In weeks like this one, where it seemed like a game was getting cancelled every hour for the last four days, there comes a very existential reminder that college football is first and foremost a game played by children — yes, kids in college are still children to a large degree, even if they themselves would argue against it. There are millions or billions or some imperceptibly large amount of dollars at stake for the schools themselves and their hangers on, but it is still a game at its core. It’s kids that are getting sick from this disease, and the universities that seem to have no viable plan to care or protect them from it. Everyone is in fear of insolvency because of a government that has long since given up on the idea that it had any responsibility to the people it supposedly serves.
Logically, we all knew this season wasn’t supposed to be played. A game in which large people violently collide into other large people, with all the literal blood, sweat, and tears that brings, always felt a bit absurd to be doing during a pandemic. With the recent uptick in cases and cancellations, it begs the question whether the should cancel the season in the first place.
Of course, the main reason for this uptick is because the United States itself is having uncontrolled spread in nearly every state in the entire country. There were 184,000 new cases of coronavirus in the U.S. on Friday, a number that seemed unthinkable even a week or two ago. We are now in the “third wave” of the virus, and this one looks the most bleak of all, with healthcare workers at their breaking point just as people decide to travel for the holidays.
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, as Twitter likes to say. But, this is not to say there are no ethics under capitalism, even for the individual. An atmosphere like the one we inhabit makes us think whether even watching football at all becomes a moral failing. Being angry at those who can only answer with an affirmative that it is morally wrong is idiotic, and those people’s arguments are indeed appealing; that they can’t support the “meat grinder” so to speak knowing what they know about how the virus affects even younger, fitter people.
For me though, the answer has always been complicated. Bearing in mind that I am cognizant of everything I have just written, I continue to watch and write this newsletter because I love the sport too much to just stop right then and there. Like a lot of people, this sport — as well as sports in general — give me a little reprieve from the world at large in such a psychologically hellish time.
Is it a cop-out to simply say “this is what I know so I keep doing it”? To an extent, yeah, it is. Systemic problems do not go away just because you wish them, or because you enjoy the final product at the end of the day. But, college football’s problems, like society’s in general, are fixable. By making my opinions on actions like player unions, representation, racism (especially in the coaching ranks), and other systemic problems known, I hope that it sheds a small but unquenched light on the issues that it has, and pushes people to want to fix them. That’s what I can do as a fan, and I hope I influence other college football fans in that direction.
What The Hell Happened This Week
Not much…
…
okay a few things did happen.
Jim and James in a Jam
With everything holding serve in terms of upsets in the top 25…or anywhere for that matter, the only real big storyline from this weekend has to be Michigan and Penn State’s sudden dive into absolute hell and despair. Combined, the two teams are 1-7 to start this shortened, Big Ten only schedule and neither team looks as if they’re going to turn it around.
For Michigan, this must be a very bitter pill to have to swallow. Harbaugh’s track record prior to coming to Ann Arbor as a coach had been as much of a slam dunk as one could ask for. His 49ers teams were consistently among the best in the league, culminating in a Super Bowl that had them fall just short of beating the Ravens. Before that, he’d built up Stanford from the Pac-10’s doormat to a BCS bowl contender, and before even that, he’d made the University of San Diego in FCS a respectable program.
However, home run hires sometimes just aren’t. Harbaugh’s Michigan squad has had to deal with the adversity that is the Big Ten East, competing against Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan State every single year with no breaks, meaning any flaws the team had were amplified significantly. While Don Brown’s defenses have held up the Wolverines for the most part, this year it’s all come crashing down, and their offense under Josh Gattis looks stale and predicatable.
Meanwhile, in State College, Penn State’s fall has been more sudden, as the Nittany Lions were in a New Year’s Six bowl last season, beating Memphis in the Cotton Bowl. This year, the team has inexplicably fallen into a Pennsylvania-sized sinkhole, going 0-4 for only the second time in the entire history of the progam. Thing is, if you just look at the stats, it’s not like they’re playing that bad; they’re 3rd in the conference in total offense and 6th in the conference in total defense. However, defensively they cannot get off the field at times, and offensively, Sean Clifford may have been holding the team back. May have.
