2010 Week 7
October 20, 2010
The middle of October is a fine time of year. The air is crisp, the leaves have turned funny colors, and we're one week closer to the end of the baseball season.
Even though most teams are in the midst of their conference schedules, there were some stunning non-conference upsets last Saturday.
Indiana pulled perhaps the biggest surprise, upending top 10 rated R Kansas, 36-34. It was a bad weekend for the Hogs, as their basketball team was also upset, by Auburn's hoopsters, 65-43.
Another big shocker was Texas heading up to Lincoln and shutting down Nebraska's explosive offense in a 20-13 victory. Texas regained some prestige for the struggling Southwest Conference after their SWC rivals from Fayetteville.
Finally, Kentucky showed some SEC pride as they knocked off the previously unbeaten South Carolina squad of the ACC.
Another aspect of these non-conference games is all the directional schools playing. It used to be that you had a few directional schools, like Southern Illinois and Western Virginia. Now you've got dozens. East Tennessee, Northern Arizona, West Texas State, North and South Dakota, it's very confusing.
Some of the directional schools have pretty good teams. Ole Southern Mississippi bombed Memphis last Saturday. Northern Illinois beat Buffalo 45-14, but this clearly has not been a good season for the winless Bills. East Carolina upheld the pride of their new expansion state by knocking off a team from the mother land, North Carolina State, 33-27.
Perhaps the biggest directional school battle took place in Morgantown, as Southern Florida paid a visit to Mountain Man country and took a thumping from Western Virginia. WVU may be the best team in the Thomas Jefferson State.
Miami won a closer than expected battle with Central Michigan, 27-20. The Canes are going to have to get their act together if they expect to compete in the SEC South. Former Miami archrival Notre Dame had their own MAC matchup, as they blew out Western Michigan 44-20. New head coach B Kelly seems to have turned things around for the Irish and I'm sure he'll be back to using teenagers as urinals again.
In other action, on Friday night I enjoyed watching a great exhibition game, as Cincinnati beat the St Louisville Cardinals 35-27. I must admit, I wasn't aware of the football prowess of some of these off-season baseball players.
Probably the most upsetting result occurred in a bitter rivalry game, as Kansas City State really laid the wood to Kansas, 59-7. Kansas appears to have gone downhill; it's hard to believe that just two years ago they made a BS Bowel. Coach Mangino certainly looks good, but he may have lost his edge after losing all that weight and spending so much time in the tanning salon.
I'm really looking forward to this weekend as it's the fourth Saturday in October, which means it's time for the big showdown between Tennessee and Alabama Birmingham. See you next week.