Daily briefing: On Iowa’s schedule, LSU and Tennessee, and the AAC title race
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
A scheduling quirk for Iowa
Creating a conference football schedule that is fair to every team is difficult at best. If there are no inequities, there still are going to be oddities. Take Iowa (5-4 overall, 3-3 in the Big Ten). The Hawkeyes play host to Wisconsin (5-4, 3-3) this week; the Badgers shut down Maryland 23-10 last week. This will be the third time this season that Iowa has played a team one week after Maryland did. “We’ve been watching them and they’ve got a good football team this year,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said of the Terps (6-3, 3-3). “That’s the worst Maryland has looked, and I think it’s got probably something to do with the opponent. I think Wisconsin did a good job of taking some things away from them and making it difficult on them.” The Badgers are 3-1 since defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard became interim coach. The winner of the Iowa-Wisconsin game remains alive in the kooky Big Ten West.
Different results last week for LSU and Tennessee, same goal this week
Their results last Saturday couldn’t be more different, but the task for No. 5 Tennessee and No. 7 LSU is the same – shake off the results of last week and focus on the opponent at hand. The Vols, beaten soundly last week at Georgia, are at home in a noon CBS game against Missouri (4-5, 2-4). The Tigers haven’t scored more than 23 points in seven games against Power 5 teams, yet remain in bowl contention, a piece of wizardry that may help explain why Mizzou just extended the contract of coach Eli Drinkwitz. LSU must set aside the euphoria of its 32-31 overtime upset of Alabama and travel to Arkansas for an 11 a.m. CT kick. LSU is 6-1 in night games, 1-0 in the 3:30 p.m. slot, and got road-graded 40-13 at home by Tennessee at 11 a.m. CT. The good news for the Tigers is that the Razorbacks have lost four of six and their past three at home. Defense is the issue, and no defense gets well by playing LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Tulane-UCF a big one in AAC
The American has the only two horses currently in the race for the New Year’s Six slot tendered to the Group of 5 conferences. That’s worth highlighting mainly because the American is about to begin what amounts to a four-week tournament to decide its champion. No. 17 Tulane (8-1 overall, 5-0 in the AAC) plays host to No. 23 UCF (7-2, 4-1) on Saturday, then has a quick turnaround to prepare for SMU (5-4, 3-2) next Thursday. Tulane finishes at Cincinnati (7-2, 4-1), which somehow isn’t ranked, on Thanksgiving Saturday. If the Green Wave wins at least two of the three, they likely would face one of the same teams again December 3 in the AAC title game. It would be a shame if the Green Wave falter; it would dim the luster of the job that coach Willie Fritz has done this season. You try recruiting to Tulane and then come back and tell me that 8-4, much less 10-2, isn’t reason enough to throw a parade.