College Football Random Thoughts: Scoring Explosions in Week 4; What is the Cause?

Week 4 of college football had an unexpected development: an explosion of scoring. Sixteen FBS teams scored 50 or more points on Saturday with only two coming against an FCS team and two in a losing effort.

Pitt 73 Youngstown State 17
James Madison 70 North Carolina 50
SMU 66 TCU 42
Clemson 59 NC State 35
Penn State 56 Kent State 0
Navy 56 Memphis 44
Boise 56 Portland State 14
Washington State 54 San Jose State 52 (OT)
Ole Miss 52 Georgia Southern 13
Iowa State 52 Arkansas State 7
Indiana 52 Charlotte 14
Texas 51 UL Monroe 3
Miami 50 South Florida 15
South Carolina 50 Akron 7

Additionally, 16 teams tallied between 41 and 49 points.

Ohio State 49 Marshall 14
Nevada 49 Eastern Washington 16
UConn 48 Florida Atlantic 14
Florida 45 Mississippi State 28
Temple 45 Utah State 29
UTSA 45 Houston Christian 7
Duke 45 Middle Tennessee 17
Monmouth 45 Florida International 42
Jacksonville State 44 Southern Miss 7
North Texas 44 Wyoming 17
Virginia 43 Coastal Carolina 24
Tulane 41 Louisiana 33
Kentucky 41 Ohio 6

So, what in the wide wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?

OFFENSE IS BETTER: Are offenses that much better? As many of the big armed-statue quarterbacks have finally run out of their sixth year of eligibility, there seem to be an influx of young talented signal-callers who can run as well as they pass. Wide receivers seem to be getting better across the board as well.

DEFENSE IS WORSE: Where have all the beast mode defenders gone? Can you name one defender who should be considered for the Heisman? Coverage techniques suck and there are no speedsters on the defensive side.

TOUCH-FEELY OFFICIATING: The officiating this year has been awful. The zebras have been way over-sensitive with pass interference and roughing/targeting thus far. We are on the cusp of two-hand touch taking over.

SEC

Tennessee 25 Oklahoma 15 – Highly-heralded Okie QB Jackson Arnold threw an interception, lost two fumbles, and found himself a nice comfy spot on the bench. Replacement QB Michael Hawkins had three straight 3-&-outs and a 4-&-out as the Sooners trailed 22-3. Hawkins managed two late touchdown drives, but it wasn’t enough.

LSU 34 UCLA 17 – Coach Brian Kelly and his Tigers were showered with boos as they headed to the locker room at halftime of a tie game against UCLA on Saturday. Many large sections of the stadium cleared out soon after. Those fans missed the Bayou Bengals outscoring a listless Bruins team 17-0. Is this what it takes to wake LSU up? Booing and a mass walk-out?

Missouri 30 Vanderbilt 27 (2 OT) – Diego Pavia and the Commodores put a big ol’ scare into Mizzou. Not counting 0-0, this game was tied five times. Both teams scored touchdown in the first OT. The Tigers connected on a 37 yard field goal in the second extra frame but Vanderbilt did some Vanderbilting and missed from 31.

Florida 45 Mississippi State 28 – There is nothing like inserting a freshman to wake a veteran up. After nearly losing the starting job last week, Graham Mertz was 19 of 21 passing for 201 yards and 3 TDs, and ran for an additional score. Back-up DJ Lagway added 7 for 7 through the air for 76 yards. So, yeah. 26 for 28 – TWO incompletions – as a team for the Gators. Billy Napier holds off the villagers for one week. Interesitingly, ESPN has UCF as an early favorite over UF on Oct 5.

As for MSU, it is a bit premature to write the obituary for 40-year old rookie head coach Jeff Lebby. The program was a mess coming in, but the Bullies need to show some signs of life. Their next two are @Texas, @UGA. 1-5 is imminent.

Texas A&M 26 Bowling Green 20 – Marcel Reed got his second collegiate start in place of Conner Weigman, who was out with a shoulder injury. Reed was okay-good (16/29-173-2 TD-0 INT; 91 rush yds ) but not spectacular. Just like they did against Penn State, Bowling Green gave the Aggies hell for 60 minutes. The Falcons blocked a punt in the game and forced a late fumble that led to a score. However, the Aggies recovered BGSU’s onside kick with 38 seconds to go to secure the victory.

SEC VS CUPCAKES

Kentucky 41 Ohio 6 – Yup.
Ole Miss 52 Georgia Southern 13 – It was 17-0 after one quarter.
Texas 51 UL Monroe 3 – The Longhorns won big but it wasn’t because of Arch Manning (15/29, 258 yds, 2 TD, 2 INT). The UT defense limited the Warhawks to 111 total yards and seven first downs.
South Carolina 50 Akron 7 – SCar QB Robby Ashford (15/21-243-2-0; 133 rush, 1 TD), who I would wager Aubie would love to have back, stood in for injured starter LaNorris Sellers (right ankle). Bama plays SC on 10/12.

OTHER STUFF

“Embarrassing day, shocking day. You shouldn’t be at North Carolina and lose to a Group of Five team, period. There are no excuses. Our defense looked awful. We had communication problems, we had missed tackles. We had guys wide open for a touchdown.” ~ Mack Brown

James Madison 70 North Carolina 50 – But what about the coaching, Mack? The Tar Heels turned the ball over five times and gave up 611 yards of offense. How long until UNC kicks old man river to the curb?

SIDE NOTE: The Tar Heels paid the Dukes $700,000 for this humiliation.

Clemson 59 NC State 35 – The Tigers were up 52-7 before the scrubs gave up some late scores. And you know CU’s scrubs are all sons of Dabo’s buddies. Don’t be fooled. This was a dominating effort by Clemson’s regular players. Since losing to UGA, the Tigers have scored 125 points in the last two games. The next four games are Stanford, @FSU, @Wake, and UVa before hosting Louisville. There is no reason they should not be 6-1 when the Cardinals come to town.

Navy 56 Memphis 44 – Navy QB Blake Horvath ran for 211 yards on 12 carries (17.6 ypc) and 4 TDs. The amazing part was his 9 for 12 passing for 192 yards and another 2 scores. If he can keep this up, the Middies could be a little dangerous.

Illinois 31 Nebraska 24 (OT) – This B1G matchup was a pretty tight one throughout regulation. After the Illini easily scored in two plays of overtime, Nebraska’s possession was a disaster as QB Dylan Raiola was sacked three times, including on fourth down to end the game. Don’t look now, but Bert has Illinois at 4-0. Don’t expect Illinois to win the Big Beer Tap Trophy this year, but they could be a pesky fly-in-the-ointment for some of the B1G big boys.

Miami 50 South Florida 15 – Stop me if this sounds familiar. USF hung with their ranked foe (leading 15-14 in the 2nd), until they wore down in the second half. Cam Ward had 404 passing yards and 3 TDs for the ‘Canes, but also tossed a pick. [Of Note: USF’s Nico Gramatica kicked a 58 yard field goal. Yes, his dad is Martin Gramatica.]

Michigan 27 Southern Cal 24 – The Wolvies had 32 yards of passing – that is NOT typo – for the entire game. Runs of 53 and 41 yards put them up 14-0. So Cal drew within 14-10 in the third quarter but a pick-6 put them back in a ten-point hole. The Trojans came back to take a 24-20 lead following a fumble by Michy’s Donovan Edwards in his own red zone. But UM put together a 10 plays drive with unheralded senior RB Kalel Mullings gaining 84 of 89 yards and scoring the winning TD. That series ate up 3:25 and left SoCal with 37 ticks to go.

Utah 22 Oklahoma State 19 – Much like the Arkansas game, Okie Lite found themselves in a hole and needed a comeback. The Utes built a 22-3 advantage in the 4th quarter. The Cowboys scored two touchdowns in the final 6 minutes but ran out of time in this instance. What could have been for Arky if that hadn’t made mistakes…

BYU 38 Kansas State 9 – K-State gave up a scoop & score followed by an interception that led to a Cougars touchdown on back-to-back 2nd quarter possessions. Another INT by KSU opened the 2nd half that again led to a BYU TD. This was followed by a 90-yard Coogs punt return and the rout was on.

