It was another exciting Saturday of college football, despite the lack of quality on the on-paper schedule coming into the weekend. Of course, it’s hard for me to come away
disappointed from a weekend if Tennessee wins, no matter their competition.
Let’s
just start there….
Vols
Crushed UAB in a game they had to win on the way to bowl eligibility
I wrote about Tennessee's victory on Saturday night, but this was a game they had to win. I can’t imagine
the blowback for Jeremy Pruitt and the program if the Vols lost to both Georgia State and UAB in the
same season. I don't think they'd let Pruitt set foot in Gus's ever again.
The quarterback play was
really strong last week against South Carolina, but regressed to the mean on
Saturday. Part of that can be attributed to Jarrett Guarantano playing with a broken
hand, but if JG was like 50%, then why weren’t the Vols playing JT Shrout more? Are we not going to see Maurer again this season due to his multiple
concussions? And is JG still continuing to play as much as he is because the quarterback job is his to lose going into next season? All
of this is probably moot if Harrison Bailey comes next season and performs as well
as we all hope he does, but if he's not ready, then we could be in for another season of inconsistent quarterback play and multiple in game changes a week.
The Vols really are just
a quarterback, and probably another wave or two of recruits, away from being able to compete with Georgia and Florida in the SEC East. The cupboard was never as bare as everyone made it out to be, it was just that the quarterback play was
so awful that it kept the rest of the roster from reaching its potential.
Tennessee just has to
find a way to go 2-1 in their final three games to become bowl eligible for the
first time since 2016. It starts on Saturday at Kentucky, a team they’ve only
lost to twice since 1985. Win that one (and they should), and they’ll get their
bye week before traveling to Missouri and hosting Vanderbilt. Frankly, with as well as they've played, the Vols could very easily win all three of these games, and finish with a winning
record in conference play for the first time since 2015. Could they make a
January 1 Bowl Game with a 5-3 conference record? That should be the goal.
Florida
State fired Willie Taggart yesterday
And with his termination,
thus ends the tenure of one of my favorite college football punching bags. Sigh. You’ll be
missed coach. Hey Willie, I think Saban will probably hire you… to bring Butch
Jones coffee.
With all that said, I was
surprised the ‘Noles pulled the plug as quickly as they did. Don’t get me wrong,
I thought from the jump that Taggart was an awful hire for them (he had losing career
record as a head coach before he got to Tallahassee), and was proven right time
and time again, but from their perspective, he got less than two seasons and is
now owed like $18 million in a buyout. Holy crap. Florida State has money, but
they’re not Tennessee or Alabama either, and that’s an enormous price to pay
for a guy that lasted 21 games.
Unbelievably, it gets even worse. Back in 2017, not only did the ‘Noles agree to pay Taggart’s
$3 million buyout at Oregon, making way for him to come to Tallahassee, but they also
agreed to pay the $1.3 million that
Oregon owed South Florida for Taggart’s buyout there, after he left USF in
2016. So all in all, the ‘Noles are going to pay more than $20 million in
buyouts for a coach that won them 9 games. Willie may be a middle school
janitor masquerading as a head coach, but that guy knows how to hire one hell
of an agent.
My Angry Old Man’s Take: “That’s
financial malpractice of the highest order. The folks responsible for hiring and
firing coaches so quickly need to be shown the door also. Yes, Taggart was a
disaster. But somebody hired him and that person must be accountable for that.”
And when I told him that Stan Wilcox, the AD that hired him, no longer works at
FSU but now has a job at the NCAA, he said, “Of course. An incompetent guy at
FSU gets a promotion to the NCAA office. Lol”. Then he went back to stuffing
his face with Cheetos and sleeping at the same time.
Who should the ‘Noles
hire? Kentucky’s Mark Stoops is a pretty obvious choice. He has FSU ties (he
was their defensive coordinator from 2010-2012), he guided the 2018 Wildcats to
their first ten win season since 1977, and his buyout if he left Kentucky would
only be $1.75 million. The downside, of course, is that he’s been at UK since
2013 and has a losing career record at 40-43. He’s an even worse 19-35 in the
SEC.
How is that going to play
with the FSU faithful? “Hey fans, that Willie Taggart thing didn’t work out. We
should’ve known that a guy who had a losing record as a head coach wouldn’t be
a good hire. Which is why we’ve decided to hire…. Mark Stoops! (silence). What’s
that? He has a losing record as a head coach too? What? Really? Damn. At least he started displaying the mythical 1950 Kentucky National Championship Trophy in their football complex. THAT'S A GUY THAT KNOWS HOW TO SELL HIS PROGRAM!”
With that said, from Stoops’s
perspective, he would 100% take the job if offered. Why would he choose to stay
at a worse job with tougher competition, Kentucky, when he could go to a better
job with easier competition? He wouldn’t.
Now I get it, Stoops isn’t the
most attractive name (or with that gut, most attractive guy), but they aren’t
going to get Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops to come to Tallahassee either, which means a
guy like Stoops might be their best bet. Matt Campbell at Iowa State is another
guy that’s name always pops up this time of year, but his buyout is $6 million, and I
don’t think the ‘Noles would want to pay that. PJ Fleck has Minnesota
undefeated, so I’m sure they’ll kick the tires on him as well. Matt Rhule at Baylor
is another name to watch, but his name has been in NFL rumors the last two
years, and that seems like where he wants to end up ultimately. If I had to
make a prediction now, less than 24 hours into the process, I’d say it’ll be Mark
Stoops, despite the whole losing record thing.
Another name to keep an
eye on: Lane Kiffin. I know I know, but why the hell not? He’s still young
(only 44!), he’s been coaching in Florida for the last three years, he’s proven
himself to be a capable recruiter, and he even rebuilt his reputation a lot
during his stint as Alabama’s offensive coordinator. I get it, it didn’t work
at USC (and may not have worked long term at Tennessee), but that was a while
ago and he’s definitely matured as a guy since then, Joey Freshwater stories
notwithstanding. The problem with hiring Kiffin is that you’re either going to hit a home run, or ground into a double play, with no in between. You either win
multiple ACC Championships and compete for national titles, or you get put on
probation after two years and are doing another coaching search in 2021.
Scott
Frost… sheesh
The Cornhuskers dropped
to 4-5 on Saturday, and 8-13 overall, with Scott Frost, the favored son and
most handsome man college football, in charge of the program. Nebraska’s loss
on Saturday was particularly egregious; they gave up 31 points and 449 yards to
a 2-6 Purdue team that was playing their true freshman third string quarterback.
The Huskers need to win
two of their final three to go bowling, but that will be a tall task, as they play
both Wisconsin and Iowa in the final three weeks. Willie Taggart just got fired
at FSU for going 9-12 through 21 games, and everyone agreed that he was a bad
hire and was going to be gone sooner rather than later. Frost has a worse
record than that, and in 2019, has two Big Ten wins, over conference “stalwarts”
Illinois and Northwestern.
Scott Frost is the Joey from
Friends of coaches. He’s the handsome idiot who gets dumber the more he’s
exposed to the spotlight. I’m not a big Friends guy, but all these shows have
to write these characters into even more extreme versions of themselves the
longer the show goes on. Joey was so dumb by the end of the series that it became unbelievable
that he could actually function as an adult. Like I'm not even sure Joey could put his socks on by himself by the time the show reached Season 9. Frost has butchered this Nebraska
situation so badly that I can’t believe everyone (including myself) thought it
was a good hire back in 2017. Not being able to put your socks on as an adult is the football equivalent to losing to a 2-6 Purdue team starting their third string quarterback.
Georgia
held on against Florida to win the Cocktail Party and bascially wrap up their third
straight East Division title
The Georgia defense swallowed
up the Gator offense, and as predicted, held them to only 21 yards on the ground.
Meanwhile, the Florida defense gave up 12 third down conversions and let the ‘Dawgs
hold the ball for almost 36 minutes.
Jake Fromm threw for close to 300 yards, and Georgia even managed to rush for more than 100 yards against
the stout Gator front.
The path from here for Georgia
is simple; they have to win out to make the playoff. This means they’ll need to
find a way to solve the Alabama puzzle, or beat LSU’s high-flying offense in the
SEC Championship Game AND win on the road at Auburn on November 16th.
I would be shocked if they pulled both of those things off.
