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!