I think I jinxed Army’s QB, Bryson Daily. I pointed out last week that he was the only FBS quarterback with no sacks or interceptions. Needless to say, he threw an INT – and it wasn’t easy to do because he only threw four passes in the entire game! (Army’s offense is built on the run. No aspiring NFL quarterback is going to the service academies, where he will graduate with an annual salary of $46,000, so they have to devise alternate offenses.) Daily made up for his non-existent passing with 153 rushing yards in a 14-3 victory. He now has more than a thousand rushing yards for the season, leading his team to a 9-0 record. Are they really deserving of their place in the top 25? We’ll soon know. They have next week off, then face the true test of the season when Notre Dame comes calling. For the record, the computer rates them #60, lower than a couple of FCS schools.
The mighty Georgia Bulldogs were ranked in the top three in the nation by everyone. The playoff committee placed them third, the polls slotted them second, and the computers put them at the very top spot. Given that info, Ole Miss really showed some strength by beating Georgia easily, 28-10. The Ole Miss defense held Georgia to only 245 yards from scrimmage, and also forced three turnovers. It’s a huge victory for Ole Miss that may earn them a spot in the playoffs, while it places Georgia on shakier footing to make the post-season.
Florida State continues to pursue that all-time record for the worst drop from one season to the next. They had 13 wins last season, and they are 1-9 this year after a 52-3 drubbing by Notre Dame. They’d have to lose their remaining games to tie the record of a 12-game drop, and I don’t think they can do it. They scheduled their next game against Charleston Southern, the worst team in a weak FCS conference, a team that would probably lose to many division two teams. If the Seminoles lose that one, they deserve to set that unwelcome record, because they will probably be four-touchdown favorites!
Last year Michigan defeated Indiana 52-7 on the way to a 15-0 national championship season. This year the shoe was on the other foot. Indiana advanced to 10-0 with a win. It’s the first time the Hoosiers have ever won ten games in a season! Ohio State is up next, and that game will show if they are for real. On the other side of the ledger, Michigan will barely be bowl-eligible this year. They are likely to finish 6-6 in the regular season. They would be the sob story of the year if not for FSU.
Speaking of the mighty who have fallen, Oklahoma may miss bowl eligibility altogether. They dropped to 5-5 (1-5 conference), and have two really tough games left (Alabama and LSU). It’s not that they have a poor team – it’s just that they play in the ultra-tough SEC, where they are in danger of posting a 1-7 conference record. “I’ve a feeling we’re not playing Kansas any more, Toto.” According to the current computer rankings, Oklahoma has played four of the top ten teams in the country. In contrast, Indiana has played none of the top 30.
Formerly undefeated Miami dropped their first game of the year, losing to a mediocre Georgia Tech team. The Hurricanes will plummet from their current #4 rating.
In the power match-up of the week, Alabama crushed LSU, solidifying their claim to a post-season berth. I was looking at the SEC standings and trying to figure out which teams will be in the conference championship game (thereby earning a first-round playoff bye). It is very possible that neither Alabama nor Georgia will be in that game, which is probably one of those signs of the end times, like the rivers turning … er … crimson. Three of the contenders for this year’s SEC championship have never won it in the past: Ole Miss, Texas A&M and of course Texas, which is new to the conference.
Right now, the SEC has five of the top 12, the Big 10 has four, and Notre Dame takes up another spot. That leaves only two slots for all the other conferences (and by the rules, those two would get the third and fourth seeds in the tournament, and would be awarded first round byes). However, the fifth-highest conference champion is also guaranteed a spot in the top 12, and if they are not in the top twelve in the rankings, they would knock the #12 team out of the playoffs.
IF THE SEASON WERE NOW OVER, the four first-round byes would be Oregon, Texas, BYU and Miami, while Boise State would be guaranteed a spot as the fifth-highest conference champ. BYU and Miami currently are in the top 12, so they would not knock out any ranked teams, but Boise is NOT in the top 12, so their automatic bid would place them in the 12th seed and knock out 12th-ranked Georgia!! All of that will probably keep changing as the conference champions emerge.
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Kent State watch:
The Golden Flashes kept alive their dream of a fifth winless season with a humbling 41-0 loss. They were able to muster only 114 yards from scrimmage.
Based on the comments, I dug a little deeper into this game.
Having nothing to lose, Kent State handed over the starting QB job this week to an inexperienced freshman, Ruel Tomlinson. He got swamped, as expected, but it’s probably a good move to get him some downs. This season is going nowhere, so they may as well look to the future. Although the kid struggled, he seems to have some potential. He led his high school to the Ohio state championship last year.
OK, to be real for a sec, that championship was in Division IV, which encompasses high schools with enrollments between 205 and 263, meaning that there are only about 25-35 boys in each class. But still … how often does a state champion QB go to Kent State? The downside, of course, is that even if he somehow turns out to be a star, they’ll lose him when he takes the transfer portal to a major program.
I feel for Kent State. They played their 5th string qb. A true freshman walk on. They got pretty beaten up playing money games early this season. I follow the MAC having gone to Ohio and sending Kent a bunch of money when my daughter matriculated there.
I know that I can be a big wuss at times, but if I were their A.D., I wouldn’t want my guys playing on the road against Tennessee and Penn State on successive weekends. It seems like a recipe for injuries for any school that isn’t a football factory, and doesn’t have the depth chart to keep experienced guys on the field (as you noted). In addition to the physical strain, there’s the emotional toll of losing 127-0.
I know the kids approach it as a challenge, and I know the money is good for teams like Kent to provide the first-rate programs with the cannon fodder they want to delight their fans on “homecoming weekend,” but that has to be tempered by common sense.
Wow!The Ducks are #1? WTF? Being a Duck (’93), I’m SHOCKED! But I’m sure they’ll find a way to fuck it up. They always choke in the final game..
They should be able to finish the regular season undefeated. They have only to beat a mediocre Wisconsin team and a sub-mediocre Washington.
But then things get rough. Can they make it all the way? Who knows? But they seem to be in the catbird’s seat.
I did my undergraduate work at Fordham, and did my first grad work at the University of Rochester, so all the pressure is off for my rooting! The U of R plays in Division 3, and Fordham is arguably the worst Division 1 school, although they did beat one of the toothpaste schools this year.
That leaves me rooting for Texas, but I did only a long-distance executive degree program there (I was actually commuting from Dallas at the time), and I was nearly 40 at the time, so I was never really part of the college experience there, and I don’t really feel like a Longhorn.
I’m from Portland, so fuck the Ducks. No mention of Bama CLOBBERING LSU? Sad.
I try to write about angles not mentioned in the sports pages, and I had none for that game. Since you mentioned it, I went back to the post and rambled on a bit about the possibilities for the SEC conference championship.