Conference play opened up over the weekend and we are getting into the beef of the schedule. Sure, the potatoes of the non conference fed us well, but we wanted meat and now we are getting it. Speaking of getting it, some of our pickers got it hard both on the weekly pick set and the creeping up of bad picks from weeks gone. Some teams as well missed the chicken piece mark and had to eat the gravy sandwich. It somewhat gets complicated from here on out so grab your meat and hold on.
Okay so this will be a lil weird. Barspotting found me outside of Kansas City again Saturday for the second week in a row. This time, I was in Minnesota. Minneapolis to be exact. So prior obligations held me up north and by some crazy chance I was able to stumble into a sports bar up there to catch at least one football game. Among the lessons learned on this trip was that regional football coverage can sometimes cramp your football watching style. Well that and onion rings alone can be pretty tasty.
So I thought last week was chilly. Yeah it’s even colder up closer to the Great White North. Or what I like to call the Not Quite Great White North. I’m up here for other obligations and I’m excited not only for that but for being able to see what Big 10 country is like. Now, a couple of weeks ago we were up in Des Moines, but that was on the edge. I’m in Minnesota. I’m in the heart of Big 10 country. I’ve heard of and talked smack on the aura of the Big 10 and now it’s time I see what it’s like.
Okay so in case you’ve heard we are heading up north. Yup, it’s gonna be chilly but hopefully not as chilly as some of the picks we have this week. There’s only 25, our lowest of the year so far, and we’re feeling the pinch of lower confidence points. Pick well, every one. Dig down deep and go for more. You’ll need to be spot on for this set and probably the rest of the sets.
You know, I don’t know what it is with the travelling all of the sudden, but here we go again on our own. Going down that only road that, well, leads straight from Kansas City to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Otherwise I-35. I’ve been (unofficially) down I-35 to Austin, Texas and now I’m heading up north to check out Minnesota. Prior obligations find myself out there and I’m hoping to get some football down while I do it. A little birdie told me that Minnesota is hosting Northwestern for homecoming so I might check it out. Otherwise, it might be a great sports bar in town or more than likely Hooters at the Great Mall of America. God I hope it’s the homecoming game.
Irish eyes will be smiling when Notre Dame will play Navy in Ireland 2012. We’re not sure where they will play but more than likely there’s a good chance they’ll all go out together after the game and get drunk.
Communication issues have tormented Turner Gill and the Kansas Jayhawks. His solution? Yanking cell phones from players the day before the game and then giving it back in the locker room after the game. How will the players wake up in the morning or talk to their mothers? I guess that’s what computers are for. We wonder how many more losses it will take for Gill to yank computer privileges too.
The NCAA leaped to action regarding the issue of sports agents and collegiate players by writing a letter. A letter. They asked for cooperation. Nothing else. Just another reason the NCAA needs to upgrayedd or just disband. These guys are getting real irrelevant.
The Playoff PAC, the special interest group formed to blow away the BCS and instill a college football playoff, will file a complaint with the IRS regarding the tax status of the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowl. They used a load of lawyers and one accountant to pick apart the tax returns and public documents of the BCS bowls and found that some loans and director salaries were just too much. Whether the IRS will remove the tax status, we won’t know. But we do know that the Playoff PAC is digging into every crook and cranny to blow away the BCS.
It seems Landry Jones of Oklahoma will have a higher calling after he is done calling plays. Jones says he’s 98% sure that he wants to become a pastor after football. Just goes to show you all walks of life come to play football. We wonder how many Hail Marys he’s tossed compared how many he’s recited.
He’s just hanging with Tim Brewster. He’s not going for the head coaching job. That’s what Minnesota is saying after Mark Mangino was spotted on the sidelines of a game, supporting his buddy. Minnesota should’ve gotten right out in front of this. There is no way no one would not recognize Mark Mangino hanging out on the sidelines. The nose bleeder seats would’ve been able to see him.
Apparently along with the no cell phone rule for players, Turner Gill’s Kansas Jayhawks can’t be with the ladies after 10 pm. That’s a harsh rule. It’s on any night. Do mothers count? Like as in visit and talk to. Keep your mind out of the gutters, people.
Strange things are afoot for Missouri. First off, cornerback Munir Prince left the team due to the transient quadriplegia he suffered in the preseason. If he plays anymore it could get permanent. Next up, senior safety Jasper Simmons has been suspended indefinitely from the team. He had knee surgery after the Illinois game. Are they just trying to drop a scholarship or something? At any rate, some very unusual things are going down in Columbia.
So the first official weekend of fall lead to what we called football weather and it turned some things upside down. The Central Florida at Kansas State game was delayed for one hour and a half. Baylor also had to sit through a delay. Now on the field, the Texas loss to UCLA also turned some heads as lighting struck 3 times in a row for the Bruins. Yup, UCLA beat Texas the last 3 times they played each other. Now, there were the typical blow outs but we are about to head into Week 5 and it will get even messier. Let’s check out how the Pick It and Stick it played out first.
Even thought the weekend at hand had more than just college football at play, we managed to make it out to a hot spot of sports for Des Moines, Iowa. Granted it was in the downtown district and amazingly enough we got the same type of people out there that we see in downtown Kansas City. Yeah, lots of Ed Hardy shirts. But even though the efforts of the douche bag army tried to stamp out our fun, we managed to kick it pretty well up there in God’s Country. Recovery mode on.
So I woke up this morning to a cool and crisp chilly Iowa morning. Yeah it’s football weather. I love it when people say that. It usually means it’s getting colder and there’s potential for rain or snow. You never hear that with any other sport. I guess that is part of what makes football so manly. You look forward to playing in terrible weather. Let’s just hope the powers that be don’t screw that up.
Some teams are on their way up and some are falling down. Things usually tend to even out right before conference play starts. Most underrated teams start getting talk and the overrated teams get even more. When conference play hits, you have to throw out the numbers because of rivalry and tradition. That said, this week’s Pick It and Stick It takes a look at the teams from all points including the Big 12. Let’s hope that everyone’s picks doesn’t fall down as well.
So let’s take a look at those falling down. The big one from last week was Iowa. They went to Arizona and lost. Did you know that Iowa has not won a game west of the Central Time Zone since 1986? Crazy stuff. They should still be tough though. They get to take out their aggressions against Ball State.
Virginia Tech is another team that fell down. You don’t see them this week on picks. That’s because they lost their first game against Boise State and another against FCS opponent James Madison. Yeah, the Hokies lost to a President. So Frank Beamer is way down and he may actually he on his way out after this year. He’s had a long long run there in Blacksburg.
The weird falls are the ones for schools that win and still lose ground. Texas is a great example. They win all of their games but do not look that impressive. Because of that they fall to 7. Now, UCLA is coming to Austin and if they look real good they may climb back up. Chances are, though, that any jump back into BCS fray will come from an undefeated conference season. Yes, the Big 12 is tough. Don’t listen to anyone else.
So way back in 2007 we went on a road trip up to Iowa and now we are finally heading back. Des Moines, specifically. Much has happened up there and we’re itching to see what’s changed. We’re gonna do the same thing we did with Wichita and just pick a spot. Same stips’ apply. If you are lucky enough to be in the Des Moines area or want to follow us on up there, check out this page or our twitter feed (@kccgd) and we’ll let you know. Until then, we got some tasty roasted corn like games for the weekend that you need to check out.
The only other thing this week’s Crib Sheet needs is bacon. Grab some and check it out:
Notre Dame’s Dayne Crist played the rest of the first drive of the game against Michigan with blurred vision out of his right eye. It was just enough blurry vision to keep him out of the rest of the first half. It was a great game and we wonder what the score would be like if he was healthy for the whole game.
Much like Wrigley Field of baseball, the Big House will get permanent lights for night games. Will we ever see the docket of Big 10 games go well into the night? Since the Big 10 Network is around you can bet on the conference trying to expand all of its games throughout the day and weekends.
Speaking of stadiums, the Richmond Spiders will actually get to play a home game in their own stadium for the first time in 82 years. It seems the city owned the place they were playing at and it wasn’t even on campus. This should help Richmod realize its full potential and become a powerhouse in football for years to come.
We see some players go from college football to major league baseball but it’s rare when the other way happens. Welp it happened with Nick Doscher. He’s playing at quarterback for Wagner College after a stint as catcher in the farm system for the Kansas City Royals. This guy must be able to manage the game because of his catcher status. If he was a pitcher we would guess he would throw all over the place in a passing attack.
Phil Fulmer put the full frontal audible attack on Lane Kiffin last week. He used to be Tennessee head coach before Kiffin came on. He’s wondering how Kiffin uses his mojo to get the cush coaching jobs. It’s a good thing he used his smack talk on his now current CBS analyst gig. Let the media war begin.
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff will now have two games starting in 2012. We already knew that Tennessee will take on N.C. State but now Auburn will take on Clemson, too. All this does is make me more hungry for Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
Here’s a lesson: When you talk with an ESPN reporter, more than likely you will be on record. Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian learned the hard way when he talked about Reggie Bush and not apologizing for the Heisman/eligibility problem. Serves Sarkisian right. He was an offensive coordinator during this debacle and he should get some negative rub it too.
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio was so thrilled about his overtime fake field goal for the win against Notre Dame last week that he had a heart attack. He’s okay, but we think he needs to lay off the coffee a bit. Notre Dame’s not looking to good this year anyway.
Houston, we have a problem. (I’ve been waiting so long to say that!) The Cougars quarterback Case Keenum and his backup Cotton Turner are out with season ending injuries. Keenum has a bum knee and Turner has a broken collarbone. Houston lost to UCLA in a blow out and they probably won’t recover from these damages.
Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith is out two weeks with a broken leg. A broken leg? That sounds like more than a two week thing. Is this guy some kind of cyborg or something?
Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins was so pumped about the Buffaloes games against Hawaii that he head butted a player and cut himself. They needed that emotion to come from behind and win but we’re not sure if it will save the Hawk’s Big 12 campaign.
The olny Ohio player to show some emotion and gusto against Ohio State was the mascot. He jumped Brutus Buckeye and now he’s banned from being a mascot again. It also turns out that he planned to do it all along. Now that’s some mascot grudge.
So another week came through and we have the same story as last week. Yup, the picks this week weren’t as good as the picks for the first week of Pick It and Stick It. What does that mean? It means that the 2nd lowest score drop takes effect next week. All the standings are same except for JOOSE, who upped his points to a more respectable 370. So the stage is set. Movement will happen soon. Check out the standings first:
