College Football Awards, Week 9 (2019) October 27, 2019

Posted by intellectualgridiron in Sports.
Tags: Akron, Arizona State, Arkansas State, Auburn, B1G, Badgers, Big Ten, Big XII, Boston College, Bowling Green, Brian Kelly, Buckeyes, Central Florida, Clemson, college football, Dana Holgorsen, Ed Orgeron, Florida, Georgia, Gus Malzahn, Houston, Illinois, Iowa State, Jim Harbaugh, Josh Heupel, Kansas, Kansas State, Lincoln Riley, LSU, Maryland, Memphis, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi State, NCAA, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Purdue, SMU, Sonny Dykes, Sooners, South Alabama, Steve Campbell, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tom Herman, UAB, UCF, UCLA, USC, UTSA, Wildcats, Wofford
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COACHES
Wish I were him: Jim Harbaugh, Michigan (hon. mention:  Ed Orgeron of LSU)

Glad I’m not him: Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

Lucky guy: Sonny Dykes, SMU

Poor guy: Dana Holgorsen, Houston

Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Lincoln Riley

Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Josh Heupel, UCF

Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Tom Herman, Texas

Desperately seeking … anything:  Steve Campbell, South Alabama

TEAMS
Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Minnesota (defeated Maryland 52-10)

Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Texas A&M (defeated Mississippi State 49-30)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Boston College (lost to Clemson 59-7)

Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t:  Illinois (defeated Purdue 24-6)

Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did:  Michigan (defeated Notre Dame 45-14)

Dang, they’re good: LSU

Dang, they’re bad:  Purdue

Can’t Stand Prosperity:  Iowa State (hon. mention:  Oklahoma)

Did the season start?  Texas

Can the season end?  South Alabama

Can the season never end?  Ohio State

GAMES
Play this again:  No. 2 LSU 23, No 9 Auburn 20

Never play this again: No. 4 Clemson 59, Boston College 7

What?  UCLA 42, No. 24 Arizona State 32

Huh?  Oklahoma State 34, No. 23 Iowa State 27

Double-Huh?  TCU 37, No. 15 Texas 27

Are you kidding me??  No. 19 Michigan 45, No. 7 Notre Dame 14

Oh – my – God:  Kansas State 48, No. 5 Oklahoma 41

NEXT WEEK

(rankings are current AP (post-week 9, pre-week 10)
Ticket to die for:  No. 8 Georgia vs No. 6 Florida in Jacksonville

Best non-Power Five vs. Power Five  matchup: UAB @ Tennessee

Best non-Power Five matchup: No. 16 SMU @ Memphis

Upset alert: No. 7 Oregon @ USC

Must win: Georgia vs. Florida (in Jacksonville)

Offensive explosion: SMU @ Memphis

Defensive struggle: Mississippi State @ Arkansas

Great game no one is talking about: Kansas State @ Kansas

Intriguing coaching matchup:  Mack Brown of North Carolina vs Bronco Mendenhall of Virginia

Who’s bringing the body bags? No. 14 Michigan @ Maryland

Why are they playing? UTSA @ Texas A&M

Plenty of good seats remaining: Akron @ Bowling Green

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  Wofford @ No. 4 Clemson

Week 9 Thoughts:

Am I the only one who has noticed that waaaaay too many teams have bye-weeks for upcoming week 10?

Kansas State vs Oklahoma

Oh, Kansas State.  What are we to do with you?  You play under your potential all season long, then, when folks least expect it, you unleash your top potential against the toughest opponent all year, and produce one of the biggest upsets of the year in the process.  Does this mean than the Wildcats are the new world-beaters of the Big XII?  Hardly.  One might expect a regression to the mean starting next week.  It is not inconceivable that KSU could lose three of their remaining five games.  Then again, it is not inconceivable that they could win out.

Kansas State has started to intrigue us to see if their sudden improvement is an anomaly, or if it’s here to stay.  Next week they play in-state rival Kansas, who also shows continued improvement.  The game’s outcome will be of little consequence in the grand scheme of things, but it shall be a “discovery game” all the same for both teams.  Who says one cannot continue to learn new things as the college football season progresses?

Texas vs. TCU

Texas losing to LSU is more than understandable.  Indeed, they acquitted themselves well.  Losing to OU was also excusable, given that the Sooners are on fire and one of the favored teams to make the playoffs at the time.  But losing to unranked TCU?  That was at least raise a few questions, right?  Actually, it raises fewer questions than one would think.  The Longhorns’ problem is that they were always a little more vulnerable to the pass than they were to the run.  It was LSU’s key to defeating them, after all.  But as the season wore on, Texas’ injuries on their defense kept piling up, especially in their secondary, making them even more vulnerable to the pass.

The bottom line for the Longhorns is that it is going to take an offseason for the injuries to heal up and for Tom Herman to bring in another solid recruiting class (especially some top-rated defensive backs).

LSU vs Auburn

Here we witnessed a hard-fought “discovery game” in which LSU passed another key test and Auburn proved they deserve to be a top-ten team, even with a close loss.  Note to Auburn fans and administration:  Gus Malzahn has proven he is a good coach.  Keep him and pay him.

Meanwhile, all the LSU faithful who doubted where Ed Orgeron was the right man for the job are now eating some serious crow.

Michigan vs Notre Dame

What to make of this outcome?  Many had left Jim Harbaugh for dead by now.  Then again, if Michigan had played all four quarters against No. 6 Penn State last week the way they played against them in the second half, they would have won that game, too.  Sure, the Wolverines started out ranked No. 5 only for their offense to sputter and for them to take a nose dive in the polls and in the esteem of fans.  Not anymore.  After thrashing the Fighting Irish at home in prime time, they appear to finally play like a team that belongs in the top ten.  What gives?  The most likely explanation is that it took this long for the team to finally gel.  These things sometimes happen it football it’s part of the game, and always yields new discoveries in the process.  We continue to learn new things as this college football season progresses.

Ohio State vs Wisconsin.

Personally, I predicted that the Buckeyes would beat the Badgers, maybe by two touchdowns, if that.  Instead, we witnessed a 38-7 thrashing of Wisconsin at the hands of Ohio State.  Is anybody going to contend that OSU should not be ranked No. 1 in the nation by now?

Two body bag games are up next for the Buckeyes (after a bye-week at that.  Maybe their QB’s lower back and can heal some during that time).  Then, Ohio State closes out the season with two solid challenges, first against Penn State, then against Michigan (now that the Wolverines are finally playing up to par).  We’ll see if their current roll continues strongly enough to steamroll over their last two worthy opponents.