Desperately seeking a wake-up call: Bret Bielema, Illinois
Desperately seeking a P.R. man: Sean Lewis, San Diego State
Desperately seeking sunglasses and a fake beard: Brent Key, Georgia Tech
Desperately seeking … anything: Jeff Brohm, Louisville
TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Auburn (defeated Mercer 62-17)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Illinois (lost to Wisconsin 27-10) Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Syracuse (lost to No. 9 Notre Dame 70-7)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Stanford (defeated Cal 31-10)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Texas (defeated Arkansas 52-37)
Dang, they’re good: Notre Dame Dang, they’re bad: Sam Houston
Can’t Stand Prosperity: Georgia Tech
Did the season start? Louisville Can the season end? Florida State
Can the season never end? Oregon
GAMES Play this again: No. 11 Oklahoma 23, No. 4 Alabama 21
Play this again, too: No. 12 Utah 51, Kansas State 47
Never play this again: No. 9 Notre Dame 70, Syracuse 7
What? Penn State 37, Nebraska 10
Huh? Stanford 31, Cal 10
Double-Huh? TCU 17, No. 23 Houston 14
Are you kidding me??Wisconsin 27, No. 21 Illinois 10
Great game no one is talking about: Arizona @ No. 25 Arizona State
Also: Cincinnati @ TCU
Intriguing coaching matchup: Mario Cristobal of Miami vs Pat Narduzzi of Pittsburgh
I.C.M., B1G Edition: P.J. Fleck of Minnesota vs Luke Fickell of Wisconsin
I.C.M., SEC Edition: Clark Lea of Vanderbilt vs Josh Heupel of Tennessee
Who’s bringing the body bags? No. 2 Indiana @ Purdue
Why are they playing? Charlotte @ No. 24 Tulane
Plenty of good seats remaining: Bowling Green @ UMass
Plenty of good seats remaining, ACC Edition: Boston College @ Syracuse
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? UTEP @ Delaware
Week 13 [Random] Thoughts:
In an offensive explosion to end all offensive explosions, Utah triumphed over Kansas State 51-47: there’s the Big XII we all know and love, where defenses treat their job as if it’s a pillow fight!
The potential outcomes for the ACC champion right now are so convoluted, one would need one of those diagram boards detectives use to figure out “whodonit”. But Pittsburgh just beat hitherto contender Georgia Tech in convincing fashion, and are now about to face tough-but-inconsistent Miami (Fla.) this week. If Pat Narduzzi’s squad can pull an upset win, ought there not to be a path for the Panthers to walk away with the conference crown?
Am I the only person out there who thinks that Georgia should be ranked No. 2 in the playoffs instead of No. 4? They can demolish almost any team not named Alabama, or, possibly, Ohio State.
Rivalry Week is now upon us, where any number of crazy things can happen. Case in point: the theme music from The Twilight Zone is required to play in the background when discussing the fact that Vanderbilt is favored over Tennessee, rankings-wise…yet Tennessee still has a good team this year. There’s a twist, no?
This week is special for a number of reasons, one of which this time around is that there are so many intriguing coaching matchups. One that should perhaps also be mentioned in the list above is Dan Lanning of Oregon vs Jedd Fisch of Washington. While we’re at it, how about Eliah Drinkwitz of Missouri vs Bobby Petrino of Arkansas, or Jeff Brohm of Louisville vs Mark Stoops of Kentucky, or Dabo Swinney of Clemson vs Shane Beamer of South Carolina? I would be somewhat tempted to include Barry Odom of Purdue vs Curt Cignetti of Indiana, but the former will be so outgunned that the game will surely end in tragedy for the host team. Nevertheless, the list goes on, but the reader understands one more fascinating aspect of why this week could yield so many great games.
TEAMS Thought you’d kick butt, you did: Florida State (defeated Wake Forest 42-7)
Thought you’d kick butt, you didn’t: Notre Dame (defeated Boston College 25-10) Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you did: Colorado (lost to Arizona 52-17)
Thought you’d get your butt kicked, you didn’t: Purdue (lost to Michigan 21-16)
Thought you wouldn’t kick butt, you did: Fresno State (defeated Boise State 30-7)
Great game no one is talking about: Tulane @ No. 22 Memphis
Intriguing coaching matchup: Dan Lanning of Oregon vs Kirk Ferentz of Iowa
Who’s bringing the body bags, B1G edition? No. 1 Ohio State @ Purdue
Who’s bringing the body bags, ACC edition? SMU @ Boston College
Why are they playing? The Citadel @ No. 7 Ole Miss
Plenty of good seats remaining: Sam Houston @ Oregon State
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? FIU @ Middle Tennessee
Week 10 [Random] Thoughts:
Texas played some of its best football all season – for three-and-a-half quarters, at least. A long bomb to the end zone threatened to break favored Vanderbilt’s collective back, only to find out that the receiver dropped the ball upon further review. That gave the Commodores enough time to regroup in an effort to overcome a three-TD deficit. The Longhorns’ collapse of their defense late in the 4th quarter almost enabled that. Sloppy play on both sides of the ball that pushed Vandy’s on-side kick out of bounds finally sealed the deal for Texas. But the final minutes of play left the 100,000+ faithful in DKR Memorial Stadium breathing a sigh of relief instead of belting out a massive cheer in celebration of this counterintuitive upset.
To zoom out the lens, Texas pulled off an improbably comeback on the road last week. This week, they almost allowed for an improbably comeback at home. Looks like Sark needs to teach his team how to play the whole 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, can Josh Heupel & Co. find a higher gear? As good as this Tennessee teams have been these past few years, he cannot seem to be able to pick up a signature win against the heavyweights within his own conference, or even others (witness the drubbing the Volunteers took in Ohio Stadium during last year’s playoffs).
Oklahoma, conversely, picked up a quality win, which, ironically, gives hated rival Texas’ decisive win over the Sooners all the more quality.
Where has this Florida team been all year? Notwithstanding their win over the Longhorns in the Swamp, the Gators have underperformed the rest of the year…until now, when they threatened to upset No. 5 Georgia at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville (yes, I’m still calling that), and it turned out to be the greatest game of the week.
intellectualgridiron 