After two insane weeks to open the season, things calmed down a bit in week three, which is fine. A band can’t play only closers for an entire concert. Sometimes you have to mix a ballad in. Finding the fun this week required digging a little deeper than usual, with both ranked matchups being total snoozefests. It could’ve been much better if USF and a Bobby Petrino led Missouri State team had pulled off hilarious upsets over Florida and Arkansas respectively, but oh well. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to talk about from this past weekend. So without further ado, let’s head into the recap. Continue reading
Tag: College Sports
College Football Week 2 Recap
It’s the same story every year. We finish watching an incredible week one, look ahead to next weekend’s slate, and get incredibly disappointed. Week two always looks terrible on paper, but year after year it produces pure, unadulterated chaos. This year is no different. The Sun Belt was kicking ass and taking names, six games went to overtime, and we had our first coach firing of the year (and it wasn’t Auburn!). So much happened this week that I don’t have the space to write about all of it, but I wanted to hit the highlights with the usual ten categories. Continue reading
College Football Week 1 Recap
College football is finally back. We can all agree that this offseason was terrible in every way. College football is a sport that is always “on the verge of collapse” right until it kicks off, but this summer felt different. The headlines were dominated by issues of governance, conference realignment, spats over NIL, and a host of other boring, non-football related issues. Week 0 was a nice appetizer, but it didn’t feel like a true beginning. Finally, despite the best efforts of those in charge, we can just talk about football. Nobody can watch every game, and most people will only watch a handful each Saturday, but I’m not most people. I want to do something productive with the unhealthy amount of football I watch, so each week I’m going to give you a thorough recap of everything important that happened, no matter how small the game. We’ll look at the week that was through ten categories, and here’s a quick summary of each. Continue reading
Ranking Every Potential FCS Upset
Everyone likes to complain about cupcake games. They’re boring, predictable, and feel like filler in an otherwise thrilling season. Except when they aren’t. Outside of the condensed 2020 season, at least three FCS teams have pulled a major upset every year since 2009. Appalachian State’s win over Michigan in 2007 is remembered as one of the greatest college football moments of all time. We know these upsets will happen, but how do we predict them? There’s no perfect way, but our best chance is by using analytics. Enter SP+, the brainchild of college football Svengali Bill Connelly, it’s assigns each team a number that represents by how many points they’d beat the average team. Comparing these ratings between FBS and FCS is obviously not perfect, the scale is relative after all, but it’s the best way to compare quality without watching every Gardner-Webb game from last season. So with that explanation out of the way, let’s dive in and rank the likelihood of every FCS upset this season, with the SP+ margin in parentheses next to each game. Continue reading
6 College Football Teams Defined by Their 2022 Schedule
In my last post, I talked about a few teams that will surprise everyone this upcoming season. I briefly mentioned that a lot of different factors contribute to how Vegas sets their win total projections each year. One of the most important is the team’s schedule. Believe it or not, the scoreboard does lie to you. As fans, we’re very familiar with teams being overrated because they played an easy schedule, but the inverse is also true. Plenty of good teams are beaten down by a brutal stretch of games, ending up seeming much worse than they really are. Just ask any SEC West or Big Ten East fan. Without further ado, let’s look at a few teams that fall on each side of this coin. Continue reading
6 College Football Teams That Will Surprise You This Season
After a long summer of controversy, debates over NCAA governance, and conference realignment chaos, talking season is over. Media days have all wrapped up and, just like that, college football… is back. Almost. The actual season is still a few weeks away, but it’s close enough that we can finally talk about actual football again. A great example: those wizards in the desert have released their preseason win totals for 2022. Vegas is better at predicting these things than everyone, but they still aren’t perfect. Let’s start previewing the upcoming season by looking at some schools that will be better than you expect, and a few that will be worse. Continue reading
Why Ole Miss Can’t Find a Quarterback
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Lane Kiffin? Okay, it’s probably some of his off-field antics or Twitter trolling. But what’s the second thing you think of? It should be explosive offenses led by dynamic quarterbacks. Both of his offenses at Ole Miss have finished in the top 25 nationally, and Matt Corral developed into a Heisman candidate and likely first-round pick in the NFL draft. He’s the man who revolutionized the offense at Alabama, extending Saban’s stranglehold on the sport into another decade. If all this is true, then why can’t Ole Miss find a new quarterback? It’s been well-documented that the Rebels have missed out on a large number of transfer targets this offseason, and Luke Altmyer remains the only true high school prospect Lane has signed at the position, and even he has some question marks both after his recruiting process and his performance in the Sugar Bowl. The problem isn’t Ole Miss or Lane’s personality, it’s his system. Continue reading
2021 College Football Season Recap
Another college football season has come to an end. Georgia broke their curse, getting revenge against Alabama and winning their well-deserved national championship. Despite an ending that seemed inevitable from the outset, this was one of the most fun seasons in recent memory. In true college football fashion, every single week brought drama, surprises, and chaos. It’s worth taking a look back at all the highs and lows of the 2021 season, and the easiest way to do that is through the ten categories I’ve been using to recap each individual week. Before we dive in, here’s a quick summary of the criteria for each of those categories: Continue reading
Who Were the Most (And Least) Clutch Teams in College Football?
“Is ___ clutch?” is one of the worst cliche sports arguments in existence. It’s an unprovable premise that is almost always propped up by anecdotal evidence. A basketball player is clutch because you just saw them hit a buzzer-beater, a pitcher is not because they just gave up a walk-off home run, etc. On an individual level, it’s pointless. On a team-wide level, it’s a different story. Football is a game of inches, where a handful of plays can determine the outcome of an entire season. Some teams were better at making those kinds of plays than others. I decided to take a look at the most and least clutch teams of the 2021 college football season. To do this, I turned to Bill Connelly, aka the father of college football analytics. Continue reading
College Football Week 13 Recap
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that some important football games happened last weekend. The wildest coaching carousel in history went into overdrive this week, with two of the best coaches in the country unexpectedly bolting for greener pastures. But all that is a discussion for another day. Rivalry week is the best weekend in all of sports and deserves a proper recap. So let’s dive in. But first, a refresher on the categories: Continue reading
Teague Thoughts 