College Football Preview Week 11: A Philosophy Lesson
Winning and losing take on a different level of significance when you get to this point in the college football season. If you lose a game early in the season, but have rebounded well, you’re still a playoff contender. If you lose in the middle of the season, it matters to whom you lost and how you have done since then. If you lose from this point on, your fans can start booking reservations for some non-playoff bowl game for the holidays. Win or there may not be enough time for you to get help from others. “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” –Gautama Buddha. Come on…where else are you going to get Buddha taking you into week 11 of the college football season?
Alabama @ Mississippi State; Sat 3:30pm EST CBS; “Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” –Galeazzo Ciano. Alabama is in the playoff mix right now and getting all kinds of love for being a complete team, despite one loss to Ole Miss weeks ago. But lose once more, fall out of first in the SEC West, lose the tie breaker advantage and you are on your own Tide. It would be easy to think Alabama might have a letdown after last week’s high energy win over LSU, but the Tide has lost only once in the last seven years in the week after the LSU showdown. As good as Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott is, if you saw what the Bama defensive line did to LSU’s offensive line last week, you have to think that the Mississippi State offense is going to have come up with big plays instead of being able to rely on sustained drives. As for Alabama, nothing fancy needed. Running back Derrick Henry is now averaging 139 rushing per game, so expect to see heavy doses of the Tide’s ground game.
Clemson @ Syracuse; Sat 3:30pm EST ABC/ESPN 2; “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”-John Wooden. Since Clemson wrapped up the ACC Atlantic Division last week, and with the remaining regular season games being against Syracuse, Wake Forest and South Carolina, (all with losing records), it would be easy to forget about the Tigers until the ACC championship game. But with that schedule it would also be easy to see a lack of focus or overconfidence creeping in. Keeping youngsters focused for three weeks against inferior competition will test Dabo Swinney’s motivational skills. The Orange are 3-2 at home this season and quarterback Eric Dungey is loaded with skill and has a tendency to fire up the home crowd. Still, Clemson has the decisive edge in talent and quarterback Deshaun Watson should be able to have a field day against a Syracuse secondary that has been battered of late. Focus will be everything for Clemson for a month.
Oklahoma State @ Iowa State; Sat 3:30pm EST ESPN; “Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second.”-Bobby Unser. Oklahoma State has had a meteoric leap the last three weeks and the win over TCU last week was both convincing and compelling. This is the last road game of the season for the Cowboys and if they win out the last three games they are Big 12 champs with a legitimate argument for a playoff spot. Lose and you will be fighting for second place and a mid-range bowl game. Quarterback Mason Rudolph is likely going to need a repeat of last week’s performance when he threw for five touchdowns. The Cowboys are 99th in the nation in rushing and Iowa State has one of the more talented front sevens in the conference. Running the ball is not going to get you there. Iowa State running back Mike Warren is just three yards shy of becoming only the 7th freshman in Big 12 history to gain 1,000 yards. If there is such a thing as a reasonable losing record, the teams that have beaten Iowa State this season are a combined 45-8.
Arkansas @ LSU; Sat 7:15 EST ESPN; “Failure is never fatal. But failure to change can and might be.”-John Wooden. Even after last week’s loss at Alabama, a game in which LSU was dominated in every facet of play, the Tigers are not out of the hunt for the SEC West crown and a potential playoff spot; but they have to make significant changes going forward. LSU was determined to put the game on the shoulders of running back Leonard Fournette and the plan failed. Fournette had 19 carries for 31 yards. With no running game, the passing game suffered with Brandon Harris throwing for only 128 yards. LSU is going to have to step up with better blocking up front and a more balanced attack. Arkansas is coming off a crazy 53-52 overtime win over then-19th ranked Ole Miss with the Razorbacks getting five touchdown passes from quarterback Brandon Allen.
Stanford @ Arizona; Sat 7:30pm EST Fox; “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”-Vince Lombardi. Stanford’s week 1 loss to Northwestern seems like some other season now. The Cardinal have won eight in a row, are winning by an average margin of 20 points per game, and have developed a balanced attack that features Christian McCaffrey running the ball, Christian McCaffrey catching the ball, Christian McCaffrey returning kicks, and yes, even Christian McCaffrey throwing a touchdown pass. That’s balance. Oregon stumbled out of the gates this season and sit at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in conference. Still they racked up 777 yards of offense last week against Cal for their third straight win. The Ducks need to win out and have Cal beat Stanford down the road in order to win the Pac 12 North. If Stanford comes out of the regular season with only one loss, (which would mean beating Notre Dame in a few weeks), and they win the Pac 12 title, logic says they deserve a playoff spot.
Oklahoma @ Baylor; Sat 8pm EST ABC; “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist”-Queen Victoria . The Big 12 has basically turned into a three week round robin tournament for the conference title, and with no conference championship game, who wins, and how they win matters in every sense. Baylor is 8-0 but sitting on the outside looking in, behind two one-loss teams in the latest playoff rankings. The lack of a competitive out of conference schedule has hurt the Bears, so winning this week against Oklahoma and then against Oklahoma State and TCU in the following weeks is everything and how they do it is going to matter. A one loss Big 12 champion is easy to leave out of the playoffs. Freshman quarterback Jarrett Stidham stepped in well last week at quarterback for Baylor throwing for 419 yards in a too-close-for-comfort win at Kansas State. Oklahoma has that one horrible mid-season loss to Texas, but the Sooners have scored at least 50 points in four straight games, so a shootout is on the horizon Saturday night.
Now that we have heard from a variety of people on the topic of winning and losing, we leave you with the thoughts on the subject attributed to baseball hall of famer George Brett; “If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother, with her teeth out.” Ponder on that while you enjoy the games this weekend.
