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while realizing that I forgot to set my clocks back an hour.
- Much ado will be made of Texas' poor showing against Okie State last night. Indeed, if Okie State had won, I think I would have called it the greatest upset in the history of the game because Okie State is terrible. But that game serves to remind us of how difficult it is to get a team to play its A game for twelve consecutive weeks. If I were a Longhorn watching film of the Cowboys this week, I doubt I would have considered the possibility of losing, and would have focused my attention on the incredibly large population of attractive coeds in Austin. Fortunately for the Horns, Vince Young remains a focused individual and lead them back with little resistance. It's a blip in the Longhorn run to the Rose Bowl, nothing more.
- Okay, can we now all agree that the SEC isn't that good? Yesterday's alleged clash of the titans between Georgia and Florida was a snoozefest that confirmed that Georgia was vastly overrated (even when Shockley is their qb) and that Urban Meyer's offense isn't taking hold at Florida. Chris Leak simply cannot/will not run the option, and if Gator fans are tickled with 100 yards of passing a game, they will be tickled with making the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl (or whatever variation exists of that Bowl these days) in Shreveport each year.
- While I'm on the SEC, can we also now agree that Tennessee is, at best, an average football team, and that it is no longer reasonable to use victories over Tennessee as some sort of monumental achievement? Yeah, I'm talking about you Alabama. It took South Carolina, a team that is woefully short of talent compared to you, a quarter or so to do what you couldn't do in an entire game in Tuscaloosa, and that's score a touchdown on Tennessee. But I suppose asking that genius of a head coach you've got to call a Spurrier like game is a bit much. Mark this down. The best two teams in the SEC this year are LSU and Auburn (if you don't believe that second choice, compare Bama's and Auburn's Ole Miss games). Bama's third, a healthy Georiga's fourth, and then the rest of them you can stir in a pot and randomly pick out for their ranking, and you'd be right.
- If you're going to apply the rankings I gave above in the SEC to your top 10 list, make sure that you don't start with LSU above Penn State or Ohio State, because the Tigers are too inconsistent at this point to be considered better than either of them. For that matter, I don't consider the Tigers better than Michigan. Now there's one battle tested football team.
- Does anyone in their right mind think that Wisconsin will beat Penn State this week in Happy Valley? If so, please refer to each team's recent game against Illinois.
- Hoo boy, why was television not all over that nail biter in Lexington last night? For those of you who missed it, the Mildcats took out the Bullpups of Mississippi State 13-7 in front of 24,000 who had wandered over from a basketball practice to watch. I'm guessing that there's an awful lot of Bullpup fans who are no longer looking at the hiring of Sylvester Crooms as the positive, pioneer moment that it was.
- I don't know how good they are compared to the rest of the teams in the country, but UCLA is certainly giving their fans their money's worth this year. Most cinderella teams have one, maybe two, games a year with a remarkable comeback win. UCLA has already erased four or five double digit fourth quarter deficits this year. How long before someone hangs some moniker on the Bruins that references cardiology?
- I guess kudos are in order for Walt Harris at Stanford. He's been able to keep his team focused and improving despite losing to a I-AA school earlier this year that made the Cardinal the laughingstock of college football. You Pitt fans may scoff at that, but it's no small achievement.
- Sean McDonnough is the best college football announcer working outside of my favorite, Ron Franklin. CBS needs to move him back into SEC games in place of Vern Lundquist, who always sounds to me as if he's getting ready to belch up five scotches he downed before air time when he talks.
- Big mistake to make about a game played this weekend: Miami's not very good because it trailed UNC for a while and couldn't cover. Miami hadn't played a real football game in three weeks, due to hurricane Wilma and a farce of a football team named Temple. Miami played the first half in a manner that reflected that they hadn't played football in a while, but came out and owned the second half, particularly on defense, against a UNC team that's not half bad. I'm curious to see whether the oddsmakers give Miam a few more points against Va. Tech because of that.
- I'm going to drop FSU out of my top ten, but not because the Terps of Maryland played them close yesterday. Ralph Friedgen always outcoaches Bowden (or Bowden's OC if you go back to Friedgen's Ga. Tech days) so a close score doesn't surprise me. What does concern me about the Noles is that their defense suddenly can't stop anyone. Many people missed that they allowed Duke 5 yards a carry rushing last week, and they weren't any better against Maryland.
- If you're looking for a Vince Young type of qb for your team, I would suggest that your recruiting coordinator contact Xavier Lee at FSU. He's not going to beat out Drew Weatherford for starting position at FSU and can only take over that job if Weatherford is injured. Lee has more skill than Weatherford and could start at almost any other school in the country right now, and my guess is that he's transferring after this season.
- Just how much would you pay to have Dennis Franchione coach your team right now? He and Fat Phil are the two leading contenders for Coaches-of-the-Year-with-the-most-talent-who-achieved-less-with-it-than-if-there-had-been-no-coach.
- I quit paying attention long ago, so can someone tell me if any of the Big Twelve North games are remotely interesting?
