We've already covered every angle of Mizzou/Georgia. Here's my take on the rest of what happened:
1) The more things change, the more they stay the same. The SEC Championship Game is one game from being set. With Georgia's win over Mizzou combined with Alabama's 42-28 win over LSU, both of those teams sit 6-0. If Georgia beats Ole Miss in Athens next week, nobody can catch the Bulldogs or the Tide regardless of what happens the last two weeks of the season. Nick Saban and Jalen Milroe have improved week by week since a rocky start and now have themselves in legitimate playoff contention. We'll get to that later, but Mizzou fans should root for this. If the Tide and Georgia can both make the playoffs, Mizzou's got a great shot at a New Year's Six bowl if it wins out.
2) One of the best rivalries in college football has come to an end...or at least a pause. Oklahoma versus Oklahoma State probably isn't known around a lot of the country as a cauldron of hatred and a great rivalry. And, admittedly, it hasn't been super competitive for most of the time it's been played. They've now played it 118 times. OU leads 91-20-7. The Sooners won the first game in the series 75-0 in 1904. But little brother got the last laugh yesterday. The Cowboys won their fifth in a row this year, 27-24, behind 137 yards from Ollie Gordon, who's putting himself in the Heisman conversation.
"It's a big deal. I mean, this is the last Bedlam," Gundy said. "All the Oklahoma State people have put up with a lot of crap for 100 years. They've had their butt kicked a bunch. Now they're going to walk around and say we won the last game."
I hope Oklahoma State finds a way to decide to keep this thing going (it's the Cowboys who have said they're not playing anymore in protest of the Sooners heading to the SEC). But even if they do, it won't quite be the same. Add it to the list of rivalries conference realignment has cost us. Oh well, on we go.
3) The Cowboys are now tied for the Big 12 lead with Texas. The Longhorns got to 5-1 themselves with a 33-30 overtime win over Kansas State. I don't know if it was well played, but it was entertaining. Texas led 17-0 after barely a quarter. They gave it all back and were tied at 27. Kansas State gave up a field goal, but drove the length of the field trailing by three. They shanked a 27-yard kick and it seemed like that was that. There was only 1:45 to play. I turned the game off. Next thing I knew, Kansas State was kicking another field goal. The Longhorns ran three plays for five yards and took all of 27 seconds. After just a 35-yard punt, K-State managed to run 10 plays in 1:17 without a timeout and made a game-tying field goal. But the Longhorns survived in OT to go to 7-1 on the season, 5-1 in the Big 12.
Texas plays TCU, Iowa State and Texas Tech. Oklahoma State plays UCF, Houston and BYU. None of the six are ranked. If the Longhorns and Cowboys win out, they'll meet up in the Big 12 title game. There will be a whole lot or orange and everyone outside the Lone Star State will be cheering for Mike Gundy.
4) The unbeatens all stayed unbeaten, but three of them had some struggles along the way. You know about Georgia. Ohio State (which should not remain the No. 1 team in the playoff standings) trailed Rutgers in the second half before winning 35-16. Washington and USC gave everyone the PAC-12 game we deserve with the Huskies winning 52-42. The game featured 1067 yards of total offense. Washington ran for 300, USC threw for 300. But the Huskies kept their title hopes alive while USC lost for the third time in four weeks and I bet Lincoln Riley is spending a lot of alone time learning how to barbecue because I don't think he has many friends in LA these days. Michigan had no issue with Purdue and Florida State sleepwalked to a 24-7 win over Pitt.
5) Speaking of unpopular coaches, Ole Miss beat Texas A&M 38-35. The Rebels are 8-1 and kept their SEC West hopes flickering. But that's not the story. The Aggies are now 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the SEC and Jimbo Fisher continues to burn through a new pair of pants every week sitting squarely on the hot seat. The Aggies aren't bad. The three SEC losses are to Alabama, Tennessee and Ole Miss by a combined 16 points. They've all been one score games. Jimbo has done a good job of keeping A&M in games, he's just done a terrible job of winning them. They should beat Mississippi State and Abilene Christian. And they're likely to be 7-4 as they travel to LSU on the final weekend of the regular season. If they lose that and finish 7-5, there's going to be a real discussion about whether Fisher comes back next year or takes $75 million and just goes away. A coaching carousel with Michigan and Texas A&M open? Sign me up.
6) Maryland football is a great sprinter. It is a terrible distance runner. The Terps lost 51-15 to Penn State yesterday to fall to 5-4 after a 5-0 start. Mike Locksley took over at Maryland in 2019. Excluding the 2020 COVID season in which Maryland played only five games, the Terps are 13-4 in the first five games of the season under Locksley. They are 6-20 in week six and later. Talk about fading down the stretch.
