As we have now put a bow on the regular season, we are really able to look back on a team’s season and why it was a success or failure. While some teams are still awaiting Conference Championship Week and Bowl Season to define their season, most teams at least have answers to the big sweeping questions surrounding them. By now, we know the answer to or at least have a good idea many of the big questions of the preseason. In this article, I will talk about what questions have been answered and what questions are still awaiting a clear answer.

Known

Will Gus Malzahn keep his job?

After Auburn went just 8-5 (7-5 in the regular season) last season after a preseason top 10 ranking, many Auburn fans wanted head coach Gus Malzahn to be put on the hot seat or even fired. Malzahn came into this season with quite a bit of pressure on him to succeed.

This season in my eyes has gone pretty well for Auburn. They are starting a true freshman at quarterback and are pretty young offensively and have gone 9-3 with the help of a very good defense. Auburn’s three losses are all against top 10 teams and they have a win over a then top five team in Alabama as well as the then 11th and 17th ranked teams.

The regular season was capped off on Saturday with a 48-45 win over Alabama in a very exciting game. This game might have been more high scoring than a typical Iron Bowl, but it played out like just about every Auburn victory in the Iron Bowl does. Malzahn completely emptied the bag of trick plays and new things to throw at Alabama. Auburn caught a few breaks (this is not an attack on Auburn as every team in a football game catches some breaks) and absolutely made the most of all of them. Auburn also clearly and easily won the special teams battle. All we need now is a cool name to call this victory like they have with their 2013 and 2010 wins (the 2017 one needs a cool name still).

To get more into specifics, Auburn took advantage of multiple Alabama mistakes as they had two pick sixes on the day, a 29 yard return by Smoke Monday, and a 100 yard return by Zakoby McClain. McClain also had a team leading 11 tackles on the day. Auburn had a clear special teams advantage as Anders Carlson, who was just 4/11 on kicks of 40 yards or greater before this game, hit 4/4 field goals, all of which were 40 yards or greater including a 52 yard kick. Alabama kicker Joseph Bulovas made all of his extra points and hit a field goal earlier in the day, but missed a 30 yard field goal with two minutes left that would have tied the game.

Bo Nix still has some issues at quarterback but he always brings it when the game is on the line. This week was no exception as he led Auburn on their eventual game winning drive. I think the future is certainly bright with Nix at quarterback. Malzahn also kept at it with his typical trickery in the fourth quarter. Auburn’s last touchdown was on a reverse out of wildcat that was also a terrific run by Shaun Shivers. Also on Auburn’s final drive of the game where they were trying to bleed clock, they were able to seal the game after drawing a penalty from Alabama. The Tigers faced a fourth down and kept their punter on the field but lined him up out wide at receiver. It is unknown if they planned to just punt the ball after motioning him to the typical spot or if they planned to call timeout later but what is known is that Alabama was called for a twelve men on the field penalty and Auburn was given a first down that allowed them to kneel out the game.

Auburn’s season might not have been a wild success, but it is a tough one to complain about. Malzahn has his faults, but games like this last one is he is still employed. He definitely has done enough to keep his job and I am curious to see if they can keep the ball rolling for next season when they will have a lighter schedule.

Can Ohio State find success without Urban Meyer?

When Ohio State hires Urban Meyer before the 2012 season, the Buckeyes were coming off of a down season and were in the middle of facing a bowl ban and scholarship reductions because of tattoogate. Meyer quickly put Ohio State back among the top programs as they went 12-0 in his first season in 2012 (they were banned from playing in a bowl because of tattoogate, so a National Championship was somewhat in play if not for it) and won the National Championship in his third season. Meyer resigned as head coach after the 2018 season with an 83-9 record and five top five finishes over seven seasons. After he left, offensive coordinator Ryan Day took over as head coach. While Day did do well as offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes and was 3-0 when he was the interim head coach at the start of the 2018 season, some were concerned about how he would do as he had never been a head coach before.

Day quickly proved every doubter wrong as Ohio State has run roughshod over their opponents this season en route to a 12-0 record so far. The Buckeyes have not played a game that was closer than 10 points and only one game closer than 24 points. This undefeated regular season was capped off with a 56-27 win over Michigan. JK Dobbins completely shredded Michigan’s defense for 211 rushing yards and Michigan only gives up 120 rushing yards per game on average. Justin Fields has continued his stellar play at quarterback, throwing for 302 yards and four touchdowns. The breakout star of the game was true freshman receiver Garrett Wilson who had a season best 118 receiving yards. Ohio State won the time of possession battle with ease as they were able to pound the ball with Dobbins and held Michigan to just 2/13 on third down conversions. Ohio State has been dominant in this rivalry recently and proved again on Saturday that they are showing no signs of slowing down.

I think that Ryan Day has also clearly shown that being a head coach is a job he will be just fine at. This team is loaded with talent on both sides of the ball and has no definitive weakness. I am impressed that Ohio State has yet to truly slip up and let a far less talented team hang around, which is something that they have definitely been guilt of before. This is just another testament to the coaching and how disciplined this team is. As of now, they are my favorites to win the National Championship and look to be in a great spot for the future.

Is Texas back?

Texas came into this season with quite a lot of hype behind them. The Longhorns went 10-4 last season and capped it off with a win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. This season hoped to be more of the same with a lot of offensive talent returning and they were considered by many to be a playoff contender (I can not the only idiot that thought they would make the playoff). Texas soon began to show cracks as LSU passed all over them as they beat Texas 45-38 in week two. The Longhorns got it together and won their first two Big 12 games, but fell to Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout. While Oklahoma is obviously an elite team, Texas played very sloppy and left the game with quite a few concerns. Since that loss, Texas is 3-3 and that includes a 50-48 win at home against a 3-9 Kansas. While this team was bit heavily by the injury bug, there were still some inexcusable performances near the end of the season. Texas is clearly not “back” (unless you are saying they are back to their early to mid 2010s form) as a 7-5 finish is below what the expectations should be for a program of their magnitude.

Thankfully, I as a Longhorns fan have some things to be excited about. First off, the regular season ended on a good note with a 49-24 win over Texas Tech (it is a bit concerning that this is the first time Tom Herman has won by more than 21 points against a Big 12 opponent). The offense really clicked as Sam Ehlinger threw for 348 yards and ran for another 83 for three total touchdowns. Receiver Devin Duvernay, who has been one of few bright spots on the team, had 199 receiving yards. What worried me about the win was that this would convince the staff that everything was alright and that no changes would need to be made. I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday when news broke that offensive coordinator Tim Beck was being demoted, and defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and receivers coach Drew Mehringer were fired. Beck has just been flat out bad as offensive coordinator in every single stop he has been at as he has really put everything on the quarterback in all of his offenses and puts them in a tough spot. I think just being a quarterback coach will be good for him and it was nice that Texas was able to keep him on staff as he is a very good recruiter and has helped to establish a pipeline in Arizona for the Longhorns which has recently landed them blue chip receiver Jake Smith from the class of 2019 and five star running back Bijan Robinson from the class of 2020. Mehringer has also wasted a very talented group of receivers and is clearly not developing talent at all. While I would have been fine with giving Orlando another season as defensive coordinator, I certainly will not be arguing against his firing. I think cleaning house on staff will do good things for the Longhorns and it shows head coach Tom Herman that he need to pick it up a notch. There is a clear and defined roadmap for success with Texas which is about as good as I can ask for right now.

Will Nebraska take the next step?

Even though they went 4-8 in 2018, there was still a lot of optimism surrounding Nebraska’s football team as they entered year two under Scott Frost. When Frost was the head coach at UCF, he did very well at turning the program around as they were 0-12 before he was hired and 13-0 in his second season. This past success and the return of Adrian Martinez at quarterback created a lot of optimism for the program. Unfortunately for the Cornhuskers, the wheels fell off a bit this season. Nebraska finished the season 5-7, their third consecutive season with seven or more losses, and was just 3-6 in Big 10 play.

A lot of these issues came to a head in their loss to Iowa last week. Iowa got ahead to a big lead early as their win probability went up to 91% on the third quarter. After Nebraska tied things up at 24 near the end of the third quarter, their offense just completely stalled out. Following the tying touchdown, the Cornhuskers punted on all four of their remaining possessions and went three and out on three of them. The defense held things down during this time but eventually cracked when Iowa kicker Keith Duncan hit a 48 yard field goal with just one second left on the clock. Nebraska could not get anywhere on offense as they averaged just 3.5 yards per play Martinez threw for just 50 yards on 18 attempts. The Cornhuskers really could not get anywhere on offense and this has been an issue all season.

While finishing 5-7 after a 4-2 start is definitely disappointing and a bit concerning, I think many fans need to do some reflection and realize that it was a bit premature to say a team who came off of a 4-8 season and lost their leading rusher, leading receiver, and five of their six leading tacklers was probably not going to win their division or go 9-3 the following season like so many people predicted. Scott Frost is also not a bad coach because Nebraska won just five games in his second season. I think fans likely need to temper expectations. Nebraska has had some tremendous seasons before but they are not a program that can be resurrected overnight. Regardless, I think Nebraska is headed in the right direction under Frost, it just might take a bit longer to get there than what was originally expected.

