(Skip Holtz : the finest leader & educator of young men…of the past 5 hours)
For the second consecutive Saturday afternoon, East Carolina lays claim to the early upset of the day, their 24-3 domination of no. 8 West Virginia coming on the heels of last week’s stunner over Virginia Tech. If I was skeptical a week ago about the Pirates, I’m firmly in their corner today. If there’s a way East Carolina can re-write the 2008 schedule to include contests against VCU, VMI, Virginia Wesleyan and Virginia State (they’ve already got an away game against Virginia next month — another sure thing), I see no reason why the Pirates cannot lay claim to a BCS berth. Well, other than Virginia Wesleyan not having a football program.
Ohio hung around with the-not-at-all-looking-ahead Buckeyes, with the victors’ Brian Hartline describing his team’s performance as “pathetic”. Hey, Brian, can we dial the drama down a notch? “Pathetic” would be allowing a cross-state rival from the MAC to nearly wreck your national title aspirations on your own turf….oh, never mind. Ohio State QB Todd Boeckman had a rough afternoon (16 for 26, 110 yards, sacked three times) and the hosts’ sans-Beanie offense never really got untracked in a game they were favored to win by more than 30. A subpar Week 2 showing against unranked opposition is hardly unheard of, but it might be worth finding out if a certain Toledo prison permits inmates to make a Jim Tressel voodoo dolls in their spare time.
(Addendum : Tressel actually suggested in his post-game presser that Ray Smalls’ 4th quarter punt return TD should’ve been nullfied because of an illegal block. There’s a first, ladies and gentleman. A coach providing next week’s officials with bulletin board material).
I’ve not had much time this afternoon to scour the rest of the sporting blogosphere. So if anyone else came up with the headline, “Nutt Creamed By Swank”, please accept my apologies.