CFB Sunday Summary; They Are Who We Thought They Were

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally published about two hours before the news broke that James Franklin had been fired as the Penn State head coach:

“The Bears are who we thought they were!” Who can ever forget the great tirade by the late Dennis Green when he was head coach of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals? Now that every school is at or past the halfway point in the season, the Sunday Summary will take a look at teams who are who we thought they were and maybe sneak in a few surprises along the way.

The Hoosiers Are Good

We knew that Curt Cignetti’s 2024 team was likely not a one-hit wonder. However, we must be honest and admit that we did not think the 2025 version could surpass last year’s team. Fernando Mendoza was always a good quarterback, which is why he did not stay at Cal. But beating Oregon, in Eugene, is a big accomplishment and puts Indiana near the top of the national heap at 6-0, and Mendoza in the Heisman conversation.

Penn State Is Not

We were wrong in the pre-season about Penn State. They are not who we thought they were. They had 75% of their offense from last year returning. If not now, when? That was the thought process.

It turns out the answer is, “Not now, and who knows when.” The Nittany Lions have now lost three in a row. Losing to Oregon was imaginable. Losing to a winless UCLA team was not. And then came Saturday’s one-point loss to Northwestern.

James Franklin’s huge buyout clause no longer looks like a deterrent to making a coaching change so much as a burdensome necessity. Penn State still has Ohio State and Indiana ahead on the schedule. Heck, Penn State still has Rutgers ahead on the schedule, and that should be a concern. They all are.

Going Without

Penn State also lost starting quarterback Drew Allar for the rest of the season with a leg injury. He certainly was not having the Heisman-conversation type of season many suspected, but he was far from the reason for the three-game losing streak with a 64% completion rate. He has no eligibility left, barring one of the Twitter-dwelling attorneys filing a lawsuit against the NCAA on his behalf. But since he has played in five-plus games, an NCAA waiver is unlikely.

Timing Is Everything

We are not looking to pile on, but within an hour after the PSU loss to Northwestern, this advertisement for discounted Nittany Lions wear showed up on our social media feed.

Speaking of…

The UCLA team that beat Penn State has now also beaten Michigan State. The offense run by Jerry Neuheisel and Noel Mazzone has scored 80 points in the last two games, after scoring only 57 in the first four games combined.

But the win in East Lansing was not just another Saturday win. The Michigan State offense was lagging, and the defense was lackluster. That probably takes Jonathan Smith’s name off the list of potential head coaching candidates at UCLA. So UCLA wins and eliminates a head coaching candidate for its own opening in the process.

The List

Likely also gone from the UCLA list is Florida State defensive coordinator Tony White. Florida State is who we thought they were; improved from last year, but not yet competitive in the upper echelon. The season-opening win over Alabama was a mirage…for both schools.

Florida State has now lost three in a row, and during that streak, White’s defense has given up 108 points.

We Know Who They Are, and It Isn’t Good

That would be SEC game officials. As if Hugh Freeze is not having a tough enough run at Auburn, the game officials in Saturday night’s contest against Georgia made it all the more difficult.

Just before the half, Auburn had the ball inches away from the goal line. Tigers’ quarterback Jackson Arnold dove over the top. The replays show the ball crossed the goal line before it was punched out by a Georgia defender. But the officials, and the nearly 7-minute review, declared it was a fumble and gave the ball to Georgia. The Bulldogs went downfield and got on the board with a field goal as the half ended. Instead of 17-0 Auburn, it was 10-3 in favor of the Tigers.

Early in the fourth quarter, Georgia had the ball with the play clock down to zero. The officials blew the play dead as UGA head coach Kirby Smart had called for a timeout. Except Smart told the officials he was not calling for a timeout, that he was simply clapping for his team. The TV replay clearly shows he was calling for a timeout. But it is not reviewable by the replay booth. And after three minutes of debate with the officials, they declared he had not called a timeout, and they put four additional seconds back on the play clock. And Kirby got what he wanted all along: a three-minute-long timeout.

Who’s running this show anyway? The officials>? Or Kirby?

We Know Who He Is, So We Aren’t Surprised

Rumors leaked this week that North Carolina and Bill Belichick are looking for ways out of their contract with each other. That led to the two parties issuing statements that were sent out together. Belichick issued two sentences confirming his commitment to UNC. Tar Heels athletic director Bubba Cunningham, who never wanted this hire in the first place, issued a statement on behalf of the school, talking about how bright the future is with Belichick.

It’s not like either side had a choice four games into the season. The Tar Heels are 2-3 with their wins coming over legendary powerhouses Richmond and Charlotte. The hiring of a great NFL coach with no viable college experience, just for the splash it was going to make, was always a bad idea. Now the folks on ESPN’s College Gameday spent an excessive amount of time supporting their friend Belichick. Nick Saban proclaimed that it takes at least four years to build your program. Yeah, maybe back in the day. But we know the system now and how it works. See section one of this column. Ask Curt Cignetti at Indiana how long it takes to build your own program.

Main Image: Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images