Iowa 31 Minnesota 14 – The Hawkeyes ran the ball down Minnie’s throats, tallying 272 rushing yards and four scores on the ground while adding only 62 passing yards. I’m sure Iowa is happy with the win, but this strategy is not sustainable. The Gophers threw two interceptions. Iowa had one penalty versus five for Minnie.

Boston College 23 Michigan State 19 – Daggumit if Bill O’Brien doesn’t have something cooking at BC. A 42 yard scoring pass with 1:28 to go was the clincher. The Eagles are 3-1 with the one loss coming as a close one at Mizzou. I’m glad BOB has found a home. Here is to hoping he stays there the rest of his life.

Stanford 26 Syracuse 24 – A mildly surprising upset which further proves the increasing mediocrity of FBS in the 2024.

SABAN COACHING TREE BRANCHES OF THE WEEK

Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images

First year South Alabama coach Major Applewhite and OC Rob Ezell must really like this Thursday night football thing. One week after dropping 87 points on Northwestern State, USA thumped Appy State 48-14 on the road. ASU’s final score came on their last possession against scrubs. The Jags are 9th in the nation in scoring at 48.3 ppg.

Applewhite was OC for the Crimson Tide in 2007. After learning some hard lessons, he returned to Tuscaloosa as an analyst for 2019 and 2020. World-famous Nick Saban impersonator Ezell was a walk-on QB/WR with Bama 2007–2010. He was later a grad assistant 2015–2016 and offensive analyst 2017–2020 before moving with Applewhite to USA in 2021.

Arkansas 24 Auburn 14 – The PlainWarTigers failed to score in the first half and committed five turnovers, including four interceptions – three by the latest Messiah Hank Brown. Arky DB Doneiko Slaughter had 7 solo tackles, an INT, a sack and 2 TFL. He is a Tennessee transfer.

IT’S EVERYONE ELSE’S FAULT

“I know that there’s people open and I know that we’re running the football. We’ve got to find a guy that won’t throw it to the other team and we’ve got to find running backs that hold on to it.” ~ Hugh Freeze throwing his players under the bus

BO WALLACE ON HUGH FREEZE

We’re approaching the point that he’s thrown so many QBs under the bus , that maybe no one wants to play for him?? His offense helped me tremendously put numbers up when I blew my shoulder out…. But why is it someone else’s fault every time there’s a loss ?? … but when there’s a win I watch the press conferences just to count how many times the word “I” is used… appreciate what he did for me , my son wouldn’t be playing for him tho.

I got a story I’ll keep in my back pocket forever until it’s time.

(Auburn staffers calling my phone incoming)

But that dude has never helped me a day in his life…. It was always only about getting a win for him so he could collect his extra 100 racks a win.

If y’all knew the medications and shots I was taking to get that man his money you wouldn’t believe they would let you walk on a field like that.

And with all that , I still feel the tires from the bus.

(Bo’s drunk) nah he is as sober as could be watching tape , just tired of this dude always blaming players … EVERY.SINGLE TIME.

Do your research on his offenses , excluding his time at liberty , look at the interceptions every qb he’s had play for him throws , at some point when it happens over and over every year…. You look in the mirror , not at the players to save face.

@bowallace14

You may recall, Freeze was Bo’s coach at Ole Miss.

BULLETIN BOARD MATERIAL OF THE WEEK

COMEBACK OF THE WEEK

SPITTING TRUTHS

SABAN STILL OUT HERE TEACHING

TYPO OF THE WEEK

KEY & PEELE NAME OF THE WEEK

Tulsa WR Zion Steptoe

SPECIAL TEAM PLAY OF THE WEEK

LEAST WATCHED HALFTIME SHOW

WAIT. WAS THAT KICK GOOD??

FORMER BAMA PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Ja’corey Brooks.

MEANWHILE IN TALLAHASSEE

FSU managed to sneak by Cal 14-9.

NOTRE DAME LOST TO WHO???

