What a Rivalry Week
An incredible rivalry week took place in the world of College Football this past weekend, and it set up incredible storylines and thrills as we get closer and closer to the playoffs.
For starters, we need to talk about The Game. The greatest rivalry in College Football and arguably the greatest rivalry in American sports, the Michigan Wolverines vs The Ohio State Buckeyes. Going into this game both teams had the same goal, but unlike last year, the results of this game would only greatly affect one team. From 2012-2019 Ohio State was on an 8-game winning streak when it came to playing Michigan in The Game. Up until 2019, the Buckeyes were led by Coach Urban Meyer who had won two national championships with the Florida Gators in the late 2000s, and in 2015 helped win Ohio State a national championship. In 2019 Ryan Day would take over, and that year he would win his first battle with Michigan. Since that win, Ryan Day had lost three years in a row to the Michigan Wolverines. This past Saturday, he renewed his annual losing streak by notching a 4th loss to the Wolverines in a row. If you hadn’t guessed already, that is really bad for Ohio State.
Yes, Ohio State will still most likely be in the College Football Playoff and yes they could still win the National Championship, but many would argue that winning The Game is just as important, if not, more important than winning a National Championship. And it is especially bad for the Buckeyes if you have a team built to beat Michigan and win a national championship and still lose for the 4th year in a row. Ohio State has had an incredible amount of talent over the past 4 years. Players like CJ Stroud, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, and Marvin Harrison Jr are all NFL players who played for Ohio State in the past 4 years. Players like Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith, and Denzel Burke are future NFL players who played in this past year's game. Ryan Day has managed to lose with all of these guys against Michigan. Yes, Michigan has had great players too. I mean they won the National Championship last year. But losing The Game twice at home now is not a good look for Ryan Day. Will he be fired? I don’t know. I hope he does. (I don’t like him (he called out Lou Holtz for no reason.)) Unless Day wins a championship with Ohio State this postseason, College Football may see a new head coach in the Buckeyes driver's seat next year.
What other important things happened this past weekend? Oh right. The amount of fights that took place! Rivalry weekend will always get your blood boiling, whether you’re a fan, a coach, or a player. But damn, there seemed to be a fight in every game. Ohio State showed more fight in their post-game brawl compared to the actual game. Counting off the fights that took place, these were the teams that tussled with each other.
Texas vs Texas A&M
Florida vs Florida State
Ohio State vs Michigan
Notre Dame vs USC
UNC vs NC State
Alabama vs Auburn
Virginia vs Virginia Tech (which took place before the game by the way)
Houston vs BYU
Navy vs East Carolina
And probably many more. Rivalry week delivered in every aspect. Great games, trash talk, and incredible energy. A College Football fan's dream. Now what are the consequences of what went down this weekend? Well, Oregon is undefeated and will play Penn State in the Big 10 Championship games. Apparently, people think that Penn State is a true contender (and they probably are) but these are also the same people that say Penn State can’t win in big games. Or I guess that James Franklin can’t win big games. My prediction, Oregon claims the Big 10 title winning 45-20. Texas and Georgia are facing off in the SEC championship, a rematch of a matchup that took place earlier this season where Georgia shocked everyone by beating Texas in Austin, 30-15. In my opinion, I believe that Georgia is an incredibly fraudulent team that will not win the championship this year. At the same time, Georgia has won 2 championships in the past 3 years, and Texas may be more of a pretender than we realize. That being said, Texas will win the rematch in the SEC championship 35-31. As for the other Power 4 conference championships, I think ASU will beat Iowa State in the Big 12 championship, and SMU will lose to Clemson in the ACC. As far as the playoffs as a whole go, I think Oregon is easily the strongest team out there (I mean they are undefeated what do you expect) and I think people should keep look out for Ohio State. Yes, they just lost to Michigan, but they still have incredible talent on their roster and I don’t know if they will lose again.
As for my Notre Dame Fighting Irish, despite finishing 11-1 this year (which is awesome) they made many mistakes in their rivalry game against USC. Even though they won, the Irish could have definitely lost that game. USC’s QB Jayden Maiava looked extremely similar to a QB who had won the Heisman at USC only two years before this season, Caleb Williams. Up until his two pick 6’s, Maiava showed creativity in the pocket and a powerful arm. He could be deadly for the Trojans next year and be a real threat for Notre Dame. Getting back to Notre Dame, yes they made the playoffs and that is truly awesome. However, I don’t know if they have the ability or the poise to take on the big boys from the SEC and Big 10. I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think that Notre Dame will be making it to the National Championship this year. I hope I’m wrong. Also just want to say this, Jeremiyah Love is a baller. So is his backup Jadarian Price.
Finally, just my thoughts when it comes to the Heisman Race. It’s easy to see that this race is between two guys, Travis Hunter and Ashton Jeanty. The argument for and against them is pretty simple, but the race being so close is what makes it not so simple. For Hunter, the argument is that he is an incredible 2-way superstar who is an amazing athlete and will impact the game no matter what on both ends. The argument against Hunter is that he is not even the best player at either of the positions he plays, and his combining the two gives him an edge that is pointless as many players could do what he does if he played both ends. Just to make it clear, the best CB in College Football is Will Johnson from Michigan or Benjamin Morrison from Notre Dame. As for Wide Receivers, names like Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Luther Burden III, and Tetairoa McMillan are all guys that you could argue are better than Travis Hunter at wide receiver. Now Ashton Jeanty, the 5’9, 216 lbs running back out of Boise State who is incredibly hard to tackle, broke 2000 yards rushing this season (making him an all-time great college RB) and is a man so good, that he sits out of the 2nd half of games because Boise State will win easily because of the numbers he put up in the 1st half. That is a pretty strong argument for why Jeanty could/should win the Heisman. However, the argument against this is that Jeanty plays for a team that is in the Mountain West conference, and the competition in the Mountain West is nowhere near as good as what Hunter or any other player deals with in the Power 4 conferences. However, I feel like that argument can be denounced because Jeanty did rush for 192 yards and 3 TDs against the now #1 and still undefeated Oregon Ducks.
But like I said, this is a close Heisman race. Both players are incredibly impactful and dangerous when on the field. As for my vote, I think Ashton Jeanty deserves the Heisman. However based on Travis Hunter’s incredible game last Friday and the hype around it, Jeanty may not be hoisting that trophy in New York City.
