Nebraska Cornhuskers Football is a Dumpster Fire (oh, and the Week 3 College Football TV Schedule)

Posted on September 16, 2022 by guelphbossman

Alright, a little background info on your faithful blogger: I am an accountant and I also have a background in mathematics. Just figured I’d mention that at the start so when I say I am completely perplexed by the absolute stupidity of Trev Alberts and the Nebraska athletic department you know I come from a place of at least a bit of experience. When Trev decided to shitcan Scott Frost a few days ago rather than wait until October 1st, it cost the school an extra $7.5 million. Yes, I know, buyout clauses of that magnitude are stupid but that’s a conversation for another day. It’s just a waste of money, though. Like why bother? The season is shot. Let him coach three more games and then fire him during the postgame interview. Then hire whoever you want. But no, do it the dumb way. Maybe they can convince Bo Pelini and his dreadful four-loss seasons to return to Lincoln.

Enough of that nonsense. Let’s just get to the damn schedule while I wonder if anyone at Nebraska understands that more money is better than less.

Friday

		US	Canada
Florida State at Louisville	7:30 PM
Air Force at Wyoming	8:00 PM

Two games tonight with one being slightly more important than the other. Florida State has a chance to go to 3-0 and put Scott Satterfield back on the hot seat which is actually a fireplace.

Saturday Early

Look there are no big games in this timeslot, I’ll be honest. But I will say I am a bit intrigued with the OU-NU game. Will this be an asskicking for the ages or will the Huskers come out fired up as they try to look good for whoever their new coach will be *COUGH*Urban Meyer*COUGH*. How UConn ends up in an ABC game every year stuns me but I can tell this week that there weren’t exactly a ton of options so I will give ABC a break; however, TSN does not get a break. This game is on TSN1 AND TSN4? What in the fuck? Put another game on TSN4, idiots.

Finally, you will notice we have MORNING COLLEJ FOOTBAW! The ACC Network is doing their annual four games in one day thing so they have to start early since I am sure no team would volunteer to start a game at 10PM local time. Although I could be wrong there.

Saturday Afternoon

Cougs-Ducks is easily the biggest game in this timeslot. A few years ago, PSU-AU could have been but the Tigers aren’t exactly the Tigers of old. Also, this is Penn State’s first time on CBS in 22 years but it wasn’t even a national telecast. The last national telecast on CBS was a year earlier when they beat Miami in a great game.

Let’s see if Marcus Freeman can get his first win, if Kansas can stay undefeated and if ULM can stay within 50 of the Tide. Also, these three-hour windows. Not only is the ACC Network doing it but the Pac-12 Network is also doing it. Just stop. Start the games earlier if you have to, just enough of this nonsense. Unless you are Navy or Army or maybe Air Force you aren’t finishing a game in less than three hours.

Finally, Appalachian State basically stole the College Gameday host spot from Texas A&M with their upset win this past Saturday. I assume Gameday would have gone to College Station for the Aggies’ game against Miami but that was obviously not confirmed. Problem is, App State plays on ESPN+ this week. Couldn’t they have moved that game to ESPNU at least? Seems dumb to me.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Mississippi State at LSU	6:00 PM
Texas Tech at #16 NC State	7:00 PM
Toledo at #3 Ohio State	7:00 PM
#11 Michigan State at Washington	7:30 PM
Maine at Boston College	7:30 PM
Nevada at Iowa	7:30 PM
UCF at Florida Atlantic	7:30 PM
#23 Pittsburgh at Western Michigan	7:30 PM
SMU at Maryland	7:30 PM
USF at #18 Florida	7:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at #5 Clemson	8:00 PM
Montana State at Oregon State	8:00 PM

Oh my god, MORE three-hour windows? It’s like the networks are trying to torture me. Nothing big here although we all remember what Western Michigan somehow did to Pitt last year, at Pitt. This year it’s in Kalamazoo so things could get wacky. I have noticed that the games on Bally haven’t been showing up on the specialty packs. I will have to watch for this and see if it continues. I would say I could ask a Rogers or Bell rep but that would be futile.

UPDATE: Looks like Maine-BC is not on the specialty pack anywhere. Interesting that now that it’s Bally Sports and not FOX Sports Network, the games aren’t appearing. Instead, UTSA-Texas appears. Where is that game? The Longhorn Network. I don’t get it. But there you go. Probably a better game to watch to be honest.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#13 Miami at #24 Texas A&M	9:00 PM
San Diego State at #14 Utah	10:00 PM
Fresno State at #7 USC	10:30 PM
North Dakota State at Arizona	11:00 PM
Eastern Michigan at Arizona State	11:00 PM

You’re reading it correctly. FOX QUADRUPLEHEADER! This is such a glorious thing. I wish they did it more often but I understand networks’ need to go to local news at some point. I would say there is an Upset Alert in Tucson but would future Mountain West member NDSU beating Zona be a big upset?

Big Games O’ The Week

BYU at Oregon (3:30, FOX) – When is the last time BYU has been in the Game of the Week? Maybe when they scheduled a game with Coastal Carolina on a few minutes notice back in 20COVID. Oregon, and the Pac-12, could be in a heap of trouble here if they lose and there’s a good chance that could happen. The Cougs are looking to use this as a springboard to be ranked high enough to be picked for a New Year’s Six bowl, which won’t be easy this year.

Miami at Texas A&M (9:00, specialty pack) – Once the Aggies lost, they lost Gameday and the GOTW spot on this blog. The latter is definitely more important than the former. Miami feels like a team that, all of a sudden, not many people are talking about. You could see them make some real waves in the ACC and a win here would give their NY6 chances a boost and really hamper the Aggies’ chances.

Penn State at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – Penn State will soon be a regular on CBS but this is a rarity at this point. Auburn could put a massive dent into the Nittany Lions’ potential New Year’s Six hopes. An Auburn loss might make Bryan Harsin’s hot seat a little hotter for sure as this experiment hasn’t exactly worked out as planned.

Michigan State at Washington (7:30, ABC) – The Huskies are having a much better start than last year although that “effort” against Montana to start the 2021 season couldn’t have been worse. This could end up being an underrated game as I see Sparty maybe having some problems with the noise at Husky Stadium. And have you seen how steep the stands are there? Gives me memories of The Aud in Buffalo and the insanely steep upper deck they had.

Psycho Game of the Week

Vanderbilt at Northern Illinois (3:30, CBS Sports Network) – I mean I guess you could be kind of interested in the Dores potentially going to 3-1 which is something probably very few people predicted. But yeah, unless it’s close, hard pass.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

UConn at Michigan (Noon, ABC/TSN1/TSN4) – I’ll say it again: TSN putting this game on two channels is moronic. I get it’s Michigan but this could be an epic blowout. I hope it is to be honest. Stupid TSN.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Let’s see how I did last week. First pick was…..OK let’s skip this part. No, don’t go back and look at them. Let’s just move on. This week’s picks (against the spread)!

Cincinnati (-20.5) over Miami-OH

Oklahoma (-11.5)….-11.5? ELEVEN-AND-A-HALF? Alright then. Oklahoma (-11.5) over Nebraska

Western Kentucky (+6.5) over Indiana (but the Hoosiers to win)

Old Dominion (+10) over Virginia (Cavs will pull out the close win though)

Notre Dame (-10.5) over California

BYU (+3.5) over Oregon (Ducks win by a field goal)

Ole Miss (-16) over Georgia Tech

Houston (-10) over Kansas

Washington State (-16.5) over Colorado State

LSU (+2) over Mississippi State (and the outright win!)

NC State (-10.5) over Texas Tech

Michigan State (+3.5) over Washington (and an outright win)

Texas A&M (-5.5) over Miami

I am looking forward to another great weekend of college football. I’ll be on the Twitter machine for a good portion of the day. I’m trying to be healthier though so I can’t eat like I used to eat on these days. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was some good food but I can’t eat as much of it. Enjoy the games everyone and enjoy your weekend!

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Posted on September 9, 2022 by guelphbossman

It’s COMPLETE OVERREACTION TIME!!!! Yay, I guess. It happens every year and is one of the worst college football traditions in college football. I would say it’s up there with Midnight Yell practice at Texas A&M but that’s not fair. Midnight Yell isn’t bad. It’s just seriously fucking weird. Anyway, let’s begin with the first set of overreactions to the college football season after a crazy Week 1:

Ohio State is not that good on offense! Look, the Irish played damn good on defense all night and kept things close. Plus, the Buckeyes were without Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a good portion of the game. I’m sure when tOSU gets to play Maryland they will aim for a 60-burger.
Stetson Bennett could win the Heisman! I mean, technically he could. But he won’t. Yes he had a good game and it was against a fairly good Oregon team. He’s not on the level of the top 10 quarterbacks in college football, though, and will have at least a couple of games where the UGA defense (and perhaps the rushing attack) has to carry him to victory.
The Pac-12 is toast! Yes, the Oregon and Utah losses look bad. Saying that, USC looked pretty good in their opener (albeit against Rice). And there are a couple of other teams who could do the unthinkable and make a run for it. But don’t count this conference out just yet. Let’s wait until like Week 8 to do that.
The ACC is screwed! Clemson looked pedestrian for most of their game against Georgia Tech. D.J. Uiagelelei doesn’t seem to be the answer at quarterback. Cade Klubnik looked good though and it’s only Week 1. Plus, NC State, Wake Forest and Pitt are undefeated (NC State barely) and you never know what will happen inside the other conferences. Let’s not write off the ACC just yet.
Florida/Florida State/USC is back! We’ve played this game before. At least one of these teams won’t be back really, if not all three. I think all three make bowl games and it wouldn’t surprise me if at least one team enters November with still a legitimate shot at the New Year’s Six. But neither of these teams are back…yet.
Scott Frost is going to be fired soon! OK not everything on this list is an overreaction.

Hey it’s also time for the Week 2 college football TV schedule as well. Which leads us to another unfortunate tradition: the lacklustre Week 2 schedule that we see almost every season. I rank the weeks in terms of how good the games are and Week 2 almost always falls near the bottom. You know what we say about these kinds of weeks, though…we usually get a fantastic finish or five out of them. After last weekend, can we handle it? Yes. Yes we can.

Friday

		US	Canada
Louisville at UCF	7:30 PM
Boise State at New Mexico	9:00 PM

Last year we had undefeated Kansas against undefeated Coastal Carolina in this timeslot. This year we get the molten hot lava seat of Scott Satterfield hoping his team can pull out what might have to be considered an upset over the Gus Bus and a Boise State team that is not the Boise State team we’ve known and mostly loved for the past almost two decades. Fun times.

Saturday Early

An absolute shit-ton of games in this timeslot. I’m not complaining whatsoever.

Bama-Texas is the big game early and FOX is praying that it is at least remotely close. Then maybe they can say “Texas is Back” a bunch of times because you know they are itching to. Big Ten Network goes nuts this week with eight games total throughout the day. So you will see plenty of them in the specialty packs. I wonder if Wake can handle UNDEFEATED VANDY (of course they can) and thanks to reader Dan, I have added the YouTube logo for Pac-12 Network games because they are available there for Canadian viewers. I mean I don’t know if you want to watch Southern Utah against Utah but you can if you want.

Finally, it’s no longer FOX Sports Network regional games for the ACC. Bally now has all those channels. So there’s another new logo for you to remember. As of right now, the CSU-NCST game isn’t showing on the specialty pack guides but it should soon.

Saturday Afternoon

I thought there were a lot of games in the early timeslot. My god. Again, no complaints.

No Week 2 game of the year candidates this season, unlike the previous few years where among the rubble there was one massive matchup that towered over everything else and gobbled up all the hype. CyHawk is relegated to the Big Ten Network along with three other games. Funny thing, Wagner-Rutgers is not showing yet on the specialty pack guides. I don’t get it.

Also, a point about P12N games: only the national feed shows up on YouTube. The regional games do not. Just like the Big Ten this week, there is an overload of Pac-12 games so they get a couple of them on the Pac-12 Network regional feeds. I am still shocked no one told Larry Scott and his crew back then that this regional feed stuff is horseshit.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Syracuse at UConn	7:00 PM
#20 Kentucky at #12 Florida	7:00 PM
Eastern Michigan at Louisiana	7:00 PM
#10 USC at Stanford	7:30 PM
Arizona State at #11 Oklahoma State	7:30 PM
San Jose State at Auburn	7:30 PM
Georgia Southern at Nebraska	7:30 PM
Southern at LSU	7:30 PM
Boston College at Virginia Tech	8:00 PM
Idaho at Indiana	8:00 PM
Hawaii at #4 Michigan	8:00 PM
Eastern Washington at Oregon	8:30 PM

This shows how lacklustre the schedule is. Nothing special here unless you think the USC-Stanford game could be a trap game. The most interesting game here might just be UK-UF. No one is going to catch Georgia in the SEC East but if one of these teams can get to ten wins then a New Year’s Six bowl is in their future. And yes, that is a game on the NFL Network. This week and next there is a college football game on the NFL Network. Kind of odd but I wonder if it’s more of a test run to see if they will get more involved next season.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
#9 Baylor at #21 BYU	10:15 PM
Oregon State at Fresno State	10:30 PM
Mississippi State at Arizona	11:00 PM

Big-time game in Provo and we move to TSN5 for this one because the ABC game won’t be done by the time this one starts. The game in Tucson starts at 11. Not exactly a Hawaii Test but that’s a late start.

