Week 0 Preview

Good Morning and welcome back to 4th & Forever, Rand & Tate’s College Football Newsletter. You know as well as anyone that there’s nothing we enjoy talking about more than College Football, which is why we started this newsletter and want to share our thoughts and opinions with you. You can expect game previews & recaps, betting picks, updates on CFB current events, and other random stuff we find enjoyable.

WE HAVE REAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES THIS WEEKEND. Don’t tell us Week 0 games don’t count because we know you’re going to be sitting on your couch watching Navy play Notre Dame in Dublin this weekend and then texting us what to live bet for Ohio @ San Diego State. Below you will find information on the week that was in College Football and our Week 0 preview & picks. Without further ado, let's get to it!

3 Things to Know this Week

Jim Harbaugh Suspension: Following a bizarre back and forth between the NCAA and the University of Michigan over the past couple of weeks that saw Jim Harbaugh reportedly suspended for four games for lying to NCAA regarding recruiting infractions, and then that same suspension being rejected by the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions, Michigan has now announced their own penalty on Harbaugh, which will see him suspended for the first three games of this season. Michigan is clearly trying to win over some NCAA favor here, hoping that this self-imposed suspension will be enough for the NCAA to stop pursuing this matter with such persistence.

This whole thing has been really weird and stupid for weeks, with Michigan angrily saying that the “lie” Jim Harbaugh told was just about paying for a cheeseburger, and the NCAA angrily responding by saying this is not about a cheeseburger. Seriously, this whole thing started with a cheeseburger. Anyway, we’ll now get to see if Michigan can get through their gauntlet of a September schedule (vs East Carolina, vs UNLV, and vs Bowling Green) without their head coach.

ACC Expansion Rumors: After the PAC-12 - now 4 with just Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State standing past this year - imploded a few weeks ago, the ACC was looking at Cal and Stanford (and SMU, more on them later) as potential expansion candidates. That got shot down when Clemson, FSU, UNC, and NCST voted against adding them into the ACC. Clemson and FSU don’t want them in for TV revenue distribution purposes (Cal/Stanford/SMU teams don’t add much TV value/eyeballs like a blue blood would), and Carolina loves to think they are in that group, they’re not, and NCST is part of the NC Public School school system so they will vote however UNC does. Only one of the four aforementioned schools needs to vote yes as you need 12/15 ACC schools to vote yes on expansion.

On Wednesday, rumors were circulating again that ACC presidents were meeting again this week and a decision could be made by the weekend on adding Cal, Stanford, and SMU to the ACC. It’s hard to predict how the school presidents will vote, but things are trending to their eventual acceptance to the ACC. Part of that is because of the concessions the schools are willing to make around TV money. Essentially, each current ACC school makes ~$30mil/year from their ESPN TV contract. Cal and Stanford want in because one of their only options is to go to the Mountain West Conference which pays about $4mil/year. SMU makes about $7mil/year in the American Athletic Conference. All three schools are willing to take less than the $30mil/year from ACC money just to get that security blanket of being in the ACC and eventually getting full payout. SMU in particular is saying they are willing to not accept a dime from the ACC for seven (!!) years because their boosters will cover the difference. SMU is that kid from college who casually drove a BMW and you thought ‘damn his parents do well’ and then you find what his parents do and you go ‘oh they’re rich rich.’

Realignment is so complicated and stupid that it’s not worthwhile to harp on it…so let’s have some fun. Stanford and SMU are so desperate to join the ACC that they got Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush to lobby for their admittance into the ACC. Stick to hunting terrorists and not ruining college football, please. Remember when Condoleezza Rice was being considered for the head coach of the Cleveland Browns? Thank you Anson Dorracne, the head coach of UNC Women’s Soccer, for saying that he wants Cal & Stanford to ‘die on the vine’ because their addition to the ACC would impact travel & recruiting. Caveat: this is the best college soccer coach of all time, same dude who coached Mia Hamm and has a mere 21 national titles under his belt at UNC, but this is like the Chemistry Department weighing in on if a college should build an indoor football facility. Shut up & dribble?

Blue Blood QB Battles: Both Ohio State and Alabama - two schools who notoriously lost the last game they played against the glorious, incredible, back-to-back national champion Georgia Bulldogs - finished their second fall scrimmage last weekend without either having a clear answer at quarterback. Nick Saban said after their scrimmage that Week 1 will be “just the beginning” of their QB battle, while Ryan Day also refused to acknowledge that one of Devin Brown or Kyle McCord were ahead of the other.

