Comebacks Rule The Day
Boy oh man oh gosh oh gee. What a mind blowing, roller coaster ride Saturday was in college football. Sure, some of the games were what they thought they were. But a couple of others, not so much. Here's the tally now that the smoke has cleared:
Lightning Round
- #1 Ohio State allowed Wisconsin to toy with them for three quarters. Then, they hit the gas, squealed the tires and left Badger roadkill in the middle of the highway. For Wisconsin, that was there last chance at credibility and probably cost them a really good bowl game. OSU has two games left: Illinois next week and then the November 17th classic with Michigan. Lloyd Carr could make all of the alums forget about Appy State if he could beat the Buckeyes and send them to the Outback Bowl instead of the Sugar Bowl. That could very well happen. although Carr has a tattoo on his ass that says "Jim Tressel owns me."
- I'm sorry, Boston College, your time is up, losing to an inconsistent FSU team at home. BC will now get kicked to the BCS curb (probably as far a fall as #10) and possibly get the ACC bid or maybe an ACC bid. My thought though is that they will go the way of USF (more on them coming up.)
LSU, in what may be the longest regulation football game ever, rallied to beat Coach Satan and Alabama 41-34. Never mind LSU had over 130 yards in penalties and four turnovers and was flat from midway thorough the first quarter until the beginning of the fourth quarter. Never mind they had dropped passes and wacky, ill advised play calling. The bottom line is Les Miles and company found a way to win a very tough divisional game in an emotionally charged and highly media attended game. For that, they are surely number two. LSU has La Tech, Ole Miss and Arkansas left, and provided the Razorbacks don't make trouble for them, should cruise into the SEC championship game against an easily beatable eastern conference opponent. In other words, they are four wins away from making the BCS championship game. Only two of those games should be tough.- Oregon did exactly what I thought they would do... expose ASU as a fraud. The Ducks have Arizona, UCLA and Oregon State standing between them and going to New Orleans if Ohio State or LSU should lose. I think the UCLA game is probably the toughest test, given how the Bruins have had some upsets this year. The best thing for Mike Berlotti is the Ducks are off until November 15th so Dennis Dixon has plenty of time to heal up.
- For Arizona State, Dennis Erickson and Rudy Carpenter, thank-you both for playing and here's some rice a roni and an "I wanted to go to a BCS game but all I got was this stupid t-shirt" t-shirt. They made beat UCLA and Arizona, but sandwiched in between them is USC and that would be a huge win for Pete Carroll and company.
- As predicted by Butkus D. Dogg, Bob Stoops sees Coach Fran off with a butt whuppin. It's too bad OU doesn't play anyone tough or they might vault ahead of Oregon and LSU. If it's one of their good days, Texas tech might provide some opposition and Oklahoma State also has been known to throw the upset. OU most likely will make it to the Big 12 championship game against the fighting Manginos.
- Kansas is apparently for real, although their undoing could come November 24th against Mizzou. If not, they'll meet Oklahoma for the Big 12 championship and may possibly get an at large bid if they don't win the conference outright. We'll see how they play out, but they are the last fraud left in the running now that BC is down for the count. And, yes, despite 76 points against a horrible Nebraska team (think Bill Callahan still has a job by Tuesday?) Kansas is still a fraud.
- On ESPN's broadcast of the South Carolina-Arkansas game, Bob Davie was saying how out of touch with modern times Steve Spurrier is. Yeah, Bob, that's why Steve's on the field and your in the booth you bonehead. Houston Nutt refuses to stop long enough to take a bullet and Arkansas wins a track meetkilling any chance USC had at the SEC east, especially since the Cocks meet Florida next week.
- Texas let's Mike Gundy think he's a man for three quarters and then goes Ohio State on the Cowboys.
- Michigan survives another scare, this one form Michigan State. What ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger and Michigan is playing pretty strong right now.
- Florida takes out their post Georgia angst against Vanderbilt. If the Gators can beat South Carolina on the road next week, they have an outside shot at getting into the SEC championship game. But they'll need help from Kentucky which has both Tennessee and Georgia on the schedule still.
- Here comes UConn.
USF is, as Lily Von Shtupp said in Blazing Saddles ,Done, finished, kaput.- Don't look now, but Virginia is playing pretty tough, especially late in games. It's too late for Al Groh's squad to make national noise this year, but surely they have a chance at New Year's day bowl game.
- Sorry, Charlie. Gee, even Jerry Faust and Bob Davie could beat Navy every year.
Lightning Round
- Kenny Williams is itchy to stat making deals. I'll have more on this one
tomorrow or Tuesday, but for now let's just say Kenny is a smart guy
and likes to yank the media's chain. And, there's a lot of teams that
won't deal with him because he's peddled damaged goods before. And, if
you are a Sox fan, would you rather have Joe Crede or Johnny Damon?
- The local minor league team begins to reshape their roster with addition by subtraction. Actually, losing Cliff Floyd may hurt them a little, but ROI on an oft injured fourth outfielder isn't that great.
- Hey! The Blackhawks are pretty good. About as good as the Bulls are bad.
- The death of Ryan Shay is a true tragedy. Listen for the cries to get rid of marathons now.
- NASCAR is thinking of getting rid of the Buschwhackers. Or, at least making it more difficult for them. With Carl Edwards winning the title this year, it's not like the Busch series is really a developmental league anymore. It's basically become a warm-up race. The toughest part is all those drivers that should be getting experience there are forced to run truck because Busch has no rides. That's just wrong.
- You are the Pittsburgh Pirates. You haven't had a winning season in years. To lead your team, you bring in your former third base coach who had been there while you were getting your butt kicked. Memo to Pirates: If you want to change the result, change the culture.



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