Nebraska shafted by Big Ten, Clemson cruises, Pac-12 close, make way for the SEC

Nebraska miffed with the Big Ten, Clemson cruises, Rex Culpepper gets the biggest win of the week, Pac-12 gets closer to a return, the end of Tate Martell and the start of the SEC season.

The Big Ten didn’t do Nebraska any favors with their revised schedule and there are whispers that the league is sending a message to the program for being so vocal in their disdain for the conference, including threatening to leave the conference and threatening legal action.

Nebraska’s eight-game football schedule is in a word, brutal. Scott Frost‘s team has been a disappointment thus far in his two years back at his alma mater and they’ll be lucky to win three games this fall. The Huskers have to open up on the road at Ohio State and then get Wisconsin in Week 2. They should beat Northwestern in Week 3 but then get Penn State in Week 4, so they could be staring down the barrel of a 1-3 start.

Dan Patrick reported his source told him the Big Ten was so miffed with Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, Athletic Director Bill Moos and Frost for being so outspoken that they sent a message by burying them with this gauntlet.

Moos was not too jovial after seeing the schedule and was essentially pleading for his team to catch a break.

“I’m sure my friend (and Ohio State Athletic Director) Gene Smith is smiling today. His friend Bill Moos is not,” Moos said via Omaha World-Herald. “I’ve got a good football team with a great football coach that deserves a break here or there to start getting back on track to being a contender in the Big Ten West.”

When you’re Nebraska and you spent the last month chirping at the conference, you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt. This isn’t 1995. And you’re not Ohio State.

Fans had some laughs at the expense of Nebraska and the schedule they’ll have to navigate.

The Big Ten should have protected Ohio State and they did. The Buckeyes are a championship contender, the only title contender in the Big Ten, and they avoided Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa from the Big Ten West. Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said flat-out it was easy.

It’s not so different than what the SEC did when they protected Alabama’s national title aspirations with their revised conference-only schedule. The Crimson Tide already had Georgia on the schedule, but they avoided a potential game with Florida with the league adding Missouri and Kentucky to the 10-game schedule.

In case you needed a refresher, conferences are going to protect their cash cows and they’re going to protect the bag at all costs.

Moos can be upset and complain about the Nebraska football schedule, but his players and coaches will just be glad they get a shot to play football this fall. That’s all that matters. Anything else is just sour grapes.

Clemson train keeps on rolling and their quarterback room may have more talent than some NFL teams

Clemson didn’t face much of a test vs. The Citadel. The only question was whether Trevor Lawrence would break a sweat before he was lifted. The Tigers won 49-0, extended the nation’s longest home winning streak to 23 games and set a new ACC record with 31 straight wins, breaking the record previously held by Florida State from 2013-2015.

Okay, so it’s The Citadel, what’s impressive about beating them? Well, nothing really, but all Clemson’ talent was on display on Saturday, including three quarterbacks who figure to be playing on Sundays in the next few years.

You already know about Lawrence who has had a lock on being the No. 1 pick in the draft since his freshman season. You may know a little bit about D.J. Uiagalelei, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound true freshman who was the No. 1 pro-style quarterback recruit last season. But you probably don’t know much about Taisun Phommachanh who was a four-star recruit and No. 4 dual-threat recruit in the 2019 class.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has raved about his trio of signal-callers that could all be competing against each other in the NFL in a few years. It’s ridiculous the amount of talent in the quarterback room at Clemson (remember, they also saw Chase Brice transfer to Duke where he’s now the starter). There are NFL teams that would love to have that amount of high-end talent and absurd depth. (Hello, Chicago Bears).

Rex Culpepper throws his first touchdown since being declared cancer-free

Syracuse didn’t beat Pittsburgh but you’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger winner this weekend than Orange quarterback Rex Culpepper. The backup provided a spark for the Orange who took a brief lead against the Panthers when he launched a 69-yard touchdown, his first since being declared cancer-free in the summer of 2018.

Culpepper underwent surgery and 100 hours of chemotherapy since his testicular cancer diagnosis. His parents watched from their home and the emotions were overflowing.

If you’re looking for a player to root for this season, look no further than Culpepper who has been an inspiration to his teammates throughout his fight.

