there is nothing better in the world than:

realizing there is another game on after you thought all games had kicked off already.  This was the Ok State Mizzou game.  You turn it on, and you say this is live?  And it is.  Then within 5 seconds you hear "has five, has ten"  and you immediately realize that this game is gonna be really fun to watch.

OCtober 10th

Okay, I had a huge hiatus.  I actually had to start doing work, and I had no time to effectively work on this blog.  But, thanks to K-Piece, Im back, for the time being.  Im sitting here, sipping on my coffee, listening to Pam Ward try to announce a football game, K-Piece texts me why I havent been posting, and I just said "fuck it".   Will it be possible to accumulate all my thoughts from the past 5 weeks, and look forward to the next 10 in one, unprepared post?  Here goes nothing:

The first thing I notice about college football this year is that Ron Franklin might be funnier than Musburger.  I dont even think he knows hes at a football game half the time.  He says "has five, has ten" after the guy is already tackled for 13 yards.  The only downside is that he doesn't do the "seven seconds left, down to six" when the play clock is running down anymore.  I hope hes still signed up for Big Monday Big12 basketball, and that the clock call returns (its more of a basketball thing anyway.)

Musburger is either the coolest announcer to listen to, or the most annoying if you have a rooting interest in the team that he doesn't.  I noticed this first last year when he bet on Penn State -14 against Illinois.  THe only silver lining of Illinois losing that game was that they lost by 10, and therefore Musburger lost as well.  He definitely had money on Ohio State vs USC, and he might have had OSU money line, cause otherwise he would have covered the OSU +7.  Yet, he was genuinely concerned on the Trojans' final drive, and sounded dejected once USC scored.  

There are a few things to mention about Illinois.  THe short story is theyre pathetic.  The long story is that theyre really pathetic.  Last year, CanMan came over to my place and watched the Illlinois Iowa game, and the Bama-Miss game (bama-miss playing today made me think of this).  We got Hooters wings.  Illinois somehow won that game 27-24.  At this time, Illinois was looking OK.  They were still one year removed from the Rose Bowl, had held their own with Penn State, had beaten Michigan, were 5-4, just a mediocre team.  Iowa, on the other hand, were in a downslide, people were calling for Ferentz' head, they were 5-4, but that wasnt good enough?

Do you realize what has happened since then (this was on 11/1 last year by the way).  Iowa has not lost.  They have beaten Penn State twice since then, and won a New YEars Day Bowl.  THey are primed to be in a BCS bowl this year.  Illinois has not won.  Correction, theyve beaten Division II Illinois State.  But, counting only division I teams, they HAVE NOT WON SINCE THEN.  THis includes losses to Western Michigan, Northwestern, Mizzou for the 100th time, and yet, Zook got his contract EXTENDED over the offseason.   Ughhh.  What a difference 11 months makes.  Not only that, but Illinois figured to be steady, and have all these "weapons" return on offense.  Well, we all know that Juice has been benched.  Iowa was supposed to fall because they lost Shonn Greene.  Wrong again.  The point is, maybe, this is just as simple as Ferentz is the game and Zook isnt.

In the long run, I was talking to my dad, and I asked him "Will Ron Zook be coaching the Illini on game 1 next year?"  And he said yeah.  Apparently Zook has some buy out clauses that if he fired his dumbass hed receive wheelbarrows full of cash.  AD Ron Guenther will have to figure whats more cost effective, keeping him, or paying him to leave central Illinois forever.  The guess would be the former.

Maybe 3 years after hes fired, Illinois will win the national title, and they can say that whoever the coach is won with Ron Zook's players, like they did with Florida in 07.  (Sarcasm).

I guess the best way to sum up my thoughts would be to give you my top 25 as of now, and overall assessment of each team:

1. Florida.   Im taking Florida tonight in Death Valley, whether Tebow plays or not.  That being said, I really like LSU - as you know I had them rated highly in the preseason.  It should be a great game.  Florida has been untested thus far, and that could pose a problem.  People are concerned about Florida being able to move the ball, but how is LSU going to move the ball?  

