Last Saturday was why we love the game.
It was a Beano Cook day.
Upsets. Smackdowns. Plays that were magnifico. Upsets. Plays that were bungled. Blown calls. Blown assignments. Upsets. Coaches glaring, coaches cheering.
NIL didn’t matter.
Who’s going to make the playdowns didn’t matter.
It was the games that mattered.
What a day. Maybe the best ever.
Lots of upsets.
As for predictions last week, not bad.
My pick the Fighting Irish got hosed in Provo. But, ya know what, it’s not called South Bend Syndrome for nothing. What goes around comes around, it is said. Alright, yes, I just made up the term South Bend Syndrome.
And Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain, fell back to their Veneblesier norm. (More about their conquerers below.)
Other than that, four bullseyes. Beavers, the other Cougars, Buckeyes and Cardinals.
Four up. Two down. 33-21 for this increasingly wackorama season.
CoachSpeak of the Week: After his kicker told the coach he made him nervous watching him practice kicks, Alabama’s Gene Stallings advised, “Well, son, I plan on being at all the games.”
This Week’s Winners:
Texas Tech @ Cincinnati. They are not the Best Team Money Can Buy, the Cody Campbells. But they are undefeated, with dubs over Houston and surprising Oregon State. Coach Satt’s Bearcats started strong, but have dropped two in a row. Both on the road. Their third in a row is in Nippert. Red Raiders.
Iowa @ Minnesota. This one’s for the Floyd of Rosedale. A hundred pound pig trophy. The origin of which has something to do with a conflagration in the mid 30s. One state’s governor threatened to beat up the other. Who tried to calm things down by offering a real living porcine being to his threatener if his team lost. Said Floyd of Rosedale. Or something like that. So sure some diehard midwestern fanatic will correct me, while advising that I do fuller research. Maybe Floyd the Barber can make sense of it. To say, this is olden days football rivalry par excellence. The visiting 6-1 (2-1) Hawkeyes are pretty good. The Gophers aren’t bad, though not so Golden last week, when getting throttled at Purdue. PJ Fleck loves the smear of blood after the final whistle. Upset alert. He gets it.
Southern California @ Wisconsin. One-two one-two-three uh!/ Hot Pants– hey hot pants uh! Smoking/ Hot pants – smoking that-hot pants/ That’s where its at a-that’s where its at. In non-James Brownian vernacular, the visiting coach in this one’s pants are hot from his hot seat. Despite a 6-1 record, Lincoln Riley’s getting the stink eye from many Trojan faithful. Same was true of Badgers coach Luke Fickell, except to a polka beat. But they’re calmer and somewhat more reasonable in Cheesylvania. And they’re playing better, the residents of Camp Randall. They keep it up. Wisconsin.
Vanderbilt @ Kentucky. I have vowed for the time being to disavow the use of Sissy Cake references for the time being. Will Stein’s debut campaign has been too formidable for that. Such that he’s having steaks named after him at a Lexington food emporium. They ought to call it a Steinway. Or, Stein Tartare for the hard core eat it raw crowd. The Wildcats have been eerily composed since Bama. The ‘Dores dearly miss departed QB Diego. UK.
Indiana @ Michigan. Don’t blink til you see a cleat in the white of out of bounds. The Hoosiers blinked. It was bound to happen. They really didn’t deserve to beat Ohio State, but almost did. Now comes perhaps a bigger test. Rebounding a week later in the Big House. Against a Wolverine squad arguably energized by a QB change. I had a hunch to pick another upset. Not gonna. IU.
Louisville vs. Bye. Working on things. Trying to get better. Which is BrohmSpeak for “working on things, “trying to get better.”
— c d kaplan