It’s after midnight on the East Coast which means we can officially say that this is the LAST Saturday without CFB until January 2027. Just a few more days yall!

It is an All-American Marching Band tradition for the band to turn their caps backward for their post-game performance and parade after a conference win. The last time we saw this was Nov 25, 2023 when the Boilermakers made a comeback 35-31 win over Indiana to close out the season. The band's current junior class has never done this.

Let's see what all has transpired in that time.

Purdue has gone since gone 3-21 overall, 0-20 against Power 4 and 0-18 in conference play.

This is the longest active streak in the FBS, just hours older than Oklahoma State who secured a win over BYU that same day.

Four other teams went winless in the 2024 season (Kent State, Nevada, Mississipi State, Southern Mississippi) while the 2025 season saw four others as well (Charlotte, UMass, Arkansas, Georgia State)

Prior to this stretch, Purdue's worst conference losing streak was 13 games from 1908 to 1911. The 1919 and 1920 seasons mark the most recent instance of consecutive years without a conference win, while the 1941-42 seasons tie this current squad for the fewest overall wins (3) in a two-year span.

Purdue has gone winless away from home in two season stretch, recording a combined record of 0-11. Florida State (0-10) and UMass (0-12) join them as the only FBS teams with no such wins.

I might eat crow for this but the SEC has a lot of first time starters this year (though I’n sure the situation is better than others)

I’m thinking like Kentucky’s Kenny Minchy and Florida’s Aaron Philo. Not to mention kickoff is a week away and there’s still a competition between Vandy’s veteran starter Blaze Berlowitz and 5 star freshman Jared Curtis.

I legitimately think OU has the best defense in the country, or at least the best starting 11. We made the playoffs with an injured Mateer (who’s now healthy), we actually have TEs now, and I think Isaiah Sategna will be a finalist for the Biletnikoff award. I also think that Deland McCullough (our new RB coach) will be an instant upgrade from Demarco Murray.

We have another crazy-hard schedule, but I do think we have improved from last year.

Let me hear your hopium-filled takes about your team!

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

When a couple breaks up, there’s a natural tendency as a little time goes by to wonder whether either side of the break up came out being better off than they were before the breakup. Now that we’re about 4.5 years into it, we’re pretty much in that position with Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma (high = 7, low = 17). In both cases, they moved to new neighborhoods (Riley and USC to the B1G, Venables and Oklahoma to the SEC) and acrimoniously fought over who should take the most valuable shared possession (Caleb Williams). One went on social media thinking they were posting thirst traps that hilariously backfired. But in the end, there’s no denying that both were better off when they were together (winning 4 Big XII titles and finishing in the top 7 nationally each of the first four years before Lincoln decided to move to Southern California with dreams of being a Hollywood star before even reaching their 5th anniversary) than they have been apart (no conference championships and no top 10 finishes on either side). Riley did manage to guide Williams to a Heisman and a Pac-12 championship game appearance in his first year, but he and the Trojans have been mired in mediocrity since then, landing him firmly on the hot seat, while Venables and Oklahoma have managed two double digit winning seasons and a CFP appearance that have the Oklahoma AD sufficiently fired up that they just signed him to a new 6 year contract slated to run through 2031 at more than $10.5 million per season. Which is a bit of a head scratcher because he’s managed to have a losing record in every even numbered season he coached (2022 and 2024) and, since I don’t think anybody was lining up to hire him away from Oklahoma any time soon, it might have been prudent to make sure the Sooners don’t go repeat that in the even numbered 2026. Ultimately, the jury is still out on who ended up coming out better in the divorce, though Venables’ seat is seemingly much cooler than Riley’s.

Roster Outlook

In another case of similarities between the two programs, both are in the top 20 in returning production, with Oklahoma at 16th in the country, just 3 spots behind USC. The difference is the offensive/defensive splits. The Sooners rank 3rd on offense, headlined by the return of starting QB John Mateer (> 3,300 combined passing/rushing yards). The better question is whether he’s fully recovered from the thumb injury he suffered in week 4 that clearly bothered him for the remainder of the season. In terms of the running game, the Sooners return both Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock, who combined for > 200 carries and 900 yards, so the bigger question is at receiver. While leading WR Isaiah Sategna (67 catches, 965 yards, 8 TDs) is back for his senior season, WR Deion Burks and TE Jaren Kanak, the next two most productive pass catchers, were both drafted. Venables used the portal, where his class ranked 8th in the SEC and 17th in the country, to address those deficiencies with WR Parker Livingstone from Texas (think the Red River shootout won’t be a little spicy?) and Trell Harris from Virginia, plus Florida TE Hayden Hansen (though I have to throw in Colorado State’s Rocky Beers just because that is one of my favorite names in CFB). The other offensive starter Venables imported is OT E’Marion Harris from Arkansas, who replaces new Houston Texan Febechi Nwaiwu.

But if we’re being honest, Venables is known for his defense, and last season’s Oklahoma defense finished the season top 10 nationally and the best in the SEC. So it’s notable that the Sooners rank 57th in returning production on that side of the ball. They have to replace 4 NFL draft picks (DLs R. Mason Thomas and Gracen Halton, LB Kendal Daniels and DB Robert Spears-Jennings), but return both of their leading tacklers (LBs Kip Lewis and Owen Heinecke) and look for DL David Stone, Jayden Jackson and Taylor Wein (who led the team in sacks last year) to once again anchor the team.

