Did yesterday really happen? I woke up this morning and thought it was a dream. That’s got to go down as one of the best weekends of finishes in college football maybe ever. I’m just going to give my thoughts on how awful the Gators looked and those three outstanding finishes. I’ll also give my top 10 teams as well.

Florida at Vandy: The combined score of this game the past two seasons is 22-13 in favor of Florida. That is unbelievable. Good thing there weren’t many better games in the noon time slot because this was the biggest snooze fest of the day.

We all know the offense is not very good, especially with an inept QB like Appleby. I thought he would be okay with what I thought was much better talent around him than he had at Purdue. But maybe the talent on offense at Florida isn’t much better than Purdue, and that’s really a problem. He got no help from the offensive line or the running game, other than Jordan Scarlett.

And why the hell is McElwain so stubborn in sticking with the four running back rotation? I was surprised to see Jordan Scarlett still has the most carries of the four, but he needs to be the feature back getting around 15-20 carries per game. I’ve been calling for this since week one, and he’s still sticking with giving Thompson and Cronkrite carries who are just okay, in my opinion. They certainly aren’t at the talent level of Scarlett. And it was clear yesterday that Scarlett had the hot hand and he needed to get more carries.

This has been my biggest issue with McElwain. He did it last year with Treon Harris too. I knew Josh Grady probably wouldn’t have been much better if at all, but you had to try something different. I still think he’s an excellent tactical decision maker when it comes to fourth down percentages, field position, and clock management, which is why I still think he’s ultimately the right guy for the job. And it makes me feel good when I see other supposedly top tier coaches (*cough* Jimbo *cough*) make awful tactical decisions. Although, Mac did have his worst clock management decision at the end of the first half yesterday by leaving a timeout on the board and not giving us an extra chance to score a touchdown. He’s got to turn the offense around and keep winning to be able to attract the top recruits and talent in the state of Florida.

Even with Luke Del Rio possibly returning next week, I don’t have much confidence the offense will look a whole lot better. With Tennessee winning yesterday, the SEC East race is all but over. Tennessee would have to lose the next two weeks against Texas A&M and Bama (which I think is likely), and Florida would have to win out in the SEC (which is no way happening). The Gators will have a tough one next week as LSU looked damn good with interim head coach Ed Orgeron taking over. I think a 9-3 finish to the season would be excellent and is still reasonable. I predicted 8-4 before the start and anything less than that there will be major concerns with the team and coaching staff.

UNC at FSU and Tennessee at Georgia: This was the greatest 20 minute span in college football history. I actually was watching the second half of both games simultaneously on my mobile devices. I had the Tennessee game on my iPhone and the FSU game on my iPad. After the FSU game ended I switched my iPad to Twitter and the ending of the Georgia game was ruined for me because of the delay on mobile. Oh well. It could’ve been worse. My dad said he turned off both games thinking they were both over.

Let’s start with UNC at FSU. The Noles defense is just an absolute sieve, and we all knew that coming into this game. And the Tar Heels’ offense is really good with their up-tempo play and aggressive passing attack with Mitch Trubisky, who’s been great so far this year. As Tomahawk Nation’s Bud Elliott pointed out all game, Jimbo and the coaching staff knew they were going to have score a lot of points to win this game. Instead, he opted to kick field goals in the first quarter, and they missed all three. Now two of them were in 4th and long situations, but field goals weren’t going to win this game. And on top of that, you have a true freshman kicker, even though his older brother was the Christ. Jimbo can bring the talent in, but he mismanages game situations so badly.

And then UNC had their own set of bonehead plays to allow FSU to get back in it. The stupid guy trying to block the punt and roughing the punter was idiotic when the Noles were backed up to like 2nd and 30 earlier in the drive. And then on the Noles final offensive drive, they left Dalvin Cook wide open on third down after they were backed up to 2nd and 25 after a penalty. This game should’ve never ended the way it did, but as a Florida fan, it was nice to see FSU get Janikowski’d. See the original here and fast forward to the 2:59:45 mark.

And then the total swing of emotion in the Tennessee-Georgia game is unlike anything I’ve seen. Jacob Eason’s touchdown pass with ten seconds left was one of the most beautiful touchdown passes I’ve ever seen, let alone by a true freshman in a late game situation. How does Tennessee let the receiver get behind them there? And then why the heck did Georgia kick a high, short pooch kick on the kickoff? You kick the ball as far as you can. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, the good fortune for the Vols continues after this one and all but locks up the SEC East for them. If they can find a way to split the next two games with Texas A&M and Alabama, they will likely head into the SEC championship game with one loss and a de-facto play-in game to get into the College Football Playoff.

Louisville at Clemson: The other two games had the best finishes, but this was the overall best game of the day. We were watching what may go down as two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play college football. I can’t believe Lamar Jackson is only a sophomore and we get a whole year to watch him again next season. He had the greatest incomplete pass we’ve all ever seen. And his sidestep is the best I think I’ve ever seen from a quarterback. It sucks his wide receiver wasn’t aware of where the first down marker was at the end. In my mind, he lost no ground in the Heisman race.

Deshaun Watson made some bad throws in this game, but he stepped up when his team needed him and he made the big plays. Clemson is now in the driver’s seat to win the ACC Atlantic division with their toughest remaining games being at Florida State and a potential ACC title game. The biggest question coming out of this one is what does the Committee do with a 1 loss Louisville who doesn’t win their division? There wouldn’t be many quality wins other than an FSU team who isn’t as good as we thought and a really good one at Houston. They would need a lot of help, but I think it’s certainly possible.

Top 10: This is my top ten doing my best to combine preseason projections with what we’ve seen on the field. The top 4 is who I’d have in the playoff if the season ended today.

1. Alabama: Didn’t cover against Kentucky. Shameful.

2. Ohio State: Could make an argument for #1, but went with Nick Saban over Urban just slightly.

3. Clemson: All the questions about what was wrong with them are now gone with the most impressive win of the season.

4. Houston: Still counting down the days until the Louisville game.

5. Louisville: It’s going to be tough to get in the playoff without winning the ACC Atlantic, but they are the best team not in the playoff as of today.

6. Michigan: They showed yesterday they can win with defense too.

7. Washington: Maybe the most impressive dominating performance of the season the way they manhandled Stanford.

8. Texas A&M: Struggled a little bit with South Carolina, but big game looming with Tennessee.

9. Miami: Not very tough competition, but the Hurricanes look very impressive.

10. Tennessee: Don’t think they are this good, but maybe it’s just Tennessee’s year. At some point, results have to count. Their fans deserve this.

 

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