College Football Plus: Big 10 starting to flex its muscles
Don't look now, but here comes the Big 10 after a pandemic year which made last season a quickly forgotten bleep in the conference history.
As college football gets into the heart of conference season, the Big Ten East appears to have jumped past the SEC West as the dominant division in college football.
Overall, the SEC is still the leader of the pack because Alabama and Georgia, which both rolled over unbeaten ranked conference opponents on Saturday are a class ahead of the rest of the CFB world, but from top to bottom the Big Ten may have forged ahead.
Consider some numbers
Big Ten East
Michigan 5-0
Michigan State 5-0
Penn State 5-0
Maryland 4-1
Ohio State 4-1
Big Ten West
Iowa 5-0.
That's a combined 19-1 for the upper tiers of the Big Ten East and a sizzling 24-1 for the top six in the Big 10.
This will diminish some as conference teams face each other--Penn State travels to Iowa next week.
SEC East may be better than the SEC West this season, with Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky all Top 10 quality, while Alabama rules over a division which still has Arkansas, Ole Miss and Auburn in the dangerous category.
Big Ten newcomers, Maryland and Rutgers were the doormats for the past few years, but both programs ran into a reality check this weekend, losing to Iowa and Ohio State by a combined score of 103-27...Ouch,
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Georgia is on quite a defensive run. The Bulldogs are not unbeaten, but almost unscored upon, allowing a total of 23 points all season, including a 99-0 stretch in their last two wins over Vanderbilt and Arkansas.
Beating Vandy badly was no surprise, but 37-0 over a previously unbeaten Arkansas team drew some attention.
Alabama rolled over Ole Miss 42-21, boosting Bama' coach Nick Saban's record against his former assistants to 24-0 after Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffiin became the latest victim.
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Say What
Boston College doesn't have to apologize to anyone for a gritty effort in what turned into a 19-13 loss at Clemson on Saturday night.
But I think the ACC should take some responsibility for the Eagles' first loss of the season under Coach Jeff Hafley.
Here's why.
The game was BC's third CONSECUTIVE trip to Death Valley, which as an Atlantic Division opponent (yearly) is not supposed to happen.
BC is also playing at Syracuse this season for the third straight time..
Here's what happened.
The Eagles were scheduled to play Clemson at BC last season, but then COVID hit and the ACC reworked the 8 game ACC schedule into a 10 game slate and flipped Clemson to an away game, which meant the Eagles would have to make back to back trips to Death Valley.
The Eagles played well against the Tigers, building a huge halftime lead before dropping a 34-28 decision.
Faced with a decision to alter the sequence of games for this season the ACC chose to follow the original schedule, which meant another road trip to Death Valley for BC.
But on Saturday night, the noise of the crowd DID have an affect and when BC was driving for what could have been the go-ahead score in the final seconds, the normally rock solid BC offensive line went in motion a few times, which set them back 15 yards in one fourth quarter drive which came a half yard short.
In the final drive, QB Dennis Grossel, who had brought the Eagles to the Clemson 12, mishandled a snap, and fumbled allowing Clemson to recover.
No proof here, of course, but if the game were being played at BC, the penalties with the offensive line doesn't happen, nor does the fumbled snap.
And Clemson was back pedaling rapidly at the end of the game and thisclose to losing back to back games.
Prediction here is that BC will recover and that a 10 win season is still very much in the mix.
Who's Hot
Georgia
Case could be made for Bulldogs as No. 1 over Alabama, but that would then be another Saban vs. pupil (Georgia coach Kirby Smart) and that's a rout.
Nebraska
Don't laugh. The Huskers are showing signs of life., After an opening game embarrassment against Illinois, the Huskers won a pair of games against Fordham and Buffalo, dropped close games at Oklahoma and Michigan State, but bounced back on Saturday with a 56-7 win on Saturday against Northwestern.
The win is not a surprise, but the margin of victory and the tend of the narrow road losses, could be signs that the Huskers have turned in the right direction.
Proof will come on Saturday when Michigan comes to Lincoln, which looks like a very dangerous game for the unbeaten Wolverines of Coach Khaki pants (Jim Harbaugh).
Cincinnati
The Bearcats came into Notre Dame as favorites with lots of doubters.
They left with a 24-13 victory, snapping a 26-game ND home winning streak and putting the Bearcats in the fast lane to become the first Group of 5 school to get a Final Four spot--if they win the remainder of their regular season games.
Since Cincinnati should be a solid favorite in each of those games, that looks like a strong possibility.
Who's Not
UCLA coach Chip Kelly, Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin, and Oregon Coach Mario Cristobal are being paid a combined total of almost 14 million a year and each went belly up in coaching decisions on Saturday which cost their team victories.
Kelly, whose seat at UCLA is warm, was in a joust with co-Pac-12 South Leader Arizona State on Saturday night when he faced the following situation: ASU 32, UCLA 23, 10 minutes remaining in 4th Q, UCLA fourth and goal at ASU 1. Go for TD or take chip shot field goal which makes it a one score game.
UCLA went for it was stopped and ASU went on to post a 42-23 win.
Oregon was sitting in the catbird seat with a solid lead over Stanford in the final minutes of regulation. But then the Cardinal puts together a 96 yard game-tying TD drive, lowlighted by three major Oregon penalties, including an untimed final play in regulation to score a game-tying TD and send the game into overtime and A 31-24 Stanford victory.
The loss knocked the Ducks out of the Top 5 and sent them in the scramble mode in their own division, in the Pac-12 and as a Final Four contender. This after the euphoria of beating Ohio State in Columbus.
The killer was the three major penalties on Stanford's game-tying drive. That's sloppiness and that falls on the coaches shoulders.
And then there is Kiffin, who went for fourth down conversions against Alabama in the first half, including from inside the Ole Miss 40 and came up 0-3 in the 42-21 loss.
"I'm sure I'll get killed by going for it on fourth down' said Kiffin (after the game. ""But that's the analytics. We believe in our players and if didn't work out this time.''
UConn, UMass
The winless streak continues, but in different ways.
Vanderbilt had to come from behind twice, including an end of game field goal for a 30-28 victory over the hapless Huskies.
UMass?
Not so pretty--a 45-7 loss to Toledo.
But there is hope (See Play it Forward)
Play it Forward (Key games of interest next week)
UConn at UMass--Somebody has to win right?
Oklahoma vs. Texas (Dallas)--Annual Red River shootout looks like a toss up between a pair of teams that are striving to climb back into the super fast lane.
Penn State at Iowa---Potential preview of Big Ten championship game in Indy? Big Ten version of an SEC Top 5 showdown.