Championship Week mood:
Wont stop til we get enough pic.twitter.com/5hz7EjbzmP
— Northwestern Football (@NUFBFamily) December 13, 2020
Word of the Day: Halcyon.
URBAN FIRES BACK. I have a general rule against arguing with idiots. It goes back to the whole, "wrestle with a pig and you both get dirty, but the pig likes it" sort of thing. But sometimes, their idiotic opinions just get so loud that somebody has to say something.
This week, that somebody was Urban Meyer.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney didn't mince words this week when asked about the College Football Playoff and his opinion on Ohio State's half-season of games played compared to others in the final four mix. The two-time national champion doesn't believe the Buckeyes deserve to be in consideration with a six-game slate.
...
“I think, the job of the College Football Playoff committee: get the four best teams,” Meyer said. “There’s no doubt, they’re one of the four best teams. The argument should stop there. NFL talent all over the place. One of the best offenses in America.
"Defense has got to get better, but there’s no question I get what Reggie (Bush) says, and I think the College Football Playoff committee, like we’ve been saying, those two awful words, the ‘look test,’ they are going to have to look at the look test because everything is unequal.”
As much as I want the rematch with Clemson, I'd also be fine if Notre Dame just blasted Dabo into the sun at this point.
Dabo fills me with so much hate, I am openly rooting for a Notre Dame team coached by Brian Kelly to go undefeated and make the College Football Playoff. That's where we're at.
HOW TO MAKE AN ASS OUT OF YOURSELF. Somehow, losing to an atrocious LSU team that only had 50 scholarship players was not the most embarrassing thing Dan Mullen did this week, thanks to his press conferences.
"I guess the best thing to do would have been to play less games because you seem to get rewarded for not playing this year in college football."
— John Talty (@JTalty) December 13, 2020
After his first loss, Dan tried to shift blame to having a packed stadium. After this one, Dan tries to whine about playing 10 games.
The funniest part about this complaint is that the SEC has been playing fewer conference games than any other Power Five conference since forever in favor of late-season games against FCS opponents (read: chickenshit Saturday). And now they're worried about a competitive advantage from playing fewer games.
This would be like Urban Meyer blaming an extra conference game for Ohio State's 2015 loss to Michigan State. How do you think that would have gone over?
And more than any of this, if you don't think Ryan Day would trade schedules with Florida in a heartbeat and give his team more game reps to actually improve and work some things out, you're not living in reality.
But therein lies the problem – Mullen does not seem to live in the same realm of reality as we do because he's out here arguing with a straight face that his player accidentally threw an opponent's shoe as "part of the football move."
“He made the tackle,” Mullen said during a teleconference with reporters to preview Saturday’s SEC title game against No. 1 Alabama. “Part of the football move, the kid’s shoe is in his hand. He kind of threw it and jumped and celebrated with his teammates.
“It’s pretty unfortunate in that situation. I don’t think there was any intent to taunt, and there wasn’t — it’s not like he was throwing it at their sideline or doing any of that."
That seems... unlikely. So let's check the tape.
Florida just gave up a first down by throwing an LSU players shoe after a 3rd down stop... I love college football #LSUvsUF pic.twitter.com/hjq3jWj66b
— CFB Pylon (@TheCFBPylon) December 13, 2020
In case you need a frame-by-frame breakdown...
Honestly not surprised by this. Coming from the guy that wanted to pack the swamp and his whole facility got covid the next day https://t.co/VFVVI5RRAE pic.twitter.com/sTgSHjxvqi
— 2019 National Champs Barstool LSU (@LSUBarstool) December 14, 2020
At least it was a good throw?
IMPOSSIBLE TO HATE. There are the college football coaches with whom I am sad I even have to share a planet (read above), but then there is Pat Fitzgerald, who I've actively tried to dislike for years but just can't.
Pat Fitzgerald on Ohio State's College Football Playoff loss to Clemson last year: I still think they should have won that game. I thought that was a pretty tough call. But I'm kind of a Big Ten homer.
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) December 14, 2020
Fitz is the type of guy that you'd feel worse about beating by 50 than he'd feel about losing to you by 50. You could try to apologize to him for running up the score and he'd apologize to you for not making it a close enough game.
BUCKS VS. SOONERS? Ohio State vs. Oklahoma obviously didn't happen and isn't going to happen at any other point this season, but everyone loves a good hypothetical. Even Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley.
“Yeah, no doubt we would play. We would love to play. Listen, I know the logistics — wanting to play and actually being able to make that happen, I understand, are two different things,” (Lincoln) Riley said. “There’s so, so much to go through. You’re talking about different leagues that are doing testing differently, I mean, playing a game right now is not as — it’s never simple, but it’s not quite as simple as it used to be.
“From a competitive standpoint, we would love to play. There’s no doubt about it. But I mean, the feasibility of doing something on that late of notice, with all the procedures and all that, I don’t see it happening.”
The Tulsa World reached out to BetOnline for a point spread on a possible matchup. The Buckeyes would be a 9.5-point favorite over the Sooners at a neutral site.
Justin Fields and Chris Olave/Garrett Wilson vs. Alex Grinch's defense? Buddy, 9.5 points would have been the most stress-free money I've made all year.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Mary, Did You know?" by Pentatonix.
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