Five College Football Games We Wish Would Happen
Kudos to college football coaches everywhere for coordinating a series of meaningful non-conference games. Normally, powerhouses such as Alabama or Baylor schedule cupcakes before engaging in all-out war against formidable conference foes. Actually, that’s disrespectful to cupcakes because they’re mighty popular. Let’s call these opponents something nobody likes — cronuts.
Games against cronuts are decided before kickoff. Imagine Tennessee Tech strolling into Neyland Stadium later this season. Those poor souls contain nary a single ounce of hope in their hearts. Defeat is iminent.
But the upcoming slate of non-conference games reveals coaches are finally beginning to wake up and pose legitimate challenges to their respective programs. Oklahoma plays Houston and Ohio State. Ole Miss plays Florida State at the Orange Bowl. Alabama plays USC in Jerry World. Clemson plays Auburn in what will amount to a severe case of cannibalism.
Hopefully, for the sake of the fans, the trend of dream match-ups across conferences continues. If so, here are five match-ups that must be scheduled ASAP.
Michigan vs Tennessee
Nothing implies immediate action more than Twitter beef. Although, the beef — if there is any — between Michigan’s John Harbaugh and Tennessee’s Butch Jones isn’t a Drake vs Meek Mill situation where one career is trashed. This appears more like Jay Z and Nas’ beef in the early 2000’s. Neither career was damaged, but there was a clear winner. Harbaugh and Jones are rapidly climbing the college football coaching power index. The result of this hypothetical match-up wouldn’t change that.
The location is irrelevant, as both teams play in front of enormous crowds. Michigan’s stadium holds the highest attendance in all of college football, while Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium sits at №4. Sealing the deal are the parallels, such as the pageantry, traditions, iconic fight songs and two programs on meteoric rises after periods of decline.
If you’re into football that’s poetic and graceful, close your eyes. Harbaugh’s smash-mouth attitude trickles through the fiber of every one of his players, while the Vols focus primarily pounding the rock. By the time the final whistle blows, all that will remain are bruised limbs and blood-stained jerseys.
Alabama vs Florida State
The Crimson Tide are a dynasty that allegedly ended last season. There’s only one lesson in college football that matters: Never doubt the Sith Lord himself Nick Saban. But over in Tallahassee resides head coach Jimbo Fisher, who doesn’t receive nearly enough credit for the job he’s done at Florida State. Under Fisher’s reign, the Seminoles are 68–14 (40–8 in the ACC), won the final BCS National Championship in 2014, appeared in the first-ever College Football Playoff the following season and are 4–2 overall in bowl games. Fisher is also the nation’s most consistent recruiter not named Saban. Last year was a rebuilding year for Florida State and they still finished 10–3.
A match-up between Alabama and the Seminoles would essentially be a passing of the torch. Maybe the dynasty in Tuscaloosa continues for one more season, but eventually, Florida State will become college football’s next dynasty. Every starter returns on offense and the Noles arguably possess the nation’s top two players in running back Dalvin Cook and Renaissance-defender Derwin James.
No disrespect to Roll Tide and close-nit cousins, but with the SEC’s empire beginning to fall before our very eyes, it’s only a matter of time before a program swoops in and snatches the crown. Give me an elite coach guiding an elite program in one of the nation’s three elite hotbeds for high school football talent. Fisher and Florida State check all the boxes.
LSU vs Stanford
LSU and Stanford rest on opposite ends of the academic spectrum. In Baton Rouge, the acceptance rate is 77 percent, with ACT composite scores of 22 and SAT composite scores of 1030 as the threshold of acceptance. Meanwhile in Palo Alto, the acceptance rate is microscopic in comparison at 4.7 percent. The average student holds an ACT score of 33 and SAT score of 1520!
On the gridiron, the match-up evens out significantly and dwindles down to a pair of running backs: Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffery. Opinions aside, the consensus pick for the nation’s top two running backs reside in Baton Rouge and Palo Alto. Fournette’s ability to elude and truck defenders makes him the more prototypical NFL running back. Meanwhile, McCaffery is a hybrid back that can do a little bit of everything, as evident by his record-shattering 2015 season. He and New England’s system is a match made in heaven.
Both LSU and Stanford carry shaky quarterback situations, meaning neither team throws the ball often. And if they do, it’ll probably be a swing pass. From an athletic standpoint, the Tigers hold the advantage, but when the dust settles after each team runs their superstar tailbacks at least 40 times, all that matters is which back made more standout plays.
Baylor vs Clemson
Turmoil aside, this match-up is a shootout, no questions asked. Clemson’s offense is as stacked as any, while Baylor’s system allows any players plugged in to flourish. Both programs have experienced exceptional quarterback play over the years — we’ll get to them in a second — but what’s lost amidst the aerial assaults are the productive ground games both teams possess. The Tigers’ Wayne Gallman rushed for 1,514 yards on 5.8 YPC last season. In Waco, Shock Linwood gained 1,329 yards on the ground while averaging 6.8 YPC.
But who’re we kidding, this match-up is all about the arms of Deshaun Watson and Seth Russell. Watson enters 2016 as the odds-on-favorite to win the Heisman after scoring 47 total touchdowns last season. Before a neck injury sidelined him late in the season, Russell made his own Heisman case, throwing 29 touchdown passes along with six rushing touchdowns.
With all the toys both signal callers have to play with, the respective defenses might as well not even show up. The Bears are never to be confused with an SEC defense, while the Tigers return only four starters from a defense that allowed Syracuse to put up 27 points and South Carolina to score 32. If this game were played in treehouse, a sign — written in crayon, of course — would read “No Defenses Allowed!”
Houston vs Ohio State
Houston’s Tom Herman wasted no time establishing himself as the nation’s most desirable coach outside of the Power Five Conferences last season. Under Herman’s guidance, the Cougars finished 13–1, capped off with an impressive 38–28 victory over Florida State in the Peach Bowl. Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer made a name for himself in similar fashion, coaching Bowling Green and Utah — a member of the Mountain West at the time — to a combined 39–8 record over a four-year stretch. Meyer’s last season in Utah was his most successful, steering the Utes to an unblemished 13–0 record in 2004.
Now in Columbus after winning a pair of National Championships in Gainesville, Meyer retains only six starters from last year’s squad, but similar to Alabama, Ohio State doesn’t lose sleep at night over lost talent. Houston returns seven starters from last season’s tenth-highest scoring offense, including dual-threat quarterback Greg Ward Jr. The Buckeyes have a dual-threat quarterback of their own in J.T. Barrett, who scored 22 total touchdowns last season despite engaging in a game of quarterback musical chairs. Ward Jr. was even more impressive, scoring a total of 38 touchdowns.
It’ll be interesting to track Herman’s career. By all accounts, he appears to have the coaching skill to become the next Urban Meyer. He’s already showing a willingness to challenge his team, as evident by Week 1’s highly anticipated match-up against Oklahoma.