DERP OF THE WEEK

DOUBLE DERP OF THE WEEK

A NEW ERA OF COLLEGE KICKERS

IF YOU COULD JUST GET LINCOLN RILEY AND BRENT VENABLES TO BE CO-HEAD COACHES…

@RJ_Young

WORST PICK UP GIMMICK OF THE WEEK

You’re in the friend zone, bro.

LOL OF THE WEEK

DON’T TRY TO BE CUTE

STOP TRYING TO BE NAJEE HARRIS

TOUCHY-FEELY OF THE WEEK

STATS OF THE WEEK

• Bowling Green TE Harold Fannin caught 8 passes for 145 yards with a score in a loss to TAMU. I think I know how to attack the Aggies defense. Fannin had 11-137-1 versus Penn State the week before. He’ll be playing Sundays next year.
• Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson had 206 of the team’s 334 rushing yards in a 31-14 win over Minnie. The Hawkeyes had 62 passing yards. I think I know how to defend them.
• Nebraska has lost 25 straight games to ranked teams and 8 straight overtime games.
• After 17 games with Auburn, Bryan Harsin was 9-8 and 7-4 at home. In that same time, Hugh Freeze is 8-9 and 5-6 in Jerdin Hair.

HOUND DOG OF THE WEEK

Never change, LFK.

TRUEST GAMEDAY SIGN OF THE WEEK

THE WACKY WORLD OF DESI

College GameDay was in Norman, Oklahoma for Okie-Tenn. ESPN might be getting a little nervous over Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. They are mimicking the idea of bringing in bigger musical acts to perform and even got Okie native Blake Shelton as guest picker. Hopefully, this is a sign that they will get someone who has actually been to the state of Alabama when they come to Tuscaloosa on Saturday. Right? Right?

The GD crew’s picks:

As for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff, they were in Columbus for the BIG anOSU-Marshall game (eye-roll). But really they were there to stroke Urban’s smirky ego, and he was eating it up.

BNK will be in Orlando for Center Florida and Colorado so they can tell us more about Deion, the Real Slim Sheddy, and that two-way player. I can’t wait…

ADOPT-A-TEAM

Welp, Memphis lost. UL-Monroe got blow’d out by Texas. UNLV didn’t play.

Indiana may be adoptable. Nick Saban disciple Curt Cignetti has led the Hoosiers to a 4-0 record and they have outscored their opponents 202-37.

From a Strength of Schedule viewpoint, WKU (3-1) handed MAC-favorite Toledo their first defeat. South Florida (2-2) lost but they gave Miami hell for the first half – actually leading 15-14 in the second quarter – before the ‘Canes scored 36 straight points. It still feels like these two make bowl games this December. Wisconsin (2-1) was off.

COUSINS

• Troy (1-3) – I said it at the time and will repeat here: Gerad Parker was a bad hire. 11-3 and Sun Belt champion a year ago and now this garbage. The Trojans struggled with FAMU for 45 minutes of game time. It was 21-12 entering the final quarter when TU scored a pair of TDs for the 34-12 win. Next is at ULM.
• South Alabama (2-2) – The Jags beat Appy State 48-14. Of note, freshman QB Gio Lopez has been really good in his three games. The first game of his college career was a 52-38 loss to North Texas, but he produced 432 yards passing with 3 pass TDs and 1 rushing. He missed the Game 2 defeat to Ohio with an injury. Keep an eye on this crew. The next game is on Saturday, Sep 28 versus LSU. GO JAGS!
• Jacksonville State (1-3) – The Gamecocks absolutely hammered Southern Miss 44-7 for their first win of the season. USM had six turnovers and JSU put up 509 yards of offense. After a bye week, the ‘Cocks should earn win No. 2 at winless Kennesaw who has not scored over 16 points in a game this season.

THAT ANNOYING GUY WHO STILL WATCHES NETWORK LAUGH-TRACK SIT-COMS

• UAB (1-2) – The Dragons had a bye. They host suddenly dangerous Navy on ESPN2.

SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS

• Air Force (1-2) – The Falcons had the week off to prep for an invasion of winless Wyoming.
• Army (3-0) – The Black Knights beat godawful Rice 37-14 with 120 yards of passing and 408 overall. A deployment to Temple (1-3) is on tap with a good chance to go 4-0.
• Navy (3-0) – The Midshipmen’s surprising upset of Memphis make the trip to UAB much more intriguing.

ELIMINATED FROM PLAYOFF CONTENTION

Eliminated: Florida State, Wake Forest, Houston, Kansas, Minnie, Northwestern, Purdue, UCLA, Mississippi State,

Endangered: Boston College, Clemson, Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, K-State, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State, Southern Cal, LSU, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas A&M.

Extremely Endangered: Cal, Georgia Tech, UNC, NC State, Notre Dame, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Cincy, Colorado, TCU, Texas Tech, WVU, Iowa, Maryland, Sparty, Washington, Wisconsin, Wazzu, Oregon State, Arky, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Vanderbilt.

A way WAY WAY too early look at the College Football Playoff (CFP) picture:

FanDuel Odds To Make The 2024-25 College Football Playoff:

1. Ohio State -850
2. Texas -700
3. Georgia -550
4. Oregon -400
5. Alabama -350
6. Tennessee -350
7. Ole Miss -340
8. Miami Florida -180
9. Penn State -170
10. Utah +105
11. Missouri +135
12. Notre Dame +175

• SEC – UGA plays Alabama, but the loser is not out of the CFP. Texas, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Mizzou are in the mix.
• Big Ten – Illinois (4-0) is sneaking up on teams. Indiana is 4-0. Oregon, anOhio State, Penn State, and Rutgers are 3-0.

SECOND TWO

• Big 12 – K-State lost badly to BYU 38-9. Okie Lite was beaten at home. Utah has retaken the role as favorite.
• ACC – Miami is looking like the best of the ACC. Louisville (3-0) has yet to face a Power team. The ‘Canes, Duke, and Pitt are all 4-0.

AT LARGE

• PAC-2 – Washington State (4-0) won again but took two overtimes to beat San Jose Cuervo State. Wins like that are not going to impress when it comes time to pick at-larges. Wazzu is at Boise. Oregon State (3-1) topped a bad Purdue team at home 38-21.
• Indies – Notre Dame (3-1) hosts Louisville.

PARTICIPATION TROPHY

WHOA, NELLY! Do we have some chaos in the Participation Trophy standings! As you probably know, the NCAA and CFP Committee have decided to allow one non-Power conference champ to be included in the playoff, no matter how lousy they are. Many of the early favorites took one on the chin on Saturday.

• MAC: After Northern Illinois (2-1) and Toledo (3-1) both lost, no team in the conference is undefeated. Bowling Green might be a sleeper.
• AAC: Memphis (3-1) took a big hit after losing to Navy. Amazingly, Army and Navy are the only AAC squads without a defeat.
• C-USA: Liberty (4-0) has a garbage schedule – no Power opponents. The Flamers have yet to face a team with a winning record. Seven of the ten C-USA teams have one or zero wins.
• MWC: Boise (2-1) plays Wazzu on Saturday. UNLV (3-0) was off.
• Sun Belt: James Madison (3-0) running up 70 on UNC made some waves.

RANK ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM

Points Allowed Per Game:

1. Texas 5.5
2. Ole Miss 5.5
3. Georgia 6.0
4. Ohio State 6.7
5. Tennessee 7.0
6. Alabama 8.7
7. Indiana 9.3
8. Army 9.3
9. Iowa State 9.7
10. Notre Dame 9.8

The first college football playoff rankings will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 5.

LET’S GO BOWLING!

• We are down to 26 FBS teams that are still undefeated, 13 of which are 4-0.

LET’S GO BLOWING!

• Seven teams remain without a win on the season: Miami (OH), Old Dominion, Kennesaw, UTEP, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kent State. FSU was the last Power team to earn their first victory.

Krazy Kristi’s “SHUT UP!” of the Week goes to the Auburn Cult. If you look at Auburn Twitter after the loss to Arky, these WDE Kool-Aid drinkers are following their exalted leader Hugh Freeze’s diatribe of blaming everyone else but him. “It’s the players’ fault.” “It’s the refs’ fault.” “It’s Bryan Harsin’s fault.”

Hey, Aubies. Take off the matching track suits and sneakers and take a bite of reality pie. It’s Hugh.

