Pitt Panthers Mid Season Report

We are now at the mid-way point in the college football season, so I wanted to go back and take a look at the 1^st 6 games for the Pitt Panthers.

OVERVIEW:
Pitt is 5-1 for the 1^st time since the 2009 season, when the Panthers started 9-1.  Of those 5 wins for Pitt, 3 of them have come against teams that beat them last year (Akron, Virginia, Georgia Tech).  They also have wins against Youngstown State, who they lost to the last time the two teams played in Paul Chryst’s debut and Virginia Tech, who was considered to be one of the two favorites in the ACC Coastal this season (Georgia Tech the other).  Pitt has played 4 of 6 games on the road, winning 3 of them.  The Panthers only loss has come to an undefeated Iowa team on the road in a game that ended on a 57-yard field goal to give the Hawkeyes a 27-24 victory.

The Panthers are 3-0 to start conference play, something that last happened in 2010 as a member of the Big East.  Pitt still has 5 ACC games remaining on the schedule, to go with a non-conference game against Notre Dame. 

OFFENSE:
The Pitt offense suffered a major loss in the 1^st half of the 1^st game of the season when they saw the reigning ACC Offensive Player of the Year, James Conner, go down with a season ending knee injury.  They have also seen their returning starter at quarterback, Chad Voytik, get replaced by graduate transfer Nate Peterman.  The offense has not been the same without these 2 players on the field.  It currently ranks 105^th in the nation in total offense, averaging 346 yards per game.  Last year the Panthers were 40^th in the country, averaging nearly 100 more yards per game.

Peterman offers a different style of play than Voytik.  Peterman has a bigger and better arm than Voytik, but really seemed to struggle grasping the system early on, making many fans, myself included, wonder why he was the choice over Voytik.  I think the biggest problem with the offense has come in the many differences between the Peterman and Voytik.  The thing that made Voytik so good last year was his running ability.  Last year he had 2 games in which he ran for over 100 yards.  Peterman isn’t that type of player.  He is a pocket passer, which Voytik is not.  Although both quarterbacks are learning a new system under new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, this system is a much better fit for Peterman than Voytik.  Peterman has gotten better in each of his last 3 games as quarterback, with his 3 touchdown performance against Georgia Tech on Saturday being his best game of the year.

With Conner out for the year and a new quarterback at the helm, a lot of defensives have stacked the box to take the run away, while also trying to shutdown Tyler Boyd, thus forcing Peterman and the inexperienced wide receiving corp to beat them.  To this point nobody has been able to take Boyd out of the game, as he has 41 of the teams 91 receptions, despite being suspended for the season opener.  Also, the trio of Qadree Ollison, Chris James and Darrin Hall have been just good enough at running back to keep the running threat in play.

The play of the offensive line coming into the season was a question mark due to injuries.  Since then, the Panthers have stayed somewhat healthy and the unit as a whole has performed well.  Pitt has allowed just 14 sacks in 6 games this season and have averaged just over 5 negative plays per game on the offensive side of the ball.  Considering some of the more high profile type offenses in the country like, West Virginia, Boise State and Arizona State all average nearly double that, 5 isn’t all that bad.  Nationally that ranks around 50^th out of the 127 teams in college football this season.

Basically, the offense is a work in progress.  It has been just good enough to this point in the season to produce the results necessary for this team.  This is a young and inexperienced unit that will only get better the more they play together as a group.  That is a good thing for this Panther team.

DEFENSE:
When Pat Narduzzi came to Pitt, most people figured he would bring his tough, physical and stingy defense with him, they just didn’t think it would produce so quickly.  With a lot of the same players back from last year, the defensive side of the ball has put up considerably better numbers.  The Panthers are allowing 60 yards and 5 points less per game this season.  In just 6 games, they have also already surpassed their total sack numbers from last year (19 to 22).  Pitt is ranked in the top 20 national in 1^st Downs Allowed (6^th), Passing Yards Allowed (12^th), Sacks (3^rd), Tackles for Losses (19^th), Total Defense (17^th).

Two of the players this season that have helped the defense improve are freshman safety Jordan Whitehead, who leads the team in tackles and senior defensive lineman Ejuan Price, who has been a menace in opposing backfields, leading Pitt tackles for losses and 2^nd on the team in sacks.  Whitehead, a highly touted recruit last year, has come right in and contributed immediately.  Price, has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, but finally seems healthy and playing to his potential.

The Pitt defense has been what has kept the Panthers in games this season while the offense was trying to find its footing.  That is a complete role reversal of the two units from last year, when the Pitt offense had to outscore their opponents because their defense couldn’t stop anyone.

The one area that Pitt could certainly improve at on the defensive side of the ball is in the takeaway department.  Pitt has only forced 8 turnovers this season (2 fumbles, 6 interceptions).  The Panthers only forced 14 turnovers all of last season, so they are ahead of that pace, but that is still well below the national average.

This unit has been a pleasant surprise for the Panthers this season and they have needed it to be with the offense being sluggish at times.  The defense is playing fast and aggressive and the more success they have the more confidence the players will get.  The defense has been very good this season and should get even better as the season progresses.

SPECIAL TEAMS:
The Pitt Special Teams unit hasn’t been all that special this season.  While they have had their moments of greatness, they have been just average for the most part so far.  Pitt has scored 2 touchdowns on PT this year, a kick return for a score in the opener vs Youngstown State and a blocked punt returned for a touchdown at Iowa.  In the kicking game, although Chris Blewitt made a clutch 56-yard FG to win the game against Georgia Tech, he has just been okay overall this season, going just 6 of 9 in field goals.  He has made all 21 extra points, but if you are a scholarship kicker in division 1 football, you should make all your extra points.  The punting of Ryan Winslow has been good, but not great.  He has shown the ability to place the ball and have some touch punting inside the 20, but he hasn’t done it on a consistent basis.  In the return game, Pitt hasn’t been great on returns or on kick coverage.  I guess the best way you can look at it is that they are averaging about 7 yards more per kick return than allowed and almost 3 yards more per punt.  That net yardage can add up and shift field position, which is never a bad thing.  The Panthers have blocked 3 kicks this year, which is tied for 2^nd in the nation.  That is obviously pretty good.

For me the having an excellent Special Teams unit is a bonus.  Special Teams can be a game changer for you if you do things right.  At the same time, it can cost you a game if you do things poorly.  Pitt has done just enough on special teams to impact games for a positive, while not having their special teams cost them any games.

COACHING:
Another season, another coaching staff.  That is just the way things have gone at Pitt in the past 5 years or so.  The excitement that came in with Pat Narduzzi and his staff has certainly not worn off to this point.  One of the things that Narduzzi preached early on and has continued to talk about was changing the mindset of this team.  He wanted them to expect to win and be confident.  I feel that the Panthers have done that in every game this season.  In years past, Pitt would not have been 5-1 at this point.  They have only outscored their opponents by an average of 6 points, yet are still 5-1.  That means that they are winning close games.  They are winning in the 4^th quarter.  That has historically been when Pitt decided to fold.  Not this year.  I think the coaching staff is the reason.

LOOKING FORWARD:
Pitt has 6 games left beginning this Saturday at Syracuse.  After that, the Panthers leave Heinz Field just once, a road game against Duke.  That means Pitt gets 4 of their final 5 games at home.  If Pitt can get past Syracuse this week, they will be 6-1 with 5 of those 7 games on the road.  Coming home for that final stretch could be the difference for this team.  They will get North Carolina at home in a game that should greatly impact the ACC Coastal division.  With both undefeated in ACC play, the winner will be in the driver’s seat going into the final month of the season.  They also get Notre Dame at home.  The Irish have much more talent than Pitt this season, but that hasn’t stopped the Panthers in previous years against Notre Dame.  Pitt has won 2 of the last 3 at Heinz Field between these 2 teams and each of the last 6 meeting have been decided by a touchdown or less.

In the Panthers final 6 games they have 3 games in which they should win (Syracuse, Louisville, Miami), 2 games in which could go either way (UNC, Duke) and 1 in which they will be considered an underdog (Notre Dame).  That said, we know how Pitt works, they could go 1-5 with their lone win being against ND and I don’t know if I would be surprised.  Either way, it should be a fun final 6 games.

Week 7 Review

After 7 weeks into the season, I have come up with 5 categories to describe where various teams stand.

STUDS
Teams that have to look of true national title contenders at this point in the season.

Baylor – The Bears offense is beyond video game mode right now.  They have scored 56 or more in every game this season, and 62+ in their last 5.  14 different players have scored offensive touchdowns so far for Baylor, there are 8 FBS teams that have 14 fewer TOTAL touchdowns this year.  The Bears are averaging 63.8 points per game, the difference between them and the 2^nd best offense in the nation (TCU) is the same difference as the 2^nd best offense and the 30th best offense.

Utah – It hasn’t always been pretty, but the Utes just keep winning.  Utah scored the final 20 points on Saturday night to beat Arizona State.  Utah is the only remaining undefeated team in the PAC-12 and 1 of 2 with CFB Playoff hopes.  The other being 1-loss Stanford.

Michigan State – The greatest ending to a college football game in history?  Seriously, I know that we live in the present a whole lot nowadays and make bold statements like that all the time, but I can’t think of anything bigger than the last :10 at the Big House on Saturday.  The Spartans have struggled at times this year, but they have still yet to lose.  They have 3 very winnable games (vs IND, @ NEB, vs MD) on the schedule before a showdown in Columbus with Ohio State.

Clemson – The offense has weapons all over the field and the defense is one of the best in the country.  The undefeated Tigers have 2 ACC road games before a showdown with undefeated Florida State at home November 7^th.  If they can take care of business, the ACC might have their 2^nd representative in the CFB Playoffs in 2 years.

Stanford – Since the Cardinal week 1 loss to Northwestern, they have been just dominating teams.  As I said when it happened, no west coast team should travel east for a noon kickoff, and that is just what happened in that opening game loss.  (They can thank ESPN for scheduling that one for them).  Stanford looked sluggish that entire game and probably shouldn’t be judged on that game, but will.  If Stanford is going to make a run at the PAC-12 title and a CFB Playoff spot, they are going to earn it.  They close with Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame, and the PAC-12 title game (probably Utah).

LSU – The top team in the SEC to this point of the season.  Alabama may have something to say about that November 7^th, but until then, the Tigers get to hold that claim.  The Tigers get a warm-up this week with Western Kentucky before a week off.  Then they will travel to Tuscaloosa for that showdown with the Tide.  LSU has done it with the running of Leonard Fournette and the rush defense.  The Heisman favorite has run for 1,202 yards and 14 scores in 6 games, while the LSU defense is allowing just 92 yards per game and 5 scores.  The one negative with LSU to this point is that they have let teams hang around in games they should have put away.  That could hurt them if they continue that trend.

Alabama – The Tide have looked like a completely different team since their home loss to Ole Miss last month.  Alabama have 28 point and 18 point victories on the road against Top-10 teams in their last 3 games.  The bad news for Alabama is that the SEC doesn’t seem to have a ton of top notch teams, which could hurt as they look for big wins to get back into the CFB Playoff picture.  The good news is that they are Alabama and are normally given the benefit of doubt.  That, and the fact that they do have at least 1 more chance to impress when they host LSU on the 1^st Saturday of November.

DUDS
Teams that had a good showing out of the gate and got the hopes up of their fan base only to fall flat on their face since.

West Virginia – The Mountaineers opened the season playing one of the weakest non-conference schedules in the country.  After jumping out to a 3-0 start after beating up on the likes of Georgia Southern, Liberty and Maryland, WVU has dropped 3 straight by a combined 51 points and 1 of those 3 went to OT.  At 0-3 in the Big XII play and TCU on deck, you have to wonder if the wheels will come off for the Mountaineers.  It isn’t crazy, looking at their schedule to think that they could start 0-6 in conference play this year.  If that happens, does Dana Holgerson have a job come December?

Northwestern – The Wildcats started the season 5-0 with wins over Stanford and Duke.  Since then, they have lost 2 straight by a combined 68 points.  Luckily, they play in the Big Ten West so they don’t have many more games that should challenge them.  But you have to think that Northwestern saw a schedule without Ohio State and Michigan State and thought this season could be something special after that hot start.

Boise State – The Broncos turned the ball over 8 times in last week’s game, EIGHT! 7 of those turnovers came in the 1^st half.  BSU had just 6 turnovers in their 1^st 6 games this season.  Boise State was not in the running for a playoff spot and was really on the outside of even getting a Selection Committee bowl, but with that loss to Utah State, any chance they might have had is gone.

Ole Miss – For a team that has been able to take it to Alabama for 2 straight years, it is shocking to see how average they have been since that game.  The 2 road games since their win in Tuscaloosa have been a 28 point loss to Florida and an 18 point loss to a non-conference Memphis team.  Yes, Memphis is talented and very good, but no way should Ole Miss have been outscored 37-10 by the Tigers in the final 55 minutes of that game.

STILL WAITING
I know that we are half way into the season, but there are still a few teams out there that just are tough to get a good read on.  Here are a few.

Notre Dame – I have watched at least part of every Notre Dame game this season, and they are the most frustrating team for me because I have no idea how good they are.  The Irish are 6-1, and the only game where they really wowed me was the one game that they lost at Clemson.  Other than that, I feel like they have played down to their competition.  They needed a last minute Hail Mary to beat a bad Virginia team.  They were only up by 1 late in the 2^nd half over a 1-5 UMASS team before pulling away in the final 35 minutes.  They were tied with Navy until the final seconds of the 1^st half.  Even last week, they were tied at halftime and down 7 going into the 4^th quarter to a USC team that had fired their head coach 5 days earlier and was in complete shambles.  Good teams shouldn’t be in these types of situations, but Notre Dame continues to find themselves in them.  I’d like to say that ND only has 1 game remaining (@ Stanford) that is losable for them, but the way they have played to this point, every game is a game they lose.

Ohio State – FINALLY Urban Meyer played the quarterback that is best fit for his system, and for the 1^st time all season the Buckeyes looked like the defending national champions.  JT Barrett was in on 15 offensive plays in Saturday’s win over Penn State, and those 15 plays accounted for 132 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Barrett was 4 for 4 passing for 30 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he also ran 11 times for 102 yards and 2 more scores.  Meyer has always had more success with a quarterback that was a running threat, and Cardale Jones is not that.  Jones is a talented thrower, but he makes the Buckeye offense one-dimensional.  Ohio State has 3 cupcake games before ending the season with Michigan State and Michigan.  It will be interesting to see if Meyer makes the necessary switch at QB to allow this team to be a title contender.  They might be ranked #1 right now, but they aren't playing like the best team in the country and haven’t all season.

