Shutdown Fullcast - BLOOD WEEK HISTORY: The SEC's Bowlpocalypse

Episode Date: June 4, 2019

The Blood Week History Series turns its gory eye to Bowl Season, (No, bowl season is not a week, but all measures of time are human constructs anyways.) Though many candidates were worthy of consideration for the bloodiest bowl season, only one included: - A beloved postseason donnybrook - Former SWC powerhouses squaring off  - Persistent Boise State doubt, somehow - Well-regarded Mississippi teams (plural!) - Disrespected Ohio State BLOOD WEEK HISTORY! THE ONLY COURSE CREDIT IS DOOM! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the shutdown fullcast. Oh, welcome to the Internet's only college football podcast. How are we feeling this week? We're about to do some historicalizing. We're about to do some review of one of the most outstanding flash of the pan-brie periods in this sports illustrious, quirky history. But, you know, before that, how are y'all feeling? Tell me, what's on your heart?

Business. That's what's on my heart. Wow. Never sleep. Podcast business lightning round. Podcast business. Podcast business. Podcast business. June 21st, Ann Arbor.

The downtown public library. 7 p.m. $0 to get in. Capacity is limited. So if you can't get in, we're sorry. Shut down full cast live with special guests, Mgo blog. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, except not that day. I believe it's a Saturday. Is it a Friday?

Friday. Which is like a Saturday. Definitely June 21st, though. That's the important part. They said the Big Ten doesn't do Friday, but guess what now they do? Friday night lights at the library. Friday night books, that's what we're calling it. Lights.

So you can read. Friday night reading lights. And Arbor's lit with reading lights. They're also good for seasonally effective depression. you all think we're joking we've never told a joke on this podcast and neither is the part where we are shutting down the public library in Ann Arbor on a Friday night in June I actually don't think we're shutting it down which is funnier to me I think no no it's it's our the library closes at nine and our show is from seven to nine okay yeah I just I mean shutting down as in a bar not like we're baring all entry to the library yeah bro we're buying out the bar of all its books I like the idea of that there will be like grad students coming to do work there and we'll be doing our stupid podcast. I think we're on right after yoga, actually.

There's a, if memory serves, there's a sushi demonstration going on, maybe contemporaneously or shortly before. Well, if you're at the sushi thing, bring it on over. Yeah. So, thus concludes podcast business lightning around. Step into the library, shut the club town.

Lightning over, business over. The skies are clear. But what about it? the thunder oh we're but jason kirk is about the big bloody thunder yeah jason kirk's about to bring that thunder is anybody prepared did anybody bring the thunder so uh as you if if you dear listener have looked at the title of this episode you have surmise that we are doing another blood week episode blood week semada de sangre say that for when uh elassico goes wild right okay sorry as if one of those teams would ever be ranked by the way thanks for

for just coming in here like somebody in a Sergio Leone Western before the gunfight, right? No! He is, his blood type is spaghetti. It's good in French, too. Cement du song. My body type is spaghetti chesterne. I said blood type. So, uh, the concept to briefly, to briefly recap is when all the, a bunch of top 10 teams are losing all at once.

And there's a bunch of upsets all at once and everything's going to hell. And all of you celebrate it by adding us. and yelling blood week. Yeah, keep it coming. Keep it coming. If you think you are experiencing a blood week, you are probably not, because there's probably a worse one still to come.

That's how college football works. This week we are doing bowl season. Bowl season is, in fact, just to be overly precise, not a week, except in the eyes of the Lord, to whom a day is as a thousand years, which is also the amount of time

since Minnesota has won a national title. So we're going to be looking at this room a few different ways. The other thing about bowl season is that teams are, as Ryan has pointed out, more evenly naturally matched up in a bowl season than they are in the average college football weekend, meaning like Syracuse doesn't have the chance to upset Clemson because they are not playing Clemson because Clemson is in the playoff. Syracuse will never be in the playoff.

Yeah, you're not going to get, you will get ranked, unranked teams, but it'll be like number 21 playing in unranked. You're not going to get, like, number four versus unranked team. Yeah, you got to go way back in the record books for weird shit like that. And top five teams have lost to unranked teams in bowls before, but that ain't going to happen anymore. The Power 5 is sufficiently insulated itself from... Well, what about a couple years ago when highly ranked Auburn lost to unranked UCF in a bowl game? Yeah.

Yeah, I definitely recall there being no... number by UCF's name. That's the level of... They definitely just made the Peach Bowl just because the Peach Bowl personally invited them. Yep. They didn't have to be there based on lawsuit avoiding regulations that the CFP imposed on itself just naturally showed up.

So I think because of that and because at least for the last 20-something years, the title game takes such... It stands so tall over the rest of bowl season that I think we got to limit this two years in which the number one team lost. And that has happened in either a bowl game or a title game, 26 times on my count. That doesn't include playoff semifinals, so it's probably a little bit more. And that's actually more than I expected. I mean, if you think about it, there's only been formally organized title games since the mid-90s.

So that's kind of a lot, I thought. But we can narrow it down a lot further. let's go with I looked for title games in which the underdog won making Vegas wrong by 28 or more points this has happened six times ever and well by title game I mean number one team lost this bowl game because obviously it wasn't a thing until recently so for each of those I looked through the rest of bowl season to find the one that best fit the concept of blood week so real quick here or the five seasons that did not rank as the bloodiest bowl season ever. We're going to start with 1977. Classic. Spencer, what was it like back then? When Spencer was nine years old.

You were born, weren't you? I just started smoking. Of course, Spencer was a Texas fan, which was doubly hard for him, because number one, Texas lost to Notre Dame by 28. There's a dark day for my long horns. world were you alive then yes i was i was alive then i was i was a little over a year old so smoking so so of course as a texas fan started smoking yeah make you strong per tennessee state law per

tennessee state law i was taught the lyrics to rocky top and a marlborough was inserted in my mouth it's just a passy i um i like that we recently or at least i recently realized that uh three of us are old millennials, and Spencer is technically a different generation. Yeah. This is fun all around. Yeah. I'm here to guide you. We're all crust. We're all coots. You're the day coot tree, Spencer.

Congrats. Spencer, you're here to like slap the avocado participation trophies out of our hands. I'm the old man in the road with the shopping card who's like, why plan for the future? I never did. Spencer's like, get off your damn phones and get a job. I didn't fight in Korea for this.

and by fighting Korea I didn't fight in Korea for much I was going to say a brawl in Benegans in Seoul on a layover it counts that's fighting in Korea man

listen Koreans love Benegans it's true go look it up so Oklahoma fan you really like that part about number one Texas losing by 28 right well you lost by 25 to Arkansas thus ensuring Notre Dame of the national title So number one and two lost by a combined 53 points.

