Happy New Year! Welcome to the thirteenth edition of the sophomore season of The Hangover, where I recap the previous weekend in college football or, in this case, bowl season. This week, The Hangover comes to you from Birmingham, Alabama. I just returned home after a five-day trek across the nation to see two fun bowl games. First, I was in Miami, where I watched Alabama suffocate Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Then, I traveled to El Paso, Texas, for the Sun Bowl, where Stanford outlasted Pittsburgh in a tough game. A ton has happened over the last few weeks of bowl games, so let’s break it all down.
Clemson and Alabama will meet again in the National Championship, and I think it’s awesome.
There’s a faction of social media that seems to think this match-up is bad for college football. They think the game will be boring. I couldn’t disagree more. Every season, we discuss “who’s in” and all of the playoff mumbo-jumbo for one purpose–to find the best team in college football. Unequivocally, the two best will meet in the title game. It’s exactly what the sport wants.
If your complaint is that it’s tiresome for the two best or two of the best to continually be Alabama and Clemson, then here’s a tip: beat them. Raise your level on the field, recruit better, come up with a solid gameplan, and win. Just win. It’s really that simple.
As for the games themselves, there’s really not much to say that hasn’t been widely reported. Clemson looked more physical and sound from the get-go, and Notre Dame didn’t play as clean as need be if the Irish wanted to win. The score reflected that. Alabama gave up a ton of yards and points as expected, but Oklahoma gave up more because the Sooners’ defense couldn’t stop Tua and the Crimson Tide. That fact was reflected by the score as well.
So now, we turn our eyes to California and the national championship game. It’s the top two in the sport battling to see who will claim the trophy. It’ll be a fun game, and it will be close. There will be drama. If you love college football, you should tune in because it’s the championship game that college football deserves this season. The two best teams are actually playing it out on the field, and it’s going to be a blast.
Before we dig further into The Hangover, let’s discuss a few other topics of note:
No conference was significantly better or worse than the other this bowl season.
Here were the final bowl records from this year:
Notice how no Power Five conference had a major edge over the other? They were all clumped around the middle of the pack. Most years, we see a league jump to the top with a stellar record or sink to the basement with a list of embarrassing results. Not this season. Everything was pretty even across the board, which bodes well for college football going forward. While the top two teams are clear, everything behind seems to be a pretty mixed bag. We’ll see if that remains the case going into next year.
The worst bowl performance belongs to Michigan.
Michigan is easily the biggest loser of bowl season. It isn’t close. When I had Greg McElroy on my show a few weeks ago, I asked him who he felt needed a bowl win the most. He said Michigan, arguing that they couldn’t have another year filled with good results that ended with a loss to Ohio State and a bowl loss. Well, it’s happened again, and now the pressure is on next season for Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines. Am I advocating for Harbaugh to be on the hot seat? No, but I think it’s time he answers some questions about this program. Michigan should’ve been in a Big Ten Championship Game and at least been a legitimate CFP threat by now. Why has it taken so long? And why can’t Harbaugh win big games at the end of the season? No matter how you spin it, Michigan’s 41-15 defeat at the hands of Florida is the worst performance of bowl season. The Wolverines have a lot of figure out before the 2019-20 season.
The UCF nightmare is over.
UCF should’ve been a great story that rallied the college football world. Even I, with my SEC-centric heart, should’ve wanted them to win just a little against LSU in the Fiesta Bowl to expand their winning streak to 26 games. Winning 25 in a row is an amazing accomplishment, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little thrilled this run is over. After two years of bragging on social media, claiming national championships, throwing parades at Disney, and more, I’m okay with UCF fading into the background. They had a chance to be America’s team, and UCF got ignorant and took things too far. That’s why a lot of people around the country were ready to see the Knights lose to LSU on Tuesday afternoon. I’m all for underdog stories, and UCF deserves a lot of credit the accolades they’ve accumulated the last two seasons; but when you start talking about deserving respect and how you belong, you’d better back it up. UCF didn’t do that, and I’m fine with it.
Texas is back for now, but 2019 will be the real test.
