AS I LIKE IT!
Oct 24, 2016
FOOTBALL DOWN SOUTH
Football Quote of the Week
“Football is not a contact sport; it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.
Duffy Daugherty, Michigan State.
THE BEST Alabama’s Crimson Tide swamped undefeated Texas A&M, in a convincing win on its way to another stellar season. Alabama’s offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage, and its defense was even better.
Auburn finally put it all together, soundly trouncing Arkansas at Jordan-Hare. To Gus Malzahn’s credit, he finally let the Tiger’s play to their strengths. Auburn’s players are as good as any team in the SEC, but Gus coached too hard at the start of the season. The Tigers are going to be hard to beat for the rest of the year.
THE GOOD LSU may have found a winning combination in Ed Orgeron and Leonard Fournette. Fournette set a school record of 284 yards running the football and virtually took Ole Miss out of the game. The Rebels are 3–4 for the year, with Auburn and Texas A&M left. Not exactly the year they were expecting.
To the delight of my friend John Griggs, the Dittany Lions are back. Joy returned to Happy Valley Saturday night, as Penn State took some of the hubris out of Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Big Ten title is up for grabs, as is a seat at the table, come playoff time.
While I’m congratulating friends, let me add that Ken Walslaben’s Orangemen went to Boston and beat home standing Boston College. 2016 may yet be salvaged for Syracuse. Skip Johnson’s Citadel Bulldogs remained undefeated, by edging Wofford 24–21, and nobody loves it more than Skip. Washington managed to survive Sam Lawrence’s newly found interest, to keep their record unblemished; we all doubt that the Huskies can carry Sam’s fandom to the playoffs.
THE BAD As much as it pains me, I’ll have to say that Miami’s Hurricanes fizzled out against Virginia Tech. They are a better team than their latest showing would indicate.
THE UGLY It won’t get much uglier that Missouri’s defense against Middle Tennessee. I don’t want to take anything away from the Blue Runners, but MIzzu stinks, and I wish they were on Mississippi State’s schedule.
NEXT WEEK There are several games that I’ll watch if I can find them on TV. Ole Miss will attempt to glue it all together in Oxford when the resurgent Auburn Tiger’s come calling. The Rebel’s need this one to salvage their season. Lose to Auburn and A&M, and their bowl eligibility might come down to the Egg Bowl.
Clemson will travel to Florida State to keep its playoff hopes alive, even though FSU is hard to beat in Tallahassee. I’ll be pulling for Northwestern, as they try to add to Ohio State’s string of losses, and further deflate Urban Meyer’s colossal ego. Miami will travel to South Bend to take on the Folding Irish, and Notre Dame has problems playing in Hurricanes. Georgia and Florida will indulge in the SEC’s largest outdoor cocktail party, and the Dog’s will be the potted plant that gets all of the leftover drinks.
Categories: As I Like It!
Tom Lawrence's Blog 
Thanks for the Orange shout out, Tom. I’m afraid that might be it for a while, though. This week is an off-week, followed by a visit to Death Valley to take on Clemson. My only hope is that Florida State and Clemson beat each other senseless this coming Saturday! Maybe we would only be a 10 point ‘dog to Clemson’s 2nd team, while their first-teamers are recouperating! Ken
The Egg Bowl may be condemned this year.
Tom, you didn’t mention my Wildcats third…yes, not a typo…third SEC win of the year. Mathematically, they are still in the running for SEC East title….a fellow can dream, right?
The East is pretty balanced and stranger things have happened
I missed your comment on the MSU-Kentucky game. And in a delayed response to some of your not so veiled references to recruiting practices at the Flagship University, I offer up to you and the NCAA proof positive that Ole Miss has NOT been buying players–the tapes of our 4 losses this season! If that doesn’t do it, then we need a new “purchasing manager!”
I made no mention of our loss because I don’t like to whine. I feel your recruiting pain, good help is hard to BUY these days.
THE CITADEL
Actually Dale Patterson, Greg Elliot and yours truly are graduates of The Citadel . I thought about walking on in football, however, I realized they out weighed me by about 40 lbs . I can’t even remember if we had a weight room at Murrah. Only thing I remember is that Brent Johnson and Alvin Brent showed up for practice looking like they had bulked up by 30 lbs. my junior year.
Cheers.
Jerry Whitehead
You might remember Eugene Johnson from Chicago. Skip played football.