Did you get in your last trip to the beach? Maybe one last boat ride around the lake or visit with the in-laws to make your spouse happy? I hope so, because Big Boy football starts this weekend. The weather has turned into beautiful blustery days and the SEC starts their schedule.

B1G MORONS

Well, well, well. Look who came crawling back. The Tweet below sums this whole situation up perfectly.

Talk about dominoes, this whole scenario is unfolding just like we thought it would. The Big Ten jumped the gun and prematurely cancels everything. Their lapdogs out west followed almost immediately. Then they sat around toasting each other and waited for the other Power-5s to fall in line. To their horror, the ACC, Big XII, SEC and the CFP moved ahead without them.

After seeing the ACC and B12 have a successful opening weekend, now suddenly the Big Ten can’t quite focus on the “science coming” at them anymore and are back on board for October 24. It will be eight scheduled conference-only games plus a ninth unscheduled game for all 14 teams. The final game will be yet another gimmicky something they are calling Big Ten Champions Week. Tt will be held the weekend of December 19 in which every team in the league will play a crossover game based on where they finish in their divisional standings. East No. 1 vs. West No. 1, East No. 2 vs. West No. 2 and so on. All this will come in nine consecutive weeks. If there are game cancellations, they will not be made up. [So, if Ohio State-Penn State gets canceled and both teams go 7-0, who gets the No. 1 seed? Asking for a friend with half a brain.]

The next domino of course was the PAC-12 miraculously seeing the light. After a round of finger pointing between PAC commish Larry Scott and local politicians over who prompted the initial cancellation, they are ridiculously aiming for “six weeks of practice” and starting Halloween or “early November”, which is absolutely ridiculous. They don’t need six weeks especially since they will all be playing each other.

It sure feels like someone else other than Scott is calling all the shots in the conference. I don’t know how he has kept his job this long. I feel bad for anyone who is a fan of one of those PAC schools. This conference has become so irrelevant that nobody even thinks about them outside of their footprint. If they aren’t careful, they could be eclipsed by the AAC.

The next domino is the MWC:

Miami-Ohio QB Brett Gabbert (brother of Blaine) is attempting to get a movement going in the MAC. There is some talk of a six game season while some delusional leaders are hanging on to the notion of playing in the spring. I would wage that those who think this latter option is doable, never played a down of football in their lives.

SCORES

Not a great slate this past weekend but here it is:

Miami-FL 47 Louisville 34 - This game was marred by the excruciatingly obnoxious call by Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit. The schoolgirl crush on ‘Canes QB D’Eriq King - who, by the way, quit on his last team after the first four games and lied about coming back to them the next season - was nauseating. Plus multiple shots of his parents, way too many shots of Ed Reed, and of course Fowler felt the need to recap every social issue that had been going on over the last eight months. Herbstreit kept repeating himself in his analyses and didn’t have any real insightful comments to add. All that said, Miami looked pretty good against a decent Cardinals team. If they can learn how to play some defense, they may make some noise int he ACC. King still has issues as a passer.

Notre Dame 52 South Florida 0 - Former Clemson OC Jeff Scott had a rough day in his FBS debut as coach of USF (the Bulls beat FCS Citadel 27-6 the week before).

Oklahoma State 16 Tulsa 7 - Okie Lite tried everything they could to lose this one. Tulsa led 7-3 heading into the final frame before the Cowpokes went to their third QB and scored a TD and a pair of field goals.

UCF 49 Georgia Tech 21 - End the season now. We have a National Champion.

Clemson 49 Citadel 0 - Most of the back-ups played the entire second half.

La Tech 31 Southern Miss 30 - The Screaming Eagles blew a 27-10 lead. Jay Hopson had the right idea.
NC State 45 Wake Forest 42 - Defense optional.
Marshall 17 Appalachian State 7 - I think we are now seeing the real Appy State without Scott Satterfield.
Cincinnati 55 Austin Peay 20 - AP scored 14 in the fourth quarter against Cincy scrubs.
Pitt 21 Syracuse 10 - A sloppy ugly game.
Liberty 30 WKU 24- Former Gustavo quarterback cast-off Malik Willis ran for 168 yards, threw for 133 as the Flamers took down the Hilltoppers.
Boston College 26 Duke 6 - Former Notre Dame back-up QB Phil Jurkovec threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns for BC.

THE WACKY WORLD OF DESMOND HOWARD KIRK HERBSTREIT PREDICTIONS

The return of the Big Ten changes everything. The GameDay crew has updated their picks. Herbie is still hating on the Tide.

