Earlier this week, I featured back-to-back stories about whether today’s major college coaches are worthy of being paid millions of dollars.

Today, it’s time to put the same microscope onto the NFL’s elite 32 coaches.  Unlike college football, recruiting is not a big part of the NFL.  The coaches don’t have to visit the households of 5-star athletes to put on a song-and-dance about why that young man should come play ball for the coach’s team.

In the NFL, the head coach usually provides significant input into drafting football talent coming out of colleges each year.  However, the NFL draft only provides each team with a maximum of seven picks every year.  Most NFL teams will sign several additional undrafted players every year as free agents immediately afterward to bolster the returning roster.

Unlike college football teams which will carry more than 100 players, the NFL coaches are dealing with a highly paid 53-man active roster.  The team is also permitted to carry up to 14 additional players on what is called their “practice squad”.

Most NFL players are signed to multi-year contracts with a variety of salaries, terms and conditions – usually based on that player’s perceived importance to the team.  That means that the quarterback generally earns the highest pay on most teams although some defensive players do very well, too.

In addition to the players, the NFL head coach must assemble and motivate a team of assistant coaches to help develop player talent, evaluate their performance, and design schemes for the upcoming opponents.   The head coach’s relationship with the assistant coaches can be just as important as his ability to deal with the 53 players.

Those relationships are put to the test whenever the team begins losing games, and the finger-pointing begins.

Unlike in major college football, the talent pool in the NFL is fairly consistent from team to team.  These players were dominant at their primary positions in college.  The head coach must be able to teach, nurture, and motivate this group of highly skilled, extremely well-paid grown men every week of the football season.

When the team fails on the field, the team’s ownership usually points the finger of blame at the head coach.  A few weeks ago, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels was fired after the team started 3-5 this season.  McDaniels was beginning his third season as the team’s head coach.

The turnover rate for NFL head coaches is extremely high.  Every year, about 25% of NFL coaches will be fired during or at the end of the season.  The owner (in an effort to keep fan interest alive for the franchise) finds it much easier to blame and fire the head coach rather than to dismiss an entire team of underperforming players.

In an average year in the NFL, eight of the 32 head coaches will lose their job.  For all US jobs, the average annual turnover rate is about 10%.

We are now at the halfway point of the 2023 NFL season.

Let’s review SwampSwami’s crystal ball and try to predict seven more candidates (in addition to the Raiders coach) who might be heading to the NFL coaching unemployment line by season’s end.

Here are my Top 7 names (plus a special bonus pick at the end):

Bill Belichick – New England Patriots (2-8) – Year #24

The 71-year old Hall-of-Fame NFL coach with six Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots continues to struggle this season.  What should happen?

Coach Belichick should graciously announce his retirement at season’s end and get the proper respect after so many years of excellence for the New...

Last weekend, the Michigan Wolverines played in an important Big Ten Conference road game at Penn State without their head coach patrolling the sidelines.  Head football coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended for the final three regular season games by the Big Ten for possible involvement in an unfolding sign-stealing scandal.

The coach was also not along the sidelines during the first three games of the season as the university itself imposed that punishment for recruiting violations.

Michigan beat Penn State last Saturday 24-15 and moved to 10-0 on the season.  They are 6-0 with Coach Jim Harbaugh on the field and 4-0 in games when he isn’t.

The Michigan football coach earns about $8.25 million per year.  He was the fourth highest paid coach in the oddly named 13-team Big Ten Conference.  Only Ohio State’s Ryan Day ($10.3 million), Michigan State’s fired-but-still-fighting it Mel Tucker ($10 million), and Penn State’s James Franklin ($8.5 million) are making more money than Jim Harbaugh.

The pay for head football coaches in the largest conferences has been growing even faster than college tuitions.  Many now earn the same amount of money as some NFL coaches.

The money machine in college football has been driven largely by a gigantic increase in television revenues.

Though the NFL’s Sunday games reign supreme with television ratings, Saturday’s slate of major college football games have been growing faster in recent years.  The NFL’s Sunday games still draw more than double the number of viewers of college football.

For advertisers, college football’s growth targets the predominantly male viewing audience between the ages of 25-49.   They make a significant number of purchasing decisions on vehicles, alcoholic beverages, financial matters (insurance, investments, etc.), and jewelry (especially around the holidays).

