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ACC’s Gamechanging Moment: College Football Cavalcade of Whimsy, Oct. 27
From Georgia Tech's big play, to Butch Jones, to the ACC's bowl situation, Pete Fiutak comments on the college football world.
October 27, 2015
Sorry if this column sucks, it’s not my fault …
I’m the best kicker in the country and will go on to have a 12-year NFL career, but I can’t make an open field tackle. Even so, I would’ve made the stop on the classic 2013 Auburn Kick Six over Alabama.
Before the 2014 BCS Championship, I asked Florida State kicker Roberto Aguayo this …
And then he’ll come to the defense of the Kardashians and their handling of the Lamar Odom situation
Is there such a thing as Seminoling?
Georgia Tech not only screwed up Florida State’s perfect season – but not necessarily the playoff hopes, considering the 12-1 Seminoles would almost certainly get in if they run the table with road wins at Clemson and Florida – but it stayed alive in the hunt for a bowl game. Here’s the problem – the Yellow Jackets are still in big trouble for a post-season bid, as is the ACC to fill its slots.
If Clemson, Florida State and Notre Dame all end up in the New Year’s Six/CFP in some way, then the ACC has eight non-CFPish bowl openings it has to fill with conditional slots in the St. Petersburg against the American and the Birmingham. So far, Clemson, Florida State, Pitt, Duke, and North Carolina are already bowl eligible, and there aren’t any other sure-things.
Can Miami at 4-3 get two more wins after all the drama? At Duke, Virginia, at North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and at Pitt. Yeah, but it might not be easy.
Louisville is only at 3-4, but it should get by at Wake Forest, Syracuse and Virginia before going on the road at Pitt and Kentucky. However, lose any one of those first three, and it’s uh-oh time.
3-4 Syracuse? Not with Florida State, at Louisville, Clemson and at NC State on the slate. But maybe the Orange’s regular-season finale against Boston College will be for a bowl. The 3-4 Eagles need three wins against NC State, Notre Dame, and at Syracuse, not to mention a win over a 3-5 Virginia Tech, who has to win three out of the last four at Boston College, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and at Virginia.
3-4 Wake Forest? Nope. Not with road games at Clemson and Notre Dame to deal with and home games against Louisville and Duke.
And then there’s Georgia Tech, which still needs to come up with three wins against Virginia and Miami on the road, Virginia Tech, and Georgia.
Sorry, it’s a lot of ACC schedule stuff, but there’s a point.
These things always work out, but it’ll be interesting to see how the playoff committee looks at the ACC as a whole, especially if three of the bowl slots go unfilled. Will the conference be seen as mediocre if it comes down to a one-loss ACC champ vs. the Big 12 or Pac-12 champion? A 13-0 Clemson is in, but after that, all bets are off.
Or Clemsongate works, too
Dabo, own this Clemsoning thing.
Sort of like a defiant Obama demanded the Affordable Health Care Act be called Obamacare, steer into the skid – print up Clemsoning t-shirts. Make Clemsoning your slogan. Take Clemsoning and brand it into a steer that’ll become your mascot, and call it Clemsoning. Yeah, Clemson is going to lose again someday, and call that Clemsoning, too.
Or, if you really want to go badass, say that Clemsoning gets coaches fired.
Considering he’s 1-6, put the band back together and bring back Larry, too.
I really want this to work for Miami, mainly because this is the program that made me care about college football.
Name any big Miami game from around 1983 to the Nebraska 1995 Orange Bowl win for the national title and it can be put in some sort of historically significant context.
The 1984 Orange Bowl win over Nebraska is still my second favorite college football game behind the 1987 Miami-Florida State classic – complete with my favorite pass of all-time, the Steve Walsh dart to Michael Irvin – why wasn’t Deion on him? – for the decisive score.
Miami football didn’t just matter, it was everything. If you had a great team, either you beat Miami, or you didn’t. Either you were 1988 Notre Dame, or you were 1988 Florida State. Either you were 1986 Penn State, or you were 1986 Oklahoma. Either you were 1990 BYU, or you were 1990 Texas. And on, and on, and on.
So go ahead, Miami. It’s not going to be the same now if you restore the glory – just like it didn’t feel like the Bobby Bowden days when Florida State won the national title two years ago – but give it a shot.
And now comes the silly season of coaching speculation with everyone who’s ever set foot on the University of Miami campus interested in the head coaching job. Of course, every former Hurricane thinks he could coach the team, and craziest of all, Butch Davis is saying he’s interested.
Really? Butch Davis? The guy who was canned by North Carolina just when all the academic scandals started kicking in full-force? Really, Miami?
But a funny thing happened on the way to an all-timer of a scandal: Davis was cleared of any wrongdoing, as documented in Bruce Feldman’s terrific article.
Okay, okay, okay, so a lot of stuff happened while Davis was the coach at both Miami and North Carolina, and there should be a Buck Stops Here aspect to being the head man of a major program, but considering the possibility that the former head coach is still the real deal, he’s worth a long, long look.
