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

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

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

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

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

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

American Networks

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

Canadian Networks

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

Primetime Games

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

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

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

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

So…many…injuries – Week 3 NFL TV Schedule

 

So if you haven’t heard, there have been a fair amount of injuries so far this season.  Nothing new.  What is new is the severity of many of these injuries.  Let’s take a look at just a few of them:

• Tavon Young (Baltimore) – torn ACL – out for the season
• Drew Lock (Denver) – shoulder injury – out 3-6 weeks
• Leon Jacobs (Jacksonville) – knee injury – was carted off last night and could be done for the season
• Nick Bosa (San Francisco) – torn ACL – out for the season
• Solomon Thomas (San Francisco) – torn ACL – out for the season
• Saquon Barkley (NY Giants) – torn ACL – out for the season
• Malik Hooker (Indianapolis) – torn Achilles tendon – out for the season
• Christian McCaffrey (Carolina) – high-ankle sprain – out 4-6 weeks
• Anthony Barr (Minnesota) – torn pectoral muscle – out for the season
• Courtland Sutton (Denver) – torn ACL – out for the season
• Bruce Irvin (Seattle) – torn ACL – out for the season

Unreal.  Just look at the sheer amount of ACL injuries.  The 49ers themselves have lost two of their best players and have a litany of injuries on top of that.  They blamed the turf at MetLife Stadium.  Officials have said that is not the case and that the turf at MetLife is fine.  But there has to be something to this.  So many knee and leg injuries so early in the season.  Something will come out to explain it I’m sure.  I mean it’s not concussions so the NFL will probably be fine releasing this information.

Alright here we now go with the NFL schedule for Week 3 that will not include quite a few players for various ailments:

Sunday Early

Tennessee at Minnesota	Minneapolis, Detroit		Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Ottawa
Las Vegas at New England	Seattle, Spokane, Burlington, Boston		Vancouver, Alberta, Montreal, Atlantic		London, Toronto
Houston at Pittsburgh	Rochester
Cincinnati at Philadelphia
San Francisco at NY Giants		Burlington
Washington at Cleveland
LA Rams at Buffalo		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Buffalo, Rochester, Boston	Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Toronto		Vancouver Island, Alberta, Ottawa, Atlantic
Chicago at Atlanta		Minneapolis, Detroit		TSN3, TSN5

Sunday Late

NY Jets at Indianapolis	Cleveland, Buffalo
Carolina at LA Chargers
Tampa Bay at Denver		Boston		TSN3, TSN5
Dallas at Seattle		All affiliates (except Detroit & Boston)	All affiliates (except Atlantic)		Atlantic
Detroit at Arizona		Detroit

Sunday/Monday Primetime

Green Bay at New Orleans	Sunday, 8:30, NBC, TSN 3/5, CTV Two
Kansas City at Baltimore	Monday, 8:15, TSN 1/3/4/5

Notes that may be injured by the end of this post

• Three games not being shown in Canada unless you have DAZN or Rogers (who has Sunday Ticket but no college football games…OK Bossman, calm down).  None of the games look like must-see ones so I doubt your missing much.
• Back to having a bunch of late afternoon games.  It’s interesting when there are a ton of late window games since, other than Week 17, you almost never see this.  This became a thing, it seems, this past season and is continuing this year.  This week has five late afternoon games.  I like the fact it’s spread out a bit…as much as they can when all the games are in a six-and-a-half hour window.
• Packers-Saints for Sunday Night Football is going to be a Michaels-Collinsworth Boner Special that would only be exceeded by a Tom Brady and the Buccaneers appearance.  It should be fun one with two quarterbacks that are close to my age.  It makes me feel equal parts proud and sad: proud because older guys still play at a high level in the NFL and sad because I am not even close to being in as good shape as Brees and Rodgers.
• 80s pornstar Gardner Minshew finally did not play well in a game this season.  So of course, who decides to take him off the bench and put him in the starting lineup?  This fucking idiot.  Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with fantasy football.
• For people who hate the Buffalo Bills, be ready, since I can see this team being shown A LOT up here for most of the season.  With the Bills being the slight favourite to win the AFC East and a team built to at least get into the divisional playoffs, all of Ontario for sure will get their games every week and other areas of the country will as well depending on what else is on.  And for that, the Bills Mafia doused someone in ketchup and mustard and put them through a table.
• Not that we probably would have got this game up here but no Christian McCaffrey means there is no way that a Panthers game will get shown up here now.  The NFC South really is the one division that almost never gets play up here.  I get that it’s based on geography but with the Bucs and Saints being good teams you would think we would see more of them but alas, that is still not to be unless they are on MNF or SNF.

Look readers, I hate advertising anything.  I am loyal to almost no product.  Why?  Because they aren’t loyal to me so why reciprocate?  They’re companies.  They sell shit.  We buy shit.  That’s the transaction.  Anyway, as I said, I don’t advertise usually but with what is happening up here in Canada in terms of football (mostly college but yes, the NFL as well), we are going backwards.  Less football being shown than the previous year.  To me, this is unacceptable.  It’s 2020.  A crazy year but still, it’s not 2000.  We should have the ability to pretty much watch almost any football game we want to (within reason).  I, myself, have IPTV.  I run it through my Android box but you can run it through AppleTV as well (plus other methods I’m sure).  It is great.  I can find pretty much everything I want when it comes to football.  Yes, sometimes you are a bit delayed (like up to a minute behind the actual action) but still, it’s a way for me to get all the games I want to see.  And with the cable companies caring less and less, there is no reason to stay loyal to them.  There are alternatives.  So if you are getting frustrated, it may be time to look at those alternatives.

Anyway, I should be on the Twitter machine this weekend (@TheBauceman).  I know, you’re not excited.  I can’t be on all day both days because I do have a life outside of this, even with me being unemployed (surprising I know).  But I try to be on it as much as I can.  I find it fun if you can wade through the bullshit or just basically avoid it.  Have a great weekend everyone!

And you thought my college football predictions were bad…

Well as you might know, I thought my predictions weren’t bad for college football, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  My Stassen score was better than last year’s so that meant I was closer in my conference predictions than I was the previous season.  Problem is, compared to the magazines and websites that actually do this thing for a living, I was almost dead last.  Now I turn my attention to the NFL predictions I made.  I am sure this will work out better right?  I’m not holding my breath.  Same way as the past two seasons: I will take snippets of my NFL predictions post and put them here and see if I was right or if I might have been drunk when I made that prediction.  Let us begin.

