Tag: Iowa

What CFP rankings would look like if released after Week 5

What would the CFP rankings look like if released today?

The College Football Playoff committee does not shy away from discussing the importance of having an elite resume when deciding a team’s ranking.

And now that we have made it through five weeks of the 2021 college football season, some teams’ resumes are beginning to separate themselves from others.

There’s a clear understanding which two programs belong at the top – Georgia and Alabama – but which should be No. 1 and which should be No. 2 is not certain.

After those two teams, not many would dispute the existence of a rather large gap. I’m talking really large.

Here we give a look at how we would rank the top 10 teams if the College Football Playoff rankings came out after an exciting Week 5.

The initial round of rankings will be released on Nov. 2.

Kirk Herbstreit ranks his top-4 teams after Week 5

Herbstreit ranks his top-four

As he does every Sunday, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit has released his top-four teams in college football followed by his ‘next two up.’

After an exciting Week 5 that saw four of the top-10 teams in the AP Top-25 lose, Hersbtreit’s top-six rankings saw movements as well.

Here’s a look at his rankings after Week 4 plus his new rankings following Week 5.

Week 4 (last week):

1. Alabama

2. Georgia

3. Oregon

4. Penn State

5. Cincinnati

6. Florida

Both Alabama and Georgia blew out elite programs ranked inside the top-15, so of course there will be no change at the very top. However, Week 5 saw Oregon fall to an unranked Stanford and Florida to an unranked Kentucky team. Both of those teams had to drop out, clearing room for Oklahoma and Iowa to enter the mix.

Herbstreit’s new rankings after this week (Week 5):

1. Alabama

2. Georgia

3. Iowa

4. Cincinnati

5. Penn State

6. Oklahoma

Who is Alabama projected to face in the College Football Playoff?

Experts make their predictions for the Crimson Tide’s CFP matchup.

The 2021 Alabama Crimson Tide team, which currently sits as the top-ranked program in the nation, may be full of newer faces, but is just as strong as previous years.

Nick Saban looks to win national championship No. 8 as a coach and bring national title No. 19 to Tuscaloosa this season.

Well, as the only team from last year’s four College Football Playoff teams to currently be ranked inside the top four.

ESPN college football analysts predict their top-four teams that they think will make the College Football Playoff and compete for a national championship.

Here are the predictions for the Crimson Tide:

Andrea Adelson: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Oregon
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Penn State
Bill Connelly: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Cincinnati
Heather Dinich: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Penn State
David M. Hale: 2. Penn St vs. 3. Alabama
Chris Low: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Arkansas
Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Penn State
Ryan McGee: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Oregon
Adam Rittenberg: 2. Alabama vs. 3. Oregon
Alex Scarborough: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Iowa
Mark Schlabach: 2. Alabama vs. 3. Iowa
Tom VanHaaren: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Penn State
Dave Wilson: 1. Alabama vs.  4. Penn State

Roll Tide Wire will continue to cover the Crimson Tide as they look to finish the 2021 season with a win and another national title to their name.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on Twitter @SpurrFM.

Kirk Herbstreit ranks top CFB teams after Week 4

Herbstreit ranks his top four

Following the first four games of the 2021 college football season, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is calling this the “toughest ‘top 4 + next 2’” he’s ever had to come up with.

Each week, Herbstreit ranks college football’s top-four teams plus gives his next two up, showing which teams he’d predict to be in contention for a College Football Playoff spot if the season were to end today.

Following an exciting Week 4 of football, Herbstreit’s top-four teams are:

TOP-FOUR

1. Alabama

2. Georgia

3. Oregon

4. Penn State

That’s the same top-four as the AP Top-25, and it’s hard to argue with that much.

But Herbstreit’s next two programs are what’s sure to cause some chatter.

NEXT TWO

5. Cincinnati

6. Florida

Now I like this. The polls have those next two up being Oklahoma and Iowa, but not Herbstreit. He went with the Bearcats and the Gators.

ESPN FPI sees weeks of disappointment ahead for the Wisconsin Badgers

ESPN FPI sees weeks of disappointment ahead for the Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin Badgers were on bye this weekend while the rest of the country continued their 2021 seasons.

Sights are now set on next weekend’s Windy City showdown with QB Jack Coan and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a game that figures to tell us a lot about how good this Badger team truly is.

Related: Notre Dame will have a big problem when they face Wisconsin next weekend

We saw some impressive performances from some of Wisconsin’s future opponents while the Badgers weren’t in action yesterday. Notre Dame defeated Purdue 27-13, Michigan routed Northern Illinois 63-10 and Minnesota shut out Colorado 30-0.

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Thanks to some of those results, ESPN FPI now sees disappointing weeks ahead for the Wisconsin Badgers:

Notre Dame falls in updated USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll

This week was disappointing for the Irish in many ways

It was a wild second weekend of college football, highlighted by Oregon’s upset of Ohio State in Columbus, so there were a few changes in the USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll. There were other upsets inside the Top 25, with unranked Stanford going on the road and defeating No. 14 USC and Arkansas handling No. 15 Texas at home.

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In the matchup of the week, Iowa once again prevailed to win the CyHawk Trophy over Iowa State, going on the road and winning 27-17, although the score doesn’t show how well the Hawkeyes really played.

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The Irish obviously skated by again, this time rallying for a game winning drive against Toledo, to stay undefeated early this season. Unfortunately for the Irish, the win did not impress the coaches and they fell three spot to 10th.

