SB Nation Chicago: All Posts by Bobby Loesch

Alabama vs. Georgia Is This Week's Only Important Game (The Hybrid)

2012-11-29T16:31:27Z

I can't stop thinking about how much I sports hate Notre Dame.

These feelings were dormant for so long. It was as if I thought I'd matured or grown out of it. Nope. ND was just playing uncompetitive football. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was always fun to see them experience their first loss, but beyond that? Meh. I'm not going to pile on. But then this season happened, and I started to get angsty. So much success, such a boring offense. Then break after break after break: Purdue being Purdue, Michigan refusing to coach, the end zone call in the Stanford game, the Pitt kicker individually pooping on all of his teammates, and, most recently, facing a USC QB who was greener than green.

Things crested this week when Drew Magary wrote his "Hater's Guide To Notre Dame" piece over at Deadspin. It was as if he spoke for me.

Some choice cuts:

The idea that Notre Dame serves as an EKG monitor for the overall health of college football is a lie, of course. Notre Dame has sucked for decades, while college football has been growing and thriving (and will finally realize its full potential in 2014 when a national playoff begins) over the same span. Whether or not the Irish stumble their way through a handful of wins against shitty service academies to find themselves in the national title game has nothing to do with it.

Because the truth is that Notre Dame is the college football team for people who don't like college football. They're a novelty, a program designed to capture the attention of casual casual casual casual college football fans—New York-media types who believe that something is relevant only when they've deigned to pay attention to it. These are the people who say they're rooting for Notre Dame because "they're a great story," which is what you say when you're a front-running douchebag.

...I hate Notre Dame for the exact same reasons I hate Tim Tebow. It's an underperforming football entity with an irritating tribal gloss of holiness, which gets far too much acclaim and adulation when it happens to succeed...

Rudy: Goddamn that movie for making me root for Notre Dame for three seconds. And the worst part is that Joe Montana said they carried Rudy off the field as a practical joke.

Theismann, Joe: He was Joe THEEZ-man when he arrived at South Bend. He changed the pronunciation of his own name because the sports publicity department told him to, so it would rhyme with "Heisman," which he never won.

Haha, Theismann was the best. Man, it feels good to get that out of my system. Let's put last week behind us -- shudder. -- and close out this college football season right: with potshots at Iowa and some other random thoughts.

The Hybrid

Selective Hits On The BCS Top 25

1) Notre Dame: Hold on, I'm gonna pretend like I'm coaching USC.

/calls for shitty run up the middle on first down

/waits 30 seconds

/calls unforgivable time out

/calls for shitty run up the middle on second down

/calls backbreaking, game-ending timeout, where even if a touchdown was scored, so much clock was drained, that the game and life itself are now irrelevant

/...

/runs up the middle

2) Alabama: Real sign at the 'Bama-Auburn game said "A.J. Football For Heisman".

...stupid.

I also asked Clemson Tom about one of the South's favorite haircuts, 'Bama Bangs.

Justin Bieber. Lesbians. Southern frat guys. What do all these have in common? No, not Sorority Row memorized but simply, the same haircut.

Fraternity guys have a ton of nicknames: Frat Stars, Frat-tastic, Frat Brat, etc. Frat-Tastic is a nickname I started, let me explain. Frat-Tastic is when a guy in his 20's wears a polo shirt, shorts, Sperrys, sunglasses around his neck, and the Bama Bangs.

Frat-Tastic is basically extremely preppy. Don't think I'm bias here, yours truly was in a fraternity, president at that. So I feel qualified for this. Not all fraternity guys have the "Bama Bangs" but in the south it's a way of passage.

I never had "Bama Bangs" while in college, I was too busy hitting on the guy's girlfriend who did (true story). I'm not sure who thought this was a good look, if Justin Bieber does it, it should be an immediate eviction of one's man card.

Honestly, I attempted to rock the "Bama Bangs" My excuse? She was a hot Georgia girl, so don't be mad at me, I was on an agenda!

The bangs though...are they a fad? Are they a protest against the barbers of America? Or is it simply hazing? I'm not sure but this I will say...Nick Saban was born on Halloween, never smiles, and I've yet to see him tell the truth. Is he evil?

Bama Bangs. Even Auburn thinks they suck.

'Bama Bangs, man.

3) Georgia: I want to give you respect for beating Florida at Florida, but you literally ducked every other SEC opponent of significance. LSU, A&M, and Alabama. Man. If you win the SEC title, nothin' but dap, but the second you go down 7-3 (and you will), I'll hate you forever.

4) Florida: Really great win over FSU. I don't know why this team continues to surprise me so much. I don't ever remember two Top 5 staples (Georgia/Florida) playing so well but feeling so underrated and simultaneously under the radar.

5) Oregon: I assume you beat Oregon State? I don't know, who cares.

6) Kansas State
7) LSU
8) Stanford: Bleh.

9) Texas A&M: Remember, even though he saved college football for one week, Johnny Football probably still sucks. Exhibit A.

#FreeTebow
— Johnny Manziel (@JManziel2) November 23, 2012

/sigh

10) South Carolina
11) Oklahoma
12) Nebraska: Good win over Iowa, you do nothings. Regardless, I've liked you all year and hope you severely light up Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game.

13) Florida State
14) Clemson: Really bummed they lost to South Carolina. Blame Clemson Tom for getting me overly invested in the 2012 Clemson Tigers. I believed in Boyd, man.

15) Oregon State
16) UCLA
17) Kent State
18) Texas: From the "Kiss My Ass, Mack Brown" department is Jesse Palmer apologizing for doing the upside down hook 'em horns sign. Man, I hope that was done as a joke. I like Palmer a lot; they clearly forced his hand.

19) Michigan: I didn't think I'd care about The Game. Michigan had nothing (really) to play for. Ohio State was undefeated but oh-so sanctioned. But then pre-game happened. Seeing Denard happened. Tearing up happened. I'll probably have to forever erase every play from the game past this phenomenal run. My god, Denard.

Silver Linings

- Michigan QB Devin Gardner is rumored to be getting a medical redshirt from his freshman year where he only threw 10 passes before a 'back injury'. If so, he'll get another full year of eligibility/presumably starting. That'd be nice. For context, Michigan hasn't started a healthy senior QB against Ohio State since 2002/2003. It's been a full decade.

- Yeah, Ohio State went undefeated, but they proved themselves to be idiots as they had it wasted (unfairly, but still wasted) and cheered Jim Tressel -- the man solely responsible for screwing them over. Truly unreal.

- Project 17 lives! It's funny, most people look at Michigan as mediocre at worst or above average at best, but their losses are pretty impressive: they lost to Alabama (the best team in the country), Notre Dame (the only undefeated team in the country), Ohio State (the only 'other' undefeated team in the country), and Nebraska (Big Ten title favorite). If tOSU wasn't sanctioned, Michigan's entire group of losses would be to teams ranked No. 1, 2, and 3 and then the likely Rose Bowl participant. This is a long-winded way of explaining why M didn't drop in the rankings despite a road loss to undefeated Ohio State. It is still on the table for them to finish No. 17. If anything, they might have a shot to finish even higher. How crazy is that?

- After being torn on Urban Meyer (loved the coaching/might not like him as a person), I'm now fully out on him. He's just such a joyless complainer. And yes, you can call me out on that criticism, as I am Bill Belichick's biggest booster, but I think the difference is BB is joyless but still cool while Meyer is joyless and expects sympathy from the world and all of the referees who live in it. His halftime interviews are like poorly written diary entries.

That spread though, man.

- This video, which is probably Top 3 for Things To Come Out Of This College Football Season list. No lie. I beg you to watch the entire thing; it's only 1:31.

20) Boise State
21) Northern Illinois: Now that was a nice surprise. One of my Top 10 favorite college football programs enters the Top 25. And it makes Iowa look way less crappy for almost losing to them.

22) Northwestern: Ugh.
23) Oklahoma State
24) Utah State
25) San Jose State

Unranked But Still Interesting

Iowa: These things I know.

1) My alma mater just submitted one of the most offensively disgraceful seasons we've seen in college football to date.

2) I will be boycotting Iowa football if OC Greg Davis is retained.

3) Kirk Ferentz will not be fired, so talking about it is unnecessary.

4) Here are some Doc Sat lines about Iowa-Nebraska last week.

Nebraska clinches spot in Big Ten title game thanks in part to Iowa’s conservative approach

...

The game was played in heavy winds that kept both quarterbacks at less than 100 yards passing for the day. Although the game was ugly, Nebraska finished it with a dominating fourth quarter on defense. Iowa helped by being safer than someone in Vegas who stays on 8 while playing blackjack.

...

Iowa had the wind at its back in the fourth quarter, but called the game like it was going into the wind. Iowa gained just one first down in the fourth quarter.

How conservative was Iowa? The Hawkeyes once punted from Nebraska's 30-yard line. Yes, it was fourth and 13 and there was a strong wind, but that decision was one of the many flabbergasting ones by a team that came in with a 4-7 record. Iowa punted into the end zone, giving it a whopping 10-yard net gain. Have we mentioned Kirk Ferentz has one of the most coach-friendly contracts in sports?

...

The Iowa crowd sounded really annoyed when Iowa got the ball back with less than four minutes left and acted like it was sitting on a lead. A run and short pass gained 12 yards and took about 1:20 as fans continued to scream to hurry up. Then the Hawkeyes threw an interception on a short pass that sealed the loss. Keep in mind, Iowa had four wins. But hey, at least Ferentz kept the losing margin under 10.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Every game of this season -- even the wins -- was terrible, save Minnesota. I went to the Michigan State game (Iowa's last win, which was [seriously] back in early October), and it was epic and cathartic and crazy survival, but it was also terrible.

I'm just so glad they weren't nationally relevant. Some weeks, I just thought "well, they suck, so I can just ignore this in The Hybrid", but there was no way I was going to let that 13-7 home loss to Nebraska get off that easily. And if you were going to say "well, it's the off-season, so you don't have to think about them anymore", I'd say *wrong* -- a freshman RB got a drunk driving arrest just this past weekend. That's two crimes.

Miami (FL): Speaking of reasons to seriously consider boycotting the NCAA, have you heard about this? The NCAA is like a cartoonish Batman villain at this point -- except not really. Batman villains are obvious. The NCAA gets away with this sanctimonious 'amateur athletes' crap, while they rake in money and make these incredibly egregious power moves like "Miami players, if you don't talk to us, we'll assume you're guilty."

Such a crock.

Ohio State: The Buckeyes going undefeated but missing out on the Big Ten title game (and national championship) ended somehow worse than I thought. Exhibit O.

Iowa (again): I was done talking about Iowa, but in the middle of me writing this, they announced they are bringing OC Greg Davis back next year. So that settles it: for the first time in my life, I will be boycotting a team I actually root for. Even worse, it's the school I graduated from. This is depressing. My buddy Iowa Ryan sent me this to try to fire me up for the 2013 season (it's a graphic from Davis' time at Texas).

It, uh, didn't help fire me up.

Any Sweet Games This Weekend?

Thursday
Louisville at Rutgers: A Big Ten-ACC clash!

Friday Night Lights
Northern Illinois (21) vs. Kent State (17): Give all glory to the MAC.

UCLA (16) at Stanford (8): Screw you, Stanford.

Saturday
Alabama (2) vs. Georgia (3): Saban complained this week about how it's unfair for the SEC title game loser to miss out on the Sugar Bowl. He actually phrased it pretty well and didn't come off that bad, but since I ripped former MSU QB Kirk Cousins for complaining about the same damn thing last year, I have to at least address Saban.

So, to refresh, if the winner is going to go to the national title, this is how it works in the SEC for the best three teams after the title game is played.

1) Champ goes to national title game
2) Champ loser goes to a non-BCS bowl (third best bowl of this group)
3) Third best team, which doesn't play in SEC title game, goes to Sugar Bowl (second best bowl)

On paper, not super fair, but why should one-loss Florida get screwed over just because Georgia lost twice? Getting mad at that is nothing but mini-Tebow Kirk Cousins logic. Last year, after MSU got SPARTY NO'd in the Big Ten title game, Sconnie went to the Rose Bowl while Michigan (the Big Ten's third best team) also went BCS. It was great, and no one cared, but then Cousins was like "Michigan just sat on their couch and did nothing while we went out and played! Wah wah!" Dude, like, you have a point, but to get to the best game, you basically have to risk losing the chance to play in the second best game. And if you lose and end up in the third best game, it's not the end of the world. Florida head coach Will Muschamp basically said as much in response to Sabes:

"Well, I can switch and go to Atlanta if he doesn't want to go to Atlanta and play the Dawgs," Muschamp said. "Be careful what you ask for, Nick."

#treated

Nebraska (12) vs. Wisconsin: Big Ten Title game. Wisconsin's final chance to troll the world. Kills me to not be driving to Indy to see Michigan on Saturday. Their time will come.

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

via media.pennlive.com

Wrapping It Up...

So this is the end. I probably won't be back next week, but if the bowls seem easy to preview and something crazy happens in the SEC title game, maybe. Worst case, I will for *sure* be back in January to preview the national title game. Hate levels will be renewed. In the meantime, have a great holiday and try to also enjoy some real football (the NFL).

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. he can be reached at bobbyloesch@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

Poll

'Bama-Georgia: who ya got?

ROLL DAMN TIDE

3 votes

Roof Roof Georgia

6 votes

9 votes | Poll has closed

Alabama vs. Notre Dame Headlines Our Worst Ever National Title Game Scenario

2012-11-21T15:22:58Z

"There are still things to love about college football—I mean, Denard—but increasingly they are surrounded by crap that you tolerate."

That's basically where I stand right now with college athletics. Because, friends, last weekend, it all came crumbling down. Why rehash with detail, when we can bullet point and help gloss over our pain.

Denard physically unable to throw a pass on his own damn Senior Day
K-State loses
Oregon loses
Notre Dame, the most hated team in all of college football, reigns supreme as the undisputed No. 1 team in the country
USC star QB Matt Barkley goes down with an injury, just in time to miss the Notre Dame game and give the Irish any real obstacle to making the national title
Alabama, from the most vile, arrogant, annoying conference in all of football, is back into the national title game
The Big Ten -- the stupidest, lamest, whitest, most boring, shitty, dated, antiquated -- conference, decided to add Maryland and GD Rutgers into its mix, solely to be rich assholes
None of this is a joke

After last year's inSECstual title game, I was so positive there was nowhere left to go in college football but up. It wasn't something I nervously was telling myself ("it'll get better, it'll get better, it'll be better"), no -- it was something I legitimately believed. But it was naive to think we'd bottomed out as fans; it was so naive. Because now we're in a situation where we legitimately *have* to root for an SEC team to win the national title.

Because that's how life is now.

The Hybrid

Selective Hits On The BCS Top 25

1) Notre Dame: The only unbeaten team left in all the land... who'd be double-digit underdogs to any other team in the Top 5. Listen, Irish, I'm a bitter, defeated man, but it's hard not to give you at least a little dap. As Jay Electronica would say, you went from MySpace to the top of the food chain. The rise couldn't be called anything but meteoric. But sensible Notre Dame fans know this team sucks. When I say "sucks", I don't mean "bad" -- they're just not a super elite squad. And that's OK, you don't *have* to be. But when you get a million breaks because of stupid idiot clowns blowing completely winnable games, you have to look the part at some point. ND should wear No. 1 well this week, but this is setting up for a shitty national title game to end all shitty national title games.

2) Alabama: Just... get SO bent.

The only reason I've decided to talk about you is because two funny things happened.

a. Someone sets something on mega-fire and e-mails Deadspin saying "ROLL TIDE".

b. Alabama family celebrates Oregon's loss to Stanford. Suicide pact for me!

3) Georgia: Whatever.

4) Florida: asl;dkfjas;dfklj;

5) Oregon: Before your home choke against Stanford, I had about a 9,000 word Oregon propaganda piece ready for this week. I'd read Grantland's article on Chip Kelly and his offensive background/philosophy, and I was set to excerpt the hell out of it. This week? I'm not even going to link it. Because the Ducks let me down in the worst way. And knowing Chip Kelly might leave college football after this year isn't just salt in the wound, it's duck sauce in the eye.

6) Kansas State: Oh, you stupid stupid sucks.

Baylor beat you, and because of that, I direct you all to ESPN's RG3/'Merica debacle, which is so good. It really renews my faith in hating the majority of the human race.

7) LSU: There have been better quotes, better one liners, better moments -- eating grass comes to mind -- but I don't think I've seen a better overall Les Miles press conference than the postgame from last Saturday. Found it embed worthy.

8) Stanford: Die forever. If you're so great, why can't you ever actually contend for the national title game? "Ooooh, we beat USC and screwed up everything! Let's buy rings!"

You couldn't even do it with Andrew Luck. You're the worst, Stanford. Where were you against Notre Dame? Let me spot you ten more carries on the goal line to see if you can run the ball in. Spoiler alert: you won't be able to.

9) Texas A&M: Aight, you're cool.

10) Florida State: K.

11) Clemson: Let's let Clemson QB Tajh Boyd do the heavy lifting. Here is him scoring eight touchdowns against NC State last week.

12) South Carolina
13) Oklahoma
14) Nebraska
15) Oregon State
16) Texas: *How* did you drop out of the Top 15? Is there any justice in this horrible world?

17) UCLA
18) Rutgers: You say "nationally irrelevant", "probably really boring", and "ranked No. 18". I say "Big Ten ready".

19) Michigan: Michigan is two spots away from the coveted No. 17 ranking, but here's why Project 17 will definitively fail: stupid Nebraska continues to beat dumb teams who suck, so Michigan can't go to the Big Ten title game. This means Michigan will only have two games left this season: vs. Ohio State, then whoever they play in their bowl. The best case scenario is probably 1-1. And 1-1 ain't gonna get you 17. The dream is dead. Let's leave.

Here's Fitz Touissant's leg.

20) Louisville
21) Oklahoma State
22) Boise State
23) Kent State: ???????

24) Arizona: RICH ROD HELL YEAH.

25) Washington

Any Sweet Games This Weekend?

Thursday
TCU at Texas (16): Man, I'll take it.

Friday
Nebraska (14) at Iowa: Typing with one hand as the other is held high in the air, solely dedicated to middle-fingering Iowa. This game infuriates me, and it's days from happening. I'm looking up the spread right now, just to hate myself more.

Haha, Iowa getting 15 points at home. Iowa could literally be given 15 points to start the game, and not only would they still probably lose, I'd still say it's possible they couldn't cover another 15.

Washington (25) at Washington State: The only way Mike Leach's year one can be somewhat salvaged is if Wazzu figures out a way to win this game. They're also getting nearly two touchdowns at home.

What the hell happened to everything?

Saturday
Michigan (19) at Ohio State: Ohio State is undefeated and Michigan is playing to keep its Big Ten title game hopes alive, but don't worry, this game is totally meaningless because, about 15 years ago, players completely unrelated to this Ohio State team were cool and got free tattoos because they have fantastic football abilities. Only the ass backwards NCAA could ruin The Game. What a piece of crap week, year, and era in college football. Anyone who watches college football is a moron.

Georgia Tech at Georgia (3): Bzzz.

Oregon (5) at Oregon State (15): DOOOOON'T CARRRRRRRRE

Our worst case scenario is Oregon winning this game by, like, 35, right? Because really? REALLY?!

Auburn at Alabama (2): Hard to get up for a this sacred rivalry game when Alabama is currently making Keep Gene Chizik shirts.

Florida (3) at Florida State (10): This is probably our Game of the Week, which is pretty cool because it doesn't really even have national title implications.

