcats, they may be in the running to have a rematch with those same Sooners in a little over a month if they can keep this up and somehow pass Baylor who is now…leading the Big XII? Wow, OK then.

One of the craziest finishes you will ever see. And, of course, it stars The Hat, Les Miles. Kansas stays close with Texas Tech and then comes back to tie it up. They drive for the winning field goal and it’s blocked! This is where everything went haywire. A Red Raider player, Douglas Coleman, picked it up. This is the same guy that leads the nation in interceptions so he knows what to do with the ball. Except this time when he tried to lateral it to…nobody. This led to a Jayhawk lineman falling on the ball with 2 seconds left to allow them to get another chance to win the game. And they made the most of it, ending a wild game and giving Kansas their first win over Texas Tech in 17 years and their first road Big XII win in….look it’s been a long time since Kansas has done anything of note in football.

Florida State-Miami could be actually somewhat important again. So Florida State used some crazy trickeration to beat Syracuse. OK that wasn’t the only thing they used as they beat the Orange into dust. The Orange are so much worse than pretty much everyone thought it’s insane. I wonder if Dino Babers survives this. I guess we now know how valuable Eric Dungey was…more valuable than two Lamar Jacksons. On the other hand, Miami won thanks, in part, to Pitt’s ineptness and Pat Narduzzi’s insistence on yet again going for a field goal when it made sense to try for the touchdown. It allowed the Canes to drive late and win the game on a 32-yard TD with under a minute left in the game. Anyway, this means that the winner of the FSU-UM game is almost assuredly going bowling and the loser might not. Big stakes for two programs who, up until ten years ago, would have scoffed at a game like this.

Rain, Rain on Old Notre Dame! Brian Kelly has a serious problem with precipitation. And the fact he loves to pass the damn ball in rainstorms. I honestly don’t get it and I don’t think many watching understood it either. At least now the Irish are assuredly out of the College Football Playoff conversation. That’s music to many people’s ears. As for the Fighting Harbaughs, they aren’t done yet! Somehow they stick around and really Michigan would be stupid to fire Jimbo since he has been averaging 10 wins a season. Unless your last name is Saban or Swinney, you just don’t do that in this day and age.

We are down to a single digit amount of undefeated teams. And one of them is, yep, you guessed it, Minnesota. Let’s be real here: the Golden Gophers’ schedule hasn’t been exactly scintillating and full of great teams. In the end though, it doesn’t matter. This team will play Penn State, probably, in a battle of undefeateds in November. Who the hell thought that would happen? P.J. Fleck is again, rowing the damn boat harder than any coach in America and is changing how the fanbase feels about a team that really hasn’t been this good in about eight decades.

Back to Big XII Upset Watch. The THIRD upset of the day in the Big XII came in Fort Worth. The TCU Horned Frogs kept Texas from doing much of anything all day and held on for the victory. This may have ruined Texas’ chances of getting to the Big XII Championship but considering the way the conference was on this particular day, nothing is out of the question. We also got to listen to Gary Patterson who barely has a voice at the best of times, try to get through a post-game interview. He should just learn sign language at this point.

And then there was one. Well, one team to beat Alabama for the SEC West title. That team is LSU after winning a close one over Auburn. Auburn was able to keep up defensively with the amazing LSU offense. Problem is that their offense could barely do anything. Bo Nix looked every but the freshman and the running attack mustered basically nothing. It shows that teams have to play a complete game to beat the Tigers…of LSU.

Yes, the other Wildcats didn’t score a point. One set of Wildcats got an upset for the ages. The other, the Northwestern version, has struggled to score all year and are now the worst offense in the FBS. Yes, even worse than UMass or New Mexico State or Akron or any shitty teams like that. This week’s loss was to Iowa, a team praying that Minnesota falls off a cliff so that they can sneak through and go to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship. It would be a very Ferentzian way for the Hawkeyes to get to a conference championship game.

How about the crazy finish in Tulsa? What was it about crazy finishes in midwestern states? Memphis certainly didn’t look like a team that was still a New Year’s Six contender. But it was enough to stay ahead of the Golden Hurricane for most of the game. But with the Tigers (yes another Tigers) up by one, Tulsa drove down the field and set up a chip shot field goal to win the game. The fans, as much as they could be in Tulsa, were electric. Then Tulsa’s kicker pushed the 29-year field goal try left of the uprights and Memphis escaped. You had to feel for Tulsa who has had some shitty luck this season to be sure.

Oregon should have been punished. How do you live with yourself when you decide to punt from the opponent’s 33-yard line with 3 minutes to go and a six-point lead? It’s the kind of playcall that should lead to disaster. And for a bit, it looked like Mario Cristobal would be punished for it when Wazzu went up by 1 on his Oregon Ducks. Luckily, they were playing Washington State’s defense and were able to drive for the winning field goal. Still, someone should slap Cristobal in the face for that bullshit. You do that if you are up by like 40, not in a close game against an offensive guru.

And now to the other half of the Pac-12… Yeah Utah leads the Pac-12 South. After shellacking Cal they look like they are in the driver’s seat. But they aren’t. Get this…the team that holds its own destiny is USC. Yes, that USC. Clay Helton’s USC. Their win over Colorado has kept them at the point where they hold the keys to the divisional kingdom thanks to their upset win over the Utes earlier this season. Crazy.

Oh and who is in the ABC Primetime game next week? Yep, it’s your Southern Methodist University Mustangs. No kidding. SMU’s win over hapless Houston, along with Memphis surviving Tulsa, means the Mustangs will travel to the Liberty Bowl to play the Tigers in the big game of the week and the biggest game in the American conference this season. An SMU win, and they are that much closer to that coveted Group of Five spot in the NY6. It also means college football has another team playing well in the Metroplex and that’s always good.

Alright, enough recappin’. Let’s get to the Bossman Top 25!

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

Yes I have Alabama at #3. They have looked really good but compared to LSU and Ohio State I don’t think they measure up…yet. Clemson is down at #5 but we know what their schedule is like so no worries there yet. The first CFP Rankings come out in a little over a week and I am sure The Committee won’t totally agree with my rankings and I honestly don’t give a rat’s ass. Other than Clemson, no one in the Top 10 has an easy road to the CFP so a lot will change over the next week or two. Let’s not sleep on Oregon/Utah out of the Pac-12 since they are not far from the Top 4. With the Big XII becoming a shitshow and the ACC already a disaster, there could be room for a Pac-12 champ in there if a few things happen above them. Also, remember that Baylor is lurking in the weeds. Beat Oklahoma and they start looking really good (despite the Sooners loss to KSU). As for SMU I have them at #15 and the AP Poll has them the same and I feel that their ceiling is #10 unless more of that sweet chaos happens.

Football. Every. Day. That’s right. Every day between Halloween and the day before American Thanksgiving. And that day is the only day off between now and December 2nd. Let’s drink it in and enjoy this! Saying that we are a little late to the party this year as there is no Tuesday or Wednesday night MACtion or Fun Belt action yet. But soon. Be patient. Have a great week everyone.

Finally! – Week 7 College Football Recap

Posted on October 14, 2019 by guelphbossman

It wasn’t a ton of chaos but there was still a bit which makes Professor Chaos happy…I think. It was about damn time. We’ve needed some movement in the rankings since the first month-and-a-bit of the season had very little of that. So let’s get on to the recap:

Hold that Tiger! LSU had the biggest win in the biggest game as they beat Florida in a rivalry that seems to be blooming. And for once it’s all about LSU’s offense. It’s the one thing the Tigers have been missing for years but now that they have it, it is scary for other teams in the SEC for sure. After many failed attempts, LSU has arrived again. I am sure CBS is already working to get the Bama-LSU game in primetime. They’d be smart to give ESPN whatever they want to make that happen.

