Monday, November 5, 2007

It's gonna git ya...

Ain't karma a bitch? All around college football this weekend, we saw it work it's little magic.
-In Lawrence Kansas, the Jayhawks scored as many points in one game against Nebraska (76) as the did in the entire decade of the 1970s (60) or the 1980s (76). In fact, until two years ago, Kansas hadn't scored more than 30 points against the Huskers since 1960, and now they done it three years in a row. It could have been a lot worse. The Jayhawks had 76 points with 10 minutes left to go in the game. They could have scored 100 if they were so inclined, and given their history with NU, no one would have faulted them. They scored Tds on 10 straight drives! Looks like the Big 12 north will come down to a season ending KU / Mizzou clash at Arrowhead in KC.
-In South Bend, Navy ended the longest continual losing streak in CFB history, beating the Irish for the first time since the Johnson administration. The most incredible thing about the game was that Notre Dame lost because of some amazingly stupid decisions on the part of Charlie Weis. On the first possession of the game, Notre Dame marched right down and scored. Navy promptly fumbled, giving ND great field position. After their drive stalled because of penalties, Charlie Weis called a fake FG on a 4th and 15 at the Navy 25. Of course it failed, and Navy went down the field to tie it up. Given that Navy is not a very good passing team, a 10-0 lead with all the momentum on the Irish side would have made it very hard on Navy. That call, while strange, was nothing compared with the doozy that was to follow. With the game tied with under two minutes to go on the Navy 25, Weis decided to go for it on 4th and 9 instead of kicking a go-ahead FG that would have forced the triple-option offense of the Midshipmen to go the length of the field (or most of it) with a little over a minute left to go. Instead Evan Sharpley got sacked, the game went to overtime, and the rest is history. The karma really comes in when you consider that when he was hired, Charlie Weis proclaimed his genius to all who would listen, and now they are losing games because of him not in spite of him. True to form, after the game they asked Weis why he didn't go for the late field goal, and he responded, "Why, so we can miss it?" He makes an absolutely indefensible decision and when questioned, he throws his players under the bus. It amazes me that none of the Notre Dame bloggers or media is calling for this guy's head, especially when so many of them wanted Bob Davie and Ty Willingham gone at the same point in their respective tenures, when they had almost exactly the same results. One blogger, let out a rather emotional tirade aimed at Weis, but took it down a few hours later. At any other place, this guy would be run out of town. Heck, in many places in the SEC, he'd have to have an armed guard with him at all times to keep the crazies away.
-I don't know if it was karma that led LSU over Team $aban, but I do like the fact that LSU's never say die attitude looks very much like a Michigan team. I've seen a lot of LSU games this year, and I am really starting to see Les Miles' Michigan roots.
-Finally, in East Lansing, a double dose of karma. For the MSU fans who had printed up their Appalachian State shirts, an inexplicable loss on the hardwood to division two Grand Valley State. And for Coach Dantonio and his "moment of silence" (after M's loss to Appalchian State, he joking asked for a moment of silence to open his post game comments), he got introduced to the rivalry with a come-from-ahead loss. That's not to say that Dantonio didn't do a great job, he did, I think he out coached Carr in many ways. He just learned that one of the constants of being a part of Spartan football is soul-crushing losses to arch-rivals.
-That being said, I think that State fans have a lot that they can be pleased about this game, despite the final outcome. For the most part they outplayed Michigan, and did a lot of things that bode well for the future. Of course, we've said that before, and I'm sure Spartan fans are not interested in moral victories when it comes to Michigan.
-I know they were just trying to protect their injured stars, but I really think that Carr and Debord blew it in the second quarter, but not opening up the offense a little more and trying to put the Spartans away early. I felt if they had gone ahead and scored to make it 21-3 before half, it might have killed all the fight in State.
-The Spartans will not be sad to see either Chad Henne or Mike Hart leave. In four games against MSU, Hart has 676 yards on 106 carries and 2TDs, Henne is 79-120, 880 yards and 14(!!) TDs. It is not a stretch to say they could be the most successful pair of opponents in MSU history.
-The big ten bowl situation is a mess, but I still think that if MSU wins one of their last two, at Purdue and hosting Penn State, there is no way the Motor City bowl will pass them up.