The collapsed star of Tate Martell

The college career of Tate Martell may be over. The reserve Miami quarterback has opted out of the season and is looking to transfer. The one-time high school superstar at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas has never been able to find success or a home at the college level.

Martell first committed to Washington before de-committing and committing to Texas A&M. But then he de-committed from the Aggies and committed to Ohio State where he played in mop-up duty behind Dwayne Haskins. When Justin Fields was thinking of transferring to Ohio State, Martell took a shot about making sure he “doesn’t swing and miss, especially a second time.”

Martell was the last one who should have said something like that and it blew up in his face in spectacular fashion. Fields enrolled at Ohio State and Martell quickly bailed in favor of Miami.

But he never got traction at The U where he tried to make a switch to slot receiver and now he’s looking for a home.

There was a time when Martell was ranked behind only former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa among the 2017 dual-threat quarterback recruits and ahead of current college stars such as Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond and Texas’ Sam Ehlinger.

Stars matter in recruiting, but when it came to Martell, he collapsed unto himself and is a black hole.

It’s not a question of if the Pac-12 returns, it’s a question of when the Pac-12 returns

After the Big Ten announced they’ll start their season on Oct. 24, the spotlight quickly shifted to the Pac-12 to see if they’d follow their lead again and reverse course and play ball. The Pac-12 announced their postponement plans about 10 seconds after the Big Ten in August. They used the Big Ten to shield themselves from the flak the league and conference commissioner, Kevin Warren, was receiving from all angles.

The Pac-12 had a few more political hurdles to clear to make a return to the field possible, but so far, the California and Oregon politicians have said they won’t stand in the way of Pac-12 football being played.

Jon Wilner of The Mercury News has covered the news like a Thorpe-award cornerback on a walk-on receiver and he writes the Pac-12 will have a season, but it’s just a matter of locking in a specific start date. A potential Halloween start has been floated but that may limit the number of teams that can play to half the league. A Nov. 7 start could be a reality. This would allow for the Pac-12 teams to have enough time to prepare for the season after they didn’t have the benefit of a spring practice session and haven’t been able to practice compared to the Big Ten schools.

While it will be great for fans to see their favorite teams and players back on the football field, it’ll be too late to be considered for a spot in the College Football Playoff. The Pac-12 has done a good enough job of eliminating themselves since the advent of the four-team playoff with only 2014 Oregon and 2016 Washington earning berths, but barring the playoff delaying the selection of the four teams from the Dec. 20 date, the Pac-12 won’t have enough games to make a fair impression on the committee compared to the ACC, Big 12, SEC and even the Big Ten who will have a two-week head start.

The prospect of having a six-game schedule and a Pac-12 Championship Game this fall is still infinitely better than no football though.

The appetizer portion of the meal is over and now we make room for the main course with the return of the SEC

No disrespect to the Big 12, ACC, AAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA teams that have played in the first three weeks, but it was basically to the appetizer portion of the meal and the SEC is the entree that is about to be put in front of us. You know that excitement when you see your server coming out with their big platter of food and walking toward your table and you pretend to act all cool so as to not freak out your waiter or waitress? Oh, only me? I don’t believe you.

While the first three weeks haven’t delivered much in the way of drama, good games or great performances outside of watching Lawrence and Spencer Rattler, watching the SEC will officially kick off the college football season.

Lane Kiffin makes his Ole Miss debut vs. Florida. Mike Leach makes his Mississippi State debut against the depleted national champions, LSU, who could be ripe for an upset. And speaking of upset alert, look out for Mark Stoops’ Kentucky putting Auburn on upset alert. Alabama and Georgia should breeze to wins vs. Missouri and Arkansas, respectively. The same should be said for Texas A&M vs. Vanderbilt but Tennessee may need to sweat out four quarters vs. South Carolina.

Other notable games to look forward to in Week 4 include Florida State without head coach Mike Norvell who tested positive for the coronavirus at Miami with College GameDay in attendance. Rattler looks to make his next Heisman statement as Oklahoma takes on Kansas State, Notre Dame looks to improve to 3-0 against Wake Forest and Cincinnati vs. Army is the best game among non-Power 5 schools.

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