This is the strangest week in college football. No, not because it’s the week before Rivalry Week and some teams are playing meaningful games and others are playing Chattanooga. It’s that week where college basketball ramps back up and all the preseason tournaments and “Classics” lead to some games that easily could fool you if you just saw the mascot names and not the sport.
It forces everyone online to take an extra second and ask “Wait, why is Kansas playing Michigan State this week?” It’s a bit of trickeration, but it’s perfectly fine and innocuous in the long run. That is, of course, unless you are a betting man and don’t pay close enough attention to what you’re actually betting on. (We strongly suggest not doing this as a general rule.)
Anyway, stay sharp. Stay awake. We just have a little bit longer to go. Here’s this week’s mailbag.
@AdiJoseph: Serious question: Is this the best Saban D-line?
This would be a good subject for a post all by itself from someone a lot smarter than me and better at analyzing talent and/or film. But because you asked me, and not Phil Savage, or Michael Felder, or Andy Staples, or Bud Elliott, I’m going to answer you. And in my opinion? Yes. It is.
You may remember last year when Nick Saban went a little crazy on a writer who had the gall to ask the Alabama coach if the 2014 team’s defensive line appeared to be deep. Here’s what he said:
“What does appear mean? It just means you’ve dreamed about it and it’s there? What it looks like on paper? We’ve never seen these guys play or seen them take on an SEC lineman. But it appears. That’s how we form public opinion because something appears to be that way and everyone believes it.”
“I was told what a great defensive line we have, by someone in your position. So, I asked: ‘What’s the basis of your criteria that you’re using to make this assessment?’ And he says: ‘Well, it looks that way on paper.’ So, I just kind of took offense to that and said that we’re not satisfied with how they’re playing, but we’re looking forward to them getting better. And they are getting better, and I think probably will be better, more athletic than we were a year ago.”
Saban doesn’t really do predictions or conjecture. He likes empirical evidence. He likes to see things, and then he can make a determination. So, when people are proclaiming something to be the best, or even just really great, before it happens, well, he unsurprisingly gets upset. And last year’s defensive line was good – good enough to make the Playoff – but it wasn’t good enough to win it all. This year? Well, things might be different.
Here’s what Saban had to say about the unit after the win over Mississippi State last weekend:
“Our defensive front is the strength of our team. We’ve got a lot of guys who are big and physical. They’re athletic, and we’ve got eight or nine who can play, which is important for us.”
That may not sound like resounding hyperbole, but for Saban, that’s high praise. When it’s all said and done, if this Bama team really can string together a few more wins and win the title, it might be the deepest and best overall defensive line Saban has had as coach of the Tide. If not, well, that honor still likely belongs to the 2009 team that won the 2010 BCS Championship and went 14-0.
@BelkBowl: Between the third and fourth quarter of the Belk Bowl and you need to play a song that everyone will go nuts for, what do you play?
Oh hello, sentient bowl game Twitter account. Nice to see you again. Am I allowed to say “Smooth” by Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana? No? Okay, alright then. Well, it certainly isn’t going to be a Fall Out Boy song. And I doubt many Migos tracks are family-friendly enough (a caveat our dear bowl friend added in a later tweet). Chip Patterson suggested the radio edit of DMX’s “Party Up,” which I like a lot.
But I’m going to go ahead and suggest another radio edit, and that’s C-Murder’s “Down for My N*ggas,” which then becomes “Down for My Hittas.” I can’t help it. The second I hear the intro notes to that beat if I’m in a press box, I want to throw my MacBook through the window, toss all my papers in the air and start getting hype. So yeah, that’s what I’m going with, although I mean there are literally hundreds of songs that could achieve the same desired effect for me. If you’re going with something new, just put Future on or pretty much anything DJ Mustard has produced. It’s that easy.
@mattrothstein: Which fan base was the most crushed to see their CFP contending team lose last week?
It’s tempting to go with Stanford here, but it really has to be Baylor. That’s another year in which the Bears started hot and went scorched Earth on everything in their path only to be tripped up, and potentially be left out of the Playoff even if they end up winning out the rest of the way. To have Seth Russell go down so early, recover, and then to maybe lose Jarrett Stidham in the loss to Oklahoma (he’s uncertain against Oklahoma State) is merely salt in the wound. The hype is there for Baylor. The recruits are there. The game day atmosphere is there. They had College GameDay there and a primetime game for everyone to see. And they’re just so close – but keep coming up just short. Now the Bears have to win out – and hope for Oklahoma to lose one more time in the process.
@brianspaeth: What if everyone had to scream their name when the ball was hiked?
It’d be utter and complete chaos, but it’d be so much more like an actual battlefield – but one of those ones from the middle ages or like Game of Thrones fantasy land. Instead of someone screaming their colors or the family they rep (or even a little FOR THE WATCH action), you get people just yelling their own name. That’s 22 dudes straight-up making things really hard for anyone trying to run a play to comprehend. I love that.
If we really do end up with some 5-7 teams making bowls this year, they should test this out just to see. Honestly, we should already be trying out new rules and quirks in bowl games. What do we have to lose?
@sideoutpar: Why do we root for teams? Do we only root for championships? Individual wins? Players? What is the ‘goal’ of fandom?
It looks like you already addressed this yourself, but I’ll do my best to answer. I think every fan comes at it from a different angle. Some obviously are a fan of a team because their friend or their family member plays, so you are supporting the person close to you. That’s the most important thing first, and if individual success and team success go hand in hand, then even better. Others take a family approach overall with the team, and want the team to do well, but will be there in 3-9 seasons and 12-0 years. They’re the ones who go to the wall and sing the alma mater with the team even after a 55-0 drubbing.
And some people do fall in love with individual players and what they’re able to do, so you want that player to keep winning and do as well as humanly possible. It’s not exactly fantasy sports type adoration; it’s sheer idolization in some ways. This person is an icon, and it’s impossible to turn away.
Then there’s the fans who, I wouldn’t say get spoiled by success, but they operate at another level with regards to expectations. If a team is losing, they get angry. They have their weekends ruined. And I’ll never understand it. Yeah, you want your team to do well, but your life is going to be affected one way or the other in a consequential way if they don’t? You, who likely didn’t play there and don’t have a close friend or family member playing on the team? Why do you care so much? What drives you to send tweets to a kicker who missed a field goal, or poison trees, or get blackout drunk and break stuff. Why do sports do that to people?
I don’t have the answers here. I do think, like everything else, there’s a middle ground. And that middle ground is always moving between two planes of extremism – caring too much, and caring too little. As long as you’re not falling on one extreme or another, you’re okay. Every fan is different. Every game is different. Don’t hurt anybody. Don’t act like a fool. And never tweet at recruits.
@thegnc: OVER/UNDER: 7.5 MORE COACHES TO BE FIRED/RESIGN.
Going to go under here. I think we have six or seven, and lots of other turnover with all the open jobs already, but I can’t see it getting much higher than that.
