The fallout from the Tua Tagovailoa injury, LSU’s possible issue, and more contract extensions, in the latest Cavalcade of Whimsy.
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Sorry if this column sucks, it’s not my fault …
This column doesn’t worry about players getting hurt, and then in the commercial break, it’s in an ad pitching a supplemental insurance product … because you need to worry about what happens if you get hurt.
“On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”
The Tua Tagovailoa injury made me so mad.
Thank goodness it sounds like he’ll recover quickly and all should be fine, but it made me mad that this wonderful kid had to suffer the pain of that injury.
It made me mad that it took away his dream and goal of quarterbacking Alabama to a national championship this season.
It made me mad because something like this is going to happen again, and the same media types who went all “thoughts and prayers” are going to stick to the same old tired football clichés and beliefs without putting any effort into thinking differently.
It made me mad because I’m a fan who loves to watch one of the greatest pure passers college football has ever seen.
It made me mad at how many supposedly smart people just can’t grasp that some football games matter, and sometimes there’s no need whatsoever to take even the slightest of unnecessary chances.
And it’s making me really, really mad that so many refuse to consider the idea that college football coaches have to be better at risk management.
I’m not blaming Nick Saban.
I’m blaming all of us for not being a whole lot smarter.
We live in an era of net gen stats being thrown at us about everything.
There are specialized trainers for nutrition, best practices for working out, and assistant coaches who can break down the most minute details of the game.
There are charts for when to go for it on fourth down, when to go for two, when to make the players go to sleep, and everything else to gain even the slightest of competitive advantages.
Why can’t there be some wonky smart person who creates an insurance actuary table-like thing – you know, this load management craze the NBA kids are all into – to properly analyze the risk factors of when to play and not play a can’t-lose part of a team’s puzzle?
No-no-no, please don’t leave … I know, I’ve lost you with the word insurance – and I’m with you.
It’s a game. The players want to play it, it’s all fun, and it’s all about the joy of the sport … sort of. That all feeds into the NCAA’s brain-washing narrative of why players shouldn’t get paid, but that’s for another day.
For now, let’s just keep it simple.
If Tagovailoa is on the sidelines when Alabama is up 35-7 and has the game well in hand, he doesn’t dislocate his hip. So how do we prevent something like this from happening again, or more realistically, how do we minimize the risk while still keeping the game fun and amazing?
Let’s go. First of all …
Nick Saban is the head man in charge. The idea of this being on Tagovailoa in any way, or that anyone can lobby Saban to do something he doesn’t want to do, or that any aspect of the Alabama football program isn’t 100% decided by the head coach, is laughable. Saban is the absolute and total ruler of the Alabama football world. He’s also a brilliant guy, which means …
Really? You “don’t prepare for injuries?” Well … why not? You prepare for everything else. You prepare for every crazy possibility down to the smallest detail, and yet you don’t factor in the risk/reward of playing Tua Tago-freaking-vailoa an extra few snaps, even though the outcome of the game was already decided?
Again, I’m not blaming Saban. Almost all coaches think like this, and the ones who don’t – see Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy sitting his top players all preseason, even though Mitchell Trubisky obviously needed the work – don’t seem to have it totally right, either.
And yeah, in a purely competitive football way, there was a case for Tagovailoa still being out there.
Alabama needs to keep winning, and it needs to be amazing doing it. The only way it makes the College Football Playoff is by obliterating everyone left on the schedule after that LSU loss. So yes, there is something to be said for leaving 13 on the field for one more drive, because 42-7 at the half on the road in the SEC is exactly the statement that gets the playoff committee all hot.
So why didn’t Saban just say that? “We needed and wanted more points. We’re in the playoff chase, and we have to keep on playing and making a statement.” He says that, and everyone gets it. Even better, in a PR sort of way, then the blame and focus gets shifted to the College Football Playoff system.
However …
Really? I know he’s the greatest head coach of all-time, but he actually needed the NFL franchise-caliber quarterback of one of the most devastating quick-strike attacks in the history of college football to get more practice running a two-minute offense?
Sorry. I lost focus. Back to the issue of how to keep this situation from happening again, and that starts with one of the main talking points we have to debunk.
This wasn’t a fluke. Just because it happened in the final moments of the first half doesn’t take away that it was still a risk leaving Tagovailoa out there, because it’s a risk any time a player is playing.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the first play, the last play, or anywhere in any situation in between. There’s a reason for the cliché that your career could be over on any given play, because …
IT’S … (bleep)ING … FOOTBALL. It’s part of the reason why we all love this wonderful sport. These amazing athletes are out there doing unbelievable things all while having to bury in the back of their minds the horrible possibility that something life-altering could happen at any moment. Of course injuries can happen in any sport at any time – but not like this one.
It isn’t a given that a guy will get carted off the field when you go to a baseball game. There isn’t the looming likelihood of a player breaking a bone in the average NBA game, and there’s no guaranteed certainty of at least one concussion by anyone playing golf or tennis.
And there certainly isn’t the cloud of worry in most sports that a player could be paralyzed if a play goes an inch the wrong way – which is why a Minnesota’s PJ Fleck took a key unsportsmanlike penalty for running onto the field, terrified when WR Tyler Johnson was “motionless” after getting walloped by a huge hit in the loss to Iowa.
And because of that …
We have to stop thinking about football injuries as “bad luck.” Instead, we have to rebrand them as a lost gamble. If you play football, you’re almost certainly going to suffer an injury of some sort at some point, so – duh – the less you play, the fewer the chances of getting hurt.
So how do you get the most out of your key players as possible while taking the least amount of risk? Again, this is where football needs special analysts to figure this out – you’re up 35-7 at the end of the half against Team X, and your probability of losing this game is 0.3% without QB1 in.
You find these analysts, head coaches, so they can worry about injuries, and then you don’t have to.
But I can hear your angry tweet being typed as we speak …
IT’S A GAME. Of course players want to play. Of course we don’t want to watch while always thinking about whether or not a player is going to get hurt. So after all of that …
Coach Saban, I do get it. You really can’t coach and worry about injuries – at least in the macro sense. Football players getting hurt is part of doing business, and you have to keep coaching through it all no matter what.
Of course you can’t coach scared.
It’s why depth matters. It’s why the “Next Man Up” idea is so important, and it’s why every backup has to always be prepared like he’s about to go in.
But …
That wasn’t some player.
That was Tua Tagovailoa.
“Well, if this is it old boy, I hope you don’t mind if I go out speaking the King’s.”
If you’re off to the NFL after all of this – as you should be …
Thanks, Tua. That was a blast.
NEXT: The No. 1 team’s glitch …
But don’t change, LSU … this version is too much fun
So, are we all just going to ignore this whole LSU Is Bad At Defense thing?
Alright, “bad” is an overstatement.
To be fair, the Alabama offense when Tua Tagovailoa was at the helm was an all-time great fun show of a passing game – and still might be with Mac Jones winging it. And on the right day, Ole Miss offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez’s rushing attack is devastating.
However …
LSU just got ripped apart by the Rebels for 402 rushing yards and four touchdowns in a 58-37 Tiger win. In the game before that, Tua and his guys went off for 418 passing yards and four scores – and yes, even a desperation late bomb counts in the equation.
Florida’s Kyle Trask went off for over 300 yards through the air, and Sam Ehlinger of Texas threw for over 400. But whatever … the offense is enough to overcome anything and anyone in the College Football Playoff, right?
At the moment, LSU is 47th in the nation in total defense.
Last year, Clemson finished fifth in total D.
2017 national champion Alabama finished No. 1 in the nation in total defense. 2016 Clemson finished 8th, 2015 Alabama finished 3rd, and 2014 Ohio State finished 19th.
How about in the final years of the BCS era?
2013 Florida State’s D ended up third in the nation. The 2011 and 2012 Alabama defenses both finished No. 1, and 2010 Auburn …
There’s the outlier. The Tigers won the national title with the 60th-best defense in college football.
2009 Alabama? No. 2.
So over the last ten years, nine of the national champions finished in the top 20 in total defense, and eight were in the top ten. What does it all mean?
Ohio State is No. 1 in the nation in total defense right now.
