2015 Week 2
September 16, 2015
I'm always glad to see the season roll into week two, but I was a bit disappointed at some of the matchups. Usually you get a ton of fine inter-conference games. There were some decent ones, but a lot of duds as well.
In the marquee matchup of the day, the Michigan State Fighting Chippewas held off Oregon 31-28. I haven't seen a bunch of Beavers get skinned by a tribe like that since my childhood visit to Sitting Bull's encampment.
The Old Bald Coach had a tough one, as USC lost to Kentucky 26-22. Could be a rough year for the Men of Troy.
There were quite a few odd matchups, not the type you'd expect in college football. One of the more stunning games, due to its closeness, was Auburn's overtime win over Jacksonville. I would have thought an SEC North team would have better success against an AFC South team like the Jaguars.
Penn State was far more impressive than Auburn; they knocked off the Bills 27-14, spoiling famed starlet Irene Ryan's son Rex's coaching debut. In another crossover game, Houston beat the St Louisville Cardinals 34-31.
Probably the biggest upset took place in Little Rock as the R Kansas Hogs were repeatedly penetrated by the Toledo Mud Rockets and lost 16-12. Losses like that can be pretty stressful on the staff. I'd suggest a nice long motorcycle ride for Coach Petrino.
There was a pretty competitive intrastate battle last Friday. The University of Texas at Houston beat rival University of Texas at Houston State 24-14. U.T.A.H. moves to 2-0 on the year.
Notre Dame had an exciting finish. Their backup quarterback DeShone Keyser Soze threw a late TD pass then mysteriously disappeared.
The Irish are part of a new trend of teams having players named Chris Brown. I started checking rosters and it seems there are Chris Browns all over the football world, the NFL, Oklahoma, Notre Dame.
Not only that, Notre Dame has a receiver named Torii Hunter. Now you'd expect a lot of guys out there named Chris Brown, but Torii is a pretty uncommon name, so to have a football player and a longtime pro baseball player with the same name is a pretty remarkable coincidence.
But those are not the only famous names at Notre Dame. They have a defensive back named Jesse Bongiovi, whose father apparently is a famous hair stylist. And receiver Corey Robinson's father was an Admiral in the Navy.
One of the more exciting games took place in the land of the cowbell, Starkville Mississippi, as Mississippi State hosted LSU. LSU won 21-19 after Mississippi State missed two field goals.
Now I'm still trying to figure out these overtime rules. You may recall the old NBA rule where bad free throw shooters were given three free throws to make two. I guess, given the SEC's struggles with field goals, they've changed the overtime rules to give kickers "two to make one". Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they missed both and LSU held on for the win.
That wasn't the only strange overtime game. Oklahoma came from behind to beat Tennessee 31-24 in double overtime. These rules are bizarre. Tennessee went first and scored, then they let Oklahoma go twice and they scored each time. Then Tennessee went again, didn't score, but they didn't get their second chance and the game was over. So I guess "two to make one" only applies to field goals, not TDs. It's all very confusing.
I'll be taking a break next week as I'll be out of commission. Turns out that some of my neighbors up here (in particular my good friend Bud Wilkinson) have been complaining about some of my gas issues, so I'll be getting my intestines all straightened out on Friday and Saturday.
The recovery will take 3-4 days and my whole heavenly realm will be declared a sulfurous toxic waste zone, so I'll be missing most of the action and will be out of it until midweek. So I'll see you again in two weeks