Big Games O’ The Week

Baylor at BYU (10:15, TSN5) – Not to put down either of these teams but this is not the kind of game that usually is the highlight of a week. But here we are. And honestly, it is a big game. It’s the kind of non-conference game that Baylor is not known for scheduling. It’s the kind of game that BYU must win to have a chance at the New Year’s Six (or more). The stakes are high.

Tennessee at Pittsburgh (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – Last year’s game between these two teams was fantastic. And if you had told me a few years ago that this would be one of the big games of this week I would have thought you took a little bit too much advantage of the legal weed here. The winner here could be in for some big things but both teams are going to have to pull off upsets later on in the season (the Vols especially).

Kentucky at Florida (7:00, specialty pack) – As I said above, no one is catching Georgia in the SEC East (probably). But second place in the division could be huge if it means a potential New Year’s Six spot or, at worst, a good New Year’s Day bowl (or more like January 2nd this season). Both teams look better than advertised so far, especially the Gators after their huge win over Utah. Expect a close game.

Arizona State at Oklahoma State (7:30, specialty pack) – It really drops off a cliff after the first three games. I’m sure many would put Bama-UT in this spot but do you really think that game will be close? This might also be not very close but I have faith on either a) Herm rallying his team and getting them to put together a good four quarters or b) the Pokes fucking up left, right and centre and keeping the Sun Devils in the game.

Psycho Game of the Week

Syracuse at UConn (7:00, CBS Sports Network) – Honestly, despite the lack of high-level matchups this week, there aren’t any ridiculously bad games with two teams that almost no one would want to watch. Yes, Syracuse beat Louisville pretty badly but I think the Cards may be a lot worse than I thought they’d be. And UConn is UConn.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Arkansas State at Ohio State (Noon, BTN) – Another new segment! Here I will put the obvious blowout of the week that there is really no point in watching. This one is, well, plainly obvious. Butch Jones is going to have a long day. At least they get paid a lot to just show up. Well, the school does.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

Hey, who picked Florida to beat Utah? This guy…I’m pointing to myself. Honestly there were quite a few who also picked the Gators so it’s not a massive deal but I am impressed with myself. So on to Week 2’s picks. And remember…I’m picking against the spread. Let’s go!

Notre Dame (-20.5) over Marshall

Memphis (-6.0) over Navy

Pittsburgh (+6.5) over Tennessee (but the Vols win this one)

Boise State (-16.5) over New Mexico

USC (-9) over Stanford

Colorado (+17.5) over Air Force (Falcons still win but it’ll be closer than you think)

UCF (-6.5) over Louisville

Syracuse (-23.5) over UConn

Baylor (+3.5) over BYU (Cougs win by a field goal)

Arizona State (+11) over Oklahoma State (Pokes win but don’t make it easy for themselves)

Alabama (-20) over Texas

Iowa State (+3.5) over Iowa (Hawkeyes will somehow win it 9-8)

OK so from what I can tell, everything is up on the specialty pack other than those two games I mentioned earlier. I assume they will pop up at some point. Even if this week is a bit lacking of big games, I will still be watching as much as I possibly can. I can catch up on sleep sometime in March. Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the games!

So I wonder how he got back from Ireland? Oh, and the Week 1 college football schedule

Posted on August 31, 2022 by guelphbossman

I can’t see the Nebraska team and staff and everyone else who made the trip to Dublin allowing Frosty the Coachman to board the same flight as him. Probably safer for him anyway. He would have been thrown out of the plane over the Atlantic somewhere. All because of a horrible onside kick playcall that was not needed (among other poor coaching decisions). Just a complete fucking disaster for that team and now Frost’s hot seat is basically the surface of the sun.

Finally we have made it! Week One! And a full schedule. Hell, more than a full schedule it feels like. So much football and I will watch as much as I can because come January, it feels bad when it’s all gone. Let’s right to the (true) opening weekend schedule.

Thursday

		US	Canada
West Virginia at #17 Pittsburgh	7:00 PM
Central Michigan at #12 Oklahoma State	7:00 PM
Ball State at Tennessee	7:00 PM
VMI at #22 Wake Forest	7:30 PM
Alabama A&M at UAB	8:00 PM
Louisiana Tech at Missouri	8:00 PM
Penn State at Purdue	8:00 PM
New Mexico State at Minnesota	9:00 PM
Northern Arizona at Arizona State	10:00 PM
Cal Poly at at Fresno State	10:30 PM

As I said during the Week Zero schedule post, I would be including games that most Canadians won’t get up here, even with the specialty packs. I’m doing this because some have switched to an IPTV provider and can get some (or all) of these games. So while the NAU-ASU game might not look exciting (and it probably won’t be), I will still list it.

Nice to see the Backyard Brawl back as WVU and Pitt get a bit of a national spotlight for this one. Also, you have to wonder if Mike Gundy has the last game the Pokes played against CMU in his mind when the Chips won on a Hail Mary play that shouldn’t have even been allowed. Also, FOX will show a Thursday night game on the network to start the season. I wish they did that more often and they honestly could with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package moving to Amazon Prime.

Friday

		US	Canada
Western Michigan at #15 Michigan State	7:00 PM
Virginia Tech at Old Dominion	7:00 PM
Temple at Duke	7:30 PM
Illinois at Indiana	8:00 PM
TCU at Colorado	10:00 PM

3-hour windows. Good lord. Yes, TSN’s schedule says that the TCU-CU game starts at 10:30 but that’s not true. Stupid ESPN.

UPDATE: If you were planning on watching the WMU-MSU game on ESPN, you will have to move to ESPN2 as ESPN is now showing US Open tennis.

Saturday Early

First full slate of Saturday games. Feels good. Nothing big here. The UNC-App State game could be the most intriguing as you don’t often see Power Five teams travel to Group of Five teams so there is some upset potential there.

Saturday Afternoon

Now we get to the meat of Week One. I am not really a fan of neutral-site games but let’s be honest: we are all watching a good portion of that UGA-UO matchup. Perhaps a College Football Playoff elimination game there (although we know one loss almost never kills a Power Five team’s chances). I’m interested to see what the brand new era of Sooner football will look like with Brent Venables now at the helm. And CBS opens with SDSU’s brand new stadium as they finally left the cavernous Murph for a more intimate viewing arrangement.

Also, you will notice a couple of other things. First, no games on ESPN2. As is usually the case, the U.S. Open tennis tournament is on ESPN2 all Saturday so that’s why there are no games airing there. It’s also why most of the TSNs aren’t available to show games this week. Secondly, the odd timing of the Pac-12 Network games. Well, thanks to the brains of Larry Scott (and others, yes, I know, but he was the commish), the Pac-12 Network has a national feed and regional feeds for all the schools. Each pair of schools shares a region. In this timeslot, the UCD-Cal game is actually only available on the P12N Bay Area feed. The BGSU-UCLA game is the P12N National game. Confused? Yeah it’s dumb.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Rice at #14 USC	6:00 PM
#7 Utah at Florida	7:00 PM
Illinois State at #18 Wisconsin	7:00 PM
#5 Notre Dame at #2 Ohio State	7:30 PM
SMU at North Texas	7:30 PM
Memphis at Mississippi State	7:30 PM
Utah State at #1 Alabama	7:30 PM
Louisville at Syracuse	8:00 PM
Colgate at Stanford	8:00 PM

Game of the year in the opening weekend? You could argue that. The Irish and the Buckeyes face off in a massive non-conference matchup (I don’t know why I’m even saying that since the Irish will NEVER join a conference, right?). This will hopefully be worth the hype (and boy is ESPN/ABC going to push the hype to the next level for this one). So you could watch that OR you can watch Bama beat the snot out of USU. Your choice. Now watch that game be closer than the ND-tOSU game.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Idaho at Washington State	9:30 PM
Boise State at Oregon State	10:30 PM
Kent State at Washington	10:30 PM

One of the more interesting matchups of the weekend goes down in Corvallis. I would normally say Boise is the favorite here but the Beavs have been a much improved team as of late. Also, there’s a true Hawaii Test if you can find a way to stream it (it starts at midnight).

Sunday

		US	Canada
Florida A&M vs. Jackson State (in Miami)	3:00 PM
Tuskegee vs. Fort Valley State (in Montgomery)	7:00 PM
LSU vs. Florida State (in New Orleans)	7:30 PM

Speaking of interesting matchups, LSU-FSU is a juicy one down at the Superdome. Both teams are popular picks to improve this year. Let’s see how definitely Southern Brian Kelly fares in his opening contest in the SEC.

I am not sure about the two non-FBS games appearing on the specialty pack. Over the years, these opening Sunday games have been hit or miss so stay tuned.

Monday

		US	Canada
#4 Clemson at Georgia Tech	8:00 PM

Geoff Collins wouldn’t be fired after Week 1 would he?

Big Games O’ The Week

Notre Dame at Ohio State (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Sure there is another game that’s huge but this is THE big game of the week. I don’t remember the Irish starting with a game like this in recent memory and no, Texas doesn’t count. Now we have to hope ND doesn’t play like shit and makes the game unwatchable in the second half.

Georgia vs. Oregon (in Atlanta) (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – A new head coach for the Ducks up against a team trying to do the toughest thing in sports: repeat as champs. If you want, you can call this Game 1A of the Week (especially if you are a whiny SEC fan). A few questions will definitely be asked here, chief among them being can Bo Nix thrive outside the SEC, because last season he certainly didn’t thrive inside it.

Cincinnati at Arkansas (3:30, specialty pack) – If you had said three years ago that this would be the third best game of opening weekend, I would have drove you to the nearest AA or NA meeting. It’s a new college football world, though, and the Bearcats are still the Group of Five’s signature team until they are beaten. And Arkansas is slowly moving up the SEC ranks under possibly the most underrated head coach in the land, Sam Pittman. The Cats lost a lot of talent so this will give everyone a good idea as to what we can expect from them this season.

West Virginia at Pittsburgh (Thursday, 7:00, TSN2) – The Backyard Brawl is BACK! I am sure we will see references to 13-9 up until and throughout the game. Let’s see if the ‘Eers can put a bit of hurt on a Pitt team that believes they can repeat as ACC champs.

Psycho Game of the Week

Temple at Duke (Friday, 7:30, specialty pack) – Every week now instead of listing honourable mentions in the games of the week section, I will list a game that we all can get here but you would have to be a complete psycho to watch the entirety of (or you are a fan of one of the teams and even then). This week we have Temple travelling to the Carolinas to face Duke. Ugh. This feels like it could be a torture device used by the military. Anyway, unless it’s close, just avoid it.

The Degenerate Portion of Our Show

This section is the section for all you gambling degenerates out there and you KNOW WHO YOU ARE! I do bet on the NFL from time to time but I stopped gambling on college games. I think it took the fun out of it to be honest. Also, I sucked at it.

Alright, this season I am going to do something different. I am going to pick AGAINST THE SPREAD. That’s right! Make things a bit more difficult for me and gives all the more reason for you to not use these picks for your own gambling. I’ve warned you. Let’s begin.

Pittsburgh (-7.5) over West Virginia

Missouri (-19.5) over Louisiana Tech

Purdue (+3.5) over Penn State (with the Boilermakers winning outright)

Duke (-7.5) over Temple

TCU (-14) over Colorado

Appalachian State (+1.5) over North Carolina (with the Mountaineers winning outright)

San Diego State (-6) over Arizona

Oregon (+17) over Georgia (with the Bulldogs winning the game)

Florida (+3) over Utah (Gators win outright in upset)

Notre Dame (+17.5) over Ohio State (tOSU wins but game will be close)

Oregon State (-3) over Boise State

LSU (-3) over Florida State

And there you go! We are at Week 1 so rejoice, college football fans! I am so happy we have made it to this point. I will try to keep things updated over the next couple of days (if need be). I will be on Twitter (@TheBauceman) for a good portion of the action so check me there if you wish. And everyone enjoy the games!

Hey, what happened in the NFL offseason? Probably nothing.

Posted on August 29, 2022 by guelphbossman

Oh wait, it’s the NFL…all sorts of shit happens in the offseason. It’s a year-long drama with this league. Even soap operas look at some of this stuff and say “that’s unrealistic.”

Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback (and I use that term this season loosely) will be suspended for the first eleven games of the 2022 NFL season because of his issue with masseuses. Big issues. Bad issues. “If they’re true” some will say. I don’t remember players in football getting suspended for more than half a season for something they didn’t do.

Tom Brady decided to retire then got pissy because Adam Schefter broke the news too early I guess. So he unretired. There’s more to it but still, I am 99.9% sure that’s part of it.

Sean Payton is no longer the coach of the New Orleans Saints. You watch that movie about him going to coach his son’s team while he was suspended for a year? He was played by Kevin James. It was not good.

Brian Flores sued the NFL for racial discrimination. It will be interesting to see where this goes as it’s not a good look for the league. Now if he sued Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for being a complete shitbag, then he’d win no problem.

Aaron Rodgers again played coy and acted like he’d leave the Green Bay Packers. He didn’t although he very well could have and made a lot of many elsewhere. A-A-Ron also knows that Matt LaFleur will put up with his bullshit for another season so that helps.

Receivers now making crazy money, Russell Wilson out of Seattle, Baker Mayfield out of Cleveland (and no more commercials from that stadium I assume), Matt Ryan ending up in Indy, Washington getting a new team name and still being a gongshow of an organization, the playoff overtime format changing (thankfully) and many other things happened as well. So yeah…calm.

OK enough of all that because we are almost ready for the NFL season! September 8th, the Bills travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams to start the new season. I am very much looking forward to this and you might see why from the upcoming predictions. Let’s get right to them (as per usual, an * means that team was able to snag a Wild Card spot…good for them):

AFC East		NFC East
Buffalo	13-4	Philadelphia	10-7
New England	9-8	Dallas*	10-7
Miami	9-8	Washington	7-10
NY Jets	6-11	NY Giants	5-12
AFC North		NFC North
Baltimore	10-7	Green Bay	12-5
Cincinnati*	10-7	Minnesota*	9-8
Cleveland	8-9	Detroit	6-11
Pittsburgh	8-9	Chicago	5-12
AFC South		NFC South
Indianapolis	10-7	Tampa Bay	12-5
Tennessee*	10-7	New Orleans	8-9
Jacksonville	5-12	Carolina	7-10
Houston	4-13	Atlanta	4-13
AFC West		NFC West
Kansas City	11-6	LA Rams	12-5
LA Chargers*	11-6	San Francisco*	9-8
Las Vegas	9-8	Arizona	9-8
Denver	9-8	Seattle	5-12

Notes on those standings predictions:

Yep, I have the Buffalo Bills as the only 13-win team in the league. I know that probably won’t happen. They may win 14!
The NFC will be a bit clogged at the top with three teams trying to get the only first round bye. I have the Bucs getting that first round bye thanks to a complicated set of tiebreakers that ends with a game of dizzy bat.
I foresee quite a few close division races with the AFC North, AFC South, AFC West, and NFC East all ending up tied at the end of the season. Not having a home playoff game can be seriously rough so feel bad for the Bengals, Titans, Chargers, and Cowboys if you feel like it.
As it normally is, the Wild Card races should be fun. I have the Titans and Bengals being one game up on the Patriots, Dolphins, Raiders, and Broncos to nab the final two spots. In the NFC, the Vikings and Niners do just enough to stay ahead of the Cardinals to make the playoffs.
The race to the bottom pits Houston against Atlanta, although the Jags, Giants and Seahawks will try their best to dive to bottom of the NFL ocean. I have the Falcons “winning” the #1 pick for next year’s draft and the chance to, at this point, bring in Bryce Young as their franchise quarterback.
I think Josh Allen beats out a bevy of other quarterbacks to win the MVP. Tom Brady, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow will be close but not enough to overtake the man who I believe will take the Bills to the best record in the league.
Rookie of the Year is, as I always say, a complete crapshoot. I will go with the players that I believe will play the most. So I am picking Aidan Hutchinson on the defensive side and Kenny Pickett on the offensive side.
Coach of the Year? Ah, why not, I’m good at getting these predictions wrong, what’s one more? I’ll go with Sean McDermott of the Bills since, other than Dan Campbell and the Detroit Lions, I don’t see another team having a big improvement from the previous year.

And now it’s time to go to the playoff predictions. Last year’s were…not good. Let’s hope for better time around.

Wild Card Round

Kansas City (2) def. Tennessee (7)

Cincinnati (6) def. Baltimore (3)

LA Chargers (5) def. Indianapolis (4)

Green Bay (2) def. San Francisco (7)

LA Rams (3) def. Minnesota (6)

Dallas (5) def. Philadelphia (4)

Divisional Round

Buffalo (1) def. Cincinnati (6)

LA Chargers (5) def. Kansas City (2)

Tampa Bay (1) def. Dallas (5)

LA Rams (3) def. Green Bay (2)

Conference Championships

Buffalo (1) def. LA Chargers (5)

LA Rams (3) def. Tampa Bay (1)

Super Bowl

Buffalo (1) def. LA Rams (3)

Yes for the second year in a row I have the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl. I feel better about this year’s prediction than last year’s. Then again, last year I picked Seattle to go to the Super Bowl so it’s a low bar to begin with. At least now if they go to overtime, they know they will get a chance to score.

I hope you enjoyed Week Zero of the college football season. It was…technically college football. I wonder if Scott Frost was left in Ireland. Anyway, soon enough we get back to in the old rotation of things and all will feel right in the world. Have a great week everyone!

Alright let’s wrap this up in a nice, neat little package

Posted on August 21, 2022 by guelphbossman

Oh man did you actually believe that? LITTLE? Have you not noticed what I’ve been doing the last little while? Oh this will not be a little package I assure you; but it will be an important package of information that you, the college football fan, would like to see (I hope).

So yes, you will see what I believe the College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six will look like. You will get bowl projections from yours truly. You will also get my Heisman ballot which is usually a big steaming pile of horseshit. And you will get my coaching hot seat list which, honestly, is usually pretty good if I say so myself.

Let’s get right to it with the top of the pyramid (scheme)…the College Football Playoff predictions. You probably have a good idea from the conference predictions as to who will end up here and you also know that there is a good chance I will fail miserably with one of these picks:

December 31st	Fiesta Bowl	#2 Ohio State	#3 Georgia
December 31st	Peach Bowl	#1 Alabama	#4 Clemson

New Year’s Eve semi-finals. Will they never learn? Anyway, Bama is the easy call here as I see them running the table and then beating UGA in what may be the biggest SEC Championship ever (and that’s saying a lot). This also means that Georgia is probably a fairly easy call as well. Sure, they will lose to the Tide but if they go in at #2 (which I expect them to) and lose to #1 (which I assume Bama would be) then a drop to #3 is as far as they will go. No way they are leaving out a one-loss Big Ten champ so tOSU gets in and takes advantage of one of Alabama or Georgia having to lose to get to the #2 spot. OK take advantage is a strong phrase since being #2 means very little other than avoiding #1 until, potentially, the title game. Clemson ends up beating out Texas A&M, Michigan and NC State, all one-loss teams who didn’t win their division, rather easily to grab the final semi-final spot. Oregon would have their shot at the Pac-12 Championship but lose to Utah making The Committee’s job (at least for these two games) rather straightforward.

Now we will go to the New Year’s Six bowl games where, thanks to the NFL, none of them are on New Year’s Day. Eat shit, Rose Bowl.

January 2nd	Rose Bowl	#6 Michigan	#10 Utah
January 2nd	Cotton Bowl	#11 Oregon	#8 Houston
December 31st	Sugar Bowl	#5 Texas A&M	#9 Baylor
December 30th	Orange Bowl	#7 NC State	#12 Notre Dame

As always, it’s debate time. Every year which is fine as long as the debates devolve into some stupid Twitter spat. Only one conference championship loser is getting in here and that’s Oregon. They’ll be high enough in the rankings (potentially in the Top 4) going into Conference Championship weekend that there is no way they drop out of a NY6 bowl. Houston won’t be this year’s Cincinnati but they will be this year’s Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six and they will coast to get here. Michigan is going to have another good year but they have the audacity to be in the same division as Ohio State. Assholes. This will be enough to keep them out of the CFP. Same goes for TAMU and NC State. What were they thinking being in a division with other good schools. And you wonder why I hate divisions. We could have a tOSU-UM rematch and a Clemson-NCST rematch for conference championships. Talk about a lot more being on the line and a hell of a lot more intrigue.

Utah, with their win over Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship, gets the other Rose Bowl spot opposite Michigan. Luckily, they should ascend to somewhere around the #10 ranking that I have them in so they will look like they belong. Baylor also gets the benefit of a good bowl tie-in and I have them facing their old Southwest Conference foe, the Aggies of Texas A&M. Just like Utah, the Bears will be good enough to belong here and not spark any crazy debate about bowl tie-ins. The only debate will be for the final spot. Look, it’s Notre Dame. If the Irish go 10-2, they are not being left out of this group of bowl games. As much as some of you want that to be the case, it never will be (until the CFP structure changes). They beat out UCLA, Oklahoma and Marshall. Very few, other than those schools’ fans, will be super upset they were left out.

Now it’s time for the rest of BOWL SZN. At least I know these bowls won’t be cancelled…I hope.

January 2nd	Citrus Bowl	#17 Tennessee	#18 Michigan State
January 2nd	ReliaQuest Bowl	Florida	#20 Minnesota
December 31st	Music City Bowl	Ole Miss	#22 Purdue
December 30th	Gator Bowl	Arkansas	#19 Pittsburgh
December 30th	Arizona Bowl	Boise State	Northern Illinois
December 30th	Sun Bowl	Louisville	Oregon State
December 30th	Duke’s Mayo Bowl	Kentucky	Penn State
December 29th	Alamo Bowl	#15 Oklahoma	#13 UCLA
December 29th	Cheez-It Bowl	Iowa State	Miami
December 29th	Pinstripe Bowl	Iowa	Florida State
December 28th	Texas Bowl	LSU	#21 Texas
December 28th	Holiday Bowl	Virginia Tech	#24 USC
December 28th	Liberty Bowl	South Carolina	#23 Oklahoma State
December 28th	Military Bowl	Wake Forest	#16 UCF
December 27th	Guaranteed Rate Bowl	Nebraska	Kansas State
December 27th	Birmingham Bowl	Auburn	#25 Cincinnati
December 27th	First Responder Bowl	Colorado State	Troy
December 27th	Camellia Bowl	Coastal Carolina	UAB
December 26th	Quick Lane Bowl	Maryland	Miami-OH
December 24th	Hawaii Bowl	BYU	Fresno State
December 23rd	Independence Bowl	Memphis	Army
December 23rd	Gasparilla Bowl	Boston College	Tulsa
December 22nd	Armed Forces Bowl	TCU	UTEP
December 21st	New Orleans Bowl	#14 Marshall	UTSA
December 20th	Boca Raton Bowl	Appalachian State	Florida Atlantic
December 20th	Idaho Potato Bowl	San Diego State	Toledo
December 19th	Myrtle Beach Bowl	Georgia State	Liberty
December 17th	Frisco Bowl	San Jose State	South Alabama
December 17th	Las Vegas Bowl	Mississippi State	Arizona State
December 17th	LendingTree Bowl	Louisiana	Kent State
December 17th	LA Bowl	Washington	Air Force
December 17th	New Mexico Bowl	Utah State	Western Michigan
December 17th	Fenway Bowl	North Carolina	SMU
December 16th	Cure Bowl	East Carolina	UNLV
December 16th	Bahamas Bowl	WKU	Central Michigan

More bowl games! Honestly, I don’t care nearly as much as I used to. It’s more football at this point. Once the 12-team playoff (or whatever it ends up being) comes to fruition, I will be interested to see what happens to some of the lower-level bowl games. Hey, as long as Canadians can see most of these games on TSN then there’s no real problem. Let’s look at a few points from that long table of information I just posted:

Only two games between ranked teams? Good lord. UT-MSU at the Citrus and Oklahoma-UCLA at the Alamo and that’s it. Those two bowls are used to having fairly big matchups. It would probably be more of a shock if the Bahamas Bowl had a Top 25 matchup (although it would definitely intrigue me that’s for sure).
I’m not bothering with listing bowl tie-ins and or conferences that couldn’t fill their bowl quota or even 5-7 teams that I have in to fill the bowl games that don’t have two teams.
Some of the other good matchups after the Citrus and Alamo:
- Ole Miss-Purdue in Nashville
- Arkansas-Pitt at the Gator
- Iowa-Florida State playing in the cold of the Bronx
- Wake-UCF in the Military Bowl
- LSU going into Longhorn country (kind of) to play Texas
- Marshall-UTSA in Nawlins
- Nebraska-Kansas State in a Big Eight matchup in Tempe
The Husker one is very interesting because they have the longest Big Ten bowl drought. Can you fucking believe it? I would have bet money that it was Rutgers or…Rutgers. Nope. The Huskers went to the Music City Bowl in late 2016 and haven’t gone back to a bowl game since. Wow.

History states at least one of the CFP semi-final games will not be that good. I hate to do this to the Tigers but sorry, Bama should win that one easy. The Buckeyes will have big problems with the Dawgs but in the end, they will punch their ticket to the national title game to lose to the Tide who will be back on top once again. No real surprises here.

So now that COVID is…well not behind us but it is not nearly as serious as it was, we can really get back to normality. That means that the college football head coaches are getting shorter leashes again, folks! The shitcanning season will be upon us at some point this Fall!

And when I mean short leashes I mean seriously short. Like maybe a foot long. Some athletic directors are now realizing that the college football world is pretty much fully back to normal and they have some time to make up. Some coaches received reprieves in the past two seasons thanks to the pandemic but that leeway is fucking gone now.

Look I don’t want to toot my own horn but I usually do fairly well with this list. So let’s just get right down to it, shall we? If you recall, the order is from most likely to be fired to most likely to keep their job. They are also categorized in a few different sections. Let’s go!

Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning

Geoff Collins (Georgia Tech) – This should be a surprise to absolutely no one. The experiment to move away from the option to more of a pro-style offense has failed spectacularly in the ATL. I honestly see no possible improvement here and a possible in-season firing. Needed to keep his job – Get into the final few weeks of the season with at least a mathematical possibility of going bowling. Prediction – He’s going to get shitcanned some time in November in the midst of a ten-loss season for the Rambling Wreck.
Karl Dorrell (Colorado) – Can we say that weird 2020 season was an aberration? I think we can as the Buffaloes are dropping down the ladder once again in the Pac-12 as realignment goes wild everywhere. Needed to keep his job – Have a shot at bowl eligibility going into the final two games. Prediction – A whole lot of frustration for Dorrell, the Buffaloes, the other coaches, alumni and current students. And no job for Dorrell…he may end up not coaching the final game of the season.
Neal Brown (West Virginia) – Brown’s first year in Morgantown was considered a success. Last year’s, not so much. And with an improving Big XII around them, I see them falling even farther in Brown’s third year when he has most of his recruits in. Not looking good for a guy who was a big up-and-comer not too long ago. Needed to keep his job – Not continue the downward slide. Prediction – I remember going to Wet n’ Wild as a kid. It doesn’t exist anymore. But it had some cool waterslides. That is how ol’ Neal is going to feel this season. He’ll end the season on the unemployment line.
Mike Bloomgren (Rice) – No one is really expecting Rice to be a power player in football. Saying that, they had to the American Conference next season and I can’t see Bloomgren being the head coach. Other than a couple of good seasons, he’s done very little in the Houston area and has fallen FAR behind their neighbour. Needed to keep his job – Something more than what I feel they will do this year. Prediction – The bloom has come off the rose (ha ha) and he will be looking for a new school to coach at for 2023.
Herm Edwards (Arizona State) – It feels inevitable that, at the very best, Herm will be done at the end of the season. Their recruiting issues are well known and it may end up being the NCAA coming down hard on ASU (and, eventually, Herm himself). It won’t help his cause that the Sun Devils won’t be as good as they were last year. Needed to keep his job – I don’t know if there is anything short of a Pac-12 title that would save his job (and even then). Prediction – Herm is shown the door before the last game of the season as the powers that be in Tempe decide it’s time to rebuild again.

Probable Shitcanning

Dino Babers (Syracuse) – How long has Dino been on the hot seat? Everything was looking golden in 2018 for Babers but since then…yeesh. I’m not saying Syracuse is a destination spot for coaching but you know things are getting tense within the athletic department with this. Needed to keep his job – The Orange to recapture at least some of that 2018 magic. Prediction – Dino will be a coordinator somewhere next year.
Scot Loeffler (Bowling Green) – I’m sure there are times where Scotty (Scoty?) would love to be back at any of the schools he used to be at. This is his first head coaching gig and it has been a rough one to be honest. Even though Bowling Green isn’t exactly a hotspot in college football, at some point the athletic director will be done with the team not performing. 7-22 isn’t exactly the type of record that keeps a job. Needed to keep his job – 4 or 5 wins and look competitive inside the MAC. Prediction – Double-digit losses and a pink slip.
Danny Gonzales (New Mexico) – Speaking of tough places to coach, here are the Lobos looking at potentially another coaching change on the horizon. Definitely a spot a younger coach in the West would maybe take a shot at. Beware though: the last time UNM won at least ten games was four decades ago. Unfortunately between them and NMSU, the state is a dead spot for college football. Needed to keep his job – Close to bowl eligibility. Prediction – Three wins and a tough decision to be made from the higher ups.

Possible Shitcanning

Seth Littrell (North Texas) – Littrell hasn’t done bad in Denton. Five bowls in his six seasons there is pretty darn good for a team in Conference USA. Problem is he has lost every single one. It truly does feel like they are kind of stuck in the middle of the conference and that’s getting some people antsy. Needed to keep his job – At least 5 wins and competing for bowl eligibility near the end of the season. Prediction – That’s exactly where I have the Mean Green. I think he probably survives the season but the leash will be extremely short going forward.
Bryan Harsin (Auburn) – This was considered a coup when the Tigers plucked him from Boise State. His first season on the Plains was…rocky to put it mildly. There was an attempt to get him ousted after last season ended. Obviously it didn’t work but there are some thinking maybe he just doesn’t fit at Auburn (or the SEC for that matter). Needed to keep his job – A winning record and better recruiting. Prediction – I got the Tigers winning 7 to stay out of the basement of the SEC West. That should be enough to save him at least into ‘crootin season. That’s where he needs to improve or otherwise he may not see the 2023 season on the field at Jordan-Hare.
Ken Niumatalolo (Navy) – It is tough putting Ken on this list, I’m not going to lie. Problem is, Navy has been pretty bad for three of the past four seasons. That 2019 season where they won 11 games seems like a fluke, almost. I’m sure it would take a lot to fire Niumatalolo but another season like the previous two and who knows. Needed to keep his job – At least 6 wins. Prediction – I have the Middies only winning three so this could be a very interesting offseason in Annapolis.
Terry Bowden (ULM) – I might get some flak for this one. I know he’s only been in Monroe for a season. I do think this year the Warhawks are going to be one of the worst teams in the FBS. Maybe there is someone on his staff who will take over for him next year so that ULM brass will feel OK to fire him? I don’t know but this doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere in a much-improved Sun Belt Conference. Needed to keep his job – Improvement from the previous season. Prediction – As I said, they won’t be good. I have them predicted at 1-11. I can see this being done relatively quietly in the offseason (Terry’s shitcanning that is).
Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee) – Stockstill has been at Middle for what seems like forever. And it doesn’t feel like anything would happen because of that. Saying that, the Blue Raiders need to do something since they have been mediocre most of the last few seasons. They also turned down a (possible?) invitation to the MAC so this is their chance to become the best of a not-so-good bunch. Will Rick lead them through that though? Needed to keep his job – Got to be bowl eligibility really. Prediction – I got MTSU winning 5 games which will make for some very interesting offseason chatter in Murfreesboro.
Greg Schiano (Rutgers) – This isn’t the Schiano that went 56-33 in his final seven seasons during his first run in Piscataway. That was in the Big East and Rutgers is…well, they definitely aren’t in a conference like that anymore. Still, fans were hoping for something a bit more from a guy who runs blitzes during kneel down plays. Unfortunately, I think this won’t be that year. Needed to keep his job – Real bowl eligibility, not the 5-7 you are a smart school kind. Prediction – I have the Scarlet Knights regressing a bit this year. Whether Schiano returns has a lot to do with whether they think they’ve truly bottomed out and if they believe they can get a good coach in.
Jake Spavital (Texas State) – Has anyone ever expected the Bobcats to do anything of significance on the football field? Really, that lack of winning culture could be the one thing that gives Spavital one more season at the helm. Needed to keep his job – 5 wins and some meaningful November football. Prediction – 4 wins and a short leash into 2023.

Doubtful Shitcanning (although it still could happen)

Jeff Scott (USF) – Not a whole lot has gone well for the former Clemson coordinator down in Tampa. Remember when the Bulls were #2 in the nation? Not even Pepperidge Farms remembers that I don’t think. What it does say, though, is that you can win at this school. Now it’s just a matter of how long the USF athletic department will give Scott to truly turn things around. Needed to keep his job – Stay out of the American Conference basement. Prediction – They aren’t going to a bowl game but expect them to win around four games and be quite clear of the bottom rung of the AAC.
Scott Frost (Nebraska) – It has become a difficult job to recruit players to Lincoln. I think Frost has finally figured it out and the Huskers, at the very least, should be back bowling this season. Now watch them completely tank. Needed to keep his job – Bowl-eligibility at the very least. Prediction – No Kool-Aid this time but I have the Huskers winning eight games. Don’t laugh.
David Shaw (Stanford) – I remember when Shaw was getting Stanford to bowl games and contending in the Pac-12 on a consistent basis. Make no bones about it, he’s still a great head coach. Give him time and he will have the Cardinal back on top of what will be the Pac-10 going forward. Needed to keep his job – Look better than the 2021 season. Prediction – I have Stanford winning 4 games but the bottom of the Pac-12 North is crowded so an upset or two isn’t out of the realm of possibility for this team. Shaw is safe for another season at the very least.
Mike Norvell (Florida State) – Things are finally looking up in Tallahassee. For real this time. It would have to get really bad for the Noles this season for Norvell to be let go. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility at the very least. Prediction – Eight wins and a new lease on life. Teams won’t have it easy against this team this season.
Tom Allen (Indiana) – I would put Tom farther up this list as Indiana was BAD last year and won’t be a whole lot better this season. Thing is, his buyout is huge so unless the Hoosiers absolutely have to fire him, he won’t be let go. Needed to keep his job – Don’t do something illegal or unethical. Prediction – Other than punching the coach of the opposing team, I can’t see Allen doing anything bad. Yes I only have them winning three games this season but that doesn’t really matter here in the grand scheme of things.

One of these days I have to go back and see how truly successful I have been at this hot seat list. I still think the numbers will back me up.

Now from a normally good section (for me) to a notoriously horrible section (for me). My Heisman ballot is back. And I don’t know if it can be any worse than what I have done for the past few years. But, I always give it my all so here’s another edition of Bossman’s Heisman Trophy Ballot If He Got a Vote (which he most certainly should not):

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Heisman Ballot

C.J. Stroud, Ohio State – Last year’s ballot was horrifically bad but I did have Stroud in at #4 (and Bryce Young at #5). So it wasn’t all bad (but mostly it was). I have the Buckeyes getting to the National Championship and he will be the main reason why. It will be a close race this year, I believe, but Stroud will put up the numbers and get the big victories that put him over the top.
Bryce Young, Alabama – Yes, I do have the Tide winning the national title this year. It still won’t be enough to not join the list of players who had a shot at pulling an Archie Griffin and came up short. Unlike everyone else on the list, he won’t make it easy on the other contenders. The only thing holding him back is how many other Heisman candidates this team has. They are loaded.
Caleb Williams, USC – It was a huge coup for Lincoln Riley to convince Williams to follow him from Oklahoma to USC. Among the contenders, Williams may have the toughest job helping turn around a 4-8 team so quickly. This is one of the few instances where a team only being so good might end up costing a player during a Heisman campaign.
Will Anderson Jr., Alabama – I believe Anderson is the best defensive player in the country and it’s really not even close. He’s also one small part of the reason that I think Bryce Young won’t win the Heisman. He will take some of the votes that would have been thrown Young’s way. It could work in reverse as well. Anderson could be primed to be the first defensive player in a long time to win the Heisman Trophy but all the good Bama players, including Young, makes it a bit more difficult for him.
D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson – Should we try this again? Why not. *clears throat* Ahem…Oo-ee-un-guh-luh-lay. Just like last year. And just like last year I have him #5 in my Heisman rankings. He will have to show some serious improvement and I am betting he will. It will help that he will have a better team around him that will be competing fort he College Football Playoff. I think we will have a good idea what kind of season he will have once September ends.
Tyler Van Dyke, Miami – This guy looked like the real deal down the stretch last season and could have been considered the best ACC player the last few weeks of the regular season. The Canes will be better but, as per usual, doing better will help a lot. If the Canes can somehow win the ACC title, Van Dyke’s chances might soar.
Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma – A fantastic quarterback at UCF. And thanks to TransferPortalMania, he ends up in Norman, replacing Caleb Williams (and, sure, Spencer Rattler). Being the quarterback for the Sooners is always a pressure situation but the pressure should be a lot less this season which may allow Gabriel to thrive.
Bijan Robinson, Texas – Running backs still get shafted, to an extent, when it comes to Heisman voting. It takes a phenomenal year for one to win it and you have to pair it with no outstanding quarterbacks. An uphill battle for sure. But if there’s one running back who could break through this season, it could be the new king of dijon mustard, Bijan Robinson. He will be the guy who makes the Texas offense go so if they win even 9 games this year, look for him to get a lot of attention from voters.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ohio State – Hey, how about the guy who had a breakout game for the ages at the Rose Bowl? He will have arguably the best quarterback in the country throwing to him. As we know, that’s a plus and a minus when it comes to the Heisman. At the very least, he is the highest rated receiver coming into the season so that counts for something.
Hendon Hooker, Tennessee – This may feel to some like an out-of-nowhere kind of pick. Hooker showed what he could do running a decent Vols offense. With Tennessee having a lot more talent on that side of the ball this season, he may have some crazy stats. If Tennessee somehow gets to a New Year’s Six bowl, he will get a ton of hype.

Honourable Mention

TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State
Jahmyr Gibbs, Alabama
Braelon Allen, Wisconsin
Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
Quinn Ewers, Texas
Spencer Rattler, South Carolina
Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina
Jordan Addison, USC
Devin Leary, NC State

I am going to wish the players on this list good luck since there is a chance the winner is nowhere to be found here. Because I am terrible at this.

All the predictions I have are now complete! In about five months or so I will find out how poorly I did.

Next up will be…hold on let me check my notes…yes….YES……YEEEEEES! College football is back! Week Zero! I mean it’s just Week Zero but still….WEEK ZERO! I will have the schedule up at some point early in the week. I’ve already been asked about the specialty packs as it pertains to this coming Saturday. My guess is they won’t show anything since normally they don’t because…who knows but I will chalk it up to some sort of incompetence since what they (Bell and Rogers) tell me makes no sense. I will keep everyone updated. Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

The Coaching Carousel is in full swing already – Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 10, 2021 by guelphbossman

The amount of coaches, both head and otherwise, shitcanned so far this year has hit a staggering amount. I get that it’s been the second kind of wacky year in a row for college football (for very different reasons) but you have to wonder if many coaches got a bit of a COVID exemption, like some of the super seniors that they coach (or used to coach). So let’s go through what’s happened so far this season. Strap in.