We're off to a roaring start here. Also number four, Michigan. You lost the number 13, Washington, and number 17, A&M. You got your ass kicked by USC. 1977, not a lot of bowl games. I think that's the thing that sets apart the old seasons. This is like a third of the bowl games were massive upsets. So good job.

We're going to skip over the 80s, not because they weren't wild, but because it was just, a fucking crab bucket of a decade like every title game was you know a really good team squeak pest another really good team there were tons of i think six of the ten title games that year were veritable title games were upsets um just because it's a decade in which every team played hard ass schedules and no one really made it out all that unscathed we're going to go to nineteen ninety two the first ever official title game um this was when miami was favored over bam up a Bama won.

Vegas was wrong by 29 points. We also had number four, Texas A&M getting its ass kicked by Notre Dame by 25. Three other ranked teams losing upsets by 15 or more each, and two other ranked teams losing two unranked teams. Whoops. So the proto-BCS era started off with a big old mess. Perfect. Can anyone tell me what happened in 1996's title game?

No, I can. Can you? What's up? Do you recall? Do you mean the 95 season with the 96 that finished in 1990s? No, no, no, no, no. The 1996 season that finished in 97. Oh, oh, oh, oh.

That would be the University of Florida beating Florida State 52224 in the Sugar Bowl. Yeah, we're going for the opposite experience of the previous year. That's the first year of college football history. It is. It's amazing. Steve Spurger said let there be light. Let there be Coors light. That's right.

Hey, listen, when Danny Werfel scores a rushing touchdown on you, it's your fault. It's your fault. It's certainly not his. No, no, no, no. You, speaking of light, somebody left the door open, and he waltzed through it with a leisurely 5-940 time. And on the sixth day, Danny Werfel finally scored. This was based on just the numbers and not the overall historical context. This was the most shocking results in a number.

one team's bowl game ever based on Vegas, wrong by 39 points. Good God. You know, I think there are a couple other title games you could argue were more shocking once you consider who the programs were and all that, but this is right up there. The only thing about, the only reason this doesn't merit, hey, what's up, dog? That's a FSU, FSU, Twitter logged on. He better be union. Ward Judd was underutilized in that game.

Just want you to know. That's what I knew Bobby had to go. That early. Yeah, a whole decade ahead of time. He's washed up. Get his ass out of you. I need Chuck Amato in charge. Hey, guys.

It's like Brady Hoke with better shoes in a chain. Chuck Amato, also a dog, just wearing sunglasses. Blitz, that would explain some shit. Blitz, blitz, blitz. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. way, is this a good time to detour into the soundtrack for Secret Life of Pets 2? Oh, God. Because those commercials have been coming out as a lot during the NBA finals.

Yeah, that's been troubling. Jason, I want to hear about the rest of the 96 bowl season. So, I mean, here's the thing about 96. It was kind of just huge shit at the top, but everything else is pretty chalky. Number for Ohio State beat number two, Arizona State, ensuring, you know, a unanimous title for Florida. And then there were just only a couple of other. I, listen, I wish we had lived in a split Arizona State, Florida. If Arizona State had beat the shit out of Ohio State.

It's like the double Spider-Man pointing at the other one. Except both Spider-Men's dicks are out for some reason. Academic Titans. What do you mean for some reason? The two Spider-Men are having sex. One of the Spider-Men just bent over one of those crates. Bro, this is so great. It's so excited for here.

If she was like, wait, how did I get left out of this? And Ohio State, too. Damn, there's a lot of academics at the top of these rankings. A lot of sexy academics. This is like peak sun. That year is pretty much like peak big dumb sunbelt school, right? Like, it's like peak skin cancer rating for college football. Like, it's a big booty base year.

Yeah. It's a great way to put it. Oh, yeah, the Secret Life of Pets soundtrack. At least as portrayed on the commercials. Yeah, they're using, oh, I don't know, one of the two, three, four, five most problematic DMX songs, which is saying a goddamn lot. And a kid's movie about animals. There's a whole verse about, like, you know, murdering gay people in the song.

And they're just, just playing it like it's nothing. Which we all know that's what ferrets do. Are there ferrets in this moment? Jesus. I don't know. I still argue ferrets aren't pets. They're just animals that live in your house. I'm excited to get sued by the secret life of pets, too.

That's not a curveball I saw coming. But if that's what kills this podcast, like, kind of here for it. Bring it. We've all tried our best to kill this podcast ourselves, and clearly it ain't working. And it took the power of DMX, as we all foresaw. I mean, I've always said any lawsuit is good for business. Wait, wait, Jason, that means you'd be dying at the hands of an Earl. That's only fitting, yeah.

Earl had to die. Yeah, there can only be one. Let's see. So that year in 1996, Florida wins a shocking upset to win a national title. Let's skip ahead exactly one decade. Spencer or Ryan, do you know what happened to 2006? Yep. Second year of college football history.

Yeah. I see people who are sleeping on Florida again. I believe the line in the Florida Ohio State game. I want to say it was 17. Oh, it was nowhere near that big. No. Oh, okay. Oh, no, sorry.

What I'm thinking of is a friend I was going to law school with who texted me before the game said, Ohio State's going to win this game by 21. Ted Ginn scores on the opening kickoff and says, he texts me again and says, I probably underestimated it. And then I waited to text him until the end of the game. Smart. It was deeply satisfying. Slow hand.

I like it. Turns out my law school friend, not the same as a Vegas odds maker. I think the line was right around a touchdown. although that is the most common career for oh no wait you didn't go to florida for law school did you no sorry i had the i had the spread in my notes somewhere but oh yeah it would have been a touchdown florida wins by 27 plus the seven point spread so 34 it's right up there in shockingness yeah it was it was it was wild because a big 10 team was slow and thus and and thus big 10 teams are considered to be slow for i don't know i would say

at least another eight years. It's a really good choice of number, Spencer. Just a total coincidence, I'm sure. Yeah. So we also had that year, the big controversy entering the BCS was Michigan or Florida to face Ohio State. Michigan had just barely lost to Ohio State. So should they get another crack? This was like, what, the day after Beauchamp Bechler had died, something like that?

You know, heavy hearts. Give them another shot and all that. Florida got the shot because of its insane strength of schedule and Urban Myers in the stumping on that strength of schedule. and that ended up, you know, being the right call because Michigan lost to number 8 U.S.C. by 14. Also, we had probably the most beloved upset in college football history this year, Boise State beating Oklahoma. That spread, I think, in hindsight, people have inflated that spread, like Oklahoma was supposed to win by 48 points.

No, it was, again, it was like a touchdown, you know, if that much. But still, like, story-wise and ramifications-wise and all that. and the way they did it, it's still quite possibly the most special upset in the sports history. So 2006 is bringing it. He also had two other decent ranked upsets, teams in the teens. We're going to skip ahead. Here's a surprise for you. 2018 makes the cut.

We spent all season, not we as in this podcast because we will enjoy any stupid thing that happens in the sport, but a large portion of college football, media, and so forth spent the season winding about like everything is so chalky nothing it's nothing dumb is happening this is boring this is bad and i think a lot of people miss that bowl season went fucking nuts not only did clemson have the spread in the title game wrong by 33.5 points you had texas beating georgia as a 14 point underdog oh i'm sorry can we go back to that texas beat georgia texas beat georgia in fact and folks in case you missed it uh texas was supposed to lose to georgia by 14 points And in fact, before the game, Georgia fans had been making fun of, like, all the other teams that lost their ball games.

Or no, no, no, that's what it was. Georgia was making fun of the teams that lost playoff semifinals. And then they lost the Texas as a 14 point favorite. Pretty Georgia. But they weren't motivated. Motivations would make all the difference. They saw that big cow. And they said, I actually, I don't care.

That's the same reason why you didn't get into Duke, Georgia fan. Wow. oh no i'm sorry they didn't get into vanderbilt that's no that's because they their parents weren't willing to pay off the right people i didn't get into my first choice well augusta national is not a university says who yeah says who prove it prove it there's plenty of unpaid athletes there wow that's true that is true uh you also had again here we go again who beat michigan by 26 as an underdog Is this the fifth year of football history?

That is correct. Yep. Another successful year of Florida's short but meaningful football history. Don't ever, ever look at Florida favored by in terms of outcomes. Always look at underdog Florida. Yeah, yeah. Like based on this skewed history, Florida is just, boy, that's a team you don't want to play. Listen, man, Florida is somebody will go,

Florida's just a Nouveau-Rish college football power. And that's right, because guess what? when you don't expect anything bam big bank and then when we're favored bankruptcy you know what new money buys jet skis that's all the jet skis man you know who needs to wear a helmet on a jet ski no one you know it's a bad investment jet skis what are we going to buy with all this money that's right jet skis so the university of michigan lost to jet skis in the Peach Bowl and then you had Florida players

motor biking straight at Jim Harbaugh just small personal vehicles is the theme for the gators We're going to be favored by 20 in our next bowl game Guess what's happening Losing by 20 You're going to lose to Michigan Yeah we're going to lose to Michigan again

Because we do play Michigan In a bowl game every other year Yeah we've skipped like four losses to Michigan This was our first victory over Michigan In a bowl game Jason Yeah that's just And there's been many tries We'd never, no, this is, it's not like this hasn't happened before.

Shut up, jet skis. Florida lost to the Michigan that had a transitive loss to at least one. Appalachian State! Appalachian State! I forget if Appalachian State went undefeated that year, but I don't know. Florida might have had a transitive L to Wofford or something. Let's see. Yeah, we also had, in 2018, we also had six other ranked teams losing to lower ranked or unranked team.

This was mayhem. This was total fucking mayhem. And everyone just sat around bitching about, oh, it's Clemson and Bamma again, fucking babies. Which brings us to the year 2014, the bloodiest blood, weak bowl season in the history of bowl seasons full of, 2014. So to set the stage heading into bowl season,

remember the three big storylines of this season. One is, this is the first year of the college football playoff, how's this shit going to work? We've sat around for two years, debating like okay they've told a strength of schedule is important and everyone's got a shot and uh you know conference championships just matter and like we had all these everyone thought they had it figured out but we had no idea how it actually work until we actually saw the first rankings

and all that um this was also the year of the can we can we pause on the first rankings just for a second there before we like yeah yeah this i'm sort of like just just just to give everybody a taste give me the top six in the first ever college football play playoff ranking. So that drops. You're expecting, you know, if you're following the polls and whatever, you're like, surely they'll just have undefeated national champ FSU entrenched at number one. Just, you know, don't rock the boat. Don't do anything silly. But no, bam, it's Mississippi fucking state is the first ever number one in the history of college football playoff. Followed closely by Auburn, Ole Miss, and Alabama, all in the top six. That happens. The SEC by

chorus loses its mind for not bad reason paul fine bomb is now 18 feet tall um you know we need to go back to bcs we've made it 30 minutes into the playoff area we need to go back to bcs so i think right there you have sort of all the storylines of the season the cc west is this like massive monolith is it's maximum cc west and you also have aggrieved fSU fans like our art listen we're 2012 Notre Dame but we're undefeated okay so like these three things are going the entire season um we enter bowl season the first first weekend or two is all right like you had the we've talked about this about six or seven times on here but you know um Memphis and BYU got in a fight in something called the Miami Beach Bowl that no longer exists that's pretty cool I mean I guess that's a kind

of an upset because it's a surprise and also everyone there was upset uh you had the first ever Popeye's Bahamas bowl uh which is spectacular game on Christmas Eve at noon. No one's all that coming. With not one, not two, but three massive orange and white Popeyes flags flying over the stadium because that was sovereign territory. This land is your land.

This land is fried land. It's 18 minutes if you want spicy. So the big stuff really got going with, and this wasn't technically un-upset based on the pregame spread, but nobody saw the result coming. We're going to the Texas Bowl. Oh, boy. All right.

Texas Bowl features Arkansas in year two of the Brett Bilema sex experience and year one of the Charlie Strong tenure at Texas. Let's start with the hogs. So year one was rough. they did not beat any Power 5 team. That includes losing to Rutgers, but their schedule was pretty unpleasant. Year 2 did not start out great either.