7) Dabo 1, Tyler from Spartanburg 0. After an epic mid-week rant on his call-in show (for the record, I don't think most of what he said was wrong, he just said way too much in way to whiny and arrogant of a tone), Dabo Swinney got his team up to beat Notre Dame 31-23. The win moved Clemson to 5-4 on the season. They've got Georgia Tech, North Carolina and South Carolina left and could easily finish the regular season 8-4. It might not be vintage Clemson, but it's not crap.
"There's no one that loves us more than he does, so I take it personal," running back Will Mafah said after a career day. "I know a lot of guys on the team do, so we had to bring our all today, fight for him especially."
Hey, Tyler's a big Clemson fan. Been going to games all his life. Maybe his plan came together after all.
8) My Heisman ballot if I had to turn it in today:
Jayden Daniels, LSU (I left him off last week by mistake)
Michael Penix, Washington
Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State
9) How I'd rank the College Football Playoff on Tuesday
Georgia
Michigan
Ohio State (I think the committee will flip these two)
Florida State
Washington
Oregon
Texas
Alabama
Ole Miss
Penn State
Louisville
Mizzou
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Oregon State
Utah
Oklahoma State
Notre Dame
Kansas
Arizona
That's only 20 teams. I don't care about the rest of them. Throw any five teams in there in any order you want to.
Everyone above Mizzou still has a path to playoff because they all have only one loss. However, the only teams that control their own path are Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State, Washington and Oregon. If four of those teams win out (Michigan plays Ohio State and Washington and Oregon could meet again in the PAC-12 title game), those four will make the playoff. Texas and Alabama still have realistic shots, but would need a little help (Texas more so than Bama because Bama still gets to play Georgia in all likelihood). Ole Miss would have to beat Georgia and have Alabama lose and then win the SEC title game, probably against Georgia again. That seems unlikely. I don't see how Penn State or Louisville gets enough help. So we're down to six teams with a good shot and eight teams with a realistic shot.
10) Five games I'll watch next week besides Mizzou/Tennessee:
Ole Miss at Georgia, TBD: Georgia cements the SEC title game with a win
Utah at Washington, TBD: The Utes have wrecked a lot of playoff hopes over the years. I don't think they can do it here, but who knows?
Michigan at Penn State, 11 am: The Wolverines play their first real game of the season. They should win.
West Virginia at Oklahoma, TBD: No way the Sooners lose a third straight. Is there?
Florida at LSU, TBD: It's not going to be a good game, but there's nothing else I want to watch either.
1) The more things change, the more they stay the same. The SEC Championship Game is one game from being set. With Georgia's win over Mizzou combined with Alabama's 42-28 win over LSU, both of those teams sit 6-0. If Georgia beats Ole Miss in Athens next week, nobody can catch the Bulldogs or the Tide regardless of what happens the last two weeks of the season. Nick Saban and Jalen Milroe have improved week by week since a rocky start and now have themselves in legitimate playoff contention. We'll get to that later, but Mizzou fans should root for this. If the Tide and Georgia can both make the playoffs, Mizzou's got a great shot at a New Year's Six bowl if it wins out.
2) One of the best rivalries in college football has come to an end...or at least a pause. Oklahoma versus Oklahoma State probably isn't known around a lot of the country as a cauldron of hatred and a great rivalry. And, admittedly, it hasn't been super competitive for most of the time it's been played. They've now played it 118 times. OU leads 91-20-7. The Sooners won the first game in the series 75-0 in 1904. But little brother got the last laugh yesterday. The Cowboys won their fifth in a row this year, 27-24, behind 137 yards from Ollie Gordon, who's putting himself in the Heisman conversation.
"It's a big deal. I mean, this is the last Bedlam," Gundy said. "All the Oklahoma State people have put up with a lot of crap for 100 years. They've had their butt kicked a bunch. Now they're going to walk around and say we won the last game."
I hope Oklahoma State finds a way to decide to keep this thing going (it's the Cowboys who have said they're not playing anymore in protest of the Sooners heading to the SEC). But even if they do, it won't quite be the same. Add it to the list of rivalries conference realignment has cost us. Oh well, on we go.
3) The Cowboys are now tied for the Big 12 lead with Texas. The Longhorns got to 5-1 themselves with a 33-30 overtime win over Kansas State. I don't know if it was well played, but it was entertaining. Texas led 17-0 after barely a quarter. They gave it all back and were tied at 27. Kansas State gave up a field goal, but drove the length of the field trailing by three. They shanked a 27-yard kick and it seemed like that was that. There was only 1:45 to play. I turned the game off. Next thing I knew, Kansas State was kicking another field goal. The Longhorns ran three plays for five yards and took all of 27 seconds. After just a 35-yard punt, K-State managed to run 10 plays in 1:17 without a timeout and made a game-tying field goal. But the Longhorns survived in OT to go to 7-1 on the season, 5-1 in the Big 12.
