Author: tommytomlinson

I started doing these True Top Ten rankings last year … for most of the season they looked nothing like the coaches’ or writers’ Top 10, and they made certain fanbases furious, so I feel like they succeeded on two counts. The purpose of the True Top Ten is to skip all the meaningless preseason guessing and rate teams on performance. If you play good teams and beat them, especially on the road, you’ll make the TTT. If you don’t, you won’t. (Looking at you, Louisville.)

There’s a natural fudge factor in all this — we’re basing good wins, at least early in the season, on some of that preseason guessing. Washington over Boise State looked like a strong win to me. But it could be that Boise is terrible this year. That’ll sort itself out in the TTT — faster, I think, than it does in the AP or USA Today polls.

What I’m reaching for is something simple: Which teams have achieved the most through a given point in the season? Seems to me that should matter more than predicting how they’re going to finish, or rewarding a team for tradition or TV contracts.

So here we go. Debate, discussion and disbelief encouraged as always.

1. Clemson (1-0)

Beat Georgia 38-35.

The big game of the weekend didn’t disappoint, unless you’re a Georgia fan and … well, yeah. That one hurt. But Lord, was it entertaining.

It was clear early on that the first team that could bow up even a little on defense would win. Clemson stopped Georgia on six straight drives over the second and third quarters while they took a lead they never gave back. Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins and Roderick McDowell are enough for Clemson to beat just about anybody. But the defense is going to have to make a stand or two if Clemson is serious about a national title. I can’t imagine what the Esso Club will be like if that happens. Next up: S.C. State.

2. LSU (1-0)

Beat TCU 37-27 (at Arlington, Texas).

LSU sent half of Baton Rouge to the NFL, especially on defense, and first-string RB Jeremy Hill sat out the game on an unofficial suspension. But they still beat a good team in what was basically a road game (Cowboys Stadium is less than 20 miles from the TCU campus). The game wasn’t as close as the score — LSU outgained TCU by nearly 200 yards, and only a kickoff return TD kept the Horned Frogs close. Les Miles even pulled a Les Miles at the end of the first half, totally botching the clock but somehow coming out of it with a field goal. The man could fall down a flight of stairs and land in a pile of money. And his team is going to be hell to beat again. Next up: UAB.

3. North Dakota State (1-0)

Beat Kansas State 24-21.

Some schools make way too fast a leap from the FCS to the FBS (for old-schoolers, Division I-AA to Division I). I’m not sure what North Dakota State is waiting on. They’re ready. They’ve won the last two FCS titles, they’ve beaten FBS schools four years in a row, and on Friday they beat K-State, in Manhattan, on the day the school unveiled a statue to coach Bill Snyder. And they did it by going 80 yards in 18 plays for the win, eating up 8:30 and leaving 28 seconds on the clock. That’s a MAN-SIZED drive.

And, yes, QB Collin Klein isn’t around anymore at K-State, but still: Last year they went 11-2 and were in the mix for the national title until November. It’s not like the whole team disappeared. It’s more like Brock Jensen and the Bison ran them over. One more delicious detail: This was one of those “we’ll pay you to take a beating” games. K-State paid North Dakota State $350,000 to play. It turned out to be an investment somewhere on the level of a stack of subprime mortgage bonds. Goldman Sachs feels your pain, Bill Snyder.

Until Friday night, I hadn’t fully appreciated the North Dakota State helmets. They get the True Top Ten LID OF THE WEEK.

The puff of steam from the nostrils is what makes it. The only thing it’s missing is Bugs Bunny. Do kids still watch Warner Bros. cartoons? God, I hope so. Next up: Ferris State.

4. Alabama (1-0)

Beat Virginia Tech 35-10 (in Atlanta).

Three quick points:

1) The true test of great teams is when they play like crap and still win.

2) Alabama played like crap, Virginia Tech is pretty good (especially on defense), and the Tide still won by almost four touchdowns.

3) Alabama fans are FURIOUS about a game where the Tide beat a pretty good team by almost four touchdowns.

Yeah, the bar’s pretty high. And look what’s next. Next up: at Texas A&M (Sept. 14).

5. Washington (1-0)

Beat Boise St. 38-6.

