2024 -25 College Football and College Football Playoff Thread

[Herman Cain]

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1984/12/23/an-orange-bowl-classic-ous-7-0-win-over-maryland-in-54-is-one-to-remember/62779548007/

Excellent article

[JWags85]

All things considered, pretty incredible season for David Braun at Northwestern.  Started poorly at Rutgers but then no bad losses, stole a road win at Wisconsin, and then got an 8th win over a really tough Utah team in one of the few situations where a bowl was probably important for the program.  Not bad for a potential lame duck coach at a program that won 4 total games the last 2 years. 

Next year will be telling, but stumbling into a potentially very good young coach after an ugly scandal is pretty impressive for a football program as historically pathetic as NW.  And he didn't even have a standout defense that you would expect he was originally brought in to build

[Herman Cain]

All things considered, pretty incredible season for David Braun at Northwestern.  Started poorly at Rutgers but then no bad losses, stole a road win at Wisconsin, and then got an 8th win over a really tough Utah team in one of the few situations where a bowl was probably important for the program.  Not bad for a potential lame duck coach at a program that won 4 total games the last 2 years. 

Next year will be telling, but stumbling into a potentially very good young coach after an ugly scandal is pretty impressive for a football program as historically pathetic as NW.  And he didn't even have a standout defense that you would expect he was originally brought in to build

https://www.si.com/college/indiana/big-ten/big-ten-daily-northwestern-beats-utah-las-vegas-bowl-ryan-day-talks-ohio-state-missouri-cotton-bowl-ex-minnesota-coach-jerry-kill-steps-down-new-mexico-state

[Herman Cain]

Epic Ending to South Alabama versus Eastern Michigan bowl game . USA won big and then.....

https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1738939413286027745

[WhiteTrash]

Epic Ending to South Alabama versus Eastern Michigan bowl game . USA won big and then.....

https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1738939413286027745

College sports in Michigan equals all class.

[Herman Cain]

Excellent QB prospect for The Huskers

https://cornhuskerswire.usatoday.com/lists/nebraska-football-recruiting-dylan-raiola-quarterback-offical-signing/#

[lawdog77]

Programming alert. The 5-7 Gophers are playing in a bowl game right now.

[MU1in77]

Flipping through channels tonight and came upon the Servpro First Responder Bowl - Rice vs Texas State (both teams were 6-6).  I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable sports fan but had never heard of Texas State. I looked it up and it's located between San Antonio & Austin and it's most famous alum is LBJ.  There are way to many bowl games!

[JWags85]

Tulane is part of the meaningless afternoon bowl game of the day, formerly coached by Willie Fritz who just took the Houston job. 

Was talking to my buddy how the modern trend in major college football is hiring hotshot assistants who are major program OC/DCs, but also heralded recruiters.  Now I don't begrudge that cause talent is the name of the game, but it sort of loses out on dudes like Fritz who can just flat out F-ing coach.  Not household names cause they aren't doing it at the P5 level, but resumes that are unreal when you look at them

Blinn JC: 4 seasons, 39-5, wins 2 national titles his last 2 years.
Central Missouri (DII): 13 seasons, 97-47 at a program with very little success. 

Finally makes a jump to FCS..
Sam Houston St: 4 seasons, 40-15, 2 FCS runner ups after taking over for a coach that was 25-28

Jumps again to newly promoted FBS Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern: 2 seasons, 17-7, including a conference title in only their second season at the level

Then
Tulane: 54-47, 3 conference titles, 23-4 in his last 2 years. Doesn't seem as significant until you realize Tulane had only been to 3 bowl games in 30 years since Mack Brown left in the late 80s and only 1 conference championships in that time too.

No way dude doesn't win at Houston in the new B12.

[Herman Cain]

Tulane is part of the meaningless afternoon bowl game of the day, formerly coached by Willie Fritz who just took the Houston job. 

Was talking to my buddy how the modern trend in major college football is hiring hotshot assistants who are major program OC/DCs, but also heralded recruiters.  Now I don't begrudge that cause talent is the name of the game, but it sort of loses out on dudes like Fritz who can just flat out F-ing coach.  Not household names cause they aren't doing it at the P5 level, but resumes that are unreal when you look at them

Blinn JC: 4 seasons, 39-5, wins 2 national titles his last 2 years.
Central Missouri (DII): 13 seasons, 97-47 at a program with very little success. 

Finally makes a jump to FCS..
Sam Houston St: 4 seasons, 40-15, 2 FCS runner ups after taking over for a coach that was 25-28

Jumps again to newly promoted FBS Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern: 2 seasons, 17-7, including a conference title in only their second season at the level

Then
Tulane: 54-47, 3 conference titles, 23-4 in his last 2 years. Doesn't seem as significant until you realize Tulane had only been to 3 bowl games in 30 years since Mack Brown left in the late 80s and only 1 conference championships in that time too.

No way dude doesn't win at Houston in the new B12.

Excellent move by The Cougars

[The Sultan]

Tulane is part of the meaningless afternoon bowl game of the day, formerly coached by Willie Fritz who just took the Houston job. 

