Tag: College Football National Championship

Posted on in Football, NCAA, Uncategorized

2019 Heisman Watch: Does Chase Young Deserve Heisman Consideration?

Yesterday marked a day in which this year’s Heisman contenders shined brightest. LSU QB Joe Burrow hit 4,000 yards passing for the season and became the 4thSEC QB to do so after torching Arkansas for 327 yards and 3 TDs. Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts kept playoff hopes alive for the Sooners with 173 yards and 2 TDs rushing, along with 145 yards and 2 TDs through the air in a gutsy 28-24 win over TCU. Oregon QB Justin Herbert ended all consideration for himself winning the award with a loss to the lowly Arizona State, despite his 304 yards and 2 TDs. The biggest standout from yesterday was the most dominant player in college football, Ohio State DE Chase Young, who after a short suspension over a loan from a family-friend cost him a few games, came back in full force, with 9 tackles, including 3 sacks and 4 tackles for loss. Despite his dominance, which has featured 16.5 sacks and 7 forced fumbles for him throughout the season, will he get Heisman consideration, and does he deserve it despite being a defensive player? Here are my 3 candidates for the Heisman and who I believe will win.

Player Profile: Chase Young

College football’s most dominant player has simply everything you could ask for in a defensive lineman. Size, speed, power and finesse moves on the edge, and a strong tackling ability. Well Chase Young has that and then some. As I mentioned earlier, his season has been shortened by 2 games due to the suspension, so he has put up all of these stats in just 9 games. Numbers like that are almost unheard of from any defensive end in college, which brings up the point of the Heisman Trophy. The last defensive player to win a Heisman was Desmond Howard, but him also having played a little wide receiver helped him out in his case for the Heisman. But other than Howard, no defensive player has ever won the trophy, and only 3 non-quarterbacks have won it. So, while he most definitely deserves to at least be one of the 3 Heisman candidates, do not expect him to win it.

Player Profile: Joe Burrow

My, oh my, has Joe Burrow been terrific. Going into this season as the reigning Fiesta Bowl MVP and having led the Tigers to a 10-3 season, the expectation was more of the same from Burrow and Co., but Burrow had other ideas. LSU currently sports the No. 1 rank, an 11-0 record, and the deadliest offense in football, with 1 4,000-yard passer in Burrow, a 1,000-yard rusher in Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and 2 1,000-yard receivers in JaMarr Chase and Justin Jefferson. Burrow also has the 3rd-most TDs thrown by an SEC QB with 41 already this season (he needs 4 more TDs to break the single-season TD record), and his passing yardage total puts him 4thAll-Time amongst SEC passers (he needs just 262 more yards to break the single-season passing yardage record). With these records he is about to break, he is the clear front-runner and should probably win the Heisman. If Chase Young wasn’t suspended for 2 games and he could have a chance to break records, then the race between them would be closer. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

Player Profile: Jalen Hurts

If you asked me before the season who my Heisman pick was (aside from Tua), I would have said Jalen Hurts, and everyone would have thought I was crazy, but Hurts has had a Heisman-candidate worthy season. He has thrown for 3,184 yards, 30 TDs, 6 picks, is 4thin the nation in QBR, and has run for 1,156 yards and an outrageous 17 TDs, all of these numbers are a career-best in any full season he has played. Oh, and he has been the ‘Comeback King’ of the season, including the illustrious 28-3 comeback last weekend at Baylor. Hurts has proven every doubter wrong and goes into the NFL Draft this coming April as a guy who teams can build around yet wait until the 2ndor 3rdround to get. Very comparable to the career Dak Prescott had at Mississippi State. As far as his Heisman chances, had guys like Burrow and Young had seasons like this in another year, then he would be the frontrunner, but unfortunately not this year.

My Heisman Pick

Joe Burrow. The way he came out of nowhere into the Heisman conversation, the fact that the SEC QB record books will have his name all over it, and the lack of love defensive players get in the Heisman consideration, he’s the clear frontrunner.

Posted on in Football, NCAA

Why the College Football Playoff Selection Committee Got It Wrong… And Bama-Clemson Part IV Prediction

 

So, yeah, my predictions for the playoff games were bad. Everyone makes mistakes and misjudgments though. I mean, at least I am not Stephen A. Smith where I predict 7 straight NBA Finals wrong, or I am Skip Bayless and never know what sport I am talking about. Anyway, the playoff games gave the College Football Playoff Selection Committee nightmares over how they picked the teams, so here is my take on why they were wrong, and how to solve these problems.

Why They Were Wrong

They didn’t pick Georgia. That’s why there were wrong. Georgia was the 2nd-best team in the SEC, and sure they couldn’t beat Alabama, but given another chance, they probably could. They are the only team in the country who prior to the National Championship could beat Alabama (Clemson being the #2 would play them in the Championship). Now, yes, last night made a bad reflection on that, but Georgia simply didn’t care about the fact that they were playing in the Sugar Bowl. Kinda like how in 2013, when Oklahoma played Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, and Alabama got smoked. It was because they simply didn’t care. They felt like they should’ve been in the National Championship, despite the memorable ‘Kick 6’ loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Or even last year, when USC played Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. USC felt that even with an 11-2 record, that their losses coming from strongly ranked teams would not be a huge deal, as they ended up winning the Pac-12. However, since they didn’t make the Playoff, they simply showed no desire to win against Ohio State. Should Georgia, like Alabama in 2013, or even USC last year, been in the Playoff? Well, I think yes, but then again, what do I know about how the College Football Playoff works?

Now look, let us be honest here, I should never have picked Notre Dame to beat Clemson. Notre Dame is an Independent, no conference whatsoever, so they do not have to play in a conference title game. I mean, Notre Dame was 12-0 going into last night, whereas every other team going into the playoff played 13. Why is this a big deal? Well, you could say that Notre Dame should’ve had all that extra time to prepare, but then again, they hadn’t played since the week before Conference Championship Weekend, which was November 24thagainst an unranked USC (Southern California, the real USC). Not having played for over a month really took a toll on the team. Ian Book and the offense looked sluggish, and the defense seemed scared of the moment. To me, Notre Dame’s best chance to be prepared for these moments is to join a conference. They should at least try to get more games against Big Ten opponents to get themselves more experience if they can’t agree to join a conference. Them being Independent for all sports except football is concerning to me considering that the hardest sport to get into a playoff in is football, with it only being 4 teams. Speaking of which…

The Playoff Should Be 8 Teams

There is no reason for just 4 teams. I mean seriously? A playoff of just 3 games? Not only were teams like Georgia deserving of making it this year but also teams such as Ohio State had a case to make the playoff. Teams like Michigan and UCF maybe aren’t as deserving, but hey, why not put them in the playoff and see what happens. Here is what the bracket would look like with 8 teams:

brac8

We can speculate on what the outcomes of these could be, but think about how exciting this would be? UCF finally gets Bama (as the self-proclaimed ‘National Champions’ have always wanted), OU and Georgia have a rematch from last year’s classic Playoff game, and Ohio State and Michigan can have the chance to prove to the world that the Big Ten is worthy of a playoff spot. All in all, it would just create a more exciting atmosphere and weeks of anticipation and gameplay.

Clemson vs. Alabama Part IV: Good for College Football? Who Wins?

Clemson and Alabama play for the 4thconsecutive Playoff, and 3 of the past 4 National Championship Games have had this matchup. Right now, the series is 3-1 in favor of Alabama, yet this Clemson team is showing flashes of that 2017 National Championship team that beat Alabama on the last play of the game. The offense, much like this year, is very balanced with Etienne and Lawrence, as they did with Wayne Gallman and Deshaun Watson in the 2017 run. The defense is probably better than it was in 2017, and the receiving core is also very similar. That being said, Alabama’s offense is much better through the air than it was last time, with Tua’s ability to read defenses and extend plays being much better than that of Jalen Hurts, then and now.

I would put my money on Clemson. Trevor Lawrence’s deep ball ability, coupled with his ability to extend plays with his feet and accuracy, he could cause them problems, probably more than even Kyler Murray did. Murray is the type of QB that Alabama can live with because they are more than willing to let a QB of his size, speed, and skillset, beat them with his legs. Sure, he had 309 yards passing, but he also had 108 rushing. Lawrence could get between 350 and 400, and he has a much better receiving core than Murray does with Oklahoma. The deep-ball passing game has hurt Alabama against top teams, most notably against Georgia, when Jake Fromm let it fly all night and burned the Crimson Tide secondary for most of the night. Also unlike Oklahoma, Clemson has a very strong defense, starting with the front seven, led by Kendall Joseph and Christian Wilkins, who should be able to get to Tua with questions of his health, as well as the pass protection of Tua over the past few weeks. It’ll be a much more defensive game and will have a Georgia-Alabama SEC Championship feel to it, but at the end of the day, it is what college football wants, the two best teams going at it on the gridiron. Last year, Clemson got swamped, 24-7, by an Alabama team that was the 4thseed and had no business being in the Playoff, considering they didn’t even win the SEC. However, history has shown that the lower seeded team has won every time. Oh, and Drake repped Alabama, and no team has ever won when Drake reps them. I got Clemson with the upset victory.

Final Result: Clemson for the win.

Posted on in Football, NCAA

2018 College Football Playoff: Can the CFP Dominance of Alabama and Clemson Be Stopped?

Over the past few years, it seems like it’s the same-old same-old, Clemson and Alabama making the College Football Playoff, and have played each other the past 3 years, including 2 of the past 3 National Championships. This year, however, features some new headlines. Alabama QB sensation Tua Tagovailoa has an injury to both of his ankles, and Clemson DL Dexter Lawrence, who is probably the best defensive lineman in the country, failed a drug test which will force him to be out vs. Notre Dame. Could this be the year that Oklahoma and Notre Dame take down the dynasties?

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: #2 Clemson vs. #3 Notre Dame, 4PM EST, ESPN

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney benched QB Kelly Bryant in favor of freshman QB Trevor Lawrence, people wondered if this was the beginning of the end for Clemson’s playoff chances. Bryant had been such a valuable piece to the team, going 16-2 in his 18 starts, and taking them to the College Football Playoff the season before. Lawrence, on the other hand, was the #2 recruit according to the ESPN 300, and while he had tons of potential and talent, he was only a freshman. Lawrence, however, took what was a stagnant offense (well, for Clemson, at least), and turned it into an undefeated season, and Clemson scored its most touchdowns ever in Clemson history. To help ease the pressure off of Lawrence, Clemson’s defense was 2ndin scoring, allowing just 13.7 points per game to opponents.

Notre Dame had the same issues with quarterback as well yet did not have the same expectations on them as Clemson did. Senior Brandon Wimbush started off the first 3 games, yet after having a 1:4 TD-to-INT ratio over 3 games, it was time for junior QB Ian Book to come in. Much like with Lawrence for Clemson, Book gave the spark the team needed offensively to compete with the best-of-the-best and give Notre Dame their first College Football Playoff berth.

Notre Dame in their last 5 Bowl Games are 0-5, having lost all by double-digits, but the fact that according to Vegas, Clemson is a 13-point favorite over Notre Dame is beyond me. The game will come down to the run game of both teams against the defensive lines. Can Clemson’s D-Line hold up without Dexter Lawrence against Ian Book and Dexter Williams in the Read Option game, or will Travis Etienne and Co. manhandle Notre Dame. Book and Lawrence will do their things, but Williams vs. Etienne will be the difference. As well as Clemson has run the ball all season, averaging 259 yards per game on the ground, Dexter Lawrence not being out there has resulted in almost double the yards per carry for opposing teams (1.7 yards per carry with Lawrence, 3.0 yards per carry without). He is easily the best defensive lineman in the country, and his absence will be felt. Williams should take advantage of that, and then set up the play-action game for Book to utilize. Notre Dame gets the upset.

Capital One Orange Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. #4 Oklahoma, 8PM EST, ESPN

Much like Clemson and Notre Dame, Alabama switched quarterbacks, this time from Jalen Hurts to Tua Tagovailoa. Hurts had taken the team to back-to-back championships and won both, except in the 2ndone (last year vs. Georgia), he exited the game with an injury, and in came Tua, a Hawaiian kid whom no one had heard about who somehow managed to lead the miracle comeback from 20-7 down in the 4thto win 26-23 in OT. Had the injury not happened, Tua would not be a started, Hurts and Alabama’s dynasty would be over, and we would probably be discussing a Georgia-Oklahoma playoff game, yet instead, Tua’s heroics have us here. Tua, for much of the season, was the Heisman front-runner. Then he injured his ankle, and Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray took the trophy home. Tua then injured his other ankle against Georgia this year in the SEC Championship game, again vs. Georgia, Hurts stepped in, and Hurts led a miracle comeback victory. So, the question becomes yet again, will Tua be healthy, and even if he is, is he better than Hurts?

On the other side, Heisman winner Kyler Murray has his sights set on the National Championship trophy now. He represents Oklahoma as a school that has had back-to-back Heisman winners now (Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield having won last year), and now leads Oklahoma to back-to-back playoff berths. Oklahoma’s one-loss season was criticized by many as a season which wasn’t playoff-worthy, having lost to a Texas team that wasn’t very good at the time. That being said, Oklahoma still has the tools to be able to beat a high-powered team like Alabama.

Much like last year, Oklahoma’s high-flying offense against a top defense in the country looms large. Alabama will come in with their usual gameplan if Tua plays, which is to let Tua be Tua. Alabama coach Nick Saban will be more than happy to see him throw the ball deep against this suspect secondary of Oklahoma. That being said, Oklahoma’s defense has stepped up quite a bit as of late, and if Tua isn’t 100% and still plays, Oklahoma can send pressure and force turnovers. The more turnovers they force, the more Kyler Murray can lead the charge. Time of possession will be the story of the game, but against Alabama, Oklahoma’s defense has to be the best it has ever been and force takeaways. With Tua’s status unknown and Kyler’s Heisman ability, I don’t see a way that Alabama’s offense will be able to match Oklahoma’s scoring ability. 

2019 National Championship: #3 Notre Dame vs. #4 Oklahoma

Assuming this is the National Championship, this would be one of the most entertaining National Championships we have seen in years. Notre Dame would have a chance to continue its glorified history, and Oklahoma could turn themselves into one of the most prestigious college football programs in the country. Notre Dame’s season simply has just been the type that many programs dream of, but I do not believe it will end as a perfect season. Oklahoma’s pro-ready offense is going to be too much for Notre Dame to overcome, but it will surely be one of the best National Championships yet if it happens.