This is the most surprising score of the weekend — not that Washington won, but that they pounded Boise into bronco scraps. (Bronco Scraps, next to Milk-Bones in the pet food aisle.) Keith Price, one of the blessed bounty of great college QBs across this great land of ours, went 23-for-31 for 324 yards and two touchdowns. If he’s consistently that good, Washington will be banging the door on the Pac-12 penthouse where Oregon and Stanford reside. In this metaphor, Lane Kiffin is the valet parking guy, and he wrecks your car. Next up: at Illinois (Sept. 14).

6. Ole Miss (1-0)

Beat Vanderbilt 39-35.

Ever had an appetizer so good you forgot what the entrée was? This game was like the best dozen oysters you ever split. Before you start laughing at the phrase “big win at Vanderbilt,” remember: Vandy won nine games last year. They had Ole Miss beat, too, until Jeff Scott broke off a 75-yard run with 1:07 left to win. The Rebels got a lot of buzz in the offseason for their recruiting class, including no. 1 overall recruit Robert Nkemidche. He was good Thursday, but fellow freshman Laquon Treadwell was even better, catching 9 passes and a key two-point conversion. If Ole Miss is seriously good, the SEC is going to be heaven’s buffet this year. More oysters! Next up: Southeast Missouri State.

7. Eastern Washington (1-0)

Beat Oregon State 49-46.

Where is Eastern Washington located? If you said “eastern Washington,” slap yourself in the back of the head for me. If you said “Cheney, Wash., a thriving community with a population of 10,820 located just 17 miles southwest of Spokane,” you Googled them like I did. The Eagles (yeah, Googled that, too) put up 625 yards on the road against a team that was sneaky-great at times last year and ended up with nine wins. QB Vernon Adams basically wrecked the Beavers by himself. His stat line: 411 yards and four TDs passing, 107 yards and two TDs rushing — including the winning 2-yard TD run with 18 seconds left. He took three Oregon State cheerleaders and half the band back to Cheney with him.

Eastern Washington is an FBS team like North Dakota State — the Eagles made the national semis last year and were top-5 in the preseason FBS rankings. Based on this game, they might be top-5 in the Pac-12, too. Next up: Western Oregon.

8. South Carolina (1-0)

Beat North Carolina 27-10.

9. Texas A&M (1-0)

Beat Rice 52-31.

Two teams who won without getting much from their best player. South Carolina was never in any danger against North Carolina, even though Jadeveon Clowney was gassed for most of the game. Then again, so was everyone else, considering that it was 90-plus in Columbia at kickoff. It ain’t a dry heat in Columbia, either. Steve Spurrier was so dismissive of the Tar Heels that he threw a bomb from his own 2 at the end of the game so a receiver he recruited from North Carolina would get a chance to make a catch. That’s a classic Spurrier bully move, and is the same reason you love him if he’s your coach and hate him like an impacted tooth if he’s on the other sideline. Hey, he’s playing my team next! Total coincidence. Next up: at Georgia.

Was it just me, or did Rice look pretty good against A&M? I know Johnny Football led the Aggies to three scores, but he also got sacked a few times, and Rice didn’t appear to be skeered of him or Kyle Field or pretty much anything. I’m not sure if that says good things about Rice or bad things about A&M. I love Johnny Football. But I have a feeling the whole thing is going to implode, starting in two weeks against Alabama. Next up: Sam Houston State.

10. Oklahoma State (1-0)

Beat Mississippi State 21-3 (at Houston).

This was impressive not so much for the who as the how. The Cowboys won (and lost) a bunch of shootouts last year — if they were ever up 21-3 on anybody, it was in the first quarter. Mississippi State isn’t exactly a point machine, but nobody (not even Bama) held them to less than a touchdown last year. Somebody ought to try playing defense in the Big 12, just to be different. Who knows, you could win the whole conference that way. Unless they let in North Dakota State. And they totally should. Next up: at UT-San Antonio.

Soundtrack to this post:

Years ago, I was in the stands at a Georgia game with my friend Bill. Georgia did something stupid on the field. (This was during the Ray Goff era, when the list of stupid things Georgia did on the field could not have been contained in the Oxford English Dictionary.) Bill said a couple of very bad words and slammed his hand on the metal bleachers. There was a long pause, and then he looked at his hand. It was red and throbbing and I swear it was making a WOMM WOMM WOMM noise like in the cartoons. Without a word, he left and headed up the steps. A few minutes later he came back with his hand wrapped in ice. Neither one of us said anything. Sometimes you have to play hurt.