- Much ado will be made of Texas' poor showing against Okie State last night. Indeed, if Okie State had won, I think I would have called it the greatest upset in the history of the game because Okie State is terrible. But that game serves to remind us of how difficult it is to get a team to play its A game for twelve consecutive weeks. If I were a Longhorn watching film of the Cowboys this week, I doubt I would have considered the possibility of losing, and would have focused my attention on the incredibly large population of attractive coeds in Austin. Fortunately for the Horns, Vince Young remains a focused individual and lead them back with little resistance. It's a blip in the Longhorn run to the Rose Bowl, nothing more.
- Okay, can we now all agree that the SEC isn't that good? Yesterday's alleged clash of the titans between Georgia and Florida was a snoozefest that confirmed that Georgia was vastly overrated (even when Shockley is their qb) and that Urban Meyer's offense isn't taking hold at Florida. Chris Leak simply cannot/will not run the option, and if Gator fans are tickled with 100 yards of passing a game, they will be tickled with making the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl (or whatever variation exists of that Bowl these days) in Shreveport each year.
- While I'm on the SEC, can we also now agree that Tennessee is, at best, an average football team, and that it is no longer reasonable to use victories over Tennessee as some sort of monumental achievement? Yeah, I'm talking about you Alabama. It took South Carolina, a team that is woefully short of talent compared to you, a quarter or so to do what you couldn't do in an entire game in Tuscaloosa, and that's score a touchdown on Tennessee. But I suppose asking that genius of a head coach you've got to call a Spurrier like game is a bit much. Mark this down. The best two teams in the SEC this year are LSU and Auburn (if you don't believe that second choice, compare Bama's and Auburn's Ole Miss games). Bama's third, a healthy Georiga's fourth, and then the rest of them you can stir in a pot and randomly pick out for their ranking, and you'd be right.
- If you're going to apply the rankings I gave above in the SEC to your top 10 list, make sure that you don't start with LSU above Penn State or Ohio State, because the Tigers are too inconsistent at this point to be considered better than either of them. For that matter, I don't consider the Tigers better than Michigan. Now there's one battle tested football team.
- Does anyone in their right mind think that Wisconsin will beat Penn State this week in Happy Valley? If so, please refer to each team's recent game against Illinois.
- Hoo boy, why was television not all over that nail biter in Lexington last night? For those of you who missed it, the Mildcats took out the Bullpups of Mississippi State 13-7 in front of 24,000 who had wandered over from a basketball practice to watch. I'm guessing that there's an awful lot of Bullpup fans who are no longer looking at the hiring of Sylvester Crooms as the positive, pioneer moment that it was.
- I don't know how good they are compared to the rest of the teams in the country, but UCLA is certainly giving their fans their money's worth this year. Most cinderella teams have one, maybe two, games a year with a remarkable comeback win. UCLA has already erased four or five double digit fourth quarter deficits this year. How long before someone hangs some moniker on the Bruins that references cardiology?
- I guess kudos are in order for Walt Harris at Stanford. He's been able to keep his team focused and improving despite losing to a I-AA school earlier this year that made the Cardinal the laughingstock of college football. You Pitt fans may scoff at that, but it's no small achievement.
- Sean McDonnough is the best college football announcer working outside of my favorite, Ron Franklin. CBS needs to move him back into SEC games in place of Vern Lundquist, who always sounds to me as if he's getting ready to belch up five scotches he downed before air time when he talks.
- Big mistake to make about a game played this weekend: Miami's not very good because it trailed UNC for a while and couldn't cover. Miami hadn't played a real football game in three weeks, due to hurricane Wilma and a farce of a football team named Temple. Miami played the first half in a manner that reflected that they hadn't played football in a while, but came out and owned the second half, particularly on defense, against a UNC team that's not half bad. I'm curious to see whether the oddsmakers give Miam a few more points against Va. Tech because of that.
- I'm going to drop FSU out of my top ten, but not because the Terps of Maryland played them close yesterday. Ralph Friedgen always outcoaches Bowden (or Bowden's OC if you go back to Friedgen's Ga. Tech days) so a close score doesn't surprise me. What does concern me about the Noles is that their defense suddenly can't stop anyone. Many people missed that they allowed Duke 5 yards a carry rushing last week, and they weren't any better against Maryland.
- If you're looking for a Vince Young type of qb for your team, I would suggest that your recruiting coordinator contact Xavier Lee at FSU. He's not going to beat out Drew Weatherford for starting position at FSU and can only take over that job if Weatherford is injured. Lee has more skill than Weatherford and could start at almost any other school in the country right now, and my guess is that he's transferring after this season.
- Just how much would you pay to have Dennis Franchione coach your team right now? He and Fat Phil are the two leading contenders for Coaches-of-the-Year-with-the-most-talent-who-achieved-less-with-it-than-if-there-had-been-no-coach.
- I quit paying attention long ago, so can someone tell me if any of the Big Twelve North games are remotely interesting?
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