South Carolina (12) at Clemson (11): Here's Clemson Tom's Cocks hype video. Dude is locked in this week. And he was gracious enough to write up a game preview for this one on, like, 10 minutes notice.

This weekend isn't just a game, it's a Civil War. It's one of the biggest rivalry games in the South. Clemson vs. South Carolina. They hate us, and we hate them. It's a passionate rivalry, and yes, it's gonna get ugly.

The game starts at 7:30 p.m. (EST) on ESPN, but rest assured, tailgates in Clemson will start at 6 a.m. There is absolutely no chance South Carolina will beat Clemson this year. South Carolina is one of the most overrated teams in college football. They have a quarterback named Connor Shaw ("Mr. Glass"). Seriously, I've never seen a QB constantly get hurt and stay hurt. He also shaves his head and looks like the bad guy from the movie "Higher Learning". I honestly think he's in a cult.

Now on their defense, they have two great defensive ends on both sides of the line. Ones nickname is honest to God, "Doo-Doo". I can't make that joke up, but seriously that is his nickname.

At the beginning of the season, South Carolina was led to believe from ESPN that they were the greatest team to ever play football, and yes, that includes the NFL. Sadly, that's not true.

My Clemson Tigers will not only defeat South Carolina, but I predict Boyd, Watkins, Hopkins, Ellington, and Ford to put up at least 60 points on their weak secondary. To say I hate the South Carolina Gamecocks would be an understatement -- I absolutely despise everything that they have anything to do with.

Please follow me on Twitter to see the tweets of the rivalry @ClemsonTom

Excuse me while I go watch "Rocky 3", "Fight Club", and any other movie that can get me absolutely jacked up for this game. I do have an appointment with my cardiologist for Sunday just to make sure I will not have a heart attack.

Notre Dame (1) at USC: Probably our Game of the Week *last week* before everything went to hell. The only way the sport of college football could be redeemed is if Notre Dame loses this game, Alabama gets caught for cheating, and Jim Delany does a press conference with a "JK LOL" banner behind his stupid face. Because I don't see any of those things happening, it's time to wallow in the ruins of this relic of an institution.

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

Wrapping It Up...

Have a crappy Thanksgiving.

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. he can be reached at bobbyloesch@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

Poll

Who do you want to see win the national title?

Alabama

25 votes

Notre Dame

29 votes

Literally Anyone Else

18 votes

72 votes | Poll has closed

Johnny Football, Oregon, Let's Break Rules

2012-11-15T15:34:46Z

Johnny gosh dang Football.

Last week, I questioned why I follow college football but stubbornly decided -- despite all evidence not to do so -- to maintain a positive outlook on this weird, weird sport. My reward? D-D-D-*DOWN* goes Alabama.

It left me in a happy daze, like Frank The Tank himself.

"I think I see Blue... he looks glorious"

Johnny Manziel played the perfect game. Texas A&M's redshirt freshman signal caller made me fall in love with college football again. Because when a team of no-fun lames takes a stranglehold -- and believe me, until LSU showed flaws, that's what it was -- on the whole sport, things get a lot less fun, don't they? Alabama gave us no reason to think they wouldn't go undefeated and win the national title by some awful margin of victory like 12.

But Manziel, man. His runs, his throws, his... agitations. It was the perfect game. And he played it. More importantly, A.J. McCarron didn't. Alabama had "THEYUHR CHAYUNCE"... but it didn't matter. Was not to be.

In the aftermath, we have two super fun teams in the Top 2 with Notre Dame knocking on the door. Fresh, new blood, and, definitely most importantly, we're facing the prospect of a no-SEC title game.

Pinch me. No, poke me in the face. No, punch me in the mouth.

This is all we've ever dreamed.

The Hybrid

Selective Hits On The BCS Top 25

1) Kansas State: The good news is you're No. 1 in the nation and no one seems to hate you. The bad news? I'm kinda out on Collin Klein. A little tall and boring for my tastes. I'm a Johnny Football man now (more on the homie JF below).

2) Oregon: Well Oregon, you won our hearts with offense, consistency, running up the score, and general creativity. What's your encore? Oh, potentially moving one of your most dynamic weapons to the defensive side of the ball?

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

3) Notre Dame: Can't even be mad at ya, brah. Not this week.

4) Alabama: Presented without any introduction.

It might rival Ricky's Rant (caution: horrible racism) as the best Alabama fan freakout vid the world has ever seen.

5) Georgia: Georgia is second in a stretch of teams No. 4 through No. 9 in the Top 10 being exclusively SEC. This is much easier to marvel at and respect when none of 'em are occupying the top two spots.

6) Florida
7) LSU
8) Texas A&M: Last Saturday, when pro-SEC Everything/sometimes troll Clay Travis wrote this about Johnny Manziel, I thought he was kinda crazy.

Tonight Johnny Manziel won the Heisman trophy.

Period.

If you vote for anyone else, you're blind, deaf, and stupid.

Seriously? Calling the race for him after one mega-awesome game? He wasn't even in the Top 3 the previous week.

But then when Deadspin followed it up with a really good (seriously, read this word for word) piece on Johnny Football, I was more convinced. First, it had more info from Clay Travis' piece.

Tebow put up 3970 total offensive yards when he won the Heisman trophy as a sophomore. It was a season's performance I thought I'd never see the equal of and Manziel has already rushed for more yards than Tebow did in that year. He's going to throw for more yards as well. And Manziel's win on the road at Alabama dwarfs any win that Tebow had as a sophomore, when his Gators went 9-3 in the regular season.

Deadspin also added this.

In 10 games so far, Manziel has thrown for 2,780 yards and rushed for 1,014—he's averaging over 100 yards on the ground per game—with 18 TDs through the air and 15 on the ground. If he were a running back, his rushing totals would make him the 23rd best in the country, and he'd have a better yards per carry average than all but two of the backs ahead of him. He's currently the leading rusher in the SEC. He has the 20th most passing yards in the country—again, with fewer attempts than many of those ahead of him—and let's not forget: the Aggies have the second highest strength of schedule in the FBS. Manziel isn't just impressing fans and analysts—he's going into places like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn and Alabama, and just ruining seasons.

Dudes, this might be his to lose. And we have to all be OK with that. I know I am. The article has some short video clips breaking down his brilliance on the field. Seriously, watch them and read the whole damn thing.

* * *

As for Johnny Football's off the field issues I didn't knew existed? Well, he got into a fight earlier this year which probably involved booze and *definitely* involved him taking a shirtless mugshot later that night. I can't knock that, I'm sorry. Plus Chris Rix said this about him on Twitter:

Sources have told me that Manziel is a 'ticking time bomb' and will eventually blow up off of the field...

Awesome.

Plus plus plus.... Scooby-Doo!

Give that man the damn trophy. Shit, he's up to No. 2 on Yahoo's Heisman Watch.

9) South Carolina
10) Florida State: /facepalm ... This is why no one likes you, Florida State.

11) Clemson: Clemson Tom, what say you?

Revenge tour starts this week and ends next week. The first butt kicking will be against North Carolina State in Death Valley, this Saturday. Last year, the Wolfpack almost upset our ACC championship hopes, but we won anyways.

A few things to notice on game day: LB Spencer Shuay -- the kid is a bull shark. The head coach for the Wolfpack, Tom O'Brien, when he smiles, look at his teeth -- he has one good tooth. Also pay attention to the Wolfpack's hand signals, it looks like they're trying to give you hand gestures -- WCW's NWO "Wolf Pack".

I'm predicting we hang at least 40 to 50 points on the Wolfpack because this is a revenge game and we are playing like shocked cats. I'm gonna be there, getting loud, crazy, and wearing orange. It's a revenge game and I might headbutt a kangaroo!!

Also, please watch him run amok on the NC State campus ("We park 'em all over the county!").

12) Oklahoma
13) Stanford
14) Nebraska: Let's complain. Though I like Nebraska and find them the most entertaining (non-sanctioned) team in the dumb conference they play in, two things about last week were stupid.

a. Here's Penn State getting jobbed on a touchdown. Normally, I wouldn't care about this at all, except it *significantly* impacts Michigan's chances to get to the Big Ten title game (M and Nebraska have the same record, but the Huskers have the tiebreaker). Not saying PSU wins this game if they get that TD, but I'd like to think it maybe coulda happened. Total bummer.

b. And, from our friends at ESPN, we get easily one of the lamest Big Ten headlines of the year: "Nebraska in Top 14, Michigan back in BCS"

Top 14?? *Top* 14?!?!? Want to guess what Nebraska is ranked? They're No. 14! Top 14. Unbelievable. Have you ever heard *anyone*, *ever* use the expression Top 14 to categorize anything? Such a Big Ten headline. "Big Ten gets a team BACK into the Top 14 -- and another one ranked!"

Those teams are just a speck in the SEC ocean. Have you seen the Top 10? I know you have, you had to see it just to get here. Scroll back up and admire the brilliance.

Top 14.

15) Texas: The Longhorns have *returned* to the Top 15! How did lameduck Texas become so consistently likable, funny, and just straight up *there*? I don't know, but the glory continued this week after that one old coach died and Mack Brown vowed to run Texas' first play out of the wishbone. The result? Well, this.

How damn perfect was that? You tribute the formation, then pass out of it after your opponent prepared to defend it because you *told* them you were going to do exactly that. I bet Chip Kelly approves. And isn't that what football's all about?

16) Oregon State
17) UCLA
18) USC
19) Louisville
20) Louisiana Tech: Here's Louisiana Tech doing cool offense stuff.

21) Michigan: Project 17 (my pre-season belief that, regardless of the ebbs and flows of being overrated then unranked, Michigan would finish No. 17 at the end of this season) lives! From just last week, Michigan goes from being unranked to a mere three spots separating them from No. 17. And all it took was a bogus win over just Northwestern? Too easy!

Yes, the Hail Mary/OT comeback over the Wildcats was pretty great, but it seemed to drive Michigan blogger Brian Cook a little insane. Here's some cool stuff he wrote.

