CFB16 - W4 Rewind, W5 Preview - 12th time's a charm...

This week's write up will be short and sweet, much like the Florida lead on Saturday.

W4 Rewind:

Center stage + (pos): Tennessee, Wisconsin, TAMU, Clemson
Center stage - (neg): USC, UGA, LSU, Mich St.

When something hasn't happened in 12 years, it's only appropriate to remember that historic year for what it was:

• "TheFacebook" launched
• Martha Stewart went to jail
• Jeopardy genius Ken Jennings loses
• Friends has its finale episode
• Lost premiers
• Alicia Keys changed weddings forever with "If I ain't got you"
• Lindsay Lohan brought us this gem:
• https://youtu.be/oZstsOOpDZo

Ok, back to football...

• Florida apparently watched too much Ole Miss film, as they squandered a 21-0 first half lead and lost to Tennessee 38-28.
• Speaking of Ole Miss, they played a full four quarters, crushing the Georgia bulldogs 45-14.
• Virginia Tech brought home the first ACC win over ECU, 54-17.
• Clemson's defense dominated a Yellow Jacket option offense like Derek Mason could only dream of doing, winning 26-7.
• USC dropped to 1-3 after Utah storms back to win in the last minute, 31-17.
• Alabama blanks Nick Saban's alma mater, Kent State, winning 48-0.
• Christian McCaffrey is held to only 150 all purpose yards, but Stanford still finds a way to win, beating UCLA 22-13 with a late back door cover.
• Anyone know what to make of Wisconsin?  Or the entire Big Ten except Ohio State and Michigan?  Wisconsin dismantles Michigan State's offense, winning 30-6.
• Speaking of lost teams, Notre Dame finally gets a sack, but in a losing effort against the behemoth blue devils of Duke, notching their first win against the Irish since 1958, winning 38-35.
• I don't think anyone wants to play TAMU at this point, as they win in impressive fashion against Arkansas 45-24.
• If I told you that Auburn wouldn't score a single touchdown against LSU, what chance would you have given that they would win?  Well they did.  And LSU decided enough was enough, firing Les Miles the next day.  Auburn won 18-13, in one of the craziest replay reversals at an end of a game that I've ever seen.
• And after 4 weeks, we're officially left with an undefeated Wake Forest and Maryland and a 1-3 Notre Dame and USC...

W5 Preview:

This week brings us a heisman hopeful matchup and three top 10 matchups (ct):

• Fri, 8:00 pm
• #7 Stanford at #10 Washington:  Will Washington's undefeated quest end in Week 5?
• Sat, 11:00 am
• Florida at Vandy:  The number of jorts worn on Natchez Trace is sure to quadruple this weekend.
• #14 Miami at Georgia Tech:  Miami faces their first true test as Mark Richt matches up against a very familiar foe.
• 2:30 pm
• #8 Wisconsin at #4 Michigan:  Is Wisconsin for real?  Is Michigan for real?
• #11 Tennessee at #25 Georgia:  With a win here, Tennessee will all but lock up the East.  In Week 5.
• 4:00 pm
• (unranked) Oklahoma at #21 TCU:  If nothing else, this game is worth watching just for those cool new TCU helmets.
• 7:00 pm
• #3 Louisville at #5 Clemson:  Hard to believe that a Louisville team is ranked higher and favored on the road against an undefeated Clemson.  But believe it, because Lamar Jackson is legit.

If I were a betting man:

• Stan +3, Ga Tech +7, Tenn -3.5, Louisville -2

Your Domestic Duty Deadline (DDD) this week: 2:30pm

Vandy Update:
Vandy won in OT against WKU 31-30 and this week hosts the Gators at 11:00 am.

Florida Update:
I think I've already covered the Florida collapse of 2016.  This week they travel to play Vandy.

"The defense should be expecting a run or a pass here."

DWhit

CFB16 - W3 Rewind, W4 Preview - Louisville is really good, and we're not talking basketball

Is it possible to lead with anything other than the utter dominance that Louisville showed over Free Shoes U (FSU) to open our Saturday slate of games?  The answer is, no.

Words can not fully describe what happened on Saturday at Papa John's Stadium.  In a blink of an eye, a Lamar Jackson led Louisville team hung 63 points on #2 FSU.  At one point, Louisville scored 7, yes SEVEN, touchdowns in a row.  But the keyword here is team.  Although Lamar Jackson was good, I mean really good (now the odds-on Heisman favorite), this was a complete team win.  The Louisville defense held the former Heisman favorite Dalvin Cook to 54 yards rushing and the FSU offense to just 2-13 on 3rd downs.  Winning 63-20, it was most certainly the most surprising result of the weekend.

W3 Rewind:

Center stage + (pos):  Lamar Jackson and the whole Louisville team, Ohio State, North Dakota State
Center stage - (neg): Notre Dame, FSU, Ole Miss, Derek Mason

Even without Louisville's sensational Saturday start, there were still plenty of headlines throughout the day:

• Ohio State just looked plain ole faster than Oklahoma, winning 45-24, and demonstrating this ridiculous athleticism:

• Is Michigan State good, or is Notre Dame defense, one of only two FBS teams yet to record a sack, just really bad?  MSU wins 36-28 in a score that was closer than the product on the field.
• Ole Miss somehow choked another 2nd half away, blowing a second 21 point first half lead, losing to Alabama 48-43
• Miami looked impressive against a slower and smaller App St, winning 45-10.  Shall I remind you that this is the same App St team that almost beat Tennessee in overtime?
• Don't schedule North Dakota State.  Just don't do it.  5 time FCS champion North Dakota State beat #13 Iowa 23-21, bringing their streak to 6-0 consecutive wins over FBS teams.
• Houston struggled early with an injured Greg Ward, but dominated in the 4th quarter, beating Cincinnati 40-16.
• Stanford looked like they were holding back, as they easily handled USC, winning 27-10.
• Wisconsin narrowly escaped losing to Georgia State, 23-17
• Did former defensive coordinator Charlie Strong forget how to coach defense?  Texas defense gave up half a hundo, losing to California 50-43.
• Georgia needed late game heroics from Eason to beat Mizzou 28-27, while leaving a mark on Mizzou's Jonathon Johnson after this hit:

• Have you ever seen a kick off from the 20 yard line?  The receiving team's 20 yard line. Me neither:
• http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/09/17/eastern-michigan-kickoff-charlotte-20-yard-line
• Lastly, Texas Tech brought you this crazy touchdown:
• https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/777301769969766401/video/1

Game of the weekend:  Goes without saying, FSU at Lousiville.

W4 Preview:

This week starts off on Thursday but ends with a pretty light slate Saturday night (all times central):

• Thurs, 6:30 pm
• Clemson travels to Bobby Dodd Stadium to play the Yellow Jackets where Georgia Tech is 1-5 in Thurs night games.
• Friday, 8:00 pm
• USC plays at Utah, can USC turn it around?
• Saturday, 11:00 am
• #12 Georgia visits The Grove as a 7 pt underdog to play #23 Ole Miss
• Wisconsin at Mich St, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Michigan State is better than Georgia State.
• 2:30 pm
• Florida at Tennessee, both teams are riddled with injuries from Week 3, but this one is sure to be fierce.
• 5:00 pm
• LSU at Auburn, I'll bet you that the Tigers win.
• 7:00 pm
• Stanford at UCLA, UCLA's offense is better than USC, but is that enough?
• 8:00 pm
• Arkansas at TAMU, Arkansas offensive line vs. TAMU defensive line is one of the best unit match-ups of the weekend, if you like that sort of thing.
• 9:30 pm
• Washington at Arizona, Washington finally plays a real team.

If I were a betting man:

• Mich St -5.5, Penn St. +19, LSU -3.5, Neb -7

Your Domestic Duty Deadline (DDD) this week:  This week is a bit abnormal, with most of the good games early in the day.  Flip your schedule around, watch the early games, and you should be free by 5:30 pm to take that special someone out on the town.  This may be your only Saturday of the season that you'll have your evening mostly free, so make good use of it and earn some brownie points.

Vandy Update:
I don't even know where to start.  It isn't so much that we lost to Georgia Tech, it's HOW we lost to Georgia Tech.  Up until this point, Vandy fans had given D Mason somewhat of a pass.  Should we have won against South Carolina?  Sure.  But we did hold the Gamecocks to 13 points, so maybe our defense is really good like everyone thought.  Or, maybe not.

