It’s 8:04 p.m. and I’m sitting down in front of the big screen with my pops to watch Notre Dame-Michigan State and Boston College-North Carolina State.
Sounds simple. But instead of sweet pregame montages, we have Linda Cohn fumbling through words on ESPN 2 and American Bandstand on ABC (some band I’ve never heard of playing a song I’ve never heard with a shoddy attempt to incorporate football highlights).
My dad looks to me and says, “I guess they’re trying to reach your demographic with this music.” Well, on behalf of my demographic, I just want to say it’s ridiculous and a waste of money. Play some sweet music we’ve all heard of, show some money highlights and muzzle Brent Musberger and you have my attention.
What a weird afternoon of football though. Colorado gives Georgia fits, East Carolina has West Virginia on its toes for a while, Wisconsin gave Michigan a run for its money, Penn State led 3-0 at the half at Ohio State, Auburn only had a 10-0 advantage against Buffalo at the half and Cincinnati led going into the fourth quarter against Virginia Tech.
Speaking of Virginia Tech, I didn’t get to watch the Hokies…again. Because I’m trying to shake this cold bug I decided not to make the trip to Manhattan to watch the game and none of the bars out here had ESPNU. So I spent the early afternoon with Wisconsin-Michigan on mute and Bill Roth telling the story of Virginia Tech-Cincinnati on Internet radio.
My thoughts? Well, Michigan WR Mario Manningham is darn good. His two touchdown catches were quite impressive. I also heard Mark May call Badger tailback P.J. Hill Jr. the Wisconsin Winnebego (5’11, 242) – what a great nickname. As far as the Tech game? I was trolling the VT message boards during the game and everyone wanted to give Cincinnati credit, but I’m not buying it. The ACC is soft this year and I’m calling a Georgia Tech win over VT right now, as much as that pains me to say. I’ll sing a different tune if the Hokies can beat GT, but I don’t see it happening right now.
Before I move on, Michigan State just scored on a three-play drive to take a 7-0 lead over Notre Dame. Spartans QB Drew Stanton is the real deal. He’s mobile, accurate and tough. This is going to be a high scoring affair if Brady Quinn can complete an out route.
Anyway, I don’t want to get into too many specifics about today or else I’ll be typing 3,000 words before I know it, but did anyone see the end of the Penn State-Ohio State game? Malcom Jenkins picks off a terrible pass from Anthony Morelli with about three minutes left, makes some nifty moves and turned it into a touchdown. Now…was I the only one who saw him spike the ball in celebration on the 1-yard line? The announcers didn’t say a word about it, but it looked pretty obvious to me. If you saw this comment and let me know I’m not crazy.
Staying on crazy, Alabama kicker Leigh Tiffin must be pulling his hair out after missing field goals of 33, 30 and 37 yards and an extra point in the second overtime as the Tide lost to Arkansas. I hope someone is staying with Tiffin tonight until he falls asleep. As former Alabama football player Forrest Gump once said “That’s all I’m gonna say about that.”
Notre Dame safety Tom Zbikowski, one of my favorite cfb players, just muffed a punt, picked up and fumbled it again. The best part of the play was the fact that State punter Brandon Fields got into the pile and came up with the ball. I went to look up Fields’ numbers this year, clicked his bio and his eyes looked closed. It was funnier when I started typing it.
Michigan State just scored on a trick play. Oops. 14-0. Wide receiver Matt Trannon (of the basketball team, right?) just caught a screen and threw it to a wide open Javon Ringer on the other side of the field. They said he can throw the ball 23 yards, seriously? What an athlete.
I wish I would have thought of this earlier, but I am going to start calling them the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, presented by ABC’s Brent Musberger (has the ring of The Big 12 Championship, presented by Dr. Pepper, right? This has officially turned into a stream of consciousness).
Brady Quinn was just sacked on third down. Man, what a rough first 10 minutes for the Irish. Things have gotta change quickly.
On ESPN2, Boston College is up 6-3 on NCSU. I went down to Raleigh for a game last year, the Wolfpack faithful take their football seriously and they’re pretty knowledgeable…they’ve gotta be in pain this year.
Kerry Reed just dropped a touchdown pass. Gotta catch that ball son. This came after a 37-yard run by Drew Stanton, can we say first round draft pick? Another ball just went through Terry Love’s hands on third down, forcing a field goal. The Irish are lucky it’s not 21-0.
Okay, enough play by play. On Monday, I’m going to put out my top 25 poll and more thoughts about the weekend. I’m going bold with some of my rankings, so be sure to check it out. I also want to say, for the record, that Rutgers was ranked in my poll last week. Maybe I do know what I’m talking about.
And because it’s my blog, I want to say congrats to Division III Emory and Henry for improving to 2-1 today. A good college buddy of mine coaches there, and they rule.
I’m ending this as Quinn throws another terrible out route. Bye.
Comments (2)
First off Go E&H Wasps! and second Jenkins totally spiked the ball on the one yard line. I thought no one else saw it except me, I had to point it out to everyone that I was watching the game with. I am suprised that the announcers were not all over it.
how sad that you ended this before notre dame had the best comeback in recent college football history and pulled off that magnificent win over msu. go irish!