We attended the Independence Bowl where UAB defeated BYU, 30-27. As we wait to attend the Music City Bowl in our new home area of Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday. We’ve made a lot of observations since on the televised games we’ve witnessed. Can’t wait for Friday’s results to determine if we’ll attend the CFP or not. Our most significant observation – we definitely prefer going to games as opposed to watching and listening to all the hype, misinformation, and bias on television. To begin with, we knew redundant commercials stink to begin with.
Are we missing something?
Speaking of commercials, we start with the AFLAC commercial featuring HC Deion Sanders of “burgeoning” Jackson State and Nick Saban of Alabama fame. Anyone has to realize that these two coaches performed remotely, and someone remotely edited the scene and the dialogue separately.
During the conversation, how does Sanders become “Coach Brown” as referred to by Saban? Saban states,” You know how coach Brown feels about money.” Who? Suddenly they’re talking about the late Paul Brown of Cleveland Browns fame? If these two were actually speaking directly, you know Deion would have been all over it after a laugh. Just an example of the inaccuracies fed to us on television.
Jiminy Cricket!
How did Deion’s 10-1 Jackson State team get crushes by 6-5 South Carolina State 30-6 in the Cricket Celebration Bowl? Evidently, he got caught up in his hype about absconding with recruit Travis Hunter from Florida State for his JSU Tigers program. With all the activity seen in the new transfer portal this bowl season, we wonder what the over/under in days will be when Hunter thinks that he has to prove his worth at the FBS level and transfers.
Poor little SEC
The dialogue between Dave Neal and Deuce McAllister of ESPN as SEC Mississippi State got hammered by 6-6 Texas State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, 34-7, in Memphis, Tennessee. According to Neal, MSU should have been to a better game after losing on a bad call against AAC’s Memphis Tigers. He said they should have 8-9 wins. We didn’t watch the Georgia State win over Ball State, but we wonder if any mention came up regarding GSU’s loss to Auburn, 34-24, that resulted from a major missed call and non-replay change.
Things looked better than “rosey” for Franklin James and Penn State when they were 3-0 after beating Auburn.
Not only would GSU have finished 9-4, but Auburn would have been bowl ineligible at 5-7. We saw four questionable calls by SEC officials against Penn State when they played Auburn. In one case, a Nittany Lion third down became fourth. The calls got swept away because the Lions won, 28-20. We will give Mississippi State credit though. They had the best SEC win over a non-conference team during the regular season. They beat No. 18 NC State, 24-10.
Rolling with the SEC
Neal and McAllister’s energy, optimism, and wishful thinking rose and fell with the Bulldogs throughout the game. They provided the evidence to show ESPN’s favoritism toward the SEC because of their TV contracts. No neutrality exists with ESPN when it comes what conference they will favor year after year. They insinuated how bad it is for the SEC to be 0-4 now, but they say that will change. We’ll see. The SEC has not beaten any good non-conference competition during the regular season. Why do they expect them to now? So far, losses to Army, UCF, No. 19 Houston, and Texas Tech in Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. All reside in the SEC footprint. Tougher competitors loom ahead.
American Athletic, 3-0
This is Cincinnati’s conference. Not bad. Includes wins over Florida and Auburn. Both are considered “tough” SEC school that both lost to both Alabama and Georgia. Can’t wait for Friday.
Cincy LB Darrian Beavers (0) signals Houston’ s final turnover on downs to to punctuate the Bearcat victory and to start the night-long celebration!
Need Money back guarantees
Fans put up lot of money to support their teams at bowl games. Tickets, hotels, meals, and airfares costs dedicated fans “big bucks”. What’s unfair is when after buying a ticket is when key players and coaches decide the team is no longer their priority. The opt-out to get ready for the next level while watching their “teammates” from the sideline. Don’t they have to start working out? For fans, these last minute decisions seem to cause a rip-off referred to as the old “bait and switch”.
Avoid coaching changes, reschedule recruiting season
This is a double-edged sword. Neglect the kids you’ve coached and developed as a successful team, and then turn your back on them and go elsewhere to build your next program. And by the way, encourage your players to do the same. It’s something that is terribly horrible in college football. It counters all the basic values it’s supposed to teach – teamwork, loyalty, dedication, together to the bitter end. Less than two percent of all players in college go pro. These attributes are what they should all get out of this for a lesson of a lifetime.
Double trouble, runaway coaches and players
As an example, Nevada got to go to the Quick Lane Bowl in cold, gray Detroit. After a very competitive 8-4 season including three conference losses each by two-points, their Head coach Jay Norvell leaves to start recruiting for Colorado State. His Wolfpack defeated the 3-9 CSU Rams in their last regular season game, 52-10. On top of that, Junior QB Carson Strong with 4,186 passing yards and 36 TDs opts out for the pros. Leading receivers WR Romeo Doubs and TE Cole Turner did the same.
ESPN Quick Lane Bowl commentators Rod Gilmore and Dave Fleming, we believe, could not figure out how the Wolfpack defense allowed 31 points to Western Michigan by the half. That pointed out that they gave up that amount on average per game this season. Well, when your QB and leading receivers opt out and you replace them all with first time starters, your offense does not control the clock to keep the opponent’s offense off the field. Nat Cox started at QB for the first time all season. A “bowl” becomes a preseason scrimmage for next year is what this becomes. You’d think astute broadcasters could figure this out.
Our game 634, Music City #6 for us
Tennessee gets to play Purdue. Should be a good close game. We figure that with the Tennessee Volunteers playing in the heart of their home state, the home crowd in that Orange that hurts our eyes will get them some calls their way. The Vols will win this in a close one. Despite the Boilermakers’ incentive to avenge their 63-14 loss to Auburn at the Music City in 2018, it won’t be enough to overcome.
By Steve Koreivo, ed. Author of “Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all!” Click on the title to order.