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Ohio State Gets Revenge In The Rose Bowl
They came oh-so-close way back in October to taking down the undefeated Ducks in Eugene, but Ohio State could not get the job done and the rest was history. Now 13-0, Oregon is the lone undefeated team in the sport and the favorite to bring home a national title. As Lee Corso always says, not so fast. The hard-to-beat-a-team-twice narrative doesn’t always come true, but these Ohio State Buckeyes are not an easy out. They have more NFL talent on paper than Oregon, and they should be coming into this game pissed off about what happened last time these two teams met.
Ohio State has to get by a fundamentally sound Tennessee team first to make this rematch happen, but assuming that they do, I like Ohio State to beat Oregon and flip the bracket upside down in an all-time classic.
Georgia Falls Flat In Quarterfinals
The Georgia Bulldogs are just a year removed from back-to-back titles and just took down the aforementioned Texas Longhorns in the SEC title game. Quarterback Carson Beck appears to be dealing with a significant elbow injury suffered in the SEC Championship and it would be surprising to see him back under center for Georgia. While Beck was sometimes more of a hindrance than a plus to this Bulldogs team, he has much more experience and talent than backup Gunner Stockton.
Kirby Smart is more than capable of coaching with a lesser talent under center – just look at what he did with Stetson Bennett – but this Georgia team is not on the same level as those that came before them talent-wise. I predict a loss in their first game against the winner of Notre Dame/Indiana.
Penn State Fails To Reach Semifinals
Some college football fans believe that Penn State got the best draw of any team, set to play SMU at home on Saturday followed by a matchup with Boise State if they were to win. The Nittany Lions are favored on Saturday and would be favored over the Broncos, setting up a very manageable path to the semifinals. But this is James Franklin we are talking about. Penn State’s head man is 1-18 all-time against top-five teams, with that number improving to 3-18 against top-10 opponents.
Not that SMU or Boise is a top-five team at the moment, but Franklin has come up short time and time again when the stage gets bigger. These two teams were dominant, albeit against lesser competition, this season and now that they are in the field they’ll be playing with nothing to lose. The Nittany Lions, on the other hand, have everything to lose should they fall prior to the semis.
Notre Dame Reaches The National Championship Game
If Georgia and Penn State are early exits, who does that leave standing in the bottom side of the bracket? None other than the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who everyone counted out after their early-season loss to Northern Illinois. The schedule has been admittedly underwhelming, but the Irish have been dominant since the early-season blunder.
The rushing attack is firing on all cylinders with quarterback Riley Leonard and running back Jeremiyah Love, and Marcus Freeman has the leadership ability to take this team to places it has not gone in a long time. Notre Dame is by no means a juggernaut this season and they may scrape by Indiana and Georgia, but after being hit early and feeling the effects of a devastating upset this team is primed to make a run through the CFP all the way to its first title game appearance since Manti Te’o’s 2012 team.
Three Overtime Games Take Place
Here’s a bold one: not one, not two, but three of the eleven games in the postseason go to overtime. We already saw the SEC title game go to extras – it just happens when teams are evenly matched and the stakes are high.
Not all teams in the field are created equal, but we are bound to see several close matchups over the next month. To pace towards the three thresholds, at least one of the first-round games needs to get to overtime. My most likely candidate is the inaugural game on Friday night as the Indiana Hoosiers travel north to South Bend, with Tennessee’s trip to Columbus not far behind.
Texas Wins The National Championship
It has been 20 years since Vince Young’s Texas team hoisted the trophy, and only once since then have the Longhorns returned to the title game. The path is far from easy, as Texas starts with ACC champion Clemson followed by Big 12 champ Arizona State. If they make it through those two games, they would be up against Oregon, Ohio State, or Tennessee in the semis.
This team has already fallen twice at the hands of Georgia this season, and their most impressive win is probably an ugly 17-7 win at Kyle Field over 8-4 Texas A&M. Quarterback Quinn Ewers has been streaky, but I’m sticking with the motto “defense wins championships.” Texas has what it takes to slow Oregon down, can beat Ohio State in a power vs. power matchup, and would not allow Georgia to beat them a third time with Gunnar Stockton under center.
Quintrevion Wisner Wins CFP MVP
The injury bug bit Texas before the season even started, claiming promising young running back C.J. Baxter along with freshman Christian Clark. It took him a few weeks to establish himself, but sophomore Quintrevion Wisner emerged as the lead back and has been extremely impressive ever since.
Wisner has rushed for 863 yards and three touchdowns on the season, largely entering the fold about a month in. In the biggest win of the year over Texas A&M, he touted the ball 33 times for 186 yards. Steve Sarkisian will lean on his workhorse throughout the playoffs behind one of the best offensive lines in football. I like Wisner to put up impressive stats throughout the next month en route to the Longhorns’ first title since 2005, landing him the CFP MVP.
