College Football for Saturday November 14; From the Sublime To The Ridiculous and Everything In Between

7:30 PM; Its a rainy day in Jersey, so I made good use of my time by being glued to the tube for about six straight hours of college football- with more to come. At 8:00pm its Notre Dame versus Pitt in a game that could tell us the future of the head coach of the Irish, and perhaps move Pitt closer to a BCS berth.

But I did watch two games earlier, one involving two teams just in need of a single conference win, and the other with two teams fighting for a conference title and a likely trip to the Rose Bowl I'll go with the latter first.

Ohio State 27, Iowa 24 (OT)- This was for all the marbles at the Big Horseshoe in Columbus. Iowa, who lost their first game of the year-and their quarterback Ricki Stanzi last week- came to Columbus ranked #10 at 9-1 (5-1 in the Big 10), and a 17 point underdog to the Buckeyes. Freshman quarterback James Vandenberg played well for the Hawkeyes for most of the game, but with 11 minutes left in the game Ohio Sate held a 14 point lead. Then Iowa kick returner Derrell Johnson-Koulianos took it to the house for a 99 yard TD return, making it OSU 24-17. At the 2:42 mark Vandenberg hit Marvin McNutt with a touchdown that sent the game into overtime. The Buckeyes held Iowa in their possession in the OT. Then OSU backup kicker Devin Barclay hit a career long field goal to win the game for the Buckeyes, 27-24.

Barclay is a former professional soccer player who walked on to the Ohio Sate football team, having never kicked a football until fairly recently.

It was kind of painful watching the faces of the Ohio fans in the stands- been there, done that. What happened to them is similar to what happened to Rutgers back in 2006, winning nine straight to start the season 9-0 with dreams of a BCS bowl only to lose 2 of the last three games to finish the regular season 10-2. That's the best Iowa can do- they close out their season against Minnesota next week, while Ohio State finishes up with hapless (that's right, hapless) Michigan Wolverines (5-6, 1-6 Big Ten). next week in game that's window dressing for the Buckeyes, and about pride for Michigan.

(time for more football...be back in a few hours...)

12:09AM I know...Saturday night and I'm blogging about college football. I have no life whatsoever....but that's OK.

Pitt 27, Notre Dame 22 Two questions will be asked. The first, was Jimmy Clausen's arm going forward at the end of the game when it was third and sixteen and he was sacked? On further review, it looked like a good call. He was spun around and it was a fumble instead of the originally called incomplete pass At any rate Pitt took over and ran out the clock at that point for a 27-22 squeaker. With Pitt leading 20-3 going into the fourth quarter and Notre Dame on the goal line, it got a little tense in the final 15 minutes. Notre Dame goes in on the quarterback sneak (the extra point was blocked), its 20-9 Pitt leading. A great run by the Panthers made it 27-9 Pitt.

Clausen took ND down field for a quick score; there was a Pitt three and out, then a Golden Tate punt return for a touchdown, and we had a five point game. Notre Dame which had five fourth quarter comebacks this year fell short after scoring 19 points in the period. Notre Dame is now 6-4 with games remaining with UCONN and Staford, both no guaranteed win. Pitt 's at 10-0 (5-0 Big East), and next travel to Morgantown for the "Backyard Brawl" with West Virginia, and then the showdown with Cincinnati on December 5 for what could be the defacto Big East championship game.

And of course, the question asked to be asked about Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis...how hot is that fire your sitting on?

Louisville 10, Syracuse 9 We talked about the sublime, and this was the ridiculous. It was a scoreless first half for two teams searching for their first conference win. After all SOMEBODY had to win, and the Cardinals are now 4-6, 1-4 Big East, and the Orange fall to 3-7, 0-5. Both teams scored field goals in the third quarter to to tie it up at three a piece. The Cuse scored on a TD by Delone Carter (who rushed for 129 yards) but the extra point failed when the holder muffed the snap, 9-3 Syracuse. But with less than two minutes to go Josh Chichester caught a 15 yard pass from Adam Froman for the winning points for the Cards.

Another example for Syracuse fans nationwide of Orange Crushed.

That's enough guys...its late and I'm not spelling to well....a sure sign I need to do something more productive at this late hour, like have a beer.

The NFL kicks off in about 12 hours. Later!