This fishy early season is a “one that got away” story.
The title race might have been jumbled before October had a few teams not frittered away the late summer.
Many of our preseason favorites have been shaken, but not stirred.
Underdog Oklahoma State trailed No. 1 Florida State, 27-24, in the Labor Day opener before the Cowboys were bucked from their saddles.
Clemson had a 21-14 lead on Georgia before, well, you know.
Wisconsin blew every Badger bit of a 24-7 lead on Louisiana State, a perennial icon from the hallowed Southeastern Conference West.
Michigan State owned an 11-point, third-quarter lead at Oregon, a team many have picked to win this year’s national title. Oregon won by 19.
How many chances do you want?
Kansas State, if it had a kicker, could kick itself for not upsetting Auburn on Thursday night.
Bill Snyder’s Wildcats outplayed the Tigers on every section of the field except the scoreboard. Three missed field-goal attempts and a huge red-zone turnover cost Kansas State a chance to take down another SEC West power.
Auburn rushed its “hurry-up” offense out of Manhattan, Kan., with a six-point win on its way to another possible trip to the national title game.
Snyder accused Auburn of stealing its signals, but what Snyder really needed was for Auburn to steal the goal posts.
Once the SEC gets into league play, it becomes almost impervious to outside attacks. League games become “blood baths” and Kentucky gets better by the minute.
And Saturday offers another chance to alter the championship construct, but it relies on Clemson coming through in the clutch.
Clemson may be backed by its largest fan base ever when it takes on top-ranked Florida State in Tallahassee.
Clemson can do the world a favor by taking down Florida State.
People fed up by the antics of quarterback Jameis Winston are going to break out the Clemson pompoms.
Winston, the Heisman Trophy winner who led Florida State to last year’s national title, will be benched for the first half after making a vulgar comment this week about women.
It’s the latest in a long line of Winston missteps, yet the first time he will miss football action as a consequence.
Winston apologized “to the university, to my coaches and to my teammates” for his latest act of immaturity, but his apologies are becoming bamboo (hollow).
Winston was suspended in a joint statement released by the school president and athletic director. Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher did not attach his name to the document.
Fisher did say, “You can’t make certain statements that are derogatory or inflammatory in any way toward any person, race, gender or any shape or thing.”
The media bears some responsibility for enabling Winston.
After his first collegiate start last year, a win over Pittsburgh, Winston told the press he didn’t want to become another bad boy like Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.
“If I get Manziel disease,” Winston said, “I want every one of you to get your mikes and start slapping me on the head.”
Winston’s suspension gives Clemson a two-quarter head start on Florida State, but is that enough?
Last year, the third-ranked Tigers had their best team in years and got fifth-ranked Florida State at home. Clemson got wiped off its own field, 51-14.
Tigers Coach Dabo Swinney can use that defeat only to suggest home field is not always an advantage.
“It wasn’t a factor last year when they came in here and kicked our butts,” he said this week. “It didn’t help us.”
Clemson must build an early lead while Winston is on the bench. It needs All-American defensive end Vic Beasley to terrorize Sean Maguire, the quarterback starting in place of Winston.
Clemson’s problem is that Winston is hardly Florida State’s only great player.
The Seminoles might be able to hold steady just by handing off to tailback Karlos Williams.
The backfire story scenario is Winston coming off the bench to hero-rescue Florida State to victory.
Even defeat might not be fatal if the selection committee concludes it occurred because Winston didn’t play half the game.
Maybe nothing can stop Florida State. Maybe college football’s best chance is for Winston to do, or say, something dumb again between now and December.
Those are probably better odds, in fact, than betting on Clemson.
Follow Chris Dufresne on Twitter @DufrenseLATimes
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