A piece by Thomas DeMeo.
The 2021 college football season is still very young, but so many headlines have already been made, with that in mind here's five things in no particular order we learned from the past week. (If you're wondering why there wasn't a week one, I just got this idea on Friday.)
The Big 12 is dead:
I feel this has been obvious to everyone since the announcement of Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC, but even in the present this conference is making a strong push for their own demise. Let's see last week your supposedly best team Oklahoma barely beat Tulane. Iowa State a week after barely beating Northern Iowa gets wrecked at home by Iowa. Texas Tech, Kansas State, Oklahoma State all have struggled to beat inferior competition. Texas got wrecked by Arkansas, have fun going against Alabama and Florida in a few years. And even Kansas has reached new levels of ineptitude, storming the field after barely beating an FCS opponent, getting completely destroyed by a team out of the Sun Belt (granted Coastal Carolina is a good team, but no power five team should be losing by that much to them.) But the ultimate icing on the cake, the new invites to the conference. BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. While not bad teams by any means they lack not only the history that Texas and Oklahoma can always hold onto, they lack real respect from the rest of college football, they best hope one of them can beat some top teams or all legitimacy for this conference is gone. At least try to make your last few playoff appearances good Oklahoma.
Notre Dame is once again overrated:
Stop me if you've heard this one before, Notre Dame is highly ranked and praised in the early season, everyone says this team is different and to watch out for them come playoff time. Then we're brought back to reality where we are reminded that all quality Notre Dame teams were left in the 1980s. This year continues to prove it. Blowing an eighteen point lead and barely beating Florida State and then narrowly escaping Toledo is progress? No, no it's not. I'd say wait until this team has to play real teams for them to be exposed, but if the ACC continues to play like crap the Irish will once again fall into a playoff berth despite having no qualifications. What irks me the most though is Brian Kelly breaking Knute Rockne's all time win record. A coach who is regarded as one of the greatest of all time will now have his name below a man that only teases fans with false hope. I will never take this team seriously again until they actually prove it to me, until then I pray you get some consistency on defense or that you finally let Kelly go. Just please stop lying about yourselves.
Michigan may have hope:
I know it's early, I know I did an entire article describing how Jim Harbaugh is a shit coach. Those opinions are still in my mind but I can't help but be excited for what this team has done so far. Either Washington has one of the worst offensive lines in the country or Michigan's pass rush is elite. The running game also looks strong. Cade McNamara actually looks like a competent quarterback. Ohio State losing to Oregon may be a sign of things to change. Do not waste this opportunity. Tease us again Jim and we fans won't be as forgiving as the past. There needs to be results this year and the opportunity has presented itself for the Wolverines to actually be able to get a Big 10 title.
No team is safe from upsets
As mentioned, the Big 12 has had a lot of trouble so far with FCS opponents. But at least they actually won. Florida State was not as lucky, neither was Ohio, or UCONN, or Washington in week one. For whatever reason this year has looked a lot like college basketball. A lot of upsets and small teams competing well. I'm not sure if it's a case of the talent gap shrinking, lack of preparation by the bigger teams, or excellent strategy by the smaller ones. Maybe it's a combination of some things but either way this year has brought us some unexpectedly exciting early matchups. If this does keep up this season will be a wild one with a lot of change at the top every week. I'm looking forward to it.
UCONN got a name change:
UCONN no longer stands for University of Connecticut. It now stands for Useless Coaching Only Nets Neglect. It's sad I remember this team at least being competitive back in the Big East days, never a powerhouse, but always respectable and never a punching bag. The great irony is that the man that made them competitive is also the one who destroyed them. Randy Edsall, he built this program from an FCS team all the way to the top of the Big East. If he never came back he'd probably be remembered as a team legend. Now though he's the very reason the team is in shambles. Granted he's not all to blame, somebody did hire him, but six wins in four years is not exactly a quality rebuild. When Mercer can put up more points against Alabama than you can against Fresno State and Purdue you know there's a problem. Honestly best of luck rebuilding this mess, without either a decent coach or conference backing it will be very difficult. I'm an Army fan and saw this first hand, it took years for us to get back on track. I do genuinely hope you get back on track, just not against Army please.
Bonus. Football is better with fans:
I know just about everyone agrees with that statement, but this one is personal. I was able to go to my first game since 2019. Army vs. Western Kentucky at West Point. I saw my team go up thirty five to fourteen only to barely win by three. But I didn't care, they could've lost a hundred to nothing and I still would've have a blast. It's as if nothing else mattered. As if all my real life problems left for about three hours. Watching on T.V. last year just wasn't the same, it lacked the cheering, the in person smack talk to opposing fans, people like myself jumping and screaming like idiots to try and help our team however we can. There's nothing else like it. After last year I only appreciate it more.
This week was fun to go over I'm gonna attempt to do this every week, if real life problems don't come up. College football is my favorite time of the year and I look forward to seeing this season progress.
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