Sloppy Saturday

"Tackling is optional, fumbling is mandatory." That should be the new slogan for the 2007 college football season. Just about every game on Saturday, whether it was top BCS schools or teams that could only beat Notre Dame, had an inordinate amount of mistackles, fumbles and horrible decisions. Here's my favorite stat from Saturday: During the Rice/Texas game, Rice punter Luke Juist had 9 punts for 334 yards, one of which netting an outstanding 1 total yard. When you're playing a top-ten school, you can't be punting 1 yard.

I'm not sure why Saturday's games were so sloppy, but it did make it fun to watch. Florida almost lost to Ole Miss, Wisconsin almost lost to Iowa (who lost to Iowa State last week), Michigan beat Penn State (which means we have to pay attention to the Big Ten, until Ohio State destroys them), Georgia beat Alabama, Miami embarrassed Texas A&M (showing the country how easy Oklahoma has it), and Nebraska almost lost to Ball State at home. But this is the game that blew everybody's mind: Syracuse 38, Louisville 35. At Louisville. This same Syracuse team lost 35-0 against Iowa, and were 0-3. The Cardinals have become the Bengals of college football, minus the police records.

Check this out: http://www.esquire.com/features/esquire-100/ESQ1006_threethingssports_1 . Here, you will find an article by Chuck Klosterman (who I actually like) written in February. It is titled Three Things You Need to Know About Sports This Fall, and here is what he wrote:

"1. Notre Dame Football. NBC broadcasts every home game the Fighting Irish play, and it seems like ABC finds a way to get two thirds of their road games on the air, too. This has been a mild annoyance for most of the previous decade, as Notre Dame has usually been slightly better (or slightly worse) than mediocre. But that dark era is over: Notre Dame has the best (and most entertaining) college football team in the country, and anything less than undefeated will be a failure. This means we will be able to watch the equivalent of a national-championship game every Saturday for three straight months."

My running stat for this season will be a Randy Moss vs. Notre Dame touchdown ticker. So far we're at Moss: 5, ND: 2.