ESPN's Best College Football Quotes of 2014

I guess you could say South Carolina and Baylor should be playing for the National Championship.

Read the quotes here.

Muschamp Returns to Auburn as Defensive Coordinator

Auburn University has reportedly inked Will Muschamp to a 3year deal worth between 1.6 and 1.8 million dollars a year. This would make Muschamp the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football.

It appears that Muschamp's interview with the University of Houston for their head coaching position  may have been a ruse to force Auburn's hand.

Read the ESPN article here.

Muschamp's "I'm just a ball coach"  Auburn introduction.

Marcus Mariota Sweeps Awards

Marcus Mariota, the outstanding quarterback of the Oregon Ducks, won the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award and the Davy O'Brein National Quarterback Award at the Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday night.

Mariota had previously won the Maxwell Award as the nation's Most Outstanding Player and is, by all accounts, the front runner for the Heisman Trophy in 2014.

Read the full ESPN story here.

3 Heisman Trophy Finalists Named

This year there are 3 finalists for the Heisman Trophy. They are Marcus Mariota, oregon Ducks, Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin Badgers and Amari Cooper of the #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Mariota of Oregon, threw for 3783 yards and 38 touchdowns with just 2 interceptions. Marcus also ran for 669 yards and 14 touchdowns for the Ducks.

Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin running back, leads the nation in rushing with 2336 yards on the ground and an average of 179.7 yards rushing per game. Gordon rushed for 408 yards against Nebraska, at the time an NCAA record.

Amari Cooper caught 115 passes for the #1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide for 1656 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Although Mariota appears to be the odds on favorite in this year's voting, the three individuals named as finalists are well deserving of the Heisman Trophy.

Congratulations to Mariota, Gordon and Cooper.

Bowl Schedule Set With Baylor and TCU on the Outside Looking in

The Bowl schedule for the 2014-2015 college season is set. Although Big 12 teams TCU and Baylor finished #5 and #6 respectively and cannot win the National Championship, they will be in the "Top 6" Bowl Games.

Ohio State jumped over both the Horned Frogs and the Bears with their resounding 59-0 win over the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big 10 Championship. The Big 12 does not have a conference championship which some have said forced the CFP Committee to choose the Buckeyes.

Here is the Bowl Schedule for this year.

Crimson Tide Defeat Missouri Tigers 42-13 to Win The SEC Championship

Alabama showed why they are the #1 ranked team in the nation, winning the SEC Championship 42-13 over the #16 ranked Missouri Tigers. The win on Saturday should solidify the Tide's hold on the #1 position in the CFP rankings. #2 Oregon and #3 TCU both won convincingly and all that remains for the Bowl positions is ACC Championship Game between #4 FSU and #11 Georgia Tech.

The game was close, 21-13, after three quarters but Alabama reeled off 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.

Blake Sims, the Alabama quarterback, was 23 of 27 passing for 262 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Tide ground game rushed for 242 yards on 49 carries with Derrick Henry leading the attack. Henry rushed for 141 yards on 20 carries with 2 touchdowns. T.Y. Yeldon added 2 TDs on 14 carries.

Missouri was held to just 41 yards on the ground by a swarming, smothering Alabama defense. Maty Mauk was under pressure all day and completed just 16 of 34 passes for 242 yards and a touchdown. 

Take a look at the ESPN Recap here.

FSU Drops to 4th In The CFP Rankings

The Horned Frogs of TCU jumped into the top 4 teams in the nation on Tuesday according to the CFP Committee, leap frogging an undefeated FSU Seminole team that has 28 consecutive wins. TCU is ranked ahead of Baylor despite losing to the Bears 61-58 in their head-to-head matchup.

Alabama remained at #1 and the Oregon Ducks held onto the #2 spot.

This weekend, all of this could change. The Crimson Tide takes on #16 Missouri in the SEC Championship while Oregon faces #7 Arizona in the PAC 12 Championship. FSU squares off against the #11 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for the ACC Championship. The two Big 12 schools, which do not have a championship game, will face their final Big 12 games. TCU faces a 2-9 Iowa State team while Baylor draws a game with #9 Kansas State.

If all of the four teams should win, and in my estimation TCU had better win big, the playoff spots would remain the same.

Now for the conspiracy theory. The CFP Committee wants an East Coast team, the SEC is close enough, to play a West Coast team in the final. An Alabama or Seminole team in the final would be okay with them. The committee knows that Oregon will have no problem with TCU but might face tougher competition against the undefeated FSU team. Using my logic you then would have a championship game with an undefeated FSU team or the immensely popular and strong 1 loss Alabama playing the Ducks for the National Championship.

