Oh, this season is so so so strange.

Badger QB RFr Graham Mertz has the game of a lifetime in his first start, comes down with the COVID, then the whole program shutters for a time.

Southern Miss fired Jay Hopson after an opening game L to South Alabama, naming Scotty Walden interim coach. Then Walden catches the COVID, then announces he’s exiting Hattiesburg — right in the middle of the season — to coach FCS Austin Peay. After sufficiently quarantining we have to hope.

What. Is. Going. On?

Meanwhile I was 3 up, 2 down last time out. Coastal Carolina, Ohio State and Louisville won. Iowa State and UK lost.

On the season, 23-18-3.

This week’s picks: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week IX →

There’s no other way to say it.

This season is getting curioser and curioser by the week.

(OK, sure, there are other ways to say it, but I went with the words of Charles Ludwidge Dodgson.)

There was something dumbfoundingly Orwellian about Kentucky’s complete evisceration of Rocky Top. The Wildcats hadn’t won in Knoxville since Newspeak became Big Bro’s language of choice.

And here we are when it’s being spoken by more and more people, and UK turns the Orange over under sideways down.

I mean the next thing you know, the Big Ten schools will actually be playing football.

Oh yeah, they are going to start . . . when we are already in Week VIII.

Anyhow, that Kentucky upset was the only game I missed.

Miami bounced back from its Clemson debacle.

Saban proved, as he has done every single time the situation has presented itself, that he can beat his former assistants. Even if he spends game week CEOing from his den.

Notre Dame held off Louisville, though my Cards were game, and full of fight.

Tulsa woulda upended Cincy . . . if the game hadn’t been postponed. It was a DNP.

3-1-1 for the week raises my numbers to 20-16-3 for the season.

This weekend’s winners:

Iowa State @ Oklahoma State. In the topsy turvy B12, only the Cowboys remain undefeated. For clarification’s sake, I’m talking T. Boone Pickens’s Cowboys, not Jerry Jones’s Cowboys. Iowa State, after a surprising setback to the Ragin’ Cajuns on opening day, hasn’t lost in the league. No conference cupcakes either on that roster of vanquished. Okie State hasn’t played in a few weeks, giving the Mullet extra time to prepare his troops for the important clash. But Matt Campbell is every wag’s Next Great Coach. Plus his coif looks perfectly normal. Cyclones.

Georgia Southern @ Coastal Carolina. Knowing my affinity for offbeat mascots/ nicknames, Bookstore Billy called. “Have I got a nickname for you. At Jack Benny Jr. High in Waukegan, Illinois?” My guesses: “Rochesters,” and “Penny Pinchers.” Correct answer, and a truly cool moniker, “The 39ers.” Should you not get any of the references, ask your Aunt Martha. A cool mascot is why I have joined many, jumping on the bandwagon of the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. No Little Red Roosters, they be borne of Chaucer. They also be 4-0 with a W over Kansas, and, more impressively, over Louisiana. Grayson McCall is a fast riser on the QB You Never Heard Of Who Will Be Playing On Sundays list. Georgia Southern’s not chopped liver, but I, for one, am not disregarding the Canterbury Tales.

Nebraska @ Ohio State. A friend was driving through Ohio in the spring of 2012, listening to sports talk radio. It was all Buckeye chatter, and the general belief was Urban Meyer would go undefeated in his debut campaign in Columbus. Which he did. There is no collegiate sports program with a fan base quite as obsessive, or obnoxious, as THE OSU’s. That includes you, BBN. How much did they want it on the banks of the Olentangy? Ryan Day and his staff are so intense, they moved out of their homes to lesson the chances of falling prey to the COVID. The Husker Nation is also pretty locked in, and Scott Frost turned whiner when it looked like his gang wouldn’t get to play, threatening to compete whether the B10 did or not. The reward: A trip on opening day to the Horseshoe. Where they have not a chance.

Kentucky @ Missouri. Terry Wilson is only the second UK QB ever to have career Ws over both Tennessee and Florida. The other one? Haven’t a clue. Bob Hardy? The Wildcats have beaten a 2-2 team, Tennessee. The Wildcats have lost to a 2-2 team, Auburn. The Wildcats have beaten a 1-3 team, Mississippi State. The Wildcats have lost to a 1-3 team, Ole Miss. Meanwhile, the Tigers beat LSU, and lost to the Vols and Crimson Tide. Which is to say, during this All SEC All the Time season, UK and Mizzou appear pretty evenly matched. Big Blue has won five in a row in this series. Will Kentucky make it a half dozen? I’m assuming their heads will still fit in their helmets after last week’s heady headturner in Knoxville, so, yeah, I guess, yes.

Florida State @ Louisville. The Seminole roster is chock full of former future Cardinal signal calling stars. Chubba Purdy. Jordan Travis. As predicticated here sometime back, one of them will be starting in Cardinal Stadium Saturday, since it has been obvious for years that James Blackman wasn’t going to be the guy to lead Florida State back to glory. It’ll be Travis this weekend. Big W last time out for FSU, besting overrated Carolina. Big Effort last time out for U of L, going facemask to facemask with the Fighting Irish in South Bend. For whom will the Mo continue to flow? The Good Guys.

— c d kaplan

How appropriate is it that Mike Leach — Mike “Are his synapsis really connected?” Leach — is a perfect paradigm for College Football 2020.

One week his offense steamrolls the defending national champs for 17 TDs and 4,000 passing yards. Air raid on parade. Two weeks later, the only item in Mississippi State’s shopping cart while Krogering is a safety. Pearl Harbor.

One day, Dan Mullen’s calling for a packed house. The next day his program is shut down when 19 in the Gator pigskin family test positive.

It would be nice for your resident, relied-upon sage to advise he’s got a bead on what’s going on.

I haven’t a clue.

As my results continue to show. Last week, Texas and TCU, and especially U of L let me down. Clemson the Cats down the road came through.

2-3 keeps my head slightly above water at 17-15-2 for the campaign.

I trundle on: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VII →

Since I had another OK, but still less than optimal weekend last, I’ve decided to change things up yet again.

No elongated opening shtick.

All together now: “Awwwwwwwww.”

Three Ws — Georgia, SMU and Iowa State — and two Ls — BC and Kentucky. Troy and South Alabama were a DNP.

For the year, 15-12-2.

This week’s locks: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VI →

At some point mid last Football Saturday afternoon, arch antagonist Bookstore Billy checked in from SEC Country, where despite anything else that might be going on in life, all is right with the universe now that pigskin has returned.

Of course, I immediately started boasting about my early window successes, while lamenting my Louisville Cardinals defeat in Steel City.

I mentioned that Auburn and Florida and Cincy were all taking care of biz. And that if Miami prevailed in Prime Time, I’d have a pretty significant bounce back slate after the previous Saturday’s ofer.

As is his wont, he immediately jumped my case, attempting to demean my predictioneering by pointing out I’d gone with favorites, except for U of L.

At which point, I cut him off, reminding him that Georgia/ Arkansas was 7-5 at the half, that Boomer Sooner fell to K State, and that he’d opened our conversation with, “You’re right, it’s the craziest of seasons, I’m glad I didn’t call my book today.”

So playing scratch is fraught with peril. While sometime it works out.

4-1 puts me back with more notches on the left hand side for the season. 12-10-1.

So, Let’s go back, Jack, do it again, wheels turnin’ ’round and ’round
You go back, Jack, do it again Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week V →