Okay. Well, that was an interesting week. That is, if you like chaos. Northwestern threw a huge wrench into the Big Ten cog, and might have the BCS muckity-mucks sidling up to the Boise State faithful to see how they’ll like Tempe.
We’ll review a couple of the games from this past weekend, look ahead to the huge events coming up this weekend, and reexamine the Big Ten Bowl picture.
Walk this way…
It was a wild, if not entirely competitive week last week for the Big Ten. Ohio State and Wisconsin won blowouts, and Illinois beat up Michigan in a games that wasn’t nearly as close as the 25 point spread suggested. Wild second halves made Iowa and Penn State winners in games that were close at halftime. And Minnesota had a big win against Michigan State, despite the loss of Eric Decker.
I know you’re thinking, what are you going to discuss? Well, let’s just see what a bit of stream of consciousness gets us, shall we?
If you’ll follow me…
So, week 6 was a… less than interesting week in the Big Ten. Three of the schools had non-conference games, and only Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa had real tests, since they played each other. The round robin of “good” teams will continue this coming week. But why not see what we learned after this latest slate of games.
Let’s move on, shall we? And maybe save the Pub the silence of a NASCAR post. (Don’t worry boss, I was right there with you!) (more…)
Three different bourbons and a horse statue - dude knows what's up.
OK everyone. I’m nursing some weird flu symptoms and a nice bourbon (the only cure for yet another UK loss) and I’m feeling the emotional roller coaster that was this weekend’s college football games. The SEC did alright for itself, Tim Tebow is apparently healing (no Jesus jokes, but there is some really fascinating medical stuff about the body’s response to concussions on the internet, and that’s way neater), and announcers made some very strange, homo-erotic comments. I guess it’s a pretty typical Saturday, actually. Oh right, so time for that recap.
Week 3 of the Big Ten season was… underwhelming. Conference play begins for real next weekend, and teams went light on the scheduling in anticipation of a rough eight games from here to the end of the year. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t some good stuff out there.
Be forewarned, it was a busy weekend, so I was only able to burn through a handful of games (not that I missed much), so we might run a bit shorter this week… though I do have a nice little soapbox moment ahead.
Tide rolling all over the Hokies.
I’ve spent every night since Thursday watching football. Today, I woke up before 9 AM, an ungodly hour on a Saturday, so I could try to catch UK’s season opener against Miami. This is the biggest downside of living on the West Coast, and no, getting the late games at a reasonable hour does not make up for it. I had 4 types of beer at my beck and call, 2 types of potato chips, and nachos to tide me over. I am turning this relaxing watching into an art. Just in case you haven’t reached my level of, well, let’s just call it “awesome”, here’s my recap of the past few days, complete with awe, wonder, and incredulity.
Seat’s edge: Watching UK shut out Miami (OH) thanks to the work of Randall Cobb, Moncell Allen, and Mike Hartline was just about the best way to start out a Football Saturday (the game was at 9 AM California time), but the best game of the week was Alabama meeting Virginia Tech at the Georgia Dome. This was a huge win for Alabama, a program coming off a bumpy summer that included an unfavorable NCAA ruling and eligibility drama with Mark Ingram and Julio Jones, that cemented them as contenders this season. The Crimson Tide was lucky that Ingram and Jones were deemed eligible since it led to Ingram rushing a career-high 150 yards. The Hokies managed to hang in there and the lead kept oscillating through the first half like a well-balanced see-saw. Alabama led in both passing and rushing yards (not even led so much as dominated) and in the end, there weren’t enough lucky breaks to keep Virginia Tech in the mix. Roll Tide indeed. (more…)
Raise a Glass