There is a full hour of commercials crammed into a Saturday 3 ½ hour college football game.  That’s why several television networks have bid-up the price to cover the major college football conferences.

With more money from television, there is now more money for the schools to pay for the finite number of “elite” football coaches.

What really defines an elite college football head coach?

One or more national championships on the resume of a coach will quickly catch your eye.

Texas A&M fans will tell you that’s not always the answer.  They will be spending $76 million to pay-off the contract of former coach Jimbo Fisher.  He won three ACC titles and the 2013 BCS national championship over his eight years at Florida State.  Was he an elite coach or simply fortunate to have a talented team led by Heisman winning quarterback Jameis Winston?

Winning multiple conference championships proves that the coach is a consistent winner.

Michigan’s legendary Bo Schembechler coached in Ann Arbor for 21 years from 1969 through 1989.  He never won a national championship, but the school collected 13 Big Ten titles.  Ironically, Texas A&M came calling to offer Coach Schembechler their top job in January, 1982.  The Aggies offered him $3 million over ten years – the highest contract offer in college football at that time.  Bo Schembechler turned it down saying, “Frankly, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are things more important in this world than money.”

Posting a winning season every year over a long period helps to identify an elite coach.

Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz already has eight wins this season.  That makes eleven straight years in which the Big Ten’s Hawkeyes have shown a winning record.  Now in his 25th year at Iowa, Coach Ferentz has posted just four losing seasons (two of which came in his first two years in Iowa City).

Having a (fairly) clean record with the NCAA and your previous employers.

Bobby Petrino has been the Offensive Coordinator ...

November marks the final month of the college football regular season for most teams.   You can be sure that many schools are thinking about whether or not they should retain their current head football coach after this season, too.

Economics will provide an objective factor in arriving at the decision.  If your current head coach is underperforming on the field for multiple years, there is a very good chance that home attendance has been falling a bit, too.  Losing thousands of season ticket holders is always a bad sign for the current coaching regime.

However, there are emotional aspects related to this decision, too.  They will drive the timing on the decision on whether to keep or dismiss a major college football coach.

The higher the coach’s annual pay, the more intensely the team’s fan base expects to see success on the football field.

In recent years, most coaches (and their agents) have negotiated long-term contracts which contain up to 100% guaranteed pay for the entire term of the deal – even if the coach is dismissed years before the contract expires.

The payoff of these contracts usually falls on the desire to make a change pushed by the athletic department’s largest financial backers.  They will huddle with the school’s administration and often ante-up 100% of the money required to pay the costs associated with the exiting coach’s contract and any costs associated of bring a new coach onboard.

It’s not just the payoff of the current contract, either.  This exercise gets a lot more expensive as the potential new coach (a success at his current school) works under a contract with his current employer.  A contract buyout must be paid to the former school to buy the coach out of his existing employment agreement.

This amounts to an incredible amount of money in many cases.

The school’s athletic boosters have become, effectively, the financial “owners” of the school’s athletics program.  Without their assistance, the pay levels for major college football coaches in most state universities would be a fraction of today’s going rates.

These boosters must be able to bankroll paying-off their fired coach’s contract and then fork over more millions to buy-out the targeted new coach’s existing employment agreement.  If the boosters can cover the costs, the university’s administration and the athletics department will generally go along with making the changes.

High finance, indeed!

The “right time” to dismiss the head coach often comes after an embarrassing and/or unexpected loss, at the end of more than one disappointing seasons, or if the school has a number of embarrassing off-the-field issues which are affecting wins and losses.

The first big name casualty of the 2023 season just happened on Sunday.

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher was terminated after almost six seasons in Aggieland.   After coming from a successful stint at Florida State, Fisher moved to College Station for the start of the 2018 football season.  In the past few years, the Aggies regularly boasted of having top 5-level recruiting classes.  However, the football team posted four or more losses in all but the COVID-shortened season in 2020.

Though the Aggies are now 6-4 and likely to finish above .500, the Texas A&M athletics director said that the school hired Coach Fisher to compete for national championships – not middle-of-the-pack finishes in the SEC.

Despite being paid more than $9 million per year, Jimbo Fisher’s bosses believe that he failed his mission to return Texas A&M to the top of the SEC and play for championships.

So, he’s out.

However, Texas A&M’s current contract with Jimbo Fisher called for a fully guaranteed deal worth a total of $95 million over a ten year period.  He still has an estimated $76 million remaining on his contract with the Aggies.

