"Just a Bit Outside" is brought to you by:
YOU!
Now is your chance to sponsor the column. Our previous sponsor paid for more than three months of sponsorship fees in the first two weeks of signing up. That can be you! Contact @BlakeSkaggs if you want that kind of successful promotion for your business. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity!
===========================================================================
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian, and as a result, we in the media, have talked a lot about the culture of his program.
The fruits of that culture have shown up a number of times this season. It seemed like whenever Texas needed to respond or make a play, they were able to do so.
Alabama scores to take a lead going into the fourth quarter of the game in September and what does Texas do? They get three fourth-quarter touchdowns to win by 10.
In the very next game Wyoming scored at the end of the third quarter to tie it up 10-10. Texas scores the next three touchdowns to win by 21.
Kansas State gets some easy scores to force overtime and the Texas defense comes up with a goal line stand to win 33-30.
The Texas teams of the past 14 years would have found a way to lose those games (or eek out a small win).
This year’s team is different and it is all down to the culture of the program.
The fruits of Sark’s culture are paying off in another aspect as well … on the recruiting trail.
“We have created a culture here of one that we have a lot of pride in and I know that the veteran leaders on our team have a lot of pride in,” said Sarkisian Wednesday afternoon following the early signing day. “Now that influx of young players, they can educate them on what it means to be a Longhorn.”
Texas is in the midst of finalizing another top 5 recruiting class under Steve Sarkisian.
2024: Texas #2 (currently)
2023: Texas #3
2022: Texas #5
Incidentally, the only other teams to produce top-five recruiting rankings in each of the last three years; Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State. It’s no coincidence that all of those teams are either in the playoffs or were in contention for the playoffs until the final moment.
Yes, Texas is in the playoffs this year, but thanks to the consistent recruiting, you can bet this will not be a one-and-done flash in the pan. Sark is building something that will last.
Obviously, I am not predicting that Texas will make the playoff every year (even in an expanded 12-team field that would be hard). However, I am saying that Texas should at least be competing for a playoff spot every single year.
What’s more, it is not just the lofty recruiting rankings that have caught my eye. What impresses me even more is the roster construction. Texas is building its team from the inside out (and with a big focus on game-changing quarterbacks … but that’s kind of a given in a Sark-led team).
Whether it is one of the highest-ranked players such as 5-star offensive tackle Brandon Baker out of California or one of the lowest-ranked players such as 3-star defensive tackle Alex January out of Duncanville, Sark has prioritized (and succeeded) in recruiting up front.
For the record, I think January is incredibly underrated. Anyone who watched him in the state championship game would have seen a big guy who moves well and makes plays. You know who else was a three-star defensive lineman who was big, moved well and made plays? T’Vondre Sweat. Just sayin’.
Look, recruiting is always more of an art than a science. Nobody truly knows who is going to pan out and who isn’t, but we’ve seen what happens when Texas coaches don’t prioritize the lines. In fact, Texas’ collapse after the 2009 season was in no small part due to poor line recruiting and development. Colt McCoy, as good as he was, actually covered up the sins of the offensive line recruiting because he was so good he made some of their blocking irrelevant. As soon as Colt left, the line play collapsed and so did Texas’ record.
We’ll find out over the next four to five years if this class lives up to its billing. But for today, Texas fans can celebrate because this next group of Longhorns look like they will be able to carry on with the success that Texas enjoyed throughout the 2023 season.
TOP 10 MOMENTS FROM OF 2023 IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL ...
The Texas Longhorns won’t take the field again until 2024 and we should have plenty of fresh Sugar Bowl content to talk about in next Wednesday’s column so this is my chance now to look back at the year that was in college football.
These are my top 10 moments of 2023 in college football. This is not JUST top 10 list of Texas moments, I am including not just Texas moments, but big-picture college football moments as well.
10) TEXAS & OKLAHOMA REACH A DEAL WITH THE BIG 12 TO MOVE TO THE SEC A YEAR EARLY
If I’m being honest, I think this one is actually much bigger than being 10th on the list, but I bumped it down just so I could start this recap with a Texas-related item.
Texas and Oklahoma had already announced their intention to move to the SEC prior to 2023, but the move wasn’t supposed to happen until 2025.
Along comes Brett Yormark as the new Big 12 Commissioner and the path to an early exit became clear.
In all truthfulness, the move makes sense for both sides.
Texas & OU will move into the new look SEC just as the conference is transitioning to a new media rights deal. Moving forward, ESPN/ABC will get all of the SEC football games. This move gives ESPN a much better lineup of games with UT & OU than without them.
The move makes sense for the Big 12 as well. They had to make moves to bring in new conference members in order to secure their own media rights package. That deal gave the Big 12 safety and ended up being a critical piece for another big moment which we’ll talk about later.
Yormark may not have been smart enough to hold his tongue during a preseason talk in Lubbock, but he was smart enough to realize that the Big 12 was better off getting to its new iteration sooner rather than later.
So the fact that Texas plays Georgia, Florida, Arkansas and A&M next year as opposed to Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor means that this is one of the biggest moments of 2023.
9) IOWA'S DRIVE FOR 325 FAILS AND BRIAN FERENTZ IS FIRED
This is on the list only because I found it so fascinating to watch throughout the year. Also, there is a Texas connection here because special assistant Paul Chryst is a finalist to be the offensive coordinator next season.
The Hawkeyes offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz (son of head coach Kirk Ferentz) should have been fired after the anemic offensive output last season. Ferentz survived but only with a reworked contract that stipulated that Iowa had to average 25 points per game in order to be able to keep his job.
Long story short, Iowa eclipsed 25 points only two times all season (and one of those was a 26-point score). As a result, Ferentz is out.
Look, there were mitigating circumstances for Iowa struggling offensively this season. They had season-ending injuries to some of their best players including the starting quarterback. However, the bigger problem is that Kirk Ferentz wants an offense that helps his defense grind out victories.
Sorry to any Iowa fans who may be reading this … but it will be hard for you to get excited about next year’s team under whoever is hired to replace Brian Ferentz when you hear what Kirk had to say about the subject this week.
8) JAYDEN DANIELS WINS THE HEISMAN TROPHY
I know many of you just don’t care about the Heisman Trophy anymore … but I also think a lot of that is simply sour grapes. If Quinn Ewers were in New York for the Heisman ceremony then a lot of you would be tuning in and very excited.
Personally, I still love the award. Whoever wins it goes into college football history.
However, not all Heisman winners are equal.
Daniels’ stats were fantastic. There is no denying that he was a dynamic player with the football in his hands.
But when we look back at the list of winners, I suspect most will gloss over Daniels’ name.
Still, congratulations to Jayden Daniels for winning what is, still, the most prestigious award any college football player can win.
7) DEION SANDERS TAKES COLLEGE FOOTBALL BY STORM ... FOR ONE MONTH
Back in early September I was dealing with a shoulder injury. I walked into physical therapy and began working on the issue. Ten minutes after I arrived, a middle-aged woman walked in and began working with a different therapist a table or two down from me. The therapist asked what she did that weekend and she said, “We watched the Colorado football game.”
I chuckled in my head at the thought of Deion Sanders luring in new college football fans like the lady nearby.
About ten minutes after that, a different middle-aged woman walked in, took a table or two down from me on the other side and began working with another therapist. The same scene played out.
“What did you do this weekend,” the therapist asked.
“I watched the Colorado football game,” came the reply.
(For the record, both ladies told their therapists that they don’t normally watch football but they were intrigued.”
Love him or hate him, but Deion Sanders is definitely primetime (the verb as well as the noun).
Just look at these tv ratings in September:
Week One vs. TCU
7.26 million viewers
Week Two vs. Nebraska
8.73 million viewers
Week Three vs. Colorado State
9.3 million viewers
Week Four vs. Oregon
10.03 million viewers
That’s 35.3 million viewers tuning in to watch the Colorado Buffaloes who won a grand total of one game the year prior.
For the record, Texas’ highest-ranked game was against Alabama. The Bama game drew a total of 8.76 million viewers.
Sure, Colorado collapsed after that and struggled to a 4-8 record but that was still a much, much better record than the year prior.
Will Deion ever end up bringing Colorado up to the level where they are competing for conference titles? It’s probably too early to say. But you can bet people will be watching … a LOT of people. And that is a good thing for college football.
6) T'VONDRE SWEAT A UNANIMOUS ALL-AMERICAN & OUTLAND TROPHY AWARD WINNER
It’s a shame more people didn’t watch Texas this year because T’Vondre Sweat (and Byron Murphy) have been worth the price of admission every single week.
Sweat became only the fourth Texas Longhorn to ever win the Outland Trophy award – given to the nation’s top interior lineman.
In addition to the American Football Coaches Association, Sweat was a unanimous All-American earning first-team selections from the Associated Press, the Football Writers Association of America, the Sporting News and Walter Camp Football Foundation.
Sweat is the fifth Texas defensive tackle to be a unanimous All-American, joining Scott Appleton (1963), Brad Shearer (1977), Steve McMichael (1979) and Kenneth Sims (1981). Overall, he is the sixth defensive lineman to earn the honor and first since Brian Orakpo in 2008.
5) TEXAS BEATS BAMA IN TUSCALOOSA
This game has been circled on calendars for years now. Texas going to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Texas fans who made the trip (and even those who just watched on television) were not disappointed.
Quinn Ewers displayed skill in connecting with Adonai Mitchell and Xavier Worthy on a couple of deep balls in the fourth quarter to blow the game open.
By the end of the game, Longhorn players were left dancing on the sideline and a few Bama fans were left showing themselves to be despicable people.
Texas didn’t just beat Bama, they were obviously the better team and won the game by 10 points. The Horns outclassed the Tide at the skill positions and dominated them on both sides of the line of scrimmage. What makes anyone think the outcome would be any different if they meet again for the national championship?
4) FLORIDA STATE IS SNUBBED FOR THE CFP DESPITE GOING UNDEFEATED
Florida State made history by becoming the first undefeated champion of a Power Five program to be left out of the college football playoff. Incidentally, now that the playoffs are expanding and the champions of the soon-to-be power four leagues get automatic bids to the playoffs, FSU will be the only team ever to achieve that dubious distinction.
I have been fairly outspoken in saying that I think the playoff committee snub was wrong.
Texas fans spent the entire season claiming that UT should get in over Alabama because the game on the field has to matter. For what it’s worth, you’re right. Texas beating Bama should have mattered and at the end of the day it did matter.
But if the results of that one game mattered, why didn’t the results of the full 13-game schedule matter for FSU? If we’re going to say the games on the field have to matter then FSU should be in the playoffs this year.
The ACC was clearly the weakest of the power conferences this year. But that’s not FSU’s fault. Nor is it FSU’s fault that the non-conference SEC opponents it scheduled this year had off years.
For what it’s worth, the Seminoles didn’t just beat LSU in the week one matchup, they destroyed them and corralled Jayden Daniels better than any other team.
Yes, their starting quarterback is out for the season, but they still won two games with backup quarterbacks, including winning the ACC championship game with a freshman third-string QB.
How did they do that? By playing team football. That’s right, it is a team sport and they should not be punished because one of the 22 starters went down with an injury.
I would have put Florida State in as a four seed and they should be preparing to play Michigan in the Rose Bowl on January 1st.
3) TEXAS WINS THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP IN ITS FINAL SEASON IN THE CONFERENCE
Texas left the Big 12 the same way it started the Big 12 – as conference champs. Frankly, Texas didn’t win enough Big 12 titles during its time in the conference. If we’re being completely honest, it’s an embarrassingly low total. But they won one this year.
Sarkisian and the boys talked all season long about how their number one goal was to win the conference. They stayed focused on the goal and they made it happen.
Texas’ only stumble came against OU in Dallas. Truthfully, I came out of that game still believing Texas was the better team. The Sooner took advantage of every good break that came their way. Meanwhile, Texas still battled back and took a lead with only 1:17 left on the clock. Kudos to Dillon Gabriel for leading the game-winning drive, I can’t take that away from them. But if those two teams play ten times, Texas wins eight or nine games.
Following OU, there were some close games along the way. Struggles with Houston, Kansas State and TCU left a little doubt about whether UT would be able to pull it off. But, as I mentioned at the top of the piece, I think the culture shined through and Texas was able to respond.
The Longhorns also learned from the struggles and got better.
Iowa State felt like a turning point where the team didn’t just learn how to squeak by, but actually started learning how to apply pressure and keep applying pressure until the game was out of hand. Texas Tech really showed that the Horns have figured out how to be a dominant team.
The Longhorns rolled into Jerry World and made Oklahoma State pay. They held Ollie Gordon to 34 yards on 13 carries. They let Quinn Ewers loose to the tune of four touchdown passes in the first half. Adonai Mitchell showed why he’s worthy of a first-round pick in the NFL draft with six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. In short, they had a complete game beatdown of the Cowpokes.
Just for kicks and grins, T’Vondre Sweat got his big man touchdown catch and even did a Heisman pose (he would have made my top 3 on the ballot if I were a Heisman voter).
The win over Alabama was big, but the win in Arlington may have been even bigger for a couple of reasons. First, it showed that the team was improving and playing its best football at the end of the season. Second, it happened when the pressure was really on to win and win big in an attempt to make the playoffs. Third, it came with a trophy.
2) THE PAC-12 COLLAPSES
If I wrote for just about any other website, this would probably be my number-one moment in college football for 2023.
The Pac-12, the “Conference of Champions,” is ceasing to exist (at least the conference as we know it is gone). Ironically, the conference had its best season ever on the football field.
The conference has been around since 1915 and produced some of the best teams in college football history as well as 13 Heisman Trophy winners. All of that history is now gone.
The dominoes started falling last year when USC and UCLA decided to move to the Big Ten.
They completely collapsed this year when the Pac-12 university presidents turned down a media rights offer from ESPN that would have put them on par with what the Big 12 got. Someone convinced the presidents that they were really worth $50 million a year each instead of the $30 million a year they were being offered. Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff either did not show them the error of their ways or was unable to. Either way, the Pac-12 counter-bid for $50 million and ESPN walked away.
The negotiations dragged on for more than a year and when it was all said and done, Amazon was the only partner willing to pay for the conference’s media rights but at a much lower valuation.
Colorado was the first to jump ship announcing it was going back to the Big 12.
Shortly thereafter, the Big Ten stepped up and made offers to Oregon and Washington to join USC and UCLA and that was the final straw.
Arizona dragged Arizona State with them to the Big 12 and Utah followed suit.
Cal and Stanford worked hard and eventually won an invitation to the ACC (along with SMU).
In the end, only Washington State and Oregon State remain in the Pac-12 (now Pac-2).
Those schools have been able, so far, to win legal fights to retain control of the Pac-12 and its resources and will likely try to rebuild the conference bringing in schools mostly from the Mountain West Conference. But even if that happens, it will not be the Power-5 conference that it had been.
I have to admit, I understand why the football teams are making these moves. It is in the best financial interest (and competitive interest) to affiliate with one of the big two (SEC and Big Ten). But, I wholeheartedly agree with Chip Kelly in saying these should be football-only moves.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why all of the other sports have to make the move. I hope sanity prevails and the conference eventually reforms for basketball, volleyball, baseball, etc….
And of course, the realignment carousel may not be done spinning yet.
1) TEXAS MAKES THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF
This is the clear and obvious number one moment of 2023. By the time selection Sunday rolled around, it seemed pretty obvious that Texas was going to make it, but my battered fan syndrome still prevented me from fulling accepting that Texas would be in the playoffs.
In the end, the committee correctly slotted Texas into the playoffs. UT was definitely one of the four best teams in the country (especially by the end of the season) and they deserve to be playing in New Orleans.
Now the question becomes, can the Horns keep the momentum they gained as the season went along.
The more I’ve studied up on these playoffs, the more convinced I am that UT should actually be the betting favorite to win it all.
The Longhorns match up very favorably against Michigan and their somewhat sluggish pass offense. They’ve already shown they match up favorably against Alabama. And, as I look at the Sugar Bowl matchup, I think they match up favorably against Washington.
Washington will not be an easy foe, but they can also be beaten (even if nobody has been able to do that in a long time). The Huskies come into New Orleans with a suspect defense. Their toughest opponent all season was the Oregon Ducks, whom Washington beat along the lines of scrimmage to win the Pac-12. I will be stunned if the Huskies beat the Longhorns along the line of scrimmage.
Both offenses should be able to move the ball and score some points. That means that the team that wins will be the team that is able to hold serve and get some defensive stops. If that is true, then I trust the Texas defense far more than the Washington defense to make stops and get off the field.
I think we’re going to see Sark continue to open up the offense and put the ball in Quinn Ewers’ hands. It’s his team now, he has earned that.
I expect to see the Horns come out fast and get an early lead. If Texas is able to keep its foot on the gas and keep going (like it did against Tech and Oklahoma State), then UT should be able to build a big lead and coast.
If that happens, Washington will have to abandon the run and rely solely on the pass. They will get their yards and a few scores, but I don’t think it will be enough.
I will post my final score prediction next week … but it should seem clear by now who I think is going to win this game.
TWEETS OF INTEREST
In the name of time, I was going to delete this section from this week’s column, but the late-breaking news out of FSU made me reconsider so I am posting one Tweet to talk about.
FSU is clearly angry over their playoff snub and they are not happy that the lackluster conference schedule is partially to blame.
In truth, this has been a long time coming and the playoff snub is just the latest reason the Seminoles are kicking off the process of moving on from the ACC.
This will be an interesting legal battle as FSU tries to fight back against the Grant of Rights. If they succeed in getting out of their media rights contract then it will effectively kill off the GOR for conferences from this point forward.
If the GOR goes away, several more ACC schools could be on the move as well. FSU, North Carolina and Clemson would be the biggest gets for either the Big Ten or SEC. Right now, the rumors lean toward FSU moving to the Big Ten. If you’re thinking that doesn’t make much sense, you’re right. But then again, what in the crazy world of college football realignment does make any sense these days?
Of course, if that did happen, then perhaps we would see Cal and Stanford try to go back to the Washington State, Oregon State-led Pac-12. Weirder things have happened.
###############################
Big 12 coaches that have faced Texas talk about the team’s strengths and weaknesses heading into the CFP. Bruce Feldman did an excellent job of putting this article together and it is worth a read.
I will say though, some of what the coaches said in the article felt dated to me. Their analysis may have been accurate in the beginning of the season but Texas got better as the year went along and I’m not sure how accurate it is now.
###############################
This is a fun interview with Jamaal Charles.
###############################
Colt McCoy knows a thing or two about quarterbacking.
###############################
I talked about how ridiculous it is that the non-football sports have to participate in conference realignment … looks like the leftover Pac-2 schools are doing it right.
###############################
At least Oregon State baseball has some legitimate claim to being one of the best teams in college baseball. They should be in demand.
###############################
The fact that in-helmet communication is not standard in college football is mind boggling. It’s been around in the NFL for roughly three decades.
###############################
Major Major approves of this marriage.
###############################
From my family to yours ... here's to a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
YOU!
Now is your chance to sponsor the column. Our previous sponsor paid for more than three months of sponsorship fees in the first two weeks of signing up. That can be you! Contact @BlakeSkaggs if you want that kind of successful promotion for your business. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity!
===========================================================================
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian, and as a result, we in the media, have talked a lot about the culture of his program.
The fruits of that culture have shown up a number of times this season. It seemed like whenever Texas needed to respond or make a play, they were able to do so.
Alabama scores to take a lead going into the fourth quarter of the game in September and what does Texas do? They get three fourth-quarter touchdowns to win by 10.
In the very next game Wyoming scored at the end of the third quarter to tie it up 10-10. Texas scores the next three touchdowns to win by 21.
Kansas State gets some easy scores to force overtime and the Texas defense comes up with a goal line stand to win 33-30.
The Texas teams of the past 14 years would have found a way to lose those games (or eek out a small win).
This year’s team is different and it is all down to the culture of the program.
The fruits of Sark’s culture are paying off in another aspect as well … on the recruiting trail.
“We have created a culture here of one that we have a lot of pride in and I know that the veteran leaders on our team have a lot of pride in,” said Sarkisian Wednesday afternoon following the early signing day. “Now that influx of young players, they can educate them on what it means to be a Longhorn.”
Texas is in the midst of finalizing another top 5 recruiting class under Steve Sarkisian.
2024: Texas #2 (currently)
2023: Texas #3
2022: Texas #5
Incidentally, the only other teams to produce top-five recruiting rankings in each of the last three years; Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State. It’s no coincidence that all of those teams are either in the playoffs or were in contention for the playoffs until the final moment.
Yes, Texas is in the playoffs this year, but thanks to the consistent recruiting, you can bet this will not be a one-and-done flash in the pan. Sark is building something that will last.
Obviously, I am not predicting that Texas will make the playoff every year (even in an expanded 12-team field that would be hard). However, I am saying that Texas should at least be competing for a playoff spot every single year.
What’s more, it is not just the lofty recruiting rankings that have caught my eye. What impresses me even more is the roster construction. Texas is building its team from the inside out (and with a big focus on game-changing quarterbacks … but that’s kind of a given in a Sark-led team).
Whether it is one of the highest-ranked players such as 5-star offensive tackle Brandon Baker out of California or one of the lowest-ranked players such as 3-star defensive tackle Alex January out of Duncanville, Sark has prioritized (and succeeded) in recruiting up front.
For the record, I think January is incredibly underrated. Anyone who watched him in the state championship game would have seen a big guy who moves well and makes plays. You know who else was a three-star defensive lineman who was big, moved well and made plays? T’Vondre Sweat. Just sayin’.
Look, recruiting is always more of an art than a science. Nobody truly knows who is going to pan out and who isn’t, but we’ve seen what happens when Texas coaches don’t prioritize the lines. In fact, Texas’ collapse after the 2009 season was in no small part due to poor line recruiting and development. Colt McCoy, as good as he was, actually covered up the sins of the offensive line recruiting because he was so good he made some of their blocking irrelevant. As soon as Colt left, the line play collapsed and so did Texas’ record.
We’ll find out over the next four to five years if this class lives up to its billing. But for today, Texas fans can celebrate because this next group of Longhorns look like they will be able to carry on with the success that Texas enjoyed throughout the 2023 season.
TOP 10 MOMENTS FROM OF 2023 IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL ...
The Texas Longhorns won’t take the field again until 2024 and we should have plenty of fresh Sugar Bowl content to talk about in next Wednesday’s column so this is my chance now to look back at the year that was in college football.
These are my top 10 moments of 2023 in college football. This is not JUST top 10 list of Texas moments, I am including not just Texas moments, but big-picture college football moments as well.
10) TEXAS & OKLAHOMA REACH A DEAL WITH THE BIG 12 TO MOVE TO THE SEC A YEAR EARLY
If I’m being honest, I think this one is actually much bigger than being 10th on the list, but I bumped it down just so I could start this recap with a Texas-related item.
Texas and Oklahoma had already announced their intention to move to the SEC prior to 2023, but the move wasn’t supposed to happen until 2025.
Along comes Brett Yormark as the new Big 12 Commissioner and the path to an early exit became clear.
In all truthfulness, the move makes sense for both sides.
Texas & OU will move into the new look SEC just as the conference is transitioning to a new media rights deal. Moving forward, ESPN/ABC will get all of the SEC football games. This move gives ESPN a much better lineup of games with UT & OU than without them.
The move makes sense for the Big 12 as well. They had to make moves to bring in new conference members in order to secure their own media rights package. That deal gave the Big 12 safety and ended up being a critical piece for another big moment which we’ll talk about later.
Yormark may not have been smart enough to hold his tongue during a preseason talk in Lubbock, but he was smart enough to realize that the Big 12 was better off getting to its new iteration sooner rather than later.
So the fact that Texas plays Georgia, Florida, Arkansas and A&M next year as opposed to Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Baylor means that this is one of the biggest moments of 2023.
9) IOWA'S DRIVE FOR 325 FAILS AND BRIAN FERENTZ IS FIRED
This is on the list only because I found it so fascinating to watch throughout the year. Also, there is a Texas connection here because special assistant Paul Chryst is a finalist to be the offensive coordinator next season.
The Hawkeyes offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz (son of head coach Kirk Ferentz) should have been fired after the anemic offensive output last season. Ferentz survived but only with a reworked contract that stipulated that Iowa had to average 25 points per game in order to be able to keep his job.
Long story short, Iowa eclipsed 25 points only two times all season (and one of those was a 26-point score). As a result, Ferentz is out.
Look, there were mitigating circumstances for Iowa struggling offensively this season. They had season-ending injuries to some of their best players including the starting quarterback. However, the bigger problem is that Kirk Ferentz wants an offense that helps his defense grind out victories.
Sorry to any Iowa fans who may be reading this … but it will be hard for you to get excited about next year’s team under whoever is hired to replace Brian Ferentz when you hear what Kirk had to say about the subject this week.
8) JAYDEN DANIELS WINS THE HEISMAN TROPHY
I know many of you just don’t care about the Heisman Trophy anymore … but I also think a lot of that is simply sour grapes. If Quinn Ewers were in New York for the Heisman ceremony then a lot of you would be tuning in and very excited.
Personally, I still love the award. Whoever wins it goes into college football history.
However, not all Heisman winners are equal.
Daniels’ stats were fantastic. There is no denying that he was a dynamic player with the football in his hands.
But when we look back at the list of winners, I suspect most will gloss over Daniels’ name.
Still, congratulations to Jayden Daniels for winning what is, still, the most prestigious award any college football player can win.
7) DEION SANDERS TAKES COLLEGE FOOTBALL BY STORM ... FOR ONE MONTH
Back in early September I was dealing with a shoulder injury. I walked into physical therapy and began working on the issue. Ten minutes after I arrived, a middle-aged woman walked in and began working with a different therapist a table or two down from me. The therapist asked what she did that weekend and she said, “We watched the Colorado football game.”
I chuckled in my head at the thought of Deion Sanders luring in new college football fans like the lady nearby.
About ten minutes after that, a different middle-aged woman walked in, took a table or two down from me on the other side and began working with another therapist. The same scene played out.
“What did you do this weekend,” the therapist asked.
“I watched the Colorado football game,” came the reply.
(For the record, both ladies told their therapists that they don’t normally watch football but they were intrigued.”
Love him or hate him, but Deion Sanders is definitely primetime (the verb as well as the noun).
Just look at these tv ratings in September:
Week One vs. TCU
7.26 million viewers
Week Two vs. Nebraska
8.73 million viewers
Week Three vs. Colorado State
9.3 million viewers
Week Four vs. Oregon
10.03 million viewers
That’s 35.3 million viewers tuning in to watch the Colorado Buffaloes who won a grand total of one game the year prior.
For the record, Texas’ highest-ranked game was against Alabama. The Bama game drew a total of 8.76 million viewers.
Sure, Colorado collapsed after that and struggled to a 4-8 record but that was still a much, much better record than the year prior.
Will Deion ever end up bringing Colorado up to the level where they are competing for conference titles? It’s probably too early to say. But you can bet people will be watching … a LOT of people. And that is a good thing for college football.
6) T'VONDRE SWEAT A UNANIMOUS ALL-AMERICAN & OUTLAND TROPHY AWARD WINNER
It’s a shame more people didn’t watch Texas this year because T’Vondre Sweat (and Byron Murphy) have been worth the price of admission every single week.
Sweat became only the fourth Texas Longhorn to ever win the Outland Trophy award – given to the nation’s top interior lineman.
In addition to the American Football Coaches Association, Sweat was a unanimous All-American earning first-team selections from the Associated Press, the Football Writers Association of America, the Sporting News and Walter Camp Football Foundation.
Sweat is the fifth Texas defensive tackle to be a unanimous All-American, joining Scott Appleton (1963), Brad Shearer (1977), Steve McMichael (1979) and Kenneth Sims (1981). Overall, he is the sixth defensive lineman to earn the honor and first since Brian Orakpo in 2008.
5) TEXAS BEATS BAMA IN TUSCALOOSA
This game has been circled on calendars for years now. Texas going to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Texas fans who made the trip (and even those who just watched on television) were not disappointed.
Quinn Ewers displayed skill in connecting with Adonai Mitchell and Xavier Worthy on a couple of deep balls in the fourth quarter to blow the game open.
By the end of the game, Longhorn players were left dancing on the sideline and a few Bama fans were left showing themselves to be despicable people.
Texas didn’t just beat Bama, they were obviously the better team and won the game by 10 points. The Horns outclassed the Tide at the skill positions and dominated them on both sides of the line of scrimmage. What makes anyone think the outcome would be any different if they meet again for the national championship?
4) FLORIDA STATE IS SNUBBED FOR THE CFP DESPITE GOING UNDEFEATED
Florida State made history by becoming the first undefeated champion of a Power Five program to be left out of the college football playoff. Incidentally, now that the playoffs are expanding and the champions of the soon-to-be power four leagues get automatic bids to the playoffs, FSU will be the only team ever to achieve that dubious distinction.
I have been fairly outspoken in saying that I think the playoff committee snub was wrong.
Texas fans spent the entire season claiming that UT should get in over Alabama because the game on the field has to matter. For what it’s worth, you’re right. Texas beating Bama should have mattered and at the end of the day it did matter.
But if the results of that one game mattered, why didn’t the results of the full 13-game schedule matter for FSU? If we’re going to say the games on the field have to matter then FSU should be in the playoffs this year.
The ACC was clearly the weakest of the power conferences this year. But that’s not FSU’s fault. Nor is it FSU’s fault that the non-conference SEC opponents it scheduled this year had off years.
For what it’s worth, the Seminoles didn’t just beat LSU in the week one matchup, they destroyed them and corralled Jayden Daniels better than any other team.
Yes, their starting quarterback is out for the season, but they still won two games with backup quarterbacks, including winning the ACC championship game with a freshman third-string QB.
How did they do that? By playing team football. That’s right, it is a team sport and they should not be punished because one of the 22 starters went down with an injury.
I would have put Florida State in as a four seed and they should be preparing to play Michigan in the Rose Bowl on January 1st.
3) TEXAS WINS THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP IN ITS FINAL SEASON IN THE CONFERENCE
Texas left the Big 12 the same way it started the Big 12 – as conference champs. Frankly, Texas didn’t win enough Big 12 titles during its time in the conference. If we’re being completely honest, it’s an embarrassingly low total. But they won one this year.
Sarkisian and the boys talked all season long about how their number one goal was to win the conference. They stayed focused on the goal and they made it happen.
Texas’ only stumble came against OU in Dallas. Truthfully, I came out of that game still believing Texas was the better team. The Sooner took advantage of every good break that came their way. Meanwhile, Texas still battled back and took a lead with only 1:17 left on the clock. Kudos to Dillon Gabriel for leading the game-winning drive, I can’t take that away from them. But if those two teams play ten times, Texas wins eight or nine games.
Following OU, there were some close games along the way. Struggles with Houston, Kansas State and TCU left a little doubt about whether UT would be able to pull it off. But, as I mentioned at the top of the piece, I think the culture shined through and Texas was able to respond.
The Longhorns also learned from the struggles and got better.
Iowa State felt like a turning point where the team didn’t just learn how to squeak by, but actually started learning how to apply pressure and keep applying pressure until the game was out of hand. Texas Tech really showed that the Horns have figured out how to be a dominant team.
The Longhorns rolled into Jerry World and made Oklahoma State pay. They held Ollie Gordon to 34 yards on 13 carries. They let Quinn Ewers loose to the tune of four touchdown passes in the first half. Adonai Mitchell showed why he’s worthy of a first-round pick in the NFL draft with six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. In short, they had a complete game beatdown of the Cowpokes.
Just for kicks and grins, T’Vondre Sweat got his big man touchdown catch and even did a Heisman pose (he would have made my top 3 on the ballot if I were a Heisman voter).
The win over Alabama was big, but the win in Arlington may have been even bigger for a couple of reasons. First, it showed that the team was improving and playing its best football at the end of the season. Second, it happened when the pressure was really on to win and win big in an attempt to make the playoffs. Third, it came with a trophy.
2) THE PAC-12 COLLAPSES
If I wrote for just about any other website, this would probably be my number-one moment in college football for 2023.
The Pac-12, the “Conference of Champions,” is ceasing to exist (at least the conference as we know it is gone). Ironically, the conference had its best season ever on the football field.
The conference has been around since 1915 and produced some of the best teams in college football history as well as 13 Heisman Trophy winners. All of that history is now gone.
The dominoes started falling last year when USC and UCLA decided to move to the Big Ten.
They completely collapsed this year when the Pac-12 university presidents turned down a media rights offer from ESPN that would have put them on par with what the Big 12 got. Someone convinced the presidents that they were really worth $50 million a year each instead of the $30 million a year they were being offered. Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff either did not show them the error of their ways or was unable to. Either way, the Pac-12 counter-bid for $50 million and ESPN walked away.
The negotiations dragged on for more than a year and when it was all said and done, Amazon was the only partner willing to pay for the conference’s media rights but at a much lower valuation.
Colorado was the first to jump ship announcing it was going back to the Big 12.
Shortly thereafter, the Big Ten stepped up and made offers to Oregon and Washington to join USC and UCLA and that was the final straw.
Arizona dragged Arizona State with them to the Big 12 and Utah followed suit.
Cal and Stanford worked hard and eventually won an invitation to the ACC (along with SMU).
In the end, only Washington State and Oregon State remain in the Pac-12 (now Pac-2).
Those schools have been able, so far, to win legal fights to retain control of the Pac-12 and its resources and will likely try to rebuild the conference bringing in schools mostly from the Mountain West Conference. But even if that happens, it will not be the Power-5 conference that it had been.
I have to admit, I understand why the football teams are making these moves. It is in the best financial interest (and competitive interest) to affiliate with one of the big two (SEC and Big Ten). But, I wholeheartedly agree with Chip Kelly in saying these should be football-only moves.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why all of the other sports have to make the move. I hope sanity prevails and the conference eventually reforms for basketball, volleyball, baseball, etc….
And of course, the realignment carousel may not be done spinning yet.
1) TEXAS MAKES THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF
This is the clear and obvious number one moment of 2023. By the time selection Sunday rolled around, it seemed pretty obvious that Texas was going to make it, but my battered fan syndrome still prevented me from fulling accepting that Texas would be in the playoffs.
In the end, the committee correctly slotted Texas into the playoffs. UT was definitely one of the four best teams in the country (especially by the end of the season) and they deserve to be playing in New Orleans.
Now the question becomes, can the Horns keep the momentum they gained as the season went along.
The more I’ve studied up on these playoffs, the more convinced I am that UT should actually be the betting favorite to win it all.
The Longhorns match up very favorably against Michigan and their somewhat sluggish pass offense. They’ve already shown they match up favorably against Alabama. And, as I look at the Sugar Bowl matchup, I think they match up favorably against Washington.
Washington will not be an easy foe, but they can also be beaten (even if nobody has been able to do that in a long time). The Huskies come into New Orleans with a suspect defense. Their toughest opponent all season was the Oregon Ducks, whom Washington beat along the lines of scrimmage to win the Pac-12. I will be stunned if the Huskies beat the Longhorns along the line of scrimmage.
Both offenses should be able to move the ball and score some points. That means that the team that wins will be the team that is able to hold serve and get some defensive stops. If that is true, then I trust the Texas defense far more than the Washington defense to make stops and get off the field.
I think we’re going to see Sark continue to open up the offense and put the ball in Quinn Ewers’ hands. It’s his team now, he has earned that.
I expect to see the Horns come out fast and get an early lead. If Texas is able to keep its foot on the gas and keep going (like it did against Tech and Oklahoma State), then UT should be able to build a big lead and coast.
If that happens, Washington will have to abandon the run and rely solely on the pass. They will get their yards and a few scores, but I don’t think it will be enough.
I will post my final score prediction next week … but it should seem clear by now who I think is going to win this game.
TWEETS OF INTEREST
In the name of time, I was going to delete this section from this week’s column, but the late-breaking news out of FSU made me reconsider so I am posting one Tweet to talk about.
FSU is clearly angry over their playoff snub and they are not happy that the lackluster conference schedule is partially to blame.
In truth, this has been a long time coming and the playoff snub is just the latest reason the Seminoles are kicking off the process of moving on from the ACC.
This will be an interesting legal battle as FSU tries to fight back against the Grant of Rights. If they succeed in getting out of their media rights contract then it will effectively kill off the GOR for conferences from this point forward.
If the GOR goes away, several more ACC schools could be on the move as well. FSU, North Carolina and Clemson would be the biggest gets for either the Big Ten or SEC. Right now, the rumors lean toward FSU moving to the Big Ten. If you’re thinking that doesn’t make much sense, you’re right. But then again, what in the crazy world of college football realignment does make any sense these days?
Of course, if that did happen, then perhaps we would see Cal and Stanford try to go back to the Washington State, Oregon State-led Pac-12. Weirder things have happened.
###############################
Big 12 coaches that have faced Texas talk about the team’s strengths and weaknesses heading into the CFP. Bruce Feldman did an excellent job of putting this article together and it is worth a read.
I will say though, some of what the coaches said in the article felt dated to me. Their analysis may have been accurate in the beginning of the season but Texas got better as the year went along and I’m not sure how accurate it is now.
###############################
This is a fun interview with Jamaal Charles.
###############################
Colt McCoy knows a thing or two about quarterbacking.
###############################
I talked about how ridiculous it is that the non-football sports have to participate in conference realignment … looks like the leftover Pac-2 schools are doing it right.
###############################
At least Oregon State baseball has some legitimate claim to being one of the best teams in college baseball. They should be in demand.
###############################
The fact that in-helmet communication is not standard in college football is mind boggling. It’s been around in the NFL for roughly three decades.
###############################
Major Major approves of this marriage.
###############################
From my family to yours ... here's to a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Last edited by a moderator:
