Week 2 Review:
Week 2 was, as I predicted, boring. The only upset in the Top 25 was East Carolina taking down West Virginia. I think the absence of Steve Slaton (and their selection of a head coach) will hurt W f'n Va more than they realized.
By the way, ANY mention of Wva. makes me think of this hilarious clip of Pat White (current QB) mocking the "cat growl" that many cat-mascot schools play over the PA. (Note the scoreboard.)
And, of course, the sluggish The Ohio State win over Ohio U., which you heard about. A couple other teams struggled more than they should have (BYU, South Florida) but it was mostly status quos and blowouts. Iowa crushed the global version of a US state, 42-0. Notre Dame won. (looks around quickly, whistles at the ceiling) OK, good.
The only Pick Six loss was Quigley's unranked Cincy, to Oklahoma.
I don't have at this moment the fancy graphic like last week (I'll add it soon as I can), but everyone moved up a point. So TM 73; MPF 72, Quigley 45.
Update: Here it is.
Week 3 Preview:
Let Hate Week commence. The hate is oozing out of my pores so strongly, I need to take two showers a day to wash the hate off my skin:
Notre Dame hosts Michigan. Iowa hosts Iowa State.
Why hate Michigan? How about because their coach, Dick Rod, recruited and signed a kid who robbed a Smoothie King. Smoothies! What in this world is not sacred?
The best and brightest.
How about because they hold true to this concept of the "Michigan Man," which includes scholar athletes like Marques Slocum. (Slocum, if you read the link, has contributed to American literature such Bartlett's worthy quotes as "opera- no, musical- no, concert- maybe. play- no, performance- fuuuuuuuuuuuck no, other- no.") Surprisingly, Mr. Slocum is not on the roster this season, having failed to qualify academically.
I was looking forward to watching both games, but as it turns out we will be inside Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, so I'll miss the Hawkeye-Cyclone hatefest. I am currently 1-1 in attending ND-Michigan games. My first experience was ugly, ugly, ugly and I've blotted it from memory. Unfortunately the internets have not, thus the link. The second was much better, a 28-20 win over the No. 8 ranked Skunkbears. I'll always remember rushing the field and how Himanshu (from India) had a grabbed small handful of grass as a souvenir, that he looked at with wonder, then carefully placed into a handkerchief and then back into his pocket. The look on his face said "what is this crazy American game....I love it!"
As for the 2008 version: I really think this can go one of two ways: the two ways I've witnessed personally. Either ND hangs in there, the offense gets a couple scores on a strong and talented defense, and stays in the game until the fourth quarter where they can pull out a 24-23 type win. Or, Michigan's offense starts to gel, their D shuts down our rickety, sophomore-heavy offense, and they roll to a 38-0 win. (It can be no other score.) Michigan eked out 23 and 16 points in their first two games, so I'm not expecting a WAC-tastic explosion of points. Therefore I'm hoping for the former scenario.
(One more note about Slocum: after you read his questionaire/manifesto, reading the comments here and here after almost as funny as the original. If you are having a bad day, just read one or both of these threads. You will laugh til it hurts. Hard to pick a favorite, but this one always gets me.)
The 2008 Notre Dame-Meeechigan game, illustrated with felines.
So getting back to my hate, I'll have to rely on updates from the homestead for the Hawkeye game. Although ISU is 2-0 like Iowa, they are breaking in a lot of new talent at skill positions. Those little bastards overachieved last year by beating us, one of only three wins all year, a game we should have dominated. It's at home. We're Iowa. We're bigger, faster, stronger, and don't smell like pig poop stuck to the bottom of our farming boots. We should win by 20, like the 1980s. But it's ISU, the one game they get up for, so you just never know.
If you're asking "why hate Iowa State?" you are not from Iowa. If you are from Iowa and asking that question, then turn off the computer, go outside, and ask the first person you see to please punch you in the face. (although if you really need some hate, I cannot outdo this. It's beyond vulgar so consider yourself warned.)
As for Pick Sixin': some upset potential this week, with Auburn (MPF) going on the road to Mississippi State. Mizzou (TM) and Texas (TM, MPF) face tougher competition but should still be fine. Cal (MPF)(now ranked No. 23, the first of the three "pick sixth" to make the rankings!)* should be fine against Maryland, who lost to a I-AA school (ouch!). The rest are pretty safe.
And nationally: The Ohio State (MPF, Quig) vs. The Southern California and South Florida (MPF) vs. Kansas (Quigley) are the two biggies. Look for OSU to hang tough but lose, and USF to expose KU as a one-year fluke. All that will shake up the scoring pretty good.
Other games of interest: Ohio, fresh off scaring the shit out of thousands of Buckeye fans, will host Central Michigan and Tim Tebow-lite QB Dan Le Fever. (phonetic cause I don't learn how to spell names like that). Maryland as mentioned will look for a shred of dignity against a Cal team that hung 66 on Washington State last week.
Go Hawks! Go Irish! (and much thanks as always to Orson Swindle for finding the WFVA pic and the Slocum article)
Husker Update (for Kelly cause she asked): Handled Western Michigan in Week 1. Handled San Jose State in Week 2. Should handle New Mexico State in Week 3. Big test in Week 4 w/ Virginia Tech. Bo Pelini: much better than Bill what'shisnamewe'veblockeditfrommemory.
* Yeah I just did two parens back to back. Cool, id'n it.
1 comment:
Hm. Needs more Husker news but otherwise most satisfactory!
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