The Washington Huskies rallied in the second half to take down Utah 35-28 on Saturday.  With the victory, the top dog in the Pac-12 moved to 10-0 on the season.  This is just the second time that Washington has started the season at 10-0.  The 1991 team shared the national championship with the University of Miami Hurricanes.

Most importantly, the Huskies have climbed into the driver’s seat for the first time in the SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings for the week ending November 11, 2023.

The University of Washington becomes the fifth team to sit atop my poll for the 2023 college football season.  The earlier top teams have been Texas, Georgia (two weeks), Michigan, and Ohio State (two weeks).   Washington’s signature win over 9-1 Oregon is the strongest victory of the remaining unbeaten teams.

Seven-up! 

There are still seven unbeaten teams in the 133 FBS college football field.  Having that many 10-0 teams spells trouble for the half-dozen one-loss squads trying to find their way into the College Football Playoffs.

In this week’s rankings, the contenders at 9-1 (Texas, Tulane, Toledo, Alabama, Oregon, and Louisville) must hope that one of these unbeaten teams will fall soon.  Three teams have a chance to take the matter in their own hands.  The SEC’s Alabama Crimson Tide, the Pac-12 Oregon Ducks, and ACC’s Louisville Cardinals have a chance to take down one of the unbeaten teams in their upcoming conference championship games in the first week of December.

If your favorite team already has two losses or more, hope for a warm weather bowl location!

More BIG Ten Mediocrity!

Though I am admittedly a lifelong fan of college football down in the South, the Big Ten Conference continues to prove that most of its top teams are overrated week after week.

Need proof?  There are currently five teams in the Big Ten West in second place at 5-5.

The quirky quintet of Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Wisconsin have already put the 8-2 Iowa Hawkeyes into the Big Ten championship game several weeks from now.  The Hawkeyes scored a 22-0 win over 6-4 Rutgers on Saturday.

The 8-2 Iowa offense is, well, putrid.  Out of the 133 FBS upper division college football teams, the Hawkeyes are…#133.   The offense is averaging just 243 yards per game.  Thankfully, the black and gold defense allows just 12.3 points per game (#3 nationally).

Over in the Big Ten East, the Michigan Wolverines are proving that their school should save its money as it obviously does not need to overpay for a head coach.

Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh was suspended by the Big Ten Conference for Saturday’s game at Penn State and for the two remaining regular season games.  The unfolding sign-stealing scandal will make headlines for weeks to come.  Lest we forget, Coach Harbaugh served a school-imposed suspension for Games 1, 2, and 3 this season as a penalty involving recruiting violations.

Michigan is now 10-0.  They are 6-0 with their head coach and 4-0 without him.  Do they really need him?

The Wolverines’ offense handed the ball off for every play in the second half against Penn State in a closer-than-the-final-score 24-15 win on Saturday.

It makes no sense to pay $8.25 million for a head coach when your team has proven that they play just as well without one.

Speaking of overrated Big Ten teams, perpetual conference bridesmaid Penn State (now 8-2) is trying to save face after being beaten by a Michigan team which ran the ball 32 times in a row to end the football game.

Nittany Lions coach James Franklin tried to downplay the loss and said, “We’ve lost to the No. 1 and the No. 3 team in the country, that’s not good enough.  We have to find ways to win those games.”

Here’s the truth, Coach Franklin!

While the so-called “big dogs” of the NCAA’s FBS group stay atop the polls with help from the major market media, there is a team of hungry dogs in the Sunbelt Conference just hoping that someone will finally spring them loose from the NCAA’s post-season pound soon.

The James Madison Dukes of the Sunbelt Conference are now 9-0.  One of the seven remaining unbeaten teams this week, JMU is ranked #3 in my latest SwampSwamiSports.com Top 25 for this week.  The less-than-appreciative AP poll has JMU at #21.

The Dukes played for decades in the smaller-school FCS football grouping.  A founding member of the Colonial Athletics Association, James Madison University became an FCS football power in the past two decades.  The Dukes reached the FCS national semifinals five times during their final six seasons at that level (which ended after the 2021 season).

James Madison University then decided to move up into the FBS (upper division) beginning with the 2022 football season as it was welcomed into the Sunbelt Conference.

However…

According to the current NCAA rules, any football team which moves up from the FCS group into the FBS is not permitted to participate in post-season games during the team’s first two seasons of competition at the higher level.

