It was another awesome
weekend of college football; LSU-Florida lived up to expectations, Georgia did
not in spectacular fashion, and Tennessee got their first conference win since
November 10th of last year.
Let’s start with the Vols….
I wrote more about
Tennessee on Saturday, but the overarching points were that 1. I was
surprised they won 2. The defense was awesome (but achieved that against what
is a pretty limited Mississippi State offense0 and 3. This program has enough
horses to put a competent product on the field every week, except at the quarterback
position, which is the reason this team is now 2-4 instead of 4-2.
I’m not throwing a parade
for the Vols or Jeremy Pruitt, and nobody should, because it’s Mississippi State,
and at Tennessee, that’s a game you should win, but if this is the first step/brick
in this program restoring itself to prominence, then great. However, just
because they beat Mississippi State doesn’t mean that it translates to them beating Florida next year (which, hell, I don’t know, would be a nice thing to happen
on a regular basis AND should also be the expectation of Tennessee fans) or being
competitive at Alabama next week.
As I wrote last Friday,
there’s not a game left on the schedule outside of Alabama that Tennessee can’t
win. South Carolina beat Georgia (more on that later) but they are now on their
third string quarterback, only scored one offensive touchdown, and were shut out
in the second half. Kentucky barely beat Arkansas on Saturday night, Vanderbilt
got blown out by UNLV this weekend (yikes!), and Missouri is probably better than
the Vols, but also lost on the road at Wyoming earlier in the year. Throw in
what should be a victory over UAB, and Tennessee has a great shot to finish 6-6,
go to a bowl game, and salvage what looked like assuredly a disastrous year
only a few weeks ago.
Georgia
Crapped The Bed Against South Carolina
The Gamecocks really went
into Sanford Stadium and beat the Dawgs despite scoring one offensive touchdown,
playing their third string quarterback for almost the entirety of the second
half, missing two potential game winning field goals, getting outgained 468-297,
achieving 14 fewer first downs, and losing the time of possession battle 36:04-23:56.
How? Four Georgia turnovers in crucial moments, including three Jake Fromm
interceptions, the first of which was returned for a touchdown.
Georgia’s
automatic kicker Rodrigo Blankenship pushed his game tying field goal attempt
in the second overtime wide left, and also had another kick blocked in regulation.
Fromm hadn’t been picked off a single time this season; Blankenship has probably
never missed two kicks in the same game. Wow.
The Bulldogs also had the
ball on the edge of Blankenship’s field goal range at the end of regulation
with no timeouts, but rather than sending him out for the 50+ yarder, they chose
to run a couple of plays, the last of which led to an illegal motion that took
them back five yards and took a field goal off the table.
What a Georgia choke job
here. With how the Braves season ended last Wednesday, coupled with the Falcons
starting 1-5 and losing to a bad Arizona team yesterday on a missed extra
point, I don’t know how the fans of the Georgia sports teams can even get out
of bed this morning.
The Dawgs aren’t eliminated
from playoff contention obviously, because they could still run the table, win
the SEC, and finish 12-1, but whatever argument they had for making it as a
non-conference champ is gone now.
LSU
Beat Florida By Two Touchdowns
The Tigers gained 511
yards of offense, including 218 on the ground, and scored three touchdowns in
each half to knock off the Gators 42-28. Florida’s Kyle Trask actually had more
passing yards than LSU’s Joe Burrow (310 to 293), but he didn’t get quite the
same support from his defense, which was basically a wet paper bag all night. Not
that LSU’s defense was incredible either; they did give up 457 yards.
Florida isn’t technically
done as a playoff contender, but they have the same problem that Georgia does now, which is that they’re going to have to win out and capture the conference title to be considered for the playoff.
I don’t think they’re even close to being capable of pulling that off.
LSU-Alabama in a couple
weeks has a chance to be the highest scoring game ever between these two teams. The previous
record is 75 points, which happened in 2007, when the Tigers beat the Tide
41-34. Both teams have the most explosive offensives they’ve probably ever had,
coupled with pretty mediocre defenses, at least by the standards of their schools.
Alabama should make it to that game undefeated, as they get Tennessee and Arkansas
at home the next two weeks. LSU’s path is a bit murkier. They travel to
Mississippi State next week in a game they should win, but then host Auburn on October
26th. They’re better than both teams on that schedule, but there’s no
guarantee they’ll make it through unscathed, particularly not against Auburn, who has already pulled off three good wins in 2019.
I’ve said this all season;
if there was ever a year for LSU and Ed Orgeron to beat Saban and Alabama, 2019
would be it. Orgeron has a Heisman-level quarterback that will get to go up
against the worst Saban defense since his first year in 2007. Do I think they’re
going to go to Tuscaloosa and win? Nope. But if there were ever a year….
Oklahoma
Won The Red River Rivalry
The Sooners are now in
the driver’s seat for the Big 12 Championship AND a playoff spot. Oklahoma only
beat Texas by 7 points, but they led by two touchdowns late and would’ve been
up by more if not for back to back redzone turnovers by Jalen Hurts in the
first half. The Sooners outgained the Longhorns 511 to 310, and got a great
showing from their defense, particularly in the first half. If Oklahoma has solved
their defensive issues, we could be talking about the national title coming
back to Norman for the first time since 2000. They’ve had the best offense in
the country, with arguably the most inventive play caller in all of football,
Lincoln Riley the last two years, only their defense was so bad (particularly
last season) that they needed to score 50 against good teams to win. But if their
defense is as good as it was on Saturday (they only gave up three first half points),
then this is the best Oklahoma team Riley has had, and they’ll be terrifying for anyone in a playoff game.