TCU – The Horned Frogs are very talented, but their defense has hurt them to this point in the season.  Sure, they are still undefeated, but at some point, TCU is going to come up against a team they can’t just outscore.  TCU is the 2^nd highest scoring team in the country, but they are also 69^th in scoring defense and 73^rd in total defense.  With teams like Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Baylor still on the schedule, the Frogs better fix that defense, or it will be a disappointing November.

Florida St. – The Noles are good, but this might be the biggest case of “who have they beat?” ever.  Take a look at the 6 teams that FSU has notched W’s against this year: Texas St, USF, BC, WF, Miami, and Louisville.  Those teams are a combined 16-21 this season and Miami is the only team with a winning record.  Dalvin Cook has been sensational for Florida State this season, when healthy, averaging 8.7 yards per carry, rushing for 955 yards and 10 touchdowns.  With the ACC lacking much power at the top, FSU will only have games at Clemson and Florida to prove how good they really are.

SURPRISING
Teams that were nowhere near anybody’s preseason Top 25, but have found themselves ranked at the halfway point of the season.

Iowa – The Hawkeyes are undefeated.  Let me say that again, the Iowa Hawkeyes are UNDEFEATED!  There are only 14 undefeated teams remaining this season, only 4 of them are 7-0 and Iowa is one of them.  Iowa had 7 wins all last season and that is with a bowl game.  Maybe even crazier than all of this is that, in all likelihood, they will be favored to win the rest of the games on their schedule.  That speaks volumes for how bad the Big Ten West is, but at the same time, a win is a win.  If a team can make it through the regular season in a Power 5 conference, you would think they would have to be considered for the CFB Playoff.

Pitt – The Panthers don’t have any great wins to this point, but they are 5-1 and 3 of those 5 wins are against teams they lost to last season.  Pitt is 3-0 in the ACC and in 1^st place in the ACC Coastal division.  They showed up at #25 in the AP Poll this week, the 1^st time they have been ranked in season since 2009.  The 5-1 start for Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers is the best start for a 1^st year head coach at Pitt since Foge Fazio started 7-0 in 1982.  He did that with the help of a little known quarterback by the name of Dan Marino.

Temple, Memphis, Houston, Toledo – 4 Group of 5 schools that are all looking to throw a wrench into the Selection Committee bowls and maybe even the CFB Playoff.  All 4 of these teams are not only undefeated, but all have at least one win over a Power 5 team already under their belts. Houston has a win at Louisville in week 2.  Memphis has that Ole Miss home win we already discussed to go along with a 32-point road win over Kansas.  Temple dominated Penn State to open the season and have another opportunity when they host Notre Dame in 2 weeks.  Toledo also has 2 such wins, at Arkansas and home over Iowa State.  This week could be key to these teams' success.  All 4 teams are in action, and all 4 will be playing on the road.

Florida – The Gators were a mess at this point last season, coming off 2 straight home losses, including a 42-13 loss to Missouri.  Fire Will Muschamp.  Enter Jim McElwain and with a lot of the same players, and Florida is now 6-1 and the clear favorite to win the SEC East.  Florida’s lone loss came this week at LSU, and that game went down to the wire, with Florida playing their back-up quarterback.  The Gators finish the season with 4 of their final 5 games inside the Sunshine State.  What a difference a coaching change can make!

DISAPPOINTING
Teams that had high expectations to begin the year, but never reached them.  This is the group for the 2015 season.

Georgia Tech – The Yellow Jackets won 5 straight games to end the 2014 regular season before taking Florida State to the wire in the ACC Championship game, then pounding a good Mississippi State team in the Orange Bowl.  Coming off that success, they were the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC Coastal division at the beginning of this season, and some even thought they could win the ACC Title.  Tech started this season 2-0 and ranked #14 in the country before losing 5 straight.  To be fair, the losses come to teams with a combined 27-4 record this season, but they are still losses.  GT was a favorite to win their conference, now they might not even be bowl eligible by the end of this season.  No worries though, it has to get easier now, right?  Nope, they get undefeated Florida State this week.

Michigan – The Wolverines could very easily be placed in the “SURPRISING” group after their 5-1 start, but after that finish to rival Michigan State, there is no other way to describe Michigan right now than “disappointing”.  We will be able to see if Michigan will fold or bounce back after such a tough loss.  3 of their final 5 games will be on the road, and 1 of the 2 home games will be against the current #1 team in the country.

USC – The Trojans were finally back at full strength after their NCAA sanctions and won 4 of their last 5 in 2014, entering this season in the preseason Top 10.  They started 2-0, but have lost 3 of 4 since, and have now fired yet another head coach.  The talent is still there, but they need to have it somehow produce on the field.  This week would be a good start when undefeated #3 Utah comes to town. 

Week 6 Review

Week 5 of the NFL season saw 10 games decided by one score or less, 3 of which ended in overtime and that was still no match for the excitement we had on Saturday night during the primetime games in college football.  Which leads me to ask the question that I ask myself at least once every weekend, why in the world would anyone choose pro football over college football.  So about that Saturday…

LATE NIGHT FUN

All of these games were going on at the same time, most coming to an end within minutes of each other.

* #2 TCU trailed on the road against Kansas State 35-17 at halftime and were down 42-31 with 8 minutes to play.  The Horned Frogs then scored 21 points in the final 8 minutes, including a game winning touchdown with :70 left on the clock.  TCU scored 35 2^nd half points for the win, 3 of those 5 touchdowns were of 50 yards or more.  FINAL SCORE – TCU 52, K-State 45.

* #4 Michigan State held on for a last minute win on the road against Rutgers.  Rutgers took a 14-7 lead early in the 2^nd quarter and held a 14-10 lead at halftime.  Michigan State scored the 1^st 14 points of the 2^nd half, but once again let Rutgers get back into the game, tying it at 24 with under 5 minutes to play.  MSU, a very overrated team, then needed a touchdown in the final minute to avoid overtime against one of the worst FBS teams in the country.  Oh and to pour some salt in the wounds of those Rutgers fans that thought they might win, the game ended when Rutgers spiked the ball to stop the clock on FOURTH DOWN!  FINAL SCORE – Michigan State 31, Rutgers 24

* Everyone knows that Morgantown is a tough place to play.  Give the Hoopies all day to get lathered up and it makes things very interesting.  Oklahoma State found this out first-hand as they blew a 17-2 halftime lead and survived in overtime.  The reason they survived, Dana Holgerson.  The Mountaineers tied the game with 2:44 remaining and forced OT with the 21^st ranked Cowboys.  Oklahoma State then scored on their 1^st possession of overtime.  WVU was in position to match, with 3^rd and goal from the 4 yard line.  After Rushel Shell lost 7 yards on 3^rd down, WVU had a 4^th and 11 for the ball game.  Instead of calling a timeout to get the perfect play in the game for that situation, Holgerson watched his team scramble all over the field after a negative play trying to get their 4^th down play off.  Skyler Howard then scrambled around, almost immediately, before forcing a pass towards the corner of the end zone that was not even catchable by the intended receiver.  Well played Holgy! FINAL SCORE – Oklahoma State 33, WVU 26.

