OK we're into the game every night time of the year. There are 2 games tonight, 1 game Wed night, 4 games Thursday night and finally 3 games on Friday night. Games on Tues/Wed night aren' of much interest unless you are a W.Mich Fan they play Ball State tonight. Thurs games OU at Iowa State ...Sooners starting to look like they will win the B12 or have a big say in who does. They win handily here. UCLA at Colorado ... Rosen done for the year, kid who is a true freshman and has started and lost the last 2 games will go for UCLA. I have no idea who even coaches Colorado, but he seems to be doing a good job as the Buffs have been wining some games this year. Buffs come out high and stay high for the win. Friday ...nothing here unless you are following Boise State and wondering if Brian Harsin will take the money after this season and move to a Power 5 job, say Oregon? Sat: 2 really really big games this weekend. Alabama at LSU...Ed O-jay-ron will have his boys ready of that I have not doubt. The crowd will be drunk before kickoff and the place will be nuts. Problem is that the offense they have now is still the power offense with a pro style QB who isn't esp mobile. Alabama absolutely eats up this type of offense, they are built to stop it. They will eat up LSU. Crowd will be back in the parking lot drinking by the end of the 3rd qtr or sooner. Neb at Ohio State ...If Ohio State doesn't get some offense going the Huskers have a punchers chance here. This is a big game for both teams, in the conference and in the bowl destinations and playoffs. OSU can not afford another loss. Huskers have to run the table to get to the playoffs as well. I think Urban figures out how to win this game. Tommy Armstrongs TD/Int ratio is getting worse each week. The best of the rest. ND at Navy (Jacksonville) have defensives problems, you don't want to see the Middies on the horizon. I think we'll score points, but will we have the ball enough to score the points? The Middies are known for grinding out long 18 play drives the eat a ton of clock and keep your offense on the bench. Our defense has been better, but we have a lot of new guys who haven't seen the option before and that is a problem. Toss Up Texas at Texas Tech...boy a lot of bad blood between these teams, a defensive player said earlier that he'd like to injure Tech QB Patrick Mahomes, he of course has had to walk that back and so has Charlie Strong apologized. If Mahomes is healthy, they could put up 50+ points on us easily, but they also have no defense...so look for a 5 1/2 hour game with over 100 points...who knows who wins, like the old Pac10 late night games it's who ever has the ball last! Texas A&M at Miss State ...glad to see the Aggies back playing Div 1 football, actually the same for Miss State who gave up 41 points to Samford, yes Samford not Stanford. Agggies should roll in this one an not break a sweat. Did Dan Mullen stay too long at Miss State? He sure was a better coach with Dak. Louisville at Boston College ...another chance for Lamar Jackson to pad his Heisman Resume. BC has to have one of the least intimidating environments in the ACC. Wisconsin at Northwestern...Big game for Wisconsin who controls their destiny in the B1G West after beating Nebraska. Northwestern has been playing better as the season goes on, but I can't see them beating Wisc even though Wisc can't seem to settle on a QB, they still have that rock'em defense. Maryland at UM ...Terrapins are this weeks sacrificial lamb to the Harbaugh Machine. TCU at Baylor ...both coming off losses that really hurt their chances at the B12 Championship, the loser is definitely out. I see Baylor getting back on track here. UF at Arkansas...Gators start the death march to the end of the season! Going on the road is always easier if you bring a great defense. Gators have one of those. I think the piggies have cratered now having been tromped by Auburn. Gators by 2 ! Tenn Tech at Tenn...Vols get healthy even if they are playing a lot of backups. Arizona at at Wash State ....Cougars continue to rooooooool to the Apple Cup. Wildcats are just not very good this year. FSU at NCState ... wonder if the ACC officials will exact punishment on Jimbo for his rant on their character after the Clemson loss? NCState unless they can play you in a Hurricane don't have enough horses here. Oregon at USC....Did the Ducks find some offensive firepower last week with Arizona State? USC definitely has found some firepower and seem to be on the rise. Ducks get shot down in SoCal. KU goes to WVU...too late for the Mountaineers. They blew it last week, but they do get back on the track with the woeful Jayhawks. Iowa at Penn State...Nits seem to have found some life as well after beating Ohio State, they just hammered Purdue. Iowa might be a little better than Purdue, but it's at home and the Nit's need this badly to stay in the race for the B1G East. Georgia at Kentucky...so what's up with these teams? Kentucky on the rise? Georgia struggling, could Kentucky continue it's quest for SEC East respectability? Kirby Smart finding out it's not that easy being a HC? Is he the next Will Muschamp? Washington at CAL ...really the Huskies should just roll these guys, Davis Webb and he Bearraid offense will really have to be hitting on all cyclinders to give the Huskies a good game. It could happen of course, but I don't see a 54-49 type of game, a 54-17 probably. That's all...slim picken's this week for really big games...but they are all important in terms of determining the bowl picture.
I'll have to get to the analysis later in the week, but here's some quick outs. UCLA - Frosh QB Falaful (easier than pronouncing Fafaul) really isn't doing too bad. He had a solid outing for his first start in the middle of the year against WSU (24/40 for 248, 3 TDs/2 INTs). And against Utah he was even better and worse (40/70 for 464, 5 TDs/4 INTs). At this point in his development he isn't as good as Rosen, but he's not a complete spare, either. CU - Mike MacIntyre. He came over from San Jose St. in 2013 and they've been improving ever since. They had a lot of heart breakers last year. This year has so far been enough to get some wins and the improvement that has been evident over the past couple of years is now unmistakable if you watch them.
Tonights the night of the 1st CFB Playoff Poll. I think everybody will be shocked if it's not. 1. Bama 2. Michigan 3. Clemson 4. Washington. 5. Louisville After that is where the fun begins, the teams vying for position to be well placed to move up if somebody falters in Nov! Will there be a couple of 2 loss teams in the top 10? Probably.
I guess you're shocked. I'm not, but I was a little surprised at A&M being 4 instead of 5. I actually expected to be ahead of Ohio St and likely Louisville. SOS matters. Washington will def jump if they win out and of course Ohio St or Wiscy can jump in with a conf title. My team prob wont make it but nice to have a shot.
Hurd has made his intentions known that he is leaving Tennessee. The wheels have fallen off the wagon. Tennessee will be lucky to win another game all season.
I'm completely shocked to tell you the truth. But it's just the 1st poll and a lot can and will change in the month of November. I just don't see A&M's schedule being tougher than Washington's. But apparently the committee did so that's it.
With the season coming to a conclusion this month and 1st week in Dec is when a lot of coaches are fired and the new guy hired. I wonder what Les Miles is going to get a job? He certainly would seem like the best available coach out there, there might be others better but they have jobs right now. I wonder if when AD's talk to Les that the conversation includes his offensive philosophy, which is what got him fired. LSU no longer wanted his style of offense.
Yesterday marked the first day Les Miles received his first buyout check. It's a pretty hefty price tag. If anyone is talking to Les, he isn't the one being interviewed. He can sit back and pick his spot.
Friday Night Football is coming to the B1G. B1G has a lot of product to get on the TV so I guess this is a logical means of doing it. I haven't noticed but does the B1G do the Thurs games?
I always thought Friday college football was stupid for recruiting purposes because the kids almost always play Friday night. I guess it will fill the void for the die hard football fans though.
Corey, yeah just leaving during the season is a little odd and he was playing a lot. Maybe he didn't like alternating more with Kamara. I was just curious because of the timing.
:roll: I'm watching the UCLA-Colorado game. There have been TEN unsportsmanlike penalties in the first three quarters. I'm beginning to think these two teams don't like each other...
There's starting to be a lot of teams that take exception to the way Jim Mora teaches his guys to head-hunt. His defense used to look like good, hard-nosed, physical defense. Now, they increasingly cross the line into thuggish, high, cheap, late hits. And...there continue to be a lot of teams that don't like the way P12 refs call games.
OU @ ISU OU had some pucker factor in this one. UCLA @ CU As soon as CU stopped spotting UCLA the ball, CU was the much better team. CU continues to lead the P12S race, and UCLA has to win out to become bowl eligible. Bama @ LSU As Kyle keeps trying to tell us, Bama is not unbeatable. They are, however, very good and provide very little margin for error. LSU has lost their only two real tests so far this year, but that was with (no "O" in) Les Miles at the helm. Eddy O himself has brought some heart and excitement back to the team. Unfortunately, that's almost never enough. I don't see how LSU pulls out the win. NU @ OSU To keep pace with UM and hope for a CFP berth, OSU needs to beat NU. If NU hopes to win the B10W and have a chance at the CFP, they neat to beat OSU. OSU has had a string of less-than-stellar performances of late. NU is coming off a loss to Wisc, whom OSU squeaked by. NU definitely has a chance at the upset, but at home, I'm going with the Buckeyes to get it done. ND @ Navy Navy looked good in spurts against USF last week. ND did not look good late against Miami last week. I'm not a believer in ND this year. In the first quarter, ND is pretty darn good, but each successive quarter after that is worse. Last week was the first time I can recall this season where they buckled down in the fourth quarter and actually gutted out some offense to get the win. I'm going with Navy here until I see that ND is going to start playing more than 15 minutes a game on a regular basis. tu @ TT TT isn't playing, relatively-speaking in the B12, all that bad. tu stepped above themselves last week to take down BU. This week, Chollie lets his guys down again and Lubbock celebrates with hand-gesture six-shooters all night. A&M @ MsSU Samford. In his pre-game interview, I think it only fair to let everyone know how many the Aggies will score. A&M is only favored by 12??? Unless I'm missing something, I'll be giving the points here. Louisville @ BC BC has shown signs of life against NCSU and Syr. They are not Louisville. Louisville has shown signs of laziness against UVA and Duke. There is no reason BC should be in the game late, unless Louisville continues to sleepwalk against over-matched opponents. At some point, Louisville is going to get caught. Wisc @ NW Wisc doesn't yet control their own destiny in the B10W since they have 2 conference losses to NU's one. However, with another NU loss, Wisc would then own the tie-break with both NU and Iowa, with also 2-loss Minn coming up to end the year. As bad as NW is reputed to be, they really haven't had a bad loss all year. The loss to WMU was by 1, and WMU is CFP-ranked. The loss to Illinois St. by 2. Okay, I take that back, that was a bad loss. But by 11 to 1-loss NU and by 4 to 1-loss OSU? Wisc is definitely the better team, but I don't expect Wisc to win big. NW may not score a point, but this really should be a pretty good game. UMD @ UM MD is not the worst team in the B10E. UM is either the best or second-best team in the division. UM should have no problems here, especially trying to regain traction after their close rivalry win against MSU last weekend. TCU @ BU Baylor still controls their own destiny in the B12. TCU has no path to the B12 championship. BU should have no problems with TCU, and being pissed off, will probably run it up as high as the time will allow. UF at Ark Now comes Florida's stretch after their pre-season warmups. They have a lock on the SECE with a game to give to UK and two games to give to Tenn with three to go. Ark is out of the B10W, after being embarrassed by Auburn last weekend. Their only three losses, though, are to SECW 1-2-3 Bama, A&M, and Auburn. The SECW is 7-1 against the SECE so far this year, with 6 games remaining. UF has yet to play an SECW team, with Ark and LSU left on the slate. UF does have a pretty good defense, but Austin Allen has impressed me most of the year with his toughness. I'm going with SECW over SECE in this matchup, especially in Fayetteville, especially after Auburn. Tenn Tech @ Tenn These November SEC matchups really kill it. BYE #2 for Tenn. They get a W in this one, though, to get bowl eligible. UA @ WSU This is a P12N vs. P12S matchup. P12N is 9-6 against the P12S with 9 games remaining. UA needs to win out to keep their bowl hopes alive, with losses to uw, UCLA, UU, USC, and Stan. Unfortunately, their final slate is against P12N leader WSU, P12S leader CU, OrSU, and rival ASU. WSU has one loss to give to keep pace with uw for the Apple Cup. WSU looked less than stellar (okay, downright awful) for the first 30 minutes last week against OrSU, going down 21-0 and 24-6 at half. A lot of this had to do with the entire DL being moved to different positions since the star NT Barber was suspended from the school effective last week. Word is that it took about a half-hour for everyone to re-learn their jobs from a different POV. There were also some injuries to the OL where some of the starters didn't come into the game until halftime and they were absolutely needed. You've read about the results in the second half before, so I won't repeat the discussion of the absolute domination for the last 30 minutes. As I read this week, UA is not very good at stopping the run (104th, 210.6 ypg). I also read that UA is not very good at stopping the pass (85th, 247.3 ypg). They're not very good at preventing scoring (106th, 33.1 ppg). This is not a very good recipe for success against a Wazzu team that has showed they can do both quite well this year (most of the time). Word is that UA will have both Anu Solomon and Dawkins available for the game, who were out for injury prior to their game against USC and had a rusty outing against the Trojans. At home, though, that won't matter for the Cougars. Wazzu should control this game quite handily, and I'll give the 17 points. FSU @ NSCU FSU has lost to Louisville, (tied for the ACCC-lead) UNC, and Clemson. NCSU has lost to ECU, Clemson, Louisville, and BC. Their only wins were William and Mary, Old Dominion, WF, and a fluke hurricane win against ND. FSU will give NCSU their fourth loss in a row. UO @ USC UO has given the reigns to Herbert. USC has given the reigns to Darnold. USC has a defense. UO doesn't. Tied-for last place P12N vs. in the hunt for the P12S crown. USC probably destroys the Ducks. KU @ WV How shocking would it be for WV get two losses in a row? It would be quite shocking. No way KU gets their second win this season. Iowa @ PSU Iowa still has a path to the B10W if they win out and Wisc drops another one but would need to get past CFP-ranked PSU, UM, and NU, plus Ill. PSU is hanging by a thread in the B10E, needing UM to drop 2, but only have unranked Iowa, IU, RU, and MSU remaining. PSU has an anomoly win against OSU. Iowa has an okay win against Minn. When in doubt, go with the home team, which is PSU. Georgia at Kentucky UK has wins against Vandy, MsSU (the only SECE win over an SECW team so far this year), and Mizzou. UGA has wins against SCAR, UNC, and Mizzou but lost to Vandy. I'm going to go with UK to get it done for the fourth-straight week and keep their SECE hopes alive. uw @ Cal Cal has alternated home and road games all season long. They're undefeated at home and winless on the road. This is at home and wouldn't matter, except UW is coming off a near-upset against the U, who really weren't outclassed in that game. The downside for Cal is they really don't have much of a defense. Their signature wins this year have been against tu and UU. The only time they've given up less than 40 were in wins against Hawaii (31) and UU (23). For the second straight week, I'm going to go against the purple slave dogs on the road and, at a minimum, take the 17 points. SU I'm going to leave alone. OkSU @ KSU I can't believe you left this one off the "huge games" list! OkSU is still very much alive with Bedlam to close the season and their win over WV. KSU has losses to WV and OU so probably don't have much chance at the conference. However, they're favored by 3 points over the Cowboys. I'll go with OkSU to get another upset.
Thanks to Doc and Kes for the light touch approach....but we're gonna get the crap kicked outa of us tonite. Next year different story.