Scatter-Day!

Holy cow... What a weekend of college football. See, this is why the games aren't played on paper, but by tiny men who live in your television sets.

This week's clip comes from the battle of Big T1e11n undefeated teams, Michigan State and Wisconsin. However, It's dedicated to the 5 (!) top ten teams who were upset this weekend:

Yup, if you were a fan of West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Rutgers, and/or Florida (huh??), you know that feeling. In fact, even LSU was behind in the first half, and USC dominated statistically but had to hold off UW with a last second onside kick recovery. #6 Cal was a fumble/touchback away from also falling short, although this was to #11 Oregon and their hideous uniforms. As someone who actually watched this game, let's just say that the historical Oregon officiating shenanigans were fully present.

Joe must have felt this way as well, as Anderson dropped their home conference opener to Mt. St. Joe, although the photo in this story shows a great special teams play, and we know who's responsible for that. aTm defeated everyone's favorite Baptists (who must have not read the secret insider information), and the Commodores were successful as well. Kentucky threatens to sneak into the top 10, while their victims from last week put a world of hurt on the Mean Green of North Texas. Someone's favorite Blackshirt got his second touchdown in as many weeks, as the 'Clones of Iowa State fell in Lincoln. The Zooks! defeated the Zombies, and there was much rejoicing. Mich1gAAn (stay classy) defeated Northwestern by 12 (hmmmm- what was last week like?), and TBPU played like men against Sam Houston State. tOSU was perplexed initially by a game against Ronald McDonald imitators, but it didn't matter in the end. Notre Dame continues to lose... Wonder why there haven't been any special guests to South Bend. Nice to know there's an out for Charlie, though.

The Sul Ross Lobos won their game in double overtime, and the old guy didn't play. Something about Polident...

Let's get this out of the way right now.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!! On his "big day", his alma mater beats Florida, his childhood favorite team beats Clemson, and his most hated rival looses to FSU (that academic juggernaut), and he manages to have the most amazing week of picks ever! When everyone else is getting destroyed by the upsets, Jake misses one game and one point.

Here's some perspective- The closest person to him is 17 points back. He was the only one to correctly pick the K State and G Tech upsets, and only one of two to call the Cal game. Well done, chief.

Just as a personal notes- I had 6 (!) points going into the final three games of the day. Worst. Showing, Ever. Especially for Scott, but he had pneumonia to blame for two weeks of no picks. Paula- well, she's from Arkansas.

As you can see, my brain lapse has created a "do-over" and the whole league is up for grabs. Terry obviously took last week's "getting older" comments personally, and has now jumped into first place- with Terp launching into the top 5. Jake's great week helps him wrap up the top five as well...

as launching him into first place! I'm telling you, there may be something to this whole "War Eagle" thing.

One Guy's Opinion, week two: LSU is still number one, USC number two. After that, there are a lot of OK teams who are undefeated. Cal would be next, but after that, I still think that a 1 loss Oklahoma and Florida are better than Ohio State (let's just say I speak from experience) or Kentucky or Wisconsin... South Florida, though, I like. Even if they play in the Big Least, they're playing defense well enough to really be a great team at the end of the year.

Oh, and Notre Lame still sucks, and Charlie Weis is overrated. But you knew that- they're going 0-8 to start the season, folks. Bet on it.

This week's games... They must be good, if so many folks choked looking forward to them, right?

The Red River Shootout, or "Oops, our bad!" is still a huge game, but the really interesting one will be LSU hosting the "Well, now we've got to get serious" Gators. Nebraska is on TV against Mizzou, so someone in our house will be happy. (Actually, I'll be in Santa Monica, since ABC West Coast will be showing 0-5 Notre Lame and 4-1 UCLA rather than undefeated tOSU and undefeated Purdue). But the fun really starts on Thursday, with undefeated (I know, it's hard to believe...) Kentucky at South Carolina, where their QB stinks. Dan and Jake will have something to talk about next week- Vandy travels to Auburn, as will Todd and Michael, with TBPU and aTm hooking up. TCU meets Wyoming (Why? is right...), Wisconsin fights the Zooks, and the Hawgs hosts the Chatanooga Choo-choos. Anderson? They're over at Franklin's...

