College Football Playoff Preview

Happy Friday and most importantly Happy Holidays!

We’re hitting you up with a little less emails these days, but they’re still just as fun.

Almost as fun as these Thursday Night NFL games. I mean, we got to see a free kick at the end of the first half last night. Pretty dang cool.

Dont’ know what the free kick is? Basically, the rule goes like this. If a team fair catches a punt, they're allowed to attempt a free kick on the next play. The kick isn't a typical field goal, either. The defense has to line up 10 yards off the ball, similar to a kickoff, and the defense is NOT allowed to try and block the kick.

The Broncos punted, the Chargers went to catch the kick and there was fair catch interference on the play which brought the Chargers into field goal/free kick range and with just a few seconds left in the first half, Jim Harbaugh elected to send the kickoff team out on the field, but it was for a 3 point try.

Yes, it’s exactly like you’re thinking. It looked like the old type of kickoff that we used to have and if the kicker puts it through the upright, it = 3 POINTS.

The NFL hates when people share their content, so if you want to watch Dicker the Kicker hit this, click here.

Jim Harbaugh said the fair catch free kick is one of his favorite rules and it helped them close down a deficit heading into half time. The Chargers eventually came back against the Broncos and won 34-27.

12-Team Playoff Is Finally Here

It might be the weirdest playoff bracket that we’ve ever seen. Nonetheless, here it is.

Somehow, with all the conference expansion, Arizona State and Boise State have both first-round bye weeks even though their overall ranking was 9 & 12 in the seeding. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Anyways, we are here to talk about all the matchups from today and tomorrow.

Let’s get started.

#8 Indiana @ #5 Notre Dame

📍Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN

📺️ Gametime is 8pm on ESPN

❄️ It’s currently snowing in South Bend, temps are expected to be around 30 degrees at gametime with some light 8 mph winds.

💰️ Notre Dame is favored by 7.5 points and the points total is 51.5

👉️ A long season culminates with a first-round in-state matchup on a Friday night. Notre Dame had a signature win against Texas A&M to open the season, had a signature loss against NIU the following week and then pretty much rolled over the rest of the bad teams they played this season.

Indiana had a similar season, they rolled over all their competition except for Michigan who played Indiana closely and of course, the Hoosiers fell to the Buckeyes in a highly anticipated matchup.

Snow on the ground in South Bend. Indiana has a Canadian QB, Kurt Cignetti isn’t worried. Notre has benefited offensively against terrible defenses and I don’t think ND will just roll over Indiana tonight. More than 50% of ND’s offense is rushing the ball. You an imagine that a large portion of that is due to having such a big lead in games that they’re trying to burn some clock. Nonetheless, I don’t think they’ll push the Indiana front four around. Indiana just needs to get the ball in the redzone and they’ll be to convert. Limit turnovers and extend drives; that’s the key for the Hoosiers tonight.

💵I’m leaning towards Notre Dame winning this thing by a field goal but I do think Indiana can cover this spread by 7.5 points. I likely won’t touch the points total in this game.

#10 SMU @ #4 Penn State

📍Beaver Stadium, State College, PA

📺️ Gametime is at Noon on TNT

☁️ 25 degrees and windy in Happy Valley tomorrow. AND IT’S GOING TO BE A WHITE OUT FOR PENN STATE. Students are practically skipping Christmas for this game. Will SMU be ready for this?

💰️ Penn State is favored by 8.5 points and the points total is 52.5

👉️ SMU has had a nice season, not really playing any good teams. They beat Boston College recently, and BC has been a decent program this year. Who else have they played, BYU and Clemson? Both losses. SMU is a great story as they transitioned to the ACC and made it to the conference championship. Do I think they can realistically beat Penn State? Nahhh. Not at Beaver Stadium.

And definitely not after Penn State’s showing against the Oregon Ducks in the Big10 Championship. Penn State looked great in that game but one thing Penn State doesn’t do is come up short as a favorite, especially at home. Beaver Stadium will be rocking and Penn State will win by at least 10 points. It’s going to be their first big win in a long time.

💵 Penn State and the over are the plays. I think Penn State dominates the line of scrimmage, but SMU will be able to get a minimum of 14 points I think.

#16 Clemson @ #3 Texas

📍DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, TX

📺️ Gametime is 4pm on TNT

☀️It will be sixty and sunny in the great city of Austin during gametime. Weather won’t be a big impact as these are perfect conditions for a ball game. By the 4th quarter, the temps should only drop 5 degrees, and the only cloud in the sky will be an obnoxious puff of orange smoke.

💰️ The Longhorns are favored by 12 points as we write this. The spread was 10.5 at the open. Points total is 50.5

👉️ Guess what both of these teams have in common? THEY BOTH CAN’T BEAT GEORGIA. Lucky for both squads, they aren’t playing the Dawgs this weekend.

Here’s the deal. Is Quinn Ewers hurt? Idk. Should they play Arch Manning? Probably. Since Texas put up 47 on Florida, the Longhorns have only averaged 21.75 points per game. Sure, their defense is only allowed an average of 11 points per game during that time period, but I want to see some explosiveness in the playoffs to give me a better feeling about the Longhorns. Regardless of the offense, I think the Texas defense will smother the Tiger’s offense. Against bad ACC teams, Clemson can hardly score over 25 points. Sure, Dabo Swinney knows how to coach em up during big games, but to be honest, Clemson shouldn’t even be in this 12-team playoff.

Everyone is hyping this up as if Clemson is in the best position for the upset this weekend. Why, because Cade Klubnik beat Quinn Ewers in states a few years ago? If Sark can get out of his head and just call a decent game tomorrow, the Longhorns can handle this one easily.

💵It sounds crazy, but I’m taking the Longhorns -12.5. I think I like the under here, but I am not 100% convinced. This could be a 24-10 game or a 34-20 game.

#7 Tennessee @ #6 Ohio State

📍Ohio Stadium, Columbus, OH

📺️ Gametime is 8 pm on ESPN

🥶 It will be a cool 24 degrees in Columbus and the lights won’t keep anyone warm. Knoxville hasn’t been much warmer, so hopefully, the Volunteers have been practicing outside at night to prepare for this matchup.

💰️ OSU is favored 7.5 points in this matchup. The points total is 46.5

👉️ I’m still basking in the joy of my Michigan Wolverines beating OSU on their senior day just a few weeks ago. I hope Ryan Day and the Buckeyes have been able to refocus the last few weeks. They’ve got a big matchup against a talented SEC squad. OSU has a beaten-down O-line, and the Volunteers have a hungry D-line.

OSU has something that Tennesse can’t compete with. Receivers. Tennessee’s losses have pretty much come at the hand of poor coverage this year and OSU’s got some of the best WRs in the nation. As long as Chip Kelly and Ryan Day don’t think they need to win this on the ground, Tennessee could be in for a long day trying to shut down explosive plays while also limiting YAC on intermediate routes.

Tennessee has relied on timing in the passing game, and when it’s clicking, it looks really nice. Everyone is discussing how freshman QB Nico Iamaleava will do in this cold, hostile environment in Big10 territory. Are people forgetting that Nico is hardly throwing for over 200 yards in most games and he isn’t turning the ball over? Tennessee has been winning games on the ground, with Dylan Sampson running for over 100 yards in 10 of 12 games this season. Remember when OSU knew Michigan was going to run the ball aand they still couldn’t stop it. What’s going to happen when Tennesee can actually pass also?

I don’t think the temps will play as big of a role as people think. It’s cold in Tenessee too y’all.

💵 Grab Tennessee in this one ATS. Get them at 7 if you can’t get them at 7.5. I think this will go over 46.5. Hell, I might take Tennessee straight up with the money line bet being +240.

*remember. I really really really dislike Ohio State

We’ve got a great weekend for college football. Kick back, relax, and forget about those NFL games they stupidly scheduled for tomorrow too.

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to get all that shopping done.

Happy Holidays!

-The DB