Iowa dispatched Purdue by 20 points locking up their first division title since the Big Ten went to divisions (sorry, they never won a Legends title) and now they await their opponent. Michigan St. upsetting the Buckeyes on a last second field goal changed the outlook of the East division. Now if Michigan St. handles Penn St. this weekend it’s the Spartans heading to Indianapolis to take on the Hawkeyes but if Sparty loses the winner of the Ohio St.-Michigan matchup wins the East. I had been saying all week that Iowa needed Ohio St. to stay unbeaten and meet up with the Hawkeyes in Indy in order for Iowa to earn a shot at the College Football Playoff by beating the Buckeyes. That is no longer the case because of a few things that happened this weekend. First Ohio St. and Oklahoma St. lost meaning Iowa and Clemson are the only Power 5 schools left undefeated (Houston was knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten also but that didn’t really change anything). If Iowa beats Nebraska it no longer matters which team they play in the Big Ten Championship because there is no way the College Football Playoff Committee is leaving an undefeated Big Ten Champion out of the Top 4 if they are one of only two undefeated teams in the FBS (assuming Clemson stays unbeaten). It’s conceivable the Committee could take one or even two 1-loss teams over the Hawkeyes but if they take three Jim Delaney will nuke the Committee. The second thing that happened was Notre Dame’s awful showing against Boston College Saturday night at Fenway Park. The Irish looked horrible turning the ball over 5 times and only escaped with a 3-point win because BC is terrible this year. I think the Committee might downgrade the Irish this week in the rankings but even if they don’t if the Irish play this week against Stanford the way they played against BC it will be a moot point, you don’t survive against a good team turning the ball over that much. Iowa moved ahead of Notre Dame in both the AP and Coaches’ Polls this week up to #3 and I think they might leapfrog the Irish in the eyes of the Committee too. I haven’t tried to predict what the CFP Committee will do but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rankings this week are 1. Clemson 2. Alabama 3. Iowa 4. Oklahoma 5. Notre Dame and that would be a tenuous hold on #5 for the Irish as Baylor will be nipping at their heels.
Iowa is a legitimate contender and they have done an excellent job of being laser focused on the each individual week. This week it is a Nebraska team that is hoping to play spoiler and earn bowl eligibility. Those may be motivating factors for the Huskers but the Hawkeyes are looking at a possible undefeated season and shot at the Playoffs if they can beat Nebraska and win in Indy. This game isn’t going to come down to motivation because both teams have something to play for meaning it’s going to come down to who is the better team and Iowa is clearly the better team this season. The Hawkeyes have won some tough road games this year and they have won ugly at times but all that matters is that they have done nothing but win.
College Football Hott Reads
- The Iowa St. Cyclones have relieved Paul Rhoads of his duties at the end of the year. I didn’t know if AD Jamie Pollard would pull the plug on Rhoads given the money he is owed on the contract Pollard gave him and the fact that there are a lot of job openings but I guess blowing a huge lead to KSU was the final straw. Rhoads tried the old “fire the coordinator and blame everything on him” a few weeks ago but it wasn’t enough and now Pollard is on to another coaching search. There are a boatload of jobs available that are better than the Iowa St. job (seriously I’m not going to list them all) so Pollard has his work cut out for him. He has no shot at the hot young head coaches (Tom Herman, Justin Fuente, Matt Campbell or PJ Fleck) because there are too many good jobs and not enough young guns to fill them. I’m not sure he’ll have much luck with hot coordinators either like TCU’s Doug Meachum, Baylor’s Kendal Briles or Oregon’s Scott Frost because as guys like Herman, Fuente, Campbell and Fleck move up those jobs open up for those coordinators. His best bet is an older coach at a small school. James Madison’s Everett Withers (52), Illinois St’s Brock Spack (53) or Georgia Southern’s Willie Fritz (55) could be had and all three are good coaches. The only problem is these three have been around long enough to know how hard of a job Iowa St. really is. I will be interested to see which direction Pollard goes and who he eventually ends up with. If he calls and asked my advice (as all College AD’s and NFL GM’s should) I would tell him to target Southern Miss coach Todd Monken or Miami Dolphins Senior Offensive Assistant Ken O’Keefe (I’m joking about one of those names). A couple of names that might not inspire a lot of confidence but are better coaches than they get credit for would be former Michigan coach Brady Hoke and LSU offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, the Cyclones have done worse. I do love the fact that some Cyclone fans are delusional enough to think they have a shot at Les Miles if he parts ways with LSU.
- Syracuse decided to throw their hat into the circus ring that is sure to be this off season’s coaching carousel when they fired Scott Shafer. Shafer replaced his former boss Doug Marrone when he left to take the Buffalo Bills job a few years ago, yeah neither of those things worked out well. Maybe Syracuse should call Marrone up again since he’s now the offensive line coach of the Jaguars.
- Supposedly LSU is getting tired of winning a lot with Les Miles as head coach and they want to try to win more with someone else. I’m not sure what makes them think Nick Saban or Jimbo Fisher are actually going to take the job and leave their cushy positions at Alabama and Florida St. to take over the Tigers but they need to be careful what they wish for. When they strike out on Saban and Fisher (who are sure to use the LSU job to get raises into the $10 million/year range) they are just as likely to end up with the next Gerry Dinardo as they are the next Saban. Dinardo had a couple of good years (’96 &’97) in Baton Rogue but it was Saban and then Miles that made LSU an SEC power.
NFL Hott Reads
- Brock Osweiler replaced Peyton Manning in the starting lineup for the Broncos this week and he played well. He threw for 250 yards and 2 TDs and didn’t have an interception so that was new for Denver’s offense. Gary Kubiak already announced Osweiler will start next Sunday night against the Patriots as Manning still has a foot issue. Let’s be real, Kubiak is moving on to QB that is a better fit to run the offense he wants to run. Manning apparently wants to play next year even though it looks like a long shot that he’ll be back in Denver. Manning may want to play another year but his age, his injury history and his performance are going to make it tough to get someone to want him as their QB. Although he is tight with the Browns owner so maybe Manning can fill in as GM, head coach, offensive coordinator and starting QB. He should host SNL again too.
- The NFL is down to 2 unbeaten teams, the Patriots which isn’t much of a surprise and the Carolina Panthers which kind of is. Ron Rivera should be running away with Coach of the Year honors. Cam Newton would be a shoo-in for MVP if this were a normal year but Tom Brady is running away with that award.
The Hott Read 