I Tell Ya' Herbie

 It's our weekly look at college football, which we like to call I Tell Ya' Herbie!

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            The biggest surprise in week one saw Florida State, coming off a 3-9 season, batter top-ten Alabama into submission.

Florida State not only defeated the Tide, but they also bullied them, as Bama hadn't been pushed around in years.

Alabama allowed 230 yards in rushing, and while I'm open to this being week one jitters, it's possible the Tide lost the punishing defense that was such a force during the Nick Saban era.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Still, it's reasonable to see the week one results, which are often overexaggerated, and think back to Florida State's week zero loss last year to Georgia Tech.

It was a major shocker at the time, but when the season ended, Florida State finished 3-9 and Georgia Tech 7-5, so a game that looks huge at the time often is meaningless by the end of the season.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                            It may not have national implications, but I'm happy to see Kansas and Missouri playing each other for the first time since 2011 and the Tigers' move to the SEC.

This is a huge rivalry and was so filled with animosity (mostly Kansas towards the departing Missouri) that the Jayhawks refused to play the Tigers in any sport for years.

The teams will play in Missouri this season and return to Kansas in 2026, but I am not aware of any further commitments.

At a time when regional rivalries are dying due to conference realignment, it's nice to see games like this played, even if only for a short time.

I Tell Ya' Herbie:

                             Another one of my favorite rivalries appears to be a potentially important game come playoff selection time, as Iowa and Iowa State meet for the Cy-Hawk Trophy in Ames.

This is usually a fun rivalry, and with both teams having playoff hopes, a big non-conference win could go a long way come selection time.

Plus, with the added attention for Kirk Ferentz, who needs one win to become the winningest Big Ten coach in history, the Cy-Hawk is a game worth watching.       

Buckeyes rotten in Cotton, lose 14-3

    The Ohio State Buckeyes offense played awful early and late, and while neither Devin Brown before his injury nor Lincoln Kienholz afterward distinguished themselves, the stories of the night are going to be Ryan Day's conservative playcalling, and how much Day is willing to gamble off this game on Brown and Kienholz for the 2024 Buckeyes.

The 14-3 Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri isn't as important as how it happened and how it could affect next season for Ohio State.

Ohio State finished with only 106 yards passing and TreVeyon Henderson led the offense with seventy-two yards rushing.

Ohio State will open the 2024 season on August 31st at home against Akron.

For the first time in a long time, Ohio State may have more questions than answers during a long off-season.

Olentangy Offerings

1) Devin Brown injured his ankle in the second quarter and after an aborted attempt to return, left the game for good.

As much as I would like to blame the loss of Brown for the Ohio State defeat, it's not so.

Brown completed four of six passes for only twenty yards at the time of his injury.

2) Ohio State scored their only points under Brown on a forty-four-yard field goal by Jayden Fielding in the first quarter.

Fielding would miss from forty-eight yards in the third quarter when his kick hit off the upright.

3) The offensive line play was brutal as Missouri sacked Ohio State quarterbacks four times and controlled the run game as the Buckeyes reluctance to throw allowed the Tigers to key on TreVeyon Henderson.

4) Jesse Mirco's punting season has been disappointing, to say the least, but Mirco was not a problem against Missouri, placing three punts inside the twenty, and hitting one of sixty-one yards.

5) The player of the game for Ohio State had to be defensive end Jack Sawyer, who sacked Missouri quarterback Brady Cook three times.

Sawyer hasn't announced his decision for the NFL Draft but his play last night may have made him a few dollars extra, should he decide to go pro.

6) Missouri didn't score their two touchdowns until the final quarter against an exhausted Ohio State defense, and it's hard to blame the defense for allowing those scores.

Missouri held the time of possession battle 34-26 but it seemed to be more than that as I watched the game in live action.

7) I did think Ohio State got hosed a bit on the first Missouri touchdown drive when Josh Proctor was called for a late hit on Missouri quarterback Brady Cook.

