Week 11 College Football Review

Two weeks in a row with great games. This week was the best week of the year so far as there were top match-ups from 11 am for the rest of the day. However, only Alabama was actually challenged (outside of Notre Dame losing to Miami) as Miami, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin looked every bit of playoff teams. The big upset was Auburn defeating Georgia. Not only beating them, but utterly blowing them out. Unfortunately as good as this past week was the upcoming week is a crappy week of cupcakes all the way around for to top teams.

This should not be a week of upsets. Anything CAN happen, but it is very unlikely.

Playoff Teams

1. Alabama Crimson Tide (10-0)

If Alabama was set up for an upset this week would have been it. Mississippi State looked like they were on their way to an upset. Alabama scored the remainder 14 points of the game to take the win and remain at the top of the playoff picture. This week they play Mercer and they could probably play the third string and come away with an easy win.

Last week: Defeated Mississippi State 31-24

Up next: at home against Mercer

2. Oklahoma Sooners (9-1)

Oklahoma continues to make the rare home loss to Iowa State look like a mirage. Not only did they easily handle TCU their defense continues to improve. Yes they gave up 38 1st half points to Oklahoma State, but they were able to keep OSU to 14 points in the second half and only allowed 20 points to a high power offense. They should have an easy week this week playing Kansas. After that they play West Virginia (which is always a tough game for them) and the Big 12 Championship game. The so-called experts at ESPN have said that Oklahoma's loss to Iowa State looks worse than Clemson's loss to Syracuse (hence why they have Clemson ranked above Oklahoma). To me, that is a weak argument as the team Oklahoma lost to has beaten two top 5 teams (OU and TCU) and almost beaten another one (Oklahoma State) and is bowl eligible. Syracuse has only looked good in one game (against Clemson) and it is possible they may not get to bowl eligibility.

​Last week: Defeated #6 TCU 38-20

Up next: at Kansas

3. Miami Hurricanes (9-0)

Everyone (myself included) thought the Miami-Notre Dame game would be a return to the great rivalry of the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately Notre Dame completely forgot to show up the game and Miami easily handled them. Up next for the Hurricanes is Virginia. This could be a huge hangover game for Miami. Probably not, but they should definitely be on upset alert.

​Last week: Defeated #8 Notre Dame 41-8

Up next: at home against Virginia

4. Wisconsin Badgers (10-0)

There is still a lot of disrespect being thrown at Wisconsin's direction. This past week they completely destroyed an Iowa team that the week before had blown out Ohio State. This week they host Michigan in one of the only games that should be an actually decent game.

​Last week: Defeated Iowa 38-14

Up next: at home against #13 Michigan

Next Two Up

1. Clemson (9-1)

Clemson's match-up against Florida State was a pre-season high profile game. Then Florida State's QB went down in the first game and they have not been the same since. Clemson's win was never in doubt. Their next game is also a no doubt win.

​Last week: Defeated Florida State 31-14

Up next: at home against The Citadel

2. Auburn (8-2)

Auburn looked absolutely unbeatable against Georgia this past week. However, one of their two losses was against LSU (which lost to Troy). This season has been an odd season, that is for sure. This week Auburn has what should be an easy game against Monroe.

​Last week: defeated #7 Georgia 40-17

Up next: at home against Monroe

Top 20

I have retooled my Top 20 after it was pointed out that 25% of my top 20 were teams from non-Power 5 conferences. While the top teams in those conferences have had good seasons there is no doubt that against the top talent in the Power 5 conferences they simply would not compete. So this week I am down to 4 teams in the top 20 (which is still a higher percentage than it should be).

3. Central Florida(9-0)(up 3): ​Last week: Defeated UConn 49-24; up next: at Temple

4. Oklahoma State(8-2)(up 3): ​Last week: Defeated Iowa State 49-42​; up next: at home against Kansas State

5. Penn State(8-2)(up 8): ​Last week: Defeated Rutgers 35-6; up next: at home against Nebraska

6. TCU(8-2)(down 3): ​Last week: Lost to #2 Playoff Oklahoma 38-20; up next: at Texas Tech

7. Georgia(9-1)(down 6): ​Last week: Lost to #2 Auburn 40-17; up next: at home against Kentucky

8. Notre Dame(8-2)(down from Playoffs): ​Last week: Lost to Miami 41-8​; up next: at home against Navy

9. Ohio State(8-2)(up 5): ​​Last week: Defeated Michigan State 48-3​; up next: at home against Illinois

10. USC(9-2)(up 7): ​Last week: Defeated Colorado 38-24​; up next: at home against UCLA

11. Washington(8-2)(down 6): ​Last week: Lost to Stanford 30-22​; up next: at home against Utah

12. Memphis(8-1)(down 4): ​Last week: ​Off​; up next: at SMU

13. Michigan(8-2)(up 2): Last week: Defeated Maryland 35-10; up next: at #4 Playoff Wisconsin

14. Washington State(9-2)(up 6): ​Last week: Defeated Utah 33-25; up next: at #11 Washington

15. Arizona(7-3)(unranked): ​Last week: Oregon 49-28​; up next: at Oregon

16. Boise State(8-2)up 3): ​Last week; Defeated Colorado State 59-52​; up next: at home against Air Force

17. Northwestern(7-3)(unranked): Last week: ​Defeated Purdue 23-13; up next: at home against Minnesota

18. South Florida(8-1)(down 6): ​Last week: Defeated UConn 37-20​; up next: at home against Tulsa (Thursday 11/16)

19. West Virginia(7-3)(unranked): ​Last week: Defeated Kansas State 28-23; up next: at home against Texas

20. Mississippi State St(7-3)(unranked): Last week: ​Lost to #1 Alabama 31-24​; up next: at Arkansas

Bowl and Playoff Projection

Playoffs

Rose Bowl

January 1st, 5 PM

#2 Oklahoma vs #3 Miami

Sugar Bowl

January 1st, 8:45 PM

#1 Alabama vs #4 Wisconsin

New Year's Six

Cotton Bowl

December 29th, 8:30 PM

#4 Oklahoma State vs #8 Notre Dame

Fiesta Bowl

December 30th, 4 PM

#10 USC vs #5 Penn State

Orange Bowl

December 30th, 8 PM

#1 Clemson vs #9 Ohio State

Peach Bowl

January 1st, 12:30 PM

#7 Georgia vs #3 Central Florida

Rest of the Bowls

December 13th

New Orleans Bowl

1 PM

Troy vs Marshall

Cure Bowl

2:30 PM

SMU vs Arkansas State

Las Vegas Bowl

3:30 PM

Boise St vs Arizona St

New Mexico Bowl

4:30 PM

Alabama-Birmingham vs Wyoming

Camellia Bowl

8 PM

Toledo vs Appalachian State

December 19th

Boca Raton Bowl

7 PM

Temple vs Florida Atlantic

December 20th

Frisco Bowl

8 PM

Houston vs Louisiana-Monroe

​December 21st

Gasparilla Bowl

8 PM

South Florida vs North Texas

​December 22nd

Bahamas Bowl

12:30 PM

Florida International vs Central Michigan

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

4 PM

Northern Illinois vs San Diego St

​December 23rd

Birmingham Bowl

Noon

Ole Miss vs Memphis

Armed Forces Bowl

3:30 PM

Army ​vs Southern Miss

Dollar General Bowl

7 PM

Ohio vs Georgia State

​December 24th

Hawai'i Bowl

8:30 PM

SMU vs Fresno St

December 26th

​ Heart of Dallas Bowl

1:30 PM

Texas Tech vs Maryland

Quick Lane Bowl

5:15 PM

Rutgers vs Louisville

Cactus Bowl

10 PM

Kansas St vs UCLA

​December 27th

​ Independence Bowl

1:30 PM

Arkansas vs Pittsburgh

Pinstripe Bowl

5:15 PM

Northwestern vs Boston College

Foster Farms Bowl

8:30 PM

Nebraska vs Washington

Texas Bowl

9 PM

Texas vs Mississippi State

​December 28th

Military Bowl

1:30 PM

Navy vs Syracuse

Camping World Bowl

5:15 PM

West Virginia vs Georgia Tech

Alamo Bowl

9 PM

TCU vs Washington State

Holiday Bowl

9 PM

Stanford vs Michigan St

​December 29th

Belk Bowl

1 PM

Texas A&M vs Virginia

Sun Bowl

3 PM

Arizona vs Wake Forest

Music City Bowl

4:30 PM

Kentucky vs Iowa

Arizona Bowl

5:30 PM

Louisiana vs Colorado St

December 30th

Taxslayer Bowl

Noon

LSU vs Virginia Tech

Liberty Bowl

12:30 PM

Iowa State vs Florida

​January 1st

Outback Bowl

Noon

Michigan vs South Carolina

Citrus Bowl

1 PM

Auburn vs North Carolina St

Game of the Week

​#13 Michigan at #4 Playoff Wisconsin

​There really was not much of a choice this week. I am expecting a lot of bad football this coming week.

Fired Coaches

New segment this week as I will be updating the fired, or resigned, coaches. After the season I will update the new coaches as they come in (provided I remember). Both Oklahoma and Ole Miss lost their coaches before the season (with explanation below).

School	Old Coach	New Coach
Oklahoma	Bob Stoops	Lincoln Riley+
Ole Miss	Hugh Freeze++
UTEP	Sean Kugler
Oregon State	Gary Andersen
Georgia Southern	Tyson Summers
Florida	Jim McElwain
Tennessee	Butch Jones

+ Oklahoma - Bob Stoops suddenly retired during the summer and the same day Lincoln Riley was named as the new head coach (no interim tag)

++ Ole Miss - Hugh Freeze resigned before the season started and Matt Luke was named the interim head coach for this season. It is believed that he will not be named head coach following the season

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