Another great week in the books, setting
up a major weekend of college football to come! Possibly a new challenger
arises for Alabama, USC and Oregon continue to slide in the PAC 12, and the end
of an era in the SEC. A third of the way through the season and the contenders
are starting to reveal themselves. I’ll take a look at each Power 5 conference,
and also look ahead to a monster Week 5 which includes THREE top ten matchups!
But first…
End of an Area
Les Miles was fired Sunday afternoon
from LSU. This decision may appear a year late, as I thought he should’ve been
gone at the end of last year. Les was unable to develop a quarterback, and was
too loyal to Cam Cameron, refusing to reinvigorate a boring offense that proved
to be non-competitive in the SEC, despite the wealth of talent he had on
campus. Crazy thing, LSU was literally ONE SECOND away from winning Saturday.
Fittingly, a clock management issue caused LSU to snap the ball late, as quarterback
Danny Etling fired a game-winning touchdown pass to DJ Clark with no time
remaining. That is until the officials reviewed the play and determined the
snap came after all the time ran off the clock. So there it was. Gus Malzahn
was the winner of the first “losing coach gets fired” game of the year. The
decision had to be made now. If you wait, and LSU ends the year 9-4 or something
in that realm, and the alumni was behind him, it’d be tough to fire Les who was
in his 12 year in Baton Rouge. That’s why the decision was made now! I don’t see
Les sitting out for long. This man literally ate, slept, and breathed football.
He’ll be back at a different program for the 2017-2018 season, hopefully refreshed
and ready to give us more quotes. As for LSU, this is a top 5 job in America
and there’s no doubt we’ll see a ton of big names thrown in the hat! I’ll give
my favorites in the next post!
Conference Check-In
ACC
So far, it seems like the ACC is
one of the top leagues in the country. Louisville has made a major splash as it’s
jumped into the top 5 and deservedly so. They have the leading Heisman candidate
in Lamar Jackson, and an offensive genius in Bobby Petrino at the helm. Clemson
looks to be hitting their stride, and despite a lopsided loss to Louisville,
Florida State should still be taken very seriously. The ACC Coastal looks like
a race being Miami, and North Carolina but Duke coming off of beating Notre
Dame is likely to have tons of confidence the rest of the way! Again, I’m a
Miami fan so I think they have what it takes to win this division but it all
starts this weekend against Georgia Tech.
BIG 10
Or is this the best conference in
America. Seems to be pretty impressive so far, as multiple teams look to be
contenders who can represent the league in the playoff. Ohio State is the class
of the league to me. People were worried about them, as they lost over 15
starters from last year’s team but Ohio State lead by top 3 coach in America
Urban Meyer, has proven to be a program that truly reloads each year! Michigan
has been dominant for the most part this year but I expect Wisconsin to
challenge them in all phases this weekend. I expect Michigan State to bounce
back from the beating the Badgers gave them last week and look good going
forward. Nebraska beat Oregon showing they could handle a major challenge from
the Pac 12, even though Oregon kinda beat themselves by continuously going for
2 on every touchdown and losing by just 3 but a wins a win! North Dakota State is
a really good football team so I won’t crush Iowa for taking that loss there
and I expect them to also be solid. We will again a little more clarity on
Saturday when Wisconsin travels to the Big House to faceoff with Michigan in a
major top 10 matchup. Ohio State though, is my choice to win the league!
BIG 12
I don’t expect much from the BIG 12
as a whole. I have very little respect for the Baylor program but o well, their
4-0 and that’s all that matters. I expect Oklahoma to continue to struggle, and
if Texas Tech had any kind of defense I might give them as chance as they are capable
to putting up 40 against anyone. I guess, by default, my choice to win the
league would be TCU. I expect Kenny Hill to continue to make plays and the
defense to get better as the year goes on.
PAC 12
Another top 10 matchup this Friday features
Stanford and Washington! This should be a great contest as the winner of this
game probably becomes the favorite to win the PAC 12 this year. The PAC 12 is
probably the deepest league in the country. I mean when Oregon and USC are in
last place in their respective divisions that’s something as both of those
teams don’t lack for talent at all. I honestly don’t think there’s a truly bad
team in the league, which is definitely not what I could say for the other
conferences. Colorado is proving to be a young up and coming team and Utah and
others continue to improve. I mean UCLA has 2 losses, but one is to a good
Texas A&M team in overtime, and the other was a late loss to Stanford.
Arizona has 2 losses but the latest was an overtime loss to Washington. Ok, I’ll
say it. The PAC 12 is the best conference in the country.
SEC
The SEC is probably the 3rd
or 4th best conference right now to me. The East looks like
Tennessee’s to lose right now, and Florida hasn’t beat a single good team yet.
Alabama continues to not only run the SEC West, but they run college football
and that’s continued to hold the league up for years. I will say that Ole Miss
is probably the best 2 loss team in the country though. I mean they have 2
losses and were up by more than 20 points in each game! Their talent is crazy,
I mean did you see how they beat down Georgia this weekend? A&M has been
impressive, specifically their defense and the ability to stop the run! They
still have a tough schedule ahead so they must continue to improve. Arkansas
showed a lot of toughness in the loss to A&M , specifically the quarterback
Austin Allen but they still loss by 3 touchdowns so I’m still not taking them
serious in the West. I’m interested in seeing what Ed Orgeron does as the interim
head coach for LSU but as I said before, Alabama runs college football until someone
says otherwise.
Week 4 picks
We went 3/6 last week with picks
and I just can’t forgive Florida and UCLA for blowing leads and messing up my
averages! Hopefully this week goes much better.
Stanford (7) VS Washington (10)
A game featuring the PAC 12’s top
defenses should make for a great Friday night. I am really looking forward to
this game. Arizona challenged Washington with skill and flash, but Stanford
will challenge them physically and I really want to see how they respond. All
eyes will be on Christian McCaffrey as he gets a big stage game to put on an
early show for Heisman voters. Those eyes include that defense of Washington’s
who’s sure to be ready. Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns has shown he can make
good throws but Washington has playmakers in the secondary such as Budda Baker
and Sidney Jones. Washington leads the nation in takeaways so Burns should be
very careful with his decision making. I’m going with the upset.
Washington 31
Stanford 27
Miami (14) VS Georgia Tech
“Now it gets real” said Miami
quarterback Brad Kaaya as the Hurricanes begin conference play against Georgia
Tech. Luckily for Miami, new coach Mark Richt is no stranger to the Georgia
tech triple option offense they’ll face Saturday, As Georgia’ coach, he saw
that every year and will surely come up with a plan to neutralize it. That
combined with Miami having Kaaya, as well as a great running game make me lean
their way for this contest.
Miami 30
Georgia Tech 17
Wisconsin (8) VS Michigan (4)
Michigan has looked great so far,
having only been tested by Colorado. Wisconsin has passed both of their early
season tests with flying colors. This is truly Michigan’s first “big game” of the year while the Badgers have
already faced off with LSU and destroyed Michigan State in East Lansing so I
have no doubt they will be ready. I think that confidence will carry them in
this game. Michigan has shown major talent and great team speed but I think
Wisconsin will control the line of scrimmage and in that, control the game.
Wisconsin 31
Michigan 20
Oklahoma VS TCU (15)
Oklahoma really can’t afford
another loss as they have started the year 1-2 but I think TCU hands them
number 3 this week. I’m just not high on the talent of the Sooners this year as
they’ve been exposed on both sides of the ball this year. Teams having even
more film on Baker Mayfield have been able to control him somewhat this year as
well. Kenny Hill will make plays down the field and lead TCU to a victory
TCU 37
Oklahoma 27
Tennessee (11) VS Georgia (25)
I don’t care that Tennessee
impressed me by coming back to beat Florida this week. I will NEVER pick
Tennessee to win anything because I’ve done it the last 2 years and they’ve let
me down! So until they win the SEC East division, I just can’t do it! Georgia
just got rolled by Ole Miss so hopefully they come back hungry this week. I
think they’re a year away from actually being a contender in the division by I
think them being at home gives them a slight edge.
Georgia 24
Tennessee 23
Louisville (3) VS Clemson (5)
Now for the biggest game of the
night. This might be the best game of the year. 2 entertaining teams, 2 Heisman
contenders in Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson who is running away with the
award at this point. Louisville put the world on notice when it annihilated Florida
State at home but this game will be in Death Valley, AT NIGHT! Not sure why I
put that in all caps but it always seems to make a difference! The defending
ACC champs at home, are not wanting to lose their crowns just yet. Louisville’s
defense is fast and talented and they are definitely full of weapons on offense
starting with Jackson. I mean if he’s able to do what he’s been doing so far
this year then you might as well have the Heisman waiting for him in the locker
room. However, Clemson’s defensive line has proven to be one of the top units
in the conference and I think it’ll get him plenty of problems. In a showdown
with 2 bigtime quarterbacks, it’ll come down to who makes more plays and at the
end of the night, I expect Watson to make one more play than Jackson.
Clemson 34
Louisville 26
So wow, what a week 4 this should
be! Big game after big game as teams look to continue to separate themselves. As
we all know, in college football every week is a playoff. 3 top ten matchups
are almost elimination games! Obviously a lot can happen between now and the
end of the season but it all starts now! One of my great friends is getting
married right at the kick of the Louisville and Clemson game. I really hope he doesn’t
mind me utilizing the WatchESPN app on my phone, I just hope I remember to turn
the sound off.
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