Welcome to the third edition for the junior season of The Hangover, where I recap the previous weekend in college football. This week, The Hangover comes to you from Columbia, South Carolina, where I watched Tua absolutely shred the Gamecocks’ defense on Saturday. It was a weekend without any ranked match-ups, so that means lots of insanity struck around the country. Let’s dive in to Week Three!
Clemson. Alabama. Georgia. Ohio State. Oklahoma. LSU.
The Super Six. The Contenders. The…Avengers? No, that’s just trying to force a Marvel reference. How about this…the six teams that are head and shoulders above everybody else in college football. They’re in a league of their own, and I’m not sure it’s particularly close.
That’s right, I firmly believe four of those six are your playoff teams and one of that list will be your national champion. The domination shown by these teams is far more impressive than anything we’ve seen from anybody else.
Clemson’s “two toughest games of the year?” A 24-10 home win over Texas A&M (not as close as the score indicated) and a 41-6 shellacking over Syracuse on the road (a little closer than that score indicates, but still a smothering). The Tigers’ offense may not look quite as sharp–Trevor Lawrence already has more interceptions this year than he did all of last year–but that defense looks somehow better than the one that terrified opponents all last season.
Alabama’s battled defensive injuries so far to start the year, but the offense is just fine. Tua Tagovailoa has already thrown for 1,007 yards and 12 touchdowns with zero interceptions in three games, and his receiving core of Jerry Jeudy, DeVonta Smith, Henry Ruggs III, and Jaylen Waddle is the best in the country.
Georgia literally cannot be stopped on the ground, a fact that bodes well for the Bulldogs heading into this Saturday’s showdown against Notre Dame (120th in rushing yards allowed per game). Jake Fromm continues to shine in that offense, and it looks like Georgia has some receivers on which to rely, which would answer one of the big questions coming into the year.
We thought Oklahoma’s offense was historic with Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray? Jalen Hurts has taken the Sooners to another stratosphere and, maybe even bigger, the defense looks to be improving each and every week. I said in the preseason that DC Alex Grinch may have been the most important higher in any position in the country last year, and that’s trending towards the correct take.
Ohio State isn’t missing a beat without Urban Meyer, as The Justin Fields Experiment is succeeding in every way, shape, and form. Plus, the Buckeyes have a really salty, pretty talented and athletic defense! Who knew?
Finally, you have LSU, the team that has completely reinvented a tired offensive system and has turned into the dark horse national champion. Joe Burrow is getting Heisman hype thanks to his talent, although it certainly helps that he has a stupendous trio of pass-catchers on the receiving end of his throws. One of these six will win the national championship, and that’s totally okay.
I genuinely think all six of these teams are generally on the same level. Clemson is a little higher than Alabama, who’s a little bit higher than the other four, but for the most part any of these six can beat each other. That’s not quite the parity I think college football fans miss from the “old days,” but it’s a sign of improvement. I’m not totally convinced we’re looking at an Alabama-Clemson collision course towards the National Championship, which makes it interesting. We’re heading towards CFP Semifinal games with storylines for the ages, so the questions becomes…which teams will screw it up?
Obviously, only four of the six can make the College Football Playoff. Basic math shows that two of the teams will miss out, and conventional wisdom would say that one would be an SEC team and the other would be…someone to be determined. Still though, it’s obvious watching the Crimson Tide, Tigers, Sooners, Buckeyes, other Tigers, and Bulldogs that these six are on another level. Can they continue to play at a high level? I’m not sure–it’s a long season, after all–but it’s difficult to imagine any other teams across the country joining this hexagon of excellence.
More Week Three Thoughts:
-Ryan Hilinski for South Carolina performed well against Alabama on Saturday, going for 324 yards and two touchdowns against the vaunted Crimson Tide defense. Will Muschamp had a pretty good plan for his freshman quarterback, and Hilinski showed flashes of the type of player he’ll be in the future. South Carolina is in good hands going forwards.
-Najee Harris, you are a bad, bad man.