This is new territory for both schools considering both the Alabama and Ohio State QBs have been preseason Heisman favorites every year for the past 5+ years. It’ll be interesting to follow these QB battles throughout September, they could go a long way in determining who gets the honor of getting absolutely boat raced by the Dawgs this winter.

Week 0 Preview & Picks

Navy v #13 Notre Dame (-20.5) (Dublin, Ireland) 2:30pm ET NBC

• Tate’s Pick: ND -20.5, U 49

• Rand’s Pick: ND -20.5, U 49

  • Sam Hartman, as you might have heard, is the new QB for Notre Dame after one of the best careers in ACC history at Wake Forest - we do not accept Philip Rivers comparisons in this household. As every Wake fan knows, Hartman will give you a consistent 300 yards & 4 TD game, and then blow up against some irrelevant team for 4 INTs in 1 quarter - see Wisconsin Duke’s Mayo Bowl and 2022 Louisville game for evidence. Notre Dame will plow over Navy this weekend but the real question is how does Hartman and the rest of the offense look against Ohio State, USC, and Clemson. Lastly, the over under I’m setting on broadcast mentions of his rib bone necklace is 1.5 and I’m hammering the over.

  • Navy fired long-time head coach Ken Niumatalolo this offseason, because Navy’s current athletic director is a big dumb asshole, and the NCAA implemented new rules last year around cut-blocking, effectively neutering the triple option as it has always been run. Navy is completely screwed this year, and I don’t think they’ll score more than 7 points on ND. With that said, the triple option limits possessions and Notre Dame still has questions on offense. Notre Dame will cover, but I don’t see 50 total points in this game.

Hawaii @ Vanderbilt (-17.5) 7:30pm ET SEC Network

• Tate’s pick: Vanderbilt -17.5 (HAMMER THISSSS)

• Rand’s pick: Vanderbilt -17.5

  • As many of you may have noticed, both of us here picked Vanderbilt to go over their Vegas preseason win total of 3.5 this year. This is definitely going to be one of those wins. Hawaii football is a bit of a trainwreck right now, and Vanderbilt beat this team by 53 points (!!) on the road last year. I have no idea why this line is so close - we’ll be absolutely hammering Vandy -17 here.

San Jose State @ #6 USC (-30.5) 8:00pm ET PAC12 Network

• Tate’s pick: USC -30.5

• Rand’s pick: USC -30.5

  • Caleb Williams, reigning Heisman Trophy Winner, is going to go absolutely bonkers and you are literally not allowed to watch it because the game is stuck on PAC12 Network, which only 17 people in America have. USC is going to be fun to watch though, this might call for some illegal streaming*.

*Rand Fisher and Tate Smillie do not officially endorse illegal streaming

One reason to watch each of the rest of the Week 0 games

UTEP (-1) @ Jacksonville State 5:30PM ET CBSSN

Reason to Watch: Jacksonville State’s first game as an FBS program! They’ve got a chance to become a pretty good mid-major team in college football - this is your chance to watch it begin. Fun Facts: JSU beat Florida State a few years ago and are located in Alabama, not Florida.

Ohio @ San Diego State (-2.5) 7:00pm ET FS1

Reason to Watch: Ohio quarterback Kurtis Rourke was last year’s MAC Offensive Player of the year, and he is one of Tate’s favorite players in college football this year. Easily the best QB in the MAC, and a legit NFL prospect despite coming off an ACL tear.

Additionally, this is the first game in San Diego State’s brand new stadium. SDSU is often in the top 25 and looks to be good again. This is a fun matchup if you’re in CFB #SickoMode, which we both are in perpetuity.

FIU @ LA Tech (-11) 9:00pm CBSSN

Reason to Watch: Honestly I’ve got nothing here. I’m sitting here writing this and I cannot come up with anything even slightly interesting about this game. Please go get a beer with your friends instead of watching this football game.

UMass @ NMSU (-6.5) 7:00pm ET ESPN

Reason to Watch: You are being physically and emotionally tortured by a psychopathic serial killer.

Have a great weekend and talk to you again on Monday.

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Rand Fisher & Tate Smillie met a few years ago through our good buddy Dave Peljovich who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent the last two 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.