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Oh, that weekend did not end in a good way for some contenders and one matchup for a conference championship game is fixed already.
How does it feel, when you are leading the conference for almost the whole season and then you lose against a then-3-6-team (Kansas), at home? Ask BYU players, fans and program members. The Cougars got a check with reality and came out with a close loss. That did open up the BIG-12 a bit and might send the conference into a non-bye-week-scenario for the playoffs, means a tough road to a National Championship.
And then there was that game between Tennessee and Georgia, where the Vols had the chance to proof they are the real deal and Georgia is taking a season off from national relevance and guess what? They failed and the SEC looks more chaotic than last week.
And even it has no national relevance, if you were contender, got a bad loss 3 weeks ago and needed help to get back into the top seat, got the help and got back into the driver seat ... wouldn't it be a good idea to win at home against a then-2-7-team (Troy)? Well, I guess Georgia Southern did not feel good about that and lost the game to make the Sun Belt East division a bit more spicy.
At least there are teams, which stay relatively consistent. Ball State did lose on the road against Buffalo in OT and fell to 3-7. If I'm cynical, I don't understand why they did fire their HC afterwards, since the team did best what it can do best, lose. But of course, I'm not that way. The program gave Mike Neu all the time he needed, and he started 2016 with a team in decline, and after a period of adjustments, the team won the conference in 2020 and won a bowl that season on top (7-1 overall, shortened corona season). Unfortune did then the team get 1 winless every season, which brings us to the current 3-7 season. In total Neus records with the team is 40-63, which is a much worse win percentage than his predecessor, who was fired already after 2 declining seasons. So, Ball State is looking for a new HC.
And another HC did get the Axe already. The Temple Owls did fire Stan Drayton after 2+ (almost 3) seasons. He did win 3 games in each season with the team, overall 9-25. For a program, which did give several good, if not great coaches, a steppingstone in their career, this result is way below any expectation. Temple will look sharpe for a new HC, off course looking for a massive improvement. The only bad taste in this is, the firing came 1 day after the OT WIN of the Owls against FAU but given the market circumstances and the status overall of the team, it does not matter much. The guy was toast anyway.
A day later the chopping did go into overtime and more coaches did get the axe. UMass did fire Don Brown, whom they have hired for 2022 for his 2nd term with the team (1st was 2004-2008, when they still were an FCS team). Brown had 2+ seasons with the team and 1-11, 3-9 and 2-8 in those games. It was clear, Brown would never be THE answer, but firing him that way is again a no-class-act. If the program would be fair to Brown, they have to admit that the school itself is bad on organizing a football team. No coach did win more than 4 games since the team became an FBS-program. So, they need more than a coach, they need an experienced person, who can shift the environment to the level needed to compete on that level.
Next on the block is Tom Herman, now former HC of Florida Atlantic. Herman was fired after just 1+ seasons and a record of 4-8 and 2-8. The loss last weekend was the last piece, which was an OT loss against Temple (yes, that Temple, which did axe their HC after that OT win, so that game did cost 2 coaches the job, not bad), the 4th loss in a row. Here, FAU has all the resources a team can have, even now more money than before, since the team did shift to the AAC and the former HC of Houston and Texas did fail big time. That program did hire after Lane Kiffin left to Ole Miss (and does do there a good job) with 2 conference championships in a row 2 more washed up power-5-HCs, but those 2, Willie Taggert and Tom Herman, did both not even came close to Kiffins success. It will be interesting to see, whether the AD does go the same route again, so find a washed-up-HC of a power-5-school (where there are plenty to find) and hope for some sort of redemption period, as it happened for Kiffin, or whether they go a different route.
And the last HC change so far this week is the firing of Biff Poggi, the now former HC of Charlotte, after 1+ season. Poggi made (like Herman) the shift to the AAC and the team did not shift gear, it stayed bad. 3-9 and 3-7 are the results and that means the guy responsible had to go. In this case here I don't know, why they did hire the guy in the 1st place, but they did, and it failed. Next.
Let's go to the conference standings after week 12.
American Athletic Conference
The Conference Championship game is set, Army vs Tulane, only the stadium is not set yet. The final standings #1 team will host the Championship game at home.
Atlantic Coast Conference
SMU keeps on winning and stays undefeated.
The 1-loss-group is still Miami and Clemson, with Clemson praying for a Miami loss in one of the last 2 games (or an SMU loss at some point), because otherwise Miami would get the championship spot.
No other team is left in the mix, so 2 of those 3 teams will play for the Championship.
BIG-12 Conference
With BYU getting a huge upset at home, the top seats are right now set by 1-loss-teams BYU and Colorado.
With 2 losses are now Arizona State and Iowa State
Kansas State and West Virginia did both lose and are now at 3 losses, likely out of reach with 3 other teams.
BYU has to take on Arizona State next, Colorado on paper the easiest road left and Iowa State the toughest remaining games.
BIG10 Conference
No changes in the BIG10 this weekend.
Perfect are still Indiana and Oregon, while with 1 loss behind them are Ohio State and Penn State.
The rest can just add wins for the bowl levels and annoy eventually rivals and contenders.
Oregon is already set for a Championship spot, so the 2nd seat is played out by the 3 other teams, with Indiana playing Ohio State next.
Conference USA
Western Kentucky did lose this weekend and left Jacksonville State as lone unbeaten team.
WKU is now together with Sam Houston as 1-loss behind them.
Liberty is crawling in the shadows with 2 losses.
And here comes the fun part, all 4 teams do play in the last 2 games teams from within those 4-team group.
So, whatever happens, it will be determined within the group. Could end in clear Championship contenders, could end with a big mess.
Mid-American Conference
And while we are at a mess, the MAC is still wide open.
Miami (OH), Ohio and Bowling Green have all 1 loss.
Only Western Michigan lost a crucial game and dropped to 2-losses.
With 2 losses behind are now Western Michigan, Buffalo and Toledo.
Many of the teams in that list have at least 1 game left against a team from that list, so it will (likely) shrink down. But it could end in a big tie breaker scenario.
Mountain West Conference
Boise State did seal a seat in the Championship game.
Colorado State is also unbeaten, but a game behind.
UNLV has still 1 loss and waits for their chance, which would need at least one CSU loss and 2 more UNLV wins.
CSU and UNLV have tougher games next weekend, maybe then is the deal done.
Southeastern Conference
The conference is closing in to the final games and have right now only 2 teams left with 1 loss, Texas and Texas A&M.
Good to know, they will face each other on season finale.
Behind them are waiting with 2 losses, Georgia (all conference games done), Tennessee, Alabama and Ole Miss.
Depended on the results of the last 2 weekends, the tiebreaker will be a mess and will favor one or another team.
I don't think any 3-loss team will get close to a SEC Championship game spot.
Beside the Lone Star Showdown, NONE of the teams in this list will play a team from that list. Yeah.
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt teams did decide to keep the division exciting, so both top teams did lose.
Georgia Southern lost to a bad team and dropped to 2 losses, which leaves Marshall leading the East with 1 loss.
With 2 tough cookies left on the schedule, this is not set in stone.
Georgia Southern dropped to the 2-loss-team-group, which has also James Madison.
Georgia Southern has the easiest remaining schedule, but that did not help last gameday neither.
James Madison plays Marshall in one of those games remaining and might be able to come out of this mess as the division winner.
Old Dominion lost this weekend and dropped to 3 losses.
I don't think they will play a role here, beside winning crucial games.
The West is still led by Louisiana, even they lost last weekend. Granted, that was the toughest team left on the schedule, so likely they will win the division next week or in 2 weeks.
If they would lose all games, Texas State, Arkansas State and South Alabama are waiting for their chances with 2 losses.
That's it for the conferences.
Bowl eligible teams
11 more teams got their 6th win this weekend, which sums up now to 64 teams being already bowl eligible.
Week 6: Miami, Indiana
Week 7: Army, Pittsburgh, BYU, Iowa State, Oregon, Penn State and Texas
Week 8: Clemson, Duke, SMU, Memphis, Navy, Illinois, Kansas State, UNLV, Washington State, Texas A&M, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana and Notre Dame
Week 9: Tulane, Ohio State, Colorado, Sam Houston, Boise State, Alabama, Ole Miss and James Madison
Week 10: Louisville, Syracuse, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Iowa, Minnesota, Western Kentucky, UConn, Toledo, Colorado State, Vanderbilt and Georgia Southern
Week 11: Georgia Tech, TCU, Jacksonville State, Liberty, Ohio, San Jose State, South Carolina and Marshall
Week 12: East Carolina, North Carolina, Baylor, Washington, Rutgers, Miami (OH), Bowling Green, Buffalo, Northern Illinois, Texas State and Arkansas State
And since we are closing in on the season end, I could not resist to have a look and the teams still in the mix for a bowl spot.
ALMOST THERE (Need one more win to become eligible)
South Florida, UTSA, North Texas, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College, NC State, California, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Michigan, USC, Nebraska, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, New Mexico, Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Coastal Carolina, South Alabama and Louisiana Monroe
IF WE DO IT, WE BECOME MEN OF STEEL (Need to win all remaining games to get into the bowl mix)
Wake Forest, Kansas, Houston, UCF, Arizona, Utah, UCLA, Michigan State, Northwestern, Maryland, Louisiana Tech, Oregon State, Auburn, Kentucky, Old Dominion and Appalachian State
78 bowl spots are available.
The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 12
Sat. Nov 16
#17 Clemson @ Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh at home is always a tough spot, but often does Pittsburgh have a game or two in the season, when they just not play well.
One of those games did come last weekend.
Against a top contender, you need to take every chance you get and Pitt did not do that.
They did not score after a Clemson Fumble, they did miss a field goal try, they did allow they Tigers to score within 45 seconds prior the end of the 1st half.
The game was basically lost after that 1st half, with Clemson leading 17:7.
The 3rd quarter went scoreless, and Pitt did pile up more errors, including a lost fumble, and later a field goal after a 1st and goal on the Clemson 2!
Yes, a bit later did Pitt tie the game to 17, and even took the lead a bit later with a field goal.
But again was Pitt unable to score a TD inside the red zone and after that drive did Clemson just took a walk in the park for 20 seconds and 3 plays and scored the game winning TD.
Chances. Not used. By Pitt.
Consequences of that game are, that Clemson finished their ACC schedule strong, but needs help to get into the ACC Championship game.
Pittsburgh did shatter their own dreams of the season and can only hope for a good bowl spot.
#17 Clemson 24 @ Pittsburgh 20 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 27-10
#25 Tulane @ Navy
This is easy.
Tulane was just totally the best team in this game and did dominate Navy.
They earned the trip to the Championship game, while Navy has likely only 2 goals left. a) win against Army to push them out of the playoffs and b) play in a bowl.
#25 Tulane 35 @ Navy 0 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 28-10
#6 Tennessee @ #11 Georgia
Tennessee had the better start but did slowly lose ground in the 1st half and the teams did go into the break with a tie at 17.
Then did Georgia come out of the locker room, willing to win the game, while it seemed the Vols did leave their offense in the tunnels, because nothing did work anymore.
Georgia did pull away and when Tennessee did try to catch up, they did even turn the ball over.
At the end did Georgia finish their SEC schedule strong and has still chances to get into the SEC final.
Tennessee is a bit sandwiched between direct compares and only the results of the last 2 weeks will determine the winner of a likely big list of teams with a tie breaker.
#6 Tennessee 17 @ #11 Georgia 31 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 28-11
And some other interesting games:
James Madison @ Old Dominion
James Madison did come back from behind and won against Old Dominion, 35:32. That means Old Dominion has a hard time to eventually still winning the division, while JMU likely just have to win and they win the division. Of course, Marshall will have a say in that, too.
Jacks interesting games Score: 23-16
South Alabama @ Louisiana
Louisiana, the favorite, did play bad in the 1st half and trailed 3:24. They did waste the 3rd quarter with only a field goal to get closer and exploded in the 4th with 16 unanswered points, but failed the on-side-kick, so lost 22:24.
Not too bad for them, with still 1 loss less than anybody behind them, still an unnecessary defeat.
Jacks interesting games Score: 23-17
San Diego State @ UNLV
UNLV did dominate the 1st half and did manage the 2nd half to win the game 41:20.
The Aztecs did just play awful in the 1st half and committed too many errors and did also let their Rebels offense run wild with almost no resistance.
Jacks interesting games Score: 24-17
And some more funny result of week 12:
- Bowling Green did win against Western Michigan, 31:13. WMU did get by those 2 losses in a row and dropped in the standings dramatically, from leader to hopeful in 2 weeks.
- UTSA is still aiming for a bowl spot and won against North Texas, 48:27. That leaves them with 1 win less than needed and North Texas also needs 1 win more to get to a bowl.
- Kansas won against BYU, on the road, 17:13. That might drop every team from the BIG-12 out of the playoffs, except the conference champ. But the next weeks will decide that.
- Arizona State did beat Kansas State, 24:14, on the road. With that big win, the Sun Devils are right now in best waiting position behind the 2 leading teams. If they beat BYU next weekend, they might get into the driver seat for the Championship game.
- New Mexico won against Washington State, 38:35. Big win for the Lobos, in need for another win for a bowl spot.
- Stanford did upset Louisville, 38:35. Louisville did look like they might still have a chance to get into the ACC Championship game, if they keep on winning and hope for the best, but with that defeat, the dream is over.
- South Carolina won against Missouri, 34:30. The Gamecocks are done with their SEC schedule and will battle Clemson for the rivalry on gameday final to eventually getting into a playoff spot or to at least keep Clemson out of the playoffs.
- Florida did win against LSU, 27:16. Two things to notice here. LSUs HC Kelly did get angry during the game, so nerves became blank in purple and gold country. And I have to admit that Florida did turn the ship around big time after a bad start into the season. With FSU on season finale, chances for a bowl spot are good right now.
- Louisiana Tech did use their chances and won against Western Kentucky, 12:7. LT still needs 2 wins to get to a bowl, but that win here did keep the hopes alive. WKU could have used a win to boost their chances for a Championship spot, but they still have all the chances with the last 2 games. But another loss could be too much.
- Air Force won against Oregon State, 28:0. Tough season for Beavers fans, who are for sure used to lose, but in the past few seasons there was hope and bowls, but with the new HC, they are in a bad transition phase and still need 2 wins for a bowl spot and that Air Force game was the easiest game left. Now Boise State and Washington State are left to play. Likely no bowl this season.
- Rutgers did win against Maryland, 31:17. That did give Rutgers a bowl spot and Maryland a tough spot to also get into a bowl with games against Iowa and Penn State still coming and 2 wins still needed. Likely is the season over soon for Maryland.
The 3rd committee ranking was published yesterday and because of the upsets of last weekend, the rankings did of course change.
Still 2 gamedays away from the final picture for the conference championship games, and 3 gamedays away from the final committee rankings for the playoff seating.
No changes at the top of the BIG10, with #1 Oregon, #2 Ohio State, #4 Penn State and #5 Indiana.
But new came in #25 Illinois.
The Ohio State-Indiana-game will shuffle the setup for sure.
The SEC teams did get a new look with Tennessees loss to Georgia. Still on top is #3 Texas, then #7 Alabama, #9 Ole Miss, #10 Georgia, #11 Tennessee, #15 Texas A&M, #18 South Carolina and #23 Missouri.
LSU did drop from the rankings.
With Texas-Texas A&M next week, this will get another makeover.
With #6 Notre Dame the only team is now highly ranked out of the group of teams, which can only get an at-large-spot.
The PAC-12 team Washington State lost last weekend and dropped out of the rankings.
Thanks to the BYU-loss did the BIG-12 lose their highest ranked team and the ACC did rise to the 3rd highest conference rank. Now they are #8 Miami, followed by #13 SMU and #17 Clemson.
Louisville lost and dropped out of the rankings.
With Clemson-South Carolina next week, this will get a shift for sure.
The Mountain West did win from the BYU-loss and their highest ranked team would under the assumption being the champ get a bye for the 1st round, which would be the greatest accomplishment the 12-team-playoff could achieve, since in the past group-of-5-teams basically had no chance to win a championship and were treated as 2nd level teams and here #12 Boise State would get a bye ahead of the ACC champ.
With #24 UNLV a 2nd team did get into the rankings this week, out of the MWC. If both would play for the MW-crown, the winner could benefit from that, even if UNLV would win.
And the big loser of this weeks rankings is the BIG-12, demoted to a non-bye-week-spot, thanks to BYUs loss.
The team is still the highest ranked member of the BIG-12, now #14 BYU, followed by #16 Colorado, #21 Arizona State and #22 Iowa State.
Kansas State did drop out.
And the last teams ranked are from the American Athletics, #19 Army and #20 Tulane.
With Army-Notre Dame playing this weekend, there will be a change next week.
Again, assuming the highest ranked team if each conference would be the champ, we have BIG10 (Oregon), SEC (Texas), ACC (Miami) and new MWC (Boise State) as the 4 conferences highest ranked and by that with a bye week. As 5th conference then would be in the BIG-12 (BYU) at #14, having a seat in the 1st round.
The last 7 seats would be filled with the highest ranked teams, which would be #2 Ohio State, #4 Penn State, #5 Indiana, #6 Notre Dame, #7 Alabama, #9 Ole Miss and #10 Georgia.
Because #12 Boise State would be in on a bye week and #14 BYU would be in for 1st round, it would no longer be the top 12 teams (like last 2 weeks ago), so #11 Tennessee would NOT be in.
But in the last 3 gamedays, the shifts will be brutal, so if you are a fan of a certain team here, the only thing you can take out of this is, if your team keeps on winning, the spotting will likely become only better and if it plays in a championship game and wins, it will get a boost on top.
If it loses, the margin for recovery gets thinner and thinner.
I will keep you updated.
2nd to last gameday (except the damn Army-Navy-game) for the regular season is coming and for several teams, this will be the last chance or BEST chance.
The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 13
Sat. Nov 23
#5 Indiana @ #2 Ohio State
This is it.
THE test for Indiana to prove they are not hyped.
Well, I think they are hyped, but not a bad team. Not (yet, if ever) elite BIG10.
The team did not play anybody. Non-conference was almost as fluffy as you can have it.
And inside the conference they had only one team, which has a winning record, right now! That's not all their fault, since it was not really clear that teams, like Washington, Michigan and Maryland would take such a dive.
But the team has to be judged based on the season results and they did not play any of the leading teams of the BIG10 this season, until this gameday.
Now they face Ohio State, a team, which did invest heavily in the offseason to upgrade the team to the level the program thinks it should have and had not last season (when rival Michigan did wipe the floor with them).
To be fair, Ohio State did also win against many bad teams, but they did also play against Oregon (and lost by 1 point, on the road) and did play against Penn State (and won by 7 on the road), hence somebody.
Hence, the betting line is right now, Ohio State -13.5.
Here is, what I think what will happen.
Indiana will enter the Horseshoe, the stadium of Ohio State, and the team will be annihilated.
If Indiana beats the spread, I would be surprised, if they beat on top Ohio State, it would be one of the biggest upsets of the season.
I don't believe in that.
Buckeyes win.
#24 Army @ #8 Notre Dame
And the next game, involving a team, which did not play anybody.
I'm not a fan of Notre Dame this season, I think the team does not play worth a playoff spot, but they play and they play like a team worth a ranking.
Army on the other hand did play fluffy and double-fluffy and triple-fluffy, every week.
Last weekend was the 1st team with a winning record at that point with 5-4. And North Texas did earn those wins against fluffy and double-fluffy and triple-fluffy also.
Army won by 11 points against UNT.
Now this Army team has to play in South Bend against Notre Dame. The Irish are favored by 14.0 points. Only.
Remember, Army-UNT, 11 points margin.
Notre Dame did stand their ground against Texas A&M, they did lose to NIU (which does hurt them until today) and won against Louisville, GT and Virginia.
Any of that teams (except likely NIU) would win against UNT.
So, I expect a big win by Notre Dame at home to make a statement, which will send Army out of the rankings.
Fighting Irish win.
#14 SMU @ Virginia
I will not bet against SMU, but this game here is a perfect trap game for them.
SMU did play great so far, won all games, and does now, short before a trip to the championship game, which is for sure on the mind of the players already, to Virginia.
Virginia is complicated this season. They had bad games and good games. 2 weeks ago, they won against Pitt, on the road. Last week they lost to Notre Dame on the road, and 3 weeks ago against UNC at home.
But the team has potential and have their last home game.
SMU players MIGHT take the team too lightly.
Betting line is SMU -9.5, so quite clear in favor of the Mustangs.
As said, I will not bet against SMU, but I hope for a close game and I wouldn't be surprised, if an upset would happen.
Mustangs win.
And some other interesting games:
Sat. Nov 23
Sam Houston @ Jacksonville State
Jacksonville State is right now the best bet for a championship seat inside the CUSA. Sam Houston needs the win to not fall to 2 losses and the Gamecocks need the win to stay perfect and to avoid tie breaker scenarios.
Jacksonville State is favored by 6.0 points, which seems to be a bit less, but we will see.
Sam Houston will play for their live, but I think the home team is motivated to get to the championship game early.
Gamecocks win.
Western Kentucky @ Liberty
Liberty needs this win, as team with 2 losses inside the conference. WKU needs that win to NOT fall behind in this group of top 4 teams inside the CUSA.
WKU is favored by 1.0 points, which is nothing.
With the status of the teams, played at Liberty, I favor the home team.
Flames win.
#6 BYU @ Arizona State
This is a test for BYU and the last chance for Arizona State.
BYU needs that win here to stay in the hunt for a championship game seat, the Sun Devils need the win to leapfrog BYU and to get into the driver seat for the championship game.
ASU is actually favored to win this in the desert, by 3.5 points.
BYU did look awful last week and now they play on the road against a tough team.
All can happen, BYU did win some tough games, but this team here, ASU, will likely be the highest sorted team they had to play. I'm leaning towards ASU, because they seem to get together after some tough losses and at home is always a factor.
Sun Devils win.
Marshall @ Old Dominion
None of the Sun Belt teams is really convincing.
The only thing I did learn this season was, every team might annoy the other.
And Old Dominion seems to annoy a bit more often.
Favored by 2.0 I think Marshall will have a hard time to win here and to secure the spot at the sun they have right now inside their division.
Monarchs win.
'Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE
Tags: Block of Granite, News
2024-11-13 08:20
Every gameday has now the potential to narrow down the field of contenders inside the conferences or to open up the field to something that feels like half of the conference.
I did Nostradamus that some of the conferences will come down to tiebreaker decisions and right now it looks that way.
Before we go into the details with the conferences, some developments on the coaches situations.
A quite surprising announcement came prior the gameday, when the AD of Florida did say, that HC Billy Napier will stay the coach of the Gators and that he requests patience on the transformation into the right direction. Analysts say, there are 3 factors, which did likely lead to that. The 1st is, he did hire the HC and wants him to have success, so the personal issue. The 2nd is, that a buyout of Napier alone would cost 26 million and the whole staff likely 40+ million, so a financial issue. And the 3rd is, that Napier did invest 70% of the NIL money of Florida in the Freshman and Sophomore class of the team and firing him now might shift the player field dramatically, including star players in development. On top, it means that there is still at least 1 class missing (end experience) to really making a push, so also a player issue.
All summed up, I would say, if next season the results are not having a very positive trajectory, the hot seat will warm up again and much quicker. I'm personally surprised about this, since usually in the past such results did lead to firings, regardless of what, but I can understand the side effects and I always was a friend of the old days, when a coach had time to make a lasting impact over seasons and not to win within 1 to 2 seasons, max.
But on the other hand, did the game and the business change and win-now! is absolute standard. That game of Florida against Texas was a real mess, and when you see THAT game, THAT program, as a high school player, heavily recruited, will that lead you to sign with such a program, trusting on the future development? Or will just the money make the decision? I don't know, but for sure the old days are gone.
I personally will watch the coaches market a bit more closely, whether the development on dead money payments will get some sort of reverse process, to give the school more room to adjust to bust-hirings.
While we speak about bust-hirings, another Florida program is in deep trouble and doesn't know how to get out of that, except paying tens of millions of dollars as dead money. Florida State is now 1-9 and the biggest problem the school has is, they did prolong the HC for 10 seasons, PRIOR the current one, since he won the conference last season with a perfect record (until the bowl, where the team was annihilated, thanks to all the guys who did not want to play, because it was not a semifinal). So, the HC has more or less a buyout in an amount of his whole wage until contract end, which is not an option. It did take the coach 10 games to figure out what to do, and he did fire his coordinators and the WR coach after the gameday. I'm sure that will cool down the mood here. Likely in the offseason we will see some heavy investment by FSU in buying players on NIL deals to turn the ship around.
But there was actually 1 fired HC after the gameday, with Kennesaw State getting rid of their HC Brian Bohannon. Officially the step was announced by the AD as 'stepping down' or 'resigned', but the HC did later state clearly, he had no intention to do that, the program just informed him, that a change will be made. So ... fired. Brian Bohannon did basically BUILD the football program, starting 2015 inside the FCS, won until 2021 3 times the conference and then did guide the team to the transition to FBS, in which the team started playing this season.
Yes, the team is 1-8, which is not great, but axing such a coach after that achievement with an 72-38 record overall is a tough cookie. I understand the business, but man, there has to be a better way to do that.
Let's go to the conference standings after week 11.
American Athletic Conference
Army and Tulane stayed undefeated.
The 1-loss-group does still only have Navy.
Memphis and East Carolina do lurk with 2 losses behind them, not sure they will have any chance to get back into the race.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Another unbeaten team did fall last weekend, so as unbeaten team left is SMU.
Miami did slip to the 1-loss-teams, now BEHIND Clemson.
Pittsburgh lost again and dropped to 2-losses, now sorted BEHIND Louisville. Both have to hope for another loss by the leading teams.
BIG-12 Conference
BYU had a thriller, but prevailed unbeaten as the only team inside the BIg-12.
As 1-loss-team only Colorado did stay alive, because Iowa State did play bad again.
With 2 losses are now Iowa State, Kansas State, Arizona State and West Virginia all in the waiting for some chance to get back into contention.
BIG10 Conference
The BIG10 had a strange development, since the top teams did all win and the teams with a few more losses behind them did all lose, so the contenders list did more or less separate themselves from the hopefuls (which became almost certain non-contenders).
Perfect are still Indiana and Oregon, while with 1 loss behind them are Ohio State and Penn State.
Every other team has 3 losses or more now.
Conference USA
Western Kentucky and Jacksonville State stayed unbeaten.
Sam Houston is 1-loss behind them, while Liberty is crawling behind Sam Houston as 2-loss team.
Mid-American Conference
The MAC lost their last unbeaten team and is now wide open.
Miami (OH), Ohio, Bowling Green and Western Michigan all have 1 loss.
With 2 losses behind them are Buffalo and Toledo.
Mountain West Conference
No big changes in the MWC, Boise State and Colorado State are unbeaten, while UNLV did stay as 1-loss team.
Only San Diego State did lose again and dropped to 2-losses, behind San Jose State, also with 2 losses.
Southeastern Conference
The SEC had some do-or-die-games this weekend and right now the field did shrink a bit.
Still, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Texas are leading with 1 loss each, while Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Missouri and LSU have 2 losses each and wait for some upset.
The only team, which did drop from the list for now entirely is Vanderbilt.
Sun Belt Conference
Georgia Southern and Marshall are leading the East with 1 loss each.
Behind them are Old Dominion and James Madison.
The West is still led by Louisiana as unbeaten team and there is no 1-loss team left in the division, which gives Louisiana almost for sure the division crown.
They have 3 division games left and need only to win 1 to seal the deal, as far as I can see it (under the assumption the others would win their games, which is unlikely).
That's it for the conferences.
Bowl eligible teams
8 additional teams got the 6th win this weekend, so now 53 teams have already bowl eligibility.
Week 6: Miami, Indiana
Week 7: Army, Pittsburgh, BYU, Iowa State, Oregon, Penn State and Texas
Week 8: Clemson, Duke, SMU, Memphis, Navy, Illinois, Kansas State, UNLV, Washington State, Texas A&M, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana and Notre Dame
Week 9: Tulane, Ohio State, Colorado, Sam Houston, Boise State, Alabama, Ole Miss, James Madison
Week 10: Louisville, Syracuse, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Iowa, Minnesota, Western Kentucky, UConn, Toledo, Colorado State, Vanderbilt, Georgia Southern
Week 11: Georgia Tech, TCU, Jacksonville State, Liberty, Ohio, San Jose State, South Carolina, Marshall
78 bowl spots are available.
The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 11
Sat. Nov 9
#4 Miami @ Georgia Tech
One of the biggest upsets of the weekend.
Miami did look bad, almost the whole game, trailed GT since mid-2nd-quarter and did finally start to catch up in the 4th quarter.
They scored a TD with 6 minutes left, stopped GT after roughly 4 minutes and got the ball back to get that final drive going.
But the star QB of Miami did fumble the ball on a sack on the 2nd play and the Yellow Jackets did recover the ball to secure the win.
Too much ego as it seems.
I did mention an upset would be possible but picked the safe bet. Damn.
#4 Miami 23 @ Georgia Tech 28 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 25-9
#2 Georgia @ #16 Ole Miss
What can I say, the game went almost as expected, only that the Georgia QB did throw only 1 INT, instead of 3.
Biggest bonus for Ole Miss was their defense on the date, because they did really good contain the UGA offense.
Slowly the Rebels did pull away and in 2nd half, the Dawgs were unable to do much.
#2 Georgia 10 @ #16 Ole Miss 28 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 26-9
#11 Alabama @ #14 LSU
This was likely my worst pick of the gameday.
Man, LSU was embarrassing.
The Tigers defense did allow the Alabama QB to run wild and gave up alone on that guy 185 yards on the ground.
He did not even have to pass, just run.
Fine, they could have just answered with a stellar performance on offense, right? No, the QB had 2 INTs, the running game broke barely 100 yards in total.
By default did LSU lose, at home, big time.
#11 Alabama 42 @ #14 LSU 13 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 26-10
And some other interesting games:
Michigan @ #8 Indiana
Indiana was the whole game in control and won this 20:15, which is a big win for that program.
The Wolverine came close to take over the game in the 4th quarter, but Indiana was able to stop Michigan a drive later, kicked a field goal on the drive afterwards and forced a pass heavy attack by Michigan, which Indiana was able to control and stop.
Jacks interesting games Score: 22-14
#18 Army @ North Texas
Oh man, North Texas was just unable to play any good offense, had 2 INTs thrown and lost 3:14 against a still unbeaten Army team.
I still don't think Army is a good team, just good enough to win, as it seems.
Jacks interesting games Score: 22-15
#19 Clemson @ Virginia Tech
VT had a better 1st half than Clemson, but did only score once, leading 7:0 to the half.
Then did Clemson turn up the volume and scored 24 unanswered points, until the Hokies realized, they were losing at home.
Well, they scored a TD late, but it was too late to turn the game. Clemson won 24:14 and is right now in best position to get into the championship game, if they win also next week against Pitt.
Jacks interesting games Score: 22-16
And some more funny result of week 11:
- Northern Illinois found their strength again and did win against so far unbeaten inside the conference Western Michigan, 42:28. That does lead right now to a 4-team-tie at the top of the MAC with each team having 1 loss in the conference.
- East Carolina won against Florida Atlantic, 49:14. The win itself is not THAT surprising, but the fact that the team is under interims coaching and since the firing the team has won 2 games in a row now. To be fair, the opponents were prior those games, 2-5 Temple and 2-6 FAU. Likely the former HC would have won those games also. Biggest challenge for the team will be the last 2 games, with North Texas (5-3) and Navy (6-2).
- Cal got their 1st ACC win against Wake Forest on the road, winning 46:36. They still need 1 more in for a bowl spot.
- UCLA did beat Iowa, 20:17. That did cut off Iowa from the contender group inside the BIG10.
- New Mexico won against San Diego State, 21:16. That sends SDSU down the standings with 3 losses in a row.
- Kansas had a high scoring game against Iowa State, but won, 45:36. That did give ISU the 2nd loss in a row and did send them from contenders to hopeful in 2 weeks.
