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Enough to make you salivate
Posted: Sunday October 21, 2001 8:56 PM
By Stewart Mandel, CNNSI.com
If you've ever read USA Today on a Friday in the fall, you know their writers like to preview NFL games using the same five-star rating system normally seen in reviews for Scrubs or Crossing Jordan.
With the glut of high-profile matchups on the college slate this weekend, the Glance would also like to serve as a viewing guide. But we prefer a more unconventional ratings method, one to which any self-respecting football fan can relate: food.
Oklahoma-Nebraska: This is your Morton's-prime-rib-bathed-in-bernaise sauce-with-Cabernet game. Rivalry game, No. 2 vs. No. 3 and the Huskers seeking revenge at home. Quite simply, life doesn't get any better.
Florida-Georgia: This is your Carnegie-Deli-corned beef-on-rye game. The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is always a blast, but the game hasn't been decided by single digits in eight years. Like the sandwich, good, but can't possibly live up to the hype.
UCLA-Stanford: This is your Outback Steakhouse Bloomin' Onion game: A guilty pleasure. You know Stanford can't pull it off twice in a row, yet you can't resist indulging. Like the incredibly greasy appetizer, it's bad, but oh so good.
Maryland-Florida State: This is your Taco Bell Chicken Quesadillas game. Like those ads you've been seeing non-stop, you've heard about these 7-0 Terps but haven't gotten a chance to give them a try. This week is your -- and Maryland's -- opportunity.
And finally ...
Vanderbilt-Duke: As you could probably guess, this is your Three-day-old-leftover, forgot-to-seal-the-styrofoam-Long John Silver's-battered-shrimp game. One team has lost 19 in a row. The other is ... well, Vanderbilt. That's right: the worst thing humanly imaginable.
Enjoy the games.
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Someone's gonna get jobbed; news at 11
It's that time of year again: the release of the much-anticipated-though-indicative-of-nothing first BCS standings. This year's will be even more ridiculous considering all the big, BCS-altering games that have been pushed to the end of the season. But that won't stop fans of UCLA, Miami or anyone else not immediately No. 1 or 2 from breaking into a panic when they see realize their team has a mere six weeks to catch up.
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Poor, poor Paterno ... not!
Doesn't it just figure that, after nearly two months of ragging in this space, JoePa erupts for win No. 323 in classic silence-your-critics fashion? No one expects the Nittany Lions to now roll to the Sun Bowl, but No. 324 -- and 325 and maybe 326 -- surely will come before the end of the season.
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Smallville emptying out
Fresno State is now dismissed. Toledo has returned to the world of anonymity. The last remaining hope for Cinderella to crash the BCS rests with 7-0 BYU. (Maryland is still a nice story but from a BCS conference.) But unlike Fresno and its two quality wins, the Cougars' schedule makes them a long shot. Their opponents to date are a combined 12-33 and the remaining ones 17-22, with their one major-conference foe, Mississippi State, having turned into a 1-5 flop.
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HOT: North Carolina
Five straight wins have the Heels smack dab in the ACC title hunt. But don't worry fans, they'll be sure to resolve everything in time for hoops season.
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NOT: Kansas State
Missing: Division I-A football powerhouse. Description: Grumpy-looking coach and lots of purple. Last seen: Norman, Okla., Sept. 29. Reports of sightings past three weeks believed to be false due to losing scores.
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HOT: Illinois
Forgotten after blowout loss to Michigan, the resurgent Illini are now 6-1, including Saturday's dramatic 42-35 shootout victory over Wisconsin.
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NOT: Northwestern
There are bad defenses, and then there are those that give up 501 yards and 38 points to a team that came in averaging 229 and eight. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2000 St. Louis Rams.
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HOT: Luke Manget
Georgia Tech's All-ACC kicker rebounds from four missed field-goal attempts (two blocked) to hit a 50-yarder sealing the Jackets' win against N.C. State.
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NOT: Damon Duval
Auburn kicker's amazing run comes to an end, missing a 37-yarder against Louisiana Tech that would have been his fourth consecutive game winner.
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Syracuse at Virginia Tech, Saturday
At last, the Hokies face someone tougher than Western Michigan, someone that's beaten six teams in a row, including 6-1 Auburn. Too bad the Orange offense is not exactly their strength while the Hokies' defense is ... oh, it's good.
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Ohio State at Penn State, Saturday
This week's Penn State opponent is the polar opposite of Northwestern: subpar offense but stingy defense. Sorry Joe, no 501-yard day this week. But 324 will come soon enough. |
Oklahoma at Nebraska, Saturday
Later in the week, so-called pundits nationwide, including this one, will offer predicted scores. They are ... how you say ... full of it? Not even Miss Cleo could tell you what's going to happen when these two equally impressive juggernauts collide in Lincoln.
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Hold your breath, it's a complete shake-up in the lineup this week, because we feel like it.
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| Rose: Nebraska vs. Miami |
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. UCLA |
| Sugar: Michigan vs. Virginia Tech |
Orange: Florida vs. Maryland |
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Each week during the season, this space will be devoted to your comments on a particular issue. Last week's topic: If the season ended today, who'd get your Heisman vote? Here now, your responses (sorry, we weeded out the Joey Harringtons, Woody Dantzlers and David Carrs):
DeShaun Foster. Take him away from U-C-L-A and they would be U-G-L-Y, or at best middle-of-the-PAC.
Jason Miller, Tri-Cities, Tenn.
In a season when no one individual stands out, Eric Crouch deserves the Heisman for all the career records he's breaking and rewriting every time he steps on the field.
Matthew Lamb, Mannheim, Germany
It would have to be Ken Dorsey, he led Miami into a hostile environment at FSU and left undefeated and heading towards the Rose Bowl.
Casey Mumaw, Winchester, Va.
So far in the season, I can't imagine any player meaning more to a team than Damon Duval with Auburn. Has there ever been a kicker as a Heisman winner? [There has not.] Maybe there should be.
Francisco Cestero, New Orleans
This week's topic: Excluding a playoff, what change would you most want to see to the BCS?
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Stewart Mandel covers college football for CNNSI.com. "Week at a Glance" appears each Monday during the season.
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