The Hybrid: Serenity, Peace, Iowa, Oklahoma

Welcome to thee ol' college football column. This week, we have my Q&A beef squasher with Boiled Sports (complete with necessary Biggie and Pac references), serenity, and some stellar SEC games

Week 3 was everything Week 2 wasn't. And as glorious, if not completely tumultuous, as the Week 2 experience was, Week 3 was a perfectly welcome change of pace.

Sure, Iowa's play for 75% of the game against Pitt was majorly dispiriting, but hey, they rallied from down 21 (and 17 in the fourth) to secure the biggest comeback in school history. As exciting and somewhat thrilling as it was, about mid-way into the comeback, it felt pre-ordained. Maybe I was still numb, coming down from the Michigan-Notre Dame game, but damn, it really felt like Pitt was destined to blow that game. What really stuck with me was ESPN's Brian Bennett words: "And as a veteran Pitt watcher, I can tell you that the Panthers specialize in throwing away games they should win." So yeah, Iowa did what they had to do. Great game, and I'm proud of 'em, but my heart's OK.

Michigan State got SPARTY NO'd by Notre Dame. And it was all decisive and stuff. Pretty cool. (Hater in the house.)

Tennessee-Florida kinda sucked. Maybe I just hate Florida still.

Miami (FL)-tOSU was pretty amazing. The Buckeye offense just didn't exist. Outside of complete garbage time, Ohio State didn't pass for a first down once in the game. How crazy is that? Miami's offense wasn't anything special, but I can say they definitively did stuff. You know, like scoring multiple touchdowns. I found the Buckeye loss validating, not because I'm a mega-hater -- in many ways, I very much am -- but because it was cool to feel validated about thinking they were massively over-ranked. Every damn season is the same, there are teams you just *know* won't be ranked in a few weeks (Notre Dame, always, and this year, Ohio State), but you still have to wait for that validation. It's like how Michigan has started the season unranked the last few years, but then they go 3-0 against mostly no one, and people rank them because they're Michigan. Then they screw it up and lose because they are inferior. It's this destined cycle every time. No other sport quite like it.


Back to Ohio State: they really shouldn't see the Top 25 for the rest of the year, but who knows how they'll play once they get their suspended dudes back. QB is definitely a major issue, though. Braxton Miller is still pretty green -- while his athleticism is there, he still needs to learn more of the playbook and exhibit better ball control. Fifth-year senior and 25 (almost 26)-year-old Joe Bauserman gave Ohio State less than nothing in the Miami game. When you're trying to grade epically bad QB performances, one of my favorite gauges is "if you simply punted the ball every time, would it have been better for the team than the QB running the offense?" After going 2/14 for 13 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, 0.9 yards-per-attempt, -3 yards rushing, and throwing the ball away, like, nine times for no treason, that 'punt' option certainly had to be on the table. Plus they showed Bauserman laughing on the side line. tOSU fans were murderous.

Miller -- the mobile, cool true freshman -- might have a bright future, but he should probably be Ohio State's present as well. While he did throw a pick and fumble the ball, his 2/4, 22 yards passing, and 32 yards rushing were astronomical compared to Bauserman. I went into the day thinking Bauserman wasn't that bad, but it truly was one of the most dispiriting QB performances I've ever seen. And I'm a Bears fan. Watching the game with suicidal Ohio State fans was difficult and transcendent.

FSU-Oklahoma was really fun. The Florida State crowd brought it, the game was somewhat competitive, the defenses were murderous, and in the end, the best team won-won-won. There is very little else one could ask for from a marquee game like that, outside of better health for Florida State's QB1. I'd like to remind everyone right now to get behind Oklahoma, because they could be our best chance to beat the SEC in the national title.

1) Oklahoma: BOOMER DAMN SOONER.

2) LSU: Going into this season, I foolishly thought LSU was one of those super-flawed offensive teams that would falter when the needed to put points up. While I still somewhat think that, it's possible I vastly under-estimated their defense. This means they may be of an even more annoying mold: the 'team that really, really sucks on offense whose defense is so stubbornly outstanding, they can still win games against other good teams'. These type of teams are what gave us the Chicago Bears vs. the Indianapolis Colts in an actual Super Bowl. The worst.

3) Alabama: They've been a little too quiet this year, no? Is it possible to 'lurk' while being ranked No. 3? I know they beat Penn State last week, and that was supposed to be important, but Penn State mega-sucks to the point where it might fully taint the game's meaning. And it's only Week 3. 'Bama has a real game this week, though.

