Official 2024 College Football Thread

USC dumped the bed.

Ohio State is gonna get in now

Be interesting had TN beaten South Carolina. Imagine the creativity the committee would have had to use to keep the Vols out because of Hooker’s injury.

Anyway, Georgia.

If Georgia plays Ohio State in the CFP that game has the potential to get UGLY for Ohio State

What’s everyone got against Tennessee? I never would’ve correctly guessed all the finalists. I would’ve figured Corum and Hooker would be there.

Hooker should have been a finalists for the Heisman. He was the favorite until his injury and then the hype train got behind Williams. Congrats to Lincoln Riley, he will have the same number of Heisman winners as his losses in the Playoffs, 0-3. That is if Williams wins.

Ohio State in the playoffs...Georgia is built the same way as Michigan as far as the lines go. Michigan bullied Ohio State. What will it say about the program if it goes undefeated all year long and then when it matters the most, you get manhandled and the last two games of the season when it really mattered. Ohio State doesn't have a run game. They have the best wide receiver group in the college football though, so maybe Ohio State sticks to spreading out the field and getting players to make plays in space. Not a great formula for winning a championship but it might be all they've got against Georgia.

I'm really interested in Michigan-TCU. Watching TCU against K-State, you just knew the committee was going to put in TCU after the effort they gave.

Gather round kiddies and let me tell you the story of "The Heistman" & the hatred of ESPN

The biggest issue with why "everyone" hates Tennessee is how good they were in the 90s. For starters growing up the thought of losing to Georgia was laughable to me. Going into a season teams like Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina & Vanderbilt were automatic Ws. Alabama was a toss up as was usually whomever the other SEC West team you play was. The key was always beating Florida. You couldnt win the SEC East nor a National Championship unless you beat Florida (or they faltered in the season). So when you're a UGA, Bama, SC etc fan and you spent the better part of the 90s & Early 00s as a doormat for UT, you're not gonna be a fan....

That leads me into The Heistman. ESPN is obviously the #1 sports network, well for many years their TV contract was with the Big 10 & Pac 10 where the SEC was with CBS. So ESPN would always show a bias to Northern & Western teams over the southern teams. Many would say it started in 1997 when ESPN feverishly pushed the Charles Woodson for Heisman agenda against Peyton Manning. Manning was the clear front runner but the last few weeks ESPN just shoved Woodson down everyones throats. Woodson was a great player but nobody can say looking at the stats that he deserved to win the Heisman trophy over Manning. He has 7 INTs and 43 tackles...In 12....Thats not that impressive. UT fans were heated and there was a lot of backlash which led to Chris Fowler referring to UT fans as "trailer trash" on the air. It was at that point Gameday was no longer welcome in Knoxville. The handful of times they were there, they werent even really on campus. They were heavily secured in parking garage G which over looks the banks of the Tennessee river.

Then there's the heavily speculated issue with the 1998 BCS rankings. Going into the final week Vols #1, UCLA #2 and K-State #3..If all three teams were to win out it was speculated that ESPN would influence the coaches pole & the rankings and have not only UCLA but K-State jump the Vols to keep them out of the National Title game. However the Vols were the only team to win that weekend and they were "forced" to keep the Vols at #1 but jumped an FSU team who didnt play a conference championship up in hopes of them being too much for the Vols in the National Title game....which they werent.

With that still brewing (and still does)...ESPN put out series of article in 1999 about UT having academic improprieties. They beat the drum so much that the NCAA finally stepped in & looked at the athletic department for any misconducts but nothing was ever found but all ESPN was doing was pouring gas on a fire lit fan base.

In the early 2000s the NCAA went looking into Alabama football for improprieties and ESPN did some digging and essentially found out that while the NCAA were looking into UT Athletics, Phillip Fulmer flipped and ratted out Alabama football on them paying their players. While Fulmer should have been a "confidential informant" ESPN spilled the beats which caused a bigger rift between UT & Bama (already on field rivals) and now causing a rift between the two Admins.

So now in the view of public opinion...UT/Vols Fans are whiners, cheaters, & squealers because ESPN has portrayed the fan base in the most sour manner as possible. Well when an entity such as ESPN starts telling you that you're the scourge of the earth, you'll likely start acting like it....The only problem is by this time the UT "Dynasty" was coming to an end. Fulmer was outted at UT. Kiffin is hired, had a decent season and then leaves in the middle of the night to take the USC job....to which the students expressed their feelings by buring mattress throughout campus. Then the administration made one buffoon coaching hire after another. First with Derek Dooley, then with Butch Jones and then with Jeremy Pruit. When you're a garbage team for 20 years you become unbearable as a fan base because you're just miserable. Sure there's the positive fans but most became "NegaVols".....Then Heupel was finally hired. And while his first season showed promise...This year is when everything clicked....Well back to that fan base. You've been told for 10-15 years you're "trailer trash"...then you spent the next 15-20 being walked on by teams that you should beat by 4 TDs...There's built up frustration. Well a winning football team instills confidence as well as arrogance into a fan base.

Your team is 8-0, wins over Florida & Alabama and you once again have a QB who not only is a Heisman candidate but the front runner the fan base has their hopes up again. The loss to UGA sucked but it wasnt a killer. Then the South Carolina game came & the wheels fell apart. You lose your chance at the playoffs but also lose your QB for the season...However, his statistically at the time he's still the front runner for the Heisman trophy even though ESPN pushed CJ Stroud as much as they could.

And then came Caleb Williams. Williams is a good QB, Im not gonna discredit him...but its the Pac12...He plays garbage teams. Its easy to put up 300yds & 3TDs when you're playing teams not ranked in the top 25. Once Hooker couldnt play in 1 game....1 game...National media (led by ESPN) dropped him off the face of the earth for Williams and for 2-3 weeks the only thing you could hear about was how great Williams was & these amazing numbers he was putting up....The whole time saying "Tennessee isnt the same team they are/were without Hooker at QB" and then dropping them behind teams they beat in the rankings because of this...Essentially stating that Hooker WAS more valuable both as a leader & statistically to UT then any other player in the country was. So 25 years after "The Heistman", UT fans feel once again that their Quarterback was robbed of the trophy & essentially the bad blood will go back to ESPN who for whatever reason for 25 years has been the flag bearer for "Anti-Tennessee".

Essentially to sum it up when the "World Wide Leader of Sports" (ESPN) Tells the world for 25 years that the Vols & Vols fans are the 2nd coming of the anti-christ....People start to believe it. In reality if you've never been to a Tennessee game all we want to do is get drunk, have a good time, win a football game and sing Rocky Top.

Go Vols

Hell yeah go Vols

Wasn't expecting a TCU 14-0 lead after the first

I'm hoping the Frogs hang onto the win but I just need them to stay within 5 and I'm good. They got 20 points to play with.