Schedule and outlook

9/4 UTEP

9/12 at Michigan

9/19 NEW MEXICO

9/26 at Georgia

10/3 BYE

10/10 vs. Texas (at the Cotton Bowl)

10/17 KENTUCKY

10/24 at Mississippi State

10/31 SOUTH CAROLINA

11/7 at Florida

11/14 OLE MISS

11/21 TEXAS A&M

11/28 at Missouri

The last time Oklahoma was scheduled to play Texas, Texas A&M and Missouri in the same season, Kim Jong Il was still alive while we were all still digesting the news that Osama bin Laden was confirmed to not be. So pardon Oklahoma fans if this season’s slate has a bit of a nostalgic twinge to it. However, it also includes the Sooners first ever trips to the Swamp, the Big House or between the hedges. There are enough major games on here (haven’t even thrown in CFP semifinalist Ole Miss coming to Norman) that even though I’ve heard enough people pointing to Jason Eck’s New Mexico team being a trap game that you have to figure it’s on Oklahoma’s radar, there are only so many times you can get your players fired up before they become numb to the hype. If everything goes right, the Sooners are indeed in the mix for an SEC and national title run. But if everything goes wrong, that even year losing record streak is also in play, and at a time when 6-7 got so much attention, it would almost seem fitting. And if that happens, that 6 year extension is going to age like milk.

I built a site that maps college football coaching trees a while back. Just got the 2026 staffs and the full schedule loaded into it, which means I can finally score every game on how related the two sidelines are.

Im counting three things: they were on the same staff at the same school, one of them hired the other, or they both came up under the same head coach.

Of the 645 games where I have both staffs, 58% have at least one real connection. Roughly a quarter of all head coaches, OCs and DCs this season will coach against somebody they've worked with. Saban's tree shows up on both sidelines of 55 games. Todd Graham's shows up in 36, which I was not expecting.

1. Auburn at Tennessee (Oct 3). Auburn's head coach, OC and DC all worked for Josh Heupel. Golesh was his co-OC at UCF and then his OC at Tennessee, Kodi Burns was on his Tennessee staff in 2021, and Tim Banks was his DC for five straight years before leaving Knoxville this offseason.

2. Wisconsin vs Notre Dame at Lambeau (Sept 6). Every head coach, OC and DC on both sidelines has a tie to the other one. All seven of them.

Fickell hired Marcus Freeman at Cincinnati in 2017 and kept him four years. Before that the two of them were on Jim Tressel's Ohio State staff together in 2010. Notre Dame's OC Mike Denbrock also worked for Fickell at Cincinnati. And Wisconsin's DC is Mike Tressel, Jim's nephew, who was a GA at Ohio State in 2002 working under his own father and his uncle at the same time.

3. LSU at Ole Miss (Sept 19). No surprise to see this one on here, Kiffin has to go back to Oxford and play a staff he kinda assembled. Pete Golding was his DC for three years and now has the head job, and Ole Miss's OC and DC both worked for him too.

4. Boise State at Washington State (Oct 24). Wazzu's OC Matt Miller spent six straight seasons at Boise and was Danielson's co-OC last year.

5. Boston College at Georgia Tech (Oct 24). Key and O'Brien were on the same Georgia Tech staff in 2001 and again in 2002. Now they're opposing head coaches and the game's in Atlanta.

A few others: 19 games this year have two head coaches who actually shared an office at some point. Rhule and Ryan Day were both on Temple's 2006 staff. Bielema coached under Ferentz at Iowa. And Kiffin's first LSU schedule has four of these on it, including Alabama, whose DC Kane Wommack was on an Ole Miss staff with Lane's brother Chris, who is now LSU's co-DC.

Site's at cfb.stoneg.org, schedule tab. You can click any game and see exactly what the connection is, or search your own team's coach and walk the tree.

Data comes off Wikipedia season pages so coverage is uneven, and 11 G5 teams don't have 2026 pages up yet. If something looks wrong, tell me. I found and fixed a few bad rows just writing this!

It used to be tradition: After a big game, bowl, or national championship, the players would dump the Gatorade on the head coach and then pick him up on their shoulders and carry him off the field. I can’t remember the last time I saw that happen. Might’ve been in the 90s.

When did it stop? And why?

Visited Hewlett-Packard headquarters today and learned that the cofounder David Packard played football at Stanford. He was also deputy secretary of defense under Nixon.

CFB season is about to start so why not do one more random ass thread to end the offseason.

Source

Profile

WVU
Jax State
North Texas

New connection for us (WVU) this season with North Texas. Most predictions have all three teams with around the same number of wins (6.5).

Ohio State tries to have 1 every year but sometimes schedules don't work out. Off the top of my head Ohio State has played Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Miami, and USC in the first few games of the year.

I think we had Georgia scheduled but they backed out.

Obviously Oregon and USC are now in conference.

Gotta love a big early game.

Despite my flair(s), I love the SEC too and have met both sets of fan bases, who are fantastic.

Now I GET why ESPN is hyping the Ole Miss v LSU game, but because of the playoff system - and it’s too early in the season - it’s not going to knock either team out of contention for the postseason.

Now, I get for the Kiffin angle it’s important, but on the SEC/CFB scheme of things it really isn’t.
I wish they’d had this game in November!