Trick Or Treat! – College Football Edition

It’s always fun to celebrate the wonderful traditions of Halloween, especially getting in the costumes and performing the occasional scare. With this piece, we are going to take the spirit of Beggars’ Night and transfer it into the world of college football.

We’ll save you from the silly puns like first and ghoul, and hop straight into our tricks and treats of this year’s college football season.

Tricks

1. – The thought that Texas A&M was actually going to be good. Many folks, including Desmond Howard, had them going to the College Football Playoffs (CFP). In the words of the long standing College Gameday great, Lee Corso, “not so fast!”

2. – The belief that Oklahoma’s defense would be better. With he hiring of the defensive mastermind in Brent Venables, the belief that the once open door defense would close it up was there. Well that was not the case as this defense has allowed over 40 points in four of the last five contests. Ouch.

3. – Wisconsin firing the ultra-successful Paul Chryst. He boasted a 67-26 overall record, which ironically was just the same as Jim Harbaugh’s at Michigan through 93 games. He carried that program to be the breadwinners of the Big Ten West over the last decade, and his firing may have been a little premature.

4. – Buying into the hype of Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson too soon. Florida’s win over Utah week one caused quite the knee jerk reaction to slide them way up the rankings. Well, it didn’t help that Utah was #7 in the polls, but nevertheless the Gators haven’t played up to their potential all year. Richardson, who was getting Heisman hype all preseason long, has almost became the fading star, such as Spencer Rattler from a year ago.

5. – Yet again, the Miami Hurricanes are a laughing stock. The trouncing they received by Middle Tennessee State back in September was just a microcosm of all the issues with this program. Hopefully, head coach Mario Cristobal can implement his ideology of winning in the trenches and a powerful run game and defense, which made him a winner at Oregon.

6. – The preseason rankings just flat out stink. There’s no reason for having them anyway since the committee is the deciding factor on who goes and who doesn’t. Speaking of the committee, the CFP expansion should have happened years ago, since the 2016 season. So two tricks in one to close it here.

Treats

1. – Los Angeles Quarterbacks. Both Caleb Williams at USC and Dorian Thompson-Robinson at UCLA are firmly in the Heisman race with their incredible quarterback play. They each have their own unique style of attacking the position and they are equally as enjoyable to watch.

2. – The Next Generation of former NFL greats. It was great to watch two superstars in the making with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Joey Porter Jr. go at it this past weekend, rekindling the competitive spirits of their fathers. Others like Jeremiah Trotter Jr. are on the come-up as well, and even some not carrying the junior suffix. The new wave is officially upon us.

3. – The return of Rocky Top. Tennessee has one of the best offenses in the country, and is must see tv. Quarterback Hendon Hooker, who is in the driver’s seat for the Heisman, has perfected his craft as a dual threat quarterback. Not to mention his top target, Jalin Hyatt, has 14 TDs already on 45 catches, for over 20 yards per catch.

4. – A true dynamic duo for the Michigan Wolverines. The tandem of Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards is so fun to watch. Edwards as the spell back could start pretty much anywhere in the country and is as good of a receiver as he is a runner. Corum is just so good at everything out of the backfield, and will likely be the first running back drafted next year.

5. – Ohio State’s wide receiver room has carried the weight in the absence of Jaxon Smith-Njigba due to injury. The aforementioned Harrison Jr. has been world class and even called “the best wide receiver in America” by Joel Klatt. The rise of Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming has helped the deep attacking, aggressive play-calling style of coach Ryan Day remain intact.

6. – Utah’s helmets that pay tribute to Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe. The fallen teammates that both just happened to be wearing #22, have been recreated on the dazzling helmets. They also have a logo in their honor which just makes your heart wrench every time you see the young faces on opposing sides of the lids.