Let me put this in perspective. Mercer University located in Macon, Georgia a) scored more points against Georgia Tech last week, and b) held Georgia Tech to fewer points than Vanderbilt.

Vandy travels 60 miles north to Bowling Green, KY to play Western Kentucky where the Commodores are a 7.5 pt underdog.

Florida Update:
Florida looked dominate against North Texas last week, but didn't walk away unscathed.  The Gator's starting QB Luke Del Rio was injured in the 3rd quarter and is out for at least this week's Tennessee game.

This week, Florida travels to Neyland Stadium in the first major SEC East match-up.  The Volunteers are a 6.5 point favorite in what's sure to be a heated game.

“Hey, the offensive linemen are the biggest guys on the field, they're bigger than everybody else, and that's what makes them the biggest guys on the field.”

DWhit

CFB16 - W2 Rewind, W3 Preview - I guess it wasn't all that bad

To an extent, this week surpassed expectations.  Order was somewhat restored to the college football landscape, but there were also some glaring questions still left unanswered.

W2 Rewind:

Center stage + (pos):  Louisville, Tenn, Michigan, OSU
Center stage - (neg):  OkSt, TCU, MAC and Big 12 officiating, UGA

Although it was one of the weaker schedules in recent memory, when you have 50+ college football games, you still get some fantastic nuggets:

• CMU wins on a hail mary play that should have never happened, beating OKST 30-27
• Both the officiating crew and replay crew were suspended as a result
• http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/9/11/12878988/central-michigan-hail-mary-cooper-rush-jesse-kroll
• Georgia almost loses to a high school team (not literally, sorta), after being favored by 52 and winning by 2.  Yes, 2.
• Auburn's Kyle Davis continues dominating with this insane catch:



• Clemson is still hung over from the national championship, beating Troy 30-24
• Louisville offense looks impressive as they roll Syracuse 62-28
• Order was restored in Starkville, as Mississippi St. finds its stride against the Gamecocks, winning 27-14
• San Diego State may have the best running back in the country (Donnel Pumphrey) as he breaks Marshall Faulk's Aztecs' all time leading rusher record
• Did LSU find a QB in Danny Etling.  I guess so when 6-14 (that's almost 43%!), 100 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT is better than they got from Harris last week against wisconsin...
• Oh yeah, and a football game was played at a race track
• http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tennessee-football/20-jaw-dropping-images-battle-bristol/
• Congrats to Tenn for winning the Battle at Bristol.  I mean, how else should you celebrate beating a week 2 unranked opponent than with a giant stage, crap ton of confetti, and a trophy:

• But then there is this.  America!

Game of the weekend:  Arkansas at TCU

In this game alone you had a game winning kick blocked, a last minute TD and a successful 2 pt conversion to tie, and 2 OTs.  Arkansas wins 41 - 38.

Overreaction corner:

• Louisville's QB Lamar Jackson will win the Heisman
• Tennessee will go to the playoffs
• Greyson Lambert should be the starter at Georgia

W3 Preview:

This week is set up to have one very loaded evening slate (all times central):

• 11:00 am 
• FSU plays at Louisville where they are hosting College Gameday for the first time in school history
• 2:30 pm 
• Alabama at Ole Miss, which Ole Miss team will show up?
• Oregon at Nebraska, and Nebraska is favored!
• 6:00 pm
• TAMU at Auburn, unranked Auburn is favored against #17 TAMU
• MSST at LSU, will either team score 20 points?
• 6:30 pm
• Mich St at Notre Dame, that other michigan team is pretty good too
• UGA at Mizzou, I'm pretty sure Mizzou is better than Nichols St
• Ohio St at Oklahoma, where Oklahoma is a home underdog for the first time since they won the national championship
• 7:00pm
• USC at Stanford, don't sleep on the Trojans just yet

Other Notes:
 - Miami plays at App State, yes AT App State
 - Michigan is still in preseason mode as they host Colorado, this time with a game line of only -20.5

If I were a betting man...

