I married a woman from the British Isles earlier this year. She’s half Irish, half British. She’s constantly at war with herself and most religions, which is nice.
Anyway, I am off to Ireland with her tomorrow and was thinking green, so the obvious progression is that eventually the Baylor pick I’d made to open the season would come to mind. I am not sure what I’ll miss more about this weekend’s games, the titanic UT/UTEP matchup or the one everyone has been talking about, Baylor versus Northwestern State. Not since Florida versus Charleston Southern has a nation stood on edge in this manner for a regular season college football game. Oh well, I will kiss the Blarney Stone and wish for a Baylor 8-4 record as I do so, or something. Either that, or HenryJames’ death by an attack of Howler Monkeys.
One week after starting off right against the Demon Deacons, the Baylor Bears came crashing back down to earth against the UConn Huskies. Prior to the season, I’d anticipated things being the other way around in the first two games, but I underestimated UConn’s apparent ability to simply “reload”. Right. Anyway, UConn’s front 7 on defense is actually legitimate. Greg Lloyd’s son is very good, as is the rest of that group. They beat the absolute shit out of UNC’s OL two Saturdays ago. It was embarrassing and frustrating, given that I had UNC -4.5. I figured UConn would wind up on the outside of the bowl season this year, but in the weak Big East, maybe they have a 6-6/7-5 kind of shot. Regardless, Baylor is now 1-1.
I was talking with ChrisApplewhite the other day and his take on this Baylor team is that, irrespective of the UConn loss, 8-4 is starting to look like the low side. He then went on a tangent about Art Briles having a significant schematic and strategic advantage in every game he coaches and I started to check out of the conversation. Regardless, I am in agreement with the guy that Baylor is still on track to pull off the decisive winning record. The win against Northwestern State this weekend will put them at 2-1 but will tell us nothing. So be it. These threads are as much a delivery mechanism of things that interest me around the world of CFB as they are about Baylor.
On to other stuff…
Guess who has the nation’s most prolific offense, yardage-wise, after their first two games? If you guessed ATM, you pretty much cheated, but whatever.
ATM’s best player, Jeff Fuller, broke his fibula against Utah State on Saturday. I didn’t hear much about this, which is a testament to how miserably far that program has fallen. That considered, it will be interesting to see how it impacts their team. They play UAB this weekend, and UAB has a nice QB but they’re not very good. My guess is that the loss will play a bigger role against Arkansas and Okie State the following weekends. ATM’s thickest position may be WR, but Fuller was really one of the only guys on that team that push for playing time on squads like UT’s this season. It will hurt them, no doubt.
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Our friends up north in the Land of Joad have now played nine true Freshmen extensively over the last two games. Jamarkus McFarland has something like 3 tackles in the last two games. They start a true Frosh on the OL. The 8 man football LB is now a threat to push for playing time. I don’t know how relevant any of this is for this year. What I do know is that part of that push has to be in regard to what is going to happen to the Sooners after this season. They could lose up to 16 starters with some early entries. Whatever the Sooners are this season, they’re going to be worse next year. Playing as many true Freshmen as they are cannot be spun into being a good thing for OU. They are thin in some important areas and near future isn’t looking much better.
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Jahvid Best played like the best offensive player in the nation this past weekend. I don’t know if the guy continues to perform at that level or not, but if he does, he will deserve to be a Heisman contender. This will be especially true if McCoy and Tebow continue to play like they did on Saturday. I like Cal. They’re a good team. I don’t know who Kevin Riley will lose to for them this year, but it will remain their biggest threat for winning the Pac 10.
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Matt Millen not only calls games on Saturday for the Big 10, but he’s an analyst on Sundays for NFL broadcasts. I have a firm belief in God, but the previous sentence makes me halfway question my convictions. This guy was a meathead on the field, he’s one of the worst administrators in the history of the NFL, and he sounds like personified liposuction fat in the commentators booth. The concept that he’s earned more per year than virtually any reader or poster on this site, and continues to do so, is terrifying. I am protesting language until he is off the air.
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UH has sold out its 32,000 seat stadium this weekend for the Texas Tech game. All 12 UH fans have come out of the woodwork on the radio call-in shows in Houston. They’re demanding respect, dammit!!! I heard one guy today call in on Charlie Palillo’s show on 790 and he asked about the likelihood of UH moving to the SEC if they can maintain their success. The guy was dead serious and he got relatively indignant when Palillo politely told him no effing way. On another channel, one of the radio guys themselves ranted about how UH was ripped off during the forming of the Big 12 and he blamed, tadaaaaahhhh, Texas. Of course. The Evil Empire is responsible for keeping UH down, as opposed to their own operational ineptitude. They’re also now talking about having a shot at the national title and BCS and, naturally, Texas is in the way there as well. Next in line is the topic of why Texas refuses to play UH in any sport. They can’t understand it.
What really sucks about UH is that they’re located in Texas. They fit the Okie profile perfectly. They’ve shown the proclivity to cheat with impunity. They’re cheapshotting scumbags. They’re utterly oblivious to their own misdeeds and take great pains to justify or deny any transgression created by their players. I usually enjoy their futility, but their rhetoric right now is at an all decade high.
I watched Tulane play Tulsa a few weeks ago. They showed a clip of the cheapshot that ended the Tulane QB’s year last year (I think the Tulane guy is named Joe Kemp and the play can probably be YouTubed). Of course it was a UH player, going full speed about 3 seconds after the whistle blew, shattering the QB’s clavicle in 12 places. He received only a flag and then Kevin Sumlin defended his play after the game. This isn’t much different than the UH basketball player stepping on Chase Buddinger's face or the UH defensive players trying to wrench Cedric Benson’s ankle after each play late in the 2000 game. UH is a 4th rate school in every possible way when it comes to athletics. There are few better things to root for our program right now than Tech beating UH, and thoroughly, on Saturday night. It dims the problems with the schedule after they beat OSU and it puts them properly in their place, which is nestled firmly between the sandy bottom and the whale shit resting on top of it in the ocean of college athletics.
Thoughts?