Remember way back in September when Captain Bonus, Randy Edsall, decided to retire and then the next day resigned instead? Seems like so long ago. It was 64 days ago. Barely over two months.
How about when Clay Helton was finally fired at USC? For many of the Trojan faithful, it was about four years too late.
But Helton wasn’t out of work for long. He was recently hired to replace Chad Lunsford who had been fired by Georgia Southern back in late September. Probably a good spot for him.
Ed Orgeron was fired because he likes sexing up hot women in Baton Rouge rather than coaching LSU after he divorced his wife. Thinking with your dick is fine in certain situations, this may not be one of them. Then again, the buyout will be ridiculous for him. Good shit.
You knew this was coming as soon as you heard the backstory. Nick Rolovich’s firing was a surprise to no one…except maybe Nick Rolovich.
This one was a bit of a shocker. Matt Wells was fired after Kansas State came back to beat his Texas Tech team dropping them to *checks notes* 5-2? What? Now the Red Raiders have hired a successful high school coach to replace him. This is either seriously stupid or seriously brilliant.
The end of an era in Fort Worth as Gary Patterson was let go. Some thought he should have been allowed to finish the season but with this new early signing period many teams who have fired their head coaches are going to want to get their new guy sooner rather than later to take advantage of this signing period.
Tom Arth was fired. He was 3-24 at Akron. I know it’s Akron but good lord.
But again, it could be worse. Walt Bell dropped to 2-23 in his tenure at UMass after they lost to Rhode Island. Maybe this team should be not long for FBS.

Now, many, including myself, wondered if Scott Frost would be on this list by the end of the season. Instead, he got his contract restructured and he will be back for 2022. Now his buyout has been slashed in half and his yearly contract went down by a million bucks so it’s not like he made out like a bandit. He celebrated this by firing four assistants. Maybe bringing in a better offensive coordinator will help and with the extra money, they might be able to afford it. But Frosty the Coachman’s hot seat will be molten lava if the Huskers get off to a bad start next season (or finish this season on a losing streak).

OK enough coaching crap, on to the schedule!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Toledo at Bowling Green	7:00 PM
Ball State at Northern Illinois	7:00 PM
Kent State at Central Michigan	8:00 PM

Gotta love Midweek MACtion. Nothing better than cozying up and watching some college football on a weeknight as the weather gets colder outside. And there are some important games. Ball State-NIU might very well be for the MAC West title. Also, Kent State tries to take advantage of the MAC East being pathetic by winning to put some room between themselves and the rest of the division.

Thursday

		US	Canada
North Carolina at #21 Pittsburgh	7:30 PM

Only one game but it’s important in the ACC Coastal. The division synonymous with chaos could become even more chaotic if the Tar Heels can pull off the slight upset of Pitt.

Friday

		US	Canada
#5 Cincinnati at USF	6:00 PM

Only one game that is being shown in Canada tonight and it starts at an odd time. Why so early for this one? The reason is that there is a huge World Cup Qualifying game with the United States facing Mexico. That starts at 9:00 on ESPN2 which makes it so this game had to start no later than 6:00.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#6 Michigan at Penn State	Noon
UConn at Clemson	Noon
Rutgers at Indiana	Noon
Bucknell at Army	Noon
Mississippi State at #17 Auburn	Noon
Northwestern at #18 Wisconsin	Noon
UCF at SMU	Noon
#8 Oklahoma at #13 Baylor	Noon
Syracuse at Louisville	Noon
New Mexico State at #2 Alabama	Noon

I wouldn’t say there are any massive games in this timeslot but there are some interesting ones. Michigan-PSU is an elimination game of sorts in the Big Ten East. Baylor needs to win or we will most definitely have a Bedlam rematch in the Big XII Championship. And of course, TSN picks up (for their only early game)…New Mexico State heading to Alabama? For fuck’s sake, why? This will probably be the most lopsided game of the weekend and that’s what they pick? With a few other options open? Plus it’s on the SEC Network! I honestly don’t get it. That makes no fucking sense whatsoever. I guess I should feel kind of happy they didn’t simulcast the ABC game but there are three ESPN games they bypassed.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#19 Purdue at #4 Ohio State	3:30 PM
Duke at Virginia Tech	3:30 PM
Minnesota at #20 Iowa	3:30 PM
#1 Georgia at Tennessee	3:30 PM
UAB at Marshall	3:30 PM
Miami at Florida State	3:30 PM
Iowa State at Texas Tech	3:30 PM
Boston College at Georgia Tech	3:30 PM
Tulsa at Tulane	4:00 PM
Maryland at #7 Michigan State	4:00 PM
South Carolina at Missouri	4:00 PM

Just like the opening salvo of Saturday, no real huge games here but some interesting ones. Purdue-tOSU is obviously a pretty big game knowing what the Boilermakers have done this season. I don’t know if UGA will play down to the Vols’ level since they haven’t done that all season, except maybe against Clemson in their opening week win. And somehow, Miami and Florida State still get a prime ESPN spot on the weekend. You don’t see too many teams keep getting prime TV spots like The U does. Florida State less so since they have been appearing on the ACC Network quite often the past few seasons.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Air Force at Colorado State	7:00 PM
#11 Texas A&M at #19 Ole Miss	7:00 PM
Kentucky at Vanderbilt	7:00 PM
#9 Notre Dame at Virginia	7:30 PM
#16 NC State at #12 Wake Forest	7:30 PM
Kansas at Texas	7:30 PM
#25 Arkansas at LSU	7:30 PM
TCU at #10 Oklahoma State	8:00 PM

Look, when ND-UVA is your ABC primetime game you know it’s not the greatest week on paper. And you know what means, right? We are in for some wackiness for sure and there are a couple of games in this timeslot where an upset would really cause some upheaval. Oklahoma State has to beat TCU to continue their run to JerryWorld and Notre Dame can’t trip up against the Fighting Mendenhalls of Charlottesville. Oh, and we all remember Kansas upsetting Texas a few seasons ago. You never know.

I have noticed TSN really has started showing a lot less college football which is pissing off some fans and rightfully so. I think the premise that people will pay for what they want just totally escapes Rogers, Bell, Eastlink, Cogeco, the CRTC and others in the broadcasting industry. You want to lose cable subscribers? Keep doing what you’re doing.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Nevada at #22 San Diego State	10:30 PM
Washington State at #3 Oregon	10:30 PM

Two late games, both fairly important. Oregon needs to look a lot better against Wazzu or they could blow up this opportunity that’s been handed to them. As for the other game, it probably decides the Mountain West West Division, no offense to Fresno State or San Jose State.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Oklahoma at Baylor (Noon, FOX) – Amazingly enough, it’s the Baylor Bears that still seem to register as arguably the biggest shock in a season full of shocking results. Honestly, they are a couple of botches against TCU from being 8-1 and in the Top 10. Saying that, the Bears probably do need to win this game as a loss here clinches a spot in the Big XII Championship for Oklahoma and may end up doing the same for Oklahoma State. With this being in Waco, the hope for Baylor is that the Sooner defense, which has been shaky all season, crumbles under the pressure of a good Baylor offense. Also, if Baylor wins this they have Kansas State and Texas Tech left where they would be favoured by quite a bit. The Sooners, on the other hand, are at the start of a very difficult three-game stretch with this game followed by Iowa State and OSU.

NC State at Wake Forest (7:30, specialty pack) – Man, did the ACC Network ever luck out getting this one. It really does show how little people feel about Wake Forest (and to a lesser extent, NC State). This is arguably the biggest game of the season in the ACC Atlantic and it gets relegated to the ACC Network? Completely ridiculous and something I would understand if we were still in October (or better yet, September). The winner here is in the driver’s seat in the division and would only have to contend with Clemson if the Tigers win the following week against those same Demon Deacons.

Michigan at Penn State (Noon, ABC) – Honestly, this could have been the primetime ABC game and I’m kind of surprised it wasn’t despite the fact the Nittany Lions aren’t ranked. Penn State still could cause a massive amount of issues in the Big Ten East with games here against the Wolverines and later on against Michigan State. A Big Blue win here will set them possibly for a winner-take-all showdown against Ohio State two days after American Thanksgiving.

Purdue at Ohio State (3:30, ABC) – And of course the Wolverines and Nittany Lions will be scoreboard watching to see if Purdue can pull off yet another huge upset. If the Boilermakers can pull it off, it blows the Big Ten wide open and gives quite a few teams a true chance at the crown. In the East, that would bring Michigan, Michigan State and even Penn State back into the fray whereas in the West, all of a sudden Purdue might be the favourite to head to Indianapolis. That would be interesting to see them play close to home for a chance at the Big Ten title.

Texas A&M at Ole Miss (7:00, specialty pack) – When the game where College Gameday is going to be ends up fifth on this list, isn’t it a good week? Both of these teams have two losses in the SEC West. It means they have to hope for at least one Alabama loss in their final two conference games for them to have any chance at the division title. This game should be relatively evenly matched. I’ll have to check but I am sure Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit will be there so for their sake I hope they get a good game although they have been a lot luckier than, say, Brad Nessler or Gus Johnson in that regard this season.

Honourable mention: Georgia at Tennessee (3:30, CBS); Notre Dame at Virginia (7:30, ABC/TSN2); Nevada at San Diego State (10:30, CBS Sports Network)

Wanna bet?

I had some pretty damn fantastic picks last week. I picked North Carolina over Wake Forest. But I went against my gut with Michigan State and I paid for it. Also, Washington was oh so close to upsetting Oregon although thanks to Jimmy Lake’s playcalling, they didn’t get the chance. But that’s the past, let’s talk about now. The picks for this week are below!

Georgia over Tennessee

Texas A&M over Ole Miss

Wake Forest over NC State

Nevada over San Diego State

Oklahoma over Baylor

Notre Dame over Virginia

Ohio State over Purdue

Penn State over Michigan (slight upset)

Tulane over Tulsa

Central Michigan over Kent State

Marshall over UAB

As per usual, I will be up past 2 in the morning watching games. This is the time where I really up my game so to speak. I know the end is a mere couple of months away so I want to get in as much viewing as I possibly can. Personal issues have made things rough for me lately but the one thing it has done has opened the door for me to watch more college football. That’s not a bad thing, right? Anyway, enjoy the games this week everyone!

Let the debates begin! – Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on November 3, 2021 by guelphbossman

The debates have already commenced. And it won’t be fun to hear this shit for over a month. But let’s just get used to it and go through this information.

We all had to know that Cincinnati wouldn’t be as high as their AP (or Bossman) poll ranking. They were never going to be #2 but the hope is that they would get some semblance of respect and be put in at #4. You have to wonder if their last two games, where they didn’t exactly light it up against weak American Conference competition, cost them as they start at #6. Behind Ohio State, which will also stick in their craw. I’m not too surprised with this, but Alabama at #2 is surprising. Even worse is Kirk Herbstreit, Joey Galloway and, I believe, Rece Davis all saying that it’s cut and dry for Bama: if they win the SEC Championship they’re in and if they don’t they’re out. Please. If Bama stays at #2 until conference championship weekend and then loses to Georgia, I see them getting a lot of support to stay in the Top 4, and maybe even be #3 to avoid a rematch in the semis with the Dawgs. That’s why these first rankings are still somewhat important because it can frame where you end up later in the season.

But on to better news…last night started football almost every day until November 29th! The only day with no football will be the day before American Thanksgiving which I don’t understand but whatever. They should put some MACtion or Fun Belt on there. Who says no to that? This is when the serious meat (the brisket even) of the college football season starts so let’s dig in to the schedule for this week!

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Northern Illinois at Kent State	7:00 PM
Central Michigan at Western Michigan	7:00 PM

MACTION!!!!!! It has finally returned. I mean it’s not like last year where they put all six games on a Wednesday night but still, it just feels right. There were three games last night and two tonight. Always nice to have some Wednesday night football (hear that ESPN? So schedule a game the night before Thanksgiving god dammit!). Anyway, if you thought Northern Illinois and Kent State would be leading their respective divisions heading into November then head to Vegas because you are extremely lucky (or go to a doctor to get the horseshoe out of your ass).

Thursday

		US	Canada
Georgia State at Louisiana	7:30 PM
Delaware State at Morgan State	7:30 PM

Two games, one in FBS, one in FCS. It is technically football but I see a lot of people changing the channel to the NFL Thursday Night Football game featuring….the Jets and the Colts. OK, maybe not.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Dartmouth	6:00 PM
Virginia Tech at Boston College	7:30 PM

Technically, Virginia Tech is still in the hunt for the ACC Coastal title because that conference, and that division in particular, are almost always a mess, behind the top team (which was usually Clemson and is now Wake Forest). A loss by the Hokies may just pretty much hand the division to Pittsburgh but who knows considering the season we’ve seen so far.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Army vs. Air Force (in Arlington, TX)	11:30 AM
#9 Wake Forest at North Carolina	Noon
#25 Pittsburgh at Duke	Noon
Louisiana Tech at UAB	Noon
Missouri at #1 Georgia	Noon
Illinois at #20 Minnesota	Noon
SMU at Memphis	Noon
#5 Ohio State at Nebraska	Noon
Liberty at #16 Ole Miss	Noon
Georgia Tech at Miami	12:30 PM

A good amount of games but nothing hugely special although that could be the theme of the week to be honest. Nothing is huge but Wake heading to North Carolina as an undefeated underdog will be an interesting watch. It’s insane that they are not favoured but it shows that Wake still doesn’t quite get the respect that most Power Five teams do. Army-AFA could be done by 1 in the afternoon. And perhaps even a halftime coach shitcanning? I can’t see things going well for the Huskers in this one. This would mean the hot seat Scott Frost currently inhabits would get even hotter. Does he make it to the end of the season? Maybe, but I doubt he coaches in 2022, at least in Lincoln.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
#3 Michigan State at Purdue	3:30 PM
#21 Wisconsin at Rutgers	3:30 PM
#13 Auburn at #14 Texas A&M	3:30 PM
Colorado State at Wyoming	3:30 PM
#11 Oklahoma State at West Virginia	3:30 PM
Tulsa at #6 Cincinnati	3:30 PM
#12 Baylor at TCU	3:30 PM
Navy at #10 Notre Dame	3:30 PM
#19 NC State at Florida State	4:00 PM
Tulane at UCF	4:00 PM
#17 Mississippi State at Arkansas	4:00 PM

Now this gets…better. Still not great though with only one game involving two ranked teams. But there’s also EIGHT other games involving a ranked team. That has to be a record I’m sure. Saying that, you have to be careful with the assertion that having a ranked team involved makes the game good. Like, Tulsa-Cincy and Wisconsin-Rutgers probably will not be any good. MSU-Arkansas should be but that’s only because the Bulldogs being ranked #17 is some kind of joke…I think. Oh and Cincinnati will be scoreboard watching for sure. They have to blow Tulsa out of the water and then hope Notre Dame does the same to Navy. It’s the only way for them to potentially move up to #5 in the next rankings (unless something drastic happens).

