Another week, another
flat Tennessee performance. Hell, let’s just start there….
Tennessee
lost by 33 points at home to Missouri and only had 173 yards through the air
against a Tiger pass defense that’s ranked 111th in the country
The only good thing about
that result is that hopefully it shuts up the Keller Chryst crowd who had been
going on about him like Pruitt was leaving the second coming of John Elway on
the bench (I’m looking right at you Zach McCamey). He was an “immortal” 7-19
with two interceptions, including a back-breaking pick right before the end of
the first half that completely murdered any chance the Vols had to get back
into the game. Not that it matters really, because Chryst won’t be an important
player going forward in this program; as a grad transfer, he’ll be gone after
the season, though he may be forced into action again this week in a must-win for
a bowl game against Vanderbilt if Guarantano can’t go due to injury.
Everyone seems to have
turned on Guarantano though, and I think that’s a shame. He’s spent his entire
tenure in Knoxville getting bludgeoned almost to death behind an abominable
offensive line while at the same time spending his early career being coached by Butch Jones, which I can’t imagine led to anything more than a few leadership reps for him. Everyone on the internet seems to think JT Shrout is the next Peyton Manning,
which makes no sense to me considering he was only a three star coming out of
high school. Like sure, I hope he’s great, but it’s not like we’re definitely
getting Andrew Luck or Aaron Rodgers here either. Until he steps on the field in a competitive game against guys who are trying to rip his head off, he's a complete unknown.
As far as the game, I
think Missouri is a really good team with an NFL quarterback that could be 9-2
right now. If they can pick up a single first down in the second half against Kentucky OR don’t have a
bogus PI call in the end zone that gave the Wildcats an extra play on their final drive, they win that
one. And if it doesn’t start raining harder than it did on the day of Noah’s
flood, they beat South Carolina and we’re talking about a potential Top Ten
team here that’s only losses would be to Alabama and Georgia. So I don’t think
there’s necessarily any shame in losing, but what sucks is that it literally
seems like it’s impossible for the Vols to put together good performances back
to back weeks or even back to back possession to possessions. I thought their corners were really bad on Saturday, but it’s not like front seven was any better… I mean, 227 rushing
yards? Ugh.
The reality is that this team
is exactly what we expected them to be: a borderline bowl team with a bad
O-Line and a defense that sometimes plays well and sometimes can’t stop a nose
bleed. Sure, beating an offensively challenged Kentucky team was nice, and so
was their road victory over Auburn, but the program still has a ton of work to
do before we can start to think about them competing for SEC Titles.
But hell, with the loss to
Mizzou, the Vols have been defeated by every Tennessee head coach after Fulmer
(Kiffin, Butch, and now Dooley, who is Missouri’s offensive coordinator). Does
that mean the curse is broken? Please?
Notre
Dame blasted Syracuse and are only a victory over a crappy USC team from making
the playoff
The Irish wore out
Flintstone’s character Dino Babers and Syracuse 36-3 in Yankee Stadium and now
have had only one game since September 22nd decided by less than ten
points. If the playoff rankings are the same in two weeks as they are right
now, then I expect to see Notre Dame in the National Championship Game because
I think they’d beat Clemson by two touchdowns in the semifinals.
Speaking of USC….
The
Trojans lost to a two win UCLA team as Clay Helton literally built his own coffin
on the sidelines
I’ve been on the “Clay
Helton is door-to-door used tube sock salesman” train all year, and his outright
botching of the Cal game last weekend coupled with their disastrous clunker against
an atrocious UCLA team should all but seal his fate as the Trojan head coach. USC
has lost to all three California Pac 12 schools (Stanford, UCLA, Cal) in the
same season for the first time since 1996, and when they get blown out by Notre
Dame next week, it’ll be the first time they’ve lost to all four of their
biggest rivals in the same year since 1991.
Their division, the Pac
12 South, is absolutely atrocious, with four of the six teams finishing with
losing conference records. You’d think that with as much talent as they have
that they’d be able to run through that thing almost unscathed, except for the
fact that they’re coached by Helton, who looks like a guy that would wear
sweatpants on a Valentine’s Day date in his forties.
