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College football wall-to-wall
So here we are. The first Thursday night hijinks are roughly 48 hours away. The college football party that is Labor Day weekend is around the corner.
Yes, we are taking the tots to Auburn to watch Alabama A&M scare to the point that I am going to long for the days that my souvenir plastic cup had a BAC of 0.28.
But as we promised last Friday, we are going to overdo on college football this week.
First, the dichotomy that is Deion Sanders. Coach Prime — who blocked me on Twitter for calling him soft in this space many moons ago after he would not answer a Clarion-Ledger reporter’s question because said reporter would not call him Coach Prime.
Seems Deion is still softer than any of his attempts to tackle.
Colorado has banned a Denver columnist from asking questions of Sanders or his players because said columnist wrote harsh stuff about the Buffalos program.
Deion is Charmin soft, and forever has been. Because while cheering for Tim McCarver is not a corner I relish, that bush-league move Sanders pulled with the Braves after McCarver dared to offer an opinion that he should be with either the Falcons or the Braves as opposed to possibly not giving either his full focus.
That is a BS, and not just because of what I do for a living.
On the side of the coin, Sanders partnered with a Colorado bank to set up saving accounts and funding situations for his players who already have kids so they can invest their NIL money and prepare for the future.
So which Deion do we think is the real Deion?
Fun parts of college football
As for the second story, well, I promised to deliver my picks for the college football playoff. Here they are, with the first four being the teams that get the byes:
THE Ohio State, Georgia, Utah, Miami.
The rest of the 5-thru-12 — Ole Miss, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State, Boise State.
And yes, a lot of those picks have a lot to do with generous slates granted by the division-less schedule makers. Missouri and Ole Miss have cake-walks to double-digit win totals, although the strength of schedule may be a hurdle come playoff time, even with 12 invitations.
At the other end of the spectrum — cover your eyes, JTC — are the teams with diabolically hard schedules.
Ranked by opposing teams’ records from 2023, here are the five hardest schedules this fall with the three toughest opponents mentioned:
1 Florida — at Tennessee, vs. Georgia, at Texas; opponents’ record: 106-50;
2 USC — vs. LSU, at Michigan, vs. Notre Dame; 106-53;
3 Michigan — vs. Texas, vs. Oregon, at THE Ohio State; 98-59;
4 UCLA — at LSU, vs. Oregon, at Penn State; 99-59;
5 Georgia Tech — vs. FSU, vs. Notre Dame, at Georgia; 103-54.
Thoughts?
Also right around the corner
We are 10 days away from the NFL starting. Yay, us.
(Side note: We did not have enough to fill out a fantasy league. Maybe next year. But we will try again at a Survivor pool for the NFL season. Deal? Deal.)
So everyone wants to discuss CeeDee Lamb’s monster contract. Fine. Whatever. I think the Cowboys overspent, and there is a long history of Super Bowl winning teams not having huge-dollar WRs on the roster.
(Side note, part II: Saw an interesting stat on the Twitter that of the last 20 teams to play in the national championship of college football, 15 of them had WRs who became first-round picks. Nuts, right?)
Anyway, The Athletic has published its annual QB Tiers — they fall 1-thru-5 — as voted on anonymously by 50 NFL executives and coaches. The breakdown was eight HC, seven GMs, 12 coordinators, 12 executives, eight assistants and three coaching analysts.
Of course, Patty Mahomes is atop Tier 1 — he was a unanimous selection. He is joined there by Joe Burrow and Josh Allen.
Lamar Jackson is atop Tier 2, and you know what? I agree. Yes, Lamar has two MVPs and is headed to the Hall, but in each of those MVP seasons, Jackson and the Ravens lost home playoff games in which they scored 12 points or fewer.
That matters.
Here’s the top half of the league:
Tier 1
1 Mahomes
2 Burrow
3 Allen
Tier 2
4 Jackson
T5 Matt Stafford and Justin Herbert
7 Aaron Rodgers
8 CJ Stroud
9 Dak Prescott
10 Jared Goff
11 Jalen Hurts
12 Brock Purdy
13 Kirk Cousins
14 Jordan Love
Tier 3
15 Tua Tagovailoa
16 Trevor Lawrence
Thoughts?
This and that
› In case are you were wondering, Titans starter Will Levis was pegged in Tier 4 of the voting and tied for 26th with Anthony Richardson.
› You know the rules. Here’s Paschall on Georgia and Kirby being eager to see Clemson in the “neutral” site that is the A-T-L. Grab Georgia and lay the 13.5. Bulldogs are going to roll.
› Braves played. Braves scored a bunch of runs. Atlanta leads the Mets by 3 games for the final NL wildcard spot. He’s had a disappointing season, but Matt Olson had five RBIs, and when dude connects, it looks effortless, you know?
› Here’s an interesting soccer story in Chattanooga as detailed by Mike Pare. That is all.
› And here’s a very familiar SEC basketball coach who has waded into the social media political discourse and is coming under some criticism. https://x.com/DanWolken/status/1828031938906521721 Again, this is not politics, this is basketball and the fallout that has Bruce trending on social media.
› Wow, double-dipped tragedy. Over the weekend, an Alabama high school player died from injuries suffered in the season opener last Friday. Now comes details that a West Virginia middle school football player died Saturday after being injured in a practice.
› Many congrats to my family friend Bo Cooper, who was in the same kindergarten class as the Lil’ 5-at-10 way back when, for being named TFP player of the week for Signal.
› Here’s today’s coverage from some fat-faced fella of the U.S. Senior Am at The Honors Course in Ooltewah. Side note: I may have written this before, but it’s worth repeating for those in the back. When Lewis Grizzard first played The Honors, he was asked what he thought after a rocky run through the challenging 18 holes. He passed before saying, “I had no (bleeping) idea Ooltewah was the Cherokee word for double-bogey.”
Today’s questions
True or false, it’s Tuesday. Morning, Ernie.
› True or false: The ACC will get more than one team in the playoff.
› True or false: FSU is in for a long row to hoe.
› True or false: You agree with those QB Tiers.
› True or false: You would want Deion Sanders coaching your college football team.
You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs, ask some T or Fs.
As for today, Aug. 27, let’s review.
LBJ would have been 116 today.
PeeWee Herman would have been 72. Aaron Paul is 45. And yes, if you have not seen it, go back and stream “Breaking Bad.” Amazing TV.
“Mary Poppins” premiered on this day 60 years ago. Wow. True or false:Dick Van Dyke was eternally underrated.
Rushmore of Disney musicals.
Go.