Chornobyl, Katy Perry, & Bourbon - Top Reasons to Watch CFB

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Good morning and welcome to 4th & Forever, Rand & Tate’s College Football Newsletter. There are all types of lists in the world, bucket lists (cool), honey do lists (horrible), long lists (Harris’ potential VP picks), short lists (JD Vance’s moments of sanity), and if you were tortured by Delta last week, the standby list. We’re a fan of most lists and this week we’re giving you three. Our Top 10 Reasons to Watch College Football along with our travel schedules which is essentially a “Where in the World are Rand & Tate” section but on more steroids than any Chinese athlete in Paris right now. 

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4&F’s Top 10

There’s an infamous question in Wake Forest’s college application that’s simply “Give Us Your Top Ten List.” My sister listed her favorite cathedrals which is interesting considering she’s never been in one. I know people who discussed their favorite teas (nerd!), Tory Burch spring outfit combinations, and college football stadiums…oh wait, that last one was me. Somehow I still got in and no one has told me it wasn’t because I listed then BB&T Field as my number one. We introduced 4th & Forever with our Top 10 Reasons to Watch College Football in our first-ever newsletter so now we present to you the 2024 edition.

Rand & Tate’s Top 10 Reasons to Watch CFB this Year

1) The 12-Team Playoff: It sort of goes without saying, doesn’t it? There’s so much fun stuff that’s going to happen before we get there, of course, but I can’t quite get over how awesome the first-round games played at campus sites are going to be. Ole Miss at Oregon? Penn State at Texas? Alabama at Ohio State? In a win-or-go-home scenario? Sign me the hell up. After that round, we get historic bowl games - the Peach, Fiesta, Sugar, and Rose Bowl games - as the quarterfinal venues while the Orange and Cotton Bowls will host the semifinals before the national championship game takes place in my hometown of Atlanta. December is going to be a month unlike anything we’ve ever seen in college football, filled with rowdy environments, the sport’s best brands, upset opportunities, and banger games. So many more teams and fanbases are going to have so much more to be hopeful for, so much further into the season. A lot of what I’m interested in this season is tied to the simple fact that we finally have something we’ve never had before: a real playoff structure that will get all of the best teams in the country on the field together to duke it out. 

2) More to play for, for longer: Penn State’s annual losses to Michigan and Ohio State used to be season killers, at least in terms of their national championship hopes. Same for Ole Miss’ losses to Alabama and somebody else, the Big 12 beating each other out of the playoff annually, and countless other schools who seem to always be on the cuff of taking the next step but can never seem to do so. Now? The Ole Miss at LSU game has massive playoff implications. The Texas at Texas A&M game to close the regular season may not only be the return of one of the sport’s most bitter rivalries but could now put the winner in the playoff while knocking the loser out. Tennessee vs Oklahoma would’ve previously been an entertaining game between teams simply vying for the best bowl possible - now it has legitimate playoff meaning. Wisconsin, Miami, Oklahoma State, Utah, Iowa… you guys don’t need to simply settle for the best meaningless bowl game by mid-October anymore. You’ll still be in the hunt for much longer, and your games will have much more meaning deeper into the season this year.

3) Plus, the G5! Look, we here at 4th & Forever are psychopaths and we know it. We’re not under the impression that the fun G5 games we recommended that you watch last season became appointment viewing for you just because we said you should tune in. But with the new 12-team playoff reserving a spot for the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion, there are now a lot more games that become more interesting beyond just late-night entertainment. We gave you some G5 teams to keep an eye on last week, and many of those teams not only have upset opportunities against big-time programs, but they have games against each other throughout the season that will have gargantuan implications when it comes to the playoff race. Maybe the G5 playoff selection is destined to get obliterated by an SEC or Big Ten team in the first round, but maybe not! We’ll certainly see an improbable Cinderella run at some point - why not this year?

4) Diaper Dandies: Last year it was S Caleb Downs of Bama, WR/KR Zachariah Branch of USC, and DL Peter Woods of Clemson who excelled as true freshmen. This year look out for a trio of WRs who are already turning heads despite being at high school prom 3 months ago. Jeremiah Smith of Ohio State, Micah Hudson of Texas Tech, and Cam Coleman of Auburn. Make Dicky V proud.