* #12 Florida State built a 17-3 2^nd quarter lead, as many expected would happen in their rivalry game with Miami, but “The U” wouldn’t go away.  Miami scored the games next 3 touchdowns while FSU settled for 2 field goals, giving the Canes a 24-23 4^th quarter lead over the Noles.  Florida State, led by injured running back Dalvin Cook, had the last response though.  Cook, who was battling a hamstring injury all game, scored his 3^rd touchdown of the game with just under 7 minutes remaining to give the Seminoles the lead for good.  Cook finished the game with 222 yards on the ground as well a 3 catches for 47 more yards to go with those 3 scores. FINAL SCORE – Florida State 29, Miami 24

* #16 Cal entered their game with #5 Utah undefeated, representing the only 2 undefeated teams in the PAC-12.  Cal QB Jared Goff threw for 340 yards and 2 scores in the game, but lost to a Utah team that threw for exactly half that yardage total.  The reason? Goff also threw 5 interceptions.  Goff had only thrown 4 interceptions in Cal’s first 5 games of the year.  Maybe the craziest thing about this game is that despite the 5 interceptions by Goff, Cal still had the ball at the Utah 21 with under a minute left in the game going for the game tying score.  FINAL SCORE – Utah 30, Cal 24.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS

With so much excitement going on Saturday, but with so little time and space to go over all of it, here is a quick rundown of the other headlines from Saturday’s games.

* Georgia loses star running back Nick Chubb to a gruesome knee injury on the 1^st offensive play of the game, but still jumped out to a 24-3 lead in the 2^nd quarter lead.  Then they blow that lead.  Tennessee comes all the way back for a 38-31 win.  It was Georgia’s 2^nd straight loss.  Tennessee’s 1^st SEC win of the season.

* Florida is now a perfect 4-0 in SEC play, 6-0 overall.  The Gators now will be without starting QB Will Grier for the rest of the season after testing positive and being suspended 1 year for PED use. 

* Michigan is legit.  The Wolverines blowout previously unbeaten Northwestern 38-0.  It is the 3^rd straight shutout for the Michigan defense, outscoring their opponents 97-0 during that stretch.

* Big Game Bob Stoops is still a thing.  The Stoops lead Sooners got dominated by rival and struggling Texas.  The win for the Longhorns may have saved Charlie Strong’s job, as he was carried off the field by his players.

* The Baylor offense is like playing Madden on rookie level right now.  The Bears took it easy on BIG XII foe Kansas on Saturday and still finished with a 66-7 win.  Baylor held a 52-7 lead at halftime and put it in cruise control for the final 30 minutes.

* Clemson wins again, in dominating fashion over Georgia Tech, 43-24.  It begs the question, is Clemson good enough to get a CFB Playoff spot if they finish undefeated?

* Oregon is tough to watch right now.  The Ducks lost to lowly Washington State Saturday and although they are still a decent team, they are nothing like most people are used to seeing from the uniform factory.

* The PAC-12 is a mess.  It was once a conference that people thought might get 2 CFB Playoff bids, now they would be lucky to get 1.  Utah is the only chance and now they just have to hope to run the table.

               

COACHES ON THE HOT SEAT

When I outlined this week’s recap, I decided to focus on all of the possible coaches that may be looking for jobs come January and what programs would be looking for a new leader.  Then chaos ensued.  4 coaches were fired or retired within a 36 hour window.

* North Texas fired head coach Dan McCarney immediately following the school’s 66-7 loss to FCS Portland State Saturday.  The lone UNT score was a garbage TD by the back-ups with a minute left in the game.  To make matters worse, North Texas paid Portland State nearly $500K to play this game.

* Randy Edsall is out at Maryland.  This comes to no surprise to many, but it is still big news as Maryland is a Power 5 school and rarely do college coaches lose their job mid-season.

* Steve Sarkisian is the surprise in this group as he was in just his 2^nd year at USC and posted a 9-4 record in his 1^st season.  Sarkisian was let go Monday after showing up to practice intoxicated.  If you recall, he also made news during the offseason when he was drunk at an alumni/booster function.  The real question here is will Pat Haden, the USC AD, be around to hire Sarkisian’s replacement, as his hires have been questionable at best at Southern Cal.

* Steve Spurrier surprised everyone when he announced Monday that he would be retiring from South Carolina effective immediately.  I think most people thought that this would be the Old Ball Coach’s last season, but nobody expected it to end this way.  Spurrier had just 1 losing season, his 1^st,  as a college coach in 25 years at Duke, Florida and South Carolina.  The Gamecocks are 2-4 this season.

SHOWDOWN SATURDAY

Just as I brag what a great week of college football it was last week, we have by far the best schedule of top games we have had all year.  Here are just a few can’t miss games this Saturday.

Florida vs LSU

Alabama vs Texas A&M

Michigan State vs Michigan

Week 5 Review

5 weeks into the college football season and we have complete chaos and it is FANTASTIC.

Let’s start with the Top 10 last week as 4 teams lost by a total of 73 points, and one of those losses was by just 2 points by #6 Notre Dame.  That means the other 3 lost by a combined 71.  #3 Mississippi and #8 Georgia each lost conference games by 28 points (38-10 finals in both games).  # 7 UCLA, coming off of a 26-point win on the road against a ranked Arizona team, lost by 15 at home against a then 2-2 Arizona State team.  Throw that on top of #1 Ohio State struggling against Indiana, who played without their starting QB and RB.  We also had #2 Michigan State nearly blowing a 21-point lead to hang on to beat lowly Purdue 24-21.  Basically what I am saying is that even the best teams in the country don’t look dominant.

Before we get into conference breakdowns after 5 weeks of the season, how about this little bit of food for thought, for the 1^st time since October 10, 2010 no SEC team in ranked in the Top 5 in AP Top 25.  That is 80 straight weeks.

On to my thoughts about each conference through 5 weeks.

ACC:
- Is anybody in the ACC good enough to make it to the 4-Team CFB Playoff from the ACC?  The conference only has 2 undefeated teams remaining (Clemson and FSU) and they have to play each other in 5 weeks.  And strength of schedule isn’t going to help anyone in this conference as 5 of the 14 teams already have 3 losses this year.

- As much as I enjoyed watching the Clemson/Notre Dame game on Saturday, I came away not having any idea how good Clemson really is.  Sure they beat a Top 6 Notre Dame team, but they barely beat ND.  They looked really good for 2 ½ quarters, looked decent for 1 quarter and looked flat out bad for the final 7 minutes or so.  The ACC Atlantic is pretty down, so the Tigers don’t have many chances to prove to their voters how good they really are.

- After watching Florida State sneak by teams all last season, but still make it into the playoffs because they were the undefeated defending champion, may have tainted me a bit about Jimbo Fisher and his squad.  I immediately have only seen them play twice this year, but they haven’t been very impressive if you ask me.  Yes they are undefeated, but beating up on Texas St, then struggling with South Florida, BC and Wake isn’t blowing the doors off of anyone.  I just don’t trust them to be the team we are once again being led to believe they are.  I don’t think it would really surprise anyone if they lost any of their next 3 games (vs MIA, vs LOU, @ GT) and then they still have Clemson and Florida waiting on their schedule.

- The Coastal Division is once again completely up for grabs.  The overwhelming preseason favorite and defending division champ, Georgia Tech, has started 0-2 in conference play.  The team most “experts” picked to finish 2^nd place in the division, Virginia Tech, is 0-1 and just had their worst offensive outing in 29 years.  The crazy thing is that you can’t count either of those teams out yet.  Each of the last 3 years the winner of the Coastal Division has had AT LEAST 2 losses in the conference.  Right now, both Duke and North Carolina seem to be the front-runners.  Both teams have already beat Georgia Tech, and Duke also has a win Boston College making them 2-0 just 5 weeks in.  The Blue Devils do play 3 of their next 4 and 5 of their final 7 on the road however, including a trip to Chapel Hill to take on UNC in 5 weeks.  North Carolina has 2 “should-be” wins up next and the close with a tough 5 game stretch, including 3 of those 5 on the road.  As I mentioned, this division is anyone’s for the taking.

BIG XII:
- The Top 4 teams in the Big XII (TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma & Oklahoma State) have clearly separated themselves as best in the conference.  All 4 are still undefeated, but none of the 4 have had what anyone would call a signature win to this point.  Oklahoma State is probably #4 of those 4 teams, but their schedule gives them the potential to get to 8-0 before having to face any of the other 3 top teams.  TCU also has their schedule back-loaded and doesn’t face 1 of the other top teams until November.  However, they play 2 of the 3 teams on the road.  Baylor, who hasn’t beat anyone yet, plays all the other teams in successive weeks, with the final 2 games against Oklahoma State and TCU on the road inside a 6 day window.  As with the other 3 teams, Oklahoma has their schedule back loaded and won’t face any of them until November 14^th.  It should make for an interesting next month or so as all 4 of these teams should remain undefeated.  The downfall, the Big XII still does not have a conference championship and these 4 teams beating up on each other in the final month of the season could keep all 4 out of the CFB Playoff.

- What is going on at Texas?  Since playing in the National Championship Game to conclude the 2009 season, Texas is just 37-32.  In those 32 losses 21 are by double digits and 16 (half) are by 20+ points.  Texas went to Charlie Strong, a man who made a name for himself by coaching defense, to turn things around last year.  All he has done is go 7-11 while giving up an average of 27.8 in those 18 games.  In just year 2 of his 5 year deal Charlie Strong is on the hottest of hot seats.  Next up for the Longhorns, the 10^th ranked Oklahoma Sooners, who have beaten Texas in 4 of their last 5 meetings in the Red River Rivalry Game.

- Kansas is the worst team of any P5 team in FBS football.  The real question, are they the worst P5 team EVER?  Kansas is 0-4 this season and that includes a lost an FCS team in South Dakota State.  They also have losses to Rutgers and Iowa State, both who only have 1 other win this season and those came against FCS schools too.  Memphis is the other school to beat Kansas this season, 55-23 and that was a down game for the Tigers.  Memphis had 651 yards of offense outgaining Kansas by 292 yards.  The Tigers also had 3 turnovers or that game could have been much worse.  Next up for the Jayhawks is Baylor, who very well could put up 100 if they wanted to on Saturday against Kansas.  The good news for Jayhawk fans… Midnight Madness is Friday.

Big Ten:
- Ohio State this year reminds me a whole lot like Florida State last year.  Florida State was the preseason #1 team as the defending National Champions, with a returning starting QB from that team (OSU has 2).  Sound familiar?  FSU then slept walked through the majority of their regular season schedule, and amazingly did just enough to be selected into the CFB Playoff as the #3 seed.  Ohio State is on that exact path.  Everyone knows that Ohio State has the players and talent to compete and probably beat any team in the country.  It seems like Ohio State knows this too, which is not a good thing.  The good thing for Ohio State is that the Big Ten is not good this year, so they could just coast through conference play.  The bad news is that if someone does upset them, they will be eliminated from playoff contention.  Ohio State should cruise in their next 5 games before playing games against Michigan State and Michigan in back-to-back weeks to close the season.

- Yes, I said Michigan there as I referred to a big game with Ohio State and NOT because it is a rivalry game.  Most people expected Jim Harbaugh to turn things around at Michigan, but I don’t think anyone thought it would be so soon.  Michigan is now 4-1 this year with their only loss coming in their opening game on the road against Utah, which doesn’t exactly look like a bad loss at this point, does it?  During their 4-game win streak the Wolverines have outscored their opponents 122-14, including 2 straight shutouts.  I’m not saying Michigan is back, but they are well on their way.  We will learn a lot more about Big Blue over the next 2 weeks (vs Northwestern, vs Michigan St.).  This Michigan team looks good enough to compete in the vastly overrated Big Ten East, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they beat the Buckeyes at the Big House this year.

- I mentioned that the Big Ten East is overrated, that must mean that the Big Ten West not rated at all.  The West is currently led by Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois; while typical powers like Nebraska and Wisconsin are a combined 5-5 so far this season.  Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois are a combined 14-1 this year, they combined for 18 wins total last season.  Northwestern has a tough test this weekend (@ Michigan), and Iowa has Illinois and Northwestern in back-to-back weeks coming up, but those 2 teams are in good position to really make a run at the West Division title.

- How bad does Maryland need to get before Randy Edsall is fired?  Not to kick a guy when he is down, but Edsall wasn’t even that good before he got to Maryland when he was at UCONN.  In his 12 years at UCONN before leaving for Maryland Edsall was 74-70 and UNDER .500 in conference play (22-26) in a bad Big East.  That somehow got him a promotion to the Maryland job.  Since taking over in College Park he has gone 22-33 (10-23 in ACC/Big Ten) in 4+ seasons.  So far this season the Terps have been blown out in all 3 of their losses, losing by 21 to Bowling Green, 39 to WVU and getting shutout 28-0 by Michigan Saturday.  They get #1 Ohio State this week.  Maryland probably won’t be favored in another game this season until their finale with Rutgers. 

PAC-12:
- Does anybody want to win the PAC-12?  No, seriously.  We are 5 weeks into the season and only 2 teams are undefeated and those 2 teams play each other this week!  Even crazier is that there are just 3 teams still undefeated in conference play.  7 of the 12 teams in the conference have multiple losses already.  At this rate we are going to have two 7-5 teams playing each other for the conference title.  More confusing is the complete inconsistency week in and week out by some of these teams.  UCLA went on a 3 game stretch of coming back from 10 points in the 4^th quarter to beat an average BYU team, to blowing out #16 Arizona on the road, to coming home and getting blown out by an unranked Arizona State team.  That same Arizona State team lost by 28 at home to USC last week before upsetting UCLA.  The whole conference is a mess.

- As I mentioned, the PAC-12 only has 2 undefeated teams left (which will be just 1 after Saturday) and just 3 teams with 1 loss.  If the PAC-12 hopes to get into the CFB Playoff this season they better hope 1 of those 5 teams run the table.  That is possible with the teams we are talking about (Cal, Utah, USC, UCLA, Stanford) when you look at their schedules, but is it likely considering what we have seen so far from this conference?

SEC:
- Florida is 5-0, should we be taking them serious yet?  They finally have an offense, so that is a plus considering the defense has always been there, but they have been putting up numbers against the likes of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi.  Sure Ole Miss was ranked #3 and just beat Alabama, but they have been doing it with offense, not their D.  We have seen this before from Florida, so I am going to wait before I get on the bandwagon, although I’m willing to acknowledge that this team has the potential to be pretty good.  The good news for the Gators is you only have to be “pretty good” to win the SEC East.  The real test will be in 2 weeks when Florida plays LSU under the lights in Death Valley.

- Speaking of questioning how good teams are, has anybody snuck under the radar more than Texas A&M this season?  A&M is 5-0 and already has 2 wins against SEC West teams.  They also opened the season with a convincing win over then-ranked Arizona State.  Despite all of that they just barely snuck into the Top 10 in the rankings this week.  The Aggies have a week off before they host Alabama, which should be a match-up of Top 10 SEC teams.

- LSU is good, really good, but I’m still having a tough time buying in to any team that has yet to hold a team under 19, a team that has allowed 24 to Syracuse and 22 to Eastern Michigan.  LSU has the Heisman Trophy winner in Leonard Fournette, but they are going to need more on offense as the schedule gets tougher, because as I mentioned, that defense is not a typical LSU defense.

- In case you missed Nick Saban’s media session today, Alabama isn’t out of this thing yet.  Bama had a statement win Saturday when they smacked Georgia 38-10 in Athens and just reminded everyone that they are still the King of the SEC until further notice.  Bama still has games against Texas A&M on the road and at home versus’ LSU, but if they get past those 2, you’ll probably be seeing back in the CFB Playoff.

- I have decided that Chip Kelly has no chance at keeping his job with the Philadelphia Eagles after this season, so the next question is what college team does he end up with?  The list of 5 I came up with was Miami, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina.  Those 5 teams are all probably going to be in the hunt for a coach come December, so now we need to find out who are legitimate candidates.  Miami won’t want to pay what Kelly will demand, so they are out.  Maryland has the money with the backing from Kevin Plank, I just can’t see them going that big after Kelly and I’m not sure Kelly will burn his bridges with Phil Knight at Nike by going to Team Under Armour.  Texas would be by far the most entertaining prospect and something I could see happening if UT doesn’t get Saban this time around.  This leaves 2 SEC schools in Tennessee and South Carolina.  Tennessee may want to hold off on yet another coaching change, they have had 3 since Phil Fulmer left in 2008, but Butch Jones just hasn’t panned out like they had hoped.  They went for the splash hire when Fulmer retired and got burned by Lane Kiffin who left after 1 season to go to USC.  Would they be willing to try it again?  The other candidate is South Carolina who, by my guess, will be forcing long time head coach Steve Spurrier to retire after this season.  USC has always been close in the SEC and has shown that they want to take the big step into being an SEC power, but they have never quite gotten there.  Chip Kelly would change that.  Chip Kelly could make South Carolina an immediate threat in the SEC East, which means contending for SEC Championships on a regular basis.  Texas would be the more entertaining spot for Kelly, but South Carolina is the best fit for both parties.

OTHERS:
- Notre Dame is really good.  I realize they lost on Saturday to Clemson, but they showed me more in that game than in the 4 prior combined.  At the beginning of the season I thought they would be 5-2 at best after they opened with a tough 7 game stretch.  Texas hasn’t lived up to expectations and I guess they could still lose to Navy and or USC, but beating Georgia Tech they way they did and coming back and nearly beating Clemson showed me how good they really are.  Now I wonder where they will go from here.  ND has 7 games remaining and should be the favorite in all but maybe 1.  If this Notre Dame team goes 11-1 is that good enough to get into the CFB Playoff?  Is 10-2 good enough for a BCS bowl?  Personally I don’t think a 1-loss independent team gets into the playoff (another reason ND should join a conference full time), but this team might just be good enough to do so.  Do I think they are one of the top 4 teams in the country? No, but wins against USC and on the road against Stanford, as well as others losing might get them there.

- Watch the Group of 5 to make a run at one of the BCS bowls this season.  Teams like Memphis, Temple and Toledo are all undefeated with good wins.  Boise State has 1 loss, but has been very good other than their stumble to BYU in week 2.

Here are a few games to keep an eye on this Saturday:

Georgia Tech @ Clemson
Navy @ Notre Dame
Northwestern @ Michigan
Florida @ Missouri
Cal @ Utah

I know it’s not much, but hang in there for one more week.  Week 7 is loaded with great games.

The Sports Fix : MLB Postseason

In this edition of The Sports Fix we focus on the format and scheduling of the Major League Baseball Postseason.  About two weeks ago the NBA re-formatted their playoffs and it made me think that baseball should also re-think how they do things in the postseason.  The NBA playoffs make a ton more sense now, but the way they did it makes no sense (Top 8 teams in conference make the playoffs regardless of division.  Great for getting the best teams in, but why have divisions now?).  Okay, that is WAY too much NBA discussion.

Anyway, let me start by saying the double Wild Card in baseball is silly.  And yes, I realize that last year the 2^nd Wild Card team, San Francisco, went on to win the World Series, but that isn’t changing my opinion.  You have 162 regular season games for a reason, if you can’t get into the Top 4 in your league, then you probably don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.  There is no need for the Wild Card Game except to sell an extra playoff game to owners and add it to the TV contract.  So even though there are about 7,851 reasons not to have the Wild Card Game, money talks and it ain’t going away any time soon.

My first change to the MLB Postseason is changing the idea of the “wild card” team as an automatic road team in their 1^st series.  Why punish a team for finishing with a better record than a division winner?  Or maybe the better question, why reward a division winner for winning a bad division?  This is the 4^th year of the Wild Card game and it will be the 3^rd time in 4 years that one of the winners of that game will have a better record than one of the division winners.  With my format, I would simply seed the remaining teams AFTER the Wild Card Game 1 through 4 based on their regular season record.  This still give the division winners a pass into series play, but now it rewards the wild card team for what they did in the regular season.  This gives the wild card winner a chance to avoid the top team and if they were really good in the regular season, it would give them the ability to host a divisional series.  If the goal is to get the best two teams in the World Series, this is the best way to do that.

And if the goal is to get the best two teams into the World Series, one can assume that it is also to crown the best team as World Champion.  To do that there must be a change to the scheduling in the playoffs.

We saw last year with Madison Bumgarner and his amazing post season run that a pitcher can dominate an entire postseason simply because the schedule allows it.  That shouldn’t be the case.  Teams play 3 and 4 game series with a 5 man rotation all season only for that to change in the postseason, when teams play 2 (sometime 1) games before getting a day off.  The Giants played 17 playoff games (including the Wild Card Game) and Bumgarner was able to start 6 of them and pitch a 7^th.  This wasn’t because Bruce Bochy rushed his ace out there on short rest either.  Bumgarner had his normal rest between every one of his 6 start.  That was because the Giants played those 17 games over 29 days.

Here is how we change things.  This season the playoffs begin on October 6^th with the AL Wild Card Game.  Game 7 of the World Series is scheduled for November 4^th.  I am fine with the mid-week wild card games, I like it actually.  I also am fine giving a day off after the wild card game before the start of the divisional series.  That travel day is needed for the winner of the Wild Card Game.  That is about all that I like about the current schedule.

In the Divisional Series you should play the 1^st 4 games without a day off.  Yes I realize that there is a travel day between games 2 and 3, but guess what? Both teams make the same trip, there is absolutely no advantage for 1 team over another.  This gives the 2 teams a true 4-game series.  If the series is still tied after 4 games, I would give 1 day off before game 5.  This is for both travel and to allow the aces for each team to pitch in the deciding game.

I use the same idea when scheduling the League Championship Series too.  However, this series goes 5 games before either team has a day off.  That forces teams to use their entire rotation (just like they would in the regular season) and it eliminates 1 travel day.  There would be no day off between games 2 and 3 even though the series moves cities.  An off day for the 2^nd travel day once again gives each team a breather and allows both coaching staffs to get their pitching staff in order for the final 2 games.

The World Series would be identical to the LCS’s.  Also the World Series would NOT be determined by the mid-season exhibition that baseball likes to call the All-Star Game (sorry Bud Selig).  I would just rotate back and forth between leagues like it was done for 100 years before Bud screwed things up.