4) Boise State: Toled-OH NO.

5) Stanford: I think I saw Andrew Luck threw a pick last week. Well, I mean, I didn't *see* it, but I watched a very small portion of the game and heard he had done it.

Update: Argh.

6) Wisconsin: Knocking on the Top 5 door! Russell Wilson is about to go "Country Grammar" up in here.

Let me in now! Let me in now!

7) Oklahoma State
8) Texas A&M: These two are the same team. Insanely respectable ranking, still no real impression of if they have any chance to succeed. Meanwhile, if we had a BCS 8-team playoff and the season ended today, well, damn, they'd totally be a part of it.

9) Nebraska: Denard gets a lot of love in this column, but I recently saw Nebraska QB Taylor Martinez actually has more rushing yards than him. I'm not sure if that's because Michigan's first game stats were thrown out because of the lightning cancellation game in Week 1, but regardless, it's impressive. Sure, Martinez only has three touchdowns (to two interceptions) and an amazing completion percentage of 48%, but that just makes him cooler in my eyes. The Rajon Rondo of college QBs. And he's still only a sophomore.

The real Rajon Rondo of football: the actual Rajon Rondo.

10) Oregon: As a spread disciple, it's still really hard to take Oregon's last two weeks of point totals (56 against Missouri State and 69 [haha] against Nevada) seriously after putting up just 27 on LSU (the Tigers defense not withstanding) and 19 against Auburn in last year's national title. But they are the highest ranked one-loss team for a reason.

11) Florida State: Hey, you gave it your best shot. And you kinda-sorta won me over.

12) South Carolina: They really are doing stuff this year. Plus my dad apparently likes them and may or may not be claiming them as his favorite team.

13) Virginia Tech: I might associate black Mike Vick with this school more than I associate any player with any other school. Does someone have a better pick? And if it's something stupid like Peyton Manning and Tennessee, don't bother commenting.

14) Arkansas: Still don't know what they're good at.

15) Florida: Tebow played wide receiver this week?! Bahahahaha. Is there a clip of this? It has to be bad. I'm going to look for a clip, hold on.

/looks for clip

Found it! Seriously nothing happens, but it's pretty good.

Any analysis of the performance, Bleacher Report?

So far, Tebow has made about as much of an impact at wideout as he has at quarterback this season.

Which is to say, hardly any.

Shots fired!

16) West Virginia: This is so great -- the Morgantown Fire Marshal sent a letter to students, telling them not to burn things as WFV gears up for LSU week. This school brings it every week.

17) Baylor: Wait, Baylor is ranked?

18) South Florida: I feel like things have been kinda quiet with the Bulls ever since they beat Notre Dame. You know what that calls for? Real game look up!

...

USF plays one ranked team the rest of the year. Excluding Notre Dame (who was ranked at the time but isn't now), West Virginia will be the only ranked team they play all year, as of right now. Horrible.

19) Texas: So my mega-boy Garrett Gilbert was replaced by Case McCoy, who happens to be the brother of my super-boy Colt McCoy? There are a lot of conflicts of interest going on here.

20) TCU
21) Clemson
22) Michigan: ... .... ... RANKED RANKED RANKED RANKED RANKED, HELL YEAH:

(The Michigan Wolverines, I assure you with my life, are not the 22nd best team in the entire sport.)

((RANKED RANKED RANKED))

23) USC
24) Illinois: I am anointing this the most likable Illinois team of all-time. Everybody loves Zook, they have a cool QB, and their defense is the Robin to Russell Wilson's Batman on my college fantasy football (!) team. As a documented and certified player hater -- send me to the damn ball -- of Illini basketball 2004-05, consider this a small step in the apologetic direction from me. I hope this team rolls people and plays an impressive season. I haven't watched them play a ton yet, but it seems like they've got some pieces.

25) Georgia Tech

Dropped from rankings: Michigan State (SPARTY, NO!!!!), Ohio State (PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST), Auburn (I spend one week in their corner, and it all comes crashing down -- just amazing...but not as amazing as this headline), Arizona State (later, bro!), Mississippi State

Saturday
San Diego State at Michigan (22): The LIB'RUL MEDIA is going to try to make this game be about Hoke (boring storyline) going against his old team (super boring storyline). To me, this game is about Michigan avenging San Diego State's victory over Washington State last week, which ended their semi-promising season. Argh. Michigan's Ryan Van Bergen called SDSU the "best team [Michigan has] played," which is odd.

