College Football 2017

linky

Florida State moved quickly to identify Jimbo Fisher’s replacement.

Four days after Fisher officially left Tallahassee for Texas A&M, Florida State has hired Oregon’s Willie Taggart as its next head coach. Taggart is leaving the Ducks after just one season, where he went 7-5.

Based on everything the committee has supposedly said about choosing Alabama, even had Wisconsin beat Ohio State they committee may very well had taken Alabama. Other than win the Big10 Wisconsin would have beaten nobody the committee respected.

But they wouldn’t have, as Wisconsin was already ranked higher than Alabama in the penultimate rankings.

But based on their reasoning for picking Alabama over Ohio State they had no reason to pick Wisconsin. Alabama was basically picked because the committee thought they were the better team.

The committee makes up reasons after the fact - they are only human after all. I am confident they would not have left the sole undefeated P5 team out. It’s literally impossible - that will implode the entire CFP system entirely.

…and that’s why it would’ve happened.

This kid gets it!

tennessee

Tennessee’s long nightmare appear to be ending. Jeremy Pruitt, Bama DC, has been offered. Details have been ironed out, and there’s no outcry like that which sank Schiano.

Well, hiring an Alabama assistant is often a good plan it seems.

That’s not a bad hire. Pruitt isn’t high profile, but at this point there was nobody left for the Vols to hire that would have been. In Pruitt they get a very good recruiter already familiar with the SEC, and a proven defensive strategist. How that translates to head coach ability remains to be seen, but he was definitely one of the top coordinators out there in terms of talent, and he won’t have much trouble with the whole SEC/Tennessee expectations thing coming from 'Bama.

If it had gone on any longer I was half expecting them to announce Peyton Manning as head coach for 2018.

Any coach is only as good as the staff he hires around him.

Man, that Georgia-Oklahoma Rose Bowl… The double overtime was pretty amazing. Maybe the single biggest Georgia football game since the 1980 win against Florida that saved their championship season. I admit, I had written them off at half-time, but jeez, they can score some points. And the defense, while, ahem, hardly impermeable, stood up when it counted. That blocked field goal was something to see.

Be interesting to see how the championship game shakes out. Dawgs gonna have to shore up the defense a bit, but then, I doubt either Bama or Clemson has a QB like OKs.

I really expected more from Georgia’s defense. Not a shutout or anything, not against Oklahoma, but 31 in the first half looked terrible. Guess we’ll see in the championship game whether that was just fear of Mayfield opening up lots of running room, or if the Dawg D is really that porous.

I think it’s a combo of things. Georgia shares a flaw common to a lot of SEC teams, which is that they are so focused on teams in their division that they tend to be exploitable by anyone who doesn’t play the same way. Also, few teams have a QB as good as Mayfield. What impressed me, besides the generally amazing offense, is that the defense didn’t fold. Maybe that’s Smart, maybe it’s tradition, maybe it’s just chemistry, but when it counted, they dug in like junkyard dogs. Even into two overtimes, though really, it’s the offenses who were probably the most tired.

Anyhow, for me, beating Auburn in the rematch made the season, and this is (fabulously tasty) gravy. The national championship? Be nice, but the bigger part of that will be beating another huge rival more than anything else.

A healthy and prepared Alabama is scary good. Only having a week is the one positive I can give Georgia in the game. Still the Rose Bowl was a fun game to watch.

We are in the darkest timeline

I think I give up trying to predict anything about these games. Smart pretty much plays Alabama football, and knows that recipe well. Alabama though has a sort of deep-seated knowledge of how good they are, and this feeling that national championships are a natural part of their diet.

I suspect that if the game is low-scoring, 'Bama wins. If it’s a shoot out, the edge goes to Georgia.

I agree, but watching the game last night, it wasn’t an all out slug fest. It was quite subdued, and Clemson had opportunities they missed. Playing a different team, Alabama can’t give opportunities like that. Hell, Clemson even gave them points with a pick, or at least set it up to get there.

I’m not a Bama fan, but don’t really have an skin in this upcoming match. I’d love to see a good game though.