Mandel’s Final Thoughts: Iron Bowl delivers drama, but 2023’s chaos near-misses continue
And now, 20 Final Thoughts from Week 13, aka Rivalry Week, in which the only thing lower than Black Friday prices was the 13-10 score of the Iowa-Nebraska Black Friday game .
Instead, Bond escaped Auburn cornerback D.J. James in the back corner of the end zone.
No. 8 Alabama (11-1, 8-0 SEC) keeps its Playoff hopes alive, though getting there will require ending No. 1 Georgia ’s 29-game win streak next week in Atlanta. For Auburn (6-6, 2-6), the first regular season under Hugh Freeze ends in devastating fashion. But that’s the Iron Bowl. Sometimes you kick the other guy in the stomach, other times he punches you in the face.
The 37-year-old offensive coordinator, now 4-0 this year when filling in for a suspended Jim Harbaugh, has made the most of his moment in the spotlight. Two weeks ago, he ran the ball 30 consecutive times against Penn State , then capped it off with an impassioned, teary-eyed postgame interview . And No. 3 Michigan’s 30-24 win over second-ranked Ohio State on Saturday was defined by Moore’s aggressive play calls and fourth-down decisions.
The best news for Day is that the 12-team Playoff debuts next year. Presumably, Ohio State will be a regular. That will give the fan base a wider array of goals by which to define themselves other than, “Did we beat Michigan this year?”
Also: That Friday night showdown in Las Vegas will likely determine who wins the Heisman Trophy.
In the other corner, we have LSU’s Jayden Daniels , the nation’s top-rated passer, who just completed a spectacular, Johnny Manziel-esque dual-threat season: 3,812 yards passing, 1,134 yards rushing, 50 total touchdowns, just 4 interceptions. On Saturday against Texas A&M (7-5, 4-4), he rallied his 14th-ranked team from a 24-14 deficit to win 42-30. The only problem: Daniels’ defensively inept team lost its three biggest games of the season (Florida State, Ole Miss and Alabama) and thus will not be playing on the final weekend.
The way I see it, if Nix beats 12-0 Washington, that last impression will put him over the top. But his Huskies counterpart Michael Penix Jr. has been too inconsistent down the stretch to win the thing himself. If Penix tops Nix, the award likely goes to Daniels.
Ohio State star Marvin Harrison Jr. will likely win the Biletnikoff Award, but Odunze has been just as productive, and just as valuable.
Yet you could make a perfectly reasonable case that Texas should be higher than Florida State or Oregon, who go into next weekend with just one Top 25 win apiece. The 2023 ‘Horns boast the program’s best offensive and defensive lines in recent memory and offensive weapons galore. It’s just crowded this year! If nothing else, though, Texas can win its first conference championship since the Colt McCoy era.
Kiffin’s team needs to move up at least one spot to reach a New Year’s Six bowl. As of last week, it was getting boxed out by Penn State (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten), which closed out what felt like an empty-calorie 10-win season with Friday’s 42-0 rout of Michigan State (4-8, 2-7).
Brown, who recently announced he’d be returning next season, has some evaluating to do after North Carolina lost four of its last six.
Cal’s surprise bowl eligibility was a nice milestone for Justin Wilcox following three consecutive losing seasons. His program has more cause for optimism right now than Bay Area rival Stanford , which finished 3-9 for a third consecutive season.
Rhule was hired in large part because of his track record of turnarounds at Temple and Baylor. To kick-start this one, he needs to land a confidence-inspiring quarterback in the portal this offseason.
But Michigan State got a good one in Smith, who rescued Oregon State from the ashes and won 10 games last season. It’s that time of year. By next Sunday, schools will fire and hire coaches, championships will have been won, the Playoff field will be set and the transfer portal will open for business.
This sport always manages to pack a year into 14 weeks.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / )
