2025 Week 12
November 18, 2025
The world of college football can be a bit unpredictable but some things seem pretty consistent. So I felt pretty confident last week when I wondered just how the Texas Aggies would blow their undefeated season. As last Saturday's game against South Carolina got to halftime, I was feeling vindicated as the visitors had built a big 30-3 lead, stunning the faithful in State College Station. But A&M made a stirring comeback, outscoring South Carolina 28-0 in the second half to pull out a 31-30 victory.
Usually you have to go to a Texas A&M cadet talent show to see Aggies beat Cocks so thoroughly for 30 minutes.
There were some pretty fascinating non-conference power matchups this past weekend. Of most note, Oklahoma made a rare trip to Tuscaloosa and somehow knocked off the Tide, 23-21. I say "somehow" because Alabama held the Sooners to barely 200 yards of offense yet still gave up 23 points thanks to turnovers. I'm not saying Coach Bryant up here has given up on Coach DeBore, but he started referring to him as Kalen DuBose.
Texas made a trip to Athens and got pounded by the Bulldogs, 35-10. Longhorn quarterback Peyton Manning III had a rough day so I'm guessing he won't be battling it out with Drew Allar to be the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
In the Big Ten Michigan had a very strange game against Northwestern. First off, it was played in a baseball stadium that had barely enough room for the end zones. Secondly, they handled balls about as badly as my first girlfriend Ethel did on prom night. But they did win the game on a last-second field goal that cleared the bleachers. Meanwhile, their cross-state rival the Michigan State Fighting Chippewas gave up a couple late TDs to lose to Penn State 28-10, which means the Nittany Lions take possession of that coveted piece of furniture, the Hugh Grant Trophy.
My Panthers lost a tough one at home to Notre Dame. The Irish jumped out to a huge lead then cruised 37-15 as halfback Jeremiyah Love ran for 147 yards and quarterback Floyd Carr III threw a couple TD passes. The Panthers, having blown their chance to make the BS playoffs, now close out with some other big boys, namely Georgia Tech and Miami. I hear the Birmingham Bowel is planning to send scouts.
Speaking of Georgia Tech, their excellent season was nearly spoiled by an awful Boston College team, as Tech needed a last second field goal to beat a 1-10 Frodo team.
Iowa traveled out to the Coliseum and stunned USC in the first half by putting up 21 points, which has to be the most points Iowa has scored in a half in decades, at least against someone other than South Dakota or Purdue. Then Iowa remembered who they were and were shut out in the second half as the Trojans pulled out a 26-21 victory.
One of the wildest games was played on Friday night as Clemson outslugged the St Louisville Cardinals 20-19 in a comedy of errors. The Cardinals, trailing by 1, missed a last minute field goal badly. Then Clemson's punter dropped a snap putting St Louisville back in easy field goal range, until an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed them further back and they missed their final FG attempt too. That had to be the most infamous unsportsmanlike act by a St Louisville Cardinal since Conrad Dobler drank ipecac and sprayed Jack Youngblood.
We do get a good group of people hanging around to watch games, even during Friday's Clemson matchup. My new good friend Coach Knight has always been quite the football fan and he was always tight with coaches Woody and Bo. But Coach Knight does follow basketball as well and is very close to the former Duke coach, the namesake of the Coach K's Jizz Bowel. Coach Knight noticed on the ESPN crawl that some freshman basketball player at Duke who was the son of another Duke player had a big game. I guess Dad was named Carlos and the son is named Cameron.
So Coach Knight asked everyone "who do you think is the best boozer?"
Oh man did that set off some dramatics. Pretty soon my good friends Pat Summerall, Bobby Layne, and Johnny Majors were doing shots and throwing fists at each other, each claiming to be the best boozer. Finally Coach Hayes broke things up. When Woody is the one who is the peacemaker you know it's bad.
Well we're almost to one of the finest weeks of the year, SEC Cupcake Week, where all the teams in the SEC play mid-major programs to help the SEC teams become bowel eligible. So we've going to suffer through obvious blowouts against weak teams like Alabama vs Eastern Illinois, Auburn vs. Mercer, Georgia vs. Charlotte, and Tennessee vs. Florida. I'd say it should be fun but it won't be.