I may have discovered the next Beano Cook....and a I don't like it.

Week 4 September 23rd

“Herschel Walker is Gay” this is the t-shirt I saw a coed wearing on Thursday night in the upper level of Bobby Dodd Stadium during the Georgia Tech – Virginia game. I have been to two Tech games and have seen students wearing “Rudy Swallows” and "Herschel Walker is Gay”. What’s next? “Bobby Bowden takes it in the Ass” (I have actually known this for years.)

Well we all knew week 4 was going to be a big let down after week 3 gave us 7 games involving match-ups of top 25 teams. Yes it lacked the marquee match-ups but it did not lack a few near upsets and some wacky finishes.

Let’s take a look: First a note from the SEC….outside of a few conference games they might as well scheduled Helen Keller school for the blind. Let’s look their out of conference schedule this week:

Buffalo (1-3) Colorado (0-4) Tulane (1-2) Marshall (1-3) UAB (1-3) Tennessee State (2-2, even Vanderbilt is in on the act.....PS: they have Temple next week) Florida Atlantic (0-4) Good God, men. 6-21. That’s embarrassing.

- Continuing with the SEC #9 Georgia needed a last minute TD to come from 13 points down to beat Colorado who happens to be winless and lost their opener to Montana St. So you may ask is Montana St. any good? Since the Colorado win they have lost to Chadron St. 35-24, UC Davis 45-0 (yes 45-0) and Eastern Washington 19-10. Ouch….Clearly Georgia has some work to do before the Vols come calling on October 7th.

- Two overtime games ended because of missed extra points. (Navy blocked and Bama shanked)

- Speaking of an untested team….Virginia Tech trailed Cincinnati by a point when the 4th quarter began

- Ohio St. only led Penn State 7-3 in the 4th quarter before pulling away

- Boston College, who had won consecutive double OT games, ran out of luck in Raleigh as the Wolfpack completed a hail mary with 8.5 seconds left in the game. BC might not have lost if they had any faith in their kicker. He missed an extra point and BC passed up a 45 yard field goal and failed on 4th down to set-up NC State’s miracle finish.

- Michigan St. imploded once again, losing leads of 31- 14 at the half and 37 – 21 at the start of the 4th quarter in their 40 – 37 loss to Notre Dame. Is there a worse head coach of a major program in college football? Kirk Herbstreit was right on as repeated over and over this game is not over. This is the same coach who blamed his own special teams coach on National TV last year after a bungled field goal attempt that led to an Ohio State touchdown.

- Several games including Texas, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Wake were delayed or interrupted by storms in Texas and the rest of the South. Whitey hopefully you got Smokey deflated before the lightning came.

As I mentioned last week I would be spending much of week 4 in the Turner College Football Studio logging highlights from games around the country.

I showed up at 3pm and looked to see what games I was assigned to watch. I come to find out I would be watching Rice at FSU, Iowa St. at Texas and West Virginia at ECU. Now if that doesn’t get you excited I don’t what would….actually I do. It would be seeing the promo for next week: Tune in next Saturday for the ACC game of the week: Duke vs. Virginia. Now that is some exciting stuff, I might sign-up to log again next week so I can catch this can’t miss rivalry.

Back to the studio:

Game 1 Rice at FSU – First of all I hate FSU and Bobby Bowden (see earlier comments) second of all they are playing Rice, which I know is in Texas and covered against UCLA 2 weeks ago. Someone in the LYA TWO took them so this game might be worth watching. Honestly I watched about 7 minutes and then just scanned back to see who scored for FSU in case a highlight was needed for some unknown reason.

After the game Bobby wasn’t impressed with his team’s offensive performance….."It's not like it was Notre Dame out there," the Seminoles coach said. Bobby it may be late when you get home at night after games but if you haven’t noticed ND has given up 37, 47, and 34 points in 3 of their last 5 games. You may want to reference someone else.

Iowa St. at Texas

Texas was minus 14 in the first half and we all know Texas is a great first half bet. After Texas immediately went ahead 16-0 ISU cut the lead to 16-14 and the first half bet was in big trouble. Whoops 2 more Td’s before the half and Texas covers the 14 with 2 points to spare. Is there any team that can score faster against mediocre to poor talent?

WVU at ECU

This game f*cked me last year and I never forget when a team f*cks me. So what do I do…I again pick against ECU and take WVU -14 in the first half. With less than 3 minutes in the half it is looking like a push. WVU is up 7 and inside the Pirates 10 yard line. Second and 2 with the best rushing team in the country, so what do they do……play action pass into the end zone….picked off! That’s why Pat White should never pass. Run, run and run….maybe you throw a screen to shake things up. WVU won by 17 but I will say this East Carolina is not a bad team, they hung in there until the bitter end.

One last comment from the Saturday games: First let me say that I love Lou Holtz, he brought ND back from the dead and gave me 8 solid years of entertainment, (not counting South Carolina) that is why what he is becoming is so bothersome. Is it me or is he slowly turning into the next Beano Cook? Instead of having a neck injected with turkey fat he has a horrible lisp…..sometimes he is really funny, most of the time he plays favorites and picks with his heart not his head. Either way he is becoming a cartoon character like Beano and a part of me is sad about it. I mean it’s not like college football fans need another reason to hate Notre Dame. In all seriousness I hate that Beano is only given cameo appearances on TV these days. There is nothing better than the live video feed from Pittsburgh as ESPN tries to get Beano’s enormous head and neck on the screen.

Next week’s games:

BYU at TCU on Thursday. TCU has the nation’s longest winning streak it won’t end here.

GA Tech at Virginia Tech – What kind of a schedule forces the Jackets to Blacksburg two years in a row? Ga Tech plays better but I just don’t have faith in Reggie Ball.

Ohio State at Iowa – The Hawkeyes have been waiting for this primetime game since last year’s beat down in Columbus. We will know if Iowa has a chance 5 minutes into this one.

USC at Washington St. – Another dangerous road test for the Trojans…..not!

Purdue at Notre Dame – Purdue is 4-0 and a 14 point dog, this could be a shoot-out.

Rutgers at South Florida – Rutgers tries to go 5-0 as they are in the top 25 for the first time since 1976.

Houston at Miami – Don’t laugh Houston is 4-0.

Oregon at ASU – ASU tries to rebound against the unbeaten Ducks.

Alabama at Florida – Is revenge on the Gators mind? Fans in Gainesville actually booed Chris Leak when he came back in the Kentucky game after a Tim Tebow series.

Texas Tech at Texas A&M – A&M is 4-0 and no one knows what that means? Maybe this game will help.

Michigan at Minnesota – Strange things happen in the dome.

Boise St. at Utah – Another classic that very few people will actually see.

Lastly my second favorite team in the country: Nevada at UNLV. Nevada saved me from a bagel last week by picking a pass off and returning it for a TD to cover the spread against Northwestern in the last 2 minutes. They have provided me with some of the most memorable gambling moments in my life. Go Wolfpack!

Week 3

I have a simple rule that I try to live by and remember when I get angry……people are generally stupid. After last weekend I found an addendum to that phrase. People who call radio talk shows after football games are extremely stupid. While this is absolutely the truth they can also be quite entertaining during a long miserable car ride home while you are hung over and tired. Let’s recap some of the callers from last Saturday night and Sunday morning on the way home from Florida vs. Tennessee in Knoxville.

Before I talk about the callers I want to make it very clear that I may write blogs that 7 people read, but I will never, I mean never call into a post-game radio show after a football game. First of all I love the fans insight into the game: They suggest plays that should have been run (“This is Billy Jo from Cleveland” (that’s Cleveland, TN in case you were wondering) On that 3rd down play in the 4th quarter I think a reverse might could have worked..... the Florida D was so fast and athletic they would have never seen it comin…..don’t you think?) Clearly because you own a cell phone, read about the team on the internet and own something Orange you are now qualified to be an offensive coordinator…..are you kidding me?? Unfortunately the hosts aren’t much better, they only state the obvious, (“One thing was clear tonight, we really need to run the ball better if we want to win games in the SEC!” (Wait you don’t think negative rushing yards is a good thing?? Ok now I understand) The hosts let some callers just go on and on when they have absolutely nothing intelligent to say. One guy calls in and explains that hasn't missed a home game in 20 years and drives in all the way from West Palm Beach (he has issues, i'm sure he was there for the Spring game too) after 4 minutes of his life story and why he is entitled to criticize the team he actually says….." I have 5 more points” and unbelievably they let him talk about all 5! This guy might as well have had his own show. How about a host that actually has some balls and cuts him off. Do you think Jim Rome would have listened to that bs? The hosts of the Sunday morning show, “Tennessee Football Call-In Show” are Jimmy Hyams (sports columnist for Knoxville News) and Brent Hubbs. These bafoons are seriously lacking in knowledge considering this is their actual job and they get paid. They failed to remember the name of #40 for the Vols, who happened to have 15 tackles against Florida and the pick six that was called back. (No it was not Larry Munson, this guy was under the age of 80 and appeared to be sober.) Whitey, who had been amazingly calm following the one point loss to Florida became extremely agitated and nearly drove off the road screaming with his dip in his mouth “HIS F-ING NAME IS MARVIN MITCHELL AND HE IS YOUR BEST F-ING DEFENSIVE PLAYER….LEARN HIS F-ING NAME!” That alone made listening worth while.

That wasn’t all we heard. The host Hubbs on the morning show and talks about how proud he was of UT because they played a close game vs. a vastly superior Florida team. What I wonder is did he watch the same game I did Saturday night?

#1 Steve Spurrier did not coach and Danny Wuerffel did not play.

#2 Jevon Kearse who seemed to be in UT’s huddle on every play for 4 years was not in uniform for Florida.

#3 UT led 17-7 in the 3rd quarter, had a touchdown called back because of a late hit and led the game until 6:30 remained.

#4 Until the grounding penalty on Ainge in UT’s final drive I was convinced Tennessee was going to take the lead one more time and probably win the game barring a last minute collapse.

#5 Florida had 9 penalties, 2 missed field goals and threw an interception. Can you say sloppy?

My point is this is not a great Florida team, good ok, great I don’t think so. Chris Leak is in his 9th year and still doesn’t really impress me much. The difference last night was one team could run the ball and the other couldn’t. Florida had the ball for 10 more minutes and held Tennessee to an average of .9 yards a rush….and the lost by one whole point. There are no moral victories, if the Vols average even 3 yards a carry they probably win the game.

One last thing about the Vols Gators game…..the atmosphere was unbelievable. I hadn’t been to an SEC game at Neyland in a few years and I had forgotten how loud it can get. When they play Rocky Top as the players are about to come out of the tunnel there is no better place to be in college football…..none.

Ok Saturday was billed as separation Saturday. Let’s look at last week’s blog:

I picked the following: (go back and look if you need to)

Florida over Tennessee
Auburn barely over LSU
USC over Nebraska
Clemson over FSU
Louisville over Miami
Oregon over Oklahoma (Granted this was a joke. Oklahoma is actually threatening to pull out of future Pac Ten games if the league doesn’t change its’ rule requiring their own league officials be used at all home games)

Needless to say I had a pretty good week. (15-5 in the new LYA after 2 weeks) You will notice the one game I refused to pick was Notre Dame vs. Michigan. Truth be told I thought ND would sneak by Michigan in a very close relatively low scoring game such as 20-17 or something like that. I am not a Lloyd Carr fan as a coach or as a person and I thought in a close game having Brady Quinn and Charlie Weiss would make the difference. Well clearly I was dead wrong on this one. Michigan got confidence early with a pick for 6 and then hit a 69 yard touchdown pass that looked eerily similar to a play in last year’s Fiesta Bowl. That was followed by a fumbled kick-off return and the game was over. So let’s recap ND’s season….opening win on the road and they drop in the polls because it wasn’t pretty enough, big win over inexperienced PSU team that made several sloppy plays early in the game, ND rises to #2 and talk of a rematch in the Fiesta Bowl returns. Now a big loss and 5 turnovers against Michigan, a team that had lost 6 straight road openers, so ND is again over rated and they drop out of the top ten. One thing I have forgotten over the last 10 or so years….people really despise ND when they are good…..I had an ND green shirt on while tailgating in Knoxville and more than a few people including those I was tailgating with made sure I was reminded of the final score. I quickly reminded them of the last two ND Tennessee games and returned to my double vodka red bull drink. Then Sunday I go online to read about the game and the general feeling from the media…..it was all pretty much the same. ND was overrated, over hyped and has a defense that plays with smoke and mirrors. Charlie Weiss still is yet to beat a top 25 team and Brady is terrible. WOW One thing that is clear in this age with the tremendous media coverage sports get….especially football you are only as good as your last performance, sometimes even winning isn’t enough.

PS: Weiss beat 3 ranked teams last year and #19 PSU this year. and I would still rather have him over Lloyd Carr any day.


Now that a few more undefeated teams have fallen let’s look at who’s left: Teams without a Conference Championship Game have a big advantage here:

OSU - PSU, at Iowa, at Michigan St. and Michigan left. The two road games and Michigan are potential pitfalls. Iowa has won 25 of 26 games at home.

USC – Cal, ASU, Oregon and ND are all at home. UCLA is across town. They haven’t lost a Pac Ten game in 3 years is there anything to believe that will change? They could be 11-0 hosting ND.