QUACK! QUACK! Oregon is starting to look like the dominating force they once were. The Ducks made easy work of Cal and has created a bit of a stranglehold at the top of the Pac-12. It is their Pac-12 North to lose now although we know how the Pac-12 has worked as of late. They are probably the Pac-12’s only College Football Playoff hope at this point.

Can’t blame Mark Richt for this one: Georgia never seemed in this one. South Carolina wasn’t dominating play but there certainly seemed like the better team. But Georgia had chances to win. And they could never capitalize on those. The playcalling of Kirby Smart was also strange especially down the stretch. Nothing went right for UGA and now their CFP chances have taken a huge hit.

I don’t know why I keep falling for this: Maybe it’s because I hope Bama will lose because it will create CHAOS. I honestly thought the Aggies would keep it close with the Tide. Boy was I ever wrong. Alabama keeps on rolling and very little seems in their way that could stop them (at least during the regular season).

Bronco Buster: I figured it would be Miami and Virginia for the ACC Coastal title. Well the Canes haven’t exactly lit it up so far this season. Both teams played quite well on defense and the Turnover Chain got to make a few appearances. The offenses were less than good in this one. However it was The U that did just enough to get into the division catbird seat. Or not. I don’t really know. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up a 7-way tie for the title with every team at 4-4. Oh wait, Georgia Tech is in that division. Six-way tie. Yeah, six-way tie.

Red River Battle Royale: Hey wasn’t that fun? It was a good game that started with a bit of a brew-ha-ha which prompted “The Gun Show” Mike Defee to give everyone an unsportsmanlike penalty. Can you imagine if the entire sideline got two warnings during the game. What happens then? Technically the entire team would be thrown out. That would have been something to behold. Anyway, the Sooners basically outlasted Texas in this one and has taken a big stranglehold on the Big XII that might only be broken by Baylor. Yes, Baylor.

You just got LAWRENCED! That sounds disgusting but may be true for some women on the campus at Clemson University. Florida State was never able to hang with the Tigers. In the end it was Trevor Lawrence who had one of his best games of his career as they annihilated the Seminoles. Clemson keeps on chugging and really has no roadblocks now to get to the CFP. Florida State is going to have to do some work to be bowl eligible and to save Willie Taggart’s job as he is on quite the hot seat now in Tallahassee.

Is Wisconsin’s defense that good? Their defense could be the best this century. Forget Clemson’s defense a year ago: this Badger D could be better. They are halfway through their season and have allowed only 29 points with four shutouts. Geez. Their game in two weeks with Ohio State could be something special. Interesting to see how Justin Fields does with this.

Baylor? Baylor! If anyone of you thought Baylor would be 6-0, put your hands down because I know you’re lying. Will they finish undefeated? I doubt it. But this is still a huge accomplishment for Matt Rhule and the Bears. And it took two overtimes to beat a fairly good Texas Tech team to remain unblemished. There is now a very real possibility that the Bears could be 9-0 when they play Oklahoma in November. This is the kind of chaos I love.

So is Utah finally going to get its chance? Kyle Whittingham and the Utes really do have the Pac-12 South by its balls. They have everything going for them and hold their destiny in their hands. Utah destroyed Oregon State on Saturday and looks to be set up to cause some major damage the rest of the way. And maybe this time the Utes will score more than 3 points in the Pac-12 Championship if they get there.

Biggest upset of the week goes to… Bowling Green. Yes, Bowling Fucking Green. In a game very few watched because of the schedule, the Falcons came in to their game against Toledo as 26.5 point underdogs. Yet they thoroughly whipped the hapless Rockets in spectacular fashion. First win for BG over Toledo in a decade to win the Battle of I-75. Nice.

Another close call for the Irish: Not saying USC is horrible but Notre Dame should have beaten pretty handily. This shouldn’t have been close yet it was. They don’t have a super easy schedule the rest of the way but all the games are winnable. They go 11-1 and they would have a really good shot at the College Football Playoff and, again, many people wouldn’t like that at all. Knowing this team, I can see one slip up the rest of the way to make The Committee’s job easier…well at least when it comes to the CFP. The New Year’s Six, not as easy.

Good lord Vanderbilt: What the fuck is going on in Nashville? Vandy loses big to UNLV. UNLV. Unbelievable. I think Derek Mason’s time as head man of the Commodores is about to come to an end as this could be the worst Vandy team since before James Franklin was coaching there.

Orange Britches! The Volunteers of Tennessee have won an SEC game! There had to be a few people out there who wondered when that would be said again. But against Mississippi State? I think the Joe Moorhead honeymoon is now over. I hate to say he may be on the hot seat but it’s getting warm. And Tennessee may not be as bad as we thought? I say that six days before they play Alabama in Bryant-Denny at night. Let’s hope they keep it within 30 so Saban gets REALLY angry.

Frost Warning: OK nobody thought Minnesota would be that good. But Nebraska is, yet again, worse than most people thought. You know, except for all those people who are going “Oh yeah I definitely didn’t think Nebraska would be that good. I figured they would be exactly where they are right now.” And then you see they have no proof of that and you then know you are talking to one of “those people.” The ones who tell everyone about what they did right but man, when it’s something wrong, they lack that one thing…what’s it called? Oh yeah, accountability. Wow, that took a bit of a dark turn.

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

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

That was quite the week in movements in the Top 25. Basically #1 is set and after that it is a complete gongshow and no one would be wrong with their own personal rankings (well, unless you put Illinois in your Top 25). Some would put Boise State higher up after a win over Hawaii but I don’t buy that…yet. Let’s be honest: their schedule will not help them and any hope of them getting to the CFP hinges on chaos above them (which I am fully for). This weekend helped but won’t be nearly enough. As a bit of an aside, what is with College Gameday going to State College instead of Dallas to showcase a Top 25 SMU team? The stories write themselves there. Nope, go for the Whiteout. Of course. Nothing against Penn State but this is another mark against the Group of Five and college football’s perception of those programs.

As for what I think the CFP combatants will be, here is what I think will end up being the rankings at the top (at this time):

Alabama
Clemson
Oklahoma
Ohio State
LSU
Utah
Georgia

The top three are basically set as long as they don’t mess things up royally. It’s the number four spot that will be under a lot of scrutiny. The rest of those teams all will or might have black marks on their resume. None of the Group of Five teams will be in this conversation and I am pretty sure about that. This basically says that Bama will beat LSU later on which means that the Big Ten would probably send its champ at that point. At this point, I think Ohio State but Wisconsin could be in the mix as well. Way too much football to play to make any definitive statements.

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

So close, Mack. So close. – Week 5 College Football Recap

Posted on September 30, 2019 by guelphbossman

There are some that don’t understand the reasoning behind Mack Brown’s call near the end of the game. I do, though. Mack Brown is trying to build the North Carolina program back up. Winning this game would have been huge for the team. Was the playcall the best one? Not really but that’s not the point here. Chances are if they did go to overtime, it definitely favours Clemson. Not saying the Heels couldn’t have pulled it out in OT but I like them going for it. Take the risk. Too many coaches play it safe and it’s more to save their own hides rather than make a statement. I get that too but I wish more coaches would have a spine and take more risks…not a ton more, just a few more.

Other than that, was it a awesome weekend? No. No it was not. In college football parlance, it was rather mundane to be honest. Let’s get to the recap.

It looked like some crazy football could happen with what went on Friday night. California was hosting Arizona State as the only undefeated team left in the Pac-12. But remember…you play…to win…the game. And that’s what the Sun Devils did. A close game but they were able to hold off Cal and, for now, put the Pac-12 on the outside looking in for the College Football Playoff. The conference has to hope for some chaos elsewhere to get back in the race.

