Man, oh man, were there some overreactions this week…oh and the Week 2 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 7, 2023 by guelphbossman

Look, did Colorado surprise a lot of people this past weekend? Absolutely. No doubt about it. Deion Sanders is proving, whether you like him or not, that he can flat-out coach. And overhauling the roster like he did was not a bad idea at all. It does suck for the players that had to transfer out but unfortunately it’s football and the name of the game is winning.

Saying that………the amount of people I saw on Twitter that said Colorado will win 10 or 11 games this season was way too much. It should have been zero. Colorado may be better than advertised but they aren’t all of a sudden a New Year’s Six possibility. But hey, that’s the reactions from Week 1 of college football. Every. Single. Fucking. Year.

So let’s do it again on here! It’s overreaction time! Let’s look at some of the other overreactions you may (or may not) have heard after the Week 1 games were complete:

Ohio State is just an average team. Do we expect more from the Buckeyes against a team like Indiana? Sure. But they are bringing in a new quarterback and their best receiver was not 100%. The defense was amazing. Now the offense does have to be ready since in about a week and a half they get Notre Dame and that could get ugly if they don’t produce more points.
Colorado will have not one, but TWO Heisman finalists. What in the fuck? Who are the morons saying this? They are out there for sure. I saw them. Sure, they did great in their opening week win over TCU but calm the fuck down. TCU isn’t the TCU of last season for one and it’s only WEEK ONE. Anyway, moving on…
Gene Chizik has finally got the defense cooking in Chapel Hill. Again, it’s one game. Do the Heels look improved? Sure. But it’s not like South Carolina played well at all because, for the most part they didn’t. That, and the chain gang wouldn’t eat their hot dogs fast enough. Let’s see how UNC does when a top-notch offense is staring them in the face.
Jalen Milroe is already looking like another Alabama Jalen…that being Hurts. My God where do these people come up with this shit? Milroe looked OK but it was Middle Tennessee and he’s playing for Ala-frickin-Bama. We will see how he handles SEC competition before crowning him anything.
Washington has the best offense in the country. Could that end up being the case? Possibly. Michael Penix Jr. has already started his Heisman campaign in style. But let’s slow our roll here. There are at least four teams who looked better on offense (Colorado, Florida State, Oklahoma, Oregon) during Week 1. And I wouldn’t even say any of those teams will be the best offense in the country so why go ahead and put the Huskies at #1?
Book the Sooners for the Big XII Championship NOW! As I said, their offense was on fire but they were playing Arkansas State. We are all waiting to see if Brent Venables can have a Venables-type defense in Norman. If that happens, this could very well happen. But for now, I wouldn’t book any tickets yet if I were a Sooners fan.
Miami is BACK. Ho boy. Pump the damn brakes.

Let’s just put Week 1 behind us, shall we? Let’s move on to Week 2 which…oh my. Well, it’s better than Week 1. That’s really all I can say. But you know what that usually means. That’s right…chaos!

Thursday

Yep, that’s a new logo you see. TSN+ will be showing college football games this year. It kind of mimics the specialty pack but there are a few differences. But if you want to get TSN+ rather than the specialty pack for your college football fix, you are getting close to the same. Not a bad alternative and a good move by TSN to copy ESPN for the 10,000th time.

Friday

		US	Canada
Indiana State at Indiana	7:00
Illinois at Kansas	7:30

It kind of feels like this could be a relatively important game when the Illini travel to Lawrence to face the Jayhawks. Imagine saying that even two years ago. You’d be laughed out of whatever building you were in.

Saturday Early

Is the quality there? Eh, not really. But there’s choice. A lot of it. Can’t ask for much else. Also…MORNING FOOTBAW! The ACC Network’s weird annual Week 2 quadrupleheader hits again with the odd three hour-and-fifteen-minute windows. This will be a lot easier to do next year when Stanford and California join as you know one of them will host the ACC After Dark Week 2 matchup, guaranteed.

Saturday Afternoon

Is the afternoon slate better than the Noon slate? Sure. Not by much though. Some intriguing matchups though. As per the rules, one of Texas A&M or Miami must win their game against each other. Ties were outlawed almost three decades ago. Will CyHawk feature more than 30 points? Can App State and UNC put up ridiculous numbers like last year? And this will be Tulane’s opportunity to get a huge leg up in the Group of Five. A win over Ole Miss would be massive.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Ohio at FAU	6:00
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh	6:30
#11 Texas at #3 Alabama	7:00
#13 Oregon at Texas Tech	7:00
Houston at Rice	7:00
#19 Wisconsin at Washington State	7:30
Eastern Michigan at Minnesota	7:30
Temple at Rutgers	7:30
UCLA at San Diego State	7:30
Grambling at #14 LSU	7:30
McNeese State at Florida	7:30
Charlotte at Maryland	7:30
Arizona at Mississippi State	7:30
Air Force vs. Sam Houston (in NRG Stadium)	8:00
Southern Miss at #4 Florida State	8:30

FIFTEEN GAMES! Holy shit! I think this has to be the most in one timeslot ever on this blog. I don’t feel like checking so let’s just say we have a new record! Plenty of games but most people will be watching one game in particular, that being the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide. If Texas can somehow do what they were robbed of last season and upset Bama, this season turns on its head. This game is so big that they are also showing it on ESPN2 in the US and on TSN+ and the specialty packs. But it’s not the same broadcast. It’s the Pat McAfee Show alternate broadcast. So if you like that kind of thing, have at it.

Also, you will notice we have a new network showing college football. That’s right, the CW, with such hits as 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and LIV Golf (well it was a hit with the golfers who got fucking PAID with that Saudi blood money) will be showing ACC football (and later on, ACC basketball) this year. This replaces Bally which, for all intents and purposes, is flat broke. There will be games most weeks and, it looks like, at odd times. 6:30? Weird.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
UC-Davis at #16 Oregon State	9:00
Auburn at California	10:30
Stanford at #6 USC	10:30

FOX quadrupleheader? Don’t mind if I do. TSN2 quadrupleheader? Yes, please. A good week if you are a Canadian as I don’t remember seeing this much college football being shown up here in a while. Maybe things are turning around. Looks like TSN finally gives a shit about things that aren’t the CFL, NFL, and NHL (which they don’t even have the national broadcasting rights to).

Hey, Watch This!

Texas at Alabama (7:00, TSN2/TSN+/specialty pack) – Unequivocally the game of the week and there’s nothing else close. That also means there will be some wild and wacky finishes that might overshadow this game. That is, unless, this is a close one and the Longhorns pull off the upset. Then it will be THE story in college football no matter what else happens.

Ole Miss at Tulane (3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – As I mentioned above, if the Green Wave pull off a win here in front of what should be a raucous crowd in hot and humid New Orleans, there’s not a whole lot that will prevent them from a perfect regular season and another New Year’s Six spot. Normally I would say this is a lose-lose situation for any Power Five team in this situation but when the Group of Five team is ranked it can count as a big win (as long as that team doesn’t totally shit the bed the rest of the way).

Texas A&M at Miami (3:30, ABC/TSN2) – I made the joke above that one of these teams has to win, as per the rules of college football. We may actually see which one of these teams is back (for the most part) and which team still has some work to do. Now watch it be a 13-10 almost-unwatchable slog.

Nebraska at Colorado (Noon, FOX) – Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s see if the hype matches what ends up happening. Some might have put this higher but that’s crazy. It makes this list because of the talk, not because of the teams involved. And Colorado can’t just win this game by a little. That would prove nothing. If they beat the brakes off the Huskers, then we all have to take notice and maybe think the Buffs could be for real.

Sickos Game of the Week

Temple at Rutgers (7:30, specialty pack) – Look, Rutgers is probably going to start 2-0 which really doesn’t mean a whole lot considering their schedule but still, that’s something right? With everything on at this time, you would have to be a complete psychopath to watch this game. I will make sure to tune in and watch at least a few plays. I feel like I owe it to everyone and myself.

Hubba Bubba Blowout of the Week

Ball State at Georgia (Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Time to bring back the blowout of the week segment. And this could be the dictionary definition of blowout. I could see UGA putting up 60 on the poor Cardinals.

Wanna Bet?

Nebraska was actually a good bet. That game ended up exactly how I thought it would (for the most part). Florida, however….well the less said about that one the better. Time for my gambling picks for the second week of the college football season. Use them at your own peril.

Indiana (-30.5) over Indiana State

Purdue (+3) over Virginia Tech (and the outright win)

Ohio State (-41.5) over Youngstown State

Utah (-8) over Baylor

Nebraska (+2.5) over Colorado (and the upset win…definitely going out on a limb with this one)

Michigan (-37.5) over UNLV

Tulane (+7.5) over Ole Miss (but the Rebs will hold on for a close victory)

Texas A&M (-4) over Miami

Alabama (-7) over Texas

Washington State (+6) over Wisconsin (with the Badgers winning a tight affair)

Minnesota (-20.5) over Eastern Michigan

Mississippi State (-9) over Arizona

Stanford (+29.5) over USC (I feel a backdoor cover in this one)

I will be on the Twitter/X machine again this weekend. Even without Tweetdeck I am figuring out how to navigate fairly well. We shall see if I can make it two Saturdays in a row making it all the way to the end. Enjoy the games everyone!

Hey, Let’s Rank the Bowl Games!

Posted on January 12, 2023 by guelphbossman

It’s been a bit since I’ve done this and since I’m currently unemployed and watching my bank account get redder than a super-ripe tomato I figured I have some time to do this.

College football is now over for another season and I am sad. But I have to say it was a pretty good bowl season, despite some in the college football media saying it was bad. Really? I’ve been through some not-so-good bowl seasons and this was not one of them. Then again, some just have to be the counterpoint so that they feel special and/or their life sucks. Oh well, let’s get to the rankings!

Peach Bowl (Georgia 42 Ohio State 41) – This was, without exaggeration, the greatest College Football Playoff game of all-time. It had a bit of everything from two teams throwing haymakers at each other. And when it looked like tOSU had it in the bag, UGA stormed back and took the lead late. And as the clock struck midnight on 2022, the Buckeyes’ season struck midnight as the game-winning field goal attempt went wide left. Just an amazing football game and what college football is all about.
Cotton Bowl (Tulane 46 USC 45) – For most of this game, it felt like a validation of Caleb Williams’ Heisman campaign. Then the Green Wave hit. Down 15 with four minutes to go, Tulane came back to score two touchdowns, the final one with just seconds left, to complete a great comeback and announce their arrival as the newest Group of Five power program.
Fiesta Bowl (TCU 51 Michigan 45) – This is the second of the two semi-final games that makes the best set of semi-finals ever in the College Football Playoff era and it’s not even close. Funny enough, the lead never changed in this game. TCU never trailed which is odd for such a high-scoring, close game. Still an incredible affair and a bit of a surprising result for some.
Liberty Bowl (Arkansas 55 Kansas 53 3OT) – I’ll be honest: once Arkansas went up 38-13 I went to put some laundry on and make something to eat. What an idiot I am. Kansas came all the way back to tie it up. Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels threw for an insane 544 yards and still ended up losing. Arkansas did everything they could early on to win and everything late to lose and still ended up winning in the end. One of the wildest bowl games of the last decade and I ended up missing a decent chunk of it. Stupid.
Sun Bowl (Pittsburgh 37 UCLA 35) – This was a wild game that came down to a late Pitt field goal to win it. Honestly it was kind of ho-hum until a bit into the fourth quarter when it went completely off the rails. The Sun Bowl is weird to me: it seems like the game is always either really good or barely mediocre and nothing in between. I still think they should have a Big XII tie-in but that’s a conversation I’ve had here many times before.
Arizona Bowl (Ohio 30 Wyoming 27 OT) – If this game is on a network, a lot more people watch it. Going in, it felt like a bowl that you could forget. Wyoming with a lot of players out and Ohio’s defense somewhat decimated. Instead, it was an exciting close affair. And, to be honest, the commentary, while less informative, was hilarious, especially down the stretch with the two colour commentators being very open as to which team they were hoping to win (and had bet on).
Cheez-It Bowl (Florida State 35 Oklahoma 32) – I mean we were only told that this was a REMATCH OF THE 2001 BCS CHAMPIONSHIP a few times, right? This ended up being, unlike that 2001 affair, a great see-saw battle with the Noles kicking the game-winning field goal late to get the victory and all the Cheez-Its. In a somewhat related note, I like Cheez-Its. A lot. It’s very easy to eat a whole box of those fuckers.
Holiday Bowl (Oregon 28 North Carolina 27) – FOX ends up getting a dandy of a game for their only bowl broadcast of the season. Oregon came back in the final quarter to defeat the Heels on an extra point that doinked off the upright and in. Even then, the Tar Heels had one final shot as they somehow got the ball into Oregon territory with no time left but the Hail Mary didn’t work. Again, another fantastic game.
Gator Bowl (Notre Dame 45 South Carolina 38) – It was seriously loud in Jacksonville for this one. It felt like a huge regular season game. The fans were rowdy and it felt like both teams were desperate to win. And credit to Shane Beamer: he left nothing on the table. He threw every trick play he could at the Irish, including a fake kick/pass for a touchdown. In the end, though, Notre Dame was too much for the Gamecocks. Super fun to watch.
Hawaii Bowl (Middle Tennessee 25 San Diego State 23) – A really good game out in Honolulu on Christmas Eve (as it should be). It felt like the Aztecs were going to run away with this, going up 14 with five minutes left in the first quarter. After that, it was mostly Middle. Another game that ended with a late game-winning field goal. A nice trend to have for bowl season for sure.
Camellia Bowl (Buffalo 23 Georgia Southern 21) – This game was awful close as neither team could pull away until midway through the final stanza. I will be honest: this game would have been much lower had the Eagles not scored a late touchdown and made it interesting near the end.
New Mexico Bowl (BYU 24 SMU 23) – The 1980 Holiday Bowl this was not; however, it was still a fun game to watch…for the final quarter. Up until that point, this looked like a relatively poorly played game where one team will win because the other made too many mistakes. Instead, it was an amazing finish where SMU went for the win on a two-point conversion and came up short. I love to see teams just go for it since this is your final game of the season. Why not leave it all out on the field?
Frisco Bowl (Boise State 35 North Texas 32) – Did you know Austin Aune is 29 years old? Christ, we only heard it a million times. At least it didn’t take away from the actual game which was a really good one. A 36-point third quarter will do that after a rather blah first half.
Bahamas Bowl (UAB 24 Miami-OH 20) – How about this to start the bowl season? A very entertaining game with a wild ending, reminiscent of the Titans loss to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Boca Raton Bowl (Toledo 21 Liberty 19) – This had the advantage of being played in FOOTBAW WEATHER. A lot of rain and muck. I keep forgetting though that, as hilarious and fun as it is to see this type of weather for a football game, it really makes the actual football tough to watch. Luckily, this came down to another great ending (there’s that phrase again) with a failed Liberty two-point conversion being the difference.
Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Maryland 16 NC State 12) – The game wasn’t the greatest, let’s be honest here. It did have a close finish and Mike Locksley got a bunch of mayo dumped on him. Those were the redeeming qualities of this bowl game.
Cure Bowl (Troy 18 UTSA 12) – On paper this was a great Group of Five matchup. Two conference champions. Troy’s defense definitely showed up for this one so if you liked defensive contests, this one was for you.
ReliaQuest Bowl (Mississippi State 19 Illinois 10) – A very emotional game as it was the Bulldogs’ first outing after the death of Mike Leach. The game wasn’t very good but again, it was close. The ending on the other hand? Insane. MSU scored on a fumble return touchdown on the last play for one of the worst bad beats of the season. Some gamblers must have been crying afterwards.
Quick Lane Bowl (New Mexico State 24 Bowling Green 19) – This was a game between two teams who had not been to a bowl game in a few years. And it showed. Both teams put it all out there and the Aggies ended up with a win in their final season as an Independent.
LendingTree Bowl (Southern Miss 38 Rice 24) – Frank Gore Jr. went off in this one, to the tune of 329 rushing yards and a new FBS bowl record. And he told his auntie to chill after the game on national TV. The best night of that young man’s life so far.
Independence Bowl (Houston 23 Louisiana 16) – Another game that languished for about three quarters and had a great finish. I still feel like an idiot for picking the Cougs as my Group of Five Cotton Bowl pick.
Gasparilla Bowl (Wake Forest 27 Missouri 17) – It was a nice send-off for Sam Hartman who will transfer next season to Notre Dame. It will be interesting to see how the Deacs fare next season with some important players leaving.
Alamo Bowl (Washington 27 Texas 20) – There were high hopes for this one and it kind of fell flat. Don’t let the close score fool you since it wasn’t really close at all.
Pinstripe Bowl (Minnesota 28 Syracuse 20) – The Gophers won pretty easily. The highlight for me was people on Twitter telling me that P.J. Fleck was an awful coach. OK then.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Wisconsin 24 Oklahoma State 17) – The Badgers should be better next season with Luke Fickell at the helm. They’ve already brought in a bunch of new players. None of that mattered here as they were able to outlast a Cowboys team that struggled with a capital ‘S’ down the stretch.
Rose Bowl (Penn State 35 Utah 21) – Everything was looking like a classic until Cam Rising went down with an injury. Then things all went to shit for the Utes and Penn State cruised to an easy victory.
Idaho Potato Bowl (Eastern Michigan 41 San Jose State 27) – This was a tale of two sections. The first had the Spartans dominate early, looking like they were going to blow the Eagles out of the water. The second and last section saw EMU score 33 straight points to put this one out of reach. Entertaining for a bit but not enough to warrant a better spot on this list.
Myrtle Beach Bowl (Marshall 28 UConn 14) – I was honestly hyped for this one. I thought it was going to be interesting to see how the Huskies fared in what is basically brand new territory for them. Instead, the game was rather bland and Marshall controlled for most of it.
Orange Bowl (Tennessee 31 Clemson 14) – Clemson ran over 100 plays in this one and only scored 14 points. That feels like it would be impossible to do but there you go. The offense wasn’t better with Cade Klubnik under centre rather than D.J. Uiagalelei so there may need to be significant changes in the offseason for the Tigers. This game might have ranked even lower if it wasn’t for Joe Milton tossing piss rockets all over the place like his arm was an actual cannon.
Birmingham Bowl (East Carolina 53 Coastal Carolina 29) – This looked like it would have been far up the list after the first quarter. Then Grayson McCall went down and it was kind of easy to figure out which team was going to put up the points the rest of the way (hint: not the Chants).
Texas Bowl (Texas Tech 42 Ole Miss 25) – Ole Miss looked completely flat in this one. Like they didn’t want to be there. Texas Tech, on the other hand, looked great and played hard for first-year coach Joey McGuire who has instilled a new confidence in Lubbock. The Red Raiders also did a nice tribute to Mike Leach on their first play, lining up in the Air Raid offense.
Armed Forces Bowl (Air Force 30 Baylor 15) – The classic bowl conundrum: can a team defend against a good option team. In this case it was no. The Falcons wore the Bears down and ran for almost 300 yards in a ho-hum affair.
Sugar Bowl (Alabama 45 Kansas State 20) – Hey, for a while it looked like this was going to be a fun start to college football on New Year’s Eve. Then Bama realized they are Bama and woke up and put an absolute beatdown on the Wildcats.
Military Bowl (Duke 30 UCF 13) – I thought this would be a better game. The Blue Devils ran away with this and it wasn’t even really close. A great turnaround for Duke, I must say.
Fenway Bowl (Louisville 24 Cincinnati 7) – Other than the Scott Satterfield drama, this game was pretty boring. The unique setup of this being at Fenway Park and the potential for FOOTBAW WEATHER didn’t help enough to move this up the rankings.
New Orleans Bowl (WKU 44 South Alabama 23) – South Alabama was the fairly big favorites here and the Hilltoppers ended up mopping the floor with them. This game was good for about 17 or 18 minutes and then that was all she wrote.
LA Bowl (Fresno State 29 Washington State 6) – Man, looking back, that first Saturday of bowl games was not good. Three of the worst bowl games of the season were this day. This was one of them. Wazzu just didn’t really show up for this one.
First Responder Bowl (Memphis 38 Utah State 10) – I’ll be honest: I did not watch more than one minute of the second half of this game. It was over long before that.
College Football Playoff National Championship (Georgia 65 TCU 7) – A beatdown of monumental proportions. I don’t know if I consider it a bowl game but if you do, it’s the biggest bowl game margin of victory ever. I was wondering if the Dawgs would score 80. A rough end to a damn good season.
Las Vegas Bowl (Oregon State 30 Florida 3) – The Gators resorted to kicking a field goal in the final minute of this game. Why? To preserve their record non-shutout streak. Other than that, they were run off the field by the Beavers.
Citrus Bowl (LSU 63 Purdue 7) – “See what those Tigers did? You content with only winning by 56? Let’s beat that!” – Kirby Smart, probably
Music City Bowl (Iowa 21 Kentucky 0) – I think everyone thought it would be bad. It may have been worse than what we thought. Memories of the infamous 2018 Cheez-It Bowl come to mind as this is one of the ugliest, most unwatchable bowl game of all-time.

