Starting 11: Chaos Beckons
It's not even Halloween yet and already the Big House is haunted.
How else to explain that inexplicable end of game situation that left a grown man acting like this:
1. The ending of Michigan State-Michigan was crazier -- and less likely -- than the ending of Alabama-Auburn.
Remember, the Iron Bowl was tied just before the kick six. Once the kick was missed Auburn's worst case scenario was overtime. Here everything had to break Michigan State's way. You needed a fumbled snap, the absurdly dumb decision not to fall on the ball, an attempted kick, and the ball had to bounce perfectly into the arms of a defender, who then had to avoid all tacklers, to allow a successful return for a touchdown.
There's no doubt that the kick six was more significant -- seeing as how it decided the SEC West title -- but the more improbable outcome in both circumstances was definitely the Michigan State win. And it's certainly possible that play ends up deciding the Big Ten East as well, which could mean that play leads to a spot in the playoff.
2. Which four teams do I think are the best in the country if I had to vote right now?
Remember, these aren't the most deserving teams -- because Utah would definitely be in there now -- these are who I think are the best four teams in the country right now: 1. Baylor 2. Alabama 3. Stanford 4. LSU
Yes, gasp, I think two of the best teams in college football this year have actually lost games.
I'm sure all of you agree.
3. Kyle Allen was truly awful on Saturday.
It's hard to throw three touchdown passes to your own team, much less three touchdown passes to the other team. I mean, you have to hit the intercepting player in stride too. If Allen just plays a mediocre game, the Aggies win. All the Bama fans climbing out of the bushes to talk trash again do realize that this game was the exact opposite of the Ole Miss game, right? The home team lost the game as much as the visiting team won it. The Aggies turned the ball over four times and gave up three pick sixes.
The A&M defense held Bama to twenty points, but the A&M offense gave up 21 points to the Tide.
Having said that, if the Aggies won out, an 11-1 A&M might well be in pretty good shape at the end of the season to still win the west, we'll see.
4. Florida has two weeks to get ready to beat Georgia and win the SEC East outright.
The Gators played pretty well with Treon Harris at quarterback. If you'd told me they were going to score 28 points, I would have bet big money they'd win in Baton Rouge.
But Les was Les and pulled off a perfect fake.
Which reminds me, why the hell wasn't Jim McElwain expecting the fake there? You've held LSU to a field goal, why even try and block the kick? Just play your base defense and concede the field goal.
Speaking of the SEC East -- South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Missouri are all awful. I know the SEC East has been bad before, but this might be the worst these four teams have ever been. I'll be very surprised if any of these four teams beat Florida, Georgia, or Tennessee this year.
Florida, Georgia and Tennessee at least have talent. I'm not sure the other four teams do at all.
5. Justin Fuente and Paxton Lynch both made themselves a ton of money in their win over Ole Miss.
Both of these guys will be worth twenty million dollars by May of next year. (Fuente will be by mid-December.) If I had to guess I'd say Fuente ends up head coach at South Carolina and Lynch will be one of the first quarterbacks taken in the 2016 draft.
This is the first time I've heard anyone at Ole Miss grumble about Hugh Freeze. Up until now he's been above reproach. But with Robert Nkemdiche, Laquon Treadwell and Laremy Tunsil all figuring to leave early and be first round picks, can Ole Miss get well and finish this season off strong?
Remember, the Rebels have the tie breaker over Alabama, if they win out they'd represent the SEC West in Atlanta.
I feel like in the wake of the Florida and Memphis losses everyone has forgotten that.
And here's a crazy question for you, if Ole Miss runs the table and wins the SEC title at 11-2, does 11-1 Alabama that didn't even win its own division get in the playoff over the Rebels?
6. Baylor has scored over sixty points in five consecutive weeks.
If you don't know the name Corey Coleman, learn it. Coleman, a wide receiver at Baylor, has 41 catches this year and 16, SIXTEEN!, of those 41 catches have been for touchdowns. Putting that into context, only 11 FBS quarterbacks presently have more than 16 touchdown passes on the year.
Coleman is on pace to set an all time FBS touchdown record this season.
I like his chances to get three touchdowns against Iowa State this coming weekend.
7. Georgia and Missouri played one of the worst SEC games of recent history on Saturday, with the Bulldogs winning 9-6.
Off the top of my head here are the two worst SEC games of the past 15 or so years that didn't involve Vandy playing Kentucky. (Vandy playing Kentucky shouldn't count).
Auburn beats Mississippi State 3-2 in 2008. That was Sly Croom against Tommy Tuberville. Somewhere out there one of you had the over in this game and immediately swore off gambling forever.
Kentucky beats Tennessee 10-7 in 2011 with a wide receiver playing quarterback in Derek Dooley's second year at Tennessee. Honestly, the fact that Derek Dooley and Joker Phillips were both head coaches at the same time makes this game totally predictable.
This Missouri at Vanderbilt game on Saturday is going to be awful. I'm not kidding about this, I am putting every spare gambling dollar I have on the under in this game. I may even go sell blood to gamble more on this game.
8. Iowa is going to be 12-0 and win the Big Ten West.
Prepare yourselves for this reality.
Has anyone thought about what will happen in the state of Iowa if the Hawkeyes go 13-0 and make the playoff?
Kirk Ferentz is going to get paid $10 million a year and he's going to get a fifty year contract extension.
9. Leonard Fournette is crushing Herschel Walker's greatest season as a Bulldog.
In 1982 Herschel Walker ran for 1891 yards and 18 touchdowns. He averaged 4.9 yards a carry.
Through six games Leonard Fournette has 1202 yards rushing, 14 touchdowns and is averaging 8 yards a carry.
If Fournette keeps up this pace for the final five games of the season, he'd finish with 2,204 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns..
And look at those average yards per carry comparisons!
Fournette is out Herscheling, Herschel.
10. What happens if all three Big Ten East teams, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State end up tied at 7-1 in conference?
In order for that to happen Ohio State would need to beat Michigan State and Michigan would need to beat Ohio State to finish the season. All three teams would have to win every other game. That's a pretty believable outcome, right?
Well, in the event all three schools finished 7-1 in the Big Ten, it comes down to the fifth tiebreak -- who the playoff committee thinks is the best.
I'm serious, the playoff committee would decide the Big Ten East champion.
Given that all three of these teams would be favored over Iowa, how crazy is it that the playoff committee gets to effectively pick the Big Ten East champ? Especially since Ohio State would probably win this, right? Can you see the committee putting a two-loss Michigan team above Ohio State or Michigan State? And Ohio State will have beaten Michigan State head to head.
This, my friends, is why the polls matter.
Ohio State is good because we believed they were good in August. And that might well be enough to win them the Big Ten East over two other teams with identical records in conference.
11. SEC power ratings 1-14
1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Florida
4. Texas A&M
5. Ole Miss
6. Tennessee
7. Georgia
8. Mississippi State
9. Arkansas
10. Auburn
11. Kentucky
12. Missouri
13. South Carolina
14. Vanderbilt