I Tell Ya' Herbie

Another day and another edition of
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.

Want to attend a Conference USA game between 1-7 Old Dominion and 4-4 Florida International in Miami-Dade County?
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.

I tell ya' Herbie

I tell ya' Herbie returns with various thoughts from the college football landscape with a touch of bemusement this week.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Illinois defeating Wisconsin last Saturday on a walk-off field goal was one of those stunners that both teams have a point to discuss.
Starting with Illinois, where the interesting question to ponder is about the future of Lovie Smith.
Smith looked to be on the road to nowhere after the Illini were defeated at home by Eastern Michigan, but could Smith have turned things around after stunning the sixth-ranked and undefeated Badgers?
It depends if Smith can get to six wins and a small bowl bid, I think Smith may have earned himself another year.
Illinois is 3-4 and will need to sweep their three games against lower-level teams, this week against 2-5 Purdue in West Lafayette, next week against 1-6 Rutgers at home and their finale against rival 1-5 Northwestern also at home.
Sweep those and they get their six wins regardless of their two tougher games, both on the road vs Iowa and Michigan State.
If they don't and this week on the road against a similarly talented team in Purdue will be difficult to win after the big victory over Wisconsin, the upset could be simply the highlight of yet another disappointing Illini coaching era.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          As for the Badgers, I was disappointed in their loss as it would have been a much bigger game to the media against Ohio State had they entered the game undefeated, but I'm not sure it's any less of a big game with the loss.
Put Ohio State aside and look at the Illinois game as a fluke because it was.
Why on Earth did Paul Chryst with arguably the top runner in the nation in Jonathan Taylor, stop using him?
Illinois scores with just under six minutes to go and cuts the Wisconsin lead to two points.
Wisconsin has a first and ten with under four minutes to go and the clock running at their own forty after a first down.
Chryst calls a run play to the fullback (-1 yard) and a screen pass to the same fullback (6 yards) before a pass on third and five was intercepted near midfield and allowed Illinois the chance to win the game.
That decision might have been the difference between winning and losing and if it's close in Columbus on Saturday and it could be that Paul Chryst will have to decide to run with the horse or attempt to win with their weakness with the game in the balance.

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          Tonight as I was checking my Twitter timeline, John McAdam (who has a terrific wrestling podcast ) mentioned a game this weekend that struck my interest because part of what I love about college football is that every week the pairings range from every portion of the spectrum.
Take the battle of New England universities in what might be the worst two teams to play each other this season for an example.
1-6 Connecticut travels to 1-6 Massachusetts in a game that is so bad as I review it that my only question is how did they each win a game?
UMass hasn't given up fewer than 29 points all season and that was in their only win (37-29 over 0-7 Akron)!
If you remove the Akron game, UMass has allowed 44,45,48 (to Rutgers for the Scarlet Knights only win) 52,58 and 69 points to their opponents and their closest loss was a 25 point loss to I-AA Southern Illinois at home!
As for UConn, their one win was a three-point win at home over I-AA Wagner (Don't get too excited yet, Wagner is 1-6 and the week after the three-point loss at UConn, the Seahawks lost by ten at home to Division II East Stroudsburg) and they were competitive in their second game in losing by eight at Illinois, but it's been downhill since with losses of 35, 35, 26 and 42 points before playing Houston close at home last week in a 24-17 loss.
UMass has a marginal excuse with a first-year head coach in Walt Bell, but UConn continues to trudge through Randy Edsall- the sequel, as Edsall, he of the ridiculous contract where he gets bonuses for scoring first in a game (Seriously you need to read this) among others and has a career record of 29 games UNDER .500, continues to get more mileage out of an 8-5 season nine years ago than any coach should, makes his way toward crushing the heart of a third program (UConn twice and Maryland).
What I really don't understand is this- In an era that almost every game has television or is hooked up with an internet/streaming service of some kind, no one is showing this game!
This is exactly the type of game that I would watch unless one of my teams would be playing at the same time!