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Here are the updated ranking in the Coaches Poll, with last weeks ranking in parenthesis.

1 – Alabama (1)

2 – Georgia (2)

3 – Oklahoma (4)

4 – Oregon (11)

5 – Texas A&M (5)

6 – Clemson (6)

7 – Iowa (12)

8 – Cincinnati (8)

9 – Florida (9)

10 – Notre Dame (7)

11 – Ohio State (3)

12 – Penn State (13)

13 – UCLA (16)

14 – Iowa State (10)

15 – Virginia Tech (21)

16 – Ole Miss (20)

17 – Wisconsin (17)

18 – Coastal Carolina (19)

19 – North Carolina (22)

20 – Auburn (NR)

21 – Arizona State (25)

22 – Oklahoma State (23)

23 – BYU (NR)

24 – Arkansas (NR)

25 – Michigan (NR)

Lee Corso just trolled Iowa State fans so hard on College GameDay with this savage joke

Lee Corso just trolled Iowa State fans so hard

I know it always feels like time is flying, but 2014 feels like such a long time ago. That’s 7 years now.

That’s also the last time Iowa State held the CyHawk trophy — the hardware that gets passed around every time Iowa and Iowa State play each other.

The only problem is there hasn’t been much passing lately. Iowa has held on to the trophy for five straight years now. It’s been a while.

And Lee Corso, being the savage he is, absolutely trolled Iowa State fans on ESPN’s College GameDay Saturday with this information.

He had the CyHawk trophy sitting on the desk in front of him and aimed a hilarious joke at Cyclone fans.

“I wanted to show it to the Iowa State fans cause they haven’t seen it in a while.” 

OUCH. That really, really hurts. They’ve come close in recent years — they lost 18-17 in 2019 the last time they played. But, clearly, close ain’t getting it done. And it certainly isn’t stopping Lee Corso from roasting them.

We’ll see how they fare today. As far as who Corso is picking, though, that seems to be pretty clear.

He’s going with Iowa. Clearly, just to keep the jokes going.

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Big 12 Football: Week 2 predictions for each team

How will the Big 12 fare in week two?

The Big 12 as a whole had a solid start to the 2021 college football season, with only one team losing in Week 1.

Believe it or not, Kansas was not the culprit responsible for the conference’s lone loss as they not only picked up their first win in two years, but they stormed the field in exciting fashion.

The lone loss was to an unranked Maryland team, and no it was not Texas. West Virginia, otherwise known as the “Certified Loser Boys” according to Maryland’s Twitter, lost by just six points in a very back and forth game that saw the Mountaineers leading at halftime.

Only four schools in the Big 12 did not have games decided by single digits. Texas blew out No. 23 Louisiana by 20 points, Kansas State chopped down the tree against Stanford beating them by 17, Texas Tech defeated Houston by 17 points, and TCU throttled a school that majority of America does not know how to pronounce anyway, when they beat Duquesne by 42.

The rest of the conference were in some nail-biters, but we will just have to give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was first game jitters, not the fact their Heisman candidates underperformed horrendously.

A few teams are hoping to redeem themselves and have a much better showing in Week 2. I’ll do my best to predict how each Big 12 matchup could end this week.

The Green Bay Packers trade away a cornerback with some history at Camp Randall

The Green Bay Packers trade away a cornerback with some history at Camp Randall

Earlier this week, the Green Bay Packers traded cornerback Josh Jackson to the New York Giants for cornerback Isaac Yiadom.

For football fans in the state of Wisconsin it looks like an unimportant trade at first, as Jackson was unlikely to make the Packers roster this season and both him and Yiadom needed a change of scenery.

But upon further review, Jackson has some history at Camp Randall Stadium that’s worth noting.

It came back in 2017 before the Packers selected him in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft, back when Jackson was a starter on the outside for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Wisconsin rolled to a 38-14 win that day, continuing their unbeaten season and prolonging their College Football Playoff chances.

Iowa only gained 66 yards of total offense and five first downs. To say it was a dominant defensive performance would be an extreme understatement.

But Iowa’s only two scores? Two Josh Jackson pick-sixes from QB Alex Hornibrook.

I can’t remember another time that was the case: a cornerback accounting for both of his team’s scores during a given football game. But at the game, each of the plays were eye-rolls as everybody knew the Hawkeyes weren’t able to get anything done with the ball in their hands.

For Iowa that day, the best offense was Jackson lining up outside and catching passes from the Badger quarterback.

Contact/Follow us @TheBadgersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin news, notes, opinion and analysis.

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Notre Dame presents offer to forward recruit Alex Karaban

The Irish are after a forward that’s on a bunch of schools’ radars.

Notre Dame is going after a player who has every intention of taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible. For the past two years, forward recruit Alex Karaban has played prep basketball in New Hampton, New Hampshire. As a senior, he will attend the renowned IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. That commitment to excellence was too good for the Irish to ignore, so they decided to become the latest program to make him an offer:

It’s hard to know for certain which direction Karaban is leaning towards. 247Sports believes Penn State and Northwestern, two schools he made official visits to in June, are the top contenders. Rivals forecasts him heading to Indiana. Of course, he also could choose one of the many other schools that have offered him, including Purdue, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Iowa, UConn, Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette, Stanford, LSU, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Creighton and even Harvard.