Week 3

That’s it. I’m done. I hate football…..Three weeks into the season and my favorite team has yet to score an offensive TD. Their opening day starting QB was in the stands at the Northern Illinois game Saturday after he decided not to take the team bus to Ann Arbor. Maybe some of the other players should have gone with him… Can it get any worse? Actually, yes it can. ND’s next five opponents Michigan St., Purdue, UCLA, Boston College and USC have a combined record of 13-1 so far this season (UCLA was blown out at Utah this weekend). I hate to say this Charlie, but anyone who watched the first 2 ND games knew this was coming. Michigan has players…ND has nothing! It now is obvious that Weiss and his team wasted the month of August trying to install the spread offense with Jones at the helm. They then abandoned the spread a quarter and half into the first game and watched their former starting QB leave before they played their 3rd game of the season and now they won’t release him from his scholarship. Well doneeee Notre Dame. For Pete’s sake they are averaging 4.3 points a game!!! The good news for me (and for Kimberly) is that 3 weeks into the season I no longer have to emotionally invest anything into Notre Dame Football. If they win a few games, super, if they lose to Navy for the first time since 1963, at least they will have done it in a season that doesn’t matter.

For you ND haters you may find this entertaining. TP I mean you.
http://www.ndspn.com/

Moving on…I have to say it, Tim Tebow is the Real Deal. Yes, I know that is not exactly what every Tennessee (Whitey had another, not so flattering name for him after Saturday’s debacle), Georgia and Florida State fan wants to hear but it is time to face the truth. Tebow is the prototype QB for college football (can run and throw effectively) and more importantly the perfect fit for Urban Meyer. He will make some mistakes like the 95-yard interception to Eric Berry and he may lose to LSU, but he just makes plays. We already knew he was a physical freak, but his passing was excellent against UT (again, sorry Whitey). He threw touch passes, passes while falling down, jump passes, you name it. I can’t wait for the Florida vs. LSU game on October 6th. As for LSU, it must be nice to rest your key players for an entire game in the middle of the season…what is this baseball? Even without QB Matt Flynn and star receiver Early Doucet they managed to beat a Middle Tennessee team 44-0 that had given Louisville a battle the week before.

Speaking of Louisville, they were involved in the best game of the day against intrastate rival, Kentucky. Listen I know this was a huge game in the Commonwealth, but something just didn’t look right when you flipped on this game. First, the game was on ESPN Classic…what’s up with that? I think ESPN was running down the games of the day and somehow this match-up was left off the list until eventually someone piped up and said why not cancel Classic Boxing for 4 hours and put this game where no one will ever find it. ESPN Classic used to be one of my go to channels. Seriously, what ever happened to the great old games and the Sports Century shows? I could watch those all day long. I just clicked the guide and my former favorite channel was filled with the following: Classic Pool, Classic Rodeo, Classic Boxing, American Gladiators (seriously) 4 hours of poker, and finally 2 hours of Classic College football. The good news is you can still watch Stump the Schwab reruns and stand a good chance of catching my episode at least once a month. Other than Mike and Mike in the morning, they only have 2 hours of real programming and it’s on in the middle of the day. I need to be in charge of this channel, Stolz I’ll hire you too.

Ok, back to my reasons why the UK- UL game just didn’t look right. We get used to watching big games in the Coliseum, the Swamp, Neyland Stadium and the Big House but Kentucky? We think of Kentucky in the winter for basketball not the fall. The Cats had not beaten a top ten opponent in 30 years and that’s a lot of whoopin’s in the SEC. Then again maybe it’s just the UK Stadium...it looks like a Texas high school stadium…maybe. You flip to the Alabama game or the Nebraska game and they are playing in NFL-like stadiums with LED and giant scoreboards, even Tech’s stadium looks good on TV. Luckily the broadcast was no reflection on the quality of the game.

You knew one minute into the game that the Cats were going to have a real chance. They recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff that led to a field goal and then they picked off Brohms’ first pass of the game and bam it was 10-0. The two teams and the two QB’s went back and forth all game until finally Kentucky’s Andre Woodson barely out dueled Brian Brohm and Louisville in a fantastic display of offense. (And actually some defense) If you didn’t see the end of this game you need to watch the highlights somewhere. (Hello ESPN Classic) This game had everything that makes college football great, star players, huge plays, end of the game drama, strange coaching decisions on both sides and most importantly passion, passion that other teams (mentioned previously in this blog) seem to lack.

At one point on Saturday night (yes, I know I said I hate football, but I still have to watch to write this ever-so-entertaining blog) we were able to watch Woodson, Brohm, BC’s Matt Ryan and USC’s John David Booty all do their thing. For my money I might say Ryan is the best of the bunch, but all four should be NFL starting QB’s in the near future. You could also flip to the Alabama game to watch Darren McFadden, a future top 5 pick in fantasy football. (I hate fantasy football too I lost 2 games by a total of 4.4 points all thanks to Donavan McNabb. Oops sorry Donavan I didn’t mean to criticize you.)

I am going out on a limb here…Oregon is an excellent football team. They quietly beat the crap out of Fresno St. Saturday night. Yes, the same Fresno St. team that nearly beat Texas A&M last week. They play Cal at home in 2 weeks and if they can win that game it could set up a huge game against USC in the Coliseum October 27th. I think it’s very possible they will hand USC their only loss this season.

Maybe we gave Georgia too much credit for their win over Oklahoma State (kind of like the Tech win over ND). The Cowboys gave up 41 points and 562 yards to Troy on Friday. I watched most of this game and Troy did whatever they wanted to OK St. We will certainly know more about UGA after this week’s trip to Alabama.

I need to give a shout out to my buddy PINE for his horrible picks last week. Not only did he manage to go 0-10 in the LYA (only the 3rd time in history….he had the 2nd as well) but he also used the same picks and went 0-10 in LYA2. Good picking buddy I just hope my games don’t show up on your list this week. Maybe this week you should reverse your picks in one LYA.

For you gamblers out there last week was one of the worst weeks I have ever seen. Two others that will remain nameless also pulled an 0fer on Saturday before winning a few games on Sunday. Everyone was on Georgia Tech, Washington, UCLA, UNC (why) and UNLV against Hawaii. In the NFL it was the Saints and Bengals. I can understand Washington to an extent….mainly due to the media coverage, UCLA was a shocker and the Bengals seemed like a slam dunk in Cleveland. BC was clearly not given enough respect and you might as well flip a coin in the UVA – UNC game. The problem is the games this week don’t look much better.

Here are next week’s games I would watch if I was still a college football fan:

Thursday
Texas A&M at Miami –I’ll be honest I have no clue what is going to happen in this one. Miami is bad but what is Texas A&M? You always hate picking against the Canes in the Orange Bowl, but things aren’t like they used to be. Take the Canes if you must.

Penn State at Michigan – Michigan’s D shouldn’t struggle against the PSU as they won’t be able to spread them out like App St. or Oregon did. I am not convinced Anthony Morelli can win a big game on the road. I think Michigan we will win in a tight 20-17 type game. Take the home team and the points.

Georgia at Alabama – Did Bama leave it all on the field last weekend against Arkansas? The Tide were in control until the 4th quarter when McFadden and Jones went wild. I don’t see any playmakers like that on UGA, this game is going to come down to Matthew Stafford. We are still waiting for him to have a signature game and the Dawgs need it this week. I like the Dawgs in another tight game.

Kentucky at Arkansas – Apparently the SEC is the only conference playing football this weekend? This is a scary game if you are a Kentucky fan…..very scary. You are coming off a huge win and now you go on the road to face an offense that is much different from Louisville. If the Cats can win again this week people will really start taking notice. I just can’t see them being sky high 2 weeks in a row and stopping McFadden. Hogs by 10.

South Carolina at LSU – LSU is a 16.5 favorite and I am having a hard time convincing myself to take the Old Ball Coach. The Gamecock D is talented and if they can keep their team in the game early and maybe cause a few turnovers this one could be interesting. I’ll take the points but I don’t love it.

Iowa at Wisconsin – There may be more white players on the field than an Ivy League game. These teams always play close games, but it is hard to pick against Wisconsin at home, even though they have been less than impressive so far this season.

Washington at UCLA – Both of these teams were popular picks last week in the LYA…..who knows what will happen when they play in the Rose Bowl this week. What happened to UCLA last week? Utah destroyed the Bruins while Washington played closer than the final score would suggest with Ohio St. I like the Huskies to get back on the winning track.

Michigan St. at Notre Dame – MSU will attempt to be the first team ever to win 6 straight games in South Bend. Why not add another dismal record to the ever growing list that could be set this year (not that I care). The line is now 12.5 and that really makes me sick. If ND can’t find a way to win this week I think they may start 0-8. I like the points and think ND will get their first offensive TD of the year. (please god) It just won’t be enough. 27-17 MSU.

Lastly, since I have now given up all hope on ND football this year and college football in general I needed to find some new hobbies for the fall. What did I do? I joined a Cornhole League…..for those of you that don’t know what I am talking about shame on you. As you can see some people take this stuff pretty seriously. Check out my friends at www.Bagsofglory.com See you next week!

WEEK TWO

“Measuring Stick Saturday” (since when did ESPN turn into Fox or CNN) turned out to be blowout Saturday for most of the marquee games. Oklahoma clobbered Miami, Oregon destroyed Michigan, Virginia Tech got smoked at LSU, Penn State easily handled Notre Dame and Texas pulled away from TCU. Even Buffalo killed Temple. Only Georgia vs. South Carolina lived up the hype and that game only had one touchdown.

Random thoughts:

-The Penn State white out was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in a college football stadium. On the other hand the game sucked.

-Mark Richt would make just about anyone’s list of the top 10 coaches in college football, yet he continues to make some strange decisions at the end of games. (See BC and Auburn games) This time he chose to kick a field goal on 4th and 15 down 16 – 9 with 4:41 remaining in the game against South Carolina. Why? It did absolutely nothing as Georgia still needed a TD when/if they got the ball back.

-I purchased ESPN game plan Saturday afternoon at 3:30PM and no different games were on Pay per view…..So, I upgraded to the Sports Entertainment package on Comcast. I now get every Fox channel and the NFL Network. (This really comes in handy when you want to watch the replay of the Colorado – ASU game on Sunday morning.) Just for fun I flipped to channel 290 as I was typing this and I immediately got my money’s worth. Bobby Bowden was talking about FSU’s great win over UAB on the Seminole Postgame.

-Game plan came through Saturday night as several good games were available. The worst looking broadcast was easily the Vol Network showing of the UT – Southern Miss game. Shortly after Kimberly commented to me on how bad the TV feed looked I got an email from Whitey saying the following: “There is no bigger Mickey Mouse production in America than this Vol Network telecast. They are idiot homer factually inaccurate hillbillies. You and I could drink 16 crown and cokes and still do a better job than these inbred yokes.” I think that says it all.

-Saturday night starting at 5:45pm there were so many good games on TV I decided we needed two TV’s downstairs. It worked so well the 2nd TV will remain in the living room throughout the season. My wife was actually for the 2nd TV on Saturday night, she is less than thrilled with my long term plan for the living room.

-I predicted Cal, Nebraska or Auburn would lose and Kentucky might struggle against Kent but would still win. Auburn lost, Nebraska escaped and Cal held off a late charge by Colorado St. (For some reason I still doubled Cal and lost) Kentucky struggled early and ended up clobbering Kent.

-I can’t wait for Louisville at Kentucky next week. The early line is the Ville -8.5 (now 7) and the over/under is a whopping 74…….

-What the hell is on the back of Colt Brennan’s head? It looks like he fell asleep on a Sharpie.

- What will happen first: Steve Spurrier kills Blake Mitchell or Mitchell loses all of his hair?

-Why is Virginia Tech still in the Top 25? It must be because they beat East Carolina? That’s all you need to know about the polls. Bye bye Sean Glennon.

-Oops wait there is more…..Nice job by the coaches voting this week. Auburn received more votes than South Florida even after they lost at home to the Bulls.

-Two weeks into the season and I have picked against the Washington Huskies twice, I don’t know that I will go for the trifecta this week. It was a great win by UW and Ty Willingham, how are they not ranked? The oddsmakers are giving them some love as they are only 5 point dogs to Ohio State in Seattle this weekend.

-Michigan’s defense may be bad but Oregon is fun to watch. The second statue of liberty play by QB Dixon was one of the best fakes I have ever seen.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=272510130&confId=5

-Michigan and Notre Dame are both 0-2 for the first time ever….that is a lot of years of football. Now they play each other and both teams will have true freshman at QB. I’m guessing that has never happened before either.

-Colt McCoy threw 7 interceptions all last year and has 4 in two games so far this year. What has happened to the Texas offense?

-Speaking of offense Notre Dame has yet to score an offensive TD. There are 120 teams in 1-A football and ND is in the bottom five in almost every offensive category including 120th in rushing yards with -8. Yes -8.

-PINE is coming back to Atlanta for a fake meeting, the Thrashers opening night, and the Georgia – Tennessee game in Knoxville. Does anyone have an extra ticket for him? Don’t worry he will be asleep and probably shirtless for most of the game. That blog will also be the most entertaining of the year.

-This is a crazy stat…..Georgia Tech has had 104 first down situations after 2 games. The second most in CFB is Louisville with 65.

-Miami is dead and leaving the Orange Bowl next year, FSU struggles to beat UAB at home and Bobby talks about what a big win it was and how UAB beat LSU back in 1999….…..life is good.

-Can it get any worse for the ACC? Actually yes it can…..Next week Maryland plays West Virginia and FSU is at Colorado.

-Road dogs in college were 5-7 last week. Road dogs by touchdown or more were 1-5. WVU was the only team to cover and they did it by one point with less than 2 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter.

-Don’t ever listen to Hank Goldberg even when he says Jacksonville has won its’ last 7 home openers by an average of 14 points…..just trust me on this one. I miss Pete Axthelm and Jimmy the Greek.

-Ok this is about the NFL but I couldn’t help myself. Referee Ed Hochuli called a penalty after TO scored a touchdown and then raised his huge arms as much as he could to signal Touchdown. Has anyone checked this guy for HGH? I’m surprised the NFL doesn’t mandate that he stop wearing size medium ref jerseys. Check Ed out: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/players/01/10/nfl.workout0116/index.html


Week 3 games I can’t wait to see:

Louisville at Kentucky – The game of the week and also the upset of the week. This game will come down to turnovers or who wins the coin toss. The winner will score in the 50’s and the loser may do the same. UK 55 UL 52….instant classic. Don't miss it as it actually airs live on ESPN Classic Saturday Night.

Boston College at Georgia Tech – This should be an exciting Saturday night game in Atlanta. Tech’s defense will show Matt Ryan all kinds of looks and will blitz the crap out of him. Can Taylor Bennett pass when Tech needs him the most? This is the week we find out. I like Tech to win in a close game, but take BC and the 7.5 points.

Tennessee at Florida – Both teams lost some key players to injury last week. Tennessee is better prepared for this game after playing 2 quality opponents, but I think Florida will win by a field goal. This will be the Tim Tebow coming out party.

USC at Nebraska – Sorry NO contest here. USC will walk all over the Huskers and their passionate fans. Nebraska is pretender that just doesn’t have the talent to compete with the nations’ elite. I think USC will lose a game….just not here.

OSU at Washington – Freshman QB against the OSU defense….this looks like a total trap. Two weeks ago this line would have been 16 points. I think the Huskies stay in it but OSU wins late by 7-10. (You won’t see this game on my LYA sheet)

West Virginia at Maryland – This week’s Thursday night game should be a good one……not. Maryland can barely beat Florida International. WVU will run away and hide, Marshall gave them a scare last week and it won’t happen again.

Texas at UCF – This is an interesting game only because Texas is at Central Florida to open their new stadium. (No more Citrus Bowl) The place will be rocking but Texas will have too much talent. The spread is low due to UCF’s upset of NC ST. and Texas’ mediocre play. Take advantage of it.

Arkansas at Alabama – Nick Saban’s first big-time game at Bama. I like the way Bama is playing and Arkansas only has one game under its’ belt. Roll Tide!

OK put Notre Dame at Michigan on here. I can’t really say I am looking forward to this game but you know I have to watch it. One team will leave this game with hopes of having a decent season the other heads back to the drawing board.....again. Lloyd Carr will play close to the vest with freshman QB Ryan Mallett. That means the key factor will be how ND contains Mike Hart. Hart has already guaranteed a Michigan victory and Charlie Weiss summed up his comments best. “If I watched our first two games I would probably feel the same way.” I refuse to pick this game, but I don’t see ND winning. Gil/Pfeif if you read this please pick Michigan this week and double them.

MAYBE KIMBERLY SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN THE ND STARTING QB!

Week One

Week one of college football is in the books. The one negative of spending the day at a football game (ok besides your team getting crushed) is you don’t get to see much of the games from around the country. I love going to games during the year but I would miss not having some Saturdays on the couch with the remote control and multiple TV’s if I went to games every weekend.

Let’s get the Notre Dame game over first. What a great weekend…Medinah #3 on Thursday afternoon, Cubs game at Wrigley Friday afternoon and the weather for the entire weekend was unbelievable. Low 80’s no humidity and not a single cloud in the sky. On Saturday we made the trek to South Bend in a van with 10 Georgia Tech fans and a lot of liquor. No way was I going repeat my stellar performance from last year on the drive to South Bend. (See blog from UCLA – ND game last year if you don’t know what I am talking about.) Surprisingly there was very little talk about the game on the van….I certainly was not feeling confident and the Georgia Tech folks didn’t seem to know what to expect either.





Three Highlights of the Day (There weren’t many)

1. Before we entered the stadium our Gatorade host Scott took us over to where the ND hoops team tailgates during football weekends. Scott played hoops at ND in the late 80’s and knows the current coaching staff and some of the players. Everyone was gone from the tailgate except for head coach Mike Brey. (It was hard to recognize him without a mock turtle neck and dark suit on.) His hair was still slicked back like it is on the sidelines. We spent the next 10 minutes talking basketball with coach Brey. He tells us about recruiting, his returning 8 players and asks me about the Hawks. (Shocking I know he actually seemed interested too.)

2. Getting to go the field during warm-ups, as the band comes out and plays the fight song and when both teams emerge from the same tunnel we had just walked through was awesome. The security guard literally had to warn Kimberly to stand back so she wouldn’t get run over as the ND players prepared to come on the field. (You can actually see her on NBC cheering in her green shirt as the players come out.) Some of the players on both teams do not look like human beings. I mean every lineman is 6’4” or taller and their necks and heads are enormous. Phillip Wheeler the linebacker from GT must have a larger head than Barry Bonds. It really is unbelievable.



3. As we are standing on the field the PA announcer comes on and slowly says: “Here are some scores from around the country. Late in the 4th quarter Michigan 32- Appalachian St. 31. The whole stadium went bananas. As you can imagine Michigan is not the most popular team in South Bend. There is no jumbotron in Notre Dame Stadium and scores don’t come often so we are completely at the mercy of the PA announcer for another update. Less than 10 minutes later he came back…….”Final score Appalachian St. 34…………..Michigan…………32!” I don’t think most of the 80,000 people knew that this would be the loudest cheer of the day.

Five things I wish I saw live during the first weekend while I was in South Bend:

#1 App State’s upset at Michigan. It is hard to believe a I-AA team has never beaten a team ranked in the AP top 25. (Yes I-AA is the term I will always use. I don’t even recognize the other term and will certainly never type it) Of course practically nobody else saw this game unless you have DirecTV because no one has the Big Ten Network.

(STOLZ actually watched this game on replay – His thoughts: “At the risk of beating a dead horse, if you haven't seen it, the replay of the Appalachian St - Michigan game is a classic. This was a very entertaining game with a great storyline that developed as the game went on. And unbelievably, Michigan had multiple opportunities to put the game away. But believe me, from what I could see, App St would beat a lot of Div I teams. I would also look for Michigan to struggle again this week. Oregon runs a spread offense and has been one of the more potent offensive teams in the Pac 10 for years. In their last 3 games, against spread offenses, Michigan has given up 1500 yards and over 100 points. I look for this to be a shootout (bet the over?) but Michigan will score more often against a soft Pac 10 defense.”

I said Lloyd Carr would retire if he lost to OSU. That might not even matter now. I can’t say I will miss him. How can Mario Manningham only catch 2 passes before the final drive? He is a bad bad coach.

#2 The first half of the Cal – Tennessee game. I thought Cal would win this game but who knew 52 points would be scored in the first half. I watched most of the 4th quarter and even late in the game the speed was amazing. I thought I was watching a college basketball game. Cal definitely has a shot to knock off USC later in the season.

#3. Colt Brennan and Hawaii. This may the best reason to order College Football Game Plan. Colt was 34 for 40 for 416 yards and 6 touchdowns in the first half! He didn’t even play a snap in the second half. This is hard to even fathom after watching ND put up 122 total yards.

#4 UCF’s upset of NC State. Thanks to App State this was an after thought upset but congrats to George O’Leary for their big win. NC State mounted a furious comeback in the 2nd half after trailing 25-3, falling short only when their 2 point conversion was unsuccessful halfway through the 4th quarter.

#5 The pre-game tribute at Virginia Tech to the 32 people killed last spring. ESPN did a great job of showing this on SportsCenter Saturday night but the emotion of the moment must have been unbelievable. As for the football, I wouldn’t have missed much. 17-7 over ECU with only 1 offensive TD. I am still not a Sean Glennon believer. Let’s see if he can prove me wrong in Baton Rouge.


This coming week is going to be an even better one for viewing and that is exactly what I will be doing. I turned down going to the SC – UGA game just so I could catch all of these games

10 games I want to see………

South Carolina at UGA….The Dawgs looked impressive against Okie St. can they beat Spurrier again? Every year SC sucks me in, not this time. Dawgs -5 is the pick.

Miami at Oklahoma – Can Oklahoma hang 79 on the U? No way but we will see what they really have against Miami’s D. I like the Canes and the 10.5 points.

Virginia Tech at LSU – Wow 12 points seems like a ton in this match-up. If you made me pick this one I would take the points but I just don’t like the Va Tech offense. I am staying away from this one.

ND at PSU – I know this could be a terrible game. But the Irish are going with true frosh Jimmy Clausen and that alone is reason to tune in. ND hasn’t played in Happy Valley since 1991 and the atmosphere is going to be amazing. I don’t think they can win but 17 is an awful lot of points.

BYU at UCLA - This could be a great game that no one on the east coast will see. The winner of this game is off and running. I like the Bruins -7.

Oregon at Michigan – Can UM rebound, will they be able to stop the Oregon spread offense? If Michigan loses this game Lloyd Carr will be booed off the field. Can you feel the tension in Ann Arbor? I’ll take the 8 points and watch this shoot-out.

TCU at Texas – Is Texas as bad as they looked last week? Arkansas St. out-gained them on their home field. TCU never loses when they allow 17 or less points. Texas will score more than 17 but they won’t cover the 9.5.

Boise St. at Washington – Coming off its’ best win (ok it was only Syracuse) under Ty Washington enters a brutal stretch of games. I think Boise will have too much in this one but I will enjoy watching Jake Locker try to pull off the upset. Boise -5.

Wisconsin at UNLV - Vegas has ruined all of the fun with this one by making the line way too big. Last time these teams met in Vegas there was a big controversy when the power went out with 7:41 left and all bets were called off. The power won’t go out but Wisconsin fans will be sad if the bet on their beloved Badgers. Take Vegas and the 25 points.

Buffalo at Temple – WOW this could be the worst match of 1-A teams in the history of college football. Buffalo won a thriller 9-3 last year and I think they will prevail again this year.

Upset specials: One of these teams will lose this week Auburn, Cal or Nebraska. (Kentucky would be the 4th team but I think they will survive.)


FSU at Clemson – Monday Night typed as I watched.

I can’t tell you how glad I am that ESPN/ABC finally scrapped the Miami – FSU game on the first Monday night of the season. The last few games between the U and FSU have been painful to watch. Clemson brings two of the nation’s best running backs and some new blood to Labor Day. It also makes for a long Tuesday (or a day off) for lots of Clemson and FSU fans that are attending the game from Atlanta. I can’t imagine Dougie Fresh is going to be very productive at work on Tuesday AM.

The broadcast leads off with the first Jimbo Fisher mention of the night. It is unbelievable that this is the lead story ESPN has come up with for this game. The energy at Death Valley is electric and I feel good about my Clemson pick. Holly Rowe jumps in and tells us about a bomb threat on the Clemson campus during the day. She says spoke to several Clemson fans about the threat and asked if they were worried….They all responded: “Nah we are only worried about the game.” You have got to love football in the South. Does Holly Rowe have naked pictures of someone at ESPN? I just don’t think she is that good. (More on this later)

1st half

FSU gets the ball first and Weatherford runs for 22 yards on the 1st play…..hmmmm maybe this new offensive coordinator is good. The good feelings for the FSU offense don’t last and they are forced to punt 3 plays later. Clemson at least moves the ball until they are forced to punt. They use the direct snap play to their running back in the first series. This has become the hot new play in college football as teams have gone away from running quarterbacks. (I will give Bobby Bowden some credit as he used this with Warrick Dunn years ago.)

FSU and Clemson trade a few possesions, and there is no score but you can feel the momentum squarely on Clemson’s side. Clemson finally cashes in on a nice TD pass to the tight end. (At least Harper shows he can throw) Less than a minute later FSU fumbles and James Davis breaks off a beautiful 29 yard TD run. It doesn’t get much better than this….we may have a blowout.

Now it’s 21 – 0 and FSU is being completely dominated on both sides of the ball. FSU manages a field goal after a blocked punt. Doesn’t Clemson always have bad special teams??? How is this possible?

As the half winds down ESPN shows Jimbo for at least the third time. WOW his influence is really being felt so far. A graphic shows FSU has run 31 plays for 62 yards and 22 of those came on the first play. They have a grand total of 1 first down, which also came on the 1st play. Now we get the second best highlight of the half. Holly Rowe grabs grandpa Bowden as he leaves the field. Coach – “How do you assess your new offenses’ performance in the first half?” First off, what a terrible question…..it’s like asking Ari how he liked Medellin after he slept through the movie premier. The sad thing is it works because grandpa’s answer is priceless. “Our offense……..and our defense does not look good at all. It comes down to blocking and tackling, they are blocking and we’re not, they are tackling and we’re not. It’s as simple as that, if we can turn that around we would probably be ahead.” Huh? Good stuff coming from your head coach and now you know why I argued that FSU is over-rated and would lose this game.

24-3 Clemson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2nd Half

Clemson punts and on their first position and FSU actually shows some life but after converting a few first downs the ball goes back to Clemson.

My god Clemson is trying to let FSU back in this game. They allowed a blocked punt in the first half and now they snap the ball over the punters head and he runs 30 yards through the end zone for a safety. (Interesting decision) 24-5 Clemson with 2 minutes to go in the 3rd.

After the free kick FSU looks like a new team…..suddenly Antone Smith breaks off a 50 yard run giving them a first and goal. One play later Smith scores and FSU misses the 2 point conversion. 24-11 with a quarter to go…..I’m not worried yet, but I certainly would like to see a long sustained Clemson drive.

OK for the first time tonight I am concerned….I still think with 3.5 points I am ok but the momentum has done a 180 turn and you can see it written all over the faces of most of the 83,000 fans in attendance. Somehow Clemson just avoided another safety by getting a face mask penalty and then grounding the ball from the end zone. I’m not quite sure that was called properly but they are not yet out of the woods as they have to punt from the end zone. (Maybe they should just concede another safety now) OH GOD…..run clock run. FSU nearly runs back the kick and gets the ball at the Clemson 32. The Clemson D steps up and forces a 4th and 3. Bobby passes on the field goal and FSU converts on a Weatherford pass. (Do you think Bobby even knew it was 4th down?)

If Clemson can force a field goal here it would be a huge win for the Defense. Well that’s not happening, Weatherford hangs in the pocket as long as he can and finally finds an open receiver (Unfortunately not Fagg) for a TD. Wow…….what a comeback by FSU it is now 24-18 with 11 minutes left. I do like the fact that overtime seems unlikely based on the 6 point spread right now, but Clemson is imploding so anything is possible. I hope if FSU is going to win this game it will be 25-24. Sorry Fresh.

Clemson gets the ball and immediately gets a penalty…..1st and 20. I find myself just praying that Clemson will hold onto the ball and not fumble. I can’t believe this is the same game I was watching an hour ago. Luckily Clemson gets a few first downs and kills just over 5 minutes off the clock…..then came the biggest break of the game. The Clemson punt hits on the 1 yard line and somehow goes backwards to the 3 yard line. FSU goes 3 and out and now Clemson has the ball with 5:28 to go inside FSU territory……2 first downs and this game may be over. Come on Tommy…but again they can not end the game…..3 plays and no first down. FSU will get one more possession from the 20 yard line with 3:41 left and 1 timeout. First down FSU…..god I wish we could have a split screen with Doug in the stands on one side of the split screen. Seriously how great would it be to watch as he rocks back and forth, covers his eyes and nervously gulps down his bourbon drink. He may not make it home if Clemson loses this game.

4th and 10…………Here we go………….SACK! ESPN then goes right to a shot of Bobby……dagggggggommmmitttttttt

FSU actually gets two more plays but there is no time left and Clemson wins 24-18. It’s never easy but I manage to go 6-2 for the week. (8-2 in the LYA) I won my two doubles Colorado and Iowa by a total of 1.5 points, sometimes it pays to be lucky.

What did I learn from this game…..Clemson is talented but sooner or later they will break the hearts of their fans by losing a gut wrenching game that is there for the taking. FSU appears to have something to build on. Weatherford played much better in the 2nd half and FSU actually developed a running game with Antone Smith. They are still no where near what they once were but they could find a way to win 8 games.

See you next week!