Mr. College Football

So what did we learn over the weekend?

1. It was a great weekend for Georgia Tech. Now what? Bobby Dodd himself could not have drawn up a better football weekend for the Institute. Tech’s win over Virginia coupled with Miami’s loss to Clemson puts the Yellow Jackets’ in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal Division. Beat Wake Forest at home on Nov. 7 and Duke on Nov. 14 in Durham, and the Yellow Jackets will advance to the ACC championship game in Tampa on Dec. 5. Now is where the Georgia Tech team has to decide: Do they want to be good or do they want to be special? Sandwiching those two conference games are a pair of SEC opponents, Vanderbilt and Georgia. In the past Georgia Tech would be on the verge of being special and slip up. Georgia Tech is good enough to win these last four games if it can remain focused. Will they?

2. You’ve got to start giving C.J. Spiller some love for the Heisman. Nobody is playing better right now than the junior running …

Continue reading It was a great weekend for Georgia Tech. Now what? »

If Auburn’s offense had not been missing in action last week in a 21-14 loss to Kentucky, your Fearless Forecaster would have gone 10-0. We picked Georgia Tech’s upset of No. 4 Virginia Tech. We promised you and Arkansas-Florida would be closer than the experts thought. (Insert your comment about the officiating here).

That gives us a record of 52-18 on the season.

Except for Georgia Tech’s visit to Virginia, it looks like a less than exciting set of games this Saturday. But that’s when the fireworks—and the upsets—usually start.  Look for at least one big surprise this weekend.

Let’s get on with the Fearless Friday Forecast:

1. Georgia Tech at Virginia: It looks like Cavalier coach Al Groh has saved his bacon after an 0-3 start. Groh realized that the spread offense was not going to work and went back to basics. Now Virginia is playing power football and pretty good defense. But if Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt keeps playing like he has the …

Continue reading Georgia Tech keeps rolling at Virginia »

Five burning questions as we head into the weekend:

1. Can Georgia Tech win on the road again? The Yellow Jackets have already won impressively at Florida State and Mississippi State. But winning at Charlottesville has proven to be a tough thing to do lately for Tech. I was at Virginia in 1990, the last time Georgia Tech won up there in what was one of the better games I have ever seen. Tech has played in Charlottesville eight times since and lost some heartbreakers. In 1999 Tech was 6-1 and ranked No. 7 when the Jackets lost 45-38. In 2001 they were 6-2 and lost 39-38. This season Virginia and Al Groh seemed headed off the deep end when they started 0-3. Now they have won three straight and are starting to find some answers on offense. This will not be an easy game for Georgia Tech. In case you were wondering about those eight Georgia Tech losses they were:

1992: L, 55-24

1995: L, 41-14

1997: L, 35-31

1999: L 48-35

2001: L, 39-38

2003: L, 29-17

2005: L, 27-17

2007: L, …

Continue reading Can Georgia Tech finally win at Virginia? »

Remarkably, we are heading into the second half of the season so what better time to rate the conferences? Here is just one man’s opinion. Please give me yours.

1. SEC: I’ve gotten all kinds of notes telling me how down the SEC is this season. Florida is No. 1 and Alabama is No. 2 and both are winning ugly. Some of that is by design. LSU is 5-1 and ranked No. 9 but could have easily lost to Mississippi State and Georgia. Ole Miss (4-2) has been a disappointment based on preseason expectations. Auburn started 5-0 but has faded with losses to Arkansas and Kentucky. Georgia has all kind of issues. I’ll agree that the SEC is not as strong top to bottom as it was a year ago. But it’s still the toughest conference in the country and has a good chance to post its fourth straight national championship.

2. Big 12: Like the SEC, the Big 12 is not as strong as it was a year ago when Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech, all finished the regular season 11-1 and Oklahoma and Texas …

Continue reading Ranking the conferences at mid-season »

After the excessive celebration calls in the Georgia-LSU game on Oct. 3, I had a long talk with Rogers Redding, the SEC supervisor of officials. At that time Redding told me that his guys should not have called the penalty on Georgia’s A.J. Green. Later in the day the SEC had to admit publicly that their officials had made a mistake.

Towards the end of our conversation, Redding said this: “We tell our guys not to go looking for this stuff, but if it happens right in front of your face, you have to call it.”

I’m not sure that message has really gotten across because we still have officials seeing stuff that simply is not there. For the second time this month the SEC had to admit that an official threw a flag for a penalty that clearly did not happen.

The play took place in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game between Florida and Arkansas in Gainesville. Arkansas defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard collided with Florida offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert in …

Continue reading Time to have a serious conversation about officiating »

What we learned over the weekend:

1. There CAN be an Alabama-Florida rematch for the national championship. Last week I said that if Alabama and Florida were undefeated, ranked 1-2 and played a close SEC championship game, there would not be a rematch for the BCS title. That statement was based on the logical position that the human voters, who make up two-thirds of the BCS formula, would not watch one of those teams lose on Dec. 5 and less than 24 hours later vote them in to the BCS championship game.

But after seeing the first set of BCS standings on Sunday, I think it is now possible if No. 3 Texas loses at some point. That’s because there is a huge gap in the BCS average between No. 2 Alabama (.9526) and No. 4 Boise State (.8083) and No. 5 Cincinnati (.7870). Boise State’s computer ratings are only going to go down as the season progresses while Cincinnati’s will go up.

Secondly, I can’t remember when we’ve had this much of a competitive gap between the …

Continue reading There CAN be an Alabama-Florida rematch for BCS title »

We only had two misses last week but they were pretty bad ones as Georgia missed its wakeup call for the game at Tennessee and Auburn’s undefeated record came crashing down at Arkansas. So that’s 8-2 on the week and 43-17 on the season which, incredibly, has reached the halfway point.

Man that was fast.

Let’s get on with the Fearless Friday Forecast for Oct. 16.

1. Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech: Since getting thumped at Miami (33-17) on Sept. 17, Georgia Tech has done what well-coached teams do. They adjusted, executed a little better, and now they are getting ready to play one of the biggest home games in recent memory. This one comes down to the quarterbacks. If both Josh Nesbitt (Georgia Tech) and Tyrod Taylor (Virginia Tech) keep playing at their current level, this could be one for the ages. I’m giving the edge to the guy from Greene County, Mr. Nesbitt. Georgia Tech 24, Virginia Tech 21.

2. Georgia at Vanderbilt: Vandy has been a tough out for Georgia …

Continue reading Georgia Tech beats Hokies in an ACC classic »

Friends,

I’m  sorry but I can’t be with you today. We lost my wife’s mother this week and this morning I am attending the funeral.

She was a fine lady and we will miss her. I have been asked by the family to give the eulogy. I hope I can get through it.

I’ll see you again on Friday with our predictions.

Thanks,

TB

Continue reading Mr. CFB will be back on Friday »

One of the things I learned a long time ago is that in football, you should never overreact to a good win or a bad loss.

Don’t think you are better than you are because you played well on a particularly Saturday (see Florida State’s win over BYU).

Conversely, don’t beat yourself up or panic after a bad loss. And make no mistake about it. Georgia’s thumping at Tennessee on Saturday was a bad, bad loss.

Fans look at these things emotionally. That’s what they do and that’s why the South has the best college football fans in the world. They are emotionally invested in their team.

But Mark Richt and Damon Evans don’t have that luxury. They have to be pretty calm and rational because if you make a football decision based on emotion, chances are it is going to be a bad one. Here are some things they have to consider:

**–Georgia is very fortunate to be 3-3: When Georgia was 3-1, the Bulldogs were like a stock that was overvalued because the …

Continue reading Some things to think about at Georgia »

Here’s a simple question for you to ponder this morning: Florida and Alabama are ranked 1-2 in the Associated Press media poll. Based on what you have seen thus far, if Florida and Alabama both run the table, will the SEC championship game ALSO be the national championship game as well?

We know that technically it won’t be because the SEC champ will have to play somebody in Pasadena in January to get the crystal football. But if Florida and Alabama are both 12-0 on Dec. 5, will that decide the national championship in your mind?

Here is the final question: Knowing the history of the SEC, it is crazy to even suggest that both of these teams can run the table between now and then? Here are the schedules. You decide:

FLORIDA

Oct. 17– vs. Arkansas. Hogs have a great offense with Ryan Mallett.

Oct.  24—at Miss. State. Urban Meyer and Tebow vs. Dan Mullen, their old OC

Oct. 31—vs. Georgia in Jacksonville. Don’t see much of a threat from Dawgs.

Nov. 7—vs. …

Continue reading Will SEC championship also be the national championship? »