Arkansas (14) at Alabama (3): An all-business Game of the Week.

Oklahoma State (7) at Texas A&M (8): WHAT. My two maybe bad/maybe good/maybe great teams are playing each other this week? This is awesome. I'm making this my personal Game of the Week, if only because it made me so happy. Shih' gon' get sorrrrted out!

Florida State (11) at Clemson (21): I mean, Climpson *is* still undefeated, but...well...meh.

Colorado at Ohio State: Oh, you sweet, brave Buffs. Keep them pinned down!


Rice at Baylor (17): Seriously, Baylor is ranked?

LSU (2) at West Virginia (16): This is probably the majority pick for Game of the Week, but I don't like WFV's chances much. The LSU defense is just too stupid right now. Still a game worth tracking, at least early on.

Every year, once my actual favorite teams (Michigan, Iowa, Washington State) have been eliminated from the national title picture (by, you know, losing just one game), my buddy Ryan and I create what we call the "College Football Bandwagon" which mostly consists of a list of all the undefeated BCS conference teams minus Notre Dame (and sometimes others). The goal of the CFB is to fake feel good about yourself when your "team" makes the national title game. Plus it provides invested, fake rooting interests.

Down goes Wazzu! But...College Football Bandwagon 2011? Nope.

Two of my three squads have peaced, but Michigan is still doing alive like a warm body. They have an easy game this week, then I think two more crappy games, so it's possible I'll have almost two full months of a real college football season before we get this crap goin'.

Down goes 'Denard' (my fantasy team)! 'Denard' burned -- but didn't crash -- this week as the perfect season is now only a dream of the past.

Week 3: While Russell Wilson outperformed Crappy Purdue QB by about 30 points and my always reliable Illini D/ST came to play, Michigan's Roy Roundtree and Junior Hemingway gave me a combined 0 points in the WR spot. How is that possible? Meanwhile, my opponent: his Nebraska kicker dropped 15, Iowa WR Keenan Davis dropped 18, and the Michigan D/ST hung up 21 (playing against Eastern Michigan). I lost 88-72.5.

This week: Russell and the boys face off against gems like the Illinois kicker, Illinois QB Nathan Scheelhaase (Hybrid hero), the Ohio State defense, annnnnnd no one else I've heard of. I am favored to win by one point. Though the line has somehow fluctuated from me losing by seven to four to now winning by one point. The action must be heavy for my team in Vegas.


Haha, easiest schedule in the league.

Before we go back and forth with the Purdue guys, I'd like to give the intro to the immortal Brian Cook at mgoblog (here's him giving a rundown of his podcast this week):

The Big Ten has gone from suck to blow. There are no games in the league this week. Seriously, the most interesting matchups are M-SDSU and OSU-Colorado. So we take the opportunity to hit up Jamie for a State of the Big Ten. That state is "not good at football."

He's the best.

My Q&A with Boiled Sports finally went down this week. Despite them thinking I was a provoking asshole (my words, not theirs), me thinking they were self-serious smuggos, and some childish name-calling being thrown around on Twitter (think: male genitalia), I'd like to think we hashed things out pretty well. Cue the GD Biggie/Pac picture.

WHO SHOT YA?

Let's do this.

Boiled Sports: Werd up.



Bobby: What up, Boiled Sports? Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this, I had a few get-to-knows.

On your Twitter handle, I notice you sometimes use terms like "we" and "our". Are there multiple people involved with the account?

Boiled Sports: Yes, indeed there are. Or at least we say there are several of us. It might just be like the movie "Identity" and we're all ensconced in one nutjob's head. Hard to say.

Bobby: Names/Ages/Location?



Boiled Sports: I feel like I'm in a "To Catch a Predator" chatroom.



Bobby: Do you guys do the blog on the side of other jobs?



Boiled Sports: If we could get paid for talking sports, mocking Dick Vitale and hating Notre Dame, we'd sign up in a second. But, sadly, that is as of yet unavailable. So yes, we have regular-type careers and do the blog thing on the side.

Bobby: Any writing/journalistic backgrounds?



Boiled Sports: Could be. We also might be nuclear physicists. (We're not.)

Truth is, we like to keep our 'professional' and 'amateur' lives kind of separate. Like a hooker who moonlights as a nanny.

Bobby: So the Twitter handle is an extension of the blog, boiledsports.com?



Boiled Sports: It is that indeed.



Bobby: I know you guys cover football, and I'm assuming men's basketball as well. Dabble into other Purdue sports, or is that it, for the most part?