5) And it’s not just the Freshmen! Last year we had a returning Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., Drake Maye, Brock Bowers, Penix, McCarthy, and Nix. We knew who would likely be in the race for both the Heisman and the top picks in the NFL Draft. This year, much less is clear. There are great players and/or players with unbelievable athletic potential riddled throughout the country, but nobody’s game tape so far has separated itself from that of their peers. The top of next year’s NFL Draft seems wide open for the taking right now, and there hasn’t been a Heisman race that has been so unclear since the offseason before Lamar Jackson won it in 2016. Well, that was unclear to everybody except Tate of course, who called it before Lamar had even played a full game of college football yet. We know for a fact that there are future stars all over the country, but we don’t yet know who exactly those guys are going to be. That is going to be intriguing to watch develop throughout the year and could swing multiple teams’ playoff hopes in an upward direction to a surprisingly high degree.

6) Random Nonconference Games: One of the coolest parts of college football in our opinion is the random nonconference games that get scheduled years in advance and when they come to fruition we get to sit back and say, “what the hell?” Last year it was Oregon in Lubbock, Wisconsin in Pullman, and BYU at Arkansas. This year Boston College plays @ Missouri and home against Michigan State for some unbeknownst reason while Arizona State hosts Mississippi State and Kansas State heads to Tulane. Minnesota and UNC face off on opening weekend but the most random nonconference game of the year award goes to the Week 8 tilt between Rutgers and UCLA in Piscataway. Oh wait, nevermind. 

7) Teams that are supposed to be great like Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia, and Texas but even in the expanded playoff, three if not all four of those teams will end the year on a sour note. Texas and Georgia return their QBs from last year while Oregon brought in Dillon Gabriel from the portal. There’s a lot riding on Will Howard’s shoulders to lead the most talented CFB roster since 2001 Miami. Georgia heads to Texas on 10/19 while Oregon hosts the Buckeyes a week prior. Including the conference championship games, we could see the same two teams face off a ridiculous three separate times in a single season if they meet for the natty in Atlanta. 

8) Teams that are supposed to be awful like Vanderbilt, Purdue, and Virginia. Vanderbilt has shown zero signs of life under former star player Clark Lea and with massive stadium renovations underway, he’s not giving the donor base a good ROI. Purdue and Ryan Walters got a pass on Year 1 after Jeff Brohm bolted for Louisville and half the team entered the portal but the former Broyles Award Finalist (nation’s top coordinator) for his work as Illinois’ DC has to show he can lead a team and not just a defense. Virginia and Tony Elliott went through unthinkable tragedy together following the shooting in late 2022 but unfortunately, the checks are coming due a consecutive 3 win seasons won’t pay them.

9) And then there’s Clemson. This season might be an inflection point for Dabo and the Tigers. Multiple national championships will buy you a few mediocre seasons in Death Valley but the fanbase is growing restless on his outright portal neglect. Florida State looks to be building a behemoth on the back of transfers and if former Tigers QB DJU beats his old team in mid-October, Dabo is going to have to answer some tough questions which based on his press conference performances last season, certain college football newsletter writers are foaming at the mouth at that thought.  

10) The Unknown. This time last year Conor Stalions was employed by Michigan, Mel Tucker and Pat Fitzgerald were the head coaches of Michigan State and Northwestern respectively, the Pac-12 existed, Deion hadn’t coached a game at Colorado yet, and Mario Cristobal claimed he still knew how to coach. Sometimes the best part of college football is the unpredictable ridiculousness that comes with it: the good, the bad, and the ugly. With the addition of Kennesaw State to the FBS in just a few short weeks we’ll have 134 different teams, coaches, and fanbases duking it out on and off the field. If the previous 154 years are any indication, we’re in for a special 155th rendition of this absurd sport. 

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Tate’s Fall Travel Schedule

Week 1: UGA takes on Clemson at Mercedes-Benz Stadium so not much “travel” is required of me here, but #TheFellas are coming into town and we’ll all be there to watch the Dawgs take Dabo to the woodshed. It is going to be glorious, as long as Clemson fans aren’t super weird about it this time.

Week 2: The Dawgs are playing FCS Tennessee Tech in Athens at 2:00 pm and while I typically love going to the home opener, this feels like a weekend where I sit on my ass at home and watch football all day. Especially considering that Michigan and Texas will be starting the second half when the Dawgs kickoff. Two, perhaps three, perhaps eleven TVs will be in order here.

Week 3: I may be traveling up to Lexington, KY to watch the Dawgs take on the Wildcats as my good friend Myshon Singleton’s brothers-in-law are now freshmen defenders for UK. Watch out for outside linebackers Jerod (#95) and Jacob Smith (#16)!

