by Adam Jones

You have to love the work. That's a general rule for all of us to live by, but it takes on special significance on a fall Saturday. I have to really love the work to give up a loaded college football schedule. There are those for whom this is not a consideration, but most of them do not tend to read this piece every Monday morning. In any case, I love the work.

Sequestered at a huge corporate conference center on behalf of the Texas Methodist Foundation, I am here to discuss serious matters of spiritual formation, as opposed to discussing the serious deficiencies in the Texas Longhorn defense of the spread formation, which are made readily apparent during the 3:00 break as I watch Oklahoma State's opening touchdown drive. On the Longhorns first play from scrimmage, Colt McCoy lofts an easy pick six.  14-0, Oklahoma State as God appears to be very serious about me returning to the afternoon session.

At 4:30, I was released early. Status check.

My guys are showing no signs of being a quality football team. Oklahoma State starts the fourth quarter with a 35-14 lead and the Pokes appear completely unstoppable on offense. Since Vince Young no longer plays for Texas, I think I may write this one off.

Navy 28, Notre Dame 21. Now that's interesting. In the meantime, Texas has cut it to two touchdowns.

Kansas appears to have scored 76 points on Nebraska, unless I read the score wrong.

LSU goes up early 17-3 on Alabama. This is not what ‘Bama needs; it's going to get ugly.

Six passing touchdowns, five rushing touchdowns, hmmm, that's 77. Kansas must have missed an extra point.

Navy 28, Notre Dame 28.

Lord help me, the creepy Charles Schwab animated humans are back. This year's characters include "woman with bad profile" and "unidentified ethnic woman unsatisfied with her current stockbroker."  No doubt my recurring "attack of the animated Stepford wives" nightmare will ruin the daylight savings fall back.

LSU just can't get out of its own way. LSU 17, ‘Bama 10. I am starting to get e-mail traffic from my friend, PW, who is in Tuscaloosa. I've long felt the passion of the SEC bursts through even on television. Now I may have a test case to see if it transcends the limits of blackberry.

As I switch channels, it appears Jamaal Charles is racing through the Oklahoma State secondary for a 75-yard TD. Surely we won't do this to these poor bastards again.

Charlie Weis turns down a shot at a field goal to go for it on fourth down. Something called Ram Vela leaps over the ND offensive line and plants Evan Sharpley. Overtime.

Looks like Ohio State broke a 17-17 fourth-quarter tie and ran away from Wisky, 38-17.

Navy and the Irish trade touchdowns.

Texas 35, Oklahoma State 35. So much for making it to dinner on time.

LSU 17, Alabama 13 with the Tigers driving. Don't throw that, Matt Flynn. Interception, here comes the Tide.

Now Navy and Notre Dame trade field goals, 38-38.

Seriously, how does anyone score 76 points on Nebraska?

Oklahoma State misses a chip shot.

Touchdown Navy, and the Midshipmen convert the two-point, 46-38.

Touchdown Alabama on a great catch by Keith Brown. The blackberry buzzes.

Notre Dame answers, 46-44. And the two-point conversion fails...

Interference on Navy.

The Alabama crowd blocks an LSU field goal.

Notre Dame tries again. The Irish fail. And for the first time in 43 years...

Navy 46, Notre Dame 44

Two seconds, forty yard attempt, Texas, it's up, it's good. I do the flying leap onto my hotel room bed. Leaving the room for dinner, Kenny G fills the air as the staff sets up for a wedding reception in the courtyard. Great.

All in all, not a bad two hours.

When I return from the evening session, the DJ has dialed up "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys. This is going to be a long night. Craig Steltz blasts ‘Bama's Keith Brown and gets him to cough up the ball. Game, set, match...LSU, 41-34 and it required Early Doucet voodoo, a huge defensive play and a Jacob Hester one-yard plunge. Just another day for the Bayou Bengals.

Oregon is killing Arizona State 35-16 (the Ducks would win 35-23) and Oklahoma is slowly torturing Texas A&M. The DJ is now torturing me with the Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together." Somewhere between "Love Shack" and the chicken dance, I decided that this was now an evening of forgettable college football and bad musical clichés. Time to wind this up.

Michigan rallied to beat Michigan State 28-24 on a tremendous Chad Henne lob to Mario Manningham for the game-winner.

South Florida had eight turnovers but still had a chance to beat Cincinnati. They didn't. 38-33 Bearcats. USF's number two ranking seems like it happened in a different season.

Meanwhile, UConn went to 8-1 with a 38-19 decision over Rutgers, who is officially no longer America's sweetheart.

Speaking of America's sweetheart, I thought Boise State's big year was last year. Apparently nobody told them not to be good this year; the Broncos are also 8-1 after rolling San Jose State, 42-7.

Florida got the offense back on course by routing Vanderbilt 49-22. I guess the Commodores no longer have Florida's number, or address, or general vicinity for that matter.

Georgia survived Troy (actually a pretty competent football team) 44-34 in a long slate of exhibition games for the SEC. Auburn and Tennessee had mail-in contests against Tennessee Tech and La-La. The Big Boys prevail 92-10.

Oh wait, SportsCenter is showing highlights from last year's Kansas/Nebraska basketball game. Oh I get it, KU scored 76 in one of those games, too. Hilarious. Rock, Chalk...Mock. On national TV no less. Does anyone miss Frank Solich yet?

I was fairly certain that Colorado would take down Missouri in Boulder, just like the Buffs took down Oklahoma in Boulder. But there are days when I am not so smart. Mizzou 55, Colorado 10. Ouch.

Virginia upset Wake 17-16. The Cavs are making a habit of winning games by razor-thin margins as they go to a surprising 8-2 overall.

Southern Cal somewhat acquitted itself in a 24-3 win over Oregon State. Ditto Virginia Tech, the Hokies dominated Georgia Tech 27-3 on Thursday night. Georgia Tech should be better than this. I think we have now seen as much upside as Chan Gailey is going to give a program.

Oklahoma goes final on Texas A&M, 42-14. The Dennis Franchione Real Estate watch continues.

Arkansas took down South Carolina 48-36 in a great season salvaging effort. Darren McFadden-remember when he was a Heisman candidate?-rushed for a ridiculous 323 yards.

And last on the clock, but certainly not least in importance, Florida State evicted Boston College from the penthouse in a game that started in a torrential downpour and ended with a Geno Hayes interception return through the resulting quagmire. Perfect metaphor for a very strange season, 27-17, Seminoles.

And now there are two major undefeateds and both are traditional powers.

One in football.

One in basketball.

Impressive Showing of the Week: Navy

1. Ohio State: The Buckeyes were extended by Wisconsin, but then dominated the fourth quarter. The Buckeyes make almost no mistakes, run the ball, the defense dominates (James Laurianitis had 19 tackles Saturday) and the games come to a boring and predictable conclusion. They are basically the anti-LSU.

2. LSU and Oregon: These two are about even in my book. The LSU domination of Virginia Tech, which was a completely different Va Tech squad than what we are watching now, happened a long time ago. Now the Tigers are on a nailbiting tour. Of course the win in Tuscaloosa is nothing to sneeze at. Oregon's offense is the best in the nation, but their intensity on defense against the Sun Devils was also impressive.

4. West Virginia: I'd really like to see West Virginia's offense against Ohio State, talk about nothing like they would see in the Big Ten. It's possible I could get my wish.

5. Kansas...or maybe Missouri...wait, Oklahoma beat Missouri: I know I am cheating, but I really don't know. The Kansas/Missouri winner will play OU in the Big 12 title game (most likely, in this season nothing is very certain). Ask me then.

8. Insert Random SEC Team Here: I think it is probably Georgia. It's possible that Alabama is the SEC's second-best team. Really.

9. Virginia Tech: Completely unfair that BC beat the Hokies last Thursday and here I rank Virginia Tech above them. Problem is, I think Virginia Tech is better. What are you going to do? Call the internal consistency police?

10. Arizona State: ...although they are clearly a few notches below Oregon. What happens when Dennis Erickson actually starts recruiting?

On a neutral field, I would take Michigan over Arizona State. So I leave it to you, readers: at what point do I cease punishing the Wolverines for losing to Appalachian State?

 

Copyright 2007 Adam Jones

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