It’s hard to see through the haze of the season at times. Everyone gets so bogged down with strength of schedule, with their weekly plans, with comparing resumés, with the opinions and takes that organically form over the course of the year. This all does us a disservice. It siphons us off from the rest of the college football world, forces us to bunker up, choose sides, andmakes us uglier people.
The reason college football is so great is that we’re all weird together. It isn’t because it’s a better sport, or because we’re better fans, or because there’s anything pristine or authentic about it. Nope. It’s because every single one of us is wired differently, and we find all these other people who are also wired differently, and we speak the same ridiculous language. That’s the beauty of college football. It gives us a sense of place and community we otherwise couldn’t find without having to look extremely hard.
So the next time you’re set to yell about rankings or about which quarterback is better, just take a second to consider what you have and how special it really is. Nothing is forever, nothing is permanent, but if we appreciate it just a little bit more, it’s amazing what we might be able to do – together.
Here’s this week’s mailbag.
@eastchoast: You’re an alum of State U. Would you rather your life partner be a fellow alum, rival, or not care about football at all?
I’ve actually thought long and hard about this question early and often. Truth be told, I’ve never dated anyone seriously who went to my school, although a few of my really good friends are that way – met in college, dated after college, got married – and all their stuff is school-colored, they tailgate all the time, watch games together. It sounds nice. But I don’t know if I could do it.
I’d have no problem with the rival issue, even a little bit. I like the idea of there being a tiny bit of competition, giving each other grief when one team beats the other, arguing over who is better in the offseason. There’s fun in that. If you can’t be playful with the one you’re dating, what’s the point?
But the older I get, the more I’ve come around to my significant other not caring about football at all. Dating, like most other things, is about balance. And too much football is going to upset me. I know it sounds crazy, and maybe that’s not you, but that’s me. I need counters to all of my passions. If it’s sports and music and indie films and cooking for me, then someone who loves DIY, animals, the outdoors, and comic book movies might be a good fit. That way you’re not in an echo chamber. You’re expanding your interests, learning about more things, and sharing the things you love with someone else. Call me crazy, but it makes sense to me.
@lablawz: whats the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
There was a stretch in college where I’d try to eat any sort of interesting meat I could find – so ostrich, elk, boar, frog, rabbit, venison, alligator, etc. were all fair game. As I expanded beyond that, I started trying other vegetation, and things like cactus were fun. But it was a trip I took to China a few years ago that really opened my eyes.
Sure I had the typical street fair (and I did try some bugs while I was there), but the strangest thing, from a “wow I didn’t know you could even eat that” perspective I had was lotus root. Not that it was bad, it was actually crazy good, but more that I really had no idea it was even an option. I’ve only seen it on menus once or twice since I got home, but I’d definitely have it again. Pretty much if it’s something I’ve never heard of, or sounds exotic, I’ll give it a shot. I still can’t get down with tripe though, no matter how hard I try. It’s a texture thing.
@dennymayo: if you could do a neat touchdown celebration what would it be
Oh, here we go. It’s this, and this bar none:
And to answer your next question, yes, I do own a West Canaan High School Coyotes t-shirt jersey with Tweeder’s name and number on the back.
@mattyports: who should miami hire as its coach
Hi Matt! Shameless plug: Matt was on this week’s it me, college football so you should go listen to it. (And subscribe on iTunes too!)
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, onto the question. My first instinct would be to hire me because it has always been my dream to coach the Miami Hurricanes. But I realize I’m probably not the sexy hire. You’re going to hear all sorts of candidates thrown out who can Make. Miami. Great. Again. but most of them aren’t very good or if they are good they aren’t realistic. You can read about them somewhere else. I’m not going to waste your time.
I’ve maintained for awhile now that the best candidate is Doc Holliday of Marshall. Holliday is well on his way to winning 10-plus games yet again with the Thundering Herd and is a really good head coach. Yes, most of his coaching career has been in the state of West Virginia, but that’s missing the point a little bit. He recruits Florida, hard, and has done so through stints as an assistant at N.C. State, Florida, and West Virginia before landing at Marshall where he’s continued to grab solid players out of the Sunshine State.
Look up and down that roster (and at rosters in recent years, including all-record-everything holder Rakeem Cato, whom I wrote about in the Sports Illustrated preview issue last year), and you’ll see lots and lots of players from Florida. This is a coach who knows the high school coaches at the elite programs already, and has done them a solid by giving scholarships to some of their less heralded players – who have succeeded at Marshall and had productive collegiate careers.
Holliday knows how to go into those communities and find talent, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if those same coaches started pushing the higher-rated players toward Miami because of it and those prior relationships. Plus Holliday has a heck of an offensive coordinator in Bill Legg, and as long as Legg comes along, that offense would thrive, especially with Brad Kaaya’s continued development.
@erinsorensen: Hi. What are your thoughts on the first round of the CFP rankings?
They are fine and good. The thing about these first rankings is they matter exactly as much as anyone else’s rankings in that they don’t matter even a little bit. Here’s what I wrote about rankings in general in my power rankings this week:
On Tuesday evening, the College Football Playoff committee is going to sit down and make their first official rankings of the 2015 season. This is a big moment for anyone who likes to get mad online, and anyone who cares about rankings, as all other rankings are now meaningless (they were always meaningless), and these are the only rankings that actually matter even though these rankings don’t matter either until the very end.
And that’s the point. The rankings are going to get people worked up, and there’s certainly some stuff you can parse out of there about the committee’s rationale, but it’s all pointless. Teams will win, and teams will lose, and other teams will win and lose, and at the end you’ll have an entire season’s worth of data to regard. Then you can get as upset as you want. The committee is using this as practice, and practice makes playoff (as your mother always told you). I just hope they’re having fun and staying hydrated in the process.
@HokieSkrobi: who would you like to see take over after Frank Beamer at VT?
This is something I’ve thought a lot about pretty much all season long. I had an inkling (as did many) that this was Beamer’s last year at Virginia Tech, but no matter how much time and effort you put into considering a possibility like that, the presence that Beamer had – and what he did for that program and that community – is going to be impossible to fill with any one coach or person. But someone has to coach the Hokies. And that person needs to understand just how special a place Blacksburg really is.
The first consideration would be Bud Foster, who was kind of the coach-in-waiting for a long, long time, but with Whit Babcock as the new athletic director, coach-in-waiting isn’t exactly a worthwhile title anymore. Plus, Babcock might want his guy and to make a splash. The good news for Tech? This is still one of the best jobs right now of the openings. (I still rank USC higher as the players in that system are stacked, and it recruits itself.)
The next guy needs to be an ace recruiter with a personality to match, and the school is going to need to pony up for assistants. There’s plenty of Rich Rodriguez talk, although I’m not buying it. And you’ll hear the other hot names in play too – Justin Fuente, Matt Campbell, etc. Pat Narduzzi is an interesting choice if they could give him enough money to leave Pittsburgh, although Pitt deserves better than to lose yet another coach. If USC doesn’t go after Todd Graham (and the Trojans really should), that’s a really interesting option.
The guy I’d go after, personally, is Tom Herman. That offensive mind with a bigtime defensive coordinator (maybe Virginia Tech could convince Foster to stay with the new staff) could do wonders in Blacksburg. So yeah, I’ll go with Herman. I’m a big believer in what he can do with even better recruits at a major program.
@benkercheval: Which underappreciated team is more likely to surprise (in a good way) in the playoff race: Florida, Iowa or Oklahoma State?
Gotta go with Iowa here. Oklahoma State is definitely the most unlikely undefeated team among the bunch right now as the Cowboys have won a bunch of games they really shouldn’t have (or had no business winning) already this season. And I’m proud of them. Go Pokes. Iowa is maybe the most surprising undefeated in general, although with each passing week the likelihood of the Hawkeyes finishing the regular season with zero losses goes up considerably thanks to that schedule and the fact that Iowa is just really good. And Florida with one loss might have been the biggest shocker of the bunch through the first eight games of the season.
But if I’m taking a team all the way, with a chance to make the Playoff first off and maybe do the unthinkable, it’s Iowa. I always trust a team with an easier road, and Florida’s and Oklahoma State’s roads have too many perils. Iowa just has to win the games in front of it, then eventually beat Ohio State or Michigan State (probably) and it might get in. One big, huge game. I like those odds.