Hey that wasn’t so bad was it? Then again, I tend to be short and sweet with a lot of these. Maybe it’s because I run out of steam near the end. Who knows. Anyway, enjoy the NFL playoffs coming up and if you still have a hankering for some college football, there are a few all-star games coming up. The Hula Bowl is this Saturday at Noon on CBS Sports Network if that tickles your fancy. Hey, at least it’s something.

The Coaching Hot Seat Report, My Heisman Ballot and whatever the Big Ten is doing all in one post!

Posted on September 16, 2020 by guelphbossman

That’s what this is: a god damned dumpster fire.

Alright I am going to leave the Big Ten stuff to the end as I don’t want this to go off the rails so early. First up will be the HOT SEAT REPORT! My most accurate predictions of all. This year, though I have no clue. Let’s get right to it and as it is every year, this is ordered from most likely to be fired to least likely (NOW with Big Ten coaches!). Let us begin:

Almost Guaranteed Shitcanning

Dana Dimel (UTEP) – Things are looking terrible for UTEP football right now. All the rest of the teams seem to be leaving the Miners in their dust except for Old Dominion but that’s because they aren’t playing this Fall. And with most teams having smaller non-conference schedules, this doesn’t look like UTEP’s time to improve. Needed to keep his job – UTEP to be competitive in most of their conference games. Prediction – Will be gone before the end of the season as UTEP will struggle to get more than two wins.
Derek Mason (Vanderbilt) – Vanderbilt has been an SEC also-ran for most of their time in the conference other than the James Franklin years. Unfortunately, Mason hasn’t improved things in Nashville in his stint here. It is tough because he’s a great coach and a great interview but you have to wonder if he is just better as a defensive coordinator somewhere, especially at the Power Five level. Needed to keep his job – Bowl eligibility at the very least. Prediction – He will be gone with either one or two games to go and will become a defensive coordinator somewhere at a lower level in the next year or two.
Will Muschamp (South Carolina) – At the time, the hiring of Muschamp looked like a good one even though he had been fairly mediocre at Florida. But he hasn’t been able to make a dent in the SEC and is 2-13 against ranked teams, something that will keep him near the bottom of the division. Needed to keep his job – Play meaningful football in late November and beat a ranked team or two. Prediction – He will probably be fired with one or two games left but be the lame duck coach and finish out the string.

Probable Shitcanning

Philip Montgomery (Tulsa) – Tulsa has struggled for most of Montgomery’s reign here except for one great season. He was a can’t miss coaching prospect who so far has missed badly. I think the Golden Hurricane is going to be worse this season so it may signal the end for him in Oklahoma (the state, not the school). Needed to keep his job – Battling for .500 late in the season. Prediction – One win and a coaching search to start shortly after the season ends.
Lovie Smith (Illinois) – Being successful this past season may have actually been the worst thing for Lovie’s coaching future in Champaign. Now the expectations will be higher and with Northwestern improving, I can’t see the Illini going bowling once they get back to playing in October. Needed to keep his job – To be in contention for bowl-eligibility late into the season. Prediction – I think they end up winning three or four games but won’t be enough to go bowling and will probably cost him his job but who knows with Illinois.

Possible Shitcanning

Manny Diaz (Miami) – Let’s just say the Manny Diaz era did not get off to a great start after he left Temple (after a few weeks) for his dream job. But things are looking up with transfer quarterback D’Eriq King under centre (well, in the shotgun because no one goes under centre these days). His status will fully depend on the improvement the Canes show on the field. Needed to keep his job – At least 7 wins but preferably at least 8 and looking at a possible conference championship berth. Prediction – I see The U at the 8-win mark so that should placate the fans in south Florida.
Scott Frost (Nebraska) – Look, I drank the Nebraska Koolaid last year. I admit it. But the bloom is off the rose now in Lincoln and anything short of at least .500 and a bowl game could spell the end for the guy that was supposed to lead the Huskers back to prominence. Needed to keep his job – .500 record. Prediction – I see them being around that mark so he might not be fired but it will be a huge discussion in the off-season about his future.
Steve Campbell (South Alabama) – It was looking like the Jaguars were going to have a 2-0 start and it probably would have kept Campbell off this list. But their collapse against Tulane makes it so his job is at least in some jeopardy. With the opening of their brand-new stadium, I am sure the brass were hoping for a team that could maybe even contend in the Sun Belt West. With Louisiana in the division that won’t happen but maybe a bowl game for them? The other thing is, if they let Campbell go, who would be up to replace him? Not like this is a sought-after job. Needed to keep his job – For USA to win close to five games. Prediction – I have the Jaguars winning four games so at the very least, Campbell is looking at a hotter seat for next season.

Doubtful Shitcanning (although it still could happen)

Dino Babers (Syracuse) – Dino needs to get some slack here. There were some injuries last year and a lot of underperforming. Saying that, with only one great season under his belt, this season will have to at least look like an improvement over last year or he may be jettisoned. Needed to keep his job – Battling for bowl eligibility late in the season. Prediction – I have the Orange winning 4 so they need an upset to go bowling, if not two. No bowl game means Babers will have at least a molten lava hot seat going into next season.
Matt Viator (ULM) – Things were looking good in Monroe. Then the Ragin’ Cajuns down in Lafayette burned some rubber and left them in their dust. Now they will be battling South Alabama and Texas State to stay out of the bottom of the Sun Belt West division. Needed to keep his job – Honestly? Just don’t finish last in the division. Prediction – Ummmm….well….I do have them finishing last so this could get interesting.
Tom Herman (Texas) – Herman hasn’t exactly set the Big XII on fire in Austin. The fans at UT want to be in the Big XII Championship (OK they want to win the Big XII but baby steps). Not getting there this year would put Herman on a bit of a hot seat going into 2021. Needed to keep his job – Like keep his job for sure and maybe get an extension? A trip to the Big XII Championship game. Prediction – Losing to Oklahoma State to be left out of the title game and a lot of grumblings in Longhorn land.

Yes a much shorter list. Blame COVID.

Now I will post my (shorter) Heisman ballot. This is usually less accurate but at least I am on par with many so-called experts since many frosh and sophomores are in contention and it’s tough to figure them out compared to the juniors and seniors. Alright here we go:

