Week 6: That's Why They Play'em

It was a good week for Michigan fans, but not so good for prognosticators. For most of us, it's a welcomed tension (as long as Rich can get his players to hold on to the ball before the season's over). But in addition to conceiving a Wolverine comeback after a 19-0 halftime deficit, who could have predicted some of the madness we saw on Saturday? Who could have guessed the Trojans wouldn't be able to tackle a 5' 6", 180-pound freshman? Who would have thought the Dawgs would give up 31 points in the first half at home (in the black jerseys no less!)? How could anyone know that the Gators would lose to Ole Miss because of a blocked PAT and Tebow's failure to get one yard? Where in the world did Navy come from? And who in their right mind would have thought the Tarheels would be able to go into Miami and pull out a win with their third-string quarterback and only 35 total rushing yards? That's just college football for you.

Well, on to the standings after week 5. Nate remains on top for the third week in a row, but Alex (like the Wonders' hit song) continues to climb the charts. Derek, the Doctor and Grant are all tied for fourth. And the Rev claws his way back out of the basement.

Standings

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	14	9	(74-26)
Tornado Beast	15	8	(71-29)
Kenny Pickett	12	11	(69-31)
Dr. L	12	11	(67-33)
The Guvna	12	11	(67-33)
O-knee-der	13	10	(67-33)
The Rev	14	9	(65-35)
Chief Justice	10	13	(62-38)

Schedule

Thursday, October 2
7:30 PM ET Pittsburgh at #10 S. Florida (-13.0 )
9:00 PM ET Oregon St. at #15 Utah (-8.0)

Saturday, October 4
12:00 PM ET #6 Penn St. (-9.5) at Purdue
12:00 PM ET Boston College (-4.5) at N. C. State
2:00 PM ET S. Carolina at Mississippi (-3.0)
2:00 PM ET Ohio at W. Michigan (-4.0)
2:30 PM ET Stanford at Notre Dame (-8.0)
3:30 PM ET Kentucky at #2 Alabama (-16.5)
3:30 PM ET #7 Texas Tech (-7.0) at Kansas St.
3:30 PM ET Arizona St. at California (-8.0)
3:30 PM ET Illinois at Michigan (-1.0)
3:30 PM ET Florida St. at Miami (-3.0)
4:00 PM ET Navy at Air Force (-6.0)
6:00 PM ET #13 Auburn (-4.5) at #19 Vanderbilt
7:00 PM ET Texas A&M at #21 Oklahoma St. (-21.5)
7:00 PM ET #24 Connecticut at N. Carolina (-7.5)
8:00 PM ET #5 Texas (-13.5) at Colorado
8:00 PM ET #23 Oregon at #9 USC (-18.0)
8:00 PM ET #14 Ohio St. (-3.0) at #18 Wisconsin
9:00 PM ET #4 Missouri (-9.5) at Nebraska

Week 5: Thoughts and Prayers

It's just a shame when this kind of thing happens. Dante Love was having a great season as the nation's leading receiver and was potentially looking forward to a successful career. But in the blink of an eye it could all be gone. No officials or anyone to blame this time; it's simply unfortunate. There didn't appear to be anything wrong or dirty with the hit that cornerback, Chris Adkins put on Love, but I imagine he feels terrible nevertheless. Aside from Love's family and friends, Adkins may very well be hoping more than anyone that Dante Love is able to make a full recovery.

In the back of their minds, most athletes probably realize they run the risk of severe injury, but it's often written off as something that happens to OTHER people. While many do complete their careers without tragedy, the nature of the game can bring a harsh reality to any player's life in any given football game.

This incident is just another reminder of how frail our lives are. We are incapable of holding on to anything in our lives. In an instant, anything and everything we love can be taken away from us. There's nothing to do about it except make the most of every play and every opportunity we DO get.Standings:
A tough week for many, especially the Doctor and the Rev. Nate remains in first place, but Kenny's right on his heels (would have been closer if Air Force could have pulled the upset). Alex had the best outing this week and moved to third. Derek pulls even with the Doctor. Grant stays put, but Clyde works his way out of the basement and passes up the Rev.