Week 4: Georgia’s first bye week feels like it may end up being a weekend of wedding planning for me. There will be a device in my hands allowing me to watch Tennessee vs Oklahoma though, this I can promise you.

Week 5: Georgia at Alabama at 7pm. Do I really need to explain where I’ll be? 

Week 6: Auburn comes to Athens, so I have no choice but to go and defend my own kind against hostile actors. I’ve told you all many times that Auburn is a terrorist organization, and it seems that even their own fans are embracing it now. We should all be very concerned, and you should all thank me for my service in defending you from Auburn’s ideology spreading via football wins.

Week 7: Georgia plays Mississippi State in Athens and while I hate missing SEC home games, the rest of that day’s schedule includes: Oklahoma vs Texas, Ohio State vs Oregon, Wake vs Clemson, Tennessee vs Florida, and the big one for me as I called out above, Ole Miss @ LSU. I may just have to watch us whip the hapless Bulldogs from my couch. I have a newsletter to deliver the next day after all, and the next weekend is…

Week 8: UGA at Texas in Austin, which the SEC scheduled on the same weekend as the Formula 1 race in Austin because the SEC is not concerned with small irrelevant European sports competitions. It’s a potential #1 vs #2 matchup and I’ll be staying with Texts of the Week legend Alex Sztejnberg to take it all in. The level of “there” I will be, will be studied by future generations.

Week 9: Another Dawgs bye week. Yes, my love, those flowers look great. So do those. I’m fine with that cake too. Can we go home?

Week 10: The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party takes place in Jacksonville and I’m not sure I have the physical or mental capability to pull it off this year with the several other road trips I have planned. Going to this would result in entirely too much bourbon on back-to-back weekends, because…

Week 11: …this week, the Dawgs go to Oxford to take on Lane Kiffin’s potentially top-10, playoff-bound Rebs. If the federal government observed the amount of bourbon consumed by these two fanbases this weekend we would go directly back to prohibition. I must do my part - I’ll be there.

Week 12: Tennessee comes to Athens for the first time since they came in ranked #1 in 2022 and got absolutely walloped in one of my favorite UGA games I’ve ever attended. I’ll be in damn good seats for this one, one way or another. 

Week 13: UGA plays UMass while a bunch of other SEC teams play nobodies, as is tradition. The college basketball season will have tipped off by this point, and this weekend happens to see the UGA Hoop Dawgs go down to the Bahamas to play both Marquette and St. Johns, my good friend Matt Sadiker’s favorite team, who will himself be traveling down to go to the games. A mid-November Bahamas trip sounds pretty nice, right? I think so.

Week 14: GT @ UGA on a Friday??? What the hell? I’ll be coming back from Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and may or may not make it to Athens depending on how good Georgia Tech is, which… well, we’ll talk about that in our predictions newsletter.

Rand’s Fall Travel Schedule

Week 1: On Wednesday, August 29th I’ll be flying back from Denver from a work event so I can make it back for the best Thursday night opening game in CFB history: Wake Forest v North Carolina A&T. The atmosphere should be as electric as the Aggie band and I’ll get my first glimpse of new QB Hank Bachmeier or Michael Kern. On Friday it’s likely I’ll drive back to Atlanta to at least tailgate the UGA-Clemson game with Tate & Co. If I don’t go in then I’ll disassociate on the couch for at least 12 hours with at least 3 TVs to soak in the opening weekend of college football…just as the Lord intended.  

Week 2: The Deacs play host to Virginia in Winston so I’ll likely trek back up to Winston for this 7pm kick. If not, then reread the last sentence of Week 1 to figure out what I’ll be doing. 

Week 3: Way back in 2014, former Wake AD Ron Wellman called Ole Miss and scheduled a home and home for 2024 and 2025. At the time, I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted Ole Miss to be a preseason top 10 team or have Lane Kiffin as their coach even though they were coming off a 9-4 season with a win over Bama in Oxford. If you remember, this was the year Katy Perry joined the College GameDay set, ripped the elephant head off Corso, flung hotdogs around the set, and told Oklahoma QB Trevor Knight to call her. Anywho, Wake’s Homecoming is this weekend and I’ll be in attendance along with a ton of my college friends. With a 6:30pm kickoff slated on the indomitable CW Network, I’m sure both fanbases will behave with the utmost respect and morality. Just remember, Wake owns a 2-0 all-time record against the Rebels, and the last time they played in Winston, little Rand watched Sam Swank do this.

