Zona 31, Oregon 24

I didn’t get the W on my pick, but certainly beat the 23 1/2 point spread as I picked Oregon 49-45. Not as high scoring as I thought it would be, but had a feeling through watching about 60 games this season– outside of Saturdays, four of which were Oregon and Arizona games, two apiece-that this would be close. Somebody got on me in an email saying Oregon would basically kill’em. I didn’t see that. Sometimes the Almighty Vegas misses. Andy Staples of CNN SI picked Zona to win, which was a heckuva pick. I don’t gamble. I do this because I love to write and I love to write about sports.  I study it and write about it for as many hours of the day as I possibly can. Gambling doesn’t work for me, so I don’t do it. But that’s me. I know there are those who like to gamble. That’s their business. All the best to them. I just love the games, the competition, the exciting venues–Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Baton Rouge, Athens, Gainesville, Starkville, Oxford. All of this make this the best game on the planet.

But back to last night’s  game. Marcus Mariota may have missed out on his Heisman chance this year, though his shaky offensive line didn’t give him much help at all last night. And Zona played an incredible game on both sides of the ball. A lot of us get caught up in the SEC, but there is tremendous football being played in the Pac-12, the Big 12, the Big Ten and the ACC, along with Notre Dame. I talked about the Heisman in my piece–which I try not to do too often–because of the big names who were and are going in key games this weekend. Mariota will fall back after tonight, opening the door for Amari Cooper, Dak Prescott,  Todd Gurley, the amazing running back for Nebraska, Ameer Abdullah, from Homewood High School in Birmingham, and maybe even Nick Marshall, if Nick can put on a stellar performance  Saturday night on the Plains vs the Hat and his LSU squad.

I will not talk about the playoff much. There’s just too much football left to be played. There are a lot of teams capable but we’re two and a half months away from deciding that. So what’s the use of that right now? Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, UCLA, Baylor, Texas A&M and Mississippi State are all possibilities. Georgia’s not out of it. Neither is Arizona, Nebraska, Michigan State, Oregon, Stanford and USC  for that matter. A lot of teams are still in the hunt for the four team playoff which culminates with the national championship game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Monday, January 12th, 2015. The maximum capacity for Jerry Jones’  ” billion dollar playpen,” as ESPN First Take commentator Stephen A. Smith calls it, is 105,121 with standing room only also. We might get a little clearer picture this weekend, but the season is about a lot more than the Heisman and the playoff. It’s about conference championships and bowl games, key New Year’s bowls ALONG with the playoff and the Heisman. I personally like all the bowls. They’re all fun and exciting. But can we slow down on the playoff and just worry about this Saturday?

Alabama-Ole Miss, Auburn-LSU, Mississippi State-A&M, Tennessee-Florida, South Carolina-Kentucky and Vandy-Georgia are all going to be exciting games to watch in the SEC with the first three being marquee match ups in this still relatively young season. Some may be a lot closer than others, but there should be some stellar football played. And then you have Stanford-Notre Dame (possible playoff team, though I’m not convinced they can run the table and I picked Stanford in this one), Michigan State-Nebraska, Baylor-Texas,  Oklahoma-TCU and Utah-UCLA for a nightcap @ 10:3o PM ET/9:30 CT on ESPN. So I wish we could just concern ourselves with what’s going on now and stop all this prognosticating for something that is not going to happen for another two and a half months. There are a lot of good teams out there, so the playoff talk is not the be all/end all scenario all the time. Just enjoy the stellar games this Saturday and things will develop.

That was a heckuva game tonight with ‘Zona running backs, fifth year senior Terris Jones-Grigsby (115 yards and a seven)  and true freshman Nick Wilson (92 yards rushing 3 TDs) going off. Quarterback Anu Solomon was 20-of-31 for 287 yards, one seven and one int. Solomon is a redshirt freshman. Impressive. And the Arizona defense played lights out. Zona middle linebacker Scooby Wright III (Scooby Wright “the thuurd”-a la RG3) got his “Scooby snack,” as Jess Palmer of the ESPN broadcasting crew said, as he stripped the ball with two minutes left in the game from a scrambling Mariota, recovered Mariota’s fumble, and clinched the W for the Wildcats. Wow, college football is spectacular. Zona’s Rich Rod will tell you that right now. Oregon’s Mark Helfrich maybe not so much.