2021 College Football Thread

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

...to say nothing of the train wreck that is the Jacksonville Jaguars this year. 

 

But that happened after they hired Addazio.  Florida and OSU were before.  Can't criticize CSU based on the Jacksonville stuff;  that'd be like dissing Subway for using Jared Fogle...back in 2000.  

 

Speaking of that...State Farm showed the Aaron Rodgers Jeopardy spot several times last weekend.  <sigh>  I don't think he's a centerpiece for them, but I hope they're not just letting the uproar die down.  (It may have done so already, fickle Americans that we are.)

[Pariah]

Just now, unclevlad said:

But that happened after they hired Addazio.  Florida and OSU were before.  Can't criticize CSU based on the Jacksonville stuff;  that'd be like dissing Subway for using Jared Fogle...back in 2000.  

 

True. But it does serve to show that those behaviors weren't outliers, or things that only happened in the past. 

[Pariah]

"I've been a head coach for 17 years in a row. I was an assistant 11 before then, and I was a graduate assistant two years before then," said Mendenhall in a press conference. "That's 31 years straight of football. My wife and I will have been married 25 years in March. All we've known together is the rhythm of a football season. That's all my kids have known, and this January, all three will be gone. Holly and I are empty nesters. And all they've known is the rhythm and cycle of football. We know what that looks like really, really well....I need to step back from college football and reassess, renew, reframe and reinvent with my wife as a partner our future and the next chapter of our lives."

 

Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall resigns after six seasons

[Pariah]

Pretty drab looking game in the PAC-12 championship. Utah has white helmets, black jerseys, and black pants. Oregon has black helmets, white jerseys with black speckles, and black pants. Utah has red and white trim that really stands out. Oregon has some kind of reflective green tram that's so dark as to be almost indistinguishable from black, and their number font is almost as bad as what Tampa Bay had a few years ago.

 

The C-USA game is better, with UTSA in mono-navy with orange trim and Western Kentucky with white jerseys and pants with their usual chrome silver helmets. 

[Iuz the Evil]

Cannot believe the PAC-12 has their conference championship on a Friday night…

[Pariah]

Why not? That's when high school games are usually played.

[unclevlad]

9 minutes ago, Iuz the Evil said:

Cannot believe the PAC-12 has their conference championship on a Friday night…

 

C'mon, man, seriously?

Which part of $$$$$$$$ from ESPN to show this game when there's NO other game competing against it, and in prime time?

 

Big 12 game gets the early slot, ABC.  SEC gets the afternoon slot, CBS.  C-USA has to compete against it.  Big 10 and ACC get the early evening slot on Fox and ABC respectively.  
 

There's no doubt that these were scheduled to avoid clashes among the big games.  It was only to be expected that the Pac 12 game was low priority...so ESPN gave em a sop of an standalone slot, with Fowler and Herbstreit doing the game, and on ABC.  

 

And of course, the way this is going...the Pac 12 is fulfilling Mr. P's point.  They'll have a rep in the Rose Bowl only because it's contractually obligated, the way this game's going.  Utes just made it 20-0 with the XP to come, 30 seconds left in the first half.....

 

 

[Pariah]

This year's Utah team presents an interesting dilemma. They finished the regular in season 9-3, with an inexplicable loss to Oregon State. But their other two losses were in the second and third weeks of the season, both on the road against teams that are currently in the top 25 (BYU and San Diego State, respectively). They just demolished Oregon twice in three weeks by a combined score of 76-17. They are definitely trending upward right now.

 

So consider a world in which there were an eight team playoff that included all five P5 conference champions, one from G5, and two at large bids. Assuming everything goes today the way we think it will, that probably puts Utah in the #6 or #7 seed behind Georgia, Michigan, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Alabama, and maybe Notre Dame. (The winner of the Wake Forest Pittsburgh game gets #8.) That leads Utah playing either Michigan or Cincinnati in the first round. If you're a coach at either of those two schools, seeing what Utah just did to Oregon, do you really want to play them in the first round of the playoffs?

[Starlord]

Talking heads think Oklagoma State should jump Cincinnati if both teams win.  

 

Go Baylor go!

[Pariah]

That's looking like a pretty big if right at the moment. Baylor has more or less outplayed Oklahoma State in every way at this point. Still, the Cowboys are only eight points down, so you never know.

[Pariah]

Yeah, Oklahoma State is done. First and goal from the one yard line, and later from the two yard line. Total points scored: 3. Ouch.

 

Baylor wins the conference championship and goes to the Sugar Bowl. Oklahoma probably gets the Alamo Bowl, and Okie State drops to the Cheez-It Bowl.

