College football four
In less than a week, we will get the first inkling on which teams the college football playoff committee believes to be the best.
There’s importance in that. But it’s not as great as many may think.
For example, we believe Alabama has dominated enough to earn a mulligan. But that belief may not be shared since the counterpoint about Alabama is, if Auburn loses a game or two before the Iron Bowl, the Tide may head into the SEC title game looking back on a schedule that does not include a team ranked at the end of the season. (Yes, a lot of that can be linked to how bad Alabama has made a lot of its opponents look, but it still would be a fact to consider.)
The biggest variable come Halloween night when the college football committee releases its first ranking can not be answered next week. Or the week after.
The biggest variable that will determine the final four that is invited to the dance that determines the champion will be how much value does the committee put on winning a conference championship.
Last year, with the invite of THE Ohio State over Penn State, which won the Big Ten, opened a precedent and the eyes of may interested on-lookers.
Because this year there are not one, but two outliers that could be in the mix without a conference title.
On the pace they are on, the Alabama-Georgia loser in the SEC title game, is crafting an argument of inclusion. So too is Notre Dame, which can not win a conference title because it is, well you know, not in a conference.
Now, if there are four unbeaten conference champs – TCU, Miami, Penn State and the Georgia/Alabama potentially could fill the bill – then it’s almost impossible to figure another way around this. That said, the outcry from Notre Dame would be deafening, and the controversy from one of the college football blue bloods could be a step toward expansion.
But also know this: The folks behind the scenes in the college football playoff want this chaos. They want the drama. They want the intrigue that leads to outrage because that gets all of us talking, and that talk starts to take shape with actual input from the committee starting next week.
Until then, here’s our top four:
1. Alabama. Remember when people said, “Man, they have suffered a lot of injuries at linebacker.” Side note: Notice how there are never any excuses offered by anyone under the direction of the Dark Lord? That’s a major accomplishment in and of itself in this day and age of rationalizations and excuses.
2. Penn State. There was an equal dose of Michigan being awful offensive and Penn State being impressive last week in the Lions’ 42-13 win over the Harbaughs. Penn State can move into Alabama mulligan territory with a win at THE Ohio State this weekend.
3. Georgia. Johnny Bulldogs Fans across the land need to make themselves aware of who plays whom on a weekly basis. This week, we all know where Penn State is. TCU is at ranked Iowa State. Notre Dame hosts ranked N.C. State. Miami is at woeful UNC. Losses by those teams strengthen the Georgia place.
4. Notre Dame. The Irish schedule speaks for itself, and that’s even before we get into November and what right now looks to be a college football quarterfinal when the Irish go to Miami. Yes, the Irish passing game scares no one. But that running game, and the growth of quarterback Brandon Wimbush has transformed this offense since the week two loss against the Bulldogs.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Enrique Hernandez (14) hits a home run off Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jose Quintana during the second inning of Game 5 of baseball’s National League Championship Series, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)World Series aces
It was the hottest playoff game in baseball history, first pitch the temperature was hovering around 103.
Heck, if you kid was that hot, you’d rush him to Erlanger.
If your World Series is that hot, well, buckle up and watch the aces spin.
Houston’s Dallas Keuchel made two mistakes: A hanging first pitch of the game slider that Chris Taylor hit 447 feet that would have been out on any day and a sixth-inning pitch that was not high enough and Justin Turner dropped into the first row of the left-center-field seats. The latter likely would not have left Dodgers Stadium in it had been a normal October night.
But this was far from a normal night.
It was playoff baseball as it was meant to be. The crowd was electric. The pitchers – more on that in a moment – were aces. The pace was perfect.
How perfect? The game took 2 hours, 28 minutes. It was a joy.
And for Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, it was more than just emotion. It was a monster line-item on a checkered postseason legacy for the greatest regular-season pitcher of his generation.
Kershaw allowed a solo homer among the three hits he scattered. He struck out 11 – Houston struck less than any team in baseball this year – and turned some big league All-Stars into statues with an array of sliders and curves that buckled knees and caused .300 hitters to scratch their helmets.
In an era when everyone is working counts and taking pitches, Kershaw simply took the fight to the Astros. Working ahead, he buckled that strategy and left them scrambling. He did not walk a hitter and was able to throw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 24 hitters he faced.
He was simply fabulous, answering any and all questions in his first career World Series start. Sure his postseason history is what it is; he’s now 7-7 in playoff starts with an ERA still north of 4.00.
Kershaw has a $35-plus million salary this season, and if you consider that he’s made 31 total starts this season (including playoffs) that works out to about a $1.1 million a start.
Last night, Kershaw was worth every penny, and then some.
