The World Needs More Ninjas

• I’m Slightly Better than Random in Picking Games: How’d my picks do? I went 6-4…slightly better than the 5-5 you would expect if you just picked a winner at random.
  • OSU did about as I predicted against Cincy even if they were a little sluggish (and, surprisingly, they did when by exactly 30).
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    I was right about Syracuse beating the Illini, but even I was surprised at how bad a Big East bottom dweller would spank them. I thought it was a mistake to hire Ron Zook and it’s looking more and more wrong each game. The Illini are getting worse if that’s possible.

  • I don’t think even Lloyd Carr would have predicted the a 26-point road win over the Irish…I thought Notre Dame was over hyped and even I blew this pick. Who knew Henne would become Peyton Manning for a day?
  • Oklahoma should have beat Oregon, but apparently Stevie Wonder was hired as the instant replay reviewer for the game. See Oklahoma get screwed by the refs in all its YouTube glory.
  • Got the call for Louisville right, but I had no idea Miami would get trounced despite the Cardinals having their two first-round draft picks injured for an entire half.
  • Missed the LSU game, though they could have won it on the last play of the game, as it were..
  • Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought TCU would hold Texas Tech to three total points. Needless to say, I blew this game and underestimated the Horned Frogs’ defense by about two orders of magnitude.
  • Boy, was I wrong about Jad Dean’s redemption. If not for Clemson’s kicking team, this would have been a blow-out. The Tigers’ first extra point was blocked and returned for a safety and then their next field goal attempt was blocked and returned for a TD (recall that last week the Tigers had a PAT blocked to lose at Boston College). Lucky for the Tigers, Florida State is pitiful thanks to Bobby Bowden’s obstinate decision to stick with his son as offensive coordinator. Thanks, Bobby, the lack of offense will just send more Florida recruits up to Ohio State. Despite, this rant, I got the pick right.
  • Picked the Florida win over Tennessee. How quickly Phil Fulmer can go from being off the host seat to back on it after two less than stellar home performances.
  • USC won over Nebraska about as I expected them to. That naked bootleg that the Huskers did on fourth-and-goal at the one to get their touchdown was pretty sweet.
• Rich Rodriguez is a Great Coach: He’s done amazing things in his five years at West Virginia. I always suspected he carried Tommy Bowden when Rich was Tommy’s offensive coordinator at Tulane and Clemson (2000 and 2001). Tommy’s never filled that void since Rich left…the Tigers have consistently underachieved since.
• Three Coaches on Major Hot Seats: I think all three will be gone after this season, but I’ll rank them in order of likelihood that they’ll be fired before next season: (1) Chuck Amato (NC State), (2) Dennis Franchione (Texas A&M), (3) Larry Coker (Miami). As you can see, each already has the pink slip of the Internet age: a firecoach.com domain (evidently, there’s decent money in cyber-squatting these domains).
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    NC State got beat by Southern Miss a week after losing to Akron, which Amato followed by a bizarre rant about how NC State was at a disadvantage over MAC schools since they can’t accept academic non-qualifiers. Yea, Chuck, it’s amazing ACC schools are even able to compete against the likes of Ball State and Bowling Green. To add insult to injury, he has some of the most noticable man boobs in sports (probably second only to Phil Mickelson).

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    Coach Fran has lead the Aggies to a 3-0 start with a cupcake schedule that would make Kansas State proud. But, uh, their last win on a goal-line stand against Army. For those of you that don’t follow college football much, Army has been perpetually among the nation’s worst for about the past two decades. Let’s face it, he’s not getting paid $2 million per year to make the Aggies the fourth-best team in the state of Texas (behind the Longhorns, Horned Frogs, and Red Raiders). I think Bear Bryant cursed Coach Fran for leaving Alabama when he did.

  • Larry Coker did a good job of finished off what Butch Davis started with a national championship and runner-up in his first two years (Butch Davis left one of the most loaded teams ever when he bolted for the NFL…you gotta respect that). But since then, it’s undeniable the U’s program has had a downward trajectory. I think the blowout by an injury-depleted Louisville team was the swan song for Coker. This season now becomes his farewell tour, me’s thinks.
• Best Quotes from Deadspin Comments This Weekend:
  

  • I’ve played this season more than five times on NCAA ’07 and Mario Manningham has never ever played this well.
  • Syracuse radio: Matt Park: “Little bit of confusion on the extra point try.” Coach Mac: “They’re not used to it”
  • In the last five minutes of the Iowa-Iowa State game, both the lesbian and Grandpa Simpson have praised Drew Tate for making tackles after he throws interceptions. I know that’s what the NFL looks for in a quarterback.
  
  • “There was a sign during Gameday this morning – “Charlie Weis: The Devil Lovechild of Jabba the Hut and Rosie O’Donnell.”
  • Did Illinois replace Temple in the Big East?
  • Rece Davis just called the Syracuse-Illinois game “The Big 6 Conference Pillow-Fight of the Week.”
  • In his weekly pick where he dresses up as the team he’s picking, Lee Corso put his Trojan helmet on… backwards. I’m wondering if a similar Trojan snafu led to the birth of one or more of his children.
  • Thus far, this Michigan State/Pitt game is like watching a PG-13 movie, you keep sitting around waiting for some action, but you know that you’re not going to see anything good.

• Does Anyone Get that Nike High School Commercial?: Michael Vick and a bunch of NFL pros go up against a high school football team and need a last second play to win the game. I don’t get it.

And, completely unrelated to college football:

• Finding Egg Roll and Wonton Wrappers: If you’re ever planning on cooking homemade egg rolls and/or wontons (as I plan to do), you may think one would look in the international food aisle at one’s local grocery establishment. You would be wrong (at least in Champaign). You need to go to the chilled food section around the cream cheese to find them. Evidently you’ve got to keep them cool.