We're another day closer to the biggest game of the season against... Indiana. 2020 is just a gigantic Twilight Zone episode.
Word of the Day: Idiosyncrasy.
SECRET WEAPON, ENGAGED. The bad news is, the NCAA extended its recruiting dead period to April, meaning that it'll be a full calendar year since schools will have been allowed to contact recruiting, and that many players are going to have to make their college decisions without ever even stepping foot on campus.
That objectively sucks, but there was some good news tucked into the decision as well: Urban Meyer can officially get back on the recruiting trail, should the Buckeyes decide to employ his services.
Members also voted to permit additional flexibility in virtual recruiting in football by allowing all coaches, full-time school staff members and current students to conduct recruiting calls (telephone calls and video calls) without a countable coach being present. This flexibility, proposed by the Football Oversight Committee, includes volunteer coaches in the Football Championship Subdivision. The Council plans to address similar flexibility for other sports at its December meeting.
Allowing Meyer to have a hand in recruiting even though he's retired as a coach seems like a cheat code, but I ain't above it. All is fair in love and recruiting.
YOU SCARED? Alabama's the top-ranked team in college football these days, but when asked if there's any team that could challenge his alma mater this season, former Crimson Tide quarterback (and current college football analyst) Greg McElroy had a pretty quick and easy answer.
“I just think they have more pieces offensively you have to account for,” McElroy said of Ohio State on Tuesday’s edition of College Football Live. “I think Notre Dame’s excellent running the football, I think they’re decent at wide receiver and getting better, but Ohio State is a nightmare matchup for anybody, just because of how many different things you have to try to defend. The quarterback run, the individual matchup on the outside, being able to run the football between the tackles and on the perimeter. I would say Ohio State is the more difficult team to defend, therefore the more difficult matchup.”
"A nightmare matchup for anybody."
Looking back at what Ole Miss did to Alabama, can you even imagine Justin Fields, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson against that secondary? I would like to see that, please.
I unironically want Bama.
MOVING FORWARD AS PLANNED. The College Football Playoff made it clear that it on Wednesday that it has no intentions of changing its schedule to allow for more games to be played or made up this season, which is wild but unshocking, given that their favorite thing in the world is money.
But there was another decision they came to that is considerably more interesting – if a selected team suffers a COVID-19 outbreak and cannot play, the committee won't pick a replacement team ot play in its place.
The College Football Playoff management committee on Wednesday agreed to keep the playoff on its current timeline and name a national champion as planned on Jan. 11 in Miami Gardens, Florida, unless the coronavirus pandemic forces a schedule change, CFP executive director Bill Hancock told ESPN.
The CFP management committee, which is made up of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, also determined that if a semifinalist is unable to play because of a COVID-19 disruption after Selection Day on Dec. 20, the selection committee would not choose a replacement team.
Hancock declined to speculate on what might happen, but said, "the committee will continue to do its due diligence between now and selection weekend."
Now, I hope this means that if there's a COVID outbreak then they'll just delay until that team is able to play. But what I'm worried this means is that if there's a COVID outbreak, that team will just forfeit and the other team will move on by default.
Totally unshockingly, there was no clarity on that.
LIVING LEGEND. It ain't often you go to work and get starstruck by your coworkers (unless you were me, meeting D.J. Byrnes for the first time back in the day), but that's Mike Weber's life right now.
Aye its kinda cool getting handoffs from my favorite QB growing up
— Mike Weber (@mikeweberjr) November 18, 2020
The Packers are 7-2 and are legit Super Bowl contenders. I'm openly rooting for Mike to get his second-straight practice squad ring.
REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME. Maryland center Jalen Smith was a top-10 pick in last night's NBA Draft, which immediately reminded us of that one time last year when he got absolutely dominated by Kaleb Wesson, who went undrafted.
Since the suns have just selected Jalen Smith I would like to remind you of the last time he met Kaleb Wesson pic.twitter.com/glnBB2R30v
— Brodie. 3-0 0-0 (@OSUCAVSCincy) November 19, 2020
Honestly, the more embarrassing thing for me is that his head coach spent the next week complaining that his future top-10 pick got worked in the post by a smaller player that didn't even end up getting drafted. I hope Chris Holtmann beats Maryland by 55 this year.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Australia" by The Shins.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. Could a cryptic image on a disposable camera solve the mysterious killing of an Arizona couple?... Mexico threatened to kick out the DEA to get U.S. charges dropped against its former top general... A Ponzi scheme suspect uses an underwater scooter to try eluding FBI agents after a car chase... The legend of D.B. Cooper gets a fresh look... Colombian drug runners built a $1.5 million electric submarine that could carry $120 million worth of cocaine... The history of CONTROL + ALT + DELETE...