I thought Proctor hit Cook just as he was stepping out of bounds and it wasn't late.

8) Ohio State committed eight penalties on the evening and continued the struggles with special teams that will likely cause the demise in the coming days of special teams coach Parker Fleming.

Three of the eight came from the special teams, including a holding call on a punt that was fair caught.

9) Ryan Day was downright timid in his playcalling and while the offensive line didn't do their part in protection, Day didn't want to throw downfield often when Devin Brown was in the game, and he did next to none with Lincoln Kienholz.

If this game was so important to win, as was proclaimed before the game, and if it was a chance to measure the quarterbacks for 2024, why wouldn't you try to use as much of the offense as possible?

There were complications with Lincoln Kienholz in using the entire offense but that wouldn't apply to Devin Brown and I don't think the offense was too wide open even before Brown was hurt.

10) Ohio State has to be disappointed with the loss and changes are going to have to be made on the coaching staff and personnel.

Ohio State enters a pivotal season with four quality teams entering the Big Ten next season, the competition will be tougher so the Buckeyes will not be able to show up and win every game on talent alone.

Ryan Day's seat may be warm now, next season will either solve issues in the program or bring bigger problems to the forefront.

It's going to be a long offseason in Columbus. 

Cleaning out the Inbox

   Lots of links to clean and with what has been (so far) consistent Cavaliers and Devils coverage has left me with not as much time for inbox cleaning, passings, and posts like yesterday's on the situation with the Houston Texans.

Since the inbox security guard cannot be working forever, I suppose I should get to work!

The first four of these are all from The Athletic.

We start with Kelly Holcomb looking back on the Browns only previous playoff appearance of the "New" Browns in 2002, which saw the Browns rolling over the Steelers in Pittsburgh before tremendously dumb moves on both sides of the football that allowed the Steelers to rally for the victory.

Holcomb talks about the game, the 2002 season, and the competition with Tim Couch after the 2002 season and it's really interesting.

As for the dumb moves, I'll leave those for another post.

Mike Lombardi is someone that I've never thought highly of as a football executive.

If you have been reading TRS for a long time, you'll remember how loudly I protested the Browns hiring of him years ago, but he gets this right as he writes about the Dwayne Haskins situation in Washington.

The former Ohio State quarterback and 2019 Washington first-round pick was released by the Red and Yellow during the season and Lombardi's argument that while Haskins has more than a little blame for how his tenure turned out, the team that selected him must take a decent percentage of the blame as well.

Washington was the worst team to select a player that had really played one year of college and combined with the distractions of being his hometown as well, one couldn't design a better way to manufacture a bust.

Haskins has signed for Pittsburgh for next season and if there is any hope of salvaging his career Haskins needs to be on a team that has a veteran quarterback that is preferably a pocket passer and would be willing to help Haskins develop a bit.

All of that assumes that Haskins has learned from his errors in Washington.

The 1984 Olympic basketball team might be the most talented basketball ever aside from the "Dream Team" and it certainly was the most talented in the all-amateur era, but the stories about the players that didn't make it and why make those trials a fascinating story.

Between Bob Knight, the talent at the trials, and questions to this day of why Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and John Stockton didn't make the team and the likes of Steve Alford, Leon Wood, and Jeff Turner did, it is an interesting read about the trials and the always mercurial Bob Knight.

The final link from The Athletic looks at one of the corniest hype videos that you will see from 2012 from students at Missouri- "We Are Mizzou"

I had never heard of this until this article, but as corny as the video is, the even better version is the parody "We are KU"!

Fred Landucci sends me this video with 10 facts about Have Gun Will Travel, which ranks near the top of my favorite shows period, let alone of its era/genre.

It literally lists ten interesting facts about the show, its star Richard Boone and the character Paladin.

Have Gun Will Travel was televised by CBS from 1957-1963.

15 College Football Games that should be happening 1-5

It's been longer than I intended, but I did want to finish the series of 15 college football games that should be happening that currently are not before time moved too far along and I forgot to finish the series!!!
6-10 are here and 11-15 here.