Here’s the other thing
they’ve got to think about; sure, UCLA is awful now, but does anyone think that
Chip Kelly won’t get it turned around there? Of course he will, particularly
once he gets the right quarterback. You just lost to them AND they’ve got a
better head coach than you now AND an infinitely brighter future. You can’t let
them become THE team in L.A., right?
The only thing that might
save Helton is the fact that he signed a contract extension after last season,
which assuredly upped his buyout (since USC is a private institution, they don’t
have to publicize contract details. But the thinking is that it’s north of $10
million). But if they were tired of his ineptitude (and they should be), it
comes back to the question of who they would hire to replace him. And like we’ve
talked about before, there aren't any absolute home run candidates
out there this off-season.
Here are some names:
Matt Campbell, Iowa State
Campbell is only 38, and
yet, has been a head coach now for almost seven full seasons, and is on his way
to back to back bowl appearances at Iowa State, which is arguably the worst
Power 5 job in the country. He’s also beaten three Top 6 teams the last two
years. He’s basically James Franklin at Vanderbilt without the taking-himself-too-seriously
part. If I had an opening this off-season, he’d be the first person I’d call.
Dino Babers, Syracuse
Another guy who has
worked miracles at a really bad Power 5 job. Babers is only 57 but looks 37, has been a head coach for the last seven years, and gave Clemson one of the
only two losses they’ve suffered the last two seasons. Plus, he spent 17 years
of his coaching life on the West Coast as an assistant. The biggest problem in
hiring him would be the fact that his name makes him sound like he’s a
Flintstone’s character or a dinosaur. But he could also win ten games this
year! At Syracuse! They haven’t done that since 2001!
Hue Jackson
A total wildcard here,
but Hue is from Los Angeles, and no one would ever be able to question his offensive
acumen. Yes, yes, I know it didn’t work out with the Browns, but not even Bill
Belichick made it work there and he’s arguably the greatest NFL coach of all
time. Plus, the last time the Trojans hired a failed NFL coach (Pete Carroll),
they won two national titles and were the preeminent program in college football for about
three or four years. The concerns, of course, would be that he hasn’t shown
himself capable of being a quality head coach, either in Oakland or Cleveland,
and his best work has come as an offensive coordinator.
Of course, all of this is
probably trivial, because if they call Matt Campbell (and they should), I can’t
see any way he wouldn’t take the job.
Ohio
State and Michigan slogged through conference games before their huge showdown
next weekend in Columbus
I don’t really care if
the Buckeyes beat Michigan on Saturday (and I don’t think they will), they’re pretty
much a playoff cross off as far as I’m concerned because that’s an awful team
that’s only saved by the fact that Dwayne Haskins is an incredible quarterback.
If the Maryland QB makes an accurate throw on the run to a wide open receiver
in the end zone on the two point try in OT, then Ohio State loses by giving up
53 points and 535 yards of offense, including 339 on the ground. Sheesh! Those are Big 12 defensive numbers!
Michigan’s crap fest
performance against Indiana was weird, and the 385 yards they gave up snapped
their seven week streak of giving up less than 300 yards a game, but they at
least controlled the second half of that game and won by 11 points. It’s their
first real clunker since the first quarter of the Notre Dame game back in Week
1.
Let’s put it this way; I
never thought for a moment that Michigan was going to lose, whereas Ohio State
felt imminently beatable, and frankly, feels beatable all the time. It really
seemed like Maryland’s Anthony McFarland who
had 298 rushing yards on only 21 carries could’ve busted one for 80 yards
any time he wanted to.
And for the hundredth
time in this space, how bad does Urban Meyer look on the sidelines? Good lord.
Every time they showed him on the sidelines he was bent over in agony with his
hands on either his knees or his head. He literally looks like he’s filming
Crank 3 on the sidelines, only instead of him needing to keep his heart rate
up, the villain has instead replaced his brain with a baked potato and he needs
to figure out a way to keep that thing warm at all times. Are we sure he doesn’t
just go into the locker room at halftime and stick his head in the microwave? Because
that’s what it’s looked like.
