I’ve been guilty of this, but man, we collectively got swept up in the fact that at one point we were headed towards a 2007 buzzsaw season. Boy, were we wrong.
Eight weeks down and things are shaping up just as they always have: Bama, Ohio State and Oklahoma are all in the Top 4 driver’s seats with a handful of teams close behind. Chalk, baby.
Mel Tucker to the moon
Nobody had a better Saturday afternoon than Mel Tucker and the still undefeated Michigan State Spartans. Tucker’s team of junkyard dogs took their body blow approach and rallied to beat Harbaugh and in-state rivals Michigan 37-33. Kenneth Walker III continued to improve his Heisman odds after a 5 TD day against a good Michigan defense.
Sounds weird to say, but I still didn’t take much from this game. I hate the ESPN approach to CFB where the only thing that matters is the CFP, but in a sense, I’m doing that here.
Both Michigan and Michigan State are good to really good, but probably not national title worthy. But you know what? That’s totally fine. Sparty is fun as hell to root for. Mel Tucker seems like a helluva players’ coach. I’m curious to see if MSU can hold onto him after this year.
The Pyromaniac Pitt Panthers
Watching Pitt football is like watching two eight-year-old boys play with fireworks unsupervised. There’s an inherent element of risk and danger and something bad will eventually happen if they do it enough times.
Well, guess what, yesterday Pat Narduzzi and Johnny from down the street shot off one-two many bottle rockets, lit the Johnson’s trash can on fire and then the trash can tipped over and set the house ablaze.
Heisman frontrunner Kenny Pickett threw for 519 yards and 3 TDs to no avail in their 38-34 loss to up and down Miami. The game ended when Miami coughed the ball up on the sideline, where the ball seemingly spun around, got real close to being recovered, only to go out of bounds for good. So close, yet so far, Pittsburgh.
Scott Frost Farewell
Nebraska AD Trev Alberts was not in attendance for Nebraska’s inexplicable 28-23 loss to Purdue, where fans were seen booing, cussing up a storm and leaving in droves before the game was over. No, fortunately, his son chose to have a fall wedding in Iowa yesterday. I can’t tell which is worse: a fall wedding in Iowa or that Husker loss.
At any rate, yesterday’s game was a must-win coming off a bye week with Husker bowl hopes hanging in the balance, and they seemingly played their worse or second worse game of the year. Purdue dominated the second half, and finished the game with 38:38 in TOP and picked off Adrian Martinez four times, not counting the dropped pick-six early in the first quarter.
Early in the season, Martinez was not the problem. In the last few games, he’s regressed to the mean. From his mind-boggling decision-making to his just lack of basic QB awareness, he stunk big time yesterday. This was the biggest game of his career and he was dreadful. Frost’s postgame presser was probably the saddest yet. The Athletic’s Mitch Sherman had a great recap.
If you listen closely, you can almost hear those wedding bells from yesterday. Or maybe that’s the solemn song of Frost’s final hour.
Mike Leach got his signature win
A few years ago, pundits questioned whether the Air Raid could work in the hellscape of the SEC. Success has been up and down, but Saturday night, Leach and Will Rogers notched a monster win in the most Leach, Air Raid-y way possible: 92% completion percentage for 344 yards — an SEC record.
Give Leach and Will Rogers their flowers. No. 12 Kentucky is a good team and they beat them handily 31-17. This type of game only makes that Memphis loss that much more confusing. MSU is now 5-3 and should make a bowl game.
I’m going to say it now: That Egg Bowl game will be fun as hell.
Buckeyes are back
Ohio State beat Penn State 33-24 last night and looks primed for a big run the rest of the way. C.J. Stroud isn’t perfect but he seems good enough to make the Buckeyes a real threat down the stretch. Penn State looked healthy and way better than they did last week against Illinois.
I seriously think Penn State might’ve just not prepared at all for Illinois. Very weird game.
With games against Michigan State and Michigan still remaining, we’re going to see Ohio State at their best.
Quick hitters
Time to Old Yeller Brian Ferentz
If Kirk Ferentz had half a brain, he would be looking at his son like the little boy looks at Old Yeller at the end of the film. Metaphorically take him behind the shed and take him out of his misery.
Iowa’s offense has sucked all season and it can to a head yesterday in a 27-7 loss to Wisconsin. Your guess is as good as mine with what these teams do the rest of the way. Both are gross and maddening to watch at times.
Horns down
Texas blew another fourth-quarter lead Saturday and fell 31-24 to one-loss Baylor. Baylor is pretty good and I’m looking forward to that matchup against OU.
8 games into the Sarkisian tenure and he has (credit: Robert Behrens)
- Lost by a bigger margin (19) than Tom Herman ever did.
-Blown a bigger lead (21) than Tom Herman ever did.
-Lost more games in a row (3) than Tom Herman ever did.
Big game Dana Holgerson
Houston returned a kickoff back for a TD with less than a minute left to beat previously unranked SMU 44-37. This game was fun as hell. Don’t look now but Houston is good. It’s taken a while for the Red Bull to kick in, but Houston is peaking at the right time.
UGA Defense = God mode
Groundbreaking analysis: UGA’s defense is unbelievable. That’s the tweet.
I’m done doubting Georgia. Their actual starting QB hasn’t played for some weeks and I’m not sure about their offense, but fuck it. Georgia’s defense is probably good enough to overcome it.
Cincy won’t make the CFP
Cincinnati needed to demolish everyone on their schedule and in consecutive weeks, they’ve dicked around with Navy and Tulane. Sorry, but the committee is going to use this to keep Cincy out of the CFP.
Herm with a headscratcher
Arizona State got beat up by a Wazzu team with a makeshift coaching staff and no real head coach. Man, I’m sick of the Pac-12. This conference is so damn stupid.