Game of the Year?

Watch any football this weekend? I sure did. All weekend I kept hearing the same thing about so many college football games, regardless of how lowly the two teams playing in it were. As in most things you hear on TV, don’t believe everything you hear.

Thursday night SEC East favorite Tennessee needed a fumble recovery in overtime to beat lowly App State. Undoubtedly the game of the year. Had App had a halfway decent kicker they would’ve won. Vols will surely play better this week in Bristol. Eighteen year-olds can’t be bothered to get fired up and play well against small schools like the Mountaineers. Just ask the Gamecocks. They barely outlasted mighty Vanderbilt. Down the road both outcomes bode well for Georgia.  

After the long day of cleaning on Friday we were watching some show on Friday night, before turning it over to watch some of Stanford game. Christian McCafferty did not disappoint, scoring two touchdowns – one on a 95 yard punt return. Might’ve been the game of the year.

Saturday morning Justin Thomas led a last second comeback against Boston College’s top ranked defense, converting on a 4th & 19. Sure, Tech’s defense gave up lots of yards, but not really that many points. Not impressed with the play from GT’s running backs, who repeatedly failed to maintain proper spacing on the option, forcing Paul Johnson to rely on other play calls. A better win than playing some lowlife like Mercer. GT/BC was another game of the year candidate. As were Michigan/Hawaii, Houston/Oklahoma, Wisconsin/LSU, UGA/UNC, Bama/USC, and Clemson/Auburn.

LSU will have to reel off some wins to get Fournette back in the Heisman race. Couldn’t believe how WSB-TV downplayed Chubb’s 222 yards, pointing out that it came against a UNC defense that yielded over 600 yards to Baylor. Again, better to gain 222 yards off a team favored to make it to the ACC Championship Game than a cupcake like Mercer. Chubb broke off the long TD run late, putting the nail in the Tar Heel coffin. Probably the Game of the Year.

Houston ran back a missed field goal 109 yards for a touchdown. That had to be the greatest play in history, right? The only think that could’ve been better would’ve been had the play taken place at the end of the game, against their bitter rival, to decide who went to the championship game. Oh, right – who doesn’t remember Auburn’s Kick Six to beat Bama? Still, the Cougar’s beatdown of (overhyped?) Oklahoma (and Heisman hopeful Baker Mayfield) had the be the game of the year.   

Kirby played it right, starting veteran Greyson Lambert but giving Jacob Eason most of the playing time. The freshman looked good, and should get plenty of playing time this week. Eason could be the differencemaker on the road at Missouri and Ole Miss. But unless Eason really lights it up I wouldn’t be surprised if Smart started Lambert in these next three games. This will drive Dawg fans crazy. I called out Ricky Glover for predicting that Eason would be redshirted. 680 pointed out that Saban would never don the old leather helmet like Kirby did (top). I thought he had, but I was wrong.

Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard both predicted Georgia would lose. Guest picker Aaron Rodgers picked Georgia to win. Of course, the packer QB once beat an astronaut on Jeopardy. Kirk did say there were teams he wouldn’t pick until they rose out of their rut and won a big game, and mentioned Georgia as one of those teams. Clemson used to be on that list. Lee Corso incorrectly predicted a LSU win. While Corso proclaimed remorse at his sub-500 record last year, rarely are the others held accountable for their inaccurate prognostications.    

In perhaps the most impressive performance of the weekend, Bama beat up over-rated USC in Arlington. Some called it the game of the year. Looks like Saban has found a QB. Expect the Tide to roll into the playoff undefeated.

Mississippi State played it safe in their first game in the post-Dak Prescott era, hosting South Alabama. Same with Virginia’s first game in the Bronco Mendenhall era, hosting the pesky Richmond Spiders. Didn’t turned out well for either team – both lost. TCU also struggled, but won the first game of the Thomas Gilbert era. MC’s brother sat in the front row and appeared on camera on “national” TV – forgetting that every game is on “national” TV. All three games received game of the year nominations.

Any Clemson fan surprised by the close game (1) on the road (2) at night (3) against a SEC West team needs to go back to another of Dabo’s coaching clinics. Clemson quite often plays to the level of their opponent, especially in big/early-season/regular season games. If you look at Clemson’s schedule year after year, by virtue of being one of the strongest teams in the ACC, their schedule is filled with mostly inferior teams, especially when South Carolina is down. Upcoming games against Troy, SC State, and Georgia Tech will make these same fans forget about the closeness of this Auburn game. Many of these same fans also thought the ESPN announcers were biased toward Auburn, obviously not hearing all the talk of Auburn’s woeful three quarterback rotation, or the constant talk of the greatness of Heisman Trophy candidate Deshawn Watson’s relatively ordinary performance. Still, with the exciting final play – the Clemson DB batting away Auburn’s final pass into the end zone, it was probably the game of the year.

Then Sunday’s upset by unranked Texas over ranked (overhyped?) Notre Dame in overtime was surely the game of the year. Heck, the game wouldn’t have even gone to OT had the Irish not blocked a PAT and run it back for two points. When’s the last time you saw that happen? Texas used three QB’s (including a freshman) and Notre Dame used two. Dawg fans and Auburn fans need to calm down.

Compared to all the great games on both Saturday and Sunday, last night’s FSU comeback over Ole Miss had to be the greatest game in the history of college football. Two Heisman candidates, plus a freshman sensation. A former Heisman Trophy winner on one sideline, an NFL Hall of Famer across the way in the other grandstand. Many things went wrong for FSU in the first half, including an open field fumble by Heisman candidate Dalvin Cook. The Noles started a freshman QB, who looked great after getting a few series under his belt. In the second half the ball stopped bouncing Chad Kelly’s way. A tipped pass was intercepted, and the FSU defense stiffened. As I 've predicted, a road win will be tough for both UGA in Oxford and Clemson in Tallahassee.

True to form, this morning 680’s news break announcer “Home Team” Leake did indeed dub FSU’s win “the biggest win in school history.” Methinks he meant to say it was the biggest COMEBACK in school history. I’m sure a few of those wins during their national championship years might’ve been a tad bigger than a neutral site season opener against a lower ranked non-conference opponent, who experts think won’t compete for their division championship. Not the first time Home Team mis-spoke.

While it was almost undoubtedly the greatest opening weekend in college football history, with three top five teams losing (more a result of overhyping and bad rankings), to call any of these the Game of the Year is nothing but more sensationalism. There’s still well over 90% of the regular season to be played, not to mention all the rivalry games, conference championship games, all the bowl games, the two semifinal games, and the national championship games. It only gets better.