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Some important notes from Brian Kelly's press conference going into Michigan Saturday night.

-RB Jafar Armstrong will be featured in the offense and the game plan with a "prominent role."

-DB Shaun Crawford is recovering so well from the broken elbow that he's involved in everything from "7-on-7's to contact drills."  He should play depending on his comfort level.

-The team had 4 days off after weight training last Thursday.  It appears the majority of the roster is as healthy as you would like it to be midseason going into a big game vs Michigan.

-Coaches were all on the road recruiting last weekend while the players were off.

-The offense formationally is looking to give different looks and moving WR Chase Claypool around after doing some self scouting over the break with help from Pro Football Focus with analytics.

-Working on non-verbal cadence for QB Ian Book as he enters what should be a loud atmosphere in Michigan Stadium and how it compares to Georgia.  Execution will need to be at a high level with no distractions.

-CB Donte Vaughn will play Saturday night and this will be his 4th game played on the season.  If he wants to be granted a 5th year in 2020 he will have to NOT play another game this season after Michigan.

-The offense will be looking to move the ball at times with the running game with senior Tony Jones Jr. leading the way.  They need to be patient with the running game and let it develop.

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Best Offensive Player - Joe Burrow, LSU

Best Defensive Player - Chase Young, Ohio State

Best Coach - Ed Orgeron, LSU

Brian Kelly and Notre Dame has now won 3 straight vs USC. Kelly is 7-3 vs their biggest rival and ND is now 26-4 in their last 30 games. It's the best 30 game stretch since the early 90's when Rick Mirer was slinging the rock for the Fighting Irish.

Speaking of Mirer Ian Book became the first ND QB to beat USC in back-to-back years since Mirer.  

Tony Jones Jr. rushed for 173 yards while the ND team rushed for over 300 in the game.

The Fighting Irish reach the midseason part of the season at 5-1 with a #8 ranking in both the College Coaches and AP poll.  They are the highest ranked one-loss team in the country and will get a bye week before facing off against rival Michigan in Ann Arbor next week.

With 8 weeks left till the college football playoff committee selects their 4 teams it's gonna take some upsets for Notre Dame to climb the ladder and get back-to-back playoff appearances.  I'm fairly confident if ND finishes 11-1 they will make the playoffs again.

And oh yeah FUSC.  Suck our dicks Trojans.

Fox Sports Joel Klatt came on Colin Cowherds "The Herd" show to talk college football and most of the discussion involved Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly and his place in the hierarchy of college football coaches.

For the record Klatt's top 5 are:

1. Nick Saban

2. Dabo Swinney

3. Lincoln Riley

4. Ryan Day

5. Brian Kelly

Right now it's hard to argue 4 of those top 5.  I'm not sure how you can put Ohio State's Ryan Day up there yet and not include a guy like Georgia's Kirby Smart.  Day has only coached 6 games so far at Ohio State with none of them cracking the top 25.  But yeah Saban, Dabo, Lincoln and even Kelly deserve to be mentioned in the top 5.  All have their programs humming along at either peak level or a step below.

What I don't agree with is the argument that Kelly has reached the peak at Notre Dame.  Cowherd seems to insist the best Notre Dame can do is lose by 6 points to Georgia and I simply don't agree with it.  ND has the talent and the depth to hang with all the big boys in college football.  Right now they don't have the elite playmakers on offense that the other teams do.  Once they get more of those in they can compete for Nattys.  

If you watched the Notre Dame Georgia game you will have noticed the Irish were more physical than the SEC darling Dawgs.  They went toe-to-toe from start to finish and controlled the line of scrimmage from both sides.  They simply don't have the playmakers at RB or WR to move the ball effectively vs a Georgia team that has more 5-stars on their roster than any other team in the country.  But once you get those kind of playmakers in (currently they got a 5-star WR, 5-star RB, and 5-star TE committed for the 2020 class) then you can let your playmakers take over like Clemson did vs Notre Dame and Alabama last year.

Personally I think Kelly stays at Notre Dame for at least another 3 years.  He's got his machine running smoothly up there and with 10 years under his belt under the Golden Dome it's his baby.  Can Notre Dame win a Natty with Kelly at coach?  Yes.  It might not be this season but I think they are set up to win double digit wins every year and be in the contention for the playoffs too.

