2024-25 College Football Season

[tazzmaniac]

Amongst all the strangeness of the season so far Army and Navy are both still undefeated and both of them are ranked together in the top 25 for the 1st time since 1960. 

[tazzmaniac]

Should be another strong weekend for college football. 

Ok State leading BYU 21-14 at the half.  BYU is undefeated and on track for the B12 championship if they keep winning.  Oh yeah.  FSU lost again falling to 1-6.  Hard to see Norvell getting dump this year but his seat is going to be blistering going into next season. 

Tomorrow is headlined by Bama at Tennessee  .  Oh what a difference 2 weeks makes.  Both teams were undefeated and looked like championship contenders.  Now both teams have a bad loss and just trying to make the playoffs.  With their multiple tough games on their remaining schedules, the loser of this game will be at big risk of missing the playoffs.  As a Bama fan my confidence in this team has plummeted.  Losing to Vandy, albeit improved, on the road with Bama fans outnumbering Vandy fans doesn't bode well for a road game at Tennessee which is one of the toughest environments to play at.  Fingers crossed for Bama to have a big 1st half like they did against Georgia to shut the crowd up. 

Oh yeah.  There's also the Georgia at Texas game which may hold some interest.  Texas can solidify their claim to best team in college football with a win.  The discussions about best coach in college football might start including Sark.  Georgia needs this win.  A 2nd loss puts them at big risk of missing the playoffs. 

Other notable games.
Miami at Louisville.  Miami barely avoided an upset 2 weeks ago. 

Nebraska at Indiana.  Can Indiana remain undefeated?  A win by 1-loss Nebraska makes their matchup against Ohio State next weekend more interesting. 

Auburn at Missouri.  Missouri can't afford another loss for their playoff chances.  How many more losses can Auburn sustain before Freeze's seat becomes blistering?  They have no qualms about spending money to fire coaches. 

Notre Dame at Georgia Tech.  Could be close but I expect ND to win by double digits. 

Michigan at Illinois.  A top 25 matchup.

LSU at Arkansas.  A 2-loss Arkansas could easily be undefeated.  Both teams coming off big wins but Arkansas had an off week to prepare for this game. 

Kansas State at West Virginia.  1-loss Kansas State needs to keep winning to make the B12 championship game.   

[tazzmaniac]

BYU with a last second touchdown saves their undefeated season. 

[Silas]

I'm going to the USC/Maryland game this afternoon.  Southern Cal will probably crush the Terps, however, I heard that the USC Marching Band will be visiting MD and they will be playing Tusk!  If you aren't familiar with the Fleetwood Mac song with the USC Marching Band, check it out on YouTube.  No word on a centurion riding a white stallion.

[tazzmaniac]

Neither Bama or Tennessee look playoff worthy.  Bama coaches appeared to have done little to prepare the team for the noise.  Offense play calling still sucks refusing to even try to establish the running game.

Edit - Bama up 7-0 at the half.  Crapfest from both teams so far with Tennessee being a bit more crappy.  The Tennessee fans are a big factor and will probably win them the game. 

Edit2 - Wow!!!  7 straight running plays to start the 2nd half and 6 of them were positive yardage.  Just RTDB!!!

Edit3 - Well 2nd loss for Bama.  It is hard to root for a team that is soft, stupid and so undisciplined.  It is hard to understand how the same team that looked so good during the 1st half against Georgia can look so bad now.  Good chance Missouri finishes off Bama's playoff chances next week. 

Hopefully DeBoer is starting to learn that he's in the big leagues now.  He's going to have to start holding players accountable.  Last season's team had plenty of problems but it had the character to fight through them.  Or maybe the Peter principle applies and we'll be looking for a new coach in a couple years. 

To top it off Georgia beat Texas and puts themselves back into the championship favorites. 

[tazzmaniac]

Illinois up 21-7 on Michigan in the 3rd.  I really like Illinois' old school uniforms with the old helmet graphics. 

[Silas]

Enjoyed a great game yesterday with Maryland surprising USC with a last minute win.

[Phantom255x]

This year is very exciting in that I don't think there's any "truly dominant" team out there. It used to be Alabama, or Georgia, or Clemson in the mid-2010s, Ohio State, etc. Not this year.

