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Is it possible to feel bad after beating one of your top rivals by 14 points? Georgia fans are likely in a blender of emotions following Saturday’s 34-20 win against a very shorthanded Florida team. The final score may not reflect it, but the Gators had plenty of opportunities to steal one against the second-ranked Bulldogs.
Georgia scored two touchdowns in the final 4 minutes to produce a crooked line. Otherwise, Kirby Smart’s squad limped its way through a game it really should have won handily. If anything, Week 10 revealed a starting truth about the Dawgs: their ceiling is severely hampered by quarterback Carson Beck.
Despite his experience and preseason outlook as an All-American candidate and potential first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Beck looks lost right now. He has six interceptions to just two passing touchdowns over Georgia’s last two games. The Bulldogs are winning in spite of him, not because of him. That’s not something you want from your redshirt senior signal caller and supposed leader.
It’s not like he’s in a rut of bad luck. A lot of these interceptions are the result of bad decisions or bad throws. At least two of the three picks he tossed against Florida were due to the fact that he missed on reading Florida’s defensive alignment.
Georgia isn’t going to get where it wants to go with Beck at quarterback. Better teams than Florida — or teams that don’t lose quarterbacks like DJ Lagway to injury early in the game — will be able to crush the Bulldogs and Beck for their continued mistakes. The worst part is there might not be a better option on Georgia’s roster. Backups Gunnar Stockton and Jaden Rashada, a former Gators transfer, are extremely short on experience, and tossing them into the lineup this late into the year is asking for trouble.
The Bulldogs might be forced into doing something drastic if Beck can’t pick it up, though.
Penn State won’t break through under James Franklin
No, this isn’t a “fire James Franklin!” rant. Franklin is, inarguably, one of the 15 best coaches in college football — at the bare minimum, and he’s probably even higher than that — and Penn State is a consistent top-10 program with him at the helm.
Most schools would trade a lot for the consistent 10-win stability that Franklin brings to Happy Valley. And in a 12-team College Football Playoff, one that could expand even more as college football’s decision-makers never seem satisfied with the status quo, 10 wins is good enough.
All that said, there comes a point where you have to ask: Will Penn State every truly break through under Franklin? Consistent playoff appearances are fine, but does it actually mean anything if the Nittany Lions come away from each year without anything of substance?
It’s becoming more clear throughout the tears that Franklin isn’t fit to win the “big one.” Saturday’s 20-13 loss to Ohio State dropped Franklin to 0-11 against AP Top-five teams when he’s leading a ranked team; that’s the worst such record for a head coach since 2000.
Once Penn State gets to the playoff, which it almost certainly will, there’s no hope that it will make it very far. A deeper Big Ten, including the likes of Oregon, makes winning the conference more difficult on an annual basis — even if the Nittany Lions don’t have to play Ohio State and Michigan every single year.
It’s a tough spot for Franklin and Penn State. He’s not the type of coach you want to give up on, but questions about the program’s ceiling and direction under him are more than warranted.
Nebraska will never be ‘back’
Nebraska’s heyday is far, far behind it. Its 27-20 loss to a previously 2-5 UCLA was a sobering reminder that the Huskers just aren’t nationally relevant anymore.
That 5-1 start to the year wasn’t a sign that the program was turning a corner; it was a complete aberration. This football program doesn’t have a single bit of “clutch” in its DNA. Programs that are on the ascent — or, in Nebraska’s case, re-ascent — don’t lose one-score games on a weekly basis, especially not when they are favored by over a touchdown against a team that took almost two months to get to two wins.
Now there’s a good chance that Nebraska, which was on the verge of getting to six wins a month ago, won’t make a bowl game for an eighth consecutive year. The Huskers close the 2024 campaign against USC, Wisconsin and Iowa. Those are tossup games, at the very best. It’s hard to feel confident in this Nebraska team getting at least one win against that remaining slate.
Arizona is in a real bind
Arizona was put in a tough position when former coach Jedd Fisch left for Washington after building the Wildcats back into a 10-win program with upside as a conference contender. So the university went out and hired San Jose State’s Brent Brennan, who never won more than seven games in a single season and had an 0-3 bowl record with the Spartans.
That move hasn’t worked out thus far in spite of the fact that Arizona kept stalwarts like quarterback Noah Fifita and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan from entering the transfer portal in the wake of Fisch’s departure. The Wildcats hit rock bottom in Week 10 with their 56-12 loss to UCF, a team that dropped four straight Big 12 games entering Saturday’s slate.
Now Arizona, which once occupied a spot in the AP Top 25, is 15th out of 16 teams in the Big 12 with a 1-5 conference record. Four of those losses have come by at least 22 points.
So, what’s to be done about Brennan? McMillan, the heart and soul of the offense, is likely gone after this year. The Wildcats aren’t recruiting at an incredibly high clip, and it’s concerning that Brennan is struggling to get a team that won 10 games a year ago to bowl eligibility.
It doesn’t help his case that the athletic director that hired him and the president that presided over the transition are not at the university any longer. Both left, or were ousted, in the midst of a financial crisis that has Arizona facing a projected $177 million shortfall during fiscal year 2024.
Arizona may not have the money to simultaneously pay Brennan’s buyout while luring a significant upgrade. He’s not the answer for this program, though, and it could be wise to get ahead of what’s looking like a complete spiral.
Everything short of moving on from Mike Gundy is on the table; he’s one of a handful of coaches that has earned near immunity. That being said, there’s no sugarcoating things: 2024 has been an abject disaster.
Nothing is working for the Cowboys. They have steadily regressed at quarterback over the past few years and their current offensive philosophy isn’t working. Running back Ollie Gordon II has been a relative non-factor behind an over-matched offensive line. Teams don’t feel any sort of threat from Oklahoma State’s passing game, so they’re able to stack the box without much concern on the back end.
Defensively, a lot of the same problems persist. The Cowboys had their best game against the rush in Big 12 play in Saturday’s 42-21 loss to Arizona State and still allowed 225 yards on 45 carries. Conference opponents are averaging a whopping 293 yards rushing against Oklahoma State this year.
The secondary still has plenty of holes. Oklahoma State has a lot of assistants that have been on staff for a very long time, like offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn and co-defensive coordinator Joe Bob Clements. Gundy’s loyal to his guys, but this is the type of season where you have to take a step back and re-evaluate every facet of your organization. No one should be safe, outside of Gundy.
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