I’m a broken record on this subject, I know. Every year it pains me how short the college football season is and now we have 222 days from today until the 2022 season kicks off with week 0 games. This 2021 college football season while still a bit strange did feel like much more of a return to normalcy with full schedules and a nearly complete bowl season. Sorry, NC State.
In the end, Georgia triumphed for their first National Championship since 1980 coming from 5th place in our pre-season poll thanks to some questions about the effectiveness of their offense. With the rat-face looking USC transfer JT Daniels standing on the sideline, quarterback Stetson Bennett delivered in the big moments while riding the momentum of one of the best defenses this century.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia (+1) | 13-1 | 33-18 W vs. Alabama |
| 2 | Alabama (-1) | 13-2 | 33-18 L vs. Georgia |
| 3 | Cincinnati (+1) | 13-1 | 27-6 L vs. Alabama |
| 4 | Michigan (-1) | 12-2 | 34-11 L vs. Georgia |
| 5 | Ohio State (+1) | 11-2 | 48-45 W vs. Utah |
| 6 | Baylor (+1) | 12-2 | 21-7 W vs. Ole Miss |
| 7 | Oklahoma State (+2) | 12-2 | 37-35 W vs. Notre Dame |
| 8 | Notre Dame (-3 ) | 11-2 | 37-35 L vs. Oklahoma State |
| 9 | Ole Miss (-1) | 10-3 | 21-7 L vs. Baylor |
| 10 | Michigan State (+3) | 11-2 | 31-21 W vs. Pittsburgh |
| 11 | Oklahoma (+3) | 11-2 | 47-32 W vs. Oregon |
| 12 | Pitt | 11-3 | 31-21 L vs. Michigan State |
| 13 | Utah (-2) | 10-4 | 48-45 L vs. Ohio State |
| 14 | Louisiana (+1) | 13-1 | 36-21 W vs. Marshall |
| 15 | NC State (+2) | 9-3 | Bowl cancelled |
| 16 | Clemson (+3) | 10-3 | 20-13 W vs. Iowa State |
| 17 | Kentucky (NR) | 10-3 | 20-17 W vs. Iowa |
| 18 | BYU (-8) | 10-3 | 31-28 L vs. UAB |
| 19 | San Diego State (NR) | 12-2 | 38-24 W vs. UTSA |
| 20 | Houston (NR) | 12-2 | 17-13 W vs. Auburn |
Kentucky, San Diego State, and Houston all slide into our final ranking of the season thanks to really nice bowl wins. That job in Lexington is looking awfully comfortable these days. Throw out the Covid year and Mark Stoops is 28-11 since 2018 and is making damn near $7 million per season. He’s not really expected to do big things, gets to coach in the SEC, makes a ton of money, and continues Doing Good Things™ with a bar that is set appropriately.
Out: UTSA, Oregon, Iowa
I can’t think of a program that has done more of an 180 this season than Oregon. My goodness, it seems like forever ago that they were upsetting Ohio State in the ‘Shoe and pushing towards a playoff spot. They finished their season losing 3 out of their last 4 (all rather soundly defeats) before their coach decided to bolt to the southeast to his hometown Miami Hurricanes.
At one point, didn’t we have Iowa ranked as high as 5th or something insane? Yes, it never smelled right and they finish outside our poll for 2021 after closing the season going 4-4 over their last 8 games. They scored a combined 34 points in those 4 losses.
The 2021 Surprises
We did not have Michigan, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Baylor, or Oklahoma State ranked in our pre-season poll. Michigan was 32nd in the pre-season AP Poll with some votes while Oklahoma State was 26th so neither were completely off the radar.
Baylor was 2-7 during 2020 and turned things around to win the Big 12 and Sugar Bowl.
Pitt seemingly didn’t have a pulse as a program for several years and all of a sudden Kenny Pickett turned into a Heisman contender.
However, Michigan State going from 2-5 and the 5th worst Power 5 offense in terms of scoring in 2020 to 11-2 with a Peach Bowl victory was a heck of a run. In our gut, we know this is fool’s gold of course. The Spartans still finished 3rd in their division and probably have one of the worst resumes from a top 10 team in recent memory–aided by a Pickett-less Pitt victory in a major bowl game.
The 2022 Flops
Clemson (preseason #1)
10-3
The Tigers finished strong with 6 straight wins and avoided a complete tire-fire season but should be extremely shamed for throwing away another layup season in the ACC and no National Championship run to speak of in 2021.
Oklahoma (#3)
11-2
Dropping back to 11th in our poll isn’t terrible. Yet, I’m sure the Sooners didn’t envision Spencer Rattler falling apart and finishing the season with an interim coach for their bowl game because Lincoln Riley fled to USC only to be (likely) followed by Caleb Williams, too.
Iowa State (#6)
7-6
The Cyclones played 5 ranked teams, lost 4 of those, and suffered defeats to mighty West Virginia and Texas Tech. Matt Campbell still hasn’t been hired away to a bigger job and at this point it’s possible he morphs into the Big 12 version of Pat Fitzgerald.
Washington (#8)
4-8
Jimmy Lake proved to be way in over his head and was fired before the season ended. Hey, at least they beat Stanford!
North Carolina (#10)
6-7
Pound for pound this was probably the worst coaching job of the season. The Tar Heels have the talent and a very good quarterback and somehow still lost 7 damn games!
USC (#13)
4-8
It still makes me chuckle that USC fired Clay Helton after just 2 games. This record is a little bit deceiving in that way because the Trojans essentially quit and punted on 2021 thereafter.
