Well at least Florida is mentioned with the odds to win it all. Wasn't to long ago that we wouldn't have been mentioned.
Buffalo hired Michigan co-defensive coordinator Maurice Linguist as its next head coach, the school announced Friday. He was hired in January, so never really coached at Michigan though.
Only one team in this top 9 of top 100 NFL draft picks in the last decade hasn't played in the CFB playoffs: Alabama 59 Ohio State 46 LSU 41 Clemson 28 Notre Dame 28 Florida 27 Georgia 26 Florida State 24 Oklahoma 22 That team.... the Gators... might have close in 2012 had there been a playoff that year and last year's 2020 team played the champ Bama better than anyone else did in a 6 point shoot-out. Otherwise the Gators have not been close.... although they have been a decent mostly top ten team under Mullen. Average to poor defense last year and poor offenses before Mullen has been the culprit. Mostly a coaching issue I would venture.
Well the real number to look at is the advantage that Alabama has in talent, double the number of draft picks of ND, UF, even Clemson. And I would suspect that if you broke that number down even more that they have way more 1st round draft picks than anybody else as well. I don't have any real opinion on Dan Mullen as a coach, except that he's won a lot of games at Miss State with a short stick and has done well at UF. Now it does seem like with the talent in Fla and the Southeast overall that he should be doing what Urban Meyer was able to do when he was rolling at UF. But he's not met that standard, Urban had the Gators with the top classes every year. Last year the Gators were #12 in the 247 composite. That means you got a lot of good players, but Alabama got 7 5 star players and Georgia got 4 5 star players to the Gators 1. That is the problem with ND recruiting as well, it's not like we don't get good players, but the elites get a more "elite" players than we do, we have to hope that out of our haul we develop some elite players.
Where will gameday be in 2021? Nobody knows of course and it's up to ABC/ESPN to decide but this guy has the predictions! Sept 18th is a big weekend though.... Sept. 18: We’ll get Alabama’s first visit to the Swamp in 10 years today, which they’ll tell us is a big deal but really shouldn’t be. We also get a real reunion in Nebraska at Oklahoma — 50 years after the 1971 Game of the Century and 20 years after Black 41 Flash Reverse. This game won’t have the rankings cache of the 2020 SEC Championship rematch, but both former Big 8 rivals should enter undefeated so long as Nebraska can avoid tripping up against Illinois, Buffalo and Fordham. (Should be doable, right?) Whether or not GameDay is in Norman, we can bet Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff is there with a certain someone now filling Urban Meyer’s seat. Where will College GameDay visit each week in 2021?
The five star talent trumps every other aspect of a football program including coaching, training rooms etc. You can show up at the end of the season 11-0 but when you get into the playoffs with three other teams that are 11-0 but they are loaded with five stars and you have none.... that's the end of the road.
Raw material is.important but just as important is player development. Georgia may have more 5 stars than anyone but they have underperformed in their sophomore and junior years. Notre Dame doesn't have many 5 stars but they get a lot out of the 4 stars they have.
No doubt that when you have great talent you have to have a Staff that knows how to use the talent and Saban has a proven record in that area as well. Dabo, a guy who didn't get much respect early on with all the "Clemsoning" stuff, but he's grown into that job and is now a guy who, like Saban, knows how to use the talent and develop the talent. LSU is a place where, other than 2019, they have had tremendous talent and a lot of good teams but you'd have to say they underperformed the talent on hand, just like Georgia.
Makes you want the season to get here quick. If there are any anti-vaxxers out there who are also college football fans maybe the thought of having a more normal football season will get their asses in for the vaccine.
I think Mullen has done a good job at getting UF back to a higher level.... close to an elite level at times as evidenced by the entertaining SECCG vs. a sure fire elite team in Alabama. Smart at Ga. has been very close.... and most times has his team playing elite football but has had his slip-ups ( S.C. really won in Athens?? ) Orgeron had such a magical season in 2019.... making all the right moves.... I think LSU and the media has to cut him some slack.
The Gators could play with Alabama last year for the same reason Ole Miss played with them. They had scoring magic. Trask was great, and your TE Pitts was great as was the rest of the offense. But mainly it was Trask being able to execute and get the ball to those playmakers. Ole Miss had the offense to make the Tide have to score 63 points to beat them. In the bowl game the Irish, a good team, but a team that couldn't score that many points. We had a solid QB but he didn't have a great WR corp and you can't just run the ball on Alabama. You have to be able to score a lot of points. That's what the Gators had last year in that game. Georgia has won a lot of games with Smart and they have recruited lights out. But Smart has been for the most part stuck in the you have to run the ball mode. Not saying that running the ball isn't important but Georgia hasn't been dynamic in the passing game like the Tide was with Tua and then Mac Jones. Even Saban says you can't win with running game and defense, you have to be able to score a lot of points in todays football. JT Daniels might be the game changer for Smart, we'll see if Smart can turn it loose, or stick with run the ball for dominance, which works well against a lot of teams but just not the elites like Ohio State, Alabama, and Clemson.
Name, Image and Likeness....from Stewart Mandel's mailbag on The Athletic. Right now, NIL is a real hot topic with the NCAA, sports personalities, columnists, etc., but is it really a major topic with the average sports fan? If you were to poll the average college football fan regarding NIL, what percentage do you think would actually give you precise educated answers? — Mike I can tell you from having written a lot about NIL (name, image and likeness) that the average fan has almost no interest in the topic. I don’t know if it’s too dry, too complicated or just not all that interesting, but I’d get a lot more traction making up fictional realignment scenarios than I would writing about actual, in-the-news developments surrounding NIL. That being said, come July 1, schools in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico and likely Nebraska will be able to for the first time in history tell their recruits, come here and you can make some real money while, as of today, schools in other states will not. It’s an absolute hot mess that you might want to start paying closer attention to if, for no other reason, you care about your team’s recruiting.
This morning on ESPNU they were talking about Ohio State and where might be the game that they could slip up, like they did against Iowa and Purdue a few years ago....that Team this year...might be the Cornhuskers according to the hosts, Danny Kanell and Greg McElroy. On the road at Lincoln, crazy packed stadium following a big home game vs Penn State.
If Ohio State doesn't "slip up" in Ann Arbor this year I do think Jim Harbaugh will be pink slipped out of town.
You can slip up on any game...if you read too many of your press clippings and don't take the next game absolutely serious. The one that I still seriously look back at painfully was MSU beating #1 OSU in Columbus in 1998...the only loss that year. Then there was the loss to Air Force at the Liberty Bowl in 1990.
Gator announce the Swamp will be at full capacity this fall. Irish haven't made any announcements but I will be surprised if we're not at full capacity this fall at almost all college football venues, exceptions might be on the West Coast (California). GAINESVILLE — The Florida Gators hope to recapture one of college football’s best home-field advantages in light of plans to allow full capacity at the Swamp during the 2021 season. On Monday, the university announced it will allow fans to fill the 88,548-seat football stadium after limiting capacity during 2020 to 17,000 people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. UF announces plans for full capacity in the Swamp during 2021 season
Same outlook here in Columbus Bill. looking forward to so called normal conditions for Saturday college football.