I’ll admit it–I thought Georgia would blow out Texas. I thought the Bulldogs would take the anger they had from being left out of the CFP and exert it on the Longhorns. I was wrong. Instead, Tom Herman’s squad came in and physically and mentally punished Georgia. The Bulldogs were barely in the game at all. So what does this mean for the “Texas is back” crowd? Well, we can’t forget that the Longhorns still lost four games this season. That wouldn’t be classified as “back.” However, making the Big 12 Championship Game, beating Oklahoma, and beating the SEC runners-up are all signs that Texas is making strides. Sam Ehlinger is an absolute gamer who has developed quite nicely during his time in Austin, and he’s only going to get better. The defense made some tremendous improvements down the stretch this season, and Herman has brought in another top ten recruiting class this year. All signs point up for Texas, but we’ll have to truly get our answer next year (especially on September 7th when LSU visits Austin). if Herman and the Longhorns are truly ready to take the next step, we’ll find out in 2019.
(Note: No Gray’s Top 10 this week. Stay tuned for my final Top 10 poll next week.)
Coach of the Week
Lots of contenders for COTW, but I’ll give it to Matt Rhule at Baylor. What he has done in his two seasons in Waco is remarkable. Last year, the Bears went 1-11 and some foolish media folks were saying he might be on the hot seat. This season, after a Texas Bowl win over Vanderbilt, Baylor finished 7-6. That’s a remarkable turnaround for a program still trying to stand back up after getting rocked by the Art Briles scandal. Baylor’s 2019-20 schedule sets up for Rhule to continue to build up this program, and I’m personally quite excited to see somebody universally loved around college football having this much success.
Idiot of the Week
I’m a big fan of his, but some of the decisions Barry Odom made in Missouri’s 38-33 Liberty Bowl loss to Oklahoma State were particularly bizarre. In the fourth quarter, when trailing 35-19, Odom elected to kick an extra point after an 86-yard Drew Lock touchdown pass. That made it 35-26, instead of a one-score game had the Tigers elected to go for two and gotten the conversion. Later, in the final minutes, Missouri was mounting a drive to try and complete the comeback. The Tigers faced 4th and 1 at the Oklahoma State nine-yard line after Larry Rountree III was stuffed for no gain the play before. Personally, I would’ve let Drew Lock stand in the pocket and find a receiver on a quick route and, if the play collapsed, let him run. Instead, Odom and offensive coordinator Derek Dooley called a zone read and had Lock keep the football and try to beat a speedy Cowboy defender to the outside. Considering how good Lock has been all season for Missouri, not allowing him to throw the football in such a critical moment is mind-boggling.
Random Rankings
We here at RR HQ are hoping that you had a fantastic New Year’s Eve, as we did. Our time in El Paso was one for the books, with great friends and lots of partying. While we were sitting on the couch in a suite in west Texas, we began to think–which holidays provide the best opportunities for wild parties and shenanigans? This could mean a group of friends getting together and burning down a town or an uncle coming in and drinking so much at a family gathering that he passes out on the couch. So, we decided to do that. Here are the top five holidays that provide the best opportunity to insane partying. A note: we’re including all parties that have to do with the holiday, but just on the day itself. You’re probably not going hard on Christmas morning; however, that Christmas party a your neighbor’s house the week before provides a great opportunity to do so. All Random Rankings are final. Here we go:
- New Year’s Eve
- Fourth of July
- Christmas
- Halloween
- St. Patrick’s Day
SEC Power Rankings
I’m an SEC guy through and through, so I have to include my SEC Power Rankings. This is the final SEC Power Rankings for this season. It was an interesting year, with some major surprises (Florida, Kentucky, LSU) and some huge disappointments (Auburn, Mississippi State). Next year, the league will look very interesting with so many programs on the rise. We’ll focus on way-too-early SEC predictions next week, after the National Championship Game. For now, here’s how things finish up in the SEC following bowl season.
- Alabama (1)
- Georgia (2)
- Florida (3)
- LSU (4)
- Kentucky (6)
- Texas A&M (5)
- Auburn (10)
- Mississippi State (7)
- Missouri (8)
- Vanderbilt (11)
- South Carolina (9)
- Ole Miss (12)
- Tennessee (13)
- Arkansas (14)
Who’s Ready for the National Championship?
So, there’s one game left. After an incredible season of college football, we only have 60 minutes remaining. It brings a tear to my eye, if I’m being honest. Still, we’re primed for one amazing finale with Alabama and Clemson facing off in California. I’ll be heading out to the Bay Area on Friday, ready to watch these two squads do battle. It should be a blast. The Hangover will return one final time after that game, so stayed tuned. We’ll see you soon!