Notre Dame put on show against Virginia. The Irish never looked like they were in trouble in this one. They still have a few difficult games left (USC, Michigan, Duke) but they don’t have a seriously difficult one left this year. If they win out, they could be an outside choice for the College Football Playoff depending on what else happens. That should piss the anti-Notre Dame folks off but they would be firmly in the Top 10 all season. As for UVA, this isn’t a bad loss for them as they still have to be considered the favourite in the ACC Coastal division.

Hey guess what? Maryland cancelled classes so that students could fill the stadium for their huge game against Penn State. They should have just let the kids have a long weekend. Penn State put a colossal beatdown on the Terps, winning 59-0. The Terps couldn’t do anything right and the Nittany Lions, consequently, looked like everything they did was near-perfect. I mean I get that PSU is an outside contender for the New Year’s Six but it shouldn’t have been this much of a lopsided game. The Terrapins had no life it seemed. And now they look like they will struggle to get to a bowl game after all the early season hype. Mike Locksley has quite the job ahead of him.

Another game that many thought would be closer went down on The Plains (see a pattern here?). The Bulldogs were boatraced by what seems like a seriously good Auburn team. And yes Bo Nix looks like the real deal. Not amazing but the kind of QB that can do enough to propel a team to victory. Hell, even Bully, the Bulldogs’ mascot, was hit by an Auburn player after being pushed out of bounds. So yeah, MSU was beaten on all fronts on Saturday.

Minnesota is quietly undefeated. They don’t have a true Heisman contender. They barely beat all the teams in their non-conference schedule. So them holding on to beat Purdue to start their conference was a slight surprise but not enough to even put them in the Top 25. But the way things are going, don’t be surprised if they are 8-0 when they host Penn State in early November. P.J. Fleck doing some work in the Twin Cities rowing that damn boat.

I think Virginia Tech is going to be in tough to keep their bowl game streak alive which is at 26 seasons right now. They were knocked around by Duke and have looked terrible in Bud Foster’s final season as defensive coordinator. And I get they are in the ACC but their schedule isn’t exactly easy and now they have to win four of their final eight to go bowling. Part of me wants them not to make it so other teams get an opportunity, I’m not gonna lie.

Bama has absolutely crushed pretty much all their opponents this season. They just destroyed the Ole Miss recently. That matters little at this point. What will be more important is what they do when the tougher games begin. That starts in two weeks when they travel to College Station to play Texas A&M. And now that they are #1 in the AP Poll (and rightfully so), they become a bigger target and all it takes is one loss to get many of the media pundits talking about Bama’s demise and shit like that. Let’s start with them not making the CFP for once and then MAYBE we can discuss it. Until that point, there’s no point. Saban is Saban and always has the horses to be in the Top 4.

Ohio State laid a beating on Nebraska. I, along with many others, fell for the preseason Husker hype. As for Ohio State, this team is really good and could make a case for being #1 at this point. They still have a very tough schedule left but it wouldn’t be a total surprise if they did run the table. Ryan Day is looking like the right choice in Columbus. Back to Nebraska, that was the worst loss by a team who hosted College Gameday ever. That’s pretty sad. Saying that, I had them not doing that great early on and then winning almost all of their conference games after the Ohio State game. I mean it could still happen but they are not inspiring hope that is for sure.

Wake Forest is sneaking up on everyone in the ACC. They were the first 5-0 team in FBS after beating Boston College. Honestly, there is a possibility that the Deacs could be 9-0 when they head to Clemson to face the defending champs. Again, not a team of stars but very few holes and Dave Clawson is one of the better coaches in America right now. I would love to see them get some New Year’s Six chatter and soon enough they will if they keep winning.

UCF annihilated UConn but has given up their spot as the New Year’s Six favourite from the Group of Five conferences. That honour goes to Boise State. For now.

Michigan might actually be good. Who knows? But it was just Rutgers they beat so that is not a barometer of anything. It’s Rutgers after all. It also was the end of the Chris Ash era in Piscataway as he was finally shitcanned, probably more than a year after he should have been fired in the first place.

The other ranked-on-ranked game was Washington hosting USC and it was the bad Trojans that showed up as the Huskies looked like they were never in trouble all game. More are calling for Clay Helton’s dismissal. Keyshawn Johnson talked about Tarmac in an Instagram post, referencing Lane Kiffin’s firing on an airport tarmac. So yeah, things not going well in southern California.

Alright enough recappin’. Time for another Bossman Top 25. I am sure you might bristle at some of my rankings. I will explain below:

#1	Alabama
#2	Clemson
#3	Georgia
#4	Ohio State
#5	Auburn
#6	LSU
#7	Notre Dame
#8	Wisconsin
#9	Oklahoma
#10	Florida
#11	Penn State
#12	Texas
#13	Washington
#14	Iowa
#15	Oregon
#16	Michigan
#17	Utah
#18	Boise State
#19	UCF
#20	Virginia
#21	Oklahoma State
#22	Texas A&M
#23	Arizona State
#24	Michigan State
#25	Wake Forest

Yep, I put Alabama at #1. Yeah I know I had them farther down last week but things change. And honestly they are looking better than Clemson at this point of the season. I could also say the same thing about Georgia and Ohio State but I am not ready to pull the trigger on those yet. And also remember that this is on September 30th, not what I think it will be at the end of the year. Plus you have Auburn and LSU right there close to the top and at some point they may all become interchangeable and no one’s opinion would be truly wrong. There’s still plenty of games to separate all these teams and, as per usual, I hope for chaos because chaos in college football is fun.

See you back on Thursday for the college football TV schedule. Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

Well this is an interesting wrinkle – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 26, 2019 by guelphbossman

Really, the early part of this week really had nothing going on in the college football world. Then D’Eriq King happened and a bomb had been dropped. King has decided to redshirt this season and will return as a senior for Houston next season. He has since been joined by receiver Keith Corbin. This is definitely a new wrinkle that hadn’t been seen before in college football and they can thank the new four-game redshirt rule. King and Corbin are saying they will be back with the Cougars next season which has to be a relief to Dana Holgorsen. But now there is a rumour that it may have been Holgorsen who nudged these two in that direction because the Cougs will be much better in 2020 and could make a run at a New Year’s Six spot. If that is the case, that’s huge news. The college football world is evolving and some are not very pleased with it but you better get on this train since it is speeding ahead at top speed with no chance of slowing down (except for perhaps a stop when they start getting into paying the players).

So let’s end the redshirting conversation for now (although it makes me want to play NCAA Football 14). Time to get down to the task at hand which is getting you the college football schedule TV information for Week 5. This feels much easier this season although I honestly have less insight into the specialty packs since I don’t actually have one anymore.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Delaware State at North Carolina A&T	7:30 PM
Navy at Memphis	8:00 PM

Navy is improved. And Memphis is good. This has the look of a potential Thursday night upset. Which would suck for my preseason predictions but I do love me some college football chaos.

Friday

		US	Canada
Duke at Virginia Tech	7:00 PM
San Jose State at Air Force	8:00 PM
#12 Penn State at Maryland	8:00 PM
Arizona State at #15 California	10:30 PM

Good that we have FloSports now since PSU-UMD could be interesting. Arizona State can almost completely ruin the Pac-12’s collective season with a win. The other two games are technically games so I will watch.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Northwestern at #8 Wisconsin	Noon
Holy Cross at Syracuse	Noon
Rutgers at #20 Michigan	Noon
Central Michigan at Western Michigan	Noon
Arkansas vs. #23 Texas A&M (in Arlington)	Noon
Middle Tennessee at #14 Iowa	Noon
Buffalo at Miami-OH	Noon
Texas Tech at #6 Oklahoma	Noon
Kansas at TCU	Noon
Northern Illinois at Vanderbilt	Noon
Delaware at Pittsburgh	12:30 PM

As per usual, the early games are interesting even if they are lacking some star power. Northwestern-Wisky will be, arguably, the biggest game of the early slate but many will be interested in TTU-OU. We shall see if the Red Raiders can put up at least 60 points to counter the fact that their defense also might give up 60 to the Sooners. A note here about the NU-Wisky game: It will start appearing on TSN4 at 1:00 after Raptors Media Day concludes.

