A few notes before turning to my weekly spouting of pure nonsense. I didn't get a chance to watch any games. The remnants of Hurricane Isabel made a beeline for the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and the National Guard decided I had better things to do with my time than watch college football games. To which I said, "um, yes sir." (The military generally doesn't ask politely. Unless my feeble mind fails me, the exact words from my commander came at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday and were, "pack your shlt and be at the armory at 0500 tomorrow"). Anywho, thanks to Al Gore, we now have the internet and I can still look up scores, stats and recaps. Cool. On with the show!!!!!!

1. Marshall 27, Kansas State 20 - Marshall had 212 yards rushing at 107 yards passing. What's wrong with this picture? Still, the score was closer than it should have been. Special teams remain the achilles heel for the Herd. If Marshall can ever put together a complete game without stupid mistakes, they could be scary good. Notwithstanding the above, this is probably the 2nd biggest win in Marshall history. (Xavier will always be #1). And for those who constantly carp that Marshall has never beaten "anybody", I reply with a resounding: F U C K Y O U (and the horse you rode in on). (Hmmm. That sentence ended with not just one, but two prepositions).

2. Toledump 35, Pitt 31 - One of these days teams will figure out that a lead against the Rockettes is a meaningless thing. Unfortunately for a whole lot of teams, including Marshall, NIU and now Pitt, they haven't learned that simple lesson. Did I mention lately that I hate Toledump? Regardless, great win for the Rockettes and the conference. Good job. (Damn, but that was painful to say).

3. NIU 19, Alabama 16 - Is NIU as good as the pre-season hype? It appears so. Absolutely great win for the Huskies. Nuff said.

4. Ohio State 24, BUGS 17 - Here's a hint for the BUGS coaching staff and players for that matter. A football game is 4 quarters. You must actually play for the first 3 as well as in the 4th. You might win a game occasionally by playing for only the last 5 minutes but not against a good opponent. Here's another hint. Ohio State is a good opponent. So is NIU. So is Toledump. BUGS won't win the West.

5. Syracuse 38, CFU 14 - I said before the season started that pre-season injuries, academic casualties and other issues keeping CFU players off the field would hurt this team badly. CFU fans laughed at me. While laughing at me is certainly called for on most occasions, I will give the Golden Kaniggits time to retract said laugh.

6. Penn State 32, Kent 10 - God, I can't wait for Kent to get a couple of losses in the East to bring the Golden Flush fans a dose of reality about where their team really is - mired in mediocrity.

7. Navy 39, EMU 7 - EMU now gets my vote for the worst team in college football proudly stealing that crown from Buffalo this week.

8. UConn 38, Buffalo 7 - If I were the Buffalo president, I would do whatever I could to hire the AD from UConn and find out exactly what they did to make the successful jump from I-AA to I-A. OTOH, Buffalo might not have that kind of money so the Herd will gladly give them Lance West. I strongly supported Buffalo's membership in the MAC. I argued that they would improve dramatically and, within 5 or 6 years, be competing at the top of the East. I was absolutely dead wrong on both counts.

9. Ball State 27, CMU 14 - A meaningless game from two teams who are meaningless in terms of the title.

10. Miami (OH) 41, Colorado State 21 - This is not a terribly good Colorado State team. They got beat by Colorado, they eked out a win over California and they beat the big time opponent Weber State so the Redskin win isn't nearly as impressive as Toledump's over Pitt or Marshall's over Kansas State. Hell, it's not even as impressive as Marshall's close call with Tennessee or BUGS giving the Buckeyes a game. Still, it looks like Ben Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz and company are hitting their stride.

11. Akron 65, Howard 7 - Has Akron finally discovered their offense or does Howard just suck that badly? Considering that Howard is now 0-3, my vote goes for #2. While Akron is good enough to upset someone and play the spoiler in the East they get Miami (OH) in Oxford and Marshall in Huntington. This sounds like they won't get it done but Miami (OH) takes on the Zippers the week after the hated Bearcats. Coming off that emotional game, the Redskins could be ripe for an upset. Should be an interesting game made even more interesting by the fact that it's being played the day before my birthday. Wonder if an early birthday present for me is enough motivation for the Zippies to beat the Redskins?

Tune in next week for more big trouble for moose and squirrel.

P.S. Despite the great wins for the MAC this weekend, the best news of the weekend was that Hurricane Isabel dumped a lot less rain on West Virginia than had been anticipated. Although there was some minor wind damage and local flooding, there were no major problems. North Carolina and Virginia got hit hard. If you want to help, please make a monetary donation to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army or another relief agency rather than sending things like clothing and blankets. As time passes, relief agencies and the affected citizenry face different needs. A donation of your money allows those agencies to meet those changing needs. A donation of your used t-shirts does not.

If we were laughing, it was probably one of those timid little laughs that you have when you're so scared that you're about to piss your pants. Well, we're not laughing anymore - we're just sloshing around with wet pants.

In all seriousness ROM, I've seen several UCF fans complaining about coaching, offense, defense, etc. Not once have I seen anyone talk about all the pre-season injuries and other difficulties keeping players off the field.

Kirk Herbstreet made a comment that I think was right on. The better mid-major programs have athletes that are just as good as the athletes in the major programs. This is due primarily to the fact that all schools are now limited to 85 scholarships. What the major programs have that the mid-majors don't is depth. Going from the "ones" to the "twos" and "threes" at major programs and the talent dropoff is barely noticable. However, there is frequently a big drop from the "ones" to the "twos" and "threes" at mid-major programs. Thus, 4 or 5 injuries won't terribly hurt a major program (look at Tennessee's pre-season injuries) but it can devastate a mid-major program (look at BUGS last year). Even if the folks you lose are not your starters, it can still hurt the program in a big way because you've got nobody to spell the starters and they've now got to play even when they are banged up.

From the for what it's worth department, most fans don't have a good handle on how big an impact injuries can have on a team. You could have Joe Montana taking the snaps but if the offensive line can't give him any time, he's not going to get it done. Folks tend to think that it's only the "skill" positions where injuries make an impact and the truth is that getting several linemen hurt probably has more of an impact than getting your QB hurt.

Quote:BUGS won't win the West.

Let's play the games and see.

MAKO, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and figure that you're just being "tongue in cheek", but your complete unwillingness to give teams like BG and Miami credit for their play this week is "past ridiculous". Last week when we destroyed NU you say that they are a terrible team (and they may be but they won this week to go 2-2), and now CSU, considered a prime contender for the MWC title with a proven QB, is not very good, eh? Bunk. Miami has a very good team this year, and so does BG.

I freely give Marshall props for their first victory over a ranked BCS foe, and you won't see me calling it a "fluke" just because K-State couldn't push it across in the waning moment ( which, as I recall, is what Herd fans here said about BG's win over Purdue a couple weeks back....a "fluke"). No, hard-earned victories over ranked teams on the road deserve props and never less.

Get with the program. :D

exCincy, didn't you read that Marshall is now the greatest program in the country? Do you find it suprising of Marshall fans to not give you guys any props? Why should the greatest team in the land give props to Miami? I think you see what I'm talking about.

5. Syracuse 38, CFU 14 - I said before the season started that pre-season injuries, academic casualties and other issues keeping CFU players off the field would hurt this team badly. CFU fans laughed at me. While laughing at me is certainly called for on most occasions, I will give the Golden Kaniggits time to retract said laugh.

Yeah the preseason bug was a killer. I think if we had retained Jeanty, our D would be doing much better. Our O-line, three freshmen. It's hard to overcome that. PJ Smith backing up Alex would have been great. However, if he's a rapist then he's a scumbag and I would rather go 0-12 than resort to that. If he's innocent, then mad apologies to PJ. I don't know the guy the situation so we'll leave it there. May justice prevail. But all in all, if we could have brought back more O-line and Jeanty then things may have turned out much better for us. That being said. Can we really fire the gun at Kruz or was he just given a bum hand for this year with all the drop-offs?

The Knight Time Wrote:exCincy, didn't you read that Marshall is now the greatest program in the country? Do you find it suprising of Marshall fans to not give you guys any props? Why should the greatest team in the land give props to Miami? I think you see what I'm talking about.

I'm pretty sure ECK can fight his own fights. :snore:

Miami over CSU - CSU is a very physical team, so for the Hawks to dominate CSU in Ft. Collins - that's impressive, because Miami has not been known as a physical team. This and the total domination of Northwestern should show the rest of the MAC that Miami is very much for real this year. Correct the boneheaded mistakes at Iowa and they'd be undefeated and looking VERY dangerous.

exCincy Kid Wrote:MAKO, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and figure that you're just being "tongue in cheek", but your complete unwillingness to give teams like BG and Miami credit for their play this week is "past ridiculous". Last week when we destroyed NU you say that they are a terrible team (and they may be but they won this week to go 2-2), and now CSU, considered a prime contender for the MWC title with a proven QB, is not very good, eh? Bunk. Miami has a very good team this year, and so does BG.

I freely give Marshall props for their first victory over a ranked BCS foe, and you won't see me calling it a "fluke" just because K-State couldn't push it across in the waning moment ( which, as I recall, is what Herd fans here said about BG's win over Purdue a couple weeks back....a "fluke"). No, hard-earned victories over ranked teams on the road deserve props and never less.

Get with the program. :D

Dude it is just a false front. If we give you credit then we have to admit being worried about going to Oxford this year. Since we are not able to worry about playing any games we cannot believe that any other team can be good enough. You've been around us long enough to know the formula.

Personally I think you guys have had a great season. And after watching Iowa dismantle everybody, I see only a first game hiccup against an underrated juggernaut of Big Ten football. Iowa will be making waves all season.