The Week In Football: Tennessee Wins, LSU Asserts Themselves, And Oklahoma Rises

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 10^th 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 26^th. 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 16^th. 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.

Brick By Brick: The Jeremy Pruitt Edition

Hell has frozen over. Somehow, some way, the Tennessee Vols won a conference game.

Despite being terrified to throw the football for most of the game (they only attempted 14 passes), they were able to run the ball for 190 yards and benefited from their best defensive performance of the season (3 interceptions, 7 sacks). They held SEC leading rusher Kylin Hill to 13 yards on 11 carries, and most importantly (and shockingly), scored the game-clinching touchdown on a 9 play, 91 yard drive, their best offensive series of the season.

I’m not going to overreact here now and start expecting Tennessee to run the table or anything, because let’s be honest, Mississippi State is not a good team, and this was a sloppy game. Brian Maurer threw two interceptions in the endzone, and when he left the game due to injury and was replaced by Guarantano, Jeremy Pruitt would’ve rather been lobotomized right there on the sidelines than let JG throw. Mississippi State was even worse; they’re really bad offensively if they can’t get the ground game going, and the Tennessee defense was more than happy to let Tommy Stevens and Garrett Shrader sit back and throw the ball right to them.

There are enough athletes on this Vol team for them to be 4-2, or at least have the capability of putting a quality product on the field every week. The only thing holding them back seems to be the lack of consistent quarterback play. There are still questions about the coaching staff (they’re still just 2-4 guys), but if the quarterback play was better today, Tennessee wins 34-10 and we feel even better now than we already do. Of course, if the quarterback play was good against Georgia State and BYU, they’re 4-2 and we’re thinking about a potential berth in January Bowl Game. Like I wrote yesterday, there’s a lot of pressure on incoming freshman Harrison Bailey to be the guy immediately for this team next year, because Jeremy Pruitt, even if this team rallies and gets to 6-6, will have a lot of pressure to win on him going into 2020. As in, he probably needs to go 8-4 to keep his job. Betting on Bailey being the guy as a true freshman is a lot to ask.

Regardless, today was a nice win. I’m happy I don’t have to come on here once again and rip everything about the program. I did have a little “uh oh” moment when Mississippi State scored to cut the score to 13-10. We’ve all seen Tennessee lose games like this a million times. You know, the ones where they have a double digit lead, but really could be up by more, and because they didn’t take advantage of their opportunities earlier in the game, the opposing squad scores twice late and wins. You could feel the energy in the stadium change when the Bulldogs scored that touchdown. I could feel the inevitable choke job coming. But then that 91 yard drive happened, completely unexpectedly honestly, particularly since, again, Pruitt would’ve rather swallowed a live grenade than let JG throw.

I can accept “Brick by Brick” if all the building eventually leads to Tennessee returning to prominence and living up to expectations. It still remains to be seen if that’s where this is going, but for today, we can celebrate the fact that the rest of our weekends aren’t ruined by another Tennessee meltdown.

Tennessee's Bowl Game Hopes Are On Life Support, Plus Week 7 College Football Picks

This might be the best college football weekend of the year thus far, as we’ve got two top 11 matchups between heated rivals (Texas-Oklahoma, Florida-LSU), plus the once every two years event where Nick Saban travels to Texas A&M and attempts to not sweat his hair plugs out.

As always, we’ll start with Tennessee. Unfortunately.

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The Vols host a very beatable Mississippi State team tomorrow at noon, a game that for most of Tennessee’s football history would be imminently winnable. The Vols haven’t played the Bulldogs since they lost to them in 2012, a game that spawned that immortal Derek Dooley picture above, but before that, they had beaten them six times in a row and nine times out of ten.

(Side note: the fact that Tennessee hasn’t played one of their conference opponents in seven years is a damn joke. Butch Jones began building brick by brick more recently than the Vols have played Mississippi State. Hell, the Bulldogs haven’t been to Knoxville since 2008! Phillip Fulmer was the head coach then. Get it together SEC. Let’s start playing nine conference games. I’m not old enough to remember when the Vols would play Auburn every year, but I also know that was a fun rivalry that the fans from both sides would look forward to. Now, since Tennessee played them last year, the Tigers won’t be back on the schedule until 2025. 2025! What the hell is that? Even worse, Tennessee won’t be at Auburn again until sometime in 2030s. The league and the fans really think that its acceptable for their teams to go 15 years between road games at one opponent? Stop with this “gauntlet" nonsense and actually give your fans and television viewers matchups that they want to see. You do that when you play nine conference games. The fact that Alabama-Ole Miss was the best SEC game and thus got the CBS slot a couple weeks ago is a joke. The television partners are probably the ones that are going to have to start demanding more marquee matchups, because the TV money speaks louder than anything.)

Mississippi State comes into this one off their bye week after they got shellacked at Auburn by 30+ on September 28. Meanwhile, the Vols (or mostly, their fans) are fresh off patting themselves on the back after they played one decent half against Georgia, only to get run off the field in the second half and not being competitive at all after the intermission. Brian Maurer gets the start at quarterback for the second straight week; it’ll be interesting to see if Pruitt sticks with him the entire time or opts to bring Guarantano in for no reason at all.

Vol fans, hell Jeremy Pruitt even, are staking a lot on incoming freshman Harrison Bailey being the guy at quarterback. That’s a lot of weight on an 18 year old guy's shoulders, particularly before he’s even set foot on campus. Maurer is an unknown at this point; maybe he’s the guy, maybe he’s not, but I wouldn’t bet on him being the starter in 2020 if Bailey is ready to play/is decent.

If Tennessee was 3-2 like they realistically should be, I’d feel pretty confident about this one, especially considering the Bulldogs aren’t a good squad and will be fighting like crazy just to get to 6-6. Instead, Tennessee is 1-4 and haven’t even been able to put together a single good half from start to finish yet this season. Don’t give me the first half of Georgia last week; they were down by 12 at halftime.

Who the Bulldogs decide to go with at quarterback is still a mystery; both Tommy Stevens and freshman Garrett Shrader have played well at times, though it was the latter who showed more signs of life against Auburn two weeks ago, as he passed for over 200 yards and ran for 89 and a touchdown. Tennessee will probably see both under center, though Pruitt said earlier in the week that he doesn’t think there’s much of a difference between the two based on what he’s seen on film. Of course, this is same guy that couldn’t figure out how to beat Georgia State despite having superior talent AND having the game in his own stadium in front of his own fans, so maybe we don’t have a great reason to trust his evaluation.

If the Vols are going to get it turned around and make a push for a bowl game, this would be the week to do it. At Alabama next Saturday is going to be a predictable slaughter, but there isn’t a “scary” game on this schedule outside of that one. South Carolina only has two wins, and they’ll be coming to Knoxville. Kentucky is terrible, Vanderbilt is even worse, and while Missouri is definitely a better team, they haven’t beaten anyone of quality yet this season, and the most signature moment of their year was losing on the road at Wyoming. Of course, the Vols have never beaten a Will Muschamp-coached team, and Vanderbilt has knocked them three years in a row (I know, and yes, General Neyland rolls around violently in his grave every time that is brought up) They’ll have to find a way to go 5-2 in their last seven, and one of those is already a definite loss at Alabama, meaning they really need to go 5-1 to get to 6-6. Who out there realistically believes, based on what they’ve seen so far, that this team can do that? 3-9 feels way more likely, unless Brian Maurer is Josh Dobbs 2.0. And even then it's still a longshot.

With Tennessee, I’ve learned to always expect the worst.

Prediction: Mississippi State

Now, onto the rest of the slate….

Bet The Mortgage Pick Of The Week

I’m just going to start doing this every week since I’ve hit on them two weeks in a row and made everyone thousands of dollars, except for myself, since I didn’t take on my own gambling advice. Like always, I’m an idiot.

This week, it’s #9 Notre Dame, who is at home and favored by 10.5 over USC. The Trojans have lost 7 of their last 11 under Clay Helton, who is assuredly going to get fired sometime in November, if not sooner. Meanwhile, the Irish have only lost two games over the last two seasons, to Clemson in the playoff last December, and on the road at Georgia by six a few weeks ago. 

USC is ready to roll over here; they have nothing to play for besides Clay Helton's job security, which is funny, because if I was on that team, I’d probably love a coaching change. I mean, why continue to be coached by a high school janitor when you can be coached by Urban Meyer next year? Are we sure there isn’t a rich USC booster who is paying the players to tank? “Hey Kedon Slovis, you want 50 grand? Make sure you throw about four or five balls right into Notre Dame’s hands tomorrow. 50 isn’t enough to embarrass yourself on national TV? Fine, fine… does your mother like diamonds?”

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has a lot to play for because they still feel like they have an outside shot of making the playoff again. Losing to a crappy USC team kills any chance of that. Every Irish win this season has been by at least 15 points, and some of those wins are against teams like Virginia, who are better than the Trojans.

Prediction: Notre Dame 35, USC 14

South Carolina at #3 Georgia

Will Muschamp has beaten Georgia, his alma mater, just once in seven tries as a head coach, and is 0-3 at South Carolina against them. He’s going to be 0-4 after tomorrow when his team gets slaughtered by about four touchdowns.

That’ll drop him to 2-4 in his pivotal fourth year. I say pivotal, because not only is he going to get fired if he has a bad year, but there’s also a pretty good chance he’ll never get a head coaching job again, at least not at the Power 5 level, if he gets fired. This would be two pretty big swings and misses and two places, Florida and South Carolina, who have high expectations. Assuming Muschamp needs to be 6-6 and make a bowl game to keep his job, he’d need to go 4-2 against this slate: home for Florida, at Tennessee, home for Vanderbilt, home for Appalachian State, at Texas A&M, home for Clemson. Three of those teams are ranked, and the other three are pretty winnable, meaning he’d need to take care of business in all of his winnable games and pull at least one upset. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect the Gamecocks to win at A&M, or for them to beat Clemson in the last week of the season, meaning the Florida game at home next Saturday is key. If he were to lose that one, they’d drop to 2-5 and ole Will might be getting his walking papers as he’s coming off the field. Again, this is assuming that he just needs to go 6-6 to keep his job. Are we sure the powers at South Carolina would be okay with one 9 win season in four years? Another year around .500? They’ve got to be looking down the road to Clemson, a team in their own state that has won two national championships in the last three seasons and been in the playoff four years in a row and wonder, “Why the hell are we not even close to that?” So I think he gets the axe sometime in November, maybe even before the Clemson game.