Week 4: As I’ve mentioned before, my dad and I have a tradition dating back to my 7th grade year where we pick one college football a year to go to. The rules are simple: it can’t be during a Wake home game or an important road game, and the game has to be cool. None of this Texas A&M v Arkansas in JerryWorld nonsense or Georgia v Clarke County’s District Attorney…er YMCA. It doesn’t have to be Michigan-Ohio State although if someone’s offering tickets we will not shoot them down. This year we decided on UCLA-LSU in Baton Rouge during Wake’s bye week. We’ve been to many CFB stadiums and atmospheres between the two of us and there’s a good chance Tiger Stadium vaults into our top 2 behind Army-Navy following our visit and preceding trip to NOLA. 

Week 5: The Deacs are in Winston and while I’ll be back in North Cackalacky, I will not be in attendance. Instead, I’ll be in Wilmington for my friend's bachelor party where I can only assume the entire weekend will revolve around where we’re watching the Wake-Louisiana Ragin Cajun game…right guys???

Week 6: After a week's hiatus I’m back in the saddle and still in North Carolina but this time in Raleigh which is what modern-day white flight looks like. Raleigh is lucky Charlotte exists because, without it, it’d be the most overrated city in the state. My bias is palpable but is there a city in North Carolina I like? Greensboro is more decrepit than Chornobyl, Asheville is cool but filled with a bunch of tourists in Chacos who don’t shower, and after that, we’re left with…Durham? Jesus, with all the Yankees moving in, Long Island must really suck. Anyway, Wake plays State and I’ll be in Raleigh. Thank you in advance for hosting me, Owen!

Week 7: Finally back in Winston for Wake-Clemson which if history is any indication will not be a fun weekend for me. The Deacs haven’t beaten Clemson since 2008 and the last matchup in Salami was the epic 51-45 Hartman-DJU duel. After that game, my managers were so worried about my well-being that they texted me for 3 straight days before I had the mental capacity to respond the following Tuesday. It got so bad they threatened to call my mom but such is life as a Wake football fan. Maybe they’ll understand eventually but perhaps the better existential question is why do I live in Atlanta again?

Week 8: Oh god am I really going to do this to myself? Rarely, I’ll ever hold my nose at traveling for a Wake Forest Football game but when you see the Deacs are slated to play in East Hartford against the UConn Huskies, you’ll understand my plight. I’m embarrassed to admit it but I might have to do it. Theoretically speaking of course because I definitely haven’t looked this up already but if I were to go I’d fly up to NYC, take a 3-hour train to Hartford for the noon kick-off, and be back by dinner. My sister also lives there so I guess I could see her or something. 

Week 9: By now I’m sure you’re familiar with the adage: if you’re going to have a fall wedding, make sure it’s the weekend of the Wake @ Stanford game. So I’ll be in a wedding in Greenville, SC, and look forward to ringing in an important Deacs win with the happy couple who I’m sure will be scoreboard-watching as fervently as I am. 

Week 10: A second off week for the Deacs yields a big question mark for me. I would love to go to Athens for another game with Tate but the Dawgs will be in Jacksonville, FL. Maybe I’ll end up in Boone for my first-ever visit to The Rock and watch App. Auburn, South Carolina, and Tennessee also all have home games. Who knows, but I’m sure I’ll be able to figure something out. 

Week 11: Conference realignment is rightly maligned by everyone except the select administrators who cash the checks but if there’s one benefit, it’s that this great nation is treated with an 8pm Friday night matchup between Cal and Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. Grab the handkerchief John Swofford, this one’s for you. 

Week 12: Wake @ UNC. As Tate said, do I really need to explain this one further?

Week 13: Wake @ Miami for a game that I may have had flights booked since February…

Week 14: Wake hosting Duke over Thanksgiving is one of the many things I am thankful for this year. 

Have a great Thursday and we will talk to you next week.

Thank you for reading 4th & Forever. Feel free to forward this to friends & family and if you have comments or suggestions on the newsletter, please let us know. We really appreciate any and all feedback on this project. Check out our website by going to 4thandforevercfb.com where you can drop us suggestions, read and comment on previous newsletters, and argue with us and other readers.

Rand Fisher & Tate Smillie met a few years ago through their good buddy Dave Peljovich who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent two years of the last three years collecting championship rings while traveling to watch the Dawgs. Rand went to known CFB powerhouse Wake Forest and currently pays rent in Atlanta but is rarely found there with all the work & CFB travel he does.