"Any given Saturday".

The expanded playoff format will also make things very spicy. Regardless of talent, some of it might come down to matchups and the strengths vs. weaknesses of certain teams. That was true last night too, Georgia has been iffy and Texas looked dominant this season, but Georgia's D-Line just shredded Texas' O-Line and that made a big difference.

[tazzmaniac]

Enjoyed a great game yesterday with Maryland surprising USC with a last minute win.

Glad to hear it.  Did the USC band play Tusk?

[Silas]

Enjoyed a great game yesterday with Maryland surprising USC with a last minute win.

Glad to hear it.  Did the USC band play Tusk?

No, unfortunately.  Maryland stuck the USC band up in noise bleed and they never made it down on the field.

[Donoghus]

Was in Austin this weekend and went to Georgia-Texas.  That was easily one of the coolest sporting events I've been to.  The pregame buzz and energy in the stands.  105,000 fans.  SEC & football in Texas under the lights.  That's a whole other level of college football. My gf did her Masters at UGA so we were pulling for the Bulldogs so it worked out well.   Really fun game.

[tazzmaniac]

Pittsburg defeats Syracuse 41-13 to go to 7-0.  Kyle McCord had one of the worst QB performances.  0 tds and 5 ints with 3 of those being pick sixes.  ESPN has a video of all the picks and they end it with a play where he panics, trips over his own feet and sacks himself. 

[tazzmaniac]

In the big news of the day  , the first CFP rankings are out.  Oregon, Ohio State, Geogia and Miami are the top 4 teams.  However the top 4 spots go to conference champions so BYU would get the 4th seed and a first round bye. 
The first round matchups would be: 

Boise State at Ohio State
Alabama at Texas
Notre Dame at Penn State
Indiana at Tennessee

Of course there are plenty more games still to play.

[Donoghus]

Extremely saddening news.

Kirk Herbstreit
@KirkHerbstreit
This is really hard to write but so many of you have loved and cared about Ben that I wanted to let you know. We found out today the cancer had spread throughout Bens organs and there was nothing left we could do-we had to let him go. I?ve had dogs my whole life but Ben was 1 on 1. He was smart-loving-gentle-patient-inquisitive-and welcoming to all. Always a big smile and a soft tail wag. He and I could communicate..he and I understood each other and had each others backs. He was with me more than anyone at home and traveling with me for work. Such an easy going companion. Hard day-but he will live within all of us forever. God please bless his majestic soul and thank you for putting him in my life for the last 10 years-a true blessing.
Love you Ben. 🙏🏼

[tazzmaniac]

Not a lot of great matchups or games with reasonable upset potential.  Some teams playoff chances are on the line. 

Georgia at Ole Miss - With 2 losses, Ole Miss can't afford another loss.  A loss by Georgia would put them at risk for missing the playoffs with Tennessee left to play. 

Michigan at Indiana - Indiana is undefeated but has played an easy schedule.  They really can't afford to lose with Ohio State next on their schedule.  Michigan with 4 losses already is just trying to play the spoiler. 

Clemson at Virginia Tech - Clemson with 2 losses has 7 multi-loss teams ranked ahead of them.  They need to win out and look good doing it to have a shot at the playoffs. 

Colorado at Texas Tech - Texas Tech upset Iowa State last week.  Hopefully they'll spoil Deion's chances to make the playoffs. 

South Carolina at Vandy - Both teams with 3 losses but have been playing very competitively this season with some big wins.   

Alabama at LSU - Both teams have 2 losses so they can't afford another loss.  As I said against Tennessee, Bama needs to jump out to a good start to shut the crowd up.  DeBoer and his staff did a pitiful job preparing the players for the Tennessee environment.  Hopefully they've done much better this time because the LSU environment may be even more hostile and noisy.  Really need to see the good Milroe.  Not the Milroe who misses wide open receivers by 5 yards, runs himself into big sacks and whose poor decision making makes him look like a true freshman making his 1st start.   

Washington at Penn State - Hopefully Penn State has a hangover from last week's inevitable loss to Ohio State and takes another loss. 

BYU at Utah - BYU is undefeated with a good shot at the B12 championship and making the playoffs.  Utah the preseason favorite can only play the spoiler.