Assume Tucker is as good as advertised. Is MSU a place from which he can build a consistent top-10 program? Or does he need to make one more move up to another school?

I know very little about the Big 10 to know how realistic turning M. State into a perennial power is.

It'd be a lot easier if MSU was in the Big Ten West division. In the East, you're looking at playing Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan every year.

James Franklin switched agents to Jimmy Sexton. He's leaving for somewhere. USC, I assume.

Texas Tech fired Matt Wells and named Sonny Cumbie interim coach

Yeah, I would have said no before, but I am starting to wonder about Franklin now.

Some of these names that get bandied about though:


I mean...Mike Tomlin??

Fisher's agent making sure his name gets out there to remind everyone he still wants to coach. I can't imaging USC is actually considering him.

I know the Steelers are going to struggle real soon, but Tomlin would leave for USC? That sounds...odd.

I don't think for a second he'd take the USC job, but it feels like a mutual parting of the ways is coming there anyway... it's a rebuild job after Big Ben unless they get real lucky in the middle of next years draft or hit on a middling QB in FA.

I think Franklin is angling for an extension again too. There's possibly some unresolved stuff between USC and Sexton given he's Helton's agent. My personal hunch for the job is Matt Campbell, which is probably a good result.

6-6 USC for 10 straight years doesnt sound like such a bad option:lol:

Considering the stability of the franchise, head coach of the Steelers is one of the best coaching jobs in all of football.

Unless he's tired of coaching, I can't see Tomlin leaving. It is a rebuild after Ben retires. So why not stay and help rebuild? And I think that the Steelers are very into the stability projected by the Noll==Cower==Tomlin line. So I don't know if they would be into change for change's sake.

He seems like a guy that players want to play for, so I could see him being a good recruiter and a top college coach. I just don't see any college job as better than what he's got going right now.

Yeah, I can't see Tomlin leaving. He's got a good situation in Pittsburgh, and let's face it: USC has been a dumpster fire since Pete Carroll left.

A lot of coaches would leave with the upcoming rebuild because they would be concerned with job security. The Steelers aren't that team. They will keep Tomlin on through a few losing seasons.

I think if Tomlin leaves the Steelers, it would be due to burnout and not to go rebuild a college program. I know he could recruit nationwide and is universally known, but I also don't see him uprooting to California (he's primarily been in the East Coast his whole life and career).

I'm calling James Franklin to USC and Dave Aranda (Baylor) to LSU.

Bonus: Sonny Dykes to Texas Tech just makes too much sense and I think they pulled the plug on Wells to get out in front of anyone else interested in him. His dad was the head coach there, he graduated from and coached there, and I think we can write Cal off as a bad fit after seeing him have success at SMU now.

Franklin is a tool and I would be happy to see him commit career suicide by going to USC.

I don't know about him being a tool or much about him, but I also don't see it being a slam dunk that he will succeed there. The Athletic did an article at the beginning of the year asking over 100 ADs, coaches, and staff members and USC was the 5th best head coaching job (behind Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, and LSU), so it is a jump in prestige and I'd assume much more local talent (although I think Eastern PA/NJ/MD/DC is pretty good, as well). Penn State was like 16th (but there was a huge drop-off after the top 7 jobs (Clemson was #7).

It's just hard to believe that there isn't an equally good candidate with West Coast roots. Franklin has been very good and does have experience with a more academic program from his time at Vandy, I guess.

Apparently Franklin's press conference didn't go well today. He stated multiple times that he was focused on Illinois this week and talked about playing the the Big House. Penn State plays at Ohio State this week.

Mike Leach is even right on candy corn. Mississippi State might have to become a new secondary rooting interest for me. I love his responses to the media.

Mike Leach responds to dumb question and responds with even better answer - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u0woCcQH9U

The best part of the original on-field interview is when he's talking about spree in a box, and says "you have to go to the dollar store to find it... but I do."

If you are rooting for Mississippi State then, you sir, are dead to me.

Agreed. Taunting Iowa players during a visit to a childrens hospital was about as classless as you can get.

On another note, Every time the Braves have made it to the WS, Florida has beat Georgia

Harrison Bailey will finally escape Knoxville.

Harrison Bailey on Twitter: "��… "

Zach Evans was leaving TCU today but has apparently since pulled a 180. He'll be in the portal for sure before next year's free agency starts.


Tim Shepherd on Twitter: "#Breaking: TCU RB Zach Evans has ultimately decided to leave the football program. He will be exploring his options by entering the transfer portal per TCU/Big 12 source. #TCU #CFB"

What's the advantage for these guys that are entering the transfer portal midyear? Presumably they still lose this year of eligibility - does it just allow teams to start talking to them now vs end of season?

