It's also Masters Week!! A lot going on though in college football re: Covid. As has been mentioned in the week 10 topic 2 SEC games are off the table this week. I also read an article on the Pac12 problems with covid. Apparently there are issues with not everybody being on the same page. The article I read said that if CAL wants to play they may have to move the football players to Nevada, as Berkley is being very stringent with them. I heard a discussion today on ESPNU that they expect a slew of players to opt out if their teams are really out of the running for having a good season. They mentioned a FSU DT forget his name is not on the roster anymore. Mark Packer said he won't be surprised if some teams lose enough players opting out over Covid and the poor record that they shutdown the program and not finish the season. I saw that Iowa has had 4 players go to the Transfer Portal in the last 2 weeks. Also a discussion about what might happen if we have the final 4 teams then 1 of the teams has a Covid outbreak, what if we get to the Nat'l Championship game and one of the teams gets an outbreak? But on to the week. 1. Alabama v LSU ...not happening. 2. ND at Boston College ...shades of 1993, big win over the Clemson of 1993 in FSU followed by the upset the very next week by BC. I hope they lay 50+ on these guys. 3. Ohio State at Maryland ...Buckeyes pass defense will get a test if Taulia is for real. I do imagine the Buckeyes are well suited to get into a shootout if that unlikely senario develops. 4. Clemson ..off 5. Texas A&M at Tenn ...not happening 6. Florida at Arkansas ... HC Sam Pittman has Covid ..Hogs are much improved and Pittman looks like a great hire. But Gators have too much offense. 7. E.Carolina at Cincinnati ...Bearcats should roll here, E.Carolina has only 1 win. 8. BYU ...off 9. Miami at Va.Tech...yeah the Va.Tech that lost to Liberty. D'Eriq King has another monster day. 10. Indiana at Mich State ...which Mich State will show up? The one that beat Mich or the one that got humped by Rutgers and Iowa? IU seems likely to continue the Cinderella season. Other games...if they happen. Georgia at Missouri. Only reason I'm interested in this one, is to see what Smart does at QB. Penn State at Neb. There was a time that this would have been a premier intersectional matchup. I'm sure AJ has some great stories about games they have played. Instead we have 2 teams who badly need a win. USC at Arizona Some say USC and Oregon are the top 2 teams in the Pac12 and the most likely to run the table into the CFP. USC was damn lucky to win last week. Oregon at Wash State . Oregon the highest ranked Pac 12 team, and probably the best hope for a CFP. Wazzu got off to a good start with Coach Nick Rolovitch. Oregon has a new QB, but still wild colors in their uniforms and tons of team speed. Wisconsin at Michigan. After they both got off to such great starts in their first game and you would have pointed at this game as one of the big games in the Big 10. But now it's a game with so many questions. What will Wisconsin look like after missing 2 weeks with Covid, will Graham Mertz be the same guy. Mich coach Jim Harbaugh under fire and they have looked terrible in their losses to MSU and IU. They need a win in the worst way. So it's really still a very big game but different context Northwestern at Purdue. 2 undefeated teams. Purdue lost a game to Wisconsin Covid so they are well rested, and Northwestern has really looked good behind the Indiana transfer at QB.
In the Heisman race... 1. Mac Jones 2. Justin Fields 3. Trevor Lawrence 4. Kyle Trask 5. Zach Wilson (BYU)
Covid defines the 2020 season and may even invalidate it. Florida has zero open dates left now before the SEC Championship game so any more cancellations or postponements will affect the number of games that the Gators play. It sounds like the SEC Championship game participants will have to be determined by means other than actual games played.
Dave, this is going to be the case for most everyone I am afraid. SEC's rash of COVID-19 postponements impacts not just the league but the College Football Playoff, too
From your article: "This is now a COVID-19 crisis redefined for college football. We're 38 days from the conference championship games and two additional from the College Football Playoff semifinals commence -- and yet -- the sport is running out of runway." Agreed.....
Georgia/Missouri is now a problem, Missouri is down to 64 players. SEC requires a min of 53. Vanderbilt and Kentucky is in question as Kentucky has Covid problems as well. Auburn/Miss State is postponed. Memphis/Navy postponed Air Force game with Wyoming if postponed.
I haven't heard anything about ND from Sunday's tests, but those might be too soon to pickup positives that might have resulted from contact with those fans on the field after the Clemson game. I think they test again today.
Meanwhile in the nation states like Wi. and Michigan are at their highest daily new case rate of any time during the pandemic. The communities are not assisting the colleges in their fight to control the virus transmission. I feel Halloween caused a lot of the current spike because of increased activities such as private parties and in bars..... and now we have Thanksgiving coming up with the Wed. night before Thanksgiving considered to be one of the busiest bar nights of the year.
You have to read this article on how the Pac12 is handling things and how that is putting their entire season on the brink. _______________ Every campus has a slightly different process based on its relationship with local health officials and the protocols established after the Pac-12 voted to restart the season. At some schools, university health officials are in charge of contact tracing process and the determination on quarantines. But at Cal, the City of Berkeley is calling the shots, which makes for an extraordinarily fragile situation. The Bears had one positive test — a defensive lineman, according to sources — and were directed by Berkeley health officials to place the entire position group in quarantine for two weeks. Without a defensive line, they had to cancel the opener against Washington. “(The players have) done a really good job of trying to do everything we’ve asked them to do, that the institution has asked them to do, and we thought that the state and (local) public health office was asking them to do,’’ said coach Justin Wilcox, who could not hide his frustration. A conference source echoed Wilcox’s sentiments, only without the filter: “It’s ridiculous. They did everything possible protocol-wise to avoid this exact situation and then were told what they did was not enough.” Pac-12 Hotline: Conference on the brink as cancellations spark concern
The Pac should have just left it alone. Their commie state governments were never going to let them play a decent season. Gotta feel bad for those kids.
One interesting side note for ND fans regarding the Oregon/Wash State game. Washington State has former ND RB Deion McIntosh on the roster and he ran for over 100 yds in last weeks game. He was a freshman in 2017 at ND, and showed a lot of promise. In the UNC game that year, where Ian Book got his first start due to an injury to starter Brandon Wimbush, Deion also got a lot of playing time and ran for over a 100 yds. He was thought to have a bright future. Sadly though he was dismissed from the University for unknown reasons, the catch all of violation of team rules was the official reason. Afterwards he went to that Miss Jr college that is the last stop, and had an excellent year for them in 2018 and then on to Washington State, where he has a shot at reviving his career. He played in all of Wazzus games last year, but with the Air Raid there isn't much opportunity for a RB and I think Kes has mentioned that there was another RB who was ahead of him. Now with new coach and a different philosophy this could be the year he reaches that potential.
Florida State coach Mike Norvell had three major announcements Wednesday: receiver Tamorrion Terry is no longer with the program, defensive tackle Marvin Wilson is out for the season and quarterback James Blackman will transfer when the semester ends. Tamorrion Terry had a great game vs the Irish in South Bend earlier this year. I was really impressed with him. This is what Mark Packer was talking about, kids are going to be quitting on their teams once the season is lost and just focus on themselves and getting ready for the NFL.
Ohio State v Maryland is cancelled due to Covid problems at Maryland. Pick'em contest now will be 8 games! I had Ohio State as my 9 point game, being the savy picker that I am!
I see that Wisc QB Mertz is still in the protocol but could play vs UM. If he hasn't been able to practice though it wouldn't seem like he'd be the same QB as the one who looked so good in the opener.
CAL had their game cancelled with ASU, ASU can't field a team meeting the Pac12 mins, also Herman Edwards is positive.