Week of 11/1

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11/6:

  • Looking at last night’s scoreboard this morning - the scores of all three games surprised me. The Wolfpack gave the Hurricanes more of a battle than I expected, while the margin of BYU’s win on the blue turf got a wow from me - even though the Broncos were down to their 3rd string quarterback. The biggest surprise - the Spartans moving to 3-0 with a big win over San Diego State on the road.

  • At least one impressive streak will come to an end today, and quite possibly up to three will be finished: Notre Dame has won 22-straight at home, but Clemson has won 14 consecutive true road games and 28 consecutive games against ACC opponents. And last, but not least, Michigan has won 24-straight over Indiana.

11/5:

  • A great read is the story on ESPN about Northwestern’s run to the Rose Bowl 25 years ago. One of the more memorable seasons for a team that I can remember. I’ll never forget that first game of the year against Notre Dame, or the Rose Bowl games against USC. A story worthy of a movie…

  • Unfortunately for Florida Atlantic their highest-ranked commit for 2021, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, flipped his commitment from the Owls to Jackson State. No surprise that he wanted to play for his father.

  • More cancellations for Saturday: Arizona at Utah, Charlotte at Middle Tennessee, and UTSA at Rice.

11/4:

  • Last night was the return of MACtion, and there were some tight games, while others were over early because of turnovers and miscues. Buffalo scored three defensive touchdowns, putting an end emphatically to their losing streak against Northern Illinois.

  • Utah announced that have signed Kyle Whittingham to a contract extension that will go through 2027. Whittingham, who has guided the Utes to back-to-back Pac-12 South championships is only 11 wins away from becoming the all-time winningest coach at Utah. The record for wins is currently held by Ike Armstrong, whose record from 1925 through 1949 was 141-55-15.

  • Unfortunately there was a flurry of game cancellations today: Tulsa at Navy, Washington at Cal, Louisiana Tech at North Texas, and the most painful of all…..Air Force at Army.

11/3:

  • Conference USA has rescheduled seven games that had been postponed earlier this fall. These newly scheduled games will be played the first two weeks of December.

  • The Big Sky conference released their Spring 2021 schedule. Twelve teams are playing six games each, and this scheduling was probably made a bit easier when Sacramento State announced last month that they will not partake in the spring football season.

  • And because of the pandemic (Louisville is having positive COVID-19 tests), the Virginia-Louisville game has been postponed this week, and will now (hopeful, but doubtful) be played next Saturday.

11/2:

  • No surprise that the Purdue-Wisconsin game was canceled. It’s unfortunate for the Boilermakers, because the Badgers were down to their 4th-string quarterback. Now Purdue will have to wait until next year to try and end their 14-game losing streak to Wisconsin.

  • In other schedule news, the FIU-UTEP game has been canceled (the 4th postponed or canceled game for the Panthers this year), and Charlotte announced that they scheduled a game with Gardner-Webb, which is to be played next Saturday.

  • Autzen Stadium is now home to the largest video board, surpassing Jordan-Hare Stadium by about 1,500 square feet. An additional feature to this video board is that there is also a small screen on the backside so people can view highlights, etc. from outside the stadium.

11/1:

  • Even without Trevor Lawrence playing, hardly anyone was surprised that the Tigers came back in the second half to defeat the BC Eagles. What was most surprising was that it was freshman quarterback DJ Uiagaleilei bailing out the Tigers and not their defense.

  • How long before we see the end of the Jim Harbaugh era at Michigan? Losing at home when you are a three touchdown favorite to a rival should not be tolerated in Ann Arbor. Maybe the Spartans aren’t as bad as what they showed one week ago against Rutgers, but there is no excuse for the Wolverines to lose this game.

  • Leave it to Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide to shutout a Mike Leach team for the first time in nineteen years.

  • I was thrilled to read that the NCAA granted The Citadel a waiver so that they can play twelve games this year between Fall and Spring. What this means is that they will now play Furman for the 100th time on April 10th!