Now they just got to develop those playmakers once they hit campus in the spring.

Bring the energy!!! #RELENTLESS #ChopOn pic.twitter.com/Q6j0DlciWy

— Mark Melancon (@Mark_Melancon_) October 9, 2019

Look at those fucking eyes. They are as black as death.

My God what a psycho! Mark Melancon has rooms full of lamps made of human skin waiting for him tonight. He needs us all to bring the energy so he can take the Cardinals soul and shove it down Yadi's neck tattoo throat.  This is exactly what I want to see out of my closer before a huge game 5 tonight.

Braves by 100.  The King Acuna is gonna hit 3 bombs while throat-slashing the shit out of Neck Tat and flipping his bat to the Cardinals bullpen for that fairy who likes to blow kisses to the opposition.  The Cardinals organization might actually die tonight. 

Also it would be nice if the middle of the order would actually get some hits tonight for the Bravos.  Freddie, JD, Kakes, McCann would you please wake the fuck up and contribute?  You can't expect the King, Ozzie and Dansby to carry the whole offense.

I'll be honest on first glance it looks like Oklahoma Sooners safety Jeremiah Criddell intentionally head-butted the police officer from behind.

The problem is we don't know all the circumstances that go into the head-butt.

We do know that the Sooners were going into half time up 21-7 in Lawrence, KS when one of the police officers assigned to protect Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley was head-butted by #22. Did he get pushed from behind? Was Criddell tripped? Did they know each other before and it was kind of a playful head-butt?

At last glance Criddell currently is the 3rd string nickel back on the Sooners defense.  This might have been Criddell's only contact all season near a football field.  I'm sure there is more to the story and Lincoln Riley will address the media with some answers.  If it was an accident no big deal.  If it was intentional though it's assault of a police officer.  Those are a big deal.

Going into a huge game this week vs rival Texas in the Red River Shootout I'm sure Riley and his players don't need the distraction.

What do you think?

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👀 @BadgerFootball is out here doing more with "less"

See how many 4 & 5 star recruits each of the AP top 10 schools have on their rosters. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ pic.twitter.com/Rq0jwE3rsu

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 30, 2019

Can't say I'm shocked at all by these numbers but I would guess a lot of my SEC friends would be.  Because all I ever hear about down here is how those northern Yankee teams like Ohio State and Notre Dame simply can't match up with the powerful SEC schools in talent and depth.  Clearly they are not only lacking education but need to actually watch the teams up north play.

This chart also shows you that Wisconsin has no chance of a Natty even if they somehow make the playoffs.  The Badgers basically have a fifth of the talent in terms of 4-star and 5-star recruits on their current roster.  That's an insane disparity.

Some of the numbers that were shocking to me was Clemson sitting at 8th in terms of quantity of 4/5 star players.  Only Wisconsin and Florida have less 4/5 star recruits. 

But if you look at the 5-star players Clemson has 7 and schools such as Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Florida only have one each.  Of course what's kind of shocking is UGA has double the 5-star players as Clemson right now.  Kirby Smart can out recruit anybody in the nation that's for damn sure.

But can he out coach Dabo?  Hopefully we get a chance to see it come playoff time.

CFB National Champ Odds via @vegasinsider
Bama - 2/1
Clemson - 11/4
Ohio St - 9/2
UGA - 7/1
LSU - 8/1
Oklahoma - 12/1
Wisconsin - 20/1
Auburn - 40/1
BoiseSt, Michigan, Oregon, Texas - 100/1
Baylor, Florida, Iowa, ND, Penn St, Utah, Washington - 200/1

— SportsCrack Apparel (@sportscrack) October 2, 2019

These current Vegas odds for the eventual 2019 National Champs in college football are practically begging the public to bet heavy and I'm not talking about the two favorites in Alabama and Clemson.

Yes I know Bama and Clemson both have had a stranglehold on the lipstick trophy the past 4 years basically lending it to each oher in odd/even years but I got a feeling this year is different.  Clemson was the odds on favorite and preseason #1 up until they nearly lost last week to North Carolina.  If UNC had converted the 2 and won the game you could have seen Clemson fall all the way to 40/1 odds with a team like Auburn.  But they pulled it out thanks to their defense and despite the early season sophomore slump from Lord Trevor Lawrence they still have a Mickey Mouse ACC schedule that sets up nicely for them to at least get back to the playoffs.

