Long-time readers of this column know of the special place in my heart for the service academies and their football teams. While the triple-option is old-fashioned by today’s modern offensive standards, when run effectively it is a sight to behold. The knowledge of the fact that, unlike practically all other FBS schools, football is a secondary concern at most to the men who make up the Army, Navy, and Air Force teams, is a refreshing change of pace in today’s climate. The special gameday traditions of the schools, the cadets and midshipmen in their block seating, and the background settings of the academies themselves make for a unique atmosphere in college football. While I’ve always enjoyed these teams and the way they play, I had never seen any of them play in person…until this past Saturday. Due in large part to my father-in-law (USAFA ’73), I was able to attend the Air Force-Navy game in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Despite the weather (game-time temperature was 45 or so, and with the wind and high altitude it felt even colder), it was a lot of fun, and the surrounding spectacle lived up to the expectations (as might be expected, there were at least six separate flyovers during pre-game). Oh, the game itself? Air Force won, 35-7. True to their name, the Falcons established superiority in the air; Air Force QB Donald Hammond III completed six of ten passes for 142 yards and a touchdown to complement a rushing attack that gained 257 yards, while the defense held Navy to just 36 yards passing and 178 overall. It was a great experience, and if you ever get the chance to see a game involving a service academy, I highly encourage it.<\/p>\n
When Dan Mullen was hired as the head coach at Florida, most Gator fans believed that he could eventually return Florida to prominence due to his success at Mississippi State. While an early loss to Kentucky temporarily dampened their spirits, folks in Gainesville have to believe they are ahead of schedule now. With a 27-19 win over then-#5 LSU, Florida is 5-1, ranked #14 in the AP poll, and has a fighter’s chance in the SEC East. Despite Mullen’s reputation as a quarterback and offensive guru, Florida is winning with defense; since the loss to Kentucky, they are only giving up an average of 14 points per game. After this weekend’s matchup with Vanderbilt, the Gators have an off-week before the annual rivalry game with Georgia in Jacksonville, where we’ll really see what this team is made of…<\/p>\n
The American Athletic Conference has billed itself in the past couple of years as a “Power 6 conference”. The premise is that while the conference does not currently have the benefits of those that make up the current Power 5, their schools perform well enough against those teams that the conference should be respected as such. Even things like the first-down markers used at the member schools’ games show “P6” in reference to this belief. This thought process has trickled down to the schools themselves; American member Central Florida claimed a national championship last year after going undefeated despite not being invited to the College Football Playoff. Whether you believe the conference truly deserves this status or not, it’s hard to argue with a three of its teams’ inclusion in the top 25 at this point. In addition to the Knights, who are once again unbeaten and currently ranked #10 in the country, South Florida (#23) and Cincinnati (#25) are also undefeated. While it’s still way too early to say at this point, there are growing calls for UCF to get a playoff spot if they are able to run the table again, which would include victories over the aforementioned Bulls and Bearcats. If they were to do so, could “Power 6” be more than just a marketing term?<\/p>\n
In small-school news, it’s once again for the annual Mount Union report! The Division III school in Alliance, Ohio, is famous for its long winning streaks and huge point differentials. This year’s edition of the Purple Raiders is currently 5-0 and outscoring its opponents by an average of 50-10, although one of those wins was only by a 23-10 score against John Carroll (who, incidentally, gave Mount Union their last regular-season loss in 2016). Mount Union is the defending Division III national champion and currently on a 20-game winning streak; not bad, but nowhere yet near their longest winning streaks of 55 (from 2000 to 2003) and 54 (from 1996 to 1999). To show just how utterly dominant Mount Union is, let’s compare them with other “dynasty” teams of the decade. In the 2010s, Alabama has a 105-12 record, good for a 89.7% winning percentage. North Dakota State is 111-13, an 89.5% winning percentage. Mount Union is 118-6, a 95.2% winning percentage!<\/p>\n
Congratulations to bamaken<\/strong>, who wins week 6 (their second weekly win!) with a tie-breaker victory over Paul Herron<\/strong>! Both finished with 174 points. BEVO<\/strong> was next with 173.<\/p>\n Standings after six weeks:<\/p>\n With several teams having bye weeks and a couple of ranked-versus-ranked games, there are only sixteen games this week. But every point is important, so make your picks count! The first game on the slate this week is South Florida at Tulsa, Friday, October 12 @ 7 PM ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long-time readers of this column know of the special place in my heart for the service academies and their football teams. While the triple-option is old-fashioned by today’s modern offensive standards, when run effectively it is a sight to behold. The knowledge of the fact that, unlike practically all other FBS schools, football is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n 1st<\/td>\n AllySun\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,291<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/td>\n Crimson Gator\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,288<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3rd<\/td>\n bamaken\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,287<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4th<\/td>\n Paul Herron\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,284<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-5th<\/td>\n JagRag\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,273<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-5th<\/td>\n El Dude-arino\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,273<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-5th<\/td>\n BEVO\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,273<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8th<\/td>\n AUBrian\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,271<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9th<\/td>\n Jeff4Bama\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,265<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/td>\n Ragnor\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n 1,258<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n