College Football Awards Week 11 (2017) November 13, 2017

(Note:  All rankings are current AP [week 11] unless otherwise noted.)

COACHES
Wish I were him: Mark Richt, Miami

Glad I’m not him: Kirby Smart, Georgia

Lucky guy: Nick Saban, Alabama

Poor guy: Dan Mullen, Mississippi State

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: (none)

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Jeff Monken, Army

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Kirby Smart, Georgia

Desperately seeking … anything:  Butch Jones, Tennessee

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Texas A&M (defeated New Mexico 55-10)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Alabama (defeated No. 16 Mississippi State 31-24)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Tennessee (lost to Missouri 50-17)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Mississippi State (lost to No. 2 Alabama 31-24)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:   Ohio State (defeated No. 12 Michigan State 48-3)

Dang, they’re good: Ohio State

Dang, they’re bad:  Georgia Southern

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Georgia

Did the season start?  Virginia Tech

Can the season end?  Florida

Can the season never end?  Miami

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 2 Alabama 31, No. 16 Mississippi State 24

Play this again, too:  No. 15 Oklahoma State 49, No. 21 Iowa State 42

Never play this again: Northern Illinois 63, Ball State 17

What? Georgia Tech 28, No. 17 Virginia Tech 22

Huh?  Stanford 30, No. 9 Washington 22

Are you kidding me??  No. 7 Miami 41, No. 3 Notre Dame 8

Oh – my – God:  No. 10 Auburn 40, No. 1 Georgia 17

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 11, pre-week 12)
Ticket to die for:  None, except maybe Michigan @ No. 8 Wisconsin

Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five  matchup: Western Carolina @ North Carolina

Best non-Power Five matchup: Fresno State @ Wyoming  also:  Army @ North Texas

Upset alert: Utah @ No. 9 Washington

Must win: Texas @ West Virginia  also:  No. 8 TCU @ No. 5 Oklahoma

Offensive explosion: SMU @ No. 18 Memphis

Defensive struggle: No. 21 LSU @ Tennessee

Great game no one is talking about: Arizona @ Oregon

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Jim Harbaugh of Michigan vs. Paul Chryst of Wisconsin

Who’s bringing the body bags? Citadel @ No. 4 Clemson

Why are they playing? Wofford @ South Carolina  also:  Mercer @ No. 1 Alabama

Plenty of good seats remaining: Coastal Carolina @ Idaho

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  Louisiana-Monroe @ No. 10 Auburn

Week 11 Random Thoughts:

Is it safe to say that Miami (Fla.) is back as a top-tier program?  Already ranked No. 7 going into this weekend’s game, they crushed No. 3 Notre Dame at home, 41-8.  They remain undefeated in one of the toughest conferences in football, now at the No. 2 spot in the AP Poll (Clemson is now at No. 3).  If these shadows remain unchanged, they could face Clemson in the ACC Championship game early next month (ticket-to-die-for in the making?).  If they win that, it would be close to certain that the Hurricanes would be in the playoffs, and rightly so.  So yeah, sure looks that way.

It’s a good thing I listed Butch Jones as “Desperately seeking…anything” because as of today (Nov. 12), he got the ax at Tennessee.  This became an increasingly urgent necessity as the season progressed.  Despite the solid recruiting classes Jones brought in at Tennessee, he was unable to translate the talent into wins on the field.  Barely winning over lousy UMass was cause for concern.  Losing a squeaker to a mediocre Florida was bad enough.  Losing to Georgia in a blowout – one of the worst in recent program history – was a major embarrassment.  Losing to Kentucky – something the Volunteers very rarely do – was obviously unacceptable.  Getting crushed by hated Alabama became inevitable – which didn’t make it any less unpalatable to the Tennessee faithful.  The final nail in Jones’ coffin was a blowout loss to Missouri, of all teams.  So, Jones is now out at Tennessee.  Time for the replacement coaching search games to begin!

While this was a great weekend for college football (despite some unexpectedly one-sided outcomes – looking your way, Georgia and Notre Dame), next week shall be something of a let-down.  The only game resembling a marquee matchup is No. 19 Michigan vs No. 5 Wisconsin.  Half of the SEC is wasting the upcoming weekend with body bag games.  To wit:  Mercer plays at Alabama; Wofford plays South Carolina in an annual late-season affair (why??); Auburn dialed up a “w” with Louisiana-Monroe.  Florida would also be included, except for the fact that UAB has a much better record (7-3) than the Gators (3-6).  Not to be outdone, Clemson had to get in on the act by playing the Citadel.

At least the other half of the conference was exercising some degree of sense by scheduling real games.  Kentucky plays at Georgia.  LSU plays at Tennessee, which will no doubt further contribute to the Volunteers’ collective misery.  Texas A&M plays at Ole Miss in what should be a good game.  Missouri, surprisingly offensively spry, plays at Vanderbilt.

Purdue’s bowl eligibility hopes for the year are quickly dwindling.  They currently stand at 4-6, and have to win out over both Iowa and Indiana.  Whereas the latter seems winnable, the former, not so much.  The Boilers did themselves no favors by losing on the road to conference cellar-dweller Rutgers, then blowing a 4^th-quarter lead at home to Nebraska.  The good news is that if Purdue ends up at 5-7, they’ll still have won more games than the entire Hazell era combined.

All that said, there are some decent games that might not be of huge consequence.  Syracuse plays Louisville, for example, and Kansas State plays Oklahoma State.  Arizona at Oregon is also a good match-up, and Utah has the potential to upset Washington.  So there are enjoyable games this weekend, we’ll just have to search more diligently than usual for them.