Prediction: Georgia

#1 Alabama at #24 Texas A&M

Are we sure Nick Saban didn’t petition the SEC to get this game moved to October because he was tired of the hair plugs jokes? Or did he make a deal with God to get the weather changed for this one, because the high in College Station tomorrow is only 69 degrees. It will be in the 80s the entirety of next week, but today and tomorrow are unseasonably cool there.

Hair plugs aside, I envision this game playing out like a lot of other Alabama games this season, where the Tide score a ton of points, probably in the 40s or 50s, but give up a lot of yards and look bad on defense for large stretches. The South Carolina game is a pretty good blueprint for how this one will go; Alabama scored 47 points and got a career day from Tua, while holding South Carolina to only 23. However, they gave up 459 yards to the Gamecocks and benefited from a questionable call that brought back a fake field goal TD.

Saban lost to A&M in 2012, but since then has won the last six, and four of them by double digits. There is a team, probably LSU, that will be able to truly take advantage of Alabama’s shaky defensive personnel, but it won’t happen tomorrow, particularly not with Kellen Mond under center for the Aggies.

Prediction: Alabama

(Side note: Why the hell is this game the CBS matchup and not Florida-LSU? Who makes these decisions for CBS, someone with a head injury? LSU-Florida is going to be electric; Alabama-A&M will be over sometime in the third quarter. I swear, please make me the college football scheduling czar. I’ll fix the conference play crap and I’ll even start doing the TV schedule)

Florida State at #2 Clemson

This used to be one of the great rivalries in college football every year; now, it’s just sad. Clemson has won the last two years by a combined score of 90-24, and gave Florida State their worst home loss ever last year.

FSU’s best chance here is the fact that Clemson has been sloppy most of the season, and Trevor Lawrence doesn’t even look close to the same quarterback that he was last year. This is not a dominant Tiger team, at least not yet, though they did have chance to potentially regroup and refocus on their bye week.

A Willie Taggart coached squad coming to town is a good recipe for any struggling team, and Clemson won’t even have to play that well to win by three touchdowns. The ‘Noles are irrelevant under Taggart, and there’s no momentum or energy around this program right now. It’s a good thing his buyout is $17 million! Because, you know, when you can guarantee 85% of the contract to a guy that should be working as a gas station attendant, you gotta do it!

Prediction: Clemson

#10 Penn State at #17 Iowa

Everyone is going to be off Iowa this week because of how badly they looked offensively last Saturday against Michigan. Of course, don’t forget about the fact that their defense was awesome and is still ranked in the top five in yards per game.

Penn State is still unproven. They haven’t played a ranked team this season, and in their toughest test of the year, Pittsburgh, they only won by seven and benefited from a few strange coaching decisions from Pat Narduzzi. Their destruction of Maryland is fresh in everyone’s minds, but I think we have ample evidence now to suggest that the Terrapins aren’t a good football team. So what does that victory even mean?

Kinnick Stadium, particularly at night, is a weird place. Iowa, under Kirk Ferentz, has always seemed to be able to get up for these big home night games (just ask Michigan in 2016 or Ohio State in 2017). Penn State was there in 2017 on a Saturday night and needed a late TD drive just to escape victorious.

This will be slugfest, even a rock fight at times, and it will be very low scoring, probably in the 14-10 range. The problem for Iowa is that I’m not sure they’ll be able to score. I mean, last week was really bad for them. They looked like it was the first time any of them had ever played their offensive positions for long stretches. Michigan’s defense had been getting taken apart at the line of scrimmage all season; suddenly, they were the ’85 Bears? No way.

Iowa’s defense will keep them in it, but Penn State will win close and late.

Prediction: Penn State

#6 Oklahoma vs #11 Texas (in Dallas)

Jalen Hurts’s first (and only) Red River Rivalry is tomorrow, and it is arguably the game of the day on paper, depending on how you feel about Florida-LSU.

This game has always been strangely competitive, and wasn’t hampered by Texas’s struggles earlier in the decade, as the Longhorns and Sooners have split the last six Red River Rivalries 3-3. Texas won last year on a late field goal, but not before Oklahoma battled all the way back from a 45-24 fourth quarter deficit to tie the game.

As for tomorrow’s showdown, it’s going to come down to whatever defense gets torched the least. Texas is the supposed more physical team, but LSU gashed them for 573 yards of offense, something Oklahoma is completely capable of doing. OU hasn’t played a great offense all year, unless you want to count Houston, who slapped up 31 points and 241 rushing yards against them back in Week 1. That rushing yards number is pretty eye popping; why couldn’t Texas gain 300 yards on the ground tomorrow?

We’re going to get another 48-45 type game, and I don’t have a great feel either way on this one. I’ll take Oklahoma only because I’d rather have Lincoln Riley than Tom Herman.

