What An Awesome Weekend Of College Football
One of the best weekends of college football I've experienced in a while.
Where do I even begin. We have coaches getting gassed, huge upsets, rivalry games down to the wire, and recruits jumping ship. On and off the field, college football fans got to see a prime example of why college football is so great.
It really all began on Friday night.
Friday we watched four squads secure spots in their conference championship games. The first was nineteenth ranked San Diego State beating Boise State 27-19 and clinching a shot to win the Mountain West. They’ll be put to the test when they play Utah State this weekend.
Iowa escaped a scare in Lincoln as they beat the nations best 3-9 squad 28-21. The win over Nebraska secured the Hawkeyes a spot in the BIG 10 title game against the Michigan Wolverines who we’ll get too later.
As the night went on, with no surprise Cincinnati thumped ECU 35-13 and locked in a spot in the AAC title game to play Houston while Utah beat Colorado 28-13 to set up a rematch between Oregon and the Utes in the PAC 12 championship.
While those games were going on and had conference championships on the line, UNC blew a nine point lead agains NC State with 1:35 left in the game to lose 34-30.
Now these games are going on and rumors of Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley are swirling that he is going to take the LSU job that opened up due to Ed O resigning. This comes into play a little later.
The next morning, we had a phenomenal slate of games that went from noon to nine at night. I myself was at Boston College vs Wake Forest in Chestnut Hill and watched the Demon Deacons thump the Eagles 41-10.
I did bet Wake Forest -4.5 and boy did they cover.
This was a noon game so while I was in the bleachers at BC, Ohio State at Michigan was going on. I made Ohio State -7.5 my lock of the week and then Michigan came out the gates and out played, out toughed, and gutted the win out 42-27.
What was even more awesome that added to this rivalry game was light flurries. The type of snow you want to play football in.
Of course the contest got chippy and thats what this game is all about. What’s weird is I HATE Michigan, but watching them stand up to their big brother from Columbus was fun and made you want to root for the Wolverines.
The ultimate rivalry game between two squads that hate each others guts. You’ve got to love it.
While Michigan was busy clinching a spot in the BIG 10 title game against Iowa, Baylor was doing the same but for the BIG 12. They edged out a good Texas Tech team and then had to sit back and watch if they’d be playing Oklahoma or Oklahoma State.
Fast forward, the Cowboys from Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma 37-33. Oklahoma State locks up a spot in the BIG 12 title game and here is where things start to get interesting.
Following the game and after rumors of Lincoln Riley taking the LSU job, he immediately diffused it and said he would not be the next coach of the LSU Tigers.
Well, Riley didn’t tell a lie.
The next day Riley took the job as the USC Trojans head coach. Absolutely wild. I was shocked.
Now with LSU losing out on the Lincoln Riley sweepstakes, they went hunting and stole Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly from my Irish. I have mixed emotions about it and I’ll expound on those when it becomes officially official.
The dominos begin to fall. Oklahoma lost six total recruits in the class of 2022 and 2023 with the headliner being five star quarterback Malachi Nelson.
As it stands, Oklahoma and Notre Dame are searching for head coaches. It’s been reported that the Sooners are targeting current Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury.
Back to some scores, Notre Dame, in what could have been Brian Kellys final game was able to throttle Stanford 45-14. A Stanford squad who beat Oregon earlier in the year.
Oregon squared off in the Civil War against Oregon State and won 38-29 as they were able to hold off a late push from the Beavers. I also bet on this game, Oregon -7.5 and the Ducks covered.
Quite possibly the most entertaining game of the weekend was the Iron Bowl between an unranked Auburn squad and a top four Alabama team that went down to the wire. I through the game on in the fourth quarter and got to watch Auburn blow their third lead in a row.
The end of regulation was wild and OT did not disappoint. In OT, we watched a freshman tight end for Auburn make an unreal one handed snag.
And to end the game, Josh Metchie reeled in a whip route and scored to win the Iron Bowl.
Sticking in the SEC and back on the theme of the coaching carousel, Florida beat Florida State 24-21 in their first game after firing Dan Mullen. They pulled out the win against their rivals and the next day hired a new head coach.
The Gators brought in Billy Napier who was the Louisiana head coach this year. He brought the Ragin’ Cajuns to the Sun Belt Championship game. Since 2018, Napier has gone 39-12 in Louisiana.
An exhausting yet exciting weekend of college football. Weekends like this make you remember why you’re a fan of the sport.