We at Collegefootballfan.com look forward to College Football Week 7 as most teams are near or have played six of twelve scheduled games so far. Results have started separating the men from the boys as we say in old school lingo. What makes this upcoming week special is that this is the first this season when we’ll attend two games. In past years, we accomplished that by Labor Day weekend, but in the new digs this year, we just didn’t get it together.

On Thursday night, we’ll attend the game in Memphis (3-3, 0-2) where one of our annual stalwarts, Navy, will play against a good Memphis team loaded with offensive firepower in an American Athletic Conference game. Navy (1-4, 1-1) seems to be getting on track now offensively with a QB more skilled than what we saw they had when they lost to Air Force earlier this season.

This Saturday, we return to Chattanooga, site of our season opener. UTC Chattanooga has struggled since to 2-4, 1-1 in the Southern Conference. Forecasted as a pre-season FCS Top 25, they’ll entertain the No. 10 FCS team leading the SOCON, Eastern Tennessee State University (6-0, 3-0) . If the Moccasins have any chance to win the conference to get a playoff bid, they need to start with a victory here. Successful seasons are on the line for all four teams on our docket during College Football Week 7.

Quarterback Depth Perception

The advent of the transfer portals makes QB depth the toughest problem for Head Coaches today.  Teams face this everywhere.  A short-term issue causes a long term-void.  Alabama exemplified the issue a few years ago.  Jalen Hurts won a national championship his freshman year.  Tua Tagovailoa stepped into the championship game to seal the victory and the fate of Hurts at the same time. A year later, the sophomore QB lingered along the sideline after a stellar season.  He eventually transferred to Oklahoma.  There, he led the Sooners to the CFP, a loss to Bama in the playoff, and moved on to start in the NFL.  It worked well for Alabama and for Hurts, but the issue will continue, and it won’t always work for both parties in the end.

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Best-laid plans?

Georgia HC Kirby Smart may be living up to his surname as he has eight QBs on his roster after JT Daniels transferred over from USC two years ago.  He went down to injury, and Stetson Bennet stepped back in.  Luckily for UGA, they had an experienced QB who hung around as a back-up his senior year. A senior signal-caller hanging around will be an unusual luxury in the future with the portal transfer system in place – a year later that senior will be playing for somebody else (Baylor’s Charley Brewer, for instance, going to Utah).

    Among the other six slingers at Georgia, three are Freshman (I hope that term doesn’t offend any of them). If Daniels comes back this season, Bennet’s not going anywhere if he’s needed again.  How many of these current benchwarmers in the waiting wings for the Dawgs will still be on the roster in their Junior or Senior year if they don’t get any playing time.  Like Hurts, who can blame them from seeking playing time?  Surely with their credentials to play for Georgia, they will find playing time elsewhere.

Exposure

  Look at the situation last weekend when Penn State had to pull starter Sean Clifford due to an injury in the second quarter leading 17-3.  Back up Ta‘Quan Roberson came in to replace him.  Without game experience, he played ineffectively to fall to Iowa, 23-20.  QBs going consistently for three and outs cannot win football games.  Why didn’t James Franklin have a more experienced back up QB on hand?  Well, Will Levis took that transfer portal last season for greener pastures. How did that work out?  Great for Levis and the Kentucky Wildcats.   Levis is the starting QB at UK, 6-0, ranked 11^th, and playing No. Georgia in a big SEC East showdown this Saturday.

    The portal challenges coaches to win with the best QB possible (ask Nick Saban) and keep the rest of his back-ups happy to stick around waiting for a chance to replace the starter.  If that doesn’t happen quickly, they’ll find that portal.  Inexperience comes into play after they leave. If your starter goes down, how do you prepare?  Texas A&M’s Zach Calzada, another freshman, replaced their former starter to lead A&M to their win over No.1 Alabama.  Based on his performance, does he continue to start?

  As a frosh, he’s got a few more years ahead of him.  Haynes King and Eli Stowers, also freshman, stock Jimbo Fishers cupboard well for now, but what will they be thinking next spring?  “Do I stay or do I go?”  Going forward, it’s going to be imperative to keep a starting QB healthy, but if not, you have to have the next guy prepared to step-in.   The back-up will have to have enough experience to keep him happy and effective.  If not, he’s no longer there.  Pot-luck after that.

“Captain Obvious”

     Usually when “guru” Paul Finebaum speaks, he’s wrong.  Before the season, he said Oklahoma is his dark horse if Alabama doesn’t win because the Sooners have a good defense. Really?  That has proven wrong. Unless he considers 60^th in scoring defense and 112^th against the pass as a good defense.   Last week, he said he has “concern for The Big Ten” as a conference. They can’t be taken seriously, he insisted.  The conference still has four undefeated teams now that conference play has started, and five are ranked in the Top Ten this week (only two SEC teams). 

After the only team he stakes his reputation on, Alabama, fell to Texas A&M, 41-38, he labeled Alabama’s defense as “disgraceful”, and their play calling as “inexplicable” in their first loss this year. The loss marked the first to a non-ranked team in fifty such contests and the first for Nick Saban to a former assistant.

    Well, no kidding!   A lot of other people who watched the game on television like he did think the same.  As a pundit totally focused on The Crimson Tide, why didn’t he consider these weaknesses before this game rather than vote them No. 1 in the nation each week beforehand?  As an analyst, this proves he’s unqualified.  After the fact, his opinion is pretty consistent amongst most college football fans.  He states the obvious.  He second guesses Nick Saban of all coaches?  Based on what?  What value does he bring to college football other than to be Alabama’s head cheerleader and to build the reputations for other teams in the SEC who fall to The Crimson Tide season after season? Maybe he can do hotel commercials on television instead!

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Some Food for Thought

   Reviewing RJ Young’s Top 25 last Monday, which many did not agree with, gave us some ideas.  We didn’t agree with all the rankings, but we liked his originality that can be considered.  He basically took all ten currently undefeated teams and ranked them No. 1 – 10. Next, he rated all once-beaten teams and ranked them persistently between No. 11-20. The last five of the 25 consisted of some two-loss and one-loss teams where he considered a little more regarding strength of schedules among them. 

Nice thing here is that eight of ten conferences are ranked in his Top 25.  The MAC and ConferenceUSA did not make his poll.  Looking at the overall quality of wins between those two conferences, there’d be no or little argument from anyone.  If a decision is made for eight teams to qualify for the CFP and the rankings finish along the current lines, you could have eight conferences being represented based on that criteria.  Or, for an argument that some of the best teams (based on human perceptions and bias) don’t make it, at least a preliminary playoff could be set up among the Group of Five in a play-in format to at least give this group representation. At least one, but maybe even two teams should play depending on the year.  They represent 50% of the Football Bowl Subdivision.  Here’s Young’s current rankings. It’s interesting.

Our Best of Week 6 in Review

     We had hoped for BYU to stay undefeated for our trip to Provo on October 30, but Boise (3-3) ruined that for us, 26-17.  The Cougars, ranked No. 19, visit 5-1 Baylor this week meaning the winner gets to stay or move up into the rankings. We still look forward to seeing BYU host pass-happy Brennan Armstrong and Virginia in Provo…In the consolation game between Ole Miss and Arkansas, we gave the Rebels the nod as the home team.  They trailed for a while, but the home field must’ve helped their comeback in their 52-51 victory.  Wonder how Finebaum felt about those defenses if he watched, or cared? They both stay in the rankings at Nos. 12 and 21 respectively.

Cincinnati’s way

   We thought “improved” Navy (1-4) could possibly throw a wrench into Cincy’s success if they knocked off now No. 23 SMU (6-0) at home. Luckily for No. 3 Cincy of the American Athletic, SMU pulled it out in the end over the Mids, 31-24, to stay undefeated.  If the Mustangs stay that way, they will pose The Bearcats with their toughest challenge if ranked and undefeated when they meet on November 20. In the meantime, the Bearcats won how they have to to stay in CFP contention.  They did it right blasting Temple, 52-3. We may consider going to the American Athletic playoff in Cincy, most likely against the winner between SMU and Houston at this time… As expected, Georgia’s defense handled Auburn, 34-10. Reminder: UGA defeated Cincy in the Peach Bowl last year, 24-21. Rematch in the CFP this year?

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Upset? Or, which doesn’t belong and why?

   In the battle of winless teams, UMASS (1-5) “surprised” UCONN, 27-13.  We banked on the Huskies taking this one based on two consecutive games where they hung in and lost by two in each.  The Minutemen surprised here. Now what’s of interest this week, UCONN (0-7) hosts Ivy Leaguer Yale (2-2). If the Bulldogs beat the Huskies, what is the bottom line for UCONN who’s already lost to FCS Holy Cross of the very weak Patriot League already? Three rival teams ahead of Yale in the Ivy – Harvard, Princeton, and Dartmouth- are all 4-0. As for UMASS, in November, they’ll host Colonial Athletic members No. 14 Rhode Island (6-0) and Maine (1-4).  If both FBS bottom-feeders stumble in these games, we say, rejoin the FCS!

QB Rally Needed

    We looked for Penn State to beat Iowa, but the story comes down to the Lions being up 17-3 in the second when QB Sean Clifford left the game with an unknown injury.  Ta’Quan Roberson stepped in and could not move the Nittany Lions against a tough Iowa defense.  The Hawkeyes prevailed, 23-20, and rose to No. 2.  Not sure what Clifford’s status is, but Penn State needs him back quickly with a date at Ohio State after Illinois comes to State College for a visit.  PSU’s success for the year will be predicated on their QB’s performance, whoever it is, going forward.

