thependulumswings

If college football was a horse race the announcer would exclaim, “they’ve hit the far turn.”  Eight games, or two-thirds in of twelve, the games never fail to intrigue.  As they make the turn, we head to the nuggets.

1.  A speed horse is one that jumps way out front and burns out, eventually giving way to the field.  But, Alabama is no speed horse.  It’s the class of the race.  Sitting unanimously at no. 1 in the new AP Top 25, it’s looking back at the field wondering if there is a worthy challenger.  They stay in the barn this coming week prepping for a Baton Rouge run v. the now # 4 LSU Tigers.
2.  THE Ohio St. wasn’t running a clean race for weeks, but was still rambling down the backstretch in second.  They were. Purdue handed them their third loss in three years to an inferior Big 10 opponent.   The Boilermakers of Purdue kicked mud in THE’s eye.  THE fell back hard to 11th.  If they win out and beat Michigan in the season finale, who knows?
3. Clemson jockeyed to second with a convincing romp of undefeated pretender North Carolina St.  Clemson wants everyone to know that they still own the ACC.  In a distant second in the ACC is, well, North Carolina St. The Wolfpack dropped back to 23.
4.  Notre Dame is 3 and LSU, off of an uneven but defensively dominating 19-3 win over Mississippi St., now holds the coveted 4th spot.  They’ll likely hold it next week too as they lick their wounds from a tough early track with an off week as well.  Alabama visits on 11/3.  One would wager that College Gameday will visit on 11/3 as well.
5. Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Florida make up the next five through nine.  They are all tightly bunched and one or two could break free as we soon turn for home.  They all have one loss.  Michigan stands out though.  They are lurking at 5.  The Wolverines allowed a meager, paltry, miserly 94 total yards to decent in state rival Michigan St. Their only loss was in week one to the Fighting Irish, and is a minor blemish now.
6. One of Georgia and Florida will be put out to pasture as far as title aspirations go this weekend.  The “Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” that you cannot call “The Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” anymore gets served straight with ice on Saturday.  The #9 Gators opened yesterday as a nine-point dog to the Bulldogs.
7.  UCF wants to know if anyone cares to notice that they are #10.  It seems not.  They seem to only run in claiming races.  And, no one claims them.   They really need to schedule stronger out of conference foes.
8.  For 13 years no one noticed Washington St. either.  For 216 straight weeks of GameDay shows, someone’s shown up to wave a giant Washington State flag, no matter how far away from Pullman, WA.  On this past Saturday, college football took notice and Oregon paid for it as 20k plus Washington St. faithful watched the ESPN show on campus.  Then, even more watched the show that Mike Leach’s team put on .  The final was 34-27 Cougars over the Ducks of Oregon, but the first half Cougar domination was impressive.  They bolted all the way up to 13th.  It’s the highest ranked PAC 10 team.  That’s good for them and not so good for the left coast.
9. Hello Appalachian St.  Is there a more appropriate nickname than the Mountaineers?

   

   They are ranked for the first time ever at 25.  After being a major thorn in then called D-1 schools for a long while, the Mountaineers joined the FBS in 2014.   They play in the Sun Belt Conference if you don’t know, and sport a 3-0 record in bowl games thus far.  ‘Where are they from,’ you ask?  Well, they hail from proud Boone, NC. of course.

10. The SEC has spots 1,4,7,9,12, and 16 this week.  Wow!  Over the final month they’ll beat each other up as almost all games left are in the divisions inside of the conference.  One stands way out, while some of the others hope to ascend to greater notoriety.
11. (or plus one)  Some early lines are out.  Missouri -6 hosts Kentucky.  It almost seems like the wrong team is favored.  Almost.  Washington St. is a 3 point road dog to Stanford.   The happy Cougars need to avoid a low after the Pullman high.  NC St is a one point dog at Syracuse.  The one loss Wolfpack get little respect.  Maybe they haven’t earned much?  Clemson is a 17 point road favorite over Florida St.  WWBBS?  What Would Bobby Bowden Say?

Till five days from now.