From the Washington Post, this excellent recap of yesterday which includes a number of great quotes demonstrating, once again, how talk is cheap and why we play the games:
As Nicholas Piotrowicz pointed out in the Toledo Blade, Toledo’s five offensive linemen had three total starts and played their first game together. Piotrowicz also reported that the Arkansas provost used to tease Toledo’s president by saying, “Where is Toledo, exactly?”
It sounds kind of like hubris, and there ought to be a hubris hiatus. For one thing, Bielema didn’t quite have it right. His schedule doesn’t include eight ranked teams in a row. Tucked in there on Oct. 31 is Tennessee-Martin, a matter he might take seriously in the event he might be transmitting some perilous hubris to his team.
More here
If the Southeastern Conference isn’t more careful, it will have to rummage through the attic and find some humility.
It hasn’t practiced much of that across the last decade as it has thundered over the footballing country — wreaking envy, resentment, obsession, fatigue, bad vibes and accusations of (oh, no!) media bias — with seven national titles and a rollicking hubris. Some have found this grating; others have found it justified.
After Saturday, even those who found it justified have to surmise it might have become farcical.
Nine months after Ohio State bounced Alabama from the College Football Playoff and caused an unthinkable, SEC-less final game, the hubris lived on to find another apex last week. Ten SEC teams appeared in the Associated Press top 25. Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema saw Ohio State’s schedule and opted to sneer. His comment, sure to live in infamy until it doesn’t anymore, went like this: “Ohio State’s ranked number one, and they have one game remaining on their schedule that has anybody ranked right now, Michigan State. And I looked at it, and we’re going to play eight straight opponents that are ranked.”
Those eight would begin on Sept. 26 against Texas A&M. They would include Auburn on Oct. 24. Bielema’s very own Hogs stood at No. 18.
Imagine the Twitter comeuppance of it all once Arkansas lost at home to very-unranked Toledo, 16-12, shortly before No. 23 Tennessee misplaced a 17-0 home lead and a 17-3 fourth-quarter lead against Oklahoma, and lost 31-24 in overtime; and hours after “No. 6” Auburn weathered Jacksonville State of the alleged boondocks of the FCS, 27-20 in overtime.
“It has to be the most embarrassing victory in Auburn football history,” wrote Kevin Scarbinsky of AL.com.
And this gem, discussing the Toledo win over Arkansas:It hasn’t practiced much of that across the last decade as it has thundered over the footballing country — wreaking envy, resentment, obsession, fatigue, bad vibes and accusations of (oh, no!) media bias — with seven national titles and a rollicking hubris. Some have found this grating; others have found it justified.
After Saturday, even those who found it justified have to surmise it might have become farcical.
Nine months after Ohio State bounced Alabama from the College Football Playoff and caused an unthinkable, SEC-less final game, the hubris lived on to find another apex last week. Ten SEC teams appeared in the Associated Press top 25. Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema saw Ohio State’s schedule and opted to sneer. His comment, sure to live in infamy until it doesn’t anymore, went like this: “Ohio State’s ranked number one, and they have one game remaining on their schedule that has anybody ranked right now, Michigan State. And I looked at it, and we’re going to play eight straight opponents that are ranked.”
Those eight would begin on Sept. 26 against Texas A&M. They would include Auburn on Oct. 24. Bielema’s very own Hogs stood at No. 18.
Imagine the Twitter comeuppance of it all once Arkansas lost at home to very-unranked Toledo, 16-12, shortly before No. 23 Tennessee misplaced a 17-0 home lead and a 17-3 fourth-quarter lead against Oklahoma, and lost 31-24 in overtime; and hours after “No. 6” Auburn weathered Jacksonville State of the alleged boondocks of the FCS, 27-20 in overtime.
“It has to be the most embarrassing victory in Auburn football history,” wrote Kevin Scarbinsky of AL.com.
As Nicholas Piotrowicz pointed out in the Toledo Blade, Toledo’s five offensive linemen had three total starts and played their first game together. Piotrowicz also reported that the Arkansas provost used to tease Toledo’s president by saying, “Where is Toledo, exactly?”
It sounds kind of like hubris, and there ought to be a hubris hiatus. For one thing, Bielema didn’t quite have it right. His schedule doesn’t include eight ranked teams in a row. Tucked in there on Oct. 31 is Tennessee-Martin, a matter he might take seriously in the event he might be transmitting some perilous hubris to his team.
More here
