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Cigar Butts Week 8 Review

 

Week 8 Cigar Butts                                       

 

Some people are referring to last Saturday as, “Statement Saturday”, and that pretty much sums up the day. Nobody, and we mean, NOBODY, saw this day coming. Our first glimpse of what was happening came on Friday night when Central Florida beat previously undefeated Louisville, 38-35. Everyone may have thought it was a great game, maybe even an upset, but just a prelude to Saturday. If anyone bet with the Vegas people they are now rich and didn’t show up to work on Monday.

The first upset game was Vanderbilt beating Georgia, 31-27. This actually was not that much of an upset because Vandy is a good football team and the hospital unit that is Georgia is missing all its star players except for Aaron Murray. The Dawgs did pretty well but couldn’t keep the Commodores out of the end zone in the 4th quarter. As I said before, Georgia is missing players but this still classifies as an upset.

Tennessee and head coach Butch Jones finally got a signature win. Number 11 South Carolina came into Knoxville as the favorite and proceeded to lose not only their starting Quarterback, University of Tennesseeagain, but lose the game, as well. The Vols took a lead into halftime, 17 to 7. The Gamecocks answered with 14 points in the 3rd, 21-17, but Tennessee then scored six in the 4th and won the game. This was after they were beaten in overtime by Georgia two weeks before. UT now has an SEC win and they upset a ranked team.

Florida went to Columbia, MO, to play the Missouri Tigers. Mizzou had the better record but Florida was favored to win. The Tigers were missing their starting QB due to a separated shoulder, but young Mauk entered the game with confidence and a healthy throwing shoulder. He proceeded to lead Missouri to a 36 to 17 win. Now Missouri sits on top of the SEC East all alone! After getting rudely introduced into SEC style of football last year, the Mizzou Tigers are playing like they expect to be in the SEC Championship game. Really? Missouri? Yep, that’s a true statement. The Tigers are for real and the rest of the SEC better sit up and take notice. Of course, if Mauk keeps playing like he did against Florida, should keep that starting job.

Out west, it was Stanford hosting UCLA. The Cardinal was coming off a horrible loss to Utah, and UCLA was undefeated. Here at CSF we said the Uclans wanted this game, and Stanford needed this game. Stanford completeyly overwhelmed the Bruins all day long. UCLA was ranked 9th and Stanford 13th before the kickoff, another condemnation of subjective rankings. We saw this one coming.

Auburn, who got beat last year by Texas A&M badly, traveled to College Station for the first time. AuburnThe week before the Aggies’ last second field goal pulled off a win against Ole Miss. Neither defense showed up to play, not unexpected, as they each gave up yards in big bunches. Johnny Manziel went down with some sort of a shoulder injury but returned to the game. He was never himself afterwards, his passes didn’t have any zip and it was obvious he didn’t trust his throwing arm. Auburn, who been rotating their defensive line early and often all game long, put pressure on the ailing QB in the 4thquarter. The Tigers took the lead but left plenty of time on the clock for the high caliber offense of the Aggies. The well-rested D-line sacked Manziel twice at the end  to win the game. Johnny Football watched his repeat as a Heisman trophy winner waft away.

Some sanity was restored to the college football world when Arkansas and Alabama met. The Crimson Tide was the Crimson TIDE! They dominated the Hogs from the opening seconds. One crimson_tideway to sum up the game was when the sideline reporter asked St Nick at halftime, “How do you explain Arkansas having 68 yards on the ground.” He responded, “Well, we’ve missed some tackles and some of our guys have missed their assignments.” Hmmm….that reporter meant that question as praise to how the Tide defense was playing. Saban was a bit upset that the Hogs had gained 68 YARDS! Welcome to Bama Football. The Tide Rolled, 52-0. Oh, and McCarron was out of the game during the 3rd quarter, he had done enough.

Number 6 LSU took on the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford. CSF said the Tigers needed to watch out, the Rebels were better than their record indicates. True to our prediction, Mississippi took it to LSU. The Tigers simply couldn’t stop the Rebels. At halftime, Ole Miss led, 10 to 0. Both teams scored 14 in the 3rd and LSU put up 10 in the 4th. Tie game. Ole Miss took the ball and kicked a game winning field goal. This is a team that has half, HALF, its starters on defense injured, standing on the sidelines. In Oxford they are still partying and hoarse from yelling, “Hotty Toddy”. Yet another upset within the SEC.

The big game of the night was #5 Florida State taking on #3 Clemson. (Another team with the FSU Logomascot of Tigers, there might be too many teams called Tigers.) The stadium was rocking! This was the biggest game ever played in Death Valley since the Georgia contest a few weeks ago. Florida State didn’t give a rip. They forced a turnover on Clemson’s first possession and scored a touchdown. From that moment on, QB Winston put on a Heisman-worthy performance. Clemson couldn’t stop or even slow down  the FSU offense and the defense of the Noles was outstanding! Winston threw for 444 yards, 3 TD’s, and one INT. He is now a frontrunner for the bronze statue. Clemson watched its chances of a BCS Championship invitation sail out the window and Tajh Boyd waved good-bye to his Heisman hopes. Florida State has North Carolina State up next;- shouldn’t be a problem, but for some reason the Seminoles have had trouble with the Wolfpack in the past, especially after beating Clemson.

This was a huge weekend of upsets, mainly in the SEC. Some writers that are now saying that the SEC is falling and not the baddest conference in America, but they don’t understand this league. Just about all the teams in the SEC are good, bordering on great. If they were in another conference, they’d be in the lead and beating up on everyone. That’s what makes the SEC great! Any given Saturday every team is bringing their best, every week. It was another great weekend of College Football!

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