College football Week 1 thread: Chasin’ That Neon Deion Rainbow

I am Deion neutral, but he went to the worst P5 program in america, stripped the roster in unprecedented fashion, then went on the road and beat a team that played for the championship last year. In a game that was spectacularly entertaining. It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in college football. jesus, some of you guys are bitter.

 

Meanwhile, the team that Neon Deion thought he’d be walking into next season bullied LSU up and down the field in the second half, blowing up Deion’s fantasy. Breaks my teeny-tiny little heart.

 

My wife told me that but didn’t know if it was urban legend. I’m marking that one as fact!

 

Seeing Michigan do a "tribute" to Harbaugh like he died or something was a bit much, the guy lied to NCAA investigators man.

 

I love it. Sanders took advantage of the rules. Ran off a bunch of probably nice guys. Brought in 60+ transfers. Pretty much said "Get to work, win on the field." Loved his response to the culture question a week ago. He has a chip, and transferred it to the coaches and players, and they won. Doesn't matter if you win by 100 or 1, as long as you win. That's cliche but it's the damned truth and they did it.

He can't do that like he did at Jackson State! They're terrible, it may take years to rebuild! He can't just bring in 65 people and start over and win! Gotta have culture and a process and do it "the right way" and all the things!

Sanders said "Ehh, fuck all that" and did it. Whether they win again or three or eight or whatever, he did it. A lot of people and media folks talk about how college football is just the NFL feeder program. Sanders pretty much did what they do in the NFL: ran off a bunch of people, signed a shitload of free agents and got busy.

IMO a big part of what has upset a bunch of people is he's a loud, brash, very confident black guy upending the Ol'Whitey football process. Is he a saint? Hell no. Skeletons? Likely. Different in private? Again, likely. But whatever the case, they won against TCU when few people gave 'em a snowball's chance. And it was an entertaining game to boot.

Freeze did the same thing at Auburn, didn't he? Auburn sucked the last two years and was mediocre for the last few of Malzahn's seasons. Freeze came in with his ample baggage, signed a bunch of free agents and got it done. UMass isn't TCU, for sure. But Sanders gets the stinkeye for all his brashness and roster turnover, and Freeze does some similar stuff (not 65 guys, obvs) yet gets the "well, we'll see because he definitely can coach" treatment.

Perhaps both will win enough to meet in a shitty pre-Christmas bowl game and we can see Brother Hugh vs. Rev. Deion.

 

Wholesale turnover can work great for individual cases and be a disaster for the sport as a whole, especially at the moment when even the biggest fans are starting to turn up their noses at the stench of mercenaries uber alles. Listing a star player’s previous colleges now looks like a pedigree in the racing form.

If we strip the sport of all whimsy and emotional school ties, it becomes strictly about the quality of the football. And they can’t beat out the USFL with that, much less the almighty Shield.

 

Deion has the scoreboard defense to be as big of an asshole as he chooses to be, and no one should be surprised at how big of one he is being after that first game.

But as soon as they stumble, he needs to bend over and spread them cheeks and let everyone have a run at him. If they lose to Nebbie this week, the first question needs to be, "Do you still believe? Do you"

That's the deal, whether he likes it or not.

 

IU beat Ohio State at the Shoe in 1987, Earle Bruce's last season, and he called it a "damn embarrassment" in his post-game. The next season, John Cooper got thrashed even worse in Bloomington. I think there was one other game where they tied in the Cooper era, but other than that, IU beat Woody in his first season, 1951, and that's been it.

 

Tulsa came close to winning at Ohio State in '21.