- Virginia upset Pittsburgh, 24:19, on the road. Pittsburgh did look like a Cinderella at the start of the season, but with a struggling QB, the team did fall flat the past 2 games. Virginia needs at least another win to get to a bowl.
- San Jose State won against Oregon State, 24:13. Oregon State in a rough transition phase with their new HC. Lost now 4 in a row.
- South Carolina did beat Vanderbilt, 28:7, on the road and became by that bowl eligible. Tough loss for the Commodores, which can be seen as eliminated from the SEC contention. Their QB did by the way sue the NCAA for his eligibility time as football player. As far as I understood the claim, the NIL policy of the NCAA for redshirts and JUCO players (he did play for a JUCO team for 2 seasons) does violates a law. We will see, what happens out of this. Officially he is a Senior and that would mean, end of the season he is out of the system. I think he seeks 2 more years to play as FCS/FBS player (and earn money on that).
- Air Force won their 1st MWC game against Fresno State, 36:28. But that won't change much for the Falcons, their season will be over soon.
The 2nd committee rankings were published and because of the gameday results, there were changes. Of course.
We are still 3 gamedays away from a clear picture for the conference championship game participants and 4 gamedays away from the final committee rankings, which will set the national playoff seats in stone.
Thanks to the cloak and dagger business inside the SEC, the BIG10 does for now dominate the top ranks. #1 Oregon, #2 Ohio State, #4 Penn State and #5 Indiana. Pending any surprising upset, this will stay almost the same until Ohio State and Indiana will clash in 2 gamedays and then the championship game will sort the rest out. Chances are high, all 4 will make the playoffs, but at least 3 for sure.
The SEC is now led by #3 Texas, #7 Tennessee, #10 Alabama, #11 Ole Miss, #12 Georgia, #15 Texas A&M, #21 South Carolina, #22 LSU and #23 Missouri.
Still a lot of movement is coming and as long as the higher ranked teams do lose, the conference in total will drop and suffer in the final rankings.
At the moment the conference looks OK regarding the amount of teams send to the playoffs, but that could change fast.
The BIG-12 jumped a spot regarding the 1st team in the rankings with #6 BYU, but then comes a long time nothing until #16 Kansas State and #17 Colorado.
None of them will play against each other, so all have the chance to boost their win record and then the top 2 teams in the conference will battle it out. Right now, it looks like the conference will send only 1 team to the playoffs.
Then the teams with only a chance for an at-large-bid are coming, with #8 Notre Dame highest and then the PAC-12 team #18 Washington State, which conference will not play a championship game this season (since they only have 2 teams right now). If Washington State keeps on winning, they MIGHT squeeze in on the last 3 gamedays.
The ACC dropped a bit, when Miami lost their game last gameday. Now they are #9 Miami, followed by #14 SMU, #19 Louisville and #20 Clemson.
Right now, the ACC looks also that way, that they will send only 1 team to the playoffs, but eventually Clemson could make a big jump, if they win against South Carolina end of the season.
The Mountain West dropped in the rankings, now with #13 Boise State, which has consequences, see a bit below.
And the last teams ranked are from the American Athletics, #24 Army and #25 Tulane.
Again, assuming the highest ranked team if each conference would be the champ, we have BIG10 (Oregon), SEC (Texas), BIG-12 (BYU) and ACC (Miami) as the 4 conferences highest ranked and by that with a bye week.
As 5th conference then would be in the Mountain West champ at #13 Boise State, having a seat in the 1st round.
The last 7 seats would be filled with the highest ranked teams, which would be #2 Ohio State, #4 Penn State, #5 Indiana, #7 Tennessee, #8 Notre Dame, #10 Alabama and as last team #11 Ole Miss.
Because #13 Boise State would be in, it would no longer be the top 12 teams (like last week), so #12 Georgia would NOT be in.
Here is the big secret of the rankings so far.
It will all be turned upside down after the championship games AND we might see the 2nd best team of the conference dropping out of the playoff seats, while 3rd or 4th best team of a conference might get into it after that gameday, because that conference game loser will have an additional loss and that might lead to a heavy drop in the rankings.
Also possible is, that if a championship game is filled with a dominating team (in terms of ranking) vs an average or worse team (in terms of ranking) and the average team would win, the conference will suffer in total and might even drop out of the playoffs in total.
That sounds weird, but I have an example.
Assuming in the ACC all teams not named Miami would get some more upsets and things, still Miami, then likely ranked at #7 or so, would play the 2nd team in the standings, maybe Louisville, which lost the game against Kentucky on last gameday, now ranked #21 or so, if even that.
Of course, Miami would be favored by a mile and if they would lose THAT game, they would drop big time.
Whether than Miami or Louisville would be ranked higher after that game is open, but the rank would be #16 or worse.
And the other team below that.
Now assuming Boise State will run the table inside the MWC, they will finish better than #16.
And assuming Tulane or Army will run the table inside the AAC, the winner of the championship game would eventually leapfrog the ACC winner.
And THEN the top 5 conference would be BIG10, SEC, BIG-12, MWC and AAC and the 7 at-large-teams would come from the top 12 spots or likely less.
No ACC anymore in the playoffs.
Sounds constructed, but such upsets did happen in the past and sometimes such a result is only 1 injury away.
I will keep you updated.
