Hey y’all, been a busy week for all of us it seems. Very quiet on the threads and I barely got any questions for the mailbag. Really, it feels like we’re all sort of drained. Let’s not feel that way y’all.

Anchor of Gold Week in Review

Look, we’ve had a rough three weeks. We knew we were going to have a rough three weeks. It’s behind us. What did we find out? We found out we’re not a top five team. Did anyone think we were one? No? Great. Then we’re aiight, right? Hey, I’d have liked to have stayed with UGA and Bama more than we did, absolutely. Yeah, we have been absolutely outclassed in those games. It hurts. It feels like a Vanderbilt of old. It really shouldn’t. We’re a much better football team than ‘same old Vandy’. Yeah, we should have beaten Florida, but that’s football. It’s frustrating, especially as we’ve only beaten Florida once in 20 years, but it’s not devestating.

Do we not remember after the KSU game where we all thought we were probably the best team in the East? Don’t let two games where we underperformed against undeniably top teams in the country make us think we’re back to 2002 or something. Every single game left on the schedule is winnable. All of them. It’s completely reasonable to see a 6-7 win season out of it, even when accounting for Vanderbilt doing their thing here and there. Let’s not forget that’s about where we pegged a “reasonable” prediction on the season from the get go.

The comeback starts today.

Around the League

• Michigan State 14 @ #7 Michigan 10. You can’t spell Lloyd without... wait...uh... uhm... some joke about Harbaugh? I don’t know. The fact is MSU has beaten Michigan eight times out of the last ten matchups. That’s some classic rivalry game schadenfreude. MSU, always seen as the little brother, seems to constantly give Michigan a needed humility lesson every year. In an absolute downpour, MSU appeared as it was going to give the game away in the final seconds with a late hit sending Michigan to midfield with less than a minute left. It wasn’t enough Michigan dropped an easy pass and just came up short. Michigan gave away the game, plainly and simply, with five turnovers.

• Iowa State 38 @ #3 Oklahoma 31. Iowa State has one of these in them every year, who would have thought it would be against a seemingly titanic Sooners team? If you were one of the few expecting it, chances are you turned it off by the half, with the sooners up 24-13. Then the third quarter happened. The Cyclones roared back with 11 unanswered points to tie the game with two minutes left in the period. The big play came early in the fourth, however, when Cyclones QB threw what should have been a pass for a short gain to Trever Ryen, but Ryen broke it for 57 yards and the score. Oklahoma would tie up the game, but the Cyclones would not go away.

That’s really it y’all, kind of a short list of hilarity this week.

There ISN’T Other Footbaw

No seriously, there isn’t. There’s like one good game this week that’s worth watching and I’m not even including ours there. Gross. It’s so bad gameday isn’t even going to be at a 1A game instead opting for the TITANIC BOUT of James Madison vs Villanova. But I’m dedicated to keeping your TVs on something resembling footbaw, or at the very least, something that will be hilarious. So here goes...

• South Carolina @ Tennessee, 1100 CT (1200 ET) - ESPN. I’d say poor ESPN, but I cannot feel sympathy for them. This is a cripple fight and what better way to prep you for our cripple fight but to watch one that’s even worse? The extra bonus in this total coinflip is that it’s a battle of incompetent coaches. Muschamp vs Jones —- FIGHT!
• Purdue @ #7 Wisconsin, 1430 CT (1530 ET) - Big10 Network. To quote ATVS, this is a “sneaky good” game and maybe the only one really worth watching tomorrow. So if our game gets out of hand, this one will be a game worth at least checking out. Alternate: Ga Tech @ #11 Miami. Tech might sneak up on DA U, so keep an eye on it.
• UCLA @ Arizona, 2000 CT (2100 ET) - Pac12 Network. Y’all know my feelings on the Pac12. You know how much it kills me to do this. This is literally the most watchable game of the late games if only because it’s a reasonable matchup and it’ll be at least something different. After two cripple fights, I’m not about to tell you to watch Aggie-Florida. This game will at least be interesting in the same way watching minor league sports is? I don’t know.
• Oregon @ #23 Stanford, 2200 CT (2300 ET) - FS1. Your Pac-12 Degenerate Game of the Week! This actually stands to be a good football game, so at least a whole day of total crap will be rewarded. Granted, you’ll be long long drunk and useless by this point, but at least you’ll be watching something resembling football as you’re passing out. The caveat being that you have to have FS1 to get it, an apparently rare channel? I get it. But I always hear lots of complaining when games are on FS1 and FS2...

Get Ready... for VU Football

The comeback starts today. I know it, y’all know it, Mason knows it, the team knows it. They’re through the worst of it and now they have to stand up and make a statement against the naysayers. Lots of sports commentary are providing bulletin board material for our boys. Beat Mississippi and we’re back on track for a good to very good season. Lose today, and all is not lost, but then we really have to start to re-evaluate where we are as a program and where we’re heading.

We’ve got our usual totally balanced and serious preview of our foes, and it feels only fair to post theirs of us. In addition, Tom had a great conversation/podcast with RCR-er Zach Berry regarding the matchup. We also have Q&As, but at the time I’m writing this we don’t have the direct links, so sorry I don’t have the direct link here.

Finally our predicts post is also up, so feel free to chime in with your own picks.

Gametime!