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Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

If you blinked you missed 25% of the NCAA football season as of this past Saturday.  The NFL concludes week 2 tonight.  But, worry not.  Our Ten Piece Nuggets are here to give you another serving of all that you need to feed the craving.  The nuggets, as always, are the original, no leftovers here.  Help yourself below.

  1.  The NCAA football weekend had exactly zero games where the opponents were both ranked in the top 25.  Chalks dominated the outcomes for the most part.  The Top 10 saw only a very minor change.  Michigan was idle and was passed by.  Passing them by was now 3-0 Utah who won 31-0 over Idaho St.  Michigan only slid one spot to 11.
  2.  A week after Kentucky lost starting quarterback Terry Wilson they ended Florida’s starting quarterback Felipe Franks season in a wild 29-21 loss.  Franks’ gruesome injury was diagnosed as a dislocated ankle.  Backup and one time brief starter Kyle Trask came off the bench to throw for 126 yards and score a rushing touchdown, leading the Gators from 11 down to 19 unanswered points and victory.  Astute local observers of the program contend that Florida might even be better with him starting going forward.  Florida is ranked 9th and has Tennessee coming to The Swamp this weekend.
  3.  Florida is only the fifth highest ranked SEC team however.  Alabama (2), Georgia (3), LSU (4),  and Auburn (8) are higher.  Those four scored 47, 55, 65, and 55 in blowout wins over inferior opponents Saturday.  South Carolina tried to make a game of their tussle with Bama, but only slowed the Tua scoring machine a bit.
  4.  Wisconsin (tied for 13) took last weekend off and have the aforementioned Michigan Wolverines coming to Madison this weekend.   It’s but one of many in conference match ups across the land this coming weekend that will capture more of our attention than last weekend.  Wisconsin has scored 110 points in two games and surrendered a big fat 0.   It would be a good destination for College Gameday.
  5. But, Lee Corso and Company are headed to Athens, Ga.  The Bulldogs host The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in a rematch of the 2017 thriller in South Bend.  With Georgia sitting at 3 and Notre Dame at 7, it’s a good choice.  A Notre Dame win would vault them squarely in to the National Championship Playoff picture even if it’s only late September.
  6.  UCF, which held a parade for itself a couple of years back after an undefeated season found them looking from the outside in at the playoffs, is 3-0 and perched at 15.  The put 45 on a once proud Stanford team.  The Cardinal (we love teams with singular nicknames) surrendered 45 last week to USC as well.  UCF has little opposition until a trip on 10/26 to Temple.  We love parades.
  7.  In the NFL there are teams with franchise quarterbacks and teams without.  If you are with out you get to watch the playoffs from home usually.  If you are with you usually play in the playoffs.  Yesterday the Pittsburgh Steeleers lost Ben Rothliesberger to an elbow injury.  And, Yesterday, the New Orleans Saints lost Drew Brees to a thumb injury.  Both are seeing specialists today to determine the proper medical course of action.  It doesn’t look good for either.  ANd, as a result, they might watch the playoffs from home too.
  8. Brees was interviewed this summer on The Dan Patrick Show a day after the NFL Top 100 players (voted on by the players) were revealed on the NFL Network.  Brees finished second only to Aaron Donald, DL extraordinaire of the LA Rams.  Patrick asked Brees about finishing second to Donald.  Brees said, in effect, that it made total sense as Donald is in a league by himself.  He went on to say that Donald is unblockable and needed to be specifically game planned for.   Yesterday Donald broke thru the line and his hand hit Brees’ hand as he released a pass.  It sent Brees to the locker room and may send him to the operation room soon.
  9. Colin Kapernick’s nike commercial won an Emmy Award last evening.  The spot is dubbed Dream Crazy.  The commercial climaxes with the former San Francisco 49er saying, “Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything.” He concludes the commercial saying, “Don’t ask if your dreams are crazy. Ask if they’re crazy enough.”  Fair enough.  Disruptor enough.
  10.  Fifty years ago ABC disrupted normal fall Monday Night network programming by paying $25.5 million for a three year run of Monday Night Football.  The rest, as they say, is history.   Fifty years later there is Sunday night and Thursday night football to go along with MNF.  MNF was the first in prime time and it was the first with a “three in the booth” announcer set up.  In that first booth was Howard Cosell, Dandy Don Meredith, and?  And?  That’s right, it was Keith Jackson.  Unfortunately, all three are no longer with us.  But MNF sure is.

It’s only four days till Friday.  You’ve been fed.  Now, get after it.

 

Comment section

Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.

  • This astute Florida observer says Kyle is better than Felipe (at least the name is better), but hosting the Volunteers will be closer than you think. Take the points. I’ve been fed. I am full and I spit it out!

    • Tenn is a live 14 point dog on Bovada. Tickets, get your tickets. ND is a live 13.5 point dog as well. Tickets, get your tickets.

    • More on THE soon. So far THE has played Florida Atlantic, Cincy, and Indiana. Meh. THE now faces THE Miami of Ohio. We’ll take a knee until at least next week when they meet an average Nebraska team.

        • Are you saying it’s too early in the season to get rankled about rankings when playing unranked opponents?

  • No, I’m saying that in a world where content is king, build some real content into your schedule. If THE were Netflix, there would be no subscribers. It’s no wonder why they don’t have their own TV deal. It would be dark for the first month until conference play begins.