Playoff predictions:

• DESI - In the semifinal playoffs, Alabama over Oklahoma; Clemson beats Cincinnati. Bama beats Clemson for the championship. Bama over Ohio State, Okie State over Clemson, Bama wins it all.
• POLLOCK - Alabama tops Oklahoma; Clemson takes care of UGA. Bama wins it all. Clemson over UGA, Bama over Ohio State, I believe he picked Clemmy this time. It was unclear.
• CORSO - Corso did not change his Final Four. He believes no Big Ten will get in. Alabama defeats Notre Dame; Clemson over Oklahoma are in the other semi. Bama wins the NC.
• HERBIE - Clemson over Florida; Bama over Texas. Clemson over Alabama in the final. Ohio State over Texas, Clemson over Bama, Ohio State wins the championship.

MY PICKS

• I’m with Corso and sticking with my picks. anOSU will either blow a game or have one canceled (Rutgers? Sparty? Illinois?) and the CFP is not taking a 8-0 or 8-1 Buckeyes over 9-1 Florida. Alabama over Oklahoma, Clemson over Florida. Crimson Tide wins Championship #18.

THE NAME GAME

Coastal Carolina WR Isaiah Likely. I hope his sister doesn’t marry Joe Excuse.

ADOPT-A-TEAM

These early games are such good exposure for these teams. I would not be surprised if Arky Lite and Laffy get an uptick in recruiting in the next couple of years.

• Arkansas State (1-1) - The Red Wolves game with Central Arkansas was postponed due to you-know-what. They will try again on Oct 10.
• LaLaLaffy! (2-0) - Georgia State gave the Ragin’ Cajuns all they could handle running up a 21-7 third quarter lead before ULL came back to tie it at 28 all. GSU kicked a field goal in OT. Laffy answered with a touchdown for the W.

COUSINS

• Troy (1-0) - The Trojans had their way with a bad MTSU team 47-14. It is the first career win for Alabama graduate Chip Lindsey as a head coach. Troy heads to BYU Sept 26. Yikes!
• South Alabama (1-1) - Bye week. Up next is UAB on Thursday, Sept. 24.

THAT ANNOYING STEP-BROTHER WHO CALLS “SHOTGUN INFINITY”. IT’S NOT A THING, BRAD!

• UAB (1-1) - Bye week, next game is Sept. 24 at South Alabama.

SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS

• Army (2-0) - The highly-anticipated game between the Black Knights and BYU was postponed. BYU had “a small number of positive test results and resulting tracing exposures”. The two teams have said they will attempt to reschedule the game. BTW, the Mormons have added a ninth game to be played against La Tech Oct. 2.

• Navy (1-1) - In the first half of this game, the Middies looked flat and got abused by Tulane 24-0. Ken Niumatalolo must have given a heck of a halftime speech for Navy came out of the locker room a changed team. With a new quarterback under center who could actually pass the ball some (6/11, 139 yds, 1 TD), Navy erased the 24-point deficit to stun the Green Wave on a 33-yard field goal as time expired 27-24. Wanna make the triple option even harder to defend? Find a QB who can complete some passes every now and then.
• Air Force (0-0) - Waiting for Navy (Oct. 3) and Army (Nov. 7).

ELIMINATED

This is about to get really tricky.

• With only 9 games, a B1G team would likely have to go undefeated. For Rutgers, Northwestern, Maryland, Purdue, Indy, Nebraska, Illinois, Sparty: Ain’t gonna happen.
• Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Texas Tech (2 point win over Houston Baptist? Yeah, you’re eliminated.)
• Duke, Wake Forest, Syracuse, FSU, Georgia Tech
• BYU - That schedule is too weak.

ELIMINATION, ENDANGERED:

• The entire B1G - The conference has put themselves in a precarious position here. With only 9 games per team and no room for make up games, one team may have to be absolutely dominating in order to earn a spot in the playoff. A 7-1 regular season and conference championship may not be able to beat out a second SEC team.
• The PAC - These bozos are mulling between 6-8 games. It would take a miracle for one of these teams to get in.
• Oklahoma State - barely beating Tulsa?
• Vandy, Arky, Ole Miss, Missouri
• Boston College, Louisville

A way WAY WAY too early look at the College Football Playoff (CFP) picture:

• ACC - Clemson, Notre Dame, maybe North Carolina.
• SEC - Alabama, Fla, UGA, Aub, LSU, Texas A&M.
• Big 12 - Oklahoma, maybe Tejas or Oklahoma Lite if the stars align.
• Big Ten - ?
• PAC-12 - You have to assume these stooges are going to do exactly what the B1G does but a six game season might as well be an exhibition season.
• Indies

RANK ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM

I am guessing the AP Poll will eventually re-include the B1G in a few weeks. Until then, here is the current one with eight SEC teams are ranked.

1 Clemson (59)
2 Alabama (1) - Looks like Clemmy lost a vote.
3 Oklahoma
4 Georgia
5 Florida
6 LSU (1) - Okay, what knucklehead keeps voting LSU No. 1 ???!?!
7 Notre Dame
8 Auburn
8 Texas
10 Texas A&M
11 North Carolina
12 Miami of Florida (not to be confused with the one in Ohio)
13 Center Florida
14 Cincy
15 Oklahoma Lite
16 Tennessee
17 Memphis
18 BYU
19 ULLLaffy
20 Virginia Tech
21 Pitt
22 Army
23 Kentucky
24 Louisville
25 Marshall Mathers

STAT OF THE DAY

• Wake Forest amassed 32 first downs to NC State’s 24. However, the Demon Deacons were outgained by their opposition 463 to 385.

Krazy Kristi’s “SHUT UP!” of the Week goes to B1G Presidents and Chancellors. The thing that really stinks about the B1G reboot is that these highfalutin dogmatists will never have to fess up to their original motives for canceling the season. It took coaches, players, parents, donors, students, and fans all raging at the castle gates to get them to wake up. Finally, the Presidents surrendered. Give them their meat and they’ll go away. The fact that this new vote to move ahead with an October 24 start date was unanimous, after it was allegedly unanimous in the other direction just a month ago, stinks of some backroom dealings. The lack of transparency is still firmly in place and nobody will lose their job.

YET ANOTHER FOLLOW UP: In an interview with Paul Finebaum last week, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was asked what was the biggest concern at this point. His first response? Health stuff, right? Nope. It was those stupid electronic whistles. KK is pleased that Sankey is such an avid reader of RBR.

HEISMAN HYPE

With the exception of TWO YEARS, the Heisman Trophy voting is basically a hype award. Often times voters fall in love with someone and refuse to REALLY look at what a player has accomplished.

WHO WILL WIN

CLARIFICATION: This section is not who deserves to win. It is who the slobbering press and other voters will callously crush on.

1. Trevor Lawrence (QB, ECDD, Jr.) - Played Citadel and ended his day in the second quarter. Must be nice having a cupcake schedule.
2. Justin Fields (QB, an Ohio State, Jr.) - The “experts” must be so relieved. Now they don’t have to delete their pre-written Heisman articles.
3. A token running back - Travis Etienne of Clemson (exhibition game vs Citadel) or Najee Harris of Alabama. Chuba Hubbard of Oklahoma State had 93 yards on 27 attempts and one score against a bad team. That is a scant 3.4 yards per carry.
4. A token defensive player.

WHO SHOULD WIN

CLARIFICATION: This section IS for who deserves to win it.

1. Get back to me when the SEC starts up.

THE SICK REPORT

• According to Nick Saban, Alabama’s Ronald Williams “fractured his arm in practice about a week ago, so we know he’s out for the game.” He is the only Tide player expected to miss the Mizzou game.
• The status of UGA QB JT Daniels’s health is still a bit hazy. “We hope JT will be cleared by Saturday, officially,” Kirby Smart told reporters Monday.
• Former Alabama current Missy State offensive lineman Scott Lashley will miss the 2020 season due to injury. He grad-transferred his past off-season and was vying for the stating spot at right tackle.
• Tennessee TE Austin Pope “is not going to play right now” as he recovers from back surgery.
• FSU head coach Mike Norvell has done caught the big bad ‘rona and has been locked up in a room for awhile.