I mean, what can you say when your glorious victory is so clearly a gift from the cosmic random number generator? I have seen many things in my time as a sports fan. None of them have been an opposing safety taking a pass that is about to sail into the turf 10, 20 yards further downfield and flailing at it in such a way as to send it into the arms of the Michigan receiver he'd battered to the ground, gently. Feather-like. After all of that… easy.

Meanwhile, that event had been immediately preceded by a Northwestern fourth-and-one conversion on which the ref had to make sure every chain was ramrod straight and get his nose down to the field level before awarding the Wildcats a first down they probably didn't get but could not be overturned from above. Fitzgerald Toussaint's only decent run of the day ended with a bizarre pop-up fumble. [Northwestern backup QB] Trevor Siemian came in and tore Michigan's secondary to shreds.

I like it better when the randomness is under a nice ol' narrative. When it's in your face so spectacularly, it's like the gods of math are taunting you for daring to care about anything they have their fickle fingers in. Go home, get a pen, and root for Fibonacci psuedo-randomness, they are saying. What you are doing is the equivalent of rooting for 3, they say. The number. The literal number. Woo 3. Go 3. You are so much more prime than 4. That's so 3! Oh god those people who like 4 are just animals. They poop in coolers, you know, and drive trucks. They're so… divisible.

If that passage doesn't make at least a *little* sense to you, it's likely you don't aggressively follow a specific college football team.

22) Rutgers
23) Texas Tech: Take a position on Tommy Tuberville slapping that dude. He already apologized, but he also did the thing where he was like "I'm sorry I did it, but also, I didn't do it, I was trying to keep him off the field" or something bogus like that. I'mma have to throw the b.s. flag on that one.

24) Oklahoma State
25) Washington

Unranked But Still Interesting

Washington State: The Mike Leach era is continuing its (hopefully only initial as a precursor to future greatness) downward spiral. This past week, junior WR Marquees Wilson -- probably the team's best player -- left the program and made a little noise on the way out. In a statement issued to the press, he spoke very unfavorably of the coaching staff and even threw out the word "abuse." Knowing nothing about the situation, all i can say is... damn, that is heavy. Not only factoring in the Penn State stuff (and we can only assume it's not on that level) but also factoring in Mike Leach's unceremonious end at Texas Tech, we can only hope the word was misused. Man, this is a sad situation.

The upside for Wazzu? Fireball guy.

Tennessee: Volunteers QB Tyler Bray wins my silver medal this week.

"I'm paid to win football games," Bray told media Tuesday.

After realizing what he said, Bray quickly tried to backtrack.

"I mean… my education. That's what the SEC likes to call 'getting paid,'" Bray said.

Haha.

Michigan: Oh wait, they're ranked again. Moving on...

Any Sweet Games This Weekend?

Thursday
N/A

Friday Night Lights
N/A

Saturday
Western Carolina at Alabama (4): ESS-EE-SEE, ESS-EE-SEE, ESS-EE-SEE

Jacksonville State at Florida (6): ESS

Wofford at South Carolina (9): EE

Georgia Southern at Georgia (5): SEE

Wake Forest at Notre Dame (3): We're already to the mid-afternoon games, and this is legitimately our best game so far. Unless....

Sam Houston State at Texas A&M (8): ESS-EE-SEE!

*This* is the Aggies' encore after shocking the world and upping everyone's collective interest in their team? Man, the SEC is annoying. Instead of looking forward to bleh, let's again go back to the greatness of the Alabama victory with this headline from Deadspin: Deshazor Everett’s Name And His Interception To Beat Alabama Are Equally Fantastic.

Oh, also the A&M butt tattoo that didn't get addressed yet.

Ohio State at Wisconsin: If you hate the Big Ten, I don't blame you for not caring about Ohio State's undefeated season. But they are mega-fun to watch, and, at minimum, borderline must-see TV week in and week out. Because tOSU is banned from the Big Ten title game, this, essentially, *is* their Big Ten title game. After sputtering out the gate in 2012, Wisconsin fired their o-line coach, got things back on track, and are back to doing what they do best -- running up the score against mediocre competition. When Penn State and Ohio State got simultaneously sanctioned, everybody was like "Geez, Wisconsin is automatically in the title game now."

It's one of those things you feel strongly about at the time but still hold out hope it might not happen. Nope, it happened. So if we're going to have to watch Tamp-On Wisconsin play in a probably undeserved Big Ten title game, wouldn't it be way more fun if we first watched them lose to the superior team who *should* be in that game? I say yes.

Also: my college fantasy football league has our final four this week, and I, the 3-seed, need some big things from Braxton. I'm also playing against Montee Ball, so that just makes this whole thing doubly relevant.

Oklahoma (12) at West Virginia: Hmmmmmmmmmm, eh?

Kansas State (1) at Baylor: Dang, still not used to that "(1)" next to K-State. I kept expecting to see a "2" or "4" tacked on. I don't know why No. 1 K-State isn't as likable as No. 2 K-State, but it's definitely happened. Maybe if they just switch places with Oregon, we'd be alright. Also: is Baylor a test?

/looks up the spread

Wow, no. They're getting 13 points at home. Let's press on...

Stanford (13) at Oregon (2): Game of the Week. This is part two of Oregon's USC-Stanford-Oregon State-USC(?) swing. So far, so good, but if anyone is going to screw up our good time, it's the Cardinal. God, I hate typing it like that. Oregon's favored by 20.5, so that makes me feel better about not just this game, but my life in general.

California at Oregon State (16): Important the Beavs win this to keep a great looking ranking going into next week's rivalry game.

Mount Carmel High School (3) at Neuqua Valley High School (1): My alma mater hosts the IHSA 8A state semifinals game -- which is also the first one they've ever played in. Mount Carmel's mascot is "The Caravan"...so I guess that's a thing. Neuqua is undefeated, while Mount Carmel's only loss came against a super sick team in overtime. Winner advances to the state title game, played at the University of Illinois.

This should should be a muddy bloodbath.

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

Wrapping It Up...

Big S/O to the SEC for all their cool games this week. If you're interested in any game outside the Top 3 and that one Big Ten game I mentioned (optional), you're crazy.

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. he can be reached at bobbyloesch@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

Poll

Game of the Week?

Oregon-Stanford

16 votes

K-State-Baylor

3 votes

Notre Dame-Wake Forest

2 votes

Wisconsin-Ohio State

1 votes

22 votes | Poll has closed

Breaking Down The Notre Dame Failure Scenarios (The Hybrid)

2012-11-08T16:53:37Z

These last five years, it seems there are one or two moments each college football season where I swear to myself "this is it." You know, where nothing breaks your way, every karmic element seems against you, and you even start to question the overall setup of the sport?

Last week was one of those weeks.

Stumbling Notre Dame somehow bested Pitt, two of my favorite teams got drubbed, and Alabama somehow, some way got it together for one final drive to top LSU.

We did not receive BCS calamity. Instead, we continued the status quo.

But my mood has bettered since then, and I'd rather press on, find things to be happy about, and figure out the rest later.

Besides, we can always quit forever at the *end* of the season.

The Hybrid

Selective Hits On The BCS Top 25

1) Alabama: As I said above, I'm going to be trying to find some good things about that Alabama win. Obviously, there are no real things that are good. Here is stuff, though...

- Alabama is not invincible. Up until last Saturday, we had no evidence to the contrary. Not only was 'Bama winning comfortably in every game, but until the LSU game, they'd never even trailed while on offense. Sure, they won, but LSU exposed aspects of their defense and offense. The glass half empty view, however, is that most teams don't have the players LSU has (true).

- No Alabama-LSU rematch in the national title game. Unless....

- AJ McCarron crying. I list this not to make fun of AJ or even be skeptical of what went down -- quite the contrary. Despite wishing LSU didn't chokey choke suck blow that game, it happened. And McCarron got very emotional. While, on the surface, it pissed me off, I realized it would just give us a moment to help replace Tim Tebow/The Promise, which, to my knowledge, is the worst sports event to ever happen*.

- Alabama made, like, six t-shirts after they won. Seriously. TROLL DAMN TIDE.

- Later on, the Roll Tide calf tattoo surfaced. ROLL CALF TIDE.

(* - including Munich, duh)

2) Kansas State: Yeah, they won, but did Collin Klein get hurt? We don't really know, because Bill Snyder is one of those cool, secretive coaches that won't talk injuries. I think someone asked him earlier in the week "Do you hope Klein plays?" and he was super affirmative and said "Yes, I hope he plays. I hope all the injured guys can play!"

Such a bastard.

3) Oregon: Before going Phoenix against USC, Oregon released a trailer for their uniforms they'd be wearing in the game. This seriously happened. Don't watch the video, but please know it exists. If you *are* going to watch an Oregon video, may I recommend the 'Every Kenjon Barner TD Against USC' genre? Do you even need me to tell you it's less than 40 seconds long?

4) Notre Dame: At this point, Notre Dame is Stimpy, and I am Ren. It's like they don't even know any better. Here is a picture of us. Trying to find some positivity in this situation, here are three 'doom scenarios' which will make me happy.

Notre Dame loses to USC in their last regular season game. I mean, they are playing on the road, and USC, despite flaws, is still unarguably competent. That could be a good heartbreaker.

Notre Dame goes undefeated, doesn't make BCS title game. I think, of the three, this is my favorite. Because it takes their dream season, ruins it, *and* steps all over the Fighting Irish's entitlement to *be* in The Big Game. Plus, it's even funnier because we have a playoff coming very soon, so it's not like they could say "This is why we need a playoff!" Instead, it would be "Why isn't the playoff nowwwwwww?" #fiveyearolds

Notre Dame makes the BCS title game, is crushed by Alabama. This is less than ideal but not out of the question. But Oregon and K-State would have to slip. It's funny, because every time the SEC rolls in a title game, it's worse than the year before. Going into this season, I said, adamantly, we had nowhere to go but up. But in this scenario? We'd be *rooting* for the SEC to beat Notre Dame. How stupid is that? We are so stupid.

5) Georgia: Haha, how are you back in the Top 5?

6) Florida: Hi.

7) LSU: How two loss LSU is ranked above undefeated Louisville is beyond me, but here's something sorta cool though mega gross: all-world homie Chris Fowler posted a picture of Tigers fans grilling 'baby elephant' before the LSU-'Bama game.

Yahoo! later reported it actually being a pig with a trunk and ears sewn on, which is funny/horrible because at first you're like "Phew, it's not a baby elephant", but then you're like "...oh... oh god."

In brighter news, Outkick The Coverage posted a maybe fake/maybe real receipt signed by LSU QB Zach Mettenberger. The total: $16. The Tip: Fuck You.

And though I'm not nearly as inspired to talk about the performance he had against Alabama had they won and not blown it, this has to be said: the dude balled out of control last Saturday. His game was one for the ages. He took everything you knew about him and blew it up. People were comparing him to AJ McCarron and AJ McCarron to *him*. Going in, this was inconceivable. Mettenberger, you were a true soldier. I'm sorry your defense soiled itself repeatedly in the crucial moments.

Also also also, do yourself a favor and listen to Scott Van Pelt talk about his LSU-Alabama experience. If you listen to it and *don't* add 'night game at Tiger Stadium' to your sports fan bucket list, what the hell is wrong with you?

8) South Carolina: Steve Spurrier revealed thinking the voting age was 21 this week.

9) Louisville: Time to knock on some doors in Baton Rouge.

(But then run away when they're answered.)

10) Florida State
11) Oregon State
12) Oklahoma
13) Clemson: The man himself, Clemson Tom, checks in.

This Saturday, my beloved Clemson Tigers play the Maryland Terrapins. Maryland claims they do crab cakes and football better than anyone else in America, they forgot to mention their ugly uniforms.

Seriously, have you seen Maryland uniforms? A blind person would even agree with me -- their uniforms look like a homeless person patched them up with random stitchings found on the side of interstate. They're red, yellow, black, white, stripes, polka dots. Even half the helmet is a different color than the other half. It's disgusting.

To make things even worse for Maryland, their starting quarterback this week is a freshman linebacker recruit. That's something I couldn't even make up -- they are literally on their fifth string quarterback (a linebacker). What if he gets pissed, calls an audible blitz, and just runs after a lineman, never catching the snap?

This isn't Iron Man football Maryland! Get it together. Nobody on Maryland's team can stop our offense, and I don't see how a linebacker -- playing QB -- will put up points on my defense. It's gonna be another Pawsome™ victory.

Please, please watch his Maryland video.

14) Stanford
15) Texas A&M: Have a good/weird feeling about this team's potential to pull off something big at some specific point this season.

16) Nebraska
17) Texas: The good? Funny Texas is almost back in the Top 15. The bad? Mack Brown is being a baby.

Texas coach Mack Brown is tired of people being mean to the Longhorns and he wants the Big 12 to do something about it.

Brown, who's done a lot of complaining this season, says the upside-down Longhorns hand gesture is offensive and that it shouldn't be allowed.

"The horns down is disrespectful," Brown said Monday. "We ought to talk about that as a league."

Brown would also like you kids to get off his lawn.

Out of anyone who has a racist sounding Southern accent that I actually like, Mack Brown's is -- unless I'm forgetting someone -- by far the most racist. It's a shame to see him be such lame ass about this. "Talk about it as a league"? Are you kidding me? Here's one for ya, coach.

via The Big Lead

Mack Brown approves this message. Probably.

18) UCLA: UCLA is *still* ranked? Haha, above USC.

19) USC: It's not like anyone's knockin' your offense...

20) Louisiana Tech
21) Mississippi State
22) Texas Tech
23) Rutgers: Earlier this season, I gave dap to UNC for their patriotic helmets. Since I'm really not a 'flag guy', per se, I thought that'd be the end of it. But then Rutgers has to go out and do something awesome like this. So, so, so, so, so, so, so cool. How does the helmet look so worn out already? Is that part of the look? Man, I am impressed.

UPDATE: New Mexico has something similar, and yes, it looks way less cool in pristine condition.

24) Northwestern: Back into the Top 25! Michigan is pawing the glass like a stranded puppy on a cold winter's night.

25) Toledo

Teams Not Ranked I Want To Talk About Anyway:

Cincinnati: This was probably my favorite play in college football last weekend. It's a new spin on the jump pass (which means more Tebow distancing!).

Ohio State: You might be undefeated -- though totally not ranked due to sanctions -- but you have to remember one of college football (and life's) ultimate lessons: when you sign up for Urban Meyer, you sign up for Tim Tebow. That's why the Yahoo! headline "Tim Tebow: ‘I am a pretty big fan now of The Ohio State University’" exists. Buckeyes, if you think you're making it out of this section without a big ol' blockquote (or three), then you lost ya damn minds.

He talked about how he was nervously tracking the Ohio State-Purdue game a couple weeks ago as the Jets were getting ready to leave for a road game:

"I was pretty nervous," Tebow told The Plain Dealer. "We were literally taking off as they were about to score and then go for the two-point conversion, so I didn't know until we landed that they won. So it was pretty cool. And I guess as hard as it is for me to say, I am a pretty big fan now of The Ohio State University."

Haha, suck it.

MORE.

...Meyer said he still talks to Tebow every week. Tebow said he might come visit Columbus in the offseason. Meyer joked that he thinks he got Tebow an Ohio State shirt.

Yes, Florida fans, you're allowed to vomit a bit now.

HOOOOOO-WHEE!

The other interesting thing from The Plain Dealer interview was how Meyer hopes that Tebow can mentor Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller, who is a Heisman contender and only a sophomore.

"I would love for those guys to get face-to-face, even train a little bit together, work out together," Meyer said. "Tim is so busy, but I'm going to push for that to happen real hard."

Tebow said he has talked to Miller on the phone and has texted him, and thinks Miller is a "good kid" and "has the incredible tools."

I want to go back to school, get an education degree, and get hired as a teacher, solely so I can give everyone involved F triple minuses.

Michigan State: Bros, this is... this is an intervention. You legitimacy need to at least *think* about getting your shit together. Brian Cook posted this.

To make matters more Sparty, MSU RB LeVeon Bell got on Twitter and complained about the refs.

Is there anything Michigan State players can take part in that *won't* result in them jumping on Twitter and childishly whining? Bah. Dantonio!!

Colorado/Washington: Love how the new pot legalization in their two states led to someone posting a list of substances still banned by the NCAA...

Sudafed
Muscle Milk
Some flavors of Vitamin Water
Airborne
Midol

I legitimately forgot some flavors of Vitamin Water are banned. That's just... so good. Free Vitamin Water!

Any Sweet Games This Weekend?

Thursday
Florida State (10) at Virginia Tech: Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Friday Night Lights

Saturday
Northwestern (24) at Michigan: Michigan is unranked and potentially starting a QB who'd be playing just his second game at the position this year. Northwestern is ranked... and listed as a double-digit underdog. This could only happen to Northwestern.

Jokes aside, I think this could be a passable game. A passable Big Ten game.

Purdue at Iowa: Here are two teams that probably shouldn't exist.

Arkansas at South Carolina (8): Meh.

Louisville (9) at Syracuse: Undefeated Louisville on the road. The time has come... to pass two-loss LSU.

Louisiana-Lafayette at Florida (6): Buh, just... screw you, Florida.

Oregon State (11) at Stanford (14): I'm Bobby Pac-12, and I can't even get up for this one. Let's see if we can't get the Beavs back into the Top 10 for next week.

Texas A&M (15) at Alabama (1): Game of the Week. Normally, I'd be down on this game because of my hatred for all things people, but I'm in on this Aggies team. They were solid for a while against LSU, and maybe Alabama experiences a post-Tiger Stadium letdown. Man, how could you not? Even the spread is a slightly respectable A&M +14.

Penn State at Nebraska (16): Penn State's become underrated in watchability, and Nebraska needs to lose for Michigan to have a shot at the Big Ten title game. I'm interested even if you aren't.

Kansas State (2) at TCU: Gotta put K-State on upset alert, especially if the Heisman leader might not play. That said, it's not time for the Wildcats to panic just yet. How much magic does TCU have left? Haha, that was a lame sentence, and I regret typing it.

Georgia (5) at Auburn: MEH.

Missisippi State (21) at LSU (7): No.

Notre Dame (4) at Boston College: Ignoring the 18.5 point spread, I legitimately could talk myself into this game just because it's ND's shaky offense on the road, but the second the Irish take, say, a 2-0 lead, I'm about out all the way.

Oregon (3) at California: Keep your head down and keep killing 'em, Ducks.

Waubonsie Valley (4) at Neuqua Valley (1): My top-seeded alma mater playing in their first ever IHSA 8A state quarterfinals game. And we hostin'. Waubonsie is our crosstown rival, and their only loss of the season was against Neuqua in a 2OT thriller at a neutral site. Winner makes the state final four. Everything is on the line.

High school football is the best.

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

via 4.bp.blogspot.com

Wrapping It Up...

Let's get this over with, my heart's at Neuqua Valley anyway.

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. he can be reached at bobbyloesch@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

Poll

Game of the Week?

Alabama-Texas A&M

3 votes

Kansas State-TCU

1 votes

Notre Dame-Boston College

3 votes

Waubonsie Valley-Neuqua Valley

3 votes

10 votes | Poll has closed

Oregon's De'Anthony Thomas Is Fast, Nick Saban Portrayed As A Nazi, Notre Dame Is Great?

2012-11-01T14:53:01Z

I missed a lot of the action last week due to Halloween related party activities, so I'm not going to B.S. you like I watched all the games or anything, but I do know this: Iowa, Michigan, and Washington State lost, and Notre Dame won (Notre Dame! *That* Notre Dame -- they won!). Good gracious. Makes me really think this college football stuff is not additional stress I need in my life. Hearing about the outcomes vs. actually seeing them really did do a lot to help pad the blows.