I tell ya' Herbie:
                          One of the most ridiculous overreactions that I've seen occurred in Statesboro Georgia and the Sun Belt came between visiting Coastal Carolina and the homestanding Georgia Southern Eagles.
We enter the fourth quarter and "Mo Bamba" hits the loudspeakers.
Almost every team in the country has some type of song to fire up the fan base etc moving into the final period, so Georgia Southern isn't unique there and their players began to jump around to the music.
Coastal Carolina began to dance back and although it didn't seem that it was good-hearted and the Chanticleers were trying to show that they weren't intimidated, it wasn't a nasty situation either as neither team was close to the other and nothing physical was threatened.
Yet, here comes the officials to make something out of nothing and threw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct on every player on the field.
That ridiculous decision caused three players that had been penalized earlier in the game to be ejected due to the rule that if a player is penalized for a personal foul/unsportsmanlike conduct twice in a game they are ejected.
Once again, officials getting involved where they are unneeded,
Georgia Southern went on to win the game 30-27 in three overtimes.


Top Five
1) LSU
2) Ohio State
3) Alabama
4) Oklahoma
5) Clemson
Just Missed: Penn State

Group of Five
1) SMU
2) Cincinnati
3) Appalachian State
4) Boise State
5) Memphis
Just Missed: San Diego State

Heisman Watch
1) Joe Burrow LSU
2) Jonathan Taylor Wisconsin
3) Tua Tagovailoa Alabama
4) Jalen Hurts Oklahoma
5) Justin Fields Ohio State
Just Missed: J.K. Dobbins Ohio State

Cleaning out the Inbox-Thanksgiving Edition

First off.let me wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you all enjoyed it in your own personal manner.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday as it has no religious connotations and no matter your belief,religion or even lack thereof,there is something (or many things) that we all can be thankful for.

On to the inbox for a little cleaning out.

We start with a retirement of an icon as the Kennedy Space Center has retired the huge countdown clock that it has used since 1969's second Apollo mission to the moon and up until the final space shuttle mission.
The six foot tall clock has been shown in every space countdown for television and in several movies.
The clock has been outside for that span of time and weather takes its toll on all mechanical workings,especially over 45 years of them.
Parts had become difficult to come by for repairs and its time had come.
The clock will be available to be seen in the nearby visitors center and the replacement will have more features similar to those seen on scoreboards in stadiums around the country...

Fox Business anchor Melissa Francis claims that she was silenced by former employer CNBC when she wanted to broadcast her thoughts on "Obamacare",which she wanted to state that the numbers didn't add up.
Francis works for a pretty conservative network,so keep that in mind,but I do wonder if NBC and its satellite networks,which are known for being very liberally base,might have done this or at least kept Francis from being in a position to state her views.
The former Harvard graduate knows the issue and I tend to at least believe her numbers are accurate at minimum.
I'm not a financial wizard or anything,although I do watch Francis's show in the afternoon and find it interesting,but I do wish that some of the networks would consider a straight up reporting aspect rather than biases-from either side.

We wrote about the weeding out of the fighters in the NHL recently and Grantland did the same on the topic.
I've always enjoyed fighting,but it's time to face the facts-like it or not-the game has changed and literally turned the one dimensional sluggers into outdated modems....

I've always had a soft spot for Georgia Southern football since I read an article in the early 1980's about their starting a football program at a time where you didn't see that every day.
Combine that with my fondness for their first head coach in the colorful Erk Russell and the Eagles were my favorite 1-AA team along with Youngstown State.
Georgia Southern dumped Florida last year at the Swamp and this year in their first season in 1-A football,the Eagles are on their way to winning the Sun Belt title.
Sadly,despite this,the NCAA doesn't allow teams moving up from 1-AA to go to bowls for two years after the move up the ladder.
Georgia Southern has appealed after their strong season,but I wouldn't bet on the NCAA changing his mind.
Grantland looks at the Georgia Southern program here.

The Grey Cup is this Sunday with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats against the Calgary Stampeders.
I've written before about my appreciation for the Canadian game,but checking the previews for the Cup,noted NFL writer Peter King traveled to Canada in June for the first time and offered quite a few thoughts and notes on the CFL.
The Grey Cup can be seen on ESPN2 at six o'clock Sunday night and I'd highly recommend giving it a try.

That cleans the inbox for now. Back tomorrow night with the Devils return home against the Detroit Red Wings.