Jon Joseph

SC is ranked 25th in the current AP Poll. SC should take care of business at home Saturday against Michigan State. Then the Trojans play at Illinois, bye, host Michigan, and then play ND on the road. ND will be rooting for Illinois to win at Indiana on Saturday. This Saturday, Notre Dame hosts (and likely hoists) Purdue, plays at Arkansas against a prolific Hogs O, hosts a now off-the-radar Boise State, has a week off, and then hosts SC. SC is not happy with the timing of ND's 2nd bye week, and is not happy that, in addition to traveling to South Bend, it also travels to Illinois, Nebraska, and Northwestern. 2026 is the last game scheduled in the long-running series. ND makes more money from NBC with SC on its schedule. The SC series helps ND recruit So-Cal. Games played in South Bend are but one game where SC has to travel East. SC decides to cancel ND, and I would understand, and I also believe that the cancellation would not shake the very foundation of CFB.

I have no beef with Freeman. I have a beef with Georgia and Penn State having played one more game, against an excellent opponent, than Notre Dame last season, and that ND played four G5 opponents in 2024. I also have a beef with an AD having the same voting power as a conference commissioner, at least the Power 2 commissioners. Chris Ash is not doing the job as Al Golden's replacement at DC.

Great take. It's hard to win football games. The 100% accomplishment vs. NW, there were no penalties called on OBD.

Bill Connolly's model is MAD about, not at, the Ducks! ESPN.comRanking CFB's 39 unbeaten teams: Who is most likely to st...Bill Connelly separates the contenders from the pretenders among the remaining undefeated teams.

The Athletic's Bruce Feldman rates the candidates for the UCLA job in this order - USC DC - D'Anton Lynn - 2nd-highest-paid assistant coach in the country behind Jim Knowles. Penn State grad. Lynn was contacted by PSU for the DC job before Lynn was hired. Baylor HC - Dave Aranda - LA guy. Kelani Satke - HC BYU Tosh Lupoi - OBD DC FSU DC and UCLA grad Tony White. Browns OC Tommy Rees New Mexico HC- Jason Eck Rivals has UCLA ranked 49th in recruiting.

One thing I do know, I'd love to be Pat Fitzgerald's agent. 🤑Pat has to be on the Wisconsin AD's speed dial. AD train wreck, Dan Guerrero, put UCLA athletics in the deep red. Jim Mora never should have been fired. What bona fide coach would want to coach football in Westwood? Basketball, yes. But football. Brent Pry was a graduate assistant at VA Tech before serving as James Franklin's DC at Penn State from 2016 through 2021. Could Michael Vick return to his alma mater? How about a return home for South Carolina coach Shane Beamer? Vandy beat up the Gamecocks yesterday, but the damage was done after QB Sellers left with a concussion. Beamer's done a very good job at USC(e), including on the recruiting front, but the Gamecocks' next SEC title will be the first. At VA Tech, Shane played on 3 teams that won Big East Conference championships.

Week 3 AP Poll - 11 SEC teams ranked. Last week, Michigan lost at Oklahoma and dropped nine spots. Yesterday, Tennessee lost at home and dropped 0 spots. 0-2 Notre Dame is still in the top 25. 12-team playoff sees 11 Oklahoma and 13 Ole Miss as the teams knocked out by 12 Iowa State and 32 Tulane. Greg Sankey's response: 🤬🤬🤬 No. 6 seed OBD would host No. 11 Iowa State in the 1st round. Win and it's LSU in the Sugar Bowl. 😧 AP NewsNCAA College Football Rankings: AP Top 25 Football PollThe official page for the AP Top 25 college football poll, a tradition since 1936. Keep up to date and view the latest ranking updates each week.

