Nobody reads these posts. I know because nobody even clicks on them or visits the page. I didn’t expect anyone to, and honestly, it’s better this way. The whole point of this was to start writing again and work on getting better. If nobody is reading, I don’t have to be embarrassed about how terrible the posts are. They have been rigid and structured, breaking down game by game, and that’s not what I intended this to be.
The goal was to post twice a week but with an increasingly busy schedule it has been pretty tough to make that happen. Then when I do finally sit down to write, it feels like more of an obligation to put content out and to reach my production goal, leading to the word vomit that has made up this page so far.
It really shouldn’t be this hard. I have been consuming enough content to entertain an entire country. I watch or attend games all day every Saturday, read books (currently Saban by Monte Burke) and almost every article on ESPN and The Athletic, listen to multiple podcasts, and fall asleep to either a documentary or a game from the previous week every night. The point is, college football is basically always on my mind.
Like I said, this really shouldn’t be difficult! From here on out I am done with trying to regiment these posts. I’ll sit down when I feel like it and just talk about whatever is on my mind, hopefully in more of a free flowing manner that is much more pleasant to read. I’ll still try to make some picks – although I have been total ass (10-10-1 on the season), it is fun to put the picks into the Twittersphere and live with the results good or bad.
Enough about me though… There is so much to get to!
Since we last talked I experienced a massive college football letdown. On an absolutely beautiful fall day in Minneapolis, the Big Ten West was wide open. It was homecoming on the U of M campus and the Gophers had a golden opportunity to seize the division and pave their way to Indianapolis. Ranked for the first time all year, they had been the talk of the town. Everyone and their mother saw the dominant early season performances and looked ahead to what seemed like a very winnable schedule. PJ Fleck’s team was suddenly the odds on favorite to represent the West in the conference championship. The problem is for Minnesota sports fans, that’s just where we are least comfortable. Once everything is looking up for our team, we are ready for the inevitable letdown.
This time it was an injury to star running back Mo Ibrahim. When you have a strong o-line and deep stable of backs like the Gophers do, that shouldn’t mean your offense goes to hell. That’s exactly what happened though, and with Iowa losing to Michigan and Wisconsin getting beat up at home by Illinois, Minnesota wasted the perfect chance to take hold of the division when it lost to Purdue.
The Illini continued their winning ways last week in the world’s ugliest game against Iowa and the Gophers had a bye. They face off this Saturday in what will be a crucial game for Minnesota if they want to get back into the race.
Luckily that aforementioned Wisconsin loss saved my weekend. If there’s anything I love as much as college football, it’s seeing Bucky lose. And to do it at home against their former coach Brett Bielema? It warmed my heart. The bigger news that stemmed from the loss was the subsequent firing of Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst, whose record in Madison was 67-26 in 7+ seasons.
While it doesn’t warm my heart to see someone lose their job, I don’t necessarily feel bad for coaches getting millions of dollars in buyout money as a reward for poor performance (more on that later). Former Badger defensive back and longtime defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard takes over as interim head coach. It will be very interesting to see what ends up happening with this job going forward. Leonhard has been a hot name in coaching searches over the last couple years and could easily become the permanent head man. There’s also a chance Wisconsin tries to get in on the Lance Leipold sweepstakes. The former Wisconsin-Whitewater coach is leading Kansas to heights unseen and is expected to be the marquee name on the market this offseason. Leonhard has the rest of the season to prove his worth and retain the position. He got off to a great start this past weekend, dominating Northwestern in his first game as head coach of the Badgers.
Leipold’s Jayhawks came back down to earth on Saturday after an amazing undefeated run to start the season. That’s not to say they played poorly – they hung in until the very end in a wild game against a talented TCU team. A loss is a loss though, and in a sport with a million constantly changing storylines, Kansas will likely go back to irrelevancy. It doesn’t help that they lost star quarterback Jalon Daniels to what is being reported as a serious shoulder injury. If they end up losing Leipold as well, the thrilling five game run we just witnessed might end up as nothing but a memory. I sure hope that’s not the case.
When that TCU team dominated Oklahoma a week before they took down Kansas, many wondered if Sonny Dykes team was legit or if the Sooners were just that bad. Turns out it’s probably both. While the Horned Frogs proved their worth going into a hostile environment in Lawrence, Oklahoma was proving that they aren’t the Sooners of my youth. The rivalry that always seems to give us a great game did not this week. Texas dominated OU to the tune of a 49-0 beatdown. Quinn Ewers returned from injury and ran coach Steve Sarkisian’s offense like a seasoned vet. The thing is, he’s not one. It was only the second full game of the nineteen year old’s career and the future very looks bright in Austin.
Head about a hundred miles east and it’s not quite as clear what the future looks like. Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies have been the biggest conversation point in the college football so far in 2022 and it’s not even close. I expressed skepticism about the Aggies and their coach (for a reason you probably wouldn’t expect) in my initial AP poll reaction post, but I never imagined it could get this bad. After having arguably the best recruiting class in the modern era, A&M started the season ranked #6 in the AP poll for the second year in a row. From there, it’s been basically all down hill. Inconsistent QB play and the same bland ass offense led to a major upset loss to App. State in week two. One might think there would be an adjustment… nope. In fact, Jimbo has doubled down, saying that his team just needs to execute his offense better. What a joke. The guy’s ego has become bigger than the team at this point and it’s costing them wins, because it turns out, all the talent in the world doesn’t matter without a good scheme. For Aggie fans hoping for a fresh start, you’re out of luck. Fisher signed a contract extension this offseason to end rumors of him leaving for the open LSU job, and his buyout is rumored to be upwards of 85 million dollars(!!!). The folks in College Station are stuck with him for at least a couple more years. How bad will it need to get for him to finally adjust? We just might find out this year with the schedule A&M will face the rest of the way in the loaded SEC West.
I didn’t pick the Aggies to cover last week, but I probably should have. Instead I picked Utah by 3.5 over a UCLA team that I just didn’t fully trust after watching them beat a Washington team that I had seen live the week before and wasn’t overly impressed with. Utah, like Baylor in previous weeks, is one of those types of teams that I tend to latch onto and get hurt by. Once again, I should have known better. My other pick was BYU +3.5 against Notre Dame. As a “road” dog at a neutral site in Las Vegas, I thought this was a no brainer. BYU is another one of those teams that I can’t get myself to stop picking. For some reason I have this idea that these veteran teams with a solid defense and running game are more consistent, and therefore safer to bet on. Well, they’re not. I missed on both picks to bring my record to 10-10-1 this year. I likely won’t post again before this week’s games, so my picks this week will come in tweet form, probably with a clear mind after my Saturday morning workout.
We have a full slate of awesome matchups ahead of us this week and I couldn’t be more excited. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the more free flowing format. I know I enjoyed writing it much more. After all, this is for fun and it should feel that way. I look forward to getting back on track in the coming weeks!
Superior CFB 