This week's small schools game goes REAL small school, and highlights the undefeated Hillclimbers of Urbana Ohio as they travel to Indian Lake. Located in the center of Champaign county, Urbana High is the home of both the most amazing facility and the most ridiculous mascot in Ohio.

The nickname comes from the the hill that the team walks down to the stadium on Friday nights, which can exceed 8,000 people in attendance. The visiting squad also have the 'honors' of having their sideline on the side of a hill with an approximately 50 degree angle. The most famous alum (so far) is Clancy Brown- you know, that guy from the Shawshank Redemption. This week's game is in memory of #56 Sean Sizemore, center and defensive lineman from the class of 1987.

FORE!!!

Well, the SEC , Pac 10, and Big T1e1N opened up their conference seasons this week, and there were a few surprises in big games.

Georgia continued their road excellence, going to Alabama and handing Nick Saban his first SEC defeat (of many, we hope). T. Boone Pickins University (also known as toOSU) helped lead a defensive clinic against the Pirates of Vince Gill. aTm had a less than happy visit to Miami, while Illinois beat up on a team who's coach died this year (stay classy, Zook). Kentucky beat Arkansas without going to overtime, which is nice, given their history. LSU pounded the Gamecocks and "the Ol' Ball Coach", using a play from Spurrier's plan in the process:

"Click, clack" indeed.

UW didn't rebound against UCLA, and proved the "there's no D in the Pac 10" argument. Also in the Pac, Stanford put 31 points up against Oregon, something Mich1gAAn couldn't do.

Speaking of "Big Blue", that team up north handed it to formally #10 Penn State for the ninth straight time. Folks, as long as they don't play a spread team for the rest of the year, Mich1gAAn is back. Oh, and let's see... if Michigan owns Pennsylvania, and Ohio owns Michigan, that means... Yup, Florida owns Pennsylvania (Right Brian?). Speaking of the Gators, they toyed with Ol' Miss, but ultimately the Tebow juggernaut was way too much.

Now onto the surprises of the week... Syracuse proved that there's no D in Louisville either, with the biggest upset in Big East history. I read somewhere that a Cardinal DB went to a cheerleader after the game for a consoling hug, only to have her slip his grip and run for 40 yards.

Surprise number two was the Nebraska debacle. For perspective on the near loss to Ball State, here's a bit of trivia- the Cardinals' university is named after the Ball family, the same folks who make those glass canning jars that so many Nebraska farmers use to put their crops away. It may be a loooooong season, Husker faithful... At least you have one guarantee.

Surprise number three was the 400 yards that Brevard Tornadoes hung on the Chowan Hawks. 28 first half points- Wow, that's a lot of offense...

But not as much as tOSU's 45 first half points, which was surprise number four. We knew that Northwestern was struggling this year, but come on. Robiskie had three catches for 3 touchdowns. And our favorite defensive end had two sacks and a touchdown. But the game highlight was the introductions- I hope to have video up later this week of the Buckeyes being called out by "The Animal".

Surprise number five... Notre Lame scored a touchdown! Let the saints rejoice... Before the game, there was a sign at Gameday that said "Rushing yards: Notre Dame -18, Me 0". Now I can finally purchase this awesome book and request to be Charlie's friend... Oh, and they still lost. "Hey, emu- Knock Knock" "Who's there?" "Owen" "Owen who?" "O and four"

Final surprises... That we had 5 people pick the Connecticut upset of Pittsburgh, and that Paula ended up with the win for the week! Great work, PG... Hopefully it'll be motivation for you not to miss another chance.

Will would have gotten the picks in, but his daddy changed the password again (something about online spending at Baby's R Us). Nice to see some new faces at the top of the list, while perennial leaders Dan and Michael are at the bottom of it all.

