Damn it's going so fast. 1. Clemson vs BC ...BC has a good looking young QB in Phil Jurkovec and new HC Jeff Hafley seems to be a good fit and is righting the ship. Might see another pissed off Dabo press conference if they don't win by 40+ points. 2. Alabama vs Miss State .. Don't know what to think here, Miss State is in the tank after a big win to start the season, does Leach find away to put a lot of yards and points on the Alabama defense? Probably not, I'd expect that Bama can name the score and will be playing the backups in the 4th qtr. 3. Ohio State at Penn State ...Was thought to be the best game of the early Big 10 schedule, but the performance of Penn State on the road combined with what Ohio State did to Neb leads me to believe that the Buckeyes should win handily. They will be aided by the lack of fans in the stadium. Ordinarily this would be a White Out game with the fans really jacked up. These teams have played a lot of close games recently with Penn State getting an upset a couple of years ago. Maybe Penn State was looking ahead to this week and overlooked IU. Still a good matchup and a good test for the Buckeyes. 4. Notre Dame at Ga.Tech ..have he Irish found a passing game? They should beat Ga.Tech handily, Tech does not have the defense that Pitt has and Clemson put 73 on them 2 weeks ago. So I expect the Irish to roll them in Hotlanta. 5. Georgia at Kentucky ...Kentucky is a decent team, Georgia is much better. I doubt if any Kentucky player would start at UGA. My question is will we seen Stetson Bennett as the starter? Will Smart give JT Daniels some playing time? 6. Oklahoma State vs Texas...now this is a huge game for the Longhorns and the Cowboys as well. For OSU an unbeaten season maybe gets them to the CFP. But for sure they want to beat Texas in any year. Chubba Hubbard and the other RB are really good, Spencer Sanders who has had some injury issues might finally be 100%. The Longhorns can not lose another game this year and they have the talent to beat OSU. Maybe the new systems are starting to take effect esp on defense with Chris Ash as the DCoord. Lose and the already antsy fans for the end of the Herman era get even louder. 7. Cincinnati vs Memphis. Bearcats took care of business on the road vs SMU, Memphis another challenge. Cincy needs to be undefeated if they hope to have an outside shot at the CFP. Now that Boise State is playing they have competition for who is the best Group of 5 team. 8. A&M vs Arkansas ...before the season I would have not given the Hogs a prayer in this game, but they have shown a lot of improvement in Sam Pittmans first year as the HC. They might hang with the Ag's for a half before the disparity in talent takes over and A&M wins handily. 9. Wisconsin at Nebraska. Huskers did some good things early before the Buckeyes just crushed them. Wisconsin is good but not Ohio State. If Graham Mertz can't play and they are down to their 3rd string QB, this could be a very competitive game. If Mertz plays and plays like he did vs Illinois then Wisconsin should win, but I don't see them crushing Neb like the Buckeyes. 10. Fla vs Missouri for some reason I thought this was ppd. But apparently not. Gators will probably find that they are a little rusty for this game. Other teams that have missed games like UNC and ND both struggled a bit with their first game back from Covid vacation. Fla just too good on offense for Missouri. Other games. UNC at Virginia ..UNC still in the hunt to play Clemson in the ACC Championship game. Mack has them playing well and they have an elite level QB in Sam Howell. UVA played Miami very tough and lost a close game so I don't expect a blowout here a good game likely. OU at Texas Tech...Sooners like the Longhorns need to win out if they are to play for the B12 Championship. Rattler looked very good at TCU last weekend. Sooner defense looked better as well. Tech is Tech ...
The Athletic's Heisman Poll. PLAYER TEAM POS 1ST 2ND 3RD PTS Trevor Lawrence Clemson Mac Jones Alabama Justin Fields Ohio State Zach Wilson BYU QB Najee Harris Alabama RB Travis Etienne Clemson RB Kyle Trask Florida QB Kyle Pitts Florida TE Graham Mertz Wisconsin QB Breece Hall Iowa State RB Malik Willis Liberty QB DeVonta Smith Alabama WR Dillon Gabriel ( Does anybody remember McKenzie Milton? ) UCF QB Khalil Herbert Virginia Tech RB
Gators back at it. Florida returned to practice Monday for the first time in nearly two weeks, though coach Dan Mullen would not say how many players he would have available when the Gators play Saturday against Missouri. The Gators stopped all football activities Oct. 13 after a coronavirus outbreak spread through the team. Mullen and two assistants also tested positive, with at least 26 players positive since that time.
Reports are that not only is Wisconsin QB Graham Mertz positive and will miss 3 weeks, but his backup the 3rd string QB, Chase Wolf, is also positive and will miss 3 weeks. They better put the 4th string QB in a bubble!
I wonder if Wisconsin has more players that will be out due to contact tracing, and I know the Big 10 has an agressive testing protocol. When is the whole team tested? Could there be more guys?
Might be overkill Scott, but that was one of the conditions to play this fall by the conference representatives.
I know Don... seems kinda ridiculous tho considering the testing that's available. They could test these kids every day... when they come up negative and over symptoms let them return.
I think that once the Big 10 and the Pac12 opted out for the season over the Virus, they really couldn't opt back in just doing what the B12, SEC, and ACC were doing. Those were the policies that they rejected as not safe enough, so they had to come up with policies that went above and beyond what was being done in those conferences. Whether there teams/players end up being safer than the players in the SEC/ACC/B12 we will know by the end of the season. Whether those policies end up costing players and teams more to keep them safe, we'll know by the end of the season as well. But 21 days if they have to invoke it very much will definitely be a problem for Big 10 teams. I'm sure they thought of that and decided it was the price they were willing to pay to keep players safe.
The reason given was the concern that Covid could cause myocarditis and the need for additional testing to be done during that period to protect players from this side effect. Whether the policy is good medicine or “we care more than the SEC” PR is an interesting one. Given the rapid rise of cases in the Midwest, I suspect more than a few B10 teams will be having key players sitting for 3 weeks.
All you need to know about a QB named BOOM! Jersey number: 15 Height: 6’5″ Recruiting: Three-star recruit, No. 1859 in the nation, No. 68 at the position, No. 12 player from the state of Wisconsin High school accolades: Gatorade Wisconsin Player of the Year, first-team all-state by Associated Press and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, led Kimberly to back-to-back Division 1 state championships and 28-0 record as starting quarterback, unanimous first-team All-Fox Valley Association as a junior and senior, Fox Valley Association Offensive Player of the Year as a senior, helped lead Kimberly to Division 1 state title in baseball as a senior pitcher with a 7-3 record and 1.36 ERA College statistics: 1 game, 1 passing attempt, 3 yards, 1 touchdown, 455.2 pass efficiency rating College accolades: 2018 and 2019 Academic All-Big Ten
For those of you looking forward to Texas/Oklahoma State... Here's Tom Herman on the game. “We are for certain a work in progress, having to install a new offense, defense, and special teams with no spring ball and no summer training,” Herman said. “But we made a lot a lot of strides in that bye week leading up to Baylor. I expect us to continue on our trajectory north of improvement and development and, hopefully, give Oklahoma State our best shot.” Mike Gundy’s Cowboys are tied with Kansas State at the top of the Big 12 standings after defeating then-No. 17 Iowa State last Saturday in Stillwater. Typically, offense reigns supreme for a Gundy coached team, but that is not the case this year. The Cowboy defense, coordinated by Jim Knowles, is one of the best in the country this season. OSU is No. 3 nationally in third-down conversion defense allowing opponents to convert on under 20% of opportunities. The Cowboys allow12.0 points per game, No. 8 nationally and No. 4 among teams that have played at least four games. Herman said nine of the eleven starters on the Cowboy defense are upperclassmen, including six who have redshirted. Continuity, physical development, and experience have proven beneficial for the Cowboys, and the results have shown on the field this season. The main principles of Knowles’ defense this season to Herman’s eye included plenty of “chaos up front” with blitzes from heavy boxes, and man coverage on the outside from corners Jarrick Bernard-Converse, Rodarius Williams, and Christian Holmes. “We’re going to have to defeat man coverage, something we’ve been a bit hit or miss with our wide receivers here in the last few weeks,” Herman said. “Did not play to our standard against man coverage against Oklahoma. Did a pretty good job when Baylor chose to play man coverage, which was not very often.” OSU is not a nationally elite team and in the Big 12 driver’s seat because of one side of the ball. The Cowboys offense isn’t lighting up scoreboards, as they have eclipsed 30 points in a game one time in 2020 versus the lowly Kansas Jayhawks. However, with running back Chuba Hubbard leading the way, the Cowboys are No. 19 in the country in rushing offense with over 200 yards per game. Quarterback Spencer Sanders, who returned to the starting lineup versus the Cyclones after an injury in OSU’s season-opener, looked to be on his way to being his old self. He completed 69 percent of his passes for 235 yards and one touchdown, plus 71 yards and a score on the ground. Wide receiver Tylan Wallace is the star on the outside, but there are plenty of talented skill players in Stillwater including Landon Wolf, Dillon Stoner, and Jelani Woods. “They’re playing elite defense,” Herman said. “Elite, not just in our league, but in the country. When you’ve got skill position players like they have that are one touch away from a house call, those are two key ingredients to a championship recipe.” As Herman mentioned, Texas has not delivered an A-game performance against a conference opponent. For Texas to win against Oklahoma State on Saturday, they might need it. “We’ve got it in us,” Herman said. “I know we do. We’ve been building towards it, for sure.”
Stu are you talking about they had 37 players positive 2 weeks ago when they shutdown things? If so then they could have returned a lot of those players by now. They would still be out if they were in the Big 10 though. I think the Irish had in the high 20's when we shut down, but again we were allowed to bring them back after 2 weeks. Although we played FSU down 10 players I believe. I believe that the SEC rules say you have to have around 53 players available and that has to include a certain # of OL, DL and 1 QB. I think if you fall below that then the game can be rescheduled as has happened already, but if that isn't possible and you don't meet the min then it's a no contest and if you do meet the min and decide not to play it's a forfeit.
It's confirmed that Mertz is out for 3 weeks, not confirmed yet about his backup (Chase Wolf) is out 3 weeks, he did test positive with the rapid test and they are waiting on the PCR test to confirm.
"Stu are you talking about they had 37 players positive 2 weeks ago?" Yeah, I guess so...was a big headline in Fort Myers News Press today as if it just happened...article says "all we know is that they have 53 players available." The most recent positive test was last Saturday. Mullen is "not going to confirm or deny anything."
I'd sure like to know how many players they have available if they have fewer than 60 players, it will impact how I pick in the ESPN conteste. I'd hate to be a gambler these days.