• TAMU +3.5, USC +9, MSST +12.5, MSU +7.5

Your Domestic Duty Deadline (DDD) this week:  11:00 am.  Hopefully you took care of business last week and built up some honey-do credit, because this week you're going to need it.

Vandy Update:
Question, which SEC team's running back leads the conference in rushing as of today?  I'll give you a hint, its not LSU or Alabama.

After a hurricane rolled through Nashville, Vandy showed its rushing dominance we were expecting, beating MTSU 47-24.  Webb is now 777 yards shy of breaking none other than Zac Stacy's all-time leading rusher record of 3,143 yds.

This week Vandy plays at Georgia Tech at 11:30 am.  Will that Mason defense be able to stop the ramblin wreck option offense?

Florida Update:
What is there to say here except utter dominance?  Florida crushed Kentucky 45-7 to extend the win streak to 30 in a row.  Kentucky had as many completions to Florida players as they did to their own wide receivers (3).

This week Florida hosts North Texas in preparation for the showdown on rocky top next week.

“Well, when you're playing good football, it's good football and if you don't have good football, then you're not really playing good football.”
DWhit

CFB16 - W1 Rewind, W2 Preview - SEC!! SEC!? SEC??

Well that was an eventful first week(end) of college football!

W1 Rewind:

The SEC took center stage this weekend, and not in a good way...

Multiple teams in the SEC lost in what was one of the best slated opening college football weekends in recent memory.  I won't belabor the topic, but here is a summary of what went down in the southeast:

Wait, you lost to who?:

• So Miss beat Kentucky: how bout that Kentucky hype train now?
• S Alabama beat MSST: Dan Mullen, what...the...heck?

I guess I shouldn't be "surprised" that you lost:

• LSU lost to Wisconsin...one team's head coach is Les Miles, the other's isn't...nuff said.
• And then there's this...When LSU football loses, Louisiana judges give harsher sentences, mostly to black juveniles
• Ole Miss lost to FSU: I mean could there be more of a tale of two halves?!
• Auburn lost to Clemson: those tigers sure did play well!
• WVU beat Mizzou: I don't even know what to say here

If these teams hadn't pulled it out...

• Tenn needed extra time to beat App St, we almost had another Michigan on our hands.  My SEC East prediction isn't loooking so hot, here's to hoping I'm wrong!
• Arkansas barely beat La Tech, this was just ugly

Thanks, I think, for holding form:  UGA, TAMU, Bama, and Florida (sorta).

Game of the weekend:
But the SEC wasn't the only conference who played this weekend!  In fact, the best game of the weekend was not on Saturday, but on Sunday night.  Texas really gave Notre Dame their best shot, mixing up a two quarterback system better than the Irish could figure out.  I mean, when you have a missed extra point returned for 2 points to TIE THE GAME, you get the game of the weekend award.

Other notes:

• Houston beat Oklahoma: very likely setting the stage for an undefeated Houston to make the case to play in the CFB playoffs!
• A game that most people probably missed, but was as much an upset as any other: FCS Richmond beat Virginia

W2 Preview:

Apparently the NCAA just wanted to tease us with that slate of games the first weekend.  This second weekend, unfortunately, brings us one of the worst weekends in recent memory (zero top 25 match-ups), with one very notable exception:

• Arkansas at TCU: this would have been more notable if both teams hadn't nearly lost last weekend
• Iowa St at Iowa: meh.

And then there's that football game that's being played at a race track...Va Tech plays Tenn at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Expected to shatter all attendance records at over 150,000...but just how good could the view be?

Your Domestic Duty Deadline (DDD) this week:  6:00 pm Sat.  If there was ever a weekend to build up some honey-do credits, this is it.

Vanderbilt Update:
How does that saying go?  "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice...three times...four times."  Has the talent improved, yes.  Is the coaching the same, yes.  Should we expect anything different?  Apparently not.  Same sh*t, different year.  Vandy plays Middle Tennessee State University this weekend...at home...might we have a coaching change as early as week 3?

Florida Update:
That was a really sluggish start, with still some huge questions at QB.  Luke had times where he looked capable, but many many others where he didn't.  Even though Kentucky lost to So Miss last weekend, if the Gators don't play better than they did against UMass this could be ugly.

“You can't win a game if you don't score any points.”
DWhit