But mostly, we’re here for WAGON WHEEL.
Will Indiana be PUNISHED for barely beating Penn State?
Seems far-fetched, but given the Ducks’ slide down to #9, I’m not holding my breath that these standings will
do anything other than reflect the inherent greatness of the SEC.
College Football Playoff Rankings Show
When: 7:30-8pm CT
Where:
I dunno, a studio in Bristol where they shot the moon landing, probablyTV, dumbass: Oh, right. ESPN.
We’ll update this when the time feels right. But, meanwhile, rest assured that the SEC is working very hard, scheduling juggernauts like Samford and The Citadel because It Just Means More.
None of that, however, matters, unless you’re a fan of one of the three good Big Ten teams this year. What matters for the rest of us?
MIDWEEK MACTION
Tuesday, November 11
Kent State Golden Flashes (3-6, 2-3 MAC) at Akron Zips (4-6, 3-3)
6:30pm | ESPNU | WAGON WHEEL
We’ve got BOWL ELIMINATION GAME* status, and in a rivalry game at that!
Kent State blew a winnable one at Balls Tate last week, losing 4 yards on 4th and 1 on a botched handoff at their own 41 with 3:45 to play, allowing the Robtobirds to march those 37 yards in no time at all for a tying score, and then throwing a series of godawful passes and completely mismanaging the clock late. Thank goodness y’all didn’t just lock up that coach.
As for Akron? It’s all in front of the Zips: beat Kent in the rivalry game, then beat 3-7 (1-5) Bowling Green in the season finale, and Joe Moorhead gets to a .500 season record—finally—in Akron. They’ve won two on the trot, beating Buffalo and a bad UMass team behind a firmed-up defense. Ben Finley’s a spread offense galoot-type QB. Fun enough.
*Shame they’re APR-ineligible for a bowl. But if they want to get rid of Moorhead, they’ll have to drag his Yankee ass out of there.
Ohio Bobcats (6-3, 4-1) at Western Michigan Broncos (5-4, 4-1)
7pm | ESPN2
It’s a four-way logjam atop the MAC—these two, Buffalo, and Miami Hydroxide. CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS, Y’ALL.
Western has been downright decent on the season, having only allowed North Texas’s high-flying offense to crest 26 points (a 33-30 loss, also allowing Michigan State only 23 points in the season-opener) and ranking 31st in stop rate. Where things tend to go a little pear-shaped is the Broncos’ offense. QB Broc Lowry—yes, I spelled his name correctly—is an accomplished runner (leading the team with 591 yards on 125 carries, sacks included). That is, notably, what a quarterback is there to do, so we can leave it at that and assume Western will have no issue passing the ball if needed.
Ohio, on the other hand, is whatever you need it to be. The Bobcats can score—a 48-21 rout of Northern Illinois—and they can defend—a 17-10 home win over West Virginia. They look to be one of the more complete teams in the MAC (mediocre, but complete), with one-score wins over Eastern and Miami and just a head-scratching 20-14 loss to the Robotbirds a blemish on their record. Parker Navarro is just another in a line of Ohio quarterbacks (read: Rourkes): a little gunslinger (12 TDs to 8 picks), a little runner who can pull it back in the mesh from Sieh Bangura. Dangerous enough. Ohio.
Tuesday, November 11
Buffalo Bulls (5-4, 4-1) at Central Michigan Chippewas (5-4, 3-2)
6pm | CBSSN
The Chips have beaten Eastern (bad,), Bowling Green (baaad), and UMass (baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad). The have lost to Akron (competent?) and Western (competent). The Chips are more noteworthy for the running formations brought to Mount Pleasant by new HC Matt Drinkall: formerly the offensive line coach at Army—seriously, they targeted the Army offensive line coach to be their head coach—Drinkall has deployed three quarterbacks (including Iowa transfer Joey Labas) in a power-spread system. Lots of pre-snap motion, lots of power running out of the pistol and shotgun, lots of painful quarterback throwing motions. I cannot wait.
On the other hand! Buffalo?
[/touches ear]
Yes, we are getting reports of Buffalo.
Pete Lembo has made a second career head coaching at Buffalo, ten years removed from leaving the Ball State job to be Maryland’s special teams coordinator after becoming the first coach with a winning overall record there since Paul Schudel (1985-1994). That’s right—both Bill Lynch and Brady Hoke were sub-.500 in Muncie.
But this is about Lembo at Buffalo.
The Bulls are fine: they hung with Minnesota into the fourth quarter and have since just kind of done enough. WR Victor Snow (all 5’8”, 168 pounds of him) is a playmaker, with a 7 receiving TDs, 2 rushing TDs, and a scrambling punt return TD to his name already this season. QB Ta’Quan Robinson is fine. Al-Jay Henderson is a bowling ball, and he’s just fine, too. 1,000-yard rusher in 2024.
This is Buffalo. It’s fine.
Toledo Rockets (5-4, 3-2) at Miami Hydroxide Battlin’ Bases (5-4, 4-1)
6pm | ESPN2
There is absolutely no wreason all these games needed to start together at 6pm. Madness.
Miami lost a 24-20 heartbreaker to rivals Ohio in the Battle of the Bricks, and they’ll need to hold serve at home to keep hope of Detroit alive. It’s the same-old for Chuck Martin’s team: QB Dequan Finn will do good things, and he’ll do bad things. Kicker Dom Dzioban is fantastic—8/8 from 40-49, 1/2 from 50+. That, and hope the defense holds up. Best of luck.
What do we make of Toledo? The Rockets beat the brakes off Western Kentucky. They hung with Kentucky and lost by a touchdown.
…and then they lost by a point to Western Michigan, five to Bowling Green (baaaaad), and 28-7 to Washington State. They’ve beaten Akron, Kent, and Northern Illinois. I cannot confidently tell you shit about them other than Tucker Gleason and Chip Trayanum were supposed to be a semi-intriguing one-two punch at QB-RB.
Were they? I guess we watch to find out.
Northern Illinois Huskies (2-7, 1-4) at UMass Minutemen (0-9, 0-5)
6pm | ESPNU
stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinky
Northern Illinois started their year with a 2-point win over Holy Cross. They didn’t score 20 points in a game until a 48-21 loss to Ohio, following it with a 21-7 win over Balls Tate. Otherwise, uh…they exist. They are bad.
Even worse? The poor, poor UMass Minutemen. They’re winless in former Minnesota and Rutgers DC Joe Harasymiak’s first season, including a loss to FCS Bryant. They have broken 13 points only once against an FCS opponent, a 28-21 heartbreaker to Buffalo. As a team, they average 2.8 yards per carry and 4.7 yards per completion. They have 13 sacks—total—through 9 games and are 128th in third down conversion percentage.
The one rose I will give the Minutemen? Their kicker, Derek Morris, is 9/12 on the season, including an impressive 3/5 from 50+ and a career-high 55-yarder last week against Akron.
It made it 14-10, Zips, at the end of the first quarter. UMass lost, 44-10.
Here’s your open thread for the night’s football and playoff ranking-yelling.
Thump’s AGENDA is now up. There’s a basketball thread and Boiling Points and all sorts of stuff for you.
Can you believe this dumb website is free?
(I can. Enjoy the games.)
