Andy Staples of SI wrote an article exploring the road that remains for the 16 undefeated teams in college football. As he notes, that's an increase over 10 undefeated teams at this same juncture a year ago.
Your humble correspondent is bullish on Clemson's ability to get through unscathed, provided it avoids key injuries.
College football is crazy, and that needs to be a disclaimer anytime you're projecting anything. But it's safe to say the schedule has broken seriously in Clemson's favor with a number of teams not being as good as projected.
Here's Staples' take on 5-0 Clemson:
The Tigers rolled past Georgia Tech 43–24 on Saturday. Now they enter a three-week stretch of playing teams they should beat before hosting Florida State on Nov. 7.
Potential first loss: Of all these teams, the Tigers may have the best potential to stay undefeated. Their schedule is kinder than others, and the out-of-conference game that gave them fits from 2009-13 (South Carolina) looks quite manageable this fall. Clemson just has to beat Florida State. The Tigers haven't done that since '11, but they should be favored this time around.
And Florida State:
Sophomore tailback Dalvin Cook, tweaked hamstring and all, rushed for 222 yards to carry the Seminoles to a 29–24 win over Miami on Saturday. If there comes a time that injury keeps Cook from playing, forget the next paragraph and assume every remaining game is a pick 'em.
Potential first loss: Louisville might be 2–3, but the Cardinals only allow 4.8 yards a play, and their offense looked a little more coherent in a 20–13 win at NC State on Oct. 3. Louisville had a bye week to prepare for Saturday's visit to Doak Campbell Stadium, and Florida State is coming off a tough game against Miami. If the Seminoles beat the Cardinals, they should be able to get to the unofficial ACC Atlantic Division title game at Clemson (Nov. 7) undefeated. They'll need to be better than they have been to leave Death Valley with a victory. That's entirely possible given that most of Florida State's starters were inexperienced coming into the season and are learning as they go. If they do win that one, a visit to Florida on Nov. 28 that looked like a sure win in the preseason now looks considerably more challenging than originally expected.
Agree with Staples: This is a very dangerous game for the Seminoles against Louisville.
A few Thursday links:
-- Stewie Mandel says not everything on Steve Spurrier's resume is worth crowing about.
I've been struggling since Monday with what exactly to say about Spurrier that's both respectful of his distinguished career but honest in my feelings. There's no debating his Florida legacy. The guy won four straight SEC titles, which is absolutely insane. To put that in perspective, Nick Saban, the current gold standard, has five total (one fewer than Spurrier) but has never won two in a row. Along the way, Spurrier revolutionized the modern passing game, infused the sport full of color and galvanized rivalries with Florida State and Tennessee. As someone who first caught the college football bug in the '90s, he'll forever be part of my formative memories of the sport.
The South Carolina part is trickier. While he deserves ample credit for orchestrating the Gamecocks' unprecedented success from 2011-13, I'm not sure his larger tenure merits quite the feting he's receiving. His crowning accomplishment was winning a couple of Citrus Bowls (technically Capital One Bowls), the same game he mocked while at Florida. He went a modest 44-40 in the SEC. By comparison, Georgia's Mark Richt — widely viewed as an underachiever — is 80-36. If that seems like an unfair comparison because of Georgia's historical advantages, how about this one? Art Briles has won two conference titles at Baylor — two more than Spurrier at South Carolina.
As for the way he left ... let's put it this way. If Oregon coach Mark Helfrich decided today that he's not the right guy to rescue this year's floundering Ducks, that the players need to hear from a fresh voice, so there's no point delaying the inevitable, he's going to go ahead and resign immediately ... he would get crushed and be labeled a quitter. But because Spurrier is a Hall of Fame coach with a legion of admirers among my media colleagues, he seems to be getting a pass.
-- David Teel of the Newport News paper reminisces about Spurrier battling with George Welsh.
Their teams met Sept. 23 in Charlottesville, and the Cavaliers scored touchdowns on seven consecutive possessions en route to a 49-28 victory, the most points Virginia had scored in an ACC game since 1968.
The victory was the Cavaliers’ third straight since an opening loss to Notre Dame. The loss dropped the Blue Devils to 1-3, with a home game against seventh-ranked and reigning league champion Clemson on the horizon.
“Our chances of beating Clemson,” Spurrier said that afternoon at Scott Stadium, “are about one in a million.”
One week later, I sat in the press box at Duke and watched fans dismantle the goal posts after the Blue Devils’ 21-17 conquest of Clemson, their first over a ranked opponent in 18 years.
The Tigers rebounded the following week to defeat Virginia in Death Valley, the Cavaliers’ 29th loss in as many games against Clemson.
And this:
The conference had no formal tiebreaker, but based on the head-to-head result, the Cavaliers deserved, and received, the Citrus Bowl bid due the ACC champion. Spurrier offered a different take.
“I’ve always felt that to be the true champion, you’re supposed to beat the guy who was champion before,” he said. “We’re the ones who beat Clemson. ... Of course, as we all know, Virginia hasn’t beaten Clemson in the history of the school, and I don’t know if they ever will. If a guy wants to beat Mike Tyson, he’s got to beat Mike Tyson. He can’t beat Bonecrusher Smith and be the champ.”
’Twas preposterous logic, and Spurrier knew it. But he was defending his team, not to mention razzing Virginia about the Clemson curse.
Wow. Classic.
Rarely one to take the bait, Welsh couldn’t help himself this time. And as Hoosfootball.com chronicles, Welsh countered memorably:
“One thing I could never understand about Steve Spurrier, and you can quote me, we scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions in that game. And ... it could’ve been worse. And then he said, ‘Well, we should have been champions, because we beat the kings.’ They beat Clemson, and we didn’t. I’ll tell you what. I might have been able to score 70 that night if I wanted to.”
Virginia’s players even jumped into the fray.
“That's Spurrier’s logic for you, which may be a contrast in terms. It’s an oxymoron,” guard Roy Brown said. “We killed them. That’s all we have to say.”
Great stuff.
-- In Athens, Jawja's tight ends are on pace for their fewest catches of the Mark Richt era.
Blazevich's slip in production isn’t pronounced. He has only five catches this year compared to nine through six games last season. Add in Jay Rome and Jackson Harris, and the tight end position has only 11 catches this season.
Like Blazevich’s numbers, there isn’t a notable dropoff from last season — where the tight ends had 16 catches through the first six games. But the tight ends this year are on pace for the fewest catches in the Mark Richt era. Assuming the Bulldogs make a bowl game and continue on their current rate, the position will finish with 23 catches and 312 yards over the course of 13 games.
In 2007, the tight ends finished with 24 catches and 307 yards as well as three touchdowns. The current crop of tight ends have zero this season.
Richt got a little testy earlier this week when the dip in production at the position was brought up.
“The reality is we have progression reads and we are gonna throw it to this guy if he is open and if not we will throw it to that guy,” Richt said. “And sometimes the tight end is open we throw it to him and sometimes he doesn’t.”
-- Another Gator arrested.
The Gators announced his suspension on Twitter, and coach Jim McElwain addressed it on the Southeastern Conference coaches call.
"He's no longer with the football team," McElwain said. "He's suspended indefinitely for obviously a choice. It's his choice not to be with us. I'm sure you'll read about it soon enough. It's one of those things that we don't obviously condone. Like I said, it was his choice."
Alachua County court records list one charge of aggravated battery (second-degree felony), one charge of firing a weapon into a vehicle or building (third-degree felony) and two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill (third-degree felony).
-- Scary stuff here about former Texas A&M receiver Thomas Johnson.
Johnson, a former top recruit who helped lead the Aggies past No. 1-ranked Alabama in 2012, disappeared from the team two days after the game. He was found days later near his former Dallas high school, but few details were ever provided by friends, family or Texas A&M about what had happened. On Monday, Johnson, 21, made national news again after police said he repeatedly attacked a jogger with a machete or long knife, killing him on a popular Dallas running trail.
According to a police affidavit, Johnson spoke with a responding officer after Monday's incident and twice said, "I just committed capital murder." According to The Associated Press, Johnson, when the officer asked him to explain, said only, "It's like when you don't wake up." The victim was apparently picked at random.
According to the Nov. 13, 2012, police report concerning Johnson's disappearance from the team, assistant coach David Beaty contacted campus police to tell them the freshman Johnson was missing from class and practice and that his teammates had been concerned because Johnson had acted strangely over several months.
Beaty told officers that Johnson had texted a teammate, who the report refers to as Jordan Richards, a day earlier and "told him that he was Jesus and he was headed west." (While Texas A&M had no one with that name on its roster in 2012, linebacker Jordan Richmond was a freshman.)
-- Finally, and by request, here's a number from Charleston band Susto:
LW