 

Meanwhile, assuming Georgia beats Alabama, this likely opens up a path for Notre Dame into the college football playoff. And if they go, they'll be playing under a new head coach. These are strange times.

 

[unclevlad]

Flip side, give Baylor massive credit for those stops.  OSU never ran the ball all game...40 carries for 70 yards.  The score was mostly expected in Vegas, too;  the over/under was only 45.

 

This sets up a very interesting scenario, IMO.  If Cincy and Michigan win, AND if Bama loses a close, tight game to Georgia...who gets the last slot, Bama or Notre Dame?  Does Baylor leapfrog ND and Bama on the strength of the conference championship, and based on ND's less-than-sterling schedule?  And does Kelly's abandonment play a role?

 

The potential for MAXIMUM CHAOS is still intact...Georgia wins, Cincy and Michigan lose.  That would likely get Notre Dame in, you'd think, and possibly Baylor.  Suffice it to say that the final CFP reveal would be Must See TV.  Noon Eastern tomorrow.  Or, of course, if Bama beats Georgia, and Cincy and Michigan win, it'll just be who plays Bama and who plays Georgia...I'm gonna assume, as I have, that they won't match up Bama and Georgia.  So maybe Mich 1, Bama 2, Cincy 3, Georgia 4.  Not considering that, I'd go Mich, Bama, Georgia, Cincy, I think.  

[unclevlad]

Oh well.  So much for chaos.  One thing remains permanent:  Georgia simply can't beat Alabama.

 

If Michigan wins, the matchups are likely set:  Alabama-Cincy, Georgia-Michigan.  In SOME order...could be Michigan 1 if they win big, but Alabama is winning impressively enough to lay claim to the 1 seed.  There is one edge to being the #1 seed:  they pick the venue they prefer.  This year it's the Cotton Bowl or the Orange Bowl.  

Hmm...New Year's Eve in Dallas or Miami?    Tough choice....tough.....

 

<and if you believe that line.......yadayadayada>

 

If Michigan loses...much harder to say.  Georgia-Cincy would be 1 game;  Bama would still be the #1 seed, but the committee might slot Michigan into #4, or elevate Notre Dame.  Michigan has the stronger overall resume.  Danielson also pointed out that Baylor might elevate;  he also lists Ohio State but I can't see that.  

[Pariah]

Dammit, Georgia, you had one job. 

[unclevlad]

2 hours ago, Pariah said:

Dammit, Georgia, you had one job. 

 

it is, however, Georgia.

 

And it's currently 28-3 Michigan with about 12 minutes left, which will of course take an hour to finish.  I shan't much bother, I think.  The only drama tomorrow should be whether Michigan or Alabama is #1.  

[Pariah]

Fox is currently projecting Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Cincinnati in that order.

 

We will find out in short order whether Cincinnati belongs in this party if this holds.

[Pariah]

Up 42 3 with a minute and change left, Harbaugh just got the Gatorade shower. Twice. First time with yellow Gatorade, second time with blue Gatorade. School colors. Nice touch.

[Iuz the Evil]

So the “Brent Venables to OU” rumor mill is grinding at about 100mph this weekend. I would be pretty happy if that happened, was starting to think that the rumors about some sort of high conflict interaction with big money donors in Brent’s past were going to derail the process, and I do have some concerns about his passion and intensity overriding his ability to dispassionately evaluate during games, but he’s a great defensively minded coach.

 

 This would in my opinion be a great hire for OU if it happens. I’ll be pretty disappointed if it doesn’t. We need someone who has a proven track record in his area of specially (defense), and need to hire a good OC to support them. I’m deeply tired of winning 55-48 or 64-56, let’s get some goddamn stops out there. The last time Brent Venables played texas as part of the OU staff the defense out scores their opponent team by 21-17. Clemson has a pretty decent defense even this year, and he’s a great recruiter.

 

 Could be happening soon. We will see what unfolds.

[unclevlad]

Yep.  No real surprises.  First lines:  Bama -13.5, Georgia -7.  Feel like hoping for the stunner?  You can get 12-1 on Cincy winning the championship.  Michigan is 8-1.  

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Napier said his Florida staff will be 'unprecedented.' What the hell does that even mean? 

 

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Logan.1179 said:

Napier said his Florida staff will be 'unprecedented.' What the hell does that even mean? 

 

 

Florida is giving him a separate $5M budget for non-coaching support staff.  ESPN reports he had 40 analyst-types at Louisiana-Lafayette...figure that quite a few of em will be students and therefore CHEAP (not just pay, but students don't get benefits as a rule) so we could be looking at 75-100 people total.

 

And in another example of the core hypocrisy in college sports...

