Been catching up on podcasts and summer reading material to get in the college football mindset.
This really is the start of a new era, on several fronts. For us, no more Saban. For the Big Ten, and CFB at large, no more Harbaugh. Texas and OU in the SEC now, though I'm pretty desensitized to that compared to some of the narratives I'm seeing on social media.
I think getting in the mindset that one loss isn't the end of the world. Hell, 2 losses isn't the end of the world in the new expanded playoff era. Like the other tournament sports, it will be about when those losses happen, not if.
For us, starting a new QB with a 100,000 ft ceiling, and needing some playmakers to find their role, we could be one of those teams that hits a dangerous stride late. As Tennessee fans, how many meaningless Novembers have we had? Compared to other programs, we seemed to know our fate before Halloween every year and just kind of coast to whatever the conclusion was. Especially during the god awful years.
I think the wire-to-wire undefeated champions are largely finished. That's so much winning you have to do now. So much depth you have to maintain. Someone like 2010 Auburn, even with a generational CFB QB talent like Cam, how are you going to beat 4 Great-to-Elite teams to finish the season? Those kinds of teams could still be chaos agents and knock off favorites though, like we sometimes see in basketball and baseball.
I'm starting to get excited, folks.