West Virginia - at Louisville November 2nd is the big one. At Pitt the next week and home vs. Rutgers. This team will not be in the BCS title game if there are 3 undefeated teams.

Auburn – Florida and UGA at home. At Alabama. SEC Championship. Best shot of the SEC teams.

Florida – at Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, LSU and FSU. Plus SEC Champ. Not gonna happen.

Michigan – Wisconsin, Michigan St., Iowa, PSU and OSU on the road. They will not make it to Columbus undefeated.

Louisville – at Kansas St., West Virginia, at Pitt and Rutgers No Brohm no way.

Georgia – Tennessee, Florida, at Auburn, Georgia Tech. SEC Champ.

Virginia Tech – Untested 3 games into the season. How about playing someone out of conference?? GA Tech and Clemson at home, at BC and at Clemson plus ACC Champ.

Oregon – USC – that’s all you need to see. At Cal, ASU and Oregon St.

TCU – at Utah in 2 weeks. The rest is your typical Air Force, BYU stuff. With the new BCS game they could sneak in like Utah did 2 years ago.


Next week’s big games and early predictions:

Wisconsin at Michigan - Let down? Maybe but Wisconsin can’t score enough to make this interesting.

ND at Michigan St. – MSU undefeated after clobbering Pitt. Revenge will be a factor after their mid-field celebration in South Bend last year. ND rebounds.

Virginia at GA Tech - Thursday night. Tech proves it is better than past years.

PSU at OSU – PSU plays better after having the ND game under its’ belt but can’t keep up with Ginn and Smith.

Louisville at Kansas St. – Strange out of conference game. NO Brohm and no Bush this is my potential upset of the week.

ASU at Cal – Toss-up I think ASU exposes Cal’s db’s in a shoot-out.

USC at Arizona – Mike Stoops coming out party? Maybe for a half but unless Adrian Peterson comes to Tucson SC will pull away.

Hawaii at Boise St. – The blue turf wins out in a shoot-out. This might be the most entertaining game of the week.

HOW THEY HAVE FALLEN:
Georgia was favored by 17 over UAB last week…..this week they are favored by 27.5 at home vs. Colorado. Poor Dan Hawkins will wish he was bringing Boise back to Athens.

WHY PLAY?

Buffalo at Auburn – 43 point spread you think Auburn might have a let down? Yes they win by 42.

Team of the Week

Yes it’s Michigan. They won at ND for the first time in 12 years and ended a 6 year losing streak in their road opener. I still believe they will have a loss before the end of October.

Honorable mention: Florida, Louisville and Clemson. (Yes Chuck Oliver FSU and Miami are overrated.)

Pathetic team of the week: It’s a tie between NC State and Virginia.

Random Thought of the week:
How often do we see a team lose its’ best player and all of a sudden they are better? (Aka Peyton Manning and Tee Martin) It may be happening again at Missouri. Brad Smith, Mr. All Everything, for 4 years left after a disappointing senior season and don’t look now but Missouri is finally living up to expectations. Don’t be surprised if they sneak into the pathetic Big 12 title game.

Next Week:
Next Saturday I will be in the College Football studio at Turner all day getting paid for logging highlights to be shown during the UCLA vs. Washington game. My blog will be about how things happen behind the scenes before they make it on TV. Yes, Halvorsen Ty and the Huskies are making an appearance on National TV, get your purple shirt on! Although the games aren’t as good as last weekend it should be another good weekend of ball and betting!

First there was lift gate, now pantsed gate.

Will FLYTRAP (left) ever be invited back to Knoxville?

Week 2 September 9th

Week two is here and I am entrenched on the couch for a full day of football. Flytrap..aka Hampster Balls...aka tall Midget tried to convince me to go the Air Force Tennessee game and it crossed my mind for about 10 seconds. Hearing him, and the stories about him on Monday morning made me very glad I stayed home....more on this later. (I actually only left the house for a total of 4 hours all weekend and it was fantastic.) The early games weren't particularly great however, given the gambling implications they have I am certainly intrigued. Other than actually collecting money this is the single best part of gambling…..making ordinary games like Rutgers vs. Illinois, Lousiville vs. Temple and UNC vs. Virginia Tech meaningful.

The first thing I noticed is that everyone I mean everyone in the LYA and LYA Two must have been watching practice at Auburn and Virginia Tech this week. A simple rule is that anytime everyone loves one game you should take all of your money and go the other way. This week’s overwhelming picks are Va Tech -12.5 and Auburn -20….there is no way both will cover.

My picks for the week are shaky at best:

Indiana -3.5 over Ball St -loss
Texas A&M -21.5 over LA Lafayette -win
Bowling Green -21.5 over Buffalo -loss
UNLV +14.5 over Iowa St. -win
Auburn -20 over Miss St. -win
Kansas St -21 over Florida Atlantic -win


However, the games I feel best about are Rutgers -11.5 and Stanford -9.5. Why I didn’t pick these in my pools I will never know. This is what happens when you choke in gambling….you love a game all week and then when it comes time to pull the trigger you second guess yourself. I will have to get some side action on these games.

I would say over the day I would watch all or part of at least 10 college games and here is what I noticed:

- Tennessee, Florida and Auburn fans beware. Georgia is much better off with Matthew Stafford as their QB. This kid is a playmaker and has more talent in his left pinky than Joe T. does. With Georgia’s 3 headed running game they desperately needed someone who could keep the defense honest…..he will do that and much more. Too bad for Calvin Johnson he isn’t at GA Tech.

- Sticking with the SEC. Steve Spurrier must have stomach ulcers. Did you see the look on his face during the Georgia game as his offense gave away scoring chance after scoring chance. Never before I have I watched a Spurrier team knowing that they were doomed.

- Rutgers is good. (They easily cover the 11.5 points and win 33-0) I know it was Illinois but this team believes. Watch out West Virginia….now you might have to play 4 games this year.

- Say what you want about Miami and FSU. These are not great football teams. I listened to ESPN go on and on about how awesome each team was on defense hence the lack of offense. I didn’t believe it last Monday and I certainly don’t believe it after Troy almost beat the mighty Noles.

- Where does Ohio St. find these great white linebackers? Spielman, Katzenmoyer, Carpenter, Hawk and now Laurinaitis. Athletic, a nose for the ball and always in the right place at the right time.

- Virginia Tech once again has great special teams and defense but is really lacking much of an offense. North Carolina literally handed them the ball 4 times. By the way they covered and so did Auburn…something is really wrong.

- Colt McCoy (much like Joe T.) is simply a placeholder for the next Texas QB.

- Ron Zook should call Bob Davie and find out how he can get into broadcasting. He should be perfect apparently they don’t require any talent to be on TV.

Teams of the week:

OSU – Clearly #1 after the win in Austin. We all know about Ted Ginn Jr., but look out for Anthony Gonzalez

ND - Defense got too much blame last year and too much credit this year. One thing you can say is they are very opportunistic and have 2 great playmaking safeties.

New Hampshire – beat Northwestern. If you didn’t read about their QB Santos and WR Ball (about to break Jerry Rice’s TD records) in the USA Today last week these guys can play.

Air Force/Flytrap – This is really more about Flytrap watching his alma-mater Air Force than it is about his Falcons losing 31-30 at Tennessee after a failed 2 point conversion. If only Flytrap actually could remember what happened to him or the Force. He called me for a halftime line and could barely speak. Quoting Whitey after the game “I have never seen him that drunk he was drinking vodka straight from the bottle.”

Keep in Mind the content below has been censored:

4 hours before the game Flytrap was pantsed at the tailgate in front more than 20 people. Of course most people wear underwear, not Pine.

Later in the night Flytrap celebrated the Force's performance:

a) by hitting Whitey about the face, back, neck and head 17 times in the first half
b) repeatedly verbally accosting the 3 ladies sitting in front of him the youngest of whom was 68 c) took the old man's pulse sitting next to him d) Screamed multiple F bombs while the 5 and 8 yr old in front of him asked their grandmother what the mad drunk guy was saying
e) Drank 10 oz’s of Vodka straight from the water bottle. That’s the same Vodka he was supposed to team drink in the Sprite Whitey bought them.
f) Hit, grabbed and yanked TW 3 more times in the 2nd half before he told Flytrap that he was going to beat the hell out of him if he touched him again
g) Made the Golden Girls and their granddaughters leave the game because they couldn’t take sitting close to him anymore
h) Slapped TW for the last time which in turn caused TW to punch Flytrap as hard as he could and break his wrist
i) Passed out in TW's car on the way to Brody’s pouring 20 oz. of water on his crotch and into the seat of TW's car j) which led to him asking TW yesterday morning “Whitey, Did I piss myself last night?”

No wonder he feels still feels badly on Monday.

Disappointments:

Texas – 7 points at home with those 2 running backs? Get ready for Jevan Snead.

Penn State – 41-3 mid-way through the 4th quarter.

Iowa – I know Drew Tate didn’t play, but come on it is Syracuse.

Arizona – Mike Stoops still has a long way to go. 45 -3 losers at LSU….yikes.

FSU – When will Bobby let someone other than his son run the offense?

Stanford – My lock of the year looked great in the 2nd quarter with the Cardinal up 20. Final: San Jose St. 35 – Stanford 34. Me - Minus $100.

Next week early predictions:

Florida over Tennessee

Auburn barely over LSU

USC over Nebraska

Clemson over FSU

Louisville over Miami

Oregon over Oklahoma


NFL Notes:

-Got to love Tiki Barber and Warrick Dunn as both had big games.
-The Colts will not get to the Super Bowl without a running game. (Laurence Maroney would have looked good in this offense)
-If Carson Palmer stays healthy the Bengals are going to the Super Bowl.
-Reggie Bush is good….the Saints will not be pushovers with him, Duece and Drew Brees. (By the way Mario Williams had 2 tackles and Houston’s leading rusher was Wali Lundy with 32 yards and they lost again.) And where is the Houston GM….hmmm he left. This will prove to be one of the biggest blunders in the history of the NFL draft
-While a win over the 49ers does not prove much, the Arizona Cardinals do have a pulse and lethal offense. Warner found 7 different receivers for 301 yards including Larry Fitzgerald 9 times for 133.
-Jake Plummer with 3 interceptions against the Rams picks up where he left off last January, a loser.

Well week one of the 2006 college football season is almost in the books as Louisville marches up and down the field like they are playing the Berea Bulldogs. After speaking to my good friend John Beam I got sucked into to thinking Kentucky would at least be the game so I jumped on board and figured at least now I have some interest in the Sunday night game. (This is easily the most dangerous part of gambling. There is nothing else on TV and you badly want to have an interest in an otherwise not so appealing game….the only thing to do is bet on that game. Does that ever work well? Seriously) Unless things change quickly those 23 points I have aren't going to do me any good and I will be watching reruns of Entourage by halftime.
As for Saturday here are some opening weekend observations:

I am on the campus of Georgia Tech by 9am and we head to the Home Depot VIP section of the ESPN Game Day set-up. When we arrive at 9:15am Corso, Herbstreit and Fowler are already taping segments of the first 2 hour show of the college football season. For a school that is rarely compared to the Georgia's, Tennessee's and Florida's of the world the campus is already buzzing as several thousand students are gathered waiting to cheer and heckle the game day crew sitting a top the monster set in the middle of the Tech campus.
As we watched from behind the set in the muddy VIP area...(VIP meant nothing more than free water and muffins for 2 hours so we could take pictures and get autographs from Kirk, Lee and Chris….sign me up!) These guys are like the Beatles of college football. Lee Corso can't go anywhere without 2 giant security guards on either side of him....soon he will make even more enemies in Atlanta during his famous picks segment. Chris Fowler, on the other hand moves freely through the crowds and talks to the students during breaks like he is one of them. Ironically, he got his start 20 years ago on the ESPN show, Scholastic Sports America. Did anyone else love this show like I did? This guy has TV written all over him, perfect hair that never moves, a flawless dresser and a jaw that reminds me of my college buddy Daniel Cort...aka "Chin". Then there is Herbstreit, he is the John Lennon of the group....girls love him and guys want to be him. Some Buckeye fans came with his college jersey just hoping for a picture and autograph. Correct me if I am wrong, was he really even that good in college??
Along with the game day crew there were sightings of other ESPN analysts Brent Musburger (He looks old which makes me feel old), Desmond Howard (really tiny) and the one and only Bob Davie. By far the most disappointing moment of the day was not getting my picture with him. I could have put it right next to my Ty Willingham autographed business card. Aren’t we all lucky that he will be doing the best game of the week every Saturday night. Coward…..more to come on this later.

(I just flipped back and Kentucky has scored 14 unanswered points……hey maybe the 2nd half will be worth watching…..hmmmmm)

Here are some of the highlights from my visit to the game day set. The student signs (Tech students are smart) Signs with references with to Ball and Johnson are taken away by game day staffers…amazingly they give them back after the show. Remaining signs include: Brady’s sister likes the D! Rudy was offsides (Referring to his sack against Tech) and a comparison of Charlie Weiss to the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The saddest moment was seeing Tech students wearing t-shirts that said Rudy Swallows. I mean come on….these kids are the future leaders of Atlanta? Even my friends who hate me and Notre Dame like Rudy.
As the temperature rises 10 degrees the moment every one of the 5,000 or so onlookers has been waiting for is here, the picks segment. Honestly, the game day set-up is not that great for those there live……kind of like sitting on the 18th hole at Augusta all day just to see the last group come through. They finally get to the GA Tech vs. ND game and those of us in the VIP already know he is going to don a green hat and lift his grandson in a green shirt onto his shoulders. As soon as he does so the crowd goes crazy booing and someone actually throws his Home Depot hard hat at the stage…..luckily ESPN has seen this before and has a mesh screen protecting them. That’s it, show over and all of the fans that have been waiting since 5am leave angry and pissed that the Great Lee Corso……the same guy who earlier had picked CAL to win the National Title has not picked their team to win. At this point I have 2 thoughts: 1. These fans actually think Tech is going to win. 2. I will never wait 2 hours at the game day set again so I better get all the pictures I want today. After the show is over we wait another 15 minutes before taking pictures on the set and getting to meet the crew……unfortunately by now Bob Davie is long gone.

There goes Louisville’s chance to go undefeated as Michael Bush breaks his leg and is out for the season. Kentucky might actually have a chance…..scratch that the Ville scores on about 3 plays…..wait now Kentucky scores…..oops now the Ville scores again 45-21……do these teams practice any defense?

Week 1 - Part Two

THE GAME
I should have known it was going to be a tough night for ND when my gambling buddy Mike “Flytrap” Pine calls me around 5pm and says I like your boys and I like them big…..I think I am going to put 5 bills on them to cover 6.5 points. Flytrap loves the action so much that before football season he was betting like crazy on baseball games…..and not the Braves or Yankees but west coast games involving the San Diego Padres…….Pine can you even name a Padres player…..no Dave Winfield doesn’t count. Wait he has no idea who Dave Winfield is. Right then I should have cancelled all bets and prepared myself for the worst.
I don’t know how Bobby Dodd stadium looked on TV but it was awesome to be there in person. The crowd was jacked up and ready to go, I can’t imagine what the players must have been feeling. I was 5 beers and 4 vodka red bulls in and I could feel the adrenaline.
Tech comes out and is very aggressive on D forcing ND to punt. When they have the ball they look to Calvin Johnson on almost every other play. He is clearly the best player/athlete on the field. What 5’9” or 6” cornerback can do anything to stop him? Only Chan Gailey/Patrick Nix/Reggie Ball can stop him from dominating. He just caught a pass in the flat and turned up field 30 yards. 1st and goal inside the 5 yard line. Now a fade…..Touchdown! Can you imagine if Charlie Weiss and Brady Quinn had this guy? Tech runs up the middle on third and goal from the 11 and I wonder if maybe Bob Davie, Ty Willingham or even Lloyd Carr called that play…..nonetheless Tech is up 10-0 and ND looks to be in trouble. Receivers aren’t open, Quinn is being pressured and rushed into bad throws. This looks a lot different then those 10 minute practice videos I have been watching on the ND web-site for the last month. I have bought into the hype, you would think I would know better by now.

ND scores on a gutsy QB draw with no time-outs and 16 seconds left in the half….phew. 10-7 Tech at the half. ND stops Tech to start the 2nd half and begins marching down the field….this is what I was expecting….wait 3rd down and Quinn runs out of the pocket and gets hit on the sideline in-bounds and a yellow flag goes flying. “Personal Foul GA Tech” and the stadium goes crazy…..fans are throwing cups and anything else that will fly onto the field or the seats in front of them. As an ND fan this is the moment you hate more than any other. I can hear all of the ND haters behind me saying we are lucky, how much did you pay the refs? etc. Duke fans hear the same thing every time they shoot more foul shots then the other team. From my view the hit looked fine and the flag looked unwarranted. For a moment I actually just want them to kick a field goal to tie the game so the play becomes a non-issue. Then the make up calls come, holding, black in the back after Darius Walker is already 5 yards into the end zone….now I am pissed too and want 7 points, Walker scores again making it 14-10 ND. After the game I found the picture above and it is clear Quinn was hit helmet to helmet….was it vicious? No….was it flagrant…no but it did happen. Sometimes you get the breaks sometimes you don’t…aka Reggie Bush push across the goal line.

All of sudden Tech’s aggressiveness is gone, Calvin Johnson is absent and the momentum has clearly switched. Our D is actually playing well and our offense is keeping the spirited Tech defense on the field for way too many plays. For the first time since my call from the Flytrap at 5pm I think about ND covering the spread. The ND drive stalls and some former soccer player misses a 2nd field goal this time from 35 yards….damn it. 3 seconds after the kick sails wide left I have an incoming call….Pine cell…….

