ECU stomped UCF in greenville and won by two touchdowns. It wasn't quite a "rout," which was the headline the Sentinel ran with, but it certainly was convincing. UCF had 5 turnovers in the third quarter. You can't do that on the road against a team that was a popular pre-season pick to win our division (along with USM). It's easy to look at ECU's record and write them off, but with injuries and suspensions, last night was the first real game they've had with close to everyone on the field. My guess is ECU wins out. For our sake, let's hope they lose one more and we find a way to win the rest of our conference games. My expectation for UCF at the beginning of the season was to be bowl eligible. I stand by that. Three more wins knights, four for good measure.

You know who else had 5 turnovers? USC. All is right in the world when the media darling finally drops a game. To Stanford no less. Prior to the game, Jim Harbaugh, the coach for Stanford, called this year's USC the greatest college football team of all time. Stupid fantasy time zone and their cute little conference. Maybe they've been sleeping through noon kickoffs.

Cal on the other hand, might be the real deal. After the shakeups yesterday (when they had a bye week), where do you put them? #2, #3? #1 is obvious, of course. Good teams find ways to win, and LSU did that over a young gator team. The question there is what to do with UF. Do you keep a 2 loss gator team in the top 10? Being that they were already #9, I'd say that's a giant negative. Certainly top 15 though. At least until the South Carolina game.

Ohio State over Purdue. Finally, normalcy in college football.

Illinois over Wisconsin. Sorry Greg. That Ron Zook sure can coach, though.

Did anyone actually watch the USF game? I highly doubt it and I bet the polls will reflect it. FAU had the game in hand until a couple of Big East ref's blew a call on a fumble recovery. FAU punts the ball, two USF players run into each other and fumble. FAU recovers right outside the endzone, Big Easy ref's call interference on FAU. ESPNU announcers, who I believe were borrowed from the local high school press box, acknowledge the error and then immediately go back to blowing smoke up USF's ass. Sooner or later, someone's going to expose this team. For the Big East's sake, they better hope it's not in a bowl game blowout.

Rice over Southern Miss. Memphis over Marshall. Utah over Louisville (hah!). Tennessee over the Dawgs. OK over Texas. Kansas over Kansas State. South Carolina over Kentucky. Maryland over Ga. Tech (go terps).

Ohio State challenges UF to a running contest in the middle of January. Ohio State loses.

Uhm.. a running contest in January, against a bunch of kids in Florida? I think OSU needs to add a few meteorology courses to their curriculum. ;)

Kathryn of course is recovering from a deep depression still. I could write on and on about the SEC in general and how phenomenal the conference looks right now, but there's nothing I can say that the Best Damn Band in the Land can't say for me... Enjoy (and go knights.... one day.)

So yeah, 42-0.

That's one hell of a shut out.

Lot's of people over at Rivals are up in arms and freaking out as if it's something that was completely unexpected and is some sort of coaching travesty. The fact is, UF has third string walk ons that would probably start at most schools. Until the Knights are consistently going to bowl games every year and competing for conference championships -- we're just not going to recruit the same level of talent that a powerhouse SEC school is going to attract. We might pull a coup on one or two guys each year, but I mean.. come on.. Last year was the first bowl game we've ever been invited to. It takes time.

UF beating UCF is supposed to happen. What's not supposed to happen, is USF requiring a full 60 minutes to squeek one out on FIU, 21-20. Next week is the War on I-4 as USF travels to Orlando to face UCF. O'Leary, the players, and just as importantly, the fans, need to get over the UF stomping and fast. A loss to a USF team that's struggled two weeks in a row against bottom barrel opponents could cause a mass exodus of fans before conference play even begins. Gotta love the bandwagon.

In other news, the Ohio State/Texas game wasn't quite the thriller we all hoped it would be. I think it's safe to say though that OSU plays for the national championship come January. The last time they played (and won) the championship, we ended up with rule changes, a league wide instant reply and 5 years of soap-opera.

I can't believe UCF opens up at home in Orlando against Texas next year. In a brand new on campus stadium no less. My oh my, how far we've come. Here's to hoping we at least get on the scoreboard.... :-\

We went out to Eddie George's last night to watch the game. Basically, it's like ESPN Zone, only all Eddie George themed and right across the street from OSU. Around the 3rd quarter, Eddie came in and the place went nuts. He was right in front of our table for probably 30 minutes signing autographs. It was "Senior Crawl" up here, where I guess the seniors go from bar to bar having a graffiti party (signing each others shirts). Eddie toasted the class of 2006 and signed god knows how many shirts.

I didn't have anything for him to sign, but I did call Kathryn on my cell phone and passed it to Eddie so they could chat a bit. Pretty cool guy, and definitely showed patience towards fans.

Afterward, we went out with Melissa and Sarah, two friends of a friend, to Skully's for 80s night. Good times, good times. :)