Prediction: Oklahoma

#7 Florida at #5 LSU

Who would’ve ever thought that Ed Orgeron would be the head coach of a team that’s strength was the offense? The Tigers are second in all of college football in yards per game, fifth in yards per play, third in touchdowns, first in third down conversion percentage, and second in passing yards per game. They’ve scored at least 42 points in every game this season, and Joe Burrow has become one of the Heisman front runners, which is incredible considering how disposable he looked last season.

LSU hasn’t played a quality opponent since they beat Texas on the road for the best win in college football so far in 2019, and Florida would certainly qualify as one after their impressive showing last week against Auburn.

This is the best defense the Tigers have faced all year. Florida is 19^th in the nation in passing yards allowed per game, and 5^th in scoring defense, only allowing 9.5 points per game.

Of course, this will be far and away the best offense the Gators have faced all season. They’re going to challenge the LSU offense more than anyone else has in 2019, but they aren’t coming into Baton Rouge at night and completely shutting down this attack either.

LSU’s defense got torched by Texas back in September, but Florida doesn’t have the offensive personnel to throw up 37 points in a game on the road against a quality opponent. Kinnick Stadium at night is supposed to be terrifying… how about Tiger Stadium at night? LSU is 89-12 in night home games since 2000. It’ll be 90-12 on Saturday.

Prediction: LSU
Enjoy football this weekend! You deserve it.

The Week In Football: Tennessee Gets Blasted But Inspires Their Desperate Fan Base

I was at a wedding on Saturday night for one of my good friends. It was an awesome ceremony, and fun times were had by all. In fact, the only problem was that the Tennessee game was going on at the same time. Fortunately, there was a crappy SD TV in the hallway just outside the venue. I had already scoped out that TV as my savior for the night because the WiFi at the venue was spotty, and I couldn’t get any service in the building, meaning watching on my phone was pretty much out of the question. I’d already popped out there a couple of times to catch a few minutes of Auburn-Florida, shamelessly abandoning my wife. In my defense, I wasn’t the only one doing that. As the Tennessee game continued to be competitive in the first half, more and more men (and some ladies) started poking there heads out in the hallway to see what was going on. Eventually they started standing out there. One of my buddies told his wife he was going to the bathroom real quick… 20 minutes earlier. I went back in the venue to listen to some of the toasts, and when I went back into the hallway, there was a group of at least 25 people out there, screaming at the TV in bewilderment and doing all the typical things that alcohol makes you do during a sporting event. I don’t know how many fights that game caused on the car ride home between husbands and wives or boyfriends and girlfriends, but that’s the power of college football I suppose. This was a fun wedding that we were at, an excuse for adults with children (or hell, anyone) to have a few too many, and yet, everyone was outside, hoping that they would be there for the day that Jeremy Pruitt saved Tennessee football.

Even through the grainy SD TV with no sound, I could see the energy in that stadium. Everyone wanted it so bad. The wedding hallway was as euphoric as Neyland was when Brian Maurer threw that 73 yard TD pass to Marquez Callaway. They were even more insane when the Vols took a 14-10 lead. I texted my dad “What the hell is going on?” at one point when it seemed like Maurer was on his way to becoming Dobbs 2.0, because he had came in and so vastly changed the team’s performance that everyone in the fan base was going to be wondering aloud openly over the next few days about how dumb the coaching staff was for not seeing that during practice.

Then the wheels came off. After taking that 14-10 lead in the second quarter, the Vols wouldn’t have another drive of more than 45 yards until their last one of the game, when they turned it over on downs after getting stopped on a fourth and goal. Meanwhile, Georgia rolled off 30 straight points to put the game out of reach and cover (back to back weeks we’ve hit on the ‘Bet the Mortgage’ picks by the way).

The narrative after the game was funny to me. Lots of “Pruitt restores confidence” and “Vols show signs” and all that. What? Guys, they lost by four touchdowns. They weren’t competitive in the second half. They were down 12 at halftime. Is this really how far this program has fallen where the stadium being loud and the program having a four point lead on a top 3 team makes us celebrate like it's '98?

“But Matt But Matt But Matt, they found a quarterback!” Are we sure they have? Maurer completed only 50% of his passes, threw an interception, and got rocked by a guy he never saw coming which led to a fumble return for a touchdown. He came out playing well and then faded badly as the game went along. Was he better than Guarantano? Sure, so that’s now the standard for quarterback play all the sudden?

Listen, I get it, Tennessee was supposed to lose by four touchdowns. And they ultimately did. Wouldn’t it be nice to actually, I don’t know, overachieve for once? They lost by 31 at Florida, and then by only 29 at home to Georgia? That’s the kind of incremental improvements we can expect from this team? Two points every two weeks?

Everyone is acting like Jeremy Pruitt inherited North Texas’s program and then was forced to play an SEC schedule. I know the talent level on Georgia is better than what it is at Tennessee, but is it 29 points better? Is the talent at Florida 31 points better? Last year’s team was an awful performance against Vanderbilt away from making a bowl game. This year’s team, with sixteen returning starters, is on their way to 2-10 or 3-9 and still can't figure out how to line up properly on defense, with "defensive whiz" Jeremy Pruitt. How is that possible?

Every single coach you can think of recently popped at least by their second year at whatever school they were at, regardless of the circumstances they inherited. Even James Franklin at Penn State made a bowl game in his first two seasons, and he took over a program that had basically been gutted due to the Sandusky scandal. Tennessee may have been crappy for a decade-plus, but even they didn’t face anything remotely close to what happened to Penn State. And now the Nittany Lions are back to being elite. Maybe it’s because they actually hired a competent football coach?

We all want moral victories in this fan base, but its laughable that we’d be claiming one after a 29 point thrashing. You know what a “moral victory” would be? Losing to Georgia by three points in overtime. You know, what Butch Jones did the first time he played them in Neyland.

They’re 1-4 through five games with four truly awful losses. Georgia State was an embarrassment, losing to BYU was incomprehensible the way it happened, and they weren’t even close to either of their biggest Eastern Division rivals. And yet, this stupid program has us by the balls so much that they can sell out Neyland, get the crowd that rowdy, and have men abandoning their ladies at a wedding so they can poke their heads out in the hallway to check the score on a grainy SD TV.

Saturday sucked, not because they lost, but because I was shocked that they were ever in the game, and then completely not surprised when the game turned into a blowout. This program is so incompetent that four touchdown thrashing is something a large portion of the fanbase is celebrating. General Neyland must be rolling in his grave.

Onto the rest of the week….

Michigan Won Ugly To Keep The Heat Off Harbaugh For Another Week

The Michigan offense was a complete embarrassment again, scoring only ten points, but fortunately for Harbaugh, his defense stepped up and stifled a crappy Iowa offense that could only manage three points.

The Hawkeyes finished the game with 1 rushing yard thanks to the -65 their quarterback Nate Stanley put up due to the 8 sacks he took. Michigan forced four Iowa turnovers, and they needed every one of them because virtually the entirety of the last three quarters were played at 10-3.

I don’t know how Harbaugh or Michigan fans can realistically feel good about this program going forward, particularly not the offense, which utterly lacks explosion and identity. Shea Patterson has been arguably the biggest disappointment in college football the last two years, and he has somehow become even worse in 2019. He had 147 passing yards, no TDs, and an awful interception on 14-26 passing on Saturday. Abysmal.

Michigan is going to lose at least three more times this season and we’ll once again have another year of Harbaugh not winning his division and losing to Ohio State. Just what the Wolverine fans thought they were signing up for.

Florida Manhandled Auburn

The victory gave second year coach Dan Mullen his third win over a top ten team as the Gator coach, and made Florida seem like an actual SEC Title Contender for the first time in years.

Auburn squandered multiple chances on Saturday; Derrick Brown fell down running back a fumble when he had nothing but open grass in front of him, and Bo Nix killed that Tiger possession when he threw an interception only two plays later. In the third quarter, after leading a 9 play, 80 yard drive, Nix was picked off in the endzone with Auburn trailing 17-13. Lamical Perine’s 88 yard scamper in the fourth quarter all but put the game away, but not before Nix was intercepted again with 2:30 to go as the Tigers were attempting to mount a miracle comeback.

Nix finished 11-27 for 145 yards and was the worst he’d been all season. All of the poise he had displayed in the prior weeks basically vanished as the best defense he’d faced the entire year wore him out like a high school bully.

The Tigers are on their way to at least a three or four loss season, which will be the sixth consecutive year they’ve done that under Malzahn, who has now dropped to 23-20 in conference play over that time span. It’s a good thing he got a contract extension after the 2017 season that guaranteed him north of $20 million.

As for Mullen, he wasn’t the sexiest name the Gators could’ve gotten, but he’s been far and away the best hire of all the coaches who got jobs during that 2017 coaching carousel. Let’s compare records:

Dan Mullen, Florida: 16-3

Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee: 6-11

Chip Kelly, UCLA: 4-14

Scott Frost, Nebraska: 8-10

Willie Taggart, Florida State: 8-9

That’s right, of the five biggest jobs to change hands after 2017, Mullen is the only one with a winning record. Hell, he’s got 8 more wins than Taggart, his in-state rival at FSU, and 10 more than Jeremy Pruitt, who is supposed to be one of the biggest rivals in his division.

Here’s the difference between Florida and Tennessee; when the Gators fired Jim McElwain during the 2017 season, they did it despite the fact that he was coming off back to back SEC East division titles. They made a change because they knew they were never going to be serious title contenders with him. What did Florida do after that? They hired a better coach in Mullen. What did Tennessee do? They built brick by brick for five years, and gave Butch that fifth year even though he blew the 2015 and 2016 seasons by not winning his division either year despite having the most talent. Then they allowed him to murder the 2017 season, and after firing him, turned around and hired a guy in Jeremy Pruitt who is, based on the results on the field, worse than Butch, but only after they botched their coaching search so bad the first time around that it led to their athletic director getting fired. That’s why Florida wins and Tennessee is in the dumpster.

I don’t know if the Gators can beat Georgia in Jacksonville in a few weeks, but I wouldn’t have even considered that a possibility a month ago. Or hell, even on Friday. Now? Why not?

Ohio State Rolled Through Michigan State

The Buckeyes never trailed on their way to a 34-10 win thanks to 24 second quarter points and three total touchdowns from quarterback Justin Fields. Ohio State won’t play again until next Friday when they travel to Northwestern, and they’ll follow that up on October 26^th at home against Wisconsin in what could be a Top Ten matchup.