This scheduling doesn’t eliminate November baseball (that is for another Sports Fix at another time), but it does force the teams to play the playoffs the same way they played the 162 games that earned them a spot in the postseason.

These changes may seem minor, but they would certainly help baseball from dragging the season out any longer than it already has to.  It would also help crown a true champion that would be determined using the same standards and methods as teams use from April through September, rather than changing them for the most important part of the season. 

Week 3 Review

I was on vacation last week, sorry there was no Week 2 Review. Family first!

Ok, so here are my thoughts both from week 3 and through the 1^st 3 weeks of the college football season.

Ohio State looks a whole lot like Florida State did last year as the defending champions.  The Buckeyes were sluggish in their opener and trailing at the half on the road against Virginia Tech.  It wasn’t until after knocking out the Hokies starting QB that Ohio State took control.  Then in week 2, the Buckeyes shutout a bad Hawaii team, but even in that game they were less than impressive.  Speaking of less than impressive, starter Cardale Jones has now thrown more interceptions than touchdowns this season and if you believe him, has been demoted.  In week 3 the Buckeyes were held to just 1 offensive touchdown against Northern Illinois.  Nothing against NIU, but even the best MAC teams shouldn’t be able to hang around with the team most think is the most talented in the country.  I hope that the pollsters are willing to look at the weak schedule and the weak conference that stands in front of Ohio State when they fill out their weekly ballots.  The defending champion Seminoles dropped to #4 last year by playing the same way as Ohio State has started this season.

Speaking of Ohio State, has Urban Meyer outsmarted himself?  He had 3 talented and experienced quarterbacks returning this season and he picked the one with the least amount of experience and the one that fits his style of offense the worst.  Not that Cardale Jones isn’t a fantastic QB, one that would probably be starting for about 80% of the schools in the country, but he should be #1 at Ohio State. Not this year.  Moving Braxton Miller to wide receiver has been a great move so far for the Buckeye offense.  But not playing JT Barrett at QB from day 1 is inexcusable.  Barrett accounted for almost 3,000 yards through the air last year and nearly 1,000 yards on the ground, scoring 45 touchdowns last year.  That after not being named starter until a week before the season, when Braxton Miller was injured.  Meyer is an outstanding coach, one of the best, but he played this one wrong.

Sticking with the Big Ten, how about Northwestern?  3-0 this season, while holding those 3 opponents to just 16 total points.  2 of those 3 teams are Stanford, who just dropped 41 on USC and Duke, who had scored 92 in their 1^st 2 games.  The last time the Wildcats started this well on defense was 1948.  That year, they went on to claim their only bowl victory in school history, beating Cal 20-14 in the Rose Bowl.

George O’Leary, you remember him, the guy who lied on his resume and was forced to resign as head coach at Notre Dame after just 5 days, yeah, now he wants to be the AD at Central Florida.  He stated at the beginning of the season that he wanted the position and that he was willing to make this be his final season as head coach at UCF.  Well, he is going to the extreme to get that AD gig.  Central Florida is now 0-3 this week after losing to Furman at home.  Furman is an FCS team that has now won just 2 of their last 13 games.  I think the administration at UCF may be hiring a new head coach this year no matter if O’Leary is the new AD or not.

Notre Dame has been bit by the injury bug as badly as anyone this season, but losing a player due to celebration makes their newest injury that much tougher.  Notre Dame defensive back Drue Tranquill will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury after breaking up a pass in the endzone during Saturday’s win over Georgia Tech.  This isn’t the 1^st time something like this has happened and it won’t be the last.  It was a completely innocent action and ended in terrible luck for Tranquill and the Irish, but it is ridiculous how national media pundits are criticizing this kid.  He is a college kid having fun, playing a game he clearly loves, let’s not take that away from college athletics.

By the way, in case you missed it, Notre Dame is now 3-0 beating three Power 5 conference teams.  Yes, Texas is no good and Virginia is one of the worst teams in the ACC, but Georgia Tech is one of the best in that conference and the Irish took it to them on Saturday.  I’m still not sold that ND is a serious playoff contender (they will need to go undefeated for that to happen), but it is still impressive.  Notre Dame gets a breather this week against UMASS before going to Clemson the following week.

What has happened to Jeremy Johnson and the Auburn offense?  After a quick start out of the gate this season in the opener against Louisville, the Auburn offense has been flat out bad.  Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn is supposed to be an offensive genius, but they have been everything but through 3 games this year.  His starting quarterback, Johnson, has thrown for just 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions this season.  He has also run for just 59 yards, and that includes a 65 yard run Saturday (yeah, you do the math).  Things don’t get easier for the Tigers as they continue their SEC schedule this week against Mississippi State.  Don’t be surprised if you see Johnson on the bench if things don’t go the Tigers way on Saturday.  Behind Johnson on the depth chart is a very highly regarded recruit, Sean White.

Auburn wasn’t the only team from Alabama to take a tough L on Saturday, as their rival Alabama also lost their SEC opener, falling to Ole Miss for the 2^nd straight season.  The loss snapped the Tides 17 game home winning streak and completely through a wrench into the SEC West standings just 3 weeks into the season.  LSU and Mississippi seem to be the front runners after big wins on Saturday, but Texas A&M and Mississippi State have also looked good this season.  With the new playoff format, 1 more slip up for teams like Auburn, Alabama or Mississippi State and their playoff chances are gone.  Should be an interesting final 10 weeks in the SEC West.

As we look at teams from the SEC that can’t afford another loss, what should we make of the PAC-12?  Does anyone want to win that conference, and even if so, should we already eliminate them from playoff contention?  Just 3 weeks into the season and only 4 PAC-12 teams are still undefeated, and only Cal out of the PAC-12 North.  No offense to Cal, but they aren’t running the table this year.  Their 3 wins have come against Grambling, San Diego State and a 1-point win over Texas, because they missed an extra point with a minute to go in the game.  As a matter of fact, Cal could lose 5 of their next 6 and nobody would be surprised.  Arizona, Utah and UCLA are the remaining undefeated teams from the PAC-12 South.  UCLA has looked the best of those 3 teams.

As we continue to look at how strong each of the Power 5 conferences are, this past week the Big Ten and the ACC went head-to-head in 5 games.  None of the games featured top teams from their respective conference, but that might be for the better.  5 teams from the middle of each conference probably give us a better idea at how strong each conference actually is.  In those 5 games, the ACC won 3, while the Big Ten won 2.

I mentioned earlier that I thought that Notre Dame would have to go undefeated to get into the playoff this season.  That being the case, why are teams still playing as Independents with this current format?  We saw last year that the lack of a championship game hurt the Big XII.  Independents don’t only not have a championship game, they have no real base for comparison.  BYU also plays as an Independent, and I now after 3 weeks they are basically playing for nothing after their 24-23 loss to UCLA on Saturday.  Credit to BYU for scheduling such a tough slate, which included road games at Nebraska, UCLA and Michigan and a home game against Boise State to open the season.  The schedule eases up after that, but that is a brutal start for any team.  Notre Dame might be able to afford a loss more than BYU because of their challenging schedule, but even a 1-loss Irish team is not a shoe-in for the playoff.

We are 3 weeks in and should have a decent grasp on what we have seen to this point in the season, so here are my Top 4 teams as of today (and a few that are just on the outside looking in).
1. Mississippi
2. LSU
3. Ohio State
4. Oklahoma
Next 4 (in no order)… Notre Dame, Clemson, UCLA, Georgia

Week 1 Review

Some quick thoughts after the 1^st week of the college football season.

