QUICK COLLEGE FOOTBALL THOUGHTS–WEEK 4

Here are some random thoughts about college football through four weeks of play…

• My how the mighty fallen have in East Lansing, Michigan.  Ever since they made the college football playoffs in 2015, Michigan State is 5-10 after being steamrolled at home by Notre Dame on Saturday and there are no signs that things will improve anytime soon.
• Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield needs to grow up, stop taunting his opponents and their fans and just shut the hell up.  Mayfield should just play football and let the results speak for themselves or otherwise he can kiss his Heisman Trophy hopes good-bye.
• Fairly certain that the consumption of bourbon and the line to enter Rupp Arena for Midnight Madness increased one hundred fold at around 11 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday night.
• If Penn State eventually qualifies for the college football playoffs, they will look back at their 12-play, 80 yard game-winning drive in the final 1:42 against Iowa Saturday night as the main reason why they have a shot at a national championship.
• With all due respect to Penn State running back Saquon Barkley, the most dominating performance this weekend was by the Georgia Bulldogs defense against Mississippi State.
• Don’t be surprised if by the end of the 2017 season that seven SEC schools, or half of the conference will fire their head coaches:  Texas A&M, Auburn, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina.
• Top five surprise or over-achieving teams, one-third of the way into the college football season:  Virginia Tech (4-0), Georgia (4-0), Washington State (4-0), Duke (4-0) and TCU (4-0).
• Top five disappointing or under-achieving teams, one-third of the way into the college football season:  Boise State (2-2), Nebraska (2-2), North Carolina (1-3), UCLA (2-2) and Arkansas (1-2).
• The reason why Alabama rises above the chaos each year and qualifies for either the BCS Championship or the College Football Playoffs is because they don’t lose the games they are supposed to win.  Their 59-0 blowout of Vanderbilt on the road Saturday was their 68th consecutive victory over an unranked opponent.
• The NCAA needs to rethink the application and punishment of their targeting rule immediately.  On field and replay officials have assessed the penalty unevenly and inconsistently and without any regards to intent.  That’s problematic when you consider a player is ejected , and in some cases, suspended for the first half of their next game when they are flagged for targeting.  It has become a punishment to the player and the team that is too severe, and frankly, unfair for a penalty that is called far too subjectively and without any necessary consistency.