Jumbo Package, Dynasty is dead edition: Ed O to win multiple titles, Clemson thinks they’re the Patriots

Happy Thursday, everyone. We will open with news of an impending transfer that should surprise no one.

Ford was likely to have an uphill battle to playing time in 2020. Even if Harris does not return, UA still returns the two running backs ahead of Ford (Robinson Jr. and Keilan Robinson) on top of a freshman class with three running backs: Jase McClellan, Roydell Williams and Kyle Edwards.

Ford used the four-game redshirt rule in 2018, playing against Louisville, Arkansas State, Ole Miss and Louisiana-Lafayette. He ran a total of seven times for 37 yards.

Ford is from the Tampa area and strongly considered staying home with USF, so that may well be his destination. Best of luck to him.

We haven’t done a good count in a while, but there is still plenty of roster management left to do. The Tide had only seven scholarship seniors this season not counting Josh McMillon, and assuming Najee Harris declares as expected will have another six juniors depart for the NFL. With Ford, that’s a total of only 14 openings against 22 early signees, and they expect to sign a few more in February. Something will have to give.

The 2020 edition of “The Dynasty is Dead” includes a special bonus: contenders for the throne.

LSU, with a plucky, loveable head coach, is the team that has galvanized college football so forcefully that many fans want to see it send Clemson on its merry way.

That’s right.

People with no rooting interest for either team might end up pulling for the evil empire of conferences just to see Clemson lose.

”It’s like everybody hating on the Patriots,” Clemson safety K’Von Wallace said. “People are tired of seeing consistent winners, they always want to see new winners or somebody who makes a miraculous turnaround in their program. They don’t want the same ending of Clemson national championship, Clemson national championship.”

LSU has only dominated Alabama in one brief stretch. From 2000 through the 2007 season, LSU was 7-1 against the Tide with two national championships to none. In fact LSU won two national titles in the first decade of this century after Alabama had not won one since 1992.

Could such a run start soon? Orgeron is on the cusp of being greater than Dietzel and Saban ever were at LSU - for one season. At 58 and with the way he has recruited without what he could be recruiting with soon, Orgeron could win another one, two, or three national titles before he is 65.

So, Coach O is now going to be winning multiple national titles, and people think of Clemson like they do the Patriots. Got it.

The week 3 game against Georgia is going to be critical next year. It’s kind of a shame that it’s so early in the season, since both teams will still be finding their way.

2. GEORGIA AT ALABAMA (WEEK 3)

Is this the weekend it finally happens, Nick Saban’s first loss against a former assistant? At some point, the streak will end, and LSU is the only other opponent outside of the Bulldogs who has a comparable roster based on the 247Sports Team Talent Composite rankings on the Crimson Tide’s regular-season schedule next season. Kirby Smart is due against Saban after the last two meetings both came as a result of squandered late-game leads. Depending on Jake Fromm’s NFL decision, we’ll be looking at two first-year starters at quarterback going head to head against staunch defense. In terms of offensive fireworks, this one could be defense-driven.

That said, you have to think that Alabama will have an advantage at that stage of the season, mainly because they return nearly everyone in the trenches while Georgia will now lose four starting offensive linemen and two of three starters along the defensive front. They have obviously recruited well and have talent on hand, but the Tide’s offensive line is going to be among the nation’s best and the youth along the front that so limited that unit this year should pay dividends in 2020. There is really no excuse for Alabama not being better prepared for that one.

Y’all, Bradley Bozeman is a real life Cousin Eddie.

“Me and my wife like to travel, and we wanted to tour the country,” Bozeman said. “And so we were like ‘What’s a better way than to get an RV and drive cross country.’ We have two dogs, so you can’t really fly them everywhere. So we wanted to bring them along with us, and we were like ‘Let’s just buy an RV, and then we’ll go in the offseason we’ll go place to place.’ We didn’t feel like we were comfortable enough to buy a house here yet, and we were like ‘We’ll skip out a lot of rent and save a lot of money by having an RV.’

”So went and brought the RV and about two months down the road, we were like ‘Why don’t we just live in it?’ ‘No, we can’t do that.’ And we kind of just kept playing with the idea and finally we did, and we found a great place to park it. We’re saving a lot of money in rent and having a great time.”

No word on whether that RV has any rubber sheets and gerbils, and that’s none of my business anyway.

Last, the Saban family is mourning the loss of two people: Miss Terry lost her sister at only 66 years of age, and Nick lost one of his most treasured mentors in former Michigan State head coach George Perles.

“George Perles meant a tremendous amount to not only me, but the entire Saban family. He was one of my mentors in this profession, and he gave me my first opportunity to be in a position of leadership as the defensive coordinator at Michigan State. George was always a great friend and someone who I turned to for advice on many occasions. I learned an incredible amount of both football and life from him over the years.

“George did an outstanding job at Michigan State building that program. He was a great leader who impacted that transformation at Michigan State from the top down. Those five years at Michigan State, which culminated with a Rose Bowl victory at the end of the 1987 season, showed us the type of foundation necessary to build a program. We are so very close to his family, his wife Sally, and their children, Kathy, Terry, John and Pat, and they are in our thoughts and prayers. It is a sad day for the Sabans when it comes to losing one of our great mentors and the fantastic memories that we had with them.”

Our thoughts are with Nick and Terry during this difficult time.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.