Alabama on the other hand plays in the SEC and despite their shitty September schedule their defense and more importantly their rushing attack has struggled.  They have basically put the whole team on the shoulders of Tua Tagovailoa and while you could argue it's not a bad thing since he will probably be the #1 draft pick in the NFL when he comes out early it's also a heavy burden because if he gets nicked up Bama could be fucked.  Tua has thrown for a million yards and a million TD already with no interceptions and they have needed it to beat lessor competition.  But soon they will have to face the likes of LSU and Auburn who both appear to be legit contenders in the SEC West.  Both have defenses with athletes who can punish Tua and knock him out of the game.  If Bama doesn't get their running game going they might not win either.  And if they do win them they still gotta face a UGA team in the SEC Championship in Atlanta that will be ready to knock down Goliath.

If I were a betting man the two teams I would be leaning heavily on right now is Ohio State and Oklahoma.  Right now Ohio State at 9/2 odds looks to me to be the most complete, dominate team in the nation.  Granted they haven't really played anybody but they are absolutely beating the shit out of their opponents from opening kickoff till the final whistle.  QB Justin Fields looks like a serious Heisman contender and he's not even close to being the best player on his team.  That distinction would go to defensive end Chase Young.  He's making a solid argument with Tua as the potential #1 pick next year.  He leads the nations in sacks and the Buckeyes defense has playmakers on all 3 levels.  Yes I know Ryan Day is a first year head coach but I don't see them slipping up anytime soon.

Oklahoma at 12/1 odds seems to be a little low.  The Sooners have throttled everybody this season much like the Buckeyes.  Of course they have not really played anybody worth a damn but still they have come out and stomped people's throats.  Like Ohio State they got a transfer QB in Jalen Hurts who has been absolutely lights out in Lincoln Riley's offense.  The problem is the Sooners still don't have a stout defense.  It's better than it's been in the past but it's still a Big 12 defense.  I can see rival Texas knocking them off.  I could also see the Sooners getting back to the playoffs again for a 4th time and finally slaying the SEC.  Remember they lost in OT to Georgia in 2017 and had a horrible 1st quarter last year vs Bama.  They are in the tier 2 of the college football hierarchy behind Bama and Clemson but are knocking on the door and this could be the year they finally barge into the tier 1 room.

UGA (7/1) and LSU (8/1) play tough SEC schedules the 2nd half of the season.  Both have great top 10 out of conference wins with UGA winning at home against Notre Dame and LSU going on the road to beat Texas.  Right now I could see both programs seriously competing for a National Championship but both will have to go through Auburn and Alabama to be given a chance to even make the playoffs.  That's some tough sledding.  And yes I could see both of them beating those programs but then you gotta figure they got at least one or two losses if not more coming just because of their schedules and the SEC Championship game.  I'm not so sure it's smart money to even say they can make the playoffs given there are 4 legitimate SEC title contenders this year.  

Same can be said for Auburn at 40/1.  They already have an impressive win vs Oregon but their schedule is absolutely brutal down the stretch.  This week they gotta go to Gainesville followed by a trip to LSU and then home games vs Georgia and Alabama.  Are you fucking kidding me?  If they can go 2-2 which would be very commendable they still won't make the SEC Championship game.  With a true freshman QB in Bo Nix I'd say their odds of winning the Natty with their schedule should be more like 200/1.

The only other teams I would be willing to throw some money on for a Natty is Texas (100/1) and Notre Dame (200/1).  Both programs lost hard fought, could have gone either way games vs top 5 opponents early on.  Both programs have enough talent and depth  and most importantly coaching to run the table the rest of the season.  Texas obviously has the tougher road being that they will have to beat Oklahoma twice just to make the playoffs.  That's a tall order that they nearly accomplished last season.  Notre Dame will not only have to win the rest of their games including road games in Michigan, Duke and Stanford but will need to beat USC at home and do it impressively.  They can't have fluke wins if they wanna move up into the top 4.  If you got cash to burn and are willing to take a big risk betting $5k on ND to win one million is your best long shot.

All the other schools listed like Florida, Baylor, Washington, Penn State, Oregon, Boise State, etc. have no shot, not even a long shot, of winning the Natty this year.