Week of 10/19

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10/24:

  • I was expecting to see Wisconsin last night, but I didn’t recognize the Badgers that lined up with Illinois. Five touchdown passes from freshman quarterback Graham Mertz and only 3.3 yards per carry from their running backs.

  • With their win over FIU, Jacksonville State records the first FCS win over a FBS team in 2020. It’s their first win over anFBS school since beating Georgia State in 2013.

  • For fans who love to watch over 12 hours of college football games on Saturday - this is the day that it all starts. Great selection of games all day, and now with the Mountain West starting their season, there are some games starting after 10:00pm!

10/23:

  • I am getting a kick out of the fact that Southern Miss will have to use an interim coach for their interim coach for their game with Liberty. Scotty Walden, who replaced Jay Hopson (resigned) as the Golden Eagles’ head coach, has contracted the coronavirus. Tim Billings, who was the head coach of Southeast Missouri State for six years, will takeover the reins this weekend.

  • When Louisiana plays at UAB tonight, they will be playing in the hometown of their late offensive line coach, DJ Looney. To honor this special person, every Ragin’ Cajun player will wear Looney’s name across their shoulders instead of their own name. Members of Looney’s family are expected to be at the game to see this gesture of love.

  • One of my favorite bowls has canceled their game this year. The Holiday Bowl, which has been played in San Diego since 1978, has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. This is the fourth bowl to cancel this year. The others are the Redbox Bowl, the Hawaii Bowl, and the Bahamas Bowl.

  • Lastly, I find it hard to believe that 17 different Clemson players recorded a reception in last week’s game against Georgia Tech.

10/22:

  • Another FCS Conference (MEAC) has announced its Spring 2021 schedule - which like the others is all well and good, but here are the six conferences that I am anxiously waiting for Spring schedules: Ivy League, Patriot, CAA, Big Sky, as well as two Division III conferences - the NESCAC and Centennial.

  • When Kansas and Kansas State meet in the Sunflower Showdown, it will be the 110th-straight season that these schools have met on the gridiron. Because Clemson and South Carolina won’t be playing in 2020, this game becomes the third longest uninterrupted FBS series behind Minnesota/Wisconsin (113) and NC State/Wake Forest (111).

  • The Wolfpack gets another mention tonight because they will be wearing some badass uniforms when they play UNC Saturday afternoon. Another sharp uniform worth mentioning is what Texas will be wearing at home against Baylor. They will be wearing white uniforms (paying tribute to their 1970 Championship team) at home for the first time since 1950!

10/21:

  • Not sure that it is good news for UMass, but they have added two games to their Fall 2020 schedule this week. Both Liberty and Marshall have agreed to games this fall with the Minutemen. The two teams combined are 9-0 so far this year…

  • The Southern Conference announced their 2021 Spring Football schedule. Unfortunately with the Citadel having played four non-conference games this year, the Bulldogs can only play seven league games instead of eight. The canceled game? The 100th meeting of the Citadel and Furman. Guess we can wait for that until Fall 2021…

10/20:

  • Favorite story today was the piece on ESPN about Rufus the Bobcat planning and carrying out a sneak attack on Brutus the Buckeye. Replayed the video like four times and couldn’t stop laughing at the antic.

  • For those who love watching college football, even on a Wednesday night, will get a chance to catch some MACtion on November 4th. Five games will be televised or streamed on ESPN and the sixth game will be televised on CBSSN.

  • Without having played a game yet in 2020, the Mountain West has already had its first game canceled. The New Mexico at Colorado State game will not be played this weekend and there is no plan to reschedule the game this year.

10/19:

  • After seeing the results of this past weekend’s games, it doesn’t take a scientist to recognize that Clemson and Alabama are the class of the Power 5 thus far. But, we get to see Ohio State this upcoming weekend…

  • And speaking of Week 8, it’s great to see both the Big Ten and Mountain West back in action. One only has to look at the different TV slots to see that there are more games that are worthy of one’s attention.

  • Nice uniform combinations from Saturday’s games: Kansas at West Virginia (look that WVU look!), Ole Miss at Arkansas, and Kentucky at Tennessee.

  • Exciting to see Kentucky get their first win in Neyland Stadium since 1984 and what a game between Memphis and UCF! Over 1,500 yards of offense, of which almost 1,100 was through the air. Very happy for the Tigers - they deserved it.

  • Like Sacramento State, Towson State has opted out of the Spring 2021 season to concentrate on a return to action in the Fall of 2021.