Biggest surprise of the CFB season so far?
"TWIS" equivalent featuring Buckeye tears.
2.5 weeks into the season...what's been your biggest surprise yet based on preseason expectations?
FSU was shocking but I didn't think they would be good anyways. High school buddy of mine has a son at JSU and they aren't too bad.
UCLA...LSU sucked last year, but everyone *media* brushed it off as a COVID year and assumed they would be good this year (kinda like how they did with PSU but not with Michigan) Not sure UCLA is as good as the media wants them to be, but the Pac12 isn't great so they could make some noise.
Clay Helton getting fired? This was inevitable. He's been on the verge of getting fired for 7 years. Danny Kanell asked on the radio yesterday morning, hypothetically, would anyone be shocked if Helton was fired today? And 8 hours later...
Michigan rushing for 700 yards and being 2-0 is a bit of a surprise. Many had Washington pegged as 1 of 4 losses.
September 14th, 2021 at 9:36 AM ^
Alabama being good is something I wasn’t expecting.
September 14th, 2021 at 9:39 AM ^
Aw, shit, you stole my answer.
September 14th, 2021 at 11:26 AM ^
I just logged in and was gonna post the same exact answer but I thought I’d look first and here you are with it
September 14th, 2021 at 9:38 AM ^
Jax State IS bad. Your buddy is wrong. UAB beat them 31 - 0 first week. To me, i figured FSU would be a .500 team. They are TERRIBLE - that is the biggest shock to me.
September 14th, 2021 at 9:47 AM ^
The utter haplessness is pretty impressive with FSU. And once again, I see one of these coaches who can barely talk his way out of a paper bag, billed (for five minutes) as a savior, making his bazillions while my wife--a prof at FSU--is trying to get a couple thousand to put on a conference. . . and just think that we're not really all right in the head.
And now, of course, he's a POS to all and sundry, like two coaches who preceded him.
It makes for good theater, but really we just need these hotel beds filled to keep the local economy clicking.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:45 AM ^
Your wife-prof’s predicament points to the major irony of big time college sports, which we all keep repeating here: education is vastly more important than sports, yet sports get vastly more attention.
September 14th, 2021 at 11:36 AM ^
The thing about a market system is that money flows to what people truly value, not what they claim to value. Thus, while lots of people claim to value education/learning at a University, their money goes to athletics. It’s not what they say, but what they do.
September 14th, 2021 at 11:55 AM ^
I mean, it's not hard to understand why lots of money is put into sports vs. individual academic things. Sports make a ton of money because people spend a ton of money on it and thus you invest lots to make lots.
September 14th, 2021 at 8:37 PM ^
But education gets vastly more money ($9.5B at Michigan excluding athletics, compared to $0.18B for the whole athletic department).
September 14th, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
My wife is also a Seminole - she graduated from FSU back in the 90s.
I am calling it right now, Norvell gets fired at the end of the year and Prime Time is the new Florida State coach. A couple of years ago, I thought that would be a disaster - with what he has done at Jackson State University, I now think that he will be fantastic.
September 14th, 2021 at 1:08 PM ^
I thought this a year or 2 ago. They want Deion to have some coaching experience, otherwise everyone would laugh. Give him 3 years at JSU, let him learn, get a feel for the game, which is enough time for Norvell to flame out and then hire Deion.
September 14th, 2021 at 5:11 PM ^
What exactly has Coach Prime Time done at Jackson State that you think he's ready to coach FSU? Last year they went 4-3 with a forfeit win and losses vs Alabama A&M, Southern and Alabama State, not exactly powerhouses. This year they are 2-0 but with a 7-6 win over Florida A&M and a blowout of Mississippi Valley State. Again not exactly powerhouses.
Are you confusing Jacksonville State, who is not coached by Deion Sanders, and who beat Florida State, with Jackson State, where Sanders is the coach?
September 14th, 2021 at 10:19 AM ^
Okay, that explains a lot. JSU was looking past UAB, while FSU saw what an egg JSU laid. I didn't think FSU was going to be good this year, but that's enough for the perfect storm of an upset to me.
September 14th, 2021 at 11:08 AM ^
And i dont know what the odds were for that game, but i bet it was more than our game with App State which if i recall was 33 points. Stanford vs. USC back when Harbaugh was there was 41 points i believe.
September 14th, 2021 at 12:22 PM ^
It was FSU -28
September 14th, 2021 at 10:21 AM ^
Amusing that Notre Dame was in another early season tussle that people thought was a big time match up and upon further review was just two overrated teams. Too bad FSU didn't win that one because we could've had another 'TEXAS IS BACK' moment
After Notre Dame struggled with Toledo too, it looks like ND is massively overrated right now. That's the resume of a team heading for 7-5
September 14th, 2021 at 12:56 PM ^
yeah they're terrible but outside of Wisconsin and Cincinnati, who else do you see ND losing to? their schedule looks awful.
September 14th, 2021 at 1:13 PM ^
Stanford?
September 14th, 2021 at 3:14 PM ^
What do you mean their schedule looks awful? It actually looks pretty tough right now. The only gimme games I see for them are Georgia Tech and Navy right now
Purdue
@Wisconsin
Cincinnati
@Virginia Tech
USC
UNC
Navy
@UVA
Georgia Tech
@Stanford
September 14th, 2021 at 1:58 PM ^
I would love for that to be true, but ND's schedule just isn't very daunting. It's nothing short of amazing they won both their games - OT with FSU was decided by missed FG, Toledo had the chance to run out the clock but their guy ran into the end zone giving ND time to score.
How the hell is ND ranked #12? Amazing how big a role prior season's results play in rankings, especially early in the season.
I'd say ND's incredibly poor showing so far is the biggest surprise, followed by UCLA suddenly looking competent.
September 14th, 2021 at 9:39 AM ^
Alabama
EDIT: No, seriously, I think BYU or Va Tech would be my biggest surprises thus far. Everything else has seemed pretty chalk thus far.
September 14th, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
Michigan fans bitching about QB play after a 335 yard rushing performance against a P5 opponent.
Wait a minute. Who tf am I kidding?
September 14th, 2021 at 9:48 AM ^
If you asked me last Saturday morning who I would put a million dollar bet on to win; Florida State beating FCS Jacksonville State or Ohio State beating Oregon without their top 2 guys? I would've locked down OSU without a doubt. There's no way I expected them to lose at home to the dinged up ducks.
I also wouldn't have missed the money either, worth it!
September 14th, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
If you wouldn't miss a million dollars, do you have a few minutes to talk about my student loans?
September 14th, 2021 at 9:50 AM ^
Stanford vs USC after seeing them vs K State
Otherwise, the two most shocking final scores were probably Montana/Washington and Oklahoma/Tulane
September 14th, 2021 at 9:58 AM ^
Probably the state of blue bloods. Texas, Nebraska, USC, Miami, FSU, and Washington are all terrible.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
Not picking a fight but other than Washington that entire list has pretty much ranged from "ok at best" to "total dumpster fire" for awhile now
September 14th, 2021 at 9:58 AM ^
OSU having early trouble to Minnesota and losing to Oregon has been the most surprising and the most pleasing.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:10 AM ^
They would be my 2nd. Minny had a chance vs. them. Oregon owned them at OSU.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:14 PM ^
I still think that Latham hit should have been ruled targeting. Not that I think Latham intended to knock him out. But still, his head was down. Minnesota was moving the ball. And if they would have ended up with a TD it would have been 38-45. Instead it was ruled a fumble and Ohio St got the ball.
September 14th, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
I was most surprised by the ass-kicking that USC received from Stanford, especially after Stanford looked so abysmal the previous week. I had written off David Shaw, and that now seems premature.
My second place surprise is the efficiency and professional precision of Michigan's run game. I did not see this coming! I was looking more for the elusive 'speeeeed in spaaaaaaace' we've been looking forward to for three years. Instead, we went backward to 2016 - and it's working!! (So far...)
Third place surprise? Tie between MSU having an actual pulse and the depth of FSU's suckass-edness.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^
Iowa
There's no way they can keep this up, right?
September 14th, 2021 at 10:09 AM ^
Keep what up? They beat Iowa State and Indiana. That's a pretty typical year for Iowa, no?
September 14th, 2021 at 10:18 AM ^
Indeed. The lust for Iowa right now is a little much.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:20 AM ^
What's not typical is Iowa being ranked #5th in the AP and #7th in the coaches polls --checks date-- on September 14th!? Couple that with no OSU or UM and home against PSU while playing in B1G West and you're looking at a recipe for a Ferentz hype-train.
Granted they don't stumble somewhere in that division, they could run the table and make it to the B1G championship with little resistance. Maybe Wisky?
September 14th, 2021 at 12:09 PM ^
They have a nice defense but their (over)ranking is a consequence of poll logic, i.e. getting two wins against other overranked teams.
They do have a very favorable schedule -- they get Penn St at home & Graham Mertz is garbage -- so one of those fake 12-0 years is in play (see 2015). But I think they'll slip up at least twice anyway.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
I think what we 'learned' from 2020 will ultimately be a mirage. Indiana and Iowa State played way above their historical norm, meanwhile Michigan and Penn State were turrible. All four of those teams look to be returning to their usual level. Iowa is good, but I think the Indiana and ISU wins will look a lot different in November than they do now
September 14th, 2021 at 10:09 AM ^
This. I never would’ve predicted that Iowa would be ranked above OSU at any point in the season.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:27 AM ^
Iowa is probably good, but nothing special (par for the course Hawkeye squad). They're definitely overrated as per their current ranking IMO. Indiana appears to have come back down to Earth and I think ISU is probably pretty overrated too--neither team looked particularly impressive in the Cy-Hawk game last weekend.
September 14th, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
What's not sustainable about racking up nearly 200 yards in total offense and creating 3 or 4 pick sixes every game for the win?
September 14th, 2021 at 10:10 AM ^
No complaints on the outcome for obvious reasons but I was not expecting Oregon to go into Columbus and do what they did. Last week, the Ducks were tied with Fresno State and got the game winning score with 2 minutes left in the game on a 4th down and 2 from the 32 yard line.
Yes, OSU's defense wasn't great against Minnesota but seeing how unimpressive Oregon was at home against Fresno State, I thought OSU would win some insanely offensive score like 63-30.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:30 AM ^
I just don't think I'm ready to accept the OSU "taking a step back" mantra the media seems to spitballing at the moment. The issue with the likes of Bama, OSU, Clemson, UGA, etc.. is they have all the pieces there and will continue to have nice, new shiny pieces on the bench if needed.
Although I will say the B1G East looks decent with UM, PSU and even MSU looking serviceable. Maybe this is the year someone sneaks past them but I doubt they haven't fixed some of these issues by November.
September 14th, 2021 at 11:31 AM ^
It's hard to get a team as good as OSU or Alabama "up" for every game. There was a time where Alabama hadn't won a National Title without losing at least one game during the regular season.
I expect OSU will get those things that killed them Saturday cleaned up, and be just fine. In fact, the only film I would watch if I were Michigan would be how OSU has adjusted to what Oregon did to them. New cracks will have to be created.
September 14th, 2021 at 4:07 PM ^
THIS. Ohio's 2014 national championship featured a week two loss at home to an unranked Virginia Tech team. They then ran the table and the rest is history.
September 14th, 2021 at 12:15 PM ^
OSU definitely has all the talent they need to steamroll the rest of their schedule, and Day remains an elite playcaller, but I'm curious how he deals with his first regular season loss and the subsequent pressure from a spoiled & psychotic fanbase after his first real misstep
September 14th, 2021 at 12:25 PM ^
The terribleness of OSU's defense is real though. Coombs is way too predictable with 2-high man coverages, and teams have had no trouble scheming to beat it despite the talent. And their issues with defense are now multi-seasonal. How do they fix that now, in-season?
September 14th, 2021 at 1:32 PM ^
Right...this. This is not a talent issue obviously...but it's schematic. I think there's been talk for years that OSU's defense is not complicated, and relies on out-athleting you. There's been talk for years that their LBs are a liability and that hasn't changed as they've shuffled through 5 stars. Say what you want about the "stars" they have in the secondary in the league, Okudah has been AWFUL, Eli Apple was named the Giants worst draft pick since 2006 by PFFhttps://giantswire.usatoday.com/2021/07/04/pff-names-eli-apple-worst-new-york-giants-draft-pick-since-2006/
Hooker, Arnette, Ward, Wade have all disappointed and have been cut/traded or will not be resigned by the teams that drafted them. Not to say they aren't talented players, but I think it goes to show that the system OSU runs is heavily dependent on just being better than the man across from you and less about learning technique/intricacies in a system. So, if the players don't learn that to begin with, how do you try to teach it midseason? We saw how that worked out for Don Brown last year.
Also they don't have a dominant pass rush like they did with the Bosa's and Chase. I don't think they are horrible but I definitely think it's a problem that won't get a proper solution until they fire Coombs, who is a fantastic recruiter. Or they start bringing in guys who are better coaches, than recruiters...but will their recruiting suffer as a result? Who knows.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:12 AM ^
Sparty getting off to a good start.
25 outgoing transfers and they seemed to be an upgrade.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:13 AM ^
From a relevancy standpoint, it’s gotta be MSU. Decimated roster from Dantonio leaving, they were terrible last year despite beating us, lost a ton of guys to the portal, brought a ton of guys from the portal, yet somehow have looked very formidable. All this despite subpar recruiting classes. I hate them so much.