Many of the highly preseason-touted QBs in Dixie have failed to play as advertised. Cade Klubnik, Archie, Lagway threw 5 picks yesterday 😧, even LSU's Nussmeier has not played to the level expected preseason. Gunnar Stockton came threw 😁 yesterday with a late and great TD throw and a toss for a 2-point conversion. Ditto Marcel Reed. And how about Ole Miss backup QB Trinidad Chambliss, who transferred in from Ferris State and won a shootout against Boise State transfer Taylen Green and Arkansas. 0-2 Notre Dame's trip to Arkansas could be the nail in the Irish PO coffin. Other than at LSU, is there a D in the SEC?

UCLA paid the New Mexico Lobos $1,250,000.00 to visit the Rose Bowl and Win the Day in LA. The official attendance was reported as 31,123. Folks on hand say that the 'real attendance' was less than half of the official attendance. Rumor has it that most of Nico's family decided not to attend. 😉

I hope BTN announcers show up in Autzen to do a live broadcast and not an off-screen broadcast from Chicago. How's Rico paying off? At 0-2, with losses to UNLV and New Mexico, the far from frosty Foster's have moved into the Mountain West basement. The basement is located in Cheyenne Mountain, where the Bruins' D is probably safe from being bombed. 😁 UCLA is checking with Cal to see if the Golden Bears will accept an We O U?

How about A&M! First win on the road against a top 10 team since 2014. 13 road games vs. top-10 losses before tonight's win in South Bend. ND at Arkansas this Saturday won't be a lay-up for the Irish. The Hogs on the road at Ole Miss were in the game to the very end of a seven-point loss shoot-out. ND, without another top 25-ranked opponent on the schedule to date, could be in PO trouble. With Pitt losing the Back Yard Brawl game to the West Virginia Rich-Rods, USC, 3-0, and a 33-17 winner at Purdue, could be the Domers' only top-25 opponent hope.

With Ls vs UNLV and New Mexico, UCLA has secured last place in the Mountain West. Nico - 'This is what I get for coming home?' I hope our friend Nevada Dawg, ND, didn't have to call on an MD as the Dawgs somehow walk away with another W over the Vols. Fantastic game! 1901 - last time TOSU lost to an in-state opponent, but Ohio kept it close until it didn't. Michigan, in a walkover game, decides to play the O it should have last week. Perhaps Sherrone should serve more minutes in the penalty box. Beavis should have snuck out during the weather delay. And Wazzu? Thanks for being the weeds mowed down by The Big Green Machine. 1st huge game of the season next Saturday when OBD faces the top team in the Pac-12, right? This year's Indiana could well be ... Indiana. 73-0 Largest Hooisir shutout since 1901. In honor of two B1G 1901's, Hats Off to Teddy Roosevelt! This year's 2024 FSU could be Clemson. Sue your ACC off at your own risk? USC 33 - Purdue 17 - SC wins its first B1G road game as a conference member and goes 1-9 in its last 10 road games in the Eastern time zone; first win since 2012. Great News! OBD is now 1-1 vs, the NW Wildcats! 1974? What are you good for? Absolutely Nothing!

OBD - TCB in CHI 😍

Holy Hoosier! 73-0 over Indiana State. I guess the 3-0 Hoosiers were perfect from the 3-point line. 😁 Interesting game next Saturday when the about-to-be 3-0 Illinois visits 3-0 Indiana. Meanwhile, Syracuse brushed off (🤪) Colgate 66 to 24.

After watching Caleb Downs in the Rose Bowl, I'm certain OBD was looking for a guy with the same kind of skills. Two games to go, and don't count your Ducks before the eggs hatch, but the chess match on both sides of the ball in the middle of a White Out should be fascinating. Thanks again to you, Coach, Charles, Mike West, David Marsh, and other enlightened X+O posters for providing a deeper dive into the nuances not readily apparent to the viewer. (Especially after a 'few' primo IPAs 😁)

5 Keys: Ask For A Wake-Up Call😁!

How would you like this kind of cross-town friend? 🤬 https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2025/09/12/roundtable-panel-discusses-badly-tennessee-blow-out-ucla-football/86087428007/?utm_source=smg-trojanswire-strada&utm_medium=email&u

