Let’s dive into the week that was in college football and hit all the highlights on the SoBros Network’s College Football Roundup.
*I think it’s time for me to finally give up on one of my spiciest opinions from before the season. It’s not a hill I’m willing to die on. If you’re not a regular listener of the College Football Roundup, I thought the Georgia Bulldogs would take a step back this season. I felt like the losses on defense would be too much to overcome. I thought we were Joe Flacco-ing Stetson Bennett a little bit. I thought we were overvaluing the importance of the tight end in college football. I even made a beer bet with Braden Gall of 440 Sports that Georgia would lose twice this season. TWICE! While I thought Mizzou was going to make me look like a big brain genius, it was not to be. After watching the Bulldogs completely dismantle the Vols on Saturday, I’m ready to say “just give them the trophy.” Curse it. Run from it. Try to hide. I won’t anymore. It’s here, and it’s inevitable – the Georgie Bulldogs are still the Georgia Bulldogs.
*For the Tennessee Volunteers, there’s a silver lining here. For one, that LSU win looks even better after the Tigers upset Alabama. For another, they likely avoid a rematch with either in the SEC Championship. If they finish 11-1, they have the resumé to get into the College Football Playoff. As for what went wrong on Saturday…well, what didn’t? To me, they just looked shook and tentative to start the game and they never really settled in. They didn’t play their brand of football and it bit ’em in the ass. But, they’ve built such a quality body of work that they should survive it. The one thing that would worry me if I were a Vols fan is that the loss wasn’t exactly close.
*That’s probably it for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Clemson Tigers this season too. For the Tide, it’d likely take LSU losing to either Arkansas, UAB, or Texas A&M AND they’d have to beat Ole Miss and defeat Tennessee/Georgia in the SEC Championship. They’d probably need Ohio State and/or Michigan to drop a second game too. Do we have any confidence in that happening? I don’t. We ignored a lot of the massive red flags around Alabama, even after they lost to the Vols. But, they are there, folks – this team just ain’t it. They’re undisciplined. They’re void of legitimate play-makers. And, their secondary is ass right now. Nick Saban has some rebuilding to do. For Clemson, I’ve thought they’re fraudulent all season long, and I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for them to drop another game. They just don’t have the offense to survive a night when they’re being outplayed on defense and special teams. They join a crowded hodgepodge of one-loss teams, and I think their resumé is on the weaker side of the group.
*Good for Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers. They absolutely should be considered a threat in the SEC, and you could tell how much that win meant for him in the postgame interview. Also, good for this lady who stormed the field with her walker:
A lady with a walker just stormed the field. A damn we walker. pic.twitter.com/CYt8zhV62A
— Aaron Suttles (@AaronSuttles) November 6, 2022
*The Ohio State Buckeyes and Northwestern Wildcats put on a football purist’s wet dream of a game. It was sloppy. The wind was howling. The rain was pouring. And, a shitty 1-7 football team damn near caught a National Championship contender sleeping. I don’t know what we can actually learn about Ohio State from that game. I guess they can survive if they’re dragged into a phone booth for a fight? I don’t care. I’m just going to go watch the highlights again.
*Is anyone have as weird of a season as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish? They play Ohio State tight but lose and they’re upset by Marshall to start 0-2. They rattle off three wins in a row. It looks like they’re getting things going, and then they inexplicably lose to a terrible Stanford team. But, now – they’ve won three in a row again, including an upset of #4 Clemson? What the fuck is going on here? Is this team good or not?
*Remember on last week’s episode of the pod when Steven and I looked that line between the Texas Longhorns and the Kansas State Wildcats, and said “what the hell are we supposed to do with this?” Yeah, now we know why. Conventional wisdom said to take the home dogs on a campaign to win the Big 12, but the sports books knew something we didn’t, I suppose. That’s the kind of shit you look at and decide to just stay the hell away from. I certainly didn’t touch that game, and if you did, hopefully, you’ll learn from that mistake.
*How are the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 8-1? Is this the quietest 8-1 of all time? ALL TIME, I ASK!?!? The American Athletic Conference teams vying for that Cotton Bowl berth could end up cannibalizing themselves. Liberty has a tricky game against a resurgent UConn next week after the emotional high of upsetting Arkansas. Could Coastal beat Southern Miss, Virginia, and James Madison and sneak into an 11-1 record?! Maybe! At the very least, we should leave them in the Cotton Bowl conversation for the time being. I love the Group of Five this year.
*Maybe I’m just a lunatic, but I loved watching the Oregon State Beavers and Washington Huskies go out there Friday night and just slug each other back and forth. I don’t have a hive mind that can watch every single college football game simultaneously on Saturdays, so obviously I wasn’t able to watch every game this weekend. But, this one was a low key banger, as the kids are saying these days. When the lights went out in the stadium, it turned #Pac12AfterDark into #Pac12DuringTheDark:
PEAK PAC 12 AFTER DARK!!!! THE LIGHTS ARE OUT AT HUSKY STADIUM!!! pic.twitter.com/yqdomhPQbp
— @ (@FTBeard7) November 5, 2022
*FYI: I think the Illinois Fighting Illini was the only team of the 13 teams I listed last week as still “mathematically” alive for the playoffs that were “officially” eliminated this week after they dropped a weird one to a drastically underachieving Michigan State Spartans team. It doesn’t change my affinity for what Bret Bielema has done this season, and I still hope this team finds a way to win the Big Ten and go to the fucking Rose Bowl.
*I had a great week of college football betting, Vols +7.5 aside. My first win of the weekend was taking the Rice Owls to cover against the UTEP Miners. Gutsy call to go for the touchdown instead of the field goal, but they hit on it, covered, and won me money. We all know the real highlight of that game was the pizza box tower, though:
Viewer discretion is advised. This is the devastating footage of the leaning tower of pizza toppling over pic.twitter.com/clR5JlI2iw
— PSC Highlights (@psc_highlights) November 4, 2022
My Current Bowl Projections
- Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State vs. Tennessee
- Peach Bowl: Georgia vs. TCU
- National Championship: Tennessee vs. Georgia
- Rose Bowl: Michigan vs. Oregon
- Orange Bowl: Clemson vs. Alabama
- Sugar Bowl: LSU vs. Texas
- Cotton Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Tulane
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) November 5, 2022
If you haven’t already, be sure to go subscribe to the College Football Roundup Podcast, on which Steven McCash and myself break down all the action from the college football world and look ahead to the week to come.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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