The Awful Coast Conference – Week 3 College Football Recap

You know, everyone shits on the Pac-12.  As well we should since it’s a conference that has accomplished very little since USC had their historic run last decade.  But now they have company in the ACC.  We all knew that Clemson would be the top dog.  That was not in dispute.  But many figured that at least a couple of teams would step up and be sniffing at the New Year’s Six based on merit and not because an ACC team will have to go to the Orange Bowl.  So how about we see what happened in the ACC this past weekend shall we?  OK.

• Wake Forest beat North Carolina in a non-conference game.  That’s right.  A non-conference game.  Don’t ask.  Anyway, the darlings of the first two weeks crashed and burned and now Wake Forest is 3-0.  Yeah.  And that’s the good part.
• Boston College was destroyed by Kansas.  Yes, Kansas.  I can’t see Steve Addazio lasting to 2020 the way things are going out in Massachusetts.
• Clemson started slow (as did Trevor Lawrence) but slowly pulled away and ended up winning by 35.  Again, we know what we are getting with the Tigers but man does Syracuse not look good so far this season.
• Penn State played awful in terrible weather in State College but it was still enough to beat a woeful Pitt team who had some, let’s just say, “questionable” coaching decisions.
• Virginia beat Florida State because Florida State Florida Stated all over the place.  I will admit that the Seminoles should have got a few more seconds near the end of the game when the game clock didn’t stop on a first down but still, the Noles blew a lead yet again.  Poor Willie Taggart’s hot seat is basically the temperature of the surface of the sun right now.
• NC State couldn’t handle West Virginia.  And West Virginia won’t be that good this year.
• Virginia Tech struggled to put away Furman.  Yeah I get that Furman is one of the better SoCon teams but it’s still Furman.  Justin Fuente is also hot seating it right now.
• Georgia Tech lost in overtime to The Citadel.  I see the transition from the triple option is going well in Atlanta.

Yes Louisville, Miami and Duke won but they were supposed to and no one gives a shit.  A complete and utter disaster for the conference this past weekend.  Maybe it’s time to move Clemson to the SEC and drop the ACC to the Group of Five.

But hey there was more action this past weekend and some of it was also crazy.  Let’s get to it.

Fun-Time Crazy Recap!

• Poor Feleipe Franks.  He is now out for the year after a gruesome ankle injury.  Kyle Trask stepped in and led the Gators comeback to beat Kentucky but the rest of the season is looking less rosy in Gainesville.  Should we just give Georgia the tickets to Atlanta now?
• If you missed the Arizona State-Michigan State game, don’t worry.  It was arguably one of the worst games this decade.  So of course, what happened?  The last few minutes were insane.  It all ended when the Spartans hit a field goal to tie the game but was called for too many men on the field.  The next attempt wasn’t even close and Sparty lost 10-7 to the Fighting Herm Edwards.  Remember, you play…to win…the game.  You don’t play to just play.
• USC…is not back.  And Clay Helton most definitely won’t be back next season.  I think everyone jumped on the Kedon Slovis bandwagon a teensy bit too quickly.  BYU was ready for them and played well enough to pull off the win in overtime in front of a raucous crowd in Provo.  I won’t call it an upset despite the fact the Trojans were ranked since I didn’t think they should have been.  Oh and I called that too.  Have to give myself pats on the back when I can ya know?
• College Gameday went to Ames on Saturday for the first time ever.   The reward?  Almost three hours worth of weather delays.  At one point, some of the students did not heed the hail warning and stormed the field when security went for cover.  It’s too bad that most of Canada (unless you get Flo Sports) could watch this one since it was also nuts and had one of the craziest endings ever.  Iowa punts the ball with about 90 seconds left and as the Iowa State player is waiting to catch the punt he gets absolutely leveled by his own player which causes a fumble which Iowa recovers.  I am sure Kirk Ferentz had something in his contract that gave him a bonus for that exact play.  He also probably gets another few year extension on his contract and will basically coach until he dies on the sideline at the age of 112.
• A very classy gesture in Athens as the Dawgs fans wore pink in remembrance of Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson’s wife who passed away from breast cancer recently.  It’s the kind of thing I love to see about college football and it has nothing to do with making money off of it (you hear that, NFL?).  Anyway, ASU was boatraced by UGA 55-0.
• Tua played in the fourth quarter.  I’m not kidding!  The Tide looked really good against South Carolina and this one was never in doubt.
• Yeah the final score was 45-27 but really it was not that close.  UCF ran roughshod over Stanford like a forest fire runs over all those trees.  I have to wonder now if my pick of Memphis getting the Group of Five spot was more boredom in picking UCF or reality since the Knights look seriously good.
• I would say the Dana Holgorsen Experiment in Houston isn’t working.  However you have to admit that Houston didn’t exactly make themselves an easy non-conference schedule.  And they have kept in their games with Oklahoma and Washington State this past Friday night longer than many thought they would.  It’s too bad since they may have had a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in D’Eriq King if they had had a great season.  Isn’t meant to be I guess.
• Oh Chip Kelly.  UCLA just looks awful so far this season.  The old Chip Kelly isn’t resurfacing in Westwood with the Bruins.  Problem is probably that he doesn’t have the personnel to run his kind of offense but still.  They still have the possibility of going 0-12 hanging over their head.  If this doesn’t improve, Kelly will not get a third season to get his recruits going.
• Why does Rice play Texas?  This is what JFK asked in a speech decades ago.  The answer is still, who the hell knows.
• You want to know how lean this week was?  Portland State was on ESPN2 facing Boise State.  Yeah.
• Kansas State might be the real deal, folks.  Chris Klieman is a very successful coach and is continuing going with things in the Little Apple.  Is it surprising me?  Absolutely.  So I guess I can’t be surprised if they insert themselves in the Big XII Championship conversation even if it is to cause trouble for the current front-runners, Oklahoma and Texas.
• Eastern Michigan beat Illinois.  Doesn’t feel like an upset.  Chris Creighton has done a great job in Ypsilanti making this look like an actual FBS football program.  I wonder if Lovie Smith will get an extension after this loss since everything that has happened in Champaign has been the opposite of success for years.
• Minnesota successfully ran the gauntlet of teams you might not want to schedule because they could be dangerous.  Wins over South Dakota State, Fresno State and, this past weekend, Georgia Southern may not seem like much considering every game was close.  But the Gophers may have done something more important by preparing themselves for a tough Big Ten schedule by having a pretty good non-conference schedule.  Maybe P.J. Fleck knows what he’s doing there.

