College football Week 14 superlatives: Jim Harbaugh, Nick Saban outcoached and outclassed

Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban were outcoached and outclassed in losses to their rivals and they have to look in the mirror and take accountability.

The college football regular season is over and three of four College Football Playoff spots are secured. Ohio State made its case to keep the No. 1 ranking after a 29-point win vs. Michigan with LSU and Clemson behind them. The fourth spot is to be determined on Championship Weekend, but it won’t be Alabama who lost the Iron Bowl to suffer their second defeat.

Rivalry Week is always a great time to showcase the best and the worst. From Jim Harbaugh and Dabo Swinney being a bit testy in with reporters to Nick Saban whining about Auburn playing unfair, the coaches are in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow and Lynn Bowden are among the players who have the spotlight on them for all the right reasons.

Worst coaching in a rivalry game: Jim Harbaugh, Michigan

Jim Harbaugh fell to 0-5 vs. Ohio State as Michigan’s head coach and has been outscored by an average of 19 points in those games. After giving up 62 last year, Michigan allowed another 56 as Ohio State did whatever they wanted. Harbaugh was understandably prickly after. Who wouldn’t be after getting reminded of the vast difference between the two programs?

While some fans may want Harbaugh fired over his inability thus far to compete with the one team they need to compete with, that’s not happening. Accept it and move on.

There’s the argument that if Harbaugh will not be the Michigan head coach next year, it’ll be as a result of him taking an NFL job. That’s always possible but I don’t know how many teams are going to be willing to give him a Jon Gruden-like contract and personnel power to make him leave Ann Arbor.

Second, if an NFL team is looking at the college coaching market, why not look at Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley? He’s shown so much more offensive genius and success developing quarterbacks than Harbaugh has in the last five years. I’d be more likely to call Ryan Day who just beat Harbaugh. The first-year head coach of the Buckeyes looks like he’s well on his way to owning Harbaugh too like Urban Meyer did.

It’s been a long time since Harbaugh was coaching Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick for the San Francisco 49ers or Andrew Luck at Stanford before that.

At some point, Michigan will win again vs. Ohio State. If there was ever the year to do it, it would have been this year after Urban Meyer retired and Dwayne Haskins went to the NFL. It didn’t matter for Ohio State who continues to own their rival.

Harbaugh will be back next year and there will be momentum behind the Wolverines as many ask if 2020 is finally the year for the losing streak to snap. It won’t. Ohio State has won eight in a row and 14 of the last 15. This isn’t just a trend. This is The Game.

Worst loser: Nick Saban, Alabama

Alabama lost the Iron Bowl to Alabama after a series of self-destructive moves proved fatal in the 48-45 loss. The 48 points are the most allowed by a Saban-coached team since Michigan State allowed Drew Brees and Purdue to beat them 52-28 in 1999.

Alabama kicker Joseph Bulovas missed a 30-yard field goal with two minutes that would have tied it. This is the worst fear of Alabama fans who have now seen 101 missed field goals in the Saban era, according to ESPN Stats & Info. That’s eight more than any other team since 2007 and Bulovas is the only SEC kicker to miss multiple field goals from 30 yards or less this season.

Alabama quarterback Mac Jones threw four touchdowns for Alabama but threw two for Auburn who had a pair of interceptions returned for touchdowns. The biggest being a 100-yarder midway through the third quarter that could have given Alabama an insurmountable lead.

When Alabama wasn’t missing kicks, throwing pick-sixes or committing mind-numbing penalties, they were the victims of some questionable officiating. The first being when Auburn was allowed to kick a field goal after one second was put on the clock. Funny how that ended up being the difference, right? The second was what had Nick Saban looking like a sore loser afterward.

Auburn lined up their punter as a wide receiver on 4th down, confusing Alabama who tried a mass substitution and was flagged for too many men on the field. The penalty gave Auburn a first down and could kneel out the clock. Saban thought it was unfair what Auburn did and the refs didn’t give his team enough time to react.

“I really feel that it was a pretty unfair play at the end of the game,” Saban said in the postgame press conference. “They substituted the punter as a wide receiver so we put the punt team in.”

This just comes across as a coach who had his slim playoff hopes come to a halt against his rival after a game that saw his team shoot itself in the foot repeatedly. When you hardly ever lose, it’s no wonder coaches can’t often handle losing. In this instance, Saban comes off looking pretty petty.

Best Heisman moment: Joe Burreaux, LSU

Turn up the sound. Hit play. Enjoy.

This. This is what makes college football the best sport on the planet. Joe Burrow with Burreaux on the back to give love back to the LSU fans and community who took him the last two years is enough to make anyone get choked up. He also set the SEC record for passing yards and his next touchdown will give him ownership of that one too.

Burrow is going to win the Heisman on Dec. 14. He might win the national championship one month later. A few months after that, he might be the No. 1 pick of the Cincinnati Bengals and play games about three hours from his Plains, Ohio hometown. In a year full of lifetime memories for Burrow, this one has to rank near the top.

