Week 8: Ranked on Ranked and 2nd Quarter Awards

We are halfway through the weeks of the regular season! The leaves are turning, there is a crisp in the air (or the furnace has been turned down in the South), and hopefully the pumpkin patch has enough service for you to stream the games when you have to leave your couch. A historic week for 5-0+ matchups and ranked on ranked games. Let's jump in!

A Week (3) in Review

Favorite Game: Tennessee vs Alabama

Rocky Top is back! Call it a track meet, a basketball game, the Game of the Year, just don't say it was boring. Two offenses executing at the highest level, a gutsy performance by Bryce Young, and Hendon Hooker never blinking. Alabama has been sloppy on the road this year and it finally got them. Tennessee goes fast, runs the ball physically, and stacks their receivers to get vertical passing lanes. Holding Bama to 2 sacks is a feat that should be talked about more; it is hard to throw down the field against a team that gets home so often. Their kicker also got to redeem himself and bask in the glory of the Volunteers storming the field. 

Favorite Uniform: East Carolina

To those that came before, these are for you! Mark your calendars for homecoming weekend! 10.15.22 🏴‍☠️ pic.twitter.com/mLmPoHOGX3

— ECU Football (@ECUPiratesFB) September 25, 2022

I'm a huge fan of purple and the yellow plays off it well. The white / purple / white, helmet / jersey / pants was good and the throwback font was beautiful. Well done, Pirates!

Other Notes from the Weekend

Baylor versus West Virginia is now considered a "must watch" matchup if you want to see points get thrown up on the scoreboard. I need to make it to Morgantown for a game... In the other top 10 matchup Michigan survived some early hiccups to run away (literally) with the game. The two headed monster of Edwards and Corum will roll through the rest of the season before the trip to Columbus. Will we see more four receiver sets and crossing routes to give JJ more throwing opportunities? We will find out against Sparty on Halloweekend... Clemson went into Florida State and handled it well. I think the late 2010's spoiled us from the flawless rosters of Bama and Clemson and now we nitpick everything but Clemson is still the class of the ACC... TCU and Max Duggan dug out of an early deficit and stayed undefeated. Could they be a surprise Playoff team? I'm in for a purple team to make it... Syracuse keeps the dream season alive and NC State is left with another disappointing season. Tough to be without Leary and the former Carrier Dome is a difficult place to play... Texas survives versus the Cyclones, which feels more impressive than almost beating Bama after how this matchup has gone recently... Chase Brown is quietly having a phenomenal season for the Illinois and Bielema is building the Illini up like he did Wisconsin. If he can keep building a pipeline from Chicago watch out... Oklahoma got back on track and whooped the injured Jayhawks. Is the over of 8.5 still in danger?... James Madison is the latest Fun Belt loser and Georgia Southern welcomed them to reality in the G5. Still an impressive game and you need to be watching Sun Belt games if you can, they're quite entertaining... LSU vs Florida used to be THE game in the late 2000's but they still provide the chaos. Everyone was down on their offenses heading into Saturday and now we have to question their defenses... BYU came into this season with high expectations but the schedule bit off just a bit more than they could chew. Team speed seems to be the deciding factor for them in these games versus Power 5 schools but I admire their spirit... Stanford is a technically sound team and struggles with speed, which meant they matched up well with Notre Dame. The Irish will get right next season and will give Freeman the time... Kentucky bounced back with Levis back in the lineup, they could still contend for a NY6 game... USC fought valiantly but going to Salt Lake is a tough task. Incredible effort by Utah to weather the start and keep the emotions in check as they honored some fallen teammates. Well done Utes... I noticed a lot of stacked and bunch formations this week. The bunch gets a lot of underneath routes and bubble screens open and are giving easy completions to teams that want to go fast. With the stack it creates a couple of advantages. We will dive into the stacked formations in the Play of the Week...

Favorite Play of the Week

As I talked about in the notes, we are going to break down how the stacked receivers look can help free up receivers to press vertically. Tennessee coach Josh Huepel was a national championship winning QB at Oklahoma under offensive coordinator Mike Leach. Leach is one of the biggest proponents of the Air Raid offense, which preaches going fast and stressing the defense the full width and length of the field. The stacked receivers do that perfectly and even though Huepel runs a very different offense than the one he led to the Natty you can see it flow through the play.

Just an absolute dart to a streaking receiver for 6. I don't even think Bama ran that bad of a defense against the Vols, at least initially.

• One big difference between Huepel and Leach: their offensive line "splits". Huepel has his linemen line up close together (yellow circle). This cuts off penetration from the defensive linemen when Tennessee is running all of their read options and RPO's. If you watch Mississippi State you will see wide splits. Leach wants the defensive linemen as far from his quarterback as possible.
• The receivers at the bottom of the screen are "stacked" all the way out to the sideline (dot 1). This is that Air Raid concept of stretching the defense as wide as the field allows to create lanes.
• Alabama covers the first receiver with a corner (dot 2) to jam him. One common response to the stack is to play defensive backs off and see where they run because it can be hard to talk through switches. If Alabama were to do that Hooker could turn and throw the ball to the second receiver and he would have a blocker. This corner deters than and will hopefully buy the safety time to get depth in a cover 2 zone.
• The nickel corner (dot 3) is wide because he has to account for the second receiver in the stack. If that receiver was in the slot the corner would be closer to the line. Look at the red box showing all the open space created by the stack. This could be used in the running game or just have the second receiver run a slant in an RPO. It's a tremendous amount of space to cover.
• Dot 4 shows the linebackers working to get everyone set up and get themselves in position before the snap. Tennessee snaps the ball almost as soon as possible. This ensures they either get simple looks or the defense is a step behind in getting set up. By the fourth quarter Bama was gassed and Tennessee could keep the track meet going.

• Tennessee snaps the ball and the first receiver engages with the corner (dot 2) while the second receiver (dot 1) has a free release to get sprinting at full speed. The nickel (dot 3) isn't gaining depth because he is not sure what the receiver will do.
• Dot 4 shows the safety running towards the middle of the field because Hooker is looking to the opposite side of the field (yellow triangle shows his vision). When you hear people say a quarterback is looking off the safety this is what they mean. He is manipulating the safety to take a few steps and create a throwing lane later in the play.

• Look how clean the pocket is for Hooker (dot 1). This isn't against a scrub team, this is Ala-freakin'-bama. They have Bama gassed and confused and are creating clean looks.
• The second receiver has closed the gap to the nickel corner (dot 2). The receiver is sprinting and the corner is still back pedaling. Which is faster? Hopefully the receiver running forward, or else he would be in the student section.

• Absolute dime by Hooker. The receiver has the lane between the nickel he just ran by and the safety Hooker looked off. So many college QB's don't hit their receivers in stride and that allows defenders to recover and make the tackle. Hooker does not make this mistake.

• Queue up the band, it's time to hit the beautiful checkered endzone.

2nd Quarter Season Awards

Another four weeks in the books! Savor the Saturday's. I am doing cumulative awards but you will see some changes from the 1st Quarter Awards.

National Title Favorite: Ohio State

Back to the Buckeyes? Before the wild game in Knoxville this week I thought CJ Stroud was the Heisman favorite and Ohio State had the best offense in the country. So much of the previous national titles have come down to winning on the outside and not giving up too much in the trenches. Ohio State has the best tackle combo in the country, the best receiving core, and a top running back duo. Difficult games at Penn State and at home versus Michigan await but I think this is Ohio State's year.

CFP Remaining 3: Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan

Next 2: Clemson, Ole Miss

Have to reward the undefeated teams, but I think we will see Bama in the playoffs this winter. The Vols have to jump in after getting the best win of the year and I think Michigan is a more complete team than Clemson, Ole Miss, UCLA, and TCU but will likely lose to the Buckeyes and miss out on the playoffs (please get rid of the divisions B1G, it's terrible we will have to watch the winner of The Game play scrubs in Indy).

Heisman Favorite: Hendon Hooker (QB - Tennessee)

What did we say about narrative? Quarterbacks who beat Nick Saban, and have big games doing it, have a high likelihood of winning the Heisman. Can Hooker guide his team to a win against Georgia and a repeat vs Bama in Atlanta later this year? Let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's bask in the amazing gift we were given this weekend and through the early season.

Others to Watch: CJ Stroud (QB - Ohio State), Caleb Williams (QB - USC), Blake Corum (RB - Michigan), Stetson Bennett (QB - Georgia), Dorian Thompson-Robinson (QB - UCLA), Max Duggan (QB - TCU)

CJ would've been the favorite if not for the wild game in Knoxville, plenty of time and big games for all these names to get the best door stopper in sports.

Best Game: Tennessee vs Alabama

I would put this as Game of the Year at -300. This game reminded me of the Chiefs vs Rams MNF game a few years ago that was absolutely bonkers. We got the chaos of some of the upset games below and the high level play we got from Bama vs Texas and other blue chip games.

Honorable Mentions: North Carolina vs Appalachian State, Utah vs Florida, Marshall vs Notre Dame, UTSA vs Houston, Troy vs Appalachian State, Alabama vs Texas, Kentucky vs Ole Miss, Wake Forest vs Clemson

Week 4 Preview

Favorite Power 5 Game: Kansas State vs TCU

The battle for 1st in the Big Ten! TCU survived a double OT thriller than no one watched because it was happening during the UT-Bama game but they are legit. Kansas State comes in at 5-1 with a weird loss to Tulane but both teams should be ready to become the surprise leader in the conference. Deuce Vaughn is a jitter bug who will have a great NFL career and Max Duggan has been slinging it for the Frogs. Don't expect much defense.

Also Worth Watching: Minnesota vs Penn State

Favorite Group of 5 Game: Marshall vs James Madison

I rough loss for the Dukes but this game should still be a ton of fun. James Madison puts up a ton of points and does it with both the ground game and through the air. Marshall has a high ceiling, upsetting Notre Dame, but can also be prone to lapses that all G5 schools are. A fun and crazy game if you need a refreshing matchup to watch.

Also Worth Watching: Cincinnati vs SMU

Favorite Player to Watch: Zach Charbonnet (RB - UCLA) vs Oregon

Charbonnet has been a tone setter for the Bruins. Oregon is not the team we saw get destroyed by Georgia and will have the speed to match UCLA. Will Chip Kelly get too cute and go East and West or will he let the big back run straight ahead? I think that is the matchup to watch in this one.

Also Worth Watching: Felix Anudike-Uzomah (DE - Kansas State) vs TCU

Biggest Game of the Week: UCLA vs Oregon

Chip Kelly versus the team he built into a modern New Blood. While college football has increasingly become about the Southeast and Midwest these two teams will hopefully captivate the country and show West Coast ball at its finest. Both quarterbacks can be inconsistent but capable of amazing plays. Whoever can calm the nerves fastest will likely have a shot to gain the advantage.

Also Worth Watching: Mississippi State vs Alabama

3 and Out

Season Total: (9-15) -6.15 Units

Spread Picks (4-6) -2.45 Units, O/U Picks (3-4) -1.3 Units, ML Picks (2-5) -2.4 Units

Eesh, terrible week for me (both in my picks and all the bets I placed on Saturday morning. Let's right the ship this week.

1st Pick of the Week: Texas A&M -3.5 (+100) vs South Carolina

A&M is coming off a bye after the close loss to Alabama and are slight favorites in a night road game. Feels like a tricky spot, but the other team has Spencer Rattler, who has not looked right this year. The Gamecocks won at Kentucky but UK didn't have Levis that game. The superior talent shines through on SEC Network.

2nd Pick of the Week: UCLA +6 (-110) vs Oregon

Betting on these two quarterbacks is like setting money on fire. But that's what you've been doing with my picks this year so why stop now? I think UCLA has something going this year and will not be phased by Oregon's speed. Give me the Bruins to stay undefeated.

3rd Pick of the Week: TCU -5 (-110) vs Kansas State

The Horned Frogs narrowly missed covering versus Oklahoma State and I think they finish the job here. TCU has a much better offense than Kansas State and will put pressure on the Wildcats from the jump. Give me the Horned Frogs to win by a touchdown.