Saban’s system
To many not affiliated with the vaunted Southeastern Conference, it really means “Alabama and the other 13”. Conference members still try to knock The Tide off the top of the SEC since Nick Saban has taken them over since 2007. However, nobody else in the FBS gets a true shot either until it comes to the CFP. Take Miami this year, for instance. Like other Alabama openers in the past, they’re supposedly playing at a neutral site. This was the eighth opener in Atlanta Alabama has played since 2007. All against different teams. And during those seasons under Saban, The Tide has competed in the post-season play in Atlanta nine times. Neutral? Easy drive for their dedicated fans base. Great times had by all.
And funny how teams like Duke and Louisville met them in openers after successful seasons. Lots of pregame hype. However, in both of those cases, starting QBs from their previous seasons, Daniel Jones and Lamar Jackson respectively, already headed to the NFL. Another key to success, open against an inexperienced QB while no one is looking. This year, Miami heralded D’Eriq King’s return at QB. Did the neutral field “neutralize” him in the Hurricane’s 43-14 loss? Evidently not. Michigan State visited the Hurricanes on their home turf much farther from their East Lansing home last Saturday. The Spartans came away with a 38-17 win from Hard Rock Stadium.
A key point here is The Tide refuses to play a home and home series with any of these teams. When was the last time an Alabama team coached by Saban played on a non-conference Power Five campus? It was in 2011, in a 27-11 win at Penn State who started an inexperienced QB. They met Michigan, Wisconsin, and USC in “neutral” Arlington, Texas in other openers. Wonder whose fan-base is predominant at that site? If you don’t know, take a lesson in US Geography. How about playing these teams the following year in Chicago, Indianapolis, or Las Vegas? They’re neutral, or aren’t they?
Don’t tell him. He knows what he’s doing.
Who needs a big pay-out?
Then of course, in case they ever slip up, they play an FCS team next. This year – Mercer. Alabama has the top recruiting class in the nation every year. So, they schedule a team not even among the 130 other schools supposedly recruiting FBS level players? Should this game even count? They should lose votes for scheduling this game no matter what the score. Ok, one school that non-competitive is no excuse, but two? New Mexico State brings up the back-end of the slate before their biggest threat every year, their instate rival – Auburn. Maybe he forgot his team slaughtered the same in 2019, 62-10. Maybe he thinks they got better?
Is Saban really afraid his team will lose focus at that time of year so much? Since he started coaching Bama in 2007, does he not know that the Aggies have only won 39 games over that period of time. Does his juggernaut always need a “gimme” game to prepare for the next challenge? He’s got the best football talent in the college football universe, but he hates to be challenged. So, he avoids challenges until he has no choice. No wonder why he didn’t last long at the next level. He found out that without recruiting and scheduling advantages, he’s just a run of the mill coach when the playing field is level. Smart thinking on his part. Can’t blame him, but the current system offers advantages to those who know how to manipulate it. And no one can do that better than he can.
SEC? SEC? SEC? or “The Other 13”
As for the others in this vaunted conference so far: LSU fell at UCLA in an unusual west coast trip for the Tigers. Auburn played a Big Ten school on the road for the first time in 90 years and lost to Penn State last weekend. Mississippi State lost to AAC Memphis not far away but on the road, 31-29. And the SEC says they lost it on a non-call by their refs after the Bulldogs left a punt on the turf? How come they’re not admitting to at least four major bad calls their refs made against Penn State last weekend in their 28-20 win over Auburn? Nobody else wants to hear it.
Pitt beat Tennessee, 41-34, in Neyland two weeks ago and then fell at home to Western Michigan, 44-41, last week. No. 7 Texas A&M pulled out last minute win at Colorado, 10-7. A week later, Minnesota visited the Buffalos in Boulder and dominated to win, 30-0. Last week, Kentucky struggled against one of our new favorite FCS teams near us in Tennessee, Austin Peay, to get by, 28-23. Every SEC team’s conference patsy, Vanderbilt, lost to East Tennessee State of the FCS in their home opener, 23-3. Georgia’s opening win over Clemson, 10-3, lost some luster when the Tigers could only beat Georgia Tech two weeks later, 14-8.
Probably the best non-conference wins among the Other 13 came when Ole Miss beat NC State at home, 24-10, and when Arkansas defeated Texas at home, 40-21. Ole Miss hosts Liberty late in the season. The point is that the Other 13 play on equal par with other conferences. During the regular season, they don’t have many chances to prove they are dominant. Of course, come bowl season, when they virtually all get another “home” game by virtue of their advantageous proximity to warm weather climates, they will attempt to make that claim most likely. This year could be different though.
We watched Kentucky win over South Carolina in our third and final game of 2020. They meet in South Carolina this Saturday.