UPDATE #2: Delaware-Pitt not showing on the specialty pack.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#1 Clemson at North Carolina	3:30 PM
Wake Forest at Boston College	3:30 PM
Indiana at #25 Michigan State	3:30 PM
Ole Miss at #2 Alabama	3:30 PM
Georgia Tech at Temple	3:30 PM
Iowa State at Baylor	3:30 PM
Minnesota at Purdue	3:30 PM
#21 USC at #17 Washington	3:30 PM
#18 Virginia at #10 Notre Dame	3:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at Charlotte	3:30 PM
SMU at USF	4:00 PM
Towson at #9 Florida	4:00 PM

ESPNU at 4. Some people complain about this but it’s because they don’t have a late night game and now you know…unless Hawaii gets a game on ESPNU then it would start at 11 and we (meaning I) would be up even later than we (I) normally am.

Biggest game in this timeslot is Irish-Cavs. Followed closesly by USC-Washington. After that it is populated with games between a ranked team and a not-so-good team or two not-so-good teams playing each other. Take Clemson for example. Number one team in the land! Against a still not that good North Carolina team. Ugh. Oh well. Hopefully one of these games will end up like UCLA-Washington State from last weekend.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Mississippi State at #7 Auburn	7:00 PM
UConn at #22 UCF	7:00 PM
#5 Ohio State at Nebraska	7:30 PM
NC State at Florida State	7:30 PM
Colorado State at Utah State	7:30 PM
Kentucky at South Carolina	7:30 PM
UNLV at Wyoming	8:00 PM

Hmmm so the primetime slate is a step back from the afternoon slate. Not saying there aren’t some good games here but it doesn’t match what happens early in the day. MSU-Auburn will be the game of the night and should get most of the eyeballs. Saying that, Nebraska keeping their game closer than 50 with tOSU would be a nice surprise.

UPDATE #3: Super-important thing I forgot…it’s time for Civil ConFLiCT!

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Washington State at #19 Utah	10:00 PM
UCLA at Arizona	10:30 PM
Hawaii at Nevada	10:30 PM

Pac-12 After Dark, Late Night Mountain West, and some more Pac-12 After Dark. The best game is probably Wazzu-Utes but remember…Chip Kelly’s University of California at Los Angeles football Bruins play in this timeslot as well.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Virginia at Notre Dame (3:30, NBC) – I believe this is an easy choice for the Game of the Week and I can’t understand why people would disagree. I have Notre Dame winning this one (as you will see in the next section). Either way, the winner still has a shot at the College Football Playoff and a win by the Hoos has to make them the favourite to win the ACC The-One-That-Clemson-Is-Not-In Division.

USC at Washington (3:30, FOX) – Looks like I will be flipping back and forth between this big game and the UVA-ND game. It’s a good problem to have. Anyway, both teams have looked shaky at times. USC looked terrible and everyone wondered if Clay Helton would be fired. Then the Trojans woke up and played well and Clay Helton’s job was saved. Washington lost to Cal by 1 in a game that Cal really did dominate. Here’s where we find out which team is for real…or as real as a team can get considering it’s still late September.

Mississippi State at Auburn (7:00, specialty pack) – Who thought Auburn would be this good at this point of the season with a freshman quarterback? Now put down your hands you filthy liars. None of us thought this. The Gus Bus is rolling along better than anyone figured it would be. Could they actually have a chance to dethrone Alabama? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves since the Bulldogs are a decent team and a win here makes it LSU or bust for a Saban regular season loss.

Ohio State at Nebraska (7:30, ABC) – Are we falling off a cliff here from the first three games? Maybe but who knows. Nebraska isn’t living up to the preseason hype. But they are still 3-1 and right in the thick of the Big Ten West race (although it’s early). So far, the Ryan Day Experience has gone well. This almost feels more important for the Buckeyes than the Huskers since Day really can’t lose more than one game during the regular season since the comparisons between him and Urban will come up and he might not like what he hears.

Washington State at Utah (10:00, FloSports) – I think this might be the first game on this list on FS1 that can be seen in Canada. Interesting. I am kind of surprised ESPN didn’t get this game and instead got UCLA-Arizona. I still think Utah can do some damage the rest of the way. Same with Washington State and plus, Mike Leach is hilarious. Let’s be honest: ESPN would splooge their pants if Wazzu got to the New Year’s Six.

Honourable mention: Northwestern at Wisconsin (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4); Arizona State at California (Friday, 10:30, specialty pack); Kansas State at Oklahoma State (7:00, ESPN+…no seriously)

Some gambling fun and games

My God my picks were fucking horrific last week. What the hell was I thinking? You know what, I don’t care. I am just going to delude myself into saying that was an aberration and not the norm. Will these picks be better? I will give a very tentative yes.

Mississippi State over Auburn (yep starting out with an upset…I guess I don’t learn my lesson)

California over Arizona State

USC over Washington

Utah over Washington State

Notre Dame over Virginia

Ohio State over Nebraska

Wisconsin over Northwestern

Oklahoma State over Kansas State

Penn State over Maryland

Oklahoma over Texas Tech

Michigan State over Indiana

Hey is the specialty pack have its guide up yet? Of course not! OK I know tonight and tomorrow night are up. But to be honest with TSN showing barely any college football at this juncture it should be pretty easy to figure the specialty pack schedule out. Again, it’s a mess and the cable companies have no reason to step up their game because who gives a shit about college football fans, right? What a bunch of assholes.

UPDATE: The specialty pack guide is fully up.

Thursday Night Football will be on FOX as well as the NFL Network tonight. This means we will get at least four times where Joe Buck has to read promos for WWE Smackdown. Oh I can’t wait. I’m sure Buck and/or Aikman will say something sarcastically about it at some point. It has to happen even if its just for our entertainment. The game itself? Big. Eagles-Packers. Packers having a great start and the Lafleur-Rodgers coach-playermance going along just swimmingly. As for the Eagles…yikes. Lose this and they are 1-3. Not a good start at all and panic may be setting in in the City of Brotherly Love.

I should be on the Twitter machine at some point this Saturday so follow along. Or don’t. Really doesn’t matter to me. Enjoy the games everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2019 College Football Season – Part Quatro

Posted on June 12, 2019 by guelphbossman

If you don’t know who these guys are well….I guess that just means you never watched wrestling (same thing I said last year for part four). Yes it’s not the greatest stable of all-time but the nWo was amazing and a revelation in pro wrestling (that I believe was stolen from Japan but whatever). I am going to do a rating system for the final weeks of the system using nWo members. I have to be careful though since they had like 10,000 members or something like that so I will choose wisely to get my point across…I hope. If you have no idea what I am talking about then don’t worry…it probably means you’re normal.

We’re at the end of this exercise for this season. Final four weeks of the regular season. Two great weeks, one average week, one below-average week and NO BAD WEEKS. Even SEC Sleepwalk Saturday can’t really be called that because it’s not a horrible week. So November is gonna be something else in 2019. Here we go.

Week 11

This week is the third best week here. Quite important in the grand scheme of things but not top level like the real superstars. So Week 11 would be one of Syxx, Scott Steiner or The Giant.

Game of the Week: LSU at Alabama (3:30, CBS) – The yearly Bama-LSU primetime SEC on CBS game is not happening this season. This year CBS and the SEC have gone with Notre Dame-Georgia as their primetime pick for the season. They can try and get a second one during the season but that has rarely happened. Also it would have to be where Alabama and LSU are both at least top five if not #1 and #2. Not saying that won’t happen: both teams look like serious contenders this year.