ND continues to stifle Tech and Calvin’s last catch is over turned by the replay official (from the ACC) Now ND has the ball and can kill the clock. The spread is gone I know this…..just win the game and get to week 2 undefeated. 4th and 1 just on Tech’s half of the field and ND calls a time out so they can punt with just over a minute to go. Wait Quinn is coming back on the field…they are going for it….God I love Charlie Weiss, if nothing else he plays to win…..unlike the previous 2 coaches who always played not to lose. The best part of this scenario is that Bob Davie apparently questions his decision. Are you kidding me? Bob Davie who has no balls is questioning Weiss? Thank god we get to look forward to him doing the Texas – OSU game next week. Seriously, what was ABC/ESPN thinking? Why not add Jeff Hullinger and make it a 3 man booth. Quinn sneaks for the 1st down, game over. ND wins 14-10 after out gaining Tech 293-67 after falling behind by ten.

What do we know now: Tech will continue to be a dangerous team anytime they play the underdog role. The gambling rule of never betting for or against Tech is still in effect. I knew this before the game and completely ignored it. They are just too inconsistent on offense and get no help from their head coach. They could have easily won this game, but they failed to take advantage of their 1st half momentum. They will certainly beat someone of consequence this year, but they will also lose to UNC, Wake or Virginia. Classic Jeckel and Hyde.
As for ND, this may not be a great ND team…..the next few weeks against Penn State, Michigan, Michigan St. and Purdue will answer all of the questions and put them wherever they belong, but for now at least they are 1-0. Doubters will criticize Quinn and their offense and say Charlie Weiss is still best known for a game he lost. For now who knows? Maybe Ga Tech is better then we think or ND is worse, time will tell. One thing is for sure I love college football.

BEST AND WORST OF THE WEEK

Best Performance by a team: Tennessee - apparently David Cutcliffe does make a difference. The Florida game in 2 weeks will tell us if the Vols are really back.
Runner-up: USC - For those expecting an upset against Arkansas...think again. USC looks to have reloaded and with Cal's disappointing showing they could easily be looking at another title run. Nebraska is waiting for them in 2 weeks.
Most Disappointing Teams: Colorado - WOW Maybe Dan Hawkins should have stayed at Boise St. I don't think they would have lost to Montana St. They had a whooping 3 1st downs in the second half. Ouch.
Runner-up: Oklahoma- Is the Big 12 going to have anyone who can compete with Texas? Iowa St. barely escapes Toledo, Colorado gets beat by a 1AA team and Oklahoma struggles to beat powerhouse UAB
Best bets: Tennessee – Abs we called this in July when you found the first spreads. USC 70-17 and only -7.5. Thank god I did something right this weekend. Northwestern – College football is dominated by emotion.
Worst bets: Notre Dame – see GA Tech rule. Michigan St. – Bad coach, shaky play continues…..opposing coach at Idaho, Dennis Erickson. Drunk and cheater maybe, but he can coach college kids. Kentucky…..why why why 59-28 losers.
LYA – Dave Jones starts 9-1….who is this Dave Jones guy? The group is 55-32 with 3 games remaining…..We all know that will change.

Freshman QB watch:
Stafford UGA – 3-5 40 yards 1 TD; 1 rush for 19 yards
Snead Texas – 3 for 7 20 yards; 3-11 rushes
Tebow Florida – 1 rush for 1 yard and a TD
Mustain Arkansas – 4 for 6 46 yards and an int. 1 rush for 4 yards and a TD. He will start next week.
My top 5
1. OSU
2. Texas
3. Auburn
4. USC
5. West Virginia

Next week’s big games and early lines:

Thursday
Oregon St. +8 at Boise St. – Take the over.

Saturday
Ohio St. +2.5 at Texas – Game Day heads to Austin for the first game of the year.
Georgia-2.5 at South Carolina – Spurrier vs. Georgia again.
Penn St. +8.5 at Notre Dame – That’s a lot of points. Their first meeting since the Snow Bowl in 1992.
Arizona +15 at LSU - Zona getting better and better under Mike Stoops. LSU struggles vs. the PAC 10. (See games vs. ASU and OSU in recent years.
Clemson at BC Pick’em - Big early season ACC match-up.
Air Force +20 at Tennessee – Good luck Flytrap. Hard to not like the Vols minus 20.
Duke +20.5 AT Wake - Has Wake ever been favored by 20 points? Duke is coming off a 13-0 loss to the Spiders of Richmond.
Washington +17 at Oklahoma - At first glance this looks like an interesting out of conference game. In 1985 it was. Washington is pathetic barely beating San Jose St.