And just like that, this crazy season has come to an end for me. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were hosting our first tailgate of the year during zero week at San Jose State. The championship game will be played next Monday night in Indianapolis between this season’s two top teams, Alabama and Georgia. This is a rematch of the SEC championship game last month where we saw Bama upset the allegedly unbeatable Dawgs. Many believe that Bama head coach Nick Saban rents space in UGA head coach Kirby Smart’s head. In FCS action, North Dakota State returns to its second home of Frisco, Texas, this Friday to take on Montana State for the D1AA championship. NDSU has won nine out of the last 11 championships at the FCS level.
Some highlights of the past year of college football: After a year of mostly fanless stadiums, college football returned to full capacity. Although some stadiums had mask, vax or negative test mandates, it still seemed like college football again. The BIG Ten lost some prestige with Ohio State losing to Oregon and then to Michigan for the first time in a decade. Michigan made the CFB playoff but embarrassed themselves and their conference in their non performance against UGA. MIchigan State had a resurgent year, but other BIG Ten schools like Penn State, Indiana, Wisconsin and Northwestern had seasons that did not meet expectations. Cincinnati became the first non Power Five team to make the playoff but ultimately succumbed to a better Alabama squad. USC suffered through one of its worst seasons ever, shedding themselves of their head coach in the process. Oklahoma and Texas announced they will do the Lebron thing and take their talents to the SEC in the near future ... Baylor and the Stillwater Cow Pokes picked up the slack for the Big 12. Lincoln Benedict Arnold Riley left OU in a lurch, announcing the day after losing the Bedlam game that he was leaving to take the USC job. In the process, he decimated a strong recruiting class. Brian Kelly followed suit a day later and left a strong Notre Dame team for LSU and picked up a real bonafide Southern accent in the process. Mario Crystal Balless then did the same to Oregon by fleeing to the free state of Florida and returning to his alma mater in Miami. Bryce Young became the first QB1 from Alabama to ever win the Heisman. The ACC was rendered irrelevant as Clemson had an off year and the next best team was Pitt. Aside from UGA and Bama dominating the SEC, Florida grew tired of the whiney bitch Dan Mullen and sent him packing. Tennessee had a resurgent year and was very close to winning their Bowl game. Lane Kiffin brought Ole Miss into the realms of respectability and also became a great post-game interview with is quirkiness. The Name Image and Likeness (NIL) spread like an omicron virus and became a way for boosters to lure recruits by working the edges of the rule. The transfer portal hit galactical numbers as butthurt players took their ball and ran elsewhere.
Pictures in the rearview mirror:
Season Stats:
Seventeen college games
Eight first-time stadiums
One first-time Bowl game
One NFL game
One high school game
Bieber: The final Bieber of the season goes to UCLA for pulling out of the Holiday Bowl game against North Carolina State a mere four hours before kickoff. It was publicly stated this was due to covid protocols. Upon further investigation, there was one player who had come in contact with someone with this thing called covid. It has been rumored by very reliable sources that Chip Kelly called for the cancellation as he felt he didn’t have enough players to be competitive. The lack of players had nothing to do with covid casualties, this had to do with your ego and not wanting to get your butt kicked by a team that wanted to be there. People from the great state of North Carolina spent their Christmas bonuses to fly themselves out to San Diego for this event. Also the organizers of this game being played at Petco Park, home of the baseball Padres, were left high and dry. It’s not like me to defend ESPN, but they even got screwed as advertising revenues would not be paid and replacement programming needed to be hurried in there at the last minute. Even my old neighbor “Little” John, a die hard UCLA fan, made the trek to the 619 only to be left disgusted in his alma mater. So ACLU, you have the honor of being this year’s final Bieber. At least you have a trophy to finally put in your football trophy case.
Ginger: This award goes to the star players who opted to stay and play their final game with their teams instead of “opting out” or hitting that mythical transfer portal before the Bowl games were played. Many of these players are projected early round draft picks such as UNC QB Sam Howell and Ole Miss QB Matt Corral. I also award the Ginger to coaches who took new jobs but stayed to finish their old ones like Ole Miss OC Jeff Lebby and UGA DC Dan Lanning. You all did it the right way as you decided to finish what you started and not take the easy way out like so many others did. For this, we salute you and thank you for your loyalty and leadership.
Next Up: Seven and half months of prayer, meditation, yoga, cleansing, dieting, no drinking, daily exercise, betterment conferences, writing poetry, painting nature pictures, clothes shopping with my daughters, running a few triathlons ……. Okay, okay, okay, who am I kidding? I will be shooting guns, bbqing and drinking beer while getting prepped for next season. See ya’ll in August!
Happy Tailgating!
