QUICK COLLEGE FOOTBALL THOUGHTS–WEEK 6

Here are some random thoughts about Week 6 of college football…

• Alabama head coach Nick Saban may think the media is feeding his players rat poison by telling them how good they are, but the real rat poison being fed is by Saban to the other head coaches in the SEC.  The other 13 current head coaches in the conference are a combined 2-33 against Saban in their head-to-head meetings.
• Just when you are ready to buy-in, again, on Oklahoma playing for the national championship, the Sooners, again, lost a game to a vastly inferior opponent.  For the seventh straight season, Oklahoma lost as a double-digit favorite, this year to Iowa State, at home and coming off a bye week.  And to think we were all told Bob Stoops retired before the season started.
• The best football program nobody talks about is the Naval Academy.  This season, the Midshipmen are 5-0 and 50-21 since 2012.  Ken Niumatalolo is in his 10th season at Navy and as his 82-42 record attests, he has built a sustainable FBS program despite the academic and physical restrictions inherent when recruiting athletes to attend one of the military academies.  Qualifying for one of the New Year’s Day Six bowls certainly would validate their success of the past ten seasons and provide Navy with the opportunity to show the college football universe they are more than just a service academy.
• If they had a chance to do so, it would behoove the Kansas University athletic department to move their football program to the FCS level.  Since 2012, the Jayhawks are 10-55 and last appeared in a bowl game in 2008.  On a positive note, Kansas fans only have to wait a few more days for basketball practice to begin.
• Good to see that Georgia’s 12th-year senior running back Nick Chubb is having another solid season.
• Considering all the bluster and publicity surrounding the so-called genius that is Jim Harbaugh, it might benefit him to win an important game once in a while to at least substantiate all the hype behind his coaching abilities.  Harbaugh is 1-4 against Michigan’s two biggest rivals, Michigan State and Ohio State, and for the second consecutive season he was outcoached in a game his team had no business losing when the Wolverines were defeated 14-10 at home to Michigan State last Saturday night.  Looks like there’s more to winning than traveling to Rome, wearing khaki pants and sporting retro eyeglasses.
• When the inevitable coaching carousel in college football begins at the end of this season, remember the name Frank Wilson.  A former assistant and recruiting coordinator at LSU under Les Miles, Wilson took over a Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) program in 2016 that was 22-26 since they began play in the FBS in 2012 and has gone 9-8, including a bowl berth last season.  This season, UTSA is 3-1 and Wilson has the Roadrunners on a path to reaching their first-ever Conference USA championship game.
• Miami, Florida head coach Mark Richt sure looks like he is having more fun coaching the Hurricanes than he ever did at Georgia.  He also deserves major kudos for ushering his players off the field who were attempting  to disrespect the Florida State logo at midfield after their win Saturday against the Seminoles.  College football needs more head coaches  like Richt who refuse to tolerate this recent rash of punk behavior.
• Hold on, Notre Dame fans.  Before you start booking your trip to the college football playoffs, just remember your remaining schedule includes road games against Miami, and Stanford and home games against USC, North Carolina State and Navy.