Weekend Musings for Week 5

I'm finally home from Lexington from watching Alabama vs. Kentucky this weekend.  Great trip, long drive, and no computer to update twitter or the blog though.  Will have some more posts up this week, but for now just a few random thoughts from the weekend.


1.  Referees:

I am the biggest referee apologist of all time.  I referee youth hockey and know how hard it is and hate to blame them for losses.  And of course, one play or one call does not determine the outcome of any game --- you had 59 other minutes in the game to get more points/make one more stop/whatever needed to be done.  But that call towards the end of the Georgia/LSU game was HORRIBLE and likely cost Georgia the win.  If you didn't see it, here is the scenario:

With 2:53 left in the game, Charles Scott of LSU scored to put the Tigers up 12-7.  LSU missed the 2-point conversion, so all Georgia had to do was score a touchdown to win.  And they did that just over a minute later with a FANTASTIC catch by superstar receiver A.J. Green.  Green was then inconceivably  flagged for a phantom excessive celebration call.  That pushed the ensuing kickoff back 15 yards.  On the kick, Georgia lined up with too few players on one side, and was forced back another five yards.  With a minute to go, LSU was already in position to kick a game winning field goal.  They didn't need it and scored a touchdown, but the fact that they were already in position was demoralizing for an already beat up defense.  Now, they also got an excessive celebration penalty that was absolute crap (though probably just a make up call for the botched Georgia call), but the effect from it was nothing compared.

The referee blew the call....plain and simple.  You are down a touchdown very late in the game and score what could be a winning touchdown!  Don't take it away from the kids.  I get it, they don't want anyone taking out a pen to sign the football (side note:  I cannot find that play on youtube anywhere), no cell phone out of the goalpost, nothing like that.  I get it, but that WAS NOT EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION!!!  What they want to get rid of is TAUNTING.  Not celebrating with your team and fans!

While we are on referees, did you see that horrible roughing the kicker call late in the Miami/Oklahoma game?????  What CRAP!  The guy rolled into the kicker having left his feet before the kick.  I get it, running into the kicker, five yard penalty, whatever.  But it was NOT a fifteen yard roughing penalty!

I know referees will miss calls.  I miss PLENTY calling hockey games.  But there are some beyond terrible calls that have been made this weekend, and something has to be done.  All we ask for is consistency.  If you are going to call it in the Georgia/LSU game, call it against Notre Dame late in their victory against Washington.  Hell, by comparison, their celebration should have been a 45 yard penalty!

2.  BCS Busters losing:

Normally, I hate non-BCS teams.  They just don't play schedules deserving of going to a national title game.  Last season Utah was as great story, but did not deserve to be in the national title game.  Maybe in a playoff system they could have won, but we will never know.  But Houston I thought might be different.  They have three "Big Six" conference teams on their schedule this year and had already beaten two of them.  And with the third Mississippi State, you have to assume they would have run through that part of the schedule.  But the Cougars slipped up this weekend losing to UTEP?  UTEP?!?!?!?!?!?!  Just goes to show you can NEVER truly understand how a football season is gonna shake out.  Get a trap game like that in between a couple of bigger games and anything can happen.  Only two BCS buster teams remain:  Boise State and TCU.  Boise should run the rest of the their schedule.  They nearly tripped up this weekend against UC Davis, but if they can win out impressively the rest of the way, they would possibly deserve a shot to go over anyone other than a major undefeated or a one loss SEC or Big-12 team.  TCU would have a strong case as well if they can manage to beat BYU and Utah after already beating Virginia and Clemson this season.  I still think Boise's resume will be slightly better, but it will be interesting if both teams win out.

3.  Top five teams

This season, there are really only three teams I see that are great teams:  Florida, Texas, and Alabama.  After that, I see major weaknesses with all the top teams.  LSU's offense is pretty anemic.  They nearly lost to Mississippi State and really should have.  Boise good story, but not a real top 5 team.  Virginia Tech got dominated by Bama even if the score didn't completely indicate it and nearly lost to Nebraska and probably should have.  Oklahoma is out with two losses now.  Don't sleep on USC either, they are looking good after their loss to Washington.  But if I had a ballot, I would see if they would let me skip positions 4-7 and just start back up with number 8.

4. Big East Busters

I realize the Big East gets an automatic bid into the BCS, but I never thought they deserved it given the teams within  their conference.  But this season, the top of the conference looks very tough.  #8 Cincinnati I'm afraid to say looks to be for real this season.  They did nearly get beat by Fresno State last weekend.  But other than that, they are playing some fantastic football and beating everyone they are supposed to by a lot.  And QB Tony Pike may well be the top Heisman candidate this season if you base it on play this year and not on previous seasons and preseason hype.  #23 South Florida may be as well.  Their schedule hasn't been the greatest this season, but they did beat FSU on the road and to be fair are killing their weaker opponents.  They lost QB Matt Grothe for the season, but B.J. Daniels seems to be stepping in just fine.


Thursday October 15th is likely to determine the Big East season when Cinci and USF play @ USF.  Cincinnati will only have West Virginia and Pitt as what I feel are good teams remaining on their schedule.  USF will still have those teams as well as a HUGE test against Miami Thanksgiving weekend.  If either team can survive and remain undefeated, It will be very hard to keep them out of the title game even over a one loss team from the SEC or Big-12.  Still a lot of football to be played.