The next gameday has some neck breakers in it, depended on the winning team. Here we go. (rankings are AP-rankings)
The BLOCK OF GRANITE TOP GAMES FOR WEEK 12
Sat. Nov 16
#17 Clemson @ Pittsburgh
Last conference game for Clemson and they need to win to keep the hope of getting into the ACC Championship game alive.
Right now, Clemson is ahead of Miami, but they are a conference game behind Clemson. Assuming Miami will win all games and match the record Clemson would have winning in this game here, the tiebreaker would favor Miami, since they won against Louisville, against Clemson did lose.
So far, the theory and what's at stake here.
Pittsburgh did lose 2 in a row and has right now only an outside chance to reach the Championship game, if even that.
Winning would help, for sure.
Clemson is right now favored on the road by 10.0 points, which is a lot.
Not sure it's fair, but you cannot ignore the facts.
Fact 1, Pittsburgh did look bad the past 2 games and lost against competitive teams.
Fact 2, Clemson did play bad against Louisville 2 weeks ago, but did bounce back to win on the road against VT.
Now they face a big challenge against Pitt and either they good Tigers play or the bad ones.
The key will be the Pittsburgh defense. If they play tough, Clemson will have a problem, but if they can't control the Clemson offense and let them run wild, like Pitt did let it happen against SMU, the Panthers will lose.
I'm torn between the home team, which did play a great season until 2 weeks ago and the visiting team, which did not play great in all games, but did show they are one of the top teams inside the ACC.
I'm leaning towards Clemson, just because their talent level is so high.
I hope for a close game and even a Pittsburgh win, since I like underdogs, but I pick ...
Tigers win.
#25 Tulane @ Navy
Both teams are facing tough 2 games the next gamedays.
But this one, might be the one, which will decide the standings.
Tulane is right now unbeaten inside the conference and has the inside road to the AAC Championship game.
Navy has lost a game inside the conference (Rice) and needs the win to stay in the hunt AND to get the direct compare on their side.
There is no other team with 1 loss, so assuming both teams win their last game, the direct compare will be the deciding thing.
Played on the road for Tulane, they are still 6.5-point favorite right now.
And overall, I think that's fair.
I did pick (ESPN pick game) the Bulls to won against Navy last week but failed. Still, that win was not convincing for a championship contender. They won by 3 scores, while Tulane did a bit earlier win by 5 score.
Of course, every game is different and there are reasons for scoring and not scoring, still Tulane did look overall just better, so I expect them to get the game under control early and win this.
Green Wave win.
#6 Tennessee @ #11 Georgia
Oh man, the SEC is so tight this season.
Tennessee did look like toast, when they lost to Arkansas back in the old days in October, but then did 4 in a row, including Alabama. Georgia did look like scratched, when they lost to Alabama and done, when they lost last week against Ole Miss.
Still, there is hope for Georgia, at least a bit.
They are 1 win behind Tennessee and can shove them from the top with a win here. And the other 1-loss teams ahead of them will meet against each other on season finale.
I can't say how the tiebreaker will look like and whether at the end Georgia would still make the SEC Championship game, but I can tell you, losing this game will seal the deal for Georgia NOT to make the championship game.
Tennessee on the other side needs the win to keep that 1 win ahead of many other competing teams and to avoid some strange tiebreaker scenario in which worst case 3 to 5 teams are involved.
Georgia as home team is favored, by 10.0 points.
I personally think, that is a lot for a team, which did play not consistent in the past 4 games.
Their QB did send the ball round like bonbons (9 INTs in the last 4 games) and their defense was unable to stop offenses from scoring. And Tennessee has a quite good one.
Tough to say, who will prevail here.
I'm going with Tennessee, since they did so far play more consistent than Georgia.
I now, it's in Athens, so Georgia fans will be wild and UGA in the house, but Tennessee has the strength to overcome this.
Biggest issue will be the Georgia QB.
If he has a great game, Georgia will win, but since 4 games, he does play average at best.
Volunteers win.
And some other interesting games:
James Madison @ Old Dominion
I have 2 SUN Belt games here.
This here is an eliminator game.
The winner can keep on hoping for some stuff to happen to the teams ahead of them and to get back into the ring.
The loser will be separated by at least 1 loss, more likely 2 losses, to the leaders and can concentrate on getting to a bowl.
JMU is favored by 4.0, which seems OK.
Both teams did play a bit inconsistent, but overall did James Madison look a bit better than Old Dominion.
Dukes win.
South Alabama @ Louisiana
And this is either a crowning game, or a keep-on-hoping-game.
South Alabama is 2 games behind the leading team of Louisiana in the conference.
A win for USA here would close the gap a bit AND would give the team an edge on the tiebreaker, IF Louisiana loses again.
A win by the Cajuns would mean bye-bye for South Alabama and Louisiana would be almost for certain, if not already certain, win the division.
Louisiana is surprisingly only favored by 8.5 points.
I think at home, they will win big.
Ragin' Cajuns win.
San Diego State @ UNLV
And this is no longer that great as it was, when I did s e l e c t it, prior the last gameday.
Still a nice game.
San Diego State needs wins, to get to a bowl.
I think they are out of contention for the MWC with 2 losses, but at 3-6 overall, they still have a chance to get to a bowl.
UNLV has 1 loss and needs the win to NOT being cast to the out-of-competition-group.
Played at home, UNLV is favored by 20.5 points, but that line was beaten that season already by several teams.
I think the Aztecs can win on a good day, but it is unlikely.
Rebels win.
With the upcoming gameday including, 3 gamedays left to sort out the conference championship participants.
The November will stay hot.
'Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE
Tags: Block of Granite, News
