College Football

[Lord Nepenthean]

Am I the only big college football fan here?

The NFL is cool and all, but growing up in Cincinnati during the last 13 years, there hasn't been much to cheer about.  Both of my parents and several other relatives went to Ohio State, so naturally I've been a fan since the day after I was born, when I saw OSU whoop that team from up north.

The Buckeyes have a lot of good things going for them, but their offense needs to do something.  The first two games they showed a lot of promise but kept turning the ball over.  Today they didn't make big mistakes, but they only produced 138 yards.  Blech.

Michigan lost last week to Notre Dame, which of course bought Ty Willingham a little more time with a paying salary.  The Wolverines looked awful again this week, but San Diego State decided in the fourth quarter to give the game up rather than win in the Big House.

The Big Ten should be interesting this year.  Penn State looks better than they have in a long time, Indiana has actually pulled off a few wins, and Purdue could be the powerhouse of the conference for a change.

Any thoughts on who this year's champ will be?  Oaklahoma could do it, but they seem so pissed about last year that I think somebody will knock them off.  Georgia or Miami could do it, though I don't want either to go that far undefeated.  Miami in particular needs to lose.  They have some tough games, but they also have some REALLY easy ones, like the one they had today.

I'm not watching the Notre Dame game right now, but I hope they pull off a win.

Oh, and who's taking bets on whether Army will actually win a game this year?

[Hydrobond]

The Big Ten should be interesting this year.  Penn State looks better than they have in a long time, Indiana has actually pulled off a few wins, and Purdue could be the powerhouse of the conference for a change.

Syracuse @ Purdue - W 51-0
Ball State @ Purdue - W 59-7
Purdue @ Illinois - W 38-30
Purdue @ ND - W 41 - 16
Purdue @ Penn State - 20-13 W

In the first two games, Purdue went 110-7.  Not too shabby.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Yeah your QB is looking really good.  I'd much rather see him win the Heisman than Mr. Poopy Pants from Oklahoma.

[Hydrobond]

Indeed.  Another great performance from him today against the Illini.  Our defense is struggling a little bit because we lost 7 defensive guys to the NFL last year, including one to the Bengals. If our defense gets its act together, we will be unstopable.  

Purdue @ Illinois - W 38-30

[Lord Nepenthean]

That's pretty much the same thing with OSU.  If they would get the offense (namely Justin Zwick and the O-Line) in sync, they'd be unstoppable.  And that's even considering they lost a record fifteen players to the NFL, not to mention the rest of their seniors that graduated, including their top two QB's.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Looks like Purdue is the Big Ten's only hope.  If the Buckeyes (read: Justin Zwick) are going to lose to a team that they haven't lost to since 1971, they'll be lucky to go .500.  Pathetic.

Orton, on the other hand, looks amazing.  I don't want to see him beat Ohio State, but I sure hope he gets the Heisman.

[Hydrobond]

Yet another one down.  We took out the Irish this weekend, after a 30 year losing streak in South Bend.  

Purdue @ ND - W 41 - 16

[Hydrobond]

As if the 30 year losing streak at ND was not enough, the Boilers beat Penn State in their stadium, something that we hadn't done since 1948!!!!!!

Purdue @ Penn State - 20-13 W

[Lord Nepenthean]

Sorry about today, Jay.  I really wanted to see Purdue win.  Look at it this way: at least you're not Ohio State.  I didn't see the Purdue game.  Did Orton play well?  Think he still has a shot at the Heisman even with the loss?  I really hope so.  I don't want White to get it at all, and his performance today was unfortunately a lot better than the last few.  

Today was a bad day in football overall.  The unnamed menace from the north won, Purdue lost, OSU played worse than the Bengals under Akili Smith, Oklahoma won, Florida won....  At least Notre Dame beat Navy (again).  And there's always St. X to root for.....

[Hydrobond]

To be honest, we really should have won.  We were playing just about our worst game of football this year, we were just not in sync like we had been earlier in the season.  

Heisman is gone, unless the other candidates screwed up as much as Orton.

The officials were also no help.  There were two plays that really made a difference in the game.  The first one, Orton fell back but was being folowed by two W players.  He ran to the side and made a few yards headway but was dropped to the by the two W players.  When he hit the gound, he fumbled, and one of the W players picked the ball up for a touchdown.  This gave W the lead.   Then, on our final drive, the score was 17-20, them.  Orton through a great pass for a gain of 20 yards that would have made our final field goal much, much easier, but the ref ruled it incomplete.  It was obvious that the reciever got both of his feet down before going out of bounds, but the refs decided he didn't.  Oh well, if W loses a game, we still go to the Rose Bowl,  But that may not happen.  

Our schedule frome here on out is all Big Ten games, so we do have a chance to redeem ourselves. Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa, OSU, Indiana.  

W's schedule for the rest of the year looks like this: Northwestern, Minnesota, Michigan St., Iowa.

Funny you should mention X.  Two rows in front of me there was a guy with his X letter jacket on.  Didn't know him though, prolly one or two years ahead of us.  

[Lord Nepenthean]

Orton through a great pass for a gain of 20 yards that would have made our final field goal much, much easier, but the ref ruled it incomplete.  It was obvious that the reciever got both of his feet down before going out of bounds, but the refs decided he didn't.

In college, all you need is one foot in bounds, so that was probably an even worse call than you thought.  As for the remaining schedules of those teams....  Wisconsin's is easier than Purdue's, mainly because they don't have to play Michigan.

[Hydrobond]

It's up to Northwestern, they seems to be pulling out wins that no one expected.  So maybe.  And Iowa is fairly good, but I dont think they can handle W.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Oh I hope Northwestern can pull off another unexpected win at Michigan.  I might get to go to that game, and since the girlfriend is a UM fan, I would LOVE to see Northwestern win even more than I would have just as an OSU fan.

[Hydrobond]

OMG nep! Your gf is a UM fan?  How can you put up with that?!?!?!

[Lord Nepenthean]

Not only that, but she goes to a branch campus of the school.  I was sure to tell her how Ann Arbor looks like Mordor at the end of Return of the King, and how Columbus just radiates with brilliant, beautiful light.  I also explained to her that she probably shouldn't go to the main UM campus because bubonic plague originated there, and that's why millions of people died in Europe centuries ago.