They lost their first five SEC games, but then they beat LSU-7-0. So with two games left on the schedule, they needed to win one to get bowl eligible. I will spoil it and tell you that one of them was Missouri, and they lost. But they won the other game, which was, does anybody remember?

number? I do not. Old Miss. They beat Old Miss by the score of 30 to zero. Former CFP number three, Ole Miss. We're going to get back to Old Miss in a little bit here. Yes, yes, he will. But briefly on that, in that game, the game that gets Arkansas eligible for any bowl, this one that they wound up in, six turnovers by Old Miss, four of them by Dr. Bo, two picks and two fumbles. The first shutout. out in this rivalry series since 1998. Somebody's going to yell, it's not a rivalry, but guess what? If you lose 30 to zero,

sure, it sells a damn rivalry. So on the other side, they're facing a Texas team that also needed to close strong to get to a bull game at all. But fortunately, they go three and one in November. That's how they get here. So you're sort of got

two teams coming from similar directions. Former SWC powerhouses that are trying to regain the magic of years previous with, I think at the time, like, well-established, well-respected coaches who have had a rocky start. It hasn't been like magic straight out of the gate,

but in the last month or two, their teams have been playing much better and have gotten some wins that people thought they might not have. I think this Texas team beat a decently ranked West Virginia team. And now here they are in bowl season. and then the hogs just stomp the shit out of Texas. Texas, Spencer, I'm going to give you an over-under of 140. Do you think Texas had more yards or fewer yards?

No, I'm going to change that, 104, more or fewer yards than that. I'm going to say fewer. 59 yards of offense, two of which, two rushing yards, Three of 11 on third down. Holly, how many of the 60 minutes do you think Arkansas held the ball for? 39. 41. Jesus, what?

So at the end of the first half, Texas is down 17, a game that is kind of out of hand, but, you know, it's not that crazy to see a team eliminate that deficit in the second half. Here is what they did after halftime, three and out, three and out, three and out. Three-and-out, interception. Every one of those three-and-outs had ended with negative yardage on the drive. It's one of the worst ass-kickings Texas has suffered in a game where it should have been competitive. Both of these teams were, you know, capable of playing pretty well, capable of punching above their weight class at the time. And Texas just got fucking blown off the field.

And fortunately, Brett Bilema, you know, launched off of that victory and is still Arkansas coach this day. Even once John L. Smith's recruits matriculated out of the program. That's right. Covered stocked. Yeah, send corrections to at 38 Godfrey on Twitter. So, yeah, that's the Texas Bowl. It's just a vicious, vicious weapon. Two rushing yards.

Two rushing yards. Yeah. That's falling forward twice. Let's just like falling completely forward twice. Yeah. Well, you know, at least you think of these Charlie Strong Texas teams and think, boy, they can really pass the shit out of the ball.

So, yeah, they just leaned on their strength. So before we get to the New Year 6, which is where the real big fucking fireworks happen, here are a few other things. Number 14, UCLA beats number 11 Kansas State. not only was this a lower-ranked team winning this was also the game in which

Jim Mora got into a dust up with Bill Snyder at Donnie Bruck I don't know if anyone has ever done that in public before like Bill Snyder's got an edge to him that he worked out of the brand over the last 10 or 20 years

number 14 UCLA is a real weird thing and that's not even a Josh Rosen year that's a Brett Hunley year Jim Mora started real hot at UCLA he really did and now he's is he on TV he's probably on your radio right now turn it to literally any station and I bet Jimora

is a disc jockey on it it would be awesome if he's on Atlanta radio I do like that thought here's thugga you had oh more SEC West fun by the end you'll see that the only the only flag bearers for the SEC West were not the two teams you needed. Touchdown favorite, Auburn number 19, loses to Wisconsin. And number 22, LSU loses to an unranked Notre Dame.

So then we move into the New Year 6 and... Wait, wait, can we back up just for one second? Yeah. I feel like we glossed over the Miami Beach brawl too fast. Boy, did we. That's a case for every episode. Yeah. Because I would like to make a case here that in retrospect,

we should have seen this one coming because we love to highlight the culture clashes between schools like Memphis and Ole Miss and BYU and everyone. And we love also to champion the scruffier ends of these clashes. But the problem with these two programs is that they weren't dissimilar at all. Because he coaches a bunch of Mormons, Bronco Mendenhall has always gotten something of a national pass for fielding some of the nastiest nut-punching teams play-to-play that we have seen in this era.

And here they come rolling up on Memphis in a baseball stadium that ensured that one team's fans were seated behind another team's bench. And first of all, it's the inaugural Miami Beach Bowl. It goes into double overtime after Paxton Lynch throws a touchdown pass with less than a minute left. to end the game. But then I don't feel like we're marinating

enough in the feeling of both a BYU player sucker punching a Memphis player in the back of the head and a Memphis player using his own helmet as a melee weapon. Yeah, it was almost like that the thing about that brawl is that it's almost

like dying town and then Kai Nako comes over and absolutely blind sides a dude in the back of the head for Memphis. Sale! like the camera was right there too it wasn't like it wasn't one of those things where they have to use the telestrator to circle someone in the corner and then zoom in on it like here's this very fuzzy bad thing that happened nope framed up right in the middle of it beautiful i mean you want your bowl game i think to be reflective of your regional identity this is what i'm saying it was for both teams yeah yeah yeah if a brawl was gonna break out this is the south florida version and b yu doesn't get enough credit for that b yu's athlete director afterwards, like, apologize. We expect better of our athletes.

I'm like, you shouldn't. They're coached by Bronco Mendon Hall. Can't drink, can't have caffeine. You're going to be mean. You're going to be ornery all the time. I have never felt closer to, as a person who's wanted to fight Memphis football players on many of football afternoon, I've never felt closer to that little group of Mormons out there. sale

anyway move on no this is good that was my favorite moment of the postseason and I just wanted to wiggle around in it for a minute no it's good I shouldn't have breeze past this one I think it's also important to note that these two head coaches now play each other every year in the ACC estate rivals it's terrific and I don't feel like

I didn't watch a lot of Virginia football this year but I don't feel like it's really it's really marinated through yet like I don't feel like he quite has his bunch of taint punchers you know when they talk about a coach really needs to get his players in bronco mendenhall's case that means i really need players who will shove their entire fist directly at the nearest gooch in the pile that's that's an important drill in i think south carolina might disagree they might they might say nope yep virginia does that yep

so he's basically this is basically the plot of roadhouse yeah yeah i've just saying that between listen between mendon hall's demonstrated ability to turn even the the Church of Latter-day Saints into a bunch of roadhouse extras and whatever the hell is going on with Quente, I have an interest in the Commonwealth Cup that I never thought I would have.

Yeah, the only other coach I know who does Gooch punching as a drill? Will Mustchamp. That's right. That's the name of the offense. That makes a lot more sense down there. Like, Will Must Champ for this has a very like Gooch forward energy. Body blows two of our playbook. This is our concussion protocol.

body the air here. See, a force applied this way will even it out and reset it. Does your head hurt? Whack! About now. By the way, just as an unrelated note,

a guy in England got hit in the gooch during a scooter accident and had a nine day long erection that they had to intervene with medically. How is this unrelated to the Miami Beach Bowl?

Somebody might have walked out of there and gone, Doc, I got a problem. Doesn't look like a problem to me, buddy. This is a terrific Alabama or England episode. How is this not the episode where we're doing a dick pills read?

How? Oh, I can make some up. Nope, please don't. Oh, come on. Jason, keep going. Some 2014 vintage. Let's start the New Year 6 with all right, so the playoff era, it was going to be different. Little guys are going to have a chance. Blah, blah, blah. We quickly learned that was a lie

because fucking Marshall didn't get ranked until. like week 13 or something. Okay, that Marshall season was trash, though. Yeah, I mean, they weren't that great, but, like, the computers thought they should have been. Like, y'all not usually on the other side of this argument, but that Marshall season was trashed. Right, I'm not saying Marshall should have been in the playoff.

I'm saying that Marshall team, the computers had them like, you know, 17th or so when they're unranked. Just put them at the edge of the conversation. There were a lot of trash teams ranked ahead of that Marshall team. Exactly. There's like fucking, something, like, fucking, there's always a goddamn 7 and 4 Northwestern team ranked like 23rd. the playoff committee fucking loves northwestern probably because they're also so impartial um but like

it set the tone just seeing this like pretty good not great marshal team being totally ignored as far as the little guys go um they ended up going 12 and 1 won their bowl all that that was fine but then we had in the designated reserve spot for the mid majors we had the long time standard bearer of that group we had boise state as an underdog and a fiesta bowl again how's that tend to go so at the end of this real dumb year in football we decided that maybe as a nation we decided that maybe boise state wouldn't show up for the fiesta bowl and we like to talk about how the discourse havers of this land will take just the tiniest livid of excuse to knock down the mid-majors who we were still allowed to call mid-majors

at this point right and anyway the chances for haters to remove of Boise from contention in the 2014 postseason were there. There were a couple of them. Boise was out of Chris Peterson's hands for the first time in ages this year and into Brian Harsons. They were playing Arizona in Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl. And they had also lost twice, which is not something we usually allow teams to do when they operate outside the Power 5.

The losses. We talked just a couple weeks ago about Boise County. coming into the Georgia Dome and beating up on Georgia and the Chick-fil-A kick off that one time. Well, this year, they had served as a bunch of orange horse-hatted Ole Miss Harbinger-amused bushes, right? They got their ass to hand into them in the Georgia Dome. And then a month later, the real Stinger came. They lost to an Air Force team that had themselves just lost to Wyoming, a bad Wyoming. I think that Wyoming team finished like four and eight in 2014.

and right, that's when you shelve your group of five's major postseason interest for the year. But at the end of November, they start creeping back into the polls. They ended up with the first New Year's sixth bid out of the G5, and here we go. And Arizona, meanwhile, had done this whiplash tango with Oregon, knocking off the best Ducks team we'd seen in a while back in October in Eugene, and then turning around and losing two of their next year, three games to both LA schools and then getting their doors blown back off by Oregon in what is honestly the worst game I've ever seen in person, the 2014 Pac-12 championship game, although that is

what I get for setting foot in the abandoned old Navy that is Levi Stadium. So there are mitigating factors on both sides is what I'm trying to get out here. But honestly, y'all, it's the Fiesta Bowl. And we forgot the faces of our Fiesta Bowl fathers and eight years removed. from the time that Boise upset a higher-ranked Oklahoma team in the Fiesta Bowl and five years removed from the time they upset a higher-ranked TCU team in the Fiesta Bowl.

Boise beats Arizona 3830 on New Year's Eve. It took all of four plays, if I recall correctly, for J. Ajai to break loose for a 56-yard touchdown run. Boise would build up a 21-0 lead in the first 10 minutes

of the game. An Arizona did clawback valiantly there was like a third quarter field goal off but they never got them. Never forget by the way, Rich Rodriguez goes 10 and 3 at Arizona and people say ah, it's got this thing figured out

which he did and that's why he still coached there today. I like that this episode has every coach would be fine that's the theme here. We also, this was Boise State who I mean I think it was sort of once we realized like oh okay there's nobody

undefeated. Ah, I just put in Boise State. That was sort of the vibe. But they also broke back out the Statue of Liberty against Arizona. They got self-referential in this thing, and I think it went for a touchdown again, if I recall. But either way, this was maximum Boise State. I'm sorry, I got distracted by

news of Bayer showing up in a retirement village in Florida. It happens. In the villages, probably? Yeah, how'd you know? Do I have a newslet set up for the villages still? Yes, I do. A, my grandmother lives there. And B, it's the weirdest place in Florida, which is saying something. Is your grandmother a bear?

I cannot confirm that she's not now that I think about it. Okay. It's fine if she is. So as for this, you know, again, this was the first year of the playoffs, still a big mystery. We're rolling in, you know, through the rest of the New Year's six, and we're going to see how those snub teams, those teams that had high hopes but didn't make it, how things turned out for them. And we're also going to learn a little bit more about the SEC West. bit about ourselves. Probably not.

And love. Also about love. The friends we made along the way. College football is actually a terrible place to learn about yourself. Don't do it. We're going to learn a lot more about the shutdown full cat, apparently, who is on one today. Go to therapy. If you want to learn about yourself, don't watch bowl games.

