NCAA Football Week 6 Takeaways: Cristobal should be fired, Louisville earns respect, Chaos coming to PAC 12 and Much More

Week 6 Takeaways

1) Louisville is not getting enough respect

The Cardinals are one of five Power Five programs and remain unbeaten, boasting six victories so far this season – more wins than Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, Oregon and North Carolina who all lead the Cardinals in the most recent Associated Press poll.

Louisville holds wins over four Power Five teams with winning records – Notre Dame, Boston College, Georgia Tech and NC State.

And to top it all off, Louisville boasts the best point differential among all ACC teams, including Florida State, which stands fourth overall!

Rankings have long been a source of discord here at the Grueling Truth, this is a perfect example of the rankings not making any sense and placing to much emphasis on what a program has done historically.

Before the season began, nobody had an accurate picture of what Brian Brohm would bring to Louisville as head coach, so it would only be fair that their rankings wouldn’t be exceptionally high. But after a dominating win over Notre Dame, that should no longer be the case.

2) Chaos is coming to the PAC 12 soon!

USC faces Notre Dame for their next contest and could easily lose to them as it’s at Notre Dame and the USC defense is struggling. The Irish will also be ready after two straight losses.

If USC can emerge unscathed from that game, they host Utah the following week before facing Washington, Oregon and UCLA within four consecutive weeks.

The Pac-12 has been the premiere conference this season, yet Arizona — an average program within it — has demonstrated with back-to-back losses that even its top teams are vulnerable. Particularly notable have been their impressive showings against USC and Washington.

Both programs did not suffer losses against the Wildcats, but setbacks will surely come soon and could prevent any of them from making the College Football Playoff. USC, Washington and Oregon all play each other while Washington will also face Oregon State at home, and Oregon will make its trip up north for Salt Lake City against Utah.

3) Sooners take control of the Big 12 Race

Oklahoma’s victory against Texas cemented their position in the Big 12 conference.

Oklahoma and West Virginia remain unbeaten in conference play at 3-0 and 2-0 resprectively. Every other team has at least one loss.

However, only two teams will qualify to play in the conference title game, and all but three (Cincinnati, Houston and UCF) currently appear to have an outside chance at becoming one of those two teams.

Texas, Iowa State, Kansas and Texas all boast identical conference records of 2-1, while BYU, Oklahoma State and Kansas State each hold 1-1 records in conference play.

More than half of the Big 12 still have a chance make the conference title game.

West Virginia deserves credit for how it has started the season. Still, the Big 12 Conference race could become the most captivating in college football – this statement should speak volumes given what’s taking place in the Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten (to a lesser extent) conferences.

4) The ACC is on fire

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is an expansive league, which may be underselling it.

The conference currently boasts 14 teams (plus kind of Notre Dame). Doing away with divisions this season could make for one of the most intriguing endings to a season this year.

Why, you ask? WELL… The remaining three unbeaten teams in the ACC, Florida State, North Carolina and Louisville, do not face each other during regular season play.

Although seemingly remote, there is an outside chance that three ACC teams finish unbeaten during regular season play.

Who should play in the conference title game? CFP rankings would likely decide, though it is hard to imagine three teams from one conference going undefeated all season long.

What happens to the team that doesn’t play for the conference championship in such an instance?

Can the ACC get multiple teams into the postseason playoff?

A decent shot exists that none of these teams are undefeated at the end of the season. However, the ACC is showing its worth this season with five or so ranked teams and strong unranked squads like Clemson, Miami, NC State and Syracuse that could make a statement before this season is over.

But imagine the chaos if the Seminoles, Tar Heels and Cardinals all remained unbeaten! It would create unimaginable havoc!

5) What were the Miami Hurricanes thinking?

Mario Cristobal did not explain at the end of the game as there was none. His staff made a similar error in 2018 while coaching at Oregon when kneeling could have reduced the clock to around 10 seconds, and limited opponent timeouts; yet somehow, this situation was far worse.

College football play clocks typically last 40 seconds. While failure on the fourth down causes possession changes, the clock continues to run when going down inbounds on any other down. Maybe Cristobal is a moron, which he has to be after this. It reminds me a little of the Miracle at the Meadowlands in 1978 when the Giants head coach got fired because instead of taking a knee, they tried to hand the ball off; it was fumbled and returned for an Eagles touchdown. The Giants head coach was fired by the following day. Cristobal should be also.

Mario Cristobal Explains Last-Second Loss to Georgia Tech | Postgame Press Conference

6) Georgia is rolling again

If you were ready to count out Georgia, take another look. They just hung 51 on Kentucky in one game and looked much like their previous dominant performances from last year – perhaps this team is simply taking longer than usual to get going? The Bulldogs struggled early in the year, but Kirby Smart looks like he has the Dawgs firing on all cylinders.

7) Stick a fork in Notre Dame and Texas A&M playoff hopes

Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M were officially shown the door after another dismal performance; only Cristobal in Miami outshone him regarding coaching incompetence. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have now lost to Ohio State and Louisville, the Louisville loss was a killer to the Irish hopes.