Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face, but it didn’t last long.

The last four years, I’ve always had the entire week off of Thanksgiving and waking up that Monday morning was always a beautiful thing. This was my first year not having that luxury, and it reminded me that college is long gone and I have to work today. Bad feeling.

As for the weekend, lots of good feelings. I did well on the picks finally, and I meant to put UNC over NCSU, but I didn’t, so it doesn’t count…

I spent Saturday-Sunday morning in Manhattan. Started in Soho to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game (we’ll get to that), moved to 3rd and 11th to watch the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest game with the other alumni, ended up at some yuck trendy bar in Times Square because some girl we were with knew someone there (starts to get fuzzy here), but I ended up in the Village at 2:30 a.m. and got the most amazing cheesesteak.

Enough about me, let’s talk about the lady football.

Ohio State 41, Michigan 38

• I didn’t bother to check, but it should have been on ESPN Classic five minutes later as an Instant Classic.

• There should NOT be a rematch in January for all the marbles. It would be a horrible idea. While the game was the best we’ve seen this year, I don’t want to see it again. I want to see teams from DIFFERENT conferences play each other. If a team from the SEC finishes with one loss, I want to see that team play for the national championship. If not, I want to see a one-loss team USC play against Ohio State. If neither of those scenarios works out, then Michigan should get the bid. But, USC and Florida will both finish with one loss. Florida lost to an Auburn team that was rolling at the time, USC loss to a mediocre Oregon State team. Florida goes in my book.

• Troy Smith, your 2006 Heisman Trophy winner. He was the leader and player Ohio State needed in this game. He had a rough third quarter, but his miraculous play otherwise earned him trips to Glendale, Ariz. (the national championship game) and Manhattan (Heisman).

• I was glad to see Chris Wells break off that 52-yard run in the second quarter. I tried to tell you about this kid earlier in the year. He’s the real deal…wait until he’s a junior.

• I had no idea that James Laurinaitis’ dad was a pro wrestler and his mom was a body builder who weighed like 115 but could squat like 330. His nine tackles on Saturday and 100 this year make so much more sense now.

• I knew that Ohio State would be able to pass all over Michigan, I even said it the day before the game. I should have realized that would translate into a lot of points and a longer game (76 pass attempts).
  

• It’s a shame that the light for Virginia Tech didn’t come on sooner. I’m hearing if Georgia beats Georgia Tech this weekend, we’ll have a UGA-VT Peach Bowl. Should be fun.

• I figured Rutgers would struggle with Cincinnati team, but I thought Schiano wouldn’t let them lose. Oops. If West Virginia beats Rutgers, Louisville gets the BCS bid? I’m okay with that; I still think Louisville is the best team in that conference on any given day.

• Here are your BCS teams this year: Ohio State-Southern California in the national title, LSU-Michigan in the Rose, Georgia Tech-Louisville in the Orange, Texas-Boise State in the Fiesta and West Virginia-Florida in the Sugar.
  

Stats with three games left: 201-323, 2,380 yards, 22 touchdowns, 6 INTs
Matt Leinart’s 2004 stats (Heisman winner): 269-412, 3,322 yards, 33 TDs, 6 INTs

Heisman favorite going into next year? I think so.