2008 Week 11
November 13, 2008
We had some pretty exciting showdowns last weekend.
I especially enjoyed tuning in to watch that exciting game between Western Michigan and Illinois. Western Michigan pulled the upset and took home the trophy in the inaugural Big Ten/MAC challenge. Good work, coach Cuban, and good luck with that Dallas NBA team this year.
One of the other exciting games was actually played on Thursday night, on one of those extra cable channels that nobody gets, something called CBS. In the game, a late score led the University of Texas at Houston to an exciting win over Texas Christian, so now U.T.A.H. has a stranglehold on the Southwest Conference race.
Probably the biggest shocker of the week occurred at the University of Iowa. Penn State's undefeated season came to an end as JoePa's boys dropped a heartbreaker to the Huckeyes. Fans celebrated all through the night in Iowa City, Missouri.
Florida State clubbed Clemson to take hold of the Bowden Bowel trophy. Those polyps are mighty slippery.
Two of the other big games went into overtime.
Now I'm finally starting to understand these overtime rules. Apparently each team gets an equal opportunity.
In the case of the showdown in Baton Rouge, LSU and Alabama each got to run three plays in overtime. Alabama scored after three plays, while LSU threw an interception, so Alabama was declared the winner. I guess if both teams had scored or both had thrown interceptions then they would have gone to sudden death, with each team taking turns running plays.
Now in an odd but fascinating game a thousand miles further north, Cincinnati knocked off Western Virginia in overtime. In this game each team got to run five plays, with Western Virginia kicking a field goal and Cincinnati scoring a touchdown and winning. The Mountain Men are still licking their wounds, while the Bengals therefore got their first win of the season.
As part of the anniversary of the famed Song Girls, I'm taking time out to salute some Song Girls of the past.
Sadie was part of the 1968 Song Girl squad. She was noted for her Song Girl uniform, which had far more dark red on it than most of the sweaters. She even liked to write her own messages, like "POLITICAL PIGGY", on the back of her sweater.
At one game, during halftime, Sadie broke ranks and joined the band as they paid a tribute to a song written by John Lenin and Bill McCartney's brother Paul. She then ran around the field helter skelter with her friend Charlie, knifing dozens of band members just as the USC team came back on the field.
Most people there were appalled and Trojan football players managed to gang up and disarm Sadie and Charlie. All but one player, who stood transfixed watching the stabbing spree, strangely fascinated, a young man whom we all know as Orenthal.