CFB Week 11

You know when the list of games featuring ranked teams is that short that it's a good week. Lots of ranked vs. ranked games.

As for most, Miami/Notre Dame will be the highlight for me. There are a lot of eyes on this game because of the playoff implications, obviously, but I also think that the collective college football universe is so eager for Miami to be "back" that this has become a game people are taking as the cue as to whether or not they are, in fact, "back."

 

Oh, and a really random CFB thought I had earlier this week. On Wednesday, I watched Ohio/Toledo, a game between the two best teams in the MAC, and I realized that Frank Solich has been the head coach at Ohio for 12 years now.

You may remember Solich as the head coach who took over for Tom Osborne at Nebraska and led them to three BCS bowls, including one national title game appearance, won nine or more games in five of six seasons, and developed Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch, but was ultimately let go after six seasons.

Since then, he's just gone about his business at Ohio, quietly winning games. He has the best winning percentage of any coach at Ohio U. since Don Peden, whose last season was 1946, and his team's eight bowl games are four times as many as the program had TOTAL before he arrived.

Solich is in his 70s now, and it's clear that he's going to coach there until he retires, but his tenure there got me thinking. I wonder if he was in a similar situation to the one he was in at Nebraska, but in 2017, if he would have been a hot commodity on the coaching carousel in a way that he wasn't back in 2004. Back then, I think there was a very real sentiment, even outside of Nebraska circles, that Solich had dragged Nebraska football down to an unacceptable level, which really hurt his reputation. But in hindsight, I think we know now that because of the growth and nationalization of college football, Nebraska's time as a power like they were under Osborne was just up.

And furthermore, I think the discussion around "failed" coaching hires has changed a lot since then. Look at a guy like Charlie Strong. He had a rough go of it at Texas, but after being let go, was immediately scooped up by one of the best G5 programs in the country and now will probably be back at a P5 program as soon as this offseason. If Solich's situation played out in 2017, I can really see a scenario where everyone agrees that it was an impossible job to replace Tom Osborne, and after a year or two out of football or coaching at a smaller program, he'd be back coaching at a Big Ten school. Just a random observation about how time and place matters in college football.

 

Great post jdh008. That is until you compared Charlie Strong to Solich.

 

Maybe that's a tenuous comparison, but the point was simply that it seems like programs will overlook a "failure" as a head coach more easily than they did at times in the past.

 

With Washington going down to Stanford last night, it's getting increasingly hard to see a Pac-12 team in the playoff field. Even if a two-loss team gets into the field, I'm not sure any Pac-12 team's resume is going to be good enough to be that team.

 

Could this be one of the greatest weeks in college football history?

12 v 13
15 v 21
1 vs 10
8 vs 20
2 vs 16
3 v 7
5 v 6
9 v team that will most likely be ranked next week

Holy shite

 

Increasingly difficult? It's not even worth considering IMO.

Pac 12 is done this year and I'm OK with that. UW is clearly worse than last year and the Alabama game proved they didn't really belong then. USC would be the alternative and that ain't gonna happen.

 

At the risk of reading too much into one game (which I'm definitely doing), the stars seem to be aligning for Ohio State to get into the playoff.

They're already going to jump ahead of Michigan State (assuming they don't suffer an epic collapse here), they'll probably jump ahead of Auburn either this week after a loss to Georgia or after they lose the Iron Bowl to Alabama, they'll move ahead of Washington after the Huskies' loss to Stanford, and they'd have a shot to jump Miami if UM loses to Notre Dame and looks bad doing it.

Suddenly, that puts them back in good position if they are able to win out, especially when you consider winning out would probably mean a win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game. They'd still have to have some other things happen, sure, but the dominoes have already started to fall in their favor.

 

I agree with that. A 1-loss Georgia and Alabama still make it. If Miami wins then OSU won't jump them, if they lose, OSU won't be jumping #3 ND. That's 3 of the 4 spots essentially locked in. I don't think #4 Clemson will lose again this season. You have #5 vs #6, whoever wins this matchup will likely win out.

OSU won't jump an unbeaten Miami, 1-loss ND, 1-loss Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, 1-loss TCU/Oklahoma.

 

Really fun ending brewing between Iowa State and Oklahoma State. 35-31 ISU, just started the fourth quarter (yes, the game has been THAT slow-moving).

 

That TD by Lazard was ridiculous.

 

For the first time since probably 1996, Army is the best service academy in college football. They beat Duke today to run their record to 8-2. I've said it before, but it bears repeating that Jeff Monken is going to be a good hire for someone in the near future. With the bowl game this year, it will be the first time they've gone bowling in back-to-back years since 1984-1985.

 

Auburn's offense is friggin terrible in scoring situations.

Georgia likely gonna bust it open here soon.

 

I gave up on Army football ages ago and have rooted for Navy. However, Monken's enthusiasm is contagious.

IIRC, a couple of years ago he made some demands that Army take football seriously (like Navy does) or he would leave. Looks like he got his way. Hope he stays there a while.

 

Awful end of the half for Kansas State against West Virginia.

Instead of running the ball to kill time left in the first half, they run a screen and have it intercepted by WVU, leaving the Mountaineers with ten seconds left and the ball at about the 40. Will Grier scrambles around for nine seconds, then flings a hail mary into the end zone, which lands in the arms of a wide-open receiver, giving WVU an eight-point lead instead of the one-point lead they probably should have had.

 

Georgia looks awful today. So much for being #1.

 

I'm not saying Jake Fromm doesn't have a very bright future, but his "here and now" performance is why I thought Auburn would beat Georgia.

 

So *this* is the game that Georgia loses once or twice every year when they just completely implode.