2014 Week 6
October 8, 2014
Now that was a great weekend of college football!
There was nothing more exciting than Arizona State's long pass on the last play of the game to beat USC at the Coliseum. Coach Monty Kiffin probably shouldn't have had three guys playing hackysack in the end zone on the play.
The Nebraska Cornholio nearly pulled off a similar shocker while visiting the Michigan State Fighting Chippewas, but the pass fell incomplete.
One of the first times such a game-winning pass was thrown was in the Columbia vs. Princeton game in 1913. Princeton quarterback Hobey Baker threw a 35-yard pass as time expired. It turned out Hobey had promised his cheerleader girlfriend that Princeton would win the game. She chastised him afterwards for having such a close call. Hobey replied, "hell Mary, I knew we'd win". And that's why the play became known, even to this day, as the "hell Mary".
Mary became famous herself and for more than spreading her legs, she also spread disease, which led to a different sort of hell for Hobey as well as his demise a few years later. Yes, Mary was better known as "Typhoid Mary". And now you know the rest of the story.
In other action, TCU held off the Sooners 37-33. The Horny Toads seem to be putting together yet another fine season. Southwest Conference rival Baylor had little trouble with Texas, winning 28-7. John Mackovic Brown's tenure with the Aggies could be short-lived.
Other Loan Star state teams did well too. The University of Texas at Houston took a narrow win over the University of California at Los Angeles, 30-28. Crosstown rival, the University of Texas at Houston State took out the boys of Bring 'Em Young, 35-20.
There were also a few trophy games last weekend. Purdue defeated Illinois to take possession of the Cannon. Kentucky outlasted South Carolina for possession of The Golden Banjo. And Notre Dame scored late to knock off academic rival Stanford and reclaim the Number Two Pencil.
In the long distance game of the day, host R.I.C.E. beat Hawaii. I'm not quite sure while the Fighting Rainbows insist on going to Rhode Island for a game.
My Pitt Panthers lost a tough one to the University of Virginia, 24-19. The Hokies are doing well in their initial year in the Big East.
It was a rough weekend for highly rated teams, one of several shockers was Arizona's win at Oregon, 31-24. Dick Rodriguez seems to be lining up for a fine season, the best since his years at Western Virginia.
As is often the case, the real exciting action was in the SEC. I for one could not take my eyes off the Tennessee vs. Florida game. There hasn't been a display of punting prowess like that since the 1920s.
Auburn destroyed LSU 41-7. As I always say, LSU is like Dracula, they suck the most at night. I haven't seen one Tiger pound another Tiger like that since Avisail Garcia and Mrs. Prince Fielder.
The biggest games were in the Mongo State. Mississippi State stuck it to Texas A&M 48-31. And Ole Southern Miss pulled a huge upset, beating the Crimson Tide 23-17. I swore, at the end I thought I saw a 360-spin for the head of Nick Satan.
I still like to watch the ESPN guys make their pre-game picks on Gameday. This year they had some girl singer named Kathy Perry waving corn dogs under Coach Corso's nose. Kathy, you have to be careful with objects shaped like that, Coach Corso sometimes gets a bit excited and starts sucking one down.
This wasn't the first time a noted young female entertainer graced the set of a college football show.
Back in the 1970s we tried something similar on the Prudential Scoreboard show. My colleague Dave Diles and I talked about the afternoon games then started previewing some of the evening games, so we thought it might be fun to have a celebrity or two on the set.
One of our young producers knew this gal named Dorothy who had acted in some movies. She was a pretty young thing. So when she came on the set for our predictions segment, I welcomed her. "And here today to help us out is actress Dorothy Hundley".
Dorothy then laughed and said her stage name was "Seka". The first game to pick was Purdue vs. Ohio State. To pick the game she pulled out two kielbasas, one labeled "Purdue" and the other labeled "OSU". She apparently was pretty hungry that day, she almost swallowed the OSU one and so picked the Buckeyes.
I then asked her who she thought would win the big Georgia vs. Tennessee game. She said she'd use her "ping pong" method to pick a winner and pulled out two ping pong balls, one labeled "Georgia", the other labeled "Tennessee". I said "so you're going to pick one out of a bowel". She pulled up her skirt and said "not quite". She nearly took out Dave's eye with her first shot.
At that point Roone Arledge came on the set and put an end to the exhibition. And so college football shows didn't have any famous ladies on the air for decades after that.