by Wally
Wow … we can’t just ease into the weekend after gobbling up all the turkey and stuffing. Nope, on Friday college football fans are gonna be clobbered with some high stakes games … playoff games, if you will … in this current system we have. Hold on, here we go.
Thursday:
— #17 Texas A&M at Texas: What happened to Texas this year? Too young or is the usual talent level simply not there? Longhorns need a win to be bowl eligible … when was the last time we heard that. A&M still with a chance to claim the Big 12 South if they win and get help. A&M’s Wrecking Crew defense is back and will give Texas fits. Aggies take it this year by a 24-20 score.
Friday:
— West Virginia at Pitt: A rivalry game, but the Big East is terribly down this year. Dave Wannstedt is coaching Pitt. Therefore, it’s simple … go with the Mountaineers!
— #2 Auburn at #11 Alabama: This is probably the game everyone is viewing as the most pivotal of the season up to this point. Ever since Auburn climbed near the very top of the rankings, this late season showdown with the Tide is the game folks predicted the Tigers would lose. I’m among them. Give Nick Saban some time to scheme and set up a defense to combat the one-man wrecking crew that is Cam Newton, and I think we’ve got the makings of a close fought victory for the Tide. Home field edge nudges this one Bama’s way … Tide roll 24-21.
— #21 Arizona at #1 Oregon: I just don’t put any faith in teams located in states that have the Cactus as the state flower. Something’s always missing from these Arizona teams and this year is no exception. The Mildcats are offensively challenged. If this game were being played in Arizona, I’d give it a chance of being close. But given it’s in Eugene, I think the Ducks will roll to a “comfortable” 15 point win.
— #4 Boise State at #19 Nevada: And those same experts predicted that once Boise State got by Virginia Tech and Oregon State, they would coast through their schedule until traveling to Reno for this late-season showdown with a very good Nevada team that is led by the extremely dangerous dual threat veteran QB, Colin Kapernick. I think this one will be close at halftime, but the moxy of Kellen Moore and a very stout Bronco defense will enable BSU to pull away for a 13 point win. Go BSU! If you can’t win this one, you don’t deserve a shot at the title.
Saturday:
— Michigan at #8 Ohio State: This is EASY on many levels. Ohio State wins, wins big and, I hope, embarrasses the Skunkbears. Nuff said.
— #5 LSU at #11 Arkansas: Go Hogs … I’m sick of the Hatter. Tiger luck runs out (finally) … the Razorbacks take it 28-24.
— #10 Michigan State at Penn State: Crowd is delirious with joy at JoPa’s announcement that he’s coming back in 2011. (Or are they???) I think the Nittany Lions really come to play on senior day and upset Sparty 20-17.
— #13 Oklahoma at #9 Oklahoma State: Bedlam!!!!! I think the Sooners have gradually gotten so ticked off from their underwhelming performances earlier in the year and have regrouped with purpose. Meanwhile, Cowboys defense is gonna be exposed in this one. Sooners 37 Cowboys 27. There’s still lots at stake in the Big 12 South!!!
— Notre Dame at USC: The annual tilt between the Irish and Trojans. ND leads the series all time with a 42-34-5 record, but SoCal has won 8 in a row. QB Matt Barkley is hurting and may not play. No fear … Trojans have veteran Mitch Mustain in the backup slot. Irish have some positive momentum after two surprisingly easy wins with their own backup QB, Tommy Rees, playing full time. Irish defense looks rejuvenated and the offense has at least been fairly efficient and error-free for the most part. But this is a talented USC squad and it’s in LA. I’ll believe an Irish win when I actually see it. Meanwhile, the brain picks SoCal to win 28-21. Hope I’m wrong, but we know how that goes 😉
HAPPY HOLIDAY WEEKEND! BE SAFE AND ENJOY.
A lot being decided today, I think with wins for all of the top 4 teams will end up getting Boise State to jump TCU(the opposite happened earlier this year and all we need is the computers to jump on board).
I do have a question for those who are interested. Would it hurt BSU if they blow out Nevada(giving everyone ammo to say Nevada should not have been ranked as high as they were)? Or is the worse case scenario for the Broncos a close win(obviously other than a loss!)?
