2023 Week 9
November 1, 2023
I'm always glad to see October wind down. No, not because of Halloween. It's because not only will baseball be done very soon, but we're about to start MACtion. There's nothing like tuning in on a Wednesday to see a couple 2-6 MAC teams play each other in the snow. In front of 2,000 fans.
I'll have to open up with the ole alma mater. My Pitt Panthers went to visit Notre Dame and got annihilated by the Irish, 58-7. After the game coach the Pitt coach blamed his players for the loss, which obviously didn't please them too much. I don't see much of a future at Pitt for ole coach Nadd Dogg. Stupid nickname anyway, canine scrotums hang down more than my belly. Nobody wants to visualize that. Or the canine scrotums.
As for Notre Dame, they've turned it around after a couple tough losses to Ohio State and the St Louisville Cardinals. Pitt was the start of a lighter part of their schedule - they're getting away from playing top 25 powers and next week will have a cupcake game down at 4-4 Clemson.
Speaking of Ohio State, they had a tough assignment up at Wisconsin but came through quite well, scoring a late TD to pull away from the Badgers 24-10. Wisconsin was hampered by injuries but put up a good fight. I see a bright future in Madison for Coach Sandler.
One of the more overlooked rivalries was played in Lexington. Tennessee ran the 4 minute offense to perfection and held off Kentucky 33-27. That victory meant the Vols retained possession of that highly coveted Appalachian trophy, The Golden Tooth.
Georgia had little trouble with Florida in the World's Largest Cocktail Party as they jumped all over the Gators and cruised to a 43-20 victory. I'm not sure what's going on with Florida these days, they are probably hearkening back to the glory days under Coach Zook when they were locks to play in the bowels of Tampa.
Southern Cal finally seems to be turning it around offensively. Two weeks after only scoring 20 points in South Bend and one week after scoring 32 points in a home game against the University of Texas at Houston, the Trojans put up 50 points against the Cal Golden Bears. At this rate of improvement, they'll score close to 100 against UCLA, which should clinch another Heisman Trophy for Caleb Williams. Not only that, getting close to triple digits should give them a good chance of outscoring UCLA.
Another team that suffered a tough loss and is being overlooked is Penn State. They bounced back by pulling away late against Indiana, 33-24. Coach Franklin has really steadied the ship in State College Station, bringing the Nittany Lions back to the level of play they exhibited late in the JoePa era. And, again, I still don't know where JoePa is. Nobody wants to talk about it, so I apologize for not being able to answer your questions on his status up here or elsewhere.
Probably the most exciting game of the day took place in Lawrence, Kansas. The Jayhawks continued their fine ascent by scoring late to hand Oklahoma its first loss of the season, 38-33. Even though the game didn't go into overtime, it featured a two point shootout whose futility (every two pointer was missed) was only matched by that Penn State vs. Illinois two point shootout a couple years ago.
Next weekend we'll have some truly exciting matchups: Washington at USC, LSU at Alabama, and the fighting Huskies of Yukon taking the long trip from the Klondike to Tennessee. But let's not forget what may be the final episode of the Oklahoma vs Oklahoma State rivalry, the game known as "Bed Lamb". Baaa!!!