2025-26 College Football Thread

[Cobra Mgr]

What happened to Oklahoma State? 2023 they went 10-4. Last year they went 3-0, then proceeded to lose their last 9. They start this year 1-2. The one win an unimpressive 27-7 victory vs FPS TN- Martin. The losses, an embarrassing 69-3 disaster in Oregon. And last night, the first loss to Tulsa &their back QB in Stillwater since 1951.

Mike Gundy's seat is beyond hot.

[Amazin69]

First of all, playing the Civil War and the Apple Cup in September is just wrong. I know that the Big 26 wants all those precious November dates for conference play, but find a way, guys.

Secondly, I'm not even rooting for Arkansas, but that was just gross. Talk about putting the "Ew" in "Embarrassing".

I mean, fumbling the ball away with less than 90 seconds left on the opposing 7-yard line when you're just trying to set up the GW FG is bad enough. But when you stop them on 1st & 2nd downs and still have one timeout left and Memphis has their back-up QB in there on 3rd and 7 and they run QB-safe up the middle to make you burn the final TO…and somehow the not-very-large kid drags your entire defense for 10 yards and the first?

Time to make sure you've got the address for the Pinstripe Bowl ready, I'm thinking.

"Highlights" possibly linked later. We'll see.

[dsvitak]

My Missouri Tigers played a pretty decent South Carolina team, and won 29-20.

A couple of points. First, Mizzou only gave up six points in the second half. Second, they rushed for 285 yards, with minus 9 yds rushing for SC.

I didn't know South Carolina was ranked 11th prior to their loss last week.

I am feeling pretty good about Missouri. They have two tough games at home the next two weeks...(Alabama in two weeks).

I think Coach Eli, now that he has his own players on the roster, will start getting recognition for being an excellent coach. He is 24-5 the last three years, and has a lifetime .679 winning percentage.

[Amazin69]

I can't help but think that Carolina's play could be improved if they learned about this exciting new concept called "blocking". Or perhaps, "tackling". Probably we should try to master both, just to be safe.

I have never seen a team get manhandled so badly. Yikes.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

I can't help but think that Carolina's play could be improved if they learned about this exciting new concept called "blocking". Or perhaps, "tackling". Probably we should try to master both, just to be safe.

I have never seen a team get manhandled so badly. Yikes.

Locally, Missouri is seen to have an exceptional front line. They (SC), got blown off the ball all night long.

[Amazin69]

I should be smirking about Fat Cheater Bielema leading Illinois to one of the worst defeats by an alleged Top Ten team this century (Nebraska was obliterated by Ohio State, 62-3, in 2016, but 63-10 doesn't suck, schädenfreude-wise, I admit) or trying to do an impression of the President asking Dabo Swinney "Are you tired of winning yet?"…

…but it's hard to gloat after that, I admit. I'm sure I'll continue to invoke Rule #3* as the season continues, but this result makes it harder to enjoy.

(*—this is a refernce to the Gamecocks subreddit, where the first two Rules are about courtesy and civil behavior, and where Rule 3 is two words, and the second is "Clemson". )

[Cobra Mgr]

SEC Shorts - The Farm

[Cobra Mgr]

Some personal week 4 notes..........

.......SEC officials said Oklahoma had an illegal unsportsmanlike play that went uncalled by the refs. They said the rules state you can't deceive the other team with a phony substitution. And I'm like, why is that a problem? If it is a rule, by all means enforce it. But why is this a rule? Isn't the objective of every team to deceive the opponent? Every team should know the rules & then make decisions accordingly. Every body should be aware 11 players are eligible for each play. To me it is a rule that isn't necessary..........

......SEC released the 3 conference opponents each member will be assigned........

......Syracuse was fined for faking injuries. You think the Orange care? They won the game. Fining teams after they benefited isn't a deterrent. Going @ them hard after they benefited is. As I've said before, your tolerance of bad behavior is measured by you willingness to punish that bad behavior. Fines & reprimands don't cut it. Suspensions do. A game minimum to the HC, any player involved & and any position coach shown to be giving the order is a start...........

.......Coming up is probably the biggest week of the season so far. Lots of match ups where we find out who has longevity and who has been taking advantage of their schedule. Oregon @ Penn St, Bama @ Georgia, Arizona @ Iowa St, Tenn @ Miss St, Auburn @ Tx A&M, LSU @ Ole Miss, & USC @ Illinois........

......Wonder what Napoleon Kaufman is up to.................

