The Weekend That Was: October 3rd

Classy Move by College Gameday - I enjoy watching College Gameday each Saturday morning; other than the intro song for the show, it is very informative and entertaining. This weekend the show's setting was Chestnut Hill, home of the Boston College Eagles. Their opponent was the Florida State Seminoles (more on them in a minute) which didn't qualify as a big game, certainly not big enough for Gameday to be on campus. ESPN chose Boston College because of Mark Herzlich, the dominant BC linebacker that was diagnosed with cancer during the offseason. First-class move by the network; coming out of commercials messages to Mark from other cancer survivors encouraging him to keep fighting. Lance Armstrong and Butch Davis were among the names who left Mark messages. Mark was then brought on set to announce that his doctor was 99% sure he was cancer free and that he plans to play next season; the crowd went crazy and it was great to see. ESPN messes up a lot of things but they got this story right.

Did they really call that?! - For those of you who had a chance to watch the Georgia-LSU game on Saturday, you know exactly what I am talking about. A.J. Green just made the biggest play of the game, a touchdown grab that put his team in the lead and showed the country why he is a man. Georgia was down 6-0 the entire game until the late Cox to Green hookup that put the Dawgs up 7-6. Green and his teammates did the unthinkable though, they celebrated. God forbid that a player joins his teammates in mass euphoria after making a play that he will never forget for the rest of his life. The NCAA and the refs are out of control with excessive celebration penalties. When the call is made it results in the kickoff being moved back 15 yards to the twenty yard line. This resulted in LSU and their dynamic return man, Trindon Holliday, beginning the return at the 15 yard line, and starting play at the Georgia 45 yard line. This was a huge change in momentum and LSU scored 2 plays later. The refs immediately called excessive celebration on LSU, even though they didn't deserve it, to try and make up for the call on Georgia. This is what I call too little, too late. Referees are becoming a joke in the game. A.J. Green, amongst all the other college football players, work entirely too hard to have the refs deny them the chance to enjoy when the hard work pays off. It's a joke and something needs to be done. It's a game and the players are teenagers who play for free, let them enjoy the rare moments that they get and will remember for the rest of their lives.

The ACC - Somebody please tell me what in the hell is going on in this conference. I seriously need help. All offseason I read articles, websites, and listened to radio shows announcing the the ACC needed to be considered one of the big boy conferences. This conference, much like the Big Ten cannot get out of its own way. "But Big Brother, what about Miami and Virginia Tech?" Miami has come out of nowhere and I'm still not sold on them. Beamer Ball is always good, 10 wins a year is what everyone expects but one team does not a conference make. I watched North Carolina, Clemson, and Florida State absolutely take steps back in the development of their programs. Virginia, Maryland, and Boston College were their opponents respectively. Predicted by the pundits to be the 3 worst teams in the conference. All three made the "powerhouses" of the ACC look like chumps. I don't respect the ACC and will continue to show a lack of respect until they can show their teams are ready for the big stage.

Different Team, Different Week - What I love about college football is the challenge the season presents to each team. The country is up in arms over the polls that come out every week because one team is ranked too high or too low. There are only a handful of teams that have a real shot at winning the national title. What I respect about these teams is that it is hard to play at a high level week in and week out. Houston was blown out by UTEP on Saturday, a week after their emotional, everyone look at us, national TV win against Texas Tech. What Houston found out is that to be a championship-level team, the energy, focus and effort have to be there every week or a team such as lowly Texas-El Paso will beat you. UTEP had 53 total yards against Texas last week, think about that for a minute. The very next week they score 58 points. Unreal. I don't care if you hate the team that wins the national title or think another team is better, please respect the fact that the reason they hoist the crystal football is because they brought it, no matter if they played Southern Cal or Buffalo. It's not easy people.

Teams that impressed me - Southern Cal, Miami, LSU (tough road win), Auburn, Stanford, my alma mater, East Carolina, big road win against a tough Marshall team.

Teams that disappointed me - Cal, Oklahoma, Houston, Clemson, North Carolina, Florida State, just a pathetic showing by the latter three teams.

Games I'm looking forward to this weekend- Alabama at Ole Miss, Florida at LSU, Nebraska at Mizzou (Thursday), Wisconsin at Ohio State, East Carolina at Southern Methodist, and last but not least Indiana at Virginia, the Hoosiers always bring it.

Enjoyed It - T Lank, the extremely talented, yet usually wrong, captain of this blog bestowed upon me the honor of filling in for him this week for The Weekend That Was. T Lank had to participate in a wedding and since I do nothing but watch football, I was more than willing to step up and post my thoughts. It was a fun task and maybe, just maybe I'll bring my older brother wisdom to this blog more often, just to keep him in check. Let's stop the fakin and perpetratin.


~~Big Brother