Other Really Important Games: Iowa State at Oklahoma (Noon, FOX Sports One) – Honestly it was between this and Kansas State-Texas for the Noon FOX spot. I have a feeling it will be switched from what I have unless either the Wildcats or Longhorns are leading the Big XII at this point. Anyway, this is a huge Big XII matchup. You could even call it yuge. It’s nice to see teams like Iowa State being considered really good teams after years of thinking of them as Iowa State.

Clemson at NC State (7:30, ABC) – Still waiting for some team to usurp the Tigers to be #1 in the ACC. This might be the best shot right here with the Wolfpack hosting Clemson at night in Raleigh. I can understand why many are always down on the ACC since it truly is a one-team conference until further notice. Also, I am sure we will hear an inkling of Dave Doeren being on the hot seat: a yearly tradition.

Missouri at Georgia (7:00, specialty pack) – Missouri is an interesting team coming into this season. Drew Lock is gone which is a massive hole to fill. But it feels like they are kind of team that might have a chance to compete in the SEC East. A win here would turn the SEC East upside down (unless Florida already beat the Dawgs at the Cocktail Party then it would be more like a nail in the coffin for UGA’s championship aspirations).

Penn State at Minnesota (Noon, ABC) – Honestly it feels a bit weird to put Minnesota in this spot. But it’s Minnesota. The Golden Gophers. You kind of expect them to win between six and eight games and lose an important game that they should have won. Penn State should also be a contender so this may end up not being that close. Hopefully Minny surprises me. But this is the reason this gets ABC’s version of the death spot, kicking off at Noon.

Iowa at Wisconsin (3:30, ABC) – ABC gets all three of their games on this list. Amazingly enough, that is quite the accomplishment and I don’t think it has happened often at all. This is your typical Big Ten affair. When people think of Big Ten football they think of Ohio State-Michigan of course. Then probably this. Or this kind of game. Great defense. A lot more rushing than the normal college football game. Hardnosed. And other adjectives I’m sure.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Tennessee at Kentucky (Noon, CBS) – Underrated? For sure. We will hear about it all week, especially if one or both of these teams is somehow in the Top 25. Then of course it would be in the most important games section but I digress. In essence, here we have the classic college football power up against a potential burgeoning college football power. It’s the kind of game both teams will feel they have to win. It’s also the opening game of the second, and last, CBS doubleheader of the season so hopefully you like Carter Blackburn and Aaron Taylor since that is who you will get.

Best Group of Five Game: Utah State at Fresno State (7:00, CBS Sports Network) – Hey a game here that doesn’t involve Boise State or UCF. Nice. Both of these teams are still quite good in the Mountain West and will of course be underrated because they had the audacity to be in the same conference as Boise State (USU takes it further by being in the same DIVISION as the Broncos. The gall!). They are also locked in during a timeslot that isn’t exactly brimming with amazing games. So this could get a lot of attention if the game is close late.

Worst Power Five Game: Texas Tech at West Virginia (3:30, FOX Sports One) – I will be getting this network soon. Yes I will. So then I can watch it on Saturdays from late August to the end of the year. And no other times. No sirree Bob.

Week 12

Fourth best week of the college football season. What this does is really set the table for the end of the regular season and starts paring down the true contenders from the pretenders. I would say Week 12 is Scott Hall or Kevin Nash (or both).

Game of the Week: Georgia at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – This game is majorly important and for obviously different reasons. UGA has a true contender in the East in Florida and Auburn has Alabama to deal with. It was tough picking a true GOTW with the calibre of games this week. The next two could also qualify for this spot and no one would bat an eye to be honest. Unless you are one of those people that truly believe that the huge Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech Techmo Bowl deserves the top spot.

Other Really Important Games: Michigan State at Michigan (7:30, ABC) – There is pretty much no way that ABC/ESPN will let this one go to FOX. They lose The Game every year and I am sure a few other good Big Ten games. And considering ABC loves putting Big Ten games on in primetime it would force their hand into doing something different which wouldn’t be a good look. Also this could be considered the game of the week, so there’s that. Unfortunately Sean McDonough would not be doing this game (HE DROPPED THE BALL! as his voice cracks)

Alabama at Mississippi State (7:15, specialty pack) – I will admit that most of the reason this game sits here is because of that prick Saban and his stupidly good Crimson Tide squad. However, we have Fitter Joe Moorhead now to contend with. I guess he just won’t lose his breath pacing the sidelines? I don’t know. CBS might bite on this game depending on how many appearances Auburn and Georgia have already had on the Eyeball Network. The one they don’t pick will get the ESPN primetime spot and a possible appearance on TSN.

South Carolina at Texas A&M (Noon, specialty pack) – Hey remember when the SEC Network started and Texas A&M blew South Carolina out of the water? Ah, good times. I know the ACC Network is hoping that doesn’t happen in their opening game. They are hoping more for the way the Big Ten Network started (Appalachian State…has stunned the college football world!). Anyway, this should be a really good game but it is only the third-best SEC game of the week. Quite a week for the conference that just means more.

Texas at Iowa State (3:30, FOX) – This could end up as the premier game on FOX…meaning at Noon Eastern. I am sure that some Big XII fans absolutely loathe 11:00 am start times. I don’t blame them to be honest since you have anywhere from five to seven home games a season and getting there for a morning kickoff would be difficult. But if you want a national audience, sometimes you have to do that.

Florida at Missouri (7:30, specialty pack) – Not often that games from the SEC Network make this list. Then again, it’s not that often that this many SEC games are on the list, period. So who the hell made the SEC conference schedule and what is their beef with Mizzou? Back-to-back games with Georgia and Florida? That’s brutal. One of the toughest two-game stretches in all of college football this season. If Tennessee is any good then that will make three tough divisional games in a row. Then again, life’s not fair.

Stanford at Washington State (7:30, FOX) – So of course as soon as I talk about 9:00 am kickoffs, there is an article put up talking about the Pac-12 almost needing to test that out to see if it would work. And honestly, I think it would. It might suck but if it’s one or two games a season for the whole conference, most people won’t care. Who wants to bet that this game is played in snow up in Pullman?

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Minnesota at Iowa (Noon, specialty pack) – Minnesota appearing twice? P.J. Fleck rowing that boat like he’s never rowed before obviously. Lately, Iowa has had Minnesota’s number but if the Gophers continue to improve then soon enough, Fleck will be the most popular college football coach in the history of the state of Minnesota, surpassing Hayden Fox.

Best Group of Five Game: Fresno State at San Diego State (Friday, 9:30, specialty pack) – The odd 6:30 local start on a Friday night should make attendance look rather, um, sparse for the first quarter. Especially in the cavernous Murph/Qualcomm/SDCCU Credit Union whatever. The Mountain West continues to be rather top-heavy as it has been for the past half-decade or so. I would include these two, Boise State and Utah State and then……..anyone? These four, at this point, seem to be the only ones with a snowball’s chance at the New Year’s Six spot. I’d say all the Group of Five conferences are like this but this one probably has the greatest disparity between the top teams and the bottom ones…until I realize the American has UCF and UConn.

Worst Power Five Game: Arizona State at Oregon State (10:00, FOX Sports One) – Oregon State and Rutgers I think are going to be in the running for worst Power Five team this season. This week, the Beavers get this spot at the bottom.

Week 13

This used to be the week I didn’t like. I didn’t hate it because it’s college football and I can’t hate it. But it used to be the week that many teams, especially SEC ones, would schedule easy games before American Thanksgiving weekend. And don’t get me wrong, it is still happening this season. But it’s not as bad this year. Oh no. And there are a couple of massive games as well. So Week 13 (normally Week 12) has somewhat redeemed itself! Huzzah! For that reason, I can’t use the worst nWo member, Vincent, to represent this week. So I will go with someone who wasn’t exactly the greatest wrestler but who could step up when needed. Week 13 is now Konnan.

Game of the Week: Texas A&M at Georgia (3:30, CBS) – See what I mean? This would be one of the top 2 games in almost any week of the season. Can’t really complain, right? By this point we will have a very good idea where both of these teams stand in terms of the rankings and inside the SEC. This could end up being the most important SEC game of the year if both teams are really good, which is a distinct possibility.

Other Really Important Games: Penn State at Ohio State (7:30, ABC) – I can honestly say that this is almost guaranteed to get the ABC primetime slot this week. The only way this wouldn’t happen is if Penn State isn’t nearly as good as predicted since tOSU definitely should be in the Top 10 for most of the season. A far cry from last year’s second game which I was concerned wouldn’t be aired at all here since it was a FOX Regional Game! I’m glad the schedule makers have learned their lesson (somewhat).

TCU at Oklahoma (3:30, ABC) – If TCU has a special season, this could end up being a surprise GOTW if not a game of the year. Oklahoma will keep rolling along although their spot at the top of the Big XII is being challenged by Texas (IS BACK!). In a week that still isn’t amazing compared to other weeks, ABC should get a bonus if they can grab this one and the previous game.

Texas at Baylor (3:30, specialty pack) – Texas (IS BACK!) has an equally important game this week against a Baylor team that has come back from being, well, an awful football program (and not just on the field). Matt Rhule has done an incredible job in Waco and the Bears can put up a lot of points like those classic Bears teams of, um, a decade ago. This feels like a speed bump game so the Horns better be careful.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: UCLA at USC (4:00, FOX Sports One) – OK still only four games in the first two sections. I never said this week was amazing, just improved. These teams were, let’s be honest, horrible last year. At least by their standards. A Battle for Los Angeles with two good programs is not only good for college football, it’s good for the Pac-12 which needs something to clean off the stench of their conference continually shitting the bed and not being even considered for the College Football Playoff.

Best Group of Five Game: Boise State at Utah State (10:30, CBS Sports Network) – This is essentially your Mountain West Mountain Division championship right here. Honestly, no other team is close to these two. Not saying it can’t happen but these two teams seem like a couple of ladder rungs above the rest. CBS Sports Network was smart to pick this up before the season started. Their schedule always seems to have at least one game every week that is quite good and easily could have gone to ESPN. It’s becoming more of a must-have for college football fans (the Army and Navy games don’t hurt either).

Worst Power Five Game: Duke at Wake Forest (7:30, specialty pack) – A few games could have fallen in this spot and none of them are particularly bad. We’ve got this game with two perennially underrated ACC schools. Or I could have picked a relatively important Kansas State-Texas Tech affair. Or another Big XII matchup in Kansas going to Ames to play Iowa State. Or even Oregon State facing Washington State out in the Palouse. Honestly, none of these games are bad, per se, but could end up being blowouts in a couple of cases. Watch all of them be really close and we can’t see a few because they are on the Pac-12 Network or FOX Sports One or the Ocho.

Week 14

The crowning moment of the regular season for college football fans. The week most college football fans look forward to. It’s American Thanksgiving Week(end). And God damn it am I ever going to watch a shitload of football. So honestly, no one better bother me unless it’s a question about COLLEJ FOOTBAW! I will probably gain like ten pounds just from the food and drink I have over those three days. Since this is the pinnacle, there is only one person that belongs in this spot: Hollywood Hulk Hogan, BROTHER!

Game of the Week: Alabama at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – Hey remember when there was a rumour that this game would be moved to Black Friday? I wonder if they will ever consider that again. Not that it’s a bad idea. It’s more that there are some people that do not have that Friday off and would be pissed off to miss a game like this. Anyway, pick this game or the next one on the list as GOTW, don’t matter to me. Both these games will be extremely important barring a collapse by one of the combatants.

Other Really Important Games: Ohio State at Michigan (Noon, FOX) – The other potential Game of the Week/Year. Going into this season, it looks like the time is ripe for Big Blue to finally slay the demon known as THE Ohio State University. Michigan has Shea Patterson and a lot of their starters from last year back in 2019. tOSU, on the other hand, breaks in a new head coach and has some changes on both sides of the ball. This should be good regardless. And I expect GUS JOHNSON to go insane like he usually does.

Texas A&M at LSU (7:00, TSN3) – There is still a possibility that this ends up on the SEC Network. For real. Luckily for fans who don’t get the specialty pack, TSN goes nuts on college football because a) the CFL is done by this point and b) there are a lot of good games on the Saturday. For once we should not have any coaching hot seat discussions. Which is fine by me since sometimes they dominate the conversation a little too much (see Miles, Les).

Clemson at South Carolina (Noon, TSN3) – It feels like all the SEC teams are at home this season with their Week 14 rivalry games. It means there are a few less issues compared to when they are all on the road and a really good game ends up on the SEC Network and a not-so-good game may end up on ESPN in primetime. Like the last few years, this will be the final hurdle before the postseason for the Tigers but this may be a serious one this season as South Carolina looks to be a bit improved and all it takes is one upset to, well, upset the apple cart so to speak.

Oklahoma at Oklahoma State (3:30, ABC/TSN4) – Could be a Big XII Championship play-in game. Also, it’s BEDLAM! Why it was moved to the final week of the season is anyone’s guess but it just adds to to the majestic college football ideal that is American Thanksgiving Week. Could be moved to the primetime slot depending on how the entire Saturday schedule shapes up.

Washington at Washington State (Friday, 4:00, FOX) – The Apple Cup is almost always a joy to watch. And it’s back on Black Friday. Noice! It doesn’t look like FOX will have a primetime game on this day so this should go on in the 4:00 timeslot. So there’s no way Chris Petersen can complain about this, right? By now we will know if the Pac-12 has, once again, beaten up on each other so badly that no team stands out or if there is one team that has stood above the rest. Honestly, getting Mike Leach into the CFP or NY6 would be fantastic.

Notre Dame at Stanford (7:30, ABC/TSN4) – See what I meant from the Bedlam part of this post? This could be essentially a play-in game for the College Football Playoff or New Year’s Six. And it’s when TSN goes crazy and broadcasts a bunch of college football (which I also mentioned previously). Maybe the winner of this game should play the winner of what is basically another play-in game and play the ULTIMATE play-in game…in Dayton. Don’t reply yet, NCAA. Just think about it.

Florida State at Florida (7:30, specialty pack) – As of right now I have this game on the SEC Network. No, I am not joking. The only way this moves off of there is if Florida State is better than many believe they will be. But considering it’s in Gainesville, it can’t go to ABC which leaves ESPN networks as the only options. And with other conferences almost being guaranteed a spot somewhere on the Saturday this could get dicey. So what I am saying is yes, this is one game you might not be able to see if you don’t have the specialty pack. Be forewarned.

Virginia Tech at Virginia (Friday, 8:00, TSN3) – Good idea to move the Commonwealth Cup to Black Friday as this game usually always means something…even if it’s just for bowl-eligibility. Interesting thing is that this could be for the ACC Coastal title. Honestly, is there any team that stands out in that division? Nope. It’ll be a matchup between Justin Fuente and Bronco Mendenhall, two guys who rarely smile.

Sneaky-Good Underrated Game: Iowa at Nebraska (2:30, BTN) – This has gone from being on ABC, to ESPN, to FOX, and now to BTN. Ugh. I have a feeling this game (which I dub Farmageddon but isn’t the real Farmageddon despite the fact it should be the real Farmageddon) will be super close and could have major Big Ten West repercussions since there isn’t really a single team in that division that could be considered the obvious favourite.

Best Group of Five Game: Appalachian State at Troy (Friday, 4:00, ESPN+) – Honestly I don’t think we will see this but it could end up being the best Sun Belt game ever. It’s only going to be a matter of time before a Sun Belt team nabs that New Year’s Six spot for the Group of Five. There is a slight possibility it ends up on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU which would put it on the specialty pack so fingers crossed!

