3 months have passed since the NFL Draft and the college football fan in me is still left with a bad taste in his mouth. While college football has always had its “haves” and “have nots” , NIL and the transfer portal have greatly deepened the divide.
Jahmyr Gibbs was the #12 overall pick in the draft. He fled a losing Georgia Tech team to be the feature back at Alabama.
Vanderbilt had a decent offensive lineman in Tyler Steen. He fled Nashville for the Crimson TIde and became the #65 overall pick in the draft.
Before Tennessee had its renaissance 2022, linebacker Henry To’oTo’O transferred to, you guessed it, Alabama. To’oTo’O was a 5th round draft pick.
Does it help college football that Nick Saban gets to cherry pick from lesser squads? Like Alabama really needs the help after each year’s premier recruiting class!!
This is not just an “Alabama” thing. The MAC has become a de facto farm club for the Power 5. Kent State’s best 2 offensive players said adieu. QB Collin Schlee transferred to UCLA while his primary receiver, Dante Cephas, left for Happy Valley. Ball State’s Carson Steele was probably the MAC’s best back in 2022, as he rushed for 1,556 yards. The Indiana prep will be Schlee’s running mate in Westwood in 2023.
The Odyssey is torn. Some transfers are more than understandable (One can totally understand why Charles Jones’ ditched Iowa’s staid offense for pass happy Purdue. He had a much better 2022 in West Lafayette than he ever would have had in Iowa City). However, some of the transfers are thumbing their nose at the teams that believed in them coming out of high school. This scent of disloyalty does bother the Odyssey.
We are also concerned about the fan experience. If the “have” versus “have not” divide continues to widen, fans will be subject to more blowout games. In Ann Arbor, among other college football palaces, fans will be paying lots of money for a second straight season of paying for laughable non-conference sacrifices (The Wolverines’ non-conference victims in 2022: Hawaii, Colorado State and Connecticut; 2023: East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green).
Unless the transfer portal gets tightened, maybe the only solution is to have one or two elite conferences whose schedules consist solely of playing each other. For other teams, the Odyssey would be very open to a promotion/relegation approach now employed by Britain’s Premier League.
The Odyssey would generally prefer a return to the “old days” but that horse has left the barn. Let’s hope the powers that be will be able to limit the damage.
Author: rickro51 Page 14 of 36
Congrats to Georgia!
Condolences to the majority of college football teams.
A quality team from the Big 12 was decimated from one of the titans of the imperial bosses of the SEC.
Compound this with the rich getter richer via the transfer portal from the lesser schools. Competitive balance is waning in a sport that richly thrives on competition.
The Odyssey likes a degree of competitive balance. Monday night’s TCU trainwreck was not in any way healthy for college football.
We will be flying our flag at half mast until we start posting again in August. TILL THEN!
FINALLY!!! Two semifinal CFP games that both delivered.
Just when it seemed like the January 2 bowl games felt like yesterday’s leftovers, Tulane scores 16 points in the last 4 minutes to shock USC, 46-45, for the very biggest win in Green Wave history.
Another January 2 shocker from a betting standpoint. Mississippi State kicks a last ditch field goal to go ahead 13-10. The Bulldogs started off as small favorites but the line rose to 3.5 in the hours leading up to the game. Imagine having a +3.5 or -3.5 ticket. On the ensuing kickoff, Illinois attempted the standard throw-the-ball-around-like-a-hot-potato on the ensuing kickoff. At one point, an alert MSU defender intercepts an errant toss and runs it back for 6 on the game’s final play. 19-10 final. Assuredly, there were “Oh my Gods” and “F*ck mes” in the betting world.
Even with some truly meaningless games (IE, LSU beat an undermanned Purdue team, 63-7), college football always seems to deliver.
HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Odyssey!
Mike Leach is gone at age 61. Shocking. Unfair. An irretrievable loss.
That Mike Leach could win at 3 of the most challenging jobs in the Power 5 (Texas Tech, Washington State and Mississippi State) is enough to put him on the Mount Rushmore of college coaches. Sure, perhaps Nick Saban is the college GOAT but have you noticed where Alabama’s recruiting classes ranked every year. Sure, Saban also won a national championship at LSU but talent down on the Bayou is always as ample as Dolly Parton’s cleavage.
I doubt that you could ever find one of Leach’s recruiting classes in the Top 25 but that just made his magic that much more singular. He won 11 games at Texas Tech in 2008 before being forced out by yelps from the family of Craig James. After Leach’s firing, football in Lubbock went into hibernation for the next decade . He resurfaced on the Palouse and after a rough 2 years, also got Wazzu to an 11-win season.
The Odyssey is happy for the Leach legacy that his last game coached was a 24-22 thriller over hated arch rival, Ole Miss, in Thanksgiving’s Egg Bowl. Leach was an innovative pioneer in the Air Raid passing offense. All great stuff BUT what really set Leach apart were his outlook on life and his press conferences. Both various shades of mesmerizing. He had a fixation on pirates and wisely counseled couples on the wisdom of eloping in lieu of a formal wedding. He was so unconventional and so hilarious!! How many coaches have commented on his team’s “fat little girlfriends?” If he had used his law degree, Leach would have been a brilliant lawyer. He also would have been excellent as a stand up comedian.
Leach’s teams could be maddening in two regards. His disdain of the run game caused occasional issues when his offenses were in the Red Zone, facing a compressed field. Occasionally, the lack of said run game was costly in the sense that his offense could not “run out the clock” with a lead. The most memorable Leach defeat in this regard was the 2013 New Mexico Bowl. Washington State had a 45-30 lead over Colorado State with slightly over 4 minutes to play. An inability to run the ball and a costly fumble cost dearly as the Rams came back for a stunning 48-45 win. Sadly, Leach’s 3 Mississippi State teams were each steamrolled by the Nick Saban machine. A few pimples on a terrific body of work.
However, his legacy will easily transcend his solid won-loss record. Given that the Odyssey’s Godmother is currently in hospice at age 96, Leach might have had one final blessing. His death was quick and, hopefully, relatively painless. His death will never erase his memory. RIP, my friend.
The Oklahoma Sooners just finished a dreadful 6-6 season that actually is better than the reality in Norman. When you lose 49-0 to Texas in the Red River Rivalry, such beatdown should count as 3 losses.
So, where did the 6-8 Sooners excel? Grooming QBs for massive success elsewhere. Caleb Williams rates to win the Heisman. Spencer Rattler went crazy in South Carolina’s last two games as the Gamecocks arguably knocked TWO teams out of the playoffs, Tennessee and Clemson. Tanner Mordecai excelled in SMU’s pass-happy offense.
Actually, the breeding did not stop there if you consider that Lincoln Riley’s first gig as head man was at OU. Now, Riley gets to watch the waves at Manhattan Beach while attracting droves of quality players to the Coliseum. In comparison, will Brent Venables turn out to the Sooners’ booby prize? Stay tuned.
The Odyssey gets more upset with each passing day at how the portal disadvantages the “have nots.” Not to mention that it is a touch disloyal for an emerging star to bail on a team that had faith in him even when others did not offer.
Some examples: Braden Fiske has been a stalwart defensive lineman for Western Michigan. The Michigan City (Indiana) prep is paying a visit to nearby Notre Dame though many other Power 5’s have offered.
Ball State’s Carson Steele rushed for 1,376 yards this year as a Sophomore. Bye, bye, Ball. Maybe we should just say, bye, bye, MAC.
Vanderbilt’s 5-win renaissance did not resonate with their starting QB, Mike Wright, and their leading rusher. Bye, bye Nashville.
Spencer Sanders and Sam Hartman were both quality starters for what seemed like a zillion years at Oklahoma State and Wake Forest, respectively. Neither will be staying put in 2023.
The Odyssey was excited about Arizona’s prospects in 2023 thanks, in no small measure, to a sizzling passing attack. Passing whiz, Jayden de Laura, and stellar receiver, Dorian Singer, had words on the sideline during a late-season game. Au revoir, Dorian!
Indiana’s 2020 renaissance was surprising and very temporary in the brutal Big 10 East. Dasan McCollough took note and became the Hoosiers’ highest ranked recruit – EVER. The linebacker had a standout Freshman year but will not be in Bloomington in 2023. McCullough’s exit follows two other entrances into the portal by potential 2023 Hoosier starters. That McCullough was a hometown prep makes the wound even deeper A sobering time to be Tom Allen.
There needs to be balance between individual liberty and mass exodus from programs who offered an initial opportunity. The Odyssey hopes that the powers-that-be can find such balance.
On the day that the College Football Playoff committee announced the semifinal pairings (kudos to the committee for getting everything right — including no immediate Ohio State-Michigan rematch, thank you very much), the Odyssey is till lamenting the anti-best: ie, a terrible down year for the Mountain West.
Fresno State won the title by winning at Boise State. Let’s consider two incredible blots on the resumes of the division winners. Fresno State lost at UConn, albeit with no Jake Haener. Boise State got smoked at UTEP. Two telling faceplants. At least Fresno had an excuse. Haener is a helluva quarterback. Boise’s upset at El Paso was considered so seismic that the offensive coordinator was fired and the starting QB, Hank Bachmeier, immediately went into the transfer portal.
Four of the conference teams were beyond terrible: Hawaii, Colorado State, New Mexico and Nevada were all utterly embarrassing. Wyoming might have had a decent team this year but the Cowboys were one of the biggest losers in the transfer portal. We fear that both the portal and NIL will continue to be an enemy of the Mountain West.
San Diego State’s offense was so awful in the first half of the year that the Aztecs had to resort to a converted Safety to be a partial solution at QB in the 2nd half of the campaign. Even so, SDSU scored only 3 points in its finale against Air Force. The Aztecs have been a flagship program for the conference over the past decade, noted by their frequent successes against the Pac12. In 2022, SDSU was easily swept aside by both Arizona and Utah.
We hope the Mountain West is stronger in 2023 but are worried about the growing gap between the “have” and “have not” conferences.
The transfer portal causes the Odyssey much pain. We are torn. Certainly, everybody deserves the right to “better themselves.” However, we keep thinking that the portal is a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. We intensely dislike Group of 5 teams morphing into de facto farm clubs for the Power 5. Yuck!!!
Two examples from this week’s announcements: Boston College QB Phil Jurkovec announced his intent to transfer. Jeff Hafley and the rest of the folks in Chestnut Hill cannot be happy today. The Eagles provided a home to Jurkovec after his transfer from Notre Dame. BC’s 2022 was curtailed by a spate of injuries that weakened an already suspect offensive line. If Jurkovec thought that the offensive line in 2023 would not offer significant improvement, one can better understand his decision. Still, the decision feels a touch disloyal to a program that needs all the help it can muster.
Sometimes, “the rats are not leaving a sinking ship” but a ship that is sea worthy. Nobody questions the viability of Iowa’s football program under the 20+-year tenure of Kirk Ferentz. However, a shoddy offense torpedoed a defense that was generally magnificent in 2022. Two of Iowa’s most prestigious recruits in recent years at wide receiver, Arland Bruce IV and Keagan Johnson, have bolted this week. Undoubtedly , the two wideouts saw what last year’s wide receiver transfer from the Iowa program, Charlie Jones, did at Purdue this fall. Jones morphed from relative obscurity into one of 2022’s most statistically accomplished receivers with 97 catches for 1,199 yards and 12 TDs.
Note to Iowa receivers: Incoming transfer portal QB, Cade McNamara, is not a hack. McNamara only led Michigan to its first Big Ten championship in 17 years. The Odyssey will root for McNamara in 2023 as he was dealt a tough hand at Michigan after a very successful 2021. We feel badly that McNamara is not fully appreciated by Maize and Blue faithful. It is a shame Iowa does not play Michigan in 2022 as we would have rooted for McNamara to have a good game versus his former squad.
There will be more entrants into the transfer portal that give the Odyssey indigestion. We will have lots of aspirin ready.
Thank God there are conference championship games outside the Power 2. Neither a 4-loss Purdue team or a 3-loss LSU team move the needle. Of course, now that the Odyssey has thrown shade on these games, expect at least one of these 17-point dogs to pull the upset.
One aspect of conference championship games that the Odyssey finds distasteful is the high frequency of rematches. One of the beauties of college football is that “one and done” is the norm.
However, 2 tasty rematches are on the docket this weekend. Can USC punch its ticket to the playoff with a victory over Utah? The Utes posted a scintillating 43-42 victory in Salt Lake City on a gutsy, last-minute, 2-point conversion. Can any mortal defense slow down Caleb Williams? The Odyssey likes USC in this game on the theory that beating a quality team twice has proven to be difficult if history is any measure.
The Odyssey notes that Utah won an interesting tiebreaker with 2 other teams that went 7-2 in the Pac12, Oregon and Washington. If the first tiebreaker to determine team #2 in the Pac 12 title game was head-to-head among the 3 teams, Washington would have won out with a 1-0 mark. The Huskies beat Oregon in a thriller and did not play the Utes. However, the Pac12’s tiebreaker was the team whose opponents had the highest win-loss percentage in conference play. Advantage Utah. (Remember that each Pac12 team does not play 2 conference opponents).
TCU has impressively gone through the Big 12 undefeated. Impressive in the sense that the Big 12 had 0 weak sisters this year. While the Horned Frogs would be a great story to get to the playoffs undefeated, Kansas State is a hell of a team with two excellent QBs. We do not think TCU will beat the Wildcats a second time.
Speaking of rematches, the Odyssey would throw up if Ohio State makes the playoff and again plays Michigan. The Game is simply not The Game if played multiple times in a year. We shall see!
We all love epic college football games — when such epics occur in rivalry games, a truly special place exists in college football lore.
What better place to host an epic rivalry game than the Rose Bowl? To those fanatics on the Paul Finebaum show (and Finebaum himself), they may never understand that the Rose Bowl will always reign supreme as the gold standard for college football venues. As humanity has sadly learned over and again, no cure exists for ignorance.
To say that USC’s 48-45 survival was one of the very best in USC-UCLA history was undoubtedly true. However, in the NOW of 2022 and the transfer portal, traditional history was on a collision course with the seismic changes in the college game.
Were the USC Trojans a collection of student-athletes or a modern-day mercenary army including 26 players from the transfer portal?? The crown jewel of the Trojans’ unprecedented transfer portal haul was Sooner refugee, Kaleb Williams. That Williams threw for 470 yards and kept a spirited Bruin squad at bay in the 2nd half tells only part of the story. Like his counterpart at UCLA, Dorian-Thompson Robinson, Williams possessed Houdini-like escapability.
When USC had the ball in the waning minutes, nursing its 48-45 cushion, a shroud of despair must have enveloped Bruin faithful. How do you stop the unstoppable? But just as the seas miraculously parted for Moses, two highly improbable events transpired. UCLA actually sacked Williams on a key third-day play. One shocking development begat another: a USC punt! The Odyssey, in rapt attendance, had to rub their eyes at such shocking events.
With 2 minutes left, UCLA’s anti-transfer portal QB, 5th-year starter, Thompson-Robinson, had has chance to make history. Beating the hating Trojans, winning the Pac12, getting UCLA to play in the Rose Bowl on January 1 for the first time in the 21st century were all in as clear a view as the nearby San Gabriel mountains. Literally one drive and two minutes separated DTR from being atop the Mount Rushmore of the LA rivalry. To DTR’s credit, perhaps his 2021 performance in leading to UCLA’s offense romping to 66 points in their demolition of the Trojans had already qualified him for rivalry immortality.
Nobody could question Thompson-Robinson’s toughness. Playing hurt in the 2nd half, he led UCLA to 513 yards of offense that would have slayed teams with a lesser QB than Williams. When UCLA had the ball at their own 10 with 2 minutes to go, the Bruins did not absolutely have to drive the length of the field to reach their zenith. A game-tying field goal was also in the equation.
UCLA’s last-ditch play calling was curious. Pass after pass after pass. One first down was generated. Alas, for the Westwoodites, USC snagged a dagger, the Trojans’ 3rd pick of the game. While USC had done a better job of corraling Zach Charbonnet in the 2nd half, Charbonnet is clearly one of the college game’s premier running backs. In UCLA’s ill-fated drive, not one rushing touch for Charbonnet. Hmmmm……Time was important but the Odyssey believes that the Bruin effort would have been enhanced by a Charbonnet citing.
As if to contrast with college football’s modern day NIL, transfer portal world, the Golden State’s other traditional rivalry was simultaneously taking place 400 miles North. The modern game seems to have passed by both Stanford and Cal. The “Big Game” seemed like a forlorn testament of what used to be. Sadly, college football interest in San Francisco has flagged so badly that the Big Game cannot come no longer come close to selling out. Both Big 10 rejects do not seem to have more than a passing interest in recent changes in the college football universe.
Oklahoma fans can also provide ample testament to college football’s revolution. Sooner fans once cheered wildly for both Spencer Rattler and Caleb Williams. The Odyssey wonders what the folks in Norman were wondering on Saturday as both Rattler and Williams lit the college world on in different uniforms?
One need not love all aspects of a revolution, but a revolution we clearly have.