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	15	7	(60-17)
Kenny Pickett	16	6	(58-20)
Tornado Beast	17	5	(56-21)
Dr. L	13	9	(55-22)
The Guvna	15	7	(55-22)
O-knee-der	16	6	(54-23)
Chief Justice	16	6	(52-25)
The Rev	14	8	(51-26)

Schedule:

Thursday, September 25th
9:00 PM ET #1 USC (-23.0) at Oregon St.

Friday, September 26th
8:00 PM ET Connecticut at Louisville (-2.5)

Saturday, September 27th
12:00 PM ET Minnesota at #14 Ohio St. (-19.0)
12:00 PM ET Maryland at #20 Clemson (-13.0)
12:00 PM ET Michigan St. (-8.0) at Indiana
12:00 PM ET N. Carolina at Miami FL (-7.0)
12:05 PM ET Northwestern at Iowa (-7.0 )
12:30 PM ET Mississippi at #4 Florida (-22.0)
2:00 PM ET W. Michigan (-3.0) at Temple
*3:30 PM ET Arkansas at #7 Texas (-26.0)
3:30 PM ET #9 Wisconsin (-6.5) at Michigan
3:30 PM ET Tennessee at #15 Auburn (-6.5)
3:30 PM ET Houston at #23 E. Carolina (-10.5)
3:30 PM ET #25 Fresno St. (-4.0) at UCLA
3:30 PM ET Colorado at Florida St. (-3.0)
3:30 PM ET Purdue at Notre Dame (-3.5)
3:30 PM ET Marshall at West Virginia (-17.0)
7:00 PM ET #24 TCU at #2 Oklahoma (-18.0)
7:30 PM ET Mississippi St. at #5 LSU (-21.0)
7:30 PM ET #13 S. Florida (-10.0) at N. C. State
7:45 PM ET # 8 Alabama at #3 Georgia (-8.0)
8:00 PM ET #22 Illinois at #12 Penn St. (-15.0)
8:00 PM ET Virginia Tech at Nebraska (-6.0)

*We've already picked the Texas/Arkansas game, but if you wish to change your pick or make sure I have the correct pick from you, then feel free to do so before Thursday night.

Week 4: Hold on to the Ball, Petey!

Not too much to say about Saturday's game. Herbstreit nailed it when he said the team that protects the ball would win the Michigan/Notre Dame game. And when you put the ball on the ground 7 times, you can't really expect to win. Even despite the first quarter debacle, the Wolverines had more than a good opportunity to come back. Grady's red zone fumble in the third quarter killed all the momentum Michigan had going for them.

Well, it is what is now. At least there are some positives to take away from this one. Mcguffie is starting to come into his own with his first 100+ rushing game. Michigan still outgained Notre Dame 388 to 260. However, when you look at the turnover margin and penalty stats you have to wonder if there's a coaching issue here. We'll just have to see how the Wolverines adjust throughout the season.

This week, Nate makes a strong move into first place, Grant drops a couple spots and Derek moves up. Nate and the Doctor were the only ones to stand alone and get a pick correct (UNC and New Mexico respectively). All in all, it's still a pretty close race.

Standings:

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
A True Blue Husker	17	2	(45-10)
Dr. L	13	6	(42-13)
Kenny Pickett	13	6	(41-14)
The Guvna	14	5	(40-15)
Tornado Beast	13	6	(39-16)
O-knee-der	11	8	(38-17)
The Rev	12	7	(37-18)
Chief Justice	12	7	(36-19)

This week's games:
Wednesday, September 17
*8:00 PM ET Kansas St. (-2.5) at Louisville

Thursday, September 18
8:30 PM ET #21 W. Virginia (-4.5) at Colorado

Friday, September 19
8:00 PM ET Baylor at Connecticut (-16.0)

Saturday, September 20
12:00 PM ET #15 E. Carolina (-6.5) at N.C. State
12:00 PM ET Mississippi St. at Georgia Tech (-7.0)
12:00 PM ET C. Michigan at Purdue (-10.0)
12:30 PM ET # 9 Alabama (-9.5) at Arkansas
1:00 PM ET UCF at Boston College (-10.0)
3:00 PM ET Arizona (2.5) at UCLA
3:30 PM ET #4 Florida (-8.0) at Tennessee
3:30 PM ET Boise St. at #17 Oregon (-9.5 )
3:30 PM ET Notre Dame at Michigan State (-7.0)
3:30 PM ET Virginia Tech at North Carolina (-2.0)
3:30 PM ET Miami (FL) (-3.0) at Texas A&M
4:00 PM ET #20 Utah at Air Force (-5.0)
7:00 PM ET #18 Wake Forest at #24 Florida St. (-5.5)
7:00 PM ET Ball St. at Indiana (-1.5)
7:00 PM ET Vanderbilt at Mississippi (-6.5)
7:00 PM ET Tenn. Tech at W. Michigan (no odds yet posted)
7:45 PM ET #6 LSU at #10 Auburn (-1.5)
8:00 PM ET #3 Georgia (-7.0) at Arizona St.
8:15 PM ET #25 Fresno St. (-8.5) at Toledo

*Note the Kansas St./Louisville game is on Wednesday, the due date for the rest of the games is still Thursday at 8:00 ET.

Week 3: Don't Shoot the Messenger

Another week in the books and another week of thrilling upsets, exciting finishes and controversial calls. Highlights from this weekend include stellar performances by Vanderbilt and East Carolina to pull the big upsets; the Big Ten's finest struggle against the MAC; UCF tries to make a statement to USF for dropping the rivalry; and the sports world is all a buzz after BYU's close victory over Washington.

I'm going to step up on a soapbox for a moment here, so please bear with me. I have to say that I was rather disappointed with many of the ESPN anchors and commentators and their reactions to the end of this game. In the past, the complaint has been that broadcasters have been too easy on officials. But on Saturday, they came down way too hard on Larry Farina for giving Jake Locker the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at the end of the game. Over and over I kept hearing "The game shouldn't be decided by the referees," "The ball wasn't thrown that high," "It was a ridiculous call."

First of all, the penalty didn't really hurt the Huskies that much. Any PAT or field goal unit should have been able to nail the straight on, 35 YD attempt. But it's not like the kicker pulled it just wide; the BYU special teams unit tore through the Washington line and swarmed the kicker before he had a chance. The game was decided by the special teams, not the call.Mark May tried to contend that Jake Locker merely flipped the ball over his shoulder and that's just not true! Are these guys blind?! Locker likely didn't mean to, but in his excitement he threw the ball straight into the air, regained his balance, did one of those body bumps with his receiver and was congratulated by one more teammate as the ball came straight down on his back. Now that all took place in under 2.5 seconds, but I'd say that's significant enough hang-time to constitute "high" (as it appears in Rule 9, Section 2, Article 1C).

Is the league coming down too hard on celebrations this year? Probably. I don't think Locker did anything wrong at all. He certainly did nothing to disgrace or embarrass himself, his team or college football in general. He had good reason to be excited. If the ESPN anchors want to talk about how stupid the rule is, then fine. But get off the ref's back; it's not his job to evaluate the rule, but simply to enforce it. His job is hard enough as it is without people creating unnecessary controversy. If the fans are going to get all upset about it, that can't really be helped. But the commentators and the sportswriters ought to know better. *Sigh*

Well, now that the tirade is out of the way, here are the standings:

This Week	W	L	(Overall)
Dr. L	17	3	(29-7)
A True Blue Husker	16	4	(28-8)
Kenny Pickett	16	4	(28-8)
O-knee-der	15	5	(27-9)
Tornado Beast	15	5	(26-10)
The Guvna	16	4	(26-10)
The Rev	15	5	(25-11)
Chief Justice	15	5	(24-12)

This week's games:

Thursday, September 11
7:30 PM ET North Carolina at Rutgers (-4.5)

Friday, September 12
8:00 PM ET # 13 Kansas at # 19 South Florida (-3.5)

