The 2020-21 College Football Thread

[unclevlad]

One can also point a finger at Dan Mullen for failing to get his team prepared, and all he tried to do in the press conference was deflect blame by saying the crowd made the difference.  Insofar as wanting the crowd...it's proof to me that he's in the "I am the head coach therefore I am God" mindset that has led to so many problems.  Not just football;  basketball has it too.

 

Apparently, the university has said No so far.

[Pariah]

Syracuse is currently listed as a 46-point underdog to Clemson this weekend.

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

Syracuse is currently listed as a 46-point underdog to Clemson this weekend.

 

Take Clemson and give the points.

I do find those lines amusing.  They're not unusual in the typical early-season, cupcake and paycheck games, and sometimes in the gross conference mismatches like this one.  It leads to the Quest For The Rout of the Week, and the debate...what's worse, 68-7 or 59-0?

 

Think I mentioned that CSU-UNM was scrapped completely;  it won't be made up, it's as if it was never scheduled.  That's due to a serious uptick here in New Mexico.  The University of Michigan just told their students to stay home, by *county* order.  How is this gonna impact UM football?  NO clue.  And virus numbers have been rising across the board, with more and more places reinstituting some restrictions.  So, get your sugar high while you can, Dabo;  it might not be around for that long.

[Iuz the Evil]

TCU usually gives Oklahoma fits so that game was far better than I'd expected. I had hoped to win, but expected a cardiac stress test. Instead it never was close after the first half.

 

Defense looking better. The offense didn't turn it over. Progress. To make the conference playoff, Iowa State needs to lose 1 more, and K State 2 more, or Oklahoma State lose 2 (one to OU). And OU must win out. Possible, but unlikely. It'll be interesting to see what happens. 

 

Lose any remaining game and they're done. And they need help, but it has happened before more than once.

 

It'll be interesting to see how the team progresses during the season. This is quite a test for coaching, given the abbreviated preseason and early losses. At a minimum we will know how they handle early season adversity and need for player development. 

[Pariah]

I've been watching the Clemson-BC game, and I've seen five penalties in the last four minutes. It's been ugly.

[Pariah]

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

I've been watching the Clemson-BC game, and I've seen five penalties in the last four minutes. It's been ugly.

 

Immediately after I typed this, BC had to punt and their punt team downed the ball at the one-yard line. But they had an illegal formation penalty and had to rekick. So they moved back 5 yards oh, and again put the ball down at the one-yard line. But then they had a holding call, and had to kick it again. This time Clemson received it and ran it out to get good field position...only to be penalized themselves for an illegal block in the back. Technically one play run three times with three different penalties. Completely ridiculous.

 

[Pariah]

Air Force currently leads Boise State 14-7 near the end of the first quarter. Boise has no answer for the Air Force running game.

 

Edit: And now the Broncos have tied it up. This may turn into a shootout.

[unclevlad]

Turned into kind of a one-sided shootout there.  Air Force's pass defense looks to have been non-existent.

 

Happen to have Alabama vs. Miss State.  First half offensive futility par excellence...Miss State had 7 possessions.  6 times, 3 and out.  7th...4 and out.

 

EDIT:  I suppose it's college but still...Bama defensive back steals a loose ball from a receiver, 5 yards deep in his end zone.  Gets bumped once...still 3 yards deep...and tries to run it out.  DARN near doesn't get out of the end zone;  instead of the 20, Bama gets the ball on the 1.  Just stupid "oh, oh, I gotta go, I gotta make the play" without thinking about it.  Thoughtless aggressiveness.

 

Oh yeah, Michigan proves yet again they're one of the most consistently overrated teams in the country.  Over 20 point favorites...and lose.  Mind, the line was probably a joke;  it's an educated guess at the best of times, and right now there's nothing but reputation to base it on, in the Big Flip Flop, with only 1 game under their belts.

 

 

[Pariah]

Did you see that fake field goal Boston College pulled off against Clemson? Brilliant stuff.

 

 

Pretty cool that the punter/holder that pulled it off was the son of the guy calling the game.

[Michael Hopcroft]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

Did you see that fake field goal Boston College pulled off against Clemson? Brilliant stuff.

 

 

Pretty cool that the punter/holder that pulled it off was the son of the guy calling the game.

It's a real pity Boston College didn't win the game.

[novi]

So, Wisconsin has cancelled two games now due to COVID, compared to zero in the rest of the Big Ten.  Did they get unlucky, do something wrong, or are the only team willing to tell the truth?

 

Well, it's probably a mix of those three, but I'm curious what the exact mix is.

[unclevlad]

We'll never know, but honestly, unlucky is much more likely here than it might normally be.  

Ever watch a relatively small stream of water flow down mostly flat asphalt?  It darts...it jerks...it sits and pools...then darts again.  If it's the right amount of water, it doesn't flow smoothly or steadily like a river;  it jumps around from spot to spot, missing large chunks entirely, at least for a while, while coursing through other areas.

[Cancer]

On 10/11/2020 at 12:08 PM, unclevlad said:

...it's proof to me that he's in the "I am the head coach therefore I am God" mindset that has led to so many problems.  Not just football;  basketball has it too.

