I watched all, or significant parts of several college football games last Saturday ( October 9th, 2020 ). Utah, as always looked very impressive. USC looked dominant on both sides of the ball against CU. Playing on the road, Utah simply took USC apart. One thing I respect about the Utes program, from a physicality standpoint they rarely get outplayed and usually win the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
In his 8th season at Penn State, James Franklin has put together a terrific Program. Big, Strong, Fast, & Aggressive. In my opinion, Penn State has one of the top three defenses in P5 football this year. His overall record at Penn State is 65 - 29 ( 40 and 24 in Conference ). If you take away the 2020 COVID year, he is 61 - 24 ( 36 - 19 in Conference ). Had Penn State's QB not been injured, it might be the Nittany Lions ranked 2nd behind Georgia. Anyway, James Franklin took an awful Vanderbilt team and went to three bowl games in his three years as Head Coach. I'd really like to know how he accomplished that. Now that he is in the Big 10 and has resources, Penn State fans can look forward to good / great Bowl games every year and occasional shots at the CFB. Of course, there is nothing better than to make the 4 team playoff, but even if a team misses the cut, it's fun to be in the discussion.
Iowa looked great on Defense. Talk about a well coached unit. In my opinion, the Hawkeye Defense is the pure definition of of "team" defense. This group knows their assignments, rarely out of position, and they trust their teammates. Very similar to Penn States Defense. Penn State might have more pure talent & speed than the Iowa Defense, but it is very close either way. Iowa's offense, which isn't what I consider "explosive" makes very few mistakes and rarely runs plays that result in negative yardage. Similar to Utah, Iowa almost always wins the battles in the trenches. If they don't win those battles outright, their O-Line and D-Line keep it close. Before I posted this, I took a quick look at the Hawkeye roster. I counted 51 players from the State of Iowa ( not generally considered a recruiting hotbed ). https://hawkeyesports.com/sports/football/roster/
I haven't done any research to prove, or disprove this next statement. Over the last 5 - 10 years, Head Coaches like Kyle Whittingham at Utah, Troy Calhoun at Air Force, Luke Fickell at Cincinnati, & Kirk Ferentz at Iowa seem to rarely disappoint. I'm sure there are several others that I'm not thinking about right now. Clearly, those four know how to build a sustainable Program. I am watching UCLA very closely this year. Count me among those who thought Kelly would have been fired after posting only 10 wins in his first three seasons ( granted, one of those years was the COVID short season ). At 4 - 2 this year, UCLA is starting to look a little bit like a Chip Kelly Oregon team. Maybe there is something to building stability first, and taking a patient approach. We will know more as the season plays out.
In his 8th season at Penn State, James Franklin has put together a terrific Program. Big, Strong, Fast, & Aggressive. In my opinion, Penn State has one of the top three defenses in P5 football this year. His overall record at Penn State is 65 - 29 ( 40 and 24 in Conference ). If you take away the 2020 COVID year, he is 61 - 24 ( 36 - 19 in Conference ). Had Penn State's QB not been injured, it might be the Nittany Lions ranked 2nd behind Georgia. Anyway, James Franklin took an awful Vanderbilt team and went to three bowl games in his three years as Head Coach. I'd really like to know how he accomplished that. Now that he is in the Big 10 and has resources, Penn State fans can look forward to good / great Bowl games every year and occasional shots at the CFB. Of course, there is nothing better than to make the 4 team playoff, but even if a team misses the cut, it's fun to be in the discussion.
Iowa looked great on Defense. Talk about a well coached unit. In my opinion, the Hawkeye Defense is the pure definition of of "team" defense. This group knows their assignments, rarely out of position, and they trust their teammates. Very similar to Penn States Defense. Penn State might have more pure talent & speed than the Iowa Defense, but it is very close either way. Iowa's offense, which isn't what I consider "explosive" makes very few mistakes and rarely runs plays that result in negative yardage. Similar to Utah, Iowa almost always wins the battles in the trenches. If they don't win those battles outright, their O-Line and D-Line keep it close. Before I posted this, I took a quick look at the Hawkeye roster. I counted 51 players from the State of Iowa ( not generally considered a recruiting hotbed ). https://hawkeyesports.com/sports/football/roster/
I haven't done any research to prove, or disprove this next statement. Over the last 5 - 10 years, Head Coaches like Kyle Whittingham at Utah, Troy Calhoun at Air Force, Luke Fickell at Cincinnati, & Kirk Ferentz at Iowa seem to rarely disappoint. I'm sure there are several others that I'm not thinking about right now. Clearly, those four know how to build a sustainable Program. I am watching UCLA very closely this year. Count me among those who thought Kelly would have been fired after posting only 10 wins in his first three seasons ( granted, one of those years was the COVID short season ). At 4 - 2 this year, UCLA is starting to look a little bit like a Chip Kelly Oregon team. Maybe there is something to building stability first, and taking a patient approach. We will know more as the season plays out.
