Lots of big games this week. Not all of them affect the CFP directly but big games no less. Thurs. SMU at Houston. Only a big game because SMU is still unbeaten. They are certainly in the hunt for the AAC Championship and while it is unlikely they can run the table, if they did it would guarantee them a likely New Years Six Bowl. Friday USC at Colorado. Trojans have not been road warriors this year, all three of their losses have come on the road to BYU, Wash, and Notre Dame. They have a thin group at RB as their top 2 backs are out for this game. Still have an excellent QB with NFL WR's. Should get their first road win, Colorado has lost 3 in a row. Saturday. 1. Alabama vs Arkansas. No Tua, but fortunately Ark is not very good, so Mac Jones and the Tide should handle this one. Will the Tide rediscover their running game? That would please kp! 2. LSU vs Auburn Another Challenge for Eddie O's Tigers. Auburn is a good football team. They have a very good defense. Can they slow down the LSU offense? 3. Ohio State vs Wisconsin Some of the sizzle of this game was lost when the Badgers choked at Illinois. But they are still a dangerous team that plays hard and has a AA at RB. Maybe they were looking ahead to Ohio State. One thing people have been talking about is that the Wisconsin QB is decidely average and a weakness in their offense. Buckeyes have one of their best defenses. I don't think the Badgers have a chance in this one. 4. Clemson at B.C. Clemson should roll, BC not very good and they have injury issues. 5. OU at Kansas State Kansas State having a good first year under their new HC. But not like OU and Jalen Hurts. 6. Penn State at Mich State Nit's coming off a big emotional win over Michigan. Mich State has a stout defense but a really bad offense. Low scoring affair like the Iowa game. 7. Florida ...bye 8. Notre Dame at Michigan ....see my topic. 9. Auburn at LSU 10. Georgia ...bye Other big games. Iowa at Northwestern. Iowa a good defense not much offense. Northwestern not much of either. But the Hawkeyes are in the race for the Big 10 West now that Wisconsin has a loss. Miss State at Texas A&M Aggies got the win vs Ole Miss and need to go 2-0 vs the Miss schools. Texas at TCU ...Longhorns coming off the embarassing defensive performance vs KU. On the road against a below average TCU squad need to find their game on defense and win by a bunch of points. I have no doubt Sam Ehlinger can put those points on the board but Texas fans do not want another shoot out. Maryland at Minn ...Gophers are undefeated, not against a daunting schedule and Maryland is not a daunting foe. PJ Fleck continues his unbeaten run. Oklahoma State at Iowa State . Cyclones are in the top 25 and don't really have a chance at winning the Big12 at least not much. But a top 25 finish would be nice. Matt Campbell the ISU coach is considered one of those ready for the big time coaches. Tulane at Navy ...the Mids are on a bit of a roll now, and while Tulane got pasted by Memphis last week they are still a good squad. This is all about getting to the AAC championship game. South Carolina at Tenn ...not much on the line here except pride. Vols got handled by Alabama and So. Carolina put up a bit of a fight vs Alabama. So go with USC here, plus Will Muschamp is really pissed at the SEC refs and I'll bet he's been motivating the heck out of his players. Ariz State at UCLA ..Bruins showed some life last week in their upset vs Stanford while ASU showed no life in the loss to Utah. But they are still in the hunt for the Pac12 S. CAL at Utah The Utes are battling USC for the Pac12 S title. They have to win to keep up, CAL had a good start to the season, but I think a QB injury deep sixed them and they sit at the bottom of the Pac12 N. Wash State at Oregon. Important for Oregon and their hopes for the Pac 12 Championship and any chance at the CFP (slim). They must keep winning. Important for Wazzu just to get their season back on track. They'd lost 3 in a row and that lead to a Mike Leach moment at a Press Conference. Now with that win over Colorado last maybe they can get their season back. Indiana at Nebraska ...Huskers season hasn't been what was hoped for, but a win vs Indiana would be a step in the right direction. IU has the better record at 5-2 , Huskers still have Wisc and Iowa to play and really need this win esp at home in Huskerland. Heisman: I read that Tua's injury hurts his Heisman chances. I don't know whether or not it's fair to knock a player down for an injury, esp with the season he's been having. Right now Joe Burrow seems to be the guy, having passed Jalen Hurts. Jonathon Taylor had a good game in the loss to Illinois but will need a great game vs Ohio State to stay in the race.
Probably the 2 biggest games of the week are Wisc/OSU and LSU/Auburn. Those 2 game directly impact the CFP playoffs and the teams involved are both good football teams. I wouldn't be shocked if one of the undefeated's lose this weekend and it's either LSU or OSU because of the quality of the opponent.
So who is the Alabama backup for Mac Jones? Tualia Tagovialoa Tua's younger brother a true freshman. He's thrown 1 pass this year, so I imagine he can actually play in 3 more games and not lose a year. Saban said there is no time line for Tua's return.
On Willie Taggerts hot seat. This article suggests that FSU can not afford to pay his 17M buyout. That the FSU Ath Dept is strained financially right now. To me it's hard to imagine a National Brand like FSU football is in such dire financial straits, which is of course no doubt part of the reason that A&M was able to lure Jimbo away from FSU. FSU has to be some what of a sleeping giant. It's not like HS Football players in Florida are declining in numbers and even if Dan Mullen is leading a resurgence in Gainesville, there are enough players to go around. Back in the day there were enough for Spurrier, Bowden and who ever the Miami coach was to have top rated programs at the same time.
I looked at the point spread in my InsideTexas Yahoo Pick'em where we are doing it with point spreads...Texas is only a 1.5 point favorite over TCU. I'm more than a little surprised.
Terry I saw that when I was doing my Aggie board pickem games. Wow... TCU has totally underwhelmed this year, so that line makes no sense to me.
Saturday's game between the Badgers and Ohio State is one of those game where I will be happy once it's over and we hopefully can still be undefeated. Approach by most sports enthusiasts seem to think there is no way Wisconsin can win this game in Columbus. I, on the other hand see this as a real challenge for Wisconsin to suck up the loss to Illinois and lay one on the Buckeyes here in Columbus. Wisconsin has always had quite a bit of success being a spoiler and especially in football. GO BUCKS!
Yeah Badgers are a good solid football team and capable of giving you a good game. Not sure they can give you 60 minutes of game though. We'll see though. They have to have that running game going to keep Fields and company off the field. They can't get into a game where they have a lot of 3 and outs. Ohio State's offense will put too much pressure on the Badgers defense. They have to make it a low scoring game and get it to the 4th qtr.
Terry, actually no I am hoping.both the.running game and the passing game develope. And Tua's younger brother has played a few downs this year but Paul Tyson (Coach Bryant's grandson) has not.played at.all). I think Saban is hedging on Tua being back.for.the LSU game now. Not good news at all.
The annual salary data dropped today. Dabo is the highest paid coach at 9.3M, Saban is 2nd at 8.7M and Jim Harbaugh is 3rd at 7.5M. Jimbo is 4th at 7.5M and Kirby Smart rounds out the top 5 at 6.7M. There are 83 coaches that make more than 1 Million Dollars annually. That's just shocking. College Football Head Coach Salaries - USA TODAY But here's some astounding numbers. Dabo's buyout is 50M...of course that's not going to even come into play. He's not leaving Saban's buyout is 34M ...seems to me that at one point in his Alabama career he had no buyout. Jimbo tops them all though with a 60M buyout.
I haven't watched very many of ESPN's College Football 150, but the ones I've seen are great. Tonight it's on Notre Dame. I'll tape it since I'll be watching the World Series.
Those College Football 150 specials have been pretty good so far. I haven't seen them all, but have enjoyed the ones I watched.
And to think....Dr. Osborne had to pay the Redskins to stay with them....and sell his station wagon to afford living off the UNL Salary of the 70's....
That is crazy. While it is great that we get to see our teams play almost every Saturday, TV has perverted logic with massive amounts of money.
Gators played 2 FCS opponents this year in UT Martin and Towson. Apparently the Gator AD would like to change that and play more Power 5 opponents. He reached out on Twitter to other Power 5 AD's to see if anybody was interested in adding the Gators to the schedule. Unusual move. I thought maybe he might just pick up his phone and call these guys. But I guess Twitter is the preferred mode these days.