Before the season, many college football fans would have probably told you that if their team did badly this season, it was a write-off. Pandemic, weird scheduling practices, just not a normal season in any circumstance. However, that mood seems to not be the case with these two programs; Harbaugh’s hot seat probably feels like bare feet on pavement in July, and Franklin’s seat, though having been safe for a few years thanks to some decent results, may be heating back up again.
The Favorites Favorite Weekend
SMU had the dishonor of being the only top 25 team in action this weekend to actually lose — Tulsa came back from 21-0 and 24-7 down to win 28-24 after a 21-0 run in the second half. Other than that though, it was a good day to be a top 25 team, with those ranked squads going 11-1 this weekend. Granted, most of them had tomato cans to play, but a few actually played real football teams.
Virginia Tech was actually a 2 point favorite against #9 Miami, but the Hurricanes managed to pull out a heart-thumper at Virginia Tech. Miami defensive end Jaelan Phillips and linebacker Gilbert Frierson managed to put a hurt on VT quarterback Hendon Hooker, sacking him a combined 4.5 times against an offensive line that actually seemed somewhat solid.
USC, once again, needed a comeback against a school from Arizona, beating the Arizona Wildcats by a score of 34-30 after Kedon Slovis pulled the same shit he did against Arizona State and waited till the last couple of minutes of the game to play out of his skull, passing for 325 yards total. Clay Helton will be at USC until 2045 at this rate.
Everyone tried to hype up Notre Dame-Boston College as a potential trap game for the #2 ranked Irish in the same vein as their 1993 loss to BC after their #1 vs. #2 battle (and win) against Florida State that year. Early on, the prospect of an upset in the year 2020 looked interesting, as Boston College ran out to a 10-3 first quarter lead, as well as a 13-10 second quarter lead. Although Boston College hung around for most of the first half, Notre Dame ended up winning rather comfortably by a score of 45-31.
Florida and Arkansas played a game that belonged more in the old Arena Football League than what people would typically consider SEC football — they combined for 98 total points and 1,051 yards of total offense. Kyle Trask threw for 350+ yards and 6 touchdowns as the Gators made a total mockery of Arkansas’s defense by a score of 63-35.
The highest impact game though within the top 25 this week was, you guessed it, Northwestern-Purdue. Putting those two teams’ names together evokes a rainy, cold game in November where time of possession is key. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what ended up happening. Northwestern was by no means impressive in their 27-20 win over the Boilermakers, but they held the ball for 35 minutes and WR Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman scored literally all of their touchdowns to put them over the top.
This Week In Coronavirus
There are, was, and going to be so many goddamned coronavirus issues. So, so many.
The SEC was this weeks ultimate loser when it came to coronavirus cases making a mockery of a season that was perhaps already one to begin with. CBS’s “big” primetime clash between #1 Alabama and LSU was postponed, as LSU did not have the 53 minimum players necessary to play the game. Unless Alabama, by some unfortunate stroke of luck, manages to lose the Western division, this game has no room for rescheduling.
Three other SEC games were postponed this week; Auburn-Mississippi State, Texas A&M-Tennessee, and Georgia-Missouri. Unlike other leagues, which would just try and move on and at least attempt to keep bits of the hygiene theatre alive, the SEC will presumably make up all these games on December 12th or 19th. It is no coincidence that the league in the part of the country where the leaders of each state demand more human sacrifice than the last impart the idea that a full 10 games need to be played even under the most perilous circumstances.
Of course, even outside the SEC footprint, the virus continues. Ohio State’s game against Maryland was cancelled due to Maryland’s COVID-19 outbreak within their program — eight Terrapin players have tested positive so far. The Pac-12’s more stringent contact tracing and testing standards have caught another two games in the net to be cancelled this week; Utah-UCLA due to an outbreak within Utah’s program and Arizona State-Cal due to Arizona State’s outbreak of cases. However, Cal and UCLA worked to play a game that literally just finished up hours ago at the Rose Bowl (UCLA won 34-10, in case you’re wondering).
