Surprisingly, I’m a sports fan. I’m a geek but somehow I still manage to love to watch sports. Most geeks hate sports, but I don’t know why I’ve always loved watching. I hate playing them but I like watching them, analyzing them and following the stats and all that good stuff. Needless to say, this weekend in college football was fucking amazing… just a quick rundown of my take on things.
We’ll start with the obvious…. Notre Dame vs USC. I’ll admit, I thought ND had that one in the bag but nooooooo… fucking USC just can’t seem to lose a game no matter what. They were completely outplayed from beginning to end yet still find some way to pull one out of their asses. Mind you, Reggie Bush pushing Matt Lienart into the endzone on the last play of the game isn’t exactly legal but fact is no ref is ever going to call that penalty. Alas, USC is still number 1 and Notre Dame proved that they’re finally at least most of the way back to their former glory. If anyone ever doubted that Brady Quinn is a damned good QB, just look at the way he played that game. Arguably the most important game of his career, he did everything he could possibly do to try and make sure his team came out on top but the defense let him down. Quite possibly the best college football game I’ve ever watched, to say the least. It goes without saying that USC may very well win an unprecedented 3rd consecutive national title. Texas hasn’t really been tested yet so I’m not sure they can beat USC if the BCS polls stay where they are. This USC team may very well be the greatest college football team to take the field. Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush, LenDell White, Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett will all be playing on Sundays in the very near future. Obviously there will be more (especially on the O-line). Heck, I think USC could beat any of the teams in the NFL’s NFC North and NFC west conferences. Anyway, enough about that game… it was fucking amazing, enough said. I don’t think anyone’s going to be forgetting about it anytime soon…. moving right along to the OTHER tight game that nobody saw..
Michigan vs Penn State went down to the wire just like USC-Notre Dame game but it wasn’t nationally televised like the ND-USC game was. Too bad because Penn State was undefeated and Michigan was a disappointing 3-3 coming into this game. Michgan had lost to ND, Wisconsin and Minnesota… Penn State had just beaten Ohio State to move into the top 10. On paper, this didn’t even look close. I guess someone forgot to tell the kids at Michigan that they were supposed to roll over and die. Up 21-18 with under 4:00 to go, Michigan proceeds to give up an 83 yard touchdown drive to put Penn State up 25-21 with under a minute to go. Chad Henne marches the Wolverines down the field but ends up with a 4th down on the 10 yard line with 0:01 on the clock. Somehow Penn State leaves Mario Manningham wide open in the endzone, Henne hits him in the numbers as time expires and the Wolverines win the game. Hey, if the Wolverines can’t win the Big 10 they sure as fuck can ruin some other teams’ seasons, that’s for sure. Crazy weekend in college football, no doubt…
#4 Florida State lost to unranked Virginia! No, not Virginia Tech, unranked Virginia that was 3-2 coming into the game and hadn’t looked particularly good in a 28-17 loss to Boston College the week before. I knew FSU’s offense was rather suspect and didn’t think they were really worthy of being a top 5 team and they really showed it. Alabama had a scare against Ole Miss, having to kick a last-second field goal to squeak by 13-10. Perhaps the loss of Tyrone Prothro is having more of an effect on their offense than they’re willing to admit. They play Tennessee next week, which should most certainly be an interesting game as it’s always been a huge rivalry. Despite the scare, I’m picking the ‘Tide as UT hasn’t been very impressive in any of their games so far this year. Then there’s Texas Tech. If you like run & gun offense, this is your team folks. I mean, jesus fucking christ. 59-20 over Kansas state? Cody Hodges in his first year starting throws for 643 yards and five touchdowns…. that bears repeating folks… SIX HUNDRED and FORTY-THREE yards! Amusingly, he didn’t even set any records… not a team record, not a conference record nor an NCAA record! His running back, Taurean Henderson caught 10 balls for 118 yards and didn’t even lead the team… Their #1 wide receiver, Joel Filani, caught 10 for 255 yards. These guys are just friggin nuts on offense, but they’re going to need a little more than a great offense to stop Vince Young and #2 Texas this coming weekend. I don’t think Texas Tech will remain undefeated after that game, but they’re still a shitload of fun to watch. West Virginia beat #19 Louisville in triple OT by stuffing a 2 point conversion attempt…. WV’s running back had SIX touchdowns that game… I saw some highlights and was quite impressed with that game. Louisville had them beat quite badly and somehow gave up the game. That’s two losses to unranked teams this year for Louisville. Sorry, but I can’t see how anyone would keep them in the top 25 at this point with as inconsistent as they’ve been. And just to prove that good special teams can win games for you… take a look at Wisconsin-Minnesota. Minnesota’s up by 3 with under a minute to go.. they have a 4th down in their own territory and decide to punt it away. Good choice, except the long snapper makes what might be the worst snap of the year. Punter finally picks up the ball and decides to punt it, but it’s blocked and returned for a touchdown. Wisonsin wins the game, basically stealing it from Minnesota. Hindsight is always 20/20 but the punter seriously should have just turned around and punted it through the back of the endzone for the safety. They’re then up by 1 pt with about 15 seconds to go and Wisconsin starting from their own end of the field. Instead they lose a game they had pretty much in the bag due to sloppy special teams play. Beautiful!
goddamn I love college football 