Ohio State’s toughest remaining games (Wisconsin, Penn State) are both at home, and that Michigan game on the road at the end of the year looks less and less scary every day (not that it was ever actually that scary, since the Buckeyes have beaten them 16 of the last 18 times).

Teams Still Alive For The Playoff

As always, you’re still technically alive as long as you have no more than one loss and are in a Power 5 league, except this year in the ACC, a conference that is so bad that one loss eliminates you (* by the undefeated teams).

ACC: Clemson*, Wake Forest*

So Wake isn’t running the table, and they’ll probably lose at Clemson on November 16, if they haven’t lost by that point already. The Tigers haven’t shown themselves to be one of the best five or six teams in the country yet, but the good news for them is that they’re the defending champs and the committee isn’t going to leave out a team that goes undefeated. So as long as they can do that, it doesn’t matter if they slog their way through the rest of the season or not.

Big Ten: Ohio State*, Penn State*, Wisconsin*, Minnesota*, Iowa, Michigan

This league technically has six teams alive under the set criteria, but realistically its going to come down to first three I listed. Did you guys watch the Iowa-Michigan game? Did either of these teams look playoff-worthy? Minnesota is a nice story, but they aren’t running the table or winning the Big Ten or even coming close. The winner of the Ohio State-Penn State game on November 23 is probably going to be the winner of the Big Ten East, unless something wonky happens, while Wisconsin is the odds on favorite to win the Big Ten West even if they lose to Ohio State on October 26. Whoever ends up being the conference winner will probably be the Big Ten’s representative in the playoff, something the league hasn’t had since 2016.

Big 12: Oklahoma*, Baylor*, Texas

OU-Texas play this weekend in what is a playoff elimination game for the Longhorns. Even if the Sooners lose, they could still do what they did last season and avenge their only defeat in the Big 12 Championship Game. I don’t think that Baylor is a realistic playoff contender, but they will have a chance to prove themselves in November when they host Oklahoma and Texas in back-to-back weeks.

Pac 12: Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, Oregon

This conference is in real danger of getting shut out of the playoff for the third straight year unless one of these teams can run the table AND they get some chaos in front of them in the other conferences. Their best bet would be for one of the South teams (most likely Utah) and Oregon to run the table and play each other in the Pac 12 Championship Game, with the winner finishing at 12-1 and adding another impressive victory to their resume. We’ll see if they’re up to the task, or if that’s even enough.

SEC: Alabama*, Georgia*, LSU*, Florida*, Auburn, Missouri

Missouri lost to Wyoming and they aren’t going to beat both Florida AND Georgia, so they’re realistically out. Auburn is going to have three or four losses by the end of November, so they’re done. It’s going to be one (or maybe two) of the four remaining undefeated teams that makes it. The winner of the Alabama-LSU game and the winner of the Georgia-Florida game would be the odds on favorites to meet in the SEC Title Game, and whoever wins that is assuredly getting in the playoff. Any other SEC representation would be up to how things shake out in the rest of the country.

I suppose Notre Dame is also still technically alive, though I don’t think they have a path to the playoff at this point unless there’s a lot of chaos in front of them. If they finish 11-1 and Georgia finishes 12-1 or 11-1 and doesn’t win the SEC, what’s the argument for putting Notre Dame in over the ‘Dawgs? There isn’t one.

The Two Jeremys, Pruitt-Fulmer, and Tennessee-Georgia, Plus Week 6 College Football Picks And Another Braves Collapse

Another week, another Tennessee meltdown. And I’m not even talking about this weekend's Georgia game yet.

Let’s start with the Jeremy Banks situation, a really bad look for everyone involved. Banks’s problems are obvious; he’s had multiple run-ins with law enforcement, and he actually told police during the encounter that, “Where I’m from, we shoot at cops.” Terrible, obviously.

This is a minor point, but why Banks chose to call Jeremy Pruitt first during his police encounter is a bit weird to me. Is it common practice for the head football coach to get a phone call from an arrested player at 3:30 in the morning? Did Banks think that calling the football coach would get him out of it?  

Regardless, Pruitt’s bungling of the situation here is strange too. He argues with the officers about the arrest, telling them at one point that “this is the silliest s&*% I’ve ever seen in my life” and, “I’ve got it. I understand. I’ve worked at four places, and I ain’t ever had no crap like this except for here,” and seems confused that the police would have to arrest Banks because he has a warrant. Then he mentions that Banks’s grandfather had passed away as an excuse for him to not know that he was supposed to show up for a court appearance, since “some of these kids, they don’t have nobody at home to teach them how to do stuff, and so if something happens people notify so you can teach them how to do it.” I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure every college-aged person knows that it’s not a good idea, hell, even illegal, to skip a court appearance, and pretending like they don’t know that is kind of insulting to not only Banks’s intelligence, but everyone who heard Pruitt’s explanation.

