The Fumble: Introducing A New College Football Column on Inside the Hashes

Welcome to the Fumble, your weekly guide to the college football season. After what has seemed like four years and seven season-cancellation predictions, we’re finally watching that wonderful, beautiful, heartbreaking, stress-inducing, incredible game of football. Of course, this isn’t your usual season: the Pac-12 is not playing this Fall, the Big 10 has only in the last few days decided to start in October (thus justifying my decision to wait until the last minute to write this column...procrastination for the win), and everybody will be playing with maybe a quarter of their stadium capacity. For the entire season, I’ll be here at ITH trying to entertain you, the reader, and providing cutting-edge analysis. Or at least one of those things. You can decide which one I’m talking about.

If you are a long-time reader at Inside the Hashes, you might remember a column I wrote last year called “Looking at the CFB Top 10.” In addition to discarding that rather unwieldy title, the format has changed somewhat. I won’t be analyzing every member of the top 10; instead, I’ll be looking at a variety of things that will hopefully create a more creative feature. But this will likely not be static; there is a real possibility the column will change its bits each week. Who knows? I just write here.

Anyways...let’s get started.

If the Playoff Was Today, the Four Teams Would Be…

Clemson
Alabama
Oklahoma
Georgia

You know, usually I hate predictions like this, because I don’t believe that the AP OR the Playoff committee ranks teams the same way during the season and in the final rankings. So I probably won’t do this based on the prevalent rankings as the season goes on. But as it stands now, this actually aligns quite well with the reality of the situation. The three conference leaders and Alabama’s little brother are all in right now, with an eye on Florida and Texas. When the Big Ten starts, expect Ohio State here too.

I’m Looking For a New Favorite Player...Any Suggestions?

Could I interest you in Oklahoma’s QB Spencer Rattler? The ex-five-star prospect and redshirt freshman was Sports 24/7’s top recruit out of Arizona in 2019, and is ready to be the Sooner’s next big quarterback. He definitely played well in his first start, passing for almost 300 yards and four touchdowns. It’s even more impressive when you realize it came against…Missouri State. Okay, so the big opponents have yet to come, but he looked good against an outmatched opponent and his potential is massive. You could do far worse for a new favorite player.

A New Old Heisman Contender?

Look, I know. Sam Ehlinger has been playing for several years, and for all of his name recognition and “Texas is back” claims he’s really only ever been good, not great. And it was only UTEP. But in a weird season, why couldn’t a guy who just started the season with 426 yards and 5 touchdowns have a shot? I’m not saying it will happen. I’m not even saying he’d be my pick this week. But he certainly didn’t hurt himself.

The Top G5 Team Right Now

Look, with the Big Ten coming back, it seems less and less likely that any Group of 5 team will make the playoff. But there’s still a chance, and I’d pick Cincinnati if I had to pick one team to do it. Though not exactly high on flashy talent, coach Luke Fickell has been building an impressive program that would be worrisome for most ranked teams. If they can gain some momentum, they could be dangerous.

And that will be all for the first edition of the Fumble, folks. I’ll see you next week, everybody play nice.

Statistics courtesy of sports-reference.com