Week 11 – The Call Sheet

Goodnight Grinch – ICYMI, USC fired defensive coordinator Alex Grinch earlier this week. It just had to be done. USC’s defense has been a major problem for two years running, and Saturday just sort of summed it up. The Trojans need to figure this part of the game out if they ever hope to reach the summit someday.

Let JMU go bowling! – News trickled out early this week that James Madison has filed a second petition with the NCAA to play in a bowl game this year. The Dukes are 9-0 but are unfortunately being held to some archaic NCAA standards since their move up from the FCS ranks two years ago. Let the Dukes play, dang it!

Revisionist history – It’s easy to play revisionist history, but I genuinely wonder if KState could’ve knocked off Texas had the Wildcats not gone for two. Their offense was sort of rolling and it felt like they had the whole “pressure Malik Murphy” thing down pat. I just wonder if the Cats win if they take it to another OT.

Cowboys are cooking – I floated this idea a week ago, and Saturday played right into my hands. Ladies and gents, we are officially on “Okie State to Dallas” watch. The Cowboys have a cakewalk schedule the rest of the way and look destined for a date with Texas for the Big 12 title. Just goes to show that early season results don’t always mean everything.

Coaching changes – Speaking of coaching changes, let’s all keep an eye on Florida and Mississippi State down the stretch. Two teams with vastly different expectations, and yet they both have severely underperformed thus far. You’ve gotta wonder if Napier and Arnett’s days might be numbered.

Shockingly decent ASU – Before the season, I proudly predicted that Arkansas State might be the worst G5 team in the country, and buddy, I was wrong. The RedWolves are 5-4 and just might make a bowl game. Good for Butch Jones for figuring some things out there.

Michigan vs. Penn State

Amidst all the talk of sign stealing, Connor Stalions and potential litigation against the B10 conference, it might be easy to forget that Michigan is a really good football team. Largely untested? Yes. Still good? Also, yes.

I’m a big learn from your mistakes kind of guy, which means I can’t for the life of me take Penn State in this game. Sure, it’s at home and they’ll do a white out and anything can happen. But just a few weeks ago, we saw the Nittany Lions go up against a big-time opponent and they soiled their underwear.

Michigan has a legit o-line and run game and I expect them to lean on this a lot in this game. Sure, JJ McCarthy will toss some dimes and get his stats (b/c he’s still high in the Heisman race), but I like the ground game here. For Penn State, a lot of their hopes rest on that Manny Diaz-led defense and quarterback Drew Allar’s ability to do something. He’s going to have to make big, high-pressure throws if they hope to pull the upset. Let’s see if he can do it.

Utah vs. Washington

In a tale of two teams, we get this delightful matchup between the Utes and the Huskies. Utah on the road and looking to play spoiler…what could go wrong for UW?

UW doesn’t have a stellar defense by any means, but I think they can probably make life hard for the backup quarterback at Utah. The Utes are going to have to score a good amount of points to win here, and I’m just not sure they can do it.

Washington beat the heck out of USC’s defense last week, so much so it got Alex Grinch fired. They just have studs all over the field. From Johnson to Penix to Udonzie and others. They’re just stacked. I like the Huskies to keep it rolling here, but wouldn’t it be funny?

Ole Miss vs. Georgia

Speaking of wouldn’t it be funny…I introduce you to Lane Kiffin on the road against the No. 1 team in the country. Ole Miss couldn’t, could they? No, they wouldn’t, right?

I doubt it. IMO, it’s sort of hard to believe that Ole Miss has made it this far with only one loss. Sure, Dart has been really good and their offense is awesome, but their defense leaves a lot to be desired. But weirdly enough, outside of the Bama game, the Rebs have looked good. I bet Lane pulls out some trick plays to try and steal this one.

On the other side, UGA took care of business against a surprisingly good Mizzou team last week and I sort of think their defense is hitting their stride. Mizzou did a good job of stretching the Bulldog defense laterally, and I wonder if the Rebs take that same approach.

Georgia will probably win, and win handily. But man, never say never with Lane Kiffin.

Miami vs. Florida State

The inclusion of this game and the next one just sort of shows the state of the games this week. Miami-FSU is a fun, sentimental rivalry but I’m not sure this will be a great game.

Despite getting off to a slow start against Pitt last week, FSU just keeps rollin’. Mike Norvell has done an excellent job of snagging top-tier talent out of the portal and really putting it together this year. They’ve made light work of pretty much every team on the schedule and I expect Saturday to be no different.

Miami is just so dang inconsistent, it’s hard to tell what you’re going to get. Their offense, led by TVD, looked pretty bad against NC State last week and I have a hard time thinking they’re going to turn up for this one. And don’t forget about the Cristobal effect. Who knows what sort of weird clock management he has ready for this big rivalry game?

Tennessee vs. Mizzou

Let’s call this one the battle for second place in the SEC East.

For as good as Mizzou has been this year, I’m curious to see if they can get off the mat after losing to big bad Georgia last week. I mentioned it above, but I thought they did some interesting things to make life harder for the Bulldogs’ defense, and I wonder if they’ll deploy a similar strategy against Tennessee.

Tennessee, weirdly enough, has sort of just skated through the season in my eyes. Not a ton has been amazing, not a ton has been terrible. They’re just a solid to pretty good team, albeit they did lose to that awful Florida.

I suspect this one will be close…because it is the SEC East we’re talking about here. But if Mizzou is good like I think they are, they’ll take care of business at home in this one.

-11 Memphis vs. Charlotte – Memphis is frisky here and I like them big.

-5.5 Michigan vs. Penn State – Penn State has to prove they can actually win a big game.

-1 Fresno State vs. SJSU – Fresno is fun and I like them as a road favorite.

Akron vs. -17.5 Miami OH – Akron is awful.