For those hoping to see the baseball season finally come to a possibly-soggy end, I have bad news: Game 5 won’t be played until tomorrow. Philly’s quest for a championship has been delayed at least one more day by Mother Nature, who, if she were an actual mother, would probably have been booed, beaten, and gang-raped on the concourse of Citizens Bank Park last night. Hey, those fans love their Phillies!
But there will…hey, get back here! There will be some college football tonight. It’s MAC and Conference USA, sadly, but it’s football on a Tuesday! Buffalo at Ohio start first (7 PM, ESPNU) and then Houston takes on Marshall at 8 (ESPN2). I know, that’s maybe one step above watching electric football, but Houston’s 3-0 in their conference, and I hear Marshall’s coach is dating Kate Hudson. So that’s something.
And oh yeah, the NBA starts tonight. There’s a doubleheader on TNT if you stay up for it. Cleveland is at Boston at 8, and then the Lakers host Portland at 10:30. It’s a fair night for sports, considering it’s a Tuesday and I got Drew’s book about a month before any of you did. Oh, and I hear they are, in fact playing hockey this year…that’s nice.
BYU’s 16-game winning streak and their veritable train to a BCS bowl was derailed last night after they filled up a diaper against TCU. Brigham Young fell behind 17-0 after two big turnovers and were unable to recover.
“Nobody has been able to do that to BYU for a couple of years,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “No way I could have seen it coming.”
Even though TCU (7-1, 4-0) had been pointing to this game since January, when a BYU logo was placed on a blocking dummy in the team weight room. [...]
“It’s more disappointing than surprising,” BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “We knew they were a very good football team. But when you make mistakes like we made against a team like that, that simply is the result.”
BYU was shaping up to be one of the more fun stories in college football this season, but that’s all over now. We’ll point to the failures of the Provo-based football program when Ohio State winds up back in the BCS Title Game. I’m not any happier about it than you are.
Oh, Florida State is suddenly 5-1 now with their win against NC State last night. Hooray, geriatric mouthpiece head coaches!
[NBC Sports, home of Notre Dame football and that one fat coach]
If you’ve been anywhere near a TV in the last two months, you know that the Ernie Davis “biopic,” The Express, was released in theaters today. And you guys aren’t gonna believe this, but it turns out that some things that happened in the movie weren’t really true. Dick Easterly, who played quarterback for that Syracuse team, saw a preview of the film, and condemned its racist depiction of West Virginia fans. From Game On:
[T]he biggest issue stems from the characterization of a game that Syracuse’s undefeated team of 1959, supposedly played at West Virginia…Regardless of what year it was, Easterly says West Virginians are entitled to be deeply offended by The Express, because Syracuse never encountered racism there.
“I apologize to the people West Virginia because that did not happen,” Easterly said of the taunting and garbage-throwing scenes. “I don’t blame people in West Virginia for being disturbed. The scene is completely fictitious.”
Do they expect everyone to believe that people in West Virgina were racist? This is shaking my entire worldview. Next you’re gonna tell me that French people are pussies, Italians smell bad and that Asians are good at math. I’m really disturbed by such ugly generalizations about people. Especially from those dirty Hollywood Jews.
UConn lineman Rob Lunn started his own blog, and while it may come up short on photos of his own genitalia, it is a refreshingly candid look at a BCS-conference team from the inside. Titled Thoughts From A Fat White Guy, Lunn breaks down not only his own play, but that of his teammates, with a PG-level brand of humor. Some excerpts:
The offensive line play was good, led by fellow senior (center) Keith Gray…While he still might resemble a Koala, I think he does a great job.
Again Julius Williams is stealing sacks from me and again I admit that if only I had been a little faster (insert fat white joke here) I’d have had him clean, which is a little frustrating because Griffin from Baylor had the moves to make me look silly, but this kid had no business escaping my grip.
Cody Brown again added to the strong case he is making for the NFL. (Although, I will say that as his roommate on the road, NFL execs might wanna consult me if they need a witness to personal hygiene. Time to shower, Cody. Seriously.)
It’s pretty cool that Lunn apparently hasn’t faced any resistance to his chronicling of the Huskies’ season. Hopefully Lunn’s blog will pave the way for Thoughts From A Tailback That Bangs Sorority Girls Around The Clock, which would be a delicious addition to anyone’s Google Reader. Or my porn bookmarks. I’m not picky.
[found on USA Today Blogs]
And that team was South Carolina, who was ranked 24th heading into last night’s game. It was Vandy’s first such victory at home since 1992. While a short wave of BCS fever sweeps over the Nashville campus, it’s time to point and laugh at the second South Carolina team to soil itself on national television in five days. South Carolina is a program that Steve Spurrier still can’t seem to get into top gear. Well, I guess we can finally put the rumors to rest. There actually is at least one black guy playing for Vanderbilt.
Regardless of how you feel about Ohio State, there was little arguement that the biggest “Your Team Just Took One In The Ass” moment from college football last week was the injury to Buckeyes tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells. Wells was considered by many to be the frontrunner in this year’s Heisman Trophy race, and it looks like Coach Tressel won’t play him in tomorrow’s game against Ohio University. From Y! Sports:
“Beanie won’t go this week,” Tressel said Thursday afternoon. “I feel good about his progress, but it wasn’t enough progress to practice through yesterday.”
Asked if he worries that Wells may not be available when the Buckeyes play at No. 1 Southern California on Sept. 13, Tressel added: “No, not at all. Not at all. But that’s easy to say today.”
Ohio State has not allowed him to speak with reporters since he was injured, although he was quoted as saying by a team spokesman that he was relieved that X-rays had not shown any broken bones.
Everyone and their mother knew it was either muscle or ligament damage as soon as it happened, so the negative X-ray is just a tick on a dog’s ass, really. There’s no reason to play him this week; he’ll need to be healthy for Ohio State to compete against Southern Cal next week. Wells is a lot like a panda, except that he’s not Chinese and doesn’t eat bamboo. Nor does he enjoy any federal protection from being driven into extinction. But other than that, Beanie might as well be American for “panda.”
