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Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King (13) rolls out to pass against Appalachian State during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in College Station, Texas.
Texas A&M quarterback Haynes King (13) rolls out to pass against Appalachian State during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in College Station, Texas.
We begin this week with Reveille, the mascot collie and first Lady of Aggie Land, who made her debut in College Station when Herbert Hoover was occupying the Oval Office – 1931.
Legend has it that some cadets were driving back to campus when they hit a dog, stopping they brought it back to campus hiding it as best they could, because pets were not allowed on campus.
It worked until the next morning, when Reveille was blown putting their dog in a fit of wild barking, but in the aftermath a nickname and a mascot were born.
Reveille would lead the band onto the field before games, and when she died on January 18, 1944, she was afforded a full military funeral at Kyle Field along with a 21-gun salute.
All the deceased Reveilles are buried outside the north end zone, with a special scoreboard above so that they can always watch the Aggies outscore its opponents.
Since 1960 the collie has been cared for by a “mascot corporal” who escorts her to all functions and events and Miss Rev, as she is known, is the highest ranking member of the Cadet Corps wearing 5 silver diamonds, the commander of the corps has only four.
And if Miss Rev falls asleep on a cadet’s bed he must find another place to sleep, and when she is brought to class and should happen to bark, class is immediately ended by its professor because Miss Rev is bored. You gotta love these college traditions.
This weekend let’s see which teams appear to be dogging it, and which like Miss Rev, strut off with head held high after another big convincing victory.
No. 13 Miami at No. 24 Texas A&M
The Miami Hurricanes are the football version of Samuel Beckett’s classic play “Waiting for Godot.”
The Canes faithful have been banging the “this is the year” drum seemingly longer than Ringo Starr waiting for the “Sons of Howard Schnellenberger” to finally awaken from its Rip Van Winkle slumber of irrelevancy, and reemerge as a significant factor on the national landscape.
As the Old England 17th century idiom reads; “The proof is in the pudding” and the scoreboard never lies.
The Canes new headman Mario Cristobal, a detailed disciplinarian, who arrived in Coral Gables by way of Eugene, Oregon and comfortably fortified with a 10-year $80 million contract is fully immersed in the lore of Miami football having played on the 1989 and ’91 championship teams, and may indeed be the right guy to begin to restore its lost luster.
On offense these “Sons of George Mira” are under the command of its cannon armed, NFL QB prospect Tyler Van Dyke, whose pinpoint deep ball hits with the accuracy of a Ukrainian missile, and target a passel of receivers; Xavier Restrepo, Jacoby George, and Brashard Smith, while Jaylen Knighton is the Canes principle high cotton road-hauler.
On D, Cristobal, a defensive specialist made a Boris Spassky-like brilliant move by hiring defensive wizard Kevin Steele to fix an eleven that showed a shocking anathema toward one of the fundamentals of the game; tackling, a problematic deficiency that was heavily emphasized during fall camp.
Hopefully those defensive lessons for backers Cory Flagg Jr., Waynmon Steed, and tackle Jacob Lichtenstein, having fallen on deaf ears, as its D is facing its first real tackling measuring stick on Saturday.
Jimbo Fisher is entering his fifth season as the head coach of The 12th Man, and although his tenure was expected to fit like a perfectly tailored ensemble from Brunello Cucinelli, it is looking more like something off the rack from Marshalls fraying not only at the cuffs but the nerves of the faithful as well.
Despite being handed a Saudi-like chest of riches, a 10-year $95 million contract, including some of the best facilities in America, a series of top-10 recruiting classes, and a rabid fan base, Fisher has yet to demonstrate, as witnessed by last week’s desultory upset loss to Appalachian State, that he is the right guy to move the Aggies to the next level.
The most annoying issue is an offense that could play a starring role in an episode of the “Flintstones” as its stone-age cloud of dust attack, led by QB Haynes King, tailback Devon Achane, and receivers Evan Stewart, and Ainias Smith, motors like the BostonPublic School’s transportation department, always a couple of beats behind.
On D, the “Sons of Dat Nguyen” led by backers Antonio Johnson, Chris Russell, and Edgerin Cooper flies to the ball hitting with the force of Smitty forging a shoe, or the comedian Gallagher mallet smashing a watermelon, and is the strength of the 2022 edition of the 12th Man.
This is a difficult game upon which to get a handle, A&M is a desperate bunch that can’t afford a second consecutive loss, while Miami arrives in College Station buoyed by its spirit of renewal, led by its new coach Mario Cristobal.
That said, we’re going with Reveille and the Aggies, who find a way to capture the W.
This will be the 88th meeting between these classic former Big Eight rivals, and before conference jumping was all the rage, and long before the arrival of cell phones, this was a Thanksgiving weekend staple coached by some of legends of the sport, with an invite to the Orange Bowl usually riding on the outcome, and often leading to a national championship.
Those of us who are old enough recall the 1971 the Johnny “The Jet” Rodgers game, touted as the “Game of the Century,” which pitted undefeated and No.1 Nebraska vs undefeated and No. 2 Oklahoma.
It was called by the iconic Chris Schenkel, and witnessed by 55 million viewers, which at the time was a record for a college football game, it was won by the Cornhuskers 35-31 and many refer to it as the perfect football game.
And even though times have changed, Oklahoma is heading to the SEC, and Nebraska has been a member of the Big Ten for over a decade, this matchup still carries as many electrical sparks as the back of a Green Line trolley.
In Sooner Land when its headman Lincoln Riley abruptly bolted Norman for the bright lights$$$ of L.A. settling in at the iconic Coliseum of the USC Trojans, the “Sons of Bud Wilkinson” in a well-received move, hired an old friend, and first time coach Frank Venables.
This defensive guru spent the last decade calling the defense for the two-time national champion Clemson Tigers, and previously put-in 13-years holding the same title on the staff of Oklahoma icon Bobby Stoops.
On offense the “Sons of Jamelle Holieway” are commanded by QB Dillon Gabriel, a UCF transfer, and the dart tossing southpaw who hits his target with the ease of a Don Rickles insult, is assisted by a pair of quality earth-movers Eric Gray, and Marcus Major,while wideouts Marvin Mims, and Theo Wease provide game changing targets.
On D, the “Descendants of Lee Roy Selmon” led by its tackling machine, backer Danny Stutsman, safety Billy Bowman, and corner Justin Broiles, fly to the ball, and under Venables are working to close any of those glaring loopholes that have plagued the Sooners in the past.
Last Sunday in Lincoln, Nebraska, with apologies to Alen Ginsburg, a cleansing wind “Howl-ed” through the Nebraska football program, as its iconic native son Scott Frost, who quarterbacked Big Red to the 1997 national championship, was finally shown the proverbial door after his woeful 16-31 four-plus year tenure, albeit with a pain soothing $15 million buyout. America, what a country!
The most positive aspect of his firing is the elimination of any interference for our old friend, the Huskers offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, who twice was the head coach of UMass football.
When left to his own diabolical devices, this quarterback whisper has the ability to dissect a defense with the same dexterity as that of artisan butcher Dario Cecchini, and his current project QB Casey Thompson, the transfer from Texas, has a high trajectory assisted by wideouts Trey Palmer, and Marcus Washington, while tailbacks Anthony Grant and Ajay Allen are defense testing road runners on an offense that is beginning to jell.
Unfortunately, the Huskers bottom feeding D, featuring backer Luke Reiman, and corner Tommy Hill, plays defense about as well as the Afghan Army, and displays more holes than a Palestinian home on the West Bank.
This is the first road test for the new headman of Norman, and with Nebraska’s coaching change, it becomes a must more dangerous contest, but we’re sticking “Boomer Sooner” to get the W.
No. 12 BYU at No. 25 Oregon
Hey Big 12, beware of what you wish for.
Next year, BYU’s coach Kalani Sitake, a Tongan native, is shredding his team’s independent status and accepting an invitation to become a member of the Big 12 conference.
And as his stellar 28-6 resume since the midpoint of the 2019 season indicates, these “Sons of Ty Detmer” aren’t just happy to sign on, but intent on challenging for conference supremacy
QB Jaren Hall, the Cougars rugged, fiery, and hard edged field general has the ability to hit a target on the run better than an Olympian biathlete, and his trio of defensive stressing receivers, Chase Roberts, Keanu Hill, and Kody Epps have better hands than Allstate. But its ground assault manned by Christopher Brown, and Lopini Katoa is about as dynamic as a speech by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
[Note: it remains unknown if receivers Gunner Romney, and Puka Nacua are healthy enough to go.]
On D, the “Sons of Kyle Van Noy” attack behind a quartet of brutish backers; Max Tooley, Keenan Pili, Payton Wilgar, and Ben Bywater, who hit with the same searing intensity as a bone-crushing check from Maple Leaf legend, Eddie “Clear the track, here comes Shack,” and play with the same ornery edge as John Wayne’s character Sheriff Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit.”
In Eugene, after an embarrassing national television demolition by the Georgia Bulldogs then bouncing back by rolling (yawn) over FCS Eastern Washington, coach Dan Lanning’s Ducks would easily stump the panel of the classic game show “To Tell the Truth.”
Will the real footballers from Eugene please stand up!