Miami would be asking a coach who’s about to turn 63 to be every bit as energetic and every bit as innovative as he was 15 years ago, and it’s also asking him to do the impossible by recreating the magic that helped put together one of the most talented teams in the history of a program that’s known for putting together some of the most talented teams of all-time. But if the program doesn’t hire him, whatever head coach it does bring on will have to produce up to the scrutiny of not being Butch Davis.
Mario Cristobal, is a younger, talented, Miami-man option who was great for a while as the Florida International head coach before crushing it as the Alabama offensive line coach for the last three seasons, and the money is there to make this an A-list opportunity for any big name, but Davis would be the story.
And if you want to see if a 72-year-old Jimmy Johnson wants to crank it up again, I’m cool with that, too.
And not four seconds after I get all squishy about good times and great college football memories …
Is it really fun to bring back former teams and great players to honor before a game or at halftime? Maybe that works if the current team is rocking, but the last thing this year’s Nebraska team needed before losing to Northwestern was to see bunch of fat old dudes limping onto the field making the fans grouchy that it’s not 1995.
Tommy Frazier walking out of the tunnel carrying a BCS trophy wasn’t going to make the 2015 Huskers better at playing college football.
Maybe Steve Spurrier will be ready to step in and give that another shot – before quitting again.
Why does anyone think Chip Kelly is so ready to jump right back into the college world? Jim Harbaugh was a special situation, and even now, even with all of the success, he’s playing in the minors.
Obviously I’m a college fan, but if you’re a head coach, either you’re in the NFL, or you’re not. There’s Nick Saban, and there’s Bill Belichick. There’s Bear Bryant, and there’s Vince Lombardi. That doesn’t mean the college legends aren’t any less special, but it’s the NF-fricking-L, now more than ever.
Like Pete Carroll, one play away from being a two-time Super Bowl champion, is ready to leave the opportunity to get back to the biggest of big stages for USC.
This happened when the Texas job became open and Longhorn faithful just assumed they could get a Harbaugh of some sort, or Mike Tomlin, because, after all, who wouldn’t want to coach there?
Chip Kelly is coming off of two straight 10-6 seasons and the team is getting off to a rocky start. Okay, but that happens in the pros. Yeah, the moves he made were bold and arrogant, but there are two words for NFL head coaches who aren’t that – Joe Philbin.
Maybe it won’t work. Maybe this whole Eagles experiment is going to implode in epic fashion and Kelly will be a cautionary tale for all those pro franchises daring to try something a wee bit out of the cookie-cutter norm. But just because Philly isn’t putting up 500 yards and 65 points a game over the first half of the season, that doesn’t mean Kelly is now the main candidate for the Miami or USC gigs.
#BielemaWasRight
A good friend of mine just complained that her manicurist screwed up her nails and her appointment took two hours instead of one. So she had to sit there and be pampered and relax for an extra sixty minutes. Grousing about the play of Cardale Jones and getting to put in J.T. Barrett is getting the top coat.
I’m not even going to bother looking it up. I’m just going to assume that no quarterback in the history of football was benched after going 10-0 in his first ten games as a starter with a conference championship and a national title during that run. And if by chance there is such an instance, there’s no way, no how it was coming off a 28-point win over a team as decent as Penn State.
It’s embarrassing how talented Ohio State is, but it also helps to get a nice ten game exhibition season to tinker around with no real consequences.
Harbaugh wouldn’t have pitched to Daniel Murphy
No, Chicago Cubs fans, it’s not a given that this young team is going to win a championship. The Cubs are in the same division as Pittsburgh and St. Louis, and those two aren’t going away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the future is bright, but this was it. The team was there, and this was the chance. That’s not saying there won’t be more opportunities, but ask the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals how hard it is just to get to the point you were just at.
No, Michigan fans, it’s not a given that the Jim Harbaugh era is going to win a championship. The Wolverines are in the same division as Michigan State and Ohio State, and those two aren’t going away. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the future is bright, but this was it. The team was there, and this was the chance. That’s not saying there won’t be more opportunities, but ask USC, UCLA, Texas A&M and Miami how hard it is just to get to the point you were just at.
The sure-thing, 100%, rock-solid lock, sell the house, sell the kids, no doubt about it picks of the century for this week
Michigan State taketh away, and then Michigan State taketh away again. MSU as an underdog was the lock of the century against Michigan, and it was last week, too, when Indiana came in as a +16.5. Thanks for the late, meaningless collapse, Hoosiers.
– 23-6 straight up so far, 17-12 against the spread
1. Iowa -17 over Maryland
2. Oklahoma -39 over Kansas
3. Air Force -7 over Hawaii
4. Michigan -13 over Minnesota
C.O.W. shameless gimmick item …
The weekly five Overrated/Underrated aspects of the world
1) Overrated: Al Golden … Underrated: Jill Scott’s Golden
2) Overrated: Processed meats … Underrated: More processed meats
3) Overrated: Charlie Strong, Miami head coach … Underrated: Charlie Strong, Texas head coach
4) Overrated: The NBA … Underrated: Fantasy NBA league
5) Overrated: Anything fun size … Underrated: Anything with peanut butter
Sorry if this column sucked, I wasn’t my fault …
Hang in there, Oklahoma State.
