Ouch...

In the words of Ron Burgundy, "Well that escalated quickly." That's pretty much how I feel about the National Championship game the other night. It was a miserable night for all those who wanted to see Oregon demolish Ohio State and thereby prove that the Big 10 is a crappy excuse for a conference and has no business playing organized football. I mean there may be other reasons for wanting Ohio State to lose, but I figure that has to be one of them. That did not happen though. I honestly thought that Marcus Mariota would be the difference maker, and it's not like he didn't have a decent night. He was 24 of 37 for 333 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. I mean in actuality he had about the same night as the National Champion third-stringer Cardale Jones. Jones was 16 of 23 for 242 yards, one touchdown, and one interception as well. So what happened? What really happened to Oregon? Well I'll tell you what I think happened. 

What Happened to Oregon (In My Own Words)

Defense. Defense is what happened to Oregon. Or should I say a lack thereof. I mean there is one name that those commentators could not stop saying and that was Ezekiel Elliot. That guy ran all over Oregon's defense and I don't know if they were ever able to really stop him. Ohio State had 296 rushing yards on the night and guess who had 246 of them? Yep. That would be Ezekiel Elliot. He had more yards rushing than there were total passing yards. Now I'm not saying that Oregon didn't have yards because they did, but they didn't have Ezekiel Elliot and, worse than that, they didn't have a defense to stop him. 

Now I'm not going to bash Oregon's defense entirely because they also managed to get four turnovers, including three fumbles, off of the Ohio State offense so that's great. The problem with that is that the Oregon offense couldn't see to get anything together when they were given those opportunities. The first fumble gave them a fourth down which they went for and didn't get so that gave the ball back to Ohio State with nothing to show. The second fumble gave them a punt, and the third fumble gave them a field goal. The only turnover that actually gave them substantial points was the  interception that Marcus Mariota threw 70 yards to Byron Marshall for a touchdown. That was pretty impressive and, for a moment, I thought that they may turn that into momentum of some kind and come back to destroy Ohio State. No such luck. As I said before, they had no Ezekiel Elliot and no defense to stand up to what he was doing.

Now What?
Well as of today Marcus Mariota has decided that he will declare for the NFL Draft and is predicted to go Number 2 to the Tennessee Titans. Cardale Jones, as of right at this moment, has not decided whether or not he will go after just starting three games in his whole career. Apparently he's made enough noise to have some people thinking, "Hmm.. should we take a chance on this kid?" Honestly I think he might go. The only way that he will play next year is if Braxton Miller transfers, and JT Barrett starts the season throwing a million interceptions and nothing else. I mean Cardale is a good player, that can't be denied especially now, but is he going to get the start over either Miller or Barrett? No, probably not. Either way he's got until the end of the day to decide because that's the deadline for players to make their decisions. Well, here's to hoping it works for him either way.

I guess I could apologize for being so hateful toward Ohio State and wishing them to lose so badly. The fact remains that the score I picked was lopsided, but it was lopsided the wrong way. I basically picked close to the right score, but I picked the wrong team to win. Normally, I would own that mistake and laugh it off, but I doubt any Ohio State fans read this blog. Frankly, I think only my dad reads this thing (shout out to you dad!) and I don't need to apologize to him for hating Ohio State. He knows I hate Ohio State. He raised me that way. So, the other team won. I'll get over it. And so will Oregon. They have a lot to make up for. Ohio State is looking to repeat next year and with the talent at their disposal they very well could make a run for it. Oregon will bounce back, and maybe one day they'll win a National Championship too. Probably not against Alabama, and definitely not against Auburn (we've already seen how that turned out) and maybe not against any other SEC team. Maybe I'm being too optimistic. I do love my conference and next year we'll be back in the finals. But for this year college football is officially over *sob* and now all we have to look forward to is the draft and signing and all that. Which can be fun also. So until next time dad, and maybe one or two other readers who are still hoping for some nice recipes, I'll talk to you then.

What Is This All About Anyway?

Well, I'll be happy to tell you. See I have this class for school that requires a blog for credit. I'll be honest in saying that I'm not too happy about having to do that since I lack a presence on any type of social media for a lot of reasons. None of which I'm willing to share with strangers.

I honestly wasn't sure what I was going to write about. Being as real as possible here, I don't have that interesting of a life. No crafty abilities, no cute familial anecdotes, and I'm not really a campaigner for social change so that doesn't leave me with many options. I guess I could write about business or the weather but that would make this project absolutely unbearable so I'm going to write about what I know: college football. At the very least I can get through this with some kind of interest in what I'm writing about. 

So first I'll start with what I'll be doing with this blog. I'll take a few topics around the college football world every week and write a little bit about each. It's not really a complicated thing, and it might be me talking to myself, but I don't care. I do realize that college football season is almost over and that will make it a little difficult so if I have to dip into past topics and give my opinion on those that's what I'll do. Hey, it's my blog and I make the rules right? Right.

I also realize what you're thinking, "Hey Nick Saban doesn't wear a sweater vest. That's a lie! She's a fraud this one!" I mean maybe not exactly like that but something along those lines. My title is a tad confusing. The most famous of college football coaches right at this moment, and probably the most hated if we're being real, isn't known for rocking a sweater vest. However, if you go a little south of Tuscaloosa, where Nick Saban resides, then you'll find Gus Malzahn. Gus is the head coach of the Auburn Tigers, the rivals of the Alabama Crimson Tide in case you're not a football follower and are here hoping that I'll provide some nice recipes at some point, and he is known for rocking a sweater vest. Catchy and clever, yes? No. Well this is still my blog so I still make the rules.

One more thing before I get to my first real post. If you read the title block underneath my title you'll see where it says, "A honestly biased college football blog". So yeah understand that before reading this. I'm biased. I don't care. Again see above for rules concerning my blog.

Alright well I think all my bases are covered. So I guess for this first blog post I'll discuss the most obvious thing surrounding college football at this moment and that is the inaugural playoff game. 

The College Football Playoff

In case you're new to this whole college football thing, allow me to explain a little bit about this "playoff". Supposedly it was an easier way to decide who was the out right national champion in college football. You have a four team playoff at the end of the season and the winners of those two games play for the National Championship. The teams in the Top 25 were decided by a committee of people instead of computers and all was well. I mean it was well if you were a SEC, Big 10, Pac-12, or ACC champion. If you're in the Big-12 where there is no conference champion then sorry you lose. (Here's looking at you Baylor and TCU, co-champions do not count as champions. Just saying.) Anyway, so the games were set and now that Alabama and Florida State were removed it is down to just Ohio State and Oregon.

I'm not going to pretend that I don't have a preference for the victor. I despise Ohio State. I will always despise Ohio State despite the fact that I give credit where credit is due, and it is slightly impressive that they managed to beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, and Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship game with a third-string quarterback. With that out of the way, I want Oregon to win. I'd be willing to bet fake money that means nothing at all that Oregon will put a beating on Ohio State the same way that they did Jameis Winston and Florida State in the Rose Bowl this year.

But I won't just leave it there. I'll tell you why I believe that Oregon will win. Marcus Mariota is a great quarterback. Again I'm not denying that Ohio State has a good third-string quarterback in Cardale Jones, they do, but he was third-string for a reason. Mariota has started for three seasons and, as of today, has yet to declare for the NFL Draft so may start yet another season for Oregon. He also brought home Oregon's first Heisman trophy this season with an impressive resume that includes completing over 68 percent of his passes for over 4,000 yards, 40 touchdowns, and just 3 interceptions. And that's just this year. If we're going with all three years he has played he's amassed over 10,000 total yards and 103 touchdowns. The kid is amazing. He truly is, and he really doesn't get enough credit. I mean I'll be real in admitting that most of my focus is in the SEC. My favorite team is in that conference so that's what I follow the most. I didn't really even pay attention to talk about Marcus Mariota because he isn't in my conference. But he is one incredible player and even I can admit that.

But Marcus Mariota aside, Oregon is a very good team. Their offense produces 47.2 points per game which is just incredible. I mean we could go into another whole discussion about the strength of schedule in the Pac-12 but that's for another time. For right now let's just be impressed that they put up that amount of points on average. Their defense also caused the current National Champions, the Florida State Seminoles, to turn the ball over five times in the Rose Bowl. Oregon's defense doesn't get as much credit as their offense but those five turnovers were extremely costly to the Seminoles.

So Oregon is clearly the winner in this. Not that Ohio State doesn't have a good record with bowls and all that, and Urban Meyer does have two National Championships under his belt already, but none of that matters at this moment. Ohio State isn't as good as Oregon. With the experience of Mariota under center the Ducks are the obvious winner here.

So, my prediction:
Oregon- 45 Ohio State- 17

I think that should about cover it for this week. I'll pick up next week and see if I was anywhere close to right. Also the National Championship game is Monday night at 7:30 (Central time) on ESPN.