Now granted, this call did happen early in the morning, meaning there’s a pretty good chance that Pruitt was actually awoken by this phone call. I doubt many of us are at our most articulate or most reasonable at 3:30 in the morning. Which comes back to my original point; why the hell is Banks calling Pruitt that early? Have the players been instructed to do this? Is this common practice? Is this a ploy implemented by coaches everywhere in an attempt to intimidate the local cops into bending to the coach's will? How many of us would dial up our bosses if we were in the back of a police car at 3:30 in the morning and were given a phone call? None of us, right?

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The other big piece of news around the program this week has to do with the rumors that Phillip Fulmer would be interested in coaching again, specifically at Tennessee, as reported by multiple people, including ESPN’s Adam Rittenburg on Monday. Fulmer “shot down” those rumors on Wednesday, saying, “We’ve got a good football coach, and I believe in Jeremy Pruitt totally… I have no interest in coaching again and would rather spend that time being a grandfather and doing whatever I can as athletic director in helping Jeremy get this program where we all want it to be. Any talk of me coaching again is just a bunch of rumors.”

Number 1, Phillip, are you sure we have a good football coach? Do we even have an average football coach? Is Fulmer asleep during games? Or did he get his VCR tapes of the ’98 team mixed up with game footage from this year’s squad? Hey Phillip, if you’re watching film and you see an overweight guy in the sidelines who actually looks like he’s in charge, that’s you! If Tennessee has the lead, you’re probably watching the wrong tape!

Number 2, what’s Fulmer supposed to say, that the program is screwed and Jeremy Pruitt should go back to teaching kindergarten? Or, should he say, “Yeah, you know, Jeremy better not get his ass beat by 40 this weekend or so help me god I’m going to frame him for murder. You guys already know I’m smooth behind the scenes; otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to assassinate the careers of both Johnny Majors and John Currie. Plus, I think I could get everyone to believe Jeremy is a killer since he’s already murdered Tennessee football.”

Of course he’s going to support him publicly! Otherwise he has to admit that the biggest hire of his early tenure as athletic director is already a massive failure, which would make Fulmer, in part, a failure. No athletic director in the history of college sports is ever going to openly criticize the performance of his struggling head coach, particularly when that guy is still employed by the school. It would be like a parent at a parent-teacher conference saying, “Yeah, my kid really is a little asshole isn’t he?” So I take nothing from Fulmer’s statement.

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As far as Saturday against Georgia is concerned… I mean, do we have to? It’s going to be ugly for three and half hours and most of the stadium will probably be empty by halftime. The Bulldogs opened as 21 point favorites and the betting public hammered the hell out of the ‘Dawgs so much that the line has moved up to 24.5 points. I don’t give out gambling advice here normally because I don’t want costing the readers money to be on my conscience, but last week I did tell everyone to bet the mortgage on the Ohio State -17 at Nebraska. That one was never in doubt, and this one won't be either. You can bet the mortgage on the ‘Dawgs and be planning that tropical vacation for you and your family by midway through the second quarter when Georgia is up 35-0 and the Vols have already rolled over.

I want to hear the argument for Tennessee not losing by four touchdowns. Here are some, I guess?

“But Matt But Matt But Matt, it’s a Tennessee home game!” The last time Georgia was in Neyland, they won 41-0 and gave the Vols their biggest home loss in school history.

“But Matt But Matt But Matt, Tennessee is coming off a bye week! They’ll have extra time for preparation!” You know who else had a bye last week? Georgia. Not that they needed an extra week to prepare for whatever Tennessee will have for them, but still, they got it. Plus, are we sure Pruitt is better with extra time to prepare? They had almost nine months to get ready for Georgia State and that ended up being one of the worst losses in school history.

“But Matt But Matt But Matt, Jeremy Pruitt said the Vols were 100 times better now than they were last year!” Are we sure Jeremy didn’t get ahold of Fulmer’s ’98 Tennessee football tapes? Maybe he went to watch film at 3:30 in the morning after Jeremy Banks called him and got confused and put the wrong one in. When you lose to Georgia State as the Tennessee coach, I guess anything is possible. Wait a second, let me help Jeremy out for a second… Hey coach, if the guy on the sidelines is overweight and looks like he’s totally in control of the program and definitely seems like he belongs there, then that’s not you! You’ve got the wrong film in. Sorry for the confusion.

Georgia hosts an average Kentucky team next week, meaning there’s not really a chance they’re looking ahead for that one and aren’t aptly prepared for Saturday. I think Tennessee’s only chance would be if the Georgia bus got hit by a meteor the second it pulled up to Neyland. Otherwise it’s pointless.

If anyone can think of an argument for Tennessee I’d love to hear it. Saturday is going to be a slaughter, and it will only create more uncertainty for Pruitt going forward, as the Vols veer towards their worst season in school history. I guess there is no rock bottom for this program.

Now, onto the Week 6 college picks….

#14 Iowa at #19 Michigan

How hot is Jim Harbaugh’s seat exactly? It seems like almost all of the national media has bailed on him, but is this a Barry Bonds situation where everyone outside of San Francisco abhorred him while everyone in the city was fiercely loyal to him? Is he still the favored son?

Of course, the $12 million they owe him if he were to be fired may keep them from doing that at this point. The Wolverines are all in on Harbaugh, at least for two more years after this (his contract expires after the 2021 season). Michigan hitched themselves to Harbaugh, for better or worse. Their AD said he wants him to retire a Wolverine, and they even pay the premiums on his life insurance policy.

