It’s a sad day. Mike Kruzcek and Daunte Culpepper put us on the map, but O’Leary made us more than just a dusty hamlet, so to speak. Hardly anyone will remember this, but O’Leary did it the right way: he only recruited high character guys, and he graduated his players (often at the expense of his winning percentage).
Gene Chizik is a sneaky bet to replace O’Leary. He was UCF’s defensive coordinator from 1998 to 2001 before his first stint at Auburn, and he’s a local guy; he started his coaching career at Seminole High School near Tampa, and played at Florida.
Keep an eye on Stanford (as much as it pains me to say this) – they feel like this year’s Ohio State: an early loss, but the juggernaut keeps rolling. Shaw has loosened up the offense, which has a star in McCaffery. I don’t see anyone on their remaining schedule they’ll have trouble with, including Notre Dame, and the Pac-12 South champion.
Their only problem is that they’ll need help to make the CFP.
They have a lot of that built in schedule help. Just looking at the top 10.
Barring no losses against other teams only one of Ohio State, Michigan State, or Iowa can come out the Big Ten undefeated. OSU plays MSU and Iowa would play the winner in the championship game.
Baylor still has to play TCU.
LSU plays Bama this week.
Stanford controls it’s own destiny against Notre Dame.
Clemson’s the only team that doesn’t have a remaining head to head game against a current AP top 10 team. Of the seven undefeated in the top 10, there are three guaranteed losses before the season is over. Five of current top 10 teams will have another loss by season end. It might not be enough but it’s still quite a bit of help.
Yes but even in your scenarios, it’s likely that there will be 3 undefeated conference champions (B1G, Big XII, and ACC). And maybe 4 with LSU. But assume LSU loses to Bama. Will a 1 loss Stanford get in over a 1 loss Bama? I doubt it. Stanford still needs more help from melt down of the Big XII and/or B1G.
That’s the absolutely worst case for Stanford though. There’s still a lot of games for that Top 10 against other currently ranked programs. Baylor especially has a brutal schedule to finish. Needing one or two mild upsets is better than needing a league cellar dweller to knock of your opposition.
Right you are. I just remembered hearing it was their next game…and I mostly ignore the SEC. My interest there is largely rooting against whichever team Saban is currently coaching. Geaux Tigers!
Don’t forget Utah (near-certain Southern Division champ). They coughed up a hairball last week but have looked scary good otherwise. I would bet they will be tougher than ND and could very well end up 12-1 themselves.
Why would Utah be tougher than ND when they just laid a turd against a team that ND handled convincingly enough? That loss was bad enough I think the Utes are out of the playoff picture without a ton of help.
ND needed to come from behind in the fourth quarter, and USC was in complete disarray that week with their coaching issues, so I wouldn’t call it an impressive win. I do agree that given equal records, there is no chance that ND wouldn’t get in over Utah. FFS, if the past several years are indicative, ND could have three losses and still get in over a one-loss Utah.
Also, ND got USC at home. But yeah, setting aside my PAC-12 homerism and disdain for ND, I will revise that to “just as tough as ND”. Really, neither of them has a super impressive win at this point.