Michigan is improved, but Harbaugh still has a lot of work to do.  Last year the Wolverines lost at home to Utah 26-10, with the Utes scoring the final 16 points for the win.  Michigan lost this year, but put up a fight the whole way.  Losing 24-17 on the road and were a recovered onside kick away from making the game REAL interesting.

Utah could be really good if they found some more play makers on the offensive side of the ball.  Devontae Booker is the only threat the Utes have and he is a good one, but they need more.  Booker carried the ball 22 times and scored on the ground.  He also was their leading receiver with 7 catches in week 1 vs Michigan.

TCU got a road win versus a Power 5 team, but they didn’t look very impressive in doing so.  It is just one game, but the Horned Frogs couldn’t finish drives and had to settle for field goals on too many drives.  They certainly didn’t look like what you would expect from the 2^nd best team in the country.

Duke and David Cutcliffe have found their quarterback.  Cutcliffe has been a quarterback guru everywhere he has coached but has yet to find one at Duke, until now.  Thomas Sirk made his debut with the Blue Devils Thursday night against Tulane and the junior QB was 27-40 for 289 and 2 scores.  He also ran the ball 15 times for 68 yards.

New Baylor QB Seth Russell throws a really nice ball; he has great touch on the deep ball.  It is only a 1 game sample, but it looks like the Baylor offense won’t miss much with Russell stepping in for Bryce Petty.  Russell actually adds a little more athleticism to the quarterback position for the Bears.

Hawaii and Colorado was a perfect example of why a preseason game in college football is not a terrible idea.  The two quarterbacks combined to go 42-78 and just 360 yard.  It also had 18 punts, 14 penalties and five turnovers and was utterly unwatchable.

Stop FCS games!  Yes every year you get teams like Washington State and Kansas that lose to the FCS, but you also get games like Georgia Tech beating Alcorn State 69-6 with GT running for 476 yards and Ole Miss beating Tennessee-Martin 76-3 which included a 55-0 lead and Mississippi THROWING a touchdown pass in the 4^th quarter.  Those games need to stop.

Continue playing on the road against Group of 5 teams if you are a Power 5 team.  It creates the chance of upsets and it immediately gives these lower level FBS teams a showcase home game that the players and fans can look forward to.  In the opening week only we saw teams like Temple beat Penn State at home.  Western Michigan playing with in-state foe Michigan State into the 4^th quarter and Central Michigan leading Oklahoma State in the 2^nd half before falling short.  Those games are great for the little guys and a real challenge for the big boys.  A win-win for everybody.

Malik Zaire is fun to watch run Brian Kelly’s offense at Notre Dame.  It seems to be pretty clear why Everett Golson transferred out of Notre Dame, because he was good, but Zaire has the potential to do some special things for the Irish this season.  Zaire went 19-22 for 313 and 3 scores in the opener against Texas.

Notre Dame is either really good or Texas is absolutely awful.  It reality it is probably somewhere in between.  Charlie Strong is in year 2 of a huge rebuild at Texas, so nobody expected a CFB Playoff bid, but I would imagine that the fan-base didn’t expect the worst loss to open the season since 1988 (@BYU 47-6).

I loved watching the aggressive play and play-calling of the Temple defense against Penn State.  Temple is a team that is full of players that didn’t get recruited by Penn State and despite being overmatched at almost every position that didn’t change their style of play and it paid off, limiting Penn State to just 54 yards in their final 12 drives of the game.

The Penn State offensive line is awful.  I really like Christian Hackenberg and I would love to see what he could do if his O-Line could keep him clean, but that doesn’t look like it will happen in his time at Penn State.  Hackenberg was sacked 10 times by Temple on Saturday.  Some are thinking that Hackenberg could be the top QB selected in next year’s NFL draft.  That will only happen if he survives this season.

Oregon lost the Heisman Trophy winner and 2^nd overall pick in quarterback Marcus Mariotta, yet the Ducks didn’t miss a beat in their 61-42 win over Eastern Washington.  Oregon racked up 731 yards and 34 first downs on offense.  That includes running for 485 and 6 touchdowns.  They also didn’t lose their quick score attach either.  All of the Ducks scoring drives were under 3 minutes except their final score in the 4^th quarter, that one lasted 3:20.

Tons of stars lost for the season already in just one week.  Quarterbacks Taysom Hill (BYU) and Terrel Hunt (Syracuse), running backs Tarean Folston (Notre Dame) and James Conner (Pitt) and defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes (UCLA) are all highly regarded players that are done for the season already due to injuries.  We also have All-American linebacker Scooby Wright from Arizona, safety Mike Caputo from Wisconsin, wide receiver Mike Williams from Clemson and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer out for a considerable amount of time with lesser injuries.

Will Muschamp joining the coaching staff at Auburn is a very good thing.  We all know that Gus Malzahn knows offense and can put up some points, but now he has a defense behind it.  Muschamp, the former Florida head coach has always been a great defensive mind and now he able to focus on just that.  In the opener versus Louisville, Auburn scored 1 defensive touchdown on an 82 yard fumble return in the 1^st half and set up another one with a 35 yard interception return in the 2^nd half.  Auburn jumped out to a 24-0 3^rd quarter lead before Louisville final got on the scoreboard.

Alabama’s running game is crazy good.  The Tide have had guys like Eddie Lacy and Mark Ingram in recent years, but Derrick Henry might be the best of the bunch.  Henry ran for 147 on 13 carries and 3 scores against Wisconsin on Saturday.  His back up Kenyan Drake ran 10 times for 77 yards and a score.  He also had 2 catches for 48 yards.  This 1-2 punch from Alabama is as good as we have seen from the Crimson Tide.

High Octane is illegal in Houston, TX.  Arizona State and the Fighting Todd Graham’s had only 291 yards of offense (3.55 ypp) and two turnovers against Texas A&M Saturday.  Of the Fighting Todd Graham’s 1^st 12 drives, they punted 9 times, fumbled twice and scored just one touchdown.

I still love watching Todd Graham lose.  I don’t think that will change any time soon either.

I love watching Penn State lose.  I know that won’t change any time soon.

Hail Mary conversions are fun. 

West Coast teams should never be forced to play noon EST.  Stanford played Northwestern at Noon.  The players woke up at 4:30 to try to make up for the time difference and prepare for the game, it didn’t help.  The Cardinal looked sluggish from the get go.  They finished the game with just 2 field goals and only 240 yards of total offense.  They also turned the ball over twice.

Baker Mayfield showed why he was named the starter for the Oklahoma Sooners after camp.  Mayfield threw for 388 yards and 3 scores in his collegiate debut.  He also ran for another touchdown.  He unseated Trevor Knight who was the returning starter, who accounted for over 3,100 yards and 30 touchdowns in his 1^st 2 years at OU.

Josh Rosen looks to be the real thing at UCLA.  The #1 rated quarterback out of high school last year won the starting job at UCLA in fall camp and impressed in his debut.  Rosen threw for 351 and 3 touchdowns, going 28 of 35 in a 34-16 win over Virginia.

Ohio State looked pretty impressive in their opener.  After the Buckeyes got things going they looked unstoppable, and remember they were playing without 4 starters that were suspended.  I still am not sure that Cardale Jones is the best option for the Urban Meyer offense, but he also isn’t a bad option to have.  With their toughest game out of the way, if Ohio State loses at any point in the season it would be a huge upset.