2015 Week 9
November 11, 2015
This has been one of the most exciting yet strangest years of college football I've ever seen - and I go all the way back to the days of Newt Rockne - as a player! I can still remember he and his quarterback Gus Dorais grabbing a football and making passes on the shores of Lake Erie then getting slapped by various offended young ladies.
The Irish had a nice win over my Pitt Panthers at Heinz 57 Field. Quarterback DeShone Keyser Soze continued to mystify opposing teams and fans as he accounted for all six Notre Dame touchdowns then disappeared once again into the mist.
While baseball is thankfully done, the overlap between the football and basketball seasons is expanding. I saw that Temple knocked off SMU 60-40. Coach Larry Brown seems to be losing it, though it is nice to see Temple biting into opponents again under Coach Lon Cheney.
As you know, the playoff rankings came out a week ago, before last weekend's games. Now I'm excited as anyone to see the playoffs get started, but why did they have the #1 team play the #16 team and the #2 team play the #4 team? Shouldn't it be 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3?
The 1 vs 16 semi-final took place by the Rock as Clemson scored late to seal a win over Florida State 23-13 and also put the Tigers in control of the SEC North race.
The other semi-final involved the SEC's South Division, as Les Miles continued to come up short against his dark Lord and Master Nick Satan. The Tide blasted LSU 30-16.
There were big games all over last weekend. In a clash of unbeatens, host Oklahoma State had little trouble with highly touted TCU. Horny Toads often get run over by Cowboys in trucks during mating season but this was ridiculous.
Another unbeaten team bit the dust as the Navel Academy had little trouble with Memphis, winning 45-20. That will put a damper in Memphis' efforts to become an NFL expansion franchise.
As for crazy finishes, we had a boatload of them yet again.
South Carolina, trailing 27-24, was driving late against Tennessee and threw a pass to Jerrell Adams, who made it into field goal range, then was stripped of the ball. It was a heartbreaking way to lose for Coach Superior's boys.
In a lower division game, Idaho State was setting up for a game-winning field goal but a bad snap was run back by Montana to win the game. Usually you have to be watching someone get chewed up on one of those Alaska nature shows to see a Grizzly snare a ball and go running.
But both those games paled to what happened in Lincoln. The Michigan State Fighting Chippewas were holding onto a narrow lead when quarterback Tommy Frasier Junior threw a pass to Brandon Reilly. Reilly caught the ball out of bounds at the five, ran back in bounds, blasted through a cheerleader, then dove across the goal line and landed on the Nebraska Cornholio mascot's bunghole. The referees conferred and ruled that he was forced onto the cheerleader by a Chippewa defensive back, who was promptly arrested and escorted from the field.
The wildest finish took place in the R Kansas at Ole Miss game. R Kansas was trailing by 7 points and faced a 4th and 25. R Kansas quarterback Brandon Allen threw to Hunter Henry, who punted the ball backwards, where it was picked up and run for a first down. After a Hog TD, they went for 2 points and the win and scored.
R Kansas coach Butthead Bielema was so excited that he jumped on his wife, nearly suffocating her and breaking two benches. The belly flop also caused an expulsion of gas that has caused the evacuation of a 1/4 mile radius of the Loy Vaught-Ernest Hemingway stadium in Oxford.
Finally, I don't talk much about the NFL but I did see that the Giants player who had that fireworks accident will play this weekend. So welcome back Mordecai Pierre-Paul.