1) One of the two big SEC games lived up to the hype. Alabama/LSU was a joy to watch. Night games in Baton Rouge are the best of this sport. There were a lot of plays made on both sides in that game. But man, the quarterback play. Yes, Bryce Young lost the game, but I'd go to battle with that dude eight days a week. Jayden Daniels accounted for 277 yards and three touchdowns. There were bad calls all over the field, including a pretty obvious missed block in the back on LSU's game winning touchdown. Whatever else anyone may think about Brian Kelly, the man is an elite football coach. He's likely to have LSU in the SEC title game in his first season. And I'll be very surprised if he doesn't win a national title there at some point.
2) The other big game in the SEC? Well, Georgia proved that it's the big dog in college football and everyone else is still chasing it. Many will use this as a reason to say Tennessee is a fraud and Josh Heupel's offense doesn't work against good defenses. That's dumb and lazy. The Vols are having an incredible season. One the fans will tell their kids about years from now. They just ran into a better team that's been in more games like this one. You don't have to win a title to have a great year. The 27-13 final doesn't really show how dominant Georgia was. They just suffocated Tennessee. And because of what else happened in the sport, Tennessee's title hopes may not be dead.
3) The smoke and mirrors that has been Clemson this year finally quit working. Clemson is a good team. It is not a great team. It has flirted with a loss all season. It all finally came crashing down in a 35-14 dismantling by Notre Dame in which the Tigers played two quarterbacks and neither one of them could do anything. Clemson and Alabama have combined for five of the last seven and eight of the last 14 national championships. Neither will likely have a shot at it this season.
4) It was nearly a disaster of a day for the Big Ten. The league came into the day with three teams controlling their destiny for a playoff spot. Illinois lost to Michigan State to knock the Illini out. Ohio State struggled all day, but did survive 21-7 against Northwestern. Rutgers actually led Michigan at halftime, but the Wolverines turned it on in the second half and won 52-17. That means the Buckeyes and Wolverines are still in line to play for a spot in the Big Ten title game and, in all likelihood, a playoff bid, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
5) The game of the day, without question, was in Dallas. SMU beat Houston 77-63 in a game that set the record for most points in an FBS regulation game. It came just six points shy of setting the record for most points in a game total and the one it almost caught went seven overtimes. Here are the lines of the two quarterbacks:
Clayton Thune, Houston: 36/53, 527 yards, 7 touchdowns, 2 INT
Tanner Mordecai, SMU: 28/37, 379 yards, 9 touchdowns, 0 INT
That's 906 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and two interceptions. Mordecai threw more touchdown passes last night than Missouri , Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Colorado, Rutgers, Pitt, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Auburn or Iowa has thrown all season long. In this single game, Thune and Mordecai combined would rank 57th in the country in touchdown passes. For the year.
6) The Big 12 continued to be the country's most entertaining conference. TCU just kept rolling with a 34-24 win over Texas Tech. The Frogs will clinch a spot in the conference championship game with one win in their last three games (Baylor, Texas, Iowa State). The likely opponent is the winner of next week's Baylor/Kansas State game unless Texas beats TCU next week. Those are the four teams that are still alive. Texas won in Manhattan last night when it narrowly avoided blowing its sixth consecutive double digit halftime lead. Baylor handed Oklahoma its fourth loss of the season and Kansas gained bowl eligibility while sending Oklahoma State to its third consecutive loss. Iowa State finally got its first conference win by beating West Virginia, leaving Vanderbilt as the only Power Five team without a conference win. TCU is the only team in the league with fewer than three losses and will be the only one in the top 15 next week. But the conference is fun as hell because you legitimately don't know who will win any game. It's the only conference in the country that doesn't have any real mismatches.
7) Don't look now but the second best conference in the country is....the PAC 12? Here is the likely distribution of top 15 teams when next week's rankings come out:
SEC: 5
PAC 12: 4
Big 10: 3
ACC: 2
Big 12: 1
Oregon, USC, UCLA and Utah all won last night. They were all in the top 14 at the beginning of the week and will all move up a spot or two. Since getting embarrassed by Georgia 49-3 in week one, Oregon has steamrolled everybody and Bo Nix is a rising Heisman candidate. He has completed 73% of his passes for 2495 yards, 22 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Can't say I saw that coming.
8) The best player most of you have probably never heard much about is North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. The redshirt freshman has completed 71% of his passes for 2964 yards, 31 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He's under pressure every week because the Tar Heels have absolutely no defense, but he's got North Carolina 8-1 and headed to the ACC title game against Clemson. And if Carolina wins out, it just might manage to get in the playoff if there's enough chaos.
9) Someone should make Texas A&M play Miami in a bowl game, even if neither team wins enough to qualify. In the preseason polls, the Aggies were No. 6 and the Canes were No. 16. They are a combined 7-11 this season. In conference games, they are 3-8. A&M lost at home to a very mediocre Florida team yesterday and is getting the least return on its investment of any fanbase in the history of college football. Miami showed all kinds of grit to get a field goal on the board in a 45-3 loss to Florida State. These two teams actually already played this year back in week three. A&M won 17-9 and both teams were 2-1. Since then, they're a combined 3-9 with the best win being the Aggies' 23-21 victory over an Arkansas team that may struggle to make a bowl game. But I think they should have to play again just to put both fanbases through one more week of misery.
10) I didn't have a good place to put this, but I knew it needed to be in here, so it gets its own thought:
11) The playoff if it started tomorrow:
1) Georgia vs 4) Tennessee
2) Ohio State vs 3) Michigan
I really think the Vols will still be ranked above TCU. Alabama was above TCU last week and Tennessee beat Alabama. Obviously the final playoff isn't going to look like this. Beyond the four teams listed above, here is everyone that has a chance to get in:
TCU, Oregon, USC, LSU, Ole Miss, UCLA, Clemson, North Carolina.
That's a dozen teams. The bottom eight have to win out. One loss knocks them out. Clemson and North Carolina play each other as do USC and UCLA. The winner between the Trojans and Bruins will play Oregon in the PAC 12 title game. Ole Miss would have to win out and have LSU lose a game. TCU will be in if it wins out because Michigan and Ohio State play. Tennessee will probably be the most interesting case. It will probably be 11-1 with a win over Alabama and the only loss to the nation's No. 1 team. It will not have a 13th game because it will not make the SEC title game unless Georgia loses to Mississippi State and Kentucky and that isn't going to happen. But the Vols path to the playoff is this:
Ole Miss loses to Bama
LSU loses to UGA in the SEC title game
TCU loses once
That could very well give us a playoff of Georgia, the Michigan/OSU winner, Tennessee and the PAC 12 champ. I don't think it's unlikely at all.
12) Five games I'll watch next week other than Mizzou/Tennessee:
LSU at Arkansas, 11 am
Alabama at Ole Miss, 2 pm, CBS
UCF at Tulane, 2:30
TCU at Texas, 6:30, ABC
North Carolina at Wake Forest (first one to 70 wins), 6:30, ESPN2
2) The other big game in the SEC? Well, Georgia proved that it's the big dog in college football and everyone else is still chasing it. Many will use this as a reason to say Tennessee is a fraud and Josh Heupel's offense doesn't work against good defenses. That's dumb and lazy. The Vols are having an incredible season. One the fans will tell their kids about years from now. They just ran into a better team that's been in more games like this one. You don't have to win a title to have a great year. The 27-13 final doesn't really show how dominant Georgia was. They just suffocated Tennessee. And because of what else happened in the sport, Tennessee's title hopes may not be dead.
3) The smoke and mirrors that has been Clemson this year finally quit working. Clemson is a good team. It is not a great team. It has flirted with a loss all season. It all finally came crashing down in a 35-14 dismantling by Notre Dame in which the Tigers played two quarterbacks and neither one of them could do anything. Clemson and Alabama have combined for five of the last seven and eight of the last 14 national championships. Neither will likely have a shot at it this season.
4) It was nearly a disaster of a day for the Big Ten. The league came into the day with three teams controlling their destiny for a playoff spot. Illinois lost to Michigan State to knock the Illini out. Ohio State struggled all day, but did survive 21-7 against Northwestern. Rutgers actually led Michigan at halftime, but the Wolverines turned it on in the second half and won 52-17. That means the Buckeyes and Wolverines are still in line to play for a spot in the Big Ten title game and, in all likelihood, a playoff bid, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
5) The game of the day, without question, was in Dallas. SMU beat Houston 77-63 in a game that set the record for most points in an FBS regulation game. It came just six points shy of setting the record for most points in a game total and the one it almost caught went seven overtimes. Here are the lines of the two quarterbacks:
Clayton Thune, Houston: 36/53, 527 yards, 7 touchdowns, 2 INT
Tanner Mordecai, SMU: 28/37, 379 yards, 9 touchdowns, 0 INT
That's 906 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and two interceptions. Mordecai threw more touchdown passes last night than Missouri , Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Colorado, Rutgers, Pitt, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Auburn or Iowa has thrown all season long. In this single game, Thune and Mordecai combined would rank 57th in the country in touchdown passes. For the year.
