QUICK COLLEGE FOOTBALL THOUGHTS–WEEK 5

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

• There’s no question head coach Tom Herman is already making a difference at Texas but he can make an even larger and immediate impact by installing Sam Ehlinger as the Longhorns starting quarterback.
• Thanks to Hurricane Irma, everyone forgot that Miami, Florida is one of the best teams in the country this season.  With their games against Arkansas State on September 9 cancelled and Florida State on September 16 postponed due to the storm, the Hurricanes fell off the national college football radar.  After their 31-6 clubbing on the road at Duke Friday night, they reminded Clemson and the rest of the ACC that they are in the conference and national championship conversation.
• Washington State’s Hercules Mata’afa is the quickest defensive lineman in the country.
• Requiring a player who loses his helmet to sit out the next play is the dumbest rule in college football.
• The best new tradition in college football is the fans at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium turning away from the field at the end of the first quarter and waving to the patients at Iowa’s Children Hospital located across the street.
• Tennessee’s humiliating 41-0 loss at home to Georgia on Saturday was their 27th consecutive loss against a Top 10 ranked opponent.  The only two FBS schools with a longer streak of futility are the football powerhouses Indiana (35) and Wake Forest (56).  Not exactly the kind of football company Volunteer fans want to keep.
• One man’s Heisman ballot through the month of September:  First place–Saquon Barkley, running back, Penn State; Second place–Baker Mayfield, quarterback, Oklahoma; Third place–Mason Rudolph, quarterback, Oklahoma State; Fourth place–Bryce Love, running back, Stanford; Fifth place–Lamar Jackson, quarterback, Louisville.
• There’s no doubt when Luke Fickell accepted the head coaching position at Cincinnati that he inherited a dumpster fire left by his predecessor Tommy Tuberville and only time will tell if he will return the program to the heights reached by Brian Kelly.  But Bearcat fans need to remember that when Fickell was the interim head coach at Ohio State in 2011 he appeared over his skis.  He took over a team that was ranked 18th in the pre-season polls but they finished a disappointing 6-7 overall and 3-5 in the Big 10, only the sixth time since World War II that Ohio State had a losing record in conference play.  The next season, 2012, Urban Meyer was named the head coach and the Buckeyes finished 12-0.  In other words, if Fickell were a race horse, his past performance would probably make him a 50-1 long shot to win his next time out, a stakes race at Turfway Park.  That makes his 2-3 start in 2017 not so surprising.  More importantly, Fickell’s hiring, like any young, inexperienced race horse, won’t deliver any immediate or large profits until he has time to learn and develop into a winner, especially against similar competition.  Whether the Bearcat faithful will give Fickell the time he needs to become the next Brian Kelly is anybody’s guess.  They just should know that Secretariat lost his last race prior to the 1973 Kentucky Derby.
• Speaking of Tuberville, it’s beyond comical that the same person who is responsible for the imploding of the programs at Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati, now has a job as a television analyst for college football games.  It’s like listening to the captain of the Titanic give a lecture on how to navigate around icebergs on the open seas.
• Five games into the season and Alabama has yet to commit a turnover.  They also have outscored their opponents 231-43 or by an average score of 46-9.  Guess that explains why the Crimson Tide are 5-0 and the unquestionable number one team in the country.
• The state of LSU football was best summed up by a tweet sent Saturday night by Troy University after the Trojans became the first non-conference opponent to win in Baton Rouge in 47 games.  “Hey @LSU, thanks for having us down for homecoming!  We really enjoyed it!”
• A month into the season and first-year head coach, Lane Kiffin, has Florida Atlantic University one win away from matching their total from last year.