Five Cavalcade of Whimsy footballey opinions and, like, other stuff
Otherwise known as things I didn’t feel like writing more about.
5. The Nebraska job
No, it’s not some straight-to-streaming “The Italian Job” spinoff getting the gang back together – Norton is on Wahlberg’s side now to take on a new foe – in another delightful romp.
I’m a man of a certain age. I once rented a video from Blockbuster and was charged for not rewinding. I remember Nebraska being awesome, but just how good is that job now?
No recruiting base, not exactly a big media market, everyone who doesn’t know the name Eric Crouch doesn’t think of the program as cool, and it’s going to be a long climb back.
It can’t just get any coach. It needs someone with a system that can be a differentiating factor that doesn’t necessarily require a slew of Johnny Five-Stars. That was supposed to be Frost.
No matter what, there’s no quick fix, and even then there might be a hard ceiling on what the program can become, which is why …
4. Arizona State is the better gig
And it’s not just because I’m wearing a Sparky t-shirt as I’m writing this.
It’s not exactly in the sleeping giant category that UCLA and Illinois are perpetually stuck in, but it’s not far off.
Massive media market in a pro city with the opportunity to come up with lots and lots of NIL deals, phenomenal recruiting area with California to go after, cool school that feels like a resort – there no reason this can’t and shouldn’t work with the right head coach.
It had Billy Napier in-house and went a different direction with Herm Edwards. If the program is patient, it should have its pick.
I don’t know he’s the perfect fit, but …
3. Deion, yes, Deion
Come up with any negatives you want. I don’t care.
Hire Deion Sanders, hire Deion Sanders, hire Deion Sanders.
In a world where name, image, and likeness are everything, and getting super-talented kids to go to a place where they can maximize all three in a social media world is the key, who better to have as a head coach than the greatest football self-promoter of all-time?
Sanders has more than proven himself at Jackson State, he’ll bring an energy and personality to any school that needs to kickstart its football program, and I’m not joking when I say hiring him would freak the hell out of all the other coaches in whatever conference he’s in when it comes to recruiting.
Georgia Tech, do NOT think too hard on this. Back up the truck, get the man back in Atlanta, and it’s on.
2. Being “back”
Texas will never be “back.”
Neither will Florida State, Nebraska, or Miami.
Oh yeah, they’ll eventually be really good again, and they might even win national championships, but understand what it means to be “back.”
It means to recapture a decades-long run of consistent, rationally unsustainable greatness that wasn’t always as amazing as everyone makes it seem.
Remember, Nebraska didn’t win a national title under Tom Osborne until the mid-1990s. Texas only won one national championship under Mack Brown. Bobby Bowden didn’t get his first title until 1993, and it took a massive break to get that opportunity.
Michigan won the Big Ten title and went to the College Football Playoff last year. Does that mean it’s “back?” Nah.
Alabama and Ohio State, with Clemson right there and Georgia is getting close. Get to that level, sustain it for a long, long, long time, and then you can ask in 2030 if your program is “back.”
And on the flip side, realize how fast “back” can go bye-bye.
1. The Alabama/Georgia problem
Who’s going to be in the College Football Playoff?
Right now you can’t answer that question with first saying Ohio State, and then it’s followed up with Alabama and Georgia. There’s a big problem with that.
It’s probably going to require a precedent-setting move by the College Football Playoff committee for the Tide and Dawgs to both get in again considering no two-loss team has ever made the tournament.
Do either of those two look rock-solid enough right now to avoid a loss at some point in the regular season?
There’s no question that these appear to be two of the top three teams in college football, but if the Columbia, Missouri version of Georgia shows up in Jacksonville against Florida, or against Tennessee, or at Mississippi State or at Kentucky, it loses at least one of those.
And Bama? Texas A&M, at Tennessee, Mississippi State, at LSU, at Ole Miss, and yeah, just because, I’ll throw in Auburn, too. What are you betting that it gets through clean, especially if Bryce Young is banged up worse than it seems?
I’m not buying that both will be unbeaten when they face off in the SEC Championship – if they actually get there. If its 11-1 vs 11-1, and it’s a close game, there will be some major national discussions before the CFP invokes the “because it’s Alabama” clause and puts them both in.
Cavalcade of Whimsy
The silly world of college football coaching
One thing about NIL deals that has to stop
Lock Picks, Overrated/Underrated