Saturday was interesting. I got really sunburned at the Troy game, but it was good to finally see Tech do some interesting things on offense (reverse to Calvin!). We need to beat the tar out of UVA this Thursday, but I’ll explain more on that later.

Auburn managed to pull out a victory against LSU in a contest best deemed a “defensive struggle.” But they have the inside track to winning the SEC West, and perhaps the whole thing. What was weird, though, was the strange “announcing the penalty and then reversing the call” thing that happened on LSU’s last drive. I still don’t know if the ball was tipped before the interference occurred. That play is reviewable (I’m pretty sure) but I don’t recall one being announced.

Stranger still was the review at the Oklahoma-Oregon game where the ref said that video provided conclusive video evidence that an Oklahoma player touched the ball first on an onside kick by Oregon, when replay showed that there was conclusive video evidence that an Oregon player touched the ball first. I’m favor of replay, but generally when you have it you should get the call right and not make things worse for yourself. That was the worst thrashing I’d heard officials take on-air since the Alamo Bowl debacle last year, though. (Speaking of this – refs need to take elocution classes or something. These guys are horrible at explaining what they mean on these reviews.)

Florida-Tennessee was good, but even better was FSU-Clemson, especially for what will probably be the most memorable half-time interview this year. (Though it will be difficult to top the Mich. St. coach’s “AND THE COACHES ARE SCREWING IT ALL UP” from last year.) If you haven’t heard, Clemson had a FG and extra point attempt blocked in the first half. When Tommy Bowden was asked about this, he said something to the effect of, “That’s it. We’re not kicking any more. Not for the rest of the game.” And he stuck it, too, execpt for the go ahead score near the end of the game, where they got off a successful extra point.

The ACC just sucks right now. UNC barely beat Furman, NC State lost to Southern Miss, Maryland got destroyed by West Virginia, and Virgnia lost to Western Michigan. I never thought beating Troy and Samford handily would make us look good. We could have 3 or 4 coaches get fired this off season.

The non-exhaustive list (all times Eastern):

• Troy @ GT, on in select parts of southern Alabama, 1:30: Well, I’ll be there.
• LSU @ Auburn, CBS, 3:30: Tigers win! Seriously, though, an interesting matchup between the two best teams in the SEC West. Slight edge to AU due to not being in Baton Rouge. I’ll be rooting for AU, due to childhood loyalties.
• Miami @ Louisville, ABC, 3:30: Old Big East vs. New Big East! Either Miami’s defense dominates or the final score will be 50-45. (I don’t think Louisville has a good defense, and I don’t think Miami is as bad as they were at FSU.) So if Miami fails to dominate definsively, the team with the last possesion wins.
• Clemson @ FSU, ESPN, 7:45: I probably wouldn’t ordinarly be interested in the Bowden Bowl, but this has conference implications (though both teams are not in Tech’s division). A true test for both teams – if Clemson wins this game, they’re on the inside track for their division, I’d say.
• Florida @ Tennessee, CBS, 8:00: So CBS is getting into this primetime act, eh? Beats the pants off ABC’s game – I saw Bill Callahan on ESPN Thursday night and he looked down right depressed talking about his game. I think UF or UGA is on the inside track for SEC East, but Tennessee can make a statement here (in terms of the SEC, they already beat down Cal).
• TAMU vs. Army, ESPN2, 9:00: Dad went to USMA, and Bobby Ross is their coach. (FYI: He coached Tech to their 1990 National Title.)

College football is going to be amazing this weekend. Here are seven reasons why (all times Eastern)

1. Michigan at Notre Dame (3:30 PM, NBC): Will Notre Dame falter this week, or wait until sometime later in the season? I wish they wouldn’t wait, but something inside of me is telling me they will. I think it’s the same something that made me doubt every time USC was down at the half last year.

2. Nebraska at USC (8:00 PM, ABC): Is Nebraska really back? My guess is no. This will be yet another chance for the media to tout how wonderful John David Booty/Pete Carroll are at what they do. Of course USC is still the best team of all time; do not question their superiority!

3. Oklahoma at Oregon (3:30 PM, ABC): Some kinda middle-of-the-pack Top 25 showdown! I’m don’t think this game actually matters, but if I were going to be home and it was on TV, I would probably watch it.

4. Miami at Louisville (3:30 PM, ABC): Miami sometimes falters against big teams (see FSU), while Louisville is usually solid against a terrible schedule (see Louisville’s schedule). A great “defense vs. offense” matchup, maybe.

5. Florida at Tennessee (8:00 PM, CBS): Rocky Top is about to get rocked, but this time by a team from a respectable conference. Seriously, what self-respecting SEC team almost loses to a service academy?

