Author: rickro51 Page 13 of 29

One doesn’t always have to wait to determine the wisdom of one’s wagers on season win totals.  While generally true, consider some wagers that already appear to be near “lock” status.

IOWA over 8.5  +130

Cash it!  Not only have the Hawkeyes already triumphed over two ranked teams, road games at Nebraska and Northwestern appear less daunting than 3 weeks ago.

LSU under 8.5

The upset loss to UCLA spelled major trouble .  That UCLA was superior on both lines of scrimmage added fuel to the flames.  LSU’s crossover games with the SEC East are with two teams more impressive than previously thought (Florida, at Kentucky).  Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State all look better than advertised.  The Odyssey expects LSU to do no better than 3-5 with this brutal SEC slate (How brutal??  We have not mentioned Alabama, Auburn and A&M!!!).

Ed O might want to put his house up for sale while the market is still hot.

Michigan over 7.5

The Odyssey doubted Michigan’s roster, lack of successful recruiting in Ohio and Jim Harbaugh’s acumen.  OOPS!  After watching the Blue “Cave Man” Washington on Saturday night, we apologize.  Like Iowa, their dates with Nebraska and Northwestern appear less imposing.  Even if Michigan loses at Wisconsin, at Penn State and Ohio State, the Wolverines would have to lose 2 additional games to come to 5 losses  While this is possible (Resurgent Rutgers, Maryland, resurgent MSU and Indiana are all capable of beating UM), Harbaugh looks much more at home running the ball and using about 17 tight ends.

Utah State over 3 -135

Cash it! The Aggies won their opener as a 17-point dog at Washington State.  Then, they spotted an excellent FCS team, North Dakota, a two-touchdown lead and roared back with a scintillating second half.

Utah State still has games left with UNLV and both New Mexicos.  Yumm!  Plus, playing at home will be quite helpful against Hawaii and Colorado State.  CASH IT!

Congrats to Utah State for finally getting the right Anderson as coach!  Last year, the Aggies fired Gary “The Quitter” Anderson and then hired Blake Anderson.  Brilliant move!

Clemson under 11.5 -130

You could literally have cashed this two weeks ago after Georgia’s defense ruled the day.

There are two additional season totals that have been impacted by nail-biters in the first two weeks.

Notre Dame over 8.5

Two thrilling wins over Florida State and Toledo have kept this bet alive.  However, do not get too giddy by dodging these bullets if you hold this ticket.  I have never seen a schedule where a  team has to play 6 teams coming off a bye!  For example, Wisconsin has 2 weeks to get ready for their September 25 date at Soldier Field.  For this over to cash, we would highly recommend that the Irish beat Wisconsin because their remaining schedule looks awfully tough.  Road games at Virginia Tech, Virginia and Stanford all look more difficult than thought in pre-season.

Bowling Green under 1.5

This bet was on major life support late in the 4th quarter with Bowling Green fooling the betting public, holding a 19-12 lead over South Alabama in Northern Ohio with two minutes to go.  Alas, the Falcons lost 22-19.

After Saturday, the Odyssey can offer another piece of anecdotal evidence that climate change is a reality.

One of our senior correspondents, Matt Anctil, was rooting for his Buffs in Denver.  For 57 minutes, they held 5th-ranked Texas A&M out of the end zone.  Sadly for Colorado, the Aggies converted numerous third downs on the game-winning drive to escape in a 10-7 thriller.

Matt’s thoughts:

One defense was good and the other was surprisingly good.  The Buffs’ linebackers were particularly excellent.

Matt lamented two missed opportunities for the Buffaloes.  With 3rd and 1 from the A&M 5, the Aggies’ stout D stopped 2 runs to take over on downs.  Cole Becker missed a makeable field goal.  Of course, A&M fans can point to Zach Calzada’s lost fumble at the Colorado goal line.

Colorado’s QB, Brendon Lewis, is a dual threat who is more proficient as a runner.  Matt believes that the Buffs would have had more luck in the 2nd half with more rushing attempts.