Boiled Sports: You pretty much have it. We started the site about five years ago so we'd have a place to spill our thoughts on Purdue sports primarily, but also on general sports topics, too. We're spread around the good ol US of A, so our sporting interests vary greatly and can thus wind up pitting us against one another, which can be fun...or could one day lead to us hating each other.

Bobby: Aright, let's skip the rest of this foreplay and go about squashing the beef. After Week 1 of the season, we exchanged some words on Twitter, which I've documented below (this time, removing my snarky annotations)?

Now that we can shed the textual constraints of Twitter, what will it take to prove to you I was being sincere?

Boiled Sports: First off, there's no beef. We said what we said, you responded, we responded....I think I was 1/3 into a bottle of Ketel at that point....but that's what is fun about Twitter. We like responding to people and having dialogue. Usually Twitter is the equivalent of thousands of people cupping their hands to their mouths and screaming. We had an exchange.

As to your sincerity, if you can't see how we could have taken 'Congrats on owning the state' as a snarky comment, well....I think we both can see how that could be viewed that way. So yes, I fully accept your insistence that you were being sincere as long as you admit you can understand how your tweets could be construed as...less than sincere. Fair? (Note: if that's not fair, that's fine, too.)

How does one live in Indiana and purport to be an Iowa AND Michigan fan? That seems like a bit of bigamy.

Bobby: I live in Illinois, not Indiana -- though I suppose that clarification doesn't make things any less confusing. I grew up a Michigan fan, but I attended Iowa (Michigan had essays, and a journalism major/English minor like myself couldn't be bothered with something so irrelevant to my concentrations). While liking both teams could be construed as bigamy, I say it's not because I have a pecking order of 1) Michigan, 2) Iowa. That said, if Michigan had already lost a game, thus ending their season (in my eyes), I'd go Iowa in the match up (but not feel good about it). Since 2004, when I got into Iowa, this has only happened once (the 2009 season), and it was truly horrible.

Boiled Sports: That seems....convenient. two chances for happiness. Or maybe I'm just jealous that I cheer for one poor program instead of two decent ones.


Bobby: I actually like Washington State, too (another family thing). But since their early-season -- and most in-season -- games are never on, their season is over before I can ever make any connections with the team. As someone who only has one team in every sport outside of football, it feels weird to have more than one, but in college football, I think I might go insane without it. Hell, I go insane *with* it.

Boiled Sports: I'm not totally unable to relate. My dad went to South Carolina so if I HAVE to root for an SEC team, that's it. Plus I lived for a while in Houston so I like watching the end to end action that is Houston Cougars football. Plus, they're coached by a Boiler who many feel should have been hired at Purdue.

Boiled Sports: If you hate ND like you must if you're a UM fan, shouldn't that make you sort of like Purdue?


Bobby: Yeah, I surely do hate Notre Dame. As for Purdue, I have many more questions.


Boiled Sports: Good. Was worried when you began our love affair on Twitter that you were mad because ND had lost.


Bobby: Is ND Purdue's biggest rival? I know that's somewhat subjective of a thing, but I'll take your word as gospel.


Boiled Sports: Technically, our historical rival is IU. But IU has been bad at football for so long, it's hard to truly hate them. Plus Purdue does play ND in another 'trophy' game, so I guess that makes it a big rivalry, too. Purdue fans are probably split on this one....grads from before somewhere around '85-'90 seem to want to beat IU the most. Those after want to beat ND more. For us at BS, we vote for ND as the team we want to see Purdue beat more than any other.

Bobby: How you feel about the fake Purdue-Iowa rivalry?



Boiled Sports: Hey, maybe it'll develop into something. We and the guys at BHGP have had fun with the concept but, really, until some serious, competitive, grudge match football happens, it'll remain just a silly mandated rivalry.

Bobby: Do you think Purdue head coach Danny Hope should be fired at the end of this season?


Boiled Sports: Depends on the way the season shakes out. If he gets this bunch to a bowl game this year, he will have earned more patience from the fans. If the team looks listless and unprepared as they have at times over the last two years, well, then maybe it's time. Genuinely nice man, though. We've met him and it's hard to do anything but like the guy. Maybe that's the issue, though....not ornery enough to be a successful coach.

Bobby: Why do all of your coaches have mustaches?



Boiled Sports: More important question -- why don't any of yours?



Bobby: "Purdue fans, in general, tuck their t-shirts into their jeans." -- Fair or unfair stereotype?


