College Football Thoughts

Just a few thoughts on the recently complete regular season of college football:

• I think the NCAA got the 4 college football playoff teams correct.  You could maybe make a case for Penn State over Ohio State, but in the end I think that 39 point Penn State loss to Michigan was a deal breaker for them.  I suspect Alabama will easily handle Washington, and Clemson will handle Ohio State, setting up a repeat of last years championship game.  I also suspect that Alabama will have no problem dispatching Clemson and winning their second straight National Championship. 
• If the NCAA had gone with an 8 team playoff, I suspect that the next 4 would have been Penn State, Oklahoma, Michigan and Wisconsin.  That would make 4 of the 8 being from the Big Ten, that's pretty impressive for the Big Ten given the hype the SEC has gotten the past few years.  The tide seems to be shifting and I'm loving it.  
• If I had a Heisman Trophy vote, my vote this year would go to Michigan CB Jabrill Peppers. I don't think there was a better football player in college this football this year, he played both ways, he played special teams, he did everything and excelled at everything.  I'm guessing that Louisville QB Lamar Jackson wins it though as he was probably the most electrifying player that college football has seen in quite some time.  
• I've been impressed with all of the new college football coaching hires so far this year, I don't think anyone has made a bad move.  Willie Taggart is a great hire for Oregon.  Matt Rhule is a much better hire than I had thought that Baylor would get.  Everyone wanted Tom Herman and he landed at Texas.  Purdue got a nice hire in Jeff Brohm.  Indiana's hiring of Tom Allen was a bit underwhelming, but he's got a solid reputation and seems worthy of a promotion.  Ed Orgeron was long overdue for another head coaching job and there is no better fit for him than LSU.  The only thing that surprising to me is that nobody has scooped up P.J. Fleck yet, he's a heckuva coach. 
• My suggestion for the remaining head coaching openings?  If I'm Houston I make a run at Lane Kiffin (if USF doesn't beat them to him).  Gary Schiano might be a nice fit at USF too.  Cincinnati should be doing everything they can to secure Charlie Strong.  Les Miles would fit at any of these opening too, he's too good of a football coach to not have a job somewhere.  
• I was very happy to hear that Minnesota will be extending their head coach Tracy Claeys.  He got 8 wins out of the Gophers this year with very substandard QB play.  While there were a few red flags with him (namely recruiting & clock management), it was only his first year as head coach and I think he can improve.  I just really like their approach too, both offensively and defensively, run first, work the clock, win the time of possession battle, keep the defense rested, it's going to keep them in most games.  If they can find a QB and get that offense straightened out they will be a team to watch going forward.  If they had Deshaun Watson playing QB they may have run the table this past season.  
• I'm very discouraged with Arizona State though.  The way they closed this season really made me lose faith in Todd Graham.  I expect better from a coach in his 5th season at the helm.  They seem to be regressing and if I was Arizona State AD I would have cut ties with him.  I'm guessing money had something to do with keeping him around for at least another year and if that's the case that's unfortunate because I think that will only set the program back in the long run.  They seemed to have recruited okay in the Graham years but that hasn't translated to the field which leads me to suspect that he just chasing stars without much sense to how well they will fit into his system and that he's not doing a good enough job of developing the talent once they arrive (the continuing instability of the coaching staff may have something to do with that too).  And don't even get me started on that God awful defense.  Hopefully, I'm wrong and they can turn the corner next year, I'm not betting on it though.