Official CFB 2023 Thread

[GovernorSilver]

Washington is rolling at home vs. Boise St.  Explosive offense comparable with USC's, with way better defense.

 

OTOH, Boise St's QB has been missing passes right and left and up and down, helping the Husky D look good.   Zero completions in the 2nd quarter.

[bill5]

Most top teams are playing much weaker teams and racking up big scores. Ohio St won but Indiana defense played well and kept them in it for most of the game...but they don't have a QB who can pass more than 2 yds with any accuracy, and knowing that they mostly didn't try, which doomed them. 

[bill5]

W VA is playing Penn State tough. And Penn State's kicker couldn't hit the side of a barn. 

[GovernorSilver]

UNC vs. South Carolina was supposed to be another matchup of roughly equal strength teams.   The result is anything but equal.   Lopsided in favor of UNC so far.

 

RGIII and other announcers/commentators on the Washington-Boise St. game started chatting about the top Heisman contenders among QBs as they started getting bored by the blowout.  Washington's Penix is clearly top 10.    RGII or someone else brought up UNC's Drake Maye as the #2 QB after Caleb Williams - they think he really is that special.    Looking forward to watching the UNC-SC highlights later when they hit YT.

[bill5]

Maye threw a pick or two - I only saw a little of the game so hard to say how good he looked or not. Penn State's Allar though looked excellent, poised and accurate and not a great runner but good enough when he needed to. The W VA QB Greene also looked good, not quite as accurate but didn't have too much to work with.

 

[GovernorSilver]

The QBs I watched:

 

Chandler Morris (TCU) - More disciplined mechanics and better intermediate range accuracy than Max Duggan.  More of a pocket passer too.  Deep ball accuracy not so good, though can't tell if it's because he lacks a reliable deep target like Quentin Johnston last year.

 

Shedeur Sanders (Colorado) - Trained with both Brady and Manning, and of course coached since birth by dad Deion.  Shows in how he operates in the pocket, calling audibles, and quickly releasing the ball with accuracy. Prefers surveying the field from the pocket to running.   When he does take off, he's still looking to launch the ball to a receiver.

 

Michael Penix Jr (Washington) - Pocket passer, excellent accuracy at all 3 levels of the field.  Benefits from having an excellent WR corps.

 

Taylen Green (Boise St) - Emerged in 2022 as a dual-threat QB with freakish 6'6" height.  RG3 and fellow announcers kept expressing surprise at Green not using his mobility against Washington.   Seems to have a decent arm but accuracy was off and on today.

 

Today's upset special:  Texas State over Baylor in a shootout.  Fresno State over Purdue I guess also counts but that's not as surprising.

[GovernorSilver]

Was looking forward to NFL action today then realized it's still a week away.  That explains why there are a couple of CFB games today

 

Northwestern vs. Rutgers - battle of B1G cellar dwellers.  When peeps say Oregon State and Wazzou got left out because they must suck, I point to Rutgers, a school which accomplished little of note, yet got invited into the richest conference in CFB anyway, simply because B1G wanted the NJ TV market.

 

Oregon State vs. San Jose State - matchup between current Mountain West member and likely future Mountain West member, unless a reverse merger happens.   Shame because OSU got so close to a PAC-12 championship game appearance last year.  The Beavs will beat the Spartans in a different way than USC did, as they're built more on running game and defense.  DJ Uigaleilei is their boom-or-bust acquisition.  If he's the same DJ who lost his job at Clemson,  the Beavs will look MWC-ready in a not so good way.    The Spartans D will let him knock off the rust.  OTOH, the Spartans QB Cordeiro is pretty good in his own right.

 

LSU vs. Florida State - today's most watchable game for the majority of CFB fans.   Same SEC fans who said Florida would destroy Utah at Rice-Eccles also say LSU will destroy the Noles.  😄

[bill5]

I thought the same thing initially about the NFL. Why don't they start on the same weekend? 

 

 

[Stokely]

That Noles/LSU game was weird.

I watched more of the first half than the 2nd.  I's rare that I can sit through any kind of sports for a whole game--Premier League soccer being maybe the exception--and LSU was zipping up and down the field.  They probably should have scored a lot more points.  FSU didn't look that great on offense either.  I figured the 2nd half would be LSU pulling away.

Got on my computer, came back after the 3rd quarter to see how it was going...surprise.  FSU was dominating.  I guess their depth really was a thing (based on the announcer comments) and obviously some adjustments were made.   Their run game got going and that was key.

