If you missed this weekend of college football, I’m sorry. But look no further than right here to catch up on what happened.
- Get it together, Brian Kelly. Or else.
As Notre Dame’s head coach, you can get by with a loss at Texas. You can even get by with a loss at home against Michigan State. But you do not lose to Duke. Notre Dame does not lose to Duke. With Stanford, Miami, USC, and a couple other testers on the schedule, the Irish are in serious danger of not making a bowl game. If that’s the case, it might be time for Kelly to pack his bags in South Bend and hit the road.
- LSU has a limited number of coaches to hire better than Les Miles.
Coaching might be the toughest business out there. Even a 114-34 record for Miles at LSU isn’t good enough. Now let me tell you, LSU has a small list of coaches that would be a true improvement over Miles. He is one of the best coaches in country. If they don’t land a Nick Saban, a Mark Dantonio or a David Shaw, then they just dug themselves a huge hole of 8-5 seasons until they fire their next coach. Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener, and they might find themselves regretting ever firing Miles. Oh, and I heard there’s a team that may be looking for a new coach this offseason.*
*See top of column
- THE STREAK IS OVER IN KNOXVILLE!
A list of things that did not exist since the last time Tennessee beat Florida in football: Facebook, the iPhone, Bluetooth, Kanye West music and the TV show Hannah Montana. Well Vols fans, this list is no longer relevant. You can thank a string of injuries and transfers at the quarterback position at Florida for that. Celebrate now, but just remember that Florida’s QB, Austin Appleby, couldn’t start at Purdue. At this point, however, I don’t think Tennessee cares one bit about how they beat Florida. They just wanted to beat Florida.
- What if Wisconsin runs the table?
Everyone experiences that one week in college where they have three tests, two papers, a project and a speech all in the same week. The football team in Madison, Wisconsin is experiencing that week on the football field right now. Their schedule from week 4 through 8 goes like this: Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska. Are you kidding me? That is brutal. But in the most hypothetical sense possible, what is they ran the table? If they won all five of these games, plus a season opening win over LSU and a conference championship win over Ohio State or Michigan again, then they might seriously have the best résumé of all time.
- Watch out SEC, you’ve got a contender in Texas A&M.
Ever since Johnny Manziel, the hype around Texas A&M is always as big as anyone. Then around this time every year, we are reminded that the hype just wasn’t real. This year was different. No one was talking about A&M this year, but now they are a sneaky 4-0 with quality wins over UCLA and Arkansas. Trevor Knight is one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC, and they could make a serious run to the playoff. Plus, Johnny is back on campus taking classes. Everyone wins in College Station.
- Chris Peterson is quietly one of the best coaches in the country.
Did anyone even notice that Washington was 4-0 and ranked in the top-10 this year? Chris Peterson who first turned Boise State into a legitimate national championship contender has now turned a very average program into a playoff contender. There is no doubt that Peterson had everything to do with this. If they can upset Stanford this week, it might be time to throw Peterson’s name into the Coach of the Year talk.
- Utah is the Michigan State of the west.
When was the last time Utah landed one of the best recruiting classes in the country? When was the last time analysists actually talked about Utah in the preseason? The answer to both of those question is never. Utah has taken the same strategy as Michigan State where they develop players and rely on experience to quietly put together quality season after quality season without gaining any respect from the media. The Utes only have one ranked team on their schedule for the remainder of the season (no. 10 Washington), and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world is they were playing for a conference championship and a possible trip to the playoff in December.