Texas plays TCU, Iowa State and Texas Tech. Oklahoma State plays UCF, Houston and BYU. None of the six are ranked. If the Longhorns and Cowboys win out, they'll meet up in the Big 12 title game. There will be a whole lot or orange and everyone outside the Lone Star State will be cheering for Mike Gundy.
4) The unbeatens all stayed unbeaten, but three of them had some struggles along the way. You know about Georgia. Ohio State (which should not remain the No. 1 team in the playoff standings) trailed Rutgers in the second half before winning 35-16. Washington and USC gave everyone the PAC-12 game we deserve with the Huskies winning 52-42. The game featured 1067 yards of total offense. Washington ran for 300, USC threw for 300. But the Huskies kept their title hopes alive while USC lost for the third time in four weeks and I bet Lincoln Riley is spending a lot of alone time learning how to barbecue because I don't think he has many friends in LA these days. Michigan had no issue with Purdue and Florida State sleepwalked to a 24-7 win over Pitt.
5) Speaking of unpopular coaches, Ole Miss beat Texas A&M 38-35. The Rebels are 8-1 and kept their SEC West hopes flickering. But that's not the story. The Aggies are now 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the SEC and Jimbo Fisher continues to burn through a new pair of pants every week sitting squarely on the hot seat. The Aggies aren't bad. The three SEC losses are to Alabama, Tennessee and Ole Miss by a combined 16 points. They've all been one score games. Jimbo has done a good job of keeping A&M in games, he's just done a terrible job of winning them. They should beat Mississippi State and Abilene Christian. And they're likely to be 7-4 as they travel to LSU on the final weekend of the regular season. If they lose that and finish 7-5, there's going to be a real discussion about whether Fisher comes back next year or takes $75 million and just goes away. A coaching carousel with Michigan and Texas A&M open? Sign me up.
6) Maryland football is a great sprinter. It is a terrible distance runner. The Terps lost 51-15 to Penn State yesterday to fall to 5-4 after a 5-0 start. Mike Locksley took over at Maryland in 2019. Excluding the 2020 COVID season in which Maryland played only five games, the Terps are 13-4 in the first five games of the season under Locksley. They are 6-20 in week six and later. Talk about fading down the stretch.
7) Dabo 1, Tyler from Spartanburg 0. After an epic mid-week rant on his call-in show (for the record, I don't think most of what he said was wrong, he just said way too much in way to whiny and arrogant of a tone), Dabo Swinney got his team up to beat Notre Dame 31-23. The win moved Clemson to 5-4 on the season. They've got Georgia Tech, North Carolina and South Carolina left and could easily finish the regular season 8-4. It might not be vintage Clemson, but it's not crap.
"There's no one that loves us more than he does, so I take it personal," running back Will Mafah said after a career day. "I know a lot of guys on the team do, so we had to bring our all today, fight for him especially."
Hey, Tyler's a big Clemson fan. Been going to games all his life. Maybe his plan came together after all.
8) My Heisman ballot if I had to turn it in today:
Jayden Daniels, LSU (I left him off last week by mistake)
Michael Penix, Washington
Ollie Gordon, Oklahoma State
9) How I'd rank the College Football Playoff on Tuesday
Georgia
Michigan
Ohio State (I think the committee will flip these two)
Florida State
Washington
Oregon
Texas
Alabama
Ole Miss
Penn State
Louisville
Mizzou
Oklahoma
Tennessee
Oregon State
Utah
Oklahoma State
Notre Dame
Kansas
Arizona
That's only 20 teams. I don't care about the rest of them. Throw any five teams in there in any order you want to.
Everyone above Mizzou still has a path to playoff because they all have only one loss. However, the only teams that control their own path are Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State, Washington and Oregon. If four of those teams win out (Michigan plays Ohio State and Washington and Oregon could meet again in the PAC-12 title game), those four will make the playoff. Texas and Alabama still have realistic shots, but would need a little help (Texas more so than Bama because Bama still gets to play Georgia in all likelihood). Ole Miss would have to beat Georgia and have Alabama lose and then win the SEC title game, probably against Georgia again. That seems unlikely. I don't see how Penn State or Louisville gets enough help. So we're down to six teams with a good shot and eight teams with a realistic shot.
10) Five games I'll watch next week besides Mizzou/Tennessee:
Ole Miss at Georgia, TBD: Georgia cements the SEC title game with a win
Utah at Washington, TBD: The Utes have wrecked a lot of playoff hopes over the years. I don't think they can do it here, but who knows?
Michigan at Penn State, 11 am: The Wolverines play their first real game of the season. They should win.
West Virginia at Oklahoma, TBD: No way the Sooners lose a third straight. Is there?
Florida at LSU, TBD: It's not going to be a good game, but there's nothing else I want to watch either.
