I Do Actually Follow College Football

None of my football teams are doing well right now. While my baseball team has won the AL East and secured a first round bye, they look anything but a sure bet going forward in the playoffs. Slim pickings, for sure. 

Let’s start with the New York Jets. Mainly because I want to get past this part of my blog as soon as possible. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—probably not for the last time—they aren’t very good. My wife and I went on Sunday to see them face the 0-2 Cincinnati Bengals, a team they beat last season at home and which might have been ripe for the taking on Sunday. 

Except that the Jets couldn’t stop Joe Burrow and his offense on third down, or for that matter, much of the game. Bad tackling, a hallmark of previously inept Jets defenses, was present at Met Life Stadium. I felt badly for Joe Flacco, the ageless former Baltimore Ravens star QB now relegated to a backup role on a woeful team with very limited personnel on the offensive line to protect him. 

While he miraculously led the team to a comeback win in Cleveland, courtesy of a myriad of last minute Browns bad decisions, Flacco can only do so much in any given sequence. Moreover, Cincinnati was really not a 0-2 team, having lost to Pittsburgh in OT due to the loss of their long snapper that contributed to missed kicks, and the luck of the Dallas Cowboys hitting a long field goal to win. 

No, the hungriness of the Bengals didn’t help the Jets at all. Matching Cincinnati touchdowns with field goals wasn’t going to win the game.

With impending bad weather on the horizon and my being still under the weather myself, we made a decision to leave the half-filled stadium at the half. With absolutely no vehicles clogging the exits and light traffic on Route 3 and the Garden State Parkway, we made it home in time to see the end of the third quarter. 

Why do I continue to watch? Maybe because I feel loyal, I kept on checking the TV, hoping that I could be wrong and another miracle could happen. But that’s what I am reduced to these days. Praying for miracles. 

Rutgers. Oh RU, the Birthplace of College Football. You teased us so much with a dramatic win at Boston College and then thrashing Wagner, before having some difficulty on the road at Temple. A 3-0 start heading into Big Ten play, with a home sellout for Iowa, a team with a stout defense and a lack of a scoring punch. Heady thought on the Banks of the ‘ol Raritan. 

We who root for the Scarlet Knights should know better. Stuck with a third string quarterback who looked lost among the taller linemen on both teams, Rutgers was no match for the Hawkeyes. 

This is how the conference portion of the season opens. With a resounding defeat. A trip to Columbus to face Ohio State, one of the top two or three teams in the nation is next. I think the 40 points by which the Buckeyes are favored is low. 

Perhaps I expect too much from Greg Schiano in his second incarnation in Piscataway. He was once the savior. There was some progress made last season. Yet, without a true QB running the show, it feels like the Knights have taken a couple of giant  steps backwards. 

Sure, there are some potentially winnable games on the slate. There are also blowouts upcoming with the likes of Michigan and Penn State in addition to Ohio State. Progress is not measured in baby steps anymore. 

If Kansas can be undefeated and running a potent offense under a coach who was successful in Division III at Wisconsin-Whitewater and then at Buffalo, the question looms large as to why not Rutgers? Until that is answered and the necessary recruits land in Schiano’s lap, anticipate more mediocrity. I can tell you this—if my wife is disgruntled by where the team stands, I am sure she is not alone. 

Franklin and Marshall is 2-2 heading into Saturday’s home game versus #8 Johns Hopkins. I should have eyes on the ground for this game, provided the ominous weather from Ian does not cancel my roommate’s plans to attend. 

F&M is under new guidance. The former head coach is now at Lafayette, his alma mater, and the Leopards are already a better team. 

I have low expectations for the Diplomats this weekend. Historically, F&M has given the Blue Jays some difficulty in the past. This is a new regime and things could easily be different.

Last week, F&M picked off 4 Ursinus passes but could not mount much of an attack. The Bears are a fairly good team—they have a win over Muhlenberg under their belts, a team predicted to finish second in the Centennial Conference. 

Meanwhile, F&M gave a ranked Susquehanna squad a very close game the week before. While Hopkins is a tough matchup and a trio to Muhlenberg is in late October, Juniata, a 70-0 victim of Hopkins, Gettysburg and Moravian might be a win for this edition of F&M football. 

It is the True Blue Weekend contest with traditional rival Dickinson which will determine whether the Diplomats finish over or under .500 in CC games. Since I expect to be at Shadek Stadium as the red Devils list coincides with my class celebrating our 50th reunion, nothing would be sweeter than a triumph and keeping the Conestoga wagon in Lancaster for another year. 

It is true that the Southeastern Conference is once more loaded with Top 25 teams. Seven SEC schools are ranked. I wonder how good the teams are which are behind the top two—Georgia and Alabama. The SEC will sort itself out—it always does. Minus Vanderbilt, which rarely goes to a bowl game (and the Commodores are 3-2), teams like South Carolina, Mississippi State, Florida and Missouri can’t be counted out of the post-season. 

 

Meanwhile, perennial Top 25 Oklahoma was beaten in Norman by a recent nemesis, Kansas State. Red River Shootout partner Texas, headed to the SEC with OU, was shocked in Lubbock by Texas Tech. 

Five ACC schools made the Top 25. Check in at the end of the season to see if that holds true. Ditto the Big Ten, which I continue to believe is overrated in all sports. Remember, this is an early ranking and the pollsters need teams to fill the ranks. 

What caught my eye was Fordham, a school with a rich football tradition but now comfortable in the Patriot League with the likes of Colgate, Lehigh and Lafayette, almost pulling off a stunning upset of Ohio University of the stronger Mid-American Conference. The Bobcats win over Florida Atlantic makes them appear to be a better than average team—FAU gave Purdue all it could handle. 

Also a stunner was how Miami, a supposed power in the ACC, was thrashed at home by Middle Tennessee. Go ‘Canes?

Losing has consequences. Coaches at Arizona State, Georgia Tech and Nebraska have been summarily fired this early into the season. With huge budgets and impatient alumni, more firings may occur. Which is why Greg Schiano may be on the hot seat next year if the losing trend continues. 

For me, I look at the NESCAC, that hallowed D-III conference to see that Colby actually beat Williams and Amherst, almost always a power, sits at 0-2 after losses to doormat Hamilton and Middlebury. In college football, in most every venue, it is a mentality of any given Saturday something can happen. 

Which is why: 1) I am grateful that my neighbor, an Ursinus grad who played football and baseball there didn’t give me too much grief this week over the Bears win over F&M; and 2), contrary to some beliefs, even if I remain fixated on Aaron Judge (who finally slugged the AL-record tying 61st homer in Toronto on Wednesday night), I do actually follow college football.