As an aside I was just happy the game was on, Disney and Spectrum cable are fighting.  I no longer have ESPN, and thought maybe that ABC was gone too.   Getting tired of all these gazillon-dollar companies having spats, because guess who loses--not long ago, my insurance company and the biggest health care provider in central FL also got into it, and now I can't use my insurance at any of their doctors or hospitals.  So much for the family doc I've had for 20 years.   Fucking aholes.

[GovernorSilver]

PAC-12 went 12-0 in week 1.   Historic performance apparently.

 

#9 Clemson was upset by Duke.  Meanwhile ex-Clemson QB DJ Uigaleilei had a solid debut as Oregon State's new starter.

[bill5]

14 hours ago, Stokely said:

That Noles/LSU game was weird.

I watched more of the first half than the 2nd.  I's rare that I can sit through any kind of sports for a whole game--Premier League soccer being maybe the exception--and LSU was zipping up and down the field.  They probably should have scored a lot more points.  FSU didn't look that great on offense either.  I figured the 2nd half would be LSU pulling away.

Got on my computer, came back after the 3rd quarter to see how it was going...surprise.  FSU was dominating.  

Yeah I was the opposite; missed a good first half apparently, turned it on halftime and figured OK great a good second half on the way, and FSU just bowled LSU over. Disappointing. I turned it off around 31-17.

[bill5]

Still early in the season but a few interesting matchups coming up (to me): 

 

JMU vs UVa:  could the cross-town upstart Dukes defeat a reeling Cavalier team? I doubt it, but stranger things have happened

Ole Miss vs Tulane: two top 25 regional teams trying to stay that way

#11 Texas vs #4 Alabama: the marquee matchup of the day, though I doubt Texas even makes this interesting

 

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Coaches Poll:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/coaches-poll-top-25-clemson-plummets-texas-moves-into-top-10-in-college-football-rankings/

 

FSU now #5 after thumping LSU

 

Ohio State still top 5 despite questions about how legit their offense is

 

USC #6 because of brand recognition, not because of blowout wins over powerhouses San Jose State and Nevada.  #9 Washington should be higher because of better defense.

 

Colorado #25 because 1 game, 1 win against a 2023 TCU squad not expected to perform as well as the 2022 edition, is not enough yet to convince pollsters they should be ranked higher.

 

 

[bill5]

Colorado's schedule is a cakewalk until facing Oregon and USC in a few weeks too. The hype train will continue.

 

Duke could enjoy similar success as the next real opponent is Notre Dame at the end of month.

[GovernorSilver]

Nebraska's defense held up for one half.

 

Then Colorado's offense exploded in the 2nd half.  Nebraska's offense was too outgunned to keep up.

[surfergirl]

Utah 2-0 without Cam Rising. 

[bill5]

Any day Alabama loses is a good day   (No offense to any Bama fans!) I do admit I didn't think Texas had it in them. 

 

Some real back n forth contests today. That one, Wisconsin vs Wash St, Oregon vs Texas Tech, and (until the end) Texas Tech vs Miami. 

[Joe Muscara]

My wife and I missed the game because we were at a movie, but how did UH lose to Rice? They even tied it up by scoring 21 in the fourth but finally lost in 2OT because Rice made a 2 point conversion and UH didn’t. 
 

This their first year in the Big 12 and they’re not looking terrific. They barely won against UTSA last week. 
 

(In case you’re wondering, I’m Terps all the way but the Coogs are the second team I care about. My wife got her undergrad there and was in the marching band, and I got my master’s there.)

[GovernorSilver]

Oregon State and Washington State have been trying to get the details on what PAC-12 assets would be left to them, as the only 2 members left after the 2023 season.  Their attempts to get this information has apparently been stonewalled.  The assets are reportedly worth $43 million.   In addition, they may be entitled to as much as $65 million in NCAA basketball tournament unit payouts over the next 10 years.  

 

Current commish George Kliavkoff scheduled a PAC-12 board of directors meeting.  OSU and WSU are understandably concerned that this meeting might result in a vote for dissolution of the PAC-12, which would ensure the $43 million and NCAA tournament unit money be equally divided among the current 12 members.  So they filed a restraining order to prevent the meeting.  Can't blame them for arguing that they are the only 2 schools qualified to be on the board of directors, and the other 10 forfeited their seats.   Splitting all those millions between the 2 leftovers vs. between 12 would be a huge difference for them.

 

Some news sources are spinning this as "saving the PAC-12".  Maybe that will be the outcome, maybe not, but first they need to secure control over what is left of the PAC-12 and make sure the other 10 schools don't steal something that they don't deserve.

 

I think it's only fair that they get the final say on what happens to the PAC-12 assets, with the other 10 schools having decided to leave before them, regardless of what they decide to do in terms of conference realignment afterwards.

 

https://oregonstate.rivals.com/news/statement-from-oregon-state-president-on-today-s-pac-12-court-proceedings?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJyV5OJtuqaekBoly7a25zBjZ67ZJ5pT00woXhwdOUK8UXRxzc4uWaP9dmv4kkRL8wO3WKszZb8RZqvrb8lAtLHE_oTUsUmXHyEKkpBq6nPd7ofWPW_YwilvH0_6oJ3IgNbHTnwjWkQm9oBPuYq0P6E5bSz4SV7RC588UMdkZtVB

[bill5]

2 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

 

Some news sources are spinning this as "saving the PAC-12". 

By doing...what? It's gone, get over it news sources. 

 

I agree on siding with the two schools that the others are trying to put the screws to by having their cake and eating it too. 

[GovernorSilver]

Yup some of these reporters tend to jump the gun.   

 

Maybe these 2 schools will end entering some sort of relationship with the Mountain West eventually.

 

But making sure you know exactly what is rightfully yours, before making a big decision about conference realignment totally fine in my book.

 

 

[bill5]

1 hour ago, GovernorSilver said:

Yup some of these reporters tend to jump the gun.   

Reporters look for ANYTHING that will generate "click bait," no matter how idiotic it is. That's all they care about. 

[GovernorSilver]

Worst YT channels I've seen on CFB so far:  Monty Show, Depressed Ginger.   The latter is particularly annoying with his overly loud voice and blatant lack of research

[bill5]

Can't say, I don't "watch" YT. To me that's just a warehouse of older recorded stuff, not current events of any kind. And frankly just about all so-called sports reporters now days I think are annoying as hell. I haven't watched pre/post-game or half-time shows in a lonnnnnng time. In fact, I make it a point to turn a game on about 5-10 mins after it's supposed to have started to make sure I miss that.

[GovernorSilver]

I can't help it - this PAC-12 realignment stuff is fascinating to me, so of course YT suggests vids on that topic.

 

Flip side is by watching YT instead of linear TV, I don't get any Hamlin news, lol.

[surfergirl]

I don't care what kind of arrangement the Mt West and PAC2 agree on as long as Gloria Nevarez is the commissioner.

[GovernorSilver]

George Kliavkoff does not appear to have a place in OSU and WSU's plans.   He's been hiding in his house in Montana while the lawsuit was going on.  He was specifically named in the lawsuit as well. 

 

The 10 departing schools wanted to use the PAC-12 assets to pay for transition costs.  🙄

 

https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/lists/youll-never-guess-where-george-kliavkoff-was-during-oregon-state-washington-state-pac-12-legal-hearing/

 

Hopefully the PAC-2 can continue to progress towards securing the PAC-12 assets and NCAA Tournament unit payouts for good.   I'm guessing they would just use the money to make up for the drop in revenue from about $30 million/year per school to probably about $10-$11 million/year, assuming they go with the reverse merger with the Mountain West.  

 

It'll be interesting see if the merged conference will be able to collect the NCAA Tournament units for both the Mountain West and the PAC-12  or will they have to give up one conference's units.

 

Some talking heads are making fun of the PAC-2 option - where the PAC-12 literally moves forward as a 2-school conference and schedules a lot of non-conference games.   NCAA rules specify a 2-year grace period for a conference to reload back up to 8 schools.  The tricky part would be getting a media deal to support it.

[bill5]

But imagine the suspense! Who will get into the championship game?

 

F those other schools. The gall to leave and then want to use money from the thing they're leaving to cover expenses.

[jazzpiano88]

7 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

Some talking heads are making fun of the PAC-2 option - where the PAC-12 literally moves forward as a 2-school conference and schedules a lot of non-conference games.   NCAA rules specify a 2-year grace period for a conference to reload back up to 8 schools.  The tricky part would be getting a media deal to support it.

 

No one is reporting that the exodus is a mental exit from California.   They want the physical location but the mental satisfaction that they are no longer part of the west coast along with the rest of businesses exiting the commune.

 

Hopefully some rules committee will require a locale requirement down the road in the next century. 

[GovernorSilver]

U. of Washington on why they decided to leave - blaming Colorado (the school) rather than  California (the state) per se, plus distrust, gossip, etc.   Of course they don't admit the potential to eventually collect $70 million per year as a B1G member, after taking only partial shares of that for the first few years, had something to do with it too.

 

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2023/09/05/university-of-washington-president-ana-mari-cauce-interview-move-to-big-ten-pac-12.aspx

 

The other departing members have not been as open about reasons for leaving as Washington.