College Football Weekend October 4th, 2008

Ok so I'm a little worn out because works has been really rough. But I just wanted to rant a little bit. For everyone who sent me e-mails, texts, calls, telegraphs, smoke signals, singing telegrams about the USC loss last week, I'd just like to say I appreciate it all. That being said, I don't care if Southern Cal lost, They aren't even really Southern Cal, they are more like Northern Southern California. I live 2 miles south of where the "University of Southern California" is, and let me tell you, it's nicer here, we have less smog (we have no smog really). And regardless of what USC wants to pretend they are, it doesn't matter because they live in or around southern California. Where the weather is nice every day, seriously. It was 80 degrees outside today and people in my office were complaining about how it was a heat wave. 80 degrees, heat wave...unreal. So the real loser here is anyone who felt sorry for USC. Because all they had to return to was their perfect weather, beautiful women, and plenty of fun things to do. I know I shed a tear for them.

In all seriousness though what a great weekend of college football last weekend! I mean there were upsets and surprises and fun. I love upsets, I love them. I can't get enough of them, If every team in the top 25 lost in a weekend I would stop watching football and start watching bass fishing because there is nothing more for me to enjoy in the sport at that point. I mean seriously it would be the happiest day of my life, well second happiest, I figure the first happiest will be having kids...or getting a ATV, those things are pretty cool. So many upsets and in all honesty I don't think they are going to stop. It could be exactly like last year where there are no perfect teams and there will be a ton of controversy over who gets to play in what bowl game. It could be really cool, like that time the coin collector left the Ninja Turtles game unlocked so we got a bunch of free games until the arcade manager found us and then we had to leave. But looking at it now, there's a distinct possibility that you get a bunch of teams that have 1 or 2 losses, or even better, you get a bunch of teams from non-BCS conferences that go undefeated. Right now you could get BYU or Utah and then Boise State, Tulsa, and Ball State undefeated. If 2 of those teams go undefeated what happens? What about 3 of them? 4? I'll tell you what happens, I start dancing like Fred Astaire (a fatter less elegant Fred Astaire). So let's see the upsets of these top 10 teams keep coming, let's see this non-BCS guys go unbeaten, I'll be happy as a clam, and you should be too. And if that doesn't make you happy, then you are pro-kicking puppies. You monster.

Comments:
"So I couldn't resist answering a trivia question. A Sooner, I believe, refers to the original settlers of the Oklahoma territory, and because the land was open first come first serve, there was something to do with when the land was opened up, people were already settling, got there 'sooner' something to that respect, like they settled before the date they were supposed to. Now my confidence in answering that correctly has devolved into a rambling 40% true statement.Hope life in sunny San Diego is as continuously beautiful as you describe it to be, and unfortunately, you won't go undefeated this week, the HOOOS will crush Duke leaving the Devils quite blue, and by crush, I mean win in a hard fought 10-7 grindfest.
Take it easy." - Ethan
That's a very very close guess, and I'm going to have a hard time deciding who gets the $5 because both you and my friend Peter contacted me very early about this. Neither of you was exactly right. But you can still split the $5. I actually looked it up, a "Sooner" derives it's name from the "sooner clause" of the Indian Appropriation Act, which stated that no one should be allowed to enter and occupy the land prior to the opening time and that such people would be denied rights to illegally claimed land. So congratulations, you are almost right. In regards to your second comment, San Diego is an awful place full of bad weather and you should never come here. Lastly, the one thing I know I was right about last week was that Duke punished the Cavaliers.

"Will not be the first, last, or the funniest person saying this: sorry about USC Oregon State dude :(" - Rob
Don't be sorry, great game. Also as funny as it may seem, one prominent sports writer actually picked Oregon State to win that game way back in like July. Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated actually said he thought that they would beat USC and Penn State and that they would be the surprise team of the year. Lots of people laughed at him because Oregon State got beaten by Stanford to start the year and then dominated by Penn State. But who's laughing now? That's right, me, I just heard a funny joke about a crab playing soccer, how absurd.

"1) I don't know what is more difficult to believe: that someone would actually subject their son to the naming of Jacquizz, or that said person could rush on USC for 186 yards and 2 touches. The Trojan defense couldn't have tackled the icebox (yes a Little Giants reference).
2) "Knowshon for Heisman" is looking more and more like the most ridiculous statement ever with each passing week. Now with an elbow injury? A deeply injured Georgia team should still beat Tennessee next week.....right?
3) Andy texted me saying "Ole Miss beat Florida", and I had to read it 5 or 6 times until it made sense. A bloced PAT to (basically) lose the game? I know Ole Miss has a history of handing a loss to the Gators, but beating them when they're #4 in the country is impressive. Does this mean that the SEC is deeper than the the Gulf of Mexico, or is this a fluke?
4) Has the ACC solidified their "worst conference in college football" stigma for this year yet? It's not looking too good for their 2 top-25 teams, #20 VA Tech and #25 Wake Forest. Thoughts?" - Cali
My first thought is that you should come visit me in San Diego, thanks. But I'll take these questions one by one.
1) Weird name but I'll be honest, I've never seen something like what he was doing to USC defenders. I wasn't even watching the game till someone called me and asked if I was. Why would I, it's going to be a terrible game? "Because USC is losing by 2 touchdowns that's why." I've never seen a running back slip through defenders, because that's essentially what he was doing. The was getting hit in the backfield, at the line of scrimmage, and was just slipping through peoples arms for 5 or more yards. USC had the perfect defense called, Jacquizz just kept slipping by them. On the one touchdown he scored in the second half he actually went under the defenders arms, Tom and Jerry style.

2) I don't know, I think Tennessee is pretty bad, but they've lost 2 close games this season in conference. Georgia on the other hand will have a huge chip on their shoulder from the Alabama beatdown and they have a week to rest while Tennessee plays this weekend. As for the Heisman my top 5 has looked like this for the past 2 weeks:
1. Chase Daniel, Missouri2. Sam Bradford, Oklahoma3. Max Hall, BYU4. Donald Brown, UConn5. Colt McCoy, Texas

3) That game wasn't on ANYWHERE that I could easily get to because I was at the bar doing laundry. But in Ole Miss's defense they've been competitive in the SEC for the last couple years and their new coach Houston Nutt really knows the SEC. I also think the Gators were a little overrated and that the score of their game against Tennessee wasn't indicative of how close that game was. Also the rankings are pretty much a crapshoot until week 6-8 where the cream rises to the top.

4) They are awful, they don't deserve a BCS bid.but they may be better than the Pac-10, but not as good as the MWC. Scary huh? Well not as scary as this old lady that lives next door, I think she's trying to eat our cat and I can't tell if that's a wig or a cat on her head.

Games:
Kentucky at #2 Alabama - Last year if you got the number 2 ranking in the country it basically was like getting the Black Spot from Treasure Island (if you've never read it go read a book you punk, or watch the Muppet's version). It meant you were going down soon because some pirate was about to straight up stab you or something, I don't know I kinda skimmed that book. I can't help wonder if we might see that start to happen here. We have the Alabama Crimson Tide, who just rolled up the most dominating win of the season against the number two team in the country at the time, they had a huge emotional burst from that game, and everyone thinks they are the greatest thing since unsliced bread (which was pretty good at the time)...See a pattern here? The Kentucky Wildcats are undefeated, they have the best statistical defense in the country, they have never won at Alabama. Sure Alabama will probably cruise and just be happy knowing they are so good, heck they probably won't ever lose again and RB Glen Coffee will continue to put up eye opening numbers. The certainly won't lose to an undefeated Kentucky team who feels like they aren't getting their due even though they knocked off LSU last year and in four games they've only let up 22 points. Gosh, seems like a lock for Alabama (not).

Florida State at Miami (FL) - Remember when this game used to be the biggest in the country? Seminoles versus Hurricanes, wide right field goals, defense and drama and national title hopes oh my? Well it's not anymore. Booya.

#13 Auburn at #19 Vanderbilt - I honestly don't understand why the Vanderbuilt Commodores are ranked and Kentucky is not. I also don't understand why they are called the Commodores even thought they are 500 miles from a body of water that can hold a naval vessel, if you can explain this to me without looking it up you've got five dollars or a milkshake coming your way. Vandy is ranked for the first time in like 4000 years or something and it's apparently because of the spread offense they run and RB Jared Hawkins, although their offensive numbers aren't terribly spectacular. They will run the ball as much as they can, which could be a problem because the Auburn Tigers have a stifling defensive line. These teams are very similar, hard playing bruising defenses, spread attacks that feature a running game more then passing, and they also have the letters A, R, and N in their name, I know I was staggered by that revelation as well. Auburn was a play or 2 from winning against LSU, and they have a better defense, offense, and special teams, but the game is at Vandy. Vandy hasn't been ranked in forever and a day, I just have a feeling that they could pull it off especially since Auburn just got done playing two brutal games.

#24 Connecticut at North Carolina - The Huskies of UConn are maybe the luckiest team in the land. I've watched their last two games and I don't think they really deserved to win either, they certainly tried really hard to lose but unlike the Philadelphia Eagles they were unsuccessful. UConn has the nations leading running back in Donald Brown but like all their games I would expect this one to go something like this. UConn gets down by a couple touchdowns, has a second half comeback, and then you flip a coin to see whether the Tar Heels of NC have what it takes. I saw QB Cameron Sexton come in and play against Miami last week after the starter for UNC got hurt. He has the arm of a pro quarterback, no joke he can really wing it. Toss up game, but I'll pick the home team so that I can field a bunch of e-mails about why the Big East stinks and so does the ACC. We're going to call this the academic game of the week since I don't want to write about Villanova/William and Mary or Cornell/Lehigh.

#23 Oregon at #9 USC - Can two Oregon teams beat the Trojans on consecutive weeks? Short answer no, USC hasn't lost back to back games against Pac-10 opponents since 2001 I believe. They actually haven't lost back to back games period since 2001. Sure the Oregon Ducks will come in with one of their 500 different uniform combinations provided by Nike, and they will run the spread offense very nicely. But if they don't cover their running backs in butter like Oregon State did, they aren't going anywhere. The USC defense is going to be angry, they are going to be mean, and I predict a very one sided home win for the Trojans. Also I predict rain, no seriously it's supposed to rain this weekend, what's up with that?

#14 Ohio State at #18 Wisconsin - One of these teams is a pretender and one of them is a contender. The Wisconsin Badgers got beat by Michigan last weekend in a surprise loss, their offense just isn't balanced enough to take on a good defense, they mainly rely on RB P.J. Hill to do the majority of the work, The Buckeyes have had a couple weeks to groom freshman QB Terrelle Pryor and will be getting back RB Beanie Wells. I've seen enough of Ohio State's offense to believe that they don't really have the tools to play against a good Wisconsin defense. What I'm getting at here is that this game will probably have about as much offensive fire power as a fluffy rabbit with two squirtguns taped to it's side. It very well could be a tough game that comes down to whether Pryor, who was an all world phenom out of highschool, makes mistakes or not. If not, they win, if so, they lose, either way I doubt it will be pretty. Dr. Coin projects Ohio State winning. Have a great weekend, sorry this is so long. So long.