Does any team want the number one spot?
A week after Georgia fell at the hands of Alabama, Alabama turned around and lost a stunner to unranked Vanderbilt.
This week, Texas sits atop the AP Top 25 after sitting out the chaos of last weekend with a bye week. Up next for the Longhorns is the Red River Rivalry and a date against Oklahoma.
I don’t *think* Texas will lose to Oklahoma, but the Sooners have a serious defense. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that OU mucks the game off, turns turnovers into offense and knocks off the Longhorns.
Let’s see if Texas can stay atop the heap longer than one week.
Is this a Top 3 Paul Finebaum Show week?
ESPN’s Paul Finebaum has a special relationship with his radio callers. His show has grown to astronomical heights in the last 10 years, largely due to the incessant and hilarious call-in nature of his SEC fan listeners.
That begs the question: Is this a Top 3 Paul Finebaum Show week?
I can’t imagine a Phyllis from Mulga or Jim from Tuscaloosa-type figures are thrilled about their team’s stunning loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday.
This might be some must-listen and must-watch television.
Where does Michigan go from here?
Legendary NFL head coach John Madden once said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.”
In Michigan’s case, the team has three quarterbacks, and none that can coherently lead an offense.
I’m legitimately not sure where Michigan goes from here. On Saturday against Washington, stater Alex Orji was pulled in favor of Jack Tuttle. Tuttle had some bright moments but ultimately faltered down the stretch. He finished with a meager stat line of 10/18 for 98 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.
Tuttle is the third quarterback to play for Michigan this season. With the merry-go-round in full swing, I’m not sure where the Wolverines go from here. The team has a pretty good offensive line, a good run game and strong defense. But the quarterback play is such a negative, that it’s hard to move the ball and scheme anything up.
Unfortunately for the Maize and Blue, the schedule does not let up. Michigan still has games against Illinois, Michigan State, Oregon, Indiana and Ohio State.
7-5 is not out of the realm of possibility.
Why can’t Miami run the table?
In the wee hours Sunday morning, Miami broke the CALgorithm in an absurd comeback that featured three fourth-quarter touchdowns.
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s two straight weeks that the Hurricanes have narrowly snatched victory away from the jaws of defeat. Traditional wisdom goes against it…but why can’t Miami run the table?
The Hurricanes boast a prolific offense, and while Cam Ward can exhibit some poor decision-making at times, he keeps them in ball games. Let’s play the schedule game for a second.
Miami should be favored in all of its six remaining games. Trap games appear when we least expect it, but the Hurricanes should win handily against FSU, Duke and Wake Forest. That leaves games at Lousiville, at Georgia Tech and at Syracuse. A couple of tough ones in there, but still very winnable.
Again, traditional wisdom suggests someone like Syracuse could upset a team like Miami in a home game. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Miami makes a real run at 12-0.
What’s going on with Nebraska’s second-half offense?
Through six weeks, Nebraska sits at 5-1 and boasts one of the stoutest defenses in the country. If you offered that to Husker fans a month and a half ago, I suspect they’d snatch your hand off.
Style points are just that. Style points. But what’s the deal with the Nebraska second-half offense?
Against Colorado, Nebraska jumped out to a 28-0 first-half lead but didn’t score at all in the second half. In a much tighter game against No. 24 Illinois, the Huskers mustered just seven points in two quarters plus an overtime period. And against Rutgers on Saturday, Nebraska once again failed to score in the second half.
What gives?
It could be a few things:
Non-scripted drives are hard. I’d be curious to know whether OC Marcus Satterfield scripts second-half drives like he does to start games. Maybe that could be the spark the offense needs.
The special teams unit has been a disaster, which is contributing to a handful of field goals being left off the board.
Some of the games didn’t *require* second-half points. Perhaps Nebraska was just fine with chewing clock and grinding out wins.
I’m not sure I have an answer to this particular question. This is more of just a thinking exercise.
That said, keep an eye on this space. The second-half scoring woes haven’t plagued Nebraska too badly just yet (outside of the Illinois loss) but the offense will need to score more in the bigger games coming down the pike.