If I had to describe what makes college football better than any other sport in one word, that word would be tradition. There are countless traditions in this sport, some more recognizable than others. One of my personal favorites is playing the Red River Rivalry in the Cotton Bowl.
I generally resent neutral site games, as they feel corporate and lack the atmosphere of on campus games. This game has always been an exception, and I hope they never move it. Between the historic venue and the Texas State Fair in the backdrop, there is nothing quite like this rivalry.
This year’s rendition was particularly interesting for two reasons, the first being that both Texas and Oklahoma were undefeated entering Saturday’s matchup. The other being this is the last go around for each school before they enter the SEC.
The game itself did not disappoint and was a back and forth showdown between two legit contenders. A career defining performance from Dillon Gabriel was just enough to push the Sooners over the top. While Texas already proved itselfwith a signature win at Alabama earlier this year, Oklahoma was still largely a mystery.
Year one of the Brent Venables era was underwhelming to say the least. The program was still reeling from the mass exodus that came with Lincoln Riley’s departure, and they just had to ride out 2022.
While Oklahoma got off to a hot start this fall, we still didn’t have a clue to whether the Sooners were a legitimate playoff contender. We got a resounding answer to that question in Dallas, with the Sooners all but punching their ticket to the Big 12 Championship.
Oklahoma is vastly superior on paper to everyone remaining on its schedule. Oklahoma plays a trap game against Kansas in a few weeks, but if it can get by the Jayhawks there is a strong chance the Sooners enter AT&T Stadium undefeated.
As for the team on the losing end, the Longhorns still have everything in front of them despite the disappointing result from Saturday. The Alabama win gave this team a mulligan, they will still make the College Football Playoff should they win out.
Like the Sooners, the remainder of the Longhorns’ regular season is very workable. Texas should be double-digit favorites the rest of the way. This all boils down to Texas not playing down to competition which has been a disturbing trend over the past decade.
I still fully believe this team is capable of doing damage in December and January, but they have to get there first. Cutting down on turnovers is a good place to start. Texas committed three turnovers against the Sooners after having just four turnovers in its first five games.
There’s a good chance the Big 12 title game will be between the two programs departing at season’s end. Assuming both take care of business until then, the rematch will be a play-in game for the CFP.
As for the current state of the SEC, we finally have some clarity as to who the frontrunners are. It’s the usual suspects, Georgia in the East, and Alabama in the West. While it took some time, it is evident that Vegas had the right team in each division favored.
After a couple of sluggish first halves to open conference play, Georgia put its foot on the gas and steamrolled Kentucky, scoring on all of its first half possessions. This comes one week after I demoted the defending champs to number two in the nation.
Did Kirby Smart use my rankings as bulletin board material? Probably not, but I want to pretend he did anyway. Carson Beck had his best game to date, and the run defense bounced back big time after getting gashed for over 200 yards against Auburn.
It was around this time last year that the Bulldogs got out of their early season funk and went on a run that culminated in a second consecutive National Championship. This year’s team may not be as good as the previous two, but it is still the best in the nation for the 2023 season.
Perhaps no team was more underwhelming out of the gate than Alabama. A ten point loss against Texas followed by an atrocious showing against South Florida had a large portion of the college football community declaring the dynasty dead.
The alleged end of Nick Saban’s run may have been exaggerated as the Tide look legit in conference play. The Tide passed a tough test in College Station, with Jalen Milroe and Jermaine Burton both having career days.
We knew this team boasted a defense that could keep them in any game, the questions surrounded their passing attack, or lack thereof. While this year’s Alabama team doesn’t have first round picks littered across the field at wide receiver, they do have talented pieces that can cause problems for opposing secondaries.
Jermaine Burton came in with a lot of hype that wasn’t realized until this past weekend. If Burton can continue his upward trajectory in performance, he could be the X-factor that gets this team back into the playoff.
While Georgia and Alabama both have control of their respective paths to the conference title, the ACC is the equivalent of a rubik’s cube. The ACC did away with divisions and will have the top two teams based off conference record face off in Charlotte.
Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina are all undefeated which you wouldn’t think much of. However, none of the three teams play each other meaning there is a possibility that all three are still undefeated at the end of the season.
While it is highly unlikely, imagine a team missing out on its conference title game after going undefeated in league play. The tiebreaker in this scenario would be conference opponent win percentage. While it is still early, that tiebreaker would currently leave Florida State as the odd team out.
This tiebreaker is really complicated to follow and likely won’t be necessary but it’s worth monitoring until one of the three slips up.
What isn’t complicated is kneeling the clock out when you already have the game won. That is, unless you are the Miami Hurricanes coaching staff who should be watching the Miracle at the Meadowlands on repeat in the office all week.
The Hurricanes led Georgia Tech 20-17 with less than 40 seconds remaining and the Yellow Jackets out of timeouts. Instead of just lining up in victory formation and running the clock out, Miami opted for a run play that resulted in Don Chaney Jr. fumbling and the ball being recovered by Tech.
Georgia Tech proceeded to hit a long touchdown with just a second remaining to cap off the bizarre sequence of events. Now to be clear I’m not blaming this on Chaney, he should have never been put in that position.
This falls squarely on Mario Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson for egregious situational mismanagement. There is literally no benefit to running a play instead of kneeling the clock out, best case scenario Chaney gets tackled and the play serves the same purpose a kneel down would have .
You have to know as a coaching staff that defenders are punching for the ball in that situation, the only hope of sparking a comeback was forcing a fumble, so why even give them the chance to do so? One could argue that Chaney was down and the fumble should have been called back but why did it even get to that point?
Miami is having a really nice season, and Cristobal has the program trending upward. So no, I’m not going togo as far to call for jobs but I’m also not even gonna attempt to defend the way the ending of the Georgia Tech game was handled.
The big question now is how does Miami respond? Do they flounder after such a heartbreaking loss and go 7-5? Or do they respond with a complete performance against undefeated North Carolina and get back on track?
There’s no real way of knowing which will happen until Saturday.
Chris’ College Football Top 25 Rankings:
1.Georgia Bulldogs (6-0) W vs Kentucky 51-13, last week-2
2.Michigan Wolverines (6-0) W vs Minnesota 52-10, last week-1
3.Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0) W vs Maryland 37-17, last week-3
4.Florida State Seminoles (5-0) W vs Virginia Tech 39-17, last week-5
5.Penn State Nittany Lions (5-0) BYE, last week-6
6.Washington Huskies (5-0) BYE, last week-7
7.Oregon Ducks (5-0) BYE, last week-8
8.Oklahoma Sooners (6-0) W vs Texas 34-30, last week-12
9.Texas Longhorns (5-1) L vs Oklahoma 34-30, last week-4
10.Alabama Crimson Tide (5-1) W vs Texas A&M 26-20, last week-11
11.USC Trojans (6-0) W vs Arizona 43-41, last week-10
12.Louisville Cardinals (6-0) W vs Notre Dame 33-20, last week-unranked
13.Oregon State Beavers (5-1) W vs California 52-40, last week-14
14.Ole Miss Rebels (5-1) W vs Arkansas 27-20, last week-15
15.North Carolina Tar Heels (5-0) W vs Syracuse 40-7, last week-17
16.Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-2) L vs Louisville 33-20, last week-9
17.LSU Tigers (4-2) W vs Missouri 49-39, last week-20
18.Duke Blue Devils (4-1) BYE, last week-16
19.Utah Utes (4-1) BYE, last week-21
20.UCLA Bruins (4-1) W vs Washington State 25-17, last week-unranked
21.Washington State Cougars (4-1) L vs UCLA 25-17, last week-13
22.Tennessee Volunteers (4-1) BYE, last week-22
23.Kentucky Wildcats (5-1) L vs Georgia 51-13, last week-19
24.Missouri Tigers (5-1) L vs LSU 49-39, last week-23
25.Wyoming Cowboys (5-1) W vs Fresno State 24-19, last week-unranked
Dropped out of rankings – Miami, Kansas State, Clemson