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.

Cleaning out the Inbox

  The latest cleaning of the inbox starts with two notes from an all-time injustice- the 1972 Olympic championship win by the then-Soviet Union over the United States, which recently celebrated its fifty-year anniversary.

The Athletic writes of the continued refusal of the United States team to accept the silver medals, and the interesting part was the revelation that the IOC (International Olympic Committee) doesn't have all of the silver medals to award, even if the U.S. Team wanted them!

The article writes of who they believe has them and where they could be, as well as more information on the 1972 team through the years.

The Baltimore Sun writes of the 1972 team and the one possible scenario from former Maryland star and team member Tom McMillen, where the team would donate the medals to be gifted but would not accept them for themselves, why the IOC won't be doing that, and why their reason is that of semantics.

ESPN writes of the history of the recently renewed football series, the Backyard Brawl, between Pittsburgh and West Virginia, with all the reasons that their series is so great and why it would be so great to be a permanent part of the college football landscape.

The two teams played on opening night in Pittsburgh, with the Panthers taking a 38-31 victory, and the two will play next year in Morgantown

I've written of Kate Abdo (along with Showtime's Brian Custer) as my favorite of the various boxing hosts, but The Athletic writes of what Abdo is better known for,  her work for CBS/Paramount and Fox for their various coverage of soccer.

Abdo hosts the Champions League for the former and will be working the World Cup for the latter.

I'll take them at their word as I don't watch either of those competitions, although I have begun watching and rooting for a team in the English Premier League, and I would even consider coverage here- IF I knew what the hell I was talking about enough for analysis!

My knowledge of soccer/football is limited, but I've enjoyed learning and rooting, so look for a future post on my step into the Premier League.

Steve Rushin of SI.com writes of the memories of some of the children of baseball greats from the past, including the daughter of Gil Hodges and the sons of Billy Martin and Harmon Killebrew.

The memories that spill out from the inside of baseball's past are interesting enough, but just as absorbing are the tales that are told about the players as fathers.

The Hodges family (Gil Hodges's wife is still living today, with their daughter taking care of her in the same Brooklyn home that they lived in when Gil played with the Dodgers) receives the majority of the lines, along with Billy Martin Jr. and Cam Killebrew, some fewer, but it's an all-around great read. 

Houston hires Dana Holgorsen

Lots of things happening today with a few passings that will be saved for down the road, but the big news is Houston hiring a new football coach as the Cougars lured Dana Holgorsen away from West Virginia with a five-year contract worth twenty million over the course of the agreement.

Holgorsen was receiving 3.7 million last season in Morgantown with each of the next three seasons adding $100,000 to his yearly sum, which would end with four million for the 2021 season, which is the exact number that Holgorsen will earn in Houston.
This might be the first time that I can ever remember a coach voluntarily moving from a Power Five school to a Group of Five school, voluntarily being the key word, as coaches have been fired from one and were hired at a G-5 university, but this is a special case as Holgorsen was the offensive coordinator for the Cougars under Kevin Sumlin, still owns a home there and his three sons from a previous marriage still reside there, so Houston was a situation that no one else could offer.

Houston badly wants to join a power five league (Most likely the Big 12, but don't rule out the SEC, who could likely add a second Texas team on the inevitable day that league moves to sixteen teams) and has a powerful booster that is willing to fund the program's building its way to that level.
Tilman Fertitta not only owns the Landry's restaurant organization, but he also owns the Golden Nugget casino group and the Houston Rockets and sits on the university's board of regents, so this is no lightweight spender as Fertitta showed with a twenty million dollar donation to rebuild Hofheinz Pavilion, the basketball home for the Cougars since 1967 and now renamed Fertitta Center.

Houston famously crowed a few years back that they "Fire coaches for going 8-4" and Major Applewhite produced seasons of  7-5 and 8-5 and was shown the door.
I liked Applewhite as a play caller and a coordinator, but he may have not been ready for a pressure-filled job such as Houston for his first head coaching position.
Some of his decisions in-game just made you wonder if this was the same guy that had such a strong understanding of the offensive game and his blow-up over a sideline coat with Ed Oliver on national television looked terrible to recruits.

Where West Virginia dropped the ball was when Holgorsen's buyout changed.
Had Houston hired Holgorsen immediately after the Armed Forces Bowl disaster against Army, it would have cost them 2.5 million, but Holgorsen's buyout changed on January 1st to a more manageable one million and there was the rib.
Had West Virginia installed that provision to take effect say February or March 1st, they may have held onto Holgorsen (no school will go that long to wait for a coach) or would have at least forced Houston to pay the entire 2.5 million had they wanted Holgorsen bad enough.

