Stephen A. Smith issues mea culpa about TCU pick: 'Obviously I was a damn fool!
Stephen A. Smith had to eat some crow this morning on “First Take” after the bombastic ESPN personality picked TCU to beat Georgia in the College Football Playoff championship game.
The Bulldogs won 65-7 becoming the first team in the College Football Playoff era to win back-to-back championships.
Smith explained his position during a discussion with analysts Sam Acho and Keyshawn Johnson.
“I just didn’t want to go with the grain,” Smith said. “I know Georgia is the better team, but it’s one night, it’s college athletes, who knows what the hell could happened, but obviously I was a damn fool.
“The college football committee needs to give ESPN their money back. Seriously, we need to get our money back for that. What an atrocity.”
As the discussion continues, Acho wondered loudly if Georgia can keep up the winning and get to the level of where Nick Saban brought Alabama won six titles in 13 seasons.
Johnson said it’s not time to kick dirt on Alabama’s dynasty yet.
“Nick Saban is Nick Saban, there’s a reason that he has the No. 1 recruiting class this year….they just won a championship a couple of years ago,” Johnson said. “People are acting like Alabama just all of sudden fell off the face of the Earth and they’re down there with Vanderbilt and some of those teams in the SEC. They’re still top dog.”
It’s hard to disagree with some parts of what Johnson is saying, but right now the top dog resides in Athens, Georgia.
You can listen to the conversation below.
Yes, Stephen A., you was and is a da mn fool.
I could not agree more!
It’s his MO.
Was is incorrect. Am is the correct word.
Yankees from New York don’t know s–t about College Football.
That’s the long and short of it.
There were many “d a m n fools” at B1G loving ESPN before last night. Stephen A had a LOT of company.
The line of thinking was TCU beat Michigan, who beat OSU, who nearly beat UGA in Atlanta. Ergo, TCU would beat UGA in LA.
The problem with that line of thinking is that it doesn’t account for talent disparities. According to the 247 composite ranking this season UGA was #2, OSU was #3, Michigan was #13 and TCU was #32. It took Michigan giving away 21 points for TCU to barely pull that upset. UGA wasn’t about to be so charitable.
At first, I was going to say that as long as Smart and his DC put together a good defense, they will be in the NC conversation, but then I remembered Iowa.
On a serious note, though, it’s hard to have an elite shut down defense every game of the season, especially if they keep adding games. Any game could turn into the Georgia/OSU shootout.
Ohio State played their best game in two(2) years and Ryan Day had a great game plan to neutralize the Dawgs D-line and it almost worked.
Losing Harrison Jr. definitely affected the outcome of the game, as the Dawgs secondary had no answer for him. And yes, as I rewatched the hit on Harrison, it was targeting pure & simple. Glad the Dawgs won the Natty.
I’ve rewatched that play a few times myself. It wasn’t targeting. By rule.
A vicious hit, certainly. But not illegal.
Spot on AFan. Even if the refs had upheld the targeting call, Bullard for Harrison Jr. was a trade UGA would’ve been happy to make at that point in that game, the way things were going.