College Football Week 4 Recap

Game of the Week: Mississippi State-34, LSU-29

            Despite the score not being indicative as to how complete of a win this was for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, this was the most intriguing game this weekend. I had text messages all last night from friends asking “Is Mississippi State this good?” and “Is this for real?” It was quite the statement game from the Bulldogs, going into LSU, at night, and controlling the game from start to end. Quarterback Dat Prescott was the headliner, throwing for 268 yards, running for 105, and contributing 3 touchdowns. But the most impressive feature of the Mississippi State attack was their overall running game. Junior, Josh Robinson ran for 197 yards on just 16 carries, right through the vaunted LSU front seven. SEC defenses will need to be able to figure out how to stop this rushing attack, because if Auburn proved anything last year, no matter if your helmet is crimson red, yellow, white, or a dirty brown, if you have an able quarterback who makes few mistakes, and a dominating run game, you can win the SEC.

Player of the Week: Blake Sims, QB, Alabama (23-33, 445 yards, 4 touchdowns)

            With apologizes the to best quarterback in college football, Marcus Mariota’s 5 touchdown performance against Washington State did not make the nod for the player of the week. He is still the best quarterback in college football though. Someone you will most likely not mistake as the best in the sport is Blake Sims, and in the beginning of the season, you may not have even considered Sims the best on his team. But Saturday’s performance has cemented Sims as the full-time starter and Florida State transfer; Jacob Coker looks to be riding the pine all year long. While Sims can thank colossal break downs in the Florida secondary for his 445 yards through the air, Sims is performing like every other quarterback in Nick Saban’s tenure at Alabama. Get the ball to playmakers, and make few to no mistakes. Sims may not win a Heisman anytime soon, but he is certainly good enough to bring Alabama to the playoff.

Disappointment of the Week: Missouri

            Can’t play in the SEC, be a ranked team, and lose to Indiana, at home. Just can’t do it. And if you do…then you are the disappointment of the week.

Game to Watch: No. 16 Stanford @ Washington, 4:15 PM FOX

            Washington is off to a 4-0 start, and if they are going to prove in year one of Chris Peterson’s tenure that they are for real, they need to deal Stanford their second loss of the season. While everyone raves about the competitiveness of the SEC West, the PAC-12 North can provide the same kind of thrilling games, with very talented players and coaches. The winner of this game will have to duke it out with Oregon to decide the winner of the division. This may not technically be a playoff game, but it is going to feel exactly like one.

*New* Coach On the Hottest Seat: Brady Hoke, Michigan

            I am adding this as a new segment to the blog, One of the biggest reasons why is because of the man who wins the award for this week. Brady Hoke needs to be fired as fast as humanly possible. TMZ needs to begin following him around on a 24/7 basis and hopefully find some footage of Hoke accosting someone at Dunkin Donuts for screwing up his order. Just to speed things up. Listen, is there anything wrong with losing to Notre Dame this season? Of course not. Is there anything wrong with losing to Utah? Nope, even that is understandable. But losing to both in the first three games of the season, while the team’s win total has dropped year after year since you started? I’ll call U-Haul and rent Brady Hoke a truck. Michigan fans I’m sure are more than willing to pay for the gas.

*New* Playoff Prediction: 1. Florida State 2. Alabama 3. Oregon 4. Georgia

            Continuing with my innovative ways, I have decided to also add a “Playoff Prediction” section to the blog. But the way this will work is that I will actually make a prediction, not just agree with the rankings for the week. The first three picks although, are in lock step with any ranking system you will see. But instead of Oklahoma taking the fourth spot, the Georgia Bulldogs will round out the final four.

            Georgia gets the nod, despite the one loss, because they have been a more complete team and has played worthy enough competition to warrant the fourth spot. Oklahoma did escape a difficult trap game in West Virginia but they will need go undefeated in order to make the final four, and I do not see them as an undefeated team. Boomer Sooner is due for at least one upset this year, and that game will cost them, and the Big 12 dearly. HINT: Big 12 needs a conference title game!

2015 NFL Mock Draft

Pick	Team	Player	Position	College
1	Oakland	Andrus Peat	OT	Stanford
2	Jacksonville	Randy Gregory	DE/OLB	Nebraska
3	New York G	Leonard Williams	DE	USC
4	Tampa Bay	Marcus Mariota	QB	Oregon
5	St. Louis	Brett Hundley	QB	UCLA
6	Kansas City	Amari Cooper	WR	Alabama
7	Cleveland	Shilique Calhoun	DE/OLB	Michigan State
8	Tennessee	Jameis Winston	QB	Florida State
9	Dallas	Landon Collins	S	Alabama
10	Houston	P.J. Williams	CB	Florida State
11	Miami	Melvin Gordon	RB	Wisconsin
12	Minnesota	Vic Beasley	DE/OLB	Clemson