Because of this, I think anyone that says Saturday is a must-win for Harbaugh is wrong, because it’s not like the school is giving him his walking papers as he’s coming off the field. It’s definitely not a must-win for his national perception either, because that’s already shot. Maybe he can score some points with the alums, but probably not since this is Iowa and not Ohio State.

Iowa ranks fifth best in yards allowed per game in the country this season, and I’m imagining that they’ll have a field day against Michigan’s crappy offense tomorrow.

How is it possible that Harbaugh hired his new offensive coordinator, Josh Gattis, without having a face to face interview? Reportedly, they only talked on the phone before he got the job. What? This is looking like the worst coordinator hire in a pivotal year for a coach since Sal Sunseri.

I expect Michigan to struggle to move the ball and Iowa to win ugly, probably by a score of 13-10 or something like that.

Prediction: Iowa

#7 Auburn at #10 Florida

The game of the day, at least on paper.

Auburn has spent the last week hearing from the national media how great they are after their dominant performances back-to-back weeks against Texas A&M and Mississippi State. It’s going to be strange to look back on this team when we get to the end of the year and they have three losses.

Meanwhile, there’s Florida, who is the most over-ranked team in the country. Florida beat the hell out of Tennessee, but hasn’t looked overly impressive against anyone else, including in their narrow wins over Miami and Kentucky. Quarterback Kyle Trask is… fine? Ok? This Auburn defense will be the best he’s played all year by far. Plus, let’s be honest, Florida doesn’t have elite skill position guys.

Auburn’s quarterback Bo Nix has been incredible, especially considering the fact that he’s a true freshman, and he hasn’t seem intimidated by any of the environments he’s been in, including trailing late on a neutral field against Oregon, or at Texas A&M in the notoriously loud Kyle Field. There’s no way he’s going to shrink in The Swamp. He’s not a Tennessee quarterback, after all.

I think Auburn rolls into Gainesville and wins by double digits and positions themselves for an undefeated showdown at LSU on October 26.

Prediction: Auburn

#25 Michigan State at #4 Ohio State

I wrote on Monday that the Buckeyes are the best team in the country, and they’ll have another opportunity to prove that on Saturday night when they host the at times offensively-challenged Spartans.

Ohio State has outscored their opponents 262-43 this season, or by 219 points. They haven’t been seriously challenged by anyone, and while Saturday is on paper their toughest game of the season, I expect it to go about the same way as the Nebraska game last week. Maybe it won’t be 48-7, but I don’t expect Michigan State to come in there and be able to seriously challenge them. If Ohio State has a lapse, it’s normally been against average teams (think at Iowa in 2017 or at Purdue in 2018). Michigan State is probably an 8-4 team, but I doubt they’ll be catching the Buckeyes asleep at the wheel since they are in fact ranked.

Prediction: Ohio State

Enjoy football this weekend! You deserve it.

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Oh, and one more thing. I swear to god I might break my TV if I see Luke Jackson enter the game for the Braves again in a relief. I seriously can’t remember an appearance for this guy where he didn’t at least let one runner reach base. Last night he came in after Chris Martin got hurt, and with the Braves clinging to a two run lead, gave up a solo home run and then allowed two baserunners. There’s a million reasons the Braves lost last night (Acuna not running hard out of the box again, Acuna getting caught stealing in the first inning, the utter lack of situational hitting, Mark Melancon getting torched in the ninth, the lack of a true ace, the utter lack of quality pitching), but I actually think they would’ve been able to overcome all of it if either Martin doesn’t get hurt or if Brian Snitker chose to go with anyone out of the bullpen besides Jackson. You’ve got Josh Tomlin in the bullpen Snit! Let him pitch! Let anyone else pitch! The only thing Jackson should be doing for the Braves is cleaning the clubhouse bathroom after games. I’m not saying Julio Teheran is great, but the fact that he wasn’t on the NLDS roster (until today, due to Martin’s injury) while Luke Jackson was is a borderline fireable offense for Snitker. You know who is better in relief than Luke Jackson even though he’s not a relief pitcher? Julio Teheran! Does Luke Jackson have naked pictures of Brian Snitker? Of the entire front office? Of everyone on the team? What is happening? Why do we keep having to see this guy? It’s October!

Yesterday’s collapse makes today a must-win. As a Braves fan, or hell, a Tennessee fan, I’m not allowed to be confident about anything because my teams never actually wins any big games, so I’m sure they’ll lose unless Mike Foltynewicz pitches the game of his life. Listen, I like Folty, but counting on him is like expecting your 16-year-old son to mow the backyard without you asking him to. Foltynewicz has pitched well in his last 8 starts or so, but this is the same guy that was struggling so bad earlier in the year that he actually got sent down to Triple A. I’d much rather have Mike Soroka pitching today, but I guess we’ll be seeing him in Game 3 in St. Louis when the Braves are down 0-2 and need someone to throw 7 or 8 innings. The Braves realistically need Foltynewicz to pitch six or seven innings today; I don’t see it.

This is my sports life. Just loss after loss after loss until I drink myself to an early grave.