Miami fires Manny Diaz.  Yes, well, not surprising.  Winning isn't enough, but that's a given.  Note that Miami is going bowling...but that doesn't matter to anyone.  And it's only the Sun Bowl;  one of the older bowls nowadays, but still pretty minor.  (Except down here.  The local El Paso stations treat it like it's the Super Bowl.  But then, it probably is the biggest event in the region all year.)

 

Well, ok.  No problem there;  if the school's not happy with him, bye-bye.  Doesn't help that the AD was fired 3 weeks ago;  this becomes the 2nd domino.

 

But Miami's already hired their next coach.  Mario Cristobal.  Oregon's current coach.  Oregon, who's got a pretty significant bowl game left.  ARGH!!!!!  The amusing point?  Their opponent (in the Alamo Bowl) is...Oklahoma.

 

The NCAA's #1 rule they impart to all athletes:  chase the money first.  Of course, they fight tooth and nail to prevent students...mere cogs in the machine...from doing that.

[Iuz the Evil]

Kind of looking forward to watching Bob Stoops coach against Oregon this year, crazy. I am not sure how that game will go, but the Oklahoma fans are going to care about it. Curious if Venables will be there, I don’t know the rules around that.

 

Way more fun than I expected as of a week ago Sunday. That’ll work for me.

[unclevlad]

5 minutes ago, Iuz the Evil said:

Kind of looking forward to watching Bob Stoops coach against Oregon this year, crazy. I am not sure how that game will go, but the Oklahoma fans are going to care about it. Curious if Venables will be there, I don’t know the rules around that.

 

Way more fun than I expected as of a week ago Sunday. That’ll work for me.

 

There are no rules, if Venables is out at Clemson.  The school can do what they want.  You'll often see a coordinator promoted so there's reasonable continuity;  Stoops is at least a broadly familiar figure.  

 

No one ever knows how most bowl games will go.  Several factors:

--coaching changes.  Assistants going elsewhere for promotions is decently common.

--player opt outs.  Already had a big one:  Kayvon Thibodeaux, a projected top 5 pick, opted out for Oregon.  Coach looked out for himself, so you can hardly blame the player.  Top 5 draft pick...the #5 pick this year signed for $30M.  All guaranteed.  

--always the chance that some players will screw up and get themselves booted/suspended.  Not common, but it happens.

--and you never know who wants to be there and who doesn't.  This is especially true in this OU/UO matchup, with both head coaches pretty much flipping the bird to their players.  You see it more, I think, in the earliest, mostly meaningless games that might be Pac 12 #6 vs. Big 10 #6.  Eek.  There are 44 bowl games, so 88 teams.  Given only, what, 130 or so teams available, that's getting down to some rather miserable teams.  Heck, UTEP got into a bowl game.  They're ranked #110 (out of 130) in ESPN's football power index.  The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl's matchup is...competitive, I suppose.  #92 Wyoming vs. #100 Kent State.

--A variation on the prior point:  who's really ready, and who's not.  This one might be most prevalent in the games scheduled between Christmas and New Years...there are 5 scheduled for the 28th, 4 for the 29th, whereas the prior point seems to rear its head in games before, but near to, Christmas. 

 

Venues also matter.  Hard to get excited about being in Albuquerque 3 days before Christmas.  Flip side, Hawai'i or the Bahamas can be too distracting.

 

It's all happened.  It's all messed games up.  Picking sports is semi-random;  college sports, even moreso.  Bowl games are worse than March Madness...they're hugely random.

 

 

[Iuz the Evil]

Sure, but it’ll be a sea of Crimson & Cream at the Alamo Bowl. 7 hour drive or a hop/skip/jump by plane from Norman, there’s just a couple folks in that town who remember Oregon from 2006 also. 
 

PAC refs or BIG XII refs, bleh. Pick your poison. And Oklahoma has never played in the Alamo Bowl.

 

I work that day, so not sure if I can watch the game but I’ll want to.

 

It’s a fun matchup. I like that one, even not knowing how it will go at all.

 

https://www.crimsonandcreammachine.com/2021/12/5/22818672/oklahoma-sooners-football-oregon-ducks-2021-valero-alamo-bowl-san-antonio-bob-stoops

[Pariah]

BYU gets the contractually-obligated Independence Bowl, a pretty well-established and respected bowl game. Sadly, they won't get 12-1 and ranked UTSA like a lot of people were hoping. (C-USA allows it champion to choose its bowl game, and UTSA opted to stay closer to home for the Frisco Bowl against San Diego State.) Instead, the Cougars get the team who finished behind UTSA in C-USA West, the Blazers of Alabama-Birmingham.

 

BYU is currently favored by 7, with an over/under of 54.5. Most writers that I've seen expect a blowout for BYU.

 

Can't wait for BYU to become part of the Big XII bowl hierarchy.