Unknown

Is Alabama on the decline?

After suffering a 28 point loss at the hands of Clemson in the National Championship last season, there was a bit of concern that Alabama had officially handed over the title of college football’s marquee program to Clemson. This was amplified when Clemson was the number one team in the preseason polls. 2019 started similarly to 2018 for the Crimson Tide as they won their first eight games without really ever breaking a sweat. Their good fortunes turned sour as they lost to LSU. An injury to star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in their following game made things even worse for the Crimson Tide as they were on the outside looking in for the playoff and lost their biggest star. On Saturday, Alabama fell to rival Auburn and now have lost more than one game in the regular season for the first time since 2010.

Alabama’s main problem this season has been their defense. Things were not helped out when linebacker Dylan Moses suffered a season ending injury in fall camp, but I still think expectations were definitely higher than how they turned out. The Crimson Tide are quite young on the defensive front with the exception of defensive end Raekwon Davis. Two true freshman start on the defensive line and there are two more freshman on the two deep up front. Two freshman also start at linebacker. While Alabama obviously is bringing in a ton of high quality recruits, starting four true freshmen on defense is never ideal. Because of this, Alabama has slipped up a bit in terms of run defense, tackles for loss, and sacks. Alabama has been known to have a completely fearsome front seven and the lack of that this season has been quite apparent. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding has also come under a lot of fire. Alabama has given up more than 45 points twice this season when they never had given up more than that in the Nick Saban era. I do not know if I fully support firing Golding but he is a clear drop off from prior defensive coordinators like Kirby Smart and Jeremy Pruitt.

Alabama also continues to not be able to figure out the kicking game. A missed kick from 30 yards cost the Crimson Tide an opportunity at overtime. Since Saban’s first season in 2007, Alabama kickers have missed 101 field goals which leads the FBS for most in that time. I understand that recruiting can be tough but I honestly do not understand how Alabama can not get a solid recruit or graduate transfer at kicker.

I think that Alabama will likely still be among college football’s elite for the foreseeable future. What does cause some concern is that Nick Saban could retire anytime. They also have constantly been cycling through coordinators and it looks like it has finally started to come back and bite them. It should also be noted that all of their star power on offense will be gone next season as Tua Tagovailoa, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and Najee Harris will all likely be going to the NFL as will offensive linemen Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Willis. The defense also will be losing some key players. It is completely possible that Alabama will be a worse team next season. I think they will soon be at the top of the SEC as they are still recruiting well and are coached by arguably the best coach in college football history, but it is not out of the question that 2017 could be the last National Championship of the Nick Saban era and that the loss to Clemson last season will be known as the loss that sent the program back.

Will the Pac 12 end their playoff drought?

After Washington lost in the first round of the playoff to Alabama in 2016, the Pac 12 has missed out on the playoff the last two seasons. In 2017, they had USC and Washington finish the regular season with two losses and in 2018, Washington State looked like their only chance at a contender (which was a very small chance) until they lost to Washington to end the regular season. The Pac 12 has missed out on the playoff three times, more than any other conference. In the last two seasons, it is looking like the gap between the Pac 12 and the rest of the Power Five conferences has widened quite a bit.

Going into this season, it looked like that steak could be snapped as there were two solid contenders in the conference in Oregon and Utah. Both Oregon and Utah returned a lot of talent after a nine win season in 2018. Unfortunately, it looked like both teams would be fighting a serious uphill battle as Oregon lost to Auburn on the opening weekend and Utah fell to USC in week four. Both teams needed to win out to keep those hopes alive and it looked like both were really going to pull it off. That is until Oregon lost at Arizona State, leaving Utah as the lone team left in the conference with a shot at the playoff.

This leaves a lot on the line Friday night in as Oregon has the opportunity to play spoiler and Utah could potentially win and seal their first trip to the playoff. Now if only it was that simple for Utah. Utah is 11-1 but has a somewhat faulty resume. They are really missing a big landmark win and have a weaker schedule than Oklahoma, the team they are vying for the number four slot with. Assuming all other conference championship games go chalk and Utah does win, it will leave Oklahoma and Utah both at 12-1 as conference champions. The Utes have been ranked ahead of Oklahoma pretty consistently in the rankings but that does not really mean anything for the ones coming out on Sunday that will decide things as the resumes refresh after every week (if you need a reminder of that, TCU fans will be sure to let you know).

I think Utah could really pad their resume and help get a bigger edge over Oklahoma by beating Oregon by a decent margin and not leaving any doubt in who the better team was with the result. I think Utah has a slight edge over Oklahoma in terms of who I think should get in and who the voters will go with, but it is no guarantee. It should also be noted that beating Oregon is far from a guarantee. It also banks on Oklahoma beating Baylor which is not a guarantee. Then again, if we can not get into heated debates about what currently is a hypothetical situation, then are we really having a good playoff discussion?

This Championship weekend will be an important one obviously for Utah but I think the Pac 12 as a whole. The conference needs a team to breakthrough to the playoff for the sale of the conference’s reputation. This matchup between Utah and Oregon will be a fun one as it pits strength against strength in Oregon’s offensive line and Utah’s defensive line.

Quick Thoughts on Firings

As this past weekend marked the end of the regular season, it also marked the start of firing season. As opposed to putting them all into my Some Random Thoughts category, I thought I would just share some quick thoughts on some of the ones the happened this weekend.

Matt Luke was fired at Ole Miss after going 15-21 in three seasons. I think firing him was pretty justified as they did worse every season he was there and the program has seen success this decade, winning 10 games in 2015. I am not really sure who they will go after. I am sure Memphis’s Mike Norvell will be a top contender but I think he might could do better than Ole Miss.

Barry Odom was fired at Missouri after going 25-25 in four seasons. This was one firing I was a bit unsure about. While Missouri did just go 6-6 this season, (they are also banned from playing in a bowl game) they were trending up before this season. This seems like a bit of a rapid reaction to me. I think the Tigers likely needed some changes in offense, but I would have been willing to give Odom one more season.

Boston College fired head coach Steve Addazio after he went 39-39 in seven seasons. While Addazio could consistently get to bowl games, I think firing him is understandable as the program was clearly plateauing under him. He never won more than seven games in a season.

South Florida fired Charlie Strong after a 4-8 season. I think that while Strong has always received praise from former players, he just could not get the job done in Tampa. South Florida was worse every season he was there and I think he was able to coast to success off of Quinton Flowers in his first season. The Bulls have a lot of advantages compared to their AAC foes and I think that they should be among the elite G5 programs. There have been rumblings about former head coach Willie Taggart returning and while I would it strongly oppose the hire, I wonder if they could do better.

In some very surprising news, Washington head coach Chris Petersen has elected to resign after this season and defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake will take over as head coach next season. Petersen is definitely a top 10 coach in college football and losing him will hurt for Washington. That being said, I think keeping the same infrastructure will be beneficial in the short term.

Some Random Thoughts

1. Ole Miss going on an epic final drive where they converted a 4th and 24 and scored a game tying touchdown with four seconds left only to miss an extra point because it was pushed back due to an excessive celebration penalty is peak Egg Bowl and I am certainly here to see it. I love this rivalry between Ole Moss and Mississippi State and I implore everyone to watch it as it will always be entertaining.

2. Akron just capped off 0-12 regular season, which is a bit sad.

3. Buffalo running back Jaret Patterson has himself a day as he ran for 298 yards and six touchdowns in Buffalo’s 49-7 win over Bowling Green.

4. For the first time since 2003, Virginia beat Virginia Tech to win the Commonwealth Cup but the ACC Coastal division for the first time. Bryce Perkins came up big for the Cavaliers with 311 passing yards and another 164 rushing yards in a 39-30 win for Virginia.

5. With Virginia’s win and ACC Coastal title, this means that the ACC Coastal division has seen all seven of their teams win it. Even better than that, all seven teams have won it in seven seasons. This is going to be an insane statistic that you should always bring up to impress your friends now.

6. Memphis took down Cincinnati 34-24 in a matchup between two of the top teams in the AAC and if you just can not get enough of this matchup, well you are in luck as they will face off in the AAC Championship game on Saturday. This game will be big for Memphis as there is a good chance they will end up as the G5 rep in the NY6 Bowls if they win.

7. Washington again took down Washington State in the Apple Cup and it is just clear that Washington knows how to prepare for Mike Leach and Washington State. While I really think Leach is a great coach, he often fails to make the proper adjustments and Washington (and Cal actually) has him figured out. While the air raid offense clearly has worked well, it needs some new wrinkles. It also did not help that Washington could get a good pass rush by rushing just three guys. I think the Cougars can be helped out also if they had a quarterback that could read a defense well. Gardner Minshew was very good at that last season while Anthony Gordon really is not.

