2021-09-30 14:05

THAT was a weekend.

Some big teams did fall and left their fans and likely their directors stunned and for one coach, not of a big school, it meant to pack his luggage and leave the house.

This weekend I start with the interesting / funny / horror results, depended on the views.

Wake Forest won by 20 points against Virginia, 37-17. The Cavaliers were favored by 3.5 points and are now 0-2 inside the conference, while the winners are now 2-0 inside the conference.
Liberty, who made themselves some name last season lost against Syracuse 24-21. Liberty was favored by 6.5 points.
Oklahoma needed everything they had to beat West Virginia 16-13. The Sooners were favored by 17.5 points won basically in the last second by a field goal. I'm waiting for the fall in the next few games.
Texas A&M lost to the surprising Arkansas Razorbacks 10-20. More of that down below.
Clemson lost to NC State in 2 OTs 27-21. More of that down below.
Notre Dame did beat Wisconsin 41-13. More of that down below.
Baylor did beat ranked Iowa State 31-29. ISU was favored by a score and was unable to stop Baylor from scoring. This inconsistency of the Cyclones is freighting.
Georgia Tech won against ranked North Carolina 45-22. UNC was favored by 14.5 points.
LSU did barely win against Mississippi State 28-25. I have little hope for LSU to play a major role inside the SEC West this season.
Boston College did beat Missouri 41-34 in OT. BC was favored by 1 point, still seeing a SEC team losing that way ...
One of the biggest upsets this week is Bowling Green winning against Minnesota 14-10. The Gophers were favored by 30.5 points and LOST!
SMU did beat TCU 42-34. TCU was favored by 9.5 points. Big win for SMU. Those Texas-internal fights are always important.
Memphis lost to UTSA 28-31, while being favored by 3.0 points.
Louisiana won against Georgia Southern 28-20. Louisiana was favored by 14.5 points, so no big issue, except the HC of GSU, Chad Lunsford, was let go after 3 full seasons and some extra games as interim in 2017 and 4 games in 2021. He was this season 1-3, but did have quite good results in the 3 full seasons. Looks like a overreaction, but fired is fired.
Louisiana-Monroe won against Troy 29-16. ULM is 2-1 now, the fans are likely almost in heaven.
Oregon State won against USC 45-27. Any discussion, whether the interim coach might become the permanent coach in southern California should be gone now.

That's it, with some major stuff happening.
The rankings got some shuffles, too.
Biggest winner is Arkansas now at #8 and since a long time ranked inside the the TOP 10. I think no one had them on the list to be ranked that high this season, any time.
Michigan is also climbing, now at #14. Not sure this is really the season they can compete, but it's fun anyhow.
Biggest loser is Texas A&M, dropping to #15 and Clemson dropping to #25.
Overall, the season basically just started, so enough room to suck for other teams. Haha.

Time for the detailed reviews.

The BLOCK OF GRANITE GAMES FOR WEEK 4

Sat. Sep 25
#12 Notre Dame @ #18 Wisconsin
Man, this game is one of the most disappointing games so far.
The 1st half looked OK, except I had bigger expectations on Wisconsin offense.
They did score a field goal early, but then were unable to move the ball regularly.
They did miss a 4th and 1 conversion, allowed Notre Dame to get the lead and then they did commit the 1st turnover and Notre Dame scored the 1st TD of the game.
After that again Punts as much as you do not like, trailing 3-10 at the half then.
Notre Dame did look good on defense, and OK on offense, against a team which lost to now highly ranked Penn State in week 1 by a score.
After the break, for some time it looked like Wisconsin would turn the game.
A lot of punts on both sides, but Wisconsin did score the tying score and early in the 4th quarter the leading field goal.
Then Wisconsin collapsed and never recovered.
After the field goal, the Kickoff return was run to the house for 96 yards, Notre Dame leading 17-13.
The Badgers fumbled and Notre Dame scored again. 24-13.
A missed field goal by the Badgers and some back and forth later came an INT by the Badgers and the Irish did kick a field gal. 27-13.
And then the it went down the toilette, big time.
TWO Badgers drives after the field goal ended with pick six plays, 34-13 and then 41-13.
End of the game.
Man, and those guys want to play for the damn BIG 10 championship ...
Good news for Badgers fans, the game was irrelevant for the BIG 10, but nationally, embarrassing.
Notre Dame has some live back, but I still believe they will fall, earlier than later.
#12 Notre Dame 41 @ #18 Wisconsin 13 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Score: 7-5

#7 Texas A&M @ #16 Arkansas
And here come the next game, which, if I would be the AD of the losing school, would have send the coach on a very unpleasant meeting marathon with the board, the coaches and so on, just to understand, HOW THE *PEEEEEEEEEEEP* A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER CAN *PEEEEEEEEEEEP* THINGS SO BADLY?
A&M was basically unable to move the ball.
Against a team, which was very bad the past few seasons, very bad.
You want to know how bad they were this Saturday? They did lead against the championship contender 17-3.
And A&M did score only a field goal 30 ticks before the half ended.
NOTHING on offense by the Aggies, NOTHING.
If I would be the AD of the Razorbacks I would thanks the HC personally for the great defense effort.
I love that.
As Aggies AD, likely I would have to pay up for some damaged property inside the Razorbacks stadium. Grrrrrrr.
Then the Aggies did almost turn the game, scored in the 3rd quarter, but that was just a fluke.
I remember being an assistant to a youth coach and for some reason he did call the whole game against the championship favored team the same play. Halfback dive over the guard right hand side. The WHOLE GAME.
The defense stopped the back, the whole game, except for 1 play, where he went all the way for a score. We lost 40+ or 50+ to 7.
That Aggies TD did look the same, one big play for almost 70 yards and then NOTHING, and before NOTHING.
Razorbacks look sharp and are now highly ranked.
They will have to prove their ranks the next few weeks, but so far, one of the most surprising teams in the country. Congratulation.
Aggies, go home.
#7 Texas A&M 10 @ #16 Arkansas 20 -> Jacks TOP GAMES Scores: 7-6

#9 Clemson @ NC State
This game was OK, as neutral observer.
Both teams were on the same level and their problems moving the ball.
That is not surprising against a Clemson defense, which did secure several great seasons in the past, but that was surprising against a NC State defense, since the past the Clemson offense did look often unstoppable.
With 7-7 at the half the game was low on scoring and had a lot of missed opportunities and errors.
On both sides.
That continued in the 2nd half and Clemson was lucky to get into OT.
NC State had until then missed 3 field goal tries.
So, OT at 14-14.
Then 1st OT, both scored, 21-21.
2nd OT, NC State did bring on a long pass into the endzone and scored. The must-play-2-point-conversion failed and then Clemson was on.
On the 4th down they tried to pass the ball into the endzone, the pass was bad and then did the fans storm the field.
For 8 times in a row had Clemson won the game, now NC State has won it and the fans went nuts.
Great game by the Wolfpack, Clemson has to work on their basics again and has to find some answers on offense.
#9 Clemson 21 @ NC State 27 (2 OT) -> Jacks TOP GAMES Scores: 8-6

Other interesting games:
Nebraska @ #20 Michigan State
At first it looked OK for Nebraska, getting an INT on the Spartans 1st drive, but then it went back and forth and at the half, MSU did lead 13-10.
Then Nebraska did tie the game and even when they fumbled it did not hurt then much, and later they did even get the lead. Great.
And then the Spartans scored on a Punt-Return and the game was tied again.
In OT the Huskers did again suck and throw and INT on the 1st OT and were then unable to prevent the game winning Spartans field goal, 23-20.
Overall an OK showing by Nebraska (still another loss), an important win for Michigan State.
Jacks interesting games Score: 8-5

UAB @ Tulane
UAB will likely again play a big role inside their conference.
They did win their non-conference game against Tulane 28-21, being the underdog.
I thought Tulane can do it, but they were unable to score often enough.
Jacks interesting games Score: 8-6

#24 UCLA @ Stanford
Stanford did play bad offense against UCLA and that did cost them heavily.
At the end did the Bruins win this game 35-24 and Stanford can again think about their chances inside the conference.
UCLA looks OK, but I still have doubts they will really challenge some other team for the conference.
Jacks interesting games Score: 8-7

With this in mind the season seems to become some sort of game against the odds, but the reality is, it's a natural process, which did happen a lot of times in the past years.
Teams are expected to be good or bad and they do play different.
Teams are expected to win certain games and then they lose.

