Winding down folks. Games on Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Friday...only one of any significance is Friday Louisville at Syracuse. Only a big game really because the 'Cuse have been having a good season and have climbed up into the top 15 ( #13) in all polls. Setting up a match with ND next weekend at Yankee Stadium. They lost a close one on the road at Clemson so more than a few think they can beat the Irish. For sure they should score a lot of points on Louisville and win handily. Saturday: Well no doubt every game is a must win for the teams still with hope for the CFP. Miss State at Alabama. The only thing here is that Alabama is coming off a very big win in a highly charged environment. Will they be flat coming out, that happens a lot to teams coming off of big wins. Miss State is ranked #16 so they are a good team. Bama has been fast out of the gate in games like this so far, but Tua keeps tweaking his knee, so I won't be surprised if they get off to a slow start but come on strong and cover the spread easily. Clemson at Boston College. Clemson coming off the destruction of Louisville so they should be relaxed and ready. But they will be going into a real cold weather game. BC is a tough physical team this year, with a good RB in AJ Dillon. Won't be enough to beat Clemson likely though. FSU at Notre Dame. Weather will be cold in South Bend, everybody assumes that gives the Irish an edge. Maybe so, but the big edge will be the FSU OL which has not been good all year. Willie Taggert turned over the play calling to his OCoord, but unless he can play OL I expect the Irish defense will make it tough on FSU QB's. I hope we can get a big win, not play a close game and win in the 2nd half. It will help us with the CFP to blast them by a large margin. Michigan at Rutgers. Yeah well RU is going to get plastered by UM. 60+ points is not out of the question Georgia at Auburn I guess this could be considered a revenge game for the Dawgs. They seemed to find their feet after the LSU game and blasted Florida and Kentucky, while Auburn is a bit of an enigma. They beat A&M last week, but they haven't been what everybody thought they would be. I'm thinking UGA rolls in this one, even if the Gus Bus got a vote of confidence from his AD this week (which usually means just the opposite) . Oklahoma at Oklahoma State This game was traditionally the last game of the season for both teams and I've seen some great games between them including some snowy ones. Not sure why it's been moved. But OU probably will Score in the 60's and need to in order to win. LSU at Arkansas. LSU should win even if emotionally spent from the Alabama loss. Washington State at Colorado. Colorado had a great start to the season, but since going 5-0 they have lost 4 straight. Make that 5 straight. Gardner Minshew has a big game. #Rosebowlbound West Virginia at TCU ...preseason you'd have targeted this as a very big game between 2 of the top teams in the B12. Now it's TCU trying to salvage something and West Virginia trying to keep hope alive. WVU needs to win out beating OU 2 times to have a shot. It's a long shot, but the TCU game is a gimmie. Ohio State at Michigan State. Don is worried about this game, not without cause. Herbie was on ESPNU talking about all the problems with the Ohio State defense and said Haskins and company are going to have to play very well to sort of cover up for the defense. Mich State has been an up and down team, but hung with Michigan for while and while they lost it wasn't like the UM/PSU game. Hard not to pick the Buckeyes. Kentucky at Tenn ...Vols 2-4 in their last 6 games, 1 win was a shocker over Auburn. Maybe they have some fight in them and maybe Kentucky is hungover from getting their hopes crushed by Georgia. Just don't know about this one, Vols only have that 1 win in SEC play. Can they get #2? UCF at Navy. Midshipmen having one of their worst seasons in the last 10 years. UCF should roll. Hard not to notice that in spite of teams above them losing that they did not move up in the CFP poll, they were jumped by 1 loss teams and even a couple of 2 loss teams. So. Carolina at Florida. Gators have had a rough couple of weeks, the loss to UGA was sort of expected but not that loss to Missouri. So.Carolina is 4-2 in their last 6 SEC games this season. So both teams have a lot to play for in pride and a better bowl game. Longhorns at Texas Tech. I hate this game, coming off that terrible end of game sequence that let WVU out of Austin with the win. The Longhorns can still make the B12 Championship, but have to win out and hope that West Virginia beats OU in Morgantown as the Longhorns have the tie breaker over OU. Tech will likely be starting the backup QB who played the 2nd half vs OU, he was ok but nothing great. Tech defense as usual gives up a lot of points. I think the Longhorns roll in Lubbock. Northwestern at Iowa not a big game nationally but it is one in the B1G West. Northwestern in spite of the loss to ND still controls things in B1G West. Win here and they pretty much sew it up. Iowa has lost 2 games in a row now. Penn State at Wisconsin . Wisconsin sitting at 5-2, 1 game back of Northwestern so a big game for them. Penn State has to be reeling with the beat down in Ann Arbor and McSorley apparently not 100 %. Purdue at Minn another team 1 game back of Northwestern. Minn just fired their DCoord and not having a good season. Purdue has to keep winning to have a shot at the B1G West. Pac 12 South...they have 4 teams with 3 losses, so there are 4 big games for them this weekend. Utes lost their QB, that has to turn a once promising season into a what next. CAL at USC probably the most interesting game given that CAL seems to have become a defensive juggernaut and USC on offense has struggled. JT Daniels has had a decent year for a true freshman but not like Trevor Lawrence that's for sure. Pac12 North it's a 2 team race, WSU wins out they are a lock, lose to the puppies and they lose it all. Wash then owns the tie breaker. Washington is off this weekend. Pitt at Va.Tech it's hard to comprehend that Pitt is in the drivers seat in the ACC Coastal but they are, beat Va.Tech and they pretty much lock it up. Va.Tech will have to win out to get back in the drivers seat. ACC Coastal a division of average teams. Been a lot of upsets recently not sure where they will come from this weekend but there will be some.
Several of these games are between ranked teams: Alabama vs Miss St 1 vs 16 Clemson vs BC 2 vs 17 Georgia vs.Auburn 5 vs.24 Ohio St vs Mich 10 vs 18 So it may be interesting.
The win in Austin, esp the 2 pt conversion (twice) have zoomed Will Grier back up the Heisman ladder....still Tua's to lose though.
Louisville at Syr - not a big game, Louisville is bad. MsSU @ Bama - Bama keeps steamrolling everything in their path. The SEC is the only conference that has figured out who will be in the CG. There's no reason for Bama to try. So they'll only win by 5 TDs. Clemson @ BC - this could be a good game. Probably not, but it could be. FSU @ ND - the ND march to pissing off a P5 champion continues. UM @ RU - *sigh* are there any games that SHOULD turn out good this week? AU @ UGA - (EDIT,, this is at uga not au). AU took one of two last year, but AU isn't as good this year. Assuming Clemson, ND, UGA and UM win out, and Bama loses in the SECCG, who is the odd man out between UM, UGA, and Bama? Could we have a year where the P12 champ (possibly 12-1 WSU), B12 champ (possibly 12-1 OU/WV), AND B10 champ (possibly 12-1 UM/OSU) all get out over ND, ACC and SEC champs, and the SEC runner-up? THAT might set things off to an 8-team, where each P5 conference champ is guaranteed a slot. I can't see the other conferences agreeing to the "best 8 teams regardless of conference affiliation" crap again if this happens. Your serve, T! OU @ OkSU - OU should win handily, especially since they know what's on the line. It is bedlam, and it's in Stillwater, so no guess from me, but odds are it won't be a game so much as a trackmeet. LSU at Ark - Ark is really bad. LSU is only half bad. Take the under. Wazzu @ CU - It all comes down to the Apple Cup for WSU. If WSU wins the AC, it doesn't matter if they lose to both CU and UA since they will have tie-breaks over the rest of the P12N that can get to 6-3 in conference (uw if they beat OrSU, and UO and Stan if they win out). If uw loses to OrSU this weekend, WSU can lose the AC and still win the P12N if they beat both CU and UA. WSU SHOULD get to 9-1 in this game since CU is showing that they took advantage