The 4 finalists for the 84th Heisman Trophy (1935) are LSU’s Joe Burrow, Oklahoma’s and former Crimson Tide QB Jalen Hurts, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, and Ohio State defensive end Chase Young.

All our phenomenal players, but I like most what Joe has done for O and the No.1 Bengal Tigers. Joe was 342-of-439, 77.9%, for 4,715 yards, 48 TDs and 6 ints. None of the other 3 put up stats that are as prolific in addition to the fact that LSU went 13-0, won the SEC Championship , is No.1 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, and they’ll face No.4 Jalen and Oklahoma on Saturday, December 28th at 3 PM CT on ESPN at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Chick-fil-A Bowl, and he defeated the almost impossible to defeat and then No.1 Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, November 9th. So Joe’s resume is powerful and convincing. I know I speak for the majority of the country and this blog in saying, give me Joe. The ceremony takes place tonight starting at 7 on ESPN.

Bowls

The bowl extravaganza commences on this coming Friday, December 20th, with Buffalo squaring off with Charlotte in the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl at 1 PM CT on ESPN. Utah State will face Kent State in the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl at 6:30 PM CT on ESPN2 next Friday as well. Saturday will feature 6 games including the 9-3 UAB Blazers facing No.20 App State in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl at 8 PM CT on ESPN. Super bowl for UAB though they’ll have a tough task with the Mountaineers, which almost became the Group of 5 representative in the New Year’s Six Bowl the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, December 29th at 11 AM CT on ESPN. No. 17 Memphis will face No. 10 Penn State in Jerryville that day. Should be a spectacular day of football that day with the playoff games that afternoon. LSU and OU square off at 3 PM CT on ESPN and No.2 Ohio State and No.3 Clemson kickoff at 7 PM CT in the other semifinal at the Playstation Fiesta Bowl on ESPN as well.

The No.12 Auburn Tigers and the No.13 Crimson Tide play on New Year’s Day at the same time very unfortunately. Both games kickoff at 12 PM CT on January 1, 2020 with the Tigers on ESPN and the Crimson Tide on ABC. The Tigers coming off an amazing 48-45 victory over the Crimson Tide, will battle No. 18 Minnesota in the Outback Battle. There will be questions whether Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson will play maybe a couple of others. Should be an excellent football game though. Minnesota is a quality team that came close to being in the Big Ten Championship game and went 10-2. Auburn was 9-3. Gus lost offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham to Florida State and new coach MIke Norvell, who comes to FSU from Memphis where he had great success though this will be a much bigger stage in Tallahassee, Gus may have upgraded by hiring Chad Morris, a close friend of his in the coaching profession as their roots go back to high school coaching in Arkansas. While Morris struggled mightily at Arkansas, he was a stellar offensive coordinator for Dabo Swinney at Clemson and did a very good job as head coach at SMU. I like the hire. Bo Nix has a bright future and this should enhance his success as a college quarterback and help Auburn succeed in the SEC and nationally in the coming years.

The Crimson Tide faces No.14 Michigan on January 1st in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. This isn’t the destination the Crimson Tide wanted, they have much larger goals and 5 national championships under Nick Saban to show for it, but it is an interesting matchup of coaches, with key rivals S and Jim Harbaugh. S should be charged up for this one and it’s a chance to get the 2020 season underway. The Crimson Tide may be without receivers Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and DeVonta Smith along with running back Najee Harris and maybe an offensive lineman or 2 along with OLB Anfernee Jennings and Terrell Lewis among others as they sit out to get ready for the NFL draft. But there is nothing decided and these guys are competitors, so they may want to play. It would kind of be interesting if they didn’t play, they all should be excellent NFL players, and see what the guys on next year’s team can be like including the awesome Jaylen Waddle and Mac Jones, who, in my opinion, played an excellent game in the Iron Bowl in as high a pressure situation as a quarterback can be in. He threw 2 pick 6’s but also threw 4 TDs and Waddle was spectacular in that game. It was a phenomenal game if you didn’t have a rooting interest which I know most of the people on this blog did. So we’ll see what the draft eligible players will do in the next 2 weeks, if they decide to forgo the game or decide to play. It would be pretty interesting if they didn’t play. The Tide will still be a very formidable group for the Wolverines to face. So some interesting bowl scenarios coming up. There are 40 games and the blog will be on top of them. Look forward to that starting next Thursday with previews and predictions for the 2 games Friday and 6 Saturday.

