2014 Week 4
September 25, 2014
First off, I'd like to congratulate my daughter Beth Cook, as she scored 7 times against a bunch of guys from Central Florida. Her stamina appears to be improving this week.
I'd also like to recognize Old Dominion's 45-42 win over Rhode Island Continuing Education. It's nice that ODU and R.I.C.E. are able to run up totals in the 40's and I hope that portends a bright future for women's basketball.
In the world of football, it was a heckuva long day. I sat down at noon Eastern time and didn't bother getting up until 2 a.m. when the last game had ended. For those of you wondering, no, the body functions still are operative even in the afterlife. I just got myself some a recliner, a 12-pack, a remote control, and some Depends undergarments. Never had to get up.
The biggest game of the day was the overtime thriller between Florida State and Clemson. Now I'm still a bit confused about these overtime rules. Clemson went first and missed their field goal, but Florida State never even tried a field goal, instead running the ball into the end zone. I guess they repealed that field goal shootout rule.
The really late games were pretty exciting too. Oregon held on to upend upset-minded Washington State 38-31. It was a fine effort by Coach Rick Leach's boys. Arizona had a stunning "Hail Mary" win over Cal, nailing a 47-yard touchdown pass as time expired. I haven't seen a bunch of Bay Area hippies go down so quickly since the Hells' Angels post-party at Altamont.
In other action, Mississippi State stunned LSU under the lights in Baton Rouge, 34-29. I've always said that the Bayou Bengals are like Dracula, they suck the most at night.
These basketball style conference challenges appear to be proliferating. Last week it was the Big Ten vs ACC challenge. The Big Ten did pretty well, with Nebraska knocking off Miami 41-31, Iowa winning against my Pitt Panthers 24-20, and Indiana upsetting Big Eight traitor Missouri 31-27. The ACC got some payback when Maryland upended Syracuse 34-20.
It was a good week for public schools in Texas. Texas A&M blew out SMU to start off the Southwest Conference schedule, 38-6. SMU has fallen on hard times since the days of Eric Dickerson and the Pony. Has anyone seen the Pony? Also winning, in a stunner in the rain in Ann Arbor, was the University of Texas at Houston. U.T.A.H. knocked off Michigan 26-10.
I also noted another unusual game at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati on Saturday, with Cincy beating Miami 31-24. The Dolphins must be pretty bad this year.
Finally two of the marquee games featured a lot of scoring. Alabama took command of the SEC South with a big win over Florida. And Oklahoma had little trouble in Morgantown, winning 45-33 over Western Virginia.
Next week we get into the meat of the conference schedules, with games like Stanford vs the Washington Huskies, Tennessee vs. the Georgia Bulldogs, and R Kansas vs. the Texas A&M Longhorns.