That's not the key. Except for the Cheez-Zit-Bull. You will learn a lot about your pain tolerance. You will stare into the dark abyss and realize that there is nothing waiting after you die. So Mississippi State. former number one as of like two and a half months prior the greatest team in all of college football for like two or three weeks they get georgia tech and uh georgia tech's little bullshit high school offense uh and uh they got trampled by that shit by the way bring the option back didn't they also get thrown on quite a bit yeah they uh tech rang them up a little bit it was it was just awkward all around everything everything that could happen to mississippi's date did happen right like oh no i've fallen down this hole yeah they did yeah although there's weasels down here yeah is this a can of gasoline and a lit match probably it's bees on fire

oh my god the weasels have my social security number it's beas bees on parade the weasels are made of bees i want you to know too jeff beasels i want you to know by the way like it wasn't like mississippi state didn't have their chances because they had 33 first downs in this game yeah efficiency yeah and they they still they still lost that's the most deck prescott's dad i've ever heard 33 first downs yeah that by the way like it was it when you say oh man they lit them up through the air yeah 125 yards passing on 12 they went past wacky 12 the 10th for Georgia Tech. That's a lot. So the SEC

West has been dented at this point. They've suffered. I think this is the third or fourth bowl loss so far. Old Miss fans have a thing to chuckle about very briefly. I emphasize briefly. Because Jesus Christ They go watching this game

was extraordinary because at no point did Old Miss have a chance. There are games you watch where you go Hey you know, if you plays here, if you plays there You know, I might add it up a little bit differently No, you just saw the way their shoulders slumped after the first couple of plays You're like, oh yeah, no, these guys are done I don't want to play football

Like These frogs are so fucking mad So we're speaking of course about the TCU Ole Miss Peach Bowl, TCU Blood everywhere Not thrilled to be left out of the college football playoff. TCU, a two-point favorite, by the way.

So not technically an upset, but. Final score of this game, 42 to 3. Emotionally. Can anyone tell me, close this without going over, include quarter and time left on clock. When did the three come for Old Miss? It was definitely the fourth. It was the fourth.

Yeah, it was a sad field goal. It was seven minutes left. It was so late that Old Miss fans sarcastically cheered it. It was rough. Dr. Bow's stat line in this game. 10 of 23, 109 yards, no touchdowns, obviously, three picks, one fumble. It's how he would have wanted to go out. The way in which, like, this, what really got me is that this led me down the rabbit

hole of 2014 Old Miss, which I don't know if it's the weirdest, most up and down season in college football history, but it's way up there, because this is the season where these things happen in order. They beat Alabama at home, ripped down the goalposts, arguably the biggest win in, like, recent school history, maybe ever school history. They beat, right after that, they beat number 14 A&M on the road. They win the turnover battle four to one against LSU, but they lose this game 10-7 because with nine seconds left on third and two, what happens? They get a delay of game while they're lining up for a field goal with getting rid of like, Gary Wonderlyx lining up for a 42-yard field goal.

He had made a 46-yarder against Bama. The next week, he would make a 47-yarder. But they get a delay a game, and they decide that they're going to run a play. Dr. Bo throws, like, a pretty bad pick, and the game is over. A pretty bad pick or a pretty bad pick for Dr. Bo? Um... I think both.

I think it's a little bit of both. It's one where, like, the safety comes over and makes it pretty easily. The receiver never gets up. Paul, Anna. It's not, yeah, it's not great. But still, there was a point not too late in the season where the path to Ole Miss winning the West was still in play. They lost Auburn, but as of November 22nd, Auburn had three losses. Old Miss only had two. Bam only had one loss, but they had the tiebreaker. LSU had four losses. A&M had four losses. So really, there was a not impossible scenario where Old Miss wins out, Auburn beats Bama in the Iron Bowl, Old Miss is your

SEC West, and probably SEC champion. Two losses, probably not getting in the playoff, but who knows? If that happens and a lot of other shit goes wrong, maybe. So that is when they played that Arkansas game, an Arkansas team that had one SEC win, and that's when they get this 30-0 ass kicking that in some ways probably should have told us the TCU game the TCU possibility was on the board because

like this is just it's just so bad it's really really so bad that the same team that was capable of like having a possible playoff spot and even after that was gone

a possible division division title just like totally gagged it away against fucking Arkansas Yeah also you should know this Bo didn't know what he was looking at If you want to go watch somebody completely lost Watch Bo Wallace against the TCU defense

He sacked five times in the first half It's not great No It's really not great Yeah It's just Oh the other thing we skipped over The Auburn loss

Is the Lequan Treadwell game where probably the most I don't know if it's the weirdest ending to a game but it's certainly the most fucking heartbreaking that I can remember. That was a loss for all of us. Yeah, so this team that has only lost until the Arkansas game in weird ways

of the four losses, two are like weird bad luck, maybe bad decision making in the case of one, and then just got woodshed. this this this uh peach bowl is oof it is not a close game but i'm glad that you kicked a feel cold in the seven minutes left in the fourth quarter got you so the fallout here of course is uh the big 12 had felt snub by this whole thing um Baylor and tCU had both thought we should we should have been there in there at number four um you know ohio state got ohio state got to jump up way far in the rankings at the very end because they're famous and

popular you know whereas tCU only lost by three to baylor and baler only lost at west virginia and like a game that turned into nothing but like pass interference calls a very strange so like baylor and tCU had decent cases they hadn't played a very tough schedule but there was no conference championship game at the time there was not a 13th game which you know this that being a factor sent the big 12 until like a like six year spasm you know of over compensation they've worked all that out now they're fine yeah yeah they didn't they didn't go and panic and add a 13th game we're gonna we're gonna have an eight team double a double elimination conference tournament my very favorite part about all this is of course

that Oklahoma has twice clinched the playoff before conference title weekend meaning they are now putting that on the line and in fact a couple years ago this actually cost tc u in new year six game meaning it costs a big 12 conference money life's funny um so entering selection sunday as in after you know everyone's played their 12th and or 13th game tc u in the massey composite which throws together every computer ranking every poll it had tCU up at number three before selection sunday before they ate old mrs head off uh so tcccc CU after they whip the shit out of Ole Miss, they are strutting around pointing at everybody. They got the money in the bank briefcase and they want to cash it in.

They probably, if you're going based on the eyeball test, the numbers, that type of shit and not just number of losses, they should have been in the playoff over Florida State. And guess what? Everybody knew it too. And then Oregon went out and proved that by kicking the shit out of Florida State in the Rose Bowl. however the playoff controversy didn't focus on Florida State because they had the reigning title they had zero losses they tried very hard to have several losses but they had zero losses the playoff controversy focused on Ohio State the other storyline heading into the playoff is of course the SEC is basically down to Alabama to defend its honor Alabama as a 9.5 point favorite against Ohio State surely Bama could see salvage the SEC West's greatest season ever. Sure. Spencer, did that happen?

No, Daddy, it didn't. We needed you to come through. The cousins blew all the money on jet skis. Shane! Okay, I'm not going to stand for this jet ski slander anymore for you people. You're from a landlocked stay. What are you talking about? Why do you think we need jet skis, dumb, dumb?

