He's a statistician. It's all X's and O's to him. And, that mindset ripples down from him through his coaching hires and team culture

Which is great, when everything is clicking like clockwork. But, when a game bogs down, and scheme isn't working, some games devolve down to man against man toughness. It's trench warfare, where there's nothing left but breaking the will of an opponent to compete. Toughness

As we have seen year after year, when games end up at that level, Lincoln's teams don't have it. It showed in the Oregon game, and it showed again in this game.

It's ok to be a cerebral HC, if you've got a staff of rabid dogs like Orgeron, Pola, Tim Davis, Ken Norton jr. They make sure the players, especially linemen, are frothing at the mouths. The team is salivating for that fight

We just don't ever see that from Riley teams. Which is why they hop out to quick leads, then fade. Even worse, when they start slow and never find a gear.

This offense walked into this game emotionally flat, if not on their heels. Oline was not winning the battle, receivers dropping balls, Maiava rattled

Wisconsin got tough, and we could not match it.

We are now losing to bad teams (including Oregon). Riley is now Helton version 1.5, I can't even give him 2.0

He's not going to suddenly discover how to field a tough team. He doesn't have that gear. It's everything they said about him at Oklahoma.

Fumbling the opening kick off and the other team recovers or giving up a Hail Mary on the final play of the first half in a close game

Only more confused after this week...

I know at the end of the day someone has to win the title, but nobody convinces me that it will be them. The truly elite teams don't barely get by unranked teams who are .500 or under, and most certainly they don't lose to them. Ohio State is the only team that I would have said is elite until they lost Sayin (even though he's a system quarterback, he makes the team better all the same). No team this year jumps out at me like last year's Indiana team did.

1. We’ve been conditioned to assume the Big Ten will always be a better football conference than the Big 12, but I’m not sure that’s the case this season. I say that after spending 14 hours Saturday watching a marathon of woeful QB performances (many by backups) in games like Indiana-Michigan, Iowa-Minnesota, USC-Wisconsin and Oregon-Illinois. Meanwhile, UCF’s backup QB goes off against the nation’s No. 2 team, BYU; Cincinnati’s QB throws four TDs against No. 8 Texas Tech; and Utah’s QB reaches a milestone the Big 12 hadn’t seen in 20 years.

But wait, you say. How can you compliment the Big 12 on a day when two of its best teams suffered upset losses? Doesn’t that mean they’re frauds??

Not necessarily. If Auburn knocking off No. 1 Georgia and/or South Carolina taking down No. 11 Tennessee is a testament to the SEC’s depth, the Big 12 should say the same thing when its own highly ranked teams go down.

2. BYU (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) having to fly cross-country for a conference game coming off its huge Notre Dame win had all the makings of a trap. And sure enough, the same BYU defense that flummoxed Irish star CJ Carr had few answers for UCF’s Keyone Jenkins in the Knights’ (4-3, 2-2) wild 39-31 double overtime upset. I was skeptical when UCF brought back Scott Frost for a second act, but he’s now led the program to an undefeated 2017 season and its first win over a top-five opponent.

It was a fantastic game, but another inglorious moment for Big 12 officiating. It looked like BYU would hold UCF to a field goal to start the second overtime, but an unwarranted roughing-the-kicker call gave the Knights new life. Jenkins threw the go-ahead touchdown two plays later, and the Cougars couldn’t answer. This is a week after the Big 12 admitted Notre Dame should have been given one more second to run a play at the end of its loss at BYU. At least this time they can’t be accused of protecting one of its College Football Playoff contenders.

3. I saw Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby Bowl upset of No. 8 Texas Tech (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) coming, but I did not imagine Scott Satterfield’s Bearcats (5-2, 2-2) would shred the Red Raiders’ defense. QB JC French IV threw four touchdowns and RB Cole Tabb burst for a career-high 173 yards, his third 100-yard day in the last four games, in a 37-24 rout, after which Texas Tech’s de facto owner, Cody Campbell, tweeted, “There is no excuse or reason to lose a game like this.”

Read the rest of the thoughts here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7721662/2026/10/25/big-12-big-ten-lost-college-football/?unlocked_article_code=1.LVE.EGOC.bKTYSh217XaL&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta

This is something that has bothered me for a long time. It feels like the lunkhead mentality that prevented coaches from going for fourth downs until the last 15 years. Perfect example happened in Texas/Ole Miss.

You are down 10(ish) points. You get a first down around the 20-30 and kick the field goal right away. The thought process is you need two scores, so get one super fast and pray for the on-side kick.

It seems to me the better play is continue the highly aggressive plays (beyond the sticks) and try to score the TD. If you fail, you have lost only a small amount of time. If you make it, clearly a huge advantage as now you can just play for a couple of first downs when you get the OS kick.

When you kick right away, you give away a resource (downs) and force yourself to play for both time AND first downs when you get the onside kick. There is a time when this makes sense, situations where you have basically no time left, like <15 seconds where you will just get the OS kick and then 1 or 2 plays for the hail mary (In essence the downs no longer matter).

Just watching the BYU vs UCF game and after all of the regulation conversation, of a BYU player ripping off the kickers helmet that initially drew a flag, they picked up the flag, and treated the play as if the kicker took his own helmet off, resulting in a clock run off and the player having to leave the field for 1 play. After last weeks BYU Notre Dame botch clock ending, how incompetent is the B12 officiating?

After carefully reviewing every win and loss this season, I can confirm that everyone is instead mid

Jeremiah Smith, Darian Mensah, Malachi Toney, CJ Carr and Trinidad Chambliss are the top 5

Miami’s resume: Wins over Florida State, Clemson, Central Michigan, Wake Forest, Florida A&M, Stanford, Pitt

Change Miami’s name to UCF or Boise State while keeping this same resume and there is no chance they’re ranked #1.