Anthony … welcome to the Pine! To answer your question, I believe Boise just has to win today … they are essentially playing a conference championship game vs the #19 team on the road in a hostile environnment. Of course, the computers won’t care if the Broncos win by 1 or 81 as margin of victory is no longer part of the equation. However, I think the more impressive the win is, the more the human voters will be inclined to keep Boise propped up at #3 or higher … pending, of course, the outcome of the other big games today (Auburn/Ala & AZ/Oregon).
But the Broncos need to stay focused on the task at hand … they must win tonight at Nevada! I hope they win and win as impressively as possible. I don’t think a 30 point win, for instance, will detract from the achievement … Nevada has essentially won all their other games except one. Vegas is expecting a 14 point BSU win. Just win, baby.
As far as Boise’s championship chances go, what happens next weekend could be as important as this weekend’s results. That is, if Boise wins this weekend, and Nevada lays an egg versus La. Tech the Broncos chances are all but gone.
GO BSU! I am expecting Aub to lose. I believe a BSU win will jump them over TCU, regardless of margin of victory. I forgot Mitch Mustain ended up at USC. I remember when he was such a hot commodity. ND wanted him badly (UnWeis was recruiting him over Clausen, wasn’t he?), but Arkansas got the nod (I don’t remember exactly why) and then that didn’t work out to everyone’s expectations. Tough break for the kid, playing back-up on a Lane Kiffin coached team!
wally good call on A&M win. Losing season at Texas? My how far the mighty can fall!
BTW, stop listening to your brain! This is the year the Irish turn the tables on USuC!
Haters,
USC has 2 must win games every year…Notre Lame and UCLA in that order…
Mitch Mustain and Trojans will thump ND and Domers you finish 6-6 ! Now that’s something to feel really good about ! Better give Brian Kelly an extension ! Fight On ! As my license plate says BEATND
I’m so ticked off. Bama quit playing and then gagged. What an awful second half. Guess they thought the game was only 30 minutes long. Not to mention they left tons of points on the table … shoulda been up at least 35-7 at half. Bama, way to !@#$!@#% up everyone else’s season!
Okay, now I’m the biggest Arizona fan on Earth for the next 4 hours. GO CATS!!
Catholics vs Cheaters. Guess Crash is going with his cheaters again.
I thought USuC were the Catholics, since they have a “marriage made in heaven”; the t(h)row(up)jans and kiffin. Better be watching your rear view mirror crash. I’ll NASCAR bump draft that license plate.
Wally, so right about Alabama. I guess it’s what happens when I choose to pull for the Crimson(faced) Tide!
What a terrible day for BSU backers !!! Their defense pretty much sucked (like Bama’s) in the 2nd half. And the WRs dropped passes that coulda kept drives going an points on board.
Now … is it just me, or did anyone else think Brotzman’s field goal for Boise at end of regulation was actually good???? I know it was pushed right, but I swear it crossed within. VERY STRANGE that we never saw the replay of that from under the goal posts. I sincerely think it was a case of a referee wishing it was wide … and so it was. But get the public a “real replay”. Strange again … on the winning FG by Nevada in OT, we actually did see the replay from under the posts. Hmmmmmm. Is the Brotzman attempt at end regulation something ESPN doesn’t want us to see???
I don’t want to risk sounding like some crazy conspiracy theorist, but not once did they show a legitimate replay of the “missed” FG at the end of regulation. Not even the guy running the scoreboard(or even the announcers) knew that he missed, as he tacked on the 3 points. Strange how the entire BSU bench thought it went through and then saw the signal and were all just silent and shell shocked. Its been pretty though seeing some of the other terrible calls by the reffs yesterday(and during the Neb/A&M game).
And I’m not excusing our defense at all, they totally lost it there in the second half. Oh well, it was a loss and there’s nothing that can be done now other than keeping up the BSU winning tradition, go TCU!
BEATND !
Just try to do it without cheating. Wonder how many USuC players are actually eligible for today’s game? I’m sure we’ll find out in a year that 12 of ’em were on the take or committed other violations.
Wally,
You had many chances to feel warm and fuzzy yesterday…Bama was cruising,
Oregon was sluggish early and Boise was being Boise and then the @#!%
began to hit the fan ! The good news for Boise, they didn’t really want to play Oregon or Auburn anyway…First Bartman and now Brotzman…Oye vay !
This just in…Rudy expected to suit up tonight for the Catholics to help end the 8 game losing streak to So.Cal…Cheaters win a laugher with second string QB ! Ho-hum…I Love LA ! Fight On ! BEATND !
Well … at least TCU is poised to represent the non-AQers in the title game should Auburn or Oregon falter … which seems unlikely at this point. Looks like TCU will get a Rose Bowl bid worst case.
Too bad for Boise. Great run … 24 in a row … they had a bad 2nd half and some really bad luck against a pretty good Nevada team. I will always think that the last second FG was good until I actually see some visual evidence that it wasn’t. The only evidence I saw suggested it was between the uprights when it crossed … barely. I wonder if that’s even a reviewable call … there’s really no reason it shouldn’t be … they seem to review EVERYTHING else. I mean … if you can review the spot of the ball or whether it crossed the plane, surely you can review a field goal.
And then there’s the “questionable” penalty call against BSU on Nevada’s fumbled punt which really was pivotal. I’m not really sure why there was a penalty … I’ve been seeing punt returners get clobbered all day while catching the ball and not calling fair catch. The BSU defender never hit him before he touched the ball. Oh well … this CRAP tends to happen on the road … just usually not this blatant.
Crash — Is Mustain even enrolled at USC or are they just “renting him” for a week or two?
Wally,
Mitch Mustain was the heir apparent to Matt Leinhart and then Matt Barkley showed up and started as a freshman….Mustain has been there long enough and should step in and produce today…TCU and Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl…
Some good news today … Michigan Skunkbears were creamed and LSU just beaten by Arkansas. Focusing on the positives 😉
Wally – I have to give you props for calling out BSU’s defense before anything else. It was terrible. Nevada ran the ball between the tackles way too well for a team that boasts one of the better, if not the best, D in the nation. And against a team that can’t throw the ball worth a darn. Great quote by Desmond Howard today: “The defense lost the game, but the kicker didn’t win it.”
With that said, no more complaining about tomfoolery in the polls! I actually hope either Oregon or Auburn loses so we can see one of the two versus TCU in the championship.
ND 20 USuC 16 !!!! Hi Ho, Hi Ho … the wicked witch is dead!!!!
Cheater’s proof, Crash. Streak over …. might be a new one startin’ in the other direction. Will make our visit to South Bend next October even more intriguing.
Never been happier to be wrong, Pete!
He taketh away (Boise State) and He giveth (ND).
Isn’t it supposed to be ding dong the witch is dead? 🙂
Enjoy Domers ! I offer no excuses like “the goalpost was short on one side” or “the refs were UCLA alumni” or “if we had a better quarterback and coach we would have scored more than one touchdown” For Crissakes Mitch Miller could have done better than Mitch Mustain tonight and he’s been dead for 4 months ! Yes Wally the streak is over and I’m considering a new license plate…USuCks or USCSUX or USCheat…Which do you haters like best ?
Casey, c’mon helmet sticker for the Mitch Miller props 🙂 He’s from Rochester !
Hopefully both ND and USC will return to the prominence that makes these
discussions relevant…Wally,looking forward to 10/22/2011in Southbend !!!
Did you guys hear the one about the Pope and the altar boy ?
Yes, Crash …. we’ve heard them all. Good sport! 🙂
Casey … who cares? OK … probably. Whatev!
Miami fired Shannon today. Miami is ACC now, right? They should be contending for a title at least every other year. Everyone thought this was a weird hire when it happened.
How pathetic is Big East football? There is no better evidence that the BCS is garbage than the fact that UCONN, WVU, and Pitt are vying for a BCS bowl bid. Wha?! Meanwhile Mich State, Ohio State or Wisconsin will be bumped from a BCS bowl. Yikes. Perhaps if Miami stayed in the Big East they’d have a coach right now.
Crash – I like USCheaters
Crash, I say keep BEATND. It worked for Irish fans this year! Good line in Rochester paper yesterday, though I think it was from a syndicated columnist; Pete Carroll is a .500 pro coach, but he’s an .800 college coach because there he didn’t have to worry about a salary cap. BTW, was Kiffin looking like a big baby on the sidelines in the closing moments of last night’s game, or is it just my imagination? Even RichRod wasn’t as misty eyed as the Kiffin boy. A marriage made in heaven!
Crash —
I’d simply go with no license plate. That’s right … a license plate of nothing … cuz that’s what ya got … NOTHING. It’s a “Seinfeld license plate”.