The rest of the SEC West built a house out of jet skis, and it got foreclosed on. think just jet ski is just ocean for uh tennessee at tv thank you old miss went to atlanta and they lost everything to a bunch of reptiles that's true turns out dr beau was practicing without a license this is hey at least he was practicing yeah mississippi state i don't know we sent them down to miami they ain't come back I'm worried I'm worried Clint Yeah but Arkansas

Fuck Arkansas They just got here They don't even go here They beat up a steak That ain't even a contest Also Texas A&M beat West Virginia I don't give a fuck about a big 12 game West Virginia is in the SEC 2

If you ask me So that's a loss So let me tell you the art of motivation No, no, keep doing the voice. The art of motivation is real important. We'll come up. No, to know. Bonnie Blue will come back because she's got complaints.

Dark. Very dark. The Cardale Jones of the world happened. That's what happened, all right? Because Ohio State 2014 is all about the art of motivation, i.e. lying. Their entire season is a glorious lie because... That doesn't sound. I like an Urban Meyer team.

Yeah, I know. It's wild. They finish by telling everybody that they didn't belong here. Because I'm going to spoil things for you. In case you don't know, they want everything. They're the champs. And they finished by saying, well, we weren't supposed to be here. Okay, sure.

You're consistently one of the best five or six programs in the country. Nobody believe you know. The roster is stocked to the gills, right, with four and five star talent. And yet, y'all aren't supposed to be. here. Okay, well, how do you get to that point and even manage to stand on that lie for even a second before it collapses beneath your weighty and gifted feet? Well, before you get to a Cardell Jones, you got to get to a J.T. Barrett and you've got to start with the Braxton Miller. Because preseason in August, Braxton Miller, starting quarterback for

the Ohio State Buckeyes, he's out with an injury for the year in practice. So after camp, they're down to their second string quarterback. Does it look like that? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it does look like that because after an initial win over Navy, J.T. Barrett loses. Okay, everybody loses. Yeah, sure. You know, if you're a freshman, you're going to have some growing pains. Are you going to lose at home? Yeah, yeah, yeah. To whom? Yeah, to Virginia Tech. They lost at Virginia Tech. A 3521 loss where everybody said, wow, man, Bud Foster figured things out with the 4-6. They're done. Everybody just do that now, and you're going to beat Ohio State. That didn't happen. the rest of their season's pretty dominant you know they have an OT win over

Penn State because Penn State's just not going to win that game it's not happening Joey Boza has one of the best game and game endings sacks you'll ever see in your life where he crumbles his man like so much cheap crepe paper it's beautiful then there's like a weird 31 24 road win over Minnesota but other than that pretty dominant all right there's a problem though in the Michigan game which Ohio State won you already knew that Ohio State won that game. What year is it? Michigan lost Ohio State.

You're not helping me. What year is it? 2000 and, okay, so what year is it? They end up beating Michigan, of course, but J.T. Barrett, who's performed pretty well down the stretch, yeah, he broke his ankle late in the game against Michigan. So they're down to their third string quarterback, okay? As the most talented roster in the Big Ten,

perhaps one in the country. Nobody, nobody expects them to be able to succeed with their third string quarterback. Let me remind you, though, their third string quarterback just isn't any dude. Nope, nope, believe it's red shirt, sophomore, Cardale Jones, 6'5, about 250 pounds. Carr is in his name. Carr. And Dale. His name is Cardale.

Cardale Jones. Known before this, by the way, for a 2012 tweet where he said, We ain't come to play school. Spot the lie. Which Cardell wasn't wrong, even though in 2017, Cardale would later reference that humorously as he graduated with a degree from the Ohio State University. All he's doing is saying the quiet part loud with frankly a poetic cadence. To be fair, you don't, to be fair, there are a lot of non-football players at Ohio State who didn't come to play school.

This is what I'm saying. I didn't go to Tennessee to play school. So are they supposed to be there? I mean, yeah. Are they supposed to win from this point going forward? Maybe more accurately, maybe not, right? That's the maybe not. They're talented enough. This team is built around Bosa for the most part and Ezekiel Elliott in the run game.

By the way, we won't forget about Ezekiel Elliott in that offensive line because they got some things to say. Three games. Oh, this was the haunted downhill shopping cart season. That is correct. The haunted downhill shopping cart that was Ezekiel Elliott. um three games to a national title first they got to go to the big ten championship against wisconsin i don't want to oversell Wisconsin okay not that that's a danger generally in college football right typically we go typically we go oh man Wisconsin won that game yeah damn

Wisconsin if if college football fandom are Christmas presents like Wisconsin is the one that you can always get on the 23rd socks do it all at CVS they're valuable and comfortable Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wisconsin was favored in this game, might I yet. Jesus. They were. They were mostly.

Because of, yeah, quarterbacks. Yeah, mostly because of the injury to Barrett. And in retrospect, not the least sane thing, right? Like, they were 10 and 2. They ended up beating three ranked teams, by the way, including the SEC West humbling a death march. They end up beating Auburn in the Outback Bowl in O.T. Yeah, that happened, all right? So this is a pretty good team.

and what do you do when you have a quarterback who is starting and who coming into this game only had 17 attempts all year, only had 19 lifetime in terms of passing attempts? What do you do with him? Well, brother, you let him loose. Cardinal only dropped bombs on Wisconsin. He only threw 17 passes, but he had 257 yards, including TDs of 39 yards. yards, 44 yards, and 42. And when I say these weren't like catching run.

No, no, man, Cardell was going deep. He threw absolute jacks downfield for sixes. Just a 59-0 blowout of a Wisconsin team that stunned everyone and had everybody thinking, I don't know, man. Cardell played a flawless game. No way he can do that twice. Especially when the next opponent,

oh, that's right. The one guarantor of our fortunes and estates. The Alabama Crimson Tide Everyone else Has completely screwed the pooch But you You're going to handle this canine menace These dogs sent from the north