6) The Big 12 continued to be the country's most entertaining conference. TCU just kept rolling with a 34-24 win over Texas Tech. The Frogs will clinch a spot in the conference championship game with one win in their last three games (Baylor, Texas, Iowa State). The likely opponent is the winner of next week's Baylor/Kansas State game unless Texas beats TCU next week. Those are the four teams that are still alive. Texas won in Manhattan last night when it narrowly avoided blowing its sixth consecutive double digit halftime lead. Baylor handed Oklahoma its fourth loss of the season and Kansas gained bowl eligibility while sending Oklahoma State to its third consecutive loss. Iowa State finally got its first conference win by beating West Virginia, leaving Vanderbilt as the only Power Five team without a conference win. TCU is the only team in the league with fewer than three losses and will be the only one in the top 15 next week. But the conference is fun as hell because you legitimately don't know who will win any game. It's the only conference in the country that doesn't have any real mismatches.
7) Don't look now but the second best conference in the country is....the PAC 12? Here is the likely distribution of top 15 teams when next week's rankings come out:
SEC: 5
PAC 12: 4
Big 10: 3
ACC: 2
Big 12: 1
Oregon, USC, UCLA and Utah all won last night. They were all in the top 14 at the beginning of the week and will all move up a spot or two. Since getting embarrassed by Georgia 49-3 in week one, Oregon has steamrolled everybody and Bo Nix is a rising Heisman candidate. He has completed 73% of his passes for 2495 yards, 22 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Can't say I saw that coming.
8) The best player most of you have probably never heard much about is North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye. The redshirt freshman has completed 71% of his passes for 2964 yards, 31 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He's under pressure every week because the Tar Heels have absolutely no defense, but he's got North Carolina 8-1 and headed to the ACC title game against Clemson. And if Carolina wins out, it just might manage to get in the playoff if there's enough chaos.
9) Someone should make Texas A&M play Miami in a bowl game, even if neither team wins enough to qualify. In the preseason polls, the Aggies were No. 6 and the Canes were No. 16. They are a combined 7-11 this season. In conference games, they are 3-8. A&M lost at home to a very mediocre Florida team yesterday and is getting the least return on its investment of any fanbase in the history of college football. Miami showed all kinds of grit to get a field goal on the board in a 45-3 loss to Florida State. These two teams actually already played this year back in week three. A&M won 17-9 and both teams were 2-1. Since then, they're a combined 3-9 with the best win being the Aggies' 23-21 victory over an Arkansas team that may struggle to make a bowl game. But I think they should have to play again just to put both fanbases through one more week of misery.
10) I didn't have a good place to put this, but I knew it needed to be in here, so it gets its own thought:
11) The playoff if it started tomorrow:
1) Georgia vs 4) Tennessee
2) Ohio State vs 3) Michigan
I really think the Vols will still be ranked above TCU. Alabama was above TCU last week and Tennessee beat Alabama. Obviously the final playoff isn't going to look like this. Beyond the four teams listed above, here is everyone that has a chance to get in:
TCU, Oregon, USC, LSU, Ole Miss, UCLA, Clemson, North Carolina.
That's a dozen teams. The bottom eight have to win out. One loss knocks them out. Clemson and North Carolina play each other as do USC and UCLA. The winner between the Trojans and Bruins will play Oregon in the PAC 12 title game. Ole Miss would have to win out and have LSU lose a game. TCU will be in if it wins out because Michigan and Ohio State play. Tennessee will probably be the most interesting case. It will probably be 11-1 with a win over Alabama and the only loss to the nation's No. 1 team. It will not have a 13th game because it will not make the SEC title game unless Georgia loses to Mississippi State and Kentucky and that isn't going to happen. But the Vols path to the playoff is this:
Ole Miss loses to Bama
LSU loses to UGA in the SEC title game
TCU loses once
That could very well give us a playoff of Georgia, the Michigan/OSU winner, Tennessee and the PAC 12 champ. I don't think it's unlikely at all.
12) Five games I'll watch next week other than Mizzou/Tennessee:
LSU at Arkansas, 11 am
Alabama at Ole Miss, 2 pm, CBS
UCF at Tulane, 2:30
TCU at Texas, 6:30, ABC
North Carolina at Wake Forest (first one to 70 wins), 6:30, ESPN2
