It’s not fantasy, but if we could just have ONE thread about college football please…?
I remember back when the first three or four weeks of the college football season was just record-padding–games against FCS or scrub FBS teams that weren’t any more interesting to watch than NFL preseason games. But this trend lately of having meaningful games early in the season is hitting the fan in opening weekend of 2021…
Minnesota put up a heckuva home opener against #4 Ohio State tonight–but the wind went out of their sails when Mohamed Ibrahim, expected to be one of the nation’s top RB prospects after choosing to return for his senior year, appeared to tear his Achilles in the 3rd Q. His season is likely over. His NFL career, once gleaming, is now sketchy.
And there are more games with huge implications coming this weekend…
#1 Alabama at #14 Miami #5 Georgia at #3 Clemson #19 Penn State at #12 Wisconsin #17 Indiana at #18 Iowa #23 Louisiana at #21 Texas #9 Notre Dame at Florida State #10 North Carolina at Virginia Tech
Michigan State at Northwestern
I mean, this is like a week right out of the heart of the conference races–in Week 1!
Even the Boise State at UCF game was kind of an interesting matchup tonight–the first meeting between the two teams in history! And it was a 1-point Boise State lead with 5 minutes to go in the game. (Then UCF scored, failed a 2pt conversion attempt, intercepted Boise’s final drive in their own red zone, and ran out the clock.)
The NFL doesn’t wanna play this week? Fine, be that way. I got stuff to do.
And we have our first upset–#10 North Carolina goes down to Virginia Tech. It’s hard to imagine North Carolina was even in the game late in the 4th quarter–it seemed like VT was doing anything they wanted (they just suffered from some key turnovers at inopportune times). But yeah, NC had a potentially game-tying 2 minute drill that ended with an “interception” that was less of a catch than Megatron’s. Fun game.
Interesting that the last three starting QBs for both Alabama and Oklahoma will all be starting on opening day in the NFL, and Jalen Hurts is two of them.
I wouldn’t expect much from Connecticut (winless in their last 7 games) at Vanderbilt (winless in their last 8 home games), but since YouTube TV automatically records every college football game for me, I can sit here on a Wednesday evening and catch this action that I never would have seen otherwise.
It gets good about a minute in, when the UConn QB gets called for intentional grounding on 3rd and 9, bring up 4th and 19. With a last-gasp pass (that barely clears a blitzing defender’s hand at launch), the receiver beats double coverage to convert a 1st down with a circus catch–and two plays later, UConn is in the end zone to take the lead with 1:07 to play. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen–that ended up not mattering anyway. Here’s the Readers’ Digest version…