Carrie continues to impress, even being the only one who picked Mich1gAAn over Penn State- "I always feel sorry for Joe Pa." Doug started strong, but faded at the end.
Still Strawns and Shikes at the top, but Aaron is creeping up... In the Picks realm, both he and Amanda are making a run at the title- but there's a huge clump at 26-14 ...For next week, Anderson, Auburn, and Vanderbilt return to the gridiron, against Mt. St. Joe, Florida, and Eastern Michigan, respectively (who do you think has a tougher game?). The Buckeyes travel to Minnesota to play Hayden Fox's Screaming Eagles, and Nebraska plays a team that actually LOST to a MAC school. Arkansas meets North Texas (Mean Green!!), and the Aggies host the Baylor Bears (be nice...). Coach Ty tries his best against U$C, and Sam "How-ston" State travels to TBPU. The Nittany Lions travel to Champaign, and Mich1gAAn tries to see if they can win yet another of their 8 home games. The big game of the week is either Cal at Oregon or Notre Dame going for their fifth loss against Purdue.

In obscure football news... This week's game is the Sul Ross State Lobos traveling to meet Howard Payne Yellow Jackets. Hailing from Texas, these two Division 3 (Whoops, Football "Actually going to class" Subdivision) schools both have interesting heritages. Howard Payne was founded by the Pecan Valley Baptist association, and have faculty who have published a text on "Right to Die" ideologies. Let's hope they aren't on the sports medicine staff as well. Sul Ross State was initially founded as a "normal" college for teacher's education. However, they're known more recently for being the home to the oldest college football player in America, 59 year old Mike Flynt. A grandfather and AARP member, Flynt plays linebacker for the Lobos.

And I'm not bringing this up because someone's turning 65 soon. Not at all.

Seattle Saturday

Our trip to the Washington/Ohio State game is over on another channel:

Seattle + Football = AWESOME

Would you rather...

Quick update today... look for a full report of our trip to Seattle later in the week...
So- which is worse, in your opinion- Would you rather:

• Lose as a ranked team to a cross state rival with only 8 seconds to go?
  
• Be the team who 'stops' the longest losing streak in college football?
• Be embarrassed on the road where you were favored...
• To a team named after a guy that was in my wedding...
• At home, when you were favored?
  
• Or at home, when you were the underdog?
• Fall short to pacifists?
• Have your Heisman Candidate on the sidelines as the clock runs out?
• Lose to the fighting Zooks?
• Or get dumped on by Sea Gulls??

Nope- the winner is "Giving a team who lost to a 1-AA school their first victory of the season". Congrats, Notre Lame!

Just to add insult to injury- the Offensive Genius now has negative 18 yards rushing for the year, zero touchdowns, and a little over 200 yards of total offense for the year. UW had about that much in the first half against one of the better defenses in the country.

Part of it, to be honest, is pure karma (yes, I know Catholics don't do karma...)- for three years, a certain Californian QB spent his time running up the score on inferior competition. And now, well, there's this:

My favorite part of this is the ESPN ticker underneath, reminding us that Notre Dame's QB from the first week is transferring. Classy.

As an aside to our Husker Faithful (for the record, my second favorite team- as allocated in my wedding vows): When Michigan fans start asking questions about your program, you might want to start second guessing your coach.

In LaLaLand, Scott (and Will) led the way during an incredibly difficult week.
Zook's current and former fans rejoice, as Cat and Brian were the only ones to pick the Boston College upset. Major kudos to Dan, who picked UK's Big Blue Upset. (If only their alumni had that much confidence...)
In spite of a 6-4 week I managed somehow to spend my confidence points wisely and tie for the league. Motto? I get my money's worth... someone should take me to Vegas (hint, hint). I was going to change Jake's name on our list, but thought that it would suffice for now. We also seem to have officially lost Doug and Todd- Todd did say that he misplaced his password. Insert "Aggie" joke here. :)

Overall, the Dawgs seem to be prevailing with picks where they couldn't on the scoreboard
For points, could someone not named Strawn or Shike PLEASE step up? Oh, and Mom? You're not helping... :)

Some great games to watch this week: Thursday has the Aggies against the Hurricanes- That's reason enough to skip "My Name Is Earl". Florida gets their shot at Mississippi, while Indiana hosts Illinois (another win, Cat). Kentucky gets a shot against Rev. Nutt, and Nebraska hosts our short-stop's Alma Mater. Both Vandy and Anderson are scheduled not to lose this weekend so that's nice. Ohio State continues the "YAWN" schedule (Youngstown, Akron, Washington, Northwestern), and toOSU hosts Capn' Leach and his band of pirates. Yarr. South Carolina heads to LSU, and the ABC Game of the Week is either WSU/USC or Iowa/Wisconsin. Yup- I'll be poking myself with a sharp stick instead...

