College Football Weekend Recap

November is when college football really starts to heat up. Top 25 matchups are played left and right, with division and conference races heating up. Going into the first weekend of November, it was dubbed ‘Statement Saturday’. Not only did it live up to hype but teams really made statements.

The 12 EST slate started the day off slowly, with not many ranked or excited games. The only games that stood out were taken place in Auburn and Columbus. Auburn was down 24-14 with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. After forcing an interception and later a punt, Jarrett Stidham showed why he was considered to be an NFL talents by driving down the field and throwing the game winning touchdown. Ohio State struggle against a 2-6 Nebraska team, with the Cornhuskers winning at halftime. Nebraska scored to pull it within five points, but Ohio State survived a scare at home.

Moving onto 3:30 EST, the SEC East championship was dominated by Georgia. Kentucky never seemed to have a chance, being forced to throw the ball. Georgia did a very good job stopping the run, only allowing 2.4 yards per rush. Georgia will be heading to Atlanta for the second straight year, attempting to defend their SEC title. Clemson and Michigan blew out their opponents, with Clemson scoring a whopping 77 points. You have to feel bad for Louisville who has gotten the pleasure of playing Alabama and Clemson in the same season. Nobody should have to go through that in a regular season. West Virginia marked into Austin a broke Longhorn hearts, going for two with sixteen seconds left, Will Grier ran into the end zone to go up 42-41. Texas had a chance for a Hail Mary but failed, seriously hurting their Big 12 title hopes.

For the game of the weekend, down in Baton Rouge, the atmosphere was electric. With the stadium rocking, LSU's defense made Alabama look normal on the opening drive. Tua took a shot after players were not able to hear the whistle on a false start call that had Crimson Tide fans holding their breath. After the first drive Tua and the offense looked normal. Yes, Tua threw his first interception, but in the big picture of the game it did not matter. Damien Harris had his best game of the year, running through LSU’s defense. Alabama’s defense played phenomenal barely letting LSU have a chance to even score. In what was supposed to be Alabama’s biggest test of the year, the ran right through LSU proving this team may not be beaten by anybody this year.

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The committee came out with new rankings with Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Michigan in the current four team playoff. What kind of matchups would we be looking at if college football expanded to an eight team playoff?

This is how the eight team playoff would look as of November 6, 2018.

Alabama vs Washington State Clemson vs LSU

Notre Dame vs Oklahoma Michigan vs Georgia

Best first round matchup

A Big 10 vs SEC matchup would headline the first round matchups, with Michigan squaring off against Georgia. Georgia have nearly steamrolled through the SEC East, only losing to cross divisional foe LSU. That loss looks worse now as Alabama rolled through Baton Rouge and won by twenty nine, compared to LSU getting thumped by twenty. Georgia’s offense is starting to find their footing with Jake Fromm nearly picking up where he left off last year. The wild card of this would be true freshman dual threat QB Justin Fields. Coming out of high school as the number one recruit in the country, Fields has given Georgia a new style of offense being able to run the ball down hill. Michigan’s counter to that would be their solid defense. Holding Penn State to only 7 points, Michigan’s defense is stepping up big time. While both teams have huge tests coming up with Alabama and Ohio State respectively, we will find out more about both of these teams in the next three weeks.

Prediction if it happened: Michigan 24 Georgia 20

Most exciting possible semi-final matchup

Alabama and Oklahoma would meet in the semi-final with an offensive shootout likely to take place. Offense would not be an issue for either team. Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray are the two favorites to win the Heisman trophy and nobody seems to be stopping them anytime soon. The key factor of the game for both sides, the defense. Oklahoma’s defense is awful. Plain and simple. After proving their dominance against LSU, the explosive Alabama offense would have no problem scoring on nearly every drive. Mack Wilson and company would be the unit that wins the game for Alabama. Stopping Kyler Murray once or twice may be enough to win the football game. The shootout of the century would be too much for Oklahoma and their incapable defense, with Alabama scoring a record amount.

Prediction if it happened: Alabama 66 OU 49

Most exciting possible Championship game

For the third time in four years, Clemson and Alabama could play for the national championship. Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers are familiar with the Tide. Their team in nearly built to beat them, with a defensive line meant to stop the run and an prolific offense lead by Trevor Lawrence. There is only one problem with this, the Alabama offense. The offense goes past Tua and what he is capable of. Bama’s running attack is one of the best in the country with Damien Harris and Josh Jacobs leading the line. Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and Devante Smith are part of the best receiving core in the country. The offensive line is good, but the Clemson defensive line could make Alabama one dimensional. If Alabama cannot run the ball and Clemson brings pressure in obvious passing situations, Clemson can slow down this high powered offense. Tua has shown he is a normal human being when being blitzed and could be the downfall of this team. That being said, Alabama would still win this game to take a two to one lead in this championship matchup series.

Prediction if it happened: Alabama 31 Clemson 24

Dark horse Championship game

Oklahoma getting past Alabama is not the most unreasonable idea that has circulated through college football this year. If it were to happen, most likely considered one of the best upsets to date in the College Football Playoff, Oklahoma would get the right to play in the championship game. On the other side of the bracket, all four teams seem like they could find a way to the championship game. LSU may have proved this weekend they may be the weak link, especially going up against a team like Clemson. Michigan is a team that is on the up and could surprise some people. Having to go through a solid Georgia team and going toe to toe with Clemson, there is no reason they could not make the championship game. Michigan’s offense would do well against Oklahoma with Shea Patterson under center. Then again, Lincoln Riley is one of the best offensive minds in all of football and has Kyler Murray at his disposal. It would become a bit of the shootout, with both defenses making a stop or two towards the end, giving a slight advantage towards Michigan and their better defense.

Prediction if it happened: Michigan 38 Oklahoma 31