Let’s chat about the glorious first real weekend of the college football season, shall we?
Starting with something I forgot to mention in my U of L GameCap, given my haste to find out why my phone was in SOS mode and not working.
Shaun Boykins Jr.’s running stats. He came up big late, finding holes and eating up clock. 40 yards on 5 carries. The redshirt rookie from North Hardin confirmed this squad has its deepest RB room ever.
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Shame shame shame on you Northwestern.
In New Orleans, the city I love which defines resilience and where tradition reigns like nowhere in this land, that academic school whiffed.
Tulane wanted to wear white unis to honor the anniversary of Katrina’s decimation and the city’s bounce back. Apparently Northwestern had to agree.
They didn’t.
Pissy, pissy, pissy.
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Media star of the weekend: Florida State’s QB Tommy Castellanos.
Who, let me remind you, was benched last year at, wait for it, Boston College.
He’s the fella who dissed Alabama back in the summer, that they didn’t have Nick Saban to bail them out anymore.
Then backed it up with a 31-17 smackaround of the Crimson Tide. Which planted Bama coach Kalen DeBoer firmly on the Dead Man Walking roster. (Doesn’t take long down there where they care more.)
Immediately after which, like the next day, Castellanos came out on his website with a line of merch, heralding the W and continuing to lay it on the Tide.
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Speaking of merchandising, nobody does it better than Coach Prime. Who is as good as that other Prime where we order all that stuff our local hardware store doesn’t stock.
Sanders has had bladder issues. Needs access to facilities. So, along the Colorado sideline, there was a temporary toilet in a tent. With a great big DEPENDS logo on the side.
Get better coach.
Meanwhile the Buffs fell at home to a gritty ACC school, the Georgia Tech Ramblin’ Wreck.
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Speaking of Florida State, I am obliged by the dictates of the National Association of Pigskin Pundits (NAPP) to write 50 or so more words about Lee Corso.
Gotta keep my membership active, you understand.
Not only as expected did Corso pick Brutus Buckeye to win, he picked this alma mammy Seminoles to do so. And all the schools where he coached won their opener. Navy. Louisville. Indiana. Northern Illinois.
And he picked LSU, which upended Clemson. Meaning Brian Kelly is going to be a burr in our brogans all season.
For the record, Corso picked those Tigers from Red Stick to win the CFP.
Lee Corso, Long May You Run.
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The Best Boot of the Weekend.
Other than of course that Ohio State student who nailed a FG on Game Day, winning $50 Large.
Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai, whose amazing 32 yard free kick off the post late was the winner in the team’s 1-0 W over Arsenal in a match of the EPL’s best teams.
Yo, football by another name is . . . futbol.
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Who came out better in that Tennessee/ UCLA QB switcharound?
Last year’s Rocky Top starter aptly named Nico Iamaleava wasn’t happy with his $2 mill+ NIL deal in Knoxville. So he took his talents, such as they yet have proven to be, to Westwood.
Where he did not a thing of consequence — other than taking 4 sacks — in a 10-43 beatdown to the Utah Utes.
Meanwhile in Orange, App State/ UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar went 16/28 for 247 and 3 TDs in the Vols 19 point victory over Syracuse.
It is reported that Bruin coach Dehaun Foster wouldn’t allow media to observe his QB during preseason practice. Guess we know why.
Meanwhile in the thrall of victory, Aguilar donned a an old school leather helmet after the win. (As did Shane Beamer after his Gamecocks bested his alma mater.)
A trend?
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The Oregon Duck mascot lost his head — literally — when entering the stadium.
Then, getting in touch with his inner Ted Giannoulas, immediately ran off the field into the tunnel so nobody would learn his identity.
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Here’s who I’d love on my team.
Ruebin Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor, the U’s DEs.
They shut the door and locked it to preserve Miami’s win over the Fighting Irish.
The quick Bain Jr. also had a really alert interception earlier in the battle.
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Who knew Arch Whatsisname’s performance in adverts would be better than his one on the field?
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Paul Finebaum called North Carolina’s new coach, Chapel Bill.
I likeee.
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My favorite quote about the weekend — by somebody whose name I forgot to jot down — called Week I, a “pathological liar.”
We’ll see.
Time will tell who has fell and who’s been left behind.
— c d kaplan
And our alma mater, AHS, is 2-0. When did they become a gridiron powerhouse?
I would love to know who it was that said week 1 was a pathological liar. Little doubt it was some jackass who thinks they are a lot smarter than they really are. It’s comical how a lot of these talking heads convince themselves they have the whole season figured out before the first ball is even kicked. The truth is plenty of things we saw week 1 will change over the course of the season. Others, however, will not. One thing you can count on is that whoever said that doesn’t have a clue which ones will change and which ones won’t, even though they think they do. This is especially true in the age of college athletics free agency.
Speaking of having it all figured out, why was/is Arch Manning the Heisman favorite? He has barely played any college football. I know he is good, but come on. He was a backup last season. It has to be solely because of his last name, right? Since his first name is Archie shouldn’t he be favored to win the next TWO Heismans? Or next three? Two for his first name, one for his last name? But then again, ultimately, I guess being in the conversation but not winning the Heisman is a Manning family tradition.
Well, to be fair, what I think the guy was saying was, it’s just Week I, lots of football to be played, not indicative of how all teams are going to do. That’s how I took it.
Arch, it’s the name. And how he dominated at Isadore Newman HS in New Orleans.
Perhaps he did mean that. I have no context as I don’t know what else was said. What I do know is that a lot of these dweebs are shocked every year (or act like they are) when things they don’t expect to happen, happen. And things they do think will happen, don’t happen, even though this happens every year. They talk themselves into realities they create from BS, and then are shocked their reality was actually just a guess that was wrong. I’ve already seen some of this, although I have also seen some admit preseason prognostications are not much more than guesses. Again, this is especially true in the age of the portal and rampant transferring.
If someone is saying week 1 was a pathological liar I would like to know what about it was a lie, and what standard that conclusion was arrived at with. Sounds to me more like someone was invested in multiple outcomes that didn’t go down the way they thought they would.
Arch Manning is a perfect example of this. He’s good, no doubt, but nothing in his history indicated he would go into The Shoe and preform at the level of a Heisman winner. High school is high school. He’s been in college for two full years now. Yet folks act like it was a surprise he was mediocre on Saturday. Now some want to act like it was an aberration, despite the fact that prior to this season he hasn’t even been capable of cracking the starting lineup at Texas. He’s a junior. Is he really a wunderkind legit Heisman favorite? Or just a pretty good QB from a family of famous QBs?
I guess I just wish there was a lot less BS hype by the media, and a lot more objective thought and discussion. But alas, Americans don’t seem to be trained that way. At least not anymore. Hot takes and shocked astonishment when concocted realities prove to be just that, concocted, rule the day. As a result I consume considerably less sports media than I used to years ago.
I will add that if the statement about week 1 was in the context of EVERY week 1 every year is a pathological liar then I agree with you on what they meant. I took it as THIS PARTICULAR week 1 was a pathological liar compared to they thought would happen.
Again, I lack context.