Or maybe I can find a way to watch the Chowan and Brevard Division 2 clash, pitting the Hawks against the Tornadoes. Both schools have recently joined the D2 ranks, with Brevard being a provisional member. The Hawks have recently snapped an 18 game losing streak by racking up 508 yards of offense against Mich1gAAn (I kid, I kid...).

Nestled in North Carolina (it's required to use the word "nestled" when describing NoCar), both colleges hail from religious backgrounds. Brevard came to be when two Methodist schools combined, and traces it's heritage back to a one room log cabin schoolhouse. Their website talks about the impact the school has had on Transylvania County, but little about the impact Transylvania has had on the school. Chowan is a Baptist school founded to honor the Native American Algonquin Chowanook tribe. Their code of conduct specifies that there is no "hitting of golf balls on campus, except for the driving range", as well as the standard drugs and alcohol prohibitions. Which would you rather have- a drunk student, or one who's working on their short game?

Sounds about right...

Remember this?

In South Bend, the Domers are not fairing much better... This would be the point where I draw your attention to the fact that Ty Willingham has resurrected the Huskies with his recruits, while "Offensive Genius" Charlie Weis has managed negative eight yards rushing with a team now that Ty's guys have moved on to the NFL.

Just saying.

I'm not the only one making these observations:

WoO: The Natives Are Restless In South Bend

Shouldn't have fired Ty. And yes, I feel that way for more than one reason...

ESPN chimes in as well-

Domers, Your Credibility Is On The Clock

When Notre Dame trap-doored Tyrone Willingham after just three years on the job in 2004, it established a precedent for the next coach: You've got three years, pal. Have it up and running at full speed or else. Or at least that should have been the established precedent, if Notre Dame was interested in treating its next coach the same way it treated the first African-American coach in the school's history. But Charlie Weis probably can go 2-10 in this, his third year, and still be back in 2008.

Why? The simple answer is fairness -- the majority of coaches should get a fourth season, no matter how the third one turned out. But since fairness didn't factor in with Willingham (6-5 in year three, 21-15 overall), The Dash will offer another reason. Weis (0-2 in year three, 19-8 overall) was awarded a 10-year, $30 million-plus contract during his first season -- something that would make a firing very costly. He got the contract largely on the strength of a close loss to a great USC team and some interest from the NFL -- although Weis said at his introductory news conference in December 2004, "I don't come here to leave and take a job in the NFL in three years. This is not a stepping stone. This is an end-all for our family. When we come to Notre Dame, we come here with the intent of retiring here."

So either Notre Dame hysterically overbid to keep an unproven coach who had no intention of going anywhere, or else Weis' loyalty pledge turned weak enough that the school felt compelled to overpay to keep him. Either way, Charlie and the Irish would appear joined at the hip -- even while the Notre Dame of Weis' third season is starting to bear strong resemblance to the Notre Dame of Ty Willingham's intolerable third season. Actually, it's worse. Far worse.

That doesn't mean it can't turn around, but the current product is dreadful. Dating back to last season, the Irish have lost four consecutive games by at least 20 points. Last time Notre Dame lost four straight by 20 or more? How does never sound? But then again, they've only been playing football in South Bend since 1887. (One of the big knocks on Willingham, by the way, was too many blowout losses.)

It could turn out that the teams that ripped the Irish this year, Georgia Tech and Penn State, are the best teams in the ACC and Big Ten, respectively. But that would only continue Weis' trend of beating the bad teams and losing to the good ones. He's 4-6 against ranked opponents (including four straight lopsided losses) and 15-2 against the unranked. Average end-of-season Sagarin rating for the 19 teams Weis has beaten: 62nd. Average end-of-season Sagarin rating for the 21 teams Willingham beat from 2002-04: 55th.

The one thing Weis was supposed to deliver was a state-of-the-art offense capable of carving up any defense. He did that -- when Willingham's players were there. The 2007 Irish have not scored an offensive touchdown, even though Weis told his players his first season they would have a "decided schematic advantage" in every game. Some advantage: They've scored 13 points on the season -- fewest through the first two games of the year since 1942. They're last in the nation in rushing offense and total offense.

The easy fall guy for Domers protective of Weis is the same fall guy they pounded in 2003 and '04: Willingham. They'll tell you his lackluster recruiting left the cupboard bare, setting the stage for this difficult season. They like to talk about the rankings of recruiting classes. The Dash likes to talk about productivity. For instance: Of the 856 points Notre Dame has scored with Weis as head coach, 19 of them have been scored by players who originally committed to and signed with him. That includes the defensive touchdown, the extra point and two field goals that constitute this season's scoring. A Weis recruit has scored exactly one offensive touchdown in 27 games: George West on an 11-yard run last season against Purdue, one of three times West touched the ball from scrimmage in 2006. It's true that Weis coached many of Willingham's players better than Willingham ever did. It's also true that Weis owes Willingham a large debt for at least getting the likes of Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija and Darius Walker on campus.

Meanwhile, Washington is 2-0 in its third season under Willingham, having won by 30 points on the road to open the season and then ending the nation's longest winning streak in a two-touchdown upset of Boise State. Willingham is in a place that suits him better than Notre Dame ever did. He might never have won truly big in South Bend, and might never have been truly happy. But the criticism of Willingham was as excessive as the praise (and compensation) accorded Weis. That's the double standard Notre Dame has set in place, and the double standard it must live with.

But, we've covered this before: Just to be perfectly clear

Two, two, two, two.... let's sing a song of two...

Ok, who knows the reference to today's posting headline? No prizes, unless you count the inability to get the song out of your head...

Second week of fun brings us a lot of doubles... count along with me, will you?

• Two significant overtime games- aTm rode the "cute big feller" (Emily's words) to an overtime victory against Fresno State, while her favorite team saw their overtime bid collapse (although, not as bad as USF's kicker)
• Ohio State's halftime score: Two to three. Sure glad someone got a double and broke up the no hitter.
• Nebraska scored ten times two to defeat Wake Forest.
• UW defeated #22 Boise State in Seattle, to open 2-0
• Two "Kent" schools faced off, with Kentucky rolling over Kent
  
• The battle between two Texas schools went to UT, as they beat the Horned Frogs
• Oklahoma State 42, Florida Atlantic, not that many
• #2 LSU embarrassed Virginia Tech (more on that later)
• Wisconsin needed a fourth quarter surge to get to 20 points and a win over UNLV
• APU's QB completed 24 passes to upset #23 Malone
  

And the most important "two"s of all...

• Both Notre Dame and Mich1gAAn are 0-2 for the first time EVER

It's hard to be too gleeful about this... wait, no it's not.

We suspected that UM would have problems against a better spread offense than App. State, and this was confirmed by sloppy play on the field. We knew that the Wolverines had issues with mobile quarterbacks (see Young, V; Smith, T; and Edwards, A), so we should have seen this coming. However, I don't know how you'd defend this:

However you feel about the spread offense, that's just pretty.

In South Bend, the Domers are not fairing much better... This would be the point where I draw your attention to the fact that Ty Willingham has resurrected the Huskies with his recruits, while "Offensive Genius" Charlie Weis has managed negative eight yards rushing with a team now that Ty's guys have moved on to the NFL.

Just saying.

Other news of note: Vanderbilt lost to Alabama, Anderson fell to DePauW in a night game at a local high school (Joe- any update??), and our friends at South Dakota Tech pulled off a 17-3 victory over Haskell.

Other "Twos" of note- for our picks league, the best only missed two! Congrats Jake and Amanda! Jake was the only one to pick "the great Satan"s victory over Georgia.

Oh, and we had two folks forget to get their picks in this week. At their defense, Paula had student leader training, and Todd's been working to help shape Freshman programing in Malibu. But seriously, guys... how long could it take? No more than two minutes, tops.