8. West Virginia ended their season on a good note as they beat TCU 20-17. This will be just the second time since 2000 that TCU will be sitting at home for Bowl season.

9. Kentucky quarterback/receiver Lynn Bowden is a serious dude as he racked up 284 rushing yards in a 45-13 win over Louisville. Bowden has been dominant on the ground since making the switch to quarterback after an injury at the spot and has been leading Kentucky’s offense very well with running the read option and speed option plays to perfection. Kentucky also won this game and put up 45 points while throwing the ball just twice. The coaching job by Mark Stoops this season is a bit remarkable.

10. Northwestern ended their rough season on a bit of a high note as they won 29-10 over Illinois. This was just one of those season where everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for the Wildcats and I think they should be improved next season.

11. Clemson brought home their sixth straight Palmetto Bowl victory as they beat South Carolina 38-3. South Carolina had no answer for Clemson’s lethal duo of receivers in Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins.

12. Wisconsin shut down Minnesota on the ground, allowing just 2.5 yards per rushing attempt by Minnesota in their 38-17 rivalry win. Badgers quarterback Jack Coan has one of his better performances as he threw for 280 yards and two touchdowns on 22 attempts. Wisconsin will be getting a rematch against Ohio State for the Big 10 Championship.

13. Michigan State has had a rough season but they managed to salvage a bowl appearance after beating Maryland on Saturday.

14. Stanford capped off their worst season since 2007 with a 45-24 loss to Notre Dame. The Cardinal have been a model of consistency before this season and I think they need an offensive retool.

15. Oregon bounced back from their loss to Arizona State with a win over Oregon State in the Civil War but it was still not a win to be super excited about. The Ducks won just 24-10 at home against a 5-7 team with a backup quarterback. They can not limp to the finish on Friday night if they expect to beat Utah.

16. Joe Burrow (or “Burreaux” as his custom jersey said) had another big game to cap off an undefeated season for LSU as they beat Texas A&M 50-7 in a very nice revenge spot after their loss last season.

17. Tennessee snapped a three game losing streak to Vanderbilt with a 28-10 win. This win capped off a five game win streak for the Volunteers to end the regular season. Tennessee was led by freshman running back Eric Gray who had an eye popping 246 rushing yards.

18. Navy put on an absolute triple option clinic against Houston in a 56-41 win. Fullback Jamale Carothers ran for 188 yards and five touchdowns and quarterback Malcolm Perry ran for 146 yards of his own. The Midshipmen will have an opportunity to get to 10 wins if they beat rival Army next week.

19. After a 2-9 season in 2018, North Carolina is going bowling after beating rival North Carolina State. Mack Brown has definitely exceeded expectations in year one of his new tenure with the Tar Heels.

20. Kansas State took down rival Iowa State 27-17 in Farmageddon, the best rivalry game name in college football. Going 8-4 in Chris Klieman’s first season is huge for Kansas State and I think they can improve next season.

21. Oklahoma won the Bedlam game over Oklahoma State in what was a lower scoring game than expected. The Sooners need an impressive win over Baylor in the Big 12 Championship on Saturday if they want a playoff spot.

22. Rutgers has made it official that they are hiring former head coach Greg Schiano. Schiano went 68-67 in eleven season at Rutgers before and took them to six bowl games in his final seven seasons and finished ranked twelfth in the country in 2006. While the Scarlet Knights are in a tougher season now than they were during his first tenure, I think it was a good hire.

23. While I understand the fact that it can be frustrating to struggle against a rival, if you think Mike Gundy, Jim Harbaugh, and Mike Leach need to be fired because they keep losing to their rivals, you are stupid and need to stop defining a tenure by one game.

24. Feleipe Franks announced that he is leaving Florida and has entered the transfer portal. While I think it is best for Florida to continue with Kyle Trask, I think Franks will be of service to many Power Five teams.

25. USC keeping Clay Helton was a surprising decision and one that many people disagree with. I personally think it was a defensible decision although I would have fired him. USC does have a lot of young talent and I think next season will be big for him and the program. Right now they need to worry about keeping Graham Harrell as offensive coordinator (unless my Longhorns want him in which case they should let us have him).

26. Jake Bentley has entered the transfer portal after missing most of this season. Bentley has bright moments at South Carolina but he had some low points as well. If he can be a bit more consistent, he will be a solid starter wherever he goes.

27. Jim McElwIain has done very well in his first season at Central Michigan. The Chippewas were 1-11 in 2018 but are 8-4 now and have a matchup with Miami Ohio in the MAC Championship.

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