That means that this year’s unbeaten 9-0 James Madison University Dukes football team is currently ineligible to play in its own conference championship (a post-season game) and in what would likely be a lucrative bowl game over the holiday season.

This odd NCAA rule has been around for more than twenty years.  Times have changed.  At the time, it may have made some sense (?), but it certainly doesn’t in 2023.

In just the past few years, the NCAA has loosened its long-time rules relating to student transfers (instituting the NCAA Transfer Portal) and allowing athletes to cash-in on their name, image, and likeness (NIL) in recent years.

The current rule which is keeping the James Madison Dukes in post-season Siberia should be changed immediately.

JMU is a highly competitive football team.  Most college football fans (like me) want to see how well the Dukes would line-up against a competitor from another major conference during the upcoming bowl season.

The James Madison Dukes are no fluke.  They would make for an entertaining match-up against any nationally known “brand” school.

The Dukes are squarely in a financial (pardon my pun) dogfight to play in a New Year’s Day bowl game in less than two months which could pay the school upwards of $10 million.

That is because the highest ranked so-called “Group of Five” conference team will receive an automatic invitation to play in one of the high-paying New Year’s Day bowl games.

The Group of Five conferences are the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the Sunbelt Conference.

This week, the top rated (according to the Associated Press) Group of Five football team is the 20th ranked (and 9-1) Tulane Green Wave from the AAC.  Unbeaten James Madison of the Sunbelt Conference is just one spot back at #21.  Conference USA’s Liberty University (also 9-0) is currently third in the Group of Five race at #25.

Last year, Tulane (then 12-1) was selected to play in the January 1, 2023 Cotton Bowl game and knocked-off USC in a 46-45 thriller.  The Greenies garnered a lot of positive publicity and cash for their New Year’s Day bowl game appearance.

James Madison would like to have that same opportunity this year – if the NCAA will quickly change an unnecessary rule which would keep JMU at home once again this year.

James Madison University was founded in 1908 as and is located in northwest Virginia in the city of Harrisonburg.  It is a growing public research university.

The school is named after one of America’s founding fathers,

There are 133 college football teams which are competing this season in the top division FBS.  After the weekend of November 4, there are now just seven unbeaten teams remaining.

In a game played at Denver’s Mile High Stadium last Saturday night, the Air Force Academy fell from the unbeaten group.  The Falcons coughed-up six turnovers in a 23-3 loss to the Army Black Knights (now 3-6).  The Air Force Academy dropped to 8-1 and tumbled to #17 this week in the SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings.

My weekly rankings give the most weight to teams which have the fewest losses.  Ties are broken by determining that team’s best win of the season (over a team with the best record as of this week).  Road wins carry more weight than home wins over teams with the same record.

It’s quite objective and very simple!

A team which beats every other team on its schedule for the season can do no more.   I believe those teams should be rewarded with a higher ranking over any team which has lost one or more games.

There are now just seven teams which remain undefeated with only a few games left in the 2023 college football season.

Only the Big Ten Conference (Ohio State and Michigan, as usual) has two teams without a loss.  Those two teams will finally play each other on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Penn State (now 8-1) can spoil Michigan’s dreams of a perfect season this Saturday when they will host the 9-0 Wolverines at 11AM on ABC.  If the Nittany Lions should win this week, it’s quite possible that the Big Ten might have three teams at 11-1 by season’s end.  What a wonderful mess that would be to sort-out!

The other five conferences with unbeaten teams this week are the ACC (Florida State), Conference USA (Liberty University), Pac-12 (Washington), SEC (Georgia), and the Sunbelt (James Madison).

After those top seven teams, there are now just ten teams with one loss for the year.  Another 14 teams have two losses after games played through the week of November 4.

The End of Bedlam

After 118 seasons of playing college football games against each other, the long-time series between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University ended on Saturday evening in Stillwater.  OSU rallied late to claim the win in this year’s 27-24 Bedlam football finale.  Next year, the Sooners will move into the SEC, while Okie State remains in the Big 12 Conference.

The series name of “Bedlam” has a variety of origins.  Here’s the one I like best.

After Oklahoma A&M (as it was called then) finally won its first game in this series in 1917, an Oklahoma City newspaper reporter wrote that “bedlam broke loose” in Stillwater with massive celebrations taking place on the campus and in town.

As this long-time rivalry ends, the Oklahoma Sooners remained comfortably on top with a 91-20-7 record.  From 1946 through 1964, OU won an incredible 19 games in a row over OSU.

During the past few decades, most of these football games have been decided in the final minutes with thrilling finishes.

Oklahoma State’s Pistol Pete had the last laugh as the Pokes took two of the final three football games played in the Bedlam series.

The Aggies are now 7-3!  No, it’s not Texas A&M

The football fans of 5-4 Texas A&M might be busy passing around a few Texas-sized ten-gallon hats to collect the $70 million which is needed to buy-out Coach Jimbo Fisher’s guaranteed contract at the school.

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, a different team of Aggies is doing great!

Around the college campuses in Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa, this week is known as “Hate Bama” or “Hate LSU” week.  They don’t really hate each other as much as both schools really get fired-up to play football against one another in the first weekend of November.

As a person who grew up in Louisiana, the annual football game between LSU and Alabama has been special since I was very young.

Back then, Alabama’s coach was the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant.   All he did was win six national championships with the team (1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, and 1979) and 13 SEC titles during his 25 years as the head football coach in Tuscaloosa.

A former college football player at Alabama, Coach Bryant finally retired at the conclusion of the 1982 football season.  A heavy smoker for most of his life, he had developed several health problems in the years leading up to his retirement.  He died just four weeks after his retirement in January, 1983 as a result of a heart attack.  He was just 69 years of age.

During that same period, the LSU Tigers were no cupcake on the football field, either.  The coach who had the misfortune to coach the Tigers against much of Bear Bryant’s era at Alabama was Charles McClendon.  Affectionately referred to as “Cholly Mac” in Louisiana, Coach McClendon led the Fighting Tigers football team from 1962-1979.

During Cholly Mac’s 18 years with the Bayou Bengals, LSU posted just one losing season (going 5-6 in 1975).  Coach McClendon’s career record in Baton Rouge was a solid 137-59-7.

I remember watching my first LSU vs. Alabama game on a black and white television set at home.  Back then, the TV coverage actually featured the halftime show with the Golden Band from Tigerland and the Million Dollar Band of Alabama taking the field, too.

If you are in favor of giving us the bands at halftime instead of watching a few talking heads and 12 minutes of commercials, please raise your hand! 

At some point in my youth, I learned that LSU and Alabama really disliked each other.   Like most southern states, Louisiana folks take great pride in our football and, especially, the results of the flagship university’s team in Baton Rouge.

In most seasons, both Alabama and LSU were ranked in the AP Top 25 prior to this game being played in early November (which started in 1964 and has continued ever since).

The annual battle between these two college football giants has always been quite intense.  That’s part of the fun – for fans in the stadium and those watching at home.  The crowd noise just never seems to stop during these games.

Unfortunately for Louisiana football fans, the University of Alabama “owned” LSU for most of the Cholly Mac vs. Bear Bryant years.  Bama won 13 of the 15 meetings during Coach McClendon’s time at LSU.

From 1971-2000, Alabama won every single meeting with LSU when the game was played in Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.  Yes, you read that correctly.

Perhaps that is why more and more LSU fans developed a little hatred toward Alabama every football season for the past half century.

In the year 2000, a college football coach by the name of Nick Saban entered this SEC rivalry in a big way.  After his arrival in the Deep South, Coach Saban has personally dominated the LSU/Alabama series for the past 23 seasons.

Nick Saban left Michigan State to become LSU’s head coach beginning with the 2000 college football season.  In his five years at LSU, Nick Saban’s Bayou Bengals won four of their five meetings with rival Alabama.  Coach Saban led the 2003 LSU team to the school’s second national championship.

Nick Saban had become the “King of Louisiana” after winning the 2003 national title!

After the 2004 college football season, Saban left LSU to become the head coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.  The Dolphins went 9-7 in 2005 but collapsed to 6-10 in 2006 (which rema...

Most of today’s college head football coaches make a little extra money by doing a weekly radio and/or television show during the season.  These shows are usually “live” at a local eatery in front of a crowd of loyal supporters of the university’s football program.

The format of most coaches’ shows will have one or two friendly hosts (usually featuring the radio play-by-play announcer) asking rather general questions about last week’s win (or loss) and what the team is doing to get ready for the next opponent.

The football coach will answer most of the questions in something that many fans call “Coachspeak”.  That means that he will sugar coat many of the answers to give the least offensive response and keep the show “G” rated.

You rarely hear a football coach call out a specific player for a boneheaded play.

That’s because it wouldn’t be good to single out your placekicker (Joe “TheToe” McGillicutty) for that missed a chip shot 22-yard field goal in the final seconds (which most high school kickers would have made with their eyes closed).  It is doesn’t build team spirit and fan loyalty by disparaging any young person on the team who is trying their best – regardless of the results on the field.

Likewise, it is also a really bad idea for the head football coach to provide bulletin board material for next week’s opponent.  Don’t fire-up the other team by dropping a comment such as, “Their quarterback hasn’t been able to hit the broadside of a barn in the last two games, Bill.”  It usually backfires.

That’s why most radio and television coaches’ shows are generally quite predictable and boring.  If you’ve never heard one, you haven’t missed very much.

Except…

The weekly radio show for Clemson University head football coach Dabo Swinney from this past Monday night, October 30.  It was a doozy!  After the weekly Q&A from the radio host, the coach opened up the telephone phone lines to take a caller’s question.

Pro tip!  As a former talk show host myself, a rule of thumb is that you will be lucky to get one caller for every 100 current listeners.  It takes a lot of guts for most people to dial-up a radio talk show.  It takes even more courage to call if you are planning to take a shot at one of the nation’s top football coaches – on his own show!

“Welcome to the Coach Dabo Swinney show.  Tyler from Spartanburg, you’re on the air!”

That’s when a young gentleman named Tyler became famous (at least for this week) by calling the coach’s radio show to make a few unflattering remarks about this year’s Clemson football team and the coach’s salary (about $11 million per season).

Uh-oh.  This is not going to end well for Tyler-the-radio-caller! 

Let’s set the stage before we dissect Coach Dabo Swinney’s response.

The Clemson Tigers are now 4-4 this season.  Last Saturday, they lost an ACC road game to 5-3 North Carolina State by a score of 24-17.   Clemson’s four wins this year have come against FCS Charleston Southern, 4-4 Florida Atlantic, at 4-4 Syracuse, and vs. 4-4 Wake Forest.

Translated – Clemson hasn’t beaten a FBS opponent this year which currently sports a winning record.

The Clemson fans have become conditioned to winning a lot of football games and competing for national championships.

Before Dabo Swinney was named Clemson’s new head coach in 2009, the Tigers had just one national title in the trophy case from the year 1981.  After Coach Swinney arrived on campus, Clemson has rolled-off at least ten wins in every season beginning with 2011.   That’s 12 straight years of double digit wins.

Until this year, that is.  With four losses already, that impressive streak has ended.

Coach Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers have won two of the last seven national championships played.

If you haven’t heard yet, the Northwestern State Demons college football team abruptly decided to end its 2023 season on Thursday, October 26.

The head football coach, Brad Laird, resigned after six seasons at his alma mater.

The team’s game scheduled for last Saturday at McNeese State University in Lake Charles (the Cowboys’ homecoming game) was abruptly cancelled.

This week’s scheduled game to be played by the Northwestern State football team was to have been played this Saturday, November 4 at 3PM against Houston Christian.  This Saturday is the Northwestern State Demons’ 2023 homecoming weekend (which will still be held sans football game).

The final two cancelled football games were a road trip to San Antonio to play Incarnate Word (November 11) and a final home game on November 18 against Texas A&M-Commerce.

What is happening at this university situated in the lovely city of Natchitoches, Louisiana (population 18,039)?

Last Thursday October 26, Northwestern State University President Dr. Marcus Jones announced the abrupt and immediate cancellation of the remainder of the football season.  He said this was a collective decision made between the team’s football players and the university’s administration.

One of the team’s players, junior defensive back Ronnie Caldwell, was shot several times and killed at around 1AM during the overnight hours of Thursday, October 12 at his off-campus apartment complex located near the school.

After Ronnie Caldwell’s passing, Northwestern State quickly cancelled the game scheduled just two days later on Saturday, October 14 at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux.

The following Saturday (October 21), the Demons football team hosted Southeastern Louisiana University in Turpin Stadium in Natchitoches.  Memorials were held prior to the game to honor the team’s former starting defensive safety.

The football team dropped to 0-7 after losing 37-20 to the visiting Lions.

The next football game was scheduled for 7PM Saturday, October 28 on the road at McNeese State University in Lake Charles.  It was scheduled to be the McNeese Cowboys’ homecoming game.  A significant amount of revenue was lost by the Lake Charles school due to the game’s cancellation last Saturday night.

According to reports, the Demons’ football practices initially scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday last week prior to the McNeese State game were made optional for any players who might still be grieving the loss of teammate Ronnie Caldwell.

With an important road game coming up in just a few days, many NSU football players were becoming (justifiably) quite confused as game preparations were at a standstill.

Things were clarified last Thursday, October 26.

That is when Northwestern State University President Dr. Marcus Jones surprised nearly everyone by declaring that all remaining 2023 games for the Demons football team had been cancelled.

According to the NSU athletics website, “The school cites the mental health and well being of its student-athletes as the primary reason for its decision. 

The University President added, “Ronnie was a beloved member of our community, and we miss him dearly.  While our instinct was to return to the field of play following his death, we’ve since learned that the hurt on our team was too deep. Now it is in the best interest of our players, coaches,

Another week of games has been played.  Yet another new team now sits atop the SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings.

That’s the way it goes with this dynamic poll which is based on your college football team’s best win of the season!

Since my poll isn’t published until after a full month of play, the month of October began with Texas (then 5-0) as the initial top team.  As October progressed, the top spot was then grabbed by unbeaten and two-time defending national champion, Georgia.  The Dawgs held onto the #1 spot for two consecutive weeks (for games ending on October 7 and 14).

While Georgia was on its bye week, Michigan became #1 last weekend as a result of being the only 8-0 team in the country through the week ending October 21.

This week, a fourth team will wear the SwampSwamiSports.com College Football #1 crown as we end the month of October.

The Ohio State Buckeyes moved to 8-0 on Saturday and ascended into the top spot of my rankings.  Ohio State’s best win of the 2023 season came over 7-1 Penn State.

This week’s second place team isn’t Georgia, either.  The surprising 8-0 Washington Huskies have moved into the second spot after posting an impressive victory over 7-1 Oregon a few weeks ago.

Georgia (through no fault of its own) has dropped all the way to #7 this week.  Here’s why.

The Dawgs’ two best wins of the season have come against teams whose records have fallen to 5-3 (Kentucky and Florida).  That’s the price your team must pay if your opponents have lousy records.   If Georgia keeps winning, the rest will take care of itself by the season’s end.

Rock, SHOCK, Jayhawks!  Kansas ends OU’s unbeaten season

How about those football Jayhawks!  

Neither wind, cold, rain, nor a lightning delay could prevent a determined 6-2 Kansas Jayhawks team from taking down one the nine remaining unbeaten teams coming into last weekend.  Though Oklahoma tried to rally with seconds to go, KU held on to beat the Sooners 38-33 and end OU’s dreams of a perfect season.

This nationally televised football game was delayed by an hour due to a rare lightning display during a chilly 37-degree afternoon in Lawrence, Kansas.

With the win, Kansas finally beat Oklahoma (now 7-1) on the football field for the first time since 1997.

Jayhawks fans stormed the field after the game, tore down and carried the goal post into a nearby lake, and happily bid adieu to the Sooners as OU will enter the SEC next season.

Speaking of the SEC – This Saturday features a gigantic doubleheader on CBS!

In case you haven’t heard, CBS is in the final year of carrying their long-running 2:30PM Southeastern Conference featured football games.  In addition to carrying the SEC’s top game in the afternoon, the network is permitted to select one game to air in prime time on a Saturday evening each season.

This weekend (November 4), CBS will provide one whale of a line-up for college football fans to watch at home.

At 2:30PM Central, CBS will feature the 7-1 Missouri Tigers visiting the 8-0 Georgia Bulldogs with the SEC East title potentially on the line.

Mizzou’s only loss of the year came in a 49-39 shootout loss to LSU on October 7.   Quarterback Brady Cook and wide receiver Luther Burden III have proven to be a true dynamic duo on offense.  Missouri’s young head football coach Eli Drinkwitz relishes the underdog role.  With the game being played in Athens, Georgia this Saturday, we’ll find out if the Tigers of Missouri have the right stuff to end Georgia’s incredible 25-game winning streak.

Early this season, Georgia looked vulnerable.  However, they have come alive on offense during the past few weeks.  The Bulldogs routed the Florida Gators (now 5-3) 43-20 on Saturday in Jacksonville.  Georgia is gunning for an unprecedented third straight national championship.