The 2016 season marks the 10-year anniversary of the last Big Ten Heisman recipient. Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith won the 2006 edition of the award in a landslide, beating out Arkansas running back Darren McFadden 2,540 votes to 878. It stood as the Big Ten’s biggest rout of the SEC all the way until […]
HBO grew into the hub for critically acclaimed, mature TV it is today thanks to one series: The Sopranos. With all due respect to OZ — or Dream On or Spawn, if those were your sorta thing — The Sopranos was the first series that made HBO must-subscribe television. This week’s edition of CFB Huddle […]
Iowa football collectively is an old soul within a sport that puts considerable emphasis on new: new schemes, new facilities, new uniforms, new coaching staffs. The Hawkeyes’ embrace of tradition — from uniforms to style of play — leaves Iowa football overlooked. Doubted. And, despite a program-best 12-win finish to the 2015 season and appearing […]
4th and 25. Those who follow the SEC need no elaboration, particularly Arkansas or Ole Miss fans. However, the wildest play of the 2015 season should hold equal significance for supporters of Alabama, Clemson, Michigan State, Iowa, Ohio State…basically, any team directly impacted by the resulting outcome. The Razorbacks’ 4th and 25 hook-and-lateral play immediately […]
The 2016 Rose Bowl Game serves as an allegory for the ill-fated and now suspended presidential campaign of Carly Fiorina. Shortly after the former HP executive tweeted this: Love my alma mater, but rooting for a Hawkeyes win today. #RoseBowl — Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) January 1, 2016 The Hawkeyes gave up a 75-yard touchdown run […]
The furthest thing from my mind as I strolled the golf course doubling as Rose Bowl Stadium’s parking lot on New Year’s Day 2016 are TV ratings. I navigate through throngs of Iowa Hawkeye fans. The black-and-gold clad masses, be they acquaintances or total strangers, toasted each other all around the Brookside Golf & Country […]
Conference championship weekend marks the last hurrah of the college football regular season. Cue the music. What a wild, fun ride it’s been from the last weekend of August, when Montana and North Dakota State officially kicked off the 2015 season, to this point in December. Coincidentally, Montana plays North Dakota State again in Saturday’s […]
So, this is it: the one before The One. Tuesday’s is the last time the College Football Playoff committee plays pretend with the rankings before issuing the actual final four and bowl pairings. Heading into Championship Week, at least one of the four spots is spoken for. The ACC, Big Ten and SEC Championship Games […]
Welcome to Black Friday, the unofficial inspiration for such dystopian fiction as the Mad Max series or The Purge. America’s chaser for a day spent gorging itself on food is a day manically chasing discounts on products. No, you haven’t stumbled upon an anti-consumerist manifesto; this special, Black Friday edition of the CFB Huddle Saturday […]
I’ll cop to being among those who worried about the College Football Playoff damaging the regular season. Two years into the system, I feel rather foolish. Now, I still have reservations about the slippery expansion slope and will gladly cite the FCS Playoffs growth from 16 to 20 to 24 teams in the last six […]
Anarchy! Chaos! Welcome to another week of college football, and welcome to another round of projections for the College Football Playoff ranking. Four of last week’s Top 10 lost in Week 11: No. 6 Baylor, No. 7 Stanford, No. 9 LSU and No. 10 Utah. Of the four, only Baylor lost to a ranked opponent. […]
The second College Football Playoff ranking drops today at 7 p.m. ET. It’s hardly March Madness Selection Sunday, but I’m still geeked. A few noteworthy teams I anticipate being left out of the top 10 are Michigan State, Utah and North Carolina, all of which sport losses to teams well outside of the Playoff conversation. […]
October attrition starts to whittle down college football’s contenders. The legitimate competitors for conference supremacy and individual honors are revealed as schedules start tightening up. Don’t be surprised when several of the CFB Huddle October Superlatives honorees are in contention for national awards by season’s end — and that includes the Heisman Trophy. Trevone Boykin […]
Just when you think you have it all figured out… College football Week 8 wasn’t exactly the most intriguing offering of games this season, but if you’ve followed the sport for any length of time, that should tell you to expect chaos. And chaos is exactly what we got. Playoff hopefuls Florida State and Utah […]
The Bowl Championship Series came back from summer break upgraded to College Football Playoff and had become too good for the American Athletic Conference. Since their break-up, the American loaded up with great coaches, began maximizing the potential of some of its programs, and has come back smoking hot. The Playoff didn’t know what it […]