Larry Scott is offensive coordinator/tight ends for the Vols. The annual Spring Orange and White Football game was held at Neyland Stadium on April 22, 2017.Say what?
UT offensive coordinator said the offense is ready to explode.
Do what? That group has been awful, and wrapping a colorful orange bow on it will not change the smell or the numbers.
Here’s a story from TFP UT ace Dancin’ David Cobb about the completely offensive UT offense. Man, UT is 126 out of 129 in FCS offenses. GUH-ross.
We had no intention of writing about UT today. (That said, we’re going to go here rather than be person No. 12,405,123 to weigh in on LaVar Ball. Guys, everyone one of you waving your arms and screaming about LaVar are giving him EXACTLY what he wants and craves. That dude is playing the media like a fiddle to the level that Charlie Daniels is impressed.)
But every time we turn around, the news out of Knoxville makes me wonder if that coaching staff is watching and seeing the same product we do on Saturdays.
Maybe they are making great strides in practice (against the UT defense, mind you)? Or maybe the tape sessions – to be fair we’ve watched every UT game but UMass at least twice – show something our untrained eye can not see?
Or, maybe, just maybe, the overly positive mumbo-jumbo that stems from the top of the Orange Mountain – the speaking patterns of there are no negatives and everything is sunshine and rainbows – has enveloped everyone in the program.
Offense ready to explode? The group that has not found the end zone since the first half against UMass more than a month ago? OK.
Sure coach. But another floater come Saturday – this one against a UK defense that is in the bottom half of the country and just got torched by Mississippi State – and the explosion could be centered elsewhere.
In fact, it’s completely fair to ask at this moment is Larry Scott Butch Jones’ Sal Sunseri? (And how’s that for six consecutive proper nouns?)
This and that
– Side note: Speaking of Butch, here’s the buyout information for Matt Campbell at Iowa State and Justin Fuente at Virginia Tech.
– How’s this for a great stat: LeBron James, at 6-8, 250-plus, started at point guard Tuesday. (Yes, that’s a crazy matchup for every other point guard this side of Magic Johnson, and to be truthful, even for Magic since LeBron is five times faster than the Lakers’ supersized MJ.) That’s not the stat. This is: It was James’ 47 actual start at point guard, although we all know he plays a lot of point forward and it was the fifth time he had 30-plus points and 10-plus assists. For comparison, here are four notable point guards who were All-Stars last February and how many times they have achieved that and how many starts at the point it took: Kyrie Irving (5 times in 371 starts), Kyle Lowry (5 in 474), Isaiah Thomas (2 in 306), Kemba Walker (1 in 396).
– How’s this for a great stat, part II: When teams with home-field advantage in the World Series win Game 1, they go on to win the World Series more than 67 percent of the time. And the number is even more dramatic recently. Of the last 15 teams to host and win Game 1 of the World Series, 14 of them have gone to win the title. So there’s that.
– Here’s video of Deion Sanders’ son throwing six TD passes in a high school game last week in Texas. Did we mention Lil’ Prime Time is a freshman?
– Here’s some of the language used by the folks who fired former Louisville AD Tom Jurich, saying that Jurich’s willful misconduct “was demonstrated through ineffective management, divisive leadership, unprofessional conduct, and a lack of collegiality best characterized as intimidation and bullying that extends from student government to the University’s senior leadership” causing “substantial damage” to the university. So, what’s the problem?
– Not sure if you saw this, but some clever photo-shoppers twisted the sign outside Brentwood High outside of Nashville to read “Fire Butch Jones.” Those crazy kids. Also of note, in this story from CBSsports, which originally reported that the sign was real, there was a banner flying over the Alabama-Tennessee game that read, “Butch UR mom still loves you.” Good times.
– Man, Benson died. Moment of silence please. For the younger generation, Robert Guillaume, the man who played Benson on the ABC sitcom of the same name, was also the voice of Rafiki in “The Lion King.”
Today’s questions
Wow, a contender for an earlier Rushmore of this week, it was 31 years ago today that the ball rolled through Buckner’s legs. It’s one of those sports moments I will forever remember where I was.
Another of the all-time sports bloopers – Jim Marshall’s famous wrong way run – happened on this day in 1964.
Katy Perry is 33 today. Former Celtics all-star Dave Cowens is 69. Brian Kelly is 56. Minnie Pearl would have been 105.
On this day in 1999, Payne Stewart died in that plane crash.
Scary movie classic “Halloween” was released on this day in 1978.
And in honor of Bobby Knight turning 77 today, who from the old-school sports coaching world would have had no chance to reach the same levels in today’s social media culture?
Go, and remember the mailbag friends.