NCAA Week 9 running thread: Dennis Franklin's Collarbone is fine, thank you

Hawaii traditionally struggles on the mainland. This year they're 1-3 in road games, including a 40-20 loss to a 1-5 UNLV team that turned around and lost 41-16 at home to Southern Utah, a .500 FCS school. Not that they can't beat Idaho convincingly, and they can put up the points, but that line is more dangerous than it seems.

 

Glad you responded with that info, MM. I was all set to throw down on some Hawaii. Still might.

 

Minnesota.

This is awesome.

They are the worst BCS program in the nation. 1-6. Now with three straight non-competitive blow-out losses.

And they agree to a 7-year pact with a new coach who can barely make it through the games?

Of course, and I'll say this again. Jerry Kill has one win this year. They've lost to New Mexico State and North Dakota State.

Yet, 140 miles to the north, the university system already has a dynamic head coach who has won TWO national titles at Division II Minn.-Duluth (a frozen outpost in a town with hardly any legit college football talent) and can't even get a sniff.

 

I love the Taylor Martinez quotes from earlier this week regarding MSU and Denard Robinson (from the Detroit Free Press):

"Martinez told reporters this week that high winds — and not the MSU defense — slowed down U-M quarterback Denard Robinson in the Spartans’ 28-14 win. He also said MSU is just 'another good defense that we face.' MSU ranks second nationally in total defense (222.9 yards allowed per game) and first in Big Ten rushing defense (88.9 per game)."

Winds? Denard can't pass in 90 degrees and sunny. Should be an interesting matchup nonetheless.

 

Unfortunately, we won't have the Worst of the Worst: Indiana and Minnesota don't play this year.

 

What was his excuse for the prison raping Nebraska took at the hands of a Wisconsin team that just lost to Michigan State?

 

The game this weekend that I wouldn't touch as a gambler is Florida-Georgia. Mark Richt is 2-8 against the Gators, which is hard to ignore, and this wouldn't be the first time a better Georgia team has entered the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (now being grossly rebranded as the Florida-Georgia Football Classic) with a better team on a hotter streak only to lose.

John Brantley reportedly will be back for the Gators, which is a good thing for sure as their quarterback play with the two freshman has been miserable. But the team as a whole has been miserable lately, and it's tough to believe a quarterback who has been heavily criticized in the past is the antidote.

Richt's job may be on the line here. South Carolina is also 4-1 in the SEC and probably will only lose once more in league play, at Arkansas. It seems likely that Richt is out if he can't produce a double-digit win season. After six in his first eight years, he's gone 14-12 the past two years. And he hasn't won an SEC title since 2005, the year the Bulldogs lost the Sugar Bowl to West Virginia.

But Will Muschamp is quickly losing the faith of Florida fans, and a win Saturday in Jacksonville would do a lot to restore the faith. I work with a few Gator fans, and several of my friends are also big supporters; most questioned the hiring of a young hotshot with no connections to the program or previous head coaching experience. The thought is, "He was Texas' hot shot, not ours. Why should we trust this guy?" It certainly doesn't help that he's a Georgia alumnus.

The Bulldogs have played measurably better of late, and the line is Georgia -3. But I wouldn't trust the Bulldogs against the Gators with my money in many circumstances. I'm curious if anyone thinks this is a Georgia lock; I have a hard time believing anyone thinks Florida is a lock.

 

Any Florida fans concerned about his being a Georgia alum should know that this fanboi looser doesn't want him back. Ever.

As for the rest, no, I wouldn't touch Georgia in this game with a 39 1/2-foot pole.

 

And the D-II guy doesn't even have the best resume of any college football coach in the state.

Not that he would ever leave the comforts of Collegeville, but you wonder sometimes how the U ever didn't just offer him the moon to come work there.

 

No comment. I don't know why players say things like this before big games. Moron.

 

Yet when they don't, we complain about a team being too closed off or sheltered or boring. Honestly, if I were a college coach, I would tell my players that saying something stupid to the media leads to running stairs.

 

Depending on the definition of "stupid" that would lead to a lot of coaches running a lot of stairs themselves.