Don’t get me wrong, as you’ll see below, there is a lot worth talking about, including some really hilarious peak college football. Without Shane though, if I’m going to riff by myself, the written word seems like the better medium.

The Other Shoe Drops

While I don’t think that we will ever top last year’s dog-pissing Egg Bowl celebration, that fired two coaches and perhaps set off the butterfly effect of the shit-show that is 2020, college football blessed us all with a supremely stupid moment. Plus, in true beautiful and stupid fashion, this landmark moment in Florida Man history overshowed a whole host of other supremely stupid efforts by the Gators to jettison themselves from the playoff conversation.

Before we get to the other moments of Gator derp, we have to talk about THE MOMENT that was the 20-yard shoe toss that extended an LSU drive that would’ve been an LSU three-and-out, clearly too-big-moment for true freshman QB, Max Johnson. As soon as the play ended I saw Marco Wilson chuck something, and, when two flags came flying in shortly after, the old ECW “YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP!” chant was blaring in my head.

What I didn’t expect, was that the object was TE Kole Taylor’s shoe and that the officiating squad would determine that it was extremely important to let us know it travelled 20 yards downfield. This prompted a true moment of Twitter joy, in which my timeline was full of laughter and glee about the stupidity, inquires into what the yardage threshold of shoe flight triggers a penalty, and GIFs of George W. Bush dodging shoes while dueling GIFs of Austin Powers pondered the age-old question of “who throws a shoe, honestly?!”

LSU then drove down the field for what ended up being the game-winning FG, which you may forget was a 57-yard absolute BOMB, prompted LSU to posterize Florida on Twitter after the game. The Gators then responded with a short drive to attempt a 51-yard kick that sailed wide left. Game over, playoff hopes dead, and a whole host of people in College Station likely pissed their best win lost to a Bo Pelini defense that gave up over 600 yards while the third and Grantham meme died, actually holding LSU to only 8 conversions on 19 attempts.

But like I said, diagnosing their Achilles’ heel is no easy task as Florida happily shot themselves in the foot repeatedly even outside the shoe toss. Kyle Trask likely shooed himself out of Heisman contention as his two interceptions overshadowed his 474 yard, 2 TD effort. Prior to the shoe toss, a DPI delivered another swift kick to the third-down junk which led to a Tiger TD late in the fourth. Dan Mullen also tripped over himself to call a timeout before LSU’s game winning field goal attempt while the Tigers were scrambling to get their field goal unit out with no timeouts (and it looked like no holder to me). There was also a highly questionable series of play call choices in the fourth when Florida found themselves feet from their own endzone: three straight passes in as fog rolled continued to descend to field-level.

All credit to LSU for the win, but Florida absolutely snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

One more hilarious note, all day ESPN had been running a bottom line about the playoffs, with a note that Texas A&M and Florida were looking for their first playoff berth. Just a few minutes after the loss, Florida had already been edited out of that line.

Sarah Fuller Makes History, Again

Just a couple weeks after becoming the first woman to play in a Power Five football game, Sarah Fuller booted two extra points, making her the first woman ever to score in a Power Five football game. For anyone thinking this was some stunt that the team wasn’t on board with should check out footage of the team celebration (also, shout-out to the center judge for making sure the historic ball was handed to Fuller directly and not Vandy staff). Fuller also found herself taking photos with her opponents after the game as well.

Seems like the whole narrative over this being a stunt and a slap in the face of other players might just be a load of misogynistic garbage!

Of course, that won’t stop people from trying to shit on this really cool moment. Assholes will happily show you who they are by pointing out that Vandy was able to get another kicker on the roster this week to handle kickoffs and also attempted a 39 yard field goal, which was outside Fuller’s publicized 38-yard range.

The bottom line is that Vandy’s interim staff believed Sarah earned a chance to have her moment. It wasn’t her fault that Vandy got shut out, forcing her to attempt to write history via a squib kick. After taking loads of unwarranted armchair kicking from internet experts, she deserved a chance to get on the score sheet.

The only real disappointment here is Vandy didn’t get into her FG range to prove she could do even more. Trotting her out there for a 39-yard attempt would’ve put her in a position to fail and would’ve been horribly irresponsible by the coaching staff when they need to try to win a game. THAT would’ve been a PR stunt.

So good on everyone involved. This was a very cool moment in a year full of garbage. I genuinely feel sad for anyone spending the energy to drum up outrage over this.

In 2021, the senior will take a grad transfer a few minutes north of me to the University of North Texas to play goalie for the Mean Green. Here’s hoping she might get a chance at a couple more field goals as well.

Fire Gus Season

The annual “Duck Season! Rabbit Season!” is finally over out on the plains. Gus Malzahn’s hot seat reached the boiling point and Auburn has fired the maligned coach. Showing that, even during a pandemic, all Americans have things properly prioritized, Auburn announced they would pay Gus’ $21 million-plus buyout in full. Inspiring.

As I’ve described in pervious weeks on the pod, I felt this was coming. Bo Nix became yet another disappointing QB, failing to show any signs of developing under Gus. Auburn’s offense consistently became more inconsistent despite having some ridiculous weapons at their disposal and, this year, even the usually solid defense took a step back.

Auburn’s 6-4 record could easily be flipped. Two of those wins came thanks to some questionable officiating against Arkansas and Ole Miss, two teams Auburn should have outclassed rather easily.

Simply put, it was time. For whatever reason, things weren’t working out. Auburn will also probably rightly get what they deserve for their malcontent as I not-so-eagerly await for the galaxy brain hire of Hugh Freeze.

Start Up the Carousel

Gus wasn’t the only one to receive his walking papers this weekend. Arizona bid farewell to Kevin Sumlin after giving up a 70-burger to their in-state rival. Lovie Smith, who should’ve never shaved his beard, is gone from Illinois as well.

Huge shoutout to all these universities who will shell out millions for their next hire while complaining about athletic budget shortfalls due to COVID-19.

The Fog of War

The Amry/Navy game delivered a glorious rock fight that not only hit the under of 38 that was discussed on the picks podcast, but did do easily, staying under 20.

Much like LSU/Florida, fog was a player in this game, forcing a heavy use of skycam giving us the classic Madden view, which I’m on board with. When NBC announced their skycam experiment with ND, that is what I was hoping for. Find a way to put the yellow line on the screen and it’s perfect, in my opinion.

As for the game, Army dominated in a 17-0 win. Navy had a lone chance to really make a game of this, but stumbled over themselves after a pitch was swatted by Navy’s defense. Instead of getting a gift scoop and score, Navy failed to recover at all, allowing Army to keep the ball after it rolled out of bounds.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially since this was the first Army/Navy game that I’ve consumed in years due to typically doing my Extra Life marathons during this weekend.

Luck of the…Trojans?

Southern Cal did it once again, somehow winning in the last minute despite being dominated for the majority of the game. A 20-point fourth quarter, ending with a final drive that featured a 56-yard kickoff return, 35-yard pass (with a ridiculous Tyler Vaughns) catch, and a quick 8-yard TD strike to Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Every week it looks like SC will finally be pantsed, only for their talent to finally take over just long enough to secure a win. While it’d be nice to believe the luck will finally run out, there’s no guarantee Friday’s Pac-12 Championship tilt against Washington will take place due to COVID issues on the Husky side.

That would then leave the Rose Bowl, which may not be played in the Rose Bowl, and could likely feature Northwestern as their opponent. What a charmed season.

If anything, I think this means Clay Helton has secured a lifetime extension. Lock him up.

Mack Brown Still Hates Manny Diaz

Mack Brown fired Manny Diaz after he gave up 550 yards to BYU while at Texas. Mack apparently didn’t forget as he Tar Heels put up 554 rushing yards against the creator of the turnover chain. Just hate to see something like that to Da U.

A big shout out to Mack’s pettiness as the 62-26 victory made Notre Dame look like a million bucks. While it’ll be interesting to see what the playoff committee has to say tomorrow about specific scenarios, it’s hard to imagine anything put a complete blowout by Clemson to keep the Irish out of the playoffs at this rate.

Can You FedEx a Gift Suite?

In what I’m sure is going to be a potential trend this week, four power five teams have announced their intention to opt out of bowl season:

• Boston College
• Pitt
• Stanford
• Virginia

The reason is largely the same to this point: everyone is done with the heavily restrictive season. A trip to a bowl that will feature little, if any, of the fun events that make the trip worth it, on top of needing to stay away from family and friends, just isn’t worth it.

I can’t blame anyone for this. Honestly, outside of the New Year’s Six, I don’t see much of a point to any of the bowl games. I say this as someone that loves every single dumb bowl game with all his heart. These are typically great rewards for the players after a long season, but it just isn’t there this year. It’s more work. I’d want to go home too.

Dabo Still Sucks

Greg Stankey of the SEC was doing some playoff politicking and took some shots at the ACC for “protecting” Clemson and Notre Dame. Of course, Dabo was asked, and of course he showed his ass AND BROUGHT UP FLORIDA STATE AGAIN:

“I would’ve loved to play this past weekend,” Swinney said. “I had no problem with that. I didn’t make the decision. We wanted to play when we were down in Tallahassee and were about to get on a bus and go play. Things happen.”

Via ESPN

I’ve gone over this before, but Dabo’s game is so old. Politick for your teams. Fine. Stop bringing up the same old crap over and over again, you man-child.

And Right Before I Was Ready to Publish…

Vanderbilt and Clark Lea might just be happening.

Glad I took the week off. Gonna be drinking a lot, it seems.

The post HLS Recap (Text Edition): Soled Out appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

So Shane and I decided to play a little game of Contenders and Pretenders around the nation in the wake of this week to see who might just have a legitimate shot and who is just hanging around because the Playoff Committee are required to fill out 21 more teams outside the top 4.

Finally, we take a gleeful look at Notre Dame’s victory in Chapel Hill, basking in the glory and confidence that this team shows week after week.

Podcast

(There is no Twitch VoD because my streaming software refused to load. So we did this the old fashioned way!)

The post HLS Recap: Kicking Around Playoff Contenders and Pretenders appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Podcast

Twitch Broadcast – Full Episode

Twitch Broadcast – NCAA ’14 Sim

The post HLS Podcast: Week 3 Preview – Hurricanes & Commordores appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Notre Dame Athletic Director, Jack Swarbrick, working his magic on future schedules, probably. (Photo Credit: Shane DeLeon aka SupermanTDJesus)

Now, I understand that, even in this barren desert of Irish football news, you may find it hard to get excited for games that are three and eight years away. To be fair, I’m right there with you; however, my excitement lies not with future dates with another SEC opponent, but rather how well ND and Jack Swarbrick have crafted their future schedules in the college football playoff era.

I’ve long hoped that the four-team playoff would force teams to see the value in scheduling tougher opponents, leading to more Power Five vs. Power Five matchups. With Notre Dame naturally having greater flexibility in their schedule as an independent, my personal hope was that the Irish would have a far better selection of willing opponents to agree to home-and-homes than they seemed to have in the BCS era.

That hope appears to have turned into reality with the SEC serving as the most willing dance partner. For all the hell I’ve personally given the majority of that conference for rarely travelling north of the Mason-Dixon line, take a look at what the Irish have put together starting this year through the time that the College Football Playoff contract expires in 2025:

2017: vs. Georgia

2018: vs. Vanderbilt

2019: @ Georgia

2020: vs. Arkansas

2024: @ Texas A&M

2025: vs. Texas A&M and @ Arkansas

And what of the (current) SEC-less gap from 2021-2023? A home-and-home with Ohio State in 2022 and 2023 will more than make up for it . In 2021, the Irish kick off the season in Tallahassee to avenge a certain bullshit offensive pass interference call. Still, consider that we are talking about games that are five-plus years away and it would be premature to say with certainty that the Irish won’t find a willing SEC opponent for those open dates, further adding greatness to these schedules.

But let’s look even further than the SEC additions to the schedule. With a certain Domino’s executive no longer in Ann Arbor, ND has put Michigan back on the schedule for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Purdue has also found their way back on the Irish schedule for 2020-2021 and 2024-2026.

Yes, yes, I know it’s just Purdue, but step back, and look big picture here.

The Irish have a regional, Power Five (hey, stop laughing about Purdue being Power Five) opponent from 2018-2026, one full year past the CFP contract. Should the Irish continue this practice of scheduling SEC opponents or even dipping back into the Big 12 pool (see: Texas and Oklahoma as previous examples) with their current ACC scheduling agreement and current contracts with Stanford through 2019 and Southern Cal through 2023 (and I’m sure those will find extensions to at least 2025), you find a true, coast-to-coast, north-to-south schedule with a regional twist.

Feel free to show me another Power Five team in college football that can pull that off consistently. And that’s not a dig at the rest of college football either. It’s simply the reality of conference membership and the lack of flexibility that those schedules offer their members. Plus, even when most Power Five teams find their way into these non-conference matchups, they often find themselves going to an opening weekend neutral site game instead of the home-and-homes that the Irish are able to pull off.

It’s Rockne’s Ramblers for the modern college football era. If you want to stay independent and truly have a seat at the table in a four-team playoff, these true national schedules, pitting ND against three or even four of the Power Five conferences in a single season, are what the Irish must continue to play.

From a scheduling perspective, the path to the playoff has been paved. It will be up to the Irish to finally walk it.

The post Making the Most of Independence: Notre Dame’s Future Schedules appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

The Dallas Cowboys kicked off their OTAs this week and our best defender, middle linebacker, Sean Lee, when down with what will likely be a season ending ACL tear. So where’s the Notre Dame connection? First round draft pick, Zack Martin, was the one that fell on him to cause the injury.

#NDFBIsDeterminedToKillMe just took on yet another new meaning.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Texas Rangers currently have 13 people on the disabled list. Some of these players, like Profar simply slept wrong and that put them out for the season. Yes there has been more than one person on this team that had a poor night’s rest. You can’t make this up.

I’m hoping this is all just one large sacrifice to make the 2014 ND football season run smoothly. The only alternative explanation is that I am inexplicably cursed and should stop watching spots immediately.

The Roundup

When Swarbrick talks, you should listen. Savvy Jack sat down with The Observer to talk Georgia, turf, Under Armour, media, and much more.

Notre Dame trying to head to Georgia early? Reports state that ND is trying to swing a summer camp sponsored by Georgia State in 2015. It’s quite a little loop-hole that ND is trying to take advantage of and it’s weird (and refreshing) to see the Irish not falling behind new recruiting tactics.

The ACC teased big news and all we got was a new logo. Seriously.

The only thing missing is the watermark. Your business card can’t match up:

Patrick Bateman would faint if he saw this business card, which is made of some substantial metal. pic.twitter.com/27HmOJUKbK

— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) May 28, 2014

FCS ADs are frantically calling Tuscaloosa. Alabama is ready to “play anybody” for a 2015 home game that they can’t fill now that everyone else is busy. There’s probably a huge payday coming for the school that bends their schedule to do so.

Hatin’ Ass Spurrier is becoming my favorite thing. This mix of insults combining the World Cup with college football is just gold.

And now your moment of Nix… Let’s let the YouTubes give you a ND Football smile:

[youtube id=”Fl7xImvsAsQ”]

The Booze

Vodka + Lemonade — kicking off summer right.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Zack Martin, You Broke My Heart” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.