The boys at Maize 'N Brew bring you this week's blogpoll roundtable. See questions of inestimable geopolitical import below.
1. Its only the third week of the season and we've already seen some highly ranked favorites drop out of national championship contention. Preseason favorite Cal dropped to #21 after a loss and a pair of underwhelming victories. Who's your pick as the next NC contender to take a fall?
Ohio State, since their fine schedule looks just great...for me to poop in a cooler on. Three out of OSU's next four games seem semi-formidable: first Penn State, who may be back to late JoePa stasis this year if the Notre Dame game was indicative of anything, then at Iowa followed up by a tussle at Michigan State two weeks later. (The cheese and crackers course in between is Bowling Green, a savory Gouda aging into mediocrity after a robust youth.) That's a nasty stretch that any team would likely drop at least one of, especially that road game to Iowa, who we're not backing off of as being plausibly good until they lose a game, dammit. There's just so much corn-fed goodness on that team that it would be downright un-American of us not to think so.
Mmm. Bowling Green.
Oh, and Florida. The defense could stop anyone, but until the offense has one of those war-rage games where they rip the arms off an opponent and beat them to death with them, we're calling for dropping at least one of the gauntlet games dropped firmly in the middle of our schedule: Auburn, LSU, or Georgia.
2. By that same token there are several schools hanging around without a loss that all of a sudden look like surprise contenders. There are also a few one loss teams with a legit shot at getting back into it. Looking at the rankings who's the team no one's talking about with the best shot at crashing the party ?
My longshot has a first name, and its mascot can shoot blood out of its eyes: TCU. That is not true, actually: the real horned frog can shoot blood from its eyes, but the mascot cannot, which is a shame considering the screams of "delight" resulting from the mascot firing fake blood into a crowd of already wary and frightened children. Make this happen, TCU, and complete your tribute to the spiky, feisty little prospector of the desert world.
TCU beat Texas Tech in shocking fashion, holding Mike Leach to 3 points and causing the HVIC to anoint himself the "worst offensive coach in the nation" following the game. (Jeff Bowden earns a paycheck calling football plays, Coach. A glass of mead, a fine strapping wench, and ten minutes deep breathing would have prevented this patently inaccurate statement from ever appearing in print.) Now only a few Mountain West road trips to Utah and Fort Collins stand between them and undefeated, where coach Gary Pattersonw will take his team into the "Incentive-laden Contract Bowl" to beat an overranked major team before heading somewhere else to fart hundred dollar bills and rebuild a program. (Um, A&M, perhaps, right down yon road?)
Honorable Mention: Oregon. Winning a game by sheer injustice often marks a team for future triumph, which will then be punished in subsequent years by a maelstrom of baffling coaching decisions, rank recruiting, and a time of troubles.
--Nebraska '98: Davison catch off a kicked ball, followed by Frank Solich, decline, gridiron molestation by Miami, Callahan years one, two, ad infinitum?
--Colorado '91: Fifth down game, followed by...well, almost everything since, excepting the Chris Brown game which played a part in the above story.
--Florida '00: Jabbar Gaffney gives Tennessee the UFIA by dropping the game winning TD catch and having it count anyway. The team later goes on to soil their pants at Mississippi State in the most embarrassing defeat of the regular season Spurrier era, a loss so soul-wrenching Spurrier at one point demands that Palmer take a safety for reasons unclear to man, god, varmint, or according to the coach, not even himself.
Karma's a bitch, so ride that lottery ticket while it's hot, Oregon.
3. Every team has their quicksand away game. You know. That place you should win but somehow find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or at least scare the &*%^ out of you every year. Did you know that over the last 21 years Kentucky wasn't won once in Knoxville? Where is your team's yearly sandtrap?
It has been FSU. For the most part, the game hasn't been a rivalry of equity, with periodic Gator surprises spotted in amidst a pile of crushing last-second Seminole heroics and cruel, heartless robot defenses taking our precious quarterbacks, holding them up, and doing to them what they are programmed to do: bend them like girders.
He is bender. Please insert girder. Or quarterback.
We've won two out of the last three, and with FSU's groundbreaking new "anti-offense" Jeff Bowden's cooked up, there's always room for a hope of trend-flipping. But this is the team that beat us with Chris Rix. If you can do that, you're capable of anything, even in a bad year. We will believe that program is dead when it is a smoking pile of goo on the ground, and even then we want it shot six times before we approach it.
4. Now that you've looked into the darkest place in your football soul, free Escalades aside, turn and look into your crystal ball. Conference play is either just starting or a single game in. Based on what you've seen so far, give the order of finish in your conference, and if you've got a Conference Championship game tell us who the winner will be. Independents must predict the remainder of their schedule. The results your predictions will be held against you at the end of the season.
SEC:
East:
1. Florida.
2. Georgia.
3. Tennessee.
4. Kentucky.
5. South Carolina.
6. Vandy.
Yup. The 'Cocks are that bad.
West:
1. Auburn.
2. LSU.
3. Alabama
4. Arkansas.
5. Ole Miss.
6. Miss. State.
5. In keeping with the spirit of Maize n Brew, name your beverage of choice on game days and why. It need not be alcoholic, as there are some of us who choose not to imbibe on game day. Further, it need not be limited to a single brand/type/category. If you enjoy drinking PBR and Kraft Turkey Gravy at the same time (which I have personally witnessed), please, elaborate. Finally, if you should feel so inclined, and this is not a requirement, add an anecdote involving said beverage choice.
Vodka 'n Tonic. Beer makes us sleeeeepy. V'nT makes us aware; lively; willing to converse on a range of intriguing topics; and above all, compliant and friendly when handcuffed. Mix it in a large bottle and no one will know it's not 7-Up.
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