College football is the greatest sport because people FEEL it more than any other. This is partly because college football happens among college students, who are more likely to tear down the goalposts when their team wins and burn couches on the street when their team loses. (West Virginia fans are liable to do either one, for either reason, and it doesn’t have to be game day.) But even nonstudents are tied to college teams, through place or pride or family, in a way fans of other sports just aren’t. The big losses knock you down like a stroke. The big wins mist the air with champagne.

I had never felt sorry for Nick Saban until I read the GQ story where he complained about winning his latest national championship because it cost him a week of recruiting. It sounds weird to say this about one of the most successful coaches in the history of college football, but Nick Saban doesn’t get college football. He’s an incredible chef who never tastes the pizza.

What I’ve come to understand about college football is that the hurt and the happiness serve the same purpose. What matters is the depth of the feeling, and college football digs down into it all the way to the waterline.

*****

My friend Mike is a crazy Alabama fan. His brothers Peter and Tom are also crazy Alabama fans. They are all smart and decent men when it comes to any subject other than Alabama football. Mike believes that every single college football star from another school, up to and including Red Grange, would rather have gone to Alabama. I had never watched an game with all three of them until the 2010 South Carolina game. Alabama was no. 1 in the country, but South Carolina ran out to a big lead. I would describe the mood in the house as “someone ran over the dog.”

All three brothers were calling and texting family and friends, complaining about the refs and the play calls and Steve freaking Spurrier. In the midst of all this, Tom got a call from a friend in Birmingham. The friend was wearing his lucky Alabama shirt, but the Gamecocks were laying such a whipping on the Tide that he had decided to take it off. At that very moment, Alabama scored. Tom screamed into the phone: “YOU PUT THAT F—ING SHIRT BACK ON!!”

*****

Most of us know, in our hearts, that college football is indefensible. We refuse to lift up the corner of the rug because we know what’s under there — academic fraud, financial shenanigans, booster corruption, all dependent on unpaid players who break their necks (sometimes literally) for the game. Yes, you would love to wake up every morning as a college football player at 20. You probably would not like to wake up as an ex-player at 50.

But we all make compromises in life, and one of mine is to love college football, not just for how it makes me feel, but BECAUSE it makes me feel.

We are one day into the season and we’ve already had a spectacular game. Ole Miss and Vanderbilt had just about wrung each other out by late in the fourth — the Rebels were up 32-28. Vandy receiver Jordan Matthews took a brutal (but clean) hit on a catch over the middle. He went down to his knees and threw up prodigiously. He went out for a couple of plays. He came back in. On fourth-and-18, he caught a pass for 42 yards. Vanderbilt scored on the next play and led by three with 1:30 left.

Two plays after the kickoff, Ole Miss’ Jeff Scott scored on a 75-yard run.

After a facemask penalty on the next kickoff, Vanderbilt had the ball at midfield with just over a minute left. Matthews came back out with the offense. On third down, a catchable ball skipped off his hands. Ole Miss intercepted it and that was the game.

The camera followed Matthews off the field. He came to the sideline, his helmet still on, and buried his head on his coach’s shoulder.

In every spectacular game, someone has to lose. Joy, shake hands with pain. And bless college football for both of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New York Times had a Q-and-A with Kanye West a couple days ago. For most of it, he’s his normal Kanye-lovin’ self — “I am the nucleus” and that sort of thing. But in the middle, he said something really profound.

He was answering a question about his record “808s and Heartbreak,” where he sang most of the lyrics instead of rapping. Kanye is not a great singer, and along the way to admitting that he said this:

I love the fact that I’m bad at [things], you know what I’m saying? I’m forever the 35-year-old 5-year-old. I’m forever the 5-year-old of something.

That quote gets at two things that are crucial to creative work — or really, life in general:

1) You have to be bad at something before you get good at it.

You don’t get to be 35 until you’ve made all the mistakes you make when you’re 5. When I get asked about the secret to writing a great story, I always say: You have to write a lot of crappy stories first. Creative failure is the only way to grow.

2) Always keep trying new things.

Life should be wide as well as deep. Yes, you should have taken piano lessons when you were 8, and you’ll never be as good now. But being a bad piano player is better than not being a piano player. And (see point #1) being a bad piano player is the only way you’ll ever get to be a good piano player.

“I’m forever the 5-year-old of something” — that’s not a bad description of a good life.