Five Things I Loved

1. Georgia at Notre Dame. Regardless of the outcome, this was awesome. Once I heard a few months ago that masses of Georgia fans were planning to travel north, I knew this would be fun. When I saw UGA fans chanting “UGA” at Wrigley Field on Friday night, I start to get excited. These kind of matchups (and participating fanbases) is what college football is all about!

Oh yeah… Terry Godwin’s TD catch was incredible! Catch of the year potential.

2. Najee Harris.

This guy looks like Leonard Fournette’s clone. He’s huge and fast. Too bad he has 12 other five-star running backs on his team. It’d be fun to watch him carry a full load.

3. Vandy! I get I could probably start for Alabama A&M, but when Vandy is beating anyone 42-0, it’s a good thing, k?

Kudos to Derek Mason for having his team ready to roll in the first two weeks of the year.

4. How about them Gamecocks? Missouri isn’t a powerhouse, but a 31-13 road win in the SEC is an impressive outing. Let’s not forget that the Vegas line at kickoff was -3 in favor of Missouri.

South Carolina looks to be a real contender in the SEC East.

5. Is the East on the rise? South Carolina looks good. Georgia got the biggest win in the east since… I’m not sure? Notre Dame isn’t a national championship team, but traveling to South Bend and getting that win is huge.

Don’t look now, but the East might be on the rebound.

Five Things I Hated

1. Vandy’s home crowd. I get that they played Alabama A&M, but good grief that crowd was horrendous. It’s not like they’re trying to fill a 75,000 seat stadium. It’s a capacity of 40,000!

I think the solution is for Vanderbilt to schedule the hardest schedule in the country. Schedule zero cupcakes. What if Vandy played 8 conference games, then scheduled 4 good non-conference games? Something like Stanford, Nebraska, North Carolina and Texas. I get that this would put bowl eligibility at risk, but is that really the goal here?

2. The TV Scheduling. Because the powers-that-be decided to put a bunch of awesome games on at once in the evening (Auburn vs. Clemson, South Carolina vs. Missouri, Ohio State vs. Oklahoma, Georgia vs. Notre Dame, etc.), the noon slate was horrendous. I was forced to watch four quarters of Kentucky struggling against a directional Kentucky school. As bad as that sounds, I assure you that it was even worse that you think.

3. What a bad outing for Arkansas. This game doesn’t make or break the season, but looking this poor at home on what could have been a nice boost to 2017 momentum, it’s just a bad look.

Bret Bielema is the Jim McElwain of the SEC West.

4. Auburn’s protection. I know Clemson’s defensive line is loaded, but my goodness, can we make some adjustments or find a way to give Stidham some time?

For those of us who think Stidham is actually a good quarterback, it was a tough watch. Even when he had a second to breathe, he was so rattled that it rarely mattered. #HonkIfYouSackedJarrettStidham

5. Kevin Sumlin haters. Look, I can be as critical as anyone, and I definitely understand if Sumlin gets fired this season… but fans writing him racist letters is about as bad as it gets. I wish that Texas A&M booster that loves to write Facebook posts complaining about losing to UCLA would write a Facebook post about how idiotic some of his fans are. Frankly, I’m rooting for Sumlin simply because some idiot sent him and his family that letter.

I’m glad Sumlin addressed it head on after Saturday’s game.

On a similar note, is Nicholls getting into the league during the next round of conference realignment?