College Football Sunday Summary Shows Off Our Learning Curve

Our College Football Sunday Summary learning curve is growing week by week, and just in time for the first College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night. Here are some of the things we are learning after Week nine.

College Football Sunday Summary Shows Off Our Learning Curve

The Big 10 Dresses Up for Halloween

The Big 10 went as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Halloween on Saturday. Last week, Wisconsin beat USC, sending USC supporters scurrying to see how much they could donate to get rid of Lincoln Riley. This week, USC trashed #2 Ohio State, making the Buckeyes’ offense look like it was playing with a freshman quarterback, and the defense looking like it was not playing at all. And the Wisconsin team that beat USC a week ago? They got ranked at #25 in the AP Poll after the USC win and then went out and got blistered by Iowa 30-0 on Saturday.

Oh, and that is the same Iowa team that lost to Minnesota last weekend. You know Minnesota, right? Beat Iowa last week and then lost to Indiana in overtime this week.

The Big 10 was all over the place yesterday. UCLA remains the only undefeated team in the conference after looking barely passable against Nevada. This is called a wildly competitive conference, and it is good college football. Next year, the playoff goes to 24 teams, so even a three-loss Michigan team with a benched multi-millionaire quarterback can make it. Yawn. Enjoy this craziness while it lasts.

Paging Mr. Sarkisian

The above gets us to Austin and the weekly whining from Steve Sarkisian. This week it is a repeating of the complaints over SEC schools having moved to a nine-game conference schedule…you know…the same kind of conference schedule others have been doing for decades. Hey, the old Pac-10 used to have the perfect schedule where you played everyone else in the conference every year. Was amazing for basketball. The two AZ schools would go up to Oregon, play on Thursday, and then switch opponents on Saturday.

But we digress. Sark says the SEC is cannibalizing itself by having to play more conference games. Yeah, Sark, get on the learning curve…it’s called playing in a conference. The idea is not to pad your wins and losses. It’s to play. You are doing the same thing the Big 10 is doing, and the ACC and Big 12 are doing. You are just doing it with more whining. We learned how crazy and chaotic the Big 10 is. And so, to a lesser degree, is the SEC. That’s good. Predictability is boring.

When Texas loses three or four games, it’s not going to be because of SEC cannibalism. This isn’t the Donner family. It’s going to be because they could not step up to the competition at a level needed to win more.

When highly regarded SEC schools lose, it is allegedly because everyone in the top half of the conference is a top-10 team. When the exact same thing happens in the Big 10 or Big 12, it is determined they just are not as good.

As long as there are Vanderbilt and Arkansas in the SEC, the conference is no better or worse than anyone else. You have top-tier programs, and you have bottom programs. Time to step up or step off.

More Thoughts from Coaches

USC got an epic win over Ohio State. The Trojans looked like the USC of old is dismantling the Buckeyes. Clearly, head coach Lincoln Riley was overjoyed to talk about the win, right? We learned Riley has been holding some feelings in about his tenure at USC and the criticism that goes with it. At the end of the post-game press conference, he actually pulled out a piece of paper that had prepared notes.

“I’ve got one other thing I want to say here. I just took a second; I wanted to make sure I articulated my thoughts,” Riley said, referring to his paper with notes. “This program is built on internal joy, not external applause. This win’s for all the staff members, the players, the leaders, the admin, all the people within the walls. I said before this game that I’m the right person for this job, and as long as all those people know that, that’s all I care about,” Riley continued.

“I appreciate being a part of this university, and all it does, and I appreciate our kids and our staff, and I’m going to continue to Fight On because that’s what being a Trojan is all about.” And with that, Riley got up and left. So we learned that the campaign season is not over on election day Tuesday. Lincoln Riley is going to use his time and space to campaign to the public for his job.

Dabo Is Head From

Clemson’s Dabo Swinney has certainly felt the loss of fan love over the last year-and-a-half. He has gone from exalted national champion to old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn in just a matter of a couple of years.

Like or don’t like the polarizing coach. But he is going to win or go down with the ship he built his way. Of course, that means he takes an entire program with him, but that is just who he is.

But on Saturday night, he was campaigning for someone other than himself. Clemson had just beaten Florida State 36-24 in Tallahassee. Mike Norvell’s tenure as the Seminoles head coach has been tenuous for quite some time now.

Some folks paid for a plane to fly a banner over Doak Campbell Stadium Saturday demanding Norvell’s firing. The chuckleheads who paid for it must have paid by the letter, because they dropped the “r” in Norvell, misspelling the name of the coach they want fired.

Dabo, who gets how it is to feel the wrath, spoke up on Norvell’s behalf. It was an embarrassment. Florida State’s better than that. I mean it’s just disrespectful. That’s a good man [Norvell] right there. That’s a good man. And he’s a hell of a football coach,” Swinney said, as he also pointed out the spelling error on the banner.

Our learning curve says it is 50-50 whether either one of them will be leading their respective schools when they face each other again next season.

What We Learned in Chapel Hill

Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels are better than last year’s 4-8 disaster. But they aren’t prime time good. Not yet at least. They had #1 Miami on the ropes late in the game. But the late fourth-quarter execution by UNC quarterback Billy Edwards, Jr. was painful to watch. The sixth-year transfer was taking sacks when throwing the ball was the obvious play. Twice he tried to throw it away when it was too late. One was a fumble, and the other he was called down already.

And the two failed efforts at an onside kick at the end of the game were unconscionable. Twice UNC successfully got the ball back, and both times they were flagged for a penalty on obvious and rudimentary mistakes, as if they never practiced the plays. Still not quite the 33^rd NFL team as the fan base had been promised.

The Style Section

With Halloween falling on a college football Saturday, there was far too much to choose from here.

We like the ETSU helmets, which took the school mascot, the Buccaneer, and him in a Halloween costume.

Syracuse decided since its primary color and its mascot, Otto, were already orange, it simplified the process.

But we are going to tip our cap to Nebraska, which redid the midfield logo for the Blackout event against Washington. The downside for the Huskers was they lost to UW, 17-10.

Main Image: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect