PITT WINS THE ACC CHAMPIONSIP, and Other Football Thoughts

 

Last night was another "This Is Why You Follow Sports" moment for fans (long-suffering?) of Pitt football, as we watched as the Panthers rolled to a 45-21 victory over Wake Forest to claim their first ever Atlantic Coast Conference Football Championship.  After a first quarter that appeared to be the beginning of a 100 total points game, Wake led 21-14.  It was the Panthers defense that then rose up and completely throttled Wake Forest from that point forward. Numerous sacks of the quarterback and four interceptions, one returned to the two yard line and one returned for a touchdown, led to Pitt's dismantling of the Demon Deacons.

The night also was showcase for quarterback Kenny Pickett, who threw for 258 yards and two TDs, and positively electrified the crowd, the announcers, and the TV audience on the fourth play off the game by running around end for 58 yards and the game's first touchdown.

It was the culmination of a season that will surely make Pickett a Heisman Trophy finalist, and a career that has seen him claim ownership of every single significant passing record in the history of Pitt football.   He was both the ACC's Offensive Player of the Year and Player of the Year in 2021.  He is a likely first round NFL draft pick, and he has given his name to an era of Pitt football: The Kenny Pickett Era.  Pitt will have one more game to play, probably the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.  In order to protect himself from possible injury, it is possible, and probably advisable, that Pickett will sit that one out, and if chooses to do so, I don't think that a single Pitt fan will begrudge him that choice.  I'm guessing, though, that from what I've read about him and seen of him over the past five years, he will be playing in Miami on January 1st.

A few years ago, someone asked me "What are your reasonable expectations of a college football team that you follow (in my case, Pitt)?"  My answer was that (a) when you watch them play, you would hope that they would have a reasonable chance of competing in every game that they play, (b) that you would hope that they win more games than they lose, (c) that they would be entertaining, and (d) you would hope that they would be competitive for their conference championship most years  and have a reasonable chance of actually winning the conference every five years or so.

Pitt did all of that in 2021, and gave us a season to remember.   Anything that happens in a Bowl game (which, except for the CFP games, have become pretty much meaningless) will be icing on the cake, and that 2021 ACC Championship Banner can hang forever at Heinz Field.

It's Why You Follow Sports.  Hail To Pitt!

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Yesterday was absolute Hog Heaven for fans of college football with Conference Championship games being played throughout the day.  Serving as the amuse-bouche  for the Pitt game for me was the Big XII title game at Noon and the SEC matchup at 4:00.

Baylor defeated Oklahoma State in the Big XII game, a game that served to convince me that neither of these teams deserve to be within sniffing distance of any CFP consideration.  It was an exciting game, but not all that good a one.

In the SEC, Alabama throttled undefeated, first ranked, and seven point favorite Georgia 41-24.  It was a game that undoubtedly sewed up the Heisman Trophy for Crimson Tide QB Bryce Young, and also a game that prompts the question, why would you ever - EVER - pick against a Nick Saban team in a big game?

Did you catch this amazing statistical graphic that CBS showed during the game?  In games where a Saban coached team has held a 14 point lead at any point in the game,  the teams have a record of 160-4.  Now it's 161-4.

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The CFP Committee will announce it's four finalists in about a half hour (it is 11:30 AM as I type this).  My guess is that Alabama will be #1 and Cincinnati will be #4.  Michigan and Georgia will be 2-3 or 3-2, not that that matters.  No way the Committee would want to see a Alabama-Georgia rematch in the first round, and why would they even want to allow for the possibility of that in the final?  I think inclusion of Notre Dame in the final four would be better and more attractive, but I also think that the sway that the SEC holds in college football will carry the day, and they will get two spots in th playoffs.

Let's hope for a Michigan win in the semis.  Can you imagine the hype a Nick Saban-Jim Harbaugh match up will generate?  Assuming that the Tide beats Cincy, of course.

One really good thing about his year's CFP, of course, is the fact that William Christopher Swinney will not be coaching in it.

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Before actual games were played this weekend, college football dominated the news this past week with two amazing coaching changes.  Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC,

and Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame - NOTRE DAME!!!! - for LSU, where he immediately began speaking with a southern accent.

There may be college football programs bigger and more vaunted than Oklahoma and Notre Dame, but if there are, you can count them on the fingers of one hand.  There was a time, and it wasn't so long ago, that it would have been impossible to imagine a coach voluntarily leaving either of those schools to take a job at another school.

The times, they are a-changin'.

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Now to the pros.  

The Grandstander has been remiss in posting his Grandstander Power Rankings.  There are reasons for that, not the least of them being the awful performances of the Steelers in recent weeks.  I was ready to do one yesterday, but at the last minute thought, to Hell with it; might as well wait until this weekend's games are finished, so look for a new GPR come Tuesday morning.

One aspect of the NFL in recent weeks that bears noting is the fact that the New England Patriots.  Led by rookie QB Mac Jones, a strong defense, and, of course, their always lovable and peerless coach, 

the Pats have won six games in a row, have an 8-3 record and a one game lead over the team that they will play on Monday night and once again two weeks from now, the Buff Bills. This will be the Game of the Weekend in the NFL, and I can't wait to watch it come Monday night with Peyton and Eli.

It's indeed a great time of year to be a football fan!!

College Football and Its Coaches

So if you asked me back in July, "Who do you think is going to be in the College Football Playoff following the 2020 season?"  I wouldn't have had to do a whole lot of thinking (nor would anyone else) before answering...Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State.  I also would have said, cynically, if there is any way for the Committee, at the subtle urgings of ESPN, to get Notre Dame in because of the millions upon millions of eyeballs that they would bring to the party, i.e., TV sets,  then, I'll say, sure, go for the Irish.

And so it came to pass:

Are they the four best teams in the country? Probably.  Is it good for the overall state of College Football that it is so easy to predict the participants in this little scrum year after year?  That is another question, and after listening to a couple pf podcasts today and hearing some expert observers of the sport, the answer is, probably, yes.  This is the seventh year of this CFP format.  Alabama and Clemson have been in the Playoffs six times each, and this will be the fourth trip for Ohio State.  Sixteen of twenty-eight slots have been occupied by only three schools.  If you're a fan of those three schools, great, and as viewer, the quality of the games that those schools will give you is undeniably great, but what about the other one hundred and whatever number schools play D-I football, not to mention all of those schools in conferences outside of the Power Five?

This will become a problem if, and only if, the TV ratings take a dive over the years if the country as a whole tires of seeing Alabama play Clemson every year.  We shall see if that starts to happen.   I will also spare going into all of the arguments that have been stated ad nauseam over the last forty-eight hours over undefeated teams like Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina not even getting a sniff at a playoff berth.  That particular problem can be avoided by going to an eight team format, but there are arguments to be made against that, too.   Like I said, eventually, Television will decide what will happen down the road.

Now the subject of College Football Coaches.  In this aberrant year of 2020 (and I don't have to spell out the reasons for that, do I?), has any group as a whole demonstrated such a complete lack of awareness in regard to the issues that have faced the country and the sports landscapes, the COVID pandemic and social justice issues just to name two, than have college football coaches?  As conferences and individual schools weighed whether or not to even play football this year, people like Dabo Swinney and Mike Gundy made dumbass statements all summer long showing their lack of self-awareness on these matters.  And in these last few weeks, add remarks by Jumbo Fisher, Dan Mullen, and Swinney (again!).  

The guy who might take the cake for brass, though, was Brian Kelly of Notre Dame.  Days before his conference championship game was to be played, Kelly made his statement about maybe bypassing the playoff entirely if the parents of the players weren't allowed to attend.  First of all, no school is going to bypass the financial windfall that going to the CFP would give them.  Who is he trying to kid here?  Was he speaking for ND prexy Fr. John Jenkins when he made this grandiose statement of university policy?  Arrogance personified.  Then again, the CFP bowed to his wishes and moved the playoff game out of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and into JerryWorld in Dallas, so who really is running the show at these schools?  I also understand that the game will still be called the "Rose Bowl", because, well, why in hell not?

And how can I write a college football post without commenting on Dabo Swinney, the personification of pius, pontificating, arrogant and clueless college football coaches.  Oh, he can coach, no question about that, but he's still a horse's ass on many fronts, including his sideline behavior.  I've written enough about that in the past so I won't go into it again, but I will mention what he tolerates in the behavior of his staff, particularly defensive coordinator Brent Venables.  The TV cameras love to focus on Venables on the sidelines because of his completely out-of-control actions during the course of a game. He might even be a bigger horse's ass than his boss, Swinney.  Just imagine if you went into a bank to apply for a home mortgage, or an insurance agency to purchase life insurance, and encountered employees in those establishments who comported themselves like these guys do.  You'd run for the exits as fast as you could to get way from idiots like that.

Which leads me to another observation.  Who among this fraternity of coaches DOESN'T act like that?  Who seems to remain calm on the sidelines throughout the games?  Who doesn't go off on the media and rant incoherently?  Who doesn't make stupid statements in public all the time?  Who doesn't rip his players a new one on the sidelines in full view of packed stadiums and TV cameras?  The answer to those questions:

Yep, it's Nick Saban, arguably the best coach of all of them.  Now I am sure that examples can be found and cited of Saban doing exactly those things over the years that I just said he doesn't do, but, by and large, he is not like any of these other dopes that I have already mentioned in this post.

As for the upcoming games themselves, more on them as we approach January 1, but at this point I can't see anything other Alabama meeting Clemson for the fourth time in the Final Game (and fifth time overall) in the seven year history of the CFP.  Such a match-up will certainly make for the best game, even if we've seen it many times before.