Irish Trojan in Tennessee

Tennessee wins

By Brendan Loy

Tennessee 39, Southern Miss 19, final. When they scored toward the end of the first half to go up 17-16, I had a feeling they might be taking the lead for good, and I was right. I got that TD on video, too. I'll post that, and a couple of other clips, shortly.

In other news, alas, Texas pulled away late and beat TCU 34-13. Between the Horned Frogs' loss and Washington beating Boise State, the chances of a mid-major qualifying for a BCS bowl took a serious hit today. If Hawaii loses in overtime to Louisiana Tech, that'll be even more true.

P.S. What kind of odds could somebody have gotten on a preseason bet that, at the end of Week 2, Michigan and Notre Dame would both be 0-2, while Washington would be 2-0?

UPDATE: Hawaii wins!

Question for trivia buffs

By David K.

Today's Husky game was held in Seattle at Husky Stadium, today's Cougar game was held in Seattle at Qwest Field (the Seahawks' home field). I'm assuming two games in the same city on the same day is a rare occurance, but I was wondering if there were other instances anyone can remember in recent history. And no, USC and UCLA home games don't count: UCLA plays in Pasadena, not L.A.

Saturday football update

By David K.

The Pac-10 is more than making up for Oregon State's blowout loss to Cincinnati on Thursday. So far today, the Pac-10 is 5-0, with the latest win coming from the WSU Cougars, who clobbered the Aztecs of San Diego State, 45-17.

Earlier in the day, Oregon dominated Michigan as Brendan pointed out below. The 39-7 loss is the worst that the Wolverines have suffered in almost 40 years. That coupled with Penn State's crushing of Notre Dame means that for the first time ever, both Michigan and Notre Dame have started out 0-2 in the same season. The streak ends for one team next week though, as they will face each other.

Another streak ended today in Seattle, as Ty Willingham's Huskies broke Boise State's 14-game win streak, previously the longest active streak in Division I-A college football, downing the Broncos 24-10 in front of a crowd of over 70,000 fans. Rookie Husky QB Jack Locker had a hot and cold day, throwing for over 190 yards with 1 TD, and rushing for over 80 including another TD, but turning the ball over once each on the ground and in the air.

#13-ranked UCLA led the Cougars of BYU early, 20-0, but managed to let the Mormons get within 3 before winning their game 27-17. #10 Cal held off Colorado State to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Elsewhere in college football, #3 LSU is manhandling #9 VA Tech with a 24-0 lead in the 2nd quarter. Texas came out swingign in the second half and leads TCU 34-13 in the 4th quarter. Irish Trojan hometown favorite Tennessee beat Southern Miss by 20. Today's only top 25 upset (so far) comes from USC, no not Southern California, but South Carolina, who upset Georgia in typical SEC fashion, scoring 16 points with only one touchdown and a handful of field goals. Georgia's 12 points came entirely from field goals. YAWN.

Toilet Bowl at the Big House: ND vs. Michigan

By Brendan Loy

Between the baby shower last Saturday and the Tennessee game today, I haven't had the "pleasure" of watching very much Notre Dame football so far this season -- but based on the beef's comment and some text messages I received from BK [UPDATE: and this post on ND Nation, and this one and this one and this one and this one], I have a feeling that today's debacle in Happy Valley represents the moment when your average ND fan starts to turn on Charlie Weis. Whether that trend continues depends on how things go, of course, but it's awfully hard to see where on the schedule the Irish are going to pick up a win between now and November. Against Michigan State? At Purdue? Maybe. But the offense is going to need to start scoring touchdowns if we're going to have a chance against anyone.

Anyway, Michigan and Notre Dame are both 0-2, the first time that's ever happened. And they play each other next week! And Chad Henne is injured! Man, talk about a game that has lost all its luster in just two weeks. The two winningest programs in college football history meet, and they come into the game with a combined record of 0-4. Who'd have thunk it? Indeed, as texasyank points out, they've now lost a combined eight consecutive games... and most of them haven't been close. (The only close ones were the OSU-Michigan game and... heh... the Michigan-Appalachian State game.) It's a good thing Notre Dame has an NBC contract, otherwise this game might not even be televised. So, what will happen? Will the curse of Bo Schembechler continue? Will Notre Dame finally score an offensive touchdown? Will the game end in a 0-0 tie? What do you think?

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Vols up, Irish down... way down

By Brendan Loy

UT up 17-16 at the half. We had to leave early cuz Becky wasn't feeling well, so we should get home in time to catch the end of the ND game... which Penn State now leads, 31-10. :( But TCU is up 10-0 on Texas!

Update

By Brendan Loy

Notre Dame trails 17-10 in the third quarter. Here, it's 16-10 Southern Miss in the second. Elsewhere, Texas A&M beat Fresno State in 3 OTs. No score between Texas & TCU in second.

The Curse of Bo Schembechler continues!

By Brendan Loy

Michigan trails Oregon late, 39-7. That'll be four straight losses for the Skunkbears. HA HA!! :) Meanwhile, Washington beat Boise State! And ND is tied 7-7 with PSU. Here at Neyland, we've got 10
minutes till kickoff.

Quack!

By Brendan Loy

My feeling on the Michigan-Oregon game has been that Michigan would probably come out firing all cylinders, wanting to redeem themselves after the Appalachian State debacle, and would probably win -- unless they have a rough start, commit some turnovers, etc., and fall behind early. In that case, I figured, resolve could fizzle to demoralization, memories of Appy State could loom large, and Oregon could win big.

Well, on the opening drive, Michigan QB Chad Henne threw an interception in the end zone. Now Oregon is driving toward the end zone. Gamecast here.

Becky and I are about to leave and head toward UT for the Vols game, so you can consider this a general college-football open thread, at least until I post something via cell phone later. Go Ducks! Go Vols! GO IRISH!

Best Heisman campaign ever

By Brendan Loy

Booties for Booty! Heh. (WARNING: Some pics NSFW!)

(Hat tip: EDSBS.)

Upset watch

By Brendan Loy

Akron 2, Ohio State 0, 10:32 in the first quarter. Heh.

More seriously: Marshall 10, West Virginia 6, late second quarter... and they're threatening to score again before halftime. ... UPDATE: 13-6 Marshall at halftime. Could have been 17-6, but on 1st and goal with 20 seconds left, the Thundering Herd's coach made the p***y move of not even trying for a touchdown, instead running to the middle of the field and then taking their last timeout with 2 seconds left. Good grief, take a couple of shots at the end zone first!!

UPDATE: Ohio State 3, Akron 2 at halftime. "Sounds like an SEC game." -Becky. Heh!

Meanwhile, it's WVU 27, Marshall 23 early in the fourth quarter. You think Marshall's coach wishes he'd gone for that touchdown?

Oh, and it's Buffalo 21, Temple 0 in the first quarter. w00t!

WVU and tOSU both eventually won big. Meanwhile, USC's next opponent, Nebraska, barely held off Wake Forest, with an assist from a controversial interference/holding no-call in the final minute. Oklahoma destroyed Miami. And Buffalo is crushing Temple in the third quarter! Yes!!

Hello, Gabrielle

By Brendan Loy

Subtropical Storm Gabrielle has formed off the East Coast, and Tropical Storm Watches are up for much of the Carolina coasts. The official forecast calls for Gabrielle to become a mid-range tropical storm and swipe North Carolina's Outer Banks late Sunday or early Monday before recurving out to sea. The computer models are in pretty good agreement about that scenario, though of course they disagree about the exact track. Meanwhile Matt Drudge, who has a bad habit of failing to update his hurricane-related stories until long after they're obsolete (most memorably, he was still talking about Katrina making landfall in the Florida panhandle on the Saturday afternoon before it hit, at which point it was abundantly clear to everyone except him that New Orleans was the real story, not Florida), is still apparently convinced Gabrielle is going to hit New York City:

Not gonna happen. The scenario was at least arguably plausible a couple of days ago, when I mentioned it in my Pajamas Media post, and when Drudge first put up that headline, but it looks very unlikely now. Drudge, however, can't be bothered with such minor details as the actual facts; he apparently doesn't recognize that weather changes quickly, so you can't just leave up a headline for 72 hours and expect that it will remain accurate. Ugh. (Hat tip: Alan Sullivan.)