Our Favorite Games of Week 7 to come

   Well one of interest played Tuesday night. In a game between top Sunbelt squads, Louisiana (5-1, 3-0) surprisingly walloped Appalachian State (4-2, 1-1), 41-13. We have interest in both. Next Wednesday, we’ll be in Boone, NC to see Appy host No. 15 Coastal Carolina (6-0, 2-0).  On November 20, we penned in Louisiana at Liberty (5-1). With potential bowl games here in the southeast, any of these teams can potentially wind up on our schedule once again…Speaking of weekday nights, we’ll see Navy’s improved triple-option against Memphis on Thursday. Since we saw them struggle against Air Force, Soph QB Tai Lavatai returned from injury to run the offense more adeptly. The Mids (1-4) will be challenged to keep Memphis’s (3-3) high-speed passing attack led by QB Seth Henigan and WR Calvin Austin off the field to minimize the Tiger scoring.

Historical Collegefootballfan.com matchups this College Football Week 7

   On Friday, Clemson visits Syracuse. Last time we attended that game played on a Friday night in 2017, SU pulled off the upset over the then No. 2 Tigers, 27-24. With three wins each right now, would a Syracuse win constitute an upset? Probably not…UCF visits No. 3 Cincinnati. We attended this contest last season when the Bearcats defeated the Knights in Orlando, 36-33. Without QB Gabriel Dillon though, a win here for the Golden Knights (3-2) would be an upset.  Cincy knows they have to continue to win big to considered for the CFP. They will show no mercy in games going forward.

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 Eyes on potential future game plans

  No. 11 Kentucky (6-0, 4-0) hasn’t seen the likes of No. 1 Georgia’s defense (6-0, 4-0). The Wildcats have won four of six games by seven points or less including against FCS UTC Chattanooga. The Dawg defense allows 5.6 point per game.  Good thing there are other televised games on Saturday afternoon. We may consider seeing Tennessee at UK in Lexington on November 6 despite the result here.

The outcome of NC State (4-1, 1-0) at Boston College (4-1,0-1) on College Football Week 7 helps us decide if we want to make a few changes to our future schedule.  We’ll see the Wolfpack at Wake Forest on November 13, that is set.  If BC wins, we’ll probably trek back up to Louisville (3-3, 1-2) the week after for another barn-burner. If the Purple Eagles keep winning and a big game looms in Chestnut Hill on Thanksgiving weekend versus Wake, we’ll likely be there since we have a traditional New England Thanksgiving family gathering already planned there.  A possible option looms as URI may host an FCS playoff as well.

We’ll predict this again until we get it right

    No. 4 Oklahoma (6-0, 3-0) pulled if off late against Texas last weekend, 55-48, with the sudden insertion of new folk-hero, QB Caleb Williams (what happens if Spencer Rattler sits the rest of 2021?). However, that OU defense can’t be saved all the time.  We’re looking for a big upset by TCU (3-2, 1-1). With that, OU is out of the CFP and we will consider buying tickets for the CFP playoff in the Orange Bowl. From personal history, we know OU will get throttled no matter who they would play there.  Their defense cannot shut down any good team they will play (are you reading this, Paul?). Even if the Sooners luck out again here, look at their last three games – at 5-1 Baylor, vs. 3-2 Iowa State, and at No. 12 Oklahoma State who just hates them.

Commander-in-Chief contenders

   Army (5-1) brings their triple option to Madison, Wisconsin to face the 2-3 badgers whose defense allows only 217.8 yards of offense per game, second only to Georgia. In five games, they’ve allowed only 207 total yards rushing. Army is only second to Air Force in the rushing department nationally averaging 318.2 yards per game.  The unstoppable force meets the impenetrable wall in this one. This will be interesting to watch. Thus far, the Badgers offense has yet to get on track scoring only 98 points through five games.   On November 6, the Cadets travel to Air Force for the second contest for the C-I-C Trophy. An Air Force win seals the award since the Falcons already beat Navy.

   Air Force (5-1, 3-0 MWC) travels to Boise (3-3, 1-1) Saturday in a key conference match-up. The Broncos have been up and down against competition with a great, combined record of 25-7. Will the Falcons catch the Broncos up or down after their upset win over BYU last week?  USAFA returns all their starters from the last two seasons. RB Brad Roberts’ 680 yards makes him the sixth leading rusher in the FBS and has tallied six TDs.  We look for Air Force to overcome Boise on its blue field. The following week, No. 24 San Diego comes calling in Colorado Springs before the rivalry meeting with Army in Arlington, Texas.

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