2021 Week 3
September 22, 2021
Well, week 3 got off to a great start on Friday. I was sitting back watching Central Florida taking on the St. Louisville Cardinals, in a pretty exciting back and forth tie game. I was beginning to wonder what the overtime rules would be for this one, whether it would be a field goal shootout or a home run derby given the short walls in Busch Stadium.
Then UCF, while driving, threw a tipped ball that ended up in the arms of Cardinal Jaylin Alderman, who raced back all the way. Man, I love thrilling finishes like that. I yelled out "Alderman has to be the fastest Cardinal ever" then I felt a sharp pain on my noggin and my good friend Lou Brock used a very bad word as he hurled a baseball at me. Have to be careful around these baseball guys, they get pretty sensitive.
While baseball bores me to tears, one time I did show up at a New York Yankee fantasy camp in Fort Lauderdale Florida. I went up to the signup booth and told them "my Yankees fantasy is to have Whitey Ford hurl sliders at my bare ass".
For some reason I was asked to leave.
That wasn't the only exciting finish. Alabama jumped out to a big lead at Florida Field, but the Gators made a desperate comeback and came just a failed 2-point conversion short.
The perennial powerhouses seem to be having some closer games than usual. Clemson took an unusual approach to protect its lead against Georgia Tech. Leading 14-6 and backed against their own 1 yard line, they decided to take a safety, but instead of just running out of the end zone they fumbled the ball and fell on it. I'm not sure what Coach Dabo was thinking there, the intentional fumble has been rather unpopular in all levels of football since the Oakland Raider days of Snake Stabler and Dave Casper.
Which reminds me, I saw that the Raiders moved to Las Vegas and are playing in a stadium, in the desert, that's about as dark as their home jerseys. I can only imagine the air conditioning bill there. So I asked everyone why did they "do something dumb and paint it black?". Next thing I knew someone hurled a drumstick at my head. Apparently one of our new arrivals up here is some drummer guy. We talked later and shared some very fine cognac, so I think we're gonna get along quite well.
The biggest off-field controversy took place in South Bend when Purdue played Notre Dame. Apparently there was an issue involving the tunnel to the field and the Purdue band's most iconic symbol. Something about not fitting through the tunnel and being too heavy to lower onto the field via helicopter so the Boilers' band had to go without. Which was unfortunate. Though they wouldn't have had this tunnel fit problem if the Golden Girl had gone on a diet.
I saw the SDSU vs. the University of Texas at Houston game that was played in Los Angeles. SDSU won 33-31 and the announcers said they were playing all their home games in LA. I'm a bit confused, as Los Angeles is a good 1,500 miles from Brookings, SD.
My good friends Coach Wilkinson and Coach Devaney sat with me to watch the renewal of Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. Both teams have struggled and it was a mistake-fest, with the Sooners winning 23-16. It's not like the halcyon days of the BS system when the two teams would be ranked 1-2 and play in October right after the first BS ratings were announced to determine the BS champion.
FSU bounced back from their loss to Jacksonville to come from behind and upend UCLA, 40-37. Meanwhile Western Virginia had a nice win, defeating ranked cross-state rival Virginia Tech, 27-21.
In the ACC North Carolina beat Virginia 59-39, in yet another ACC game where someone will joke that it looked like an ACC basketball score. But that's absurd. An ACC basketball team hasn't scored 59 points since the days of the set shot.
The Big Ten conference decided to have their annual MAC showdown. So we saw several Big Ten teams take on MAC teams, with Michigan clubbing Northern Illinois 63-10, Iowa blasting Kent State 30-7, and the Michigan State Fighting Chippewas going down to Oxford and beating the Miami RedHawks 38-17.
But those weren't the only Big Ten vs. MAC games as it appears the MAC has once again expanded. Ohio State bounced back with a win over new MAC member Tulsa. And Penn State beat Auburn 28-20. I'm not sure why Auburn left the SEC for a mid-major but maybe they were tired of being second fiddle to the Tide.
Next week we slowly start to get into conference action with games like Georgia vs Vanderbilt and Tennessee vs Florida. And we'll have a big showdown as Notre Dame plays Wisconsin in Soldier Field in Chicago. Here's hoping Irish legend Steve Bartman makes the trip to the Cubs' home stadium. Talk to you soon!