0 comments by Matt Zemek on 2/9/2016
It’s true that in a 30-game regular season, single nights or weekend afternoons don’t fully determine postseason destinations. When experts say that “Game X is an elimination game” or “Game Y is a must-win,” it’s true that the weight of a season and all its hopes fall upon that one contest. However, such a perception […]
0 comments by Allen Kenney on 1/6/2016
Like everything else in college football, a sport driven as much by eye tests and branding as on-field results, bowl season is something of an inkblot for fans, pundits and P.R. flacks. Clearly, the losers of the games were all overrated. Unless they didn’t care about the game. Or maybe the games just don’t mean […]
ATLANTA, GA – DECEMBER 31: Chance Allen #21 of the Houston Cougars scores a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Florida State Seminoles during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome on December 31, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/31/2015
You know that many members of the national college football press corps will rip the Florida State Seminoles for losing to the Houston Cougars in the 2015 Peach Bowl on Thursday afternoon in Atlanta. Florida State made itself a target by winning (and because of Jameis Winston, but mostly by winning). When teams become targets, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/28/2015
As the North Carolina Tar Heels and Baylor Bears prepare to meet in the Russell Athletic Bowl — one of the more attractive matchups of the bowl season — it’s worth recalling a time when both schools stood tall. * The previous two seasons, Baylor won the Big 12 Conference, but North Carolina had not […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/23/2015
Monday night, I was supposed to appear on a podcast produced by the All Sports Discussion website. The co-founders, whom you can find
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/17/2015
Let’s set the buffet table, shall we? In a year when the NFL has never been less enjoyable to watch (that’s not fact, but it’s a widely-shared opinion), consider making this upcoming Saturday your big sports day and then using your Sunday as the errand day when you do all the Christmas shopping and take […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/9/2015
Plenty of college football writers — including some at this very site — don’t care much for conference strength debates. I actually don’t mind them at all. This is bread-and-butter water-cooler sports talk. While that kind of conversation can easily turn into a junk-food debate with lots of unsubstantiated and highly selective knee-jerk comments, it’s […]
CLEMSON, SC – OCTOBER 3: Head Coach Dabo Swinney of the Cemson Tigers celebrates after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 24-22 at Clemson Memorial Stadium on October 3, 2015 in Clemson, South Carolina. (Photo by Tyler Smith/Getty Images)
0 comments by Bart D on 12/8/2015
Often when you’re doing either some intentional or non-intentional people watchin’, you come across two people and just turn to the person with you and say, “you know, that couple just looks like they go together.” Other times, you say, “that guy and gal just don’t seem to fit.” There’s no real nuance to it […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/7/2015
When conference partisans say their league has X amount of bowl games — as though that’s something to trumpet from the highest scenic overlook, rolling into the valley — I always like to do something in response at this time of year. The bowl lineup is set. All the bowl teams — 80 of them, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 12/4/2015
Saturday night in Charlotte, the Clemson Tigers and the North Carolina Tar Heels will play one of the two biggest games in the history of their ACC series. A thorough survey of the history of Tigers-Heels reveals only one other mountaintop moment the two schools shared on the gridiron. That it occurred 34 years ago […]
0 comments by Kevin Causey on 11/23/2015
An upset in the Maui Invitational tonight as Wake Forest took down #13 Indiana with this shot…. Bryant Crawford welcome to the
0 comments by Mike Abelson on 11/21/2015
Dreams are fickle. The controlled idealism constructed by the mind can be beautiful in its eloquence and fulfilling in its positivity. Yet, dreams always end the same way. You wake up and they fall away into the ether, blown to dust by the reality of current existence, which is what Virginia Tech learned all too […]
0 comments by Kevin Causey on 11/19/2015
This evening, the Florida State football twitter account put up a teaser for the black uniforms they will be wearing this weekend…. pic.twitter.com/lFBFw6VImc — FSU Football (@FSU_Football)
Sep 26, 2015; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils running back Shaquille Powell (28) breaks away from the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defense and heads to the end zone for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of their game at Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/18/2015
We’re nearing the end of the college football regular season. Accordingly, we’re in a much better position to evaluate teams. More precisely, we’re in a better position to not merely figure out where things went right or wrong, but why teams followed a given path. Two of the foremost examples from the Atlantic Coast Conference […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/16/2015
“It’s not a spaceship. It’s a time machine.” Don Draper’s description of “The Carousel” (not the wheel) in the Mad Men season one finale is not just the heart of one of the great moments and speeches in the history of television. It is an accurate depiction of how the college football coaching carousel will enable […]