-UCF clobbered Stanford in a 45-27 win that wasn’t that close. I think this game says more about Stanford’s faults than UCF’s talent, but it’s clear that the Knights aren’t going anywhere. This weekend’s trip to Pittsburgh will be an intriguing test.
-Can I write an entirely separate column about the Virginia and Florida State game? Dear Lord, so much to unpack.
First off, the clock should’ve stopped at seven seconds instead of four. Why the clock is running and isn’t corrected doesn’t make sense. Next, Florida State chooses not to spike the ball and runs a play. I don’t hate it, but a direct snap to the running back and run to the margin? That doesn’t track whatsoever. Give yourself a chance on play action with a running quarterback and who knows what happens. Finally, as the clock strikes zero, Virginia fans rush the field. Look, I went to high school near Charlottesville and I’m friends with many Cavaliers. Virginia football has been largely irrelevant for a very long time, and Bronco Mendenhall is just now turning things around. That being said, Virginia was ranked, favored, and facing a 1-1 Florida State team that had just beaten mighty Louisiana-Monroe by the slimmest of margins. You may have not beaten Florida State very many times in your history, Virginia, but at least act like you’ve been there before.
-The Iowa-Iowa State game looked like a nightmare to attend with all of those delays but, seriously, this is the strangest rivalry game every single year.
-Michigan State looked fixed after last week, but things regressed against Arizona State. The Sun Devils were out-gained 404-216 on the road and lost thanks to plenty of missed field goals and dumb miscues by the Spartans. Is Mark Dantonio in trouble? I don’t think so, but it’s crazy to see the same darn thing continue to derail Michigan State year after year.
-Poor Clay Helton. He’s got some extra time because USC doesn’t want to be looking for a coach and an athletic director simultaneously, but the writing’s on the wall, isn’t it?
Gray’s Top Ten
- Clemson
- Alabama
- Georgia
- LSU
- Oklahoma
- Ohio State
- Utah
- Texas
- Florida
- Wisconsin
Our thoughts about the top six can be read above. These teams are in a class by themselves, and the gap between the top six and everybody else is significant. Utah’s just hanging around, and we’ll find out a lot more about the Utes when they go to Los Angeles to face USC on Friday night. Texas had a nice bounce back win over Rice Saturday, and they move up a spot. The team they pass, Florida, had quite the weekend. The good: Florida came back from a 21-10 deficit to beat Kentucky on the road 29-21 to stay undefeated. The bad: the Gators had to do this with back-up quarterback Kyle Trask after Feleipe Franks went down with an injury. The ugly: Franks, who suffered a dislocated ankle, is out for the season, so this is officially Trask’s team. Now, I was never a huge Franks fan, but this is such a bad break for him. As for his team, I’m not totally sure things change. Remember, going into last season Trask was named the starter initially until he broke his foot, opening the door for Franks to take the job. I’m not sure Trask’s best is as good as Franks’ best, but I can guarantee that Trask’s worst is better than Franks’ worst, and that should be good enough for Florida fans. Finally, Wisconsin comes in at the ten spot. The Badgers get Michigan at home this weekend in what will be just a gigantic game in the Big Ten.
Coach of the Week
You know the answer. Les Miles! The curse is broken! On October 4th, 2008, Kansas beat Iowa State. That’s the last time the Jayhawks beat a Power Five team on the road, at least until Friday, when Miles’ squad went to Boston College and stunned the Eagles 48-24. People, the last time Kansas won on the road against a Power Five team, T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” was the top song on the Billboard charts, and the Jayhawks came in and clobbered an ACC team a week after only scoring seven points at home against Coastal Carolina. Seriously, I’m not sure there will be a more head-turning result in college football this season.
I’m not saying Kansas is about to make a bowl game or go on some incredible run in the Big 12, but it’s clear that the Les Miles Experiment in Lawrence is working. The Jayhawks are running the football well, they have a decent quarterback, and they’re playing good defense. Don’t be shocked if, suddenly, Kansas is a tough game for some Big 12 contenders.
Idiot of the Week
By now, you’ve heard about Pat Narduzzi’s decision-making against Penn State on Saturday. Trailing 17-10 with 4:54 left in the game, Pittsburgh lined up for a 19-yard field after getting stuffed on three consecutive first and goal plays at the one (two of which were pass plays, which is alarming in itself). Yes, lining up for a field goal, after which a make would cut a one-possession game to…a one-possession game. This also comes just moments after the Panthers went for it on 4th and 1 at their own 43 earlier in the drive. Anyway, Pittsburgh missed the kick and Twitter went crazy as people asked what in the world Narduzzi was thinking.
His response? “If we kick a field-goal — you know, it was a two-possession game. You need two scores. The field goal was good play, and then you come back and score again.” He’d later say, “I don’t question that call.” Look Coach, I get what you’re thinking, but why not go for it at the one and try to tie and, if you don’t get it, force a Penn State offense that had struggled a bit to start possession at their own one-yard-line? This decision didn’t make sense, no matter how you slice it.E
150 Corner
It’s the 150th anniversary of college football’s beginning, so this portion of The Hangover will highlight some of the best moments in this great sport’s history.
This week, as the Tua vs. Jalen Heisman narrative starts to take full effect, we look back at the story of these two. In the National Championship, Jalen wasn’t getting it done for Alabama and Tua came in and saved the day. Then, a year later, Tua got hurt and Jalen came in and saved the day in the SEC Championship. Now, these two quarterbacks are on a collision course for New York and, maybe, the CFP. To prepare for that, take a stroll down memory lane and look at those two historic games.
Random Ranking
We here at RR HQ love movies, as all of you know, and we’ll be releasing our Oscars 2020 list soon followed by our reviews in January (side note: everyone should go see Hustlers. It’s surprisingly superb, and our favorite movie of 2019 so far). While reviewing those movies, we tend to focus more on the acting performances than anything else, and that gave us an idea–who are the best actors and actresses right now? Not all-time, and not based on the prime of his or her career, but who is the most talented actor and actress at this moment in history? We’ll start with the ladies first. *Disclaimer*: per usual, once Random Rankings are posted, they aren’t changing. So don’t get any ideas. I’m very stubborn. If you have comments or questions, shoot me a tweet at @gray_robertson. Send all “How is Meryl Streep not first?” hate tweets that way. No explanations this week, just a video clip of some great acting.
1. Viola Davis
2. Meryl Streep
3. Julianne Moore
4. Amy Adams
5. Laura Dern
SEC Power Rankings
There’s a clear gap between the top half of the conference and the bottom half. Here’s how The Hangover sees things stacking up in the conference where it just means more.
- Alabama (LW: 1)
- Georgia (2)
- LSU (3)
- Auburn (4)
- Texas A&M (6)
- Florida (5)
- Missouri (8)
- Kentucky (7)
- South Carolina (10)
- Mississippi State (9)
- Ole Miss (11)
- Vanderbilt (12)
- Tennessee (14)
- Arkansas (13)
So Who’s Ready for Next Week?
Here’s what’s on deck for Week Four:
#10 Utah at USC, 8 CT Friday on FS1
#4 LSU at Vanderbilt, 11 am CT on SEC Network
Tennessee at #9 Florida, 11 am CT on ESPN
#11 Michigan at #13 Wisconsin, 11 am CT on FOX
#23 California at Ole Miss, 11 am CT on ESPNU
#15 UCF at Pittsburgh, 2:30 CT on ABC/ESPN2
#8 Auburn at #17 Texas A&M, 2:30 CT on CBS
#22 Washington at BYU, 2:30 CT on ABC/ESPN2
#16 Oregon at Stanford, 6 CT on ESPN
Oklahoma State at #12 Texas, 6:30 CT on ABC
#7 Notre Dame at #3 Georgia, 7 CT on CBS
Colorado at #24 Arizona State, 9 CT on Pac-12 Network
That’s it for The Hangover! We’ll be in Athens this weekend for Notre Dame-Georgia, which should be a classic. Until next weekend, college football fans.