2023 Week 8
October 25, 2023
We had yet another weekend of great action in college football. There were numerous close games and exciting finishes.
One of the tightest games took place in Iowa City, as the Huckeyes hosted the Minnesota Golden Buffaloes. Both teams showed off brilliant kicking form, coffin corner kicks, rugby style running punts, even a near fake punt. Normally you'd need to watch a game played in a blizzard to see so many exciting punts.
The game was decided when Minnesota booted the ball to Iowa one last time and the Iowa return man ran the ball back for a go-ahead touchdown. But the play was called back because the refs ruled that the Iowa guy signaled for a fair catch. Actually it looked like he was waving at the kids in the hospital. It's sad that being nice to ill children is now being punished.
The news accounts said that Iowa fans, concerned that their team would lose out on the farming services of Floyd Rosedale, began to hurl food and beer onto the field. I always recommend that fans, after a long day of pre-game alcohol consumption, drink some ginger ale so they don't end up projectile vomiting like that.
Anyway, Minnesota won 12-10 which apparently gives them a leg up in the battle for third place in the Big Ten West.
The biggest game in the league was a battle of unbeatens as Ohio State held off Penn State 20-12. The game was a tight defensive struggle worthy of Iowa, then the Buckeyes began to feed the ball to their brightest star. I predict Marvin Harrison Junior will win 2 Heismans and the award for the best football playing namesake, the Peyton Manning Junior Award.
Elsewhere in the Big Ten Michigan demolished rival Michigan State, 49-0, though that wasn't the main story. Apparently Michigan was stealing Michigan State's signals though every time I tuned in the only signal I saw involved players from each team giving one another the finger.
Late in the game we saw the story that, before the game had started, the scoreboard at Chippewa Stadium showed an image of the infamous Adolf Hitler. Some of the military types are pretty big football fans and General Patton happened to walk by right when the image was shown on TV. He yelled "you paper-hanging son of a bitch" and the next thing I knew my TV screen had 3 bullet holes in it.
Fortunately we did have a spare TV, so I was able to watch the late games too. Washington had a real struggle with 1-win Arizona State, needing a pick six to take a late lead in a 15-7 win, as, for one of the few times ever, Penix failed to score in the end zone.
There were some very low scoring games that didn't even involve Iowa. Nevada beat South Dakota State, 6-0 in a Horizon Conference tilt. And Ole Southern Miss State beat R Kansas 7-3. The Pirate, Rick Leach, came by for that one. I expected Coach Leach to be angry as hell about the low scoring game, but he's still his mellow self. He spent most of the game laughing about the R Kansas offense playing like their coordinator, a guy named Dan Anus.
Rivals Oklahoma and Texas had really tight battles against underdog foes. Oklahoma held off expansion state Central Florida by stopping a trick play 2-pointer. And Texas won down at Houston after the refs mis-spotted the ball and denied Houston a first and goal. I've been saying for years that Texas gets huge favors in league games from the refs in the Southwest Conference.
The Miami Hurricanes continued their semi-resurgence by coming back from 10 points down in the 4th quarter then beating Clemson 28-20 in double overtime. I'm still not sure about these overtime rules but I thought it was a bit classless for Miami to go for 2 points after already having clinched the win.
The University of Texas at Houston had a hum dinger against Southern Cal as U.T.A.H. blew an 11-point fourth quarter lead then marched over 50 yards in the final two minutes to kick a field goal for a 34-32 win. USC is going to have to pick things up when they resume their Pac-8 schedule next week.
The Third Saturday in October lived up to its name as Tennessee jumped out to a 20-7 halftime lead at Alabama. Then Nick Satan put the fear of, well, himself into his guys and they roared back for a 34-20 victory. Thanks to the comeback win Alabama is still alive for the SEC North title.
Next weekend may not be as exciting as this one was, but I'm still looking forward to watching my Panthers venture west on the turnpike to take on Notre Dame. Not to mention exciting tilts like Oklahoma vs Kansas and Colorado vs. UCLA. But the biggest game of the day will be my traditional favorite, the world's biggest outdoor cocktail party, where Georgia will venture to Florida's home stadium, the Gator's Bowels. I can't wait.