College Football Thread

And Mauk did very well two years ago after James Franklin was injured.  A lot of my friends, understandably frustrated about the anemic offense and the loss to Kentucky in a sport other than basketball, have been celebrating since the suspension announcement, thinking it might be the end of the Mauk era (Indeed, it might be no matter how well Drew Lock plays, as the announcement said his and the other suspended guy's status would be "evaluated after the [South Carolina] game", which to me sounds really ominous).  I tend to be a bit more of a pragmatist, and worry that the switch to Lock might be a "be careful what you wish for" scenario.  Still, if he plays well against the Gamecocks, I suspect he'll continue to be the starter, even when (if?) Mauk comes back.  

Oklahoma State easily could lose to Kansas State at home. Have no idea what to think about this team. Very good at skill positions, have a truly atrocious offensive line. QB had some mystery injury that resulted in numbness in his throwing hand last week? The defense will keep them in most games that don't involve four turnovers, and apparently win some that do.

Lord, Texas is an awful football team.

Nope, but I strongly suspect it's for something pretty serious, and not just because Mauk is technically suspended indefinitely.  His father had cancer surgery earlier this week.  Now, obviously, that's not a "Get out of jail free" card, but I'm guessing that most coaches would probably take something like that under consideration when deciding on a punishment, especially when it involves the starting quarterback.  The fact that Pinkel went ahead and threw the book at him anyway suggests, at least to me, that whatever he did, it was either really serious, and/or he was a repeat offender who had been warned in no uncertain terms not to do whatever he did last time again, and he did it anyway.

Edit: after posting, I decided to check the biggest unofficial Mizzou athletics fan board (which I typically avoid, since, like most athletic fan boards, the people on there tend to be raging idiots), to see what the rumor mill was saying.  The general consensus: weed.  If that's true, I'm guessing this was not the first time he had been caught toking up--or probably the second, or third, and maybe not even the fourth.

Hurricane cancelled?

I just heard that was a thing. Really Texas? Really? Texas? No, not the fact that their offense scored one touchdown or their punchline special teams. It was a conspiracy to give an aggressively mediocre team another week at the bottom of the top 25. 

Oh well. Poor Charlie Strong. He's not going to get a chance to pull off this rebuild, is he?

At least with clemson the main issue is there no where for anyone to go if the weather gets too bad

That blocked punt? Holy crap, I couldn't believe that!

https://vine.co/v/e2Z3XUmz0dE

(Sorry, couldn't resist. We're sad fans too)

clemson is gonna back their asses into the playoffs barley beating no one and their fans are gonna get so much more insufferable then they already are...

Agreed if they lose they're out but them barley making it through undefeated just looks so damn likely...

Northwestern looks good, so Iowa could easily lose.

As for the playoffs, my money is on Utah

This is true

Miami @ Cincinnati Thursday night's game saw Miami fall 34-23, it's also notable for another fall: youtu.be/-CkfR7M8ero

  Ole Miss @ Florida So I think we all expected Ole Miss to come into Florida and beat the snot out of the Gators. We were all wrong. Will Grier, who had the shits all week, threw for 271 yards and four touchdowns. Those touchdowns all came in the first half. Chad Kelly had a rough day. He threw for 259 yards, but had an interception, fumbled the ball twice and was sacked four times. The Rebels fall 38-10.

Alabama @ Georgia.  It's also amazing how easily we had all but written off Alabama, but that game was a horror show for Georgia. It wasn't that Alabama played exceptionally well, but that Georgia really gave them a lot of work with. Lambert was held to 86 yards and an interception. He was replaced by Brice Ramsey who also threw two interceptions. The momentum turned early in Alabama's favor when the special teams unit blocked a punt and ran it in for a touchdown. Nick Chubb had 146 yards, but couldn't stop the Tide, 38-10. (same score as the Florida game)

South Carolina @ Missouri It wasn't a case of Missouri playing well, but South Carolina playing very, very poorly. Lorenzo Nunoz was held to 179 and threw three interceptions, losing 24-10

 Arkansas @ Tennessee Somebody needs to tell Tennessee that a football game consists of 60 minutes of play. Arkansas was trailing 14-0 in the first quarter but made their way back to win. Tennessee only had 90 total yards in the second half. Arkansas comes back and wins 24-20.

Notre Dame @ Clemson I have to give it to Notre Dame, they don't quit. Clemson's Deshaun Watson threw for 97 yards, two touchdowns and ran one in, but that was almost overshadowed by Deshane Kiser throwing for 321 yards. The Irish had four turnovers in the second half, but they also managed to score 19 points in the fourth quarter. They would have tied the game if they had made a two point conversion at the very end. Tigers 24-22.

 Florida State @ Wake Forest The Seminole's Dalvin Cook ran a beautiful 94 yard touchdown run, but then left with a hamstring injury. He's listed as day to day. Without him, the Noles were underwhelming, and Wake Forest threatened to tie the game in the fourth quarter, but Tyler Hunter intercepted Kendall Hinton in the end zone with 21 seconds left. The Noles won 24-16, but without Cook, how are they going to be against Miami?

 Arizona @ Stanford This was another ugly game. Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan had 217 yards and the running team had 314 yards, 156 of them for Christian McCaffery. Stanford wins 55-17

Arizona State @ UCLA Josh Rosen had 285 yards and a two touchdowns, but it wasn't enough> Arizona State forced a safety followed by a clinching touchdown. UCLA couldn't catch up. 38-23.

 Oregon @ Colorado The game was tied at 17 at halftime. I fell asleep so I missed the rest of the game, but Royce Freeman threw for 163 yards and two touchdowns and the Ducks win 41-24

 West Virginia @ Oklahoma Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield had 320 yards and three touchdowns. They also had seven sacks on defense. West Virginia had a rough day. Sklyer Howard was intercepted three times, adding to the teams total of five turnovers. And you can't win the game if you don't have the ball. Sooners 44-24

 Baylor @ Texas Tech Baylor had an impressive offensive onslaught. Shock Linwood ran for 221 yards and two touchdowns and Seth Russell had 286 yards and four touchdowns. That's not to say Texas Tech was slacking off. Patrick Mahomes had 415 yards, three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown, but it wasn't enough, Baylor 63-35.

Elsewhere around the league: Michigan State nearly lost to Purdue 24-21, and Ohio State almost lost to Indiana 34-27. Leonard Fournette had 233 yards against Eastern Michigan. Northwestern shut out Minnesota. TCU humiliated Texas. Iowa beat Wisconsin 10-6. Pitt won a close game over Virginia Tech 17-13, North Carolina beat Georgia Tech 38-31. Penn State beat Army 20-14 and Texas A&M beat Mississippi State 30-17. Finally, UNLV beat Nevada 23-17 to win the Freemont Cannon.

Next week features a lot of games that sounded good when the season started. Washington @ USC, NC State @ Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech @ Clemson, Arkansas @ Alabama, Florida @ Missouri, LSU @ South Carolina, Georgia @ Tennessee, Oklahoma State @ West Virginia, Cal # Utah, Baylor @ Kansas, TCU @ Kansas State, Oklahoma @ Texas, Miami @ Florida State, Northwestern @ Michigan and Navy @ Notre Dame. Try to stay awake.

This is distressingly also true at the high school level, especially in places where excellent performance at a mid-tier school can land you a job at a bigger school that will pay in the $80k-$100k range, even for coordinator positions.

I always thought there's no way for a 40-something year old man to look at a pair of 16 year olds and say "You're wedge busters" without being a sociopath.