GameDay Final – Rivalry Week shows again the best of college football

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The great Chuck Klosterman once wrote that every man (or woman) must have trouble. A rival is essential to our very being. This is not to torment us, but rather to push us to act as a measure of our own success. Without any enemy, we are only ships afloat on a vast ocean, where we direct the tide. A rival makes the difference.

And so it is that an elusive ax returned to Minnesota can create a joy in that state that would not be overcome by Kirby Puckett's ghost appearing at karaoke to sing a revival of "Purple Rain".

That's why Ann Arbor fans burn their khakis after another lost visit to ColuXbus, Ohio, and Urban Meyer will ensure that all congratulatory messages received after the Buckeyes' victory never be removed from his phone.

The rivalries demand that Dan Mullen interrupt an interview after the match to divide a fight in the middle of the field and that Egg Bowl officials literally report all the players of the two teams participating in the same game. They allow the worst team of Virginia Tech since decades of sipping champagne in a mugged cup 24 hours after a sensational win. That's why Clean, Old Hateed Hate is actually much more enjoyable for fans of Athens when the hate is replaced by a round-trip at half-time at the bar because the victory is already assured. That 's why a rivalry game called The Holy War can stage thousands of otherwise devout locals who seem possessed by something a little ungodly.

The rest of the country was perhaps ready to leave the USC on an airport tarmac, but the Trojans did not turn back for Notre Dame. Thus, even with a place in the playoffs, a rival has still resisted.

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There is a reason we play these games on weekends after Thanksgiving. To play them in advance would result in too many turbulent black-eyed uncles and overzealous grandchildren getting their mashed potatoes into their pants.

Late in the regulations, while North Carolina and the NC State were linked, the cameras were spinning in the crowd to show a charming couple, the man dressed in Carolina blue and the woman dressed in a Wolfpack cap red. They seemed satisfied, the few beneficiaries of a zero score. They are probably divorced now.

Dabo Swinney told stories this week about the harassment of South Carolina fans during his small league games for children. Not by parents. By the children.

"They like to scream 'Roll Tide'," he says.

It's a vicious burn of a 12 year old teenager.

And the rivalries do not even have to make sense. There is no need for real grievances for hatred to bubble up. We may or may not have perpetual animosity towards a guy on Facebook that we have not seen in 25 years, but how does that differ from Herm Edwards heart-rending Kevin Sumlin's heart Saturday after no they had no connection with the state of Arizona before being hired?

It's a cliché to say that you can throw discs out the window in a rivalry game because the best teams usually win. Usually, but not always. And that's what makes it even more fun sometime like Saturday, when we compete against a rival who was supposed to be our superior, and we discover we're a little better than we thought – when Kentucky, losing six from the last seven Governor's Cups, one can deceive the last dagger in a dreadful season in Louisville, or when Vanderbilt, who had won only once between 1983 and 2011, can firmly state that he is Big Brother in the state of Tennessee after defeating the Volunteers for the fifth time in the last seven years.

Or how it is: the Wisconsin Twitter feed indicated before Saturday's game that the Golden Gophers had not won Paul Bunyan's ax since Twitter's invention.

And at 7:20 pm on Saturday, Minnesota responded: "Tweet, tweet."

Yes, we need our rivals. They define us, for better and for worse. We should really thank them for that. Thank them, then send them a message reminding them how much they stink for the next 365 days.

Ranking of rivalries

Take a look at the best Rivalry Weekend games and find their non-football counterparts …

Minnesota ahead of Wisconsin, is Future vs. Drake: It looks like there should be a favorite here, but Minnesota is doing a great job above its weight class.

Virginia Tech over Virginia is Wawa vs. Sheetz: So it makes sense that the only state in which the two convenience stores overlap is Virginia. And we do not say that Sheetz is bad. We simply say that there is no real competition here.

Alabama over Auburn is Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi: The Pepsi Challenge is like the Kick Six – keeps the rivalry interesting, but there is clearly a favorite among them.

Washington and Washington State, that is Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News team, Wes Mantooth and the Evening News team: Mike Leach of course did not share his In-House burgers N-Out with Chris Peterson, but we would like to think that he's saving Peterson from a bear pit.

Vanderbilt over Tennessee is Gary vs. Cheers, Olde Towne Tavern: Gary has been so smiling for so long, and now the motley group of adorable losers is taking his revenge.

Purdue on Indiana is Hansel vs. Zoolander: Jeff Brohm. So hot right now.

Maverick versus Iceman: Clemson over South Carolina: The Tigers played like a real loose cannon, and Christian Wilkins' Heisman pose was the approximate equivalent of the buzz of the tower.

Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, It's Jerry vs. Newman: Georgia has more fun, but Paul Johnson is a pesky good neighbor who can undermine you at every turn.

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Dwayne Haskins had five touchdown passes while Ohio State had 62 points against Michigan, the biggest total in history against a team led by Jim Harbaugh.

Heisman five

Friday night's performances finally seemed to allow Kyler Murray to legitimately steal the Heisman from Tua Tagovailoa. He secured Oklahoma's place in the Big 12 title match with 364 yards for the win, 114 yards rushing and four touchdowns in total. And his case was actually pretty strong.

Murray has more rushing yards, touchdowns and explosive games than Tagovailoa. Even looking at some statistics to the touch, he is neck and neck with Alabama QB. But the most important argument in favor of Murray is that his plays are much more significant. On the one hand, the defense of Oklahoma is a hot mess, so the Sooners desperately need Murray's heroic exploits. But beyond that, Tagovailoa just did not have to do much in tight games. He only made two assists in the fourth quarter of this year; he made just nine assists in the second half all year while the score was two touchdowns. Murray has two more touchdowns in the second half of tight games than Tagovailoa.

And yes, we have heard about the 12 major defenses, but by entering Saturday's matches, the numbers actually suggest that the difference was not so important. According to ESPN's defensive efficiency metric, the average ranking of Tagovailoa's opponents is 64th. Murray is 61st.

So, there is the case. Murray is part of the conversation and could most likely be described as the favorite.

Then Tagovailoa took the pitch against Auburn and ended the conversation by throwing 324 yards for a total of six touchdowns, without reversing the situation.

Any other year, yes, Murray is a big winner. But Tagovailoa completely changed this attack in Alabama, and it made everything look so easy.

1. Tagovailoa, Alabama: Alabama has won 498 offensive yards in 11 games out of 12 this season. The only other team to do this over the last decade was the 2015 Dino Babers team at Bowling Green.

2. Murray, Oklahoma: He is MVP of university football. Nobody means more for his team. But his numbers are just overshadowed by Tagovailoa's flawless performance.

3. Dwayne Haskins, State of Ohio: He is the Murray of the poor man – not so brilliant, with a not so bad defense, but Haskins has been a passing passer as dominant as college football this season, and he has been surprisingly little helped.

4. Will Grier, West Virginia: Hard when one guy scores for 539 yards and four touchdowns and both lose the match and fall a tic in the Heisman race.

5. Darrell Henderson, Memphis: Yes, he probably is not on a ton of ballots, but he should be. Henderson finished the regular season by bringing Memphis to the US Championship game with 174 yards and two touchdowns against Houston. Henderson is the second national in the standings (1,699), second in touchdowns (19) and has the highest score in the country's port (8.58).

Book

After a tough start against USC, Ian Book finished with another strong start, scoring 352 yards and two touchdowns. Book has only started eight games this season and he has amassed at least 260 yards and several touchdowns. The only ones to have more this year are Gardner Minshew from Washington State, Dwayne Haskins from Ohio State and Kyler Murray from Oklahoma, all potential finalists from Heisman. And those eight games with Book's 260/2 match Everett Golson's and DeShone Kizer's career at Notre Dame, and they're the best of the season with an Irish QB since Jimmy Clausen had nine in 2009.

Climbing

By 2018, no team had done better than Cincinnati, which had gone from 4-8 last year to 10-2 this season. This is likely to lead Luke Fickell to the top of some AD's wish lists.

But the Bearcats were not the only ones to make a big step forward in 2018. Matt Rhule has the Baylor bowl title, having beaten the 1 to 11 mark last season. Dino Babers helped Syracuse get five more wins, while Dan Mullen is 9-3 for Florida after a dismal 4-7 campaign last year.

Ready for 2019

We started the season by talking about the difficulties of the first year coaches and we finished them there too. Arkansas, Arizona, the states of Florida, UCLA, Nebraska, Tennessee and the state of Oregon all lost their final and none will play a cup game. But at the end of the year, it's not bad news. Here's how we see these programs starting in the second year for their coaches, ranked by enthusiasm.

1. Nebraska: The Huskers have spent the beginning of the season finding ways to lose, but the last half of the year has been a competitive match after another, including almost a win over Ohio State and Iowa. Nebraska fans want the 2019 season to start tomorrow.

2. UCLA: Chip Kelly upset his USC rival last week and nearly had an amazing match against Stanford on Saturday. The 3-9 end up obscuring the fact that the offense finally began to snap in the second half, while the Bruins have exceeded 30 points on four of their last seven.

3. Tennessee: The defeat against Vandy was demoralizing, but Jeremy Pruitt inherited a terrible team and improved to a win and beat Auburn and Kentucky. Progress has therefore been made. Recruitment is Pruitt's strong point, and the lineup of 2019 will be much better.

4. Florida State: A contingent of fans is already looking forward to sending Willie Taggart back. Given that he already has as many defeats against his Miami and Florida rivals as Jimbo Fisher throughout his tenure, the anger is legitimate. But Taggart inherited a composition far worse than we understand, and the offense seemed to progress over the years. As long as the talented O line will not have been won, things will not get much better, but the fact that Taggart did not leave this matter completely derailed is a good start.

5. Arizona: Kevin Sumlin's team seemed completely lost in September and Khalil Tate did not help. But four of Arizona's defeats were five points or less, including two one-point losses. This is usually a good sign that the tide will turn around next season.

6. Arkansas: It's not just the fact that the Razorbacks were bad in the first year of Chad Morris. This was planned. It was that they were really bad, with five losses of 20 points or more. And with just six points in his last two games, Arkansas' offense has not had exactly the shock that could be expected from Morris. That said, Morris's first year at SMU was terrible, too, and progress was steady thereafter.

7. State of Oregon: It's going to be a long way. But hey, this return against Colorado was fun, right?

Let's play two

We will see a rematch of the Red River Showdown in the Big 12 title game while Texas and Oklahoma will face it for the second time this year. The match against the USA conference will be a rematch of the 13th week match between Middle Tennessee and UAB. . So, is it cool to play twice now? Yeah, well Liberty and New Mexico State did it first. The two Independents played for the second time of the season Saturday, Liberty won 28-21, avenging a defeat on October 6. So, does that mean that we need a rubber match?

In memory

At the end of the regular season, let's take a minute to remember the 70 seconds of action in which Alabama was trained. Jordan Ta 'Ole Miss's friend linked to DK Metcalf for a 75-yard touchdown in the first game of their match on September 15, and for the other 70 most terrible seconds and last three games, the Crimson Tide lost a football game. We assume that the film study for Alabama the rest of the season is only a looped piece, while Nick Saban fights the rat poison. Still, it took 70 seconds and we are all grateful to Alabama for recovering.

The best of the B1G

Northwestern ran to win Saturday against Illinois, finishing 8-1 in Big Ten, ahead of its title game against the Ohio State. Add to that the seven consecutive wins that the Wildcats had to end last year 's Big Ten slate and Pat Fitzgerald' s team now has 15-1 in its last 16 games. conference. How is this impressive? It's the best of Big Ten, ahead of Ohio State (14-2), Michigan (12-4) and Wisconsin (12-5) over this period. But it's also the same record as Oklahoma in the Big 12 (15-1), better than Alabama in SEC (12-1) and Clemson in ACC (11-1). In fact, the only team that has been better in conference over this period is UCF, which has 14-0 in the United States.

Always winner, always ranked

Syracuse, number 20, overturned Boston College on Saturday, ensuring for the first time since 2001 the end of the season with a top 25 in the top 25. The number 25 Iowa State also staged a fierce comeback against Kansas State. This victory would give the Cyclones their first top 25 finish at the end of the season since 2000.

The Longest Teams If Syracuse and the State of Iowa End Their Series? Cal and Wake Forest are no longer ranked at the end of the season since 2006. Virginia has not been ranked since 2004. Purdue and Minnesota finished the year in 2003. But the longest remains Indiana, which has not finished his season. in the top 25 teams since 1988.

Not enough bowls

The state of Florida will not be in the same bowl this year, ending the country's longest unofficial streak at 36 after losing to Florida and putting off the long-running feud over Florida. Abandoned bowl games. This is also the first time since 1976 that Florida State finished with a lost record. To put this in perspective, it's the same year that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple. Since then we've seen eight Rocky movies, seven presidents and several wins in Kansas. It's been a long time.

But it's just as good for the rest of college football as the Seminoles lost because, despite all the pearls accumulated during the many bowl games (we look forward to meeting you in 2020, Myrtle Beach Bowl!), We & # 39; We actually have more teams eligible for the bowl than slot machines for the bowl.

This week, Baylor, Purdue, Tulane, Wake Forest, Wyoming, Southern Miss, Minnesota, Vanderbilt and Miami (Ohio) all went on to win the sixth victory, putting us above 78 spots. In addition, Virginia Tech could add its name to the role next week.

Too many bowls? No way. There is not enough. So start planning your own bowls in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Dover, Delaware and Big Arm, Montana (this will be a link to the Big 12).

Highlights of the week 13

Week 13 offered us good nominations for the regular season end grand prizes. No, not a trophy, but some important ones. For example…

Transitive price of the property of the year: Rice started Week 13 with a record of 1 to 11, the only victory against a FCS opponent. But on Saturday, Rice defeated Old Dominion, starring our favorite Transitive Property of College Football scenario for the season. Rice beat ODU. ODU beat Virginia Tech. The Hokies defeated Virginia. Virginia beat Duke. Duke beat the northwest. Northwestern defeated Purdue. Purdue beat the Ohio State. So, of course, the playoff committee must decide: Rice or Oklahoma for 4th place.

Price of the worst game of the year: The less we say about Michigan State-Rutgers, the better. The match between the two teams, who had less yards than Will Grier allowed for Oklahoma, could be described as an optimistic defensive fight. With regard to the offensive and the special teams, that sums up the situation well.

Best Actor AwardFeleipe Franks not only led Florida to a 9-3 season, but is also the club's best thespian club leader of the season after defeating the Florida State. He may not become a Heisman winner, but the kid has a future in the EPL.

Fan of the Year Award: We should really give a trophy to this one, but there is no doubt that one who deserves to hold it. Tyler Trent has been a source of inspiration for Purdue all season and he has become one of the most recognizable faces of the sport because of his unwavering passion and, of course, his bravery and his indisputable strength. To see him honored as an honorary captain before Purdue was qualified to bowl against Indiana was perfect.

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NC State player Reggie Gallaspy dives into the end zone for an OT victory over North Carolina. A fight breaks out as players start to hit each other.

Most unexplainable point of view on something obvious to everyone: We could shorten this process to just call it the Larry Fedora trophy. Fedora was the clubhouse leader for the honor even before the season started, explaining how the concussion protocols in college football would be the fall of America, but it's perhaps beat Saturday, explaining that the fight in the end zone after NC State overturned the heels in overtime was not really a fight. "There was no fight," Fedora said. "It was their team celebrating in our goal area and our team celebrating." Fedora is preparing America a celebration after a season 2-10 at a time.

Aeration of grievances

Wisconsin opened the season as the country's fourth team, with a manageable schedule, a dominant offensive line, a Heisman candidate and a ton of hype.

On Saturday, the Badgers were swept by Minnesota, finishing the regular season at 7-5. And honestly, it could have been worse.

BYU, Minnesota and Northwestern lost to the Blackgers this season. All teams that have lost at least four games have narrowly escaped Purdue and have made themselves beautiful against New Mexico and Nebraska. For the year, they were 3-9 against the spread – a good measure of the difference between expectations and results.

Add it all up and Wisconsin is our winner of the season as the biggest underachievers. Of course, there was competition.

Miami: The Canes lost to Wisconsin at last year's Orange Bowl, which should suggest that the game was a curse. Maybe a voodoo spell was launched on the turnover chain. Whatever the case may be, the lamentable Canes managed to avoid the first (or last) rank by avenging their defeat against Pitt in the 13th week.

Auburn: The Tigers could easily have lost to Washington in the first game and Texas A & M a few weeks ago, which would have left them without a bowl offer. So, at least, there is a glimmer of hope. Nevertheless, the team that reached 7th place in the AP poll will finish 7-5 and probably not ranked. This is the fourth time since 2003 that Auburn is in the top 10 and finishes the year outside the top 25.

State of Michigan: The pre-season # 11 has ended in the regular season 7-5 with a tight escape against Rutgers. The offensive has not beaten the top 21 in six out of 12 games, including a total of 26 goals in the last three games.

Atlantic Florida: At least we still have Lane Kiffin's Twitter feed, but what would happen if he was not really an offensive genius? The team that beat Group 5 so early in the season has just finished with a loss to Charlotte – who has just sent her coach – to the absence of a bowl game.

Virginia Tech and Florida State: Remember their big game of week 1? Boy, it was a long time ago. Combined record for pre-season # 19 and 20: 10-13.

UConn's defense

UConn completed its season on Saturday with a 57-7 loss to Temple, the 10th time in 12 games where the Huskies have lost at least 49 points.

To say that the UConn defense was awful, is to disrespect all the terrible previous defenses. No, what UConn did this season is historically bad – like Steve Harvey announcing the wrong winner of Miss Universe while training the Titanic in an iceberg in New Coke. Really bad.

What bad? Here are some fun facts from the ESPN Sports and Information Department:

Huskies' opponents average 1.78 points per minute of possession time this season.

UConn has awarded 605 points this season. It's 32 more than the previous worst team.

The Huskies have yielded more yards in 12 games this season than Alabama in their last 26 games.

They allowed 617 yards per game. It was 57 yards less than the previous worst team.

They allowed as many touchdowns in the first quarter this season as the total allowed by Clemson.

Underestimated game of the week

It's one thing to see a big man running with the ball. It's always fun. But how about hands on Mike Barwick Jr. The 307-pound lineman has had one of the most beautiful choices you can see, showing range, concentration and delicate hands.

Underestimated game of the week

Okay, so Navy and Tulane were not competing for championships or rivalry trophies, but the green wave needed a win to become eligible for the cup and she was getting it in a dramatic way. Justin McMillan threw a 26-yard touchdown pass with 1:27 to bring Tulane back to a point, and rather than tie it up, Willie Fritz threw Dana Holgorsen's dice and got two, the win and submission of the cup. . It worked, since McMillan connected to Charles Jones for conversion. Now, if only Tulane was in a city to really celebrate such a victory.

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