So it was a fun day of watching college football.  A few upsets and a bit of movement in the polls.  Including mine which actually isn’t a poll since I am the only being asked.  Oh well.  Time for the Bossman Top 25:

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

Yes there are some differences from the AP Poll.  That’s fine.  I have agreed with them in one aspect though.  I have put Bama back at #2.  What can I say, teams move up and down during the season.  No I don’t have Arizona State in the poll (I have them #27 so just outside).  Same with Kansas State (#28).  They continue to play like they’re playing, they will be in next week for sure.  I also wonder about where Iowa is.  I had toyed with putting them at 14 or 15 but settled at 16 but many have them lower.  Is Iowa State not a good victory?  Makes no sense.

Back to Willie Taggart, it looks like some kid is selling lemonade to try and raise enough money to buy out ol’ William.  Only $17 million less about $500 to go, pal!

Same schedule for later in the week.  College football schedule Thursday.  NFL schedule Friday.  Have a good 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.

NFL Wild-Card Weekend Schedule, Bowl Recap of Sorts, National Championship Preview…all in one post!

Hey it’s playoff time in the NFL!  It feels like a few teams have legitimate shots at the Super Bowl and very few seem to have no chance.  Hell, I am sure even the Eagles have a chance to win with Big Dick Nick at the helm again.  Imagine him winning another Super Bowl?  Carson Wentz would have to demand a trade to save face.  No one in Philly would trust the guy to carry the team to anything (despite his stellar regular season record).  Anyway, let’s get to the Wild-Card schedule which may or may not be wild.  Just a warning.

Saturday

Indianapolis at Houston (4:30)	All affiliates		All affiliates
Seattle at Dallas (8:00)		All affiliates	All affiliates

Sunday

LA Chargers at Baltimore (1:00)	All affiliates		All affiliates
Philadelphia at Chicago (4:30)		All affiliates	All affiliates	TSN1, TSN4, TSN5

The few Wild-Card notes I have

• I still think division winners should only be guaranteed a top 5 seed.  The fact the Chargers have to go to Baltimore is ridiculous.
• CTV will show all four games this weekend.  TSN gets the final game between the Eagles and Bears.  CTV Two is shut out which is fine to be honest.  If you can’t get the game this weekend, I don’t know what to say.

Again it was an exciting Week 17 in the National Football League.  They have found something that basically guarantees excitement in the final week unless there’s a very odd year where all the playoff spots are wrapped up a week early.  Overall it’s been a pretty good year for the NFL and my level of enjoyment has actually increased.  In an era where everyone seems to want to shit all over everything all the time, it’s nice to just relax and watch something you like and not care about what others think about it.

Now let’s to get a relatively quick bowl recap.  Won’t go into detail but a few points I will go into right here:

• I watched at least a part of every bowl except the Holiday Bowl because it was on FOX Sports One.  I say that is an accomplishment.
• I see the ACC Network is already starting with the short promos.  It begins in August so let’s hope Rogers and Bell have their act together and are ready to include it in the specialty packs from day one.
• Sorry to hear Tyler Trent passed away.  He was one of the bright lights of the college football season and that Purdue upset of Ohio State was like the icing on the cake of the Hollywood-like script.
• The Cheez-It Bowl was low-scoring but at least somewhat exciting.  But you kind of knew what you were getting into with that game.  The over/under was 37 for God’s sake.  Now the Redbox Bowl, on the other hand, was hilariously bad.  Like one of the worst games I’ve seen.  Even the fact it was close didn’t hide the fact it was tough to watch.
• There was a bowl game cancelled for the first time in…well I don’t know how long.  The First Responder Bowl between Boston College and Boise State went to weather delay because of lightning in the area.  Problem was the storm never really abated.  It went on for hours.  The bowl committee finally decided to cancel the game when they figured there was no way the game would be played.  I get they have to consider fan and player and coach safety; but can you imagine paying to go to that bowl game and having it cancelled 10 minutes in?  I know I’d be pissed.  Thankfully the schools are doing refunds for the tickets so at least there’s that.
• Honestly there were quite a few bowl games that just weren’t very good.  For every Alamo Bowl (with Wazzu winning a close one over Iowa State) there were like three games like Army’s absolute annihilation of Houston.
• Speaking of Houston, they are hiring Dana Holgorsen?  What?  OK this proves that Houston probably does belong in the Big XII.  I wonder if West Virginia does though since I have never heard of a Power Five coach who has been successful at the school he’s at moving down to the Group of Five.  Boggles the mind but hey, that’s the way the entire bowl season has been.

OK now to the College Football Playoff National Championship.  The semi-finals were not that good.  At least Oklahoma tried to make it a game with Bama but after that ridiculous start by the Tide there was no chance.  So we get Clemson-Alabama III: Beyond Thunderdome.  I am not including the semi-final last year.  We just talkin’ championship games here bruh.  Almost everyone figured this is where we would be.  I think this will be the catalyst for at least one more team getting into the CFP.  Just like when the Alabama-LSU rematch/snorefest basically sealed the BCS’ fate.  So anyway, this should be a good championship like the first two and like last year’s awesome game.  For whatever you can say about the semi-finals, which have been mostly awful, the championship game has been fantastic.  Let’s hope for the same thing time around.

Anyway, the game will be shown on all the TSNs, except for TSN2.  The game starts at 8:00 with the Championship Drive pre-show on 6:00 on TSN4 and TSN5.  No word on if the Coach’s Film Room will be on one of the channels.  If it is, I highly recommend it.  As for my pick for the game I am going to go against the grain and say that Clemson will pull it out.  I am going to say 34-31 Tigers.

UPDATE: Coach’s Film Room is not happening this year.  It will be the Monday Night Football crew, plus Todd McShay, doing the film room.  No offense to that team but that is what you call a major downgrade.

One more quick thing: the FCS Championship between Eastern Washington and North Dakota State is on Saturday at Noon on TSN2.  This year there is no guessing game as to where this game will be since TSN stepped up to show it (nice to see).

Enjoy the NFL games and enjoy the CFP National Championship everyone!

CHOO CHOO! – Week 8 College Football Recap

It was a relatively mundane college football Saturday (or at least as mundane as a college football Saturday can be).  Nothing super exciting, at least from a Power Five perspective.  Then came what happened in West Lafayette in primetime and it was quite the shocker and woke up everyone in the college football world.  This feels weirdly similar to Iowa’s dismantling of Ohio State last year when the Buckeyes went to Iowa City and got lambasted.  Same thing the other night.  Purdue dominated in almost every aspect and looked like they were overpowering tOSU.  Ohio State had no answer for anything the Boilermakers threw at them.  And now, another domino has fallen as another undefeated team has been felled.  We might get to November with not even a few undefeated teams (we’re already down to five).  I can just see the sheer amount of HOT TAKES about the College Football Playoff now.  We think it was crazy in 2007 with just the BCS?  Oh, just wait because of something like that happens again, then look out because the college football media will honestly loses its ever-loving mind and I will enjoy every minute of it.

The rest of the recap

• How about them Trojans?  Yeah not that great.  A somewhat crushing loss to Utah where they weren’t even close.  Clay Helton is now on the hot seat in Los Angeles.  I still believe they have the inside track to win the Pac-12 South though considering the division has been pretty disgusting all season.  And watch the winner of this division win the conference championship and obliterate any hopes of the College Football Playoff or even more than one team in the New Year’s Six.
• Penn State struggle quite a bit with Indiana but was able to hold on for the win.  Not like many people were actually in the stadium to see it.  It looked like the ruins of some long-ago Summer Olympics venue with tourists wandering around seeing what the fuss was all about.  I’m sure there are many in Bloomington longing for basketball season to just begin already.
• It was a battle of undefeateds between Clemson and NC State.  OK maybe battle is too strong a word.  The Wolfpack took a shellacking at the hands of the Tigers in Death Valley.  Trevor Lawrence looked like a Heisman candidate.  And the defense is the kind of defense that can win national championships.  It was also the first real proof that Clemson is for real as not many thought so after their game against Texas A&M.  Are we headed for another round of Clemson-Bama?  Perhaps.
• Tennessee was fired up for their games with Alabama…ahahahahahaha, just kidding.  They got smoked.  The Tide put 58 points up on the Vols, the most in the series’ history.  And Tua Tagovailoa kept up his streak of not playing in the fourth quarter.  Good job, kid.
• LSU seemingly had no problem with Nick Fitzgerald, Joe Moorhead or anyone from the Mississippi State team.  Are we finally going to say they are for real yet?  Nope.  Their biggest test, by far, is a week this Saturday when they face Alabama in primetime.  Win that and people will finally say the Tigers are for real and national championship contenders.  Also Coach O will get a 20-year extension if that happens (and a lifetime supply of gumbo).
• The Battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy had a little bit of everything: pre-game near-fighting; fairly long weather delay; true Big Ten weather; great defense.  The one thing it didn’t have was a great ending.  Michigan kind of mopped the floor with Sparty.  MSU ended up with 94 yards of offense.  That is terrible.  Although Michigan’s defense is that good.  Are we finally going to say they are for real yet?  Perhaps although everyone is waiting for the game against Ohio State where they may be a slight favourite going in.  How about that!
• Oklahoma looked good in a victory over TCU.  Kyler Murray looked good in a victory over TCU.  Pretty much everyone involved for Oklahoma looked good in a victory over TCU.  We are headed straight for a second OU-UT clash this season and this one will be at JerryWorld and it is gonna be LIT!
• How about the day that was had in Pullman, Washington this past Saturday?  It started really early as College Gameday went there for the first time ever after the Wazzu flag, Ol’ Crimson, had appeared on the show 216 consecutive times.  That’s crazy.  Then the Cougs went out and went up big on Oregon early and held on for the upset.  Now it looks like the Apple Cup between them and Washington (who looked just OK in beating Colorado) will be for the Pac-12 North title and the winner might have the only feasible shot at the College Football Playoff left for the conference (and even then they would need a lot of help to be in that position).
• UCF wins pretty easily even with McKenzie Milton injured.  USF wins but it wasn’t easy over a terrible UConn team.  We are headed, yet again, for an epic War On I-4 on Black Friday.  Remember last year’s matchup between these two teams?  Game of the year…well, regular season at least.  Nothing says that can’t happen again.
• Benny Snell went off on Saturday night yet Kentucky barely beat Vanderbilt.  Not befitting of a Top 15 team but hey, a win’s a win and if they keep winning then their game against Georgia could very well be for the SEC East crown.  Can you imagine everyone’s reaction if Kentucky makes it to the SEC Championship?
• Cincinnati is also no longer undefeated although that just felt like a matter of time really.  But to lose the way they did to Temple has to hurt.  Let up a TD in the final minute and in the first part of overtime then get pushed back to almost the 50 before getting intercepted to end the game.  Ugh.
• Finally, NEBRASKA WON A GAME!  Scott Frost finally got that monkey off his back.  Thankfully.  Them going 0-12 would have been not pretty to see.

Man I honestly thought that weekend was going to turn out pretty crappy.  And it wasn’t honestly that great (in a college football sense) until primetime hit.  Thank you Purdue.  Now to the Bossman Top 25:

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

Yes I have Notre Dame down at #5.  I don’t care what anyone thinks about that.  Let’s be honest here: if the Irish win out they’re in, no ifs, ands or buts.  I also have UCF at #7 but I wonder if that’s where they top out.  They seem to have plateaued in the AP Poll at #10.  They need to start beating teams to a pulp.  Starters in all the time.  Fuck it, who cares at this point.  Finally, I himmed and hawed over whether to put Texas Tech or Appalachian State in at #25.  I put Tech in for now knowing that App State will get there eventually.  Also, if UCF loses before the War on I-4 then the Mountaineers will have a good opportunity to be the first Sun Belt team to go to the New Year’s Six.

Guess what?  We get more mid-week college football this week!  And actually it’s before mid-week.  Troy heads to South Alabama for the Sun Belt version of the Iron Bowl.  So…the Aluminum Bowl?  Anyway, it’s tomorrow night at 8:00 on the specialty pack.  I’ll be back later this week with a full college football schedule.  Enjoy your week everyone!

Let’s continue the Footballgasm shall we? Week 11 College Football TV Schedule

Yeah let’s just keep going with this shall we?  Funny thing is with all this football going on there is very little college football controversy right now.  The biggest thing is some dick-swinging contest over a laptop between Dirty Dave Doeren and Dabo “The Howard’s Rock” Swinney (you smell what the Howard’s Rock is cookin?).  Big deal.

Other “controversial” things that are as controversial as whether to add bacon to your poutine and whether that’s “proper” (it is by the way):

• The CFP Rankings came out on Tuesday.  Pretty much a bunch of status quo.  UCF fans though are a bit ticked that after a hard-fought victory over SMU they moved up exactly zero spots.  All this while Wisconsin moved up with arguably the easiest Power Five schedule in the land.  Again, this is basically a moot point since the chances of UCF making the playoff are roughly the same as my chances of scoring with Abigail Ratchford.
• MACtion graces our screens on weekdays now.  MACtion is great…unless you are a fan of those schools playing that night.  Attendance at games during mid-week MACtion is abysmal.  Tuesday night’s game at Oxford was a prime example.  Miami-OH has to win out to go to a bowl game so they are still technically alive for some extra football fun in December.  But because it’s a Tuesday night, many people, not just students, don’t go.  Why?  Have you ever tried to go to a college or pro sports event on a weekday night?  It’s fun but the next morning SUCKS.  So the trade-off for national coverage is somewhat empty stands.  And some conferences (like the Mountain West) are trying to combat that issue and find out if getting away from national coverage a bit will be offset by better ticket sales.  Should be interesting if the MAC or Sun Belt decides to do this as well.

OK so it was only two.  Didn’t want to look into any others.  There are a lot: like paying the players or getting another NCAA Football game but I won’t get into those now.  Anyway, on to another good schedule!

Thursday

		US	Canada
Ball State at Northern Illinois	7:00 PM
Georgia Southern at Appalachian State	7:30 PM
North Carolina at Pittsburgh	7:30 PM

So an OK MAC game and then two games with a TERRIBLE team in each one.  Georgia Southern is seriously terrible.  And North Carolina is trying to steal Kansas’s crown for worst Power Five team of the year!  I will watch but if it even becomes a two-possession game at any point I’m probably done.

Friday

		US	Canada
Temple at Cincinnati	7:00 PM
BYU at UNLV	10:30 PM

Another not-so-good night of college football.  It doesn’t happen often that a Thursday-Friday night college football combo brings us not a single game of importance.  BYU is trash this season.

Saturday Early

		US	Canada
Duke at Army	Noon
#23 NC State at Boston College	Noon
Indiana at Illinois	Noon
Rutgers at #14 Penn State	Noon
Arkansas at #24 LSU	Noon
#15 Oklahoma State at #21 Iowa State	Noon
UConn at #18 UCF	Noon
UL-Lafayette at Ole Miss	Noon
#12 Michigan State at #13 Ohio State	Noon
Florida at South Carolina	Noon
#17 Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech	12:30 PM

Reverse-mirror fun!  So, let me explain this to you:

• If you get ABC out of a city east of Erie you will get the NC State-Boston College game on ABC and the Oklahoma State-Iowa State game on the specialty pack.
• If you get ABC out of Cleveland or anywhere west of there, OSU-ISU is on ABC and NCSU-BC moves to the specialty pack.

There is almost a 100% chance this gets screwed up and you get the same game on both.

UPDATE #1: I don’t know about the rest of you but they actually did it right this time!  WOOHOO!!!

On another note, two big noon games.  That’s a rarity as well.  OSU-ISU and MSU-tOSU early provide some important CFP/NY6 action.

Saturday Afternoon

		US	Canada
SMU at Navy	3:30 PM
#1 Georgia at #10 Auburn	3:30 PM
Michigan at Maryland	3:30 PM
#20 Iowa at #8 Wisconsin	3:30 PM
Florida State at #4 Clemson	3:30 PM
West Virginia at Kansas State	3:30 PM
Virginia at Louisville	3:30 PM
#11 USC at Colorado	4:00 PM
Kentucky at Vanderbilt	4:00 PM

Two more huge games in the afternoon timeslot.  Iowa visits Wisconsin hoping for upset #2 (and ending the Wisconsin/CFP merit debate) and also Georgia is on upset alert as they head to the Plains to face Auburn.  An Auburn win almost guarantees Alabama being the last chance for the SEC to get to the College Football Playoff.  It also opens the door to the 1990 portal (I think the 2007 portal is now closed for another year).

UPDATE #2: Wake Forest-Syracuse has been added to the specialty pack to start at 3:30.

Saturday Primetime

		US	Canada
Western Kentucky at Marshall	6:30 PM
Tulane at East Carolina	7:00 PM
New Mexico at Texas A&M	7:00 PM
#2 Alabama at #16 Mississippi State	7:00 PM
Purdue at #25 Northwestern	7:00 PM
Tennessee at Missouri	7:30 PM
#6 TCU at #5 Oklahoma	8:00 PM
#3 Notre Dame at #7 Miami	8:00 PM

And now for two game of the year candidates.  Two Top 10 matchups.  That is unheard of for the same timeslot, let alone the same day.  But here we are.  Going to be tough going back and forth between the two games although you can almost be certain that one will be over early and everyone can then focus on the other game.

We are back to TSN2 for the primetime ESPN game.  Why not show the 3:30 game as well?  Seems weird to me.  They must have something important on in that timeslot.  Let’s see what it is…ah, of course.  The World Under-17 Challenge.  Hockey.  Hockey will usurp almost anything.  I am certain that other than the Super Bowl, World Cup and World Series, TSN and Sportsnet would want to put any hockey on over any other live sporting event.  I mean I get there are a ton of hockey fans here in Canada but good lord.

Saturday Late Night

		US	Canada
Oregon State at Arizona	10:00 PM
Wyoming at Air Force	10:15 PM
Boise State at Colorado State	10:30 PM

BSU-CSU is easily the game of the night.  Boise can basically clinch the Mountain West Mountain Division here.  A Rams win throws the division in a bit of chaos.

Games to set your eyeballs on

Notre Dame at Miami (8:00, ABC) – At least this is the game with the most hype attached to it.  Catholics vs. Convicts II: Electric Boogaloo is on tap as part of a crowded Saturday schedule that is very top heavy with big games.  Not that I’m complaining.  Anyway, loser here is pretty much eliminated from the College Football Playoff.  I don’t foresee a non-insane scenario that allows either of these teams to get back into the hunt after a loss here.  The winner on the other hand…oh the winner.  If Brian Kelly’s Irish win this, Kelly’s getting like a 20-year extension.  Bank on it (pun VERY intended). If Mark Richt’s Canes win he is one step closer to (potentially) facing Georgia in the CFP.  Can you even imagine?

TCU at Oklahoma (8:00, FOX) – Alright let’s call this Game of the Week 1B.  Huge Big XII matchup that will end up with a lot of points and GUS JOHNSON’s vocal cords getting closer to complete implosion.  Again it’s almost a winner-take-all matchup.  Or more like loser-gets-nothing.  No way the loser here gets to the CFP.  So let’s call it a quarter-final game…WAIT, I didn’t mean expand the playoff so soon aw shit.

