Ah, the esoteric “long pig reference”. Well done, Orson.

For those of you youngsters who don’t know what a “long pig” is, the first time I heard the expression was when John Huston, the director of “African Queen” was telling a story about the film production in 1950. When they were making the movie in East Africa they had to hire native hunters to produce meat for the cast and crew. Everyone was commenting on how tasty a particular stew was and were asking about the type of meat in it. The hunters replied that it was “long pig”. Upon further review it was discovered that “long pigs” were men from another tribe and that the hunters were killling them and including their meat in the stews.

I can just picture the look on Katherine Hepburn’s face when she found out……………..

9/20/08 Georgia at Arizona St.

I’ll have my stones ready.

What 70 said but further I was not playing the transitive game in the least. I’m saying that the totality of Illinois’ schedule, highlighted by the win a tOSU and the close loss to Missouri was much stronger than that of Hawaii. It also feature wins over Wisconsin and Penn State, the first of which played SEC runner up Tennessee very close and the second defeated Texas A&M (which defeated Texas convincingly the same Texas which just blew out ASU by about the same margin as the latter lost to USC).

The point is that at some juncture you have to concede that the teams beaten by Ilinois were simply much stronger than those defeated by Hawaii. The transitive argument would hold, for example, Stanford and consequently all the teams which defeated it as being better than USC, an utterly absurd conclusion.

I would ad that BCS teams don’t always get much of a break a particularly outrageous example being Missouri which was passed over for two teams which it defeated (on a similar not my Cal Bears which were passed over for an excellent Texas team but one that was, in that year, less deserving).

Just to clarify, the BSU in my moniker does not stand for Boise State. I’m not defending a conference-mate here…

Let us also not forget the Auburn Right Tackle who upon being beaten by a spin move by Phillip Merling, blatantly kicked his leg out in a vain attempt to kick/trip Merling. I’m sure he wasn’t coached to do that either. Did the OL coach at Auburn spend time with the Broncos O’line?

“In addition to being told to forget about Georgia’s two losses, we’re also to conveniently forget that they were throroughly outplayed by Vanderbilt before Vandy’s coaches brain-cramped and gift-wrapped a win there, too.”

A few things.

- I haven’t heard anything of this sort. Most everyone realizes that somewhere between the Vandy game and the Florida game Georgia started playing up to its potential, that its O-line finally started to gel, that Knowshon Moreno gave the offense a spark, that Willie Martinez realized that the bell would toll for he if his guys didn’t start getting a credible pass rush. Most everyone has noted that Georgia was a very average football team the first half of the year, and an excellent one the second. Most everyone has noted that Georgia got super awesome at about the same time all the other top teams in the country struggled (for example: your BCS Championship Game-bound LSU Tigers have lost twice since the last Georgia loss).

- Vandy’s coaches brain-cramped? Coaches don’t fumble.

- Look, I see what you’re doing here, but you should sleep well enough knowing that Hawai’i’s stomping won’t put a damper on last year’s Fiesta Bowl and probably won’t put a damper on the BCS-making-abilities of other WAC teams. If the WAC becomes this decade’s version of the MAC (as in going from “OMG THEY SHOULD HAVE AUTOMATIC BIDS!!!” to “Uh, who?”), it will be because the quality of play suffers…not because the ESPN shouting heads keep bringing up the 2008 Sugar Bowl. The fact is, the 2007 Hawai’i Warriors were not a BCS-worthy team. At all. They played a schedule bested by 1-AA teams, and they struggled at times with it. They played one very good team all year and were demonstratively outclassed. That’s all we know. It should be enough.

You can play this game all day. At the risk of violating Orson’s well-held ban on the transitive property, Illinois lost to a 6-6 Iowa team that lost to a four-win Western Michigan team at home. They struggled at home against Western Illinois. Ohio State is 11-1 largely because of a non-conference schedule that is similar to Hawaii’s. In addition to being told to forget about Georgia’s two losses, we’re also to conveniently forget that they were throroughly outplayed by Vanderbilt before Vandy’s coaches brain-cramped and gift-wrapped a win there, too.

(When talking about schedules in this particular context, it’s probably also worth noting that close call against Louisiana Tech was a road game — a 4,200-mile road trip, to be exact. Georgia fans can throw stones at that one the day they travel more than 75 miles for a non-conference road game….)

All I’m saying is that non-BCS teams have a *much* higher bar to clear to reach a BCS game than any team from a BCS conference ever will. I’m not saying it’s unfair (consider it our built-in strength of schedule penalty if it helps to wrap your mind around it), but I am saying that the BCS-conference fans should quit bellyaching so much when a non-BCS team makes it. The WAC, MAC and Mountain West teams of the world don’t get the luxury of playing for the BCS after a loss. If it’s so easy to go undefeated, go do it. If Georgia wants to swap schedules (and resources) with Hawaii for a season, I’m sure the Warriors would be glad to take UGA up on that offer.

Oh, and if we’re going to ban or relegate every team that gets pantsed in a BCS bowl game from ever appearing on that stage again (as some posters seem to be suggesting), then Ohio State would have had fun in the Outback Bowl yesterday…

Heck, I don’t think even Virginia Tech could have scored 10 points on Georgia’s defense, or stopped Georgia’s offense but we’ll never know because of these stupid bowl tie-ins.

Speaking of which, a partner walked into my office 5 minutes ago and wants me to review a reps and warranties section. Fuck. I come in on January 2nd and they expect me to do work. I don’t know what kind of a unit they’re running here.