The Mountaineers are in a tough spot, they are in the Big 12, thousands of miles from conference foes, play in a state with few top recruits and Morgantown isn't an overwhelmingly attractive place to live for potential coaches.
Honestly, if Houston was able to make the move up to a power five league, the Houston job located in one of the deepest states to recruit in would easily be the equal, if not the better job.
The problem is that there isn't a way out for WVU.
The Big 10 and ACC won't touch them because the school isn't academically at the level of their schools and the SEC likely would rather add a program that would add a strong market or name brand for their eventual expansion.
So, unless they are willing to take the lower dollars of the group of five, it looks like the Big 12 for the Mountaineers-problems and all.

West Virginia is rumored to have four candidates in mind to replace Holgorsen- Troy's Neal Brown, Cincinnati's Luke Fickell, Memphis head man Mike Norvell and former Tennessee coach Butch Jones.
Brown or Norvell would run close to the same offense style as Holgorsen, Fickell would likely be able to recruit better in neighboring Ohio and Jones would bring the bigger name.
Two coaches that I haven't seen named that might be on my list would be Arkansas State's Blake Anderson and Toledo's Jason Candle.
Either would be interesting young coaches and would infuse some energy in a program that might be in need of it next season.

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

15 College Football Games that should be Happening! 6-10

We now move to the middle point of our series of college football games that should be happening, but aren't.
The first part of the series can be found here.

6) West Virginia vs Marshall
This is one that almost made into our top five.
Marshall has only been D-I for twenty years, but being the only other D-I school in the state, they should be playing the flagship school in the Mountaineers.
The Thundering Herd has never beaten WVU in their eight modern meetings and went zero for seven in their series that ran from 2006-20012, but still, it makes sense for this series to be played.
The issue appears to be that Marshall wants the series to alternate between Huntington and Morgantown, while the Mountaineers want two home games for them for every trip to Marshall.
It's too bad that the state capital in Charleston doesn't have a suitable stadium to hold the game or that would be the perfect compromise for the third game.
Those that say there is no rivalry between the schools, well my response to that is-Wait until Marshall wins one ( and they will) and then watch it thrive.

7) Notre Dame vs Michigan
Longtime readers may be surprised since I don't like either of these teams and usually try to avoid this September game like the plague.
However, that game was usually a close affair, exciting and with two schools with deep tradition, this game needs to be played every year.
Like the Notre Dame-Purdue series, this series was one that was stopped by the Irish light affiliation with the ACC, which means that the Irish will play five ACC opponents a year.
Notre Dame being an independent meant they could have a lot of rivals with games with Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Navy, USC, Stanford etc and something had to give with their ACC agreement.
The two teams will play home and home in 2018 and 2019 and hopefully there can be a way to bring this back to every year status.

8) Texas vs Arkansas
This rivalry dating back to the days of the old SWC with Darryl Royal (Texas) and Frank Broyles (Arkansas) battling for SWC titles and occasionally even national championships.
The 1969 "Game of the Century" (Just watched this today on Longhorn Network,- BOOM, TV upgrade today) saw number one Texas nip number two Arkansas 15-14 and is still remembered to this day.
It just wasn't an SWC game in those days of one or two games a week without it involving one of these teams and their encounter usually had a national television audience
The teams have played five times since the Razorbacks left for the SEC (two of those bowl games), but not since 2008 in the regular season and have no future games scheduled.

9) Kentucky vs Indiana
The former battle for the Bourbon Barrel (both schools eliminated the trophy after an alcohol-related death in 1999, although they could have changed the name to Bronze Barrel, I guess) saw the Wildcats and Hoosiers play almost every year (a few gaps in the early 80's) from 1979 to 2005, but haven't played since.
Neighboring states with a big rivalry in basketball along with both usually being among the weaker football programs in their respective conferences make this a series that would be worth renewing.

10) Maryland vs Virginia
The Terrapins and Cavaliers were longtime conference rivals as the two most northern teams in the ACC (until expansion), they were the closest to each other and battled often for the same recruits.
A trophy was never involved between these schools and despite teams having other rivals (Maryland had various rivalries with other ACC schools, depending on who was strong during in a particular era while Virginia played Virginia Tech every year before VT joined the ACC), their conference rival was consistently each other.
The conference changes saw each add a "rival" in conference (Maryland with Penn State, who doesn't look at them as such and Virginia with Virginia Tech) and could use a non-conference rival currently.
The two will play home and home in 2023 and 2024, so maybe there is hope for reviving this rivalry.

Look for the top five sometime soon!