d4 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, NOVEMbER 9 , 2019
ea rly sHIft
Noon maryland at no. 1 ohio state » WttG (ch. 5), WBFF (ch. 45)
Noon no. 4 Penn state at no. 17 minnesota » WJLa (ch. 7), WMar (ch. 2)
Noon Vanderbilt at no. 10 florida » espN
Noon no. 12 Baylor at tCU » Fox sports 1
Noon east Carolina at no. 25 smU » espNU
Noon texas tech at west Virginia » espN2
Noon florida state at Boston College » acc Network
Noon Purdue at northwestern » Big te n Network
Noon massachusetts at army » cBs sports Network
Noon western Kentucky at arkansas » sec Network
12:30 georgia tech at Virginia » NBc sports Washington
minnesota is 8-0 for the first time since 1941 and has achieved its
highest associated press ranking (No. 13) since 2004, but Penn state
won’t be handicapped at quarterback like the Gophers’ most recent
opponents: Minnesota faced mostly backups in wins over illinois,
Nebraska, rutgers and Maryland, and Nittany Lions quarterback sean
clifford has been steady with 20 touchdown passes and only three
interceptions this season. solving penn state’s rushing defense also will
be a tougher task for a Minnesota offense that’s averaging more than
200 yards per game on the ground. the Nittany Lions are allowing a
national-best 1.99 yards per carry. and while espN’s “college Gameday”
shunned the biggest college football game in Minneapolis in decades in
favor of LsU-alabama, this one still looms large: it’s the first Big te n game
featuring two teams that are at least 8-0 since No. 1 ohio state beat No.
2 Michigan in November 2006.... tCU stands in the way of Baylor’s
second-ever 9-0 start, but the Horned Fr ogs have major issues at
quarterback: Max duggan and Michael collins suffered injuries last
weekend against oklahoma state, and two other signal-callers
transferred out of the program in the past two weeks. that leaves
preferred walk-on Matthew downing, a Georgia transfer, as the only
healthy quarterback on the roster.
swIng sHIft
2 fayetteville state at winston-salem state » NBc sports Washington plus
3 stanford at Colorado » pac-12 Network
3:30 no. 19 wake forest at Virginia tech » acc Network
3:30 new Hampshire at James madison » MasN
3:30 no. 2 lsU at no. 3 alabama » WUsa (ch. 9), WJZ (ch. 13)
3:30 no. 16 Kansas state at texas » espN
3:30 Connecticut at no. 20 Cincinnati » cBs sports Network
3:30 southern California at arizona state » WJLa (ch. 7), WMar (ch. 2)
3:30 louisville at miami » espN2
3:30 Illinois at michigan state » Fox sports 1
3:30 UaB at southern mississippi » NFL Network
4 no. 18 Iowa at no. 13 wisconsin » WttG (ch. 5), WBFF (ch. 45)
4 new mexico state at mississippi » sec Network
lsU-alabama is the first regular season matchup between No. 1 and
No. 2 teams since 2011... kind of. the tigers and crimson tide occupy
the first two spots of the associated press poll but are No. 2 and No. 3 in
the college Football playoff poll. No matter, there’s still a whiff of “Game
of the century” on this one, with the winner getting the inside track to the
sec title game and maintaining its spot in the cFp race. the biggest
question is the status of alabama quarterback tua tagovailoa, who
suffered a high-ankle sprain against te nnessee on oct. 19 and hasn’t
played since. crimson tide coach Nick saban would only say this week
that tagovailoa has practiced some over the past two weeks (alabama is
coming off its open date), and aL.com reported Wednesday that he will
return against the tigers. However, espN ran audio thursday of saban
telling tagovailoa in practice this week that he wouldn’t allow him to play
until he could beat saban in a footrace, and “it ain’t close yet.” Whether
saban merely was busting tagovailoa’s chops is unclear. LsU,
meanwhile, will be missing a key component of its defense in senior
linebacker Michael divinity Jr., who announced this week he was leaving
the team for personal reasons. divinity leads the tigers in sacks this
season.
nIgHt sHIft
7 missouri at no. 6 georgia » espN
7 appalachian state at south Carolina » espN2
7 washington state at California » pac-12 Network
7 Utah state at fresno state » cBs sports Network
7:30 liberty at ByU » espNU
7:30 no. 5 Clemson at n.C. state » WJLa (ch. 7), WMar (ch. 2)
7:30 no. 15 notre dame at duke » acc Network
7:30 tennessee at Kentucky » sec Network
8 Iowa state at no. 9 oklahoma » WttG (ch. 5), WBFF (ch. 45)
10:15 wyoming at no. 22 Boise state » espN
10:30 nevada at san diego state » espN2
there was a minor hue and cry from certain upcountry areas this week
about clemson’s No. 5 position in the initial college Football playoff
rankings, the first time a defending national champion has been left out
of the top four in the year’s first cFp top 25. But there is plenty of season
left to play, and there are plenty of reasons to think the tigers will be
back in the playoff when the dust settles. that’s entirely dependent on
clemson going undefeated, and that continues saturday night with the
tigers heavy favorites against north Carolina state in raleigh, N.c.,
where the Wolfpack has outscored four opponents 125-39 this season. of
course, those four opponents were the directional best of North carolina
(both east carolina and Western carolina), Ball state and thoroughly
disappointing syracuse. redshirt freshman devin Leary, the Wolfpack’s
third starting quarterback this season, will make his second career start.
the first, in last weekend’s blowout loss at Wake Forest, was not good: 17
for 45, two interceptions.
— Matt Bonesteeltoday’s tV gamesother area games
catholic (1-7) at Merchant Marine (4-3), noon
Gallaudet (2-5) at anna Maria (1-8), noon
Bowie state (9-0) at elizabeth city state (2-7), 1
North carolina a&t (6-2) at Morgan state (1-8), 1
richmond (5-4) at Villanova (6-3), 1
rhode island (2-7) at William & Mary (3-6), 1
VMi (4-5) at Furman (6-3), 1
Howard (1-8) at south carolina state (5-3), 1:30
Norfolk state (3-6) at North carolina central (4-5), 2
Utsa (3-5) at old dominion (1-8), 2
towson (5-4) at stony Brook (5-4), 2
shepherd (7-2) at Bloomsburg (4-5), 2
Hampton (5-4) at charleston southern (3-6), 6
college football
So if t he College
Football Playoff
began today,
Clemson w ouldn’t
be included.
Clemson, which i s
9-0. Clemson,
which h as
appeared i n the
past four College Football
Playoffs. Clemson, w hich won one
game by a single point yet still has
an average margin of victory of
more than 3 2. C lemson,
perennially w orthy Clemson.
Doesn’t m atter, o f course,
because the C ollege Football
Playoff, i n fact, doesn’t begin
today, and i t will all sort itself out.
The best s porting event of t his
week — heck, maybe this month
— is Saturday a fternoon’s game
between LSU and Alabama,
ranked s econd and third in the
first CFP rankings, released this
week. Shoot, Ohio State, w hich
holds t he top spot, a nd Penn
State, w hich sits fourth, play in
two weeks, another barnburner.
So in a n 14-day span, two o f the
teams a head o f Clemson will lose,
which m eans the T igers will be
just fine.
Which raises the question:
What is t he point of t hese
November r ankings anyway?
The only rankings that matter
will arrive S unday, Dec. 8, when
the f our participants in t he CFP
semifinals will b e announced.
The top team will f ace the fourth
team. T he s econd will face the
third. Anything else i s just
somewhere between potentially
misleading and unnecessarily
confusing.
Ta ke t his weekend alone. Penn
State is 8 -0 w ith nice wins at Iowa
and a gainst Michigan. It f aces 8-0
Minnesota, with nice wins
against... w ell, no o ne. If the
Nittany Lions win — they’re
favored by a touchdown on the
road — they’re guaranteed to
move up i n next week’s rankings.Why? Because e ither LSU o r
Alabama will have lost, and a n
unbeaten Penn S tate i sn’t g oing to
settle behind o ne-loss LSU.
But e ven that discussion is
fraught. Penn State’s u pcoming
schedule — at Minnesota, v s.
Indiana and at O hio S tate — will
have all the i mpact o n whether
the N ittany Lions m ake the
playoff. We don’t need to know
whether they’re third or fourth or
ninth this week or next week. Win
those games — plus beat Rutgers
and e arn the Big Te n
championship a gainst a
(presumably) weaker team from
the B ig Ten West — a nd there’s n o
way Penn State is left o ut.
So why do w e care that the
Nittany Lions are fourth in
November? Because we needed to
be distracted from the o pening
night o f college b asketball, w hich
was r ight w hen the rankings were
announced?
Start at t he t op because m aybe
that’s one p lace t hat it may
matter. Since the C FP began i n
2014, the t op team i n the first
ranking has m ade the playoff
every year but one. Remember
when Mississippi S tate was the
No. 1 team in the f irst ranking
ever? Yeah, m e neither.
(Mississippi w as fourth in that
first ranking, and Florida State
was t he only school that a ppeared
that made t he playoff.)
So this November, as irrelevant
things a re concerned, O hio S tate
as the t op-ranked team i s fine,
just fine. Hard to argue with an
8 -0 j uggernaut that has b eaten its
opponents b y an average o f more
than 40 p oints. And they’re n ot
patsies. Okay, s ome of them a re
patsies (looking at t hat 76-5 win
over Miami of Ohio). Cincinnati
has o nly o ne loss — to Ohio State,
42-0. Indiana and Wisconsin h ave
lost only twice — once each to
Ohio State, 5 1-10 a nd 38-7,
respectively. T he Buckeyes’ next
opponent, w hoever t hat is, shouldbe shuddering.
That w ould be Maryland, which
oddly is a worthy candidate to be
involved in this discussion. N ot
because the Te rrapins — at 3-6,
with four straight losses by an
average of four touchdowns — are
any good. But they can help
explain why the first CFP rankings
— as irrelevant and unnecessary as
they are — came out in November
and not in August.
When the CFP b egan, it tacitly
acknowledged that t he only thing
sillier than r anking t eams in
Week 9 would be r anking t hem
before anyone’s p layed a game.
That’s w hat the A ssociated Press
(writers) and USA To day
(coaches) have d one for years. It’s
a system designed to generate
chatter and gin up excitement,
even if it’s b ased on, essentially,
year-old information c ombined
with speculation.
This year’s p reseason AP poll
ranked S yracuse a t No. 22 —
entirely reasonable f or a team
coming off a 10-3 season, even
with a new quarterback.
That’s w here Maryland c omes
in. Second g ame of the year, and
— wham — the Te rrapins w axed
Syracuse, 6 3-20. Maryland beat a
ranked t eam! Maryland is g ood!
Well, n ot so much. Syracuse is
now 3 -6 a nd winless in the A CC.
Maryland’s two games after
thumping t he Orange? A l oss at
Te mple a nd a 59-0 s hellacking at
home to — you g uessed i t — Penn
State.
So you need information
before assembling all this. B ut
even nine w eeks in, there’s s o
much more to gather. What d o
these incremental rankings
provide? Misguided angst about
teams t hat are left o ut when they
still can play their way in.
There could be actual f rayed
nerves D ec. 8 if, say, O hio S tate
and C lemson win o ut while
Georgia, Penn S tate, Alabama,
LSU, Oklahoma a nd eitherOregon or Utah a ll have one l oss
— which would require only
Georgia beating t he Alabama-
LSU w inner in the SEC t itle game
and O hio State beating Penn State
in the regular season a nd t hen
taking the B ig Te n championship.
That w ould be a delightful
mess and further the (obvious)
arguments to expand the p layoff
to eight t eams: the five m ajor
conference c hampions (in the
above case, Georgia, Ohio State,
Clemson, O klahoma a nd Oregon/
Utah), the b est team from the
remaining “Group of Five”
conferences (perhaps Cincinnati
or Memphis or Boise S tate or
Navy), and two at-large t eams
from among Alabama, LSU, Penn
State and Utah.
Would there still b e
controversy? Sure. Would it be a
more complete p layoff?
Absolutely. And don’t l isten to
anyone w ho says the c ollege
presidents w ho make these
decisions want to protect t he
athletes’ academic interests by
not e xtending the s eason into a
new semester. The national title
game this season will be Jan. 13 —
16 days a fter t he semifinals!
Back to Clemson. T he Tigers
are on the outside l ooking in at
the m oment because, it seems, of
a single narrow escape: a 21-20
victory at North Carolina.
“That’s a piece o f it,” c ommittee
chair Rob Mullens said o n ESPN.
“When y ou’re comparing
résumés, you l ook a t every single
game, and that w as a game.”
Well put, R ob. Well put.
So then don’t release r ankings
before all the g ames h ave been
played. Don’t do it before L SU-
Alabama. Don’t do it before Ohio
State-Penn State. Wait until
Dec. 8. Then we will have
something w orth arguing over.
[email protected]Fo r more by Barry svrluga, visit
washingtonpost.com/svrluga.Don’t fret. Only the last playo≠ rankings really matter.
Barry
SvrlugaricHard sHiro/associated press
A mari Rodgers and Clemson are 9-0, but the defending national champion would not be in the four-team playoff if it began this week.BY EMILY GIAMBALVOThe roar of more than
100,000 fans packed inside Ohio
State’s football stadium won’t be
new to Keandre Jones. He h eard it
most fall weekends in the first
three years of his college career.
The Buckeyes had a coaching
change this offseason, but Jones
will recognize some staffers on
the sideline. He will enter Satur-
day’s game in Columbus with de-
tailed knowledge about Ohio
State’s offensive playmakers be-
cause those are the players Jones
faced every day in practice before
he transferred to Maryland for his
senior season.
So Maryland’s road game
against No. 1 Ohio State will fea-
ture many familiar elements for
Jones, an outside linebacker from
Olney. He has experienced more
college games in Ohio Stadium
than any other venue. But for as
much as he will remember Satur-
day, Jones has never stood on the
opponent’s sideline at the Horse-
shoe. When a reporter asked
whether he had been inside the
visiting game-day locker room,
Jones had to stop himself.