Best play by a Heisman candidate: Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma

There were a lot of plays to go through with Jonathan Taylor, J.K. Dobbins, Joe Burrow and Justin Fields all having monster days. However, the play of the week from the Heisman contenders goes to Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts who did something a quarterback doesn’t do.

https://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1200954489030823936

He caught a touchdown pass on the “Sooner Special” to add to his touchdown total that is over 50 on the season. Hurts will have 30 passing touchdowns, 20 rushing touchdowns and now adds a receiving touchdown. You gotta feel good for Hurts having all this success and a shot at the playoff in his first year with the Sooners. I also love rivalry games that deliver these types of trick plays on an annual basis.

Worst use of the no respect card: Clemson

Clemson might be the best No. 3 seed we’ve seen in college football and certainly in the College Football Playoff era. The reigning national champions are playing their best football of the year heading into the ACC Championship Game vs. Virginia. Yes, they are the No. 3 seed, which sounds weird when you consider they look even more impressive than last year’s 15-0 team. They could be No. 1, sure, but Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney playing the “no one respects us” card seems a bit much.

No one wants to play Clemson right now. There is so much attention about who will get the No. 1 seed between Ohio State and LSU because they’ll earn the right to avoid playing them in the semi-finals.

Trevor Lawrence, Tee Higgins, Travis Etienne, Justyn Ross and the Clemson offense are unstoppable and the defense might be even better than when they had an NFL-ready defensive line.

Swinney went off in postgame comments, relayed by The Athletic’s Grace Raynor:

"“How important is this game? It’s huge. I mean, it’s huge from a national standpoint because obviously if we lose this game, I mean, they’re going to kick us out. They don’t want us in there anyway. We’d drop to No. 20. I mean, Georgia loses to this very same team and the very next day, it’s, ‘How do we keep Georgia in it?’ We win to the team that beat South Carolina (North Carolina) and it’s, ‘How do we get Clemson out?’ It’s the dadgumest thing. So it’s big. Because they can’t vote us out.” “I mean, we’ve got to go (undefeated). We’ve got to go 30-0. We ain’t got no choice. Because ‘we don’t play nobody.’ So it’s big from a national standpoint, but it’s huge for this state and it’s huge for our program.”"

It’s one thing to say Clemson is underrated. It’s another to say they want to kick you out of the playoff. It’s valid to question who Clemson has beat because the ACC is down. It’s perfectly reasonable for Swinney to be upset and feel the need to stand up and defend his team. He can use this as an opportunity to campaign for his team. It won’t hurt. It’s like NBA coaches posturing for more calls to go their way in postgame press conferences. But I think the whole anti-Clemson stuff is a bit of a reach. Lawrence still hasn’t lost a game at Clemson and who knows if he ever will. This team is that good.

Best player not getting enough attention: Lynn Bowden, Kentucky

Lynn Bowden is supposed to be Kentucky’s best receiver but he hasn’t caught a pass in the last seven games. So what gives? Kentucky’s top receiver became their quarterback after the season-ending injury to Terry Wilson and Sawyer Smith also battling through injuries, Bowden became the team’s starting quarterback. As it turns out, he’s been a revelation too.

Bowden went 5-2 as the starter, including three straight wins to close the season to secure a bowl game. Kentucky has transformed their offense and passes as much as option teams. It hasn’t hurt the Wildcats because Bowden is running wild over defenses.

In Kentucky’s win over Louisville, Bowden ran for 284 yards and four touchdowns on only 22 carries. His 12.4 yards per carry average is the second game in a row he’s had double-digit yards per rush. In seven games, he’s rushed for 1,136 yards. If you project that over a 12 game season, Bowden would have 1,947 yards, which would give him one of the best rushing seasons by a college football quarterback in the history of the sport.

Not too bad for a guy who was playing wide receiver two months ago, huh?

Worst way to kill playoff drama: Auburn wins Iron Bowl

Many already eliminated Alabama after they lost to LSU earlier this month. It cost Alabama their last chance to get a signature win to help their resume as a non-conference champion. But after the Tide lost to Auburn in the Iron Bowl, Alabama is eliminated with two losses.

This removes any drama there would have been on the final weekend to see if Utah or the Big 12 champion (Baylor or Oklahoma) would pass Alabama who would be sitting on Championship Weekend. The door was open slightly for Alabama but needed a lot of help to get there, even if they won out. Now, all that drama and potential chaos scenarios fans enjoy thinking about are over.

The only drama now depends on if Georgia loses the SEC Championship Game. If they lose, will it be Utah or Oklahoma/Baylor to get the fourth spot?

If Utah wins the Pac-12, it’ll be them.

If Utah wins a tight game and Oklahoma wins the Big 12 championship in a rout, they’ll get the fourth spot.

If Georgia wins, it’ll be Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, LSU.

Best attempt at Championship Week predictions

The regular season is over and Championship Week awaits to settle the fourth playoff team and determine the New Year’s Six bowls and remaining bowl destinations. The loaded Saturday slates of games are over but we still have a full day of championship games, so I’m going to do my best to make some predictions. My pick to win is in bold.

• Pac-12: Utah vs. Oregon
• MAC: Central Michigan vs. Miami (OH)
• Sun Belt: Louisiana at Appalachian State
• C-USA: UAB at Florida Atlantic
• American: Cincinnati vs. Memphis
• SEC: Georgia vs. LSU
• Mountain West: Hawaii at Boise State
• ACC: Clemson vs. Virginia
• Big Ten: Wisconsin vs. Ohio State
• Big 12: Oklahoma vs. Baylor

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