2016 Week 7
October 19, 2016
Was that a whipping that the Tide laid upon the Volunteers or what? I always thought it wasn't a good idea to get Nick Satan mad at you, he'll spin his head around then condemn your soul to a fiery fate.
But that paled in comparison to the payback that assistant coach Kiffin got on his old employers at UT. The Alabama team just kept pounding the ball into the end zone, running up the score. For a bit I thought they were trying to outscore Coach Kiffin's age, but they stopped well short of 70. Congratulations to Monte, he's done a great job for an older fella. I do feel bad for Coach Vince Dooley getting the short end of the matchup with Coach Kiffin so late in their respective careers. Maybe someday the next generation in the Dooley and Kiffin families can have a rematch.
Also in the SEC, the Vanderbilt Commodes flushed between the hedges, scoring late to win in Athens 17-16. That's a ruff defeat for the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State was the latest victim of Bring 'Em Young, losing to the Cougars 28-21. BEYU is looking for a conference and is on a tour of various conferences to see what would be a good fit. So far they've played the Mississippi State Cowbells of the SEC, the Toledo Mud Rockets from the MAC, the Michigan State Fighting Chippewas of the Big Ten, UCLA of the Pac-8, Arizona of the WAC, Western Virginia of the Big East, and The University of Texas at Houston. U.T.A.H. apparently is a member of the Southwest Conference.
Elsewhere in the Loan Star State, the University of Texas at San Antonio beat R.I.C.E 14-13. It was a pretty good effort for the on-line school; Rhode Island Continuing Education has some real potential in football.
The Fighting Pirates of Washington State held off UCLA 27-21. Fellow league member Stanford stopped a late Irish drive and won in South Bend 17-10. This was a fairly odd game. Stanford star John McCaffrey apparently was on tour with his Brown Beaver band so had to miss the game. You know how teams sometimes have problems with their headset connection to the press box so both teams have to disconnect? Apparently there was a similar rule in effect here, because otherwise it's a mystery why Notre Dame kept on playing their second string quarterback.
In a matchup of a Catholic school from Paris and one of America's newest parochial colleges, La Tech blew out U-Mass 56-28. R Kansas had a nice interconference win over Ole Southern Miss, scoring late to win 34-30.
Much of the exciting action occurred in the ACC and Big Ten.
North Carolina went down south and held off the Miami Hurricanes 20-13. The St. Louisville Cardinals scored late in a controversial 24-14 win over Duke. The Cardinals sealed the deal after the Blue Devils got called for an odd penalty for roughing the catcher.
Clemson's win over North Carolina State was quite dramatic. NC State had numerous chances to seal the game, particularly on a last second chip shot field goal that sailed wide right. Clemson then scored in overtime to win the game, apparently in sudden death. I'm still confused by these overtime rules.
Northwestern proved their intellectual prowess in their win over the MSU Fighting Chippewas. With a final score tied to American history, they brought back one of the great slogans of all time, elderly nurse Clara Barton's famous line to the Governor of the Oregon Territory, later used in a hamburger ad, "where's the 54-40?"
Iowa ran past Purdue 49-35 and the Purdue coach got fired. A Purdue firing is about as unexpected as my next gall bladder attack. And less painful too.
In the biggest matchup of the day, Ohio State held off Wisconsin in Madison, with a touchdown in overtime. Now the Big Ten has more sensible overtime rules but I'm still not sure what the Badgers were thinking, trying and missing a field goal after the Buckeyes had scored a TD. Maybe they thought it was like the loaves and fishes and they'd transform the FG into 42 points thanks to Coach Chryst.
Next week we have some scintillating matchups, including Texas A&M's visit to Tuscaloosa, Ohio State traveling to Penn State, and my daughter Beth Cook trying to live up to the command "Nor-folka Virginia". See you soon!