I can see a fair amount of parity this season. There are always candidates to win more than 12 games this season but I could see it where one or even no teams hit the 13-win mark. The best candidates are the LA Rams, New England, Philadelphia and Jacksonville.

I got the Rams right!  Thirteen wins on the nose.  And the Patriots were close with 11.  There was actually a decent amount of parity this season so I wasn’t totally wrong with that.  A bit of a miss on the Eagles but that was more due to their slow start than anything.  Then there’s the Jaguars.  Ho boy.  Talk about bottoming out.  They were an unmitigated disaster.  This coincides with the end of the Blake Bortles era and the start of the (pick one out of) Kyler Murray/Dwayne Haskins/Drew Lock era.  So in the end, this prediction wasn’t too bad but not fantastic.

I see some great races happening in both South divisions, along with the NFC West and North. The others won’t be near as competitive with the Patriots easily steamrolling to yet another AFC East crown. Also, and let’s be honest here, the LA Chargers will win the AFC West because the rest of the teams just aren’t that good and probably will all be under .500.

Well I was half-correct about the South divisions.  The Saints were seriously good and ran away with the NFC version.  The AFC South was fun though.  The Texans, Colts and Titans came down to the wire in the best divisional race in the league.  I was almost right with the other divisions but the AFC North was also a barrel of fun.  That’s partly because the Ravens and Steelers seemed to one-up each other in trying NOT to win the division and the fact that the CLEVELAND F’N BROWNS were almost .500!  And my apologies to the Kansas City Chiefs, the most exciting team in god-knows-how-long.

The NFL Wild Card race should be pretty something. I have the Packers and Falcons getting those two spots but the Niners, Lions and even perhaps the Giants and Cowboys will have something to say about that.

Good lord what in the hell?  What do I make of all this?  Well the Cowboys won the NFC East!  But that only happened because the rest of the division was garbage most of the season.  The rest of the teams I listed were awful.  I get a pass for the Niners since they would have been much better if Jimmy Garoppolo hadn’t been injured.  The Packers and Falcons might have to actually rebuild after their shitty seasons.  Yet another Bill Belichick disciple failed as a head coach.  Go figure.  And finally the Giants…well they have Saquon Barkley.  That’s good right?

In the AFC, it almost feels like a race to get over .500 to get into the playoffs. Or maybe just to .500. I think the Texans and Titans will be the two Wild Card choices and to be honest, do any of the other non-qualifying AFC teams deserve to make it? Probably not.

The Titans were close, at 9-7.  The Steelers were even closer at 9-6-1.  But yeah, other than those two teams, every other AFC team that missed the playoffs was under .500.  But Indy was surely better than I figured they’d be but that sounds like something most experts would be saying right now.

Should be a three-team race for the bottom with Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Washington vying for that #1 overall pick. Buffalo and Cleveland should be juuuuuuuuuuuuuust good enough to not be lumped in with those three teams which is an improvement for the Browns and a bit of a disaster for the Bills (who fully look like they are attempting to tank this season).

Buffalo wasn’t good but Cleveland was fun to watch.  And Indy, as I said before, was damn good.  At one point it looked like the Redskins would actually win the horrifically bad NFC East but tailed off down the stretch.  Tampa Bay was awful though so that’s close.  No, it was San Francisco (who shouldn’t have been this bad but Jimmy G) and the Cardinals who were the dirt worst.  Oh and the Jets.  The fact I didn’t include them in this part baffles me even to this day.

Last year I said Jameis Winston would win the MVP. Good fucking lord. This year I will select Jared Goff. Sorry Jared.

Goff was good.  Quite good.  But Patrick Mahomes had a season for the ages.  And so did Drew Brees.  So there was no way Jared was getting into that MVP race despite the fact the Rams were the second-best regular season team this year.

I am not even going to pick a Rookie of the Year. No point. I’ll just be wrong.

I honestly would have picked Saquon Barkley as the Rookie of the Year.  He was…the offensive ROY.  The defensive ROY was Darius Leonard who I never would have picked to win that award.  So I would have been half-right.

And now my playoffs preview.  Let’s see how good/awful I did:

• I had the Rams winning the Super Bowl and the Patriots losing in the Conference Championship.  Not bad.
• I did have Pittsburgh winning the AFC though so that wasn’t so good of a prediction.
• Get this: I had the Rams beating New Orleans in the NFC Championship.  Wow!  I am pretty damn proud of myself for that.
• The team I whiffed on the most was easily Jacksonville.  Who knew that 2017 would be an anomaly?  I also had Atlanta and Green Bay in and they were pretty bad.

All in all, I had a pretty good year with my NFL predictions.  Which is stunning to be honest with you.

For the most part, we are into the third year of no offseason realignment news right after the college football season has finished.  There will always be rumblings but nothing serious since the Big XII did their disastrous look into expanding.  I still think we will see major happenings on that front but we are at least a year or two away from that.

The next post will be the conference tournament schedule and it’s a while away from now.  The conference tournaments don’t officially start until March 4th.  As has been the case the past few years, the Atlantic Sun is the first conference to start the fun.  But we won’t see any of that.  As per usual, the first conference tournament action we will see will be on the Friday night (March 8th) when the Ohio Valley Conference has their second semi-final matchup.  Things are kind of slow through that first weekend, then everything goes crazy the following Monday with a string of days containing a ton of games to watch.  I still wonder if the NCAA Tournament would be better if it was done FA Cup-style.  So that we would be bound to see a team in like the SWAC or WAC or Metro Atlantic go on a crazy run through the first few rounds.  Then their fifth-round matchup would be again Duke and Zion Williamson would pour in 65 points and the Blue Devils would win by 80.  Good times.

Anyway, enjoy your week everyone.

What the hell is happening in New York? – Week 8 NFL TV Schedule

For once it’s not the Jets causing all sorts of problems in the Big Apple…or more like the big stadium on the side of the highway.  The Giants are a mess.  They are making the Browns look like a well-run franchise.  They are making Jon Gruden look like a shrewd negotiator.   They are a terrible team that seems like they are headed for another season picking in the top two of the NFL Draft.  And it’s not getting any better.  Eli Manning looks done.  Which means their greatest weapon, Odell Beckham Jr., really can’t be used like he should be.  Saquon Barkley has been good but because of all the QB problems, taking him with the #2 selection of last year’s draft looks like a bad idea (despite the fact he should end up as a very good running back).  They are trading guys left and right (Eli Apple and Damon Harrison in the last few days alone).  To be a Giants fan right now would feel pretty shitty.