6. LSU at Auburn (3:30 PM, CBS): The SEC West has been decided by this game five of the last six years. The home team has won all six of those meetings. Since the game is in Auburn, and John Vaughn learned how to kick this summer, I’m gonna pick the Tigers (non-Bengal variety).

7. Michigan State at Pittsburgh (12:00 PM, ESPN2): The marquee matchup of the weekend? Hardly. What has me interested in this game is whether or not my girlfriend will watch any of it. Only time will tell whether she does or not.

Bunch of thoughts here, as it’s been awhile since I posted.

-You may’ve noticed that I didn’t post the day of the ND game or after. I was kinda bummed out about the game. We had a really good chance to upset ND, but we just couldn’t make 3 scores. If you had told me that we would’ve held the vaunted Irish offense to 14 points, I’d tell you we had a really good chance to win. (I predicted they’d score around 28 points.) I’m still bummed out thinking about it, honestly.

In Tech circles, a lot was made a helmet-to-helmet call against us on Brady Quin. It was definitely a bad call, however, listening to some folks you’d think the refs walked over to Charlie Weis after the play to recieve their payoffs. The fact of the matter is that there was around 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, and I have a hard time believing any call made with that much time left can seriously impact a game.

-We played Samford last weekend. I stayed the whole time (I hate leaving early), which was mostly interesting because got to play nearly 70 players. Even #55 David Brown got in at right tackle, which is mostly notable because he is one of a handful of people at Tech who went to my high school. (I still wish he was on the d-line, though, he doesn’t have the right size or build to be an offensive lineman, in my opinion.)

-While we were taking care of the other Bulldogs of the South, FSU had their hands full with the Troy Trojans, who we play this Saturday. I think as long as Tech doesn’t turn the ball over 4-5 times like FSU did, they should be fine.

-The Braves were mathematically eliminated from division title possiblities just recently. In my years as a Braves fan, this is something that’s never happened, and it’s difficult to come to terms with it. The last time the Braves were probably not going to win the division they got bailed out by a strike, which doesn’t look like is happening this time. Anyone who tries to tell you they’re still realistically in the wild card race is probably delusional, by the way.

That’s about all I got for now.

This is it. It’s Saturday. Sure, we’ve had a few games so far. But today is it. Today’s first filled slate. From noon to late, there will be college football on somehow, somewhere.

That’s why I love this. As explained below, I grew up in the South, which means that college football is something of a religion and is thus everywhere. Being in Atlanta makes it even better – in addition to the weird, 50th-tier SEC game of the week, we also get the crappy 50th-teir ACC game of the week. In fact, here’s my schedule for today (games involving DI-A teams only, sorry Grambling @ Hampton; also, network shown is network on GTCN, your mileage may vary):

Before noon: If I’m really motivated, I’ll go to the Gameday set. I was on SportsCenter last night, I’ll post some pics from the 10pm SC below.
11:30 – Western Kentucky @ UGA (WB)
12:00
–Montana @ Iowa, ESPN
–Vanderbilt @ Michigan, ESPN
–North Texas @ Texas, FSN
3:30
–Rutgers @ UNC, ABC
–Florida Atlantic @ Clemson, ESPN
–Akron @ Penn St., ESPN2
–Lousiana Tech @ Nebraska, FSN
5:30 – California @ Tennessee, ESPN
7:00 (realistcally, I’ll be at the stadium by now, but I like this TV listing vibe so I’ll roll with it)
–UAB @ Oklahoma, TBS
–Virginia @ Pittsburg, ESPNU
–Utah @ UCLA, FSN
7:45 – Washington St. @ Auburn, ESPN2
8:00 – NOTRE DAME @ GEORGIA TECH, ABC
8:45 – Southern Cal @ Arkansas, ESPN
10:15 – BYU @ Arizona, TBS

Now, some pictures of GameDay’s setup at GT, as well as their shoot for Friday (click for a larger view):

Facing southwest, towards the student center. Took this during the afternoon when they were still setting the whole shebang up – notice the screen isn’t there. You can also see the top of the Shaft Campinile in the background.

View from Skiles of the Yellow Jacket Park area – this photo faces northwest.

My ultimate destination after the afternoon shots I took. I’m entirely convinced that if everyone on Earth could try a Junior’s chicken finger basket, we would finally achieve world peace – they’re that good.

This is during the shoot for the 6:00 SportsCenter, when I was actually in the crowd.

I stepped out of the fenced off area for the 10:00 SportsCenter and ESPN Motion takes. If you look closely, you’ll notice that Corso is the only one that actually wears a full suit – Fowler is wearing jeans, and yes, Hebie is wearing shorts.

For the 10:00 SC (actually broadcast after the Nevada – Fresno St. game), I did get on TV. I have the screencaps to prove it.

If you want to try to spot me, try opening up the full size version. Good luck.

For now, enjoy the games folks!