1. Texas. LOL. That is all. Seriously. No need to say more.
2. Georgia is Missouri on steroids. Now first, let me say that Georgia is not eliminated from the playoff and should the Dawgs run the table, they'll get in. But UGA has to be the best program in the country that hasn't quite taken that step into the elite of the last 30 years. They're really, really good. Even the down years are like 7-5. They're almost always winning ten or so, they're almost always in contention for division and league titles. But when given the chance to truly announce their presence, they don't seem to just fail to get over the hump, they do so in spectacular fashion. A 38-10 loss to Bama which could have been so much worse if Bama had kept the foot on the gas. I think the Dawgs are the best team in the East, I think they're a heck of a program, I think Mark Richt gets a bad rap for underachieving. That said, that rep's gonna hang around if you do what UGA did in the big game yesterday.
3. 2015 Ohio State is 2014 Florida State. The Buckeyes haven't looked dominant since the first half of the Virginia Tech game. But they've won. And as long as they keep winning, it's going to be pretty much impossible to keep them out of the playoff. If rankings were based on what's happened on the field, no way is OSU No. 1 right now. But rankings aren't really based on that and they are. Also Ezekiel Elliott had a decent day. I'm not sure if you guys have heard, but rumor has it he thought about going to Mizzou but chose Ohio State. Maybe you already knew that. Just something I heard somewhere.
4. Lesson No. 24554 that what happened last week just doesn't matter for this week. Ole Miss beat Bama and then got pounded by Florida. So what I think we'll end up with is a circle where Alabama lost to Ole Miss which lost to Florida which lost to Georgia which lost to Alabama. They're 20 year old kids. Getting them to play anywhere near their best every weekend is virtually impossible and part of the reason these coaches make millions. In fact, I'd argue that after a huge win like Ole Miss had (or like Florida just had) it actually gets tougher. They read the papers, hear about how great they are all week and start to believe it. And then they lose and everyone gives up on them and they come up big in a win that nobody saw coming. It's how college football works. It's why we watch.
5. One of my playoff picks actually looks decent right now. Clemson beat Notre Dame in a close one to move to 4-0 and into the top five. They play one ranked team in Florida State this year. The second toughest game is probably this weekend against Georgia Tech. Clemson doesn't really have a rep for winning all the games it should and there's a long way to go, but it looks like a decent pick right now.
6. Somewhere in Youngstown, Ohio, Bo Pelini is laughing his ass off. Because Nebraska lost to Illinois. In a game the Huskers led by 14 in the fourth quarter. In a game in which they had a first down at the Illinois 30 with 1:49 to go and the Illini had only one timeout. I don't know much about the whole win probability thing, but I'd have to imagine at that point, Illinois' win percentage was about 0.4%
7. That PAC 12 resembles a train wreck just five weeks in. Seven teams in the conference already have two losses and ten have lost at least one. Cal and Utah are the only two unbeatens and they play each other this weekend. It's an incredibly deep conference, but it just may cannibalize itself completely before the playoff. I'd watch out for Stanford though, in part because....
8. Northwestern is the best team in college football you probably aren't paying any attention to. The Cats are No. 13/14 in the new polls and moving on up. They beat Stanford in the opener, got a road win at Duke and just shut out Minnesota. They play Michigan in a suddenly really entertaining game this weekend, then follow that with Iowa at home. If NW can win those two, things could get really interesting in Evanston. Pat Fitzgerald and crew dodge both Michigan State AND Ohio State on the schedule this year, though they do have to go to Camp Randall later on.
9. My Heisman ballot if I had to vote today:
Leonard Fournette
Trevone Boykin
Ezekiel Elliott
10. Five games I'll watch next weekend:
Baylor at kansas, 11 am, Fox Sports--Because who doesn't like a gory horror flick every now and then?
Oklahoma at Texas, 11 am, ABC--Because watching one bloodbath puts you in the mood to watch another one.
Georgia at Tennessee, 2:30 pm--UGA is gonna be super pissed off and I thoroughly enjoy Tennessee being exactly what I thought they were this summer. I don't think the Vols are going to have a two TD lead to blow in this one.
Northwestern at Michigan, 2:30 pm, Big Ten Network--Well, I won't watch this one because I don't have BTN. College football needs flex scheduling.
TCU at Kansas State, 6:30 pm, Fox--Because every week I try to act like I'm smart and find an off the radar game that could turn into an upset and in Manhattan, with the injuries on the Horned Frog defense, I think this one could.
2. Georgia is Missouri on steroids. Now first, let me say that Georgia is not eliminated from the playoff and should the Dawgs run the table, they'll get in. But UGA has to be the best program in the country that hasn't quite taken that step into the elite of the last 30 years. They're really, really good. Even the down years are like 7-5. They're almost always winning ten or so, they're almost always in contention for division and league titles. But when given the chance to truly announce their presence, they don't seem to just fail to get over the hump, they do so in spectacular fashion. A 38-10 loss to Bama which could have been so much worse if Bama had kept the foot on the gas. I think the Dawgs are the best team in the East, I think they're a heck of a program, I think Mark Richt gets a bad rap for underachieving. That said, that rep's gonna hang around if you do what UGA did in the big game yesterday.
3. 2015 Ohio State is 2014 Florida State. The Buckeyes haven't looked dominant since the first half of the Virginia Tech game. But they've won. And as long as they keep winning, it's going to be pretty much impossible to keep them out of the playoff. If rankings were based on what's happened on the field, no way is OSU No. 1 right now. But rankings aren't really based on that and they are. Also Ezekiel Elliott had a decent day. I'm not sure if you guys have heard, but rumor has it he thought about going to Mizzou but chose Ohio State. Maybe you already knew that. Just something I heard somewhere.
4. Lesson No. 24554 that what happened last week just doesn't matter for this week. Ole Miss beat Bama and then got pounded by Florida. So what I think we'll end up with is a circle where Alabama lost to Ole Miss which lost to Florida which lost to Georgia which lost to Alabama. They're 20 year old kids. Getting them to play anywhere near their best every weekend is virtually impossible and part of the reason these coaches make millions. In fact, I'd argue that after a huge win like Ole Miss had (or like Florida just had) it actually gets tougher. They read the papers, hear about how great they are all week and start to believe it. And then they lose and everyone gives up on them and they come up big in a win that nobody saw coming. It's how college football works. It's why we watch.
5. One of my playoff picks actually looks decent right now. Clemson beat Notre Dame in a close one to move to 4-0 and into the top five. They play one ranked team in Florida State this year. The second toughest game is probably this weekend against Georgia Tech. Clemson doesn't really have a rep for winning all the games it should and there's a long way to go, but it looks like a decent pick right now.
6. Somewhere in Youngstown, Ohio, Bo Pelini is laughing his ass off. Because Nebraska lost to Illinois. In a game the Huskers led by 14 in the fourth quarter. In a game in which they had a first down at the Illinois 30 with 1:49 to go and the Illini had only one timeout. I don't know much about the whole win probability thing, but I'd have to imagine at that point, Illinois' win percentage was about 0.4%
7. That PAC 12 resembles a train wreck just five weeks in. Seven teams in the conference already have two losses and ten have lost at least one. Cal and Utah are the only two unbeatens and they play each other this weekend. It's an incredibly deep conference, but it just may cannibalize itself completely before the playoff. I'd watch out for Stanford though, in part because....
8. Northwestern is the best team in college football you probably aren't paying any attention to. The Cats are No. 13/14 in the new polls and moving on up. They beat Stanford in the opener, got a road win at Duke and just shut out Minnesota. They play Michigan in a suddenly really entertaining game this weekend, then follow that with Iowa at home. If NW can win those two, things could get really interesting in Evanston. Pat Fitzgerald and crew dodge both Michigan State AND Ohio State on the schedule this year, though they do have to go to Camp Randall later on.
9. My Heisman ballot if I had to vote today:
Leonard Fournette
Trevone Boykin
Ezekiel Elliott
10. Five games I'll watch next weekend:
Baylor at kansas, 11 am, Fox Sports--Because who doesn't like a gory horror flick every now and then?
Oklahoma at Texas, 11 am, ABC--Because watching one bloodbath puts you in the mood to watch another one.
Georgia at Tennessee, 2:30 pm--UGA is gonna be super pissed off and I thoroughly enjoy Tennessee being exactly what I thought they were this summer. I don't think the Vols are going to have a two TD lead to blow in this one.
Northwestern at Michigan, 2:30 pm, Big Ten Network--Well, I won't watch this one because I don't have BTN. College football needs flex scheduling.
TCU at Kansas State, 6:30 pm, Fox--Because every week I try to act like I'm smart and find an off the radar game that could turn into an upset and in Manhattan, with the injuries on the Horned Frog defense, I think this one could.
