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Cigars & Football – A Simple Blend

Week 2

Week 2

Wow! Was week 1 great or what? Nail-biters, close calls, squeak-by wins, blow outs, dominant performances and then there were complete let-downs! Isn’t college football GREAT!? Welcome to Week 2!

Alabama vs Texas– The last time these two teams met it was after the 2009 season and everything was on the line for the National Championship. Bama won. Just a little perspective, Avatar was the top movie, the Space Shuttle was still being launched, Lady Gaga was just entering the music scene and pop star Michael Jackson had died. Since that time these two programs have gone in different directions. Alabama has won five more national titles while Texas has been bounced around from coach to coach like the unwanted foster child. Saturday these two will met again. Back in 2019 the Longhorns invited LSU to Austin and it was a hell of a game. The Tigers, led by Joe Burrow, won 45-38, and LSU went on the win the National Title that year. If the Longhorns would have somehow been able to extract a victory from the jaws of defeat, it could have turned everything around for them.  Now they are tempting fate one more time. The big question is, “can Texas hang with Alabama?” The Horns have two very good players, in RB Bijan Robinson & WR Xavier Worthy, and their new QB Quinn Ewers is best described as low on experience but could be, might be, wanna be, high on potential. This should allow the burnt orange the ability to at least move the ball. However, that won’t last for long if the Texas line cannot hold up. Alabama averaged allowing just 85 rushing yards per game last year, Will Anderson is back and better than ever, and the Linebacker corps is a WAY better than they were, so the O-Line for Texas has a very daunting task, and they have to be able to keep this up for four quarters. Alabama’s offensive, has a returning Heisman winner at QB, solid running backs, agile and fast receives and an effective and efficient line. The Horn’s defense as yet to be tested and they appear to be very green around the gills. It is highly doubtful that Texas is going to win this game, BUT if they can keep it close, make it come on down to the fourth quarter before it gets away from them, or hopefully Alabama has a very bad day, if any of these happen it will help them get back to where they want to be. If they don’t keep it close and allow Alabama to be what we all expect Alabama to be, it will be a very, VERY long day for the Horns. BUT Texans are a very proud, very arrogant bunch. They can be beaten;- just ask Santa Ana about the Alamo. But these guys have long memories. Just ask Santa Ana about San Jacinto. Bama, buckle up those chin straps!!!!

Iowa State vs Iowa – for some reason, Iowa State cannot seem to win the Cy-Hawk game. The last time they did manage a victory was eight years ago, and it was six years before that they’d won another. So that’s two victories in 16 years, THAT’s not good! But, maybe, just maybe, the Cyclones can eke out another victory this year. If each team’s week one games gives us any indication, this should be the year. Last week the Hawkeyes met South Dakota State, that’s right, the Jackrabbits, and Iowa needed two safeties in the second half to win the game 7-3. Now the experts, whomever they might be, say Iowa is just getting used to a new offense. That is a big fat Baloney Sandwich! Iowa hasn’t changed their offense since the 1950’s and if anyone comes there and tries to change it, the fans would show up with pitchforks and torches demanding that person be burned at the stake for heresy. The Cyclones, however, dominated their lower division foe, 42-10, and they looked like they should have looked. Both of these games were supposed to be tune-up games, and for ISU, it was. What does it say about an Iowa team that couldn’t move the ball against the Jackrabbits? No matter what anyone says, nor what excuses they come up with, the answer is not good! ISU is a team that is on the move upwards, they were supposed to take that next step last year but didn’t. Maybe they were prematurely overrated. This might be the year for them to get over that mediocrity, Iowa State had the perfect opportunity to beat the Hawks last year and let it slip through their fingers. Now they have another perfect opportunity, the Cyclones are still being considered the underdog, so if they want to get to that next level they’ve got to win this one. Surely they can out hop the Jackrabbits!

Missouri vs K-State – Missouri is a bit like Texas-light, we’ve heard the same thing from them year in and year out, “This year Missouri has the weapons in place.” And year after year they haven’t had it. IS this the year? QB Brady Cook looked pretty good against Louisiana Tech as did the entire offense, as well they should have. K-State however is not the Mighty Jackrabbits, oh, sorry, I mean, LA Tech Bulldogs, still laughing about Iowa. Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz is sitting at 12-12 and what he needs is a winning streak, with the SEC schedule that Mizzou has in front of them they need to be on a roll when that kicks in, so they need to keep whatever momentum they have going. K-State last week fared far better than Iowa when they took on the South Dakota Coyotes winning 34-0, it’s the coyotes not the mighty jackrabbits.  Everything went K-State’s way, but if there is an area of concern it would be the passing of QB Adrian Martinez, he likes very short passes, and is not very accurate down the field, the further down the field the less accurate he appears to be. Against the Coyotes he went 11-15 for 53 yards, against a defense like, say, Georgia, or Alabama that would be completely believable, but that’s not the defense he faced. Luckily for the Wildcat fans the running game was fantastic and the defense was outstanding. In this border war game these two teams are evenly matched, more than likely the victor will be the one that commits the least mistakes and turnovers. Look for this game to go down to the wire, with Mizzou pulling out the victory.

Short Smokes

Arkansas State is not going to enjoy their trip to Columbus Ohio

Miami better not take Southern Miss lightly, these Eagles have a habit of pulling an upset when they shouldn’t

South Carolina vs Arkansas is going to be good game and good indicator where each program stands

Wake Forest vs Vandy, did anyone really believe the Commodores would be 2-0? That’ll end this weekend

If Minnesota doesn’t beat Western Illinois when PJ Flecks boat is sunk

In the Battle of the Egg Heads, Northwestern wins over Duke

Penn State, better have a much better performance over Ohio then they did last week.

Army will outrun the Roadrunners of UTSA, Go Army, Beat Navy!

NC State had a tough win against Eastern Carolina, they can’t have a repeat against Charleston Southern

Clemson will take on Furman and man, it would be great if the Paladins won just because they’re called the Paladins! So cool

Texas A&M schedule Appalachian State has a tune up game but them Aggies better be more than ready because App State is FAR better than expected

Tennessee will take their fast oriented offense to Pitt to see how it fares, and it’ll score points but Pitt still gets the win

Washington State goes to Wisconsin  and they better learn to stop the run otherwise the Badgers will just run all day

Colorado goes down the road a ways to play Air Force and there’s not a lot of confidence in the Buffs

Memphis fans are very worried about playing Navy

Georgia plays Samford…yawn

Houston and Texas Tech will sling it out with Tech winning

Kansas has a better record than West Virginia but it won’t help them in this game

Kentucky needs to play better if they want to take down Florida

USC just might be better this year, Stanford more than likely will not test them

Arizona State will get gunned down by Oklahoma State

Auburn losing to San Jose State would just crack me up!

TCU will be beating up on The Daughter’s old school Tarleton State

Boston College vs VA Tech, each one needs a win

Baylor and BYU will be a good game to stay up late

Mississippi State is not going to have a problem against Arizona

The Lions of North Alabama will get on the winning track this week against UVA Wise, hopefully….Roar Lions!  

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