You’re either reading this from home on a “ice day”, or from work after having dug yourself out of yet another mid-week snow storm. Stupid freaking groundhog… At any rate, here’s today’s soundtrack… for reasons that will hopefully soon be evident.
In addition to Gold Pants…
Buckeye 411
The seemingly annual battle of teams who’ve disappointed their fanbases.
These two teams have seen each other a grand total of . . . wait for it . . . two times. The last time came last bowl season in the Capital One bowl which was a high powered shoot-out between the two. Neither electing to play much defense the Bulldogs beat the Huskers 45-31 in Orlando. Their last meeting prior to that was the Sun Bowl in 1969 which the then top of the food chain Huskers under Bob Devaney destroyed Georgia 45-6. They would win the AP National title in 1970.
Neither team finished the season the way they had hoped or they way they had started it. Georgia began the year in the top ten and loaded with talent that should have taken them to the title game. Injuries to several of their best players on offense and defense, the Bulldogs did the best they could to become bowl eligible. Nebraska suffered an early non-conference loss to UCLA at home and had time to recover but a loss to Minnesota in week seven soured their chances at a B1G title.
I found a great website that shows a ton of statistics that can have an impact on your choice to win this game, which includes a Transitive Wins which is like the man that beat the man that beat the man. StatMilk Nebraska v. Georgia.
NebraskaNebraska has one of the best players in the B1G over the last two seasons in Taylor Martinez but his injury would hand that off to junior Ameer Abdullah, who finished this season with over 15oo yards rushing and 8 touchdowns to go along with 26 receptions for 232 yards and 2 touchdowns. He rushed for over a hundred yards in eight straight games this season and did so in ten of the twelve games. Illinois was a sieve against most teams and Abdullah almost went for as much as Carlos Hyde against them pulling down a cool 225 averaging 11.3 a carry and scoring 2 touchdowns. Abdullah edged out Hyde for the over-allpurpose yardage per game lead with 154 a clip. If he returns for his senior season next year, he will be a handful and threaten to go over 2,000. Read More
After 90 picks, tBBC’s pick ‘em between Gary and myself has come down to the final week.
With our contest deadlocked, we will pick the winners of Saturday’s games and use the total points scored in the B1G championship game as the tiebreaker.
To recap last week, both of us took Ohio State, Nebraska, Sparty, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Indiana.
We missed on Nebraska and Wisconsin and head into the last week deadlocked at 30-15. Thanks Bo Pelini.
I’m glad the Huskers don’t play this week.
Who forced you to pick us?
Anyhoo, we are going to pick all the relevant and not-so-relevant Saturday games and see if we can’t get this thing figured out.
Games we are picking:
Gary likes Marshall, UCF, Oklahoma State, Uconn, Baylor, Missouri, Rutgers, Arizona State, FSU, Buckeyes, LA Lafayette and Fresno State.
Gary questioned my manhood and told me not to copy his games. “Well I know how much you have to cheat off me to stay in this thing,” Gary said.
Unfortunately, there is not one game I would and will pick differently. So it comes down to total points in the B1G title game.
Gary has 45 points. I’m going with 46 points.
Let’s hope that we’re both WAY under. Go Bucks.
As we enter the last week of college football’s regular season, this song is running through my mind. Plus, I was on #TeamCourtney from the moment she got on stage with Bruce.
If the pounds of fried turkey and sweet potato pie that you ate on Thursday didn’t give you a heart attack, this week’s college football games certainly were going to do their damnedest to finish the job.
Photo Courtesy of Josh Winslow
Rivalries, by nature, raise the blood pressure of those involved… if they didn’t it would be called a “friendly tiff” or an “untimely spat”. Add the magnitude of what was on the line for some teams, and you’ve surely got the makings for one of the most memorable weekends of the year, if not all times.
We’ve already discussed the awesomeness that was the victory in The Game, and join the rest of Buckeye Nation in sending Tyvis Powell the kinds of “thank you” that would be approved by the NCAA. TWTW doesn’t often spend time rehashing Buckeye wins, but man… that’s one to savor. Right, Eddie?
Kudos to Coach Hoke and his team in their preparation and gameplan, and for the decision to go for it all at the end. It didn’t work out, but it was a great call. Kudos to Devin Gardner as well- after a rough year, and on a bad wheel, he really put it all on the line for his team. I’m not gloating, but that’s how the game is meant to be played… win or lose, you leave everything on the field.
While I’m here, I can’t figure out how only one of these guys was ejected from the game, and that it wasn’t the first one to throw a punch (#34). The Buckeye reaction was understandable, but inappropriate given the program and the magnitude of the game. That being said, if you’re looking for Christmas gifts for me…
But this amazing weekend started well before kickoff in Ann Arbor. Thursday’s rivalry action in the Egg Bowl saw an injured quarterback enter into Mississippi State legend status, leading his team to an overtime win with a touchdown run on fourth and 1 from near the goal-line. Sometimes, gutsy calls work out for the home team. Also on Thursday, Texas fans saw another big win… one big enough to celebrate with a shirt and a Mack Brown contract extension? Yeah, probably not.
Plowin’ Under Some Corn
Friday’s game that should be called “Farmageddon” but isn’t saw the start of the Christmas season in Lincoln Nebraska. At least that had to be what the Huskers thought, since One Weisman was enough to do a ton of damage to the Blackshirt defense. That Nebraska lost was surprising enough, but for me the really interesting part of the game was the media response during and after. Coach Pelini has been on a hot seat, and you could sense his frustration even during the typical halftime “let’s chat on your way to the locker room” interview.
Postgame, someone asked him about his job status and… well, listen to his response here.
Essentially, he says “look, you’re making a story out of something that I have no control over, and your decision to do so is hurting our players and our team. If the people in charge want to fire me, they can.”
The storyline from the game? “If they want to fire me, go ahead“, as if he was calling his AD and the University leadership out. Of course they didn’t talk about his comments ripping the media for impacting the program… it’s like they say. Read More
Today’s soundtrack thanks our Veterans for all that they’ve done…
Ok, class… time for a quiz. What did we learn this week?
Cathartic, I’m Sure
We learned that the template for beating Oregon has not changed. Control the ball and the clock with power running, Don’t turn the ball over, Take advantage of turnovers, and Hold on for dear life.
While this would seem to be the obvious solution to beating any team, Stanford has certainly shown that it’s a template for stopping one of the most powerful offenses in the country. By continuing to do so on Thursday night, the Cardinal looked like Ohio State and Auburn and LSU… and the Duck Dynasty were bumped off the path to the National Title game.
If that wasn’t enough, on Saturday the Head Duck even showed his newest uniform… and this one will probably not be welcomed with open arms in Eugene.
We also learned something that we should have already known; sometimes these are the most difficult of lessons. Even here at tBBC we’ve highlighted again and again that “Big Game Bob” is a myth, that other than a BCS game against UConn (not a difficult thing, no matter what Michigan fans will tell you) and some wins over Texas during their programmatic slide, the Sooners have not managed to win the big one at anywhere near a dominant success rate.
We’re Disappointed Too
Even this year they were embarrassed by a Texas Team that was searching for it’s identity, and have a “quality win” over a Texas Tech team who’s now dropped three in a row. We should have known better than to expect wonders from the team from Norman, but there Buckeye fans were, hoping that they’d handle a Baylor team that’s been setting scoreboards on fire.
We forgot that they have no downfield passing game, and their running game is predicated on a fullback at quarterback. And so, even though it looked close at the outset, we couldn’t be too surprised when Oklahoma collapsed in a heap of it’s own making.
And Baylor? Well, Baylor continues to look absolutely fabulous. With contests against TTU, TBPU and Texas upcoming in their season, the Bears are by no means shoo-ins for the conference title, but the path is pretty clear.
To be fair to the Longhorns, they’ve turned the season around and remained undefeated after their overtime win in the first Texas trip to Morgantown as a part of the new conference configuration. Judging by the responses on Shaggy Bevo, fans are somewhat torn by this turn of events- Winning is good, but how can they fire Mack if he manages to bring home a B12 Title this year? Read More
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Wonderings. Take a minute, grab whatever you drink on a Sunday afternoon/evening and let’s carry on. This will be a nice break from yard work for you. Besides, the Browns and the Buckeyes are off this weekend, so what else would you have planned?
The James/Wexner, Cleveland Clinic
As expected, we have a couple items this week.
First up, researchers at The James have determined, through whole-genome sequencing, that the human papillomavirus (HPV) can directly damage genes and chromosomes, thus contributing to cancer.
Published in the journal Genome Research, this laboratory study used whole-genome sequencing to investigate the relationship between the HPV and host genomes in human cancers.
“Our sequencing data showed in vivid detail that HPV can damage host-cell genes and chromosomes at sites of viral insertion,” says co-senior author David Symer, MD, PhD, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at the OSUCCC – James.
“HPV can act like a tornado hitting the genome, disrupting and rearranging nearby host-cell genes,” Symer explains. “This can lead to overexpression of cancer-causing genes in some cases, or it can disrupt protective tumor-suppressor genes in others. Both kinds of damage likely promote the development of cancer.”
“HPV can act like a tornado hitting the genome, disrupting and rearranging nearby host-cell genes,” Symer explains. “This can lead to overexpression of cancer-causing genes in some cases, or it can disrupt protective tumor-suppressor genes in others. Both kinds of damage likely promote the development of cancer.”
“November is for champions”. Guess what, folks… it’s champions time.
For the first time this season, the memorable games from The Week That Were found themselves coming from B1G Country. And, if I’m completely honest, the top two made my weekend pretty fantastic.
He Who Walks Behind The Corn
First, let’s go to the “What’s NU With You?” battle, as Nebraska and Northwestern squared off in a battle of the walking wounded. Taylor Martinez and his magnificent aerial attack was on the sidelines again, while Northwestern’s Venric Mark missed yet another game… and more Wildcats would go down as the game transpired. If Ohio State hadn’t already broken Northwestern, Nebraska certainly would have.
And yet the Wildcats were leading by three, in Lincoln, as time was winding down.It certainly looked like it was going to be a bad weekend to be a Pelini.
The Huskers brought in their version of the Pillsbury Throwboy, who led the team to the memorable last second finish that you see gif-ing there on the right. Best “Fat Guy Touchdown” ever?
For full coverage and reaction, let’s turn to my wife’s play by play from the moment:
Yeah, it was that kind of moment… Buckeye fans know the feeling, and Coach Fitzpatrick certainly could find a Bert to talk to as well.
Several people pointed out that, in the mayhem that followed, Coach Pelini looked stunned and no one chose to celebrate with him. That could just be his normal demeanor, though… although it might also point to his having “lost” his team. A word of warning to Tommie Frazier and all of the others looking to make a change… be very very careful what you wish for.
So now a Cornhusker team that has a huge emotional win to build on travels to Ann Arbor to face a Michigan squad that’s coming off what may be one of the worst beatings that they’ve encountered in a long time.
No Freaking Idea
While it’s been well documented that Coach Hoke can’t win on the road, to lose yet another game to “Little Brother” never feels good- particularly when you end the game with negative 48 yards rushing. That’s why Wolverine running backs should keep their mouths shut… although, this should have already been perfectly clear to anyone who pays attention.
Huge kudos to Coach Dantonio and our favorite Spartan, Coach Harley- not only did the defense rise up and make Devin Gardner look like the wide receiver playing QB that he is, they also managed to put points on the board for the second straight week. Granted Michigan’s defense has some holes (as Indiana and Penn State showed), but to see MSU’s offensive evolution over the season is impressive. Read More
They say tying is like kissing your sister.
Pucker up. That’s where we stand after one week of our head-to-head pick.
Yours truly and Gary were correcting in picking Ohio State and Illinois to win last week. I correctly picked Iowa winning at Minnesota but was disappointed in the effort of Purdue as Gary was right in picking Northern Illinois.
“They are just horrible in every freaking category,” he said in justifying his pick.
This week we have a full slate of Big 10/11/12 games.
Let’s get the obligatory picks out of the way: We both are picking Ohio State and TTUN.
But that’s where it stops. Read More