HEISMAN HYPE

“iT’s nOT JusT a QUarTeRbAck aWaRd!”

Quinn Ewers injury has lessened his chances. With Ole Miss still beating up on cupcakes and the Tide sitting the week out, Jaxson Dart leapfrogged Jalen Milroe for second.

Below are FanDuel’s top Heisman picks in order of the money lines.

1. QB Cameron Ward (Miami-FL) +750 to +450 to +350
2. QB Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) +950 to +600 to +500
3. QB Jalen Milroe (Alabama) +1000 to +600 to +750
4. QB Nico Iamaleava (Tennessee) +1200 to +900 to +1000
5. QB Dillon Gabriel (Oregon) +1200 to +900 to +1200
6. QB Quinn Ewers (Texas) +500 to OFF to +1400 – former #1
7. QB Carson Beck (Georgia) +850 to +1400 to +1500
8. NEW: DB/WR Travis Hunter (Colorado) +1700
9. QB Will Howard (anOhio State) +2000 to +2200
10. QB Miller Moss (Southern Cal) +1800 to +2200

With a poor showing against ULM, Texas QB Arch Manning tumbled from #8 back down to #16 at +5500.

THE SICK REPORT

• Georgia All-SEC offensive guard Tate Ratledge is out for an extended period of time after undergoing tightrope surgery on his ankle.
• LSU star linebacker Harold Perkins is expected to miss the rest of the season due to a torn ACL suffered on Saturday against UCLA.
• Oklahoma Sooners defensive back Kendel Dolby dislocated an ankle and will need surgery.

DRAMA

• Starting next year, Tennessee plans to add a 10 percent ‘talent fee’ to ticket prices to raise money to give to players. Don’t be surprised if this move catches on across FBS including a certain program that rhymes with “Balabama”. If you or someone you know has a trip to Bryant-Denny for a game on the bucket list, I advise you get that done this fall.
• South Florida is putting on some big boy pants and building their own stadium which is expected to be ready for fan attendance for the 2027 season. The $340 million on-campus stadium will seat around 35,000. The Bulls have played their home games at the NFL Buccaneers home of Raymond James Stadium (capacity: 65,890) since 1998.
• Reports have it that Gonzaga might leave the West Coast Conference to join the Pac-12. That would be good for basketball, but that doesn’t help them in football. The Pac-12 still needs a minimum of two football members by 2026 in order to be recognized as a FBS conference. Memphis is not looking as sexy as they were a week ago.
• OF NOTE: Without looking at the actual numbers, penalties seem to be WAY down from the atrocious flag-throwing epidemic we saw a week ago. It seems pretty certain that the SEC officials – as well as refs across the country – had ‘Come To Jesus’ conversations with their powers that be.

KOACHES KORNER

• Jon Gruden wants to get back into coaching again and this time as a college football coach. He previously coached the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title for the 2002 season sandwiched between two tenures with the Raiders and a nice gig with ESPN. He is currently an advisor to the Milano Seamen. Yes, you read that right. Let the punning begin!
• Urban Meyer’s wife told him she wants another grandchild. He told her, “That’s a relief. I don’t really like the ones we have anyway.”
• Fat F*** Phil Fulmer went to a Shoney’s, looked at the menu, and said “okay!”

TEEVEE

For Week 3, Georgia-Kentucky averaged a 3.5 rating and 6.60 million viewers on a primetime edition of the SEC on ABC Saturday night – probably because folks thought the Dwags were going to lose. Alabama’s destruction of Wisconsin on FOX placed second for the weekend with 5.03 million. LSU-SCar was third (4.9M) and TAMU-Fla (4.8M) fourth. SEC!SEC!SEC!

THIS WEEK

Below is just a sampling highlight of games of interest this week. If you REALLY MUST know about the BIG Holy Cross-Syracuse showdown, click here.

Thursday, September 26

Army at Temple 6:30/7:30 ESPN – Cadets favored by 13.5!

Friday, September 27

Virginia Tech at Miami-FL 6:30/7:30 ESPN – The Hokies have been pretty disappointing to this point.
Washington at Rutgers 7pm/8pm FOX – I still haven’t gotten used to Rutgers and Maryland being B1G, much less UW.