“Oh, absolute — oh, no, actual-
ly, I haven’t,” J ones said. “Being on
the other side of that Ohio State
team is going to be a new experi-
ence for me. But this is my last
year [of college football], and I’m
doing it with the team I wanted to
come back and be a part of.”
After three years in Columbus,Jones transferred to his home
state, joining the program Coach
Michael Locksley is tasked with
rebuilding. Jones had a much
lower-profile role at Ohio State.
The former four-star recruit con-
tributed on special teams and in a
backup capacity on the Buckeyes’
defense. But after receiving a
waiver for immediate eligibility,
Jones carved out a key role in
Maryland’s system, joining fellow
transfer Shaq Smith at outside
linebacker. Jones has 45 total
tackles, third most on the team. In
his lone season at Maryland, he’s
on pace to double his three-year
total of 29 tackles at Ohio State.
Jones has proved to be the Te rra-
pins’ most effective pass-rusher,
notching six sacks, while none of
his teammates has more than one.
Locksley, w ho knew Jones from
the high school recruiting pro-
cess, has commended Jones’s con-
sistent energy. Locksley once
called Jones “one of those guys
that practices like his hair’s on
fire,” saying that’s what he re-
members about the eighth-grade
version of Jones, too. Even when
Maryland trailed deep into a lop-
sided game against No. 14 Michi-
gan on Saturday, Locksley saw
Jones chase down a player from
the opposite side of the field to
make a tackle.
“The leadership he’s b rought to
this program, I think, is a direct
reflection of the experiences he’shad at a place like Ohio State,”
Locksley said. “It’s been great to
have that here in our locker room
and for our younger players to
utilize him as a resource for how
you approach the game, how you
approach practice, how you ap-
proach school and all the areas
that you need to.”
Though Locksley arrived at
Maryland after spending three
years with Alabama, most of his
players have never experienced
what it’s like to be part of a team
that wins at a high level. Both
Jones and Smith, who transferred
from Clemson, have helped show
other players what those pro-
grams look like on the inside.
But at the same time, Jones is
wading through a disappointing
campaign for the first time in his
college career. For Maryland (3-6,
1-5 Big Te n), a loss against Ohio
State (8-0, 5-0) will officially end
faint hopes of becoming bowl eli-
gible. When Jones was at Ohio
State, he and his teammates
reached at least 11 victories all
three years, winning the Big Te n
twice and participating in the
College Football Playoff once.
“There are going to be ups and
downs in a season,” Jones said,
adding that even though Ohio
State had success, the program
still didn’t always meet expecta-
tions. “You have to be patient, and
your time will come, just like with
me fulfilling this role as a starter.”At this point in the season,
teams such as Ohio State play
each weekend with conference
titles and playoff berths on the
line, whereas Maryland might
benefit from playing with the
hope to develop talent for the
future.
“It’s a different experience, ob-
viously, the position that we’re in
right now,” Jones said. “But this
team continues to fight, contin-
ues to work hard, and we have the
talent.”
When the teams met last year
in College Park, Jones remembers
how aggressively Maryland
played to open the game. Stand-
out running back Anthony Mc-
Farland Jr. rushed for 231 yards in
the first half after bursting
through the Buckeyes’ defense
with early touchdown runs of 81
and 75 yards.
Ohio State, then ranked 10th in
the country, never had the lead in
regulation but gradually closed
the gap. In overtime, interim
coach Matt C anada opted to go f or
the win with a two-point conver-
sion attempt, but Maryland quar-
terback Ty rrell Pigrome missed
an open Jeshaun Jones in the end
zone. Locksley hopes his players
will draw confidence from last
year’s edition of the matchup,
when the Terrapins nearly
knocked off a far more talented
Ohio State team.
“You saw a lot of fight fromMaryland,” said Keandre Jones,
who played special teams in that
game and wasn’t on the field for
the final play. “That’s the same
thing I expect from this year’s
team.”
This time, Jones will have a role
in whether Maryland completes a
long-shot upset bid. Jones has
had this game marked since he
transferred, but he said it’s “noth-
ing personal.” He’s still in a group
chat with some of his former
teammates, including safety Jor-
dan Fuller, wide receiver Austin
Mack and running back Demario
McCall.
The group message includes
the members of the 2016 recruit-
ing class, so Jones’s former room-
mate Dwayne Haskins, now a
quarterback with the Washington
Redskins, is also part of the chat.
But as some players, once tied
together through their 2016 com-
mitments, have ventured away
from Columbus, they still fill that
message with conversations
about Ohio State’s current suc-
cess, even though they know one
person included will become
their opponent this weekend.
“A b unch of those guys talk and
brag about what they’ve got going
on,” J ones said. “But all I can do is
focus on what I have here, which
is the University of Maryland and
making sure we handle our busi-
ness.”
[email protected]Terps’ Jones returns to Ohio State with a larger role and a new perspective