 

It pervades all collegiate sports.  ALL.  One morning ten-twelve years back I got to listen to my department chair (our offices were next door to each other) talk an emotionally abused physics major back out of the tree after his coach ... his swimming coach ... his swimming coach at a Division II school ... had called the student on the carpet for spending too much time on academics, not enough on sport, and demanded that he get out of physics and into something less demanding.

 

My chair was able to cool the student down.  I assume he also got in touch with one or two other people higher up in the institution about the situation, but I don't know; I do know the coach was no longer at our school a couple of years later.  The student stayed with physics, got his bachelor's degree, went on and got a master's in industrial physics, and I think he makes between two and three times what I do now.

 

Having been an undergrad at Washington for the first three years of Don James's tenure there (and postdoc and faculty there for the last six or eight years, including his national championship season), and in grad school at Texas the year after Earl Campbell graduated and the Longhorns were still coasting on that, and at Indiana when Bobby Knight won the NCAA basketball tournament in 1987 ... athletics has virtually unlimited power, and it is an invariably corrupting power.

[Pariah]

Colorado State took the Bronze Boot away from Wyoming for the first time in five years. Go Rams!

[Pariah]

BYU is up 38-3 on Boise State. In Boise. With the fourth quarter still to play.

 

BYU has never beaten Boise on the blue turf (0-5). Looks like this is the year. *knocks on wood*

[unclevlad]

A lovely day in the Big 10.    Whiny Nebraska AND overrated Michigan both go down.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pariah]

I watched the fourth quarter and overtime of the Clemson-Notre Dame game last night. The thing that really stuck out to me...was the almost non-existent social distancing in the stands. And it just got worse after fans stormed the field at the end of the second overtime.

 

(Though to be fair, the large majority of students did seem to be wearing masks. That's better than I've seen at a lot of other games.)

 

I'm no epidemiologist, but I'm predicting a big uptick in cases in South Bend in about 2 weeks.

 

(Have I mentioned lately how much I despise this whole "Your replies have been merged" claptrap?)

 

 

17 hours ago, unclevlad said:

A lovely day in the Big 10.    Whiny Nebraska AND overrated Michigan both go down. 

 

I grew up not far from Boulder in the days of the Big 8, and I can tell you this: Any day that Nebraska loses is a good day.

 

(I think Iuz would concur.)

[Iuz the Evil]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

I grew up not far from Boulder in the days of the Big 8, and I can tell you this: Any day that Nebraska loses is a good day.

 

(I think Iuz would concur.)

Indeed. Although I've never hated Nebraska with the vitriol reserved for texas, I do not want them to win. 

 

OU seems to be hitting their stride at this point. If they win out they are in the conference title game. Obviously not a guarantee, but seems like a legit possibility. 

 

May be playing in the Sugar Bowl (non playoff berth) if they win that one, that'd be fun. 

[unclevlad]

Oh...my.

 

Jim Harbaugh's future kinda has to be very tenuous...Wisconsin just took them behind the woodshed, 49-11.

[Pariah]

 

Well, my alma mater managed not to lose today. That's something.

 

Of course, they've only been scheduled for two games and had both of them canceled due to COVID-19, so I suppose they are substantially the losers after all.

[unclevlad]

I saw today that Rick Pitino, the current Iona basketball coach and past coach at Kentucky and Louisville, advocated for a delay in the start of the college basketball season, due to the difficulties with the pandemic and the procedures it's imposed.  I hope they take a long hard look:  15 games were impacted today;  that's after 10 last week.  And that doesn't consider games that were allowed to be played, but for which one or both teams were significantly affected.  I heard Miami very nearly missed having enough players at one position today.

 

So this college football season has been a massive joke...and it started when the case numbers were merely We Should Be Doing Better.  Yes, well, in many places it's HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  One out of every 300 Americans became a New Case *this week*.  It's *still* not clear to me, even as far into the college football schedule as we are, that it will finish with something close to New Years' bowls or at least the CFP.  

Lesson:  DON'T START the college basketball season in this utter MESS.

 

Not that they're terribly likely to listen.

[Pariah]

While I will pretty much always route for the service academies, I have to say that the Army had no business beating Georgia Southern today.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Ohio State's game with Illionis is canceled outright.

 

Oregon lost to arch-rivals/little brothers Oregon State in a game I didn't get to see. Literally -- when I tried to tune in, the field in Corvallis was covered in a thick fog so bad the announcers were talking about delaying the game so it can clear. My niece is taking distance classes at OSU, but doesn't care about football.

[Pariah]

Penn State is off to their worst start in program history at 0-5. How apocalyptic would it be for Michigan if Penn State got their first win of the season in Ann Arbor today?

 

*munches popcorn*

[unclevlad]

Some would say apocalyptic, I'd say delightful.  10 point lead mid-4th, GO LIONS!!!!

 

Interesting, LONG story on ESPN.com about how the Florida State football program has managed to pull a full-power nosedive straight into the ground.  Worth the read for the look inside Big Time College Football more generally.

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30331494/deep-deep-hole-6-year-unraveling-florida-state-football

 

 

EDIT:  27-17 final.  I'd give you a high five, Pariah, but...you know, social distancing and all that....

The pressure to ditch Harbaugh has to be getting really serious.  The Minnesota win has lost all luster;  losing to MSU is losing to your in-state rival;  this loss is just embarassing;  and getting taken to the woodshed by Wisconsin.