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They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / College Football Preview — Open Thread

College Football Preview — Open Thread

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What are you watching today? Who’s gonna win? What’s your upset of the week prediction?

We’re on the way to a woodsy canoe outpost, so I’ll miss the early games so we can paddle around in a bug-ridden drizzle and acquire a chigger infestation. But I’ll be home later to watch the Gators, who will almost certainly lose to Bama.

I expect Jawja to easily handle Troy and the Aggies to whup Southern Meth (which is how everyone should refer to SMU). I hope Clemson beats FSU, which is Goodelling their QB problem, but I think the Noles will win.

My upset pick: Mississippi State over LSU. What say you, sports fans?

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    Julia Grey

    My daughter is in a mixed marriage. While ordinarily they root for Clemson, she got her JD from FSU, so this is always a contentious weekend in that household.

    However, she just bought some really cute Clemson clothes for the visiting baby nephew and she’s peeeeee-ahd at Jameis Winston, so….

  3. 3.

    Tommy

    @Gator90: I was at LSU in the early 90s. Steve Spurrier’s Flordia teams came into Death Valley and just pummeled us. I got no love for the Gators. But I am also a sports fan and a SEC homer and a good Gators team is good for the conference.

    Now I will just have to call out Betty for no love for my LSU Tigers. I will note that maybe they could lose if they were at Mississipi state. But they are playing “under the lights” at LSU. We just don’t lose many of those games.

  4. 4.

    Mack

    Prediction: My mighty Dores will upset So. Carolina tonight.

    And then I’ll buy the winning lottery ticket. Book it.

  5. 5.

    ruemara

    I’ve always wanted to try watching football, but it looks like no one I know watches football who is willing to tolerate someone who knows nothing about football. I’m thinking of going to see a movie if I haven’t blown my budget on food. Maybe a little location scouting, a script for JMN’s book teaser and design some labels for a friend.

  7. 7.

    Julia Grey

    it looks like no one I know watches football who is willing to tolerate someone who knows nothing about football. I’m thinking of going to see a movie if I haven’t blown my budget on food.

    Hey, now that’s an idea……a movie that in between a larger story, teaches one of the characters about football. The basics of downs and the strategies you can use within them. Anybody know any decent movie that gets THAT basic? Even baseball movies usually take the viewer’s knowledge of the rock-bottom basics of the game for granted….

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven: Hey, Raven. I just got back from the farmer’s market. When I saw some of the musicians there, I thought of something my friend told me – that there is some kind of a raffle or fundraiser or something for the long-haired musician you know who plays at the market. I can never remember his name, but the kids all adore him, and apparently he is really sick.

    Do you know anything about that?

  10. 10.

    danielx

    Not watching games…instead I am looking forward to using a belt sander on the sis-in-law’s deck to fix where I fucked up trying to strip it. Pro tip, kids: don’t ever try to strip (with stripper and a power washer) a deck stained with solid color stain. Instead you scrape and sand the areas where the stain is flaking/peeling, spot prime with an oil-based primer, then refinish with another solid color stain.

    In other news, the old definition of chutzpah as being the mindset of someone who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan has been replaced by a new, two word definition: Cliven Bundy.

    I can’t decide whether he has stones the size of pumpkins or merely has stones the size of walnuts and has never heard of the concept of irony. I’m leaning towards door number two, though…

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Football, you say? I’m hoping that Daniel Sturridge’s return to fitness means Liverpool will win in the late match today (17:30 in London, 00:30 in KL) at West Ham United.

    I’m happy enough with my new Lenovo smartphone, which is cheap. Only thing bugging me is that the digital clock doesn’t do a 24hr display, which I prefer to am/pm.

  12. 12.

    Tommy

    @Amir Khalid: I didn’t even know Lenovo made a smartphone. Does it run the Microsoft OS? I am hooked on my Samsung. Mainly because I first got a Chromebook. And the apps I run on it run on my phone and tablet. I LOVE I buying an app once and can use it across all my machines (well not my desktop).

  16. 16.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Amir Khalid: You should be able to change it. IIRC, you’ve got an Android phone.

    Settings -> (Scroll down to) Date & Time -> Check the “Use 24 -hour format” box.

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Corner Stone

    @Julia Grey:

    The basics of downs and the strategies you can use within them. Anybody know any decent movie that gets THAT basic?

    Pretty boring movie for most people to watch a gruff sounding old white guy drawing X’s and O’s on a whiteboard for two hours. I, on the other hand, would enjoy it.

    Even baseball movies usually take the viewer’s knowledge of the rock-bottom basics of the game for granted….

    That’s because all baseball movies are essentially Rom-Coms and the baseball is just the back drop where someone finds out their true love was right in front of them the whole 90 minutes.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    What are you watching today?

    I will be watching my dad’s wound. Heading over soon to change the bandage on it. We’re trying a new healing ointment, so seeing how it worked is my excitement for the day. Along with grocery shopping for them–that’s first, then the wound change. Then grocery shopping for me on the way back. Can’t do it all in one stop because it’s too damn hot and the groceries can’t sit in the car that long.

    I’m sure you’re all exceptionally jealous of my exciting Saturday.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    @Tommy:
    Lenovo makes Android models. It looks to me as if they may be a hair behind technologically- most of their phones aren’t running KitKat yet- but they also bought Motorola Mobility from Google, so technically a MotoX is a Lenovo phone.

  22. 22.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Tommy: Lenovo’s been making smartphones for the domestic Chinese market for quite a while, and now they acquired Motorola.

  27. 27.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    Hiking with my son to see some incredible fungi he found the other day, then spending the day with my wife, which seems like a rarity with election season in full swing (she’s a professional electoral ass-kicker)

    Feeling blessed, and not watching sports, as is my wont.

  28. 28.

    Tommy

    @Corner Stone: Baseball is a hard game IMHO to get into if you were not raised with it. My mom likes to joke she put headphones on her belly, when I was a fetus, so I could hear Jack Buck call a Cardinals game. As an Illlinois resident she was fearful I might become a Cubs fan. Of course in my family that wasn’t acceptable. Baseball is something, and I am 44, that my parents and I still talk about all the time. But I can see how, again if you were not raised with a baseball game on 24/7 how it would be hard to watch.

  29. 29.

    PaulW

    I actually want FSU to win big today, so the school and coaches can grab Winston by the collar and shout at him “YOU AIN’T ALL THAT!”

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @ruemara: @Julia Grey:
    Maybe you need to try something like Football For Dummies. Or maybe you should count yourselves lucky that you aren’t addicted to a sport that’s so destructive of the lives of its players and everyone around them. Pretty soon you’ll be able to lord your disinterest in football over all the people who know they should give up watching but can’t help themselves.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Corner Stone: You’re thinking about Major League or Bull Durham, in which there’s a romance subplot that in no way detracts from the rest of the movie that is about baseball.

    “Just a bit outside.”

    “This son of a bitch is throwing a two-hit shutout. He’s shaking me off. You believe that shit? Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well.”

  33. 33.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Tommy: I was at the SkyDome in Toronto in 1990, and was sitting next to an British couple who were visiting relatives in Toronto, and had never seen a baseball game in their lives, so I explained some of the basic rules to them. It’s really a bit more difficult than you might imagine with those who are not raised on it as Americans are. One thing that did really impress them was how clean and family friendly he stadium was, unlike your average football stadium in the UK.

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: Interestingly enough, the US military uses the international DD-MM-YYYY format slightly modified (20 September 2014) on official correspondence. Also, of course 24 hour time always.

  37. 37.

    Joey Maloney

    Watching college football is tough for me. I don’t subscribe to any satellite packages and the grey-market webcasts are very poor quality.

    So instead I’m going to go down to the beach and pay two homeless guys to hit each other on the head with big rubber mallets.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Spelling out (or abbreviating) the month is less ambiguous than DD-MM-YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY because you can’t get confused about which is the day and which is the month. My mother uses a similar format but writes the month in Roman numerals to distinguish it from the days; I think she picked up the format when she was in Germany as a graduate student. YYYY-MM-DD has several advantages:

    1) It is unambiguous, because nobody writes things YYYY-DD-MM
    2) It puts the highest order digits first (big endian) so that a simple ASCIIbetical sort also puts the dates in chronological order.
    3) It is the official international standard

  39. 39.

    mellowjohn

    rugby this afternoon (chicago blaze @ lincoln park rfc), then alternating between seeing if my norther illinois huskies can keep their 18 game road win streak alive at arkansas and seeing if my white sox can manage to win 2 in a row down in tampa (after knocking the rays out of a wild card spot last nite).

  41. 41.

    Corner Stone

    @Joey Maloney:

    So instead I’m going to go down to the beach and pay two homeless guys to hit each other on the head with big rubber mallets.

    That’s the spirit! Ingenuity! Always find a way!

  43. 43.

    Tommy

    @Villago Delenda Est: An example I would use is soccer. I don’t understand it. I won’t belittle it, I just feel I was not raised watching it. I don’t know all the little details like I do about baseball. I think those little details, that I talk OPS with my mom, is what pulls you to a sport.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    @Roger Moore: You can try and tell me Eight Men Out isn’t a love story all you want. Not buying it.
    I saw the way Shoeless Joe and Buck Weaver were looking at each other.

  46. 46.

    Corner Stone

    I’m usually not a fan of being lied to right in my face, bwts I wouldn’t mind having dinner with Marie Harf.

  47. 47.

    Julia Grey

    @Roger Moore:

    Oh, I wasn’t asking for such a movie for MYSELF. I’ve known the rules of football and been picking up the nuances since I was 9. My aunt was a fanatic for both football and baseball. I used to sit in the bleachers at the Rochester Red Wings games with my scorecards and banter with all the other the bleacher birds like a grownup every summer.

    I was just saying that it might be good to have a movie that doesn’t take the viewers’ knowledge of basic rules and strategies for granted.

    And I simply MUST disagree with Corner Stone that “all baseball movies” are essentially romantic comedies. Sheesh. Have you ever seen The Natural?

  48. 48.

    Linnaeus

    @Julia Grey:

    And I simply MUST disagree with Corner Stone that “all baseball movies” are essentially romantic comedies. Sheesh. Have you ever seen The Natural?

    Or Bang the Drum Slowly?

  51. 51.

    JCT

    Ultimate college football torment for us tonight: Cal vs Arizona. Husband and I both went to Cal, but now we are faculty at Arizona. He had season tickets but I won’t go, just can’t root against my Bears.

    At least Cal isn’t traveling to play UCLA this year. Last year was bombarded with email and then photos of my UCLA student son in the front row, shirtless with a big “L” painted on his chest, enjoying the Bear thrashing. On ESPN and all. The horror.

  52. 52.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Julia Grey:

    I was just saying that it might be good to have a movie that doesn’t take the viewers’ knowledge of basic rules and strategies for granted.

    I’m dealing with this in my novel. It isn’t really a hockey story, really, but hockey does play a significant role and there are some on ice scenes. Writing them in such a way that it is accessible to those who don’t know the game without annoying those who do is tricky.

  53. 53.

    Corner Stone

    @Mack:

    Prediction: My mighty Dores will upset So. Carolina tonight.

    Cocks are going to make the Fighting Captains look like Goodell at a podium tonight.

  63. 63.

    jake the antisoshul soshulist

    Betty Cracker must be happy. However, I don’t think the Gators can count on the Tide to continue drop the ball on the ground.

  67. 67.

    JCT

    @RAVEN: I love the Georgia stadium, visited once when my daughter was working in Atlanta – one of my favorite things about being back at a big state U is having these on-site sports venues. Was a big part of my undergraduate life.

  70. 70.

    Bonnie

    @Julia Grey: I had a very nice older brother who had control of the tv and watched nothing but football. He was very kind and patient at explaining things to me as we watched games together. He was especially patient and kind when he started yelling “red dog, red dog” (term for sacking the quarterback in the 50s). I asked where is the red dog and how did he know it was red since we were watching black and white tv. He just responded that’s a term for when all the defense goes in to get the quarterback. He pointed it out the next time it happened. I still call it a red dog; but, no one knows what I am talking about. I still smile at the fact that my brother could have told me to shut up; but, he didn’t. So, I enjoy football very much with fond memories of my older brother, who I don’t seem much of any more.

  71. 71.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Villago Delenda Est: Same experience in the late 1970s at a decidedly less refined venue, Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, with a college buddy. Right behind us sat a British grad student at Johns Hopkins, his wife & kids. He’d apparently just defended his thesis & though they knew nothing about baseball, decided that with the park only about 8 blocks east of campus on 33rd St. & tickets relatively cheap, they’d add attendance at a major league game to their American experience before heading back to the Aisles.

    We undertook to explain the game to them…& were taken aback with their questions & incomprhension. Anyone who has imbibed the game with his mother’s milk (e.g., my father was a semipro shortstop & his first date with my eventual mother was a game in which he was playing) has no idea how much of the rulebook is pure “because that’s the way it is” until s/he tries to justify it to utter innocents. Truly an eye-opener.

  72. 72.

    RAVEN

    @JCT: Ah yes, even a game like today was fun. They are trying their best to kill it with ever-increasing prices and shitty schedules. I’ll keep going as long as I get faculty-staff tickets but, after that I’m proly done.

  73. 73.

    RAVEN

    @Uncle Cosmo: I took a visiting faculty member to a Braves game. He was ok at the game but the real revelation was listening to the post game on the radio on the drive home. THAT was truly incomprehensible for him.

  74. 74.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @RAVEN: You know the story about the visiting Scotsman at his first major league baseball game?

    He & his American host came in as the teams were changing sides after the top of the first. The leadoff man smacked a sharp grounder to third, & everyone but the Scotsman jumped up shouting Run, run, run!

    The batter was thrown out, & as his friend sat down the Scotsman asked, Why did he hae t’run? & his friend explained that if he had reached the base before the ball, he would have been safe & could perhaps eventually score.

    The next batter hit a slow grounder to third & this time the Scotsman stood with everyone else shouting Run, run, run! But he too was thrown out.

    The #3 hitter took four straight pitches out of the strike zone. As he flipped his bat on the way to first base, the Scotsman stood & shouted Run, run, run!.

    His host pulled him down into his seat & muttered, He doesn’t have to run, he can walk to first base,

    Why is that? the Scotsman asked. Because he has four balls, his host replied..

    Whereupon the Scotsman leapt to his feet & shouted, Walk prrrrroudly, laddie!

    :D … An oldie but a goodie And here’s another:

    Q: How do you handle an elephant with three balls?
    A: Walk him & pitch to the giraffe on deck…

    :D

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