0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/4/2015
The TCU Horned Frogs play a numbers game this Saturday against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Actually, they’re playing more than one numbers game. 11-on-11 is one. 1-on-1 on the perimeter is another. TCU’s offense will try to get the best positional matchups it can find against Oklahoma State’s secondary, which certainly felt under siege last weekend […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
It is true that Everett Golson might not start (or maybe even play in) Florida State’s huge game this Saturday at Clemson. The Seminoles and head coach Jimbo Fisher are keeping their cards close to the vest, as they should. There’s no real need to announce to the world which man will start against the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Stealing signs — the expression conveys the act of theft, which therefore makes it seem entirely inappropriate on the surface. Yet, we all know that stealing signs is a part of sports. It shouldn’t ever be a point of discussion or the source of investigative activity, right? Not according to Washington State coach Mike Leach […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/3/2015
Given that Cam Newton just played a Monday Night Football game, let’s recall his most significant Monday game to date: the 2011 BCS National Championship Game between Oregon and Auburn. Those two programs and their head coaches have traced similar (though not identical) paths. They have much to prove in November, and regardless of how […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/2/2015
Replay review, in all sports but especially football, is beset by problems. No one denies this. Regardless of the sport, our various professional leagues and collegiate conferences can’t seem to agree on what the rules are; what constitutes a given play or act; and how to arrive at consistent interpretations of often vague and contradictory rulebooks. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
In a season marked by an unusual degree of coaching turnover, a third retirement hit the news wires on Sunday, as Frank Beamer announced that he would step down at Virginia Tech when this 2015 campaign ends. Beamer joins Steve Spurrier and George O’Leary as a retiree after many decades in college football’s arena of […]
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The story of the Miami-Duke kickoff return continued on Sunday. The ACC released a statement detailing the many errors made by the officiating crew and the replay booth. The league also handed down a brief suspension of the crews, but did not fire them. Late Saturday night, we showed you the visuals of the play […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/1/2015
In the state of Texas, the coaching dramas surrounding Charlie Strong of Texas and Kliff Kingsbury of Texas Tech are simultaneously very similar and very different. These two stories, in the cities of Austin and Lubbock, affect a pair of schools with noticeably different national profiles and levels of resources. Yet, they boil down to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Nebraska. The name speaks to continuity and consistent success in college football. What’s about to be said does not promote stability, and so in that vein, this commentary contains a richly ironic center. However, let us establish up front that this unstable period in Nebraska football history was unleashed by a quick-trigger reaction from a […]
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Before Saturday night’s game between his Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Michigan Wolverines, Tracy Claeys spoke movingly to his team. He spoke about the people who wear the Minnesota uniform, who owe a debt to former coach Jerry Kill for improving the Golden Gopher program and giving a lot of men — 20 years old […]
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This is a first look at the Miami kickoff return against Duke. It will not be the last. On Monday, you can expect a series of recommendations in terms of rules and policies for college football to adopt. In this immediate look at a remarkable play — and a remarkable failure of replay review — […]
during the game at EverBank Field on October 31, 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida.
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 10/31/2015
The story of the 2015 edition of the Georgia-Florida rivalry, “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” is a complicated one beneath the surface. On the playing surface in Jacksonville — all 120 yards long and 53 yards wide — it wasn’t complicated at all. What you saw (if you bothered to watch this game, of […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 10/30/2015
In the week eight statistical review of the 20 most notable games on the college football slate, we unearthed a special box score. Call it “the fully loaded hot dog” box score, the “super-size combo meal” box score, the “supreme pizza” box score, or whatever other name you prefer. This is a box score in […]
How Mark Richt fills the vacancy on his staff at the offensive coordinator position carries a lot of weight for the remainder of his tenure in Athens (however long that tenure will be).
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 10/29/2015
What, pray tell, is “The Mark Richt Contradiction?” It lies at the heart of the latest renewal of The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party… and it leads Georgia Bulldog fans to drink heavily. * Here’s a larger scenario involving two different programs: Program A watches an iconic coach (who just retired earlier this season after […]
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With another relatively thin schedule this week, it is once again difficult to adhere to the idea that time slots need to be differentiated. In November, you’ll see tons of examples in which games should possess more staggered start times, but on Halloween, few scheduled kickoffs should scare you or fill you with demon rage. […]
