Looking for challengers; not seen any yet

Sep 13, 2020, 7:22 AM

I know the Big-12 technically voted that they were indeed joining the ACC and SEC in continuing to play football, but I'm not certain most of their members got that message. Coastal Carolina (and Willy Korn) thumped Kansas by fifteen; K-State lost to Arkansas State, and ranked Iowa got upended by the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (and Billy Napier) by seventeen. In good news, Texas Tech staved off disaster against Houston Baptist (I know, who?) with a late field goal that rescued a two-point win, and TCU did not lose to SMU or Baylor to Lousiana Tech...possibly because those games were postponed. (But they didn't lose!) Only Texas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia won, though Oklahoma and West Virginia were playing FCS cream puffs...so the Big-12 now has exactly one FBS win to its credit thus far. Rock on, Big-12.

Back home in the ACC, it looked marginally better. UNC pulled away from 'Cuse - eventually - and Notre Dame did (cough) eventually earn itself a two-TD win over Duke and Chase Brice. At home. In Brice's first-ever start. Brice still looked better than Ian Book, which is a worrisome sign if you're a Domer, and their skill-talent arsenal did not exactly look replete with future NFL guys. Much ballyhoo'd transfer D'Erik King looked just-allright for Miami in rolling to a solid but style-free win over UAB on Thursday and Louisville showed some offensive tools and a less-than-dominant defense in a two-TD win over Western Kentucky. Hard to tell about Pitt since they rolled to a 55-point win against FCS Austin Peay, who showed up for the second of their three bodybag games; Peay is scheduled to die against #20 Cincinnati next week and they're done for 2020. (Insert cash-register sound here. Cha-ching!)

FSU has work to do. Their rebuild may need a rebuild after losing to GT in the opener when GT's freshman QB got on a roll in the fourth and FSU QB James Slender Man just could not spark his squad any more than he could (cough!) the last two years. Yup, he's still just good enough to get FSU beat. And that FSU OL is still an obscenity against real football.

The SEC starts play in two weeks. Get ready for ceaseless lobbying by the usual SEC homers that they deserve all four playoffs spots already...and other than Clemson, they may actually have a point this year. And if the B1G has a change of heart and starts playing in late October are we supposed to let them in after a six-game season? They and the Pac-12 decided they were opting out of the playoffs and settling for the Rose Bowl this year; do those of us that forged ahead really allow takesay-backseys on this?

I vote no. Especially since the likes of USF or, well, Coastal Carolina is likely to have more of a playoff resume than the B1G teams come playoff time.

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I've watched a lot of college football the last couple of weeks - most of it has been sloppy to a degree that you usually see in scrimmages and not the first games of the season. That's not a put down or complaint - it is perfectly understandable that things were/are going to be below the norm after having to deal with this whole COVID-19 mess.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Clemson looked really, really good last night. We definitely have some things to work on, but boy - compared to all the other teams I've watched we are light years ahead of the competition in being prepared to play. The only other team I've seen that looks like they are up to their seasonal norm is (believe it or not) Army.

Admittedly, I have not watched any of the Oklahoma or Texas games yet but considering their opponents I don't know how much can be learned from those games.

Looking for challengers; not seen any yet

If the BIG doesn’t play at least a 10 game regular season

Re: Looking for challengers; not seen any yet

How great would it be to get a non-power 5 in playoff?

Great rundown quozzel... gonna use your "bodybag game"

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