After Calzada come on in relief of injured Haynes King, he finally came alive on the game-winning drive.  His pass to Isaiah Spiller in the corner was both accurate and well conceived as Spiller was too athletic for the CU linebacker in coverage.

Matt did not feel that the combination of the 90-degree heat and the altitude  had  an impact on the outcome.

While Colorado had to be bitterly disappointed that a big upset did not come to pass, Buff fans have to be pleased with their coach, Karl Dorrell.  When Mel Tucker bailed for many MSU greenbacks after only 1 year in Boulder, Colorado was left holding the bag.  Dorrell, the former UCLA coach, has turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, which slightly soften the hard feelings that still exist toward Tucker.

The Odyssey’s on site coverage typically is exclusively on FBS teams – the big boys.  However, after no less than 6 lower-tier FCS teams toppled their FBS “big brothers” in week 1, the Odyssey decided to change its stance.  One of the teams that pulled off such an upset were the UC Aggies — one of 3 Big Sky teams to beat FCS squads in week 1.  Week 2 had the Aggies travelling to University of San Diego.

USD football has intrigued me for two reasons:

1) Jim Harbaugh started his coaching career at USD.

2) USD has excelled in football despite the huge handicap of offering no football scholarships.  The Toreros  have been frequent participants in the FCS playoff – including 4 straight years from 2016-19, when they beat two scholarship programs in the playoffs – Cal Poly and Northern Arizona.

This intrigue and the presence of the upstart Aggies prompted the Odyssey to pay a visit to the Toreros’ beautiful campus on a very warm afternoon. UC Davis was duly impressive, routing an outmanned USD squad 53-7, the worst beatdown of USD in 25 years.  Former Boise State and Colorado head coach, Dan Hawkins, has found a comfortable landing spot in Davis.  I was amused that after each of the Aggies’ first-half touchdowns, the Aggies went for 2.  Shades of Chip Kelly during his Oregon heyday!

I noted that the ticket prices were all of $10 – $5 for kids.  Refreshing!  I craned my neck to look for the band at halftime.  There was no marching band – just piped in music.  Disappointing!  The Toreros’ conference, the Pioneer League,  is one where football scholarships are not offered.  Before they dive into conference play, they travel to Bozeman on Saturday to play one more scholarship team – an excellent Montana State squad.  After their opening 3-game gauntlet against the Big Sky, USD will be able to provide ample testimony as to Big Sky excellence.

Let’s take a look at 4 Week 2 favorites who appear poised to crush overmatched dogs.  As tempting as it is to take these favorites against the spread, caution is in order.

Florida (-28) at South Florida

USF was of the very worst looking teams in week 1.  The Bulls made North Carolina State look like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, getting outgained 525-271.  USF has to be wondering why they ever hired Jeff Scott.  The 2nd-year coach has not yet won an FBS game (USF fans are very thankful for last year’s Citadel game!) and their fans cannot be blamed for checking  his buyout amount — Scott was signed for 5 years  and $12.5 million.

The game in Tampa will not even be a “true” home game as we expect Gator fans to heavily attend.  The Odyssey fondly remembers attending a spine tingling, 31-28 USF win in 2003 over a good Louisville team.  The place was rocking!  No more.  However, Florida cannot help but looking forward to whom they host in the Swamp the following Saturday:  ALABAMA!  When you factor in that the USF players from the Sunshine State will want to show well against the school that did not offer them, giving the 4 touchdowns does not look like easy money to the Odyssey.

Purdue (-34) at UConn

After Saturday’s  38-28 loss to Holy Cross, Randy Edsall promptly announced his retirement.  Very smart, Randy, to get ahead of the posse!   Purdue may be preoccupied by their date the following Saturday at Notre Dame.  The Notre Dame game was always a huge game on the Purdue schedule until the Irish decided not to play the Boilermakers annually.  This will be the 85th installment in the series, Notre Dame leading 56-26-2.  Purdue is always fired up to play the Irish.

UTEP at Boise (-26)

Boise State will be jazzed to have a rare home date on September 18th against a Power 5 team in Oklahoma State on the blue turf!  Will there be a significant chance of overlooking UTEP  with UTEP’s lightweight pedigree.  Probably not as the Miners are actually 2-0 (a deceptive mark because their victims were the underwhelming duo of New Mexico State and Bethune Cookman).  Further, Boise will want to get the bitter taste of their come-from-ahead loss to UCF out of their mouth.  Still, Boise may hibernate a bit in the 2nd half as they look forward to the Cowboy game.

UNLV at Arizona State (-33)

Like UTEP, UNLV is a perennially downtrodden program.  ASU may be looking forward to its first big game of the year the following Saturday at BYU.  UNLV actually showed a pulse against a strong Eastern Washington team.  Despite being outmatched on the offensive line, the Rebels held a strong offense in check for most of the game.  We would only back UNLV in this spot.

Speaking of UNLV, their opener showed why sports gamblers can go insane.  The total for the game ranged between 66 and 69.  When only 9 points were scored in the first half, wouldn’t you feel awesome if you had a ticket on the under?  The game ends in regulation at 20-20.  Final score in double OT:  Eastern Washington 35, UNLV 33.

BE CAUTIOUS OUT THERE!

We believe College Football Odyssey has a unique claim to fame:  we go to more doubleheaders than any other human.  Saturday,  game #1 was in downtown Atlanta as Georgia State hosted Army.   By Atlanta standards, the heat was not oppressive but that did not induce more fans in the stands.  The ongoing degree of apathy was disappointing for a home team that was highly touted.  Perhaps, some would-be fans were siphoned away to the upcoming Miami-Alabama game at Mercedes-Benz.

Or perhaps they knew that the Panthers were going to play the stinker of stinkers.  As the game progressed, it became clearer and clearer that the wrong team was favored.  A week ago, the Odyssey was touting Georgia State.  We profusely apologize for journalistic idiocy.  Our lawyers are currently preparing defenses for the inevitable claims of football quackery.

The game turned on an amazing sequence of plays.  Trailing 7-0, Georgia State was forced to punt.  Army’s returner fumbled the punt.  Georgia State recovers.  OOPS!  A holding penalty forces the redo of the punt.  Then the strangest deja vu ever witnessed by the Odyssey. On the second punt, the Army returner again fumbles a punt.  Georgia State again recovers!  DOUBLE OOPS!  Yet another Panther holding penalty nullifies a potentially game-turning turnover.

Army methodically built a 21-7 lead and pinned Georgia State deep in their territory on the 7 with 1:22 to go in the first half.  We reflected that Georgia State’s QB, Quad Brown, could charitably be categorized as an erratic passer.  His first two passes of the game were barely in the same zip code as the intended receiver.  Regardless, the Georgia State brain trust made a reckless decision to have him throw on first down.  Interception.  Army scores and you have a 27-7 deficit against a team that chews up clock like no other with its ground and pound offense.  Good luck with that. The Cadets ultimately had 42 minutes of possession time.

We also disliked another decision by the Georgia State coaches.  Down 33-7, with 4:24 to go in the 3rd quarter,  facing a 4th down and 11 from the Army 15, the coaches elected to kick a field goal. By making the kick, the Panthers were now down 33-10.  Whoopee!!  Sure, some math geniuses can point out that the field goal made the game a 3-possession affair.  Sure, if the sputtering Georgia State offense could rally with 3 TDs and 3 2-point conversions, while contending with Army’s clock-chewing offense.  Fantasy land!

Meanwhile, the Odyssey admired how well coached Army was.  In addition to minimizing opening-game miscues, Army usually had a defensive “spy” on Brown.  Brown is clearly more effective with his legs than his arm.   Todd Monken versus the Georgia State staff proved to be the biggest coaching mismatch of the opening weekend.  Did we mention that Georgia State was favored to win the game?  A 43-10 verdict rendered such notion a farce.

Leaving Atlanta with a bad taste in our mouth because of the small crowd and Georgia State’s total dud, we were thrilled to find the antidote.  We traveled to Auburn for Bryan Harsin’s debut.  The student section was beyond awesome even an hour before game time in the late afternoon heat.  Seeing the crowd go wild with the entrance of the War Eagle is always worth the price of admission and then some.  Auburn’s impressive, 60-10 stomping of designated patsy, Akron, gave the passionate fans many opportunities to cheer.  The Odyssey believes that the Auburn student section outshines all others in the 100+ stadiums visited over the past 50+ years.  To boot, the light shows during the game were major fun.    Arguably, Auburn has the quickest trigger finger in firing coaches.  On the Plains, after the game, not even one complaint was heard about Harsin.  Refreshing!!

Another anecdote regarding the passion of Auburn fans:  I wore an orange polo shirt so the friendly locals understandably assumed that I was a fellow Auburnite.  In such cases, the strangers totally excised the words “hi” and “hello” from their vocabulary and substituted the following two words: “war” and “eagle”.

In the press box, we experienced both agony and ecstasy in following Big Sky games.  In our Friday article, we predicted that at least one of Montana and Montana State would give fits to quality FBS teams on Saturday.  Turns out we were too cautious.  Montana stunned a ranked Washington squad, 13-7.  Montana State led for much of their game against Wyoming, before succumbing, 19-16, thanks to a 21-yard Cowboy TD pass in the final minute.  We hope this restores our credibility to readers after our embarrassing gaffe in extolling Georgia State’s virtues a week ago.  Plus, the Odyssey did predict that UCLA would upset LSU.  Even the Odyssey can’t get ’em all right!

The Big Sky conference is much, much more than just having the best conference name.  FBS schools hate losing to their “little brothers” in the FCS.  The Big Sky had 2 nail-biting triumphs over the FBS on debut Thursday.

UC Davis took advantage of a suspension-ridden Tulsa squad (the Hurricanes got into a post-game brawl in their bowl game against Mississippi State) to eke out a 19-17 upset over a Tulsa squad that went in as a 22-point favorite.  Tulsa QB, Davis Brin, made a couple costly errors to aid the Aggies.

Eastern Washington actually went off as a small favorite at woeful UNLV, a rarity for an FCS school.   A shocking halftime score of 6-3 morphed into the thriller of the night where UNLV’s 2-point conversion failed in the second overtime to preserve a 35-33 victory for Eastern.

Conference favorite, Weber State, put up a respectable showing in a 40-17 loss to Utah before a record Rice-Eccles crowd.

The Odyssey predicts that at least one of two conference heavyweights put up a heck of a fight tomorrow against quality FBS teams.  Montana travels to Washington while Montana State travels to 7,220 feet in Wyoming.  Not only are the two Montana schools both targeting big things in 2021 but they clearly have the best-named rivalry game:  “Brawl of the Wild”.

The Big Sky cellar dweller is predicted to be Northern Colorado.  The Greeley guys have a new coach in Ed McCaffrey and a quality QB in his son, Michigan transfer Dylan McCaffrey.  UNC is getting 38.5 points against a Colorado team with QB uncertainties.  You could do worse than take the points.   Just another game where the Big Sky is not getting respect earned over the years.

UCLA’s attendance woes at the Rose Bowl continued with their lightly attended opener with Hawaii.  The Bruins’ opener attracted the fewest fans, with announced attendance of 33,000, since their November 1992 game against Oregon State.   Trust the Odyssey:  far fewer than 66,000 eyeballs were present.  TV brutally dictated that both Fresno State and UCLA play midday, Week 0 games in California heat (the field temp at Fresno was only 117 degrees) instead of another perfect California Night (yes, the Odyssey loves Lesley Gore.  RIP, Lesley!).

UCLA’s average home attendance in their last pre-covid year, 2019, was 43,800 — lowest since the Bruins made their move to the Rose Bowl in 1982.  With the specter of rabid LSU fans taking over the Rose Bowl this Saturday, the UCLA administration is taking  steps to fight back:

1. Each student is being provided a free ticket.  UCLA students have been traditionally apathetic.  One reason is the lack of an on-campus stadium.  The trek from Westwood to Pasadena is not always fun in congested LA traffic.
2. High school students in Southern California will be eligible to get free tix.
3. Alcohol sales are newly permitted.  UCLA Students can actually get drunk at the Rose Bowl instead of West Hollywood!  Plus, the monetary bonanza of selling alcohol to LSU fanatics can hardly be underestimated.  We can imagine Roger Miller singing “Chug A Lug” at halftime.
4.  As a bonus, UCLA looked great in their opener.  The Bruins appear to be a VERY live dog against LSU.  The Odyssey predicts an alcohol-aided upset.

Group of 5 conferences are capable of having 1 or 2 excellent teams but the lack of depth in quality ballclubs is one factor that separates the Group of 5 from the Power 5.

Let’s consider the Sun Belt East:  HELLO, ANOMALY!!  This may be the toughest Group of 5 Division ever with no weak sister.

Defending Sun Belt champion, Coastal Carolina, has everything but the kitchen sink returning from their Top 15 team that beat BYU in one of the games of 2020.  With 19 returning starters, is it possible that Coastal could have another undefeated regular season?  Doubtful, but the non-conference slate is tissue soft (sorry, Kansas!) in part due to the decimation of a solid  Buffalo team that experienced Transfer Mania once Lance Leopold became a late hire at Kansas (sorry, Leopold!).

Perennial power Appalachian State will be looking for revenge after their tight loss to Myrtle Beach’s Coastal .  Appalachian State has a chance to give the Sun Belt some major props with their  September 11 date at Miami.  The Mountaineers play the Hurricanes in a fantastic spot, as the U opens the previous week with Alabama.

Georgia State  has  19 starters returning, including dynamic QB Quad Brown.  The Panthers have been on the upswing in recent years, most evident in their 2019 win at Tennessee and a program first:  back-to-back winning seasons.   The Panthers will have plenty of chances to garner national attention.  The non-conference slate starts with Army and then offers daunting challenges at North Carolina and Auburn.  The Odyssey made a tasty long-shot bet on Georgia State to win the Sun Belt at 35-to-1 odds.  Stay tuned, as the Odyssey will be in the press box in Atlanta for the Panthers’ opener against Army.

Last year’s 4th place squad in the East is another traditional FCS power, Georgia Southern, fresh off 3 consecutive winning seasons.  The run-oriented squad has two chances to flex its in muscles in non-conference play with games against Arkansas and BYU.

Perhaps the best piece of evidence for the East’s power is Troy.  The Trojans are coming off two disappointing seasons, losing to all its East brethren in 2020, but retain a distinguished pedigree.  Ask LSU, Nebraska, Florida State, Mississippi State and Missouri about their struggles against Troy the past 20 years.  Respect given to Troy is shown  by ESPN’s SP+ forecast giving Troy a  61% chance to win their rematch game at South Carolina.

The Sun Belt rocked last year, as evidenced by its perfect 3-0 mark against the Big 12.  Louisiana starts as a VERY live 10-point dog in its opener at Texas (The line since dropped to 8).  Despite most of their “prestige”  non-conference games being on the road, we expect the Sun Belt to fare well again in 2021.  The Odyssey really enjoys the “little guy” winning in the increasingly “have versus have not” world of college football.  Occasionally, the Odyssey does not pretend to have journalistic integrity:  GO SUN BELT!!

I see little reason for optimism in Ann Arbor this fall.  Tradition, the winged helmet and a fabulous fight song can only get you so far.  Perhaps JJ McCarthy will be the wonder frosh QB  the Wolverines badly need.    Will McCarthy be the savior that Harbaugh was touted to be upon his hire?  Maybe McCarthy won’t start and either Cade McNamara or Texas Tech transfer, Alan Bowman, will shine.  Certainly possible.

The biggest reason for pessimism is the head man.  Jim Harbaugh seems to have done a disappearing act that Houdini might have envied.  Where is the cocky guy who guaranteed a 1986 victory in Columbus immediately after a disheartening upset to Minnesota?

Where is the guy who pissed off Pete Carroll after going for 2 in the waning moments of a Stanford rout of the Trojans?

Where is the guy who pissed off the SEC by setting up summer satellite camps in their territory?  And then went shirtless?

Call the cops!  That Jim Harbaugh has gone AWOL!

5 straight losses (3 of which were blowouts) to the Buckeyes have cowed Harbaugh.  Repeatedly losing to the Buckeyes is very irritating but almost excusable given their ongoing surfeit of NFL talent.  Losing at home to a poor MSU team last year is not.

Not only has Harbaugh’s swagger disappeared, his game management is a recurring problem.  In MSU’s miracle 2015 win in Ann Arbor on a game-ending punt block, UM was blocking 8 on 11 as Michigan had two gunners who did not stay home to block.

Michigan was actually favored against OSU in their 2018 finale in Columbus.  The previous week, Indiana successfully ran a lot of crossing routes against Michigan.  OSU looked at the film and intelligently took a page out of the Hoosier playbook.  Michigan had a week to fix this problem.  Harbaugh and DC Don Brown seemed oblivious to the Hoosier success.   The issue remained dreadfully unfixed to the horror of 62 Buckeye points.

The cocky Harbaugh needs to return.  Otherwise, UM’s chance for near term success is diminished.  The cocky Harbaugh would have kept bringing in stellar classes.  With 2 exceptions, UM’s most recent recruiting class is considered ho-hum.

Michigan is not a terribly talented team in 2021.  In Phil Steele’s annual, on the Big 10’s first 3 teams of all-league selections, the Wolverines have 1 selection on offense, 3rd teamer Ronnie Bell.  On his first 3 teams of defense, UM only has 3 2nd-teamers. In addition, the schedule is tricky.  Las Vegas puts the over/under on Wolverine wins at 7.5.  I do not think UM will get there.

The first two games are against Western Michigan and Washington.  WMU is not a pushover and some pundits think the Huskies are one of the more underrated teams in the country.    Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana are all talented.  Maryland’s skill level talent with a Tagovailoa at QB is undeniable. Even Rutgers took the Blue to triple overtime last year as Greg Schiano appears to have revived a doormat.

The crossover schedule with the Big Ten West is not trivial.  Wisconsin mauled Michigan last year, 49-11, and this year’s game is in Madison. Uh oh!  At Nebraska and hosting Northwestern are far from automatic wins.

The Odyssey predicts Michigan will not have a winning season, given that we see only 1 “automatic win” on the schedule (Northern Illinois).

Which means that the administration will likely look for a graceful exit for Mr. Harbaugh.  Which is only fair.  As one of the best QBs to ever don the winged helmet,  such dignity is fully merited.  The Odyssey will profusely apologize for our pessimism if there is an 8-4 mark (or better) in Ann Arbor.

If Harbaugh’s luck is in, perhaps stellar QB play will be the Wolverines’  salvation.  But to assume that the Maize and Blue find a QB savior is to hope for a lot.  In Ann Arbor, coveting saviors has proven to be a risky proposition.

From a perspective of a lifetime college football junkie, I am flying my flag at half mast.  With little hope of raising it back to full height in the foreseeable future.

I have been aghast at the wave of transfers that has permeated college football the past year.  “If I ain’t startin’, I’m certainly departin’ ” seems to be the mantra of the day.   Oh, my feelings have been slightly mixed as players should certainly deserve a degree of autonomy, particularly when there is a coaching change.  But I do not appreciate the players from Group of 5 programs, spurning the programs that took a chance on them out of high school, for greener pastures.  The blue blood programs have so many advantages, the ability to cherry pick players from lower-tier programs perpetuates the growing inequities among the Group of 5 and the Power 5 (or is it Power 4 after the probable Big 12 exits of Bevo and Boomer?).

I love the story of David besting Goliath.  But  Goliath is getting too big in the 2021 football landscape.  I pine for the days of my youth.  Can you imagine Southern Miss beating its SEC neighbor in the eastern part of the state in consecutive years?  The Golden Eagles did so in 1967-68.  Central Michigan traveled an hour south to East Lansing in 1991-92 and emerged triumphant in both years.  Stanford pulled off a big upset of undefeated Michigan in the 1972 Rose Bowl.  That same Indian team was stunned, 13-12, by San Jose State.  I have a hard time envisioning similar, stirring upsets in the rich-get-richer scenario in which we find ourselves.

Certain players will benefit from the new Name, Image and Likeness rules (“NIL”).  Some handsomely.  From the standpoint of parity among teams,  such revolutionary rule change is the equivalent of Jeff Bezos getting a grant from the US government.  An untested Alabama QB, Bryce Young,  is reportedly getting endorsement deals  totaling near $1 million dollars.  Teams used to go on probation when the NCAA found out that a star was getting a fraction of this money under the table.  Will NIL money create resentments among teammates?  Stay tuned.

Group of 5 teams simply do not have the same level of deep-pocketed boosters to take comparable advantage of the new NIL rules.

The latest domino to drop is the specter of a super conference.  UGH!  With Texas and Oklahoma courting the SEC, the fragile equilibrium of the other conferences is threatened.  If the Sooners and the Longhorns leave the Big 12, that beleaguered conference has two distasteful options:

1. Disband altogether, as the Big East did in football after the previous bout of conference musical chairs in 2010.
2. Become watered down:  Hello Houston, SMU and certain other usual suspects.  Have fun negotiating your next TV contract!!

My son and I admire the manner in which England’s Premier League works.  Each year 3 teams are relegated to a lower-tier league as  three teams are promoted.  If the SEC does become the “Super 16” perhaps this might give the lower-tier a reasonable carrot.  Since college football is changing so dramatically, why not?

However, recent trends suggest that most Division 1 programs will increasingly be picking up the crumbs from a small number of super powers.  I really hate to quote Donald Trump BUT:  “Sad”.

After LSU’s dreadful start, the Odyssey posted the following query on October 14th: Was Ed Orgeron a 2nd Edition Gene Chizik?

Given the mass exodus of Tigers from their rocking national championship team, we were initially inclined to give Coach O a pass on 2020.  However, nobody envisioned their shockingly inept defense.  The return of Bo Pelini to the D coordinator position seemed as out of date as hiring a blacksmith in 1920.

Black is an excellent adjective to characterize LSU’s start of the season.  LSU single handedly and improbably made K.J Costello look like Dan Marino in their ill-fated opener.  Another defensive fiasco at Missouri ensued.   However, the Bayou Bengals became the beneficiary of several favorable breaks.  Their game at The Swamp was postponed at a point when LSU was still in disarray.  The rescheduling of the game to the week before Florida’s appearance in the SEC title game proved a God send.

The preoccupied Gators rested their nuclear tight end, Kyle Pitts.  Florida was clearly looking forward to Saban’s Tide.  Florida’s other Kyle, Trask, tossed some uncharacteristic picks.  Still, when LSU was stopped on a key 3rd down with 2 minutes to go in a tie game,  Florida seemingly had the upper hand to survive the scare.  Until, Marco Wilson decided to throw a shoe 20 yards down the field.  Personal foul!  The drive continues.  A miraculous 57-yard field goal in the mist gave LSU 37-34 salvation.

The following Saturday, LSU hosted another makeup game versus Ole Miss.   In most years, LSU out-talents the Rebels.  2020 was not most years.  However, Matt Corral, Ole Miss’ prolific but inconsistent QB, threw 5 picks to enable the Bayou Bengals to survive another thriller.

Coach O should thank his lucky stars that LSU wound up 5-5.   The aftermath resulted in some predictable staff changes.  Bo Pelini’s firing was a bit easier for the former Nebraska head coach to take as he will get several million dollars in severance.

2021 will be incredibly interesting on the Bayou.  Did 2019 catch lightning in a bottle?  The uber-strong SEC West is not getting any weaker as the mutts of the West (Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Arkansas) all made promising coaching hires before 2020.

LSU will be one of college football’s most interesting stories in 2021.

College Football Odyssey will take its usual hiatus until August.  Till then, please stay healthy.  Hopefully, the health issues of the USA will diminish to a point that we can see you in the stands come September.