For Florida, the best thing
they can do now is to win out, finish the year 10-2, and hope to get invited to
a New Years Six Bowl Game for the second straight year. If they did that, Florida
fans would have to consider Dan Mullen’s first two years successful, even with the
fact that they haven’t beaten Georgia yet. He’s going to have to find a way to
do that eventually, but the problem he’s going to face in the immediate future is finding the right
quarterback. At this point, that guy isn't on the Florida roster. Kyle Trask is
serviceable, but again, no coach in the country snaps awake at night, clutching
a teddy bear, scared about how they’re going to deal with him. Feleipe Franks
will be back next year as well, but come on, that guy has been a turnover waiting
to happen his entire Gator career.
Oh, and thanks to this
game, our “Bet The Mortgage Pick Of The Week” hit for the fifth time in six tries.
We were all over the under. I’ve made everyone so much money this year. Hell,
can I get a cut of those winnings?
Teams
Still Alive For The Playoff
As always, you’re still in
contention for the playoff as long as you are in a Power 5 league and have one
loss or fewer, with the exception of the ACC, which is such a garbage league
this year that one loss eliminates you (undefeated teams marked with an *)
ACC: *Clemson
The Tigers beat the hell
out of… Wofford this weekend and will now hit the “toughest” stretch of their season. I have no idea how they’ll handle NC State… ON THE ROAD this weekend.
Then they get the powerful and frightening WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS in their building,
before finish with South Carolina on the road, a game they haven’t lost since
2013. What a garbage schedule.
Big Ten: *Ohio State, *Penn
State, *Minnesota
Penn State travels to
Minnesota on Saturday for the biggest game in the modern history of the Gopher
program. Even if Minnesota wins, they still have to play both Iowa and
Wisconsin in the final three weeks of the season, and then beat either Ohio State
or Penn State in the Big Ten Championship Game. Seems like a more impossible task than whatever John Wick pulled off. I’ve
said all year that the Big Ten will be decided on November 23rd when
the Nittany Lions travel to Columbus to play Ohio State.
Big 12: *Baylor, Oklahoma
These two play each other
in Waco on November 16th in a game that will be for first place in the
conference. If Baylor can win that one, I think we’ll have to start taking them
seriously as a playoff contender. If they lose, I think that virtually eliminates
them, because the eye test wouldn’t indicate to anyone that they’re one of the
four best teams, even if they do end up rebounding and winning the Big 12 at
12-1. But they’re not going to get left out at 13-0. Oklahoma needs to win out,
and get some carnage up top. We’re talking about multiple two loss teams. Otherwise,
everyone is going to hold that horrible defensive performance against Kansas
State against them, which further perpetuated the true notion that their
defense is terrible.
SEC: *LSU, *Alabama, Georgia
LSU and Alabama play each
other in Tuscaloosa on Saturday in what will be the Tigers best chance to win
this game since 2011. The loser on Saturday isn’t eliminated on Saturday, but
they’ll need some things to break their way to make it. Alabama would need more
help than LSU due to their lackluster schedule. Georgia has to win out to make
it, though if they did that, and beat an undefeated LSU or Alabama in the SEC
Championship Game, that wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the Western Division
team that is 12-1, or the Western Division team that is 11-1. The SEC has a
good chance to get multiple teams again, like they did in 2017.
Pac 12: Oregon, Utah
The Ducks and Utes played
their best games of the year on Saturday by going on the road and winning comfortably.
Washington scored a garbage time TD against Utah, or otherwise that would’ve
been a double digit game.
The big winner from
Saturday was Oregon. The Ducks, after trailing 10-0 to USC in the first half,
finished the game on a 56-14 run and flushed the Clay Helton era down one of the
Coliseum toilets. Oregon finally looked like one of the five or six best teams
in the country, and they’ve got to be kicking themselves every day that they
blew that stupid Auburn game that they dominated for 58 of the 60 minutes.
Otherwise, they’re 9-0 now and would probably be in the Playoff Committee’s
first top 4 that comes out tomorrow. I think they’ve got a better chance to
make the playoff as a one loss conference champion than Oklahoma does at this point
(I think the committee would pick Oklahoma over Utah though).
Here are the Oregon and
Utah schedules the last three weeks:
Oregon: Arizona, @Arizona
State, Oregon State
Utah: UCLA, @Arizona,
Colorado
The Ducks and Utes should
be favored in all of their last three games, and as long as they don’t screw it
up, they should both be 11-1 when they
meet for the Pac 12 Championship in early December, with a potential playoff
berth on the line.
My
Top 4
1.
Ohio State
2.
LSU
3.
Alabama
4.
Penn State
No comments:
Post a Comment