College Football: Curious-er and Curious-er

The college football weekend started on Thursday night with Florida State losing to Wake Forest. It ended late Saturday when number 1 Cal was beaten by Oregon State. “What?” you ask. “When was Cal No. 1?” There was no vote, but I figure they reached that exalted spot for a couple of hours, from the time former top dog (cat?) LSU was dumped in overtime by those other Cats – the ones better known for their round ball skills.

Once again, the football gods have demonstrated that mortal scribes have no clue about this game, the ink barely dry on their coronation of the latest emperor before he’s found to have on no clothes. (How many metaphors did I manage to mix there? Is it a record, do you suppose?)

We really didn’t need the demise of USC, LSU, and Cal to prove the idiocy of the polls. In both the AP and USA Today, Nebraska got votes. I rest my case.

The Rodents booted a 21 point lead to lose to Northwestern. I figure Brewster’s boyz go oh-for-the-rest-of-the-schedule.

You be the Coach department. It’s early in fourth quarter and you’re nursing a 6-3 lead. The other guys come up short on third down, so it will be fourth and a bunch in their own end of the field. When they commit an infraction on the play, you turn down the penalty so they’ll have to punt, don’t you? Illinois coach Ron Zook didn’t. He accepted the penalty, making it third and a bigger bunch. Iowa used that third down to gain twenty-nine yards, then drove down the field for the winning touchdown. They pay those guys to think that deeply. Honest.

That loss on Thursday was Florida State’s second. Miami lost its third game today, Florida has two losses. That’s seven between them halfway through the season. And South Florida is a top five unbeaten. Who? Has it happened? Has Hell frozen over on the very day that some fool got the Peace Prize for pushing global warming?

Auburn lost to Arkansas in the last two minutes when the Hawgs scored their only points, a touchdown for the 7-6 win. Doesn’t get my sympathy, though. You should have to score a touchdown to win; if you don’t you should lose. If I were in charge, I’d make it a rule.