Saturday in Review 10/8/11

Just some notes of note (hardy har har...)

*The Virginia Tech/Miami game was really, really good. But don't take my word for it! Check out Lane Stadium before the final play. That, ladies and gents, is why I love college football, and the Hokies in particular. Good game by Miami, and a good win for Tech. High fives all around.

*Boise doesn't get the hype this season that they did last season, but they've steamrolled basically everyone except Georgia. Problem is that won't impress voters enough come bowl season without something seriously weird happening.

*Speaking of seriously weird, Wake Forest? 3-0 in conference play?! That's really great for the Deacs, but probably bad for the conference. My logic on that? Well, the year Wake won the ACC featured the single lowest-rated BCS bowl in history. So, yeah...

*Alabama and LSU have been rolling. Let's just see if that continues. If it does, we're in for a treat November 5.

*Oklahoma State and Houston, to me, seem to be kindred spirits. Namely, these are teams that put up flat-out gaudy numbers on offense, but they have little in the way of defense. Sure, OSU allows most of its points late, but they're gonna eventually run into a game where the whole team has to play 4 full quarters. They beat Texas A&M by a point, and I think it's safe to say that OSU will run into a better opponent than the Aggies somewhere along the line, specifically on December 3 when they play their rivals. Houston, meanwhile, should rip their way through their conference, gather some buzz, then play a decent team in a bowl game and get thrashed. Just like 2 years ago...

*Clemson keeps rolling along in the ACC. It's hard to see a significant obstacle between them and their October 29 showdown with Georgia Tech. Heck, that could easily be part 1 of a 2 part battle for the ACC. Clemson's other major obstacle this season is an out-of-conference game against South Carolina to end the season.

*Nebraska's comeback to beat Ohio State was quite good. Just sayin'.

*South Carolina found a suitable replacement for Stephen Garcia. At least, they think they did. They were playing Kentucky, so it's hard to tell. Either way, Garcia is off the team. Adjust your "player most likely to get arrested" fantasy roster accordingly!

*Texas A&M narrowly avoided a 3rd straight 2nd half collapse. Congrats?

Tales from the Bottom 95

*Western Kentucky and MTSU fought out a great battle on Thursday night. Just erase the names and you could make a case that it was game of the year!

*Carolina put away Louisville in a jaw-droppingly boring game.

*Minnesota...very bad at football right now.

*Georgia's recovering well from their slow start. Tennessee still looks mired in mediocrity.

That's all for this week! Hooray!

Extra-late Saturday in Review 10/1/11

The last week around the Bones household has been spent fighting a cold, fighting students, fighting an opposing tennis team, and fighting insanity. At least I'm putting up a fight, unlike a certain maroon and orange wearing team I cheer for...Let's run through the games speedily.

*No comments about the Clemson/Virginia Tech game. I called this thing 2 weeks ago (last week was my bye week for the season), and anyone who pays any attention to football shouldn't have been surprised. Tech's offense is a tire fire: they wouldn't have even scored their measly three points in the 2nd quarter if it weren't for an interception in Clemson's territory. Another year of frustration, and it's about time to ask a horrible question: Will Frank Beamer be the best coach to never win a national title? Right now the answer's a resounding "Probably."

*Serious hat tip to Clemson, the Tigers look like they might break out of their cycle of mediocrity this season. Heck, Clemson fans might even come to terms with the fact that it's no longer 1981 if the team keeps winning! Then they can stay stuck in 2011 for 30 years until the next non-mediocre Clemson team drunkenly stumbles along.

*Why no, I'm not bitter at all.

*Last Thursday, Pitt beat the snot out of South Florida. Looks like the Big East will be West Virginia's conference after all.

*Speaking of the West Virginia Generic Hill People Mascots, West Virginia's really starting to look like a paper tiger. Their big wins have come over vastly inferior teams, they had to clip a mediocre Maryland squad (that then suffered a 38-7 loss to Temple), and they got absolutely hosed (at home) by LSU. So West Virginia is likely on their way to the BCS, but who knows what'll happen once they get there.

*Bama defeated Florida, this time on the Gators' turf. Methinks the Swamp has lost some of its luster in recent years. Also, the Bama victory means that they win the annual "Who will Verne Lundquist inexplicably hype up every freakin' week on CBS" contest! As a result, SEC games not featuring Alabama will still feature at least 1 reference declaring how much better Alabama is than the two teams playing on the field. Gotta love those commentators! Games Alabama loses will be erased from Verne's memory with one of the Men in Black's neuralizers.

*Boise claims vengeance for their loss to Nevada last year...I guess that's news?

*Wisconsin/Nebraska looked good...then the 2nd quarter happened. The Huskers got run over, and Wisconsin has emerged as a potential contender for a national title.

*Auburn upset South Carolina. Stephen Garcia had his 4th straight game with more INTs than TDs. Hard to win like that, even with Spurrier at the helm.

*Texas A&M can't hold onto a lead. That's not really news to anyone who watches college football, but it is worthy of note. A&M hasn't beaten an SEC team since 1995, and they're joining that conference next season. I know things will improve once the Aggies start to play teams lower down the conference ladder, but you still have to think there's some worry in College Station.

*SMU beat TCU at TCU. The Horned Frogs are really far removed from last year's Rose Bowl squad

*Illinois? Still perfect? Heck, beats me, too!

And now, Tales from the Bottom 95

*Penn State just did clip Indiana. I'd say this could be Paterno's last year, but there are sportswriters who wrote that early in their careers who have since died. Paterno's outlived many critics, so I'm not writing anything about his job security. Because I'll almost certainly be wrong.

*Temple followed its beatdown of Maryland with a loss to...Toledo? Heck, I don't know if that's good or bad: Toledo's looked halfway decent this year.

*Wofford beat App State. Just thought I'd put that here for the Boone goons who still think it's 2007.

*In the interest of fairness: A box of kittens could defeat Western Carolina University. This week, however, Furman did the honors, letting the kittens stay home.

*Western Michigan beat UConn. Looooong fall from the top of the Big East thus far for the Huskies.

*Ohio State is feeling the effects of the scandal in full now. Michigan State isn't a slouch team, but losing in the Horseshoe is rough for Ohio State.

*Hawaii had to go to Louisiana Tech this weekend. All apologies to the Warriors.

That's all for this week. Hopefully the next one won't take so long for me to write!

(It will.)