Georgia at Auburn (3:30, CBS) – OK fine Game of the Week 1C.  Auburn has a chance to cause major problems for the SEC with a win here.  Saying that, they could somehow sneak into the CFP.  How?  I don’t even know anymore.  This is pretty much Georgia’s last big test before the SEC Championship.  And they will need everyone on board and ready to go to try and slay the Bama dragon.

Iowa at Wisconsin (3:30, ABC) – Speaking of last big tests, this is Wisconsin’s.  I don’t get this whole hate for Wisky.  They are undefeated.  Not their fault their schedule turned out to be shit.  And most of the blame is the conference schedule for once.  So yeah, if they finish undefeated they go to the big dance no questions asked.  Plus, this game isn’t in Iowa City because of it was, man it would be tough to pick the Badgers in this one.

Michigan State at Ohio State (Noon, FOX) – If there is a weather delay during this game I don’t know what I’ll fucking do.

Honourable mention: Oklahoma State at Iowa State (3:30, ABC/specialty pack); Washington at Stanford (Friday, 10:30, FOX Sports One goddammit); Florida State at Clemson (3:30, specialty pack)

Some gambling fun and games

Let’s not look at my last week’s picks.  I don’t want to speak of it again.  Let’s move on.  OK?  Good.

Oklahoma over TCU

Miami over Notre Dame

Auburn over Georgia

Ohio State over Michigan State

USC over Colorado

Colorado State over Boise State

Oklahoma State over Iowa State

Wisconsin over Iowa

Clemson over Florida State

Tennessee over Missouri

LSU over Arkansas

I have not checked the guides yet.  Thursday and Fridays were up for both the U.S. College Sports Package and the Super Sports Pack.  So I am under the assumption Saturday’s schedule is up as well which would be awesome to be honest.

Ah more Thursday Night Football.  What a joke.  No one likes it.  Except the owners who get money.  Soon enough that will slow down as well.  Thursday Night Football is hot garbage and should be abolished.  Anyway where was I?  Oh that’s right…Thursday Night Football is tonight!  Seattle heads to Arizona to face the Cardinals.  And it’s on………..OK I just checked and it’s NBC.  Yeah I’m not typing anymore on this.

This weekend (and the next) will be very interesting.  Fairly busy but going to try to go it live again.  We shall see how I do it this weekend sans PVR.  If it works out then I will probably go the same route the following Saturday.  If not…ho boy I won’t know what to do.  Either way I will still be watching football past midnight so does it really matter in the end?

NFL schedule tomorrow as per usual.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Surprises and Disappointments of CFB season so far – 2017 version

 

I’ve done this before.  In various formats.  To fill in the time (and show how bad some of my predictions ended up being), let’s look at the surprises and disappointments of this college football season.  We will start with the disappointments so we can end on a nice note 🙂

Disappointments

Florida – Wow did I ever shit the bed on this one.  Saying that, the SEC East looked rather weak and one team had to go to the SEC Championship from there right?  Many did pick Florida to win the division so I am not alone there.  But man no one could have predicted the dumpster fire that has happened in Gainesville.  What a nightmare for Gators fans.

Florida State – Let’s stay in the state of Florida shall we?  Abso-freaking-lutely nobody predicted this.  Even Seminoles haters would have probably put them at like 8-4 or something.  But once Deondre Francois went down with a season-ending injury, the wheels fell off, rolled away, and burst into flames.  Now they have rescheduled the game against ULM that they lost in hopes that they would be coming in 5-6 and have a chance at a bowl game.  How fucking pathetic.  The only good thing that may come out of this is that ULM gets paid a bunch of money to show up.  Hopefully the Warhawks mop the floor with FSU and put them out of their misery.

FOX (kind of) – FOX has both stepped up and disappointed.  They have stepped up with more games on the main network this season.  Nice.  Everyone up here appreciates it.  However, last weekend showed they have a long way to go.  What a shitshow.  I get that it wasn’t their fault about the weather but they seemed to botch everything after that delay started.  What a joke.  Oh wait, I should add something to this disappointment…

All Canadian telcos – You know what?  Fuck you guys.  Bring in FOX Sports One on the specialty packs.  You know we will gladly pay more for it.  And then they wonder why people go to illegal means to get any sort of television program.  These shitbags are all about money and care not one bit for the consumer.  To say otherwise is an outright lie.

Conference USA – A lot of people got on my case for calling this conference a “hodge-podge of crap.”  Well, it kind of is.  Their best team will probably end up going 8-4 (and will be either FAU or North Texas).  They pale in comparison to the other four Group of Five conferences.  And their TV coverage is a joke.  They really do have to get their act together because they are falling to the bottom of the pecking order, fast.

Tennessee – Should I include this here?  I think I should.  The Vols have been much worse than we thought they would be.  How Butch Jones has kept his job is beyond me and most others (and is the same question asked every week it seems).  For this season, at least, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.  Or maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.  But that light is a train.

BYU – Maybe I overrated the Cougars a bit but holy crap.  Seriously?  That’s what you get for introducing caffeine on-campus.  (Full disclosure: I love caffeine.  Too much actually.  Not quite addicted but you could make the argument.)

Surprises

The Arizonas – Let’s group them both here.  Have they turned around their programs quickly or what?  Todd Graham is finally getting the Sun Devils to play well again after a couple years near the bottom of the Pac-12 South.  As for the Wildcats, Khalil Tate is the West Coast Heisman winner.  That’s already been clinched.  Whether he wins the actual Heisman is another story but he has been a revelation in Tucson.

Iowa State (and Matt Campbell) – Matt Campbell is a good head coach.  We all know that.  We also know Iowa State is a tough place to coach at since they are usually in the bottom tier of the Big XII.  What they have done this year (upset two Top 5 teams) is nothing short of amazing.  It would be nice if Campbell could make this program a contender on a yearly basis.  But we all know that what this means is that Campbell is going to possibly be the next head coach at Florida.

Notre Dame – Look I knew they would be above .500 this season.  But that was it.  I wasn’t going to commit to anymore than that.  But they have totally exceeded expectations.  They now sit in the Top 4 of the College Football Playoff poll and if they win out they are a shoo-in to go to the Big Dance.  Meaning Brian Kelly will get the mother of all contract extensions if that happens (and he may get that anyway).

UCF – This team has been fun to watch and Scott Frost deserves a lot of the credit for that.  They are a few wins away from doing what many thought impossible, and that’s going to the New Year’s Six.  Frost is another guy who will, unfortunately for UCF fans, out the door I am sure before next season begins to greener pastures.

South Carolina – This almost comes by default thanks to implosions elsewhere in their division but the Gamecocks have quietly become the second best team in the SEC East.  Got to give WILL MUSCHAMP! credit for this, especially with the injury issues the team has had to overcome so far this season.

ACC (except Florida State) – The ACC, as a whole, has been the best conference in college football this season.  Every team still has a shot to go bowling as we head into the final three weeks of the regular season.  I mean it won’t happen but wouldn’t it be something if all the teams in the ACC made bowl games…except Florida State?  That would be crazy.  Next step for them: scrap the stupid division names.  Do it north and south.  I get that Clemson and Miami and Florida State would be in the same division.  But Virginia Tech and Louisville would be together, along with one of the North Carolina schools (just pick NC State).  So it’s not like they would be the much weaker division every season.

I just can’t wait to do my end-of-the-season post about how far off I was on my projections.  Sure to be fun right?  I’ll make sure to stock up at the LCBO before that.

More MACtion tonight!  As of this morning (around 7:00), nothing is actually showing on the specialty pack for Bell.  The Super Sports Pack at least has it in their guides.  There’s also a game on CBS Sports Network.  It’s that fun time of the year folks!  Well, it’s fun when the games are relatively close.  Otherwise it almost feels like not-must-watch TV.  Enjoy the games everyone!

Yeah I’d say the Big Ten is in trouble – Week 10 College Football Recap

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s start the recap with a recap shall we?  OK then.

• Penn State lost a close game to a resurgent Michigan State team.
• Ohio State got the shit kicked out of them by Iowa who is better than many thought they would be.

Uh oh.  The Big Ten is in a heap of trouble.  The only team left with a feasible chance of making the College Football Playoff is Wisconsin and their schedule has been pretty easy for a Power Five team.  So now Jim Delany and the rest of the conference has to hope for Wisconsin to run the table and beat either Ohio State or Michigan State (since I am pretty sure Penn State is eliminated now) in the Big Ten Championship.  All those things must happen or the Big Ten will, most likely, be out of the running.  That would be a huge blow to a conference that has been gaining on the SEC for top conference in the land over the past few years.

Other recap points!

• Back to the PSU-MSU game, what a debacle that was. And FOX just went mental with it.  They just could not get their shit together with the long weather delay in East Lansing.  First they start showing FS1 on the main network to fill the time.  I think “OK, this is good.”  Then just before the Kansas State-Texas Tech game goes to overtime they pull away from that game since it was “Bonus Coverage.”  Look assholes, I get that the weather delay wasn’t your fault but going to a game like that that was exciting and pulling away at the last minute is a complete bullshit move.
• At least we got part of Bedlam in this area and that was the most Big XII game I have seen in, oh, weeks. No defense whatsoever and both teams putting up at least 50 points.  I feel bad for the Stanford and Wazzu fans who had their game moved to FOX Business Network.  Good lord, what a complete shitshow.
• Oh wait, the only reason we got the final quarter of Bedlam? PSU-MSU ended pretty quickly despite the fact it was a close game.  And Minnesota-Michigan was ALSO delayed.  Good lord.  If I had had to PVR this I would have been fucking LIVID.
• Miami continued rolling along. A big win against Virginia Tech in primetime should finally give them the respect that most Hurricane fans thought they should have got in the first place.  This coming week is probably their final test of the regular season.  Beat Notre Dame and they should go to the ACC Championship undefeated.
• Alabama finally got a good win for this season. Yes, it was over an LSU team that no one can quite figure out but still, this helps their strength of schedule immensely.  The only chance they have at overtaking Georgia for #1 at the end (other than UGA losing before then) is to run the table (and probably do it convincingly).
• We finally had our first Snow Bowl of the year! Colorado State and Wyoming played in a wonderful winter wonderland in a very important Mountain West game.  The Cowboys won meaning Boise State controls their destiny to get back to the Mountain West Championship.  The bigger story here?  The groundskeepers saying it’s the first time in years that they have had to shovel any kind of snow during a Wyoming game.  Seriously?  You’d think they would get more snow games there than the norm but I guess they just get freezing temperatures instead all the time.
• Clemson is really making it difficult to avoid the thought that we could get Clemson-Bama III in the national championship. They gutted out a win over NC State that clinched the ACC Coastal for them and set them up on a collision course with Miami in the ACC title game.  That could very well be a College Football Playoff quarter-final game if everything plays out the way it probably should.
• USC has, for all intents and purposes, clinched the Pac-12 South. They didn’t make it look easy and Sam Darnold is now out of the Heisman race but they will be in the Pac-12 Championship unless all hell breaks loose in that conference.  The same can’t be said for…
• The Pac-12 North which will definitely be interesting down the stretch. Stanford, Washington, and Washington State all have chances to win the division and, therefore, the last three weeks’ worth of games become very important.  First up will be Stanford facing Washington next week.  Winner gets a leg up on this whole thing.
• Georgia clinched the SEC East. In early November.  Man that division is not good.
• Notre Dame also continues to motor along. But now they have one of the nastiest stretches in college football coming up.  Miami, then Navy, then Stanford.    Win all three and they are a LOCK for the College Football Playoff no matter what else happens.  Lose to either Miami or Stanford (but not both) and beat Navy and this becomes a hell of a lot more interesting.
• UCF beat SMU. I thought it would be the other way around.  However, the Mustangs gave the Knights a run for their money.  I see the War on I-4 being very close.  I now think UCF will win but it won’t be easy.
• The wild card in the entire Group of Five race is Memphis. They are a very dangerous team going towards the end of the season.  Don’t be surprised to see them cause chaos in that race or outright win it and go to the New Year’s Six.
• Toledo continues to lay in the weeds waiting for dominoes to fall. Until UCF loses, however, the Rockets have nowhere to go but maybe the Motor City Bowl in December.
• Northwestern just won their third game in a row, all in overtime, a new record. Cardiac Cats indeed.

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

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

I still have Georgia #1 but it’s real close after Bama’s win over LSU.  If the Tide beats Mississippi State I almost have to put them back above the Bulldogs.  Oklahoma slides into the #3 spot after a big Bedlam victory and Miami rockets up the rankings.  I have them #4 with Notre Dame right behind them.  Their game next week should be massive!  Wisconsin only gets a bump to #7 in my rankings but will continue to climb as long as they keep winning.  They really can’t even afford a close game the rest of the way or their CFP chances go out the window.  Northwestern and Arizona are just outside the rankings, poised to move up with wins.  I called Northwestern at the start of the year to be in the Top 25 at the end of the season.  Arizona….well let’s not talk about that one.

