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Talkin Ball – Irish inside track for CFP, T-Mac and Heisman, more…

Arizona Sports News online

After less than two weeks of the college football season, Florida State is out, and Notre Dame is already in excellent position for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Penn State looks the part of a CFP squad, while USC sent a message to the rest of the Big Ten that they better be ready, especially on defense, where former UCLA coordinator D’Anton Lynn went cross town to the Trojans gave up just 20 points to LSU. Did Michigan look better than USC? Is Ohio State better than the Trojans? Unless you fly the flag of those schools, the obvious answer is “no.”  The Trojans’ defense stood out to me in their win over LSU…

Florida’s loss is more damning than Clemson’s. Georgia is head of the college football class, so the Tigers going down in week one doesn’t mean they can’t return. Florida, on the other hand, well..let’s say Billy Napier better be renting rather than owning land in Gainsville. The Gators got boat raced by the ‘Canes and have a mid-November four-week stretch at home to Georgia, at Texas, home to LSU and Ole Miss. Good luck with that. I’m guessing the agent for Jedd Fisch will be fielding calls from the Florida folks sooner rather than later…

Best quote of the weekend 

Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki says his Offense is like a DQ Blizzard: “It might look complicated, but at the end of the day it’s just Vanilla Ice Cream and your favorite Candy.” 

Penn State brought Kotelnicki from Kansas (a wide-open offense in 2023). For the opening week, he may be as valuable an offseason addition as any…

Back to Notre Dame. Winning at College Station sets them up for a one- or two-loss season, good enough to make the CFP. A home playoff game guarantees big TV ratings for the Playoff folks. Do you see more than two losses the rest of the way? I sure don’t.

I’m calling my shot. Marcus Freeman will be in the NFL sooner rather than later…

UCLA looked like, well, er, uh. It’s hard to describe. The same goes for Oregon’s offensive line…

I loved the look and pace of the CW Pac-2 broadcasts…

Blowouts, blowouts, blowouts. Alabama, Texas, Iowa, Ohio State(though not overly impressive), Ole Miss, Kansas State, Utah, Missouri, and Kansas all cruising in week one…

Vandy!…

Looking ahead, all eyes will be on Texas at Michigan this Saturday. A 9 a.m. FOX kickoff will get the day off to a great start, but I’d suggest taking a look Friday night at BYU vs SMU. The Ponies are 2-0, and with Florida State spiraling, the matchup between the two at the end of this month doesn’t look as daunting. Georgia Tech is 2-0 playing at Syracuse on Saturday morning. 

DeVonta Smith(2020) and Desmond Howard(1991) are the last two wide receivers to win the Heisman Trophy. Odds are stacked against Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillian lifting the hardware, but if you look at his production in week one( 304 yards and four touchdowns), you will find him moving up lists. The problem is he did it around midnight East Coast time when many Heisman voters were asleep. A big problem regarding that award, as Christian McCaffery found out in 2015, is exposure. Alabama running back Derrick Henry had it; McCaffery was lost in the vacuum known as the Pac-12 Network. T-Mac has a chance to open some eyes nationally later this month, playing at nationally ranked Kansas State and Utah in back-to-back weeks…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Media personality Brad Cesmat first rose to fame in Southern California with the launching of "The Mighty 690" all-sports radio station in the late 1980's and early 90's. Brad came to Arizona in 1993 to begin a 10-year run at KTAR Radio followed by nine years at KTVK-TV in Phoenix. Brad is the Founder/ CEO of Sports360AZ.com. His vision of multi platform content marketing through sports began in September of 2011. Cesmat has served on the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army for the last 18 years. He and his wife Chris have four children.

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