Two stats of interest. Northwestern surrendered 269 rush yards to Tulane and is 122nd in the country in rush yards surrendered. USC at Purdue - SC has not won a game in the Eastern time zone since 2012, and is 0 for the Eastern time zone since joining the B1G. Change flight attendants? 😁

Thank you, Charles, for hosting the contest! OBD 56-10 NW TOs - 3 Sacks - 3 Pass - 250

Great post, Charles, thank you. Oregon makes up for its (beautiful, no doubt) location by having an aligned and energetic recruiting operation—this and the money invested in recruiting. Oregon is doing this notwithstanding being a half-share Big Ten partner through 2030. As many others have asked over the years, what are Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, and Nebraska (!), for example, doing with all of the Big Ten money? I ask, why does an 18-team Big Ten with the revenue the conference is bringing in and shared equally across the board, have but five Blue Chip Roster teams? (I give small private school with sterling academics, Northwestern, a pass. Especially, a portal pass.) Many B1G members with the same revenue share are not spending the money to compete in the conference and on the national stage. If the PO committee has a metric that gives appropriate weight to the strength of schedule, no more G5 teams ranked 9th in the nation please, conference performance top to bottom will matter. G6 Tulane put up 269 rush yards against Northwestern. Once every 30 to 40 seasons, the Willdcats will rise up and play terrific football. But that's it. I get the populist appeal of every member team receiving the same slice of revenue. But IMO this should be conditioned on every member investing an agreed-upon minimum for football and men's basketball. Otherwise, why should the top spending teams that produce positive results share with those unwilling to spend the money? Mississippi State just defeated ASU. Vandy blew out VA Tech on the road. (OK, I hear you. Florida did lose to USF 😁.) Could the bottom third of the B1G win these games? As Dan Lanning said, Oregon spends money to win! Oregon's partners should do the same or IMO, be treated like junior partners. Going the extra mile is paying off for OBD.

Thank you, Smitty. Terrific, informative post. 9 AM body time KO is not something a team experiences often in a season, thank goodness. Northwestern usually does not kick off at 11 AM Central. Long flight? Eugene to Denver flight time 2 H 23 M. To Chicago is 4 H 20 M. So, 2 H 20 M longer on an airplane, not on a train or a bus. Football is one sport where body clock time of day can matter, but negative consequences from travel are IMO, exaggerated. Right, Mick Cronin? 😁 Everyone on the flight has entertainment and educational materials in their hands. And also the opportunity to study game prep materials. For the guys who will make to the NFL, get used to it. I think many of the players and coaches, who practice early in the day, would prefer to KO early and not sit around until 7:30 or 8 PM. And with the time difference, the team will be back in Eugene at a reasonable hour. How about traveling East to West instead? Next week's game of Michigan State at USC kicks off at 11 PM Eastern time and will end around 3 AM Eastern. (3 hours alloted for broadcast time are a joke.) The Spartans won't be back home until Sunday afternoon. Thanks again and Waste the Wildcats!

Updated CFB QB rankings. Dante is up to No. 3 without having thrown a pass in the 4th quarter.😍 https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/09/11/college-football-quarterback-rankings-carson-beck/86078091007/

We will see more P4 vs P4 out-of-conference games canceled. SEC teams are likely to follow Florida after the SEC went to nine conference games. Like Florida, I think most SEC teams bargained for cancellations without penalty if the SEC went to nine. The SEC does require its teams to play one P4 opponent in addition to nine conference opponents. I expect that the Wake Forest switchboard is melting down.😁 One reason Tony Petitti wants an AQ PO format is so marque OOC games will be scheduled. SIFlorida Bails on Three Future Home-and-Home Series Amid S...From a PR standpoint, the Gators' timing could hardly be worse.

The Genius, OC Will Steain https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/will-stein-secret-genius-behind-oregons-scorching-offense

Pressure? Pressure! Six College Football Programs Under The Most Pressure in Week 3