My Usually Awful Heisman Ballot

Trevor Lawrence, Clemson – Alright I had Lawrence winning it last year and he came up well short. This year he is one of the favourites to win it so I am picking him yet again. Maybe this time he won’t let me down…and the team. Most importantly the team. And the fanbase. But me too.
Justin Fields, Ohio State – I feel a bit hesitant to put Fields this high. This time it is because the Big Ten is starting later and he will have to be in Heisman form from the beginning. I haven’t even done Big Ten predictions yet but I assume Ohio State will be favoured in all their games. So as long as the Buckeyes aren’t upset along the way and Fields has a bad game or two, he should be in the Heisman conversation.
Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma – The streak ended last year. Jalen Hurts had a good season but it wasn’t enough to bag the Sooners their third straight Heisman winner (who was also a transfer quarterback). Rattler is a Lincoln Riley recruit so this is a little different than what we are used to with OU. I still predict Oklahoma to get to the College Football Playoff which probably will mean Rattler will have had a great season so that puts him here.
D’Eriq King, Miami – This is the big transfer of the off-season and he could be the guy that saves Manny Diaz his job (and may get him an extension). It was a bit of a shock that he first decided to redshirt at Houston and then transfer to Miami but here we are. I think the Canes are going to be in New Year’s Six contention all season so the dual threat King will be a big part of that.
Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State – Hubbard for some reason came back for his senior year. What it does is sets Hubbard up to become the next big running back to come out of Oklahoma State after Barry Sanders. It also could make him the first Canadian to win the Heisman. That would be cool. He will actually need to run for more yards than he did last year so it may be difficult but if he does it, he will be at least the best running back in college football and a surefire first round pick in the 2021 draft.
Ian Book, Notre Dame – I know people will be upset at this. Slow your roll and check your Notre Dame hate at the door. The Irish are in a conference for the first time ever and are a contender to make their first-ever conference championship. And if that does come to fruition, Book will be the biggest reason why. And he could be a hero in South Bend forever if they somehow get to the College Football Playoff and don’t count them out of that.
Sam Ehlinger, Texas – For the second straight year, Ehlinger might be the second best quarterback in the Big XII. Now if he somehow gets the Longhorns to the conference championship then he might rocket up this list.
Bo Nix, Auburn – The son of former Auburn star Patrick Nix plays in the toughest division in college football. And if the Tigers have any thoughts of going to the New Year’s Six (if not the CFP), it will have to ride on his strong arm. With a lot of new quarterbacks in the SEC, he could end up getting the lion’s share of the attention at the position which could be good for him to move up this list.

Honourable Mention

Travis Etienne, Clemson
Spencer Sanders, Oklahoma State
Myles Brennan, LSU
Zamir White, Georgia
Najee Harris, Alabama
Adrian Martinez, Nebraska
Sam Howell, North Carolina

OK now we get to the Big Ten insanity. Remember when they decided they weren’t going to have a Fall season and there was a huge uproar because three of the five Power Five conferences decided to plow ahead with a season anyway? Pepperidge Farms (and all of us) remembers. Now the Big Ten has decided to reverse course. They plan on having a nine-week conference season. It will start on October 24th and go through to December 19th when the Big Ten Championship will occur. But that’s not all! They will also have a kind of East vs. West challenge that week where the 2nd place team from the East faces the 2nd place team from the West, 3rd place against 3rd place, etc. all the way down to the last place teams in both divisions. Just crazy. This conference is a shitshow. But money and FOMO ruled the day with the announcement. Now the Pac-12 is the only P5 conference sitting out and that will be, unfortunately, horrible for the conference going into 2021. College football, everybody!

Alright a slight change for this week’s posts. I will be posting the NFL schedule on Thursday and the college sked on Friday since there are no college games on Thursday night. I will do that for any other weeks this happens but as of this point, I can only see it happening maybe once more. Anyway, hope you have had a great hump day!

Things have got very interesting for the favourites – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

Posted on September 27, 2018 by guelphbossman

I had something else prepared for the opening section and it wasn’t very exciting. Once this Kelly Bryant story came out, it became a bit more intriguing. Bryant is planning to transfer to another school. This means he probably will not play again this season. Now with the new rule, players can play up to four games without burning their redshirt. So Bryant can now go to another program next season and play his redshirt senior year which will be a MASSIVE help to some programs. Jalen Hurts is contemplating the same decision down in Tuscaloosa. Tua Tagovailoa has taken over the starting position at Alabama, just like Trevor Lawrence did at Clemson.

The intriguing part comes from this: say Tagovailoa or Lawrence get hurt. Let’s be honest, if they play poorly one game it won’t matter since it’s their team now. But getting injured is a different story. Then the Tide and Tigers would not have an adequate backup. This is a serious problem for the two favourites to get to the CFP National Championship this season. Everyone involved with both programs, including their fans, better cross their fingers that nothing happens with their star quarterbacks or they could be up shit creek without a paddle. And you can’t blame Bryant or Hurts for potentially transferring. They have quarterbacked in huge games and are good quarterbacks. In the right situation, they could guide a team to a championship. They have to do what is best for themselves and their futures. It will be an interesting story to follow the rest of the season.

Enough about transferring at the moment. Time to get down to the task at hand which is getting you the college football schedule TV information for Week 5. And I will be honest: so far, on a whole, it has been easier than last season. Not much. But somewhat. Which is nice. Less headaches.

Thursday

		US	Canada
South Carolina State at North Carolina A&T	7:00 PM
North Carolina at #16 Miami	8:00 PM

Hey North Carolina doesn’t suck as bad now! I think. I don’t know. But after winning this past weekend they certainly don’t look like complete ACC doormats anymore. Now they have to face Miami so I can’t see them doing anything of note but if they keep it close, there will be people doubting Miami all season, no matter what they do.

UPDATE: UNC-Miami is also appearing on the specialty pack for some reason.

Friday

		US	Canada
Princeton at Columbia	7:00 PM
Memphis at Tulane	8:00 PM

Not much to say here although the addition of Ivy League football is a nice one. Doesn’t make me feel more educated though. I’ve watched FCS football before. I know what I’m in for (sometimes).

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Syracuse at #3 Clemson	Noon
Army at Buffalo	Noon
#12 West Virginia at #25 Texas Tech	Noon
Indiana at Rutgers	Noon
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M (in Arlington)	Noon
Temple at Boston College	Noon
Louisiana at #1 Alabama	Noon
Virginia at NC State	12:30 PM

As per usual, the early games are interesting even if they are lacking some star power. WVU-TTU will be on the top of most people’s lists but Syracuse-Clemson could end up being a really good game. We shall see if the Orange are for real or not.

