by Travis Normand
I stumbled upon a website that is the project of a dedicated Nebraska Cornhusker. There are a lot of things related to the Cornhuskers on this website, but the most interesting part (to me) is the online trophy case.
I highly recommend checking it out: https://www.huskerj.com/TrophyCase.htm
by Travis Normand
January 4, 2021
Notre Dame was unable to win its second grand slam title as the Irish were defeated by Alabama in the January 1, 2021 Rose Bowl game (played in Arlington, Texas).
However, Alabama (Rose), Oklahoma (Cotton), Ohio State (Sugar), and Texas A&M (Orange) all picked up a bowl victory that counts towards a grand slam title (whether it is their first, next, etc.). See the last table in this post for a full list of teams needing only one more win for a grand slam title.
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by Travis Normand
The Texas Aggies travel to Tennessee this weekend where they will play the Tennessee Volunteers for only the fourth (4th) time in program history.
The series between Texas A&M and UT is as follows:
This game against Tennessee on December 19th will be the latest regular season game ever played by Texas A&M.
Before this game, the latest regular season game for the Aggies was on on December 8, 1934 when A&M defeated Michigan State (26-13) in San Antonio, Texas, and then again on December 8, 1944 when A&M defeated Miami (70-14 in Miami.
Further, as far as I know, there are only four college stadiums and/or fields that are named for someone who attended Texas A&M (even if their attendance was only for a couple of days). Those four stadiums / fields are: (1) Kyle Field; (2) Boone Pickens Stadium; (3) Joe Jamail Field (since renamed); and (4) Neyland Stadium. Texas A&M has played and won in three of these stadiums / fields, with the exception being Tennessee’s Neyland stadium.
by Travis Normand
December 9, 2020
I am posting these here in order make them easier to ‘track,’ and to see if any of these change this season.
As of the 2020 college football season, and before the 2020-2021 playoff, the following are still true:
(1) A 2-loss team has never made the college football playoff (and so far, being a Power-5 Conference Champion has not been sufficient to overcome the 2-loss barrier, see 2016 Penn State … at least when there is another team from the same conference with only 1-loss);
Continue readingby Travis Normand
First Published on December 2, 2020
If you follow this site, you have seen my other College Football Playoff related posts before. If not, you can find most of those posts under the “Playoff” category; or you can go to this link (which is my comprehensive and on-going playoff post).
I have decided to start this new post for all of my notes related to the 2020 Playoff. Once the playoff is over on January 11, 2021, I will probably add the more important aspects from this post to the comprehensive post.
For those of you reading this for the first time, this is not an editorial style posting. This is merely my unedited notes from each week of the playoff rankings, which helps me (and others) track what the rankings/committee are doing, and whether they are following any precedent. Enjoy!
Continue readingby Travis Normand
In case you didn’t see the following article posted at ESPN.com, I am reposting it here and highly recommend it.
“‘I don’t wish either of them well’: The demise of the Southwest Conference, 25 years later,” posted December 2, 2020 at ESPN.com, by Sam Khan, Jr. and Dave Wilson.
by Travis Normand
November 29, 2020 (Original Publication Date)
(Updated for editing December 2, 2020; and added introduction on December 4, 2020)
Update again on September 14, 2021: After writing and posting this almost a year ago, I tweeted it to the sports information guys who work in the Longhorn athletic’s department (see below). When their 2021 Football Media guide was released, I checked to see if they made any changes to this historical information and they had not (see the 2021 Guide, Pages 167-176). Oh well, maybe next year?
In any event, scroll down past the following tweets to find the beginning of the original post.
*****
[INTRODUCTION: I went back and re-read parts of this post only to realize that it is not the most “exciting” thing to read. However, it really wasn’t meant to be. Mainly, this post is my research, and proof, of what I would consider a fairly decent sized error in the 2020 Texas Longhorn’s Football Media Guide; but that in and of itself is not necessarily exciting (and I am sure there are some who will disagree as to my characterization of this error). If I had to add some editorial content to prepare the reader for what this is about, and potentially make it a bit more exciting, I would preface this post by saying: “The Longhorns think so highly of their ‘Thanksgiving Day Tradition’ that they felt it important to include a section in their media guide about it; however, it is readily apparent that the Longhorns should do a little more research into their own history before they claim to have a ‘Thanksgiving Day Tradition.'” – See Table 2 below.]
Mistakes happen in college football media guides all the time; after all, no one is perfect and typos are often missed (this blog is no exception). However, there is a fine line between a typo or mistake, and misinformation based on ignorance. Having said that, I recently noticed an interesting section in the 2020 Texas Football Media Guide (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as the “2020 Media Guide”). The section I found, which is discussed below, appears to be more than a simple typo, and is much closer to misinformation caused by the author’s ignorance.
Across the bottom of page 183 of the 2020 Media Guide is a section titled “Thanksgiving Day Tradition.” When I found this section, I began to wonder how long it had been appearing in Longhorn football media guides. After a review of the media guides I had available, it appears as if this section shows up at least as far back as the 2006 Texas Football Media Guide (and every year since then).
