Turn the oven off. Auburn is cooked. We can officially close the book on the Jarett Stidham Era and the run of this current team. Stidham will end his career with a mixed bag – 1 division title, 1-1 Iron Bowl record, and hopefully 1 bowl win later this year. The Iron Bowl this year will probably be something similar to the 49-0 destruction that ended Gene Chizik’s tenure. I hope Gus has circled the names of the top 10 unsigned offensive linemen and plans to personally visit all of them. As good as this D-line is, there is no hope of high-level success the way the current offensive line is getting pummeled.
OK, OK, no more qualifiers. Notre Dame is good enough for playoff consideration. I was not sold on them with the cream puffs on the early schedule. But after dominating wins against Stanford and at Virginia Tech, they belong in the conversation. Congrats to all the Touchdown Jesus apologists and apologies to the ND backers for doubting them.
They’re back in their places. Auburn and LSU aren’t as good as we all thought. They are equals, just not equals at the top of the SEC. An OT win over what legitimately looks to be a conference title contender keeps Kentucky in the tier right below ‘Bama and UGA, but neither Auburn nor LSU should be considered anything other than third-tier, with Kentucky and Texas A&M being the second tier.
Hello? You play to win the game. That’s what Herm Edwards said years ago as Jets coach. He’s still a treasure trove of one-liners, and he’s still able to coach. He’s taken a not-very-good Arizona State team and has them at 3-3 with a good shot at a bowl bid. I’m rooting hard for him.
That Card Is STUPID! You know, that card that tells you to go for 1 or 2 after a TD based on the margin. That’s the OLNY thing the card considers, the margin. It doesn’t account for time of game, quality of opponent, you and your opponent’s 2-point success rate, or any other factor. It’s one of the most infuriating tools that coaches use. Most of them are mindless, obeying the card like the coach is the hooker and the card is the pimp. Michigan State scored a TD in the middle of the 3rd quarter against Northwestern to pull within 2. The card says you have to go for 2. They did and didn’t get it. Northwestern repeated the slavish obedience at the end of the 3rd quarter and converted. If neither team deployed the Stupid Card in the third quarter, then when Northwestern scored again with under 3 minutes to play, MSU would have been down by 8 instead of 10, needing only 1 TD & 2-pointer instead of a TD and FG. Gawd, I hate that card!
Power Rankings:
1. ‘Bama – I’m running out of ways to describe the dominance.
2. UGA – See #1 above.
3. Ohio State – Indiana is a decent team; no surprise they gave the Fightin’ Nuts some early problems.
4. Clempson – Got a bye week known as a game against Fake Forest.
5. Notre Dame – Finally had a true road game against a good team and won easily.
6. West Virginia – Should have put 50 on Kansas, but threw 4 picks inside the KU 30.
7. Penn State – Great bye week timing. Have the week off and contenders above you lose.
8. UCF – Will need to be undefeated and have Clempson, Ohio State and one of the top 2 to have a blowout loss to get into the CFP.
9. Michigan – Will not get any higher until they beat Ohio State.
10.Wisconsin – Handled business against the worst Nebraska team in history.
11.Washington – Should have won easier over a crummy UCLA team.
12.Texas – Welcome back to relevance.
13.Kentucky – Held up well in hostile territory. Should finish second in SEC East.
14.Oklahoma – Being held back by a historically bad defense.
15.Florida – Looks like the Kentucky game was the exception.
16.LSU – Were they looking ahead to UGA?
17.Oregon – See #7 above.
18.Colorado – Weak schedule? It’s not their fault Nebraska & UCLA suck so bad.
19.Auburn – Worst O-line in many years making it impossible to score.
20.South Florida – Looks like the annual UCF game will again decide the Group of 5 top dog.
21.Cincinnati – Unless Cincinnati knocks UCF or USF out of the picture.
22.Misipi State – Very underrated defense.
23.Texas A&M – Jimbo doing fairly well in year 1.
24.Miami – Is there such a thing as a bad win? Yes. See their last game.
25.NC State – See #24 above.
Next 5: Iowa, Washington State, Stanford, San Diego State, Appalachian State
Bottom 5: UTEP, Rice, San Jose State, New Mexico State, UConn
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