College football: on Illinois’ QB decision, Georgia’s three-peat hopes, more Northwestern nonsense

Take a look around you, folks. Drink it all in. Breathe in . . . breathe out.

Take a look around you, folks. Drink it all in. Breathe in … breathe out.

Do you hear that?

It’s the last Saturday before college football begins.

The first game of Week Zero — for anybody — is Notre Dame against Navy next Saturday in Dublin. As in Ireland. Did you think it was Ohio? There are a half-dozen more games on the Week Zero schedule, with the other one worth your while being San Jose State at USC, which has Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Willliams back at quarterback.

The chances of Williams being around to lead the Trojans into the Big Ten in 2024 are nonexistent, so enjoy him while you can. Come to think of it, enjoy everything about the coming season while you can because things will take a turn for the unrecognizable after that.

This is the final season before divisions are scrapped in the Big Ten. We’ll have the last four-team playoff before the field expands to 12. It might be the last go-round before players start to get paid — within the rules — beyond all the dollar signs you’ve heard and read about that are attached to name-image-and-likeness (NIL) deals. And we all know the conference realign-o-meter will remain on tilt.

All right, you can stop looking and drinking, though you probably should keep breathing. Let’s get on with the rest of a big 10, where 10 actually means 10.

2. Panic Monday? Try not to freak out, Illinois fans, but there’s a strong chance a starting quarterback will be named coming out of the weekend — and which name goes on the QB1 line will speak volumes.

Will it be Ole Miss transfer Luke Altmyer, who entered camp as the frontrunner, or will it be former Ball State starter John Paddock?

Altmyer has greater physical gifts, not to mention three years of eligibility. Coach Bret Bielema brought him in to take the keys to the offense and get it moving.

But Paddock is, as top receiver Isaiah Williams told the Big Ten Network, “more of that vocal leader, that guy with the swagger. He gets everybody going. He’s got the juice.”

“TSD” — tough, smart, dependable — is what Bielema preaches morning, noon and night. Everything you hear about Paddock indicates he’s that kind of guy. Altmyer, however, went to Illinois to be the man. If he doesn’t get the nod for the opener against Toledo, it’s an “L” for the Illini before the season even begins.

3. Payton’s place: Quarterback Payton Thorne was so good at Michigan State two seasons ago, when the Spartans won 11 games, but last year was much more of a struggle, with the team crashing and burning at 5-7. That was child’s play compared with the pressure Thorne now faces as QB1 at Auburn, which has one of the most rabid fan bases on the planet.

How will the former Naperville Central star handle life on the Plains? Georgia and Alabama visit Jordan-Hare Stadium this season. That gives Thorne two chances — if he can keep his job, that is — at an even bigger “W” than MSU over Michigan in 2021.

4. Give me the field: You want to ride with Georgia to win a third consecutive national championship? Go ahead. I can’t do it, if for no other reason than it hasn’t been done before in the AP poll era (since 1936). Eleven times, a school has won titles back-to-back, and each time that school has been derailed in its quest for a three-peat. I’m calling bull, ’Dogs.

5. A tall glass of awesome: Don’t ever forget how great Alabama is, and don’t you dare miss out on watching my favorite player, the Tide’s Kool-Aid McKinstry. As a cornerback, his ball skills — and blitzing — are wildly good. As a return man, he’s blink-and-he’s-gone sensational. Let’s see, what else? OK, fine, it’s at least 51% about the nickname.

6. Rocky Mountain high: I don’t know what Colorado fans are smoking, but the very idea that Deion Sanders is going to walk in and win more than he loses in Year 1 — with 51 transfers on the team — is hilarious. No, he will not. Please stop listing the Buffaloes as a sleeper team, everybody.

7. Define “irony”: Colorado notwithstanding, the Pac-12 might be the best version of itself yet on its way to imploding. Five teams — USC, Washington, Utah, Oregon and Oregon State — are in the top 18 of the AP poll, the league’s best preseason showing since 2014. And this is by far the best league for quarterbacks, with USC’s Williams, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Washington State’s Cam Ward, Oregon’s Bo Nix, Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei, Utah’s Cam Rising and, yes, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders capable of posting monster numbers.

8. “Succession,” Iowa-style: There’s no better family drama than the one at Iowa, where old-man coach Kirk Ferentz has promised to give son Brian the boot as offensive coordinator if the Hawkeyes fail to (1) average at least 25 points and (2) win at least seven games. The bar hasn’t exactly been set particularly high, but still — nice and juicy.

9. 28.4: That was the national scoring average last season, the lowest since 2011. Because of the new clock rule — it won’t stop on first downs until the last two minutes of each half — there’s a good chance the scoring average will dip again.

10. Lost me at “hello”: Perhaps you heard about the letter in support of Northwestern athletics that was signed by more than 1,000 student-athlete alumni and made the media rounds during the week.

Its message failed to resonate with me. Why? Well, the email to which it was attached cited Northwestern’s student-athletes’ “dedication across sports and education” as being “unparalleled.” Oh, please. Are we really to believe that sprinters, swimmers, wrestlers and tennis players don’t work as hard on the field and in the classroom anywhere else? Because that’s what “unparalleled” means. There has been enough empty rhetoric around Evanston without that nonsense.