When UNLV and Boise State meet tomorrow night to kick off the college football championship weekend for the Mountain West, the two programs will be playing for national prominence. Kickoff might be 8:00 Eastern, but this game has national championship repercussions not only in the Mountain West, but also, for every other conference. Why? Simple: most fans of the more storied divisions – the Big 10 and the SEC, for starters, haven’t given these teams a moment’s thought, and that’s a shame. Boise State averages more total yards per game than the Georgia Bulldogs and has run – not passed…
Author: Chris Groote
Chris Groote
Chris Groote parlayed his love of sports and writing into a whole new career as a sports journalist when he left the corporate world in 2014. His works have appeared in blogs, magazines, and newspapers all over the country.
If Penn State has any chance of beating the Oregon Ducks and winning the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis this weekend, there are a handful of things and some key players that have to be involved. The odds are in the Ducks’ favor but have continued to fall throughout the week. No one can deny Ducks’ head coach Dan Lanning is a sharp coach and a great leader and motivator, but is there a way for James Franklin and his Nittany Lions to win? There’s a couple things Penn State will have to do: Penn State Has to Keep Oregon on…
No amount of Dawg fans’ screaming at their televisions last Saturday can change one glaring fact: The Georgia Bulldogs are lucky to have beat a mediocre Georgia Tech team in Athens last Saturday. As of this writing, ton of opinions have already been expressed, and excuses put forth, but the harsh reality is this: Georgia is not playing championship football. Yes, the rabid fans can point out Ohio State lost to Michigan, but that’s their problem, not Georgia’s. It doesn’t take eight overtimes to beat Georgia Tech, or least, it didn’t take Louisville or Notre Dame that long. It’s true…
Everyone in Tuscaloosa knew the retirement of Nick Saban from Alabama would open the doors for other SEC programs to step up. Likewise, nearly everyone suspected the NIL rulings in college football would forever impact how the game was played. But nobody could foresee the end of the Saban era and the impact NIL would have on the two most dominant programs for the last decade in the SEC and college football. At Georgia, Head Coach Kirby Smart quickly tired of the NIL, the drama around payments, the unclear paths for recruiting and paying players, and last summer, seemed to…
When the Ohio State Buckeyes’ squad takes the field at 12:00 local time Saturday, the simple truth is, it might be the most important game they’ll play. Yes, Head Coach Ryan Day has built an impressive record over the last five seasons, and yes, the Buckeye’s are obviously going into the playoffs, but there’s more at stake than simply winning another game. A win Saturday at Ohio Stadium will prove Ohio State is the dominant team in the now-dominant Big 10. In an interview Tuesday, Day acknowledged the team Ohio State has traditionally dominated is not the team he’ll be…
The University of Georgia Bulldogs have a lot to worry about right now, dropping out of the Top 10 for the first time in years after a disastrous showing against Ole Miss last Saturday. Despite all this, Vegas has – as of this writing – the ‘Dawgs as 9 point favorites. The truth is, the Bulldogs have built a solid record of “must win” wins under Head Coach Kirby Smart, and Volunteers Head Coach Josh Heupel knows Sanford Stadium is a hard place for any team to win. Despite the numbers, this is still Georgia’s game to lose. Here’s some…
How the mighty have fallen. For the first time in four years, the University of Georgia Bulldogs have lost to a team not named the Crimson Tide. That’s right, Georgia hasn’t lost to anyone but Alabama since 2020’s loss to Florida. The downside for the UGA faithful is Saturday’s loss to a very good Ole Miss (now ranked at #11) team, which was a very real fear discussed last week, is Georgia still has another very good team ahead of them on the schedule – Tennessee. So what happened in Oxford last Saturday? In a nutshell? They got exposed, and…
When the University of Georgia Bulldogs take the field in Oxford Saturday against the Ole Miss Rebels, Head Coach Kirby Smart and Quarterback Carson Beck have their work cut out for them. Now, that’s not to say they aren’t leading what is arguably the best team in the SEC, but Smart has not won at Ole Miss, and Beck sorely needs to stem the tide of interceptions plaguing his passing game. In many ways, this could be the only chance of an upset left on the ‘Dawgs schedule, and a loss to Ole Miss could create postseason challenges. Ole Miss…
There’s a simple fact about college football that the #8 Indiana University Hoosiers are banking on now: this late in the season, bad teams have been exposed. Teams like Vanderbilt – while still having a great season by their own standards – have fallen off. Others, like Miami, are proving they’ve built solid programs over the last few years. Yet an undefeated Indiana team, led by quarterback Kurtis Rourke, is quietly assembling an undefeated season in the Big 10 with only one real worry – a very good Ohio State team on November 23rd. While it might be easy to…
This Saturday’s game between the Ohio State Buckeyes (#4) and Penn State’s Nittany Lions (#3) marks a return to the old school of Big 10 football, with two of the most explosive running games in the NCAA on display. The offensive stats put up by the two teams are nearly even, and viewers and fans can’t help but appreciate how a “ground and pound” offensive approach can still put points on the board. There’s no clear advantage with these two teams, and the despite the Buckeyes’ 6-1 record, they’ve controlled Penn State (7-0), winning the last seven matchups, and fifteen…