Way back in the Stone Age, in 2007 to be exact, I was one of the few fans in the country who was opposed to the concept of a college football playoff.
That was the year, you may recall, when Boise St. beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on a two-point conversion run on a Statue of Liberty play in overtime. The running back, Ian Johnson, then dropped to a knee and proposed to his girlfriend, a Boise St. cheerleader.
My brother-in-law almost immediately started talking about how it was too bad the season was over for Boise St. and they didn’t get to play Florida or Ohio St. the two teams who were playing in that year’s BCS National Championship game.
Watching the postgame celebration and interviews, I disagreed.
“This would be a lot less special if all the quotes were ‘We haven’t done anything yet, we still have one more to go,” I said.
Now here we are, with a 12-team playoff going into effect this season, and to paraphrase a famous quote by Barry Sanders about a much different subject, “My opinion on that subject has evolved.”
Although the college football offseason sucks the life right out of you – with the transfer portal, NIL, one Georgia player after another getting arrested for all sorts of driving violations, realignment killing off the PAC-12 and looking like it’s going to divide Division I football into two separate divisions, and, last week, Oklahoma St. announcing it’s putting QR codes on their player’s helmets so fans can scan them with their phone and make NIL donations – the actual games are finally here, and although we do need a better name for this first mini-schedule each season than "Week 0," I’m as excited as ever.
Actually, even more than ever.
The paradox of the insufferable offseason is that it’s made the games even more of a respite, and I’m actually really excited to see how Oregon and Washington do in the Big 10, hoping to see Texas fall on its face in the SEC, and yes, I’m really looking forward to the 12-team playoff.
Ordinarily, as a sports fan, I might also be excited for the season to start to root for my favorite teams, but my three teams – New Mexico, East Carolina and Cal – won a combined 12 games last season and only ECU looks like it might be decent this year. But, I’m actually more of a fan of the sport of college football than I am of any particular team, and even though there’s only a handful of games this week, I’ve been counting down the days to Saturday since the March Madness ended.
Let’s Gooo!
(By the way, Jim Vallet will return to contribute his wit and hopefully some winners in two weeks when the NFL kicks off.)
The picks
Lines from William Hill as of Thursday
Florida St./Georgia Tech over 55.5: Georgia Tech returns three of its top four receivers, four offensive linemen and quarterback Haynes King, who threw 27 touchdowns and 16 interceptions last season, and ran for 10 touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets averaged 31 points per game last season, and they should be as explosive this year. Their defense, however, allowed 29.5, but it was actually worse than that, allowing over 40 three times and 39 another, with games against FCS South Carolina St and punchless Virginia lowering their average. Florida St. doesn’t have anywhere near that same continuity, but the Seminoles have athletes galore and quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei threw 36 touchdowns and 17 interceptions last year at Oregon St. I expect the Seminoles to approach 40 by themselves, so we just need the Yellow Jackets to get close to 20. As an added bonus, both of these quarterbacks bring the possibility of a Pick 6 at any time.
SMU/Nevada under 55.5: This is a game that has an even higher than normal possibility of making me look like an idiot, but the fact that the total is the same on these two games is mind boggling. Yes, SMU has quarterback Preston Stone and an offense that averaged 38.7 points per game. Maybe they hang 40 or 50 on the Wolf Pack and I look even stupider than usual, but I just don’t see Nevada finding the end zone very much. The Wolf Pack was woefully undercoached the past two seasons, and although I don’t know what kind of coach Jeff Choate will be, I do expect him to at least be competent, which is miles above what the Pack had on the sideline last year. I expect Nevada to try to run the ball and shorten the game, given that he’s a defensive coach. In contrast to those quarterbacks I mentioned above, Nevada’s Brendan Lewis and A.J. Bianco COMBINED for six touchdown passes last year. Even if SMU hangs 40, Nevada still needs 16, and I don’t see it against the Ponies, who allowed only 17.8 points per game last year and held seven of their opponents to 14 or less.
Comment
Comments