2017 Week 10
November 8, 2017
Well, the first BS rankings were finally released and so now the chase for playoff berths begins.
The #1 rated Georgia Bulldogs ground out a 24-10 win over South Carolina and the #2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide won by an identical score over LSU. Each team leads its respective SEC division, so I'm looking forward to the SEC title game between the North and South champions.
Notre Dame jumped all over Wake Forest before cruising to an 11-point win. The Irish are having an outstanding comeback year behind Coach B Kelly, who seems to have cleaned things up since his earlier career as a controversial wrapper.
Clemson held off ACC rival North Carolina State, 38-31. The Tigers have barely lost a beat even after losing so much talent off their BS championship team from last year. Here's hoping they don't get downgraded too much for beating up weak sisters like the St Louisville Cardinals and Florida State.
There were some fine intersectional non-conference games even at this late stage. Iowa State's best team in years went to Morgantown but lost to Western Virginia 20-16. Missouri defended the pride of the Big Eight in a huge win over Florida. Meanwhile the University of California at Los Angeles took on another satellite campus but lost to the University of Texas at Houston, 48-17. That's yet another big name school knocked off by U.T.A.H.
U.C.L.A.'s crosstown rival Southern Cal had an odd back and forth battle with WAC stalwart Arizona. The Trojans jumped out to a 28-6 lead but Arizona came back to tie it at 35 late in the game. USC scored two touchdowns to clinch it. I'm still a bit confused about these overtime rules. USC scored in the first overtime and Arizona didn't, but they gave each team another chance and USC then scored again to win. It must be like those new NFL overtime rules where teams have to kick multiple field goals to win the game.
In this year's futility bowel, the Baylor Bears got their first win of the season against 1-8 Kansas, 38-9.
It was a fine week for trophy games. Michigan beat Minnesota to retain possession of the Little Brown Jugs as Salma Hayek will remain in Ann Arbor. Oklahoma won a wild and wooly affair against cross-state rival Oklahoma State, 62-52, to claim the Bed-Lamb trophy. And Rutgers upended Maryland, which means Maryland, as the loser of the game, now takes home the "Relegation to the Big East" trophy.
TCU cruised to an easy win over Texas. Coach Strong seems to be struggling a bit in Austin.
The most stunning score of the day was Iowa's 55-24 shellacking of Ohio State. The Huckeyes threw the ball all over the field and even ran a very strange fake punt. I'm not sure what got into Coach Ferentz but I'm guessing mescaline.
Another highly rated powerhouse went down to a shocking defeat as well. Penn State was coming off a collapse against Ohio State but was still favored to beat Michigan State. But the Fighting Chippewas hit a late field goal to claim a 27-24 victory.
The game itself was rather unusual as it featured a record 3 1/2 hour lightning delay. There were so many nasty lightning bolts around the Penn State bench that I wondered whether they'd rehired Coach Sandusky.
And, just as was the case last week, no, I don't know what JoePa thought about the game. Haven't seen him around at all.
We're getting all geared up for another big weekend, just as soon as all these awful MAC games featuring crowds that wouldn't pass muster at a Texas middle school game are over. Georgia tangles with Auburn, Michigan State goes to Columbus, TCU takes on Oklahoma, and the Catholics visit the Convicts. See you next week!