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1) The worst thing that can happen in football is for your team to have a 28-3 lead. That's where Baylor found itself in the 2nd quarter against Oklahoma last night. Then everything changed. Oklahoma out-gained Baylor 368-69, had 22 first downs to Baylor's four and possessed the ball 24:20 to 5:20 in the second half. Without CeeDee Lamb. In Waco. In the biggest game in school history for Baylor. Freezing Cold Takes could exist on Twitter on tweets from halftime of this game alone.
2) Minnesota completed the "It was a nice run, but welcome back to who you are" weekend of college football. The Gophers fell behind Iowa 20-6 at half and made a nice push, but lost 23-19 to Iowa in Iowa City. It marks (unofficially) the 536th consecutive season Kirk Ferentz has beaten a top ten team at home and wrecked that team's season. It didn't necessarily end Minnesota's playoff hopes, but it took the control out of the Gophers hands (they almost certainly need help now). It reinforced how important it is when you are a program like Minnesota and you have these chances that you need to take advantage of them because you aren't going to have them very often. The Gophers went from potentially in the playoff to needing a win over Wisconsin (a game in which they'll almost certainly be an underdog) simply to play in the Big Ten title game. This is going to be a really good season for Minnesota no matter what. But it likely won't be remembered as a special or historic one now.
3) Tua Tagovailoa suffered a season ending hip injury that is being compared to Bo Jackson's and Nick Saban got crushed because we live in a time where we have to blame someone for everything. Tua's injury happened in the first half. You don't bench guys in the first half. They only get to play 12-15 games all year. You don't take more than half of one away from a kid simply because the other team sucks so much they can't stay on the field with you. You especially don't do it when you're at a program who has national title or bust expectations every season and your only chance to play for a national title is to obliterate everything in your path for the next three weeks. Bama had to win that game by 70 to impress the committee. Saban was trying to do that. You can't coach football scared to death of injuries. If that injury had happened in the fourth quarter, or maybe even the third, I'd have blamed Saban. It didn't. The game was still in the first half. Sometimes things that suck just happened. That's all that happened here.
4) Very few people are noticing but the PAC-12 is keeping itself involved in the playoff discussion. Oregon crushed Arizona and Utah crushed UCLA and both are 9-1. The Utes have Arizona and Colorado left, Oregon gets Arizona State and Oregon State and it will take a major upset from keeping them both from 11-1. Then they'll meet in the PAC 12 title game that nobody will watch on a Friday night and the winner is going to have itself in excellent playoff position. More on that shortly.
5) Let's talk about the clear cut best game of the weekend that people weren't talking enough about. Northwestern went into yesterday's matchup with UMass at 1-8. The Wildcats had scored a grand total of 100 points on the season...and 30 of those came in a single game against UNLV. And yet, UMASS is so bad that the Cats were a 39 point betting favorite. To cover that spread, the worst offensive team in the country was going to have to pitch a shutout AND score 40% of the points it had scored all season long. And then the score was 3-0 Minutemen at the end of the first quarter. So, now, Northwestern, which had 100 points in 37 quarters all season long, was going to have to score at least 42 in three quarters to cover. AND THEY DID. Final score: Northwestern 45, UMASS 6. A push. God it was beautiful.
6) Nebraska celebrated a two-year contract extension for Scott Frost by losing 37-21 to Wisconsin and giving up 204 yards rushing to Jonathan Taylor. The loss sent the Huskers to 4-6 and means they'll have to win at Maryland and beat Iowa at home to qualify for a bowl game. It made Frost 8-14 overall and 5-13 in Big Ten games over two seasons. I'm sure the Huskers are taking heat for extending him. I get why they did it though. It's actually the smartest thing they've done in years. Tom Osborne retired following the 1997 season. Over the next six years, Frank Solich won 59 games, lost 19, finished first or tied for first in the Big 12 North three times, never had a losing season, made six bowl games, finished in the top 25 five times and the top ten three times. And the Huskers decided that wasn't good enough for their tradition-rich program so they fired him. In 16 seasons since, the Huskers have had four coaches. They have had only three seasons with ten wins (all under Bo Pelini), no seasons with fewer than four losses, have finished in the top 25 just five times and never better than 14th.
Extending Scott Frost is the first sign of acknowledgement I've seen from anyone in Lincoln that it is no longer 1994. I have no idea how good a coach he is. My guess is he's better than what he's been in two years at Nebraska and not as good as he was in taking UCF to an unbeaten season. But the point of this is that it doesn't matter how good a coach Scott Frost is. It is simply that Nebraska has to accept it will never again be what it once was. I don't want to run through the laundry list of reasons, but Nebraska has now fallen back to the same place that 95% of college football programs live: You have to establish yourself as a team that can regularly go to bowls. Once you do that, you have to establish yourself as a team that is going to win eight games or more in most seasons, which means you need to be .500 in conference play. Once you do that, you hope to sprinkle a handful of 10-win seasons in there (think Minnesota and Baylor this year) and then if you're able to do that you have to take advantage of the rare occasion where everything lines up in your favor and hope to break through to that elite level for a season. And you have to accept that if you aren't one of a handful of elite programs, you're probably not going to stay there for an extended period of time. I don't know if Nebraska fans will ever accept this. But extending Frost is a sign that at least the current athletic director might understand it. Success at Nebraska is regularly winning eight or nine games and then every few years getting more than that. Welcome to the world the rest of us live in you elitist fools.
TigerSpirit was founded in 1988 and is owned and operated by graduates of Mizzou so we take great pride in the merchandise we sell and the Mizzou fans we meet. We’re excited to be able to offer our products to Mizzou fans and alumni nationwide on our website! We’re located on 9th Street alongside your favorite shops, bars and restaurants and there isn’t a hotter spot to be on game day than TigerSpirit! Come see us in our store or shop with us online. MIZ-ZOU!
1) The worst thing that can happen in football is for your team to have a 28-3 lead. That's where Baylor found itself in the 2nd quarter against Oklahoma last night. Then everything changed. Oklahoma out-gained Baylor 368-69, had 22 first downs to Baylor's four and possessed the ball 24:20 to 5:20 in the second half. Without CeeDee Lamb. In Waco. In the biggest game in school history for Baylor. Freezing Cold Takes could exist on Twitter on tweets from halftime of this game alone.
2) Minnesota completed the "It was a nice run, but welcome back to who you are" weekend of college football. The Gophers fell behind Iowa 20-6 at half and made a nice push, but lost 23-19 to Iowa in Iowa City. It marks (unofficially) the 536th consecutive season Kirk Ferentz has beaten a top ten team at home and wrecked that team's season. It didn't necessarily end Minnesota's playoff hopes, but it took the control out of the Gophers hands (they almost certainly need help now). It reinforced how important it is when you are a program like Minnesota and you have these chances that you need to take advantage of them because you aren't going to have them very often. The Gophers went from potentially in the playoff to needing a win over Wisconsin (a game in which they'll almost certainly be an underdog) simply to play in the Big Ten title game. This is going to be a really good season for Minnesota no matter what. But it likely won't be remembered as a special or historic one now.
3) Tua Tagovailoa suffered a season ending hip injury that is being compared to Bo Jackson's and Nick Saban got crushed because we live in a time where we have to blame someone for everything. Tua's injury happened in the first half. You don't bench guys in the first half. They only get to play 12-15 games all year. You don't take more than half of one away from a kid simply because the other team sucks so much they can't stay on the field with you. You especially don't do it when you're at a program who has national title or bust expectations every season and your only chance to play for a national title is to obliterate everything in your path for the next three weeks. Bama had to win that game by 70 to impress the committee. Saban was trying to do that. You can't coach football scared to death of injuries. If that injury had happened in the fourth quarter, or maybe even the third, I'd have blamed Saban. It didn't. The game was still in the first half. Sometimes things that suck just happened. That's all that happened here.
4) Very few people are noticing but the PAC-12 is keeping itself involved in the playoff discussion. Oregon crushed Arizona and Utah crushed UCLA and both are 9-1. The Utes have Arizona and Colorado left, Oregon gets Arizona State and Oregon State and it will take a major upset from keeping them both from 11-1. Then they'll meet in the PAC 12 title game that nobody will watch on a Friday night and the winner is going to have itself in excellent playoff position. More on that shortly.
5) Let's talk about the clear cut best game of the weekend that people weren't talking enough about. Northwestern went into yesterday's matchup with UMass at 1-8. The Wildcats had scored a grand total of 100 points on the season...and 30 of those came in a single game against UNLV. And yet, UMASS is so bad that the Cats were a 39 point betting favorite. To cover that spread, the worst offensive team in the country was going to have to pitch a shutout AND score 40% of the points it had scored all season long. And then the score was 3-0 Minutemen at the end of the first quarter. So, now, Northwestern, which had 100 points in 37 quarters all season long, was going to have to score at least 42 in three quarters to cover. AND THEY DID. Final score: Northwestern 45, UMASS 6. A push. God it was beautiful.
6) Nebraska celebrated a two-year contract extension for Scott Frost by losing 37-21 to Wisconsin and giving up 204 yards rushing to Jonathan Taylor. The loss sent the Huskers to 4-6 and means they'll have to win at Maryland and beat Iowa at home to qualify for a bowl game. It made Frost 8-14 overall and 5-13 in Big Ten games over two seasons. I'm sure the Huskers are taking heat for extending him. I get why they did it though. It's actually the smartest thing they've done in years. Tom Osborne retired following the 1997 season. Over the next six years, Frank Solich won 59 games, lost 19, finished first or tied for first in the Big 12 North three times, never had a losing season, made six bowl games, finished in the top 25 five times and the top ten three times. And the Huskers decided that wasn't good enough for their tradition-rich program so they fired him. In 16 seasons since, the Huskers have had four coaches. They have had only three seasons with ten wins (all under Bo Pelini), no seasons with fewer than four losses, have finished in the top 25 just five times and never better than 14th.
Extending Scott Frost is the first sign of acknowledgement I've seen from anyone in Lincoln that it is no longer 1994. I have no idea how good a coach he is. My guess is he's better than what he's been in two years at Nebraska and not as good as he was in taking UCF to an unbeaten season. But the point of this is that it doesn't matter how good a coach Scott Frost is. It is simply that Nebraska has to accept it will never again be what it once was. I don't want to run through the laundry list of reasons, but Nebraska has now fallen back to the same place that 95% of college football programs live: You have to establish yourself as a team that can regularly go to bowls. Once you do that, you have to establish yourself as a team that is going to win eight games or more in most seasons, which means you need to be .500 in conference play. Once you do that, you hope to sprinkle a handful of 10-win seasons in there (think Minnesota and Baylor this year) and then if you're able to do that you have to take advantage of the rare occasion where everything lines up in your favor and hope to break through to that elite level for a season. And you have to accept that if you aren't one of a handful of elite programs, you're probably not going to stay there for an extended period of time. I don't know if Nebraska fans will ever accept this. But extending Frost is a sign that at least the current athletic director might understand it. Success at Nebraska is regularly winning eight or nine games and then every few years getting more than that. Welcome to the world the rest of us live in you elitist fools.
