College football week 8 thread - Austin Powers: The Horn Who Hooked Me

Stanford announced a crowd of 19,117 for its game against SMU, an embarrassingly low number was inflated by half judging from what I saw on TV.

Cal says they had 35k for the NCSU game. Not sure about that, either.

If not for Stanford's miracle win at Syracuse, the Bay Area teams would be 0-8 in the ACC.

I am often a petty, small, bitter person when it comes to sports. I'm thrilled that USC, UCLA and Washington, who broke up the Pac, are struggling in their new league. I'm thrilled that Stanford and Cal, who could have stuck with OSU/WSU and formed the nucleus of a solid West Coast conference, are failing.

I don't care about the Four Corners schools, the Big 12 sucks without Texas and Oklahoma and I figured they'd do OK there. Happy to see Utah struggle, Whittingham is a good coach but he's had an inflated reputation for a guy who almost always loses at least three or four games every year.

A pox on all their houses.

It's been hard being a Microville Tech fan this year. We have no conference championship to aspire for in football, or baseball. Soccer and volleyball, sports which I once followed closely, are in the WCC and I simply haven't been paying attention. It will probably be the same with basketball, another sport with a WCC affiliation.

The new Pac-12 can't get here fast enough. I wish it started in 2025-26, instead of having to endure another season in limbo. I wish they could working something out, nothing will be gained by making five MWC teams go through a lame duck season there and by making UTEP and Hawaii go through a similar season in their current leagues before they join the MWC.

 

How many you got?

 

The one thing cfb had was "tradition" - without it, it may as well be the united football league.

 

If they are both undefeated they'll meet in the AAC Championship game first, then again in the Army - Navy game.

 

Sun Belt Billy might have just saved his job over the past four weeks. Had he not fumbled away a road win against Tennessee, the Gators would likely be 6-6 with a win over Florida State and getting a bowl bid.

There's a whole lot less static on social media right now, particularly the road win at Mississippi State and a beatdown of Kentucky last night. And his signees are the ones contributing the most, particularly Lagway and that freshman running back who scored five times. The defense looks way more cohensive, so the team is trending the right way.

If Florida doesn't get run out of the stadium against Georgia and Texas -- and even if they do but keep everyone realitively healthy -- they catch LSU and Ole Miss at the Swamp with a chance at one more upset to get to .500 with a brutal schedule, even for some of the Gators' best teams. That's assuming they don't shit the bed against the Noles in Tally.

 

If you'd told the UAB faithful that seven games into the season UAB would have the same record as FSU, they'd have done cartwheels.

 

WOMP, WOMP, WOMP ....

 

Indeed. The 2020 season with minimal-to-non-existent crowds showed just how dreadful the CFB product is when it must stand on its own without pomp and tradition.

 

After the Miami and A&M losses it looked pretty hopeless. Getting a terrible Mississippi State at the right time helped a lot, but it was that UCF game that I think they found something they could build off of. They are getting much more physical and Lagway is young and a little reckless, but he'll do things that get fans out of the seats and good lord the kid has a missile for an arm. I think defensively they are playing well enough to make Georgia and Texas work for those wins. I have very little faith the offense will produce against those teams at the rate it has against Mississippi State and Kentucky though. I think LSU amd obviosuly a horrible FSU team are the best chances to get those two wins.

 

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Really when you look at it which situation seems more dire.

Auburn 2-5 -- Hard to have any faith in Hugh Freeze with that fanbase leaning on him. Another impulsive Auburn hire. BUT the schedule is pretty light coming down the stretch. I could see the Tigers at 5-6 going into the Iron Bowl.

USC 3-4 -- Good news for the Trojans is they don't leave the Pacific Time Zone for the rest of the season. I think they got six wins in them.

Oklahoma 4-3 -- It's hard to find more than one win left on the schedule (Maine). They will have to really open the pocketbook to get a real OC/QB guy in there, let him bring in his staff and pretty much limit Venables input there.

FSU 1-6 -- Can't score, block, catch, run or pass despite having an offensive-minded coach. Norvell, like Riley has a crazy huge buyout so he'll have time to get it right, but he's going to have to make wholesale changes. Going 2-10 after a 13-1 season seems criminal.

 

Auburn should beat Kentucky, Vandy and ULM. Maybe TAMU.

At the moment, based on their offensive performances I'm struggling to think they do that. Possibly don't win against ULM. Finishing with just one, maybe two wins, wouldn't surprise me.

The FSU season is mind-boggling.