Boiled Sports: You know, it's funny. You might expect us to fight this one, but Purdue has a lot of older, Indiana, ma and pa types at games. Our alums sometimes do look like this and often act like it, infuriating those of us who like to, you know, cheer at games instead of do needlepoint.

Bobby: Why do people treat Drew Brees like he was Tim Tebow? By all accounts, he seems like an incredible dude, but hasn't his NFL success dwarfed anything he's ever done at Purdue? Or has that just amplified it? I know he had a lot of records and was a Heisman finalist twice, but his biggest team accomplishment was a Rose Bowl loss. Other than having a soul, I don't see much of a difference between his college career and someone like Chad Henne. If that comparison offends you, we'll say Chad Henne was a B/B+ version.

Boiled Sports: Here's what you need to understand: Purdue was positively moribund. Joe Tiller made it fun and then pretty quickly Drew Brees gave people hope. He made people believe that beating OSU and UM and ND didn't have to be an anomaly. Purdue hadn't been to a Rose Bowl since the late '60s. Drew made us all believe that you could win big games and compete at Purdue. When you root for a program that is a doormat for a long time and a guy comes in and is that much fun AND loves being a Boilermaker....well, he forever endeared himself to us. Plus he went largely unrecruited because of a HS knee injury and his somewhat undersized stature. So again, the guy trying to prove himself at the school trying to prove it belonged. A good story.

Bobby: Curtis Painter: any career in the NFL?



Boiled Sports: We like Curtis, but if he couldn't beat out the exhumed remains of Kerry Collins to start for the Colts, well, it doesn't look good.


Bobby: Rank Ross-Ade among all of the Big Ten stadiums. If you haven't been to all twelve, using blind hearsay to come up with the ranking is fine.


Boiled Sports: There were times when even visitors felt it was a good atmosphere. The OSU, UM and IU games in '00 for example were amazing. And the '04 game vs Wisconsin when Purdue had Orton and was No. 5 in the nation and Wisconsin was No. 12, I believe....GameDay was there and it was electric. But by and large, Ross-Ade suffers from passive, old alums who sit on their hands and give dirty looks to people under 40 who cheer loudly.

Ranking? Above IU and Northwestern. Arguably better than Illinois. Probably below all the others.

Bobby: Do you look at Joe Tiller the way Wisconsin fans look at Barry Alvarez?



Boiled Sports: Maybe a little, though Alvarez made them a lot more successful long term. Tiller mailed in his last few years, something that certainly soured us on him.

Bobby: I think we can both agree that Notre Dame is the most hateable 'Big 3' team in the state, but from there what makes Purdue less hateable than Indiana?


Boiled Sports: If we're talking strictly football, I don't see how you can hate either. If we're talking more broadly, there's a misplaced arrogance at IU wherein they think their 30-60 year old basketball titles mean something and that all girls at Purdue are ugly. For one thing, that's just ignorant....and for another, our hot girls are actually smart, too.

Bobby: I always loved this, but never fully understood it. Thoughts?



Boiled Sports: Brock Spack was always good for ridiculous captures of him looking like....an idiot. (That's Spack having his way with a Twinkie box.) We had one we always used to use where he just looked totally flummoxed. We would always say, what do you think, Brock?

Bobby: What are your thoughts on Ball State and my semi-idol Jason Whitlock?



Boiled Sports: Ball State, not much. Whitlock, well, the dude is polarizing, that's for sure. I find myself absolutely loving one column he writes and then detesting another column or hard-headed position he takes. Dude is nothing if not entertaining.

Bobby: So, wait, do you all handle the Twitter account? Are you the person I had the interaction with? What's your online avatar/name on the site, at least?


Boiled Sports: Only two of us run the Twitter feed. I go by 'J Money' (or really, just J) on the site and the other one is 'Boilerdowd.' And yes, I was the one you interacted with.

Bobby: Since Notre dame plays a lot of teams regularly (Michigan, USC, Navy [ha], Army [ha]), do they ever true to dismiss Purdue as a rival, even though you guys are blatantly in the state with them?

Boiled Sports: Oh, do they ever. There's a horrid Domers site that I can't even remember now that spends time every year ripping Purdue for being 'boring' (best insult they can come up with?) and insisting we're not their rival. They've played Purdue for 60+ straight years, but hey, whatever you doofuses say.  We're not ashamed to admit they're a rival to us and we loathe them. The really cute thing is how they think they're rivals with USC and yet USC clearly thinks of them as nothing but a speed bump. At least the Carroll Trojans.

Bobby: Do you want Notre Dame in the Big Ten?