Clemson is No. 2, Utah is No. 3, Georgia is No. 6, and Oregon is No. 14.
NEXT: If everyone got contract extensions after beating Idaho State …
#FreeContractExtensions
Oh for the love of …
Didn’t we JUST go through a firing of Willie Taggart and Chad Morris?
Arkansas is paying Morris around $10 million to go away and take his four wins with him, and Florida State will be holding bake sales for the next hundred-gajillion years to pay off the $20 million it’s going to take to make Taggart and his former staff whole.
And yet, for some moronic reason, schools are STILL offering mediocre head coaches unnecessary contract extensions.
If you lose a recruit because you’re signed through 2022 instead of 2026, you’re a sucky recruiter.
BYU’s Kalani Sitake has been fine.
He’s going to take BYU to its third bowl game in four years. Yippee.
He’s 26-23 in just under four seasons at the helm, and that was enough to earn him a three-year contract extension.
He was 2-4 with a stunning win at Tennessee and a fun home victory over USC, but his team lost to Toledo and USF, and it got rolled by Utah.
However, because his Cougars beat a Boise State team without starting quarterback Hank Bachmeier, and followed it up with wins over Utah State Liberty and Idaho State, he’s being locked in for more years.
Of course, let’s hope it works. There’s something to be said for sticking with a guy and letting him develop the program … IF YOU STICK WITH HIM through the entire deal.
Let’s just see how this looks next year after BYU starts out with this: at Utah, Michigan State, at Arizona State, at Minnesota, Utah State, Missouri, Houston, at Northern Illinois, at Boise State, San Diego State, and finishes up with at Stanford.
This is all fun for now, but if the Cougars start next year 0-4 …
NEXT: Five Cavalcade of Whimsy footballey opinions and, like, other stuff
Week Four of the Cavalcade’s “USE A CUCK-TAYEL STICK”
Here’s what happens when you try to grab Myles Garrett’s quesadilla sample using your fingers …
Which leads me to …
Five Cavalcade of Whimsy footballey opinions and, like, other stuff
5. The Myles Garrett incident
Are we all done now pretending to be outraged, and can we finally just admit that we were completely and totally entertained by the end of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if Mason Rudolph was injured in any way, of course this changes, of course it would be horrific, and of course this was a vile act by Garrett that should never, ever, ever happen again. But since all those silly men were completely fine …
Come on.
In that same game, the respective brains of JuJu Smith-Schuster and Dionte Johnson were smashed up against the inside of their skulls so hard that they couldn’t walk off the field without help. A Pittsburgh special teamer was motionless after his neck went the wrong way on a tackle – but after a little bit, he appeared to be fine.
Yay! That’s okay, but Garrett broke “the code” and now he’s history’s greatest monster?
What are we doing here?
4. Notre Dame’s streak
The real shocker isn’t that Notre Dame’s home sell-out streak of 273 games that stretched back to 1973 didn’t come to an end. It’s that so many people are still going to games.
There’s nothing like being there at a massive event, and there’s nothing like the energy of being at an important game. But for a run-of-the-mill sporting even that’ll be memory dumped ten minutes after it’s over?
It’s 2019. Going to the bar and watching 13 games at once – or sitting in your living room and watching them on a kick-ass TV – is far better than blowing your whole day and hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to go watch the thing in person.
3. The nightmare at Jordan-Hare
When Georgia running back Brian Herrien couldn’t avoid Georgia student photographer Chamberlain Smith on the sidelines, ran into her and knocked her out, that’s when the whole thoughts and prayers thing sincerely kicked into high gear.
Thank goodness she appears to be okay …
And now, everyone is up in arms about the way Gary Danielson reacted to the horrific moment with a bit of a chuckle. That wasn’t good, but even worse was the way-too-long close-up the CBS cameras had on an unconscious Smith as she was being carted off the field on a stretcher.
TV producers, there’s no need to do that when players get injured, and take that times 100 when it’s anyone else in that particular situation.
2. The Scott Frost extension
Frost was already signed on at Nebraska through 2024, but the school thought it necessary to lock him up for an additional two years despite going an awe-inspiring 8-14 in his first 22 games. And after the announcement of the extension …
The Huskers got walloped by Wisconsin. Again.
Nebraska isn’t going to fire Frost, mainly because it can’t. Where do you go if you’re this program and the hottest coach in all of football two years ago/native son can’t turn it around?
He needs more time, more players, more speed, more defensive linemen, more … wins.
And that’s where next year’s team comes in.
Purdue, Central Michigan, South Dakota State, Cincinnati, at Northwestern, Illinois, at Rutgers. That’s 7-0 if you’re competent, 5-2 if you’re not.
Everyone will be in love with Frost. Everyone will point out how it’s all working, and then …
At Ohio State. Penn State, at Iowa, at Wisconsin, Minnesota.
1. Free Mizzou
The NCAA should never have punished Missouri’s football program with a bowl ban this year and sanctions for self-reporting a violation that was cleaned up in-house. The school wasn’t trying to get away with anything, and it did what it was supposed to do once the violation was uncovered.
So if the NCAA won’t reverse the ban because it would be the right thing to do, it needs to do it because the SEC won’t have enough teams to fill out the bowl slots.
LSU, Alabama and Georgia are all near-locks to end up in either the College Football Playoff or a New Year’s Six bowl game, and I’ll throw Florida as a sure-thing in the NY6 mix, too.
That takes out four SEC teams, and South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Arkansas are already out. Mississippi State could absolutely lose to Ole Miss – it would be out. Tennessee could absolutely whiff its last two games against Missouri and Vanderbilt – it would be out. That leaves Texas A&M, Auburn and Kentucky as the only three sure-thing bowl teams left, with anywhere between four to six bowls being open.
Tennessee and Mississippi State will likely get in, but there would still be a ton of strong open bowl game slots needing to be filled. If Missouri can beat either Tennessee or Arkansas, it would get to six wins and be eligible, but only if the NCAA does the right thing.
NEXT: The sure-thing picks of the century for this week
This week’s reason I should be the SIXTH prognosticator on the set of the new FOX College Football Pregame thingy …
Your 2019 Oklahoma Sooners were down 28-3 to Baylor …
The sure-thing, 100%, rock-solid lock, sell the house, sell the kids, no doubt about it picks of the century for this week
PICK SO FAR: 55-22 SU, 41-39-3 ATS
Working my way back to respectability after a brutal start – 4-2 ATS last week – this is my Western Carolina week before I blow it out during Thanksgiving.
Fortunately, these picks are all correct.
If you choose to dabble, sign up with BetMGM though this link to take part in any of these games or other action on the schedule. It’ll make the world a better place.
Using the BetMGM lines …
– Wyoming -7 over Colorado State
– Nebraska -4 over Maryland
– Wake Forest -6 over Duke
– TCU +18 over Oklahoma (but Oklahoma outright)
– Michigan State -20.5 over Rutgers
– UTEP +8 over New Mexico State
– Ohio State -17.5 over Penn State
C.O.W. shameless gimmick item …
The weekly five Overrated/Underrated aspects of the world
5) Overrated: I KNOW, I already did the Nebraska bit, but considering my unquenchable thirst to use this photo ANYTIME I can.
Underrated: The look on your face when people wanted you fired partially because you kept getting steamrolled by Wisconsin – but won nine games a year, anyway – and the current guy gets a contract extension … right before getting steamrolled by Wisconsin.
4) Overrated: Sports media types who lost the ability to be amazed by sports
Underrated: These guys when they just let it fly …
3) Overrated: The public screaming that you can’t win a “big game” if you lose to Michigan State.
Underrated: The public dismissing the game against Michigan State as a “big game” if you win it.
2) Overrated: Absolutely everything about John Legend
Underrated: Me finishing third – again – in the race for CFN’s Sexiest Man Alive.
1) Overrated: Not watching Clemson for weeks – and why would you? – because of its weak schedule, and not noticing that it’s SO good right now.
Underrated: Sometimes, college football gets it really, really right.
Sorry if this column sucked, I wasn’t my fault …
Unlike the coolest kid in the history of the world, I sat out in the freezing cold at this place on a Sunday for 16 hours and got nothing …