I like this, even my picks get screwed by that.
In total the season would be less interesting, if everything happens as expected.

Which brings me to the next weekends games.

The BLOCK OF GRANITE GAMES FOR WEEK 5

Sat. Oct 2
#8 Arkansas @ #2 Georgia
I think everyone asked in August regarding this game would have said, 'Georgia win, by double digit margin'.
Means no chance for Arkansas.
But now they did win games, against bigger names.
And now they are ranked at #8.
Without checking Vegas my guess is, they are still the underdog in this game, but my feeling is, not double digit.
The Razorbacks do look way ahead of the rebuilding curve, and as successful as under Bobby Petrino roughly a decade ago.
They face a Georgia team, which is right now favored to challenge seriously Alabama and which fans to hope to bring in a National Championship, the 1st since 1980.
Funny thing is, right now, this game here is the hardest they have left on the schedule, before an eventual SEC Championship game.
No one would have thought that, before the season.
But Florida is right now ranked lower.
Now I check Vegas.
Hmmm. I was wrong, the line is Georgia -18.5. That's a lot.
IF Arkansas wins this, they are king, at least for a week.
Georgia did play good so far, but Arkansas defense was special.
This game will get big attention, ESPNs Gameday will feature it.
My take here is, this will get low scoring and Arkansas will lose, but not double digit, thanks to their defense and also because their offense will have trouble playing against Georgias defense.
UGA will have a good time, but I (hope) expect a nail biter.
Bulldogs win.

#7 Cincinnati @ #9 Notre Dame
This is a damn game and I did put it here so show you I'm not shy of the damn Irish.
I still believe they will lose at some point, but with this team from Cincinnati at home? Not sure.
Funny thing is, the Bearcats are favored by 2-5 points, playing this after a bye-week.
But last weeks win, even with the stupid help of Wisconsin, did show that Notre Dame can at least play.
And Cincinnati did look awful against Indiana, until the Hoosiers started to LET them come back.
So, some assumptions here.
The 1st is, the Irish will play at home with some intensity and support.
The 2nd is, the Irish will play better defense then Indiana.
The 3rd is, the Irish do NOT underestimate the Bearcats.
Under this conditions ...
Fighting Irish win.

#12 Ole Miss @ #1 Alabama
An interesting matchup, unfortune in Tuscaloosa.
Because this give Alabama some more advantage.
Vegas gives them 14.5 points.
That's a lot against a good, if not great, playing offense under HC Lane Kiffins watch.
The Ole Miss QB Matt Corral is right now one of the favorites to win the Heisman and is likely one of the, if not THE, 1st draft picks next season.
So, the Crimson Tide has to play good defense, or better offense.
I'm torn between the wish to seen an upset here and the logic of the Alabama home field advantage and the machine-like professional execution of the Saban teams in the past seasons.
The bad news for Rebels fans is, that this game is their 1st REAL test.
Alabama had their Florida game already, but Ole Miss competition start here.
I expect some sloppy plays at the start and then hopefully Ole Miss gets the things ironed out.
Will this be early enough? Don't know.
My gut feeling is, no.
Crimson Tide win.

Other interesting games:
#21 Baylor @ #19 Oklahoma State
Baylor is back and they look right now as a serious threat for every BIG 12 team. Especially for Oklahoma State, which did win all games, but were very close of losing.
Overall OSU is favored by 3.5 points, I pick Baylor, since I expect Oklahoma State to get out of luck soon.
Bears win.

#22 Auburn @ LSU
Interesting game, since Auburn seems to be on the rise and LSU seems to be in a limbo between suck and old glory.
LSU is favored by 3.5 points and since it is a home game, this will be at least difficult for Auburn.
My feeling is, that Auburn has the potential to beat LSU, but LSU has the potential to play well. Why they do not so often is a mystery. I pick Auburn to win in a shootout.
Tigers win.

#6 Oklahoma @ Kansas State
Oklahoma lost that matchup surprisingly last season at home and now face the Wildcats on the road, from my point of view weaker than last year.
Still, they are 10.5 points favorite against a KSU team, which did play good and bad from week to week.
Which team will show up?
I pick the underdog.
Wildcats win.

I have since 2 days quite miserable weather, but still enjoying some vacation time. :-P

'Til next time
Jack6 on BLOCK OF GRANITE

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