Boiled Sports: I think it would be good for the Big Ten, the Big Ten Network and other ancillary things. I also think it would be awesome to see them lose to Northwestern more often and to see their absurdly overrated basketball program get crushed every year.

Bobby: Do you wish Purdue played a more challenging out of conference schedule?



Boiled Sports: I saw you dogged them for this recently. Just to be clear, they do play Notre Dame every year. That should count for something. They did a home and home with Oregon in '08 and '09 and despite both of those years being losing seasons, the Boilers should have won both games....granted, they didn't, but not many teams are going to Autzen for a non-con night game, giving up two defensive TDs and STILL only losing 38-36

Purdue also did a home and home with USC during the Tiller years and went TO Hawaii when Colt Brennan was there and Hawaii cutely thought they were Boise.

So, you know, I wouldn't say they only play softies like, oh, say Georgia.

Bobby: If I had to broadly make football trail of tiers of all the Big Ten teams, they'd probably look like this...

Tier One (weighing a little too heavily on history so I can unfairly include Michigan here): Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska

Tier Two: Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State

Tier Three: Minnesota, Indiana

Do you think Purdue has a better chance to move up or down in the next five years?

Boiled Sports: I think PSU has to be up a tier...two national titles in Joe's tenure.

Purdue is at a dangerous tipping point. The ship needs to be righted fast or else recruiting suffers, the hole gets deeper and they sink downward. We're very concerned about this very thing right now.

Bobby: Do you think Ben Chappell really sucks?



Boiled Sports: Ben was not given a lot to work with, let's be honest.




Bobby: Is Purdue Pete an idiot?



Boiled Sports: Purdue Pete is a burly Boilermaker who carries a massive hammer. Treat lightly, my good man, tread lightly.


Bobby: Is Taylor Stubblefield allowed to be my favorite Purdue player, ever? Because I can totally pick someone else.


Boiled Sports: Why not? That's a good choice. Our favorite Stubblefield moment.

Bobby: Did Stubblefield start celebrating that TD at his own 40?! That's got to be a record of some kind.


Boiled Sports: Isn't that awesome? I've always thought the same thing....a 60 yard taunt. He was doing the train whistle pull thing, which is also fairly unique.  Illustrates our collective disdain for ND. At the time, Purdue had not won in South Bend in 30 years, the Boilers were No. 10 and the Irish were No. 25... and Purdue won 41-16. Delicious.

Bobby: Are there any Iowa/Michigan issues you'd like to call me out on or discuss?



Boiled Sports: Well, we have never understood the rooting interests in two teams thing. We especially don't get it within the same conference. But then again, nobody on staff at BS grew up cheering for one and then attended another.


Bobby: I feel pretty satisfied. You think we're done here, or do you have anything else?


Boiled Sports: We love leaving dudes satisfied.

Wait, what? No, I meant -- ah, dammit.

Seriously, though, I hope this exchange changed/improved your view of Boilermakers in general.

Bobby: Did.

- Klosterman wrote about some random CFB game for Grantland. I didn't actually read the story, but I read the first four paragraphs, and they ruled.

- I wanted to use this headline in the Top 25 section for Auburn, and only if they won, but since they lost *and* are out of the section, I'll have to use it here. An amazing tweet from Doc Saturday during the Auburn loss last week:

And Auburn's Trovon Reed just fielded and proceeded to run a Clemson punt out of his own end zone. Tackled at the four.

Imagine if they won that game.

- No Iowa State game to talk about in the ASGTW section, but I still have to send out a best wishes to my boy, Cy.

Random Picture I Came Across While Googling Stuff For This Post

Ryan Van Bergen sez: "Levitate, Ben Chappell!"
 
Wrapping It Up...

The 2Pac (me) of the Boiled Sports/Bobby dialogue will be putting on some Biggie (Boiled Sports) and heading to Cali and AZ from tonight through Sunday to watch -- /super gasp -- *four* different baseball games in four days (Dodgers, Angels, Pads, D-Backs). Yes. I know. I hate myself more than you hate me. But Dodgers Stadium is my favorite, so I know that's a lock to be sweet. No idea what the college football viewing situation will be, but I've got some stuff on DVR, worst case scenario. Thanks again to Boiled Sports for coming on and helping us all sort things out. If y'all ever need anything from me or anyone from the staff of TUP, let me know.

Denard.

Bobby Loesch is the assistant editor of Tremendous Upside Potential. He can be reached at bobbyloesch [at] gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy.