The
Jug Stays!
IF
you like holding onto The Jug (or jugs) this is a really great Monday!
It’ll now be at Schebechler hall until 2020, the next time
these cross-over rivals see each other…
Otherwise, I know there’s a ton of misery out there, and
there’s even more B1G Misery that we’ll get to in a minute.
This game had a little of everything.
Game delayed due to a monsoon and lightning strike (more on THAT in a
minute) and a raucous crowd that even surprised me.
I could say a bunch of things about leaky row-boats, toothless
gophers, defense like a wet paper towel, and countless other clichés that
more or less summarizes this game.
No, Michigan wasn’t passing the ball due
to the weather. The weather, in my
opinion, didn’t even play that much of a factor, other than the delayed
start. And I have to say, even when a
lot of fans could have packed it in or said, “Screw this!”, they hung and
filled up the Big House (110,000+ announced). Michigan rushed the ball because the Gophers
were helpless when it came to stopping the rush. At one point in time, I believe I watched
Michigan run the same play about 4 times in a row and the Gophers couldn’t
adjust. Michigan simply pounded the rock. Here’s Higdon’s first TD and the play
Michigan was running. Guard pulls with a
great downfield block by the fullback.
Worked just about every time:
Higdon
– 200 yards
Evans
– 191 yards
37 rushing attempts.
371 net yards for a little over 10 YPA.
That’s a great stat against anyone…
Michigan
hasn’t rushed for 400 yards since the coach that Harbaugh
played for coached at Michigan. Starts with an “S”. They named the Football building after him.
Give me a minute…It’ll come to me..
Play
calling looked better because Minnesota didn’t have answers.
The defense was again dominant and the Gophers didn’t have much of an
answer for that, either. The Gophers could
only amass 164 total yards of offense.
And it didn’t look like they had that much.
It was almost as if the Good Lord was giving PJ and the
Gophers a chance to Row the Boat with all the rain that was coming down, but
the Gophers left the oars in the Twin Cities…Okay, so, one little cliché. But what else is there to say about a game
like this?
I wasn’t sure what happened on the double ejection as I don’t
think they showed a replay, but I got a lot of texts saying Metellus should
NOT have been ejected, but that’s what the ref saw…Whatever.
Speaking of rain:
This happened TOO DAMN CLOSE to the tailgate on Saturday…
Yes, it was spooky. And,
yes, we
all wondered what in the hell we were doing standing under a steel tailgate
tent in water during a thunderstorm.
Hey
- We’re college football fans!
We’re kind of stupid that way.
Frankly, it rained like I’ve never seen before in A2 (with maybe
the exception of the 2nd half of Sparty.
I hope the hospitality we paid to several groups of Gopher
fans that we helped keep dry tailgating enjoyed their time in Ann Arbor. I think it pays to be nice guys, win or lose.
Unless you’re suckeyes.
Screw those guys…
The
Rest of the “Hot” Mess
MORE CFP Hopes and Dreams were shattered Saturday
and a there’s a group of bucknuts calling for Urban’s head on a platter.
YHMA
– You Have My Attention
Canes:
Damn.
I really didn’t think the Canes were capable of staying on the field
with Va-Tech. I compared stats to
similar teams played. I reviewed
several of Miami’s wins where they eeked out the victory with bubble gum and
bobby pins. They played the best
game they’ve played all season and now look like a real threat to win the
ACC. Domer – Canes ELIMINATOR Showdown
this Saturday! And this is all the
verification you really need to tell you that Miami Fans are BACK!!!
TIYFC
- Turn In Your Football Cards
Texas
A&M: I believe that may have been
the game that sealed Sumlin’s fate. Auburn may be the 2nd or 3rd
best team in the SEC right now, and they’re getting it done quietly. But the Aggies fans have seen enough of the
Sumlin era. Watch for breaking
news this week.
Texas: Herman hasn’t impressed the Texas Fans and
they are already having buyer’s remorse in the lack of effort that was
on display against TCU. One
TD against a team that has shown defensive vulnerabilities has some in
the fan base already calling for Herman’s Head in his first season. It’s kind of funny. Patterson’s been a TCU forever and has
beaten Texas 4 straight. He’s
been in Texas’ backyard for over a decade.
And he was probably available a couple of hires ago. ...
Oregon: See Texas.
Taggart hasn’t impressed the Basketball on Grass fan base and
they are all dialing up Chip Kelly’s last known cell number asking him
if he’d like his old gig back. 3
points against the Huskies does not sit well with that fan base.
UCLA: Probably won’t be bowling. DESTROYED by Utah may
signal the end for Mora. I don’t know what’s
going on at UCLA, but it’s not good.
CUD
– Complete, Unmitigated Disasters!!!
Suckeyes: Ha-ha…HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! If you didn’t see the
game and I just told you the final score, you’d have said, “Yep. Suckeyes are dominant.” NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!!! As a Michigan fan I know I’m
not supposed to laugh at any rival’s losses until Michigan has played said
team. But if you listen to as much
College Football radio as I do and read as much as I do, you get a little sick of the
suckeyes and their whiny little asses.
Last week, you couldn’t turn on a national channel and listen for 10
minutes without hearing some bucknut complaining that “We beat the number two team
in the country and we’re not in the CFP Top 4?
It’s fixed! It’s RIGGED! It’s BS!!!” Not necessarily in that order. Now that they’ve been smacked with a 55-24 loss,
I wonder how loud they’ll be??? If they
can actually sober up enough to say anything.
Case in point: How bad did Iowa want it? This bad:
PSU: Another disaster heightened by the fact that
it put Sparty in the driver’s seat for the B1G East. How Dantonio manages to keep pulling this off
is beyond me, but Urban is now ripe for the pickin’ and it wouldn’t
surprise me to see Sparty beat the suckeyes this week. Oh – I almost forgot to mention: Franklin is still 0-Fer on the road againt
ranked opponents!!!
OSU: You had the offense to do it. You’re defense simply didn’t show up. Bedlam once again goes to the Laters and
Lincoln Riley has kept the tradition of beating the Pokes alive, no
matter how good the Pokes are. Gundy
could be on thin ice if Pickens decides, much like the beloved John Cooper
(beloved in Ann Arbor anyway), that Gundy can’t win the big one and
must go.
CBOTL
– Come Back Off the Ledge
There are no come back off the ledge games in November. If you lose in November, you’re squarely on
the ledge. Whether your team just got
knocked out of the CFP or you’re not quite Bowl Eligible, every loss
matters.
WWB
– We Won, But…We Should Be Worried
Wiscy: Injuries mounting up. But Wiscy is the B1G’s best
hope for the CFP.
Washington: Needs a TON OF help to get into the CFP.
And
the Rest…
Domers
vs. Wake Forest: AS expected, Wake kept
it close, but the March for the Domers continues. Can they keep it up against the
Canes?
Clemson
vs NCSU: Clemson
was on the right side of some terrible refereeing. Calls and no calls were everywhere at the
end of the game that definitely cost the Wolfpack and while I know the little
yellow hankies get tucked in pretty tight in the closing minutes of any
game, I think the Wolfpack fans had a right to throw crap at that crew. Frustrations were very clear.
The
Battle of the “N’s”: Northwestern
beat Nebraska in Lincoln and that should seal the fate of Riley, assuming the
decision hadn’t already been made.
Northwestern can still make it (believe it or not) into the B1G
Championship with some help from Iowa and Michigan.
ISU
at WVU: ISU’s
November starts out on the wrong foot after going undefeated in October. This is another team in another conference
that needs to win out to make that loss they hung on Oklahoma not look so
bad....
The
B1G Dilemma
What I’m about to go into here will make Michigan fans sick
to their stomach (so read before eating) and it will also make you wish you had the Sparty game
back.
For everyone wondering how the B1G Tie Breaker works, Michigan
is hopelessly screwed due to the following facts:
1. Michigan’s
two
losses are in division (MSU and PSU)
2. If Sparty
loses to the suckeyes, they only have one loss in division (suckeyes)
with a loss at Northwestern.
3. Ditto the
suckeyes
as they will have lost out of division to Iowa and also lost to Michigan
(assuming Michigan can beat them on November 25th).
4. PSU
would also have two losses in Division (suckeyes – sparty).
5. Assuming
Michigan did beat the suckeyes, the suckeyes would still go to Indy due to the head to
head victory over Sparty.
6. Meaning
a 3-loss
Division Champ could win the B1G Title.
So, no matter how you slice it, due to in
division losses and head to head losses, Michigan ends up tied for 1st
with a potentially better record (10-2) than the suckeyes and Sparty, and would
still end up finishing 4th in the Division/conference.
Making a New-Year’s day bowl out of reach, I think.
What a screwed-up season…
The 5
Stages of Slappy Fan Grief
- Denial and Isolation –There
is no more Denial and Isolation.
You’re either pissed, bargaining or depressed…
- ANGER –Suckeyes: There’s a group of bloggers that are now
calling out Urban Legend and want his head on a platter. The logic is he’s lost
(or looked bad) in his last 5 “Big Games” Which means that this group of bucknuts
are acknowledging the fact that last season’s win over Michigan was pure
luck. And the beat down by Clemson
was a disaster. Ditto the
OU loss at the beginning of this season.
PSU was lucky and now a CUD at Kinnick. OSU
Cowboy fans are in here as well as they are grumbling about Gundy and
whether or not he’ll ever be able to win the Big One.
- Bargaining –1-Loss non-contenders that are
pretenders thinking they have a shot at the CFP. Oklahoma, TCU and Washigton are all
hoping for some chaos in the top 4.
- Depression –PSU – Two weeks
ago they were ranked number 2 in the country. How do you slide so fast?.
- Acceptance
–
Anyone with 3 or more losses
looking forward to basketball season.
Idle
Thoughts from Saturday
-I wanted to get to the spot before 1:00 PM as we were
lined up to get in for Sparty
-I guess I need to figure my opponents better.
-Yep- Put the tent up solo.
-It’s actually pretty simple if you THINK about how to do it.
-In fact, it might be easier that way every time.
-Get underneath and lift.
-Piece of cake!
-You can feel the weather coming. .
-Minnesota fans travel pretty well!
-Lots of Maroon in the streets!
-I developed a Fan Test!
-“Ski-u-mah” is a
thing with Gopher fans…
-Something to do with Indian word meaning win
-But it’s spelled wrong vs. how they say it.
-I would yell, “Skeee – U – Mah”
-(Which is the correct pronunciation)
-The casual fans would walk on by
-The true Gopher fans would respond, “SKY-U-Mah”
-Which I would then say, “But it’s not spelled that way!”
-It’s the long E vs. the the Long I
-With the Long “I” being correct.
-A lot of Gopher fans came over to dodge weather or hit
the Big Game
-You
share with us – We’ll share with you!
-It seemed like they knew they were going to need it.
-Crap – Here comes the rain.
-Taking down a table to accommodate Tailgaters!
-Big Crowd at the tailgate…
-Man is it ever coming down
-THAT WAS CLOSE!!!
-Where
the hell did that hit?
-Should we be standing outside?
-Eh, what are you gonna do?
-Game start delayed.
-Great.
-Gophers don’t have answers…
-Higdon!
-Evans!
-Who needs Peters when you can run like this?
-Uh-oh. Getting
chippy!
-Why did the Michigan guy get ejected?
-Minnesota will get better.
-I wish we would have done this against Sparty…
-Damn – Iowa crushed the suckeyes…
-So much for the B1G.
-Sure wish we’d have beat Sparty now.
-Damn, I wish we’d have beaten Sparty…
-Stop thinking about it.
THE MMQ’s “I DON’T NEED A COMMITTEE!”
1.
Georgia – held serve with win over USC. Showdown with Auburn this week.
2.
Bama – Ditto. I
think Les could have lost to Bama 24-10.
Just sayin’.
3.
Clemson/Miami:
Luckily, this will sort itself out, but I believe the ACC champ is
in.
4.
Domers – The Canes may take care of this problem if they
can do to the Domers what they just did to Va-Tech…
Undefeateds and 1-loss Lurkers: Wiscy,
Oklahoma, Washington &TCU.
Everyone else needs a lot of help and need the first 5-6 teams to lose a lot of
games
The Hot Seat
The race for Chip Kelly is on!
ZAPPED
List
We’ll keep track of who’s gone as the season progresses….
- “Holier than Thou” Hugh
Freeze
- Andersen – Oregon State
- Kugler – Texas El Paso
- Tyson Summers – Georgia
Southern
- McElwain – Florida.
Electric
Chair of Death!
- Jones – Lost to Kentucky
and is O-fer in the SEC.
- Sumlin –
This week?
- Riley – Losing
to Northwestern in the old Big 10 was a fire-able offense…
- Bielema -
edging Coastal Carolina by a score of 39-38? Yeah, Brett, it might be over for
you.
- Mora – getting PANTSED by Utah gets on on the ECoD…Mora and UCLA may be all done
The Hot Seat
1. Fedora
– UNC
2.
Beatty – Kansas.
3.
Lovie Smith – Illinois blown out
by Purdue.
4.
Ruhle – Baylor – 1 win isn’t
enough
5. Odom– Mizzou.
6. Mullen
– another disaster and his seat will get hotter
7. Ogeron
-LSU Losing to Bama gets you back on the list
8. Stoops
– Kentucky. Losing
by one to winless Ole Miss? Really?
Etc.
This Week in Schadenfreude
It’s all B1G East stuff…And it’s all really
good!
Meyer Has Only Lost 31 Times In
His Career
SBNation does a good job of ranking those losses…
