I Tell Ya" Herbie

   On tap for another edition of  I Tell Ya' Herbie, our weekly notes about the world of college football.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The surprising rise of BYU to the top of the Big 12 after being listed as one of the bottom-dwellers in the pre-season predictions has been one of the better stories in college football this season.

However, the holding call against Utah on a fourth down, which would have ended the game with BYU out of timeouts and Utah up three, was controversial.

A BYU loss would have completely scrambled the Big 12 title picture and made roughly a thousand tiebreaking scenarios for the conference title game very plausible.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             When you watch the BYU-Utah game (every year, not this year in particular) and see just how heated this rivalry is, you wonder why this game isn't mentioned as highly as others are when you discuss the best rivalries in the game.

I would think it hasn't gotten the publicity for two reasons.

First, the two programs were in the WAC/Mountain West for so many years that the "power conference" elite didn't care just how great of a rivalry this was and the other reason?

The schools in the Western time zone often receive the short end of the stick on topics such as this as other great rivalries such as Oregon-Oregon State, Washington-Washington State, and Arizona-Arizona State have only in recent years started to receive credit as elite-level rivalries.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Another Western rivalry might be the most vicious of them all, even though both schools are more often than not at the lower end of the standings every year.

The Rio Grande Rivalry between New Mexico and New Mexico State has heat on the field but even more off the field, where the Lobos of New Mexico have used their pull inside the defunct WAC and its spinoff, the Mountain West, to keep the rival Aggies out of their league at every turn.

The Lobos have always been in the bigger league and in the state's bigger media market (Albuquerque to State's Las Cruces), so they have been the bigger name of the two and the Aggies have struggled to find a long-term fit in a conference due to their size and location.

New Mexico State's programs have had their share of problems away from the field and court  (the two teams canceled their home and home hoops series last season) and that is a factor in their problems finding a home.

Still, the two teams play each season in football (New Mexico won this year's game 50-40) and home and home in basketball, so they do play each other without conference ramifications at stake.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             The SEC race could be cleared up a little bit on Saturday with Tennessee's visit to Georgia.

The Volunteers, Texas A&M, and Texas are the only schools with one loss in SEC play but there are five teams with two losses (Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, and Missouri) and Texas plays Texas A&M, so there is a guarantee of six teams with two conference losses and there is a scenario (although highly unlikely) of eight teams finishing with two losses.

A Tennessee win over Georgia would clarify things a little but a Georgia win would really throw things into chaos.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            I write a lot in my boxing coverage about some fights being "crossroads fights", which means the winner moves onto bigger things and the loser takes a major step in their career.

I think one game this week could be a crossroads game in the Big 12 as 5-4 Baylor visits 5-4 West Virginia in Morgantown.

This year was looked to be a pivotal year by Neal Brown with West Virginia, who disappointed for most of the season before two road wins over Arizona and Cincinnati pushed them above .500 and perhaps put the Mountaineers into position to salvage their season.

Baylor's Dave Aranda looked to be moving on the hot seat with his Bears at 2-4 before they ripped off three wins in a row over Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and TCU to move them over .500.

The winner will be bowl-eligible and has a chance to finish strong enough to relieve the pressure on their coach for 2025, while the loser will need to perhaps win both of their remaining games to save their season.

I Tell Ya' Herbie

    Back for more thoughts on the world of college football with the latest post with I Tell Ya' Herbie.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:  

                             Ole Miss's upset of LSU was interesting for a few reasons.

One is the sudden loss of defense in Baton Rouge, another is how once every year or so Lane Kiffin pulls one of these upsets, and yet another is why Ole Miss doesn't use those light blue jerseys and helmets more often but there is another going back before my time.

Why didn't Ole Miss become the power that Alabama did?

Both southern state schools were without pro sports, with tradition up to the early sixties, and both were hampered at that time by refusing to recruit African Americans.

Ole Miss had a top coach in Johnny Vaught, was Bear Bryant that superior in building a program?

Vaught's record against Bryant was 6-7-1, far from being dominated, which makes me wonder just how two programs made such a divergent change in fortunes?

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            One coach that I often see mentioned in coaching rumors although rarely at the top of the list is N.C.State's Dave Doeren and I'm trying to figure out why.

N.C.State is arguably the ACC school that has the most potential and just when they seem to be ready to make the big move they disappoint.

This wasn't expected to be one of those seasons but more had to be expected from the Wolfpack than a 3-2 start with a 13-10 home loss to Louisville and close wins over weak squads Connecticut and Virginia.

Perhaps Doeren's name could be better placed on a hot seat than one positioned to take another job as he has been one of many mentioned for Michigan State.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            Michigan State looks pretty weak and the Mel Tucker fiasco hasn't helped things any but with all of that understood, the Spartans gave a strong effort in Iowa City in a loss to the Hawkeyes that was not decided until late in the game.

I'm not sure if that was a result of a better-than-expected game from Sparty or yet another edition of Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz's ineptness in keeping a game closer than it should have been?

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                            Is it time to consider Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford for a bigger job should he have the interest?

Tedford may not have ended well at California but the Golden Bears' years under Tedford were the best times for that program in decades.