But, if FSU  loses this weekend, there won't be ACC team in the playoffs and potentially 2 Big 12 teams could be in the top four of the final rankings. Now that would be interesting.

Brady Hoke Out At Michigan

The interim Athletic Director at the University of Michigan has reportedly fired head coach Brady Hoke with a year left on his 5 year contract.

Jim Hackett clearly wants the Wolverines to head in another direction. After the way Dave Brandon, former Athletic Director, and Hoke handled the concussion situation with Sophomore quarterback Shane Morris in the Minnesota game, there was no place for Hackett to go.

Michigan went 31-20 in Hoke's 4 years including an 11-2 season in 2011 when the Wolverines beat rival Ohio State and defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Sugar Bowl.

Hoke took over for Rich Rodriguez for the 2011 season and Hoke was named the Big 10 Coach of the Year. Today's announcement comes as Rich Rodriguez is named the Pac 12 Coach of the Year for 2014.

Sam Cooper of Yahoo Sports has an article here should you like more information.

ESPN Says SEC No Longer Exceptional

Ivan Maisel, of ESPN, tries to make a point in an article he has written, that the SEC is no longer exceptional. I beg to differ with Mr. Maisel and would say in support of the SEC that his opinion is a bit premature.

Ivan had this to say in his article. "The best running backs in the FBS play in the Big Ten. The best quarterbacks are in the Pac-12. So are the best defensive linemen. The ACC skunked you 4-0 this past Saturday. The Big 12 is the only conference with a chance of putting two teams in the playoff."

To his point that the best running backs are in the Big 10, I would point out that only three teams in the Big 10 are good, meaning that the seven teams not named Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin have defenses that are built to Big 10 standards, big and slow. The Big 10 running backs would have trouble with the offensive lines and linebackers of the SEC, recruited for speed.

The best quarterbacks, according to Ivan, are in the Pac-12. Marcus Mariota, my choice for the Heisman, is the best quarterback in the nation but the 11 other quarterbacks in the league have shown themselves to be inconsistent. The SEC quarterbacks are competent and are coached in ball control to minimize turnovers.

The ACC did take 4 of 4 from the SEC this week; but, The #3 team in the country barely beat a Florida team who's coach already knows he won't be back next year given a second consecutive bad season and #16 Georgia Tech beat a #9 Georgia, playing without an unfairly targeted Todd Gurley, in a long standing in state rivalry.

The SEC has never been about flashy QBs. It is about crushing, swarming defenses and punishing ground games. The Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn was a bitter in state rivalry as was Georgia/Georgia Tech, Florida/Florida State, South Carolina/Clemson and Mississippi State/Ole Miss. Name a conference with so many conference rivalries and in state rivalries where the entire college football nation will stop and watch.

Alabama will beat #17 Missouri in the SEC Championship game and remain #1. They will play either TCU or Baylor, from a league, The Big 12, who doesn't have a championship game. One of these teams will make it to #4. By the way the head-to-head between these two teams was a really close 61-58. The Big 12 is all about defense, right? #2 Oregon will beat #3 FSU and Alabama will beat Oregon. The swarming defense of Alabama, and sufficient time to prepare for the Ducks offense will give Alabama another National Championship and the 8th consecutive championship for the SEC.

If you care to read a good, but wrong headed, article by Ivan Maisel by all means do and let me know what you think.

Ole Miss Tops #4 Mississippi St. 31-17

In the dog eat dog world of the SEC, Ole Miss, who had fallen to #19 in the CFP polls beat #4 Mississippi State 31-17.

Dak Prescott of Mississippi St. completed 22 of 37 passes for 282 yards and a touchdown while Bo Wallace was 13 for 30 for 296 yards and an INT with no touchdowns.

Jaylen Walton carried the ball 14 times for Ole Miss and gained 148 yards including a 91 yard touchdown scamper with 2 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter.

The stats were fairly even. Ole Miss had 15 first downs while Miss. St. had 21. 532 total yards for Ole Miss and 445 for Miss. St. 205 yards on the ground for Ole Miss and 167 for the Bulldogs. Time of possession was totally in favor of Miss. St. though as they held the ball for 34:45 while Ole Miss had the ball for 24:15.

Read the ESPN recap here for the rest of the story.

Here's another perspective from Yahoo Sports.

#16 Georgia Tech Stuns #9 Georgia in OT 30-24

 Georgia Tech kicker Harrison Butker kicked a 53 yard field on the last play of regulation to tie the Bulldogs at 24 and the Yellow Jackets went on the beat Georgia 30-24 in overtime.

Tech rushed for 399 yards against a very good Georgia defense but the Yellow Jacket's D.J. White had the biggest defensive play of the day as he intercepted a pass from Georgia's Hutson Mason intended for Malcomb Mitchell in overtime to clinch the win for the Yellow Jackets.

For all the details, read the ESPN recap here.

Here's the Yahoo Sports take.

New Rushing Record In NCAA Football

Samaje Perine broke the 1 week old rushing record today in Oklahoma's 44-7 win over Kansas. He rushed for 5 touchdowns.

Perine broke the record set last week by Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon who rushed for 408 yards. Perine rushed for 427 yards on 34 carries.

Perine also broke the Oklahoma rushing record of 294 yards by Greg Pruitt set 43 years ago.

Read the full ESPN story here.

NCAA Football Coaches Would Prefer 8 Team Playoff

Coaches from 103 of the 128 FBS schools voiced their opinion in an ESPN poll about the College Playoff system. 44% of those coaches would prefer an 8 team playoff system while 29% were okay with the playoff system now and 17 % wanted to expand to a 16 team playoff.

The coaches who want to expand to 8 teams would like to see the Conference Champions from the Power 5 conferences, (ACC, Big 12, Big 10, SEC and Pac 12) automatically in and the next 3 highest ranking schools make it.

An 8 team playoff would make more sense. Just this week Jeff Long, said that the difference between #4 and #7 teams was very narrow. An additional game for the playoffs might mean that conferences would play one less season game which might mean less of the "easy" non conference schedules that some conferences are accused of scheduling. It could also mean a conference championship game for the big 12 to eliminate Co-Champions as we are likely to have with Baylor/TCU this year.

All-in-all it will come down to the money. Given enough money even ESPN, which is in the first year of a 12 year deal for the current system, might consider an 8 team playoff.

CFP Rankings Have Alabama #1

The CFP ranking is out for the week of November 18th and Alabama, by virtue of their win over previously #1 Mississippi State, vaulted from #5 last week to the top spot this week, leapfrogging idle Oregon and an FSU team that had to stage a second half comeback again over an unranked opponent.

Mississippi State dropped three spots to #4 while last week's #4, TCU, fell one spot to #5 with a narrow victory over unranked Kansas. Ohio State jumped over idle Baylor to claim the 6th spot. The Big 12, doesn't have a conference championship game. The CFP Commission is tasked with using conference championship winners as tie breakers in the final rankings. TCU and Baylor are both expected to finish 11-1 on the year and be named Co-Champions of the Big 12.

Oregon and FSU should win their respective championships and should Mississippi State lose in the SEC Championship game, Ohio State could be the fourth place team in the final rankings. Of course, Ohio State must win the Big 10 Championship game or TCU/Baylor would be the favorite to finish fourth in the final CFP rankings to be issued on December 7th.

Selection Committee chairman Jeff Long said "the differences between teams four through seven are narrow, very narrow."

#5 Alabama Outlasts #1 Mississippi State 25-20

Alabama beat Mississippi State on Saturday 25-20 to make a strong statement to the CFP Committee for a berth in the top 4 finalists in this years 4 team playoff for the National Championship.

Dak Prescott, quarterback of Mississippi State was 27 of 48 passing for 290 yards and 2 TDs but threw 3 interceptions. Mississippi State also suffered a safety during the game.

Nick Perry, Landon Collins and Cyrus Jones all intercepted the potential Heisman Trophy finalist Prescott.

With this win and TCU's close win over unranked Kansas, the Crimson Tide should be in the top four of the CFP rankings on Tuesday. If FSU beats Miami tonight they should jump ahead of idle #2 Oregon with Alabama #3 and Mississippi State #4.

Read the box score and ESPN recap here

Wisconsin Badgers Crush Nebraska 59-17

The #20 Wisconsin Badgers ran roughshod over the #16 Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday, 59-17. Forget any passing stats for this game. Wisconsin had 581 yards on the ground on 53 carries for an 11.0 average per running play. Melvin Gordon carried the ball 25 times for 408 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Read the account of the other plays in the ESPN article here.

Shakeup in CFP Rankings

Mississippi State held on to the #1 position in the CFP rankings for the NCAA college football playoffs this week.

Oregon jumped FSU for the second position and TCU Horned Frogged, I mean leap frogged Alabama for #4 in the rankings. I feel Mississippi State should have been punished more for scheduling UT-Martin this late in the season but facing Alabama may be their comeupance later this month. But I also feel FSU has played poorly against opponents they should have beaten handily and should not be in the top 4.

Oregon has dominated the Pac 12 this year and will face an Arizona team in the Championship game that will either solidify their position or remove them from contention. Florida State, with a close win over Notre Dame and a lackluster performance over Louisville, doesn't deserve a top four ranking but is one of two teams that remain undefeated this year. Alabama should be in the top 4 with FSU about 5 or 6.

TCU must win out to remain in the 4th spot. Alabama, with games against Auburn and Mississippi State and the SEC championship game could well be a top 4 team while Mississippi State could drop out of the top four.

Read the ESPN article here and let me know what you think.

Football Rankings Change After Saturday's Game

The football rankings have changed pretty dramatically following this week's games. Mississippi State took on UT-Martin in a gimme game and Florida State had no trouble in their game against Virginia as they beat the Cavaliers 34-20. FSU's biggest test may come against a resurgent Florida team on the 29th of Nvember.

Auburn dropped to 9th after their loss to Texas A&M. TCU climbed to #6 with their win over Kansas State, Arizona State moves up to 7th with their decisive victory over Notre Dame and Ohio State climbed to #8 with a convincing win over Michigan State.

Read the AP article here.

'Bama Tops LSU in OT 20-13

Alabama escaped "Death Valley" with a 20-13 overtime win over LSU on Saturday.

It looked like the Tigers would win the game in regulation when they recovered a fumble by Alabama's T.J. Yeldon on the Alabama 6 yard line with 1:13 on the clock. LSU should have had 4 plays to punch it in from 6 yards out but offensive guard Vadal Alexander was called for unsportsmanlike conduct that moved the ball to the 21. LSU used up only 23 seconds of time before settling for a field goal and the 13-10 lead.

The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds giving Alabama the ball on their 35 yard line with 50 seconds to play in regulation. The Tide drove 55 yards in 47 seconds where Adam Griffith nailed a 27 yard field goal to tie the game.

Alabama took the ball 1st in overtime and scored on a 6 yard pass from Blake Sims to DeAndrew White. LSU threw 4 incomplete passes with their possession and Alabama had the 20-13 victory.

LSU falls to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the SEC West while Alabama is now 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC West.

With the Auburn loss to Texas A&M, Alabama should take the fourth spot in the CFP playoff with Oregon moving up to #3. Alabama has a game with Mississippi State coming up.

How does LSU get called for unsportsmanlike conduct on the opposing team's 6 yard line, after recovering a fumble, with 1:13 to go? How can LSU use up just 23 seconds with four plays to run? How can a Tiger defense that had held the Tide in Check all game give up 55 yards in 47 seconds? Why would LSU attempt 4 straight passes in OT when their quarterback was not having a good game? How does an LSU kickoff go out of bounds with just 50 seconds on the clock putting Alabama just 35 yards from field goal range?

These are some of the questions Les Miles will have to answer and Nick Saban should be thanking his lucky stars for.

#3 Auburn Loses to Texas A&M 41-38

The Auburn Tigers hurt their chances for a CFP berth when they lost to an unranked Texas A&M team on Saturday, at home, 41-38. Auburn still muast play Alabama so thier season is not nescessarily over but this loss at home is not good.

Kyle Allen, the A&M quarterback who replace Kenny Hill, threw for 277 yards and 4 touchdowns with an interception.

Nick Marshall, for Auburn, was 15 for 21, good for 219 yards and 1 touchdown.

Auburn rushed for 363 yards behind Cameron Artis-Payne's 221 yards on 30 carries with 2 touchdowns. Auburn QB Nick Marshall ran for 69 yards on 11 carries and 2 TDs.

Josh Reynolds, A&M, caught 6 passes for 88 yards and 2 touchdowns. Malcome Kennedy had 118 yards receiving and a touchdown whiile Ricky Seals-Jones had a TD on 6 receptions for 46 yards.

Auburn had a Field Goal attempt blocked and returned for a touchdown early in the game and fumbled inside the Aggie 5 yard line with 2:45 to go. Texas A&M was forced to put from their 1 yard line after the Auburn fumble and the Tigers took over on the Aggie 42 yard line with just over 2 minutes to play. Auburn fumbled again and the Aggies were able to run out the clock to preserve the win.

Read the ESPN recap here.