Worst Power Five Game: Baylor at Kansas (Noon, FOX Sports One) – I was actually tempted to put Indiana-Purdue here since both teams won’t be as good (on paper) as last year’s squads. But BU-KU won’t be available to most Canadians where many Canadians can get IU-PU. So I based it on that. Either way, it will be a great week of college football!

Weeks 15 and 16

I’m not going to rate these weeks. Week 16 is Army-Navy which is always fun. I still wish for a day when we have an 11-0 Navy or an 11-0 Army coming in with a New Year’s Six spot on the line. Talk about ratings! As for the conference championships, other than the Pac-12, they are all on the Saturday now. So some will get better attendance but worse TV coverage. Don’t know if one is better than the other to be honest with you.

It’s done! The most important games blog posts are in the books and it officially means I am gearing up for college football. Got two magazines already: Athlon and Lindy’s. Phil Steele magazine is shipping soon. Will look for Street & Smith’s probably some time next week. And there you have it…I will have all my summer reading material ready to go. Already about 50 pages into Athlon. I guess that’s what happens when you have been five months without the sport (I don’t really count the weird all-star games).

Next up is the network specific posts. I always hope to get it as accurate as possible but as they say, “Card Subject to Change.” This means we are getting closer to the summer and the final countdown towards college football season. 73 days away from Week Zero and counting down.

Anyway, all y’all (as they say in the South) have a great rest of the week!

If that wasn’t a statement, then I don’t know what is – Week 10 College Football Recap

Posted on November 5, 2018 by guelphbossman

The Alabama Crimson Tide put an absolute beatdown on LSU this past weekend to the tune of 29-0. This game wasn’t even close unless you count the first quarter where it was a bit of a defensive struggle. After that, nothing but Crimson Tide. On what ESPN dubbed “Statement Saturday”, Bama had the biggest statement with this win. No matter what Clemson or Notre Dame do the rest of the season, as long as the Tide keep winning, they will remain #1 going into the College Football Playoff. There is no way anyone could have a realistic way to put Clemson or the Irish ahead of them if Alabama keeps winning. Now if they somehow lose to either Mississippi State or Auburn then all bets are off (and all hell may break loose with The Commmittee). Until then, Bama’s the team and Saban’s the man (whether you like it or not). Anyway, the Tide clinched the SEC West and two major things happened with their quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa: he threw his first interception of the season and actually played in the fourth quarter. Crazy, right?

Other recap points!

Speaking of beatdowns, how about the one that Michigan laid on Penn State? It feels like a case of Michigan is for real and Penn State isn’t as good as first thought (at least by me). After a slow and shaky start to the season by Shea Patterson, he has heated up and the defense, like usual, is cookin’ for sure. They will, chances are, go into The Game as the favourite over Ohio State for the first time in a long time. College Gameday is going to be ten hours long for that weekend.
It looked like Texas Tech was going to come back and at least tie things up with the Sooners in the fourth quarter. Then the Red Raiders went for two and the tie game and the Sooners returned it for their own two points. That essentially ended things although Oklahoma did not look nearly as dominant and considering the way the Big XII has been this season, that’s not a good sign for the league as a whole.
Speaking of the Big XII, what a game it was in Austin. West Virginia came back to score a touchdown very late in the game to get within one. So this is what Dana Holgorsen (on probably his 15th Red Bull by then) said to Will Grier: “You want to win the game? Let’s go win the game.” So that’s what they did. Grier ran in the two-point conversion which propelled the Mountaineers to a huge win over Texas. Now it’s a three-team race for the Big XII Championship between these two teams and Oklahoma. Should be fun with no defense whatsoever.
Boston College continued rolling along. The Eagles are finally getting some much deserved respect after beating Virginia Tech. Now they will host College GameDay this Saturday in Chestnut Hill as Clemson comes to town. This may be Clemson’s last hurdle and after they put 77 points up on hapless Louisville they seem to be ready for this fight. A Boston College win puts the ACC in a bit of College Football Playoff turmoil.
Let’s get back to the SEC and talk about the other half of that huge doubleheader CBS had. On paper, two MASSIVE games. On the field, two not-very-close games. For the SEC East crown, Georgia had a relatively easy time with Kentucky, clinching the division in early November. So now it will be UGA-Bama for the SEC title….in four weeks.
It looked like Notre Dame was running away with their game against Northwestern. Then a blocked punt that turned into a touchdown. Then another drive by Northwestern for another touchdown. All of a sudden the Wildcats are within one score and things are getting tense in Evanston. The Irish pulled the game out in the end thanks to a touchdown run by Ian Book but this is really feeling a hell of a lot like 2012, which is not a good sign for people that want competitive CFP semi-finals.
Florida State’s bad season (by their standards) continued as they lost to NC State in a game that was never close. They will now have to win two of their last three games of the season to be bowl-eligible. And their games are against Notre Dame, Boston College and Florida. Good luck.
Virginia was in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal. Yes, Virginia. That all changed when Pitt pulled the slight upset of the ranked Cavaliers. So now Pittsburgh is in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal. Yes, Pittsburgh. I wonder if we could get a 6-6 Pitt team in the ACC Championship against Clemson. That always plays havoc with bowl eligibility.
The Pac-12 North will go through Pullman this season. Washington State’s game winning touchdown in the final minute to beat Cal kept them as the Pac-12’s lone hope to get to the College Football Playoff. Really, it probably comes down to the Apple Cup as to whether a) Wazzu gets to the Pac-12 Championship and b) Wazzu can get to the CFP. A lot can happen in the next two weeks but I can’t see anything major enough to diminish this game in primetime on Black Friday.
Is anyone going to win the Pac-12 South? Utah seemed to be the team to do it and then stunk up the joint against Arizona State. So just like the ACC Coastal, we could have a pretty bad division winner in the Pac-12 South going to a conference championship game.
Ohio State continues to not look like a CFP contender. They struggled all day with Nebraska. They were able to win but only by 5 against a horrible Husker team. What this game did give us is arguably the worst kickoff/onside kick attempt ever. If you haven’t seen it, find it and check it out. I don’t know what the Nebraska kicker was doing but…yeah it was pretty bad and good for a laugh.
UCF beat Temple but it wasn’t easy. Their chances of getting to the College Football Playoff are basically zero now so if they win out they go to either the Peach or Fiesta Bowl.
Don’t forget about Fresno State in the Group of Five race. After their pummeling of UNLV, they are a few wins away from giving UCF a real run for their money (if the Knights lose a game).
Florida played like the Florida from last season in their loss to Missouri. It was almost like it was just a matter of time when that team would implode and that was the day. Not to say Mizzou is not good because they are a pretty good team but this Gators team with Dan Mullen taking the helm was supposed to be a lot better than last year’s disaster. They are. But not as much as some people may think.
Great game in West Lafayette as Purdue knocks off Iowa in the final seconds. Other than Northwestern (somehow), no one in the Big Ten West looks that great this season. Seems to be a trend among quite a few divisions.
Iowa State won pretty easily over Kansas. The shocking thing is that the next day, the Jayhawks fired David Beaty. Don’t know why that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and not the inexcusable losses from previous games but still. Sounds like Jim Leavitt would be a candidate to go to Lawrence which would be huge and maybe a game changer for Kansas.
Army will end up with at least a share of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy after holding Air Force off with a defensive stop late in the game. This means they retain it (since they won it last year) and could win it outright if they beat Navy in a game they will surely be the favourite in.

That was a fun weekend of college football. Now for the Bossman Top 25!

#1	Alabama
#2	Clemson
#3	Georgia
#4	Michigan
#5	Notre Dame
#6	Oklahoma
#7	West Virginia
#8	Washington State
#9	UCF
#10	Ohio State
#11	LSU
#12	Syracuse
#13	Kentucky
#14	Boston College
#15	Utah State
#16	Fresno State
#17	Texas
#18	Penn State
#19	Washington
#20	Florida
#21	Mississippi State
#22	Michigan State
#23	Utah
#24	Cincinnati
#25	NC State

Yes I have Georgia at #3 ahead of Michigan and Notre Dame. If the Dawgs run the rest of the regular season table then they are almost certainly going to be in CFP consideration. Michigan sneaks past Notre Dame into #4. Don’t worry Irish fans: win out and there’s no way you’re out. West Virginia gets a huge bump to #7 and still could end up left out of the Big XII Championship. LSU and Kentucky didn’t fall far considering who they lost to. Also, watch out for Utah State as well as Fresno State (whom I mentioned earlier). Any misstep by UCF and these two teams have the best shot at going to what would probably be the Fiesta Bowl.

OK it’s that time of year folks! MACtion Tuesdays. And MACtion Wednesdays! Tomorrow night will see Kent State face the MAC’s best team in Buffalo. That game is on the specialty pack. Wednesday night’s games are also both on the specialty pack:

Ohio at Miami-OH at 7:00
Toledo at Northern Illinois at 8:00

Also the CFP Rankings show is on at 9:00 tomorrow night on TSN3. It might be delayed depending on how long the first college basketball game on TSN goes. Oh yeah college basketball starts up again as well. So there’s that. Tomorrow I will have a true bowl projections post (not like the crazy one I posted last week). Have a great week everyone!

Week 1 College Football Recap – And the MVP of the first weekend was…

Posted on September 4, 2018 by guelphbossman

The weather caused the cancellation of two complete games and caused loads of delays. Fun times. This is obviously a point in the column of the neutral-site game crowd since many of those end up being in domed stadiums. I still think that many neutral-site games is dumb and I am honestly getting sick of it. FOX really got the short end of the stick with Akron-Nebraska being completely cancelled. That was their primetime game (as bad as it was) so they had to go to the Abilene Christian-Baylor game. Ugh. Honestly though the networks did a pretty good job with all the weather issues. Much better than in the past when they would go into panic mode and games would end up on local cable access because they had no idea what to do.

Anyway, welcome back everyone! Was it a super awesome, amazing first weekend of college football? Not quite. But it was still really good. Kind of cathartic really. We really needed it. Let’s get right to the recap shall we?

The game of the week ended up being a close affair but not a particularly well played one. Both Auburn and Washington looked a bit rusty, especially on offense. Thankfully both defenses showed up to give us a good game. Also, on a side note, Mark Jones will not call any Washington games this season after rehashing last year’s Pac-12 After Dark beef Chris Petersen had with ESPN. I kind of understand: I wouldn’t be too happy if all of my games were buried in the late night timeslot where much of the East Coast (other than crazy people like myself) is in bed already. But it was blown way out of proportion. The Pac-12 could fix this by inviting Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Then they could have games all day. Just sayin.
Michigan looked awful Saturday night. Seriously awful. Yet, somehow, they were within a score late in the game because the Irish couldn’t close the deal, something they seem to be good at. Shea Patterson looked pretty uncomfortable back there and who knows if he is even the saviour of this Wolverine offense. Could be another long season in Ann Arbor.
Michigan State and Wisconsin both looked….OK on Friday night. Nothing spectacular and Utah State even gave Sparty a bit of a scare before MSU pulled away. Not a good way to start the season for two teams who are in the College Football Playoff conversation.
Appalachian State almost pulled off the stunner of the early season in State College. Penn State had to march down the field in the waning moments to tie the game and then won it in overtime. And no, this is not the same as when App State went to Ann Arbor back in 2007 and had what many believe is the biggest upset of all-time. App State is arguably the class of the Sun Belt (along with Arkansas State) and a really good Group of Five team. Penn State though…yeesh. I have them as one of my Top Four at the end of the season and they almost ended my prediction in one fell swoop.
We get it Saban. You’re tired of talking about the quarterback situation. Well you know what? Too fucking bad. You have two very talented quarterbacks and I am sure Jalen Hurts is a bit, uh, hurt by what has transpired in the past few months. Not saying Jalen will transfer to keep this year of eligibility but if he does, the Tide have no safety net whatsoever. It’s Tua and that’s it and if something happens to him or he doesn’t perform well, they may be in trouble…well in as much trouble as Bama can get into these days (so like 10-2 and still a New Year’s Six bowl bid).
What a great moment in the Texas-Maryland game. After Jordan McNair’s passing during fall training camp and D.J. Durkin’s suspension (and potential firing), the Terps seemed to be in disarray. But Matt Canada, their interim coach has kept them focused and it led to a touching moment on the first play from scrimmage. Maryland lined up with ten guys, leaving the right guard spot, McNair’s position, open. They took a delay of game penalty and Texas immediately declined it. Awesome. Not so awesome for the Horns was the fact that Maryland beat them again. Second year in a row. Tom Herman may end up on the hot seat a lot earlier than many had thought.
The Lane Train wasn’t just derailed on Saturday: it was broken down at the station. Oklahoma put an absolute ass-whipping on the Owls in a game that many (including myself) thought would be fairly close. Boy, were we wrong. Also, yes it’s “just” Florida Atlantic but Oklahoma looked really good. They will have bigger tests later on in the season to prove that was no fluke.
You may not have noticed but Ed Oliver had a monster game for Houston. And they barely beat Rice. We know he will get very little Heisman conversation but that’s because a) he plays in Houston and not at a major Power Five school and b) he plays defense. Either way, I still think he’s the #1 pick overall in next year’s NFL Draft until further notice. But Houston’s overall performance doesn’t help him that is for sure.
T.J. Vasher made what could be the catch of the year already. It was an insane, Odell Beckham-like, one-handed catch along the sidelines. Unfortunately Ole Miss pretty much beat up Texas Tech most of the game and Kliff Kingsbury’s hot seat just got hotter.
The Sunday night affair turned into a debacle as LSU completely obliterated Miami. It really wasn’t even close. I don’t know if this is a sign that LSU is better than expected (and may have finally found a good QB) or if Miami isn’t as good as advertised. Don’t want to do the whole Week One overreaction thing that some do. Either way, this means LSU is on course for still another good but not great season which means many people will call for Orgeron’s head as per usual. Some things never change.
The Labour Day ACC game was at least better and showed that Virginia Tech had to be considered underrated by most (not me though since I figured they would go 11-1). That Lunch Pail Defense of Bud Foster’s is as strong as ever although maybe part of that was FSU’s woeful offense. Cam Akers was swallowed up other than one 86-yard run in the second half. With the many changes in Tallahassee, maybe thinking this would be a Top 20 team by the end of the season is too much for 2018 and more of a 2019 deal.
Boise State went to Troy and beat up on the Trojans, just like I figured they would. I am sticking with my assumption that the Broncos will win every game by a decent-to-huge margin this season and walk into the New Year’s Six fairly highly ranked (like Top 10).
BYU had a good start to the season beating the sexy pick to win the Pac-12 South, Arizona. Is BYU back? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves but they certainly started off on the right foot. Khalil Tate’s Heisman campaign started off with a little speed bump and if he doesn’t turn it around then it will be more than East Coast bias that will keep him from winning it.

OK Week 1 is in the books! It was a nice start to the season. Glad to be back watching live college football. Let’s savour this since we know how we all fell come mid-January.

I am leaving the Top 25 and other things to later recaps. Don’t want to throw too much out too early.

Now we are almost back into the swing of things. Starting Thursday it will be the regular schedule:

College football schedule on Thursday
NFL schedule on Friday
College football recap on Monday
a few special columns here and there to fill Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Hope you enjoyed the game and hope you have a good week everybody!

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Saban

All Aboard the Coaching Carousel! (and the Week 6 College Football TV Schedule)

Wednesday

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Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Someone might want to avoid airport tarmacs – the Week 2 Recap

Well this is an interesting wrinkle – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night