........I don't like Dabo Swinney. Don't like Mike Gundy. Glad to see them struggle. I will say I understand the gist of Dabo's rant last week. Fans do get spoiled. I tell my fellow Tar Heel basketball fans that they are spoiled. You may be used to winning, but 90% of fans aren't used to it @ that level. Fans of those teams just don't know how good they've got it. The reason why coaches who've built programs that elite are in the HOF & make the salaries they do, is because it ain't easy. It's not because they are Clemson or UNC. That take is an insult to the legends & geniuses that accomplished what they did. As if all that needed to be done was change the nameplate on the office door. Those programs are elite because the leadership was exceptional and rare. They are not easily replaced. The position is not easily retained. So, again, the gist of Dabo's rant was correct.

What he doesn't get is that it isn't the losing that causes angst among real, realistic Clemson fans. It is the fact the problems are consistent from year to year. Which indicates Dabo does not have the answers. I know he wants to fix his "car". He has the right to ask that he fix his "car". But that right does not extend into perpetuity. The Tigers have too many players supposedly on NFL scouts' radars to be struggling to score more than 4 times in a game. The results do not match the talent. It is time for him to think outside of his conservative box & take on ideas from others. Or Clemson has the right to say the game has passed him by...........

.........I know Illinois isn't eliminated from playoff contention. But shouldn't a 53 point loss do that anyway?.......

.........Man, I miss Keith Jackson................

[Cobra Mgr]

SEC Roll Call - Week 4

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

......Syracuse was fined for faking injuries. You think the Orange care? They won the game. Fining teams after they benefited isn't a deterrent. Going @ them hard after they benefited is. As I've said before, your tolerance of bad behavior is measured by you willingness to punish that bad behavior. Fines & reprimands don't cut it. Suspensions do. A game minimum to the HC, any player involved & and any position coach shown to be giving the order is a start...........

The ACC came down hard on Syracuse. This penalty is harsh, harsh I tell you!

The ACC fined Syracuse $25,000 and publicly reprimanded the school.

Can you read that without wincing with horror? It makes me shudder. Too much! Too much!

Someone(s) will need to give up their dinner allowances to pay for this. Not the players or coaches, of course. Clubhouse and front office flunkies will pay through the nose.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

What happened to Oklahoma State? 2023 they went 10-4. Last year they went 3-0, then proceeded to lose their last 9. They start this year 1-2. The one win an unimpressive 27-7 victory vs FPS TN- Martin. The losses, an embarrassing 69-3 disaster in Oregon. And last night, the first loss to Tulsa &their back QB in Stillwater since 1951.

Mike Gundy's seat is beyond hot.

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Some personal week 4 notes..........


........I don't like Dabo Swinney. Don't like Mike Gundy. Glad to see them struggle.

Mike Gundy fired.

[Amazin69]

You can't do that! He's a man! He's 58!

(More on point, he's had ONE bad season, and still has a ridiculously good record. Ah, well, take the $15 mn in severance and go get a better deal elsewhere. I can think of several programs that might like Gundy's level of success. Are they getting itchy in Nebraska yet? He'd barely need to move.)

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

You can't do that! He's a man! He's 58!

(More on point, he's had ONE bad season, and still has a ridiculously good record. Ah, well, take the $15 mn in severance and go get a better deal elsewhere. I can think of several programs that might like Gundy's level of success. Are they getting itchy in Nebraska yet? He'd barely need to move.)

My Cardinals fired Mike Schildt, the best manager they had since Whitey Herzog, and then have promptly sunk below .500 since, while Schildt has continued to kick butt.

Give a coach a down year. Or two. Eli Drinkwitz for Missou had two slow years to start, and has gone 27-4 since.

[Amazin69]

As I'm waiting to scroll through to tonight's Mets game from where I put ESPn on pause, the network is airing its new documentary, The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin.

I look at that title and I wonder, "why is there an unnecessary 'v' in the middle of the third word? Typo?"

But, no, they're in straight-up Kiss-Kiffin's-Ass mode. Poor dead Al Davis takes it in the neck because he isn't there to defend himself. Granted, you can say Al got hoist on his own petard, because he'd pissed off so many in the press that they were eager to spew Kiffin's "gosh, I'm just a poor country boy who wants to coach, but that crazy old man won't let me call my own plays" crap (Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle is all over this section), but when they show the footage of the press conference where Davis fires Kiffen for all the "lying" and the "propaganda", the docu ignores the actual words in Davis's open letter which he has projected on the screen behind him…

"In addition, no one has ever told you during a game what to do on either offense or defense, and you call every play on offense. During a game, if you want to blitz more, all you have to do is let [Defensive Coordinator] Rob [Ryan] know what blitz you want and he will do it."

—Al Davis letter, visible on the screen.

