About a week before the season started, I had lunch with a friend who had heard of a betting pool about when Arch Manning would be the starting quarterback. By the third game, the fifth game, never? My friend said it wasn’t about Manning being better than Ewers but rather when Ewers would get injured, implying that Ewers was injury-prone.
If Ewers’ oblique injury had followed a series of pulled hamstrings, calf strains, turf toes, etc., I would say, “Yeah, he’s injury-prone.” However, the left shoulder injury he suffered versus Alabama in 2022 resulted from an illegal and dirty late hit by Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner. In 2023, he injured his left shoulder during a tackle at the end of a scramble versus Houston. So, no, I wouldn’t say he’s injury-prone—yet. Or, my above rationalizations aside, Ewers has now missed starts in three straight seasons, so yeah, he’s jury-prone. How’s that for a politician’s position statement?
Quarterback Controversy
There is no quarterback controversy. Ewers and Manning are both gifted. We have seen Ewers against Alabama, Michigan, and Oklahoma, in a Big 12 Championship game and a national semifinal. We’ve seen Manning against Colorado State and UTSA. Ewers will be and should be the starter when he’s healthy.
Relegation
Isn’t it ironic that Texas’s first game as the number-one ranked team in 15 years has been relegated to ESPN+ or SEC+? The ULM game is one too many against cupcake opponents for my taste. This is the third of four games for Texas in which they have been favored by at least 33 points. This week, they’re favored by 45. The root cause of this is the eight-game SEC schedule. The SEC members are supposedly considering a nine-game conference schedule in the future. Chris Del Conte doesn’t expect that to happen until the 2026 season at the earliest. Texas’ non-conference schedule next year includes Sam Houston State, San Jose State, and UTEP. The Horns have a marquee match-up next year on the road versus Ohio State. I’m glad I’m not paying for season tickets anymore.
It’s not just Texas or the SEC that are playing overmatched opponents. In these first three weeks, I’ve noticed a paucity of interesting games to watch. Last week, the only decent matchup was LSU versus South Carolina.
Speaking of relegation, with the advent of NIL, I’m not the first to suggest that only 12 college football programs can be serious national championship contenders. Here are the 12, not necessarily in ranked order.
- Texas
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Ohio State
- Michigan
- Notre Dame
- LSU
- Penn State
- USC
- Oregon
- Texas A&M
Notice that these current top 10 teams don’t make the cut.
- Ole Miss
- Tennessee
- Missouri
- Miami
Other top 25 teams absent include Clemson, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State.
You can call the above lists subjective. Does anyone out there want to quibble about these lists? If so, I’d love to hear from you.
Does any of this matter? The teams listed in the top 12 are the same teams that competed for championships for decades before there was NIL.
While we’re on the subject, some commentators have suggested that college football conferences should adopt revenue sharing a la the NFL. See what I did there showing off my French? 😊 Do you think revenue sharing is a good idea? Do you believe in a million years, it could ever happen?
ULM
As I mentioned earlier, Texas is a 45-point favorite. I’ve read that the Warhawks are well-coached and like to run the ball a lot, usually up the middle. They’re 2-0 with wins over Jackson State and the University of Alabama Birmingham. They have rushed for 413 yards in their first two games, led by Ahmad Hardy with 161 yards at 4.9 yards per carry.
The Warhawks quarterback is General Booty. Kind of reminds me of a Cleveland Browns receiver from the seventies named Fair Hooker. Anyway, Booty has passed for 191 yards so far with one touchdown and no interceptions.
Hook ‘Em,
W.E.
Songs of the Week
This one always makes me think of John Scott. He loved “12:45”
This rendition is almost as good as Richard Rankin’s accompanied by River City at the Sig Ep House in 1976.