The 13th Presidents Cup

The United States team trails a scrappy International team 10-8, but made up quite a bit of ground in the foursome session at the end of the day yesterday, winning 2 matches and tying 2. They had been down 9-5 going into the foursome matches, which is alternate shot, a really awesome format. Justin Thomas and Tiger have been the keys to the team so far. Tiger didn’t play yesterday choosing to captain but the team held up well. The U.S. holds a 10-1-1 advantage overall in this competition with the Internationals only victory coming in 1998 at Royal Melbourne where it is being played this year. The Internationals also tied the U.S. in 2003. It’s very fascinating as the Internationals need 5 1/2 points to capture the Cup and the U.S, needs 7 1/2. 15 1/2 is the winning score. It’s riveting as this is a serious competition whereas the U.S. has dominated in the past. It starts at 5 PM CT today on the Golf Channel and continues till 11 PM tonight if you want to stay up for it. There will be 12 singles matches and the intensity will be high. Patrick Reed’s caddie, Kessler Karain, also his brother in law got into an altercation with a heckler in the crowd, shoving him and will not be on Reed’s bag today. Reed’s swing coach will handle it. Reed is a lightning rod for controversy and enhanced that reputation by breaking the rules and taking 2 practice swings in a waste area last weekend at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He was assessed a 2 stroke penalty and lost by 2 shots to Henrik Stenson. I don’t know positively if Reed intentionally broke the rules, but obviously it’s not a good look. But the fans have been ruthless and Reed has handled it pretty well but he’s shaken going 0-3 in the competition. He is usually a heckuva competitor in the Ryder Cup, so this is unusual. The crowd is on him and it’s really distracting him. I honestly believe he might have unintentionally done that though he has a reputation for being arrogant, so it could have been on purpose.

Anyway, the U.S. had their work cut out for them in what was expected to be a lopsided victory for the American team with the complete talent advantage on the U.S. side with Justin Thomas, Tiger, Dustin Johnson, Reed and Rickie Fowler among others against an International team with 7 rookies. But it’s a riveting competition tonight and worth tuning in.

College Basketball

The No.12 Auburn Tigers are 8-0 and looking spectacular. The Crimson Tide is 4-4, but is coming off a super victory over Stephen F. Austin which had just pulled off a tremendous upset at Duke the week before, so that’s a positive. While it could be a year before new coach Nate Oates gets his system in place, the Tide can be very competitive this season and you never know, get into the tournament. The Tigers look like a Final Four contender again. They’ve got a real shot to go very deep this season. Auburn plays Saint Louis here at Legacy Aren today at 3 PM CT on ESPN2, Saint Louis is 8-1, so will be a good test for the Tigers. The Crimson Tide is playing Penn State right now. Penn State just knocked off No.4 Maryland on Wednesday. The Tide leads 40-34 at halftime. Like what Nate Oates can do in Tuscaloosa. He was terrific at Buffalo and he can bring that same energy and success to the Crimson Tide. I know Walt, Bama and my Crimson Tide friends are ready for that to happen. The game is on the Big Ten Network, 610 on DirecTV and 821 on Charter.

The 120th Army-Navy Game

What an American Classic this is. Patriotism abounds in this one. It’s a phenomenal game always and such an inspiring 3 1/2 hours. The game kicks off in 10 minutes on CBS, 2 PM CT, with Brad, Gary and Jamie on the call. Navy is an 11 1/2 point favorite.

I like the great Navy senior quarterback Malcolm Perry, who has rushed for 1,500 yards and 19 TDs, he’s amazing, to prevail over Army in what I expect to be an intensely hard fought, spectacular game. Navy won 14 in a row from 2002-2015 but Army has captured the last 3 in a row. The Commander in Chief’s Trophy is on the line going to the Academy, the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, which wins it by virtue of the best record amongst each other. If Navy wins, they get it as they also defeated the Air Force and if Army wins the game they get it because all 3 academies would have been 1-1 against each other, Air Force defeated Army, and the Academy that held the Trophy last year keeps it and that’s Army. Army quarterback Kelvin Hopkins is 3-0 against Navy and has rushed for 706 yards and 7 touchdowns. *** Update, Hopkins is injured and out and backup Christian Anderson gets the start. ***Neither team throws it much and there has been some wet weather in Philadelphia, where the game will be played at 69,000 seat+ Lincoln Financial Field and it’ll be a little windy, so this should be a ground game contest, and both squads have prolific running quarterbacks. Navy also has standout fullback Jamale Carothers who has rushed for 637 yards and 13 TDs. Carothers rushed for 5 TDs against Houston in a 56-41 Midshipmen victory. No.23 Navy is 9-2 and going to the Liberty Bowl to face Kansas State on New Year’s Eve at 2:45 PM CT on ESPN. They’ve had a phenomenal year after having an offseason last year and going 3-10. Army was 11-2 last year and primed for a spectacular season this year, but it didn’t happen as they went 5-7. They lost to Michigan in double overtime, 24-21, and, according to their great coach Jeff Monken, never recovered. Ken Niumatlolo has had a tremendous run at Navy and this year is no exception. Give me the Navy but in another classic in Philly at “The Linc.”

Navy 24, Army 21