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
#22 Iowa at Northwestern	7:00 PM
Boise State at #23 Fresno State	7:00 PM
LSU at #2 Alabama	7:00 PM
Tennessee at #18 Kentucky	7:00 PM
#4 Oregon at Washington	7:30 PM
Clemson at Louisville	7:30 PM
Houston at USF	7:30 PM
Indiana at #7 Michigan	7:30 PM
Florida at South Carolina	7:30 PM

At the start of the year, you could have pointed to a few games here as potentially massive games in the grand scheme of things. Now, not so much. Indiana is not nearly as good as many thought they would be. Same goes for Washington, LSU, Boise State, Clemson and Louisville. Let’s throw Florida in there but I think it doesn’t matter since South Carolina is really not that good. So we will call it a comprehensive primetime slate but not an overly amazing one.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UTSA at UTEP	10:15 PM
USC at Arizona State	10:30 PM

We were so close to College Gameday going to El Paso this weekend. I mean I’m not a huge College Gameday watcher and I usually only watch the picks every week but still, that would have been cool to have it there for the first time. Instead they are heading to Cincinnati where I’m sure they will treat the ESPN reporters with kindness after what we saw last night.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Auburn at Texas A&M (3:30, CBS) – Alright so this week does not have a marquee game of the week, that is for sure. Nothing against the Tigers or Aggies but it doesn’t even contain a Top 10 team. Saying that, it’s the only game this week with two ranked teams playing each other so it pretty much goes here by default. The winner here is on the inside track for a New Year’s Six spot as a CFP spot is probably completely out of sight. That is unless Bama falls again against either these very same Tigers. Or the Razorbacks. Or the Tigers of the LSU variety. Or New Mexico State….you know what, no that won’t happen.

Michigan State at Purdue (3:30, ABC) – I will say that the afternoon does have the best schedule of the day so at least there’s that. While many would not think much of this game, this could be a serious trip-up game for the Spartans. On the road, against a fairly good Boilermaker team, with Ohio State to look ahead to in two weeks. Don’t be surprised if this is a close game. Now watch Sparty be up by like 31 at halftime.

Wake Forest at North Carolina (Noon, ABC) – The ACC hasn’t made this list too much this year. And for good reason since their top team, Clemson, has been average. Enter the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. They are 8-0 and ranked #9 in the first CFP Poll. And they are a 2.5-point underdog going to Chapel Hill. The disrespect! They could make a huge statement by winning this game over the Heels as they have NC State the following week, at home, in arguably the biggest game in the ACC Atlantic this season. Imagine saying that at the start of the year. Many would think you were smoking crack.

Oregon at Washington (7:30, ABC) – Oregon is at #4. I don’t know about that ranking but then again, it’s 13 (possibly drunk) people who are or have been prominent in college football setting these rankings. This all means that the Pac-12 is somehow already back in the game when just a few weeks ago, everyone wrote the conference off after the Ducks’ loss to Stanford. Oregon has to continue to win, and possibly beat some teams pretty badly, to stay in the Top 4 though. Man, ABC lucked out this week with their game selection, despite the fact it’s really just an average week, on paper.

Mississippi State at Arkansas (4:00, specialty pack) – To be honest, it’s not like there are a lot of great choices for this spot. I could put like 6 different games here and could argue for any of them. I think this will be the closest and the toughest to predict so that’s why it gets the final spot on the list. The Bulldogs are somehow #17 and play an Arkansas team who could have been in the Top 25. The Hogs are favoured by 5 so at least Vegas kind of understands. A win would definitely but Arkansas in the Top 25 and a loss would probably push Mississippi State right out of the Top 25 as both teams try to keep their slim New Year’s Six hopes alive.

Honourable mention: Missouri at Georgia (Noon, TSN2); Liberty at Ole Miss (Noon, specialty pack); LSU at Alabama (7:00, specialty pack).

Wanna bet?

How about my Houston over SMU pick? Or Auburn over Ole Miss? Didn’t do too badly if I do say so myself (don’t look at the Michigan or Buffalo picks). Let’s not think about the past but forge on with new picks for the future. Let’s begin!

Ole Miss over Liberty

North Carolina over Wake Forest (massive upset)

Michigan State over Purdue (but it will be close)

Georgia over Missouri

Alabama over LSU

Arkansas over Mississippi State

Texas A&M over Auburn

Washington over Oregon (another massive upset)

Western Michigan over Central Michigan

UAB over Louisiana Tech

TCU over Baylor (yet another big upset)

Yes I truly believe that this may be a huge shakeup weekend in college football. Which is saying something considering what the 2021 season has already brought us. I hope I didn’t jinx things and all the ranked teams win now. Because that would suck and I would have to take some of the blame.

I have been on Twitter again but am doing a bit less tweeting these days. Not just because of the issues I’ve stated earlier this year but just general fatigue. I’ve always said I usually enjoy interacting with others on the platform but I have to take small breaks or otherwise I’ll just collapse in front of my laptop. Not saying I don’t get in viewing for most of those 14+ hours but hey, you need bathroom breaks, breaks for food and drink, breaks to even lift weights or go on the treadmill for a bit. Something to break up the day. I’m the same on NFL Sunday. I guess I’m just getting old. Enjoy the games everyone!

The Student Finally Defeats the Master – Week 6 College Football Recap

Posted on October 11, 2021 by guelphbossman

Up until early Saturday evening, Nick Saban had been 24-0 against his former assistants. 24-0. That’s like an Undertaker-like streak. Completely insane. Then came the game.

The Aggies came out strong and it looked like the Crimson Tide defense was struggling. Yes we had seen this earlier in the year but it’s not like things had gone off the rails for them. But Bama’s offense could only do so much and couldn’t pull away. And even though TAMU was keeping pace, it felt to me (and I assume a lot of others) that eventually the Tide would win. Until Seth Small hit the field goal with no time left to clinch the Aggie victory, I still thought the Tide would pull it off, somehow. That’s just what they do. This time it did not happen. The field goal was good (barely) and the fans stormed the field. The mighty Alabama Crimson Tide had been defeated, 41-38 in a thriller.

For people saying this is starting to feel like 2007, you might want to tuck that away. This is shaping up as being way more volatile than 2007 could ever think to be. I’ve said something every week about this and major things continue to happen. We aren’t even halfway through the season. And this past week could have been considered one of the best Saturdays of college football in a long time. A lot of good games, a lot of close games and just a lot of shit happening that is turning the college football world upside down. If it’s chaos you want, this season is bringing it. Now let’s see what pitfall Georgia will fall victim to because we kind of know that’s coming, right?

Let’s get right to the recap as it was a fun (for the most part) 14+ hours of football.

And now for the rest of the recap

A great game down in Iowa City this past weekend. Iowa grinded out a victory over Penn State in a Top 5 matchup. Sean Clifford was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with the Nittany Lions leading 17-3 and the offense fell apart. Iowa’s defense saved the day and now the Hawkeyes have legit College Football Playoff aspirations. I think everyone agrees except for one Penn State fan who was pretty upset that I had mentioned Iowa and the CFP. He basically said I was dumb and that Iowa should be ranked 6th in the new poll, so three spots down…after a win. Riiiiiiiiiiight. I mentioned Iowa should be #3 and I will admit I was wrong. They are actually #2 now. My mistake.
An absolutely insane game went down at the Cotton Bowl for the Red River Shootout and it’s no surprise since this game is almost always nuts. Texas looked like they had Oklahoma on the ropes early. Then Spencer Rattler was benched so I assume most thought it was over. But Caleb Williams came in and did a good job in bringing the Sooners all the way back from a 21-point deficit to win the game. Let’s be honest here though: the combination of Kennedy Brooks going crazy (including what was essentially a walk-off touchdown to win the game) and the Longhorn defense self-destructing was what gave Boomer Sooner the big win. Oklahoma had looked like the worst undefeated Top 10 team in quite some time but this victory could be a turning point for a team who may not meet an equal until Bedlam in late November.
How about that game down in Lincoln? As the game went along, I really started to believe that finally the Huskers, under Scott Frost, would get that huge victory to start turning the program around. Man, was I wrong. In typical heartbreaking fashion, Nebraska blew the game late and allowed Michigan a late game-winning field goal. The Wolverines honestly looked pretty pedestrian for a good portion of the game. They really can’t be like that going forward considering how brutally difficult the Big Ten East looks. As for Nebraska, oof. Another loss, another black mark on Scott Frost’s record and unless things turn around I could see the program moving on since nothing is really improving at the end of the day.
Speaking of hot seats, there was another great game on the night, this one in Blacksburg. It felt like the Hokies would hand Notre Dame their second straight loss and almost destroy their New Year’s Six chances. Instead, Jack Coan, who played like shit early on, came on, drove the Irish down the field for the touchdown and game-tying two-point conversion and then drove them again for the winning field goal with only 17 seconds remaining. Great performance but Virginia Tech had their chances to stop the Irish as their defense had been pretty good in the second half. Unfortunately they came up short and Justin Fuente’s seat gets juuuuuuust a bit hotter.
To start Saturday there was the Arkansas-Ole Miss game which was basically drugs. So damn ridiculous and completely defense-optional. Both offenses went crazy and both teams got 50-burgers on the day. It came down to the end where Sam Pittman decided he has balls the size of coconuts and would go for 2 and the lead instead of the extra point to send it to overtime. The pass fell incomplete and the Rebels won a game that raised the blood pressure of both team’s fanbases. Now the Rebel fans can truly enjoy that popcorn.
Let history show that the Auburn Tigers were, at one point, tied with the Georgia Bulldogs 3-3. I’m sure most fans on The Plains who watched the game would love to just remember up to that point and forget the rest. Georgia proved they are the undisputed number one team in the land (for now) as they destroyed Auburn by 24. And this is with Stetson “The Mailman” Bennett at quarterback. What happens when J.T. Daniels comes back? Or do they platoon? This team has looked better than Bama all season and now they will have the #1 ranking to back that up. Their next two games against Kentucky and Florida will either prove that’s where they belong or bring them back down to Earth a bit.
I didn’t think Florida State could keep close with North Carolina. So what did they do? Just beat them fairly easily and look as good as they were back in the Jameis Winston days (OK maybe not THAT good but still pretty good). I am ruing the day I decided to be a smart guy and pick North Carolina as my chic pick to get to the College Football Playoff. I feel like an idiot. So they can now go 3-9 for all I care since it doesn’t really matter anymore (to me, anyway).
Another game that was bonkers that no one saw was the game between South Alabama and Texas State. I believe this is the longest game since they changed the overtime rules yet again. I am not a fan of the new rules. If you don’t know, starting in the second overtime, you must go for two after a touchdown and then starting with the third overtime, it becomes a two-point conversion contest. The college football equivalent of hockey’s shootout. Ugh. Anyway, this game went to four overtimes and there were so many reviews it got ridiculous. Like the replay booth was being paid per review. Texas State won after stopping USA’s two-point conversion attempt.
If I told you in, say, August of 2020 that Ed Orgeron would be on one of the hottest seats in the nation by October of 2021 you would have thought I was smoking crack. But LSU’s loss to Kentucky this past Saturday will put Coach Eaux in that seat. Look, Kentucky is a damn good team and losing to them is not a bad thing. Not looking competitive when you are a team that should be in the Top 25 range is a different story altogether. The team looks like there is a lack of effort and it shows. The next few weeks will probably help determine Eddie O’s future.
Ugh what a fall from grace for BYU. The Cougars were stunned by Boise State and are now not undefeated. Unless a lot of truly wacky things occur (and I’m not saying they won’t), BYU’s chances of the New Year’s Six are essentially gone. What does this mean? It means when they do become bowl-eligible they will be locked in to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. Yuck. Imagine dropping from a potential Fiesta Bowl berth to that. Brutal.
Put up your hand if you thought Wake Forest…ok I am going to stop there since no one really thought much of Wake Forest this season. OK that’s not totally true. I had them going 9-3 this season and many had them in the 6-8 win range. But to think this team is the only ACC hope left for the College Football Playoff in mid-October? Yeah, no one thought that. Wake had to survive a surprisingly tough Syracuse team, in overtime, to stay undefeated. Now, with their next three games against Army, Duke and North Carolina, it looks like the Deacs could be 9-0 and firmly in the Top 10 when they host NC State in mid-November. They have Clemson and Boston College after that so they have a rough end of the season to look forward to but get through all those unscathed? They could make some history in December.
Welp, Oregon State’s time in the sun went quick. The Beavers were looking like they could make some hay in the Pac-12 with all the turmoil in the conference. Instead, they shit the bed and lost to a Washington State team who’s biggest news has been coach Nick Rolovich and his absolute refusal to get the COVID vaccine. That conference is an absolute mess.
Another great game was shockingly at the Naval Academy. No I’m not kidding. The Midshipmen played undefeated SMU very tough. The Ponies needed a fourth quarter touchdown and a couple of big defensive stops to escape Annapolis with the W. I think Navy, despite being 1-4, is probably quite a bit better than their record indicates. SMU? They are very lucky considering some of the games they’ve been in this season. If they can win their next four, a massive, probably primetime, game with Cincinnati looms large.
Louisville…ugh. They had the game won against Virginia. But instead of going for it on 4th and about 3 fairly deep in Hoos territory, they kicked the field goal. Then their defense allowed Virginia to drive the length of the field in two minutes for the touchdown and the win. Cowardly coaching from Scott Satterfield and it might cost him his job. And did anyone think this Cavaliers team would be 4-2 at this point? I highly doubt it. The ACC is another conference that’s just a dog’s breakfast (other than Wake Forest).
Finally, UTSA was able to outlast Western Kentucky’s potent offense. Quietly, the Roadrunners are 6-0, undefeated, and no one is noticing. So what happens if this team finishes undefeated? My guess is they will get no respect in the polls but they really should, despite the conference they are in.

Alright that was seriously fun. And the late night schedule was light so it made it easier to pay a bit of attention rather than have my full attention which can get tiring into the wee hours of the morning. Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Georgia
#2	Iowa
#3	Cincinnati
#4	Oklahoma
#5	Ohio State
#6	Oregon
#7	Alabama
#8	Michigan
#9	Penn State
#10	Ole Miss
#11	Notre Dame
#12	Michigan State
#13	Coastal Carolina
#14	Kentucky
#15	Oklahoma State
#16	Wake Forest
#17	Florida
#18	Texas A&M
#19	Arkansas
#20	BYU
#21	Arizona State
#22	NC State
#23	Auburn
#24	Clemson
#25	SMU

Yes there are a few somewhat glaring differences between my poll and the AP Poll and that happens of course. I have Alabama at #7 and they only dropped to #5 in the AP Poll. AP dropped Oregon whereas I moved them up to #6 since they didn’t play so why should they drop? You can put the #8 through #12 teams in a hat and mix them up and any combination would probably be fine. A lot is going to happen for these teams the next three weeks so no point in getting all bent out of shape about it now. And I did mention undefeated UTSA earlier. I also don’t have them in my Top 25 but they are just outside of it meaning a win next week should put them in. Finally, I got Coastal at #13 and they are #15 in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll. I have a feeling they may get to #12 or even #11 but that would be their ceiling unless a lot of crazy shit happens to the teams currently above them. Which, considering the way this season has gone, wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

WEEKDAY FUN BELT ACTION! Yes, it’s that time of year that we start getting more weekday football. And this one, between Appalachian State and Louisiana, is a pretty big game. And it’s tomorrow night! Hell yeah! God, I love Tuesday and Wednesday night college football. Kind of feels like now we can say that Autumn has truly commenced. Have a good week everyone!

Are we looking at chaos? – Week 3 College Football Recap

Posted on September 20, 2021 by guelphbossman

After this past week, you have to wonder. Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma all won but they were close games against teams they should have blown out of the water. Cincinnati struggled for a little over a half with Indiana but was able to pull away late. Virginia Tech and UCLA lost. Even Alabama almost allowed Florida to come all the way back to beat them. Remember what I said last week about Bama? You can scratch that…kind of. I still think Alabama, and probably Georgia, are a cut above the rest. But it’s not like they are unbeatable. And the rest of the Top 10, at this point, has looked vulnerable. Many in the college football media are already looking at possibly comparing this season to 2007. It may be a bit too soon to say that but there has been more chaos than normal through three weeks. Usually, as Fall officially begins, you can still look at like 10-15 teams and say they are serious contenders and they are in that tier above everyone else. This season? Yeah, might want to put the brakes on that idea. I hope it does end up that way because it’s always fun to see some college football chaos! I mean unless you’re a college football coach and fans of certain teams.

Alright, enough comparisons. Let’s get to the action from the weekend of college football!

Fun-Time Crazy Recap!

Well, the Buckeyes sure didn’t look too sharp against Tulsa. Luckily they had TreVeyon Henderson go off for over 250 yards on the ground since other than that, no one would be scared of the rest of the Buckeyes that played this past Saturday. Remember, this is the Tulsa team that lost to UC-Davis. It totally fits in to what I mentioned above with teams having fairly big questions already in the season. Now that I say that, watch them blow through the rest of their schedule to finish 11-1 and be #1 at some point.
If you missed the Arizona State-BYU game, boy did you miss a good one. Just look up this one play. Jaren Hall throws an ill-timed interception as he’s falling down. Arizona State picks it up and the defender runs down the sidelines. Then Tyler Allgeier catches up to him, jumps over his back and knocks the ball out of his hands and back into play. After all that, Jaren Hall is the one that recovers the fumble. Absolutely insane. The Cougs would win this one and are now 3-0 against the Pac-12. The Pac-12 had a pretty horrific weekend unless you talk about to the people I encountered on Twitter…
So I made a tweet during the third quarter of the USC-Washington State game. The score was tied at 14 and I said “I see the Clay Helton firing really got the Trojans going.” Then Kedon Slovis goes down with an injury and Jaxson Dart replaces him and plays amazing and the Trojans score 31 unanswered. So yeah, the tweet did not age well and I said that. That wasn’t enough for some USC fans. Some mentioned the same thing and I am fine with it. Someone called me “son” for some reason. And some buffoon put a pic that said “I don’t even have a meme for this kind of fuckery.” Really? Very classy. I don’t mind normal discourse on Twitter which a few of them did (and rightfully so) but why go over the line? To make themselves feel better. Maybe because their lives are shitty so they want to take it out on someone else. Who knows. It’s the one major thing I hate about Twitter (and social media in general): people can’t help but be assholes to others just because they can. As Mike Tyson said, “Social media has made acceptable to say things to people that they would never say to their face.” So true. By the way, Mike Tyson Mysteries? Hilarious show (RIP Norm MacDonald).
College Gameday was in State College this past weekend. The whiteout was in full effect and it showed during their primetime game with Auburn. The offense struggled at times with the crowd noise. They still didn’t play poorly as if it wasn’t for a couple of miscues, the Tigers would have had a chance to win. I think both teams could be en route to the New Year’s Six if they keep playing like that (especially against lesser teams).
I did not pass the Hawaii test. I just couldn’t. I assume the game didn’t end until 4 in the morning and I was already feeling kind of crappy by 11 so I felt good just to get to the end of the normal late night slate.
A horrible blown call (one of quite a few this past weekend) cost Boise State a touchdown against Oklahoma State and, eventually, the game. I mean not that either team really wanted to win after the first half since there was absolutely no scoring in the second half. None. Very un-Boise and un-Poke like for sure. I’m surprised Mike Gundy’s mullet didn’t start shedding from the panic. Also, I can’t remember the last time Boise State started 1-2. I assume it was in Division 1-AA (remember that?).
Uh, what the hell happened in Clemson? I get that a two-hour lightning delay can mess up a team’s flow. But how do they allow Georgia Tech, who is still learning how to live without the option, almost beat them at home? I would say that maybe their run at the top of the ACC is done but then I see what Virginia Tech did in their loss to West Virginia and, even worse, how Miami got beat up by Michigan State and realize they’re still fine for now.
Oh, UCLA. The Bruins were looking pretty damn good through their first two games this season. Then in comes Fresno State to the Rose Bowl, a team I figured would suck this season. Boy was I (along with many others) wrong. This was an amazing game that had four lead changes in the final eight minutes that ended with injured Bulldog quarterback Jake Haener willing his team to the winning touchdown and the upset. After getting off the hot seat it seemed for the rest of the season, Chip Kelly maybe feeling a tiny bit of a temperature hike now.
Alabama plays Ole Miss in two weeks. Considering what Ole Miss did to Tulane (yes the same Tulane that almost beat Oklahoma), the over/under for this one should be 100 and I think I’m being conservative with that number.
I don’t like the new overtime rules. After one overtime, it becomes a two-point conversion contest. The equivalent of hockey’s shootout (which I also despise). It may have finally got to the point that the NFL somehow has the better overtime system (and it’s still not that great). Can there be a perfect system for overtime? I don’t know to be honest but it feels like college football is going backwards.
How about what went down in The Swamp? Early on it looked like yet another Bama rout as they were up 21-3 14 minutes into the game. So I stopped watching for a bit and focused on other games. I would see in the ticker that Florida got a touchdown. Then another. The Tide responded but then the Gators got another TD to get it within 5. Florida would score a touchdown with three minutes to go but couldn’t convert on the two-pointer and that was the margin of victory. So the Fighting Sabans aren’t so dominating it seems. This is a very interesting turn of events for this already crazy 2021 season.
In another episode of “Refs Make The Darndest Calls,” Memphis’ Calvin Austin scored on a questionable punt return where the back official seemed to have signaled for the clock to stop but the play kept going. In the end, Mississippi State had a chance to tie it on a two-point conversion but failed, losing by the same 31-29 score as the game in the previous point. Look, I get that officials aren’t perfect. And this is fine. It is what it is. But when something happens that becomes a turning point or the reason (at the end) that one team wins or loses, then it’s tough to swallow. Let’s not even get into the gambling aspect of what this can do.
It looked like Louisiana Tech was going to get a huge home victory over a good SMU squad. But LaTech allowed SMU one final shot and they took advantage with a 33-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass on the final play of the game. This was a game with almost 750 yards passing combined from two former Oklahoma quarterbacks. How are the Sooners losing these quarterbacks? I get that Spencer Rattler is really good but it’s not like the two starters in this one, Austin Kendall and Tanner Mordecai, aren’t. It’s nice to see these guys get their shot at other programs.
Finally, speaking of Oklahoma, that was yet another less than impressive showing by the Sooners. They barely got out with a win yesterday over Nebraska. Yes, the same Nebraska that has struggled for a few years now and lost to Illinois to start their season. Scott Frost had to be happy with his team’s performance and the fact that his hot seat will get slightly cooler. Oklahoma, on the other hand, does not look like the national title contender I thought they were going to be and that has to be a bit concerning in Norman. Conference play will show all of us what this Sooners team is really made of.

So another great weekend of college football. My remote control suffered as I believe I watched portions of almost 40 games. As for my Top 25, well, here it is!

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

Is it really truly fair to rank teams this early in the season? That’s debatable but everyone else is doing it so I might as well, too. Nice to see Cincinnati, Coastal Carolina, Liberty and Fresno State in the Top 25 with a few other Group of Five teams lurking just outside. Should be an exciting race to the Group of Five spot in the New Year’s Six. Also, are we heading to undefeated Michigan State playing undefeated Michigan the night before Halloween? Can you even imagine the media hype, let alone the fan banter? I’m almost getting sick of it already.

Have a good week everyone.

We got the Week Zero appetizer. Now it’s time for the Week 1 Main Course!

Posted on September 1, 2021 by guelphbossman

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Yes we have made it to what is really the official start of the college football season. You can count Week Zero if you want, and I do, but let’s be honest: it’s merely a tiny appetizer to what’s ahead. Like getting a platter of nachos before your meal except there are only four nacho chips on the platter with a tiny bit of melted cheese, a splatter of salsa and no jalapenos. Week One…now that’s where it’s at. A meatier schedule that really immerses us (finally) in what college football is all about. It gets me back into doing sweet fuck all most Saturdays (if I can help it). Great times.

So let’s get right down to brass tacks. Here is the glorious Week 1 schedule (in high def).

Wednesday

		US	Canada
Jacksonville State at UAB	7:30 PM

Wednesday? WEDNESDAY! Man this is great. Now we have SIX nights of college football during Week 1. Just awesome. I mean this game probably won’t be that good but at least it will be at UAB’s new stadium and not at Legion Field which looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

UPDATE #2: This game is not in Birmingham. I wonder if their new stadium isn’t ready yet. Instead it is in Montgomery, site of the legendary Camellia Bowl.

UPDATE #3: Maybe I should have waited. Thanks to Pete Thamel on Twitter, UAB’s new stadium opens in October.

Thursday

		US	Canada
Temple at Rutgers	6:30 PM
Boise State at UCF	7:00 PM
USF at NC State	7:30 PM
East Carolina vs. Appalachian State (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
Weber State at #24 Utah	7:30 PM
#4 Ohio State at Minnesota	8:00 PM
Bowling Green at Tennessee	8:00 PM
Southern Utah at #25 Arizona State	10:30 PM

Pretty big time Group of Five start with Boise State heading to Orlando to face the Knights of UCF. And FOX has an opening week Thursday game! Noice! Nice to see them jump into the pool. Not like it’s a super competitive matchup but it’s put them in the weekday night game and that’s hugely important. A couple of things I have to mention before you get too far into reading this. I am still not quite sure that you can get the Pac-12 Network on DAZN here in Canada. You’re supposed to be able to get the P12N games on there but looking at the site, that might not be the case. I will have to dig further. The other thing is that the specialty packs are, well, there. I don’t see anything there in terms of a schedule yet but I assume these games will end up there as they normally do.

UPDATE #4: Temple-Rutgers has been moved to Saturday at Noon because of the weather issues in and around New York City and will still be able to be seen on BTN.

UPDATE #5: Thanks to reader Dan, we now know that the Pac-12 Network is not on DAZN. But it’s free (for now) on their YouTube page. Nice!

Friday

		US	Canada
#10 North Carolina at Virginia Tech	6:00 PM
Old Dominion at Wake Forest	7:00 PM
Duke at Charlotte	7:00 PM
Michigan State at Northwestern	9:00 PM
Northern Colorado at Colorado	9:00 PM

OK this is better than Thursday night…but not by much. North Carolina starts what could be their biggest campaign ever with a tough one in Blacksburg. We get a nice TSN doubleheader with ESPN’s stupid three-hour windows. They just never learn. Also, if you are a glutton for punishment, check out Duke face Charlotte. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the 49ers (not the San Francisco kind) beat Dook in what would be considered an upset but not a huge one.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
#2 Oklahoma at Tulane (in Norman)	Noon
Colgate at Boston College	Noon
Fordham at Nebraska	Noon
Holy Cross at UConn	Noon
Western Michigan at Michigan	Noon
Army at Georgia State	Noon
#19 Penn State at #12 Wisconsin	Noon
ULM at Kentucky	Noon

A lot of games here. PSU-Wisky is a pretty massive game to start is off on Week 1. The winner here has the inside track on what could be a special Big Ten season (if they can beat Ohio State). We shall see if OU-Tulane will be played in New Orleans as the people of that area are dealing with Hurricane Ida as we speak. UPDATE: No. No it won’t be. It will be in Norman. And will Scott Frost be fired? If they somehow lose to Fordham then Frost might be fired during the post-game interview on the field.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Fresno State at #11 Oregon	2:00 PM
#1 Alabama vs. #14 Miami (in Atlanta)	3:30 PM
#17 Indiana at #18 Iowa	3:30 PM
Marshall at Navy	3:30 PM
West Virginia at Maryland	3:30 PM
UMass at Pittsburgh	4:00 PM
Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State	4:00 PM
Central Michigan at Missouri	4:00 PM
#23 Louisiana at #21 Texas	4:30 PM
San Jose State at #15 USC	5:00 PM

Whoa now THIS is impressive for Week 1. Bama-Miami, if close, could be an amazing game. Indy-Iowa is a massive get for the Big Ten Network. The best game of the weekend could be FOX’s afternoon affair as the Ragin Cajuns look to pull off….I’m going to call it a VERY minor upset if they beat the Longhorns and only because it’s in Austin. Louisiana is that good and will be part of the Group of Five story all season. Don’t sleep on the Spartans heading to LA to play USC (if you get Pac-12 Network), WVU-Maryland could be quite close if Tagovailoa Dos can carry the Terps and LaTech heading to CLANGAland could be sneaky good. A lot of channel surfing/stream switching in this timeslot for sure.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Syracuse at Ohio	7:00 PM
Texas Tech vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	7:00 PM
#5 Georgia vs. #3 Clemson (in Charlotte)	7:30 PM
Northern Illinois at Georgia Tech	7:30 PM
UTSA at Illinois	7:30 PM
William & Mary at Virginia	7:30 PM
Florida Atlantic at #13 Florida	7:30 PM
Kent State at #6 Texas A&M	8:00 PM
Montana at #20 Washington	8:00 PM
#16 LSU at UCLA	8:30 PM

One game, obviously, is going to carry most of the hype. UGA-Clemson is a Game of the Year candidate but make no mistake about it: the loser is not out of the College Football Playoff picture by a longshot. The loser of this one could run the table and be as high as the #2 seed going into the CFP. UCLA showed that it will not be a pushover and that LSU should be ready for the Bruins. Sure it would be an upset if UCLA won but not a huge one and if they can pull it off, Chip Kelly might finally strike fear into the rest of the Pac-12 South. Glad to see most of the networks showing games in primetime unlike 2019 (I won’t discuss 2020 because that’s not fair). It means we get that good game on FOX. It means TTU-UH could be a lot of fun to watch and we get to see it. It means we get to see if Florida Atlantic and Kent State can follow up a good year with another good year. By this point we will all be on college football overload but I have faith we can all get through it and plow into the late night sked.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
New Mexico State at San Diego State	10:30 PM
BYU vs. Arizona (in Las Vegas)	10:30 PM
Utah State at Washington State	11:00 PM

OK so it kind of falls off a cliff here. Can’t win ’em all. Here’s hoping at least one of these games is close since, on paper, none of them look to be.

Sunday

		US	Canada
Jackson State vs. Florida A&M (in Miami)	3:00 PM
Grambling vs. Tennessee State (in Canton)	4:00 PM
Fort Valley State vs. Tuskegee (in Montgomery)	7:00 PM
#9 Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM

A lot of FCS action on the Sunday before Labour Day. Smart work by the HBCU schools to do this as it should get a lot of eyeballs on their games. I wonder if we will get the game in Canton here since the NFL Network can be a bit funny with their schedule when it comes to what Canadians get to watch. It feels like Florida State could cause the Irish some problems. Let’s all hope so or else it’s an early bedtime for everyone.

Monday

		US	Canada
Ole Miss at Louisville	8:00 PM

This may not look great but Ole Miss should be quite a good team this year. I mean at least their offense should be fun to watch with Lane Kiffin as the head coach. I’m glad the CFL (and TSN) ditched the stupid idea of putting the Labour Day Classic (Eastern edition) in primetime. Fucking dumb. Ti-Cats-Argos should be on at 1 and ~~Eskimos~~ Elks-Stamps on at around 4:30 or so. That’s tradition so keep it that way because there’s no reason not to.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Georgia vs. Clemson (in Charlotte) (7:30, ABC/TSN2) – This is one of the Game of the Year candidates and is a relatively easy choice for Week 1 Game of the Week. Could it be a national championship preview? Some think so. Not me, but I know some do. This is where we get to see if D.J. Uiagalelei wasn’t a flash in the pan after his two games last season. We get to see if J.T. Daniels (what is it with initialed quarterback first names?) is the real deal and a potential Heisman candidate. We also get to see two of the whitest, southernest coaches around. Now this is college football at it’s finest.

Penn State at Wisconsin (Noon, FOX) – BIG NOON SATURDAY gets a damn good game to start their season. I am somewhat positive this is where Gus and Joel will be but it’s not a guarantee with another great FOX game right afterwards (and another great one after that). This is probably going to be somewhat underhyped but is extremely important in the Big Ten scheme of things as if Ohio State trips up at some point this season, one of these two teams could be the one sneaking past into the top spot. After years of crap Week 1s, FOX really has hit it out of the park this year. I don’t expect this all season but at least it’s a good start.

Indiana at Iowa (3:30, BTN) – I’m not lying. BTN. The Big Ten Network. Every year this network gets one game that would easily be on either FOX or ESPN and somehow they nab it. The good thing about the way the Big Ten Network contract is structured because every team has to show up at least twice with one game being a conference game. This could be the closest game of the day and we shall see if the Hoosiers are still climbing or if Iowa will somehow Ferentz their way to a victory to open their season.

Louisiana at Texas (4:30, FOX) – I’m serious when I said above this would not be much of an upset if Louisiana won. The Ragin Cajuns are a serious contender for the single Group of Five New Year’s Six spot (although don’t be surprised if two or even three teams really push the envelope this season). And we all know what opening weekend Texas games are like. Really wild and completely wacky doesn’t quite cover it.

LSU at UCLA (8:30, FOX) – Yeah, all three FOX tripleheader games in the GOTW section. First time ever? I would check but I’m lazy so I’m going to say no, it has never happened before. If the Bruins’ performance in Week Zero is any indication as to what this team could be like, this game will be a ton of fun. Then again they were playing a Hawaii team that looked like it wasn’t ready to start the game at all. The Tigers lost their starting quarterback before the season began so it could be an interesting journey for Ed Orgeron’s team this season (plus we may see Coach Eaux on the hot seat amazingly enough if things go south).

Honourable mention: North Carolina at Virginia Tech (Friday, 6:00, TSN2); Notre Dame at Florida State (Sunday, 7:30, ABC); San Jose State at USC (5:00, DAZN)

Some gambling fun and games

Oh man, this fuckery again. OK look I don’t pick against the spread, just straight up win or loss. I also advise you never to copy these picks. Yes I may be fully correct once but after like 100 misses you’d lose a lot of money. Let’s go:

Notre Dame over Florida State

Texas over Louisiana (but it will be close)

Clemson over Georgia

Alabama over Miami

North Carolina over Virginia Tech

LSU over UCLA

USC over San Jose State

Indiana over Iowa (slight upset?)

Duke over Charlotte

UCF over Boise State

Tennessee over Bowling Green (I might regret this)

SIX straight days of college football starts tonight! I believe I am ready to go. College football gives you Week Zero to get a bit acclimated and then BAM! It’s go time! I’m struggling with specialty pack information as I haven’t seen this little information in years on it. Saying that, it’s pretty easy to outline what games will probably appear on them. As for the Pac-12 Network/DAZN situation, I am looking into it and hoping to get an answer before the first potential P12N game in Canada this year Thursday night. I will definitely hit the Twitter machine and try to stay in my lane (college football, NFL and a little general sports sprinkled in) and not venture into Politicsland or Vaccineville, two places no one should ever go to when dealing with Twitter.

As per usual on this blog, we will soon get into the CFB schedule/NFL schedule/watch some damn football/recap/rinse/repeat carousel. No NFL recaps since a) I really barely have time to do this blog so doing NFL recaps would be tough and b) there are plenty of places to find those recaps out there and they aren’t hard to find. I’m glad to be back. Glad to have all of you back. It’s going to be a fun season. I can feel it. Have a great week everyone and enjoy Week 1!

Yes it’s a small recap, but still a recap…for Week Zero

Posted on August 29, 2021 by guelphbossman

GAH! I should have warned you. But as of right now, August 28, 2021 will be forever known in Champaign as Bret Bielema today. So get drunk and eat two full racks of ribs (in his honour of course).

The last two years, the Week Zero recap has been, let’s say, hijacked. In 2019 it was the absolutely shocking sudden retirement of Andrew Luck basically during a Colts preseason game. That took social media and the football world by storm so much of the Week Zero college football action was pushed aside. Last year was a fucking mess and no real Week Zero (at least for FBS teams). The two weeks following it had a lot of news in the college football world as pretty much all the conferences decided to play after opting out for the season. It was crazy and, despite the fact COVID is still a huge deal, it’s not nearly as big as it was a year ago at this point. I’ve mentioned it before but we are sloooooooooooowly getting back to normality. Like a three steps forward, two steps back kind of deal. Yes, COVID boosters are the future but if it allows us to live life the way it was before then for fuck’s sake, why are people even arguing over it?

Anyway, there was some Week Zero action….OK maybe action is a strong word. I shall recap the so-called action for you right now.

Maybe Chip Kelly has figured it out. Hawaii’s players were starting this game at 9:30am Hawaii time. It’s Week Zero. There is quite a bit of rust for a lot of teams. But good lord did UCLA mop the floor with the Rainbow Warriors. 24 first quarter points basically ended the game early. And I was giggling when Kirk Herbstreit said the Bruins would win the Pac-12 South. This could be a VERY interesting division this season.

Did Edsall get a bonus? That’s really the only question needed for UConn’s Week 0 performance. I get it: it’s even worse for the Huskies because they haven’t played since late 2019. So yeah, this could be a very long season in Storrs. But yeah, I am sure Randy Edsall got some absurd bonuses for converting at least one third down or keeping the opposing team under 50 or something stupid like that.

BERT! As I said above, August 28th will now, and forever more, be Bret Bielema Day in Champaign…unless they win a Big Ten title then the day they win the title will become Bret Bielema Day. Not like Nebraska were huge favourites but Illinois looked far superior in this one. Other than one play, 11th-year senior Adrian Martinez looked awful. The Husker defense did not look too polished. And now Scott Frost is on a serious hot seat in Lincoln. I already feel dumb for saying the Huskers would be bowl-eligible this season.

Look I’m not going to review San Jose State blowing Southern Utah out of the water or UTEP and New Mexico State playing in a game that about 435 people watched on TV. Even the MEAC-SWAC Challenge was kind of meh as Alcorn State just couldn’t get any offense going. All in all, kind of a shit week but at least it’s a start. Not like I was expecting much. I just felt good watching college football for damn near most of the day.

Soon we have, no, not a five-day stretch of football. Oh no that’s not enough. A damn six-day stretch of college football in September! Starts Wednesday night and goes to Monday night. Unreal. The college football schedule should come in earlier this coming week because of that. Enjoy the week everyone!

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: Scott Frost

Nebraska Cornhuskers Football is a Dumpster Fire (oh, and the Week 3 College Football TV Schedule)

Friday

Saturday Early

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Saturday Primetime

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YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

Friday

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Hey, what happened in the NFL offseason? Probably nothing.

The Coaching Carousel is in full swing already – Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Wednesday

Thursday

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Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

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Let the debates begin! – Week 10 College Football TV Schedule

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Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

The Student Finally Defeats the Master – Week 6 College Football Recap

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