{"id":32601,"date":"2020-11-18T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=32601"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:38:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:38:50","slug":"week-11-midweek-musings-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/11\/18\/week-11-midweek-musings-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 11 Midweek Musings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Hump Day, and you know what that means! Here are my (checks schedule) Week 11 Midweek Musings:<\/p>\n<h3>MAC<\/h3>\n<p>I cannot express how much I love having midweek MACtion back. I don&#8217;t follow the conference all that closely, I don&#8217;t usually have a rooting interest in the game, but it&#8217;s fun football to just turn on for an hour or so and enjoy. Just last night, Buffalo&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jaret-patterson-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaret Patterson<\/a> ran for 301 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-17 win over Bowling Green, and Kent State racked up 750 yards of offense in a 69-35 win over Akron.<\/p>\n<p>On second thought, this may not be the league for you if you like defense.<\/p>\n<h3>Miami<\/h3>\n<p>It took a late rally for the Hurricanes to edge Virginia Tech. Per coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/manny-diaz-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manny Diaz<\/a>, the game came very close to being postponed, as COVID cases and contact tracing left the team perilously thin at certain positions. As of Monday night, Miami&#8217;s next three games are in fact postponed. This leads to some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/30332216\/acc-reshuffles-schedule-amid-miami-covid-19-issues\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">major schedule rearranging<\/a> from the ACC.<\/p>\n<h3>Indiana-Michigan State<\/h3>\n<p>It was a turnover-fest in East Lansing, with the teams combining for six despite perfectly pleasant weather. The Spartans lost the turnover battle 4-2 and the game 24-0. The Hoosiers out-gained them in total yards (433-191), passing yards (320-131), and rushing yards (113-60). Yahoo Sports has a good article about <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/allens-emotional-style-fuels-turnaround-no-9-indiana-215830052--ncaaf.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Indiana&#8217;s turnaround<\/a> from Big Ten doormat to division leaders. Who would have thought even in August that Indiana-Ohio State would be a Top 10 matchup?<\/p>\n<p>However, one thing did go very wrong for the Hoosiers last weekend. Linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/thomas-allen-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Allen<\/a>, son of coach <strong>Tom Allen<\/strong>, suffered a hip injury and will be out for the season. It&#8217;s an unfortunate turn of events for a player who suffered a shoulder injury that ended his 2019 season. As for his dad&#8230; I can&#8217;t imagine watching my kid get injured and have to be carted off, and then having to go coach the rest of the game.<\/p>\n<p>As far as Michigan State is concerned, coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/mel-tucker-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mel Tucker<\/a> seems to have seen enough from quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/rocky-lombardi-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rocky Lombardi<\/a>. Redshirt freshman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/payton-thorne-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Payton Thorne<\/a> got a chance and fared somewhat better. No word yet on who will get the start against Maryland.<\/p>\n<h3>South Carolina<\/h3>\n<p>Gamecocks&#8217; athletic director Ray Tanner <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/11\/17\/will-muschamps-tenure-at-south-carolina-comes-to-an-end\/\" target=\"_self\">fired coach Will Muschamp<\/a> on Sunday. It&#8217;s odd timing, to say the least: the team currently sits at 2-5, with three games remaining. In addition, Muschamp has a rather large buyout ($13 million, according to Yahoo) at a time when COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on states&#8217; budgets. Offensive coordinator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=mike-bobo-2,mike-bobo-1&amp;search=Mike+Bobo&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Bobo<\/a>, previously the head coach at Colorado State, will take\u00a0 over as interim coach.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, cornerback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/jaycee-horn-1.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaycee Horn<\/a> announced Monday that he&#8217;s opting out to focus on draft preparation. Horn leads the team with two interceptions this season. He&#8217;s the son of former NFL wide receiver Joe Horn.<\/p>\n<h3>Penn State<\/h3>\n<p>Happy Valley can&#8217;t be a very happy place these days. The Nittany Lions currently sit winless and at the bottom of the Big Ten. This weekend they face Iowa, so there&#8217;s a decent chance they&#8217;ll get to 0-5. However, their last three games are very winnable- trips to Ann Arbor and Piscataway, followed by Michigan State at home. I&#8217;ll be shocked if they don&#8217;t win at least two of those three.<\/p>\n<h2>Schedule Changes<\/h2>\n<p>UAB @ UTEP (scheduled for Friday): <strong>Cancelled<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ole Miss @ A&amp;M: <strong>Postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Georgia Tech @ Miami: <strong>Postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Charlotte @ Marshall: <strong>Postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wake Forest @ Duke: <strong>Postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Louisiana-Monroe @ Louisiana Tech: <strong>Cancelled<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Arizona State @ Colorado: <strong>Cancelled<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Houston @ SMU: <strong>Postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Navy @ South Florida: <strong>Postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s all hope there aren&#8217;t any more added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Those are my Week 11 Midweek Musings. Need more content? Check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2020\/11\/17\/bowl-projections-following-week-11-2\/\" target=\"_self\">Week Eleven Bowl Projections<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Hump Day, and you know what that means! Here are my (checks schedule) Week 11 Midweek Musings: MAC I cannot express how much I love having midweek MACtion back. I don&#8217;t follow the conference all that closely, I don&#8217;t usually have a rooting interest in the game, but it&#8217;s fun football to just turn [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":32154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1479,35577],"tags":[2113,2112,641,5903,3806,5299,463,94,420,309,80,7160,81],"class_list":["post-32601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-editorials","category-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-akron-zips","tag-buffalo-bulls","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-jaret-patterson","tag-jaycee-horn","tag-kent-state-golden-flashes","tag-mac","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-thomas-allen","tag-will-muschamp"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79273,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32601\/revisions\/79273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}