College football week 8 thread - Austin Powers: The Horn Who Hooked Me

Check out the parking prices.

 

Back in the day Indiana-Nebraska didn't happen except in maybe a bowl. This meeting has happened seven times since the Cornholers ghosted the B12 and they are 6-1, but they haven't played since 2019 according to Vaughn Vince of @irrelevant.com (a/k/a Some Wanker).

 

Kennesaw State, somehow, covered the spread. Middle Tennessee was -10.
Looked at that game because of how bad Kennesaw is, then saw Middle Tennessee's record and scores and hell no'd it. Anyone who did bet on it probably has a brick in their screen right now.

 

I was convinced whoever set that line (closed at MTSU -9.5) had botched it. Kennesaw gave up 63 in its last game to a not particularly strong Jacksonville State. 63! And if it were not for a punt return touchdown, Middle would have been sweating out a two-point lead.

 

Final leg of Fall Football Trip II tonight, FIU at UTEP.

The Sun Bowl is a wonderful old-style stadium. UTEP has done some work to upgrade it, but it's still essentially an old bowl in a spectacular setting. Attendance was announced at 11k. Seemed a little inflated, cool, breezy night so some left early.

UTEP won 30-21 for its first win of the season and the first under its new coach. The fans and team were very excited, team ran over to celebrate in front of the band and players were doing the Lambeau Leap. Fans line the concourse as UTEP comes off the field up to its locker room and there was lots of whooping and hollering and celebrating; it has been almost a full year without a win.

I have no idea who UTEP coach Scott Walden is, or where he came from. But for an 0-6 team, UTEP's players were all-in, playing hard and the bench was involved all night. He hadn't lost the team and I suspect tonight's win won't be his last there.

In the last two years I've seen games as a neutral observer at EMU, CMU, BGSU, New Mexico, NMSU and UTEP, G5 teams with NO CHANCE of ever making the 12-team playoff. It's not P4. But their fans care deeply, there's just not as many of them. Their players care deeply, they're just not as good. That - and the fact prices are a helluva lot cheaper - seems to be the main difference between P4 and G5.

 

Minnesota plays its last regular season high school game on a Wednesday partially because there is a statewide two day teacher inservice Thursday and Friday and partially so they can fit the first two playoff rounds (everyone makes it, most of the good teams have byes) on Tuesday and Saturday next week. I call it “Salute to MACtion.” No one laughs.

 

I love this tour. Great idea. I'd recommend the alma mater but, well, just no.

 

Not doing Lubbock this year. Thought about going tomorrow, but 3 pm kicks there are kinda meh. Night time for a Tech game is pretty sweet, but the mid afternoon games are just meh. And they’re playing a bad Baylor team.
When we did Oregon @ Tech last year, that was a blast.

 

Many years ago I got a chance to walk around the Sun Bowl on a spring day when it was empty and really look at the place. The coolest part, to me, was realizing it was built in a natural valley. If you look close you can see where they anchored some of the supports into the side of the mountain.
It's almost like they eyeballed it, thought it was about the right size for a stadium, and plopped it down in there.

Scotty Walden came from Austin Peay, after he was part of Southern Miss' bizarre Year of Many Coaches in 2020.
USM started the year with Jay Hopson, who quit/was fired after one game. Walden, who was co-offensive coordinator, stepped in as the interim head coach for four games. In October he got the job at Austin Peay, which had delayed its season until spring, and left immediately to go there.
Tim Billings finished the season as HC, but they hired Will Hall with one or two games left. Hall didn't coach a game but was around the program setting things up for his regime, so Southern Miss basically had four head coaches in one season.

 

People will pay a king’s ransom for parking on or just off campus in Tuscaloosa and I have no clue why. The city transit authority runs gameday shuttles from its downtown hub with a free garage next door and plentiful street parking all around. And because they receive federal funding they are not allowed to charge more than what they do for Joe Public during the week. So for $2.00 round trip you can get dropped off maybe 1000 feet from the stadium.

 

Nothing beats sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for an hour and 15 minutes listening to a call-in show immediately after a loss. I had seven of those in a row --- beginning with the "hobnail boot" game --- before I decided "no mas."