Except that ND victory. There is no pad for that. There will never be a pad for that.

Buh.

The Hybrid

Selective Hits On The BCS Top 25

1) Alabama: My roommate Ed -- happy birthday, dog -- sent me this picture. Really makes Saban look like a Nazi.

Prove he's not.

2) Kansas State: Here are the Wildcats. It's one thing to make the BCS Top 5... I mean, that's a fantastic accomplishment, but it can be so fleeting. But the BCS Top 2? How real is that? If the season ended today, Kansas State would be in the national title. Pretty cool.

(Though the season does not end today, of course.)

3) Notre Dame: A great, legitimate win over Oklahoma that could only be described as mouth-stuffing for the haters. And I know how you ND fans like to talk about haters. But dudes, where are they this week? Gets real quiet after them big wins, don't it?

Also, here's a great video compilation of Notre Dame fans talking smack about the SEC at a tailgate.

4) Oregon: Two Oregon things this week.

1. Everyone watch this De'Anthony Thomas punt return right now, or else you hate football. My favorite part is he picks up the punt not even facing the defense (bad fundamentals, anyone?) and does so on the 26-yard line, but not before running all the way back to the 14-yard line before breaking it all the way back for a TD. So, while it's listed as a 75 yard punt return, it's really almost closer to 90 yards.

2. Also, this video where the College GameDay guys dressed up as football coaches and conducted fake interviews probably isn't worth watching, but I'll be damned if Desmond Howard referring to himself as "Chocolate" Chip Kelly is gonna go unmentioned.

5) LSU: RIP, Honey Badger (again). I know it's Tyrann Mathieu and Tyrann Mathieu alone who keeps squandering his many, many chances at a college football career, but something about these repeated violations makes me profoundly sad. He's just such a gifted football player, and it's a bummer to not see him on the field. And it's not cocaine or domestic violence we're talking about, you know? Maybe 20 years from now -- with different laws -- he'd just be out there doing his thing, but we're not there yet, so he's treated like a heroin addict. Again, this is all on him, but the whole situation is just a damn shame. But I refuse to shake my belief in redemption.

On a lighter note, we talked last week about LSU airbrushing crosses off a picture of some fans (well, I shouldn't say we 'talked' about it when all I wrote was "Haha", but it *was* mentioned, damn it), and reader Paige writes in with an even better example. The culprit? Wisconsin! That's right, admissions officials took a picture of a black student from 1994 and added it to an application cover in the early 2000s in a horribly inappropriate attempt to promote diversity. Friends, it's, well...

They called it an "error in judgement". Pretty remarkable. The Onion even made fun of it and everything.

6) Georgia: Beat Florida, get ranked above Florida. Winning formula! I coulda sworn Georgia lost two games, not one. I'm looking this up.

/looks up

Nope, just South Carolina. But it was 35-7. A loss so powerful, it felt like two. In even lamer Georgia news, they totally duck LSU and Alabama in the SEC regular season. This could set up a fantastically undeserved SEC title game appearance.

7) Florida: Did you lose? Yes. Is it all over? Hardly. Am I about to link a Florida-based viral that can only be called "high school football bounce pass"? ...Yes.

8) South Carolina: I am so sorry, Marcus Lattimore. You'll get back and be back. And if Willis McGahee wants to do a good thing, he'll pick up a telephone.

9) Florida State
10) Louisville: An undefeated Big East team has entered the BCS Top 10! Where are your kids and wife? 'CAUSE IT BE TIME TO HIDE 'EM!!!

Three funny things about Louisville's games...

a. Beat Cincy in OT last week
b. Beat USF by two the week before
c. ... ... They play Temple next week

11) Oregon State: The dream is over, and it's a GD shame. Poor Beavs. Man, I'm glad I missed so much of last week.

12) Oklahoma: Didn't see enough of the game to call you out in the way I want to, but man, screw you guys.

13) Clemson: The homie Clemson Tom checks in...

Saturday night, my Tigers face off against Dook. Yeah, that's how I spell it. ESPN and the ACC want you to think this is a great matchup, but you and I know Dook is horrible at football. It's not my fault they are a basketball school, pretending to know football.

Honestly, if Coach K were calling the plays, they might put up some points. I walked around their campus this week shooting my video, and I noticed some things:

1. At age 19, their girls all look like soccer moms
2. Coach K dyes his hair
3. The town of Durham looks like the backdrop for 8 Mile
4. Lots of girls in Yoga pants

Watch the game this weekend to see the epic offense of Clemson. Boyd, Watkins, Hopkins, Ford, Ellington. If we take Boyd out of the game, no worries, Cole Stoudt is the best backup QB in the world.

Seriously, watch the video he linked. It's only, like, three minutes, but it's somehow enough time to comprehensively take down Duke's stadium, team, and student body.

14) Stanford
15) Mississippi State: That's seriously the last time I trust an 7-0 team to compete in a game where they're 20+ point underdogs.

16) Texas A&M: Wish they'd stayed on the national title radar longer, because they coulda been dangerous and, more importantly, watchable.

17) USC: Sure, you lost to RichRod and super cemented a season that can only -- with your lofty pre-season standards -- be described as 'abject failure', but the good news is WR Marquise Lee finished the Arizona game with 16 catches for 345 yards, demolishing the Pac 12 record.

18) Texas Tech
19) Boise State
20) Nebraska: New favorites for the Big Ten West division?

21) West Virginia
22) Arizona: Arizona is ranked?!?!?!? RichRod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

23) Texas: I love Texas.

24) Oklahoma State
25) Louisiana Tech

Dead Teams I Wanna Talk About Anyway

Michigan: This mgoblog line on Denard was written before the injury sadness at Nebraska, but, as always with Brian Cook, it's just as profound now as it was then.

Denard is a shoddy grenade factory—something explosive is happening, but you don't know to whom.

The maize and blue got the debris this week.

Missouri: You made t-shirts after beating Kentucky. The Wildcats are 1-8 with no conference wins; their only victory is over Kent State. Mizzou, this is a five-year setback (minimum) in terms of program respect. There's definitely something funny about "Caged The Cats", though.

Oh, I know -- it's because Missouri's mascot is the Tigers. You're also cats, idiots!

Colorado: But even Missouri is cheered up by this.

Maryland: But even Colorado is cheered up by this: Maryland -- sweet, sweet Maryland -- is turning to a freshman LB to play quarterback due to massive, massive injuries at the position.

Eh, actually, Colorado is still prolly worse off.

Any Sweet Games This Weekend?

Thursday
N/A

Friday Night Lights
N/A

Saturday
Missouri at Florida (7): Meh.

Temple at Louisville (10): Haha.

Oklahoma (12) at Iowa State: Everything I felt about the Sooners last week is opposite for this week. Hook 'em, Clones!

Vanderbilt at Kentucky: Doooonnnnn't caaaaaaare.

Pittsburgh at Notre Dame (3): I'm more used to that No. 3 next to ND than I was at the top of this thing. So, any guesses on Pitt's BCS win total? That is, wins over BCS teams? That'd be two. One was Temple, the other? Virginia Tech (who was No. 13 at the time), haha.

Ole Miss at Georgia (6): Mehhhhhhh.

Texas (23) at Texas Tech (18): Texas Forever.

(via washingtonpost.com)

Nebraska (20) at Michigan State: I actually really love this game (Big Ten Everything aside). Nebraska is so under-the-radar nationally, but they are mega-fun to watch, and MSU's defense should be a good test for the Huskers' prolific O. Plus MSU's O has taken baby steps these last few weeks. *And*, if the Spartans win, it helps Michigan regain the Big Ten West lead. if they lose? Haha, they lost.

Oregon (4) at USC (17): Game of the Week -- screw that SEC crap. To paraphrase every SEC fan ever, "YOU 'AD YUR CHAY-UHNCE." As in, LSU-'Bama had their chance to not put on a craptastic shit game in last year's national title. That, uh, didn't happen. This is Oregon's first (of possibly two) USC tests. We need the Trojans not to screw up everything here (read: winning this game is a no-no).

Alabama (1) at LSU (5): On paper, the real game of the week, but, well, you know. We obviously need LSU to win, but it's so hard to see it happening. Thing is, their offense sucks against *average* defenses. The only thing you can argue -- and this sounds crazy, but it might not be -- is that LSU's offense is so clanky and sputter-y and inconsistent, that it's not like Alabama's all-world D can really take it out of its rhythm, you know? Junky be junky. And remember, the Tigers actually were the last team to take out the Tide. The blueprint? Suffocating defense, conservative offense, and just a little bit of luck. Before anyone gets excited, just like last week, it's important to remember the spread is LSU -9. That's right: the Tigers are getting nine points *at home*. And it says so much more about Alabama than it does about the Tigers. Man.

Oklahoma State (24) at Kansas State (2): This game does not concern me at all; Kansas State, do you.

As for our Heisman contender, Collin Klein, Paige sent in this article from CBS Sports that's got more than a few good gems about Manhattan's QB1.

Random cool quote addressing his running style:

"It's funny, something that comes to my head is a quote by General Patton," Klein said this week. "'You don't win wars dying for your country.'"

Random cool rushing stat:

His 37 rushing touchdowns since 2011 are more than any other quarterback.

Random 'elite group' stat:

Only four quarterbacks from BCS conferences have ever rushed for 20 touchdowns and thrown for 10 in a season -- Cam Newton, Eric Crouch, Tim Tebow and Klein. Only Klein hasn't won the Heisman.

Cute/depressing story that makes you realize he's way more religious than you'll ever be:

That's an obvious similarity to Tebow. There is another big one. Klein's faith is out front... In a Kansas State-produced story that appeared in a game program, Klein said he was told by the Lord he would marry K-State women's basketball player Shalin Spani. The daughter of former KSU football great Gary Spani said she heard "a voice in my head" independently that told her she would marry Klein.

