Man, what a night. Stayed up late to watch the college football games and listen to all the commentary on exactly what happened… but the analysts just told me exactly what I saw. South Carolina’s not very good, but Vandy doesn’t know how to win yet, and Tennessee was lucky to escape with that win, because they did everything they could to give the game away against a 3 touchdown underdog at home.
The games were exciting, but there wasn’t a lot of good football being played. App St kept shooting themselves in the foot. They should have won that game in regulation, if not for a missed extra point and a missed 45 yard field goal. They should have been up 17-13 late in the 4th. If nothing else, it got me ready to watch a lot of football over the next few days.
It’s going to be a long weekend, for sure.
1. Tennessee was not prepared to play against Appalachian St.
This isn’t here for me to brag about telling you for 3 weeks about how they wouldn’t be ready for this ballgame… but man, could a top 10 team look any more like they were in the middle of a scrimmage than this team did? Tennessee lucked into a win against a plucky App St team that found a way to not make enough winning plays. A missed XP, a missed field goal, and a 50/50 deep pass that ended up being UT’s only touchdown in regulation were all the cost App St the win, and left Vols fans wondering if this is going to be the year they were hoping for.
Josh Dobbs looked pedestrian at best. The Mountaineers loaded up the box and dared him to throw the football… and he couldn’t do it. It’s a scary thought having a senior qb that doesn’t look like he knows how to read a defense.
This game did remind me a little of last year’s Auburn game. Auburn was ranked #6 in the country in the preseason last year and had to gut out a 27-20 win at home over Jacksonville St in a game that really showed flaws that would come back to haunt Auburn. One can’t help but wonder if the same issues will haunt Tennessee this year.
— Matt Herzog (@mattth) September 2, 2016
2. Vanderbilt lost in the most Vandy way possible.
For any other fanbase, that would have been a devastating loss. But Vanderbilt is so used to losing games like that by now that I’m sure they’re almost numb to it. Leading 10-0 midway through the 2nd quarter, they give up 13 unanswered points, including the deciding field goal with 35 seconds left from 55 yards out, after missing their own 44 yard field goal just a few minutes prior.
How did Coach Mason not call a timeout after that 3rd down with 1:21 left in the game to at least give his guys a chance to get down the field?
There are so many things that went wrong in that 4th quarter that it’s difficult to point to exactly where they lost the game. I do know this though – that was a team loss. It was a team that was having success and just did not know how to sustain it. I think Mason has them on the right track, but anybody that predicted they would be back in a bowl game this year might have been a year early on ’em. They’re not ready for primetime yet.
3.Teddy Bridgewater almost lost his leg… and the Vikings won.
Now, the Vikings did win their final preseason game, but it had nothing to do with the QB play. Their qbs went a combined 13/27 for 96 yards and 1 TD. Their rushing attack wasn’t much better either – without the passing threat, they ran 31 times for 86 yards. So less than 5 yards per pass, and less than 3 yards per carry. That’s pretty terrible.
This may be a long year for the Vikings.
4. Big 12 Expansion: What’s up with Memphis?
Brett McMurphy from ESPN released a list of the teams that had confirmed whether they were a finalist for the Big 12 or not… and put that he could not confirm whether Memphis made the cut or not.
There are a couple of different ways to look at this. First off, why are they the only school not talking about it? Second, there has to be a reason behind it. Did they not make the cut and they don’t want to disappoint the fanbase before the first football game? They need butts in seats, for sure, but that seems far fetched.
Do they know that they’re in, but don’t want to disappoint the Big 12? Possible, but doubtful. My guess is that they want to show that they can control their own news. If the Big 12 asked that schools not release information, and they’re the only school that shows they can successfully NOT let news leak, that could be useful in the future.
For now, nobody knows. But I wouldn’t image the Big 12 would slap one of the biggest sports corporate sponsors (FedEx) in the face like this, especially when they don’t have to. Memphis won’t release anything until the Big 12 does.
5. Memphis just got a commitment from the #1 CB in Tennessee.
Since we’re talking about Memphis anyway — Mike Norvell has the team currently sitting at #30 in the national recruiting rankings at Rivals after getting a commitment from 4 start CB TJ Carter from Nashville. This is three 4 start recruits in next year’s class, which is the first time in history they’ve had that many 4 star recruits in a class. They’re currently #1 in the AAC (yes, even over Houston) and they would be #4 in the Big 12 as it sits right now. That’s big time stuff for what’s generally considered one of the “other” schools.
Like I mentioned, Chris and I went 3-0 last night on picks. Don’t forget to check up on the rest of the weekend’s games, including tonight’s Kansas St @ Stanford game: winningcureseverything.blogspot.com/2016/09/college-football-is-here.html
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