In fact, it appears on page 173 of the 2006 Texas Football Spring Guide; page 177 of the 2007 Texas Football Spring Guide; page 165 of the 2007 Texas Football Holiday Bowl Guide; page 187 of the 2008 Texas Football Spring Guide; page 217 of the 2008 Texas Football Fiesta Bowl Guide; page 209 of the 2009 Texas Football Spring Media Guide; page 222 of the 2010 Texas Football BCS National Championship Guide; page 202 of the 2010 Texas Football Spring Media Guide; page 202 of the 2011 Texas Football Spring Media Guide; page 206 of the 2011 Texas Football Holiday Bowl Media Guide; (online PDF) page 178 of 275 of the 2012 Texas Football Media Guide; (online PDF) page 65 of 162 of the 2012 Texas Longhorn Media Guide – Supplement; (online PDF) page 200 of 278 of the 2013 Texas Football Media Guide; page 220 of the 2013 Texas Football Alamo Bowl Guide; page 195 of the 2014 Texas Football Texas Bowl Guide; (online PDF) page 167 of 229 of the 2015 Texas Football Media Guide; (online PDF) page 77 of 89 of the 2016 Texas Football Media Guide; page 189 of the 2017 Texas Football – Texas Bowl Media Guide; page 167 of the 2017 Texas Football Media Guide; page 212 of the 2018 Texas Longhorns Football Media Guide; page 198 of the Texas Football 2019 Sugar Bowl Media Guide; page 162 of the 2019 Texas Football Media Guide; page 193 of the 2019 Texas Bowl Media Guide; and page 183 of the 2020 Texas Football Media Guide.
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Today’s match-up between Clemson and Georgia Tech was the 85th meeting between the two schools (with their first meeting having been in 1898). Clemson won the game today by a score of 73-7, making the date of October 17th a bit of a problem for Georgia Tech.
Today’s game was played on October 17, 2020, and as I already stated, the result was a final score of Clemson 73 – Georgia Tech 7. This is only the second time in 85 games that Clemson has scored more than 70 points against Georgia Tech, with the first time being on October 17, 1903. On that date, Clemson beat Georgia Tech 73-0.
If there is a positive take-away, it is that while Clemson can’t get over the 73-point barrier, at least Georgia Tech has improved from 0 to 7 points.
In any event, Clemson and Georgia Tech have only played twice on October 17th (once in 1903 and again in 2020). Both were Clemson victories and both times Clemson was able to score 70+ points. At no other time, in 83 other games, has Clemson been able to score 70+ points against Georgia Tech; as Clemson is apparently only able to do that when the game is played on October 17th.
For these reasons, my guess is that Georgia Tech will do everything they can to avoid having to play Clemson on October 17th ever again.
I know I would.
Footnote: The head coach at Clemson in 1903 was John Heisman. After the 1903 season, Georgia Tech hired Heisman, making the 1903 season his last at Clemson. Heisman was the head coach of Georgia Tech in 1904. While this is an interesting footnote to the October 17th story, I don’t think history is going to repeat itself in this manner. In other words, I don’t think there is any chance Georgia Tech is able to steal Dabo Swinney away from Clemson at the end of this 2020 season … but I guess we will have to wait and see.
by Travis Normand
In this the 7th season of the College Football Playoff, I am predicting that a team from the Group of Five Conferences (“G5”) will finally be awarded one of the four semifinalists spots. The only question that remains is “which” team will it be?
With only three Power-5 conferences playing this 2020-2021 season (and Notre Dame playing as part of the ACC), the committee can select one SEC team, one ACC team, and one Big 12 team; and they will then still have one spot remaining. This final spot can be given to an at-large Power-5 school or a G5 school.
Considering all that is going on with college football during this COVID-19 season, if the final spot is given to a Power-5 school (thus including every Power-5 conference and one of them getting two bids), you will hear an intensified argument about how the College Football Playoff is actually designed to exclude the G5 schools.
Continue readingby Travis Normand
May 8, 2020
If you don’t listen to the “Solid Verbal,” you really should. It is probably the best college football podcast out there. It started back in 2008 and I have never missed an episode.
During this COVID-19 pandemic, the hosts of the Solid Verbal show (Ty and Dan) have been revisiting great games from the recent past. I am a little behind on the show right now, but so far they have covered the 2005 “Bush Push” game between Notre Dame and USC, and I am currently listening to them discuss the 2007 Fiesta Bowl between Oklahoma and Boise State.
While I encourage you to listen to their recent episode about the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, I can’t help but post about it myself.
I remember the 2007 Fiesta Bowl very well, as it was one of the most exciting games I had ever seen (at the time). In fact, during the 2006 season, I was co-hosting a podcast for TexAgs.com titled the “Fan Show.” My co-hosts (Brandon and Hunter) and I were recording an episode of the “Fan Show” around bowl season, and towards the end of the show we ran through all the bowl games and gave a quick-pick of who we thought would win.
I remember Hunter was leading that segment and he skipped over the Fiesta Bowl. I called him out for skipping it, and he asked me if we really needed to discuss it. I replied that we did because “I am picking Boise State to win that one out-right!” He scoffed at the idea, and like always, we had some friendly back-and-forth about it. However, a few nights later, when Boise State pulled the upset over Oklahoma, I felt pretty good about my upset pick!
I have the audio from that show saved on a hard drive somewhere, and if I ever find it, I will post it here.
In any event, here is the game in its entirety (hosted on YouTube.com):
If you don’t have time for the entire game, here are some highlights from the game:
OnePointSafety 