Let the Bowl Games begin!!!

Forty-four bowl games will be played between Friday, December 17 and on Monday, January 10 when the College Football Playoff (CFP) final will take place in Indianapolis for the championship of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).  Collegefootballfan.com’s plans to get right into the mix starting on Saturday. We will attend our first of three pre-determined bowl games we’ve selected to attend. For now, we’ll wait for the CFP semifinals to be determined to consider if we will attend the Big One on January 10.  We have to make it to one of the finals eventually.  Now only a four-hour trek for us, Indianapolis is a good possibility. 

Fast start among the teams we’ve seen

    Having attended 19 regular season games already this year, we’ve seen 22 bowl teams in action already.  Of the first eight bowl games to be played this Friday and Saturday, we’ve seen at least one team in seven of these upcoming start-ups. The one game without a participant we’ve seen is the PUBG Mobile New Mexico Bowl between UTEP and Fresno.

    In a pool we’re in (without points), we selected the following bowl winners and losers among the seven with a team we’ve seen play in 2021. In one game, we watched both participants in action.  Another, we will attend.   To win, we select:  Appalachian State 10-2 (against Western Kentucky 8-5 who we saw twice), No. 13 10-2 BYU (who we will see tangle with 8-4 UAB in Shreveport), 7-5 Liberty, 10-3 Utah State, and 12-1 Louisiana.  We picked against two former participants to lose: Middle Tennessee and Coastal Carolina (their two losses came to the only two teams they played with winning records. Their 10 wins came against teams with a combined W-L record of 30-78).

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Other Collegefootballfan.com Head-to-Head Bowl Game selections

   Three bowl games align both teams we saw play this past season.  We select 6-6 Memphis based on speed over 6-7 Hawaii even though the Easy Post Hawaii Bowl is a Rainbow Warrior home game.  No. 20 and 11-2 Houston lost to Cincinnati, and 6-6 Auburn lost to Penn State in the annals of our recent history.  Our selection goes with Houston, and we will be at the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl. However, we’ll wait to buy tickets when we get there to avoid any fee. In the Servpro First Responder Bowl in Dallas, the 9-3 Air Force Falcons go to battle with the 6-6 Louisville Cardinals.  We favor the Falcon triple-option attack to defeat the Cardinals.

Collegefootballfan.com – “at home” in the 2021 Music City Bowl

    Over the years, CFF.com has attended five Music City Bowls going back to 2008.   These trips to Nashville at the time along with other non-football excursions to the area put the thought here that this would be great place to retire.  We did so this past July.  So far, so good.  On December 30, we’ll take a short drive to Nissan Stadium for this year’s TransPerfect Music City Bowl between 7-5 Tennessee and 8-4 Purdue. 

   In 2016, we watched a gray-clad Tennessee defeat Nebraska, 38-24.  In 2018, we watched Auburn destroy Purdue here, 63-14.  The score was closer than it seemed as AU led at halftime, 56-7.  We spent the second half in downtown Broadway across the Cumberland River at the dearly departed Benchmark. We expect this bowl game to be competitive, but we give Tennessee the nod as we expect that sea of orange that hurts the eyes non-Vol fans.  This will be a UT home game.  We expect Purdue QB Aidan O’Connell to give UT’s secondary fits and the Boilermaker defense allowing only 20.6 per game to keep the Vols in check.   However, the crowd will give UT some added benefits.

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NIL problems arise

    Through contacts out there in the college football world, we’ve heard of a Power Five team, who will remain nameless, in some turmoil due to this “Name, Image, and Likeness” policy.  Two QBs on the squad have such an arrangement.  One promised to share with the O-line, but hasn’t yet.  As those who have money now to flaunt what they’ve got, consternation arises between the offense and the defense.  Other great lessons to be learned from this new NCAA policy, both good and bad – sharing, teamwork, loyalty, fairness, greed, jealousy, etc.  These are just the tip of the iceberg.  More “bad” comes out of this policy as it continues.

This could be below the tip of the iceberg

   Former Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler, benched behind Frosh QB Caleb Williams midway through this season, and his TE Austin Stogner, both left the Sooners and landed at South Carolina.  Shane Beamer is now Head Coach there.  Within a day of entering the portal, the transfers were complete.  Of course, Beamer already had a feeler out having been the OU TE coach from 2018-2020.  Rattler, from Arizona, was projected by some to go to Arizona State.  You just have to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes in these cases now.

     Not saying that it’s happened here, but can teams throw NIL money around now to outbid other programs?  Or maybe Rattler was so excited that the Sooners were moving on to the SEC, he decided to join up rather than wait.  Maybe he wants to play against his former school in a few years.  Sure, that’s it.

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Deion’s Splash

    So, Deion Sanders got the No. 1 recruit in the world, 6’1 160-lb WR/DB Travis Hunter from Georgia to sign on with Sander’s Jackson State program de-committing from Florida State. Surely Travis is a great recruit, but everybody seems to have different opinions about who’s No. 1.   Now questions come up if Deion will set the new trend of Historically Black Colleges attracting talent away from the rest of the FBS.  We believe maybe some, but we do believe that this will not last for long.  College football is a big money business now and getting bigger with this NIL policy.

      Deion can sell his worth to the kids he wants at Jackson State, but the other schools?   Eddie George coaches at Tennessee State.  His assistant and former pro assistant Hue Jackson just left for Grambling. We’ll see what happens in the near future.  However, if and when these coaches become successful at these FCS programs, what’s going to stop them from moving to the next level where there’s more money for them?  They’ll eventually be up there if successful, and the players they recruit will follow.

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Urban Meyer’s lesson

     There is a wide chasm between being head coach at the collegiate level and the professional level.  Both are totally different games.  Use Nick Saban as a benchmark.  He left LSU to coach the Miami Dolphins and within a year went back to college to go coach Alabama.  Remember Steve Spurrier’s short stint in the NFL between Florida and South Carolina?  His college coaching record ended with an impressive record of 228-89-2. His record with Washington (the professional team, not U. of) ended at 12-20.  At least the old ball coach finished two full seasons before heading to Carolina.  There are plenty of other successful college coaches who never reached any similar heights at the pro level. One of the most recent rarities is Pete Carroll, but he’s also an example of a college rules breaker who found amnesty in the NFL. And they say cheaters never win. 

Consider your skill sets, and don’t kid yourself

    Any coach making such a transition has to go into this with an understanding of the major differences and that, if anything, success is not guaranteed overnight. In college, you have your pick of any player in the country.  Your staff is trained to “sell” as much, if not more, as they are to coach and develop young players.  A major skill set is to present what you have and how it’s better for an 18-year-old to come play for you than anybody else – the future you can offer, the pretty girls on campus, the sliding board in the dorm, easiest courses to pass, possibly a four-year degree, etc. 

Different game/different rules

    In the pros, get in line with 32 other organizations every year and pick just one guy per round to fill in where you need to improve your team. Eventually, you select 40+ players to fill your needs for the upcoming season.  You have a little surplus on the side, but you don’t have bunch of guys on your bench that every competitor is clamoring to have.

    In the pros, your entire game schedule is given to you before the current season is over. You don’t get to play 75% of your games at home.  You don’t get to schedule the three weakest teams in the league every year. CFL teams are not options to play during the regular season.  You’re going to get a mix of games comparable to what everybody else in the league is going to play.  Be thankful you get a few exhibition games that don’t count so you can figure out your eventual starting line-up and practice your play-calling.

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On a more level playing field

    Media guys can’t vote for your team to get into the post-season, thankfully!  You have to win more games against comparable competition to get into playoffs, not a bowl game or two. Competing among equals as far as player talent and game schedules make the playing field level in the pros.  Your skill set mastering a game plan and getting the most out of the talent you’ve developed gets you to the top now. 

     In the pros, you need to select the best players you can from what everybody else can get – through the draft, free agency, trades, etc.  Put the best team you can on the field. Have the back-ups necessary to replace guys that get injured and who can contribute to your special teams as well.  Build team camaraderie. Use your leaders among the players to do just that. Improve the skills of your younger players. Put together a game plan with the talent you have and execute them with the coaches you hired.

Football is a business

    Nobody is saying this is easy, especially when taking over a team that’s been struggling.  Realize the strategy of continuous improvement as it’s called in the business world.  Success doesn’t happen over night by recruiting a whole, new, young class of blue-chip athletes who want to come play for you because their parents liked you. It’s about developing the talent you have, making them better players, and developing and executing a game plan. Just do it all better than the one the guy across the field who has to beat you. And keep a “positive” attitude toward the future that your players can buy into.  Don’t be a cry-baby or a finger pointer.  They’re never successful in any business, and that is what football has become at both levels first and foremost.  

    If you’re not ready for this alternative world of football, stay in the college game where your skill set of attracting 18-year-olds is the best you got. Also, maybe your program has a lot of money to pay to schools without the money to play you since you’ve hoarded the players. Take advantage. They didn’t have the same resources to attract as you did. However, you probably already know that.   

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Bowl Game season to you and yours!

— By Steve Koreivo, ed. Author of “Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all!” Click on the title to put it on someone’s Christmas list!

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