Last year took the pressure-cooker aspect of college football to a new level.
After Labor Day weekend, Penn State was No. 2 in the Associated Press poll with LSU ranked No. 3. By Halloween, both Nittany Lions coach James Franklin and Tigers coach Brian Kelly were out of their respective jobs.
Franklin and Kelly were canned after their third defeats, which eliminated both programs from the 12-team College Football Playoff picture.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had the nation’s No. 1 team earlier this month, but the Longhorns are now No. 19 and staring at a potential third straight defeat Saturday night when No. 7 Ole Miss visits. The Longhorns have dropped 27-24 contests to Oklahoma and Florida, which were unranked.
“It’s easy to listen to the outside noise and how the sky is falling and that the season’s over, and what are we going to do next year?” Sarkisian said earlier this week in a news conference. “Hey, man, we’re 4-2, OK? Let’s be part of the solution. Let’s go 1-0 this week, and let’s get to 5-2. There is a lot of football left to be played, and I think we all saw that Saturday in the Southeastern Conference.