October 8, 2011

The last two weeks have been too crowded for blogging. Sorry about that. On September 24, I was the spotter for the Colorado Buffaloes radio broadcast when they played Ohio State. (Thank you, Reid.) It was thrilling to be in the Horseshoe (Ohio Stadium) for the first time, and to see the OSU band form script Ohio live is even better than watching it on TV. Unfortunately, Colorado was not good enough to handle the Buckeyes in the game. Last weekend combined a visit from Lauren Lobenhofer to enable her to celebrate a wedding of a high school classmate of hers as well as ONU and Ada homecomings, so, again, no time for blogging. But, "I'm baaack!!"

High School Division: Ada does not seem to have as strong a team as they have had for the past few years. Last night, despite taking the ball away from the Crestview Knights six times, Ada barely escaped from lovely Convoy (home of Crestview High) with a 43-42 victory in double overtime. George Washington High (Denver) managed to defeat Montbello 13-6 to bring their the Patriots' record to 2-4.

Division III: Ohio Northern has dropped out of the top 25 after suffering consecutive defeats to Muskingum 27-7 and to #2 ranked Mt. Union 14-6 on ONU's homecoming. This Saturday, however, Tyler Rue threw four touchdown passes in leading ONU to a 38-20 victory at Capital. In a rare Friday night game, Randolph Macon outscored Catholic U 51-34 in D.C. #12 Wabash punished Washington U, St. Louis 24-3, for Wash U's 3d loss in a row.

Division I-AA (or FCS): #11 Delaware's defense stonewalled #9 William and Mary, giving the Blue Hens a 21-0 victory over the Tribe. Towson held off a determined Richmond team 31-28. Georgia State extended their losing streak to four games by succumbing to Murray State 48-24. Northern Colorado had only 72 yards of total offense, and Sacramento State did not attempt a pass in a 14-7 victory for Sacramento State. Northern Colorado has now lost six in a row.

Trophy and Rivalry Games: #5 Boise State annihilated Fresno State 57-7 to claim the Milk Can Trophy on Friday night. The biggest rivalry game of the weekend is the Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma, played at the Cotton Bowl at the Texas State Fair. #3 Oklahoma, led by veteran quarterback Landry Jones, took a 34-10 lead by half time against a resurgent but young #11 Texas team and won 55-17, claiming the Golden Hat, the Red River Shootout Trophy, and the Governor's' trophy. In the battle for the Leather Helmet, #8 Clemson routed Boston College 36-14 to claim the O'Rourke-McFadden Trophy.

Ranked vs. Ranked: #1 LSU wrestled #17 Florida into submission 41-11. Tyler Wilson completed 19 straight passes in leading #10 Arkansas to a 38-14 thrashing of #15 Auburn.

Our Teams, Boisterous. Indiana took an early lead over #19 Illinois, but the undefeated Illini roared back with long passes to stomp the Hoosiers 41-20. #22 Arizona State took advantage of 5 Utah turnovers to rout the Utes 35-14. #21 Virginia Tech drove 77 yards in the last 3 minutes to edge Miami at the end of a wild fourth quarter in Blacksburg. Denard Robinson threw 3 interceptions, but he also threw 2 touchdown passes and scored 2 rushing touchdowns in leading #12 Michigan over Northwestern 42-24. North Carolina overcame a slow start to defeat Louisville 14-7. #16 West Virginia barely led UConn at halftime, but dominated the second half to win 43-16.

Trail of Tears. #13 Georgia Tech edged Maryland 21-16. #2 Alabama overwhelmed Vandy 34-0. Andrew Luck had his best game of the season for #7 Stanford as the Cardinal trounced luckless Colorado 48-7. Ohio State dominated #14 Nebraska for 2 1/2 quarters, but when freshman Buckeye QB Braxton Miller left the game with a sprained ankle, the Huskers came back with a vengeance, defeating the Bucks 34-27 in Lincoln for Nebraska's first Big Ten win. Missouri had two long drives for touchdowns in the final quarter, but they could not overtake #20 Kansas State, so the Tigers lost 24-17.

Surprising: Wake Forest upended #23 Florida State 35-30. #6 Oklahoma State crushed Kansas 70-28.

Armed Forces Report: The academies suffered nothing but defeats this weekend. Notre Dame carpet-bombed Air Force 59-33 in South Bend. Zac Dysert threw four touchdown passses to lead Miami (Ohio) to a 35-28 victory over Army in Oxford. Southern Miss sank Navy 63-35.

Undefeated and Untried This Week. Virginia, after being vandalized 20-21 by Idaho last week, took the weekend off to recover. Also Peabody Conservatory and Emory.

Moment of Silence: Al Davis, who presided over the evil empire known as the Oakland (sometimes Los Angeles) Raiders since 1963, passed away today at age 82. May he rest in peace.