Other games postponed, cancelled, or affected this week included:
Air Force-Wyoming: Second consecutive week Air Force has had a game called off due to COVID cases within the program. The game is cancelled, and won’t be rescheduled.
Memphis-Navy: Navy’s second cancellation in a row due to COVID cases. The Midshipmen haven’t practiced since October 29th. Could be played at some point but the schedule currently doesn’t have a common open date available.
Arkansas State-UL Monroe: Postponed to December 12th due to UL-Monroe having multiple football staffers test positive for the virus.
UAB-North Texas, UAB-UTEP: UAB’s next two games have been cancelled due to the virus. Saturday’s game was scheduled to take place against North Texas at home for the Blazers, but positive coronavirus cases forced a cancellation. This week’s game against UTEP, first moved to a neutral site in Midland, Texas because of El Paso’s coronavirus issues, has also been cancelled.
Louisiana Tech-Rice: Louisiana Tech does not have enough players at one position to play the game, it being a combination of COVID cases and injuries. Unknown whether this game will be made up, but Louisiana Tech has multiple games missing from their initial schedule now.
Pitt-Georgia Tech: Both schools are having coronavirus issues and have paused activities entirely. Game was postponed to December 12th.
Coastal Carolina-Troy: Postponed due to Troy’s COVID-19 outbreak, unknown right now when the game will be made up.
Charlotte-Gardner Webb: Game was cancelled because of a specific position group being out due to positive coronavirus tests and contact tracing from Gardner-Webb. It should be noted that Gardner-Webb doesn’t have another game scheduled until March 20th of next year, when their conference season starts.
AP Top 25 This Week
Notre Dame (1 first place vote)
Ohio State (1 first place vote)
Clemson
Texas A&M
Florida
Cincinnati
BYU
Indiana
Wisconsin
Oregon
Miami (FL)
Georgia
Oklahoma State
Coastal Carolina and Marshall are tied at 557 points exactly
Iowa State
Oklahoma
Northwestern
USC
Liberty
Texas
Auburn
Louisiana
Tulsa
Excellent Eleven Team of the Week
Note: I have a new scouting system for offensive linemen, which you can read about here. The linemen I graded this week are all here.
QB: Sam Howell (North Carolina) - 32-45, 550 yards passing, 6 passing TD’s, 7 carries, 21 yards, 1 rushing TD against Wake Forest.
RB: Kevin Harris (South Carolina) - 25 carries, 243 yards rushing, 5 rushing touchdowns against Ole Miss.
WR: Elijah Moore (Ole Miss) - 13 receptions, 225 yards receiving, 2 recieving touchdowns, 6 carries, 45 yards rushing against South Carolina.
LT: Aleric Jackson (Iowa) - Iowa’s entire offensive line earned the only perfect score of the weekend with an 80/80 by absolutely demolishing and running over Minnesota’s entire defense, but Jackson’s individual contributions earned him the top score overall this week of an 88.
LT: Liam Eichenberg (Notre Dame) - First time we’ve had a repeat in terms of someone showing up on our Excellent Eleven. Eichenberg’s score of 87 is the second best this week, as Notre Dame’s offensive line put in yet another excellent performance, this time against Boston College.
RT: Robert Hainsey (Notre Dame) - Tied with Eichenberg for an 87 overall score against Boston College. Unlike last week, this week’s Notre Dame offensive line was just as dominant on the right side as it was the left.
DT: Jerome Johnson (Indiana) - 5 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks in a shutout win against Michigan State.
DE: Jaelan Phillips (Miami FL) - 8 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks against Virginia Tech.
LB: Micah McFadden (Indiana) - 9 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 sacks in a shutout win against Michigan State.
CB: Mekhi Garner (Louisiana) - 5 tackles, 4 pass deflections, 1 sack against South Alabama.
S: Tykee Smith (West Virginia) - 9 tackles, 1 pass deflection, 1 interception, as well as not allowing TCU to score a touchdown in a 24-6 win.
Conference Championship Races
ACC: Nothing new to report from last week. Notre Dame holds the overall conference lead, with Clemson and Miami (FL) technically tied for second, though Clemson has a 42-17 win over the Hurricanes from back in October that gives them the ACC Championship Game tiebreaker.