OK it’s that time of year folks!  MACtion Tuesdays.  And MACtion Wednesdays!  Tomorrow night will see Akron face Miami-OH and Bowling Green head to Buffalo to battle the Bulls.  These two games will be on the specialty pack at 7:30.  Wednesday night’s games will be split up:

• Toledo at Ohio (7:00) AND Eastern Michigan at Central Michigan (8:00) are on the specialty pack.
• Kent State at Western Michigan is on CBS Sports Network at 7:00.

Tomorrow, I hope to get my not-so-early-anymore bowl projections up.  Not a guarantee though.  For sure by Wednesday though.  Would love to get another post in for Wednesday but we shall see.  Have a great week everyone!

So what the hell is happening down in Arizona? – Week 4 NFL Recap

They have the talent to win the NFC West.  Not easily, mind you.  With Seattle there it would be tough.  But overall they have probably the best team in entire league.  Problem is you have to play the games.  And they have looked like shit for the most part.  Pretty much non-competitive.  Worst part is they had Los Angeles and Buffalo on the schedule and looked bad in both.  Games they should have won.  With Tom Brady out they should have beat the Patriots.  They should be 4-0.  Should.  But they aren’t.  They’re 1-3.  I figured they’d end up 13-3 this season.  So get moving Cardinals.  Maybe Bruce Arians just needs a new funky hat.  A red sombrero perhaps?

Other Things

• American Football in London. In the morning (here at least).  On the west coast it started at 6:30.  6:30!  I get the whole West Coast-bias thing but that has to be one of the positives.  Finished watching Sunday Night Football at 9:00?  Sweet!  Oh yeah, by the way, the game was actually pretty good between two relatively bad teams.  Jacksonville should just be happy to get a national audience.
• Buffalo shut out New England. No this is not a misprint.  So the Bills finally win a big game (albeit against a third-string quarterback) and I, in my brilliance, picked the Patriots to win.  Thanks for ruining my gambling, Rex.
• Do the referees understand what a fumble is? Duke Johnson fumbles the ball for the Browns and then comes out of the pile with the ball.  The refs signal Washington ball.  Huh?  I get that officials have a tough job but come on.  It seems like more and more they are getting important calls wrong.  Not the “pass interference that may or may not be pass interference calls.”  Those are fine.  It’s the “last play of the game and is it a touchdown or not” type of call that they seem to blow time and time again.  Not good.  And why do they still have the chain gang?
• Speaking of teams that are really underperforming, what’s up with the Panthers? Another team that should have moved relatively easily through their division schedule.  So what do they do?  Start 1-3 including a loss to Atlanta where the Falcons put up 48 on them.  No wonder the dab is dead.
• The Raiders are for real. I repeat, the Raiders are for real.  Great win for Oakland over Baltimore (who has been surprisingly good so far this season).  I think we are going headlong into a Raiders-Broncos AFC West showdown since the Chiefs and Chargers look awful.
• OK what is it this season with playing football in Tampa? For the second straight week there was a weather delay in a Buccaneers game.  And for the second straight week the Bucs lost.  This one wasn’t nearly as close though.  I will say it again: even God doesn’t want the Bucs to play.
• Why do the primetime games seem so awful? Almost none of them have been close this season.  An epidemic?    I am sure Twitter has weighed in and they now have a battle royale Tweet-off to determine the winner.

OK that is it, that is all.  Next week, I will be watching college football and the NFL pretty much all weekend because I am insane.  At least I will have fun.  Now I have to figure out what awful (but tasty) food I will get to accompany my smorgasbord of football.

Uh, yeah, Lamar Jackson is for real – Week 3 College Football Recap

Did you see what he, and Louisville, did to Florida State?  Lamar Jackson has put himself squarely in the Heisman trophy conversation.  Now it is just September so until we finish this month’s and next month’s games we won’t have a clear view of who the contenders and pretenders are but I would be shocked if Jackson isn’t in the mix come the start of November.

Let’s start the recap shall we?

Thursday

• It was a bit of a back and forth affair between Houston and Cincinnati early on but the Coogs pulled away late. They do have to fix their O-line problems though otherwise there is no way Greg Ward survives the entire season without another injury.  I was going to say this is essentially a Big XII play-in game (and should have been played in Dayton) but they will probably both be invited so no worries there.  Also, Cincinnati chili is disgusting.

Friday

• I figured Baylor would beat Rice by much more. Considering they are almost looking like the Big XII’s best chance at anything this season, this is not good for the conference as a whole.
• And speaking of not looking too great, what was up with Arizona State? After putting 60+ up on Texas Tech they struggled against UTSA and barely held on to the win.  I guess Kalen Ballage not going crazy and scoring touchdowns like they were going out of style was a one-time thing.

Saturday Early

• Let’s not call North Dakota State’s win over Iowa a huge upset. Maybe a slight upset.  Remember how good this team is and has been over the past few years.  They could easily be in, oh let’s say, the MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE right now and contend for a league title.  But I will say it’s still amazing when an FCS squad beats a ranked FBS team, no matter how good the FCS team is.
• What Louisville did, as I mentioned above, was almost NSFW. Thankfully I was at home at the time it happened.
• Well that will be the last time ESPN heads to Boone, NC for a Saturday game for a few years at least. That was tough to watch.  Miami put the smackdown on Appalachian State from the opening kickoff.  Maybe the Canes are for real.
• I normally hate hybrid conferences: ones that have members that aren’t all-sports programs (i.e. some don’t have football). I also isn’t too hot on football-only schools.  However, after seeing what Memphis did to Kansas, I think the Big XII should look into it (spoiler alert: they are).  Kansas is god-awful at football and has had a grand total of 3 good seasons in the past 20 years.  That is brutal to a ridiculous degree.  The Big XII needs to add some quality in-conference opponents and they need to do it yesterday.
• I will await the Larry Culpepper commercial that appears on an ABC/ESPN telecast where Larry accidentally falls down the stairs and can no longer sell Dr Pepper. One, Larry is annoying.  And two, Dr Pepper is gross.
• Clemson and South Carolina State agreed to 12-minute quarters in the second half after Clemson went up 45-0 in the first half. South Carolina STATE.    Not South Carolina.
• Not saying Georgia Tech is great or anything but Vanderbilt is awful and it showed here. The Ramblin Wreck put a whoopin on Vandy at home.
• Tennessee should have put Ohio away earlier than they did. Still ended up winning handily but they aren’t looking that great going into a showdown with Florida next week.

Saturday Afternoon

• There was a point where it looked like Ole Miss would pull it out against Alabama (just like I thought). But in the back of my mind, I thought “this is Alabama; they may still win this.”  Lo and behold, I was correct.  Close game but you have to play four good quarters to beat a team like the Tide.  And Ole Miss has to quit stopping at about the 29 minute mark and play a whole game.  Second big lead lost in the first three weeks of the season for the Rebs.
• Yes, North Carolina eventually beat James Madison easily but it was James Madison. It shouldn’t have been even close.
• Colorado put an early scare into Michigan. The Wolverines, in the end, won handily but maybe, just maybe, this Buffs program is finally on the road back to respectability and bowl contention every year.
• For people that noticed, CIS football was back on the air. CityTV showed Western at Queens.  Nice to see it back on the air but good lord the announcers sounded like they wanted to be ANYWHERE but at that game.  Get better announcers and then they may have something.
• South Carolina held on to beat East Carolina after getting out of the gate fast. And for the two idiots who commented on the fact that I said ECU beat NC State last week yet were getting beat up pretty bad early to the Gamecocks, you guys can just fuck off.  I get it: you hate the ACC and love the SEC.  I have no time for conference homers like that.
• Mark Stoops Employment Watch: I am wondering how long this act can last in Lexington. New Mexico State…NEW MEXICO STATE was hanging with the Wildcats well into the second half.    I think Stoops may not make it to the end of the season as the head coach.
• Pittsburgh-Oklahoma State had, surprise, surprise, a weather delay! So many of them this season.  One day we are going to have the weather delay that trumps all weather delays and it will cause major issues I am sure.  Also, because of the weather delay, we lost the game to ESPN3.
• You know, I am just thinking that some at Penn State just don’t get it. You want to celebrate Joe Paterno?  Do it on your own time.  Not in front of a national audience and don’t publicize it.  It’s just a slap in the face to all the victims.
• Speaking of guys who will probably lose their job, add Steve Addazio to that list. Boston College’s offense is no better this year with Patrick Towles at QB than it was last year.  So something is wrong.  The offensive coordinator will get the axe sooner or later but I think Addazio also needs to go and they need to start fresh.  It’s got pretty bad out near Boston these days.
• I missed most of the game but Nebraska beat Oregon. Bo Pelini can’t be too happy.

Saturday Primetime

• LSU had Mississippi State on the ropes and let them back in. Now I am definitely second-guessing picking them to win the national championship.  The way they are playing they probably won’t make the New Year’s Six even.  At least they still have Leonard Fournette.
• No Tess Effect here. Stanford beat USC pretty easily.  Didn’t crush them but man does it ever feel like USC made the wrong choice with Clay Helton.  He still has the rest of the season to turn it around and he will to have the team buzzing along or else it could be curtains for him and his staff.
• I actually watched like fifteen minutes of North Texas-Florida. I have no idea why.  Maybe my remote control was sending me subliminal messages to not use it for a while to give it a rest.  My remote control hates me I am sure.
• Best game of the primetime slot was probably Georgia-Missouri. Does no one want to win the SEC East?  It’ll be a dogfight between teams that can’t be considered elite yet.  The only team that is definitely out of it is Vandy.  Even South Carolina has to be considered somewhat dangerous.
• Michigan State held on to beat Notre Dame but for most of the game it was out of reach. Sparty built a big lead to almost lose it again.  All this means the Irish should fire Brian VanGorder.  I know Georgia Southern definitely will pass on him in the free agent coaching market.
• Another weather delay but it did not deter Ohio State from basically demolishing Oklahoma. They obviously let up at about the 5 minute mark of the third quarter.  It was pretty bad to watch…if you continued to watch it which I did not.  I can only take so much of a thrashing before changing channels.  Ah, the power of choice.
• Have you seen Last Chance U? It’s a fantastic documentary series about East Mississippi Community College and their run of power at the top of the JUCO rankings.  Great to watch.  It featured former Florida State QB John Franklin III who went there looking to be recruited again to a Power Five school.  He was and landed at Auburn.  This past Saturday we got a glimpse of why he was never given a shot at Florida State.  Not knowing it was fourth down and running out of bounds short of the marker?  That’s bush league.  Not that Auburn was going to win but that may have been the nail in the coffin for the Gus Bus.
• Oh and by the way: what is this epidemic of dropping the ball before crossing the goal line for a touchdown? Why do players CONTINUE to do this?  It’s absurd.  If I was a head coach and saw that, I would be so tempted to nail that player’s ass to the bench for the rest of the game.

Saturday Late Night

• UCLA-BYU was a bit of a defensive struggle which was surprising considering the teams involved. UCLA did not look that strong and BYU looked awful offensively, especially running the ball.  At least it was close.
• On the other hand, the other late night I affair (that I could watch) had a shootout between Texas and Cal. And who picked Cal to pull off the upset?  This guy!  I still don’t buy the Longhorn magic.  Are they improved?    But I can’t see them better than an 8-4 team at the end of the day.

So there you go.  Fun times indeed.  And a bit of absurdity.  Here are my updated Top 25 rankings:

#1	Alabama
#2	Ohio State
#3	Michigan
#4	Louisville
#5	Michigan State
#6	Clemson
#7	Stanford
#8	Houston
#9	Washington
#10	Florida State
#11	Wisconsin
#12	Georgia
#13	Tennessee
#14	Texas A&M
#15	LSU
#16	Baylor
#17	Texas
#18	Florida
#19	Miami
#20	Ole Miss
#21	Arkansas
#22	Oklahoma
#23	TCU
#24	Nebraska
#25	Utah

I put Louisville at #4.  I think many would have put the Cards at 1 or 2 but I don’t see how they replace either Alabama or Ohio State.  Michigan at #3 may raise some eyebrows but until they truly falter I won’t put them below the 3 spot.

To be honest, I can honestly see none of the current top four being in the College Football Playoff.  It’s already been that nuts of a season and I see that continuing.  All four teams have at least one if not multiple difficult games the rest of the way.  No one has a cakewalk.  Not even Houston who gets Louisville in November.  Is there a possibility we end up with only one or two undefeated teams at the end of the regular season?  Definitely.  Is there a possibility these teams would be from Group of Five conferences only?  Another distinct possibility.  Anything can happen and I just assume it will at this point.  That’s why I make somewhat crazy predictions at times (see Cal-Texas above).

Alright tomorrow will be the NFL recap.  I’ve started working on the college football schedules for next weekend.  Again it will be a PVR-riffic weekend which sucks because there are so many staggered times it’s ridiculous.  That is awesome live but super frustrating when you have to try to record almost everything.  I have become rather creative with piecing together games so that I can catch, hopefully at least, the ends of many those games.  Makes life as a college football fan at least a little bit more tolerable.