It Wasn't Me

No more excuses for Michigan. If the Wolverines still can't beat the Buckeyes, fire Jim Harbaugh immediately!

I mean the ACC is a joke anyway, with the exception of Clemson and "Notre Dame" (unofficial, hence the quotes). Georgia Tech should be better though, not this year but in coming years now that Paul Johnson and that stupid triple option are finally out of there.

UCF would be 1 or 2 loss at worst in the Pac-12 tho...

I call it, Cal and TCU basically flushed all their Cheez-It's down the toilet.

Nawwww Cal vs TCU redefined the meaning of Toilet Bowl. One of the worst games of football I have ever seen in my entire life. It wasn't even good defense, it was just absolutely awful offense from both teams. I don't think any game of football will EVER be that bad.

UCF logic: Notre Dame shouldn't be in the playoff because their quarterback sucked against Vandy and Ball State. Also UCF logic: Brandon Wimbush to UCF! Let's go baby! Come lead us to the promised land! Not UCF logic: Wimbush was the QB against Ball State and Vandy.

Yeah, I do too. Ohio State could be very fun to watch or they could have their season go down the crapper depending on who Fields really is. Honestly though I'm just tired of hearing about his time at Georgia since it's basically over, but again I'm sure Clemson and other ACC fans feel the same way about Kelly.

Wisconsin has an argument @Bama Time. Not saying the committee got it wrong, considering the Tide won that year, but I can see why Wisconsin fans would be salty. I was expecting the Badgers to jump you but you jumped them. Ohio State fans are just whiners though.

Wisconsin has a legitimate gripe about 2017. Ohio State doesn't though, chalk it up to JT Barrett's terrible play or Nick Bosa choosing to withdraw or some ####, but not the committee.

2017, an argument could be made for Wisconsin. I'm not trashing the committee here, because Bama won the whole thing, but Badgers fans definitely have a right to wonder why they were left out. Buckeyes fans, on the other hand, need to understand that JT Barrett, not the committee, screwed them last year and the defense screwed them this year, and I think most of them have realized that.

Here's what I have a problem with if you have the 5 conference winners. Washington won the Pac-12 at 9-3, yet Ohio State absolutely stomped a mudhole. Oklahoma, Clemson, Bama, Georgia, and probably Notre Dame would also have dominated the game. The Pac-12 is known to be softer than Charmin, so it's very possible that a Pac-12 champion is an 8-4 team. Where do you draw the line? That's the same thing with people talking about the highest ranked Group of 5 Champion. UCF has been really good the last two years, but suppose there's a G5 conference champion that's ranked #18 or so and has multiple losses. I would not want to watch that game vs a P5 or ND. I personally think the top eight teams getting bids is the way to go, irrespective of conference. You'd probably use four of the New Year's Six, but then the remaining two NY6 and the third tier bowl games will be even less important now. I still think the system will trend towards eight. P.S. Notre Dame has a lot more of an argument than Ohio State does about an 8 team expansion. They ain't makin the playoff as a one loss team because they have no conference championship, and so unless all the 11-1 teams lose on conference championship weekend, the Irish are out. Suppose they lose by 4 to Georgia, and beat everyone else on their schedule next year by at least 20 points each. They're still out, at least in the most likely scenario of Clemson at 13-0, Bama and UGA at either 13-0 or 12-1, Oklahoma at 12-1, and Ohio State or Michigan at 12-1. They may jump a 12-1 Oregon team whose only loss is to The Barn, but that's it, especially after losing 30-3.

If you're a Wisconsin fan I can understand why you would be frustrated with the committee. But if you're an Ohio State fan, you only have a right to be frustrated with JT Barrett (2017) and your defense (2018).

Wisconsin definitely has a right to be mad at the committee about it. But Ohio State and Michigan only have JT Barrett and Jim Harbaugh to be mad at.

Not news... Fields is Ohio State's problem now. Isn't Dwan Mathis supposed to be good?

I think Wisconsin fans have a legitimate gripe about 2017. But Ohio State and Michigan's complaints are their own fault.

Kelly wanted to run a pro-style offense and also wanted to be sure he'd win the starting job. Chad Morris at Arkansas runs the same spread that Dabo runs at Clemson (a lot of RPOs), and we all know Gus would have run Kelly into the ground. I think Mizzou's community also showed him more love than Auburn's did. As far as staying at Clemson, that's not going to help him. Lyn-J is probably going to eat into his carries, and probably all the targets are going to be divided between ETN, Justyn Ross, and Tee Higgins. There just won't be room for him. He wouldn't be getting "meaningful snaps" like some Clemson fans are saying. Last year ETN had 15 carries a game while Feaster had just 6. Even with Kelly gone, he still won't have many carries. If he went to Michigan, he'd be the featured back and he could inflate his stats against softer run defenses (although outside of Clemson and Florida State, I wasn't inspired by anyone's run D last year in the ACC).

I think he wanted weapons around him though... Stanford doesn't have an obvious successor to Bryce Love. He'd get some exposure, although I don't think Shaw is very big on players coming in late. He wants them there early. Michigan is another school I thought of that hasn't been listed. Michigan is losing Karan Higdon and right now the RB room is an absolute mystery due to 2 injuries and someone having academic issues. Plus the Wolverines could surround him with more talent than the Gamecocks. We all know about ESPN's blind love for Michigan, so that will give him a lot of exposure. Then again we all thought Kelly would transfer to Auburn because of the exposure, but he chose Mizzou. A lot of people on the Tigernet forum were talking about how he'd be dishonoring CJ Spiller and the #28 by transferring to SCAR. Plus the exposure is better at Michigan than at South Carolina, and since Michigan doesn't have a true successor to Higdon, Feaster could be that guy for a year. So why risk your Clemson legacy going to your most hated rival, when there are other schools with absolutely no beef with Clemson that have a better situation for you, both in terms of surrounding talent, national exposure, and a very prominent role?

Bama has some decent depth. They're not proven, but Taulia and Mac Jones looked pretty good in spring ball (although Taulia only threw the ball 9 times).

Whoops that wasn't for you that was in extension to my previous comment sorry.

Notre Dame fans are very excited about their defensive end talent and their wide receiver depth. But linebackers are young and inexperienced, so all Georgia has to do is run Swift up the middle or throw a quick slant, exploiting the linebackers and neutralizing the defensive ends. That's why I'm projecting the Dawgs to win by 2 scores.

Georgia goes 11-1 at worst with most likely loss coming to either Notre Dame or Texas A&M, but I favor the Dawgs by 13 against the Irish. Notre Dame doesn't have Manti Teo, Louis Nix, or Prince Shemba like they did in 2012, so I don't know who's going to stop Swift. A&M is a tougher one because Mond had a good year last year and looks really good in spring ball so that offense won't be easy to contain. But both Notre Dame and Texas A&M come to Sanford, which makes it much easier for them. Georgia by 8 against the Aggies and 13 against the Irish. But it's never a good idea to project ANYONE to go 12-0 - the 2014 Ducks couldn't even do it despite the Pac-12 North being softer than Charmin. Georgia will likely lose one, most likely A&M or Notre Dame, but they finish 11-1 at worst IMHO. If they do go 12-0, they should be a lock for the CFP unless Bama beats them by 5+ possessions in the SEC Conference Championship which they won't. I expect that not having Fields constantly nipping at his heels will help Fromm relax early on and starter hotter. I love Kelly B, but Mizzou should be a win for Georgia just based on the overall talent (Don't @ me saying I'm not a real Mizzou fan, because I'm not a Mizzou fan). Dawgs will be hungry, angry, and motivated to beat Florida by 4+ possessions because of how much Dan Mullen has been running his mouth. South Carolina, they're South Carolina. Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and the other 3 out-of-conference ones are wins. Auburn is so volatile already, and they'll be even more volatile with a true freshman at quarterback, which means this could be a loss for Georgia especially considering Kirby's track record against SEC West teams on the road. But overall most likely losses will be Texas A&M, then Notre Dame, then huge dropoff to Auburn, and then huge dropoff to everyone else. 11-1 worst case IMHO. And @..., Fromm struggled in the first half of most games (except Bama when he was on fire the whole game) last year. He needs to play like he did against Bama for UGA to win a NC. If Fromm starts cold like he did in several games last year including LSU and Texas, UGA is going to get burned, badly. He needs to start hot.

Because Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins, Deshaun Watson, Jordan Leggett, Wayne Gallman, Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell, Dexter Lawrence, Deon Cain, Travis ETN, Tee Higgins, Trevor Lawrence, Justyn Ross, Amari Rodgers, and DJ Uiagalelei were all from the state of South Carolina, gotcha.

But also there were reports of him being a terrible teammate so maybe it's better he gone.

And last we checked no one is giving Kirby or the Dawgs a pass for that either.

I think his usage in the SEC Championship game, coming in just to hand the ball off, then the fake punt on 4th and 11 was the nail in the coffin. A lot of it is on him though because he refused to redshirt and thought he could walk right in and take #11's job, but let's not pretend that Chaney used him properly. You could've played him as a true backup, maybe a package here and there, or redshirted him, instead of bringing him in during the actual game to hand the ball off or a QB designed run. Putting him in garbage time instead of trying to do a partial 2 QB system. Still no comparison with Florida though.

Probably gonna go to Georgia. Although I remember watching an Always Irish Notre Dame podcast, and the guy was really mad that Brian Kelly didn't recruit a single player from the state of Florida so I'd wonder what he'd have to say about that.

I was being ultraconservative here. You're probably more correct. Especially because Chaney is out now. He cost you big time in both Bama games, maybe playcalling will be more aggressive now.

This is actually really good news for UCF. They no longer have to prove that they're better than Florida to get recruits from the state. They can just wait for the Gators to keep doing stupid stuff and then steal their recruits.

I'm not even an SEC fan but Dan Mullen please stop talking about Georgia. You've been running your mouth all offseason, and now Florida has had 3 players leave the program without taking a single snap. Dawgs by 25 when they meet.