2.  Texas.  I honestly haven't seen Texas.

3.  LSU.  LSU could have been winning by 20 something at the half last week.  But, they were winning by 6.  THey turned it over in the endzone, passed on kicking a FG, etc.  BTW, when are people going to get on Les Miles?  I guess hes winning, so it doesn't matter, and more often then not, his gambles pay off, but what if they didn't?  Hed be considered one of the biggest idiots ever!  If they lost by less than 2 last week, everyone would be upset at him for passing on the FG attempt at the end of the half.  What about in 07?  The game against Auburn where they were losing by 1.  What if that play took one second more, and was incomplete, and they lost?  THats not that big of a what if?  Not to mention, they are the only team I think ever to lose twice and win the title - 07 was the craziest year.  They lost the second to last week to Arkansas, and still sneaked in.  

As far as their team this year, they oculd be dangerous on offense, and when it does click, they will be.  Danielson and Lundquist, who were calling the game last week, together still dont have 1/4 of a brain, and they didnt realize that when LSU ran the option, they ran it too close.  That is, you need spacing, so that when you pitch, one guy can't cover two people, as Curran did every single play for UGA last week.  Thats the type of shit thats inexcusable.  Defensively, I like #7, cant think of his name, a ton, as Danielson does as well.  

4.  Alabama -  I think Bama will be in for a tough game today against Ole Miss.  But, Bama's defense has looked as good as anyones.  And, theyve scored 30 points every game this year.  Just solid all around.  SEC West is going to get wild very quickly.

Quick interruption - Robert Smith just said on ESPN2 halftime that doctors have to actually look at TEbow, that he can't just say hes fine to play.  Really, thats how concussion analysis works?  THey have doctors involved?

After this, to me, there is a considerable drop off in talent.  I dont want to attempt to rank them all, but I will give a quick blurb on teams that I think are significant:

USC -- mediocre the first 4 games, then looked good against Cal.  At Notre Dame will be a great game.  I give credit to Wash for their win over SC, cause Wash definitely played good, but SC could/should have won the game still, and thats the type of game you have to win if you want to win a title.  

Boise State -- Heres where Ill talk about this.  A friend of mine and I were talking last week about SC's chances of getting into the national title.  First, SC would have to win out.  Second, we know that 2/3 of these teams will lose: Florida, Bama, LSU.  Assuming SC jumps them, that leaves Texas and Va Tech to leap.  I dont think VA Tech will run the table.  Texas has a tough stretch coming up, but could run the table.  Lets assume they lost though.  The only team left is Boise.

What if, Florida wins out.  Bama has 1 loss, LSU would have 2 (and be out), Texas has 1 loss, and Va Tech loses again.  USC runs the table and has 1 loss, and Boise wins out.  Who do you put in the title game?  WOuld it be SC, or would it be Boise?   Who gets in?  I would say not Boise.  Anyone, other than Boise.  They would not have a Boise Florida national title game.  We already saw it happen kinda.  Va Tech looked mediocre against Duke, and they still jumped Boise in the rankings, a sign of things to come.  

Should they be in though?  Id say, yeah.  Especially if Oregon keeps winning.  I made an argument that Utah should have had a shot last year, and Ill make the same argument for Boise this year.  USC can get away with turning the ball over 3 times in the red zone vs Washington and losing to them, and Boise is perfect, but they get penalized?  I dont like it.

BIG10:  The Big10 figures to come down to Iowa @ OSU.  Penn state isnt out of it, and their best chance would be that OSU beats Iowa, and then PSU beats OSU, creating a 3-way tie.  Either way, Iowa seems like they are headed for the Rose/Orange Bowl.  It would be hard to leave a 1 loss Iowa team out of the BCS.

Cinci plays South Florida next week for the inside track in the Big East.

ACC seems to be in control of VaTech.  They have the tiebreaker over Miami, who looks like the second best team.  WEveryone else is average (UNC, GaTech), or just bad (FSU, UVA).

BIG12:  Texas' biggest obstacle is still Oklahoma, which will play out next week.  I don't know why Texas wouldn't win, but as usual, it should be competitive and close.  Nebraska has the inside track in the North after their come from behind win on Thursday.

PAC10:  2 Losses could be good enough for the title in the Pac10.  Stanford is undefeated now.  Cal is out of the competition (strangely, one of the first teams eliminated, if you forget about Wazzu, which you should).  Every team poses a challenge though (again, other than Wazzu).  We saw Wash pull an upset.  Both Zona's are dangerous.  UCLA should be back in a bowl.  Stanford leads the Pac10.  Oregon is probably the 2nd best team.  Oregon State is down thus far, but still has a lot of talent.  

Im running out of steam on this post.  I hope I can return to posting regularly.