of some really easy wins early in the year. WSU by 20. WV @ TCU - TCU has turned out to be not very good this year. WV keeps the dream alive. Unless they don't! OSU @ MSU - this is the one upset that has me eyeing the mighty dog. OSU has lived dangerously and MSU can play well. MSU will push them and unless OSU comes out clean, OSU will be playing for the RB instead of the CFP. UK @ Tenn - Go Vols! UK's offense has really taken a dive in the second half of the season. Time for the 100k in the stands to steal one. UCF @ Navy - I'll take another flyer and take Navy straight up. UCF is not playing as well as they did last year. Navy isn't good, and there's no reason for them to win. But, I'm saying there's a chance... SCAR @ UF - UF offense is so bad and SCAR, although not very good is better than Mizzou (I think?). @ The Swamp? Ugh, might as well go 0-3 and flyers, so SCAR squeaks it out. tu @ TT - This would be so Lubbock of them. TT finally holds on for an upset (or I go 0-4). NW @ Iowa - Iowa still has hope in the B10W, but NW is playing really good ball after going 0fer in non-con. Gotta go with NW. PSU @ Wisc - Wisc gets a huge win against PSU, who seems to have wilted this year against the best of their competition. PU @ Minn - PU still has a glimmer of hope in the B10W and knocks off Minn. P12S - as T illustrated, it's a jumbled mess where all six teams still have a path to the P12CG. P12N - even though WSU is in command, and uw also controls their own destiny, both UO and Stanford still have a path to the P12CG. UCLA @ ASU - 2-7 UCLA @ 5-4 ASU. Ooh, nailbiter, but here's another flyer (0-5 you say?), UCLA to throw everything in the South into a tailspin. Another cool fact: It is possible for all P12S teams to end up with a 4-5 conference record. UO @ UU - UO can still win the P12N by winning out, WSU losing out, Stanford losing one of OrSU/Cal/UCLA, and uw losing to OrSU. UO wins the head-to-head over the pupples. UU has had their heart ripped out. They've been on the cusp of the P12S for a long time, and were really starting to put it together, and then they lost Huntley for the season. Even with their great defense, I don't know how they beat UO without an offense. OrSU @ Stan - Stanford can still win the P12N by winning out, WSU losing out, uw losing to OrSU, and UO winning out. uw would be out using Tie-break 2 (divisional record) and UO would lose the head-to-head to Stanford. Stanford wins this one to keep the hope alive. Cal @ USC - USC needs to win out AND ASU and UU to both lose a game. This is not a guarantee because Cal is showing to have a much improved defense. (Two years ago, Cal was all offense and no defense. This year, they're all defense and no offense. Weird). P12N takes the guts out of the P12S should-be front runner. Pitt @ VT - VT has looked really bad at times. Pitt has not looked good a lot of time. A win by Pitt all but seals the division for them. So, let's go with VT to toss some more chaos into the weekend (0-6 easy).
Good stuff Kes! I see that the Gators also had a QB go down, this time in practice as it was reported that Kyle Trask was carted off the practice field after a serious non-contact injury. That leaves Felipe Franks as the starter probably.
ESPN has a replay of that play that Kes reminded me of when he sent me to an article on Gardner Minshew. Still don't understand how our DB doesn't wrap up Crabtree. We'd have been in the BCS championship. Back to Lubbutt this weekend though...I'll bet very few Texas players even know about that game unless one of the coaches showed them the film. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.espn.com/core/video/iframe?id=16558540&endcard=false" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Really good coverage, really good throw, really good catch, really good footwork, really bad tackling.
Looks like a long off season for the resident Corndog here... In other news, Nebraska's trying to get a bowl bid as a 5-7 team for the 2nd time In 3 years. They'll have to go 3-0 the rest of the way against Ill, MSU. and the Hogeyes. The glass is 1/2 full AJ.....somewhere....over the rainbow....
Another blow to the Utes, after losing their starting QB for the season, they lost their starting RB for the season to injury suffered in practice.
I had pointed out above that currently 2-7 UCLA has a mathematical path to win their division. I was messing around with the conference tiebreakers and found that UCLA can not only win the division by winning out, they also have a path to win the division including a loss to Stanford, placing a 4-8 UCLA in the P12CG. How would you like to have a 5-8 (after winning the P12CG) against a 12-1 UM or 12-1 OSU in the granddaddy of them all?!? To make it work: UU (6-3/4-3) would lose out (UO, CU, BYU) to go 6-6/4-5 (3-2 in division and 1-1 against ASU and UCLA) USC (5-4/4-3) would lose out (Cal, UCLA, ND) to go 5-7/4-5 (2-3 in division losing tiebreak #2) UA (5-5/4-3) would lose out (WSU, ASU) to go 5-7/4-5 (1-4 in division losing tiebreak #2) ASU (5-4/3-3) would beat UA otherwise lose out (UCLA, UO) to go 6-6/4-5 (3-2 in division and 1-1 against UU and UCLA) UCLA (2-7/2-4) would beat ASU and USC but lose to Stan to go 4-8/4-5 (3-2 in division and 1-1 against UU and ASU) CU (5-4/2-4) would beat UU otherwise lose out (WSU, Cal) to go 6-6/3-6 TB #3 is record against the next-highest placed team within the division, proceeding through the division. All three of the remaining teams (UU, UCLA, ASU) beat USC and UA, but CU will have beat UU, knocking them out. We then revert to head-to-head, and UCLA would have beaten ASU, giving you the 4-8 P12S champion UCLA Bruins. How would the P12/NCAA react to a 5-8 team going to the Rose Bowl? Would they allow it???
would they have a choice? Since the commitment to the super conference format, I don't see any way around it. Still, UCLA will blow it.
There is that NCAA rule that says that you have to get 6 wins to be bowl eligible. If there aren't enough 6 win teams they go to 5 win teams and rank them by some academic score, I would be shocked if a 4 win team could make it even as a conference champion
Weird game in East Lansing today for Ohio State. Neither team could do much offensively in the first half. Buckeyes finally took control in the second half with a couple of turnovers, but MSU made some strange turnovers and errors that allowed the win. Not a great win but take whatever the other team allows!
Week 11 early games are over most went as expected. Ohio State/MSU was a defensive struggle till late in the game. Texas A&M and Ole Miss was a game I watched and the Aggies overcame some mistakes to win convincingly. The Gators looked all but dead but a strong second half won the game. Nebraska is looking good, blowing out Illinois. West Virginia handled TCU easily what was once a promising season is in the toilet in Fr. Worth. Syracuse easily beat Louisville last night and set up a match with ND in Yankee Stadium I don't think they will move up in the standings. Of course for it to be the big game ND has to win tonight in frigid South Bend. UCF extended their winning streak, beating Navy.
Afternoon games winding up... Game to watch was OU/OSU ...what a show of offense. 48-47 OU, OSU went for 2 and the win but didn't make it. The play was there but the QB threw the ball behind the receiver. Purdue totally throttled by Minn and combined with the NW win over Iowa give the B1G West to Northwestern. I think both games were considered upsets. Alabama took care of business, and shut out their 2nd ranked opponent in a row. Tua didn't finish the game got a knee to the thigh and Mac Jones finished up. Bama defense looking like a championship defense Wazzu started slow but got Leach his first win in Boulder. 31-7 Surprise of the afternoon though was the Tenn big win over Kentucky. Vols jumped out to the lead and never looked back. Pitt had a big win over Va Tech in Blacksburg, something must have clicked for them after a close loss to the Irish, since then they have been playing very well. Lead the Coastal Division of the ACC I guess UCLA is finally eliminated from the Pac12 South race with their loss to ASU. :wink:
Alabama defense looking better each week. Alabama offense not as explosive but LSU and MSU have good defenses.
In the A&M game today there were a few things I hadn't ever seen happen previously, two of which were associated with targeting. First - Ole Miss QB throws a pass for a first down to the sideline, during which an Ole Miss WR or TE throws a hard, head-first block over the middle (away from the play) on an Aggie LB. Personal foul was called and everyone in the stands was rolling their eyes, until the ref announced the penalty "half the distance to the goal line"...which confused most of us. As it turns out, they called it on the offensive block (and rightfully so) which I had not previously seen. Second - Ole Miss QB on third down throws a pass incomplete near the sideline. On fourth down, the Ole Miss coach calls timeout. After a couple minutes of discussion, it turns out the Ole Miss coach was asking for a review of the previous play asking to flag the defender for targeting. The call on the field was "there was no foul for targeting" yet would be reviewed. After review, targeting was identified, the defender was ejected, and Ole Miss was given 15 yards and a first down. This second application of the review process to targeting changes everything regarding how to address an unflagged penalty. I had no idea this was allowed. I can see MANY future timeouts on otherwise unflagged targeting fouls in the near future.