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

Ohio State makes Edsall obsolete 49-28

The Ohio State Buckeyes were tied for a while in the third quarter before ripping off four consecutive touchdowns to defeat the Maryland Terrapins 49-28 in Columbus.
Ohio State used both Cardale Jones and J.T.Barrett and were rewarded with quality outings from both.
Jones threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns,while Barrett ran for three more as the red zone specialist.
Ezekiel Elliott ran for two touchdown and his 106 yards continued his string of 100 yard rushing games.Michael Thomas went over 100 yards receiving on the day on seven catches.
The now 6-0 Buckeyes become bowl eligible and will host Penn State next week...

Olentangy Offerings

1) I'm not sure on the two quarterback usage,but it worked well today.
Cardale Jones was able to throw deep and J.T. Barrett was able to be used as a runner in the red zone with the decision ending with Buckeye touchdowns on all six chances...

2) Why was this game so close?
One reason-Ohio State simply refused to use a linebacker to key on Maryland quarterback Perry Hills.
Hills would finish the day with 170 yards and two touchdowns and had the Buckeyes simply made one small adjustment,this game could have been even more lopsided.

3) Braxton Miller caught a touchdown pass and was more involved in the offense than he had been since the opener vs Virginia Tech.
Miller finished with five catches for 79 yards and made one catch that could have been a score had he not had to leap for the football...

4) As noted in the intro,Ezekiel Elliott continued his 100 yard run and extended it to 11 games.
Elliott didn't go over the barrier until fourth quarter action,but the offense appeared to really click when the offense made the attempt to get Elliott the football...

5) Joey Bosa had not been the same force as in 2014 this season as he entered the game with just a half sack.
Bosa turned the clock back with a sack and multiple hurries of Perry Hills.
Hopefully,Bosa is beginning to hit his stride...

6) No turnovers for the Buckeyes in this one.
Ohio State entered the game with 13 turnovers,so this was a positive development....

7) Much of the talk before the game was about the rumored impending firing of Maryland's Randy Edsall.
As a Terrapin fan,all the way up to their entry into the Big 10,I was disenchanted with the hire from day one.
Even though my rooting interest has changed,I still have a soft spot for the Terps and I hope they make a good hire.

8) Discussing the open Maryland job,I was wondering this-if the home run hire that Maryland's dreams of in the Philadelphia Eagles Chip Kelly comes true,couldn't the Big 10 East have the potential to be the "new" SEC West?
Ohio State with Urban Meyer,michigan with Jim Harbaugh,the upswing with Michigan State being a top program,the past tradition at Penn State and Maryland with Chip Kelly could have the potential to being the division in college football.

9) Next week should be an interesting matchup with Penn State.
The Lions crunched Indiana after OSU battled with them,but went down to the wire at home with Army.
Christian Hackenberg is rated by some to be a first rounder next year and I have a feeling that this is either a close game or a game that finally sees the Buckeyes put together a huge win..

Maryland fumbles the football

The Maryland Terrapin athletic program fumbled away a huge chance to make an impact on the national scene with the hiring of Connecticut's Randy Edsall over former Texas Tech boss Mike Leach.

I don't have anything against Randy Edsall, he did a solid job in moving the Connecticut program from 1-AA to a BCS bowl team (Of course, he did it with an 8-4 team in the Big East, the weakest conference in the BCS and one that should be booted from the monopoly) and certainly makes sense to be a mentioned candidate for the Maryland job.

However, Mike Leach battled in the toughest state to recruit in the country (Texas) kept Texas Tech in bowl consistently and in the toughest division of any conference in the country (the now defunct Big 12 South) had the most exciting offense in the country.

Detractors of Leach argue that he never won a conference title, but Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Texas A & M are quite a cut above the likes of Rutgers, Syracuse, and Louisville.
Anyone that looks at recruiting at Tech knows the issues that coaches battle there and Mike Leach succeeded there beyond anyone's hopes.
This comes from someone that was not always a Mike Leach fan and was questioning his hire in replacing the retiring Spike Dykes.
Maryland had a chance to finally hire a reasonably young and innovative coach with a track record and finally had an opportunity to become the boss of the ACC, which lives one step above the Big East of BCS conferences.

Football would become a hot ticket again in College Park for the first time in years.
Hell, I was even planning on getting to a game or two with the hiring of Leach.
All looked to be going in the direction of Mike Leach and suddenly, one day after Connecticut's expected BCS drilling against Oklahoma, Randy Edsell is in Maryland.

Edsell seems like an ok coach and is certainly a safe hire, but can Maryland and its football budget that ranks behind every ACC state school except N.C. State afford a safe hire?
Maryland needs the home run, not the infield single.

Edsell seems much like Ralph Friedgen-a good coach, a less than exciting x and o guy, and an average recruiter.
When you consider the clumsy manner that Maryland chopped Friedgen at the block and the PR hit that the school took from the firing, was it worth all of that and the upset alumni that loved Ralph Friedgen-was Randy Edsall worth all that and is he even an upgrade?
Our answer is no and no and that isn't a shot at Edsall, who could keep Maryland football on the current track that sees bowl bids to the ACC's sixth and seventh team.

Maryland clearly got cold feet from the media that were hitting them for the release of the popular Friedgen and figured that hiring the controversial Leach would lead to more hammers from ESPN among many despite the positives that the program would receive from the paying customers and boosters, someone got jumpy and Edsall was the best they could get.
No guts No glory-typical Maryland......