Indiana (#14)
2-10
Holy hell, what do we have here? This was supposed to be the hot and trendy pick and once again the Hoosiers proved to the world they can barely function when quarterback Michael Penix, Jr. gets injured. I mean they didn’t look great in the 5 games he played, but they got those 2 wins. Without him, they lost their final 7 games.
Florida (#17)
6-7
This pre-season ranking looked more than fine if even a little low through September when the Gators were 3-1 and had a near-upset of Alabama on their schedule. Then, they lost 4 out of their next 5 games and decided that was enough for Dan Mullen.
TCU (#18)
5-7
TCU beat Big 12 champion Baylor but didn’t go to a bowl game and long-time head coach Gary Patterson stepped down and/or was gently asked to leave. Quite the year for the Horned Frogs who will turn to Sonny Dykes as their new head coach and maybe they’ll get back their spread offense swagger in 2022?
In a show of hubris that all but guarantees nemesis will find me next year.
ISU 10-2 in 22!!
Ready for another off-season of Iowa State discussions!
The Great Iowa State Debate on here in early September was so much fun!
….and I definitely thought they were a top 10 team at that time, until they weren’t.
The stuff of 18s legends
Yeah, I mean someone has to be ranked 5-10. Iowa State was disappointing, I thought highly of them too and they should have peaked with experienced QB, stud TE and beast RB. Could be a warning sign for Campbell not finding ways to win with that?
Adds a lot of doubt to me, I’ve thought highly of him too but we may look back in 3-4 years and think ND dodged a bullet to not have considered him as a candidate when maybe Swarbrick have probably fairly easily went in that direction with Fickell (probably) not going to be leaving his team pre-playoff.
Naaaahhhh,
I will find another small comment to get outrageously angry over.
Or David Shaw will say something.
David Shaw continues to smugly exist, and that’s enough to put me in a bad mood most days.
Speaking of 18S legends, your post in the “drop Navy or Stanford?” debate is one of my Favorite Internet Things Ever. I have it bookmarked. Just amazing work. Should be required reading for all ND freshmen.
AJC – “Georgia quarterback JT Daniels is expected to enter the transfer portal after meeting with Kirby Smart, but he may remain enrolled at UGA until he graduates this spring,”
This tells me Stetson Bennett is not doing what I would do–end my career on the highest note possible and make $$$$ in appearance fees and free swag for the rest of my life across the state of Georgia.
Nope. Thinks he’s good now, will come back and ruin it all since 2/3 of that defense will be playing on Sundays next year.
NIL $$$….maybe ?
Surely. I also doubt anything he does in 2022 on the field is going to sully his future prospects in that state for what he has already accomplished, which is legend status down there. Even if the sequel isn’t as good as the first movie, he still has that to lean on, and rightfully so.
He’d make as much or more without playing. He doesn’t need to play to get that cash.
And I can’t imagine any UGA booster is thinking “you know who I need to pay to ensure UGA wins again next year? Stetson M’fing Bennett IV.”
Nah, they’d be trying to pay Nakobe Dean or somebody on the defense.
QB is glamour position, didn’t the kid at Miami make over a million this year? That’s a great niche for NIL, local celebrity that doesn’t really have pro prospects but still is a very visible face of the team (i.e. a Jack Coan type could have cashed in probably a lot better, but the process was still newish and unusually for a college kid he didn’t have much interest in his social media presence, which isn’t the norm).
Boosters aren’t going to be able to keep a player who can enter the draft and likely be a first round pick like Dean or Jordan Davis. They can get a lot of play off promotion for the star QB of the team though.
I know they aren’t going to pay Dean and keep him from going to the NFL. But just me, if I were Bennett and never played another down, my last game was the one that brought UGA it’s first title in 41 years. Forget anything else. Yes, QB is a glamor position, and my last game was THAT. I’d ride that the rest of my life.
I also would have a realistic appraisal of the situation, understand that it wasn’t my QB skills that led us to the title but a historically great D that lost most of its players, and project that next year will be a step back. And so rather than the last memory of me in UGA fans’ minds being holding the trophy, it will be throwing a pick 6 against South Carolina in an upset loss in 2022 or…I don’t know, something stupid. Why do that? NIL matters if the reason you get the deal is your current playing status. He doesn’t need to be a current player to sign advertising deals and get free stuff–that’s his life the next 40 years if he goes out now!
On the other hand, if I were 22 and had just won the NC as the starting QB in the most “GRITTY UNDERDOG WALK-ON SHOWED THE HATERS” manner, I probably would think I could do it again, because I’m a dumb 22-year old who thinks he owns the world.
I’m also the person who refuses to acknowledge Michael Jordon ever played basketball professionally again after the 1998 finals against Utah though, so…
Also, he’s Stetson Bennett THE FOURTH.
In my mind, I’d do less–my family obviously has money if I’m named THE FOURTH.
In a THE FOURTH’s mind, however, the calculus is probably very different. And that’s why I’m not a THE FOURTH. Sigh.
Ha, fair enough. Short of transferring to Florida or Tennessee or something, I don’t think he’s at any risk of playing this year and doing damage to what has already been accomplished as far as securing the first title in 40+ years.
I think if he stays it will be motivated by his competitive heart. I wasn’t a fan but he showed great character and tenacity to get accomplished what he did.
Notre Dame 2022, the most special(ist) team ever! Harvard punter on board, now giving 2 kickers, punters and long snappers. Lots of competition, at least, I guess.
It’s good to have a backup plan. If they didn’t there’d be hell to pay if things went wrong.
Plus he’s going to walk on. No downside and he sounds pretty good
Did Harvard fans chant, “Drop it like it’s Sot” and are we?
Sure seems like Saban is really embracing that heroic redemption. I was sure I hated the guy about two years ago, now he’s great?