1) For fans of chaos, you got as close to it as you could have asked for this weekend. Utah fell behind early and then manhandled USC in the PAC-12 Championship Game on Friday night. That, in all likelihood, knocked the Trojans out of the College Football Playoff race and opened the door back up for Ohio State and Alabama. The Utes have won back-to-back conference titles and have probably been the most consistent program in the league over the last few years. They just haven't quite been elite, which is has been the PAC-12's problem. On any given night, they can beat anybody in the country. The problem is they always have one or two nights where they stumble. Nothing wrong with 10-3 and the Rose Bowl, but as long as a PAC-12 team hasn't broken through, it's going to hurt the league's rep.
This was my first extended look at
Caleb Williams. When he's on, he's electric. He got banged up in this one. But he still put together a season in which he accounted for nearly 4500 yards of total offense, 47 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. That's absolutely incredible. I don't know whether
Lincoln Riley recruits quarterbacks that are already insanely good or whether he makes every quarterback he recruits insanely good, but it would be tough to go head to head with the dude for a QB on the recruiting trail.
This game also featured the biggest hit I've seen in years
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2) Chaos, Part 2 happened in Arlington at the Big 12 title game. TCU did what TCU does. The Frogs fell behind 28-17 then made a frantic comeback to tie Kansas State in the final minute, thanks to Max Duggan going full superhero and running for 96 yards on a single drive, then throwing the game-tying two-point conversion pass. In OT, the Frogs almost scored on second down, then might have scored on third down, then didn't score on fourth down. A field goal gave Kansas State the Big 12 title. The Cats just keep signing classes that shouldn't be able to compete at this level and they just keep competing. Never has a coach been a better fit for a program than Chris Kleiman at K-State. That's a program that knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything different. Will it ever win them a national title? Maybe not. But there are a whole bunch of programs that would be happy to be what they've been for much of the last three decades...well, minus the
Ron Prince era.
3) So what's that mean for the playoff? It means your choices for the final two spots are one-loss TCU, one-loss Ohio State, two-loss Alabama and two-loss USC. Nobody really thinks USC is in and that's fair. They lost twice to the same team so if Utah isn't in, how can USC be in? Nick Saban made the argument on national TV last night (why is he given the free commercial for his team and other coaches aren't?) that Bama would be favored over those other teams if they played this week. He's probably right. But do we let Vegas set the playoff field? This argument really comes down to how you view the playoff. Do you want the four best teams or do you want the four most deserving? Alabama and Ohio State are probably better than TCU. Line them up and play them ten times and the Frogs probably lose both series. But TCU played the teams in front of it. It lost one game by an inch in overtime. To a team it had already beaten. I want the teams that have earned their way there. I want the games to determine who gets in, not the eye test. I understand others won't view it that way. I understand some think the SEC and the Big Ten should just leave everyone else and play their own tournament every year. That's not my cup of tea. Put the Frogs in. I think they could give Michigan a run. Maybe they get blown out, I don't know. But I think they've earned their spot. If I were seeding the playoff
1 Georgia vs 4 Ohio State
2 Michigan vs 3 TCU
4) The best story of championship weekend was Tulane. The Green Wave went from 2-10 to 11-2 and AAC champions with a win over UCF last night. They'll play in the Cotton Bowl against USC.
Willie Fritz just keeps winning. He's won everywhere he's been. For a minute last week, it looked like he was going to be Georgia Tech's next coach then it fell apart. I don't know if he's the right hire for a Power Five program in the NIL era. He's a pretty old guy and I'm not sure it would work. But he's had one hell of a career regardless of whether he ever gets that shot.
5) Clemson could have been in the playoff had Dabo Swinney made a quarterback change this year. At least that's the way it looked last night.
