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.
9 comments:
Mark, I agree. The official made the correct call. Unfortunately, the correct call is asinine. I don't aprove of Michael Irvin spectacles in the end zone, but heaving the ball in the air after scoring a game-tying touchdown is not unsportsmanlike. Not doing so would be more unsportsmanlike. You score after that drive and you should be able to punt the ball into the stands without punishment. But I also agree that everyone is making too big of a deal of this because he would have missed a 20-yard XP as well. Lou Holtz did make one great point that Washington may have gone for two to win the game (a similar bad call cost Vandy against Florida a few years ago) and that chance was taken away from them. But all in all, this crackdown is way over the top.
Now then, this week looks like fun. A lot of touch matchups. Should be fun.
Unfortunately, just about anything that happens in the NFL eventually filters down to the college game, so we can thank people like Chad "Jack Monkey" Johnson for that great piece of legislation. As rotten as the decision against Washington may have been, the USF/UCF matchup was a different sort of unpleasant. UCF takes nearly full blame, because their uniforms were utterly atrocious. However, when both teams lined up on either side of the ball, it just made me want to change the channel. Now this analysis may appear to be superfluous, and for the rest of you it probably does (true as it may be). But when I'm at work and can only steal occasional glances with no sound, I miss a great deal of the game's substance and things on the surface become a much bigger deal. At least I won't be working Saturdays anymore, and I got the pick right.
Among some of my other glances, I happened to catch the SDSU fumble on the 2 inch line, which was easily the most significant play in any game all week. My next glance was the Irish dancing in the endzone. Notre Dame and Michigan both salvaging wins on Saturday is a good precursor to their matchup this weekend. It's always a big game for each team by definition, but this year it's a big step for the winner toward overcoming mediocrity.
I agree...gold on white should be banished forever. As for ND-Michigan, I think the game is bigger for the Irish. Michigan is rebuilding, starting over. Almost anything can be excused. Notre Dame is in year four of a rebuild. They can't afford another debacle like last year.
What's the temp on USC-OSU. Anyone give the Buckeyes a shot?
Grant- Well, this game was a huge deal last year when both teams came in 0-2 for the first time ever (as well as unranked since the AP poll started in 1936). But like Nate said, it's a bigger deal for the Irish since they've been rebuilding longer and were throttled by the Wolverines in their past two meetings.
Nate- Not a chance! No way will Beanie be at 100%, and the Trojans are just too good! It'll be a long plane ride back to Columbus for the Buckeyes.
Mark, my thoughts too. I think OSU's overall talent on defense keeps it from getting ugly, but I'm thinking a comfortable SC win.
Rebuilding year or not, Michigan has a pair of sizeable streaks I'm sure they would love to keep intact. Whether it means as much to Richie Rod or not, I don't know. I also can't say how realistic it is to hope for a winning season and a bowl game, but they can't afford to lose games to other so-so teams, like this week.
With Beanie now doubtful, I think it will be interesting how the Senator plays things on Saturday. Do the Buckeyes copy Nebraska a few years ago, run the ball, just try to hang in there as long as possible, and hope to get lucky late, or do they pull out all the stops, play out of their minds, and risk getting run in the hopes of making enough big plays. My guess is they take the middle ground, try to go toe-to-toe with USC, and find out they're a few inches shorter. 34-17, USC.
"They are NOT who we thought they were!"
I realize my college football knowledge is often limited, particularly with lower echelon teams. But I chose Rutgers to win, primarily because they have been ranked not long ago, and UNC football has been on the same level as Taylor football (at least recordwise) for quite some time. Are they making a comeback to legitimacy? Or did they just ride the excitement of national coverage?
I went with UNC simply because I think Butch Davis is slowly instilling some attitude at UNC. I think they are on their way to relevance again, but I certainly didn't expect that beatdown.
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