Carpet bag and hounds That's right That's right Alabama Now how favored was Alabama in this game 42 of 43 people at ESPN Who were asked to pick this game Picked Alabama I'm going to quote someone unfairly

because I'm pretty sure I picked Alabama in this game too but I'm not quoting me am I no I'm gonna quote Pete Thammel at the time of sI.com expect a low scoring affair in which few in which special teams and field position become huge factors the pick Alabama 21 Ohio State 10 yeah by like the half it was 21 20 at the half

who is the one person who was right the one person who was right was Aaron Ward there a big 10 blogger that's who was right the big 10 blogger you can't even give him credit because he was being a homer damn it but you know

shout a half of shouts out to you I was hoping it was going to be poppy so yes I'm picking Ohio Statebook guys

uh Jones Jones in the game also by the way like Tom Herman Tom Herman was on one that would be current Texas coach

and offensive coordinator for the Ohio State Buckees at the time the one who let Cardale Jones loose downfield against Wisconsin against a season defense like Alabama full of killers full of that pro style pattern reading genius that we know Nick Sabin

for you'd probably want to limit him right you'd probably want to hold him because I don't know Zekele Elliott ran for 220 yards against Wisconsin probably going to load up on him right and you know just let Cardale do what he's going to do they let him pass 35 times against Alabama

243 yards nothing huge but the number of tackles that he managed to shed and the amount of trouble he managed to run himself into but then out of just gave him fits was absolutely beautiful just to tack that on the fact that he could move a little bit it opened up things for like the actual story in this game which was Ezekiel Elliott going off

like any Urban Meyer running back in most games only 20 attempts yeah that's cool he ran for 230 yards and two TDs including the most humiliating moment Like, I think there are moments when Alabama's been, like, got a couple of times, and the most humiliating moment is undoubtedly the most recent loss to Clemson, right? Boy, that's fun to say. The most recent Alabama lost to Clemson. Just comes off the tongue.

It's the last game they played. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's still. Alabama's a lot of losing streak, you say. Yeah. But prior to that, the most humiliating moment is Ezekiel Elliott ripping off an 83 yards. long T.D. Because that

doesn't happen to Alabama. They got bossed. They got pushed around. Can we get a through the heart of the south in like the wailing Southern widow voice? There he was. Like the shadow

of Satan himself. A tiny dervish armed with the dagger that would cut us in twain forever soiling the legacy of the SEC and in particular the SEC West and not those poor Georgia crackers

from the SEC East. No, their thin blood could not keep up with the high altitudes and pressures of our lineage. But even we failed in the eyes. Hold on my accompaniments dying. Through the heart, Daddy.

83 yards. I'm turning into dusty roads. So much better than any author I've ever a computer took Alabama's job. God is my witness, I'll never let Blake Sims throw again. Yeah, not the cleanest game in terms of turnovers from anybody, but yeah, they end up beating Alabama and advancing in a 4235 win over the tide, an improbable victory. They're not supposed to be here.

still now obviously can you say that your southern voice we're not supposed to be here and you weren't if you're Alabama because Ohio State beat the doors off you it was a closer game than that

we got no doors don't you it's a shanty them Yankees love stealing doors the humidity is just fluttering right through my kitchen well yeah Ohio State needs something to play beer pawn in off the verandah like a

pomeadow bugs. These vipers stole my Yenny! That was my great-grandmother's door. And Yenny. And Yenna. So, that takes us to the first college football

playoff final, played in the Jerodome. I will say I was at this game, and the thing I remember most was, one, Marcus Mariotta getting the short end of the stick, did on a couple of key occasions. We learned there's jail inside the stadium where you can see the field.

Yep. From jail. So you can watch the game from jail. It's a better view than we have in the fucking press box. Texas, baby. At least you can hear it, right? Mark Helferich, leaving jail. I bet the barbecue's good there too.

And they're like, hey, you're in jail, but buddy, this is Texas. Texas justice. Yeah, we'll give you burnt ends. Best serve warm and fake beans. What do you want for your last meal? You kill people who get kids? killed, kicked out of Jerry Whirl? No, you only get one meal. Yes, Mrs. Jones demands it.

That would be, that would be a matchup with the Oregon Ducks who, Oregon, man, Ori was so close to just magnificence because they pull off a hilarious beating of Florida State and then turn around. Gosh, that was fun. Oh, dear, most fun I had that year. Are we glossing right over the, whoop, woo, bo, bo, yeah, watching James Winston run, I think, three miles backwards. it was beautiful

yeah and then throwing the ball over his shoulder my personal favorite rose parade I want to put one of those like half marathon stickers on the back of your car with a little number only it's like James's negative yardage just the diagram of it there's an eligible receiver back there in the tunnel you'll hit him

people will understand so this is not a beautiful and memorable game it really isn't there are a lot of things to say about this game that it was pretty was not because Ohio State fumbles four

times. But being real tired and leaning on everything, do they let Cardale just sort of wing it out? No, I mean, he has a pretty good game. Ezekiel Elliott, the actual story of the 2014-Buckeyes along with Bosa. Yeah, 246 yards. Four T-Ds.

A whopping 36 carries, which is why I'm convinced that, like, Herman left Ohio State. Urban was like, we don't do that. You used a really effective player a lot. We just, we can't have that. It's against my principles, which are very serious to me at all times because I am Urban Meyer. Yeah, and they clean up.

Marriota still has a pretty good game. I think he's got 333 through the air, you know, some change on the ground. But on the whole, yes, it ends up being a submission match, 4220. Oregon can't move the ball in this game. The real upset, though, in this game? Only 89 fires were reported in Columbus. afterwards. Only. Only 89. Yeah, that's, that's amazing. This is also, I believe, the game where you get the magical gift of puddles running out. Is that the name of the mascot? I'm sorry,

the duck. No, no, no, that is the name of the mascot. No, it's not the name of the master. No, I don't want the emails. I wrote the story that's the duck. It's Dave puddles. You always told me it's puddles. Please at 38 Godfrey on Twitter with your opinions about the name of Oregon's mascot. which is puddles. It's puddles. Now, I did not see this because I was not watching on television. I was there sitting in one of...

I met puddles at this game, actually. I forgot about this. The duck. And sitting in a... Puddles, yeah, that's his name. He told me because he speaks. Mm-hmm. So sitting in the spacious seats, I did not see this because it was on TV.

But after Lady Antebellum sang the anthem... I do declare. At last, a kindred spirit. Finally, all people have returned. To represent us in song, if not in presence. Listen to the last bleating warble of our civilization. Surely the students carrying our oppressive flag, which we do still honor. We'll not drop it.

Yeah, one student tripped while running off the field and was dragged hanging onto the flag by the rest. Metaphor. So the bar for title games here was you had to beat Vegas by 28 or more points. If you combine Ohio State's win over Wisconsin, which, knocked out the Big 12 over Alabama, which knocked at the SEC and over Oregon, which also knocked out the defending national champs, the average by which Ohio State beat Vegas was 36 points per game.