2009 Week 11
November 19, 2009
We had some mighty fine conference matchups last weekend, but my favorite game was the non-conference tilt between #1 rated Florida and Visor Boy's South Carolina Gamecocks squad.
Early in the game the CBS cameras focused on the South Carolina sideline. They had some uncommon surnames. One of them was named "INTEGRITY", which is the weirdest player name I've seen since Nebraska's Richie Incognito. Or perhaps since Missouri's Hairy Colon. Can't forget DeCody Fagg. And who could resist Lucious Pusey?
Anyway, I was talking to my good friend Mike Tirico about all the odd names for the Cocks. Tirico said "Beeno, I like to use a simple name like 'Lil Mike' or 'Pocket Rocket' for mine".
I don't understand Mike at times.
Then Mike apparently told my good friend Lee Corso about my comments. So Lee called me and explained that Coach Superior was putting the names of the things that mattered most to him on his players' jerseys. Then Coach Corso told me that he did something similar at Indiana, until the league office called and asked why every guy on his team was named Fellatio.
During November the schedule starts to spread out a bit, as the networks make their money by showing games every night of the week. But I was still a bit surprised to see the crucial Big East showdown between Cincinnati and my Pitt team last Sunday, because I thought that wasn't going to be played until early December. I was further surprised because Pitt had played and beaten a game Notre Dame team just the night before.
It was a field goal festival and Cincinnati pulled out the win late, so now the Panthers have another loss on their record. I must say I am impressed by the Bengals. Coach Kelly looks to have them playing very well and he looked quite healthy, having lost weight and acquired a nice suntan.
The key Midwest showdown was in Columbus as Ohio State knocked off the Iowa Huckeyes in overtime.
Now I'm still a bit confused by these overtime rules. Iowa went first but threw incomplete on fourth down from around the Ohio State 40. Yet in spite of the turnover at the 40 they gave the Bawkeyes the ball at the 25! So that great field position made it quite easy for OSU to kick the game-winning sudden death FG and clinch a berth in the Rose Bowl.
There was a lot of controversy out west as Stanford took it to Southern Cal. When Stanford scored to make it 48-21, they chose to try a 2-point conversion. The try failed and people wondered after the game what was going on. Apparently the Indians wanted to get to 50 points in honor of their coach Jack Harbaugh's 50-year high school reunion.
The conversion has been a part of college football since the late 1950s and even back then people debated when was a good time to try such a conversion.
At a 1959 broadcasting convention in Las Vegas, my good friends Chris Schenkel and Bill Flemming of ABC were arguing about game strategy at one of the casinos. They wondered what to do, given the new-fangled conversion, when your team trailed by 15 points and scored.
A beautiful showgirl named Beatrice wandered by just as Chris said "I'd always prefer someone who would go for the extra point."
Beatrice put her arms around Chris and Bill, pointed to her derriere and said "not only wouldn't I mind an extra point, in fact I could really go for two".
Bill said "you don't even look big enough to play football".
Chris said "yeah, you're right, Bill, she probably couldn't even take a hit". The two of them went off to play craps.
Beatrice stood there, crestfallen at the rejection.
But she later sought comfort in the arms of a middle-aged Pitt SID and his friend, Little Beeno, who went for three with future starlet Bea Arthur. And now you know the rest of the story.