DJ Uiagalelei started and went 2/5 for 10 yards. He got pulled for
Cade Klubnik, who went 20/24 for 279 and a TD and led the Tigers to a 39-10 romp over North Carolina. DJU was the nation's No. 1 recruit a few years ago and everyone thought he was going to be the next Trevor Lawrence. He just isn't. Clemson played four quarterbacks last night and he was the worst one. Klubnik is the future. If he'd played sooner, he might have gotten Clemson back into the playoff. Alas, they'll settle for another ACC title and a top 5-10 national ranking at the end of the year, which is hardly something to hang your head about in a down season.
6) It's at least worth mentioning that Michigan and Georgia won pretty boring conference title games. Pretty wild that two years ago everybody thought
Jim Harbaugh should be fired in Ann Arbor. Back to back conference titles, back to back playoffs and he's going to coach there as long as he wants to. Meanwhile, it's stunning how Georgia has lapped the field in the country's best conference. The Bulldogs have recruited every bit as well as Alabama for the last few years. They're by far the best team in the country. They're the prohibitive favorite to win a second straight national championship despite the fact that they're playing a former walk-on at quarterback.
Stetson Bennett is a great story and a fine player. He's not one of the ten best quarterbacks in the country. Probably not one of the 20 best. You can find guys all over America who would be 13-0 with the team he has around him. That's not an insult to him, it's just a fact and a testament to the juggernaut
Kirby Smart has assembled.
7) The most interesting thing that happened this weekend was Colorado hiring Deion Sanders. It's a weird fit to me. It seems like he probably could have gotten better jobs. But maybe not. I don't know whether it's going to be fantastic or awful. I know that it's going to be incredibly interesting. Colorado will have as many eyes on it over the next couple of seasons as any program in the country. When you've been as irrelevant as CU has for as long as it has, that's not a bad thing. I think he's got a chance to recruit his ass off and do some great things in Boulder. But I'm not sure it's going to work. I just know it's going to be very, very interesting to watch.
8) I know you all want to know what this all means for Missouri's bowl game destination. I don't really know. I keep hearing Arkansas' going to the Liberty Bowl and Ole Miss is going to the Texas Bowl. The Gasparilla and Birmingham keep popping up for Mizzou. If that happens, it means one of two things: Either the SEC had one too many teams for its spots and for the second year in a row it decided Missouri was the team that didn't belong or Missouri is willingly choosing a lower-tier bowl game. Neither of those things is good. If it's the former, somebody from Mizzou needs to stand up today and say "this isn't right. This league talks about treating everyone equally but doesn't." If it's the latter, well, I've got an issue with the decision making process. If you're intentionally taking a lesser bowl game (and make no mistake, the Birmingham and Gasparilla are a step below the pool of six bowls), then you lose any right to complain about where you get sent in the future. Maybe this is all moot and Mizzou still ends up in Vegas or Nashville or Houston. I truly don't know. If we can find anything out during the day before the announcement this afternoon, we'll certainly let you know.
9) My Heisman ballot is due tomorrow. I will tell you that as of this morning the three players on my ballot are
Max Duggan, Bryce Young and
Caleb Williams. Duggan won me over yesterday to earn a spot in the top three. Williams had a simply phenomenal season. I still think Young is the best actual player in college football. Not allowed to reveal who I vote for until after the ceremony (not that I think anybody from the Heisman process is reading this post, but I haven't fully decided anyway). I could be convinced that
Drake Maye, Bijan Robinson and even
Deuce Vaughn are worthy of some consideration. The award certainly isn't what it used to be, but I still enjoy having a vote.
10) Just for fun, here's what the 12 team playoff would look like this year (I think):
Byes: Georgia, Michigan, Clemson, Kansas State
5 TCU vs 12 Tulane
6 Ohio State vs 11 USC
7 Alabama vs 10 Utah
8 Tennessee vs 9 Penn State
First round games in Fort Worth, Columbus, Tuscaloosa and Knoxville. That'd be all right. Go ahead and argue away why that's worse for college football. We'll never agree.
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