DRAMA

• A mildly surprising announcement out of South Carolina was that some guy named Collin Hill would be the starting quarterback over returning starter Ryan Hilinski. Apparently, this Hill guy played for Colorado State last season. Oh, by the way... the Gamecocks new OC is none other than Mike Bobo who was fired as coach of the CSU Rams after a 4-8 campaign last season. Hmm... I wonder how that worked out for Chad Morris and his SMU quarterback Ben Hicks who transferred to Arky last season and is currently looking for a job selling insurance.
• Tennessee offensive lineman Cade Mays has been granted a transfer waiver by the NCAA, but still needs approval from the SEC to play this season. Kirby is SO PISST!
• After declaring for the draft earlier in the week, Ohio State DB Shaun Wade announced that he will return to Columbus for his senior season.
• Vandy starting safety Tae Daley and backup safety Tre Douglas both decided to enter the transfer portal last week. The ‘Dores lost their eighth and ninth players since spring practice making an already bad team perilously thin in depth. They are staring 0-10 straight in the face and Derek Mason still won’t get fired.
• All-American weenie Tate Martell has opted out at Miami-FL after being being suspended for the season opener. Bro, just get your degree and move on from football.
• Jackson State named Deion Sanders their football coach. @I’m sure they will be REAL disciplined.@
• For anyone who cares, UMass has changed their minds as well and will try to schedule a limited number of games beginning in mid-October.
• Kirby Smart has asked that everyone start calling his wife “Miss Mary”.
• Urban Meyer has been social distancing from the toilet. On Monday he told reporters “why infect my terlit when the neighbor’s hydrangeas will more than suffice.”
• When a reporter asked Fat F*** Phil Fulmer what he would be doing during the quarantine, the UT AD stated that he would be “sitting around the house”. What the reporter didn’t know is that FFPF would actually be sitting AROUND the house.

TEEVEE

A couple of high-profile SB Nation castoffs have found a pretty cushy landing spot. Spencer Hall and Richard Johnson will join former UGA Bulldog Brandon Boykin as replacements for Marcus Spears and Greg McElroy on the SEC Network’s weekly ‘Thinking Out Loud’ crapfest. RBR emphatically denies the rumors that Airwreck, J-Tad, Brent, and CeeBee will be taking over for the clucking hens on The View.

THIS WEEK

REAL college football begins here!

(Below is an abbreviated list of highlighted games of interest. If you REALLY need to know about the big Stephen F. Austin-SMU showdown, you can find the details here.)

Thursday, September 24, 2020

UAB at South Alabama 6:360/7:30 ESPN - Battle of the ugly step-cousins.

Friday, September 25, 2020

MTSU at UTSA 7pm/8pm CBSSN - Not A MUST see.

Saturday, September 26

SEC

Florida at Ole Miss 11am/noon ESPN - Kiffin vs. Mullen. Yes, please.
Kentucky at Auburn 11am/noon SECN - 11am start? LOL! Keep an eye on this one.
Mississippi State at LSU 2:30/3:30 CBS - Gary is going to be nuclear nauseating.
Georgia at Arkansas 3pm/4pm SECN - Who will UGA QB be?
Alabama at Mizzou 7pm/6 pm ESPN - see below
Vanderbilt at Texas A&M 6:30/7:30 SECN Alt - #KickVandyOutOfTheSEC
Tennessee at South Carolina 6:30/7:30 SECN

THEM OTHERS

Notre Dame at Wake Forest 11am/noon ABC - 11am start? LOL
Kansas State at Oklahoma 11am/noon FOX - 11am start? LOL
Georgia Southern at ULL 11am/noon ESPN2 - Napier’s boys got a scare last week.
Iowa State at TCU 12:30/1:30 FS1
Texas at Texas Tech 2:30/3:30 FOX
Army at Cincy 2:30/3:30 ESPN - worth a look!
FSU at Miami of Florida 6:30/7:30 ABC - Remember when this game was must see TV? Go ask grandpa. He’ll tell ya.

INSOMNIACS ONLY

Troy at BYU 9:15/10:15 ESPN - G’nite!

MACK and SABAN vs. OZ and LAVELL

Charlotte backed out on a their game with UNC this past Saturday, which is probably good for them because they woulda gotten waxed. Thus, no change on the big board for Mack Brown and Nick Saban.

[For those of you new to RBR Random Thoughts, we count all on-field wins in Division I-A, aka FBS. So, before you go screaming about Frank Beamer, 42 of his wins came at Murray State. Brown had six victories in one season with Appalachian State when they were still in what was known at I-AA (FCS today). In addition, we don’t recognize NCAA sanctioned forfeits. If you won on the field, it counts in our books.]

#ALABAMA

It’s FINALLY here! It’s Game Week, y’all!

GAME 1: Saturday, September 26, 2020

Alabama Crimson Tide at Mizzou Tigers

Faurot Field, Columbia, MO ~ 7 pm ET / 6 pm CT, ESPN

• Announcers: Sean McDonough and Todd Blackledge with Todd McShay and Allison Williams on the sidelines. One of the better crews!
• Eli Gold on Alabama Radio.
• Alabama is 4-2 all-time against the Tigers. The Tide have won 4 straight in the series.
• The earliest line on this game was Bama -25½. It is now up to 27 and climbing. Over/Under is 55½.

#RollTide