Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VIII

Football, Gaming

Yes the deck was stacked with my picks last week. Fixed better than some up and coming card magician going for the big trickeration in front of Penn & Teller.

Or, so I thought. Georgia Southern was slated to easily vanquish a seriously awful Texas State contingent in my Thursday night opener. Three TD spread or so. But two things happened. Southern doesn’t use the triple option anymore like I thought. And the Eagles escaped San Marcos with an embarrassingly difficult W by a couple of points in one of the most inept gridiron battles in decades.

But a win is a win yada yada yada. And along with the expected no problem victories of Alabama, Army, Iowa and Boston College, I garnered my first perfecto weekend of the campaign.

Even though the fix was on, with impunity I advise that I am without guilt. My confidence needed a boost. The home office had a hellhound on my trail.

5-0 for the weekend broke a month long losing streak. I’m now on the plus side for the season at 19-16.

Feeling somewhat more assured, this week’s slate is significantly more competitive. My cybergalactically renown at picking winners shall surely be confirmed.

Here we go: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VIII →

Reflections on Another U of L Loss

Football

The ways of fandom are personal.

How and where we watch out team’s games. With whom? And where we sit and what we eat and what we wear.

So our personal situations dictate how we perceive a win or loss, how it affects us.

So, my apologies if this take on U of L’s fourth straight defeat, this time in Chestnut Hill to an injury plagued BC eleven, is less about the game, and more about how we deal with our favorite teams in times of trouble. How I had to deal with yesterday’s disappointment.

For both the Cardinals and me, it was deja vu all over again.

U of L came out flatter than a pancake at Twig & Leaf. Down 14 after six listless minutes, the Cards were gifted the ball at the BC five, showed a semblance of life and focus, couldn’t sustain it, and were defeated falling  away.

Same ol’ same ol’. Continue reading Reflections on Another U of L Loss →

Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VII

Football, Gaming

Caller ID indicated it was Glorious Editor on the line. He was not a guy I’d been anxious to hear from.

With more than a bit of dread in my voice, I picked up, “Hello.”

“Hey, Seedy, this is Mike.”

“What’s up?”

“Well, getting right to it, we’ve got problems. The home office is wondering what’s going on with your weekly football predictions? My boss, not a guy you want to cross, trust me, was not in a good mood, screaming in the phone when he and I chatted, ‘Rutherford, what’s wrong with this guy, Seedy? After the dumbkopf left Alabama out of his preseason CFP, picking Wisconsin and Washington, for heavens’ sake, you assured me he was an expert and knows what the hell he’s doing. That he’d be fine. Well, he hasn’t picked more right than wrong since the second weekend of the season. My beloved calico WoodyBear could do a better damn job, and, despite her name, she hates football. Get this fixed immediately, Rutherford, or send that idiot packing.’ . . .

“. . . yo, Seedy you still on the line?”

“Uh, uh, yeah, Mike, I hear you.”

“Do you really hear me, Seedy? I’m a company man. If the home office is unhappy, I’m unhappy. Your worthless weekly picks and blather, which aren’t nearly as clever as you might think, are not cutting it.”

“I hear you, Mike.”

“Well, Seedy, hear me now and believe me later: Either you start showing some expertise or you are Sayonara. Adios amigo. Arrivederci. Auf wiedersehen. Yesterday’s tweet. Outtahere. Capeesh? You feelin’ me?

“One more thing, Seedy, you have no buyout. Understand?”

“But . . .”

Click.

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

Louisville CardFile: Georgia Tech

Football, ,

In the Year of Our Lord Nineteen Hundred Sixteen, the Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech under the mentorship of one John Heisman — yeah, the award namesake — was the victor in the most lopsided game in the history of college pigskin.

Against the woeful Cumberland College Bulldogs, Tech scored 63 points in the 1st Q, 63 points again in the 2d, 54 in the 3d, and a mere 42 in the 4th.

Final score Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0.

Even though Georgia Tech scored only 66 last night at Cardinal Stadium before an increasingly irritable gathering of Cardinal faithful, this nationally televised embarrassment of a beatdown sure felt like the most lopsided L in U of L history.

Louisville could not stop Georgia Tech.

Not figuratively.

Literally.  Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Georgia Tech →

Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VI

Football, Gaming

Hello mediocrity/ my old friend/ I’ve come to talk of you again.

Yeah, it’s a Paul Simon paraphrase, and that great songwriter has retired from live performing. There are more than a few who have suggested I do the same with my predictioneering.

Another 2-3 weekend and at 12-13, I’ve fallen below .500 for the season for the first time since, well, ever.

But I ain’t goin’ nowhere.

Yet, understanding that changes are indeed in order, here’s what I’ve done.

I changed the locks on my front door. I changed the number on my phone. I changed the kind of car I drive. I changed the kind of clothes I wear. I changed the tracks underneath the train. I changed the name of this town.

And, for good measure, I changed my HVAC filter, razor blade, and bed sheets. And oh yeah, my socks.

So, kids, I’m back at it, feeling really optimistic about this weekend’s picks.

Here they are: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week VI →

Red & Black Rants & Raves: 10/02

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I know we’re probably really tired of talking about THAT PLAY last Saturday, which Seminole interception with a couple minutes on the clock set in motion Florida State’s improbable come from behind victory pilfer.

But, hey, just one more anecdote.

A.J. Westbrook is the name of the Seminole playing safety who intercepted Puma Pass’s throw on a play that should never — never ever — been called.

He says he knew before the snap that the Cardinals might try to pass instead of running out the clock as the situation called for. He noted that TE Mickey Crum made an unusual hand signal to Pass while the Cards were lining up.

So, Westbrook was ready to stay with the route. Here’s how he described it:

“I just sat there, and I jumped it, and he threw it. I was like, ‘Wow, he really threw it.’ I don’t know why he threw it, but oh, well.” Continue reading Red & Black Rants & Raves: 10/02 →

Louisville CardFile: Florida State

Football,

Just when it was seeming like it could be so literate of me to consider opening this GameCap with a paraphrase of Sam L. Clemons, a reference to reports of the Cards’ demise being premature; just when BVG’s sometimes tough sometimes not D made the biggest, arguably most important stop in years, one which could have and should have saved the ballgame; just when U of L didn’t exactly go manly man with a grind it out drive but was holding on to the ball with the clock ticking away to secure the victory; just when it seemed like the less than full but boisterous Cardinal Stadium crowd would be C-A-R-D-S-ing its way into a joyous BBQ and brewski-saturated Saturday night; just then, just then at probably this campaign’s pivotal instant, Bobby Petrino inexplicably has his Pete Carroll moment.

Not that Saturday afternoon’s egregious coaching miscalculation was a Super Bowl equivalent gaffe, but it probably blows the season for what is surely now a fragile U of L Cardinal dynamic.

With the clock ticking below two minutes until an unprecedented third ACC W in a row over the Florida State Seminoles, Louisville, up 24-21, had the ball 1st and 10 at Florida State’s 19. The visitors only had two of their allotted three timeouts left to delay what should have been the inevitable.

Bobby Petrino — What????? — called a pass play. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Florida State →

Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week V

Football, Gaming, ,

The University of Louisville Football Cardinals, who were whomped up both sides of their heads in Ole Virginny at the door step of Monticello,  are not the only folks who would like to forget last weekend.

There are the promoters of the music festival on River Road as well as old Zeppelin heads who were planning to catch Robert Plant one more once on Sunday, which day of tuneage was cancelled because of forty days and nights worth of rain that fell while David Byrne was dancing and singing in a gray suit instead of Patagonia. Psycho Killer indeed.

Then there’s yours truly’s inner seer who was headed for a truly ignominious set of predictions. Until saved somewhat by a late comeback from the Stanford Cardinal in Eugene. Thanks to that W, and the continued ascendency of the Kentucky Wildcats as projected here, the weekend was merely awful, falling just short of a call to the Haz Mat Squad and a trip to the ER.

Of course, I picked my U of L Cards to prevail. They did not. For some reason which makes not a whit of sense in retrospect, I picked Rock Chalk Jayhawk to prevail at Baylor. They did not. Then there’s U of L’s rumored/ hoped for next coach now at Purdue, Jeff Brohm, proving for the first time this campaign he might be up to coaching at Power 5 level. I picked visiting BC, which couldn’t get away from the Wabash and back to Beantown soon enough.

Thus, 2-3 for the weekend evens me at 10 up, 10 down for the campaign.

Before you start to impugn this weekly crystal ball exercise, know that I actually ran into a regular reader yesterday at lunch, who wanted to know this week’s picks in advance, promising not to reveal them until publication.

It’s nice to know at least one reader cares.

Battered, severely enough to go on the IR list, but forging ahead in the name of truth, justice, the American Way and contractual obligations, here are this week’s winners: Continue reading Seedy K’s Peerless Pigskin Prognostications: Week V →

Red & Black Rants & Raves: 9/24

Basketball, Football, Soccer, ,

It’s not just locally that fans and pundits alike are taking note of the sordid state of U of L football.

Here’s the designation Stewart Mandel at theathletic.com bestowed on the Cardinal head coach:

This week’s coach on the hot seat

Louisville’s Bobby Petrino. Things are quickly deteriorating for Louisville. After a 27-3 drubbing at Virginia, the 2-2 Cardinals are tied for 123rd nationally in scoring offense (17.0 ppg). Petrino was already facing questions before the season about a staff that includes his son, two sons-in-law and retread Brian VanGorder as his latest defensive coordinator. The inept start isn’t helping.

Ouch.

 * * * * *

Wasn’t Petrino once considered “the next offensive savant”?

Correct answer: Yes. But that seems long ago, far away these dark days.

Well his Cards have scored, count ’em, three offensive points — 3 — in the first half this season. Those came in the waning moments against WKU. They went ofer the opening half against Bama and UVa. And scored on Rodjay Burns pick — on blown coverage it turns out — against Indiana State.

Ouch x 2. Continue reading Red & Black Rants & Raves: 9/24 →

Louisville CardFile: Virginia

Football,

In the run up to the season opener against Alabama, one of the nation’s football pundits — I forget both his name and the website — signaled an SOS to the L1C4 Nation.

Such is the nature of Nick Saban’s season opening smackdown success at neutral sites, and how it tends to decimate the vanquished beyond the final horn, the Cards needed to be careful that the Crimson Tide not only battered the Cardinals in the game — a given really — but that the loss wouldn’t continue to conquer U of L the rest of the way.

In the wake of two seriously underwhelming performances against Indiana State and Western Kentucky, exclamation pointed by Saturday’s disturbing and deplorable laydown against UVa, one has to wonder whether that pre-Tide warning wasn’t spot on.

So, that’s one conceivable explanation, if certainly no excuse, for U of L’s desultorily poor touchdown-free performance in Charlottesville.

Then there’s this more reasonable interpretation of the Cards’ horrible display Saturday. Continue reading Louisville CardFile: Virginia →