“Hold Onto Your Hard Hats”- Bob the Builder

Twelve teams remain undefeated in College Football after the Week 6 dust has settled:

• Texas (OU)
• Oregon (OSU)
• Ohio St (ORE)
• Miami (UL)
• Indiana (NEB)
• Penn St (USC)
• Pittsburgh (CAL)
• Brigham Young (ARI)
• Army (UAB)
• Navy (CHA)
• Liberty (FIU)
• Iowa St (WVU)

Some of the teams are on this list are only here Somehow, someway:

• Pitt should’ve lost to Cincinnati Week 2 inside Nippert Stadium. They were down 21 in the second half, and there I was holding a seemingly worthless Pitt+2 ticket, when, somehow, someway, they won 28-27. They followed that with a shootout win in the “Backyard Brawl” a week later, 38-34.
• Miami should’ve lost to Cal this past weekend, and perhaps the week prior against Va Tech, but somehow, someway, they keep surviving. More on the Miami/ CAL game in a bit.
• Oregon squeaked by Boise St 37-34 Week 2.
• Penn St let Bowling Green take them to the end 34-27. Week 2
• Liberty needed 21 4^th Q points to overcome the 14 point deficit at NM St. Week 2
• Iowa St outscored Iowa 20-6 in the second half to win the game 20-19 at Iowa. Week 2
• BYU after trailing at the half, held home team SMU to just 15 points, winning 18-15. Week 2

Somehow, someway. These were these teams’ closest moments so far this season. Funny that they all happened in Week 2. Quirky.

Penn St was always going to find a way to win over Bowling Green, and it was not dramatic late. Other games, however, overcame near impossible odds to remain unbeaten in this maturing 2024 College Football Story. None more dramatic than this past Saturday night in Berkely, California.

In a game that kicked around 10:34PM Eastern and ended close to the legal “last call” in Miami, 3AM, the Hurricane football team rallied from 25 points down to win 39-38. If you were like me, you fell asleep when the game was 35-10 and Miami’s offense looked like toilet sludge. Usually, the final game Saturday night watches me fall asleep, but I made a conscious effort to turn off the TV and actually get in bed. Who would want to watch that pathetic effort from the swaggy team from South Beach? Not I good sir. I’m too much of a fan of some of these players to watch them carelessly throw the game away as I did for 2 ½ quarters. Calculated carelessness at that.

I saw the final score around 4AM Sunday morning, and like everyone else that follows this sport was completely shocked at first. What?! How?! It took a couple of hours, but I was eventually able to watch the 4^th quarter and have since been pondering what I watched. Only now, on Monday morning am I typing my thoughts.

Should we be shocked that Miami came back against Cal? Easy answer is yes. Yes, Miami overcame a 25 point deficit on the road, but should we be shocked that this team outscored Cal 29-17 in a half of football? I’ll ask it another way, if Miami would’ve led 29-17 at halftime would it have shocked anyone? I can only speak for myself, no. That is about what you would expect. I know this Hurricane squad is talented and certainly talented enough to beat Cal by 12 in a half of football. Yes, this was the Cal team that beat Auburn on the road, but if you watched that game like I did you know that beating the Tigers had more to do with Auburn’s failures and Hugh Freeze’s ineptitude than Cal’s dominance.

The game in Berkley put together incredible late game drama, which provided anyone watching with great entertainment, but do not be fooled, Miami could’ve buried the Bears in their own backyard had they wanted to. “Enigmatic, this season is.” Yoda probably.  

Moving on from Miami who I am sure will be part of the conversation late into this season.

The rest of teams on this unbeaten list have looked impressive and have handled each game so far this season. Texas and Ohio St are expected to be unbeaten to this point, but Indiana, Army, and Navy beating their opponents the way they have been has been surprising.  

Indiana is a team that I have not watched, but the closest game of their season so far was a 14 point win over Maryland. Looking at the rest of their final scores, they impressively beat UCLA 42-13 on the road.

Army is 5-0. 4-0 in AAC play with 3 of those being road wins.

Navy hung 56 on the Hometown Tigers in Week 3 after Memphis upset FSU in Week 2.

Who on this list will remain unbeaten the longest? Obviously, either Oregon or Ohio St will lose this week in Eugene, but who else might suffer their first defeat? We will see.

Speaking of first defeats, good gravy. Week 6 was unkind to two major fan bases in the Southeast portion of the United States. Poor Bama and UT.

You may remember that I was not going to have my TV on until the late afternoon/ evening games due to my craving for some crisp mountain air, which, because of the heat wave right now can only be felt about 3,000 ft higher in elevation than my house is.

Up, up, up through the conifers. Up, up, up to the Aspens, but no further. It was as beautiful as it was difficult to get there. It always is. I saw 6 total people on the particular trail that I followed and zero people under the golden aspen dome at 8100 ft. Peaceful.

It was 4:45 by the time my eyes found the TV, and boy was I just in time.

Everything to that point had gone exactly as expected:

• Mississippi found their footing and controlled the Cocks in Columbia. 27-3
• Missouri. Did you take the challenge I posed and watch this game? I hope you did. Texas A&M 41- Missouri 10. Trust your eyeballs.
• Georgia and Ohio St were never stressed in their wins

There were obviously more games on, but nothing of note had happened, yet.

The first game my eyes landed upon was Alabama playing at Vanderbilt. At this point, if you haven’t heard about this historic upset, I’m convinced that you simply are choosing to not hear it. Vandy shocked the SEC and upset Alabama 40-35.

When I turned the game on it was 23-21 Vanderbilt, and I may have actually said, “Oh good. Just in time to see Bama come back.” You know? Assuming Bama would do what Bama does and eventually wear the weaker opponent down and outscore them by 3 scores in the 4^thquarter.

With Jalen Milroe at QB and Ryan Williams on the outside for Alabama that was not out of the realm of possibility. Funny as it was the two of them still had an amazing game and made big play after big play. The problem being that the Vandy offense wouldn’t quit either.

I do not know yet if I am impressed with Vandy executing on offense or appalled with Alabama being constantly out of position on defense and tackling poorly. Bama appeared the tired team and Bama appeared to be the team that quit. Vandy did not and good for them! They earned that win. The Vandy QB praising God for the “vison he had seen that foretold this very victory” (paraphrased) and then grabbing the mic and blurting an expletive live on the SEC Network was the highlight for me. Classy kid.

Someone that is actually classy is Alyssa Lang who was interviewing him. Stone cold professional. I like her questions to coaches and of course loved watching her and Andraya Carter on “Out of Pocket” a couple of years ago.

You know, I put in my preview that Alabama had to “focus for all 60 minutes in this one,” but I never thought they would lose it. I expected a slow start. A let down of sorts after having to come back to beat UGA at home in Week 5, but not lose to Vandy and certainly not because their defense quit. They did. The Crimson Tide should be concerned with how poorly their defense has looked in the second half of the past two games.  

This massive upset ushered in the evening games. The ones I was looking forward to all week:

• Michigan 17 at Washington 27
• Southern Cal 17 at Minnesota 24
• UCF 13 at Florida 24
• Tennessee 14 at Arkansas 19

And of course, the late-night Miami game.

If I had picked the winner of these four games, I would’ve gone 0-4. This is the exact reason that I remained patient this weekend with picks. There were plenty of scenarios where 3 of these games could go either way, but one game on this list, just didn’t make a lick of since to me.

Having watched nearly every second of the Arkansas season and having watched Tennessee in every game but Kent St and OU, (I was at a game in person for the latter) I knew exactly how I expected the game to go. Arkansas haven’t tackled well or covered receivers well all season. They are much improved over the past couple of years, but still not anywhere near top level in this department. Tennessee has a QB that can sling it, a coach that loves to play fast and aggressive, and big, fast receivers on the outside. This posed a matchup that I thought the Hogs would not be able to overcome. I was wrong. When UT took a 14-3 lead in the 3^rd quarter, I thought for sure there was no way back for Arkansas. I was wrong. Was it because the Vols quit? Did Josh Heupel throw this game? I don’t know how else to explain it. Did Heupel have a brain aneurism and forget how to coach the rest of the way?

This is not to discredit Arkansas, I’m happy they won. This is to overstate how poor UT looked after taking the lead. Something changed. Perhaps, I’ve given Heupel too much credit. Perhaps, the Volunteers stopped en route to Fayetteville and picked up some ‘volunteer’ players to fill in for the game. No matter.

The Volunteers drop to 4-1 and will play Florida next week. We will see which version of the team shows up. You know, I guess part of the entertainment this season comes from the Jekyll and Hyde appearances from teams this year. One second, they look like National Champion contenders and the next they look like UMASS could contend with them. No offense to the Minutemen.

College football continues to amaze me. The evening window of Week 6 was a wild ride with chaos commencing as the sun began to set in Nashville. This season continues to be weird.    

One final word. Tulane is one of my favorite two loss teams right now. This team is disciplined, coached well, explosive, and the Green Wave know how to dominate a game. They are a 4^th quarter pick six away from beating Kstate and their other loss came at Oklahoma. Look out AAC. They close the season at Memphis and Navy at home. Those games might matter for the conference title.  

Chapter 6 has closed. Do we know who the 12 playoff teams will be? Absolutely not. Even though, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, LSU, Illinois and others have one loss that doesn’t mean they can’t make the playoff. Even though Michigan and USC have two losses, they aren’t eliminated from the playoff possibility. This has been a weird season, so let’s expect more weird things. Hell, Missouri is travelling to UMass this week, so can the Minutemen have another “shot heard round the world” moment? It’s 2024 bucko. Anything is possible.

Week 7 is going to be a fun one. Preview incoming soon.

Find the Humor and keep on Movin’

Whit W.