Regardless, I think the
Wolverines go into Columbus and thump the Buckeyes on Saturday by three
touchdowns, which would be their first win at Ohio State since 2000. This is
perhaps the biggest hurdle that Jim Harbaugh is going to have to get over if he
wants to be considered a success at Michigan.
Teams
still alive for the playoff
Like always, every two loss
or more Power 5 team is eliminated, while every Group of 5 team is also out
because none of them play a difficult enough schedule to be under
consideration.
I count just 8 teams remaining
(* by the undefeated teams)
SEC: *Alabama, Georgia
Big Ten: Michigan, Ohio
State (barely)
Big 12: Oklahoma
ACC: *Clemson
Pac 12: Washington State
Independents: *Notre Dame
West Virginia was the
only team that dropped out this week, thanks to their inability to hold a 17
point lead at Oklahoma State due to their crappy defense. What could be bad for
the Big 12 is if Oklahoma goes to WVU this Friday night and loses in a game
that will be in the mid 30s at kickoff. I think the cold weather favors OU, who
definitely the more run-heavy team, but West Virginia could easily win solely because
they could get the ball last, score, and go up 45-44 in a game where there
will assuredly be no defense. And even if OU wins, they’ll get a rematch with
Texas for the Big 12 Championship. Back in October the Longhorns scored 48
points against them and gained 501 yards. So that’ll be a tough one for them also.
Alabama struggled with
The Citadel for a half for reasons that remain unclear, before opening it up
for a 33 point victory thanks to a dominant second half performance. They
shouldn’t have any trouble with Auburn in the Iron Bowl (it’s the second
largest point spread for an Iron Bowl ever), and I suspect they’ll beat Georgia in
what could be a very good SEC Title Game.
Clemson will blast South
Carolina and Pittsburgh the next two weeks, go undefeated, and make the playoff
for the fourth straight year. They have the easiest remaining schedule of any
team not named Notre Dame.
Michigan-Ohio State is an
elimination game and determines the winner of the Big Ten East. The winner gets
a four loss Northwestern squad in the Big Ten Title Game. Not scary.
Here’s the most important
question: what happens if Ohio State, Oklahoma, Washington State, Clemson,
Alabama, and Notre Dame all win out? If you replace Ohio State with Michigan in
this question, then we know our playoff is going to be Alabama-Clemson-Notre
Dame-Michigan. But if Michigan drops out then that fourth spot is wide open.
Would you take an OU or OSU team, both of whom have fantastic quarterbacks but
couldn’t stop a team of deaf blind lepers? Or would you take what is clearly
the most balanced of the three, Washington State, Mike Leach, his crazy pirate
ass, and Gardner Minshew’s mustache? The Cougars put up more than 50 points before half on Arizona on Saturday
night, and are only a win in the Apple Cup against Washington and a victory
over Utah in the Pac 12 Championship Game away from finishing 12-1. The
argument against them, of course, would be that they played in the worst league
of the three contenders, and I also don’t think the committee will ignore the
fact that it’s Washington State, which is far inferior as a brand compared to
Ohio State and Oklahoma. So I don’t think they’ll get in unless Northwestern
wins the Big Ten and the Big 12 champ has two or more losses. Seems improbable.
Shame.
My
Top 4
Alabama
A bad first half against
The Citadel doesn’t undo the fact that the Tide have won every game by at least
22 points so far this season.
Notre Dame
I bumped the Irish back
up over Michigan due to the Wolverines lackluster performance against IU at
home compared to Notre Dame’s demolition of Syracuse on a neutral field. I
think it’s a coin flip between those two for the second best team in the
country.
Michigan
Michigan had their worst
defensive performance of the year on Saturday against Indiana (385 yards given up), but they
also gained over 500 and won by 11.
Washington State
Why the hell not? They
aren’t going to make it probably, but if who would you rather see in the
playoff than Mike Leach?
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