Morning firends. Happy Labor Day.
If you are like the 5-at-10 crew, you needed the free day today to regroup after a stunning, sensational, disappointing, exhausting, weekend over over-excess of riches in the college football sphere.
Since this is a holiday, and a Monday, we will offer a mini-5-at-10 today, that has you would expect will have a lion's share of college football.
Enjoy.
Weekend winners
College football fans in general. Wow, that was something. From the first kick Saturday with Georgia Tech holding off BC in Dublin to the amazing finish of last night's Texas' win over Notre Dame, this was billed as the greatest opening weekend in college football history. And it lived up to the hype. Here's a breakdown of the best game you didn't know about, Texas State's 58-56 win over Ohio in triple overtime that included 17 points in the final 51 seconds of regulation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99fTHMh2uuU
Alabama as a whole and Lane Kiffin in particular. Buckets, on a weekend when almost every top-10 was on upset alert, the Tide manhandled USC. Kiffin ran up more than half a hundred on the program that fired him at the air port less than three years ago. Here's saying that Kiffin will get a big-boy offer to be a head coach at a power five school before the calendar reads 2017.
Tom Herman. Speaking of cashing in and writing your ticket, Herman, the Houston coach, engineered the Cougars' upset of No. 3-ranked Oklahoma. Herman is about to be the prettiest girl in school a month before the prom, and everyone without a date wants to know if he's interested.
All of Texas. Charlie Strong, the Longhorns head coach, entered the season with arguably the hottest seat in the country. Last night's epic, 50-47 double overtime win was a lot of things. Needed. Check. Dramatic. Check. Hope-inspiring. Check. It also was an absolute blast, and the kind of moment everyone in the Texas program has been starving for, and Strong and Co. delivered, which buys a whole lot of goodwill and seat coolers. Same goes for Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M.
Nick Chubb. The last time we saw Chubb, he was in tons of pain after shredding his knee in Knoxville less than a year ago. Saturday, he may have been the best running back in the country, going for 222 yards and the game-clinching TD.
Weekend losers
The Stoops brothers. Big-game Bob and his Oklahoma Sooners were theoretically bounced from the college football playoff with a painful loss to Houston. Brother Mark and the Kentucky Wildcats surrendered more than 550 yards in a loss to Southern Miss. Ouch-standing.
Les Miles. Wow, we thought LSU was the most-sure thing on the board this weekend going against a Wisconsin team short on star power. LSU has the best running back in the country (statistically) coming into the season, a defense that scored a TD Saturday that is littered with future NFL players, and the offense managed seven points against a Wisconsin defense that is running a new system from last year. Here's believing Les Miles now has the hottest seat in the country.
Auburn's offense. Gus Malzahn, Auburn's head coach, is pegged as an offensive whiz. Well, Saturday night, it was more Cheez-Whiz than true whiz; more goof-ups than guru. Five diffrerent Tigers took snaps, and none of them truly looked comfortable against a Clemson defrense, while talented, had to replace eight starters. On the bright side, Auburn's defense was salty, which is something fine for the fans, but not all that promising for Malzahn and his offense.
Speaking of SEC disappointments, at least auburn's loss was to the No. 2 team in the country. Mississippi State lost the biggest computer-upset in the last five years. (ESPN projections had the Bulldogs with a better than 97-percent chance to win over South Alabama.) LSU lost. Auburn lost. Kentucky lost. Vandy lost (yes, it was to an SEC foe). Missouri lost by scoring only 11 points despite more than 400 yards of offense. Arkansas escaped La. Tech 21-20. Tennessee escaped App State in overtime. Florida struggled with UMass. Alabama was awesome, and Georgia looked very good in spots, and Texas A&M delivered a big win over UCLA. Other than that, the SEC was a major disappointment
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Today's question
Well, gang, what did we leave off the list of the winners and losers from the college football mania?
If you need a Rushmore, we'll go here: Today is Michael Keaton's 65th birthday. Rushmore of Michael Keaton movies? We'll go Mr. Mom, Batman, Birdman and personal fav The Paper. (Side note, dude has some impressive voice work from Cars to Minions to Toy Story 3. And he has a much better career collection of film work than most may realize.)