And if the Ducks are going to challenge for the Pac-12 title its QB, Auburn transfer Bo Nix must be able to better navigate any choppy seas in games of this magnitude. During his three seasons starting on the Plains of Auburn, he was like the character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem; “There Was a Little Girl.”
When he is good, he is very, very, good, but when he is bad, he is awful, and his predilection of throwing an interception at the most inopportune time has been his career albatross.
In his new setting of “Phil Knight U” aka Oregon, the Ducks are continuing it search for that Ponce de Leon elixir of transforming into a more explosive offense, and are counting on Nix to be able to ignite that spark with assists from tailbacks Mar’Keiise Irving, Sean Dollars, and Byron Cardwell while receivers Troy Franklin, Dont’e Thornton, and tight end Terrance Ferguson provide comforting targets.
On D, the “Sons of Mel Renfro” anchored by a quartet of backers; Noah Sewell, Keith Brown, Jackson LaDuke, and Justin Flowe are facing, with apologies to Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting” a mathematical equation of the nth degree in the best formula to usein order to corral the Cougs leather-tough QB and his group of receivers.
Coach Kalani Sitake has called BYU’s first trip to Autzen Stadium since the second year of GHW Bush Administration 1990, (it was upset by the Ducks 32-16) “a defining moment for our guys,” and we think this time the Boys from Provo solve the equation earning the huge "W."
No. 22 Penn State at Auburn
The last time Penn State made a foray into SEC country Barak Obama was in the second year of his first term, Tom Brady was commanding the New England Patriots, and Tom Menino was the Mayor of Boston – 2010.
And as its faithful zealots are well aware, its past two seasons have hardly been a godsend for Coach James Franklin’s Happy Valley footballers, who have been looking more like Dickens character Jacob Marley, wandering around in the college football wilderness swirling in a vortex of mediocrity as indicated by its 11-11 mark.
This game makes the journey to the Plains of Auburn, nearly as important as what hat and what designer Kate will be wearing at the Queens funeral. Please, enough!
On offense, the “Sons of John Hufnagel” are under the command of its grizzled dual-threat fourth-year starter QB Sean Clifford, who after last season’s erratic passing performance needed an immediate tune up. Freshman backup QB Drew Allar, a potential star in waiting, will, according to plan, play in at least one series, with both QBs targeting solid wideouts Tre Wallace, and Parker Washington.
But what brings a sparkle of hope to the eyes of the Lions faithful is the long awaited reemergence, after a two-year hiatus, of a quality running attack that plows the field behind a quartet led by its starry “Speedy Gonzales” freshman, Nicholas Singleton,who last week was finally able to end the embarrassing eyebrow arching 651 day, 17-game California-like drought of not having a single tailback reach and eclipse the 100-yard plateau. Stunning!
The Nits new d-coordinator Manny Diaz, the former headman of Miami, will utilize backers Curtis Jacobs, Abdul Carter, and end Chop Robinson, and attack in a Luftwaffe-like blitzing frenzy, intent, with apologies to Anthony Perkins, in terrorizing the Auburn QBs.
In Auburn, we don’t want to say that the coaching seat of headman Bryan Harsin, by way of Boise State, is warm, but after finishing last season with five consecutive losses, the theme song amongst the Tiger faithful is Glen Fry’s classic; “The Heat is on!”
In a response, Harsin smartly went out and hired two new coordinators, and War Eagle intends to attack by utilizing its traditional identity of a heavy dose of its talented steamrolling tailbacks, Tank Bigsby, and Jarquez Hunter, who have the ability to softena defense by inflicting the same pain as a George Forman right to the solar plexus.
Unfortunately, the Tigers field generals, T.J. Finley, a Texas A&M transfer, and his partner Robby Ashford perform more like McDonald’s middle managers, rather than big-time SEC field generals, and unless there is a dramatic and unexpected improvement, Auburn will continue to struggle in trying to become a legitimate SEC west challenger, as the clock on the future employ of Harsin is ticking louder.
The D of the “Sons of Takeo Spikes” anchored by end Derrick Hall, tackle Marcus Harris, and backer Owen Pappos are “run stoppers extraordinaire,” but will be severely tested by the relentless earth movers from Happy Valley.
This will be an “Orange Out” game for the Tigers, but in a close game, we don’t believe that the War Eagle faithful will be rolling (covering the trees in toilet paper) Toomers Corner in celebration of a victory.
Paul Kenney has written about national college football for 15 years. He watched his first college football game, the 1963 Army/Navy game, featuring Roger Staubach, with his dad on the top floor of a Dorchester three-decker. In the past he has hosted a cable and radio national college football radio show. He is a Heisman Trophy voter. Each week he will look ahead to the best games on tap for Saturday.
Paul Kenney is a long-time follower of college football and each week breaks down four of the top games.
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