Anyway, here are my top five that need to be played every year...

1) Texas vs Texas A&M

The top game that needs to be played and still isn't on the schedule ruined the college Thanksgiving tradition between the Aggies and Longhorns over issues between the schools ranging from the Longhorn Network to Big 12 problems and eventually sent Texas A&M out of the Big 12 and into the SEC.
The bad blood is so thick between this two that the series that made so much money for the pair went by the wayside and doesn't seem to be returning anytime soon.
Neither seems very interested in renewing the rivalry, but neither's attempts to replace it on Thanksgiving weekend (A&M vs LSU on Thanksgiving Saturday and Texas alternating years with TCU and Texas Tech on Thanksgiving Day) have clicked as anything more than secondary rivalries.
This one really needs to return...

2) Kansas vs Missouri

The hard feelings in this one might be even worse than Texas-Texas A&M even though the situation was similar as Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC.
This longtime border war likely will be DOA until ironically the person that seems to have taken this the hardest leaves-Bill Self of Kansas-the BASKETBALL coach!
Neither of these teams are generally football powers, in fact, Kansas usually stinks and Missouri is a mid-level SEC team on an average to good year, so it's not like losing this game costs anyone national implications.
Still, this is a game that is huge to Missouri, a team without a natural rival in the SEC and costs Kansas one of the two teams that their fans considered rivals, so it is still a loss to the game...

3) Penn State vs Pitt

This is one that is currently being played in a four-year contract (2018 will be year three), but there is not a future agreement and it's unknown if there will be another contract signed in the immediate future.
Penn State has been the holdup in the past as far as playing this game as they wanted to have two home games for every one home game for Pitt (similar to their past dealings with Temple on the eastern side of Pennsylvania), while the Panthers preferred the home and home series, which Penn State agreed to for the current four-game series.
Pitt has much prestige than Temple and isn't going to settle for a contract like that, so if that is the only offer, they aren't likely to play again for a while after 2019.
It's too bad as the best two teams in Pennsylvania need to play every season...

4) Pitt vs West Virginia

However, if that game cannot be played and Pitt is able to play the Backyard Brawl again every year against West Virginia, that's more than a good enough replacement.
The two neighbors in many ways are even bigger rivals than Pitt and Penn State, share former conference rivalries going back through multiple leagues and frankly just plain hate each other.
I'm not sure if you asked Pitt fans which they'd rather play each year that West Virginia wouldn't come out the winner in a fan vote.
As for the Mountaineers, who seem to think they are above their in-state rival in Marshall and pull on the Herd what Penn State tries to with to Pitt, they likely consider Pitt their biggest rival considering they are stuck in a league that the nearest team is the Iowa State Cyclones, not exactly a heated or passionate pairing there to develop anything at all.
This series was most famous for the 2007 game that saw the second-ranked Mountaineers needing simply a win at home in Morgantown over the visiting Panthers, who had a losing record, to play in the national championship game- only to lose 13-9.
The series is scheduled to return for four games in 2022, so hopefully, there can be a way to keep the rivalry continuing after that.

5) Nebraska vs Oklahoma

This rivalry dates back to the old Big 8 when it seemed like every Thanksgiving Friday the Sooners and the Cornhuskers hooked up in a battle of the Big Reds for the Big 8 title, the trip to Miami for the automatic Orange Bowl bid and often a shot at a national title.
The Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry was cleanly played with respect, was developed out of two powers that played every year and knew in order to do anything on the national title scene, they would have to go through the other at the end of November.
When the Big 8 became the Big 12 and the two were placed in opposite divisions, the heat was placed off the stove a bit and when Nebraska left for the Big 10, the two schools haven't played since.
Considering that neither school has a natural non-conference rival, a long-term series between the two would be a great fit.
The schools will play home and home in 2021 and 2022 and then again in 2029 and 2030