1. Ohio State concluded its pre-Christmas playoff workouts Sunday. While the rest of the Buckeyes enjoy holiday time, offensive coordinator Tom Herman will spend Monday and Tuesday at Houston watching the team he will coach next year prepare for the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against Pittsburgh on Jan. 2. While interim coach David Gibbs and the lame-duck staff gets the Cougars ready, Herman will watch practices without hovering, as he described it to me Saturday. He also said he expects it will be awkward. How could it be anything but?
2. Let’s go ahead and declare 2014 the best college football season in the history of the Mountain time zone. Utah State and Air Force won their 10th games Saturday. Utah finished 9-4 by defeating a 10-win Colorado State team in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl, and CSU-Pueblo won the NCAA Division II championship on Saturday. All of this makes the continued struggles of Colorado stand out even more. The Buffs are 4-32 in four seasons of Pac-12 play. I still think Mike MacIntyre can turn around Colorado’s fortunes. The Buffs have some catching up to do.
3. January enrollees have been around long enough that they are no longer a novelty – except at Clemson, where head coach Dabo Swinney has made them the rule instead of the exception. The Tigers expect 14 freshmen to enroll next month and be available for spring practice. The advantages are significant for the team. For the enrollees? I don’t know. Signees who stick to the traditional calendar can begin in June and ease into the routines of college life at the half-speed of summer. January enrollees hit the ground running and join a freshman class in which bonds began to form four months earlier.