At least Jake can celebrate winning both parts of the week... although, some of us with twice the losses only have two less points. Nice to see Doug re-join the group!

Overall, Carrie leads in two categories, and we see that Jake, Aaron, and Terry have asserted themselves as the leaders of their households. Unlike some folks (See below)

It's just a pity that Paula's great first week wasn't repeated. I'm sure that Brian (Florida) and Jake (Auburn) will have a lot of fun trying to work for SEC Supremacy... Behind Dan (Vandy), of course. Cat- Are you sure it's just Zook that needs to pull his head out?

In this guy's opinion, the best team in the country is Louisiana State. If they run the table, they'll get to play for the BCS title in New Orleans (a home game), and should be favored. Again, it's early in the season, but I wouldn't be surprised to see their victory over Va. Tech vault them in the polls over the inactive U$C... which is not good news for the mighty Huskers, who host the Trojan team on Saturday. The "Boys of Troy" will have had a week off to prepare, and will want to regain any of the lost first place votes. Have fun, Big Red...

Other games to watch includes TCU and Air Force on Thursday, toOSU meeting Troy on Friday night, Nebraska and U$C, an Orange battle between Illinois and Syracuse, Auburn looking to rebound against Mississippi State, the other Miss. school squares off against Vandy, the always great Tennessee/Florida game, Arkansas welcomes Saban to the SEC, and the bluegrass QB shootout finds Louisville at Kentucky (don't expect any defense).

The "2000 Flushes Bowl" will find one heralded freshman QBs leading their team to the first win. Personally, I still wish there were ties in CFB; barring that, I'll be wishing that the ground in Ann Arbor opens up and swallows the Irish and the Wolverines.

Small schools: Earlham's Fighting Quakers visit the Anderson Ravens (and you know how I feel about fighting quakers), Mount Union resumes play against Otterbein (not autobahn), and APU plays Wisconsin-La Crosse. I wonder if that's like regular lacrosse with more cheese...

The "Who???" game of the week: Christopher Newport hosts Salisbury at POMOCO stadium. Where do we start here... POMOCO auto group paid $1 million dollars to buy the naming rights, and I'm sure they're also bringing peace of mind. Christopher Newport was originally an off shoot of William and Mary, but gained it's own status in 1991. Named after one of the Jamestown expedition's leaders, the college's mascot is the Captains.

The Captains will face off against their arch nemesis, the Sea Gulls of Salisbury college. No mention of steak, or or potential famous alumni. Students at this Maryland school are required to sign the "Salisbury University Promise" including a commitment to connect what they learn to how they live. This, I like.

Next week: Update will be a little late, as the Musings head on a road trip to Seattle for the chocolaty goodness that is Washington Football. What will happen when our second favorite coach squares off against our favorite? Will Carrie still let me near our daughter after going to a tOSU game with me? Will the Dawgs ever prevail?

Only one way to find out...

I Heart Lou Holtz

Shoot, after listening to this, I want to go out and make Oregon pay for what's happened in the last week...

That's awesoMe

Look, it's obvious that I'm an Ohio State fan. Scarlet and Grey, all the way. As such, I'm not a fan of That Team Up North, and found myself filled with glee yesterday. Schadenfreude anyone?

But, I'm also someone who appreciates a rivalry for what it is, and will recognize greatness when I see it.

I've been impressed with the way that two of my favorite Mich1gAAn blogs have been responding to the upset Saturday. The MZone is always one of the funniest blogs out there, college football or not. But this week, that title goes to Brian at MGoBlog- always one of the best college football blogs on the net.

First, the blog went blank with a "Technical Difficulties" sign.

Then, it came back up and had turned into a blog about kitties... some of which is still up, but he's removed the pink banner and template.

The tipping point, though, goes to the new post/banner/soundclip. Please check it out here: It's Emo Week.

Oh, and bookmark the site- if you love college football, you won't regret it.

Kick offs and giggles

Ahhhh... All is right with the world. College football is back!

From big hits:

To amazing catches:

To great runs:

It's good to have things back to normal... And that includes our Picks League!

Let's get right to the "small colleges games of the weeks"- Anderson's Ravens used defensive prowess to once again unlock the Taylor Trojans and claimed the Wagon Wheel (has TU ever won that thing?), which means that Joe can keep his job for one more week. Whew. I'd make fun of the shades, but he's still supposed to send me a t-shirt... Azusa scheduled above their level, and didn't play that way. Defending Division 3 champs Mount Union set a national record with a 52 point FIRST quarter. Oh, and Pepperdine is still undefeated.

What other small schools played well yesterday? Oh, that's right...

Appalachian State Beat #5 Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Let that sink in a bit... The same place that produced this:

also produced this:

You've already heard this overanalyzed to death, so let me just say the following: 1) If it means the end of Llllloyd (Cooper) Carr, then I grieve this day, 2) It was only one reason that I was giddy yesterday (more later). However, to commemorate this event, I have decided to add to my pantheon of 'humorous' intentional misspellings. Along with U$C, the Big lEast, the Big T1e1n, we honor the team from Ann Arbor as:

Mich1gAAn

Remember you read it here first. (Update: Thanks, Jeff, for spreading the word.)

Ok, now to real football. Ohio State taught the Penguins about global warming, Nebraska made Nevada look ridiculous, Arkansas survived without Mitch "Show me the Money" Mustain, and the Aggies road their huge tailback to victory. TCU continued to roll, Kentucky blew someone out, Vanderbilt was victorious, and the Tim Tebow era at Florida started well (at least he didn't eat a small child). The SEC looked weak against the Pac 10, but great (or adequate) against the Big 12. Coach Ty's bosco obsession led to a victory over Syracuse, this week's winner of the "ugly uniform award". Illinois renewed their rivalry with Missouri, and celebrated by throwing a late interception to lose. Some things never change, huh?

There were more giggles from Malibu as Notre Dame got it handed to them at home by Georgia Tech. Combined with Mich1gAAn's loss and the Nebraska/tOSU victories, we almost reached a level of excitement that would have been unmeasurable by any scale.

In our picks league, a bit of early controversy. Doug had "technical difficulties" logging into the website, and sent his picks to me via email before the 9:00 (12:00 ET) kickoffs. Dude, get a new computer. As a result, I've made a decision about these types of things. 1) If you're having problems, you can email me your picks before noon Eastern Time (9:00 AM PT) and they will count. 2) They will only count for the "picks" portion of our league- you still lose the points. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Speaking of "some things never change", our overall leader from last year started off by coming out of the gates with a shutout- no misses! Here's how the rest of the league fared...

Nice to see that Todd and Cat also didn't loose anything in the off season. :)

Here's where we are by the points- a couple of folks with two misses are near the top of the league.

And Carrie, Emily, and Amanda continue their supremacy in the Strawn/Gross/Terp households. Where's Michelle this year, Dan? How much did you pay her not to play? :)

Next week holds a huge slate of games, including VaTech and LSU. I think the "healing" is officially over. Also, the battle for West Virginia as Marshall heads to Morgantown; the new look Hurricanes see if they remember how to beat Oklahoma; Nebraska travels to North Carolina; tOSU continues their rampage of the state of Ohio; Vandy gets the first SEC shot at Satan... uh Saban; Mich1gAAn tries to rebound against the Ducks, Fresno's Bulldogs travel to College Station; Florida plays Troy (oooo.... Troy); TCU and Texas match up for state bragging rights; Illinois finds a MAC school to pick on; Auburn faces Conference USA; toOSU faces the mighty Owls, and Notre Dame hopes they can be successful in the face of a Penn State "white out".

Small schools: Anderson squares off against the Tigers of DePauW, and Azusa hosts Malone. Wonder if Diane knows...

Obscure game of the week: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology travels to Lawrence Kansas to face the Haskell Indian Nations. While the Haskell team boasts an obvious mascot/nickname, I think they're missing a heck of an opportunity here. I'm sure the Haskell's are way too polite for that, thought. SDSMT's sports teams are known as the Hardrockers (it's just a coincidence, I'm sure), and may have a new found appreciation for the passing game.

You can't win if you don't play!