Tedford then finished 10-4 and 12-2 at Fresno State before a 4-8 season that saw Tedford leave at the end of the season for health reasons before returning last season with a 10-4 record and a 5-0 start for the Bulldogs.

Tedford is 61 years old and that could play into consideration for some programs and maybe even for Tedford himself but I am surprised that I don't hear more about him in the coaching silly season.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            If there is a game that you need to look up highlights from last Saturday, it has to be Baylor's come-from-behind win over Central Florida!

Central Florida led 35-7 in the third quarter only to have the Bears rally for a 36-35 lead late in the game.

Then perhaps the play of the year- fourth and long, UCF quarterback Timmy McClain scrambled from his own thirty-yard line under the Baylor rush to eventually reach his end zone and yet still made the first down to the Knights forty-six-yard line!

UCF would miss a fifty-nine-yard field goal at the gun that would have won the game but what a play from Timmy McClain!

                            

                            

                            

I tell ya' Herbie

I tell ya' Herbie is back with some weekly thoughts on the college football world.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Officiating is often blamed for losses at every level of football, but at times blame is more than warranted.
Take last week's game between Texas Tech and Baylor at the home of the Bears in Waco.
The visiting underdog Red Raiders have battled the Bears to overtime with Baylor getting the ball first.

Baylor's center snaps the ball off his own rump and the ball falls to the turf, which Texas Tech recovers,
This would have given Tech a huge advantage as they would only have to kick a field goal to win the game, but instead, the referee ruled the play dead with an illegal snap penalty on Baylor.
This is a mistake as if the snap is continuous, it cannot be a dead ball.
Baylor would win the game 33-30 in double overtime.
Who knows what Tech would have done with their possession, but they had a lot going for them if the referee would have made the correct call.
But, Texas Tech did receive one of those apologies from the league, so I guess that makes it OK...

I tell ya' Herbie:
                         There were a few games of importance that were high scoring and exciting last Saturday with LSU's win over Florida and Oklahoma topping Texas, but those games were seen on national television for anyone to watch that chose to do so, but the game of the day was exiled to the new ACC Network that many fans don't have.
Wake Forest entered the game undefeated and ranked and hosted 3-2 Louisville.
In a game that saw each team move up and down the field and seemingly scoring with every possession, Louisville dropped the Demon Deacons 62-59 and the really interesting part?
It ended in regulation.
Usually, college football's overtime ends in an inflated crazy score (one of the reasons that I prefer the NFL version that uses the entire field), but a score like that in regulation?
It was a rare time that I felt like I missed out on an ACC game worth watching!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Another interesting note was from the television aspect as CBS, which has first call on SEC games, chose top-ranked Alabama's game vs 24th ranked Texas A&M over the battle between 5th ranked LSU and 7th rated Florida.
The Tigers and Gators game was given to ESPN with the second choice of SEC games and the Worldwide Leader was rewarded with their highest-rated game of the last two seasons.
Even though the Aggies were ranked, they were a sizable underdog and the LSU-Florida game was one that fans were excited about seeing, so the CBS decision had to be about the Saban factor or maybe even the Texas market, but even before the ratings were in, it seemed that CBS had chosen the wrong game.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                           South Carolina's upset of Georgia between the hedges could have a major impact on the four team playoff when that time comes, but the Gamecocks aren't finished with having a say on the bigger bowls and it's not only for their season-ending game against Clemson.
South Carolina hosts Appalachian State on November 9th and with the Mountaineers now ranked at 24th, Appalachian State's visit to Columbia stands as the largest roadblock for an undefeated season.
Appalachian State defeated Louisiana-Lafayette last week in a rematch of last year's Sun Belt title game and looks to be too much for the remainder of their schedule, barring a slip-up until visiting South Carolina or their Sun Belt title game opponent.
Here is where that could get interesting. If Boise State loses one game, would the title committee in deciding who gets the group of five bid, take an undefeated Appalachian State over a one loss Broncos or a one loss American champion?
It's interesting to think about as if Applachian State defeats South Carolina, they would have two Power Five victories over South Carolina and North Carolina, which would be more than Boise State or any potential American champion except Temple, who holds wins over Maryland and Georgia Tech.
Would that be enough to put a Sun Belt team in?

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          We wrap with another note on Friday football from the Big Ten or as we call it- Cash Grab Friday.
Despite being unpopular with the schools as well as their fan base, the Big Ten is still collecting dollars from their television partners and this Friday, they gave FS1, who televises their games, one of their bigger fish in the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Between a national fan base, their number four ranking and the talented Justin Fields, FS1 had to be salivating for the Ohio State appearance, but as so often happens when you do things only for money, things go awry.
The Wednesday rainout of game four of the ALCS, shoved games four and five to Thursday and Friday, which was originally planned to be a travel day now had a scheduled game.
With Fox starting a relationship with the WWE and it's Smackdown program, Fox didn't want to bump the McMahon gang, so they reluctantly needed to place the ALCS on FS1 and bump the Ohio State-Northwestern to the Fox-affiliated, but lesser carried Big Ten network.
I'd feel bad for these parties, if they weren't so greedy to start with.