Once they are in the portal, they are free to talk to other schools and line up a roster spot, scholarship, etc.

The Covid loophole was pretty bad for people who wanted to game the system and screw over their current teams. I know of a few softball players last year who enrolled for 2020-21, decided in the fall to sit out due to Covid and got a year of school paid for, and then went into the transfer portal for this year.

On this, I think Sparty has a reason to have a chip on their shoulder. I know tradition/brand/etc. but they aren't getting close to their share of the hype/press aside from Walker. I'd be rooting for them on that reason alone if it didn't feel like a betrayal to do so (I'm honor-bound to be a Michigan fan as my father attended there. We had a flyswatter that was maize and blue with the words 'For Spartans, Buckeyes, and other obnoxious pests' This of course was back when U of M actually beat OSU regularly).

Big night of football for me. Cards play tonight of course, but #24 Coastal does too, weather permitting. Troy, one of four teams tied for first place with App and Georgia State. They are 17 points favorites, which seems too much. They are 2-2 against them lifetime. I hope they have their "mojo" back and are ready for this game.

ha - thats awesome.


We have a rooting interest in MSU since one of the local boys is up there in East Lansing so we've paid attention the past couple of years. I hope Sparty does come in with a chip on their shoulder - that's the only way they have a chance. They need to play with emotion from start to finish and hope to stay healthy because they dont have the quality athletic depth the big boys have. Yet. I think Tucker can get them there, but again, I see him bolting in the offseason.

Not much would make me more happy then seeing scUM lose. And I would love for it to be in the same fashion as the muffed punt for a TD with no time left.

Am I the only one that occasionally looks up old conference configurations on Wikipedia?

Today I learned that the Missouri Valley Conference began with Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington U, and Drake and later added Oklahoma, Oklahoma State (then A&M), and Grinnell (Iowa). And, that Iowa left to join the Big 8 (which was the wiki I started looking at in the first place).

I also didn't realize that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were both in the SWC. I had thought it was always Texas schools + Arkansas.

Thats really cool. Iowa was basically kicked out of the B1G back in the 30s for violations. Not many B1G schools would play them.

Another fun one, that we have maybe talked about before...

In 1932, there were 13 founding members in the SEC:

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi St., Tennessee, and Vanderbilt are all still members.

Georgia Tech left in 1964 to become independent.

Tulane left in 1966 to become independent.

...and, Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.) left in 1940 when their leadership decided to deemphasize sports at the school.


In season 2 of Loki, I would like to see the multiverse timeline where Sewane remained in the SEC and became a football and basketball powerhouse.

Well that's one win down for my teams tonight as Coastal hangs on to win 35-28, Didn't look good early on, but showed signs of making big plays when they needed to-like the fumble that ended the game. It rained for most of the game, but the end came right when the heaviest wind and rain hit Conway

QB McCall was knocked out of the game at one point. He threw up on the field and there were worries it was a concussion. They took his helmet from him until he was cleared to play again. Have to see the injury report on him for next week's game.

Whew. glad to see that one over with. Now to see if my beloved Cards can pull a win out of their hat

Hey in 1899 Sewanee went 12-0 and outscore opponents 322–10. That's a pretty good season.

They obviously didn't play Coastal :)

I looked at their season and saw that they gave up all 10 points in the 2nd to last game of year, when they beat Auburn 11-10. Also fun is that they won their next game, over UNC, by a score of 5-0.

They were also undefeated the year before (in just 4 games) and only gave up 4 (4?) points in a 19-4 win over Vandy. That team also beat Texas, 4-0. I'm not sure if safetys were that much easier to come by or if there was another type of way of the score back then (dropkicks, maybe? - I couldn't find a history of their rules or how many points they are and were worth).

Need more Wisconsin-Iowa shit posting

Some follow-up on CUSA's implosion. Again, might not make many waves in football, but a bigger story in NCAA athletics overall. Sun Belt is also pursuing James Madison, which is not only an up and coming football power but also has a big-time mid-major softball program that punches well above its conference status (probably only behind ULL among mid-major programs).

It appears CUSA is going to attempt to go the only route left, which is to be the P6 conference for schools looking to move up from FCS status in the next year or two.

https://apnews.com/article/college-f...ign=SocialFlow

From someone connected to Marshall, as CUSA started to fall apart they worked with the JMU administration to be a package deal for wherever the chips fell. Their first choice being the Sunbelt, which is shaping up to be a solid league and are big winners in the current realignment.