And there’s no upside until they get a quarterback there.  I can see 2019 being not a whole lot better to be honest until whoever they get (since they are almost assuredly drafting a QB) has most of a season under their belt.  It’s bad times ahead.  I can’t see Beckham waiting around too much longer before demanding he be moved.

Alright time for the schedule which includes the aforementioned New York football Giants:

Sunday Early

Philadelphia vs. Jacksonville (in London)			All affiliates
NY Jets at Chicago	Minneapolis, Buffalo, Burlington
Cleveland at Pittsburgh	Cleveland, Rochester, Boston		Saskatchewan
Baltimore at Carolina
Denver at Kansas City	Spokane		Winnipeg		All affiliates
Washington at NY Giants		Buffalo, Rochester, Burlington, Boston	Toronto, Montreal, Atlantic
Seattle at Detroit		Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, Minneapolis, Detroit	BC, Alberta, Northern Ontario, Kitchener, Ottawa
Tampa Bay at Cincinnati

Sunday Late

Indianapolis at Oakland	Seattle, Detroit				Vancouver Island, Alberta, London, Toronto, Ottawa
Green Bay at LA Rams		All affiliates	All affiliates (except Atlantic)		Atlantic
San Francisco at Arizona

Sunday/Monday Primetime

New Orleans at Minnesota	Sunday, 8:30, NBC, TSN 1/3/4/5, CTV Two
New England at Buffalo	Monday, 8:30, TSN 1/3/4/5

Random Analysis

• And another London game.  The chances of me catching any more than a few minutes of it is zero since I will be up late the night before watching college football and will have to squeeze a workout in at some point and probably do some grocery shopping.  God, my life sounds bland.  Anyway, the Eagles and Jag-You-Ares are being shown on all CTV affiliates and the NFL Network at 9:30 Sunday morning.  Why the NFL Network?  Because they are providing the four-man booth for the game.  You read right: FOUR-MAN BOOTH.  It’s going to feel like one of those clown cars in there with those four plus some production staff in there for three hours.
• Three games in the late window with one being seen in like 50,000 homes in the southwestern United States.  Now that Jimmy G’s season is over, no one gives two shits about the Niners and rightfully so.  And the Cards may even be worse.  This is what you call a lucky break for us, folks.  Imagine having that game foisted upon you?  Ugh.  That would be better marketing for Sunday Ticket.  “If you don’t buy Sunday Ticket, at least 50 million of you will have only one game on in your region and it will be Browns-Giants.  Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
• The other two games not being shown are in the early part of the day.  Bucs-Bengals no one probably cares about but Ravens-Panthers is an interesting one between two pretty good teams.  Instead, many of us get Redskins-Giants.  Just a reminder that the Washington Redskins currently lead the NFC East and that lead may grow by the end of the day.  Crazy.  At least one Gruden is doing well.
• Ho boy, the Bills host New England on Monday night.  This…this might not end well.  However, if at halftime the Bills are in a one-score game, the Twitterverse will be going nuts.  I kind of hope it snows.

Hopefully it’s another fun weekend of football.  I mean when’s the last time it’s been a fully terrible weekend of football when you combine college and pro?  Has that ever happened?  I’m not going to even look.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Time for my Heisman ballot…

OK I get it.  I’m awful at this.  However, I did have Baker Mayfield as the runner-up last season so at least I was close.  That’s gotta count for something, right?  No?  Fine, fuck you all.  Here’s my Heisman ballot for this season:

My (Probably) Absolutely Disgusting Heisman Ballot

1. Bryce Love, Stanford – Love is pretty much the odds-on favourite coming into the 2018 season to win the Heisman.  This means two things: 1) he probably won’t end up winning it because Stanford isn’t as good or he gets injured and 2) a few people out there will be adamant about Love not being anywhere close to the Heisman favourite.  You know, to be different.  Also makes those people look like stubborn assholes who probably just want attention.
2. Jonathan Taylor…….Thomas (ahahaha), Wisconsin – A little Home Improvement humour right there.  Anyway, the other hyped running back coming into this season is shockingly (and by shockingly I mean not shocking at all) from Wisconsin, a school that churns out top-tier running backs like they just put them in the photocopier and PRESTO!  Out one comes!  Anyway, expect him to get a boatload of yards, especially against lesser competition as Wisconsin is, again, the favourite in the Big Ten West.
3. Trace McSorley, Penn State – Yes I know.  Saquon Barkley is gone to the NFL.  But that means this is Trace’s time to shine now.  He is the man of the Penn State offense.  Most everything will go through him.  If Penn State is successful this season (and I think they will be), McSorley will be a big part of it and remember, Heisman voters love players on really good teams.
4. Will Grier, West Virginia – Of all the PEW! PEW! PEW!ing going on in the Big XII this season, Mr. Grier here will be doing the most of it.  Interesting how he was given a one-year suspension for PEDs, and then Florida let him transfer and now the Gators are desperate to find a good QB.  The Mountaineers’ Big XII hopes lie on Grier and that is why he will get a lot of consideration.
5. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama – This will be an interesting season for the Tide and maybe in ways they don’t want.  An actual quarterback competition in Tuscaloosa!  It appears that Tua will have the inside track here and if he starts all the games this season he is almost a shoo-in to be in the Heisman competition.  But Tagovailoa starting means they may end up losing Jalen Hurts who may want to transfer instead and who would blame him?  And if Tagovailoa goes down to injury early on or plays poorly does this mean Hurts is in the Heisman hunt?
6. Jake Fromm, Georgia – I debated who to put here because D’Andre Swift could easily go here as well.  To be honest, both could enter the race at some point this season.  I think Fromm is the safer bet here and if Georgia repeats what they did last year (with one obvious exception) then Fromm will rocket up the rankings for sure.
7. Khalil Tate, Arizona – Can’t say East Coast bias to me.  First, I have Bryce Love at #1.  And second, I stay up and watch Pac-12 After Dark so I see as much college football as I can from around the country.  I think defenses will be a bit more prepared for Tate this season.  He will still be the main reason Arizona contends for their first-ever Rose Bowl berth this season and that alone puts him on this list.
8. Justin Herbert, Oregon – The sixth quarterback on this list and it’s a guy from Chip Kelly’s old stomping ground.  Oregon is a much better team with Herbert in the lineup than without so the hope is that he is injury-free all season.  He would have to come up with an all-timer of a season though to look like a better Heisman candidate than Love or Tate.
9. Jarrett Stidham, Auburn – Will Stidham be the second coming of Cam Newton?  No.  Will he throw the ball all over the field and have Auburn somewhat abandon their run offense?  Perhaps.  To be honest, if Auburn plays second fiddle to Bama (and I believe they will) then Stidham will get very few looks unless he’s tossing for 350 a game.
10. Ed Oliver, Houston – I really wanted Eddie to be higher on this list.  I did.  But the chances of a defensive player winning the Heisman these days is almost nil.  He would have to have a ridiculously good season, Houston would have to be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six and a few of the guys above him would have to have down seasons for him to be in the conversation.  Sad, but true.

Honourable Mention

• J.K. Dobbins, Ohio State
• Kelly Bryant/Trevor Lawrence, Clemson (whoever ends up getting the starting QB job)
• Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State
• Jake Browning, Washington
• Drew Lock, Missouri
• McKenzie Milton, UCF
• Cam Akers, Florida State
• Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi State
• D’Andre Swift, Georgia

There’s the list!  Now I have to hope that at least one of these names wins.  I said I would retire the post last year if that happened and lucky for me, my #2 pick Baker Mayfield won it.  Same promise this time around.

Now let’s see…what’s up next.  Oh that’s right…MOTHERFUCKING COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It is about damn time.  And yes, it isn’t exactly great college football but it’s college football nonetheless.  It’s the kind of games I would watch but not pay a ton of attention to unless it was the only game on or if it was close.  Instead, I will stay glued to it the entire time.  I am that depraved.

Alright so I have talked to one Bell customer service rep.  I know, after last year’s debacle, that the chances of the ESPN games showing up this Saturday are almost zero.  But I have to make sure right.  So I talked with this person and they said the games started on Sunday.  Sunday.  Yeah.  I asked them twice if that was the correct day because they are being played live on Saturday.  He assured me it was Sunday.  So there you have it.  No one knows.  So my best guess is that if you get CBS Sports Network you will see Hawaii-Colorado State.  The two ESPN games (North Carolina A&T vs. Jacksonville State at 7 and Wyoming at New Mexico State at 10) will probably not be shown in this area but stranger things have happened.  If I find out any more updates I will let you all know.

UPDATE: Good news!  After a few readers have mentioned that they are seeing the ESPN network games on their guides tonight, my cable box finally woke the hell up and now they are appearing as well.  WOOHOO!!!

Next up will probably be an NFL preview of sorts since I do that every year despite the fact I am rarely right with those predictions.  Everyone have a great week!

Time for the ol’ NFL Draft recap (like anyone cares)

We got through it.  At times it was fun and exciting.  At other times it felt like slogging through knee-deep mud.  I think I whipped through the third day in about 90 minutes and even then it felt way too long.

So instead of my normal draft recap where I go through every team and put them on the Mayock Scale (TM), I will do things differently.  I’m just going to go through some of the draft goings-on and the highs and lows and maybe some winners and losers.  That’s about it.  I can’t bring myself to evaluate every team.  I think I would go nuts doing that.  Her we go!

• The highlight of the draft, in my opinion, was Ryan Shazier walking to the stage to announce the Steelers’ first round pick.  He has come a long way since that scary injury last season.  And for people who were pissed off that some of the announcers and Roger Goodell were letting the cat out of the bag early so to speak, just give it a rest.  It was a nice moment.  Not everything has to be a complete shock to the system.  That’s what the Cleveland Browns at the NFL Draft are for.
• And that pick that Shazier announced?  Terrell Edmunds, brother of Tremaine who had been drafted earlier.  So two brothers going in the first round.  That’s also insane.  That’s a lot of cool stuff for one pick at the NFL Draft.  Made up for a lot of the mundane bullshit that happens there.
• Baker Mayfield going number one I can handle.  I don’t think that’s too big of a stretch.  He won a lot in college so that has to count for something.  I still would have went Sam Darnold but whatever.  The Johnny Football comparisons for Baker are way off-base and just people trying to stir the pot for attention and page views.
• As for the Browns next pick, I don’t think it was a good one.  Not saying Denzel Ward isn’t good because he is.  But the chance to draft Bradley Chubb was right there and they passed on it.  Not a good look.
• To be honest (hindsight being 20/20), if I had been the Browns I would have drafted Barkley first and probably still would have got Mayfield at #4.  All of a sudden, the Browns would have been hailed as instant draft winners.  Now, not so much.
• David Akers trolling Dallas fans is this year’s Drew Pearson taunting Eagles fans.  I hope this doesn’t mean that the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl this year because none of us can handle that.
• I see Lee Corso donned a Mel Kiper head during College Gameday.  I thought he was supposed to pick winners (Hi-yo).
• I thought the NFL Network did a pretty good job with their coverage.  The foursome of Rich Eisen, Charles Davis, Daniel Jeremiah and Mike Mayock is about as good as they come.  Nothing seemed overdone or gimmicky.

Winners

• Let me preface both the winners and losers list with this one indisputable fact: it’s really too early to tell.  So this is off of what many people observed so far with these picks.
• Baltimore – The Ravens did quite well.  They got Lamar Jackson with their second pick of the first round.  They also picked Orlando Brown and Mark Andrews far below where they probably should have gone.  I don’t think any of their picks were reaches so they, by all accounts, had a good three days in Ozzie Newsome’s final draft.
• Buffalo – I know I will get flak for this but I think the Bills did a pretty good job.  I know Josh Allen wasn’t a popular pick but a good one in that spot since the Bills need a quarterback whose name doesn’t rhyme with Dathan Meterman.  Also, getting Tremaine Edmunds and Harrison Phillips will be huge additions to an already stellar defense.
• Denver – They somehow got Bradley Chubb at the five spot.  I still don’t get how.  Then they got Courtland Sutton, Josey Jewell and TWO good running backs.  I say Elway grabbed a good haul there.
• NY Giants – Saquon Barkley and Will Hernandez?  That’s all you have to say there.

Losers

• New Orleans – I don’t care what anyone thinks: trading that many draft picks for Marcus Davenport?  It’s the same as the Mitch Trubisky situation last season.  Unless Davenport has a good first year this will look like a dumb move from Saints’ management.
• Seattle – This will be another extremely unpopular pick.  But other than drafting Shaquem Griffin (a feel-good story who should have been drafted about a round earlier), they didn’t quite hit the bullseye on most of their picks.  Rashaad Penny is huge risk-reward here.  If he ends up killing it in the league the Seahawks will look like geniuses but they could have had them with their next pick probably easily.
• Kansas City – Part of this is them parting with picks to move up to get Patrick Mahomes last year.  So can’t totally fault them for that.
• Detroit – Funny how everyone is lauding the Frank Ragnow pick in the #20 spot considering I saw almost no mock drafts having him that high.

Which brings me to mock drafts in general.  Almost no mock had Mayfield #1 until like a day or so before the draft when that seemed to be the consensus.  Then everyone’s mock had it.  What bullshit.  I am going to cut down my mocks to three (at most) next year if not less.  It’s a fruitless endeavour and I sometimes feel it is a complete waste of time.

So yeah there were other winners and losers (I guess) from the draft and other cool things happening but I think I have put too much effort towards it now.  For doing this in my spare time it felt like I put way too much of myself and my time into it.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked live-tweeting it.  I love live-tweeting during actual college football season.  Keeps me engaged.  This, on the other hand, was great at the start but by midway through the first round I was getting tired.  In general and of being on Twitter.

Again, this is about making this blog better but also about doing the things I like and enjoy and want to spend time on and less on the stuff I am liking less and less.  It’s a work in progress.  I make it sound like some grand piece of gallery art when it’s absolutely not.

Anyway, soon enough it’s the most important games list meaning we are getting close to being only double-digit amount of days away from college football season (as of right now we are at a sad 117 days away).  Have a good week everyone.

The final mock draft? Yeah I think so.

Look I know there will be trades as the draft comes near.  Buffalo is almost certain to pull off another deal to move up at least one of their first round picks.  Other teams look to probably move up or down as well.  Should be interesting.

Saying that, this is my last mock draft.  Period.  I promise.  I am not going to go all Mel Kiper and do a new mock draft every hour on the hour until draft day.  That’s insane.  Even for a guy who’s job it is to analyze the draft to the point he’s checking the prospects’ fibre in their shit.  Anyway, let’s get to my last list followed by possibly inaccurate rantings afterwards:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
3		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
4		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
5		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
6		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
7		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
8		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
9		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
10		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
11		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
12		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
13		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
14		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
15		Orlando Brown, T (Oklahoma)
16		Connor Williams, T (Texas)
17		Leighton Vander Esch, LB (Boise State)
18		Mike McGlinchey, T (Notre Dame)
19		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
20		Rashaan Evans, LB (Alabama)
21		James Daniels, C (Iowa)
22		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
23		Harold Landry, DE (Boston College)
24		Isaiah Wynn, G (Georgia)
25		Will Hernandez, G (UTEP)
26		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
27		Billy Price, C (Ohio State)
28		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
29		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
30		Taven Bryan, DT (Florida)
31		Sam Hubbard, DE (Ohio State)
32		Kolton Miller, T (UCLA)

SECOND ROUND

33		Carlton Davis, CB (Auburn)
34		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
35		Jamarco Jones, T (Ohio State)
36		Isaiah Oliver, CB (Colorado)
37		Brian O’Neill, T (Pittsburgh)
38		Ronald Jones II, RB (USC)
39		Jaire Alexander, CB (Louisville)
40		Lamar Jackson, QB (Louisville)
41		Da’Ron Payne, DT (Alabama)
42		Sony Michel, RB (Georgia)
43		Chukwuma Okorafor, T (Western Kentucky)
44		Dorance Armstrong Jr., OLB (Kansas)
45		D.J. Moore, WR (Maryland)
46		Ronnie Harrison, S (Alabama)
47		Courtland Sutton, WR (SMU)
48		Terrell Edmunds, S (Virginia Tech)
49		Oren Burks, LB (Vanderbilt)
50		Dallas Goedert, TE (South Dakota State)
51		Arden Key, DE (LSU)
52		Kerryon Johnson, RB (Auburn)
53		Harrison Phillips, DT (Stanford)
54		Da’Shawn Hand, DT (Alabama)
55		Mark Andrews, TE (Oklahoma)
56		Anthony Miller, WR (Memphis)
57		Rasheem Green, DE (USC)
58		Justin Reid, S (Stanford)
59		Mike Hughes, CB (UCF)
60		Kyzir White, S (West Virginia)
61		Braden Smith, G (Auburn)
62		Martinas Rankin, T (Mississippi State)
63		M.J. Stewart, CB (North Carolina)
64		Anthony Averett, CB (Alabama)

Random Info

• Might as well give in and go with the QB top-heavy draft.  It feels like Darnold, Rosen and Allen will be the top three in some order.  The caveat here is that the three teams currently in the top three spots (CLE, NYG, NYJ) might not be the top three draft spots on draft night.  I could see Buffalo or even Denver moving up to get the quarterback they want unless they are OK with who I have them taking (Rudolph to the Bills, Jackson to the Broncos).  Lamar Jackson is intriguing and I could see him as a first round pick but he almost seems like a guy who has to be picked by the time Buffalo makes their first selection at 12 or he will wait until the next round.  As a Bills fan I honestly would be happy to get a guy like Lamar Jackson but I can understand the risks there.
• This all means the Browns may get a top QB AND Saquon Barkley for their first two picks.  Scary.
• Does anyone forgo getting a QB knowing one A-A-Ron Rodgers becomes a free agent after this season?  I could see a team basically balking at drafting a decent QB and making a serious run at Mister Rodgers during the 2018-19 offseason.
• If I had to go draft steals at this point, according to my mock draft, I would say the Bills getting Harrison Phillips, the Cards getting Courtland Sutton, Ronnie Harrison to the Bengals and the aforementioned Lamar Jackson to Denver.  Which means none of these will happen.

That’s it, that’s all.  The draft is 13 days away, Thursday night April 26th on like 400 channels or something.  I still will watch the NFL Network coverage.  I honestly believe they do a better job.  I have always found it amusing that the majority of people watch the ESPN coverage and then bitch about that same ESPN coverage.  Then turn the fucking channel, dipshit.

I will be live-tweeting the opening night I am sure (unless something comes up).  I will not live-tweet the rest of the draft.  Otherwise you would witness the clear breakdown of a man gone insane (in a series of like 200 tweets).  Would make for a fascinating TV-movie-of-the-week but not so fun to actually live through.

Soon enough (after the draft) I will do my annual draft review and talk about how shitty my picks were.  Then it’s on to the real meat and potatoes of my blog (and if you are vegetarian, find something else to eat.  I don’t make two separate dinners.)  The most important games of the season and then getting into some conference previews.  We are….oh god, 134 days away from the first official day of the college football season.  So.  Long.  Away.

A new mock draft after the Kreepy Kombine

I did not watch the Combine.  I saw a few tweets about certain players like Lamar Jackson (who is a QUARTERBACK) and Shaquille Griffin (who is a DEFENSIVE BEAST) among others.  Other than that, nope.  The Combine is just fucking weird.  I go to the gym and see people work out.  Because people work out there and I am also there to work out.  I would never watch those people work out on TV so there’s no way I would do the same for football players.  I get the idea behind it but a guy going up and down a draft board because of his speed in the 40 is ridiculous.  How often does someone go 40 yards, untouched, and in a straight line?  Maybe a few times a season?  Anyway, it’s bizarre.

What the Combine does do is allow me to do a Mock Draft V.3. since there would have been some movement afterwards because GMs and Assistant GMs and scouts need something to do.  So here’s the next iteration of the mock draft followed by some random info:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
3		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
4		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
5		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
6		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
7		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
8		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
9		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
10		Orlando Brown, T (Oklahoma)
11		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
12		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
13		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
14		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
15		Connor Williams, T (Texas)
16		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
17		Leighton Vander Esch, LB (Boise State)
18		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
19		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
20		Isaiah Wynn, G (Georgia)
21		Rashaan Evans, LB (Alabama)
22		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
23		Mike McGlinchey, T (Notre Dame)
24		James Daniels, C (Iowa)
25		Harold Landry, DE (Boston College)
26		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
27		Billy Price, C (Ohio State)
28		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
29		Courtland Sutton, WR (SMU)
30		Will Hernandez, G (UTEP)
31		Kolton Miller, T (UCLA)
32		Carlton Davis, CB (Auburn)

SECOND ROUND

33		Jamarco Jones, T (Ohio State)
34		Isaiah Oliver, CB (Colorado)
35		Ronald Jones II, RB (USC)
36		Sam Hubbard, DE (Ohio State)
37		Sony Michel, RB (Georgia)
38		Arden Key, DE (LSU)
39		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
40		Brian O’Neill, T (Pittsburgh)
41		Taven Bryan, DT (Florida)
42		Nick Chubb, RB (Georgia)
43		Chukwuma Okorafor, T (Western Kentucky)
44		Da’Ron Payne, DT (Alabama)
45		Anthony Miller, WR (Memphis)
46		Dorance Armstrong Jr., OLB (Kansas)
47		James Washington, WR (Oklahoma State)
48		Ronnie Harrison, S (Alabama)
49		Jaire Alexander, CB (Louisville)
50		Dallas Goedert, TE (South Dakota State)
51		Harrison Phillips, DT (Stanford)
52		Christian Kirk, WR (Texas A&M)
53		Trenton Thompson, DT (Georgia)
54		D.J. Moore, WR (Maryland)
55		Mike Hughes, CB (UCF)
56		D.J. Chark, WR (LSU)
57		Hayden Hurst, TE (South Carolina)
58		Terrell Edmunds, S (Virginia Tech)
59		Lamar Jackson, QB (Louisville)
60		Justin Reid, S (Stanford)
61		Mark Andrews, TE (Oklahoma)
62		Duke Ejiofor, DE (Wake Forest)
63		M.J. Stewart, CB (North Carolina)
64		Kyzir White, S (West Virginia)

Random Info

• Gone to two rounds!  I would say it means double the chances to get things wrong but that’s a lie.  It easily quadruples it.  Which makes me on par with Mel Kiper.
• I can’t see the Giants passing on Barkley now.  This means the Browns lose the opportunity to get a top QB and THE top RB in the first four picks.  It means, chances are, their pick at running back will come later in the draft (which I have them doing on their second 2nd round pick).
• This may now work out great for the Broncos.  They just got Case Keenum so whoever they draft at QB can at least sit and watch and be mentored for a season, which we know is definitely the way to go (most of the time).  See Rodgers, Aaron.
• I don’t put trades in at all.  I know they will happen but it’s difficult enough to pick two rounds of the draft let alone throw in trades.  But something tells me the Bills, after trading Tyrod Taylor to the Browns, will be moving up in the draft to get a QB.  As of right now I have them getting Mason Rudolph (which isn’t a bad pick at all) but they could move up to get one of Darnold, Rosen, Allen or Mayfield.
• Both Edmunds boys (Tremaine and Terrell) I expect to go in the first two rounds.  That should change I am sure since mock drafts, I realize once again, are a fool’s game.
• Yes the Saints just signed Drew Brees again.  But Lamar Jackson would do well to go there, watch a pocket passer like Drew who throws the ball approximately nine thousand times a game, and mesh that with his ridiculous athleticism.  This guy could very well be Michael Vick 2.0…without the bad shit.

So there you go.  Another mock draft.  Impressed, right?  Yeah, I’m not that impressed either.  And I still can’t believe the draft is like a month-and-a-half away.  Didn’t it always used to be early March/late April?  A quick online tells me the last time it was even as early as mid-April was the 2000 draft.  I must be hallucinating then.

Hey, remember my “I will try to post once a week” comment?  Yeah that got flushed down the toilet.  What else can I talk about without sounding like I am forcibly creating a post for no other reason than to create a post.  I will have at least one more mock draft…maybe two.  And perhaps another What-if post since they are SO popular (as in I assume they aren’t popular at all).  Other than that?   Crickets.

I am working on the college schedule now that it is out.  Mapping it out and such.  It takes a while so I never do more than a bit at a time because even I would get bored with it.  Once the draft is upon us, I should start getting back into things.  So let’s consider this a season finale of sorts.  Like on TV.  Except way worse.  Enjoy your week everyone!

So………………………………now what?

Man was that ever a fun Super Bowl.  The most pew-pew-pew Super Bowl ever.  Nick Foles and Tom Brady both had (arguably) the greatest two-game playoff stretches EVER for a QB in NFL history.  I will refrain from the Big XII jokes I heard about this one but every so often you need a game like that.  Especially in the NFL.  Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles for their first Super Bowl victory and good luck to the city of Philadelphia cleaning up after that celebration.

Might as well move on with Mock Draft 2.0.  OK Mock Draft 2.  No decimals.  I am not Mel Kiper (or any of the other drafttheads who do four different versions of the draft every damn day).  Here we go followed by inane somewhat-early analysis:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
3		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
4		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
5		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
6		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
7		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
8		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
9		Orlando Brown, OT (Oklahoma)
10		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
11		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
12		Connor Williams, OT (Texas)
13		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
14		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
15		Billy Price, C (Ohio State)
16		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
17		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
18		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
19		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
20		Leighton Vander Esch, LB (Boise State)
21		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
22		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
23		Rashaan Evans, LB (Alabama)
24		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
25		Harold Landry, DE (Boston College)
26		Da’Ron Payne, DT (Alabama)
27		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
28		Carlton Davis, CB (Auburn)
29		Mike McGlinchey, OT (Notre Dame)
30		Isaiah Wynn, G (Georgia)
31		Isaiah Oliver, CB (Colorado)
32		Kolton Miller, OT (UCLA)

Notes

• Still doing only the first round at this point.  I mean it’s two-and-a-half months until the draft.  Don’t want to burn myself out on this.
• Hey remember when I said I wouldn’t give into the Josh Allen hype?  Well I kind of am.  Kind of.  I’m moving him into the Top 10 at this point but with the following caveat: if the Broncos pass on him I don’t think the Jets would take him so he would fall pretty far down the ladder.  So it’s all-or-nothing at this point for Mr. Allen.  That should change 50 times between now and the draft.
• I think it makes sense (for now) that the Browns draft two offensive weapons early so that neither has to be relied on too much.  I mean the Browns will still suck but maybe they won’t suck as bad.
• Two Isaiahs in a row.  Nice.
• Mike McGlinchey with the farthest fall so far.  19 spots from the first mock to the second.  Then again I know next to nothing so who knows where he will end up.  Also we have fucking idiots for GMs on certain teams so at least one of them will do something relatively stupid on the draft’s opening night.

So that’s it.  No more football.  College football starts again in 201 days.  That is way too long.  I always try to remember how I get through these dark times.  At least the summer is easy to figure out since there’s a ton to do but right now I just feel sad.  Maybe I have F-SAD: Football Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Either way this should be a good time to get back into being a normal human being.  Like:

• workout more.  I am amazed I don’t always feel like a bag of shit but these are the times I usually do: the times when I have much less to do.
• work on projects around the house.  Not that there is too much I can do without spending the amount of money I would need but still…I have to stop letting things go so long.
• date more.  More like date at all.  This has to work in conjunction with the workout more point above and…
• eat better.  I know part of this is my depression but I have to fight and not take the lazy way out with food.  Plus I can’t see it costing a ton more to eat better so I might as well do it.  Got to be an example for my kids and whatnot.
• re-connect with friends.  This I am terrible at.  Not saying I have to put the first foot forward but I do have to try harder (and hope they also try in return which is another story altogether).

There’s way more stuff there.  Hopefully I can use the next six months to my advantage so that I feel fine spending a whole bunch of Saturdays in a row watching a shitload of college football and shunning some other responsibilities.  And with my kids ignoring me more and more these days (as kids are wont to do as they get older) this will only get worse.

I am hoping to continue to post at least once a week going forward until I start back up in the late spring with some schedule posts and important games posts and stuff like that.  We shall see how this goes.  Have a great week everyone.

It’s about that time of year…mock draft time WAIT DON’T LEAVE!

Yeah I’m not too happy about this either.  I mean I don’t mind the draft.  The lead-up to the draft is beyond ridiculous and the Combine is creepy as fuck but the draft itself is some solid stuff…at least the first two days.  The last day is…well, it’s something that’s for sure.  I can whip through it on the PVR in like an hour.  It’s good on fast-forward.

So the reason I am unhappy is doing this post means we are at the end of another football year.  Well almost.  We got the Pro Bowl ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha sorry I couldn’t say that with a straight face.  For normal football fans we have the Super Bowl obviously and the Senior Bowl this weekend which I will discuss later in this post.  For now, let’s get to my first mock draft:

FIRST ROUND

1		Sam Darnold, QB (USC)
2		Josh Rosen, QB (UCLA)
3		Orlando Brown, T (Oklahoma)
4		Minkah Fitzpatrick, CB (Alabama)
5		Baker Mayfield, QB (Oklahoma)
6		Saquon Barkley, RB (Penn State)
7		Bradley Chubb, DE (NC State)
8		Calvin Ridley, WR (Alabama)
9		Quentin Nelson, G (Notre Dame)
10		Mike McGlinchey, T (Notre Dame)
11		Roquan Smith, LB (Georgia)
12		Josh Allen, QB (Wyoming)
13		Derwin James, S (Florida State)
14		James Washington, WR (Oklahoma State)
15		Courtland Sutton, WR (SMU)
16		Derrius Guice, RB (LSU)
17		Connor Williams, T (Texas)
18		Joshua Jackson, CB (Iowa)
19		Vita Vea, DT (Washington)
20		Marcus Davenport, DE (UTSA)
21		Mason Rudolph, QB (Oklahoma State)
22		Maurice Hurst, DT (Michigan)
23		Denzel Ward, CB (Ohio State)
24		Anthony Miller, WR (Memphis)
25		Will Hernandez, G (UTEP)
26		Taven Bryan, DT (Florida)
27		Christian Kirk, WR (Texas A&M)
28		Tremaine Edmunds, LB (Virginia Tech)
29		Billy Price, G (Ohio State)
30		Arden Key, DE (LSU)
31		Malik Jefferson, LB (Texas)
32		Sam Hubbard, DE (Ohio State)

Notes

• Only did the first round this time around.  Will probably stick with that the first few mocks and then afterwards include the second round.  I will not do like a dozen mocks.  That’s absurd.  I did five last year and I wonder if that might have been too much as well.
• I am not giving into the Josh Allen hype.  Yes, he’s a good quarterback but I don’t think he’s better than Darnold or Rosen.  He should still get his name called somewhere mid-first round.
• Honestly I believe Josh Rosen is a more polished quarterback than Sam Darnold but he has made it abundantly clear they he does not want to play in Cleveland.  The Browns are a shitty franchise but even they have to see the potential John Elway situation and tell themselves it’s best to steer clear of this one.  It helps that Darnold should still be a good pick.
• There will be trades.  I know there will be.  There was last year that set up situations like the Bills picking twice in a row in this draft’s first round.  I am not including any potential trades.  At all.  Once they happen I will curse and then re-do my draft board (that sounds so douchey to say).
• What should my reward be if I get like half of these picks right three months before the draft occurs?  Actually, you know what…I’m not gonna go there.

This Saturday is the final college football anything of the season as we get to see the Senior Bowl on the NFL Network.  Starts at 2:30.  Again they have some weird variation on rules but it’s still college football.  As long as it’s a good game I don’t mind at all.  And yes the Pro Bowl is on Sunday at 3:00 on ABC and TSN2.  I will not be watching it.

Next week there’s an important game supposedly.  I might look into that next week.  Enjoy the rest of your week (and weekend) everyone!

That’s the Notre Dame I remember – Week 8 College Football Recap

Well, if you honestly remember this guy coaching the Irish.  Other than 2012, which seems like an anomaly now, we haven’t seen a true national title contending Fighting Irish team since Lou Holtz’s teams of the early 90s.  I don’t count one-offs from Charlie Weis or Tyrone Willingham or anything Bob Davie did.  So it did feel weird to see a really good Notre Dame team that you can honestly say, yes, this team has a shot.  A lot has to go their way and their schedule the rest of the way is still brutal but there is no way, no how that an 11-1 Notre Dame team is left out of the College Football Playoff.  And that is exactly what none of the conferences want.  Because then there would only be three spots remaining among five conferences.  And remember, the conferences are all about money, ur, I mean, no they’re all about the football right?  And the students?  That’s why we’ve had crazy realignment correct?  And no NCAA Football video game?

The rest of the recap

• The other half of the equation above is USC. And boy have we figured out what the Trojans are not: and that’s national championship contenders.  What else we figured out?  That Sam Darnold is probably not a Heisman contender.  I mean a lot can happen the rest of the way but it would take a lot for him to garner some votes.  All this also means my pick for the national champion is gone.  Thanks a bunch guys.
• Penn State mopped the floor with Michigan, completing the double shot of games that weren’t even close in primetime. It’s not a huge deal because there were some great games earlier in the day and plus Game 7 of the ALCS was on at the same time so they had some competition for viewers.  Either way, Penn State and Saquon Barkley look like the real deal.  The Wolverines, not so much, although we kind of had an idea this would happen after their opening matchup against Florida.
• Is Florida State going bowling this season? I honestly can’t see a way they could.  With them having to drop their game against ULM off the schedule due to the hurricane (which would have been a likely victory), it means they have to go 6-5 to make a bowl game.  At 2-4, that means winning four of their last five.  The only sure win is Delaware State.  I can’t see them winning three out of four from Boston College, Syracuse, Clemson and Florida.  So we could be witnessing history here.  History of the wrong kind.
• Tennessee is another team that is up against it. Butch Jones is as good as gone.  If the Vols keep him it would be them admitting that 2018 is another lost year.  As for a bowl game, they have a much better chance than FSU of making it so I think they will make a bowl game but they may want to figure out travel plans to places like Memphis, Shreveport or Birmingham rather than fun Florida locales.
• Alabama won again. Ho hum.  Thankfully for them LSU is ranked or otherwise they would have to go all the way to the Iron Bowl to get a potentially ranked team which leaves them with a much thinner margin of error in case of an upset loss.
• Remember last season when Georgia Southern’s AD stated that Tyson Summers would be back for another season despite the fact Summers had only just completed his first season? The writing was on the wall then and now, after the Eagles have gone to basically their worst start in a generation, Summers has been shitcanned.  No surprise.  The surprise is how pathetically bad Georgia Southern is two years after being a Sun Belt force.
• Let’s go back to the primetime schedule. People bemoaned the fact that Kansas would be on in primetime on FOX to play TCU.  In the end I think it was a shrewd move by FOX as they got the best big game of the afternoon and an amazing finish between Oklahoma and Kansas State up against inferior games.  I think it would have been somewhat lost in the shuffle in primetime.  Saying all that, a national audience got to see how truly bad Kansas was.  Their 21 yards for the entire game is the worst total in the FBS in two decades.  They are why promotion-relegation would be welcomed by a ton of fans in college football.
• Is the Pac-12 out? They are as close to it as you can be this early in the season.  One of Washington or Washington State now has to run the table and win the Pac-12 Championship or there is no chance the conference gets a seat at the adult table come CFP time.  So much hope for this conference dashed in an eight-day span.
• UCF is really going to make it tough for their in-state rivals, USF, to run away with the Group of Five spot. The War on I-4 between these two teams on American Thanksgiving weekend is going to be huge.  It’s almost a definite ABC game if both teams get there undefeated.  Could it go to primetime?  There’s a distinct possibility despite the fact it’s a loaded schedule that week.

Alright another fun weekend in the books.  On to the Bossman Top 25.  Not a whole lot has changed at the top with quite a few teams idle this past weekend:

#1	Alabama
#2	Penn State
#3	TCU
#4	Georgia
#5	Wisconsin
#6	Miami
#7	Ohio State
#8	Oklahoma State
#9	Notre Dame
#10	Clemson
#11	Oklahoma
#12	Virginia Tech
#13	Washington
#14	USF
#15	Washington State
#16	UCF
#17	NC State
#18	Auburn
#19	Michigan State
#20	USC
#21	LSU
#22	Stanford
#23	Iowa State
#24	Michigan
#25	West Virginia

I have moved Penn State and TCU past Georgia since in college football it really is “what have you done for me lately” when it comes to the polls (and mine is no different).  It all smooths out in the end really.  I have Notre Dame firmly in the Top 10 and USC still at #20 since that might end up being considered a good loss for them if Notre Dame runs the table.  Iowa State and West Virginia from the suddenly quite good Big XII move into the Top 25.  So now half the conference is in the rankings (OU, OSU, TCU, ISU, WVU) with Texas, Texas Tech, and Kansas State still being decent middle-of-the-road teams.  God help the broadcast crew that gets dealt Baylor-Kansas later this season.

Another NFL recap tomorrow (probably) although I am honestly trying to determine whether I scrap early season NFL recaps/rants (unless it is warranted) and focus on later on in the season when there are playoff implications and the football starts getting better because more games actually mean something.  Hoping to do a way-too-early bowl prediction post this week as well.  Enjoy your week everyone!