A Jersey Guy: CFB--a changing of the guards
For more than 20 years, the line of succession has been fairly clear.
There was Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, then for a few shining moments there was Pete Carroll at USC and Mack Brown at Texas, then there was Urban Meyer at Florida and then Ohio State, and Nick Saban at LSU and now Alabama and Dabo Swinney at Clemson..
All coaching royalty, with everyone else playing a subordinate, unless they were matched each other.
The competitive part of the 2021 college football season offered us a marvelous comeback from the nightmare of a COVID dominated season.
It also gave us pay and a form of free agency for players.
After Saturday's championship weekend, Saban has re-established himself as the unquestioned G.O..A..T in CFB history.
No matter what happens in this season's CFP playoffs between Alabama, Georgia, Cincinnati and Michigan, Saban has lapped the field over EVERYONE. .
And until last week, the CFB coaching waters, were choppy, but familiar. .
Then the tsunami arrived, starting in Oklahoma of all places, where Lincoln Riley headed West to USC, rather than to the Southeast at LSU.
It turned into a laser show of epic proportions, which could very well set up a new generation of epic proportions. As shocking as Riley heading to USC to revive a program which had become worse than mediocre, but irrelevant in the national championship chatter for more than a decade, was Notre Dame Brian Kelly, the man with more wins than any coach in Notre Dame history--consider that for a moment-shocked even more people by going to LSU.
Breaking news became headline news in CFB
Bill Napier from Louisiana--not LSU--was hired at Floridaced from a reign as Swinney's defensive coordinator at Clemson, came back to Norman.
The latest aftershock came on Monday when Miami alum Mario Cristobal answered the call to come home and was hired as the Hurricanes' latest choice to revive a once-great program.
If there has been a constant criticism in the CFP portion of the CFB saga, it is that it is too exclusive, with only a handful of power broker schools.
The times, they may finally be changing.
This year, Cincinnati, guided by Luke Fickell, finally broke through the glass ceiling Group of 5 schools have encountered in seeking the next level.
Michigan, a true blue blood program, re-merged with Jim Harbaugh overcoming his own demons by finally beating Ohio State and winning the Big Ten title.
It presents an intriguing NATIONAL picture of the immediate future for colleg
'''''[pl football, with potential flourishing programs in a variety of regions beyond the 205 area code.
There are still areas of revival which are necessary for the completion of the project, such as Texas, Nebraska and FSU.
But even without that trio of former tenors, it was a remarkable and historic season in college football.