Moving the Chains: Takeaways from College Football 2024 – Week Fourteen

MOVING THE CHAINS

Takeaways from College Football 2024 – Week Fourteen

Earlier this week, North Carolina’s Mack Brown said he would be returning to coach the Tar Heels in 2025. The next day, the university said ‘not so fast,’ because his final game would be their regular season finale against instate rival N.C. State (a 35 – 30 loss, it turns out).

Forgive me, brain trust in Chapel Hill, but that is no way to treat someone who has devoted 16 years of his life running your university’s football program – over the course of two tenures, no less. Less you forget, he’s also someone who racked up more wins than any other coach in your program’s history. And to do it the week of Thanksgiving, when you should be giving thanks for having someone like Coach Brown in your camp, giving him his walking papers instead is incomprehensible. For that, may you end up with Will Muschamp on the sidelines next season.

When this season began, who would have ever thought that Florida would be on the way up, and Florida State would take a nose dive? I, for one, would have put a lot of money on just the opposite. Glad I didn’t. Florida – 33, FSU – 11. The Gators finished the year with a record of 7 – 5, giving coach Billy Napier his first winning season in three seasons in Gainesville. FSU finished 2 – 10, a far cry from last year’s 12 – 0 regular season. Now let’s get to the action.

First, addressing the conference likely to be shut out of the playoffs, here’s how the Big-12 finales for the teams in a four-way tie for first played out. (1) Of significance in #25 Colorado’s 52 – 0 win over Oklahoma State: (a) the Buffs’ Travis Hunter locked up the Heisman (10 receptions, 3 TD’s, 1 interception, and on the field for well over 100 plays), and (b) if Mack Brown was fired, Cowboy’s coach Mike Gundy should be next. Following a 3 – 0, OSU lost the rest of their games this season and finished with a conference record of 0 – 9. Against Colorado, the Cowboy offense only managed 147 yards – and over half of them were in a meaningless final possession. (2) #14 Arizona State had no trouble with instate rival Arizona, winning 49 – 7. (3) #17 Iowa State beat #24 Kansas State, 29 – 21. (4) #19 BYU beat Houston, 30 – 18. So, through a series of tiebreakers that involves a couple of coin flips and several rounds of rock/paper/scissors, Iowa State and Arizona State will play for the conference championship.

In the Big Ten, #2 Ohio State hosted Michigan in The Game that was ultimately determined by which team wanted to lose the least. In a contest that featured two missed chip shot field goals, three interceptions in the red zone, and offensive play calling that made Will Muschamp look like a genius, the visiting Wolverines made it four straight over the Buckeyes with a narrow 13 – 10 win, despite being three touchdown underdogs. Ohio State coach Ryan Day is now 47 – 1 against conference opponents besides Michigan; against the Wolverines, he’s 1 – 4. The loss opened the door for #4 Penn State to waltz into the conference championship game with a didn’t-even-need-to-break-a-sweat 44 – 7 win over Maryland. The Nittany Lions will face #1 Oregon, who wrapped up an undefeated season with a 49 – 21 win over Washington. Meanwhile, #10 Indiana kept its playoff hopes alive with by demolishing Purdue, 66 – 0.

As for the teams outside of the Big Four Conferences with playoff aspirations, #11 Boise State finished at 11 – 1 following their 34 – 18 win over Oregon State. Now all they have to do is win their conference championship – at home – against #22 UNLV, 38 – 14 winners over Nevada. Bronco running back Ashton Jeanty had 37 rushes for 226 yards and a TD, ending the season with 2,062 yards on 275 rushes and 27 scores. Earlier in the season there was speculation Jeanty would win the Heisman and break Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record set in 1988 of 344 carries for 2,628 yards and 37 touchdowns. Barring a superhuman performance (Emmitt + Bo + Herschel) against UNLV, Jeanty will come up short in both (although he’ll be in New York for the Heisman ceremony to congratulate Travis Hunter).

#5 Notre Dame beat USC, 49 – 35, and despite their (unforgivable) home loss to NORTHERN ILLINOIS earlier this season, will make the playoffs. Had it not been for two Fighting Irish pick-sixes in the final four minutes – one for 99 yards, and another for 100 – that could have just as easily been touchdowns for Southern Cal, the final score might have been reversed. The luck of the Irish, apparently. As for the Trojans, they wrapped up their first season in the Big Ten with a record of 6 – 6. Nothing like the Pac-12 or the Big-12, is there, (USC coach) Lincoln Riley?

#9 SMU, 38 – 6 winners over California, will be in the ACC championship and face #12 Clemson (losers of a nonconference game at home) after #6 Miami’s surprising loss to Syracuse (42 – 38) knocked them out. As they’ve done most of the season, the Hurricanes didn’t take their opponent seriously, and this time it caught up with them. Miami QB Cam Ward, my favorite for the Heisman until recently, put up decent enough numbers statistically, but … come on – Syracuse!

Finally, in the SEC, there was a feast of instate rivalries contested over the holiday weekend.

Friday night, in the worst meltdown by an Atlanta-based football team since the Falcons in Super Bowl LI, Georgia Tech blew a 14-point lead with less than six minutes left in the game on their way to a 44 – 42 eight-overtime (featuring a virtual embarrassment of failed two-point conversion attempts by both teams) loss to #7 Georgia. The Bulldogs will now face #3 Texas, a 17 – 7 winner over #20 Texas A&M, in the conference championship game. It will be a rematch of Georgia’s 30 – 15 regular season win: a game the Longhorns wanted and the Bulldogs, if they’re being honest, wanted no part of.

All #8 Tennessee had to do to remain in playoff competition was avoid shooting itself in the foot …. Which they nearly did. After spotting Vanderbilt an early two-touchdown lead less than five minutes into the game, the Vols gradually pulled away for a 36 – 23 win, raising their record to 10 – 2.

Meanwhile, #15 South Carolina staked its claim to the playoffs with a dramatic 17 – 14 win over Clemson, thanks to a last-minute third-and-16 scramble by quarterback LaNorris Sellers that turned into a 20-yard game-winning touchdown. Both teams finished the season with identical 9 – 3 records, but the playoff advantage goes to the Gamecocks.

#13 Alabama doubled up Auburn in the Iron Bowl, 28 – 14, and finished with a record to 9 – 3. The Crimson Tide believe they deserve a shot at the playoffs since they claim to be ‘the best three-loss team in the country,’ which to me sounds a lot like football’s version of ‘gee, you don’t sweat much for a fat girl.’

Oklahoma finished its first year in the SEC with a 37 – 17 loss to LSU, dropping the Sooners to an unfamiliar and disappointing 6 – 6, including 3 – 5 in conference games – which puts them one game behind the Florida Gators in the standings.

Who would have ever thought?

Finally, there were three teams in the Power Four without a single conference victory: Mississippi State, Purdue, and Oklahoma State. It seemed worth mentioning for some reason.

Scott Ludwig lives, runs, and walks in Senoia.  His latest compilation of 101 columns, ‘Southern Accent’, complements ‘Southern Charm,’ ‘Southern Comfort,’ and ‘Southern Hospitality,’ his first three compilations.  Other books in his Southern Exposure series include ‘Finding the Words,’ ‘Portraits of the South,’ and ‘let me tell you a funny story.’  All of his books can be found on his author page on Amazon.