Was talking to my buddy how the modern trend in major college football is hiring hotshot assistants who are major program OC/DCs, but also heralded recruiters.  Now I don't begrudge that cause talent is the name of the game, but it sort of loses out on dudes like Fritz who can just flat out F-ing coach.  Not household names cause they aren't doing it at the P5 level, but resumes that are unreal when you look at them

Blinn JC: 4 seasons, 39-5, wins 2 national titles his last 2 years.
Central Missouri (DII): 13 seasons, 97-47 at a program with very little success. 

Finally makes a jump to FCS..
Sam Houston St: 4 seasons, 40-15, 2 FCS runner ups after taking over for a coach that was 25-28

Jumps again to newly promoted FBS Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern: 2 seasons, 17-7, including a conference title in only their second season at the level

Then
Tulane: 54-47, 3 conference titles, 23-4 in his last 2 years. Doesn't seem as significant until you realize Tulane had only been to 3 bowl games in 30 years since Mack Brown left in the late 80s and only 1 conference championships in that time too.

No way dude doesn't win at Houston in the new B12.

Agreed. Lance Leipold at Kansas, who of course won multiple titles at D3 UW-Whitewater, and Kalen DeBoer at Washington, who won multiple NAIA titles at Sioux Falls, are other examples. (Although DeBoer went the D1 assistant route before getting to Washington.)

Some of these dudes can flat out coach. I think a lot of FCS and lower level FBS schools would benefit from looking at guys like these.

It works on the basketball side too. Indiana State hired Josh Schertz from D2 Lincoln Memorial and they have a top 25 team.

[Herman Cain]

This has to be one of the worst traditions, Winning Coach of Dukes Mayo Bowl gets bucket of Mayo poured on head .  West Virginia Coach got the honor this year with win over The Tar Heels .

https://apnews.com/article/dukes-mayo-bowl-north-carolina-west-virginia-score-f679477b06d39c59f01ef8cca6158dc5

[Hards Alumni]

This has to be one of the worst traditions, Winning Coach of Dukes Mayo Bowl gets bucket of Mayo poured on head .  West Virginia Coach got the honor this year with win over The Tar Heels .

https://apnews.com/article/dukes-mayo-bowl-north-carolina-west-virginia-score-f679477b06d39c59f01ef8cca6158dc5

No worse than the sticky Gatorade that usually gets dumped. 

[wadesworld]

What's wild to me is that even after FSU lost their starting QB and it became clear they weren't one of the 4 best teams in the country, they still had a 10 point win in a game they never trailed over a Louisville team that was much better than the Auburn team that Alabama needed a 4th and goal from the 31 conversion to beat in the last game of the regular season. Auburn was coming off of a 21 point loss to New Mexico State going into that Alabama game.

[The Sultan]

Agreed. Lance Leipold at Kansas, who of course won multiple titles at D3 UW-Whitewater, and Kalen DeBoer at Washington, who won multiple NAIA titles at Sioux Falls, are other examples. (Although DeBoer went the D1 assistant route before getting to Washington.)

Some of these dudes can flat out coach. I think a lot of FCS and lower level FBS schools would benefit from looking at guys like these.

It works on the basketball side too. Indiana State hired Josh Schertz from D2 Lincoln Memorial and they have a top 25 team.

More on DeBoer's rise at Washington.

https://www.si.com/college/2023/12/29/washington-football-brain-trust-kalen-deboer-ryan-grubb-sioux-falls-cfp-sugar-bowl

[PointWarrior]

Looks like the FSU fans can stop the preparations on the "we might be the only undefeated team left so we should be the rightful national champs" propaganda....

Haha...

[wadesworld]

Looks like the FSU fans can stop the preparations on the "we might be the only undefeated team left so we should be the rightful national champs" propaganda....

Haha...

Still deserved to play for a chance to win a title.

[Uncle Rico]

Looks like the FSU fans can stop the preparations on the "we might be the only undefeated team left so we should be the rightful national champs" propaganda....

Haha...

Because it's the same team playing 🙄

[HutchwasClutch]

Looks like the FSU fans can stop the preparations on the "we might be the only undefeated team left so we should be the rightful national champs" propaganda....

Haha...

At least 23 'Noles opted out today, including 9 that declared for the draft. 

[MuggsyB]

Was this game a 50 pt spread?

[Lennys Tap]

Still deserved to play for a chance to win a title.

Yep

[HutchwasClutch]

Was this game a 50 pt spread?

21 is what I saw.

[Jockey]

Even with everyone healthy, they were not one of the 4 best teams. There are probably half a dozen teams at least that would go undefeated with their schedule.

[Pakuni]

Still deserved to play for a chance to win a title.

Deserves got nothing to do with it.
They weren't one of the four best teams without Travis. .Probably not one of the 10 best, if we're being honest.

[shoothoops]

Still deserved to play for a chance to win a title.

I agree with Wades. It's about earning your place. Not choosing teams based on injury reports or trying project outcomes.

But doesn't our resident CoMo MuScooper have any Tiger thoughts?