Week of 12/28 - College Football News Every Day

12/31:

• Tough end of the season for the Gators - especially for Kyle Trask who didn’t have his top receivers. And there will be a lot of talk about Florida being so shorthanded for the game, but in reality the Sooners made a statement - especially with their 435 yards rushing. I’m also thinking that the comments made by Gator linebacker James Houston didn’t help their cause…as he said the Sooners were a good matchup but not on the Gator level.

• Everyone on the Badger team got to take home a piece of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl trophy - as the football-shaped Lenox Crystal fell of the base and shattered on the locker room floor as Graham Mertz was celebrating the win. He fixed the problem though by attaching a bottle of Duke’s mayonnaise to the base.

• Unfortunately D’Eriq King will have to undergo surgery for a torn ACL. A timetable for his return his currently unknown, but the Hurricanes expect that he will be back on the field in August. Hopefully he will be close to 100% when Miami plays Alabama in Atlanta on September 4th!

12/30:

• Two good bowl games last night even though two starting quarterbacks were forced out of the game with injuries. The backups played well though! And you also saw probably one of the best uniform matchups - Texas and Colorado looked sharp and superbly contrasted each other.

• Speaking of Texas - how about freshman running back Bijan Robinson? In his last two games, including last night’s bowl game, he has rushed for 355 yards in only 19 attempts. That is an average of 18.7 yards per rushing attempt!

• A preview of Heisman voting? Yesterday it was announced that DeVonta Smith is the AP college football player of the year - and the first wide receiver to win the award since it was established in 1998. Should we present him the most prestigious college football award now?

12/29:

• On this day 42 years ago, Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes threw a punch with his right hand (he was left-handed) at Clemson’s defensive lineman Charlie Bauman in the Gator Bowl that ended his coaching career. Four years ago, SI’s Michael Rosenberg, wrote a great article about the story.

• Yesterday, the AP All-America team was announced. Alabama had six players selected to the first team - five of them on offense. The Crimson Tide placed a quarterback, a running back, and a wide receiver on the team - the first time that has been done since the AP team began featuring two wide receivers, two running backs, a quarterback back in 1980..

• Florida will be without their four top receivers (3 opting out and one is positive with the virus) when they take on the Sooners tomorrow. Kyle Trask will be challenged to find open targets.

12/28:

• Sad to see that the Music City Bowl has been canceled. Two teams that I enjoy watching, border state schools, and a potentially great uniform combination. The series between Iowa and Missouri dates back to 1892, but they have only played once since 1910 - so it would have been a long, overdue matchup.

• Another note on the Music City Bowl - it is the 18th bowl game that has been canceled this year. And probably not the last.

• Recently I have talked about recent coaching firings and hirings, but there are two other lists that keep growing by the day - transfers and the list of players declaring early for the 2021 NFL Draft. One or both lists will probably find their way to my college football news every day on a regular basis in the upcoming month or months.

Week of 12/21 - College Football News Every Day

12/27:

• Very sad news…Utah freshman running back Ty Jordan died of an accidental shooting on Friday night. Making this tragedy even worse - his mother just passed away this past August of cancer.

• When North Carolina A&T announced their intention to leave the MEAC for the Big South, it put their intense rivalry with NC Central in doubt. Fortunately the game, known to some as a family feud, will continue to be played for the next ten years thanks to an agreement between the schools. These teams have played since 1924, with the Aggies leading the all-time series 52-34-5.

• Since ULM announced that they hired Terry Bowden as their next head coach, I have questioned their decision. I wondered why they didn’t hire an up-and-comer coach, but looking at the lack of their success since moving to the FBS in 1994, maybe he is just what they need because he has won everywhere he has coached (career record 175-114-2). The Warhawks really have nothing to lose.

12/26:

• I am happy to see Bret Bielema back in the Big Ten at Illinois. He never achieved success at Arkansas, but if he can achieve close to the success he got at Wisconsin, the Fighting Illini fans will be very happy.

• Looking forward to tonight’s bowl game between Coastal Carolina and Liberty. This will be the 15th meeting between the teams, but the first one with both teams as FBS members. An interesting note - the last time Coastal Carolina started the season 11-0 back in 2014, Liberty beat them 15-14 in the Big South regular season finale.

• Division II football this spring doesn’t look good as only four out of sixteen conferences have committed to play by putting out only abbreviated schedules. Guess we will have to wait until Fall 2021 for full participation from both Divisions II and III.

12/25:

• Hawaii won yesterday’s New Mexico Bowl that was played in Frisco, Texas. Thankfully Houston’s tough season has come to an end as the Cougars endured eights games that were either canceled, postponed, or rescheduled.

• The four Heisman finalists were announced last night. I am hoping that DeVonta Smith wins because of the way that he has shined since teammate Jaylen Waddle was lost for the season with an injury. If he wins, Smith will be the first wide receiver to win the Heisman since Desmond Howard did it in 1991.

• Former MAC opponents face off in the Camellia Bowl on this Christmas Day. It will be a strength vs. strength matchup as the nation’s No. 1 rushing offense (Buffalo) will face college football’s No. 2 rushing defense (Marshall). I am thinking that the difference will be the Thundering Herds freshman quarterback Grant Wells. He has struggled the last two games, but if he returns to form, Marshall might gain the edge in today’s game.

12/24:

• Tulsa has had a strong defense all year, and it was great to see their star linebacker, Zaven Collins, win the Bronko Nagurski Trophy - honoring the nation’s top defensive player. A day after the award, Collins announced that he is entering the NFL draft, and he won’t play in the Armed Forces Bowl.

• Coaching changes are happening fast and furious, and I’m not sure about Arizona hiring Jedd Fisch - especially since the thing going for him over others is his connection with the university president. They had an opportunity to bring in someone connected with former Wildcats head coach Dick Tomey, San Jose State’s Brent Brennan, but they looked the other way. Not sure that this hire is going to work for them.

• Looks like Alabama has locked up the top recruiting class in 2021 with their latest 5-star commitment, running back Camar Wheaton out of Texas. Nick Saban beat out OU for Wheaton’s services, as well has the Longhorns, who have failed miserably in keeping the best talent in-state. Just another example of the rich getting richer…

12/23:

• Kudos to Auburn for hiring Bryan Harsin away from his alma mater where he has coached for the last seven years. While the head coach of Boise State, Harsin had a 69-19 record, and won three Mountain West titles - the last one coming in 2019. Big thing to watch - will he want Kevin Steele on his staff, who pushed for the job even before Gus Malzahn was fired.

• And speaking of Boise State, it looks like they might be in discussions again with the American Athletic Conference about becoming their 12th member. They have to find a conference closer to home for their other sports, but adding the Broncos to replace UConn is a big win for the AAC.

• I have to mention that there was a lot of talent at the quarterback position in last night’s bowl games! Zach Wilson, a 3-star recruit, cemented himself as possibly the second quarterback taken in next year’s NFL draft. And the other three quarterbacks (Dillon Gabriel, Carson Strong, and Michael Pratt) will all return next year and carry their teams to successful seasons in 2021 and even 2022.

12/22:

• I am not sad to see South Carolina leave the bowl scene, but the loss of UAB will be felt. The Blazers end their season at 6-3 (could easily have been 8-1) and as Conference USA champions. The bowl game would have been a great swan song for Spencer Brown, who surpassed 4,000 rushing yards for his career last week.

• The 2021 Air-Force-Navy football game has been moved to September 11th next year in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States of America. What would make a bigger impact is to have these two service academies play the game at Yankee Stadium!

• Today I learned about a trophy game that has fallen below my radar - until now. Charter members of the SEC, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, play for a silver-plated cowbell. It took a printer running out of toner to find the trophy that had been put away in storage sometime between their games in 2009 and 2016.

Week of 12/7

12/8:

• Alabama has extended its streak of consecutive poll appearances to 210 - 3rd longest in the history of the AP Poll. Nebraska holds the record at 348 from 1981 thru 2002.

• And speaking of rankings, Buffalo is ranked in the Top 25 for the first time in school history, even though their game with Oho was canceled on Friday. Lance Leipold might be in demand this off-season.

• In the discouraging news department, it has recently been announced that no spectators will be allowed at the Rose Bowl for the College Football Playoff semifinal on January 1st. Luckily though, The Grandaddy of Them All is still being played at this point in time.

12/7:

• On Saturday both Clemson and Oklahoma punched their tickets to their respective conference title games. I am thinking that both teams wouldn’t mind avenging their regular season losses to their conference championship opponents.

• The undefeated battle between Coastal Carolina and BYU, a game that wasn’t finalized until Thursday, ended in dramatic fashion. The “Mormons vs. Mullets” lived up to its hype, and it was a bit chippy - as it should be between two teams that had a lot to prove.

• In one of the more surprising results of this year, Rice beat undefeated Marshall 20-0 on the road with the help of five interceptions. It was the Owls first win over an AP Top 25 opponent since 1991.