Saturday, September 28

SEC

Kentucky at Ole Miss 11am/noon ABC
Arkansas at Texas A&M 2:30/3:30 ESPN – in Arlington, TX
Oklahoma at Auburn 2:40/3:40 ABC – After this game, it’s @UGA and @Miz for Aub.
Mississippi State at Texas 3:15/4:15 SECN
South Alabama at LSU 6:45/7:45 SECN

ERRYBODY ELSE – Lotsa boring cupcake games. Below are highlights:

Wisconsin at Southern Cal 2:30/3:30 CBS
Louisville at Notre Dame 2:30/3:30 Peacock – Big game for both teams.
Illinois at Penn State 6:30/7:30 NBC – Bert vs Franklin

IF YOU ARE STILL SOBER AND AWAKE

Washington State at Boise 9pm/10pm FS1 – CFP At-Large implications
Arizona at Utah 9:15/10:15 ESPN – If this was in Zona, I’d say it’s dangerous. But, no. Utes gonna roll.

PAC12 BIG TEN AFTER DARK

Oregon at UCLA 10pm/11pm FOX

#ALABAMA

• As a result of the Crimson Tide’s dominating performance against Wisconsin, the entire Alabama offensive line was recognized as Outland Trophy National Players of the Week. I suppose they were all so good that they could not pick just one.
• Jalen Milroe was the Associated Press’s National Player of Week 3.
• After 13 days in concussion protocol, senior safety Malachi Moore should be good to go on Saturday. Coach Kalen DeBoer stated Moore was practicing this week and is expected back.
• Linebacker Qua Russaw got a leg rolled up on against Wisconsin. KDB said Qua was practicing and “taking steps” to returning versus UGA. He also said he is “optimistic” of Russaw’s availbility against UGA. Sounds questionable to doubtful.
• WR/PR Cole Adams is still recovering from a right arm injury from Alabama’s Week 2 game against the South Florida. He is “working back slowly” and practicing, but “not 100%” of practice.
• Third running back Richard Young is in a similar situation as Adams, working back “slowly.” With the depth Bama has at RB, it seems doubtful he will play on Saturday. If there is a need, freshman Daniel Hill likely fills that role.
• Sooo… there is a game this week if you haven’t heard…

GAME 4: Saturday, September 28, 2024

Georgia Bulldogs (3-0) at Alabama Crimson Tide (3-0)

Tuscaloosa, AL ~ 6:30/7:30 ABC

• Kirby Smart is in his ninth season in Athens. He is 97-16 overall.
• Alabama is 43-26-4 all-time against UGA. Their last meeting was the 2023 SEC Championship taken by the Crimson Tide.
• ICYMI, a certain 2024 Presidential candidate plans to be in attendance. Word is a Good Morning America correspondent will be in T-town all weekend. With College GameDay being there as well, it should be a madhouse all week.
• Alabama is honoring the 1964 National Championship team. Joe Namath (1962-64), Gaylon McCollough (1962-65), and Jackie Sherrill (1962-65) are honorary captains. You all know Broadway Joe. McCollough was a center before becoming a highly successful plastic surgeon in Gulf Shores. Sherrill played fullback and linebacker before coaching Pitt, TAMU and MSU – still the most wins for a Bullies coach at 75.
• As of post, the rain is expected to be gone by Saturday. During the day, there will be a high around 81° with partly cloudy skies. The temperature is expected to drop into the 60s by the time the game ends. Bring a jacket.
• ABC TV announcers will be Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit with Holly Rowe on the sidelines.
• Chris Stewart and Tyler Watts with Damion Square are on Alabama Radio.
• Depending on the sportsbook you prefer, the point spread has Alabama as a 1.5 to 2.5 point underdog as of post. The Over/Under is around 48.5. The Crimson Tide hasn’t been an underdog in any regular-season game since 2015 against Georgia – which turned out to be a 38-10 Bama rout. Alabama is a home underdog for the first time in 17 years. That game in Nick Saban’s first season with the Tide was a 41-34 defeat at the hands of LSU.