Oh man, here we go again

It felt like things were calm. We were all lulled into this. It was just the eye of the storm. Sure the wind wasn’t moving but about 200 metres away, a cow just went flying headlong into a barn.

What am I talking about? Realignment, of course! Another shoe has dropped…OK let me use a different analogy. Sorry Deion. We have another big move as Colorado will be going back to the Big XII starting next season. And that probably won’t be all. The rumours have at least one of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon or Washington following the Buffaloes. Or, if no other schools leave the Pac-12, the Big XII is more than willing to dip into the American Conference (hello SMU, Memphis, Tulane) or even way out east…yes, UConn! And maybe once the Pac-12 (or more like Pac-9) gets their act together, they can start bringing in teams from the Group of Five. The same teams from the American would be in play, especially SMU. Also, the Mountain West would be watching closely as San Diego State, Boise State and perhaps Colorado State and UNLV could be looked at. There will be a lot of meetings in the next month or so to determine where this all leads.

For now let’s focus on what this post was supposed to be (and still will be). It’s time for the Power Five conference predictions. This will give a better indication on how I think things will go during this season. So let’s dive right in!

Changes are coming soon for the Ess Ee Cee. Texas and Oklahoma join the conference next season. Also, no more SEC on CBS after this year. Everything moves to ABC and ESPN. And finally, no divisions. Halle-fucking-lujah.

As for this year, all the talk is about Georgia and doing something no team has done (fully) in the AP Poll era: win three national championships in a row. It’s not like they will fall apart, despite the fact they lost their starting quarterback and a bunch of other players in the NFL Draft. Then again, I’m sure Kirby Smart has looked them all dead in the eye and told them “Everyone thinks you are going to go 5-7 and lose to Vanderbilt. Prove them wrong!” And they will believe it because college football head coaches are just a notch-and-a-half below cult leaders in the pecking order of how much they can make their “followers” drink their Kool-Aid.

Remember, though, there are other teams in the conference as well. Like those lovable underdogs from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the team that just reeks of success (in the classroom and on the baseball diamond), Vanderbilt. And eleven other teams. Want to find out how I think they will do? OK. I will do that. Just for you.

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Georgia	7	1	11	1
	Tennessee	6	2	10	2
	South Carolina	5	3	8	4
	Kentucky	3	5	6	6
	Missouri	2	6	5	7
	Florida	2	6	5	7
	Vanderbilt	1	7	4	8
	West
	Alabama	8	0	12	0
	LSU	6	2	9	3
	Ole Miss	4	4	8	4
	Texas A&M	4	4	8	4
	Arkansas	3	5	7	5
	Auburn	3	5	7	5
	Mississippi State	2	6	6	6

Just For You

• You might think I am crazy for having UGA not run the table. I do think they will lose a regular season game and it will be to those upstart Tennessee Volunteers. It won’t keep them from winning the division though as you can see I have those same Vols losing two conference games during the regular season.
• As for the SEC West, though, Bama will once again rule the roost….as long as they figure out their quarterback situation. I am thinking they will and will go undefeated and be #1 in the nation going into conference championship weekend. If they don’t get their QB situation settled…well, maybe they lose two games? Three? It’s not like they will fall to 6-6.
• I could see South Carolina or last year’s SEC West champs, LSU, making a bit of a run this time around. They have the top two quarterbacks in the SEC and could each put up piles of points. Watch for the Cocks’ game against Georgia early on in the season and LSU’s post-Halloween trip to Bryant-Denny to face the Tide. Upsets in either of those games will seriously upset the apple cart.
• Look, the Gators were barely .500 with who I think may be one of the most overhyped quarterbacks in recent memory. I don’t think Anthony Richardson was that great. And now they don’t even have him. Unless every other part of the roster improved (it didn’t), how do people expect this team to bounce back and all of a sudden become an eight or nine win team? Spoiler alert: they won’t.
• I have Mississippi State at 6-6. They will do just enough to get a bowl game. I wonder how tough it will be after the loss of Mike Leach but I can see them straightening things out just in time late in the season.
• As for the SEC Championship, SURPRISE! I have the Dawgs beating the Tide and creating a massive clusterfuck in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Fun times!
• Eleven bowl teams from the SEC with two juuuuuust on the outside. That’s insane and I don’t think I will be that far off with this prediction. Next year could be even crazier with Texas and Oklahoma joining the conference that just means more.

Man have things really changed in terms of where you will see Big Ten games this season. Gone are ABC and ESPN. In is NBC and CBS. This is gonna feel weird the first time I see it. And maybe the next few times as well. I will get used to it at some point. Now if you want the opportunity to watch every Big Ten game, better find a way to get FOX Sports One and Peacock otherwise you will be shit out of luck to watch potential bangers like Northwestern-Purdue and Indiana-Rutgers (if they end up there and not the Big Ten Network).

Alright, let’s get into the final conference predictions before the B1G gives a big Fuck You to geography and brings in USC and UCLA.

		Conference		Overall
	East	W	L	W	L
	Michigan	8	1	11	1
	Penn State	8	1	11	1
	Ohio State	8	1	10	2
	Michigan State	5	4	7	5
	Maryland	5	4	8	4
	Indiana	1	8	3	9
	Rutgers	1	8	4	8
	West
	Minnesota	6	3	8	4
	Wisconsin	6	3	9	3
	Iowa	6	3	9	3
	Illinois	5	4	7	5
	Nebraska	2	7	5	7
	Purdue	2	7	5	7
	Northwestern	0	9	2	10

Geogpraphy, Go Eat a Dick

• Look, I know some might look at the Big Ten East standings and think I am a bit crazy. I am not. Although that is what a crazy person would tell you. Yep, a three-way tie at the top at 8-1 between Big Blue, tOSU and PSU. Because each team will be 1-1 against the other two, the CFP Rankings will decide the winner. I believe the Wolverines will somehow win that. And yes, I think Ohio State also loses to Notre Dame. O-H! I-No.
• If Sparty doesn’t make it to a bowl game, they may end up giving Mel Tucker the Herm Edwards treatment and fire him before he can leave the playing surface one game. I get they have a tough division but they should be able to do well enough against the rest of their schedule to get back in the postseason after last year’s debacle.
• No, I don’t have Wisconsin winning the West division. Meaning I am different than almost every expert out there. Also, there’s the fact I’m not an expert but I digress. Again I have a damn three-way tie but no need to look at the rankings for this one as I believe the Gophers will Row the Fucking Boat all the way to Indianapolis after beating both Wisky and the high-octane Iowa Hawkeyes. See what I did there? Yeah, I don’t care that the Hawkeyes have a new quarterback in town. Until Kirk tells his son to do better, Iowa will be pushing for some 7-6 victories. Sorry. 8-6. Two field goals and a late safety to win.
• Nebraska will be better but I think the Huskers are a season away from getting back to the top of the West…just in time for the West to just not exist anymore.
• As for Northwestern…man. What a shitshow. Look, I played a lot of sports earlier in my life and did so at the university level. Are there fun little pranks and stupid things the rookies have to do? Sometimes. But it’s usually harmless. Carrying bags, standing up during a team dinner to get embarrassed by singing some Mariah Carey song, dumb things like that. Not getting fucking dry humped in some cultish fashion by weirdos in robes. What the fuck is wrong with that school? And yes, it’s not just the football program. Sounds like at least half the teams there have serious issues. Ugh.
• Now let’s get crazy. Yeah! The Big Ten Championship will…OK who am I kidding. It won’t be close. I have Michigan plowing through Minny to clinch their spot, yet again, in the College Football Playoff.

Might as well call this the Stable Conference…for now. Just nothing happening here which is just fine for most of the teams in the ACC. Status quo isn’t a bad thing. There are some changes with where you will see games. The CW…yes, the C-Fucking-W, will have an ACC game during most of the weeks of the season. You can take the ACC out of Jefferson-Pilot (or Raycom) but you can’t take the Jefferson-Pilot (or Raycom) out of the ACC. Or something like that.

So before this conference possibly gets pillaged by the Big Ten and SEC, let’s get to the predictions followed by some deep tissue massage and/or analysis.

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	Clemson	8	0	12	10
	Florida State	7	1	11	1
	North Carolina	6	2	9	3
	Pittsburgh	5	3	8	4
	Louisville	5	3	8	4
	Duke	4	4	8	4
	Wake Forest	4	4	7	5
	NC State	4	4	7	5
	Miami	4	4	7	5
	Syracuse	3	5	6	6
	Boston College	2	6	5	7
	Virginia	2	6	4	8
	Georgia Tech	2	6	4	8
	Virginia Tech	0	8	1	11

Deep Tissue Massage and/or Analysis

• I should book a massage. My back is in horrible shape.
• Some may scoff at me having Clemson going undefeated this season. They have the schedule to do it and if Cade Klubnik is as good as he can be this could relatively easily happen. If Klubnik struggles…well then this entire set of standings might need to be scrubbed from existence.
• Reader Gord will like where I have Florida State. This team could be scary good. And at the very least, they will be near the top of the ACC standings this season. Mike Norvell has done a great job getting this team back to what it was like during the Jimbo Fisher days. I had my doubts about him but I have to admit he has been the right guy to right the ship in Tallahassee.
• Hey did you notice? NO DIVISIONS! I love it.
• Don’t be surprised that if Clemson or FSU stumbles that there are no shortage of teams that could get one of the two ACC title game slots. A list of seven teams could pull off a couple of upsets and be at the top and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise. A slight surprise sure. Maybe a slightly bigger surprise if it was Miami or NC State. But not a massive surprise.
• Poor Virginia Tech. I think this will be their worst team since before Frank Beamer graced Blacksburg. It feels like it has been forever since the Hokies were contenders. It was only seven years ago when they were in the ACC Championship and almost upset the eventual national champions, Clemson. This team is pretty bad in almost every aspect of the game and the schedule will not be helpful to them. Other than Old Dominion I don’t see them winning any other game and the Monarchs have given VT all sorts of fits the past few years.
• Look for a tiny bit of a bounce back from Virginia. Just them taking the field after what happened last year is a win in my books.
• For that ACC title game, how about another game that will turn everything on its head. Yep, I think the Noles will get revenge for a regular season loss by inching out the Tigers. Chaos!

OK it’s about time the Big XII rebrands. They will have at least thirteen teams by the time the 2024 season starts and it may be as high as sixteen. So change the fucking name. They have the rights to the Big Fourteen and Big Sixteen so use one of those. It would be easy. Find a graphic design student at Kansas and have them do a new logo. Easy peasy. Why do I have to come up with everything?

Where was I? Oh that’s right, predictions. Let’s see if this conference will go all Pac-12 and cannibalize itself or if they can see a team get to the CFP once again. Also, Texas and Oklahoma will be trying their best to leave the conference on a high note much to the chagrin of the rest of the schools in the conference. So here are the Big XII standings predictions, followed by Belly Expansions.

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	Texas	8	1	10	2
	Kansas State	7	2	10	2
	Baylor	6	3	8	4
	TCU	6	3	9	3
	Oklahoma	6	3	9	3
	Texas Tech	5	4	8	4
	Oklahoma State	5	4	8	4
	Kansas	4	5	7	5
	UCF	4	5	7	5
	BYU	3	6	5	7
	Cincinnati	3	6	5	7
	Houston	2	7	4	8
	Iowa State	2	7	4	8
	West Virginia	2	7	3	9

Belly Expansions

• No I don’t mean pregnancy. I mean eating a big meal and having to loosen the ol’ belt or just unbuckle the pants altogether. Funny enough, people in the restaurant don’t appreciate that.
• Let’s start at the bottom. There won’t be one truly bad team. There will be a bunch of below-average ones. West Virginia, Iowa State, Houston, Cincinnati and BYU could all finish last and I am sure no one would bat an eye.
• I see the Longhorns making their final Big XII season a special one. They have the team, the schedule and the head coach (I think) to be the top team in this conference this season. The only question will be can Quinn Ewers hold off Arch Manning. Will one of them transfer in the offseason? Remember, when you have two starting quarterbacks, you have none. I think.
• How about this lukewarm take: Kansas State will be good again. Yeah really going out on a limb there Bossman. This team has become so steady-as-she-goes it’s almost boring. The people in the Little Apple are fine with this.
• I do think one of the newcomers will make a bowl game and that team will be UCF. I think they are the most prepared of the newbies coming into this conference. But make no mistake about it: all four teams will be good at various points over the next few years.
• I can’t see Oklahoma taking enough of a leap to get to the Big XII Championship. Nor do I think the Horned Frogs of TCU have the, uh, toads? to make it back to the conference title game. Good seasons for both, yes, but not great.
• The Longhorns should win the conference title game in their final season in the Big XII. Will this get them into the CFP or will it “relegate” them to the New Year’s Six? I think you can tell from my predictions so far but you will know for sure in a different post.

So where are we going to be able to watch Pac-12 games in the future? Who the hell knows. My money is on PBS.

But seriously, the Pac-12 is quickly dropping from the Conference of Champions to almost a Group of Five conference. They are losing USC and UCLA next year to the Big Ten. They knew that already. The bombshell of Colorado leaving now has them at nine teams starting the 2024 season. And it may not end there. The only schools I haven’t heard potentially leaving are Oregon State and Washington State. That’s not to say all these rumours will be correct but I will be pretty surprised if no more teams leave for the Big XII before next season. It’s sad for a conference that really started their slide once Pete Carroll left USC for the NFL. Thanks a bunch, Peter.

Prediction time! No divisions which is one thing they are ahead of the game with, starting that last year. Let’s get to those divisionless predictions followed by some California Nightmarin’.

		Conference		Overall
		W	L	W	L
	USC	8	1	10	2
	Utah	7	2	9	3
	Oregon	7	2	9	3
	Oregon State	7	2	10	2
	Washington State	6	3	8	4
	Washington	6	3	9	3
	UCLA	5	4	8	4
	Colorado	3	6	4	8
	California	2	7	4	8
	Arizona	2	7	4	8
	Arizona State	1	8	3	9
	Stanford	0	9	2	10

California Nightmarin’

• No state will have it better this year in the Pac-12 than the state of Oregon. Both the Ducks and the Beavers look to be serious contenders and only need the ball to bounce their way one extra time to maybe get to the Pac-12 Championship. And considering the way that title game has gone, who knows what may happen after that.
• The strongest team, though, should be USC. They have Caleb Williams coming back to try and do what no one other than some guy named Archie has ever done, and that’s win two Heisman Trophies. The hope there is that the sting of the two season-ending losses will motivate them to push themselves that final step into the CFP.
• OK look, I know you see Washington in sixth place and you are wondering what the fuck is wrong with me. This is another case where the schedule is just flat-out against them. A slightly easier schedule and I might put this team at eleven or even, dare I say it, twelve wins. It will be that close at the top of the conference.
• On the other hand, I am sure no will think I’m crazy for putting Stanford in last place. It’s been a long time since the Cardinal have been this bad and it doesn’t look like they will be ready for bowl action for another year at least.
• I think I was fair putting Colorado at 4-8 for this season and playing fairly meaningful football going into November. There seems to be two schools of thought with this team. One section thinks Coach Prime has done wonders and with all the fresh faces in the lineup it will push the team over the line and into bowl-eligibility territory. The other section thinks the entire program is overhyped and they will win maybe two games. I am in the middle on this. This team won’t go bowling this year. That would be too much of a leap. But they should win more games than they did last year. If not, what the hell was all this hoopla for?
• As for the Pac-12 title game, USC gets the Pac-12 Championship they probably should have won last year. Problem is that by this point there will be a lot of teams in the mix for those four College Football Playoff spots and in typical Pac-12 fashion, the league will have cannabilized itself again and missed out on the CFP again.

There you go! You now have a complete set of Bossman conference predictions. Next up, is kind of the wrap-up post where I put everything in a nice, neat little ball and let you know who I believe will win the whole damn deal. Have a great week everyone!

Most Important Games of the 2023 College Football Season

Yeah I’m that fucking excited.

Spoiler alert: UConn does not appear on this list. If you were expecting them, I apologize for their absence.

Alright it’s time to start getting on the next season’s worth of college football posts and I always start with the most important games of the upcoming season. Remember last season when I did this post? I didn’t do three or four posts. I did one long-ass post. So guess what? No, we are not going back to three or four posts. It’s one massive post once again. I think it worked last year so I’m going back to the newer well rather than the older well that did me….well, over a bunch of years.

Now some might say “Bossman, it’s too early for this.” To them I say “Eat shit.” FBSchedules has their helmet schedules out and preview magazines are out. I’ve almost ready all of the Lindy’s one and I have the Athlon one ready to go right after. The Phil Steele magazine, the god damn granddaddy of them all, will be here in the next couple of weeks. So yeah I’m getting ready and yeah, it’s time to talk some college football.

Remember how this goes: I am listing the most important games that will shape the outcome of the entire college football season. Sure, Army-Navy is a huge game but unless either team is undefeated going into that one, the game means very little in the grand scheme of things, bowl-wise or other.

So boys and girls (maybe), how do we always start this post? That’s right, with the ranking of the weeks of the season. It is sponsored by the letter R and the number 0. Every year it is usually pretty close to the same. Week 2 is not all of a sudden going to be the biggest week of the college football season. It just never happens. So here are those rankings followed by some witty and potentially insightful banter (a reminder that the week is listed by the Saturday it corresponds to):

1. Week 11 – November 11
2. Week 13 – November 25
3. Week 10 – November 4
4. Week 4 – September 23
5. Week 8 – October 21
6. Week 7 – October 14
7. Week 12 – November 18
8. Week 6 – October 7
9. Week 5 – September 30
10. Week 9 – October 28
11. Week 3 – September 16
12. Week 2 – September 9
13. Week 1 – September 2

Sweet Jesus, Week 1 looks fucking awful. I mean it’s the first full week of the season so I will be all in but still…it’s like college football has taken several steps backwards from a few years ago when Week 1 was about the fifth or sixth-best week of the season and there were five or six HUGE games. This season, the opening week is highlighted by LSU/Florida State which is great. Then the quality falls off a massive cliff with the next biggest game being the annual Labour Day ACC clash, this time with Clemson and Duke. Woof. Three weeks in November, as per usual, are at the top with Week 11 being the top week this season. It was the same thing five years ago as the week is crammed with huge conference games. I don’t know if I can even call it SEC Sleepwalk/Sleepover/Shitbreak Week anymore as Week 12, the penultimate regular season week, is again near the middle of the rankings. Also, I don’t rate Week Zero. But it will be a ton of fun since it will be the first college football action in over 7 months. So yeah my eyeballs will be fucking glued to Navy/Notre Dame out in Dublin, Ireland, Hawaii/Vanderbilt and UMass/New Mexico State of course!

OK just like last year I will not be going week-to-week. I’m just listing the top games. The top 35 (up from 30) most important games of the college football season. I’ll do this list and then in late November we will all watch a team like Arkansas or Iowa or NC State play in a game that could send them well on their way to the College Football Playoff. It is what it is. Let’s get to the list! For this list, any confirmed broadcast info will be noted. Of course, nothing for TSN will be confirmed until like the night before any of these games because fuck you that’s why.

1. Ohio State at Michigan (Week 13, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – Chances are this is essentially for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Next year, this might be for a first-round bye in the CFP. How times change. Either way, this is unequivocally the biggest game of the season and the one where FOX sends basically everyone that works under the sports umbrella to work on the 83-hour BIG NUDE SATURDAY.
2. LSU at Alabama (Week 10, 8:00, CBS) – Alabama is pretty much the go-to pick for CBS’s lone primetime game of the season for the SEC and this year will be no different. This is the final SEC on CBS primetime game and should be a great one as these two teams are, once again, the pillars of the SEC West. The winner here is almost guaranteed (jury is still out on Ole Miss and TAMU) a spot in Atlanta to try and dethrone Georgia (probably).
3. Michigan at Penn State (Week 11, Noon, FOX, confirmed) – This game, like the first game on the list, could have national championship implications. It really is just a hair below the top two games on this list. FOX is hitting it out of the park with big games this season. I think the Big Ten might be just fine not being on ESPN/ABC going forward.
4. LSU at Florida State (Week 1, Sunday, 7:30, ABC, confirmed) – Two games in the top four for LSU means they will have a very tough road to get back to having some semblance of a shot at the College Football Playoff (or even the New Year’s Six). This seems like it could finally be the year that FSU returns to the top of the ACC mountain as Mike Norvell has his most talented team in Tallahassee. I love seeing ABC put a great game on the night before Labour Day. At least Week One can always rely on that.
5. Georgia at Tennessee (Week 12, 3:30, CBS) – If Joe Milton III continues to throw piss rockets like he did against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, this could ascend to Game of the Year territory. The Vols may have the best chance to beat the Dawgs with the game being at what should be a raucous Neyland Stadium. Not confirmed but I would be shocked if this isn’t CBS’s choice for the SEC on CBS this week.
6. Penn State at Ohio State (Week 8, Noon, FOX) – Man, GUS JOHNSON is getting a great set of games this season to call (if my predictions hold up). This is the final game on this list in the three-team Big Ten East Round Robin Tournament El Fantastico to determine which team (if not two) go to the CFP. I would say the Nittany Lions are pretty good underdogs here but they finally have a quarterback who looks like he can throw the ball downfield a bit so you never know. tOSU has question marks at QB so this could be quite the interesting matchup.
7. Florida State at Clemson (Week 4, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Could the Noles be the favourite here? It’s possible. Unlikely but I wouldn’t go much past a pickem for this one. With the Big Ten leaving ESPN/ABC, these primetime ABC slots open up a lot. And really, it is still the biggest timeslot of the week. This is the year the ACC has to hopefully grab as many of these as possible as next year…yeah, the SEC may end up with all of them.
8. Tennessee at Alabama (Week 8, 3:30, CBS) – Not going to lie: it is going to feel very weird when the SEC isn’t on CBS every Saturday afternoon. I guess that’s where a huge Big Ten game will go but I can’t see them getting most of the big games because FOX gets their pick of the litter most weeks. Going to be very interesting to watch going forward. Man, I thought figuring out this year’s schedule was difficult. Next year’s is going to seriously tough.
9. Ohio State at Notre Dame (Week 4, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – The first non-conference affair on this list and it is a juicy one. Both teams should be undefeated coming into this one unless the Irish have an inexplicable loss like they had last season to Marshall or Stanford. If Touchdown Jesus pulls this one out, expect Sam Hartman to rocket up most Heisman lists.
10. Texas at Alabama (Week 2, 7:00, specialty pack) – This game is confirmed for ESPN but I have this funny feeling TSN won’t pick it up. Call it a CFL or US Open-based hunch. We shall see though. Let’s be clear: the Horns were fucking robbed of the win last year by the referees. This time they will have a chance to make up for that but it is not easy winning in Tuscaloosa. Ask almost every team that’s travelled there in the past decade-plus.
11. Utah at USC (Week 8, 7:30, ABC) – Hey, the Pac-12 has joined the party. This is the swansong season in the conference for the Trojans and they are hoping to win the conference championship in their final year. Winning games like these is a must for that to happen. This could be the game that either elevates Caleb Williams to college football history and only the second player to win two Heismans or destroy his chances at repeating.
12. Ohio State at Wisconsin (Week 9, 7:30, NBC) – Yeah I think NBC will get a couple good Big Ten games and this will be one of them it sounds like. Wisconsin has a new head coach and a new quarterback and a new offensive coordinator that won’t run the ball as much as Wisconsin is supposed to. Hmmm…that is going to feel very unAlvarez-like. At least the kids will get to jump around after the third quarter, testing the structure of Camp Randall like a bunch of engineers.
13. Washington at USC (Week 10, 3:30, specialty pack) – Again, I have this feeling that TSN will not show this game and that it will head to the specialty pack, much to the chagrin of regular Canadian cable subscribers (which I am not one of). It feels like either this game or the aforementioned Utes-Trojans game will be the game of the year in the conference and will decide at least one of the championship game participants (thanks to no divisions). It’s too bad FOX has their premiere game every week at Noon since this would be a great pick as their game of the week.
14. Ole Miss at Georgia (Week 11, 3:30, CBS) – Wouldn’t it be something if the Fighting Kiffins of Oxford upset UGA here? The entire college football world would be flipped upside down. And you know how I love upsets. We need another 2007!
15. Utah at Washington (Week 11, 3:30, TSN2) – Alright, the first game I predict will hit TSN that isn’t already on ABC. Kind of sad that TSN barely cares about their college football contract until bowl season when they suddenly show almost every bowl game despite also showing every World Juniors hockey game. Crazy. If Cam Rising is able to return for opening week then this could be a massive game. I am hoping for his sake (and for Utes fans’ sake) that is the case.
16. USC at Notre Dame (Week 7, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – The traditional yearly matchup is back again and even with the Trojans moving to the Big Ten, this matchup will continue. By this point in the season, both of these teams should be in the Top 15 looking at a potential College Football Playoff berth. The loser here loses that and perhaps an NY6 spot.
17. Alabama at Texas A&M (Week 6, Noon, TSN3/TSN5) – OK I am sure you are looking at this and wondering if I suddenly developed brain damage. I truly believe that the Aggies will be a ton better than they were last season when they essentially bottomed out under Jimbo Fisher. Plus, the Aggies always play the Tide tough so they could throw a big-ass monkey wrench in the entire SEC West picture here with a win.
18. Notre Dame at Clemson (Week 10, 3:30, ABC) – OK so this is confirmed for ABC but the time is not confirmed. I am guessing it will be on in the afternoon with Kansas State-Texas being the ABC Primetime game. This could end up being switched if both the Irish and Tigers are undefeated going into this one. For once, Clemson isn’t the ACC favourite. It’s kind of refreshing. It will be interesting to see if Cade Klubnik, the next man up at quarterback, can lead the Tigers back to the promised land. I don’t see it but then again, I thought D.J. Uiagelelei was going to be the guy and he’s now out in the boonies of Oregon.
19. USC at Oregon (Week 11, 7:30, ABC) – Speaking of Oregon, the Trojans head there on Remembrance Day night (or I guess it’s Veterans Day down in the States). Yet another tough test for the Trojans. We all know what’s going to happen though. The best four or five Pac-12 teams will beat on each other and no team will get out unscathed so no team will go to the CFP yet again. That conference just loves to cannibalize itself.
20. Ole Miss at Alabama (Week 4, 3:30, CBS) – A bit of an early shit-test game for the Tide. A game that they should win but they may have trouble with because their opponent is so damn pesky and annoying. I mean it is Lane Kiffin’s boys so you expect the Ole Miss offense to chug along. Bet the over.
21. Oregon at Utah (Week 9, 7:30, ABC/TSN2) – Could the Utes fall back to the middle of the pack if they don’t have Cam Rising to start the season? Quite possibly. I mean seeing this game in the Top 25 games of the season means I clearly think Rising will be ready to play on opening night. If not, pray for the Utes since it could be a long season (comparatively…I mean they will still win 8 or 9 games regardless).
22. Washington at Oregon State (Week 12, 10:30, TSN2) – Hey remember when I mentioned D.J. Uiagelelei? Here’s where he ended up. The metropolis of Corvallis. The Beavs might actually have a contender if D.J. can do what he was supposed to do at Clemson. On the other side of the line, Michael Penix Jr. should be considered the Heisman favourite since I can’t see voters giving it to Caleb Williams again (unless he has an all-timer of a season).
23. Texas A&M at LSU (Week 13, 3:00, specialty pack) – I actually have this game on the SEC Network. Yeah it may sound weird but this has happened before. And that final week of the regular season is ridiculous for scheduling anyway. At least one of the conference networks ends up getting a beauty of a game. Now if this is somehow for the SEC West title then yeah, it won’t even sniff the SEC Network. But I feel it won’t be so it will end up there.
24. Oregon at Washington (Week 7, 8:00, FOX) – Last year’s game was crazy with the Huskies having a huge comeback win to keep their Pac-12 hopes alive and ruin Oregon’s. I wonder if Mario Cristobal wishes he was back in Eugene considering how piss poor his Miami Hurricanes did in his first season back with his alma mater.
25. Utah at Oregon State (Week 5, Friday, 9:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – And finally we get a game that, well, Canadians won’t get (unless you have IPTV or find some probably illegal stream). You know, for a stadium that’s been under construction and only holds 27,000, those games in Corvallis can sound VERY loud. Then again, when they start that chainsaw, that’s loud enough. You ever been near one of those? Sweet fucking Jesus they are loud with great ear protection so I can imagine what it’s like being within twenty feet of the thing.
26. LSU at Ole Miss (Week 5, Noon, TSN2) – A lot of people will feel like this is a game for second place in the SEC West but with Bama’s QB questions, this could hold a lot more importance than that. Not saying the division is a free-for-all but I have these two teams, Bama and even the Aggies having legitimate shots at winning the division so they can be pummeled by UGA in the SEC Championship.
27. Iowa at Penn State (Week 4, 7:30, CBS, confirmed) – The first game on this list that has the Big Ten on CBS (man that sounds weird). This is confirmed and I believe the Penn State Whiteout Game is also confirmed. To say it’s an intimidating sight for a visiting team would be an understatement.
28. South Carolina at Georgia (Week 3, 3:30, CBS, confirmed) – This may be the first game that feels like it might not be that close. Saying that, Shane Beamer has the Gamecocks playing great football and they have the enthusiasm and work ethic to give the Dawgs a very tough time. Problem is they are playing this game between the hedges and not at Williams-Brice. If UGA can’t win this by a bunch, the rest of the SEC East should take notice.
29. Oregon State at Oregon (Week 13, Friday, 8:30, FOX, confirmed) – This could be one of the biggest Civil War games ever. Oh wait, I can’t call it’s the Civil War, can I? Anyway, the winner of this game probably will have a good chance to be in the Pac-12 Championship.
30. Kansas State at Texas (Week 10, 8:30, FOX) – It took until the thirtieth game to get a Big XII conference game. Look, as much crap as the Pac-12 has taken over the Spring (and rightfully so), the Big XII might be at its weakest in a long time unless a few programs step up (Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor) or maintain what they did last season (Kansas State, TCU, Kansas). This conference should feel lucky that the Pac-12 is in such dire straits. The latest rumor has Colorado and Arizona headed to the Big XII and it wouldn’t surprise me but from a football standpoint…woof.
31. Texas A&M at Tennessee (Week 7, Noon, TSN3) – OK maybe I should have stopped at 30. No, no, I promised 35 for some strange reason and dammit I am going to pull through. I am actually looking forward to Texas A&M’s season for one reason…Bobby Fucking Petrino. At some point you know it will be a disaster in College Station. It is bound to happen. Until then though you have one of the best offensive minds in college football trying to push this Aggie team to the next level. Just tell him to steer clear of motorcycles and young female former athletes-turned-office staff.
32. Texas at TCU (Week 11, 7:00, FOX) – What a run the Horned Frogs had last year (if you don’t include the thrashing they took in the national championship game). They probably won’t be as good this season. To lose who they lost and somehow come back and do what they did would be almost impossible. Saying that, the Longhorns should not take this team lightly as they have struggled in the past with them even when TCU wasn’t that great. We should also definitely know by this point whether Quinn Ewers has completely taken that quarterback job or if Arch Manning’s time has arrived in Austin.
33. North Carolina at Clemson (Week 12, 7:30, ABC) – Look let’s not look past the Tar Heels. They have a Heisman candidate at quarterback in Drake Maye and sometimes that is enough to propel a team to an extra win or two, which is pretty much what UNC would need to get to the ACC Championship. Death Valley East is still Death Valley East and playing there at night is very difficult for opponents. But again, don’t look past the Heels and Mack Brown.
34. UCLA at USC (Week 12, 8:00, FOX) – Time once again for the Victory Bell and it is gonna feel weird. Final Victory Bell in the Pac-12. No DTR means possible trouble for the Bruins and if they can’t find a quarterback to lead them this season then this game has no right to be in the Top 35.
35. Clemson at South Carolina (Week 13, 7:00, TSN2) – My hope is that TSN does pick up the ball a bit for the final week of the season like they used to. It was 2019 when they were doing double digits’ worth of games for the final college football weekend. Now, we are lucky to get 4 or 5 which is crazy since there’s almost nothing to compete with it in the live sports arena. Anyway, it’s the Battle for the Palmetto State and it is usually a fun game that can get way too rough at times. Should be good. I hope.

Finished! Top 35 games of the season. I am sure there will be some that end up not coming close to being as important as I thought. That’s the nature of the game. Can’t always be right with these things. I will have another blog post shortly highlighting some other good (and perhaps not-so-good) games this season coming up shortly. 62 days left until Week Zero! Sure it’s not the best college football you will see all season but it will be college football so yeah I’m gonna fucking watch it all if I can! Have a great week, everyone!

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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

6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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

9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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).
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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)

16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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 2021 College Football Coaching Hot Seat List

This is going to be a very interesting season in college football as it pertains to the college football coaching hot seat list.

Last year was an aberration, obviously.  There are many programs that normally would have thought on pulling the trigger and ending their ties with their head coach.  COVID-19 changed that.  And we’re not out of the woods with all this pandemic shit.  Saying that, 2021 is different.  We are slowly getting back to normal, or at least what the new normal will look like.  And the college football world is no different.  Hey, look, realignment issues!  The new NIL legislation!  We are back to offseason craziness in the world of, let’s still call it amateur athletics.  Which means some coaches are back to squarely being on the hot seat.  Not good for them.  Incredibly exciting for the (sometimes) bloodthirsty college football media.  So let’s do this!

IT’S HOT SEAT TIME, GUYS!  Got to give myself some credit: this list is somewhat accurate.  That’s the history of this post.  And I am hoping it continues since accuracy with predictions isn’t exactly my strong suit.  Please don’t go back to previous posts to test this theory.

Let’s get to the damn list!  Like every year, this is ordered from most likely to be fired to most likely to keep their job:

Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning

1. Jeff Brohm (Purdue) – It feels like a decade ago since the Boilermakers’ upset of Ohio State.  It was actually in 2018.  Since then it has been pretty much a disaster in West Lafayette.  And I don’t really see any sign of improvement.  Needed to keep his job – Going into the final two weeks of the season with a chance at bowl eligibility.  Prediction – He won’t make it to the end of the season as Purdue will limp to a 3-win season.
2. Walt Bell (UMass) – It wasn’t like this in Tallahassee.  Honestly, I don’t think anyone would have done a good job at this school since, well since they moved up from FCS.  Needed to keep his job – Play at least one meaningful November game.  Prediction – He may quit before he’s fired.  Nah, he’s a college football coach.  He’ll be fired before he even thinks of quitting.  And fired he will be at some point in November.
3. Scot Loeffler (Bowling Green) – Bowling Green really isn’t historically bad.  And I am sure they have never had a horrible run like this.  Scotty has not done anything of note here so it’s time to move on.  Quite an easy move.  Also, never trust a guy who spells his first name like that.  Needed to keep his job – At least three wins with one over a good MAC team.  Prediction – I honestly can’t see the Falcons winning any games this season.  They are easily the worst team in the MAC right now, quite a ways below Akron who is also pretty shitty.
4. Dino Babers (Syracuse) – It’s been a long time since so much hope was dashed so fast in Western New York.  It’s been mostly bad since joining the ACC (at least in football).  But this is the worst stretch they’ve had and that’s after things looked so good early on.  I can’t see Babers recovering from recent performances by the Orange.  Needed to keep his job – Syracuse to look halfway competitive in the ACC.  Prediction – Could very well be gone before the end of the season.
5. Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee) – This is a tough one.  I don’t really like the guy, especially since all the shit his team pulled in their bowl game with Navy a few years back.  But he has been in Murfreesboro for so long it feels like he will retire before he gets shitcanned.  I think the shine has finally come off as the Blue Raiders are struggling with no sign of real improvement.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility, plain and simple.  Prediction – Stockstill might be one of those few coaches who resigns before they are fired.  Mostly out of pride.  And yes, I believe Stockstill will be fired but maybe not until after the regular season is complete.

Probable Shitcanning

6. Chip Lindsey (Troy) – Troy hasn’t had a string this bad for a while.  I’m sounding like a broken record here.  Not saying Lindsey was a hyped coaching hire but Troy was always one of the better Sun Belt teams.  Now?  Not so much.  Expect an interesting decision by the end of the season.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility and the look of a program on the rise again in the Sun Belt.  Prediction – Four wins and a very good chance that he’s looking for another job come December.
7. Randy Edsall (UConn) – UConn has struggled for a long time now.  Ever since they somehow got to a BCS bowl.  Any other program (almost) Edsall has been long fired.  It’s different in Storrs, and I get that, but with him getting bonuses for making sure he eats breakfast every day, the bloom might have come off the rose a bit.  Needed to keep his job – Be more competitive, especially on defense.  Prediction – Three wins and a surprisingly tough call for the powers that be.
8. Jonathan Smith (Oregon State) – I am going out bit of a limb with this one.  Things were looking very promising in Corvallis and then last year the Beavers came back to Earth a bit.  I think my prediction would be enough to move Smith out of the job.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl-eligibility or a win over Oregon.  Prediction – Three wins, no bowl, no win over Oregon, no head coaching position for Johnny Beaver.

Possible Shitcanning

9. Jim Harbaugh (Michigan) – Yes, his picture is one of the pictures at the top of this post.  And yes, he has been on the hot seat since the first time he lost to Ohio State.  He almost got a pass from many in Ann Arbor (and the voracious college football media) which surprises me to no end.  So the seat is cooler than normal but he’s not out of the woods yet.  Needed to keep his job – At least 7 wins and maybe an upset inside the Big Ten.  Prediction – I have the Wolverines getting right to the 7-win mark.  I think he survives but then the seat becomes scorching going into next season.
10. Scott Frost (Nebraska) – For many having Frosty the Coachman in this spot makes no sense.  I think he might get a bit of leeway and if the Huskers do what I think they will do this season, this spot makes a lot more sense so I should just stop second-guessing myself.  Needed to keep his job – Bowl-eligibility at the very least.  Prediction – I have them winning seven games so hopefully I haven’t drank the Husker Koolaid yet again.
11. Herm Edwards (Arizona State) – This is a tricky situation here.  This program could be in a heap of trouble.  The alleged recruiting scheme that was concocted during the worst of COVID-19 looks horrible on the Sun Devils and especially on Herm.  If the NCAA can prove their point enough, Edwards may be forced out.  This will have nothing to do with performance since the Sun Devils are a nearly-top-level Pac-12 team.  Needed to keep his job – Herm not being found guilty in this.  Prediction – A lot of times programs will fire a coach because of potential sanctions and most of those times, the team isn’t doing well anyway because they’re distracted.  If ASU does as well as I predict it will, then only the NCAA coming down hard on the program will push Edwards out the door.
12. Matt Wells (Texas Tech) – It has been a while since this program was good.  Kute Kliff Kingsbury couldn’t get the job done and he was punished with an NFL head coaching gig and probably a bunch of women at his beck and call.  Wells will not have those opportunities if this doesn’t work out.  For now, things are OK for the most part but it could quickly change if the Red Raiders bottom out this year.  Needed to keep his job – TTU to be playing meaningful ball in November.  Prediction – Define meaningful.  I have the Red Raiders winning four games so if they can pull off an upset or two then you may have a bowl team down in Lubbock which could get Wells an ill-advised extension.
13. Scott Satterfield (Louisville) – Wow has the bloom come off the rose here.  Satterfield was coaching so well early on that the fanbase had all but forgotten about their own Son of Anarchy, Bobby Petrino.  Now?  I am sure there is at least a decent amount of Cardinals fans who would bring Fun Bobby back in a heartbeat.  That’s how much things have changed for Satterfield.  He’s no longer Great Scott.  More Below Average Scott.  Needed to keep his job – Showing some obvious improvement from a horrible 2020.  Prediction – Well, I think the Cards will win three games.  That’s not many and whether they are competitive in many of their losses will signal whether Satterfield will be Satterfired or not.

Doubtful Shitcanning (although it still could happen)

14. Jeff Scott (USF) – I watched a YouTube video the other day about the crazy 2007 season.  Remember that?  At one point, the Bulls got to #2 in the nation.  Good times.  The times are not so good now and Scott is going to be starting to take a lot of heat for that, fair or not.  Needed to keep his job – Not be worse than last season.  Prediction – I’ve got them at 2 wins so technically, yes, they will be better.  Plus I think they plan to give Scott at least halfway through the 2022 season before potentially pulling the trigger.
15. Clay Helton (USC) – Can’t Clay get a little slack here?  Not like the Pac-12 as a whole is doing all that great these days.  I do believe, however, this could be the year that Helton *GASP* gets off the hot seat for at least a season.  What will Trojan fans complain about then?  Needed to keep his job – At least 7 wins.  Prediction – I have the Trojans winning 10 games meaning it’s almost an automatic to get to a New Year’s Six bowl.
16. Justin Fuente (Virginia Tech) – Fuente is the new Gus Malzahn.  He will never get off this list.  Ever.  He basically has to win a national championship to do so and even then there’s no guarantee.  Fans in Blacksburg are antsy for some true success.  Not gonna happen yet though.  Needed to keep his job –  It will be a seven win season to keep his job, which will probably be the case for a long time.  Prediction – 8 wins so stay tuned for next season when I put him on this exact same fucking list…again.
17. Thomas Hammock (Northern Illinois) – He was always going to get a lot of rope but after last year’s winless campaign, the rope has been shortened quite a bit.  He has nowhere to go but up although technically he could do the same this year which would absolutely get him shitcanned.  Needed to keep his job – At least a couple of victories.  It’s a low bar at this point.  Prediction – Three wins and Tom moving up this list next year.
18. Mike Bloomgren (Rice) – Again it will be a tale of two schools in the Houston area.  Houston is looking for a huge rebound and I think they will be a big player in the AAC this season.  Rice, on the other hand, will be just like they’ve been for most of the program’s history: below-average.  Not the easiest job in the world for sure but at some point, someone has to have some semblance of success at this school, no?  Needed to keep his job – Win a few games and pull off a good upset or three.  Prediction – Four wins should be considered not bad and he will again be on a hot seat next season.
19. Marcus Arroyo (UNLV) – A bright, relatively new shiny stadium for a full season.  The fact that, of all teams, the UNLV Rebels get to play at a place like Allegiant Stadium seems bizarrely funny.  It really doesn’t match.  I don’t think they care as long as they are out of the heat magnet masquerading as a football field called Sam Boyd Stadium.  Needed to keep his job – A couple of wins and an upset at Allegiant.  Prediction – They’ll win 3.  As for the upset, I don’t think that will happen.
20. Mel Tucker (Michigan State) – OK last year he had to be given a pass.  He started very late in the off-season cycle and basically did what he could for a Spartans team that needs an overhaul.  He will probably get a pass for the most part this year unless they do so horribly that even Maryland is destroying them.  Needed to keep his job – A move up the standings and at least 3 wins.  Prediction – He should get his three wins.  Moving up the standings might not happen though and the seat will most definitely get hotter next year for Mel.

Hey guess what’s next?  That’s right, my Heisman ballot (which I never will, and never should, get).  Then I need to do the NFL preview as well which is always a bit of a dog’s breakfast as well.  24 days away!  Soon enough I will have info for Week Zero!  Enjoy your day everyone!

Is it time for the Return of the Mack?

No, not THAT Return of the Mack (although that is honestly one of my all-time favourite songs).

Mack Brown has already done amazing things in his second stint in Chapel Hill.  But he has one more hill to climb, at least when it comes to the ACC.  And man is it ever a huge hill.  An escarpment.  Maybe even consider it a small mountain.

Clemson is never ready to relinquish their crown, the same crown they’ve had for years now since Florida State decided it didn’t want to be good at football for a while.  Almost like they said “You know what?  We’ve won so much for over two decades.  Let’s give another team a chance.”  And now Clemson is the same way.  When will they fall from their perch?  Who the hell knows.  Dabo Swinney is not known for sharing the ACC sandbox.

OK let’s get right to the predictions followed by some sweet, smoky Carolina BBQ thoughts:

		Conference		Overall
	Atlantic	W	L	W	L
	Clemson	8	0	12	0
	Boston College	5	3	9	3
	Wake Forest	5	3	9	3
	Florida State	4	4	6	6
	NC State	3	5	6	6
	Louisville	2	6	3	9
	Syracuse	1	7	3	9
	Coastal
	North Carolina	8	0	11	1
	Miami	6	2	9	3
	Virginia Tech	6	2	8	4
	Pittsburgh	4	4	8	4
	Virginia	2	6	4	8
	Georgia Tech	1	7	3	9
	Duke	0	8	3	9

Sweet & Smoky Carolina BBQ Thoughts

• I always love watching the ongoing battle between different parts of the U.S. claiming they have the best barbecue.  Honestly, barbecue has got close to the spot where pizza occupies: very rarely is it so bad you can’t eat it.  Most barbecue is probably very good.  Unfortunately it’s not like we have very many barbecue spots up here or any sort of barbecue tradition.
• Clemson is still the best team in the conference, despite their loss of Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne.  D.J. Uiagalelei (I always wonder where the n sound comes in) looked great against Notre Dame last year so there shouldn’t be a huge drop-off but there will be some.  The defense will pick up the slack and be the backbone of the team that will fairly easily walk to the Atlantic Division title.
• The Coastal might not have Coastal Chaos this season.  I know, I know, hard to believe.  But UNC is pulling slightly away from the field, especially with one of the Heisman favourites, Sam Howell, at QB.  Miami is good but need a full, healthy season from D’Eriq King or there’s no chance they will push for the division crown.  Expect a bounceback season from Virginia Tech which could give Justin Fuente an extension as the fans in Blacksburg are getting a little antsy based on the past few years on the field for the Hokies.
• Florida State truly starts their climb this year.  I absolutely believe it.  This is Mike Norvell’s chance to put his stamp on the program.  If he can’t at least get this program to a bowl game this year, I think his days are numbered in Tallahassee.
• It’s going to be quite the battle…for the basement of the ACC.  I have five teams all within one game of each other at the bottom (in terms of overall record).  Georgia Tech, Duke, UVA, Louisville and Syracuse all have a claim to being the worst team in the conference.  If I had to choose, I would go with Syracuse.  I fear that time’s almost up for Dino Babers in western New York.  He had one great season but other than that the train went off the rails there and things aren’t looking a whole lot better for the near future either, forget this season.
• The bloom has also come off the rose for Scott Satterfield.  Cards fans sure turned on him quick and I can’t see him turning it around right away.  If Bobby Petrino is available, I’m sure the Louisville brass would look at him and this is not a joke.
• I predict nine bowl teams from the ACC.  And if bowls have to dip into the 5-7 pool of teams, don’t look at this conference…there won’t be any.
• Oh baby, ready for the bombshell?  OK here it is.  I have the Tar Heels beating Clemson to wrest the ACC title from the Tigers.  Yeah, there.  I said it.  OK more like I typed it.  I have this feeling hardly anyone, outside of most Tar Heel fans, think this could happen.  I believe in the Mack and believe in the Heels this year.  Now watch them lose six games and I look like a fucking idiot.

That’s it for the ACC.  Three conferences in.  Next up will be the teams with no conference to call home, the Independents.  Have a great Sunday everyone!  Remember, we are a mere 41 days away from the start of the college football season!  Soon enough we will be down to single digits.

Let’s talk about bacon – Week 6 College Football Recap

If you know what you are looking at then chances are your blood may be already starting to boil.  If not, let me explain.

Late in the Arkansas-Auburn game, Arkansas had the lead but Auburn was driving for a score, only needing a field goal to win.  The play above is where things really go off the rails.  Bo Nix takes the snap and immediately fumbles it.  He picks it up and then immediately spikes it.  First of all, you can’t do that in college football.  That’s considered intentional grounding.  What’s worse is that Nix spiked it behind his foot.  So that is a backwards pass…a lateral if you will.  At this point, a few officials blow their electronic whistles, one official definitely doesn’t, and one official throws a bean bag.  In the aftermath of this, an Arkansas player eventually recovers the ball.  So of course this is chaos already.

The referee calls it intentional grounding.  Of course many know that there is more to this than that.  And some are perplexed because the NFL does not have that rule about fumbling the snap (as far as I know).  The play gets reviewed.  It is pretty obvious the spike was behind Nix so it’s technically a fumble.  What does the replay official conclude?  He sticks with the call of intentional grounding, basically to bail out the officials on the field.  What a fucking joke.  According to Terry McAulay, retired official who does the rules for Sunday Night Football, said that because the Arkansas player continued to play through the whistle to recover the ball and that an Auburn player also continued to play at that point, that the whistle is irrelevant and that Arkansas should have been considered to have had an immediate recovery.  Instead, Auburn gets their chance at the field goal and hits it to win, robbing the Hogs of a deserved win.  So the SEC doubles down hours later about the rules.  And probably nothing will happen to either the replay official or the officiating team on the field.  This was not a missed call that was bad but really didn’t affect the outcome of the game.  It certainly did.  And Arkansas will not get the win they deserve.  Sad.

As for the rest of the weekend it was the best weekend so far.  A low bar for sure but there was a lot of exciting football.  Kept me glued to the TV for over 11 hours.  Let’s get down to recapping all this shall we?

And now for the rest of the recap

• A great game down in College Station this past weekend.  Texas A&M won over Florida in a game many would call an upset.  I have to agree especially since Florida was a Top 5 team and I picked the Aggies to win in an upset (which makes me feel good).  Instead the Aggies gutted out a last-second walk-off field goal win and now their College Football Playoff aspirations are legit.  As for Florida, ugh….  When you think they are about to be a threat to Georgia in the SEC East, something like this happens.  It definitely won’t be easy for the Aggies the rest of the way in the SEC West but if they can somehow win out, then you have to take them seriously.  Also good for Jimbo Fisher for finally getting a signature win as the Aggies head coach.
• Another upset occurred early in the day in a game that had to be moved because of Hurricane Delta (Burke?).  Missouri held on to beat the defending champs from LSU in a game moved from Baton Rouge to Columbia.  Everyone kind of knew the Tigers (of LSU) weren’t the same team but many their defense has looked terrible so far.  But you have to give Mizzou some credit.  If it wasn’t for them finally finding a starting quarterback in freshman Connor Bazelak, this game would have been an easy LSU win.  I am positive now that there will be rumblings of Ed Orgeron being fired because it’s college football and many fans are shitty people.
• How about that game down in the other Death Valley (or the first Death Valley depending on which Tigers you prefer)?  Many felt the Canes would have a chance against Clemson.  Man were they ever fucking wrong.  This was not close, in any way, shape, or form.  Clemson just looks that much better than everyone in the conference.  Saying that, they do have new conference mate (for this season), Notre Dame later in the season which should be a banger.  As for Miami, they should still be fine.  It’s one blemish but they can work their way back into the New Year’s Six pretty easily if they run the table the rest of the way.  OK so pretty easily is a strong term.
• And there is the unluckiness that is Pitt.  It was the Pittening yet again.  Kicker Alex Kessman made a 58-yard field goal with 40 seconds left just to send their game with Boston College into overtime.  Then, after BC had scored a TD and Pitt scored one of their own, Kessman missed the extra point.  You can’t make this stuff up.   Poor guy probably wanted to crawl under the turf at that point.
• Alabama beat Ole Miss.  OK not a big deal.  What was amazing was Lane cutting the brakes off his offense and going nuts with it.  And it worked.  The Tide could not keep up with the Rebel offense.  It’s too bad the Rebel defense was equally as bad.  Although let’s be honest: Alabama’s offense is seriously good.  Not quite Clemson good, but arguably the best in the SEC.  And now Evil Nick Saban is 21-0 against his former assistants.  The student has not surpassed the teacher yet.
• Let history show that the Tennessee football Volunteers led Georgia 21-17 at the half in this game. Again, the Vols allowed the the Dawgs to close out the game on a huge run, this one 27 points, but it’s still not a bad thing to see the Vols at least somewhat competitive.  They may be a year or two away from contending in the SEC East but the fans can see the light at the end of that tunnel.  Now they just have to allow Jeremy Pruitt to continue to improve things in Knoxville and it will work out (possibly).
• I didn’t think Florida State could keep it close.  Like not at all.  But they were surprisingly effective until late in the second quarter.  But the Irish were still way too much for the Noles.  They are a legit contender to go to the ACC Championship.  Mike Norvell is struggling so far at Tallahassee and it will be interesting to see if he gets the same amount of chances as Willie Taggart got before he was dumped.
• Back to games that were completely bonkers, look no further than the Red River Shootout.  And a shootout it was.  This game went to four overtimes and it felt like neither team wanted to win despite the fact they were putting up some gaudy stats.  Finally, Spencer Rattler didn’t fuck up and Sam Ehlinger couldn’t get it done and the Sooners pulled off the victory.  Still, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see neither of these two teams in the Big XII Championship in December.
• That Virginia Tech-North Carolina game was more of a Big XII game than pretty much all the Big XII games on Saturday.  A hilariously poor showing of defense on both teams’ accounts.  North Carolina was able to pull away late but it wasn’t pretty.  The Tar Heels can’t afford to be like that on the defensive side of the ball when they play Notre Dame later on in the season or it could be a long day for Mack Brown and the boys from Chapel Hill.
• Don’t sleep on the BYU Cougars.  The Cougars are 4-0 and look like they will probably be 7-0 when they get into November and their game against Boise State.  They are solidly in the Top 25 but will need to win and win big to move up the rankings.  Winning by a touchdown over UTSA won’t cut it, despite the fact the Roadrunners are going to be at least a contender to go bowling if not an outside shot at being a thorn in UAB’s side for the Conference USA West crown.
• Iowa State keeps trundling along in the Big XII after that horrible opening loss to what is really a good Louisiana team.  The way things are going, it wouldn’t surprise me (and shouldn’t surprise others) if the Cyclones were heading to Dallas for the Big XII Championship in about two months.
• What the hell happened at Mississippi State?  They looked great two weeks ago against LSU and then can’t do anything in their previous game and were even worse at Kentucky.  300 yards passing and 2 points.  So of course Mike Leach is already starting to blame some of the players.  This usually takes like two or three seasons to occur: it’s happening in two weeks in Starkville.  Yikes.
• Another great game just happened to be Temple’s first game of the season.  No I’m not kidding.  And they played the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of college football, Navy.  Navy doesn’t know if they want to be good or they’re really fucking bad.  All I know is this ended up being a close finish after Navy took a fairly large lead and then allowed the Owls to crawl their way back for a chance to tie late.  I am sure Ken Niumatalolo secretly drinks heavily after games like this.
• USF…what can you say?  They got throttled by East Carolina.  Yes, the East Carolina football Pirates.  The Bulls are so bad that when I tweeted about them being bad, a few people replied and agreed and they’re USF FANS!  Wow.
• Finally, Charlotte took down North Texas.  That’s not really news.  The news is about the graphics used on the ESPN scoreboard.  Charlotte has a C with a pickaxe in the middle of it.  North Texas has UNT with an eagle.  Yes, it was a C followed by a UNT.

Alright that was seriously fun.  And soon enough we will get college football that lasts past 2 in the morning, like God intended it.  Oh man, there goes my sleep, which has already been bad but is about to get much worse.

Alright, let’s now look at the Bossman Top 25:

#1	Clemson
#2	Georgia
#3	Alabama
#4	North Carolina
#5	Notre Dame
#6	Ohio State
#7	Oklahoma State
#8	Florida
#9	Cincinnati
#10	Auburn
#11	Miami
#12	Penn State
#13	BYU
#14	Oregon
#15	Texas A&M
#16	Tennessee
#17	Wisconsin
#18	SMU
#19	Louisiana
#20	Michigan
#21	Iowa State
#22	Virginia Tech
#23	Kansas State
#24	Marshall
#25	Minnesota

Yes there are some differences between my rankings and the AP Poll, as usual.  I have Georgia at #2 and Notre Dame down at #5.  The Irish should move up just for the fact that I doubt we will have two SEC teams in the top three (I hope).  As for #6 through #12, pick the teams out of a hat to figure out the order.  A lot can happen the rest of the way and at this point, no one team is that much better than another.  And how about Marshall at #24.  I know the AP Poll doesn’t have them in there but man they deserve to be there in my humble opinion.  Also, yes I have BYU at #13.  It sounds like they probably won’t move that much further up from there but they are still undefeated and shouldn’t fall unless they lose.

Hey guess what we have?  FUN BELT!  Yes, weekday Sun Belt action is back and it starts on Wednesday night.  8:00 but who knows if Canadians can get it.  And it’s a big one.  Coastal Carolina and Louisiana.  I love weekday football.  Honestly, and I know I rail on the NFL being on Thursday but between late August and early January, the more football the better.  Have a good week everyone!

Normally this would have been OVERREACTION time. Instead it’s just the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule.

Yep it’s an annual tradition.  College football media (and many fans) completely overreacting to what happened in the first week of the college football season.  But with what Week 1 ended up being, we can’t really do that can we?  It’s too bad since we miss possible classic overreactions like these:

• UCLA or USC are terrible and won’t go bowling.  Fire Chip Kelly or Clay Helton.
• I think the SEC could get two teams in the College Football Playoff…no wait….THREE!
• Boise State has clinched the New Year’s Six spot for the Group of Five.  Book it.
• The Pac-12 is not going to the College Football Playoff again.  Man what a horrible conference.
• Same old ACC: Clemson and 13 other teams.
• Michigan is definitely going to beat Ohio State this year and win the Big Ten.
• How could Tennessee let that (insert Sun Belt team here) team take them to overtime?

Another tradition is to shit on the Week 2 schedule since it is always a downgrade from the Week 1 schedule.  Don’t have to fear that this year though because…

*checks Week 2 schedule*

….damn.  Sorry, guys.  But it is better than Week 1.  Just still not that great.  Damn pandemic.  Damndemic.  Ahahahaha.  Man I need some sleep.

Thursday

		US	Canada
UAB at Miami	8:00 PM

This could end up being quite the huge game.  UAB is no lightweight and the Canes have had that one game (at least) every year where they play down to their opponents and lose when they are favoured (sometimes heavily).  Plus, I believe it’s the first time ever that an ACC Network game will appear on a TSN station.  So plenty to rejoice about right?

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Syracuse at #18 North Carolina	Noon
Louisiana at #23 Iowa State	Noon
Charlotte at Appalahician State	Noon
Arkansas State at Kansas State	Noon
ULM at Army	1:30 PM

Not our usual boatload of games we see early on Saturday but it’s an improvement on last week.  And yes, TSN is showing yet another ACC Network game.  You can expect that, along with SEC Network games appearing on TSN, a decent amount this year.  Because those two networks want to fill as many timeslots as possible, there will be more good games there and more games from weaker conferences on the main ESPN networks.  This is good for non-specialty pack people since you will get a good variety of games every week rather than just simsubs from ABC.  Anyway, nothing really of note although ASU-KSU could be a sneaky good game in the Big Noon Saturday slot.  And yes, that is not a typo: ULM-Army is at 1:30.  Another change in this pandemic world thanks to the Mountain West opting out of Fall football.  It means CBS Sports Network has altered their timeslots and will show, usually, two games a week rather than the usual four.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Duke at #10 Notre Dame	2:30 PM
Georgia Tech at Florida State	3:30 PM
UTSA at Texas State	3:30 PM
Campbell at Georgia Southern	3:30 PM
Austin Peay at Pittsburgh	4:00 PM

Nothing huge here but again, an improvement on last week’s afternoon schedule which was one game.  The Blue Devils could make a massive early statement and upset the ACC apple cart with a win over the Irish (who are playing in their first conference season ever).  And yes, the game starts at 2:30.  Wait until the week where the Notre Dame game ends up on USA Network.  And yes I am not joking.  Also it should be only about 1,000 degrees on the field when Georgia Tech heads to Tallahassee to play the Seminoles.  And finally, UTSA makes their first appearance on a TSN station when they play Texas State who had their first last Saturday.  So many TSN cherries being popped this season.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
The Citadel at USF	7:00 PM
#1 Clemson at Wake Forest	7:30 PM
Tulane at South Alabama	7:30 PM
Western Kentucky at Louisville	8:00 PM

Not stacked at all but does give us the #1 team in the land heading to Winston-Salem to face the Deacs.  I hate belabouring the point but if Wake can pull off the upset, this will seriously throw everyone’s CFP predictions into a woodchipper.  We get more South Alabama after their upset of Southern Miss.  They will try to make it two for two as they take on Tulane on TSN2.  Other than that, there’s WKU-Louisville which might be OK and The Citadel-USF which probably won’t be.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Clemson at Wake Forest (7:30, ABC) – Probably the only game that could even warrant Game of the Week status to be honest with you.  And really, it could end up being a massive blowout.  The hope is always on weeks like this that something crazy happens and this is the one game that I could see most people wanting an upset in just to change things a bit.  I don’t expect much of that though.  What I do expect is Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne leading a powerful Tiger offense that the Demon Deacons will try to keep below a 50-burger.

UAB at Miami (Thursday, 8:00, TSN2) – If Miami wants any shot at being even in the New Year’s Six conversation, they can’t lose games like this.  UAB is going to be a tough out as they are one of the Group of Five favourites this season now that Boise State is not playing.  As I said above, first time the ACC Network will appear on TSN.  Good stuff.

Duke at Notre Dame (2:30, NBC) – Man, does this ever drop off after the first two.  Or even the first one.  OK let’s be honest this isn’t a full week so no true games of the week.  Still, this is Notre Dame’s first ever conference game in football history.  That alone makes it interesting.  I am also interested to see how Chase Brice does as the new Duke quarterback.  Remember Chase Brice?  He’s the guy who saved Clemson’s national championship season two years ago against Syracuse.  Now he finally gets his chance as a full-time starter, albeit at Duke, so let’s see how he does against a really good Notre Dame defense.

Honourable mention: I don’t know…how about Tulane at South Alabama (7:30, TSN2).

Some gambling fun and games

Really?  You want to gamble on these?  Alright then.

Clemson over Wake Forest

Florida State over Georgia Tech

Miami over UAB

North Carolina over Syracuse

Tulane over South Alabama

Kansas State over Arkansas State

Notre Dame over Duke

As of now I see nothing on the guide for the specialty pack.  Nothing.  Not that there’s many games but still.  Frustrating.  Also, I see nothing on FloSports that says they are showing college football.  It is why I did not list any FOX Sports One games since those would be the ones to appear on there.  Hopefully that is not the case since that was a great thing for Canadians last season.  To have it snatched away like that would really suck.

Also, the NFL STARTS TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Kind of weird to see college football and the NFL going head-to-head with tomorrow night completely open but whatever, it’s more football!  The opening game for this season pits the Texans against the defending champion Chiefs.  Now we will get to see the Half-Billion Dollar Man, Patrick Mahomes, try to live up to that insane contract he signed.  Also we may see if the loss of DeAndre Hopkins will hurt the Texans’ offense (spoiler alert: it will).  The game is on NBC, CTV and all the TSNs except TSN2 because that’s where the UAB-Miami game is and TSN3 probably because there’s a HOT new episode of Motoring 2020.

I will be on the Twitter machine again this weekend.  It felt kind of weird to be done watching football around midnight, not gonna lie.  It actually gave me a chance at an earlier bedtime.  Did I take that opportunity?  Fuck no because I’m a stubborn idiot sometimes.  Enjoy the games everyone!

A CFP without Bama? – Week 14 College Football Recap

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

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

Thursday

Mississippi State 21 Ole Miss 20

7:30 PM

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

Friday

Virginia 39 Virginia Tech 30

Noon

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

Texas 49 Texas Tech 24

Noon

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

Ball State 41 Miami-OH 27

Noon

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

Central Michigan 49 Toledo 7

Noon

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

Iowa 27 Nebraska 24

2:30 PM

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

Missouri 24 Arkansas 14

2:30 PM

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

Memphis 34 Cincinnati 24

3:30 PM

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

Boise State 31 Colorado State 24

3:30 PM

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

Washington 31 Washington State 13

4:00 PM

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

West Virginia 20 TCU 17

4:15 PM

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

UCF 34 USF 7

8:00 PM

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

Saturday Early

Georgia 52 Georgia Tech 7

Noon

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

Ohio State 56 Michigan 27

Noon

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

Indiana 44 Purdue 41 (2OT)

Noon

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

Clemson 38 South Carolina 3

Noon

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

Marshall 30 FIU 27 (OT)

Noon

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

Tulsa 49 East Carolina 24

Noon

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

Kentucky 45 Louisville 13

Noon

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

Northwestern 29 Illinois 10

Noon

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

Syracuse 39 Wake Forest 30 (OT)

12:30 PM

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

Saturday Afternoon

Temple 49 UConn 17

3:00 PM

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

Wisconsin 38 Minnesota 17

3:30 PM

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

Auburn 48 Alabama 45

3:30 PM

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

Duke 27 Miami 17

3:30 PM

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

Baylor 61 Kansas 6

3:30 PM

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

Penn State 27 Rutgers 6

3:30 PM

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

Boston College 26 Pittsburgh 19

3:30 PM

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

Michigan State 19 Maryland 16

3:30 PM

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

Florida Atlantic 34 Southern Miss 17

3:30 PM

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

SMU 37 Tulane 20

4:00 PM

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

Notre Dame 45 Stanford 24

4:00 PM

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

Tennessee 28 Vanderbilt 10

4:00 PM

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

Oregon 24 Oregon State 10

4:00 PM

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

Saturday Primetime & Late Night

North Carolina 41 NC State 10

7:00 PM

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

LSU 50 Texas A&M 7

7:00 PM

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

Navy 56 Houston 41

7:00 PM

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

Kansas State 27 Iowa State 17

7:00 PM

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

Louisiana 31 ULM 30

7:30 PM

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

Florida 40 Florida State 17

7:30 PM

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

Utah 45 Colorado 15

7:30 PM

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

Oklahoma 34 Oklahoma State 16

8:00 PM

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

San Diego State 13 BYU 3

9:00 PM

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

Arizona State 24 Arizona 14

10:00 PM

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

San Jose State 17 Fresno State 16

10:30 PM

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

California 28 UCLA 18

10:30 PM

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

Hawaii 52 Army 31

12:30 AM

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

Bowl Eligibility

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

Ohio

Mississippi State

Kent State

Liberty

Boston College

North Carolina

Michigan State

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

Coaching Carousel

Cue Homer Simpson goes to Clown College music.

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

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

Potential coaches on the move and where they could go:

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

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

The American Conference does it again – Week 10 College Football Recap

The Memphis Tigers outlasted SMU this past weekend in a 54-48 thriller.  This game was a ton of fun to watch and it shows again that the American Conference might be the most exciting conference in college football.  The SEC might be the best.  The Big XII has the best offenses/worst defenses and the ACC is completely chaotic (at least in one division).  But the AAC always brings it, even if it’s just their signature games.  The War on I-4 two years ago was the gold standard and there have been plenty of other examples.  Now with SMU and Appalachian State falling from the realms of the undefeated (more on that below), the Group of Five is getting close to full chaos mode.  Quite a few teams still with legitimate shots at the New Year’s Six spot open to the G-5 schools.  At this point, however, you might have to say that Memphis is the favourite and if they win out they are definitely in.  But there’s still a month of football yet to play so don’t want them to count their chickens before they hatch or some other cliche that some other media member might come up with.

Other recap points!

• Speaking of beatdowns, how about the one that Michigan laid on Maryland?  I mean it’s just Maryland but still, the Wolverines have looked dominant since starting their (failed) comeback against Penn State.  Look don’t forget about this team.  They could cause some serious damage in the College Football Playoff race.  Until they beat Ohio State, though, Jim Harbaugh will still on be on an (undeserved) hot seat in Ann Arbor.  Oh and remember when Maryland was ranked?  Yeah, good times.
• It ended up being a really good World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.  As an aside, I get they don’t want to promote drinking for college students but let’s be honest here: half the people there were probably drunk so what does it really matter at this point?  Just be honest with the fans.  Anyway, the Gators couldn’t seem to stop the Bulldogs when it counted which has to lay at the feet of Todd Grantham.  But the lasting image I will have will be Dan Mullen, not yelling at Grantham, but losing his shit on most of the offensive coaching staff for burning a timeout early in the fourth quarter.  It wasn’t quite Muschamp-ian but still, it made for good TV.
• The Pac-12 ain’t dead yet!  Washington did what Washington does and blew an early lead to Utah.  The Utes looked dominant after the Huskies took the early lead.  Then they had to wait for the Oregon-USC game to see if they held their destiny in their hands or if the Trojans, of all teams, would sit in the catbird seat of the Pac-12 South.  Well it didn’t take too long to see that the Ducks were easily the better team.  They blew USC out of the water and probably ended the Clay Helton era in one fell swoop.  We are going headlong into a Pac-12 Championship with 11-1 Oregon and 11-1 Utah and the winner could make things very difficult for the College Football Playoff Committee.
• Notre Dame kept rolling along…ok rolling is the wrong word.  They are doing terrible somersaults forward.  They struggled all day with Bud Foster’s Virginia Tech defense.  Not saying they looked like they did last week against Michigan but the Irish sure didn’t look like a Top 25 team, let alone a contender for the New Year’s Six.  This won’t be Notre Dame’s last tough game as they have Duke, Navy, Boston College and Stanford to finish their season.  Win every game, even if they’re close, and they deserve a NY6 spot.
• Let’s go to the Big Ten and one of the big stories there…the Illinois Fighting Illini.  Yes, seriously.  OK they only beat Rutgers.  Not a big deal per se.  But Illinois is now one win away from being bowl-eligible.  No one thought this would be the case.  Maybe it was smart to give Lovie Smith that extension.  This may be one of the most perplexingly good teams of the year.  I always enjoy down on their luck teams turning it around to have one relatively special season, even if they head back to the basement shortly afterwards.
• Oh Florida State?  We thought two years ago was the bottom.  Then it was last year that was the bottom and things were going to improve.  Now, after their loss to Miami where they looked terrible, they have finally hit a new bottom (at least that’s what Noles fans hope).  And to top it off, Willie Taggart was just fired today.  This program needs someone to save it.  Is there someone willing to take this on knowing the expectations on the program?  It is an absolute mess in Tallahassee.
• OK I will admit it: I drank the Nebraska hype Kool-aid.  I truly thought Scott Frost had things going in Lincoln after the finish to their 2018 season.  They also had Adrian Martinez who looked like a bona fide Heisman candidate.  Well that’s all gone to shit now.  The Huskers loss to Purdue (who is also way worse than many thought they would be) means they have to win two of their final three to go bowling.  They have Wisconsin, Maryland and Iowa coming up.  Good luck, Frosty.
• Pitt beat Georgia Tech.  Not really a big deal to beat the Yellow Jackets.  But this means that Pitt might win the ACC Coastal again.  Can we stomach that?
• Let’s give some hype to a guy who should have some more Heisman chatter: Chuba Hubbard of Oklahoma State.  First of all, he’s Canadian!  It would be awesome to have a Canadian win the Heisman.  But he is carrying the Pokes on his shoulders this season.  And he is arguably the best running back not named Jonathan Taylor and Hubbard had been in the Big Ten, he would be on many Heisman lists.  OSU is going to be going bowling and maybe in the Top 25, mostly due to this guy which is shocking considering that the Cowboys are known for their high-flying passing game.
• I normally don’t talk about FCS games in this post but did you see the end of the Dartmouth-Harvard game?  A crazy Hail Mary winner by the Big Green to beat the Crimson 9-6.  This also keeps Dartmouth undefeated and sets up the unusual next week.  Dartmouth plays Princeton, in Yankee Stadium, and this game will be on at 3:30 on ESPNU.  Yes, an Ivy League game in November is getting a national broadcast spot.  That’s pretty awesome.
• Air Force has been quite the team this season.  There is a good chance they will win at least ten games and still won’t be in the Mountain West Championship or in the NY6 chatter.  They held on to beat Army in a Commander’s-In-Chief Trophy game.  What followed was hilarious.  Army football’s Twitter account actually blocked Air Force’s football account.  See, even the service academies get into this petty rivalry stuff and I love it.
• UCF beat Houston (also known from here on in as Redshirt U) and it honestly looked pretty easy.  What I find odd is that people still believe the Knights could make the New Year’s Six.  For that to happen, the amount of chaos that would have to occur would be monumental.  I mean I would love watching it but still, the chances are VERY slim.
• Don’t forget about San Diego State in the Group of Five race.  They were idle this past week but with only one loss they are right in the thick of things.  They have almost certainly clinched the Mountain West West Division and if they can beat Boise State for the conference championship, they have the resume to be selected.
• Baylor played like a team who was barely an average Big XII game for most of Saturday.  Yes they beat West Virginia and yes it means they stay undefeated but three point victories over the Mountaineers don’t exactly scream College Football Playoff contender.  They get a possible speed bump game in Fort Worth against TCU this Saturday.  Win that and they have one of the biggest games of the year against Oklahoma (and I wonder if Gameday would travel to Waco for this one).
• Hey guess who holds their own destiny in the Pac-12 North?  You guessed it, the Oregon State Beavers.  I know, right?  They put a pink bill (50-burger) up on Arizona this past weekend and now sit at 3-2 in the conference.  If they win out, they go to the Pac-12 Championship.  How ridiculous would that be?  I mean they would have to beat Oregon in the Civil War so chances of it happening are almost none but it would be fun to even see them in that position to do so.
• Kansas State won pretty easily over Kansas.  Chris Klieman has done a masterful job in the Little Apple and they are just on the outside of the Big XII title game race.  Don’t be surprised if they can somehow sneak in.  But let’s give Les Miles some kudos here for what he has done in Lawrence.  The Jayhawks have hope now going forward.  They may not be the doormat of the Big XII for much longer and Miles has a lot to do with that.
• Going back to the service academies, it looks like Navy is having the season Army was supposed to have and vice versa.  Ken Niumatalolo doing a great job with the Midshipmen in a bounce back year after last season’s horrible results.  They have to be the favourite in the Army-Navy game now and might win it for the first time in a few years.

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

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

Yes I have Alabama at #3 behind LSU and Ohio State.  If the Tide win this Saturday then they are going to be #1 come this time next week, no ifs, ands or buts.  Clemson I have dropped to #7.  Don’t worry Tigers fans: win out and there’s no way you’re out of the CFP.  Penn State is at #8 and still could end up left out of the Big Ten Championship.  Florida and SMU didn’t fall far considering who they lost to.  Also, watch out for Indiana.  They are severely underrated and could sneak it’s way up the chain and be looking at a New Year’s Six spot.  Sounds crazy but it is still technically possible.

OK it’s that time of year folks!  MACtion Tuesdays.  And MACtion Wednesdays!  Tomorrow night will see Kent State face Toledo and the top of the MAC West, Ball State, travelling to Western Michigan to take on the Broncos.  KSU-Toledo is on CBSSN and BSU-WMU goes to the specialty pack.  Wednesday night’s game is also on the specialty pack and is the 150th Anniversary of college football so expect a lot of history and nostalgia to be discussed during the game.  Miami-OH plays Ohio if you want to know the combatants.

Also the first CFP Rankings of the season will be revealed tomorrow night between the two NCAA basketball games on TSN1.  It might be delayed depending on how long the first college basketball game goes.  Oh yeah college basketball starts up again as well.  So there’s that.  Tomorrow I will have a crazy bowl projections post.  Do not take it seriously.  Have a great week everyone!

Finally! – Week 7 College Football Recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Oklahoma
4. Ohio State
5. LSU
6. Utah
7. Georgia

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

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

How about a little OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVERTIME and a Week 2 recap?

I love college football.  You know that.  So what’s better than a bunch of games going into overtime, eh?  Let’s recap those games right off the hop OK sounds good let’s go.

• Michigan 24 Army 21 (2OT) – What a game this was….for Army.  Michigan did not play well at all and it kind of felt like they had no idea what to do with Army’s triple option.  Even so, Shea Patterson stunk and the playcalling was puzzling at times.  Michigan lucks out by getting a strip sack in double overtime to stay in the Top 10.  As for Army, watch out for them if no teams end up undefeated this season.
• Colorado 34 Nebraska 31 (OT) – A classic Big 8 matchup that was a barnburner.  It looked like the Huskers were going to destroy the Buffs until a late game comeback by Colorado put them into overtime.  A missed field goal clinched the game and now I am starting to feel kind of stupid for drinking the Nebraska Koolaid (which was obviously cherry-flavoured).
• Kent State 26 Kennesaw State 23 (OT) – The earlier women’s field hockey game was stopped in double overtime so that this game could start on time.  Absolutely crazy.  And then we almost see Kennesaw State pull the FCS-over-FBS upset.  Kent State escapes and continues to be known for bad things, one much, MUCH worse than the rest.
• Florida State 45 ULM 44 (OT) – Good god Willie Taggart.  What is going on in Tallahassee?  Most of the fans had left by the time this game ended.  And for a while it looked like the Warhawks would win in regulation.  Instead, FSU tied it up and then won the game thanks to a ULM missed extra point.  Yeesh.  Not a good look for the Noles who may have hit a bit of a rock bottom.
• BYU 29 Tennessee 26 (2OT) – Since we are talking about once-proud teams who have fallen far, let us check in on the University of Tennessee Volunteers football program.  Gross.  They could not put BYU away.  And to top it off they have a coverage breakdown and allow BYU to go more than half the field with under 15 seconds to play to get the tying field goal just to make it to overtime.  Expect Jeremy Pruitt to now be on every hot seat list in the country.
• Minnesota 38 Fresno State 35 (2OT) – College football this past weekend conspired to not allow me to go to bed at a reasonable time…and when I say reasonable time I mean 2 in the morning.  A great back-and-forth game which ended on a great Antoine Winfield Jr. interception in double overtime.  Maybe other Big Ten teams should take note and not make trips to the West Coast.

This week of college football really had a dearth of marquee games, as is somewhat usual for Week 2.  However, the action this week was damn good.  A fun Saturday of college football was had by all (who watched).  Let’s go through the week that was!

• Let’s take a trip out to Seattle for a game that didn’t start until 1:30 in the morning.  I am not joking.  Thanks to some severe weather they had to delay the game by almost three hours.  I did not stay up to stay updated on this game and I missed a great one of course.  Washington did not play well at all and let Cal stick around for far too long.  This led to the Golden Bears winning on a last-minute field goal and furthering the Pac-12’s overall misery.
• Kansas lost a game…at home…to Coastal Carolina.  So yeah it is going to take quite a long time for Les Miles to turn this thing around.
• Clemson made relatively easy work of Texas A&M.  Yes they only won by 14 but it never felt like the Aggies were in this one.  So the Tigers beat yet another SEC team.  I think they need to stop this whole “Oh yeah well Clemson doesn’t have an SEC schedule” horseshit.  They are damn good, plain and simple.  And they are still the favourite to win the whole thing in January.
• Don’t look know but there might be a new contender in the ACC Coastal.  Step right up Mack Brown!  The Tar Heels looked good against Miami and won the game late in front of a raucous home crowd in Chapel Hill.  Yes, the same team that almost beat Florida in one of the worst college football games of the year so far.  Considering the state of the ACC Coastal beyond Virginia, don’t be surprised if North Carolina isn’t at least bowl-eligible by the end of the year which would be a huge complement to Mack Brown’s coaching ability.
• Breaking news!  West Virginia is awful.  No wonder Dana Holgorsen left for a Group of Five team.  Neal Brown is going to have a tough go here in 2019.  I sincerely hope that the Mountaineer faithful are patient with this as this will not be a fun season in Morgantown, that’s for sure.
• Maryland blew Syracuse out of the water on Saturday, winning by 43.  No that is not a misprint and no it’s not a joke.  The toughest division in college football just got a lot tougher as the Terps are looking seriously good this season so far.  As for the ACC, Virginia will replace Syracuse in the Top 25 but will more than two teams ever get into the rankings?  It doesn’t look good for the conference.
• On Friday night, Boise State beat Marshall but it sure wasn’t convincing.  14-7 doesn’t exactly speak dominance and the fact that freshman quarterback Hank Bachmeier was average at best in this one…let’s just say I am still not convinced the Broncos will be the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six if this keeps up.
• Joe Burrow was absolutely fantastic in the primetime ABC game as he threw for the second-most yards in LSU history.  The Tigers beat Texas but Texas also hung around as well.  Both teams need to play better defense as the season wears on but these two offenses may be two of the best in college football this year.  And Burrow may force himself into the Heisman conversation whether people like it or not.
• Ohio State shutout Cincinnati in Luke Fickell’s return to Columbus.  I don’t know, it feels like Ohio State is going to look really good at least into October and then they will lay an egg or three and we will wonder what kind of team they really are.  You know, like almost every other season they have had.
• Everyone was wondering how Kedon Slovis would play against Stanford.  Well, Clay Travis can breathe a bit of a sigh of relief as Slovis was excellent, the Trojans played a nearly flawless game, and we continue the narrative that no one really wants to win the Pac-12.  Except maybe Utah.
• I don’t think Charlie Strong is long for this 2019 season.  Another loss, this time to a rebuilding Georgia Tech team, puts the Bulls at 0-2 to start the season and at eight straight losses stretching back to last year.  For a team that not too long ago was battling with UCF to be the big-time team in this conference, this is a stunning fall and Strong is going to be the scapegoat for it, rightly or wrongly (mostly rightly).
• Oh and how could I forget UCLA?  They lost again, this time to San Diego State.  UCLA was behind most of the game and never really seemed in it.  I don’t know if it’s just Chip Kelly not having the right personnel to run his offense or what.  But for a team that many (including myself) thought would at least be going bowling this season, it’s not a good look, for the Bruins or for Kelly himself.

Recap complete!  Considering the schedule was one of the worst I have seen (beyond the top two games) it was a super fun weekend to watch college football.  The lesson?  Never assume when it comes to this sport.  Some great schedules create horrible weeks (in terms of quality of the actual games played) and some shitty schedules produce some of the most historic weeks.  You never know.  Anyway, here’s the return of the Bossman Top 25:

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

As per usual I am close to the current polls but have a few differences.  And yes, I have LSU leapfrogging Alabama for #2.  Bama ain’t played nobody and LSU just beat Texas so I have to give them the nod here.  I don’t have USC in the Top 25, yet.  Not entirely convinced that they belong there but if they win next week they will be there.  Other than that I am confident that this is the perfect Top 25.  You all agree, right?  Don’t answer that.

Another recap done.  Hurricane Dorian was devastating to the Bahamas.  The States were mostly spared from the destruction.  So for now, we can safely say there will not be games added during conference championship week.  If you have read this blog before, you know my thoughts on these games.  Now they are at the peak of hurricane system so as long as they can get through the next few weeks unscathed there shouldn’t be any scheduling issues and, most importantly, no more damage to people and their property.

Same old, same old with the college football schedule Thursday and the NFL schedule Friday.  We are back in football season, ladies and gentlemen and it feels oh so good.  Enjoy your week everyone.