National landscape, week seven

Waters are becoming less muddy I guess. And now that we're in the thick of it, and despite knowing that some two and maybe even three loss teams will make the playoffs, it sure feels like some one loss teams need to prove their worth.

1. Texas (bye)
2. Oregon (bye)
3. BYU (bye)
4. Clemson (bye)
   
5. Ohio State (hosts)
6. Georgia (hosts)
7. Alabama (hosts)
8. Texas Tech (hosts)
9. Notre Dame
10. LSU
11. Penn State
12. Boise State

The biggest game of the weekend brought us the best game of the season. The Ducks outlasted the Buckeyes and have solidified their bye week, at least for now. To round out the Big10 I kept Ohio State at 5 and dropped Penn State down to 11.

The Big12 has three undefeated teams in BYU, Texas Tech, and Iowa State. I'm keeping BYU as the conference winner, kept Texas Tech at 8, and considered letting Iowa State in. I've felt like Utah would play themselves back into contention, but their loss to Arizona State Friday night is gonna leave them hunting for a bowl game. BYU (probably) has the easiest path to a bye week in the playoffs. But along with Texas Tech and Iowa State, I think Kansas State and Arizona State are in contention.

ACC...each week I feel Clemson stakes a better claim than Miami. We'll see if the Tigers can hold it together.

ACC Lite...will it be Notre Dame's last week in the standings? They have trips to GA Tech and then Navy in the next two weeks. Win those as well as a 11/23 home game against Army and they may just survive that home loss to the Salukis.

Boise State Cruised through Honolulu, and they may very well keep cruising all the way to their season finale against Oregon State. As a reminder, the Broncos' only loss is to Oregon, by a field goal.

Lastly, the SEC. The only real change was swapping Ole Miss for LSU. I still feel it's more likely the SEC gets just three teams in the playoff bracket. Texas seems the only shoe-in. Bama is on a couple shaky wheels, and it's hard to believe LSU is good enough defensively to carry them into a playoff bid.

And with our Dawgs, the next month's gauntlet will prove we're deserving, or not.

Anyway, as always, we close this weekly post with this: Those are at least some intriguing matchups in Round 1. $till not $old on making the $ea$on thi$ long. But I'd watch, and I gue$$ that'$ why they expanded, right?

Digesting Miss State

Let's start with the bad. Our secondary was exposed. To be fair, we couldn't develop a pass rush after we made them a one-dimensional offense. But every time we committed to a blitz, our secondary couldn't stand up to the task.

Burnt toast!

So it was nice to see Ellis Robinson gets some snaps late in the game. The true freshman may need to grow up fast if we are to challenge the meat of our schedule starting Saturday night in Austin.

The good. The offense found a groove. Carson trusted his playmakers downfield. That rollout where he flung it to the endzone and Dillon Bell caught it for the touchdown...that's what we've been waiting to see. The screens and check downs are still there, but our offense used the entire field Saturday which was nice to see.

The short of it is this: we're not the team we were hoping for. It was discouraging to give up so many long passes and touchdowns. Mississippi State is not a good football team and they're depending on a true freshman quarterback. Have seen a lot of people lament on Muschamp not being on our sideline any longer. But I prefer Brooks' point:

I answer this question as Kamari Lassiter, Javon Bullard, and Tykee Smith are in the midst of starting for yet another week in their rookie seasons.

The harsh reality is… you aren’t as good because you aren’t as good.

I’ll get more into the answers on tape this week. https://t.co/oyT0gJwVE7

— Brooks Austin (@BrooksAustinBA) October 13, 2024