But no, they only play the soundbite of Davis defending drafting JaMarcus Russell (admittedly a terrible pick, even the mention of it had me screaming "TRADE DOWN AND TAKE PETERSON!!" as I did at the time") and Kiffin doing his "aw, shucks" crap and going "Okay, this is bad what he's saying, but also…how serious [sic] are you really taking this when you're listening to it".

Riiiiiiight, Lane. You totally didn't play to Davis's haters in the press, not you, no never!

And then we skip over to Tennessee, where we gloss over all the recruiting violations Kiffin quickly racked up, and have a clip from Layla Kiffin saying that naming their son "Knox" was all her idea, rather than the footage of Lane saying that he named the kid that because he LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED Tennessee so much and he was never, ever, gonna leave Knoxville, nope!

Cripes, I'd hate to be that kid…

(Do I stick through the USC segment, or skip to the Mets?)

Oh, cool, they're blaming the USC collapse in 2012-13 on the sanctions from 2010, even though the Trojans went 10-2 in 2011 and were #1 in the polls going into 2012. F' this…

[Further venom redacted. We don't need to revisit the Raiders-Chargers game after the bye week in '07. Let's Go, Mets!]

[monkeyman576]

Hey Virginia fans, I know any time to party is a good time to party, but is really worth it to rush the field when you beat a team that was out of the top 25 entirely at the beginning of the season and 2-10 last year?

[Amazin69]

I think we'd gotten in "the hype is real" territory with FSU…and, besides, it's not as if "big wins" are a constant in C'ville, recently.

[Cobra Mgr]

Personal week 5 notes..........

.......There are 16 unbeaten Power 4 teams left. None are named Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, So Cal, Texas, or Clemson. There are some named Indiana, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Texas Tech, BYU, Maryland, Iowa St, Houston, Vanderbilt & Missouri.........

......Arkansas became the 3rd "power school" to fire their coach midseason. I can't admit to being a Razorback watcher. But 2 of their 3 losses are to team unbeaten by a total of 7 points on the road. That's rough........

.....Arkansas welcomed back Bobby Petrino. Another example of how people in this world today don't care if any of their leaders have any character.........

.....Lot of close games last weekend. But not necessarily good games. I don't know how the Tide beat Georgia by remaining scoreless in the 2nd half. Brian Kelly ignoring LSU's offensive struggles finally bit the Tigers in the tail. I didn't see Penn St vs Oregon, simply because I felt the Lions were frauds. And looks like I'm correct......I really feel like no one is showing themselves to be a favorite for the title. Ohio St looked ho-hum vs Washington. I thought FSU looked like a machine until they fell to Virginia......If you are a fan of a team w/a real chance to win your conference, you have to feel like the national title is available if you can just get in the playoff......

......The ending of UVa's upset over FSU was disturbing. I'm not hating on storming the field. But what if there was a Cavs penalty on that last play? How are you going to get that game restarted? And would that lead to a forfeit? The craziness of people today, coupled w/the fact a good portion may have put in a whole work shift into drinking on game night means this is a tragedy waiting to happen. We can't just bend to "youthful exuberance" or say you're providing a moment for the college experience. Stadiums need to be more proactive for these potential moments..........

.......So disappointed in FSU's loss to UVa. Not that I'm a FSU fan or a Virginia hater. I was looking forward to the Canes/FSU clash being back in prominence..........

.....I no longer see the point of big time non-conference match ups. I'm all for keeping the rivalries going. Please don't ruin them. But what was the point of Ohio St Vs Texas? FSU's loss to Virginia was more important than beating Bama. These games mean nothing. Maybe it will be a "tiebreaker" for an at large bid. But the committee is going to put in 4 SEC teams minimum regardless of who they play OOC. FSU is not getting in the playoff if they have 2-3 ACC losses & Bama has 2 SEC L's. OOC wins don't really help, & can hurt. It would not hurt for me to see these super-conferences go to 10-11 game schedules and 1 OOC rival. The conference games matter way more............

.....Low key battle of unbeatens this week between Houston & Texas Tech.....

......Speaking of which, why do I have the feeling the Texas Tech Raiders are about to become the dominant team in the 12ish for the next few years?........

........Bama favored by 10.5 over Vandy. Any leeway de Boer got from beating UGa (let's be real, there is no leeway as Bama HC) would disappear if they don't dominate this game. Doesn't matter if Vandy is any good. The Tide fans are going to clamour for blood........

......Corey Dillon, one of the most underrated tailbacks in NCAA history.......No, I don't think the shoulder pads came any bigger.....Yes, the color commentator's name is indeed named https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_SixkillerSonny Sixkiller

[Cobra Mgr]

SEC Roll Call - Week 5

[Cobra Mgr]

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...-mormon-chants

[Cobra Mgr]

Well, James Franklin is getting fired.