Final Feelings: The College Football Playoff is Here | So is In-Law Christmas...

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ATHENS - Kirby Smart and UGA football get to sit back and rest this weekend after earning a first-round bye after beating Texas in the 2024 SEC Championship. The Dawg Post crew has you covered in this lengthy read you are only going to get here.

Matt’s Final Feelings: What a time to be alive.

The first 12-team College Football Playoffs are here, we’ve got hundreds of kids in the transfer portal, and we’ve got it all right before the Christmas season.

Oh, and Georgia basketball might have themselves a team this year.

Let’s keep it football-related first. The Dawgs will take on the Notre Dame/Indiana winner and they’ll do it in New Orleans. One of my favorite cities in the country. Bourbon Street is overrated, but it’s still exactly what you’d expect. I’m a big gumbo and jambalaya guy so the New Orleans cuisine is right up my alley. Big fan of the music and culture down there. It’s different, but it’s always a good time.

As for the battle of Indiana, I think the Hoosiers will keep this one close. The Irish are the better, more talented team, but you know every Indiana fan has been waiting for this opportunity. A chance to beat Notre Dame in South Bend in the biggest game in program history.

Ole Curt Cignetti will have his boys ready to play. They’re strong defensively, they’ have adequate quarterback play, and they’ve been able to stop the run pretty well all season long. If they can keep it going against an outstanding Irish rushing attack, which won’t be easy, they have a real chance at pulling the upset. 

I’ll get into the other games another time, but I know I’ll be watching them at a family Christmas party. Thankfully, there will be an open bar. But apparently there’s only tequila, wine, and champagne. That’s not ideal for a beer drinker who enjoys dark liquors on occasion. Tequila gets me dancing and that’s bad news for everyone.

I love some Christmas, though. Halloween is fun, Thanksgiving is fine, and you know your boy loves throwing on some red, white and blue on Independence Day. But Christmas hits different.

As for the Dawgs, they needed this rest. No doubt about it. Earning that BYE was gigantic, and it’s allowed the team to rest and charge their batteries. They’ve been in battle after battle for the last three months and finally have a chance to be as healthy as possible in two weeks. 

Whether it’s the Irish or the Hoosiers, I expect Georgia, even with backup QB Gunner Stockton, to rise to the occasion. But first, they need an opponent, and we’ll find out on Friday night. 

Merry Christmas, Dawg Posters. Enjoy time with family and get your mind right for the Playoffs.

Ryan’s Final Feelings: 

I think I made it clear at some point that I did not want the College Football Playoff to be expanded to include 12 teams. I honestly thought four teams was fine. However, there were a few years where it felt like it should include more teams. I thought that six or eight teams would have been the sweet spot. 

My expectation before this season was that there would be a fair share of blowouts ahead of the semifinal matchups. That may hold true, but college football has been all over the place this season. There is not necessarily a dominant group of teams at the top. Other than Oregon, every squad has its blemishes. 

I don’t think 12 teams are capable of winning it all in this sport out of any, but here we are, and I am going to eat up every second of it because it means more high-level football. 

What a great way to kick it off for us than to watch Indiana and Notre Dame battle it out in South Bend to see who is going to play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. My prediction is that it will be the Irish. I think that Georgia would likely prefer Indiana. It would be easier for the Dawgs to beat the Hoosiers with speed and talent than it would a Notre Dame team that has some of the ingredients that have given Georgia food poisoning on defense. 

College GameDay is going to be in South Bend on Friday afternoon for three hours, then transport over to Columbus to do a traditional show on Saturday morning. Just keep signing me up for all of this extra football and content. 

We as a college football world need to fix this calendar. It is straight up dumb. The transfer portal window and these playoff games and bowl games colliding is bad for the sport. Take Penn State’s backup quarterback Beau Pribula for example. That is a guy that is a part of the Nittany Lion offense and would have to wait to start even longer with the announcement that Drew Allar was staying. He now has to enter the portal and leave the team during a playoff run.

We need to condense the playoff calendar. It should not be extending out as close to February as it is. Why can’t the first round games be a week after conference championship weekend? What is so hard about getting into it? Teams with byes will be rewarded with another week of rest. There is not a bye week before the NFL playoffs. 

Don’t give me the classes and finals excuse. That is laughable. Football has always bent the reality of the academic calendar and setup. And guess what? There is a large percentage of these guys that don’t take school seriously in any sense. 

Moving on… I think that three out of the four home teams will win this weekend. My upset is Tennessee over Ohio State. I think that is one of the most even matchups, and I expect to see a fair amount of orange in The Shoe. I have been on record for being lower on the Vols than the general view on them. Something is just not right about this Ohio State team. In my eyes, it has vastly underperformed. 

In the second round, I think Georgia will move on along with Oregon, Penn State and I guess Texas. Go look at all of the predictions out there and everybody has the same final four which are also the teams ranked 1-4 in the actual standings. Interesting to see if that happens because then what was all of the drama for? The exact same result as the four-team playoff. 

Who knows though, perhaps Cam Skattebo and Ashton Jeanty will run wild in the quarterfinals. I know I am rooting to see it.

I don’t see any program other than Oregon or Georgia winning this thing. I truly can’t give a prediction without knowing what this Georgia team looks like with Gunner Stockton as the guy under center. I need to see an entire game. Oregon is not flawless, but that is the best team so far. 

Other stuff…

Michael Penix Jr. baby. It is about time. For those of you who have been paying attention, Penix has been one of my guys the last couple of years. I think he is a stud that can be really really good in the NFL. 