They became engaged before they formally had a first date. That first kiss came on the altar July 21, fulfilling a promise Klein made to himself at age 14. His first kiss would not come until then.

"Yes," Spani was quoted saying about their courtship, "it's unusual."

Really, it's got it all.

Arizona State at Oregon State (11): Well, seeing this was sad. Beavs, try and get back into the Top 10 before you play Oregon, eh?

Arizona (22) at UCLA:

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

via terezowens

Wrapping It Up...

This is definitely a bit of a comedown week, so if you only have time for two games, make it that Oregon/SEC combo platter. If you can't remember that, remember this: at 7:00 p.m. (CST), get your toggle on between FOX and CBS.

That'll do ya.

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. he can be reached at bobbyloesch@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

Poll

Whatchu watchin' in prime time?

Oregon-USC

10 votes

LSU-Alabama

4 votes

14 votes | Poll has closed

Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers: Cam Newton's struggles should continue

2012-10-26T16:30:21Z

The popular narrative for this game will probably be Cam Newton vs. The Bears Defense, which is certainly welcome over the one I feared (Jay Cutler vs. Being Alive).

I haven't watched enough of ailing Carolina to give a diagnosis on what, specifically, is wrong with the team, but I'd love to immerse myself in this Cam Newton/leadership controversy. After all, don't us Chicagoans have some decent experience with those discussions? I saw a tweet recently I can't find that was great; it said something like "These Cam Newton post-game press conferences are like watching a 5-year-old trying to explain why he forgot his homework." Really spot-on. Because love him or hate him, Cam could certainly be better. The divide is created between the people who believe he can be vs. the ones who've totally written him off as childish. This type of thing -- even if it does get fixed -- doesn't get solved in a matter of days.

Cam (who I love) has become must-watch for all the wrong reasons, Jon Beason just got put on IR for a knee *and* shoulder injury, and their RBs are drowning in money. I feel like a call out of their coaching staff is deserved, but, again, I'm not close enough to the situation. Obviously the GM got canned, so maybe Rivera is next.

Getting back to the intro point (Cam vs. Chi D), I'd expect the Bears defense continuing its rapid momentum vs. Cam pulling a 180 and turning Carolina around on a dime. Their season already seems like a fully lost one.

Prediction: Bears win big

Joe Gems

Save for an embarrassing 29-point loss to the Giants, the Panthers' four losses were decided by six points or less. They've stayed in games, but struggled to finish them. Questions about a young quarterback's maturity and leadership arise when his team is losing, even if he's playing well during the losing streak. If the Panthers' pull out a couple of those close losses, and are currently sitting at 3-3, for instance, we're not hearing anything about Newton's demeanor.

According to may always-flawed box score analysis, Carolina's offensive struggles should probably be attributed more to their inconsistent run game, rather than Cam Newton sulking on the bench. They've struggled against the good run defenses (Tampa Bay, NY Giants, Seattle, Dallas) and had success against the poor ones (New Orleans, Atlanta). Not coincidentally, New Orleans is the only team they've beaten this year, and Atlanta needed a somewhat flukey 59-yard pass completion thrown from their own end zone to set-up a game-winning field goal.

Just last year, Cam Newton was helping to further revolutionize the quarterback position. Unlike most of his predecessors who excelled in only one area, Newton proved to be just as capable a pocket passer as he was red zone run threat. The Panthers even won six games in the process -- an impressive total for a team with hardly any expectations entering the season. Nowadays, Cam Newton's name is only brought up seemingly for the purpose of trolling, or race-baiting, or a nauseating combination of the two. What happened? The simple answer is that Newton isn't playing up to the high standards he set for himself. The even simpler answer is that his team isn't winning. Save for an embarrassing 29-point loss to the Giants, the Panthers' four losses were decided by six points or less. They've stayed in games, but struggled to finish them. Questions about a young quarterback's maturity and leadership arise when his team is losing, even if he's playing well during the losing streak. If the Panthers' pull out a couple of those close losses, and are currently sitting at 3-3, for instance, we're not hearing anything about Newton's demeanor. According to may always-flawed box score analysis, Carolina's offensive struggles should probably be attributed more to their inconsistent run game, rather than Cam Newton sulking on the bench. They've struggled against the good run defenses (Tampa Bay, NY Giants, Seattle, Dallas) and had success against the poor ones (New Orleans, Atlanta). Not coincidentally, New Orleans is the only team they've beaten this year, and Atlanta needed a somewhat flukey 59-yard pass completion thrown from their own end zone to set-up a game-winning field goal.

The Bears are winning games because they're winning the turnover battle. They sit atop the NFL with a +13 turnover margin, while Carolina is dwelling near the bottom of the NFC with a -6 margin. Carolina's proclivity for turning the ball over, coupled with their inability to break down good run defenses are why I think the Bears win this game. It will be closer than it feels like it should, though, because if the Panthers have proven anything this year, it's that they can keep a game close.

Prediction: The losing quarterback could learn a thing or two about poise and humility. The winning quarterback really showed me something today.

Florida vs. Georgia, Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma set to shape national title picture (The Hybrid)

2012-10-25T15:50:21Z

No bones about it, last week sucked. But this week is supposed to be cool -- I think Fowler said so -- and I really just want to start talking about Oregon, so let's jump.

The Hybrid

Selective Hits On The AP Top 25

1) Alabama: Outkick The Coverage released a picture of A.J. McCarron's mom (middle) last week.

She's also on Twitter.

2) Florida: Oh, Ryan Lochte, don't ever change.

3) Kansas State: Gotta truly love the Big 12.

Here's a crazy fact from yesterday. The Big 12 featured more touchdowns (48) than punts (47) on Saturday.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 21, 2012

They say K-State QB Collin Klein is the new Heisman favorite. I'm cool with that.

4) Oregon: After meh news and no game last week, Oregon rebounded nicely in a myriad of ways.

1. They began the week by defacing some stupid Arizona State "A" that no one cares about until people spray it with cool green vandalism. Here is a picture:

Whoops, I'm sorry, I realized I forgot to caption it.

2. As far as the game itself? Well, allow me to quote mass amounts of SB Nation's premiere college football writer, Matt Hinton.

Thank god Oregon had the basic decency to police itself. For Christ's sake, the Ducks led 43-7 with 11:33 to play in the second quarter. They scored six touchdowns in the span of 18 minutes, two of them coming on runs longer than 70 yards. The last four of those came in a span of a little over five minutes. They spent more than two-thirds of the game deliberately throttling down. Twenty minutes in, Oregon had done everything it came to do. The rest was just politely killing time.

3. In regards to QB play...

Including tonight, Marcus Mariota has only started seven games, but already he seems indistinguishable from any of the other quarterbacks we've seen at the controls of Chip Kelly's offense – athletic, versatile and seemingly in firm command of the vagaries of the read option scheme ... Mariota looked the part and then some.

The really frightening thought for the rest of the conference is that he's only a redshirt freshman, with plenty of time and room to grow into an obviously live arm. Prolific quarterbacks seem to emerge in Kelly's system looking more or less fully formed, putting up the requisite numbers and making the right decisions right out of the chute. If Mariota is the guy who finally adds a viable downfield passing element to the equation, the nightmare scenario for defensive coordinators will finally be upon them.

This somehow didn't include Mariota's stat of getting a passing, rushing, and receiving touchdown in the game.

4. He also linked this GIF. Everyone look at this GIF.

The caption was "Oh by the way Kenjon Barner is now a Jedi who wields the Force to stiff-arm would-be tacklers to the ground without actually touching them."

5. One last block of Hinton.

Even in a horrific blowout, one of the pleasures of watching Oregon is knowing that, in any given game, you're likely to see at least a half-dozen things you've never seen before (only about half of which are fashion-related).

[...]

• A crazy swinging gate thing for a two-point conversion, run in by the kicker after being tipped by an ASU defender;
• An apparent Oregon touchdown nullified because officials wanted to review the previous play, but were too slow to signal dead ball before the Ducks had lined up and snapped it again. Upon review, the ruling on the first play (that Barner was down short of the goal line) was upheld, thereby costing the Ducks two touchdowns on a single review. According to beat writer Rob Moseley, that was the second time that exact scenario has unfolded this season.
• Two plays later, backup quarterback Bryan Bennett was credited with a 1-yard touchdown pass to starting quarterback Marcus Mariota [ed- see!], the recipient of a wild, last-second option pitch as Bennett was being buried by a handful of Devils near the goal line. Because of course Oregon is running the option with both quarterbacks in the game at the same time.

That was all in the first quarter alone.

The first quarter alone! They are the coolest.

6. Doc Sat: "And Thursday's [Oregon] win did produce a hilariously vengeful tweet from former Pitt offensive lineman Jason Pinkston about Todd Graham, the coach that suddenly left the Panthers for Arizona State."

7. It also inspired Yahoo's Pat Forde to label SEC fans as insecure.

Great success.

8. And, a few days later, they scheduled some games with Ohio State. Even though it's years down the road, I'm going to blindly assume they'll be awesome and not crappy or sanctioned. Aright, let's move on to the suck.

5) Notre Dame: Incredible three point home win over a juggernaut BYU team. What's that? They weren't ranked and played a backup QB? Listen, just because football analysts love hard-nosed defense, doesn't mean it's an honorable thing. If an unranked spread team with a shitty defense and incredible offense comes in to your house and loses by three, there's this subtext with a lot of analysts that they play football 'the wrong way' because the spread is a 'gimmick'. If a team like BYU (great defense, spotty offense) comes in and loses by three, instead of getting hung up on their lack of offensive points, analysts will laud the defense for keeping it close. But the problem is, either way, you lose by three. There's no 'right way' to do it.

Remember this point as it relates now to ND this upcoming week.

6) LSU: Haha, "LSU photo manipulation erases crosses on Christian fan group’s chests"

7) Oregon State: Undefeated, and it feels so good. The success this team continues to find makes you feel like there is a lot of right in the world; the vibe is very anti-college football. So, so welcome.

8) Oklahoma: Don't f this up.

9) USC: Haha, "Did Lane Kiffin try to deceive Colorado by having players switch jerseys?"

10) Georgia
11) Mississippi State: Undefeated? Yes. Ranked ahead of Georgia? No.

12) Florida State
13) South Carolina: How over is the dream? (Very over.)

14) Texas Tech
15) Rutgers: Undefeated and playing... *Kent State* this week?!

16) Louisville: Undefeated. Also just saw they don't play Rutgers until the last week of the regular season. This could decide the national title!

17) Stanford
18) Clemson: Before I let Clemson Tom do his thing, peep this V-Tech pick against Clemson last week. Almost subtle in its sheer brilliance.

Aright, CT -- go right at it.

Thursday night, Clemson plays Wake Forest, a.k.a. Weak Forest. People keep telling me, "Tom, Wake Forest plays Clemson tough every year." Well, what happened a few years ago when we blew them out? Sure we won by a FG last year, but who cares? That was last year. I failed a spelling test in sixth grade, let's talk about that...oh, I thought we were discussing things with no relevance today.

Weak Florist isn't gonna want anymore of Clemson after this game. The NCAA might actually file bullying charges on the Tigers after this beating. The Geeks (WF) looked scared against FSU and played like they were more interested in a flag football game. I expect them to quit caring around halftime.

Seriously, what are they gonna do? They have no fans, no real student section, and their field looks like a high school stadium. Yeah, I'm worried about Wake -- only in basketball. though.

Following me on Twitter - @ClemsonTom

Have a Pawsome™ weekend!

19) West Virginia: I can't even look at you.

20) Texas A&M: Wow, did you screw up last week.

21) Boise State
22) Michigan: Project 17 made some major strides this week, as crappy Michigan is only five spots away from our coveted No. 17 ranking. But boy, did they make it painful to get there. The coaching staff has completely shackled Denard with passing plays not suited to his skill-set, no production from the RBs, and a playbook so conservative, it should be hanging out with Paul Ryan. Win's a win, I s'pose. Feels good to end that State streak.

What say you, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio?

STFU, n00b.

23) Texas: Texas Forever.

24) Ohio: Good goin', eggheads, you did it! Finally. Don't make any of us regret this.

25) Wisconsin: Well, well, well, how the hell did this happen?

Speaking of things I don't understand... sometime between this year and last year, Wisconsin RB Montee Ball (pronounced: Mon-tee) said he wanted his name to be pronounced Mon-tay. Though it seems a little different, I was very willing to abide by that. After all, it's how he said his name was pronounced, right?

So you could only imagine my confusion and skepticism when I saw the headline "Wisconsin's Mon-TAY Ball is now Mon-TEE Ball again".

Really?

I was so befuddled and irritated by this, but still, I decided to keep an open mind, knowing full well that the explanation would be nothing short of stupid. And here it is:

"The coaches have been calling me Mon-TEE now," Ball told Fox Sports Wisconsin. "They said, ‘Mon-TAY is done with. We don't want to see him anymore, and it's back to Mon-TEE.' I'm just going with it now."

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said the change happened during Wisconsin's 38-14 win against Purdue.

"I didn't want to go public with that one," Bielema said. "I was riding back on the plane from Purdue [last week], and a couple of my coaches told me that everybody on the sideline was saying, 'Hey, Mon-TAY's gone, but Mon-TEE's back.'"

So, essentially, the coaches decided he was Mon-TEE against his will, and he doesn't care. The sad part is this was probably our best case scenario. I'll give the last word on this situation to the homie Tom Fornelli at CBS, who wrote the post we linked.

Now if Joel Stave would just change his name to Russell Wilson, this Wisconsin team might be unstoppable.

ZING.

Teams Not Ranked I Want To Talk About Anyway

Temple: Seriously, you don't even have to read the story, but this is a Top 10 headline of the year candidate: "Temple still looking for a 12th game – for this year"

Eastern Washington: Awesome play by the Eastern Washington QB. Bonus points for it being on the Blood Field.

Any Sweet Games This Weekend?

Thursday
N/A

Friday Night Lights
Cincinnati at Louisville (16): Will anyone watch this? Especially with Neuqua Valley (No. 1 seed) hosting Naperville North in the first round of the IHSA 8A football playoffs? Whatever, Louisville is undefeated. Charlie Strong!

Saturday
Colorado at Oregon (4): I'd say "this is gonna be a bloodbath," but I feel like Colorado is *already* sitting in a bath of blood.

(By the way, we're already at the mid-afternoon games. The early slate suuuuuucks.)

Florida (2) at Georgia (10): Game of the Week. While I'm 4x more interested in ND-OU, this game, objectively, is more compelling. Higher ranked team on the road, and if you add up the rankings (12), it beats ND-OU (13). Georgia has got to take some time away from screwing up to play well, right?

Texas Tech (14) at Kansas State (3): Whoa, where did this game come from? Cool. Let's see how Collin Klein responds with that big Heisman target on his chest.

USC (9) at Arizona: USC/RichRod. Eh, I don't know. This is sad.

Duke at Florida State (12): Haha.

Kent State at Rutgers (15): Booooo.

Boise State (21) at Wyoming: Only one reason this made the list (see this column's conclusion).

Ohio (24) at Miami (OH): The Battle of Ohio! (What, I'm sorry, was Ohio State ranked?)

Ohio State at Penn State: Nope! All sanction jokes aside, I really think you should peep this game. Ohio State's offense is straight fire to watch, and Bill O'Brien has somehow turned PSU QB Matt McGloin into the best pocket passer in the Big Ten. They're doing a lot of cool tight end stuff, too.

Also: get well, Braxton Miller. We -- my fantasy team -- need(s) you.

Baylor at Iowa State: These two teams are too awesome and goofy to not have something funny and bad happen.

Notre Dame (5) at Oklahoma (8): Notre Dame has the 100th ranked passing offense in college football. They beat Purdue by three points. Though I have nothing but good things to say about their defense, overall improvements from last year, and future outlook, when it comes to their national title relevance *this* season, they are absolute frauds. This should be the game that proves this to us.

Oklahoma has won five games and lost one. The margin of victory in their five wins: 17, 56, 21*, 42*, 45. The deficit in their lone loss? Five points. And that came against Kansas State, the team currently ranked No. 3 in the country. Everyone knows about ND's defensive dominance (No. 2 in points against), but Oklahoma's defense ain't exactly full of slouches -- they're No. 12 in points against.

(* - against a current BCS Top 25 team)

But forget margin of victories and defensive stats, I think it boils down to this: Oklahoma is a real team that will score real points, and I simply don't think Notre Dame can keep up.

OU by double digits.

Mississippi State (11) at Alabama (1): Well, what do you know? We get to have a fun mid-afternoon/night of CFB, while Alabama plays later against an undefeated Mississippi State team we can spend all day talking up. The bad news, group, is the spread of this game is 'Bama -24.

Hope status: crushed.

Oregon State (7) at Washington: For Corvallis, Oregon State? No, for me!

Extremely nervous for the Beavs this week.

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

Wrapping It Up...

My heart goes out to the Wyoming coach and Missouri guy, who were the true heroes of college football this past week.

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to SBN Chicago. he can be reached at bobbyloesch@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.

Poll

Notre Dame-OU, who ya got?

Oklahoma, big

6 votes

Oklahoma, close

0 votes

Notre Dame, big

0 votes

Notre Dame, close

6 votes

12 votes | Poll has closed

Spurs again loom as West's sleeping giant, new-look Blazers hope for spark from Damian Lillard (NBA Preview)

2012-10-19T15:13:20Z

Spurs

Fans and media alike have spent the last, oh, six off-seasons or so throwing dirt on the Spurs. This is because they are bored with consistent success and triumph and want to move on to the next new team. Last season, San Antonio made everyone's demise claims look particularly stupid, as they capitalized on the shortened season and seized the top seed in the West. They rode a 20-game winning streak into the playoffs, where it all peaked with a 2-0 series lead against the Thunder and questions about the team's all-time greatness... before the wheels came off.

This season, the core is the core is the core. It's names you know: Pop, Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu, but for the Spurs to stay in the mix, they'll need continued contributions from younger guys like Kawhi Leonard (a monster defender on the perimeter), Danny Green (three pointers, other stuff), and Tiago Splitter (developing big who sucks at free throws).

It's not unrealistic to expect the Spurs to at least return to the Western Conference Finals, but with the Lakers and Thunder looming, one has to wonder if the Spurs are the odd team out.

Oh, and Stephen Jackson is still around.

Blazers

The Portland Trailblazers didn't make the playoffs last year, and it'll be a fight to get in this season. After starting somewhat anew without Brandon Roy's in-and-out greatness and Greg Oden's hard luck in 2011-12, this season also begins with an exodus of sorts. Blazer's Edge:

By the time the clock struck midnight on July 1, 2012 the Blazers had also bid adieu to Raymond Felton, Jamal Crawford, Gerald Wallace, Marcus Camby, and Joel Przybilla plus long-tenured head coach Nate McMillan.

So who's in? Well, the Blazers tabbed Neil Olshey as their new GM (formerly with the Clippers) and drafted Damian Lillard (PG, Weber State) and Meyers Lenoard (C, Illinois) in the first round. They're also bringing over dudes from Europe as well as a few bargain vets (Jared Jeffries, anyone?).

Gotta imagine a lot of this team's ceiling is dependent on the immediate or eventual success of their new floor general. Point guard is a notoriously slow-developing position in the NBA, and Weber State -- no disrespect -- isn't Duke, so it might be a steep curve for Lillard, but it's hard not to get exited about a guy who can do this.

The Star: LaMarcus Aldridge

The Guy I Forgot Was On The Team: J.J. Hickson

The Prediction/Outlook: Ehhhh...

How Forward Nick Batum Spent His Summer Abroad: