College football pick-six: Saying WTF to Alabama, saying why not to UCF, and let's pretend Boston is a college football town

And then Holgorsen did what we all need to do at this point: He said, “F--- it.” The Mountaineers went for two to win the game, made it, and sent Gus Johnson into catlike spasms of ecstasy.

The Mountaineers are now 7-1. Do I think they can beat Alabama? No. Of course I don’t. But if anyone’s going to defeat Alabama, we’re all going to have to go Miles Dalby and throw caution to the wind.

Steadily encroaching Playoff watch of the week

Tier 1: Alabama. What’s left is a home game against Mississippi State, a home game against the Citadel (pray for its safety), a home game against Auburn and the SEC Championship game against Georgia. The only real hope here is that A) Auburn somehow rediscovers itself over the course of the next couple of weeks and then rediscovers its faith in miracles five years post Kick Six, and B) Georgia’s 20-point loss to LSU earlier this season was less of a harbinger and more of a fluke. Straws grasped.

Tier 2: Clemson. The Tigers put up 77 on a really, really bad Louisville squad last Saturday. They’ve got an ESPN "College GameDay" date against a pretty good Boston College team this weekend. But I’m presuming, at this point, that they’re the only true Bama firewall we’ve got.

Tier 3: Notre Dame, Michigan, Georgia, West Virginia. Elevating the Mountaineers to this tier for sheer ballsiness. Michigan’s defense ain’t no joke, as proved by its utter dismantling of Penn State. But I’m not sure the Wolverines have got the offense to sustain against the teams listed above them in this hierarchy (let alone against Ohio State). Same for Notre Dame. It just feels like everything on this tier (with the possible exception of Georgia) is a noticeable step down.

Tier 4: Central Florida, Washington State, Oklahoma, Ohio State. The Sooners are the most intriguing possibility on this tier, by dint of the fact that quarterback Kyler Murray would be a presumptive Heisman favorite if Tua hadn’t long ago blocked out the sun. At this point, our best bet may be to throw UCF the four seed and see if it can acquit itself for a couple of quarters against Alabama.

Tier 5: Fresno State, Utah State. See above. If it’s going to be a lost year, let’s throw a few wild experiments into the mix.

The Nigel Tufnel dudes of the week

Did you catch that triple-overtime Liberty-UMass game? Of course you didn’t because A) It’s Liberty and UMass, so there's a roughly 40 percent chance you didn't realize either school had a football team, and B) It was apparently televised on a network called Eleven, which I assume just repeatedly streams "This Is Spinal Tap" when it’s not providing coverage to the hordes of fans seeking to watch a game between independent FBS teams desperately seeking a conference.

Anyway, why did I bring this up? Oh, yeah. Here’s a number for you: The top two receivers in that game, Liberty’s Antonio Gandy-Golden and UMass’ Andy Isabella, had a combined 18 catches for 508 yards and four touchdowns.

By contrast, over the course of nine games this season, the entire Navy team has thrown for 647 yards and three touchdowns. Which reminds me: I’m pretty sure this 21-play Army drive against Air Force last Saturday lasted longer than the most recent "Avengers" movie and also had a far more satisfying ending.

The week in WTF

Here is one of the worst onside kicks you’ll ever see, courtesy of Nebraska kicker Caleb Lightbourn:

And here is Lightbourn falling on his backside while punting earlier this season:

At least Nebraska, after nearly shocking a listless Ohio State team last weekend, appears to be on the upswing in its first season under Scott Frost. The same cannot be said for Louisville, which has given up an average of nearly 49 points per game during a six-game losing streak that may finally sweep Bobby Petrino into the dustbin of schadenfreude where he likely belongs.

Off-topic recommendations of the week: The “They play football in Boston?” edition

Boston College is 7-2, and its campus will host "College GameDay" this weekend, which will likely result in a lot of confused guys named Sully wandering on set in search of Rob Gronkowski. But to celebrate, may I recommend two Boston-centric works of art? The first is "The Verdict," the timeless Paul Newman flick about an alcoholic lawyer who recently earned a shout-out on an episode of "Better Call Saul" (an equally brilliant show about an equally unscrupulous lawyer). The second is "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," by George V. Higgins, a hard-boiled little gem of a novel about Boston criminals who influenced all who came after them.

Your weekly dose of historical context

In 1984, after Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary to Gerard Phelan defeated Miami, applications to Boston College shot up, thereby creating what’s now known as the “Flutie effect.” And if you’re wondering why pretty much every college in America is still chasing the dream of fielding a competitive football team, this is why. It's only a matter of time, UMass!