Quick Hitters: The Weekend that Was!

A lot of crazy things this past weekend in the world of college football, including my 4-6 record, which dropped my bankroll a bit. I’m still up, but it is what it is. Here’s what comes to my mind in some quick hitters:

NOTRE DAME

It’s hard to know for sure. Am I wrong on these guys? Is Purdue not that good? I admit I didn’t watch the game after it was 14-7 as I had to take advantage of the last few weekends for golfing, but looking at the box score, this wasn’t a Michigan win where the opponent turned the ball over 5 times. Clausen threw for 275 & 3 scores, and the Irish has a running game that had some success. They had 10 minutes more of time of possession as well. Looking at their schedule, USC seems to be the only loss that is definite on their schedule. I’d favor North Carolina slightly over the Irish right now, and Pitt & Boston College could go either way (I’d slightly favor the Irish). But the Irish look like they’ll end up going 9-3. Not good enough to get them into a BCS bowl game, so that’s the good news, but if the UNC game goes their way, no reason they can’t be 10-2 and giving us all what we don’t want, which is them getting blasted in another BCS game.

You want to know why Weis may be going to another BCS game? The bottom line is that Notre Dame has eased up on their scheduling practices since the Davie regime. Notre Dame used to be so freaking arrogant that they could play such a difficult national schedule because that’s what they do. They realized that not only could they not survive it, but no team in America could survive it. Look at the 1999 schedule that Davie had to go through:

Kansas (W, 48-13) [KU was a cupcake them, so a low BCS team was their cupcake]
@ Michigan (L 26-22) [Tom Brady-led Michigan won the Orange Bowl that season]
@ Purdue (L, 28-23) [Drew Brees-led Purdue lost to Georgia in Outback Bowl, team went to Rose Bowl following season]
Michigan State (L, 23-13) [Nick Saban-led Spartans finished 10-2 with win over Florida in Citrus Bowl]
Oklahoma (W, 34-30) [Sooners won national title the next season]
Arizona State (W 48-17)
USC (W, 25-24)
Navy (W, 28-24)
@ Tennessee (L 38-14) [Defending national champs, lost to Nebraska in Fiesta Bowl]
@ Pittsburgh (W 37-27)
Boston College (L, 31-29)
@ Stanford (L, 40-37) [Pac Ten champs & Rose Bowl representative]

What an absolutely BRUTAL schedule. Swap the Oklahoma’s & Tennessee’s with Syracuse & Washington and you have 4 game swings in records.

ALABAMA

I got back from dinner after golfing, thinking I’d tune in to the 3rd & 4th quarters of the Georgia-Alabama game thinking I’d see a close game, or at least Georgia winning. What I saw made my eyes jump. Alabama up 31-3? John Parker Freaking Wilson making things happen?

The funny thing is, you look at their schedule, and if it was ever conducive to run the table in the SEC, this would be it. They are @ LSU on 11/08, but that’s the only really daunting game. Auburn is at home and the only other road game is @ Tennessee, which looks like they’ve replaced Vandy as the state of Tennessee representative of SEC punching bag. Saban is a snake oil salesman and he’d be one guy I’d want to hit a 2 x 4 over the head with after a night of drinking on Frat Row, but they guy had Michigan State turned into a high level program before he left, completely turned LSU around before he left, and looks like he’s doing the same at Alabama. The only question remains: will he settle down and remain or jump ship for some quick dollars in the future?
FLORIDA

I love it. Scoops became so vindicated when it was 31-30, Florida faced 3rd & 10 with a little over a minute left, and the only two plays that Urban Meyer could come up with were a hand off around left end to Percy Harvin and a 4th down play that consisted of Tebow trying to jam himself straight up the middle. Please mail all 2006 National Championship Rings and the Sears Crystal Football to: University of Illinois, ATTN: Ron Zook/Player Recruitment, Champaign, IL.

MINNESOTA

It was what I thought it would be. The turnovers killed them, and Ohio State is a flat out better football team than Minnesota. But I’m excited. And you know why? Because I was pretty much scared to death watching Terrell Pryor with the football in his hands. And I don’t have to see him with that against my favorite team for at least another year. I thought the OL, for as young as they are, played OK. I think the DL played well & hard, but you can see they were getting tired in the 3rd quarter. I think there is a big gap for a 2nd & 3rd WR. Ralph Spry should be on the bench. Ben Kuznia is what he is: a walk-on WR with 4.7 40 speed from rural MN. I love the direction they’re going, hope one of the freshmen WR’s can step up the 2nd half of the season, and see no reason they can’t go 4-4 in the Big Ten, or 3-5 at the worst. And it’s because they just faced the best team & player they’re going to see all season this past weekend. It’s all downhill from this point. And Kellen Lewis is a poor man’s Pryor without any weapons and no defense. This weekend is a big game for the Gophers in terms of seeing how far they’ve come.

COLORADO

I suppose I should have listened to Corso. I tried to be impressed by the OT win over West Virginia. Apparently, Florida State is a whole new ball of wax, which is odd considering how rough Florida State's offense was last week against Wake Forest, who in turn decided to lose to Navy. Anyway, I still contend that way too many Colorado players would rather play intramurals.