Yeah looking like the Sun Belt will get 4 teams from the realignment-means more competition for Coastal, but also some teams won't play each other every year in football

Sun Belt should be the best non-power 5. And while not enough depth, the top of the conference might be comparable to what we see out of the ACC and Big 12 (minus Oklahoma and Texas).

Props to them from going from maybe the worst FBS conference to probably the 6th best in a decade.

Really? After everything you've said about Ferentz, esp. in the past year, that's what you want to hang your hat on?

I mean, if it was down to the class and humility of a coach, I would probably just not be fan of anyone. Certainly I don't consider Harbaugh to be anyone's idea of a role model, to put it mildly. I root for Michigan in spite of him.It's always seemed to me that it's become the kind of job that attracts people of less than high character. There are some college coaches I'm sure I'd admire if I looked hard enough, but an awful lot more whose characters I wouldn't wish to emulate.

Not this year. My expectation is for Iowa to win.

Iowa finally proved to me that if they dont get turnover. they cant score.

Defense then exposed.


On that note Wiscy likes to turn the ball over.

I really like MSUs unis for their game this week.

The Hogs have a bye week. We are at 5-3 so 1 more win for bowl eligibility

The World's Largest Cocktail Party happening on the week the Braves are in the World Series. I picked a bad week to not drink. On paper this should be a blow out. Georgia smothering defense. Florida's inability to stop the run. Yet, I have seen this very scenario before almost to the letter turn out to be a blow out loss for the Dawgs. Let's hope this team doesn't overlook how big a trap this game can be.

Small sample size to be sure, but I saw somewhere that the bulldogs have never beat Florida in the same year that the Braves made the World Series

Yeah. That was the Spurrier years.

Probably in my earlier post.

It is 2021. How in the heck is the Georgia Tech game not available locally? It is supposed to be on Bally Sports South, but it seems it is stream only. The ACC TV deal must be really really bad.

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That was a gutsy play call for MSU on that fourth and one. Sparty about to be up by one.

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This implosion by Iowa is just brutal.

Iowa is fucking terrible. Same shit, every year.

Does a team need to be bowl eligible to make the playoff?

#AskingforTulane

The play by play guy for the UM-MSU game is a little too excited.

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It's an ESPN3 game best I can tell. ACC Network (rightfully) took Miami vs Pitt as their primary.

Though, in Atlanta, BSS was indeed supposed to have it. The combined GT/BSS twitter feeds have a total of 3 complaints about it apparently being "blacked out" (per one photo).

It's tough for me to contemplate anyone looking less capable of being an HC than Derek Dooley, but I have to be honest and say that Chad Morris might very well be that guy.

Allen (TX) suffers their second loss of the season last night, first multiple loss season since 2005. Also saw their 72 game district winning streak ended. Maybe a middle school program in Alaska needs an HC next year?

Chad Morris continues to take high school football powerhouse to new lows

ESPN3 also have it blacked out in Atlanta area. It is only available through the Bally Sports app. That is pretty sad.

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That actually makes sense, because it would get blacked out by E3 in order to protect BSS.

Only thing I don't have (or find) an explanation is why BSS isn't airing it as scheduled

Yeah it is frustrating as hell. For a while I’d try to find online streams to watch games but at this point, if GT isn’t going to bother trying to make their games available in their home market, I’ll just watch something else

The World Series of Poker is just too important, obviously.

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Just saw a story that the coach of Bowling Green was kicked out of their game, which caused me to query, "how does the Bowling Green team colors not include green?"
I ask the hard hitting questions that others are afraid to ask.
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On the flip side, I’d argue (in no particular order) the following teams are more popular than GT in Atlanta: UGa, Auburn, Alabama, Clemson, Tennessee, Florida, ,LSU, and Florida State. That that doesn’t include any Big 10 teams with large alumni groups in the area.

You left out a number of high schools as well ;)

And that is sad. There is no reason that the GT program shouldn't be at least a competive program, especially in the ACC. It just seems like such a squandered opportunity.

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Pitt got screwed by lack of courage of a ref to call the Miami player down in the end zone. He didn't get the ball out of the end zone but there wasn't a good enough angle to overturn. That felt like when an umpire calls a 3-0 pitch a strike even if it's not a strike, they just gave him the benefit of the doubt rather than call a safety.

Jeez, our tackles suck and we have a QB that cant move. This is a putrid offense. New OC? Nope, its the HCs kid. New QB? Nope, we rarely switch QBs in the middle of a season. Maybe once in KFs tenure. And that turned out to be a dude that finished 2nd in the Heisman voting to Carson Palmer.

Lots of reasons. No majors to hide players, the Hill seems to hate the athletic department, they don’t have the money / alumni base to compete with all the major powers in the area, etc. Collins is an asshat, but he’s the lowest paid asshat in the ACC with the lowest assistant salary pool as well.

Plus not much success post O’Leary

If they hadn’t signed this idiotic 7 year deal due to “the biggest transformation in college football history”, Collins would be fired. But they can’t afford to eat 4 years. I’m not sure they will fire him if they go 3-9 again next year.

This scUM/MSU game is a good one.

MACtion!

THE HEAD COACHLESS BOWLING GREEN FALCONS FAKE A KNEEL DOWN FOR A TOUCHDOWN AGAINST BUFFALO??!!! pic.twitter.com/vdyWsnXQur

— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) October 30, 2021

What's better this year? The future composition of the Big XII (i.e. no OU/UT, yes Cincy, BYU, UCF, Houston) or the ACC? Same question, only replace ACC with Pac-12?

SI

Final note on GT for now. Looking ahead is this team even bowl eligible next year? Games against UCF, UGA, Clemson, the coastal in general, Ole Miss, and FSU who likely improves next year. Can a coach survive not being bowl eligible 4 years in a row?

So far, this Florida-Georgia game is feeling like a flashback. Florida's run defense have been so awful going into this game. Yet, they look smothering so far. Florida can't tackle anyone unless they wear red and black.

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But but but ... the Fo Oh Fo y'all. And Waffle House (a major corporate sponsor of Georgia Tech Athletics)

C'mon down to Collins Used Cars, we're wheelin' and dealin'

FSU just scored a TD that, if it stands, will be on highlight reels all year. Dude got tackled and summersaulted on top of the defender, got up, tiptoed down the line for another 25 yards and scored.

Georgia's defense is Georgia's defense.

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Playing AR today will end up being what gets Mullen fired.

Idiot.

In 41 seconds, Georgia scores two touchdowns following Gator turnovers. I thought we were going Into halftime with a disappointing score. In a snap, it all changed.

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Caleb Williams looks like a “99” overall video game player on a “rookie” level difficulty setting.

Fucking Richardson might turn the ball over during halftime, you could add some more.

He just did. Pick 6.

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Heck, it is not Emory didn't turn it over regularly either. Florida just doesn't have much option at QB right now.

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I think that’s what you call a collapse. After the first 2, it’s equally on the QB and the HC to throw another one. Just get into half time and regroup, Jesus.

%@#$@#$ turnover machine, I was sitting there thinking "why did you call timeout? Trying to get away more points?" and right on cue

@#$%@#$ Mullen

Gophers have lost all their returning RB at this point - three to injury and one to the portal. Thankfully, the pair of newcomers carrying the load were both 4*.

Georgia offense has been near non-existent. I think you have to let JT Daniel's start the second half.

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Don't need an offense to beat Florida, they're doing a good job of that on their own.

$#%#$ Mullen

Anthony Richardson signs new NIL deal during halftime.
He's the new spokesman for Gifts dot com

If you enjoy missed field goals, this game is for you.

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Hasn't Brandon Cox been playing for Florida for the last 30 years?

Ok, caught that was Brenton Cox.

Afternoon games are all blow outs. Waiting for PsU/tOSU

Color me surprised. I haven't watched a ton of Iowa this year but I thought they were better than what they showed today. Maybe not. Wisconsin is coming into form though. The O-line was bad to start the year and without an o-line, there is no hope. They are finally making Braelon Allen the lead back. I can see being careful with a 17 year old but he's looked like the best back since camp started.

Hard to believe Wisconsin controls their own destiny in the West, but I think that just shows the division is bad. Trade Purdue for Michigan State?

Which game are you watching? Clemson has missed 3 FGs and FSU had an XP blocked.

Our 1st 6 games we consistently had short fields for the offense. How wiscy man played today is how Iowa played those 6 wins. You got the Purdue figured us out and now the blue print is out there and BF cannot adapt" version,

Does Nebraska even have another QB on the roster? Martinez is going to be the reason Frost gets fired. He's a human turnover.

Talk about a bad beat. FSU tried 3 too many laterals down 4 and gave up a TD to Clemson as time expired to lose by 10. I believe the line was Clemson -9 or 9.5.

Double bad beat. The total was 47.5. I was laughing my ass off when the referee kept saying “The game isn’t over yet!” Oh, yes it is. Scott Van Pelt and Stanford Steve will have a field day with this one.

Damn

Why is Oklahoma State-Kansas the primetime game for the Big XII this week?

SI