UPDATE #2: I should have trusted my original gut instincts. I thought Bowling Green-Georgia Tech would be on the specialty pack but it hadn’t shown up on any of the guides I saw. Now it has shown up. Of course.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
Baylor at #6 Oklahoma	3:30 PM
Tennessee at #2 Georgia	3:30 PM
Cincinnati at UConn	3:30 PM
Purdue at Nebraska	3:30 PM
Florida State at Louisville	3:30 PM
Pittsburgh at #13 UCF	3:30 PM
Southern Miss at #10 Auburn	4:00 PM
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM
#14 Michigan at Northwestern	4:30 PM

Again with the no ESPN at 3:30 thing so that they can show a game at 6 (and then have a short window). I don’t get it but whatever. I’m not in charge.

A few decent games but nothing really stands out. All the games with ranked teams have their opponent not being that good. For example, Michigan. Yeah, OK! Against a down Northwestern team. Ugh. Oh well. Hopefully one of these will end up being really good like the Virginia Tech-Old Dominion insanity of last Saturday.

UPDATE #3: Remember what I said above about Bowling Green-Georgia Tech? Same thing goes for Rice-Wake Forest in this timeslot (3:30 pm). I wonder if this is the prelude to the ACC Network showing games on the specialty pack (hopefully) next year.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Florida at #23 Mississippi State	6:00 PM
Samford at Kennesaw State	6:00 PM
Boise State at Wyoming	7:00 PM
Virginia Tech at #22 Duke	7:00 PM
Iowa State at TCU	7:00 PM
#7 Stanford at #8 Notre Dame	7:30 PM
#4 Ohio State at #9 Penn State	7:30 PM
Louisiana Tech at North Texas	7:00 PM
South Carolina at #17 Kentucky	7:30 PM
#20 BYU at #11 Washington	8:30 PM

Holy shit do things kick into high gear in the primetime slate. Three games with ranked-on-ranked violence, three more with ranked teams and Boise State-Wyoming which could essentially be for the Mountain West Mountain Division title. This is about as loaded as you will ever see in September and it’s glorious! It makes the stupid short ESPN window not seem as such a big deal (although I really do not understand why they can’t put it at 5:30 (although I am sure something is on ESPN that needs two-and-a-half hours to air).

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Ole Miss at #5 LSU	9:15 PM
USC at Arizona	10:30 PM
Toledo at Fresno State	10:30 PM

Pac-12 After Dark, Late Night Mountain West, and some SEC action that will go past midnight. LSU should mop the floor with the Rebels but the other two games definitely have some intrigue.

UPDATE #4: Don’t know how I missed this but USC-Arizona is not on the specialty pack. It’s on TSN2.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Ohio State at Penn State (7:30, ABC) – This is not an easy choice for the game of the week as there are quite a few good games, especially in the primetime timeslot. I have Penn State winning this one (as you will see in the next section). Either way, the winner is the Big Ten’s biggest hope of going to the College Football Playoff.

Stanford at Notre Dame (7:30, NBC) – Looks like I will be flipping back and forth between this big game and the tOSU-PSU game. It’s a good problem to have. Anyway, both teams have looked shaky at times. Stanford looked bad through about 2.5 quarters against Oregon before finally waking up. Notre Dame barely beat Vanderbilt a couple weeks ago. Here’s where we find out which team is for real…or as real as a team can get considering it’s still late September.

BYU at Washington (8:30, FOX) – Who thought BYU would be in this section at all this season? Now put down your hands you filthy liars. None of us thought this. BYU has come back a lot quicker than many anticipated which is good. To be an Independent you need to have a decent team or otherwise you barely get noticed (unless your Notre Dame or to a much lesser extent, Army). Washington is looking down the barrel at a huge showdown with Stanford in a little over a month but cannot overlook these games. Could end up being a massive roadblock for the Huskies.

West Virginia at Texas Tech (Noon, TSN3) – Four games that involve two ranked teams playing each other. That’s a good college football schedule I must say. Texas Tech is looking a hell of a lot better than many (including myself) thought they would be. A few more wins and Kute Kliff Kingsbury keeps his job for sure into next season (as long as some crazy story about him doesn’t come out in the offseason). The Mountaineers have to be considered dark horse College Football Playoff contenders now and a win here might put them in the Top 10 before October.

Syracuse at Clemson (Noon, ABC) – None of the top games are on the specialty pack. Interesting. Usually ESPN gets one really good one but not this week (although WVU-TTU is technically an ESPN game). I don’t believe Clemson is #2 in the land but they are still one of the favourites (along with Bama as I mentioned at the start of this post) to go all the way to the natty. Syracuse is really fun (thank you Dino Babers) but do we really think they will keep things close here in Death Valley? If they do, then wait for the Clemson hot takes all next week.

Honourable mention: Ole Miss at LSU (9:15, specialty pack); Oregon at California (10:30, FOX Sports Onegoddamit); South Carolina at Kentucky (7:30, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

I got almost every one of those picks right last week. If it wasn’t for Oregon shitting the bed, I would have been perfect…which then would have made me sad I hadn’t put money down on it. So I guess it’s for the best. Not saying these picks this week will be as good but I sure hope so.

Oregon over California

Washington over BYU

South Carolina over Kentucky

LSU over Ole Miss

Clemson over Syracuse

West Virginia over Texas Tech

Notre Dame over Stanford

Penn State over Ohio State

Fresno State over Toledo (this one could be a wild Late Night Mountain West game)

Boise State over Wyoming

UCF over Pittsburgh

Hey everything, as far as I can tell, is showing up on the specialty packs! WOOHOO! This is the way it should be. It helps that TSN is showing almost nothing this week so it’s easier to figure out the schedule. I am a bit worried, however, about next year when the ACC Network commences. How will the specialty packs deal with it? It should be a not-so-difficult question to answer but this is Rogers/Bell/Eastlink/Shaw/Cogeco we are talking about.

Thursday Night Football will have a special feel tonight. For the first time ever, FOX will have the game on their broadcast network. So not only do you get Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (which may or many not be a good thing) you get it on FOX which, for the most part, means nothing to us since TSN gets it as well anyway. OK so maybe special feel isn’t exactly right here. But the game is big. Eagles-Rams. Which starts………5:00 local time? Sweet Jesus, have fun with that Rams fans.

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

Bowl Recap #4 – Sponsored by the dawning of a new year

Posted on December 31, 2015 by guelphbossman

2016

Yes 2015 is almost done and 2016 is right around the corner. Before we get to 2016 we have the College Football Playoff semi-final games. Wow, that sounded like a promo you’d hear on ESPN. Let’s get to the recap before this gets to corporate.

ARMED FORCES BOWL – California 55 Air Force 36

This should have been renamed the Jared Goff Bowl. This was all about Goff’s final game before heading off to the NFL. Most have Paxton Lynch of Memphis as the #1 quarterback to be selected in the 2016 NFL Draft but Goff made things interesting with an amazing performance here. Goff throws for 6 touchdowns to lead the Golden Bears to the victory and sets themselves up quite nicely for next season.

RUSSELL ATHLETIC BOWL – Baylor 49 North Carolina 38

Offense, thy name is Baylor. Art Briles has recreated the idea of offense. This team has set so many passing records in the past few years that what they did during this game was unreal. They shattered the team rushing record in a bowl game. Almost 650 yards rushing against the Tar Heels. No matter what UNC did, they could not compete against a team that had so many injuries on the offensive side of the ball, they were essentially running backups and, at the QB position, not even real QBs. An amazing game.

TEXAS BOWL – LSU 56 Texas Tech 27

Fournette? More like Five-nette. Five total touchdowns for Leonard Fournette was a nice end for a player who was dominant in the Heisman race for the first two months of the season and then dropped off the map. To be honest I don’t know of anyone who thought that this game would be close…and it wasn’t. Saying that, next season should be fun in Lubbock with Patrick Mahomes coming back to run that insane Kliff Kingsbury offense.

ARIZONA BOWL – Nevada 28 Colorado State 23

Almost completely forgotten in the bowl schedule was this bowl game. Many Americans (and some Canadians) would have had trouble finding this game on TV. Campus Insiders also broadcast this game online. I can see this becoming more of a normal occurrence in a few years but for now, many fans grumbled about this. The worst part of all of it is that it ended up being a fantastic game that came down to the wire. With changes in how college football is broadcast both here and in the States, it will be interesting to see how this shapes the future.

BIRMINGHAM BOWL – Auburn 31 Memphis 10

This was supposed to be the coup de grace for Paxton Lynch. With the year he had (coupled with his amazing year last season), he was getting close to cementing his status as the #1 quarterback to be taken in the next NFL Draft and getting picked probably by the Browns and then being out of football in about five years. This game was anything but. Lynch was awful and Auburn actually looked good in this one. The Tigers (the Memphis ones) looked out of their weight class in this one as the AAC continues its horrible bowl season.

BELK BOWL – Mississippi State 51 NC State 28

Dak Prescott reminded all of us how close he came last year to Heisman contention. A lot of that was tied to how good the Bulldogs were last season of course. It’s not like they did poorly this season. They entered at 8-4 which in the SEC West is a damn good record. I think many forgot about them. They reminded everyone how good a team they were at the expense of a very good Wolfpack team. This wasn’t even close for most of this one.

MUSIC CITY BOWL – Louisville 27 Texas A&M 21

With the Aggies having their top TWO quarterbacks transfer before the bowl game, it looked like this would be a cakewalk for the Motorcycling Petrinos. However, this was a sloppy bowl game as both teams looked a whole lot less than sharp. Other than the Cards’ Lamar Jackson almost everyone involved in this game played poorly. Which made for an exciting end which I missed because TSN decided to stagger their bowl offerings for some insane reason and my PVR stopped recording at four hours. I love college football but these games are getting to be way too damn long.

HOLIDAY BOWL – Wisconsin 23 USC 21

I am so glad that Tanner McAvoy’s touchdown run that was whistled down didn’t factor in the final score. The referee whistled it down (with help from the Trojan bench) when he thought McAvoy had stepped out of bounds. He hadn’t and it would have been a big controversy if USC had ended up winning. Luckily for the Badgers (and the refs), linebacker Jack Cichy had an insane second half, culminating with three sacks on three successive plays, to hold off USC for the win. A great game to end the night, leading us into the New Year’s Six.

And that New Year’s Six starts at noon today with the Peach Bowl, followed by the College Football Playoff semi-finals. Then some more football New Year’s Day. Then more bowl games the following day. Then the NFL’s final week of the regular season the day after that. So much football. I can’t wait. Enjoy the games everyone and have a happy New Year.

		US	Canada
Charleston Southern at #25 Clemson	2:15
#23 Texas A&M at Miami	3:30
UTEP at Northwestern	3:30
Richmond at Michigan State	3:30
UNLV at #2 Michigan	3:30
Wagner at Navy	3:30
#20 Ole Miss at #24 Tulane	3:30
Iowa at Iowa State	3:30
Marshall at East Carolina	4:00
Kent State at Arkansas	4:00
Tulsa at #8 Washington	5:00
Appalachian State at #17 North Carolina	5:15

Bossman's Blog

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

Tag Archives: transfer

The Coaching Hot Seat Report, My Heisman Ballot and whatever the Big Ten is doing all in one post!

Things have got very interesting for the favourites – Week 5 College Football TV Schedule

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Early

Saturday Afternoon

Saturday Primetime

Saturday Late Night

Bowl Recap #4 – Sponsored by the dawning of a new year