We beefed up our schedule
After Florida State’s opening close loss to Notre Dame, their trip to Clemson enticed us to possibly go see a meaningful, competitive, ACC game against the Tigers on October 30. Following FSU’s losses to Jacksonville State and a big one to an improving Wake Forest team last weekend, we decided to abort that mission. Clemson struggles offensively as well. Our five-hour trip will still be there the next few years, we figure. So, looking at that date, we see the possibility of a game or maybe even two that interest us at venues we’ve never attended. We committed to a trip to Utah, and we now await the TV people to figure the times. Former BYU HC Bronco Mendenhall will bring his Virginia Cavaliers (2-1) back to Provo to play his former employer, BYU, currently 3-0 and ranked No. 15.
UVA QB Brennan Armstrong can put a lot of points on the board and HC Kalani Sitake’s defense continues to keep opponents, three Pac- 12 foes thus far, averaging less than 17 ppg. A lot can happen between now and then, but if the TV gurus plan this game at night, we hope we get the chance to see No. 24 UCLA visit the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City as well. Utah State (3-0) is little farther north of Provo but plays Hawaii at 1 pm. Hoping things work our way for two, but BYU vs. UVA may be worth this trip alone.
Week Three in Review
What can we say about our game last week? Great game despite the officiating inadequacies. Hope to see Penn State (3-0) and Auburn (2-1) go deep into the CFP considerations this year…We predicted that if any FCS team had a shot to beat an FBS team, Delaware (2-1) could possibly overcome Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights (3-0), however, put the whammy on the Blue Hens, 45-13. For the FCS upset of the week, we should have looked no further than two weeks ago. The Texas State Bobcats (1-2) got beat at home by Incarnate Word, 42-34. HC Jake Spavital goes into the pressure cooker now in a road game against Eastern Michigan before games in the improving Sun Belt Conference…
Notre Dame (3-0) defeated Purdue (2-1) albeit unimpressively, 27-13. Ranked 12th, the Irish have games coming up against Wisconsin (1-1) with their tough defense in Chicago. Now that’s what we call a neutral site. The following week, the Irish host No. 8 Cincinnati (3-0) who have a bye this week…
Cincinnati looks to get the AAC recognized as a the sixth “Power’ conference these past few years. Now it looks to get the Other Five a spot in this year’s CFP.
No. 4 Oklahoma defeated former rival Nebraska, 23-16. Very unimpressed. The Sooners have WVU, a game at Kansas State, Texas in Dallas, and TCU the next four weeks. They’re bound to trip somewhere by then…Cincy knocked off Indiana (1-2) with late plays. This and the ND game were required wins by the soothsayers before they try to run the table against the American Athletic Conference. Luke Fickell’s squad has a very legitimate shot to break the Power Five hold on the CFP this season…Alabama may have shown some vulnerability in their 31-29 win The Swamp against the Gators last week. Surely, Saban has his team in a recovery mode against Southern Miss (1-2) this week just in time to prepare for his former OC Lane Kiffin when Ole Miss visits Tuscaloosa the week after.
Our Best of Week Four
Rutgers (3-0) at No. 19 Michigan (3-0) – who’d have thunk this? Which team steps back into reality? Neither team has beaten anybody of note. At home and based on tradition, we have to go with U of M… Missouri (2-1) at BC (3-0) – again no one has beaten anyone of note. We’ll bank on Jeff Hafley’s Eagle defense to challenge the Tigers offense this weekend. Hopefully, this will overcome any surprise the SEC team may bring along to Boston…
Wake Forest (3-0) at Virginia (2-1) on Friday night – Both teams are scoring about 40 points per game so we expect this to be high-scoring right to the bitter end. We have great interest in this game since both teams will play twice on our schedule late this year. Should be fun. Who has the better defense? Not sure yet, but based on a shoot-out with Louisville two years ago, we’re going with Wake in a slight upset…
Wake and Louisville duked it out two years ago to a final score of 62-59 won by the Cardinals. Looking for similar results when Wake meets UVA Friday night.
No. 12 Notre Dame (3-0) vs. No. 18 Wisconsin in Chicago – we go with the Badgers as their defense can stop Notre Dame and their familiarity with former Badger QB Jack Coan will work against the Irish. Too bad because an Irish loss here may take any luster off a Cincinnati win the following week…Marshall (2-1) at Appalachian State (2-1) on Thursday night. What the heck happened to the Thundering Herd last week in that come from behind loss at home to East Carolina, 42-38? Appy beat ECU at home in their opener, 33-19. We’ll go with the Mountaineers on that mountain in Boone, NC…
Texas San Antonio (3-0) at Memphis (3-0). We like what we saw from WR Calvin Austin last week versus Mississippi State. The overall Tiger team speed is going to put Memphis past the Roadrunners…We think NC State’s defense will hold No. 9 Clemson in check again this week. At home, the Wolfpack brings enough offense to knock the Tigers out of CFP contention early this season to shock the college football world. Looking forward to a few new entries in the Final Four this year – along with Alabama come Georgia, Penn State, and Cincinnati.