I tell ya' Herbie where I give my takes on various news in college football.
I tell ya' Herbie:
The game of the week is down in Memphis, home of Elvis Presley, Keith Lee and Jerry "the King" Lawler- none of which are football players, although two did attend the then-Memphis State, now University of Memphis.
The AAC West lead is the prize as 8-0 SMU travels to 7-1 Memphis with the winner taking a step forward to winning the division.
SMU has been the surprise story of the season behind former Texas quarterback Shane Buechele, while Memphis keeps rolling along with their offense and head coach Mike Norvell, who seems destined for a Power Five job whenever he finds the right fit.
SMU still has to play one-loss Navy, while Memphis has the 6-1 and undefeated in the AAC Cincinnati Bearcats waiting in their final game, so the winner hasn't locked up a championship berth yet.
What could be the most important part of all about this game?
With a lighter schedule as far as impact games this Saturday, SMU-Memphis will be the Saturday night game on ABC and give the AAC a rare chance to show their product on a national stage.
Considering that both teams score plenty of points and have been in exciting games all season, this game is the game that I am most excited about this weekend.
I tell ya' Herbie:
I'm writing this early Friday morning from the road office and watched the Georgia Southern upset of undefeated Appalachian State 24-21 as the Eagles held off a late rally from the Mountaineers in beautiful Boone, North Carolina.
The loss not only kicks Appalachian out of the hunt for the Group of Five spot in the New Year's Day bowl games but also dropped them into a tie in the loss column for the division lead in the Sun Belt East division with Georgia State and Georgia Southern.
The defeat snapped the thirteen game winning streak for Appalachian State dating back to 2017 where they lost to... Georgia Southern.
I tell ya' Herbie:
Let's give some credit for a coaching hire that I wasn't crazy about, but has turned out well thus far in Les Miles at Kansas.
Now, to be fair, it wasn't that I dislike Miles as a coach, it was that at Miles' age (Soon to be 66) Kansas was such a disaster that he would be better suited to spend his borrowed time elsewhere.
Miles has won three games in Lawrence, beat Texas Tech last Saturday on a wacky play at the end of the game and lost at the gun to Texas on the previous Saturday. which wouldn't be a big deal at most places, but in Kansas it's noteworthy.
I'm not sure that the Jayhawks can win three of their final four to qualify for a bowl, but this is still better than things have been in years.
I tell ya' Herbie:
I know it's a cute story with the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 8-0, but looking closer at the schedule shows that record is tissue paper soft with no one near the top 25, two close wins in non-conference over Fresno State and Georgia Southern and drawing what might be the best five teams to play in conference for a fast start with three teams with losing records (Purdue, Maryland, and Rutgers), disappointing Nebraska at 4-4 and catching 4-4 Illinois before they seemed to turn their season around.
P.J. Fleck's campaigning to bring ESPN GameDay to campus before next Saturday's game against fellow undefeated Penn State could backfire if the Gophers get rolled as I think they will.
The Gophers hold a two-game lead over Wisconsin and Iowa, but I don't think that they can hold it with games against Penn State and the two teams trying to catch them in their final four games.
Still, if Minnesota does manage to pull off their first divisional title, I think they'll be toast against any of the still eligible teams from the eastern division- Ohio State, Penn State or Michigan.
I tell ya' Herbie:
There might not be a worse conference at the bottom of their league than Conference USA, which has three teams with a combined two wins with Old Dominion, UTEP, and Rice.
Sadly, Old Dominion doesn't play UTEP or Rice, but in the final week of the season UTEP, which has one win (a two-point win over Houston Baptist) will battle winless Rice in the type of game that makes you think of last week's awful game of the week (Hmm, perhaps an addition to the PPM out tomorrow?) between Connecticut and Massachusetts that was part of "Herbie" last week.
Connecticut defeated Massachusetts 56-35 in just the sort of game that I imagined it to be!
Please, football gods, televise UTEP-Rice somewhere and not against a team that I need to watch!
I tell ya' Herbie:
One thing about Group of Five football that gives it a minor league look is the lack of attendance.
I understand why this happens when you have a bad team and are getting killed every week with facilities that are often less than great.
I wonder why some of these teams that don't have long traditions (MAC and Mountain West, which has almost all the heritage of the old WAC) even try and could be better suited to drop to a 1-AA football level.
Conference USA and the Sun Belt would be better off combining the best of each league for football only, allow the weaker sisters to play in their own league for football only in 1-AA, and then return to their normal leagues for the other sports.
This would result in a stronger league for the Group of Five and give schools that don't invest as much money into their football programs (at the G-5 level) a chance to compete for a national title in 1-AA.
I'll expand on this in another "Herbie" down the road, but here is an example of the struggles for some teams.
According to this ad on ESPN as I looked up the records for C-USA, you could attend this game for three dollars.
Tough to make money like that.
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