Saturday, September 13
12:00 PM ET Iowa St. at Iowa (-13.5)
12:00 PM ET #23 California (-14.0) at Maryland
3:00 PM ET # 14 E. Carolina (-13.0) at Tulane
3:30 PM ET # 2 Georgia (-7.0) at S. Carolina
3:30 PM ET Arkansas at # 8 Texas (-24.0)
3:30 PM ET # 16 Oregon (-7.0) at Purdue
3:30 PM ET UCLA at # 18 Brigham Young (-8.5)
3:30 PM ET Michigan (-1.0) at Notre Dame
3:30 PM ET Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech (-7.0)
5:00 PM ET W. Michigan (-7.0) at Idaho
7:00 PM ET Rice at Vanderbilt (-7.0)
7:00 PM ET # 9 Auburn (-10.5) at Mississippi State
7:00 PM ET New Mexico St. at Nebraska (-24.5 )
7:30 PM ET Virginia at Connecticut (-11.0)
7:45 PM ET # 3 Oklahoma (-20.0) at Washington
8:00 PM ET # 5 Ohio St. at # 1 USC (-10.5)
8:00 PM ET Arizona (-10.5) at New Mexico
10:30 PM ET # 10 Wisconsin (-2.5) at # 21 Fresno St.

Week 2

Well, week 1 may not have been what many of us had hoped. I know none of us are expecting a conference title of Rich Rodriguez in his first year and I think most Wolverine fans would probably forgive him if he didn't beat Tressel's Buckeyes this November. None of us were sure what Michigan would look like this year, but we knew it was Michigan. Last year's opener was considered to be exactly what it was: a fluke. Saturday's performance may have been an even worse showing than last year. At least we could say the Wolverines beat themselves, at least they generated some offense, at least they could run the ball!

True, Rich didn't have all the tools he wanted to run his spread offense, but it's Michigan! He's going to have some talent to work with. But it seemed like he either snubbed or failed to utilize the talent he has. Yes, Rodriguez is trying to develop the players that will fit into his system later this season and in the years to come, but you've still got to win the game! Instead of using guys like Minor and Brown to move the ball, Rich is giving these untested freshmen the call who start running the other way as soon as they see the defensive line.

I don't really like all the extra motion and gimmicks in the offense. They didn't fool anybody. I miss just giving the ball to the running back and telling the O-line to make a gap for him to hit. They did that once with Minor in the 3rd quarter. However, he didn't help his cause by later fumbling the ball and killing the one decent drive Michigan had all game long. It'll be interesting to see what adjustments are made next week.

Standings for week 1:

	W	L
A True Blue Husker	12	4
Dr. L	12	4
Kenny Pickett	12	4
O-knee-der	12	4
Tornado Beast	11	5
The Guvna	10	6
The Rev	10	6
Chief Justice	9	7

Most of us rose and fell on the same games. The only ones who went against the majority and won were Nate (A True Blue Husker), Doug B. (The Rev) and Clyde (Chief Justice) who picked Stanford. Then Clyde was the only one to pick UCLA. But did he actually stay up in the Eastern time zone to watch the thrilling conclusion of that west coast game?

This week's games:

Thursday, September 4th
8:30 PM ET South Carolina (-7.5) at Vanderbilt

Friday, September 5th
7:00 PM ET Navy at Ball State (-3.5)

Saturday September 6th
12:00 PM ET Georgia Tech at Boston College (-7.0)
12:00 PM ET Miami (OH) at Michigan (-14.5)
12:30 PM ET Southern Miss at Auburn (-17.5)
12:30 PM ET San Jose State at Nebraska (-21.5)
3:00 PM ET Brigham Young (-6.5) at Washington
3:30 PM ET Cincinnati at Oklahoma (-21.0)
3:30 PM ET Oregon State at Penn State (-11.5)
3:30 PM ET Mississippi at Wake Forest (-7.5)
3:30 PM ET San Diego State at Notre Dame (-20.0)
3:30 PM ET Air Force at Wyoming (-2.5)
4:30 PM ET West Virginia (-10.5) at East Carolina
6:00 PM ET Buffalo at Pittsburgh (-14.5)
6:30 PM ET California (-10.5) at Washington State
7:00 PM ET South Florida (-8.5) at UCF
7:00 PM ET N. Illinois at W. Michigan (-7.5)
7:30 PM ET Minnesota at Bowling Green (-7.0)
8:00 PM ET Miami (FL) at Florida (-18.5)
10:00 PM ET Stanford at Arizona State (-14.5)