2016 Week 11
November 16, 2016
Whoa nellie did we have some drama last weekend. Three of the top four went down like my daughter on a bender.
The University of Washington's undefeated season ended after a visit from Southern Cal.
USC has become well-known for having famous families represented on their roster. This goes all the way back to the 20's when lineman Marion Morrison went on to become much better known as Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke.
USC also had future famous movie actor O J Simpson. They even almost attracted Calvin Broadus, the son of cartoonist Charles Schultz.
So I'm pretty excited that USC was led to victory by quarterback Sam D Arnold, the son of famed actors Tom and Roseanne Arnold.
The biggest upset, at least in my humble opinion, was Clemson's home loss to my Pitt Panthers on a last-second field goal.
Now you've probably wondered just how much influence we have up here on sporting events. Fact is, the Big Guy Himself doesn't get into that stuff. The rest of us sometimes try but usually nothing happens.
This time it was a bit different, though not in any intentional way. When Pitt booted the final field goal you'll notice that the ball seemed to jump higher partway through its flight, giving the ball just enough to clear the crossbar. No, I didn't lean down and blow. Well, not in the traditional way. Actually I had been eating jalapenos all day and I was so nervous before that field goal attempt that a different sort of wind came blowing down from above. So the kick went through and numerous Clemson fans went to the hospital, not out of shock or disbelief, but rather from sulfur poisoning.
Of course lots of other folks up here saw what happened. Two of my favorite players from my middle age years, Heisman winners Nile Kinnick and Tom Harmon, were gearing up for the battle between their alma maters in Iowa City. At halftime, noting that it was a close game, tbey both anticipated the contest might come down to a kick. So they loaded up on the baked beans. Then, when Iowa lined up to boot the game winner against Michigan, they were both trying to replicate my accidental gust of wind. There was very little wind from these two, just some nasty SBD action that caused a lot of us to faint. Both of them got purgatory until the end of the regular season. Nile at least has a smile on his face as Iowa upset Tom's Wolverines, 14-13.
There were a lot of one-point games this weekend. The immigrants from Ole Miss beat A&M 29-28. Oklahoma State topped Texas Tech 45-44 after Tech missed an extra point late in the game. Rhode Island Continuing Education toppled Charlotte 22-21, giving the R.I.C.E. Owls their second win of the season.
The other one-point result was Duke's 28-27 win over North Carolina. I first thought the score was a misprint because 28-27 is a typical ACC basketball final score, but I confirmed that it was a football result.
Notre Dame got back on the winning track and kept its Armed Forces Trophy hopes alive by beating Army, 44-6. Meanwhile Navy had a 42-40 win over Tulsa to get to 7-2 on the season.
Western Virginia took a long trip to Austin and nipped the Aggies 24-20. Louisiana State had an easy time with another SWC team, beating R Kansas 38-10.
Next week we have a couple interesting matchups - the St Louisville Cardinals go to the Astrodome to take on Houston in a baseball/football doubleheader. And the Washington State Fighting Pirates visit Boulder to play Colorado.
There's also the not-so-scintillating SEC Cupcake Challenge, where just about every SEC team plays a weak sister. Due to the early season hurricane, LSU and Florida dropped their cupcake game and will play each other instead, which probably disappoints Coach Ogre as I'm sure he'd love a few more cupcakes.
Meanwhile, check out these SEC vs. weak sister games: Alabama hosting Chattanooga, Auburn vs. Alabama A&M, Georgia vs. Pennsylvania school Lafayette, Kentucky vs. Austin Pee, and Tennessee hosting Missouri. Not a good game in the bunch!