Only two weeks away from our Game 500 Celebration! Can’t wait! Two full buses of tailgaters heading up to West Point For Rutgers at Army. Go Knights! We’re looking forward to a good time for what has been a tremendous season of college football – for the sport in general and for us in particular…With the announcement of the College Football Playoff Rankings, it shows we’ve seen some quality football teams this season. We’ve seen # 3 Ohio State, #5 Notre Dame, #7 Michigan State, # 16 Florida State in a huge, exciting upset loss to Georgia Tech, we will see #17 Michigan at OSU the week after Game # 500, #22 Temple twice already and maybe a third time in the AAC championship game, and we’ll see #24 Toledo the night before OSU and Michigan tear each other apart. Add some other “also receiving votes” teams like Duke, USC, Penn State, Washington State, and Navy, we’re seeing some good competitive football games. All we say though is don’t get too excited about the CFP rankings. Things are going to change. There are a lot of critical games between now and December 13 for all that matters…
The Owls put pressure on the Irish last week, but ND is still the highest ranked team we’ve seen this year at No. 5.
Last week was the first time this season all the teams we are seeing during this regular season had a combined losing record (9-11). It shows that teams are getting into the meat of their schedules…Washington State who we saw beat Rutgers, 37-34, early in the season is in a funny predicament. They’re 5-3 overall and gave No. 11 CFP Stanford a tussle last week missing a last second FG to fall, 30-28. The polls have been holding them out even before that. Why? Their first loss of the season was to FCS Portland State (7-1) ranked at No. 10 in that division. How do you rank an FBS school that lost to an FCS school ranked No. 10? You’d have to place FCS #1-10 among the top teams in the FBS!…
We have a bye week this weekend and our timing is great with some great games on TV. These include Alabama vs. LSU and TCU vs. Oklahoma State in a game of unbeatens. But we’re really excited to be able to watch Navy play at Memphis in a Western Division American Athletic Conference game. It will be Navy’s triple option against Memphis with high-powered QB Paxton Lynch. The Tigers have the big win over Ole Miss, and are favored at home. The key to Navy winning is ball control and keeping Memphis on the field to a minimum. Can they put pressure on Lynch and cover tight will be the big questions. It will be tough for Navy to win this one, but we’d like to see them make things interesting with another game against undefeated Houston also in their division a few weeks from now. Winner among those three West teams looks like they will be playing against Temple for the championship. Temple hosts Memphis on November 21. It would be great to see that AAC championship game on December 5 if it ends up in Philly or Annapolis. We’re watching this AAC situation rooting for the Mids!…
After seeing Georgia Tech two weeks ago with that exciting win over FSU on the last play of the game, the Yellow Jackets could not build any momentum. They fell to Virginia last week, 27-21. FSU has Clemson this week. That looks to be the Tiger’s greatest challenge to stay in the CFP. WAs FSU QB Sean Maguire the real deal for FSU last week in their win over Syracuse. We hear he looked pretty good …
At least Georgia tech had something to cheer about when they beat Florida State.
Rutgers was humbled in another Big Ten game last week falling to Wisconsin easily, 48-10. They are at Michigan this weekend and you know Jim Harbaugh will show no mercy. As a matter of fact, he’s trying to ramp up recruiting in the Garden State. The Scarlet Knight play a struggling Nebraska team at home a week later. The question is what kind of shape are the Scarlet Knights going to be in a after their visit to Ann Arbor…Our other Game 500 combatant Army is at arch-rival Air Force this week. The Falcons return home after devastating Hawaii last week, 58-7. Maybe the Falcons will be tired from their long flight back to give Army a slight chance. Nah! The Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy is on the line…When we see Air Force play Utah State on November 14, the game will possibly have championship ramifications for the Mountain West Conference. Both teams are tied for first in the Mountain division. Utah State beat Boise State, 52-26. Air Force will go into that game with a conference record of 4-1 after they play Army. USU plays at New Mexico this week. The week after we see Air Force and Utah State play, the Falcons play at Boise. Utah State’s conference loss is to West Division leader, San Diego State, Tom Able’s team who we saw fall to Penn State this season. We’re going to see some significant action when we’re in the Rockies…And by the way, we think Colorado is going to surprise USC. They gave UCLA a tough game in a 35-31 loss. What a great season, and a lot more is on the way!…
Air Force has rival Army this week followed by critical MWC game against Utah State and Boise. What a great schedule we put together this year!
Enjoy the games this weekend. Things are going to start shaking out!…The injury to James Madison QB Vad Lee who we saw play QB at Georgia Tech in the Music City Bowl two years ago has set the Dukes back. They lost their second game in a row to William and Mary, 44-41…Harvard defeated Dartmouth , 14-13, last Friday to take sole possession of first place in the Ivy league…The crimson’s archrival Yale fell to lowly Columbia, 17-9 for a major setback…Colgate defeated Fordham to take sole possession of the Patriot league with a surprising 3-0 record…Charleston Southern upset Coastal Carolina last week 33-28. Both teams have the same record of 7-1. the Buccaneers are 4-0 in conference play while the Chanticleers are now 2-1. CCU is ranked No. 8 and SCU is ranked No. 15? Go figure!…In D-3, Mt. Union remains No1, followed by Linfield, UW-Oshkosh, and then Wesley. Only two games left in the season before they start the playoffs. We are hoping to get to the Championship on December 18, a Friday night. We’re hoping to see two team other than Mount Union and Wisconsin -Whitewater, but we’ll see.