The Kirk Cousins experiment did not work. I will never understand how the organization thought it would be smart to dish out $180 mil to a guy who is 36 years old, coming off of a significant injury and has not had a great deal of success in the first place. Did they not watch what has been going down with the Jets and Aaron Rodgers or what happened with Russell Wilson in Denver? Cousins was not nearly as successful or even as good as those two and the Falcons said “sign me up.”

Why don’t you sign me up to run the team? You know what would have happened in the 2021 draft? I would not have taken a freakin tight end with the fourth pick. There was a generational tackle, generational pass rusher and a generational wide receiver on the board along with Justin Fields. Pitts would have been my fifth choice at best. Guess what, all of those dudes outside of Fields are absolute ballers in the league. 

How about in 2023 when the Falcons took running back Bijan Robinson in the top 10 when Jalen Carter was still on the board. IT IS NOT THAT HARD. JUST WATCH THE GAMES. 

Moving on again…

I hope you have a merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate. I hope you enjoy some time with family and friends. I hope you watch as much football as possible and sneak a couple of extra slices of pie. Thank you all for keeping along with us.

Dean’s Final Feelings: Now here we sit… moments away from the College Football Playoff may of us thought about as kids and young adults. Notre Dame will host Indiana (didn’t have that one on my bingo card), SMU will travel to Penn State (same), the Taters travel out West and Tennessee hops up to the Horseshoe for perhaps the most captivating game in college football this season, but did Davey Crockett pack a flag with his musket? 

I can only imagine what that sea of Orange is going to look like in Columbus - that is going to be a scene. What those two fan bases are like going into this game is like yen and yang. The Vols have not been in a post-season game of significance since No. 3 Nebraska (remember them? Me, either) beat them in the Fiesta Bowl last century. 

That’s how long you can go wondering in the desert if you are the likes of Tennessee and Nebraska. It can be a long, long time. The Vols have not won the SEC since last century. Ohio State hasn’t won the Big Ten in what feels like a century thanks to four losses in a row to Michigan… 7-5 Michigan. 

Was Ed Oregon coaching these guys? We’ve not seen a team fall that far that fast after a national title since… well maybe Nebraska’s free fall since mattering in any way since the late 1990s. 

Needless to say this game is about Ohio State, Ryan Day and the seemingly unavoidable divorce that’s looming. I really don’t know how to look at this game, but I know this… anyone that’s talking about weather mattering - are you that stupid?

The meteorologists say it will be seven degrees colder in Columbus than in Knoxville Saturday night. Like most of their student-athletes, I didn’t graduate from a Big Ten school. But I can assure you that seven degrees doesn’t mean that much - see Kevin Bacon. 

I also think Tennessee, frankly, is built for this. They have the run game. They have the defense. They are going up against the program that’s doubting nearly everything about themselves and the way they are structured… this is setting up just fine for the Vols. We will see if they can get it done. 

That said, this game should be in Knoxville, but I’m not going to fight that fight now.

I’m concerned for Texas right now. I think Clemson’s defense can slow them, and I think there “could” be a very mild Ohio State downer brewing in Austin as well. What I mean by that is not that the Horns are looking to cook their head coach, but more that the hope end expectation was to win the SEC Championship, a year after winning the Big 12, and spiking the football in Atlanta and then saying “See, that wasn’t so hard.”

But as Phil Collins once sang: “Something Happened on the way to Heaven.”

I still have the Horns, I just want to see a little better production from the offense. Clemson can hardly function offensively, but if you let the Transfer King-elect Dabo Swinney hang around… let’s just put it this way - Dabo’s so full of it that Bevo’s in-game cow patty won’t bother him at all. 

SMU can certainly trip up Penn State - I doubt it, but they can score. Penn State is “better” than SMU, and they are at home - although you wouldn’t know it from the sale of tickets on the secondary market (cheap). I’m eager to hear more from our friends in the Big Ten about the importance of their league when you can bet two tickets - one to the leagues championship game and one to a first-round CFP game - for under $100 total. 

Passion… flag planting… Pepper spray… $18 tickets to the championship game… Big Ten football.

Then there’s the Indiana-Notre Dame game. This looks a little personal. I’m here for it. I am eager to see this matchup because I genuinely don’t know what to make of it. Of the 24 games these two have played, maybe four of them have mattered - Notre Dame at A&M, Notre Dame at USC and Indiana at Ohio State. The two have combined for one win over top 25 CFP teams. 

That came against Army. To recap, Indiana and Notre Dame have combined to have as many wins over top 25 teams as they have losses to Northern Illinois. Does all that matter? Seems like it doesn’t. I’m just saying. 

Now, they both scored 66 on Purdue, so there’s that. We really don’t know what we are getting into with this game. 

But I know this… I will be watching - watching the Gators Friday afternoon as we prepare to welcome them back on the hype train for 2025. I don’t think a pre-season top 20 ranking is out of the question for Billy’s boys. 

After the CFP I will be locked into in-law Christmas… which is like what you ask? Grab your seatbelt, helmet and other coping mechanisms and prepare yourselves for as many conspiracy theories as casseroles (macaroni and cheese is technically a casserole). 

I have been told there will not be a turkey this holiday - I chose not to make an in-law joke on that one. Again, the holidays are about toughness and disciple. The decision to let some things go and deal with others before the madness begins. We are not trying to get behind the sticks at all. 

If we have to go to McDonald’s we have to go to McDonald’s for sanity’s sake - it is what it is. This is about the kids. This is about the kids. This is about… why is that TV so loud? Why are we watching soaps right now?

Merry Christmas, and good luck out there.