And just like that, the college football regular season is over.
Is it just me, or did the last 12 weeks go by in an absolute blur?
For most fanbases, the reflections on the previous campaign will begin in earnest today. Those reflections will be littered with “what-ifs,” and “I can’t believe...”…and “Coach X needs to be fired.” For some fanbases expectations were exceeded. For others, not so much.
As a Penn State fan/alum, my expectations for this season were pretty high. Not CFP high, but I thought a 10-2/9-3 campaign was well within the realm of the possible. So count me a member of the “expectations not met” crowd. At 7-5, Penn State ended the season with worse records than: Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Purdue. Fourth in their division, eighth overall. Hardly what I envisioned in September.
I plan on doing a complete retrospective of the season after whatever mid-December midweek bowl game the Lions go to (and yes, contrary to Joe Moron PSU fan, they should ABSOLUTELY go to a bowl game).
Some random observations/thoughts on a Sunday morning:
If you haven’t watched it yet, go watch Nick Saban’s absolutely epic rant during his weekly radio show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7L9jNwzkwA). He goes thermonuclear on “self-entitled” fans who just can’t be happy with winning. While he’s talking to Bama fans, I think the message is appropriate for ALL fanbases. I think we all forget that the players and coaches want to win games more than any of us couch rangers do.
The college football overtime rule is absolute garbage. It was bad before; it’s a joke now. Alternating 2-point conversion tries in perpetuity (and walking 94 yards each time to do it) doesn’t seem like the right way to settle a football game. I don’t know what the right answer is, but the current system isn’t it. Maybe modify the NFL overtime rules so each team gets a chance with the ball from the 35? Maybe…just maybe…a tie is ok?
Mel Tucker and James Franklin both secured 10 year deals this past week (for $95 and $75 million, respectively). After yesterday’s game, one fanbase was going to have major reservations about their coach’s deal. And, after PSU’s lackluster 30-27 loss the takes were HOT.
BTW, both Tucker and Franklin have the same agent…dude is good at what he does.
Miami (preseason #14), Florida (preseason #13), and Florida State finished a combined 18-18. The Gators fired their coach, the Hurricanes will likely part ways with Manny Diaz, and Mike Norvell has his work cut out for him in Tallahassee. Dark times in the Sunshine State.
The Bedlam game last night was fun. And I now think Oklahoma State has the best uniforms in college football. The black with orange was amazing. After the game, Lincoln Riley shut down rumors that he was interested in the LSU opening. I am interested to see how Oklahoma fares in the SEC. Their path to the CFP just got a lot harder.
Oklahoma’s SEC running mate, Texas, finished the year 5-7, with a surprising win over Kansas State on Friday. I don’t think Sark is in any danger of losing his job this offseason, but things could get toasty if Texas is non-competitive in the SEC.
The weather in Michigan for the OSU/Michigan and PSU/Michigan State games was awesome, and the number one argument against domes in my opinion. Come bowl season, would love to see some ACC/SEC teams travel north to play in the Duluth Trading Company Minnesota Bowl, or something like that. It’s one thing to get southern teams to come up north in Aug/September. It’d be another thing entirely to get them up north in Nov-Jan. Who wouldn’t want to see Kirby Smart in a parka??
Clemson finished 9-3 after being written off early in the season. While surely a disappointment, the Tigers have won 7 of their last 8. Might want to slow down on the death pronouncement, though they absolutely have to find a quarterback.
Pitt won their division of the ACC. As if my own personal CFB Hell couldn’t get any worse.
Will Levis, Penn State’s backup QB in 2019-2020 had himself quite a game against Louisville yesterday. The Wildcats’ first year starter went 14-18, 149 passing, but had 14 carries for 113 yards and 4 touchdowns in the 52-21 win. Makes me wonder what would’ve happened vs Iowa and Illinois if he was still on the Penn State roster.
Guaranteed-To-Be-Wrong projected CFP final four after conference championship games are over:
Georgia
Michigan (beats Iowa in the B1G Championship)
Alabama (beats UGA in the SEC Championship)
Oklahoma State (beats Baylor in the Big 12 Championship)
Beer of the Week: Starr Hill (Virginia) Snow Blind Doppelbock (7.7% ABV). Solid brew from one of my favorite "local" breweries.
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