The Sooners only have one
game left on their schedule against a ranked team, at Baylor on November 16th.
Of all the remaining playoff contenders, they have the easiest road.
USC
Only Lost By Three To Notre Dame
Meaning, sadly, my “Bet
The Mortgage Pick Of The Week” streak stopped at two. I’m heartbroken. Maybe I
should scrap the segment all together. The lesson, as always: I’m an idiot.
As for this game, at
least the Trojans are continuing to play hard for Clay Helton. I guess even the
guy who should be working behind the counter at a 7 Eleven can get the troops
riled up for Notre Dame. Of course, if they can still get jacked up for Clay
Helton, imagine how excited they’ll be when Urban Meyer is their coach next
year.
Clemson
Blew Out Florida State While Alabama Handled Texas A&M
Alabama’s blowout win on
Saturday dropped Jimbo Fisher to a paltry 17-13 in his last 30 games as a head
coach. For context, Jimbo was 78-17 in his first 95 games as head coach. Has
the man lost his fastball? Are the A&M people at least sweating a little
bit about the 10 year, $75 million contract they gave him before last season?
Look at how atrocious the
Florida State program that he left behind is. Granted, Willie Taggart should
never be on the sidelines as the head coach of a major football program, but they
certainly don’t have close to the same talent now as they did five or six years
ago. A lot of the contributors on Taggart’s FSU teams the last two years are
holdovers from the Fisher era. Jimbo left a barer than it should’ve been cupboard
in Tallahassee, and now he’s gone 12-7 (and 6-5 in conference play!) thru his
first 19 games in College Station. They’ve given him a lot of money thus far for
mediocre results. It’s a good thing they fully guaranteed his contract, meaning
they owe him $75 million whether he gets it figured out or not!
Teams
Still Alive For The Playoff
As always, every Power 5
team is still technically alive as long as they have 1 loss or less, with the
exception of the ACC this season, which is such an awful league that a single defeat
eliminates you (* by the undefeated teams).
ACC: *Clemson
How bad is the ACC? Virginia,
the supposed second best team, lost on Friday night to a 2-3 Miami team. Wake
Forest, who was the only remaining ranked team on Clemson’s schedule, gave up
62 points to an average to below average Louisville team and lost.
Clemson seems to have
righted the ship a bit by blowing out FSU, but they still haven’t shown themselves
to be one of the four best teams yet.
Big Ten: *Ohio State,
*Penn State, *Wisconsin, *Minnesota, Michigan
We’ll be able to cross Michigan
off the list next week because they’re going to lose at Penn State on Saturday.
Minnesota is the surprise in the league this season, and they beat the hell out
of Nebraska this weekend.
(Side note: how do the Nebraska
fans feel right now? Scott Frost was the savior, the Messiah, but he’s just 8-11
through 19 games as the head coach there and has been blown out two times in
three weeks. He’s not getting fired, and no one in the Nebraska athletic department is considering it, but jeez, they aren’t
close to being contenders in their own division, much less in their conference
or on the national stage)
There’s still enough games
left on the schedule between these unbeaten teams that we’ll have more clarity about
this conference’s playoff standing in a few weeks.
Big 12: *Oklahoma,
*Baylor
This is the best Baylor
team since Art Briles got fired, but come on, they aren’t running the table, winning
the Big 12, or going to the playoff. Oklahoma is the Big 12’s only hope.
SEC: *Alabama, *LSU,
Auburn, Georgia, Florida, Missouri
Much like the Big 10, we’ll
have more clarity with this league in a few weeks. One thing that has changed
though is that the only teams who could make the playoff without winning the
SEC now are LSU and Alabama. LSU’s case for that took a bit of a hit with Texas
losing for the second time this weekend. Alabama realistically doesn’t have a
case for that unless there’s a ton of carnage at the top because they don’t
have any impressive out of conference wins.
Pac 12: Utah, Arizona
State, Oregon
Arizona State is at Utah
this weekend, meaning we’ll have AT MOST two teams in the Pac 12 alive after this
weekend. That’s assuming that Oregon is able to win at Washington this weekend.
If the Ducks can’t pull it off, the Pac 12’s chances are hanging by a thread.
Realistically, the conference wants Utah and Oregon (Utah because the Ducks
play Arizona State in November) to win this weekend, run the table, and meet in
the Pac 12 Championship Game with both teams at 11-1. The winner moves to 12-1
and has another quality win. Would that be enough? Probably not unless again,
there’s a lot of carnage up top.
My
Top 4
1.
LSU
The
Tigers have been the most impressive team thus far. Does that mean they’ll beat Alabama in November? Probably not.
2.
Oklahoma
If
the Sooners defense can hold up, they’ve got everything they need to win a
national championship.
3.
Ohio State
The
Buckeyes were off this week, but I’ll leave them here for now. They get
Wisconsin in Columbus in a few weeks. That one should be fun.
4.
Alabama
Tua
now has the most touchdown passes (81) in Alabama history. Impressive for a guy
that’s only played in 22 games.
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