Weekend winners
Deion. Heck every person named Sanders from the Colonel to Barry to Prime Time to his son Shedeur, who threw for 510 yards in his first Power Five start. While the outcome surprised a dropped-jaw college football nation, Deion's post-game victory laps were the least unsurprising thing since those Crystal Lake teenagers who decided to go the "barn" for some alone time got whacked by Jason in every "Friday the 13th" movie.
FSU. Feels like every September, someone says "Texas is back." And goodness it's hard to remember when Nebraska and even Miami were relevant. But the Seminoles looked every bit Bobby Bowden-era good last night in a smoke show that left LSU in the dust. It's hard not to see the Seminoles in the playoff considering their only losable game left is at Clemson in three weeks, and if LSU rebounds and wins 10 games, the beatdown FSU delivered Sunday night likely earned the Noles a mulligan.
SEC bullies. Hey, I think some SEC team just scored again. Yes, the divide in talent level garnered huge point-spreads and was extreme in every game but South Carolina's loss to UNC and the aforementioned FSU stomping of LSU. More on that in a moment. But what made for boring football also made for impressive results — and quite the coin for those of us who played more than a few overs this weekend.
The Braves. That's how you show up and handle your BID-ness in a match-up of the two best teams in baseball. The Braves took the first three and pushed around a Dodgers pitching staff that is flawed. Welcome to the -er months friends.
Caleb Williams. The reigning Heisman winner has nine TD passes in two lopsided games. Heck, the QB numbers were staggering from the weekend. More on that in a moment.
This Houston "Astroids" fan. This interview of a fan who was called for interference Sunday is 100% going to make your Labor Day better.
Weekend losers
All of us. Jimmy Buffett died. I will not call him a great vocalist per se. But we all will forever miss Jimmy Buffett the entertainer. Rest in peace, my man. And War Eagle.
Brian Kelly. OMG. What was that? And who was the defensive whiz who elected to put the best pass rusher in the country in coverage? Harold Perkins is more LT than Derrick Brooks. Use him as such friends. And, for all the talk about expansion, the only incentive to play games like this one will be an expanded playoff, because it's hard to see LSU making the playoff with anything short of running the table and throttling Georgia in the title game, no?
UTC football. Wow. I can say a bunch of things, but I will just offer this. If this loss does not make Rusty Wright's seat hot — with KSU coming to Finley on Saturday — then what will? North Alabama — not Alabama, North Alabama mind you — put 41 on a team these coaches have been saying all August was the best they've had.
Butch Jones. This has failed right? Arkansas State is certainly a money game for Oklahoma, but 73-bagel? Hey, at least he has champions at life.
College GameDay. I enjoyed the injection pf Pat McAfee — who actually called the Colorado and Deion outright win — but we the roles need to be better defined. And since they canned David Pollack, and McAfee is going to be more pro wrestler than professional analyst, they are going to need some more insight and less schtick. Replace Desmond with Louis Riddick or Orlovsoky. And I think we all need to agree and need to come to terms that Lee Corso needs to needs to be out there just for the head gear pick, right?
QB buffet
So we mentioned two QB1 who were assuredly Saturday stars.
(Side question: How much do you think Caleb Williams is making in NIL? He's the reigning Heisman winner, so Nissan Heisman House commercials come with a check. He's in several national Wendy's ads as well as the playing face on the Dr Pepper Fansville ads. That's three national brands across all the college football networks? He's close to Livvy Dunne money, right?)
Look around.
Drake Maye at UNC looked the part.
Caleb Williams at USC has looked the part from Day 1.
Lil' Prime was was on Time in Colorado's upset.
Jordan Travis was a dude, and to be fair, Jayden Daniels was the lone person in purple and gold that did not disappoint Sunday night.
The QB controversy at Alabama seems silly now, but if it truly was a controversy considering how well Jalen Milroe played — and looked — Alabama has the deepest QB room in the country.
Joe Milton has the best college deep arm I can recall since watching JaMarcus Russell throw it 70 yards flat-footed in the Sugar Bowl.
Bo Nix could go from every Auburn fan wanting to help pack his transfer bags to a Heisman invite. And he may finish third in the Pac-12 QB voting considering Washington's Michael Pennix Jr. is also going to put up video game numbers.
Sam Hartman is a bona fide QB1 — maybe the first Notre Dame has had since, who Brady Quinn — so he definitely will get a Heisman invite.
And that's before we get to the transfer portal heroes of Jaxson Dart at Ole Miss, Dillon Gabriel at OU, Quinn Ewers at Texas and a blast from the past by the name of TJ Finley, who threw for right at 300 yards and three TDs in Texas State's upset of Baylor.
To paraphrase Crash Davis when Larry Hockett came to the mound, in terms of determining which QBs are the best, "We dealing with a lot of (bleep) here."
And you have to think the folks in Indy — and maybe even in Carolina and Houston — who spent top-five picks on QBs with questions have to be making some alternative plans.
This year more than ever, play those rookies and throw everything them at them, because if Bryce Young or Anthony Richardson or CJ Stroud — or heck Desmond Ridder in the A-T-L or whomever the future QB will be in Nashville — is not ready to be QB1 by the Halloween, there are a slew of big-timers in the college ranks as we speak.
And of course, "Candlesticks always make a nice gift. Maybe we can find out where they are registered and get a nice play-setting. Let's get 2."
This and that
— Luke Donald is picking his captain additions to the European Ryder Cup side today.
— We will have a slew of NFL stuff the rest of the week. Deal? Deal.
— The Fab Four picks were on time this week. We hit Utah on Thursday, and crushed overs with Colorado-TCU, USC-Nevada, Auburn-UMass and escaped with UK covering almost four TDs in a 30-point win. We missed Central Michigan and underestimated Alabama's offense, which is going to bruise people with that running game. That's 5-2, which is doable (even if we gave almost all of it back last night on LSU.)
— You know the rules. Here's Paschall's wrap-up college football view.
Today's questions
Weekend winners and losers. Go.
Multiple choice Monday will feature two holiday questions for the price of one:
What's the word you would use to describe how your favorite college football team performed this weekend?
I'll start with promising in describing the offensive start for Hugh Freeze and the Auburn offense.
It also helps that Hugh has more than a little "ABH" — Anybody But Harsin — working in his favor among the fan base.
Discuss.
In honor of his passing, favorite Jimmy Buffet song? Mine is "Pirate Looks at 40." Saw Buffet twice in concert — once at Auburn and once in the A-T-L. The first was forgettable; the second was remarkable.
As for today, Sept. 4, well, let's review.
Paul Harvey would have been 105. Tom Watson is 74. Beyoncé is 42.
It's Labor Day. Rushmore of "labor," and have a little fun will ya?