2021 College Football Discussion and Pick'em Thread

[NewYorkExpress]

Arkansas's season is falling away, as Auburn pulls off the upset 38-23.

[NewYorkExpress]

A couple of other games to keep track of right now.

Early in the fourth quarter, Baylor leads #19 BYU 31-14.

LSU pulled off the upset, and downed #20 Florida 49-42.

[NewYorkExpress]

Cincy will probably be ranked #2, which is brilliant for their fans, but really, the Sooners deserve it more.

Do they? Cincinnati has been much more consistent than Oklahoma has. Hell, Oklahoma barely scraped past 4 painfully mediocre Big12 teams as well as Tulane (who are now 1-5) before looking slightly better today. The only reason I'd put Oklahoma at #3 is because there's no one better at the moment.

My Rankings (Top Five only):

1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Cincinnati
4. Oklahoma

[NewYorkExpress]

Holy cow, next week's slate is hot garbage. I'm sure College GameDay will pick Pittsburgh (vs. Clemson) or UCLA (vs. Oregon) for sake of giving equal airtime to the irrelevant P5 conferences, but it would be the perfect time to go to Princeton for a battle of the undefeateds with Harvard. Heck, they'd probably sooner choose NDSU or EWU with their barely top 25 opponents. The former faces Bobby Petrino, the latter had their red field on national tv just two weeks back. Might even resort to SHSU or SDSU as they are the top two but opponents get really meh.

If I were picking for Gameday, I'd go with Wake Forest @ Army, actually.

Also, it's a shame Coastal Carolina/Appalachian State is Wednesday Night, because that seems like it would be an interesting game to pick, especially with the rest of the slate being complete garbage.

Any chance of an exception to the usual no games before Friday rule for this one?

[NewYorkExpress]

Tennessee should be fined $1 million and banned from having live attendance for one year. Shocked NYE hasn't called for the death penalty and/or SEC Expulsion yet.

The NCAA Death Penalty and/or expulsion from the SEC seem excessive.

I do believe the students in question should be expelled from the University of Tennessee.

[NewYorkExpress]

Ed Orgeron out at LSU at the end of the season.

Looking at who LSU might consider to replace Orgeron, I'm thinking Kentucky Head Coach Mark Stoops, Oregon Head Coach Mario Cristobal, Cincinnati Head Coach Luke Fickell or Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson.

[NewYorkExpress]

UCF

Wake Forest (I want to believe in an unbeaten ACC Champion Wake Forest. Would that be enough to get them to the playoffs? I don't know. They didn't pick a good year for Clemson to have a down year)
Texas
Northern Illinois
Kansas State
Virginia Tech
Georgia State
Purdue (If Purdue can beat Iowa, they can beat a mediocre Wisconsin team at home)
Oklahoma State
Oregon
Mississppi (let the Ed Orgeron farewell tour begin)
Minnesota
Ball State
Buffalo
Colorado
BYU
Louisville
Houston
Alabama (This one won't even be close)
San Diego State
Notre Dame (needless to say, Cincinnati fans will be rooting for the Fighting Irish)
Virginia
TCU
Utah

[NewYorkExpress]

Ed Orgeron out at LSU at the end of the season.

Looking at who LSU might consider to replace Orgeron, I'm thinking Kentucky Head Coach Mark Stoops, Oregon Head Coach Mario Cristobal, Cincinnati Head Coach Luke Fickell or Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson.

Bad list. Here are some more realistic options:

• Former Arkansas & Ole Miss HC Houston Nutt
• Liberty HC Hugh Freeze
• Missouri State HC Bobby Petrino
• Jacksonville Jaguars HC Urban Meyer
• U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)

All experienced head coaches with records of success in the SEC. LSU would be foolish not to choose from among these options.

I can't see a problem with your list, other than Tuberville. He seems to enjoy being a Senator (of course, if the Alabama job opened up for some reason....).

[NewYorkExpress]

UCF

Wake Forest (I want to believe in an unbeaten ACC Champion Wake Forest. Would that be enough to get them to the playoffs? I don't know. They didn't pick a good year for Clemson to have a down year)
Texas
Northern Illinois
Kansas State
Virginia Tech
Georgia State
Purdue (If Purdue can beat Iowa, they can beat a mediocre Wisconsin team at home)
Oklahoma State
Oregon
Mississppi (let the Ed Orgeron farewell tour begin)
Minnesota
Ball State
Buffalo
Colorado
BYU
Louisville
Houston
Alabama (This one won't even be close)
San Diego State
Notre Dame (needless to say, Cincinnati fans will be rooting for the Fighting Irish)
Virginia
TCU
Utah

You've left out two games and seem to have added one.  Texas isn't in our list this week (they're off this week).  Texas Tech and Texas State are in the list, but you have other picks for both those games.

So, ignore the Texas pick...and I'll take Pittsburgh over Clemson and Buffalo over Akron. I assume those are two I'm missing?

[NewYorkExpress]

UCF

Wake Forest (I want to believe in an unbeaten ACC Champion Wake Forest. Would that be enough to get them to the playoffs? I don't know. They didn't pick a good year for Clemson to have a down year)
Texas
Northern Illinois
Kansas State
Virginia Tech
Georgia State
Purdue (If Purdue can beat Iowa, they can beat a mediocre Wisconsin team at home)
Oklahoma State
Oregon
Mississppi (let the Ed Orgeron farewell tour begin)
Minnesota
Ball State
Buffalo
Colorado
BYU
Louisville
Houston
Alabama (This one won't even be close)
San Diego State
Notre Dame (needless to say, Cincinnati fans will be rooting for the Fighting Irish)
Virginia
TCU
Utah

You've left out two games and seem to have added one.  Texas isn't in our list this week (they're off this week).  Texas Tech and Texas State are in the list, but you have other picks for both those games.

So, ignore the Texas pick...and I'll take Pittsburgh over Clemson and Buffalo over Akron. I assume those are two I'm missing?

Pitt-Clemson was one of them.  Nevada @ Fresno State is the one you're still missing.

Ah. I'll take Fresno State over Nevada for that one.

[NewYorkExpress]

Washington State coach Nick Rolovich and several assistants have been fired for not complying with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state employees.  Defensive coordinator Jake Dickert is expected to be named as the interim coach.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32426315/nick-rolovich-washington-state-football-coach-refusing-state-mandated-covid-19-vaccine-source-says

That's the right decision. We shouldn't be giving out religious exemptions for the COVID vaccine to anyone.

As for who might replace Rolovich, I'd guess the shortlist right now is BYU Head Coach Kalani Sitake, Former Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen, and interim Head Coach Jake Dickert.

[NewYorkExpress]

Graham Harrell is conceptually interesting: he runs an offense that's been proven to work at Washington State and he's the guy I thought they would try to get when Leach left. The USC job being open might complicate things, but I'm not sure how serious a contender he is. Alex Grinch was at Wazzu recently, but he might be too big for that job now (although Rolovich's salary would double Grinch's current salary). My guess is that Dickert will be given a real opportunity to win the job, but given that the Cougars have ripped off three straight wins against teams that should be better than them, there's a good chance that regression means that it ends up looking like the team collapsed on his watch.

No way Harrell is a serious candidate for USC. If there’s one thing you can count on it is that an AD will try to avoid the mistake of their predecessor. Clay Helton was an unknown; a coordinator who did well enough as interim to get the big job. With Helton failing USC will go out of their way to avoid hiring another in-program coordinator to avoid looking like they’re doing the same thing. I expect them to try for some big popular name. 

Sure, I remember when USC didn't promote its interim head coach who everyone loved and everyone thought this was a mistake and so then the next time they promoted the interim head coach whom nobody cared about. That's why this time the interim head coach is some guy who can't possibly be an option for the permanent job. Given that Harrell is not the interim and can't be promoted on that basis, I don't think that that rules out his getting a serious look for the permanent job on the basis of his work as offensive coordinator. It wouldn't necessarily be the same situation as with Orgeron or Helton.

Anyway, I am less than convinced that USC will try to go for a big name. Everyone speaking with confidence about how Urban Meyer will show up at a USC press conference any day now knows nothing about the university's administration. There's no chance they're going after a low-character guy like that given the issues the university has faced in recent years. More generally, USC has pretty much always gone for weird head coaching hires rather than just taking a big name.

My gut for USC is still telling me Mario Cristobal.

[NewYorkExpress]

Dabo Swinney's had to go out and deny interest in the opening at LSU.

Clemson football's Dabo Swinney said Tuesday that he had no interest in the LSU coaching vacancy at this point, joking that he was surprised to be considered "a big-time coach."

"This is the only Death Valley I'm concerned with right here," Swinney said, referring to the stadiums in Clemson and Baton Rouge, which are both nicknamed "Death Valley."

Swinney has been speculated to be a possible candidate to replace Ed Orgeron since LSU agreed to part ways with its coach after this season -- just two years after winning the national title.

I don't think Dabo would be making a denial like this if LSU weren't interested in hiring him, quite honestly, but I think either the NFL, or one of the Alabama/Ohio State/Notre Dame jobs will be next for Dabo, whenever those open up.

[NewYorkExpress]

Possible upset brewing tonight, as #14 Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State are tied at 27 early in the fourth quarter, and Appalachian State just got the ball back.

Coastal Carolina losing tonight would be good news for Cincinnati, as that would all but lock up a New Year's Six spot for them, assuming they beat SMU on November 20.

[NewYorkExpress]

And down goes #14 Coastal Carolina!
'
Appalachian State pulls off the upset, 30-27!

[NewYorkExpress]

Tennessee @ #4 Alabama 7 PM EDT ESPN

This may be the boldest pick of the year.

Even I, who loves picking upsets, am not this crazy.

[NewYorkExpress]

We've got an upset brewing in Las Vegas, as 0-6 UNLV leads San Jose State 17-13 at halftime.

[NewYorkExpress]

UCF righting the ship tonight, as they shut down Memphis, 24-7.

[NewYorkExpress]

#Pac12AfterDark has an upset brewing, as 17 point underdogs, and winless Arizona leads Washington 13-0 with halftime approaching.

[NewYorkExpress]

It's early in the second quarter, but Kansas is up 7-0 on #3 Oklahoma...and driving.

[NewYorkExpress]

After one quarter, both the Navy/Cincinnati and Northwestern/Michigan games are tied.

[NewYorkExpress]

Upset Alert!

#2 Cincinnati in trouble against Navy, trailing 10-7 early in the second quarter, and Desmond Ridder just threw an interception to give Navy the ball back.

[NewYorkExpress]

#3 Oklahoma in trouble, as Kansas leads 17-14 as the third quarter draws to a close.

[NewYorkExpress]

Oklahoma has taken the lead on Kansas, now up 21-17.

[NewYorkExpress]

After one quarter, the PAC-12 might finally get knocked out of the playoff picture, as #10 Oregon trails UCLA 14-0.