American: Tulsa scored a huge win against SMU on Saturday to put themselves in conference title contention. However, Cincinnati is running on all cyllinders, and as their game against East Carolina on Friday showed, they’re going to run up the score by a lot on any team they play to increase their playoff chances.
Big Ten: Wisconsin’s back in play in the Big Ten West, and — knock on wood — they get the rest of their games in, they have to be the prohibitive favorite in that division, though Northwestern’s win over Purdue puts them in a really good spot should Wisconsin have to have another cancellation. Out in the East, Ohio State and Indiana continue to be the top teams. Really huge matchup setting up between those two.
Big XII: Oklahoma State and Iowa State are technically the conference leaders in the standings, but Oklahoma State has a win over Iowa State. Down below them, there are three teams lurking, but only one of those teams in Oklahoma has a real shot to chase down the other two. If Bedlam this week has Oklahoma winning over Oklahoma State, things could get really complicated, really fast.
Conference USA: Marshall has locked up the Eastern division for the most part, with no real challengers to their legitimately good squad. Out in the Western divison, coronavirus cancellations have forced a very weird situation where UAB, Louisiana Tech, and UTSA are in the hunt, with Rice having only one loss as well. Louisiana Tech has a double overtime win against UAB, but a loss to UTSA as well as Marshall, while UTSA was beaten by UAB but has the aforementioned win against LaTech. With highest winning percentage being the deciding factor, UAB’s .667 is atop LaTech and UTSA’s .600. UAB and LaTech have easier schedules to close out, though LaTech’s is a little easier. A strange situation where UAB’s lack of conference games ends up being the difference is not only possible, but the most likely scenario at this point.
MAC: Buffalo and Kent State are atop the MAC East, though Buffalo looks clearly like the best squad in that division so far. Out west, an inexplicable fake spike touchdown gave Western Michigan a critical victory against fellow conference contender Toledo.
This sets up a huge matchup on Wednesday for control of the MAC West, as Western Michigan takes on fellow 2-0 squad in Central Michigan, who beat Northern Illinois last week.
Mountain West: Boise State, while they haven’t wrapped up the Mountain division yet, it would take a collapse for them to lose it; they’re already 2 games ahead of everyone in their division and the two teams below them in the standings are two teams they’ve already beaten. In the Western division, San Jose State and Nevada are both sitting at 4-0 right now. What might be the difference is San Jose State has to play Boise State, while Nevada doesn’t. Hard to see any other league winner but Boise State right now.
Pac-12: In this shortened year, we’re already a third of the way through the Pac-12 slate, and there aren’t really any surprises thus far. USC is 2-0, though not in the sexiest way. Colorado is at 2-0 also, and Utah will likely still end up being a good squad, though COVID outbreaks have meant they still haven’t started their season yet. The first big game of these three is USC vs. Utah next week…hopefully.
Up in the North division, Oregon seems as dominant as everyone thought they would be, with no drama at all in their results thus far. Washington scored their first win of the year in a close game against Oregon State, strengthening Oregon as the perceived team to beat in this division.
SEC: With only three conference games played this week, not much changed. Florida is still atop the East after shelling Arkansas’s defense this weekend. Out West, it’s Alabama still undefeated and Texas A&M hoping for the Crimson Tide to pick up two conference losses against the likes of Kentucky, Auburn, Arkansas, and maybe LSU if the SEC does some scheduling magic. While not impossible, the likelihood of that happening seems almost zero.
Sun Belt: Louisiana has wrapped up the Sun Belt’s Western division already, with a 5-1 league record. In the Eastern division, Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State are still atop the standings with undefeated conference records. Appalachian State nearly fell to upstart Georgia State, but it would not have mattered much to the league race, since Appalachian State will have taken the lead in the division anyways had they beaten Georgia State. Appalachian State and Coastal have a huge game this Saturday for control of the division, and perhaps the league title race overall.
What To Watch Next Week
Note: Rankings are from the Massey Composite and odds are from wherever I can usually find them (usually Vegas Insider, but not always). This is why you may see a difference between the AP top 25 and what I list down below. For those unfamiliar with odds, the team with the minus number next to their name is the one that is projected to win the game by that many points.
#67 Western Michigan at #68 Central Michigan (-1) (Wednesday 11/18, 7 PM ET, ESPN2): Control of the MAC West is on the line in this rivalry game. Receiver D’Wayne Eskridge of Western Michigan is one of the most fun players in the entire conference to watch, and has helped WMU to a 3rd rank in the MAC in passing offense. Central Michigan though is 1st in the MAC in total defense, and is anchored by linebacker Troy Hairston, who leads the league in both tackles for loss and sacks.
#13 Indiana at #2 Ohio State (-20) (Saturday 11/21, 12 PM ET, Fox): Indiana hasn’t been ranked this highly in the AP poll since 1967, when they won the conference title and went to the Rose Bowl. Hence, this is their biggest game in program history since Janaury 1, 1968, as it’s both for control of the East division, as well as against mighty Ohio State, ranked #3 in the AP Poll. Indiana has done a fairly good job putting the ball in the endzone with Michael Penix at QB and two top tier receivers with Ty Fryfogle and Whop Philyor, but they’ll have not seen a defense this talented yet, and Ohio State’s offense has more draft picks on it than the Vietnam War.
#32 Appalachian State at #27 Coastal Carolina (-4.5) (Saturday 11/21, 12 PM ET, ESPN2): As mentioned before, control of the Sun Belt East is on the line in this game. Both teams are roughly evenly matched on both sides of the ball, meaning this is probably the really close game in this time slot.
#7 Cincinnati (-4) at #26 UCF (Saturday 11/21, 3:30 PM ET, ESPN): While the conference race itself doesn’t rest in the balance with this game, what makes it a must watch is the sheer amount of offense that can be put up by the two starting quarterbacks in this game, with UCF’s Dillon Gabriel always a threat to throw for 400+ yards, and Cincy’s quarterback Desmond Ridder being one of the scariest dual-threat quarterbacks in the country. This one is just a pure sugar rush of a game.
#6 Wisconsin at #16 Northwestern (Saturday 11/21, 3:30 PM ET, ABC): Compared to the above, this will be a hammer to the throat. Wisconsin’s offensive line this year has looked unstoppable, and Purdue was able to surrender only 3 tackles for loss against Northwestern’s defensive front. However, Northwestern does have the 11th ranked defense in college football. Unfortunately for them, Wisconsin has the #1 ranked defense in the country, and the 2nd ranked offense in the Big Ten. For Northwestern to win, they need to pull some explosive plays out of their ass.
#55 San Jose State at #80 Fresno State (-1) (Saturday 11/21, 7 PM ET, CBS Sports Network): Pretty big game as far as control of the Mountain West’s Western division is concered. San Jose State has found themselves on the rise in the fourth year under coach Brent Brennan — the Spartans have won more games this year than they did in Brennan’s first two years combined at SJSU. Fresno State, on the other hand has always been one of the top mid-major programs out west, and have won three straight after starting off with a loss to Hawai’i.
#14 Oklahoma State at #12 Oklahoma (-10) (Saturday 11/21, 7:30 PM ET, ABC): Bedlam games are always a treat in some way, whether it’s the explosive plays or the downright hatred at every turn. Oklahoma State controls the Big XII, and their defense this year, unlike most years, has been fairly solid. However, Spencer Rattler has looked every bit as commanding as Oklahoma quarterbacks in this day tend to look, and Oklahoma State’s offense quite frankly hasn’t looked that great this season.
#20 USC (-3.5) at #29 Utah (Saturday 11/21, 10:30 PM ET, ESPN): For once the Pac-12 has actually put a meaningful game in the late night spot. Utah has not opened up their season just yet thanks to lingering COVID issues in their program, while USC has won two perilously close games. Utah’s offensive line should hold up well against USC’s mediocre defense, but quarterback Jake Bentley — the presumable starter — was decent but rarely outstanding at South Carolina. USC’s firepower on offense should keep them in this one, but it should be a close game.