Have Compassion as Kev, Vents ...

If you’re a resident of Florida right now life is not so good. With a massive hurricane beating down from The Gulf of Mexico you are either evacuating, sand bagging or stocking up on gas, water and provisions while praying really, really hard. Yes Northerners, the sunshine state is not always sunny and that 3.5 million dollar waterfront home you got a “wicked deal” on doesn’t look so inviting now does it? I’m not even gonna talk about boat owners scrambling around for safe dockage. I few less hundred thousand of them would be a blessing for the environment and the fish population. By the way, running north and hiding in Georgia, the Carolina’s or Tennessee won’t help either. Trust me on this one. 

Take heart however because all is not lost. There is a significant portion of the Southern population that is at a lower level of happiness. Actually, the lower level is kind of spread-out all-over America. I’m not talking about storms here; I’m talking about college football in October. 

Last week was one of the greatest weekends for some college football fans and one of the darkest for others. There were five huge, earth-shattering upsets across the country that, although not as deadly or destructive as a hurricane, were non the less highly significant in the lives of millions. Michigan falling to Washington (27-17), Tennessee losing to Arkansas (19-14) Missouri getting spanked by Texas A&M (41-10) and Alabama getting upset by Vanderbilt (40-35) proved to me that anything can and will happen on any given Saturday and the big sports book pages don’t know squat. No, my picks did not do well but I feel vindicated in my philosophy to stay away from the big, upset prone games. For once I think it’s better to go small then go big when making picks. More on this to follow. 

I learned a valuable lesson last weekend. I discovered that it’s more fun to watch an underdog win over a heavily favored team that they haven’t beaten in thirty years then collect a few dollars on a winning bet. I saw more goal posts taken down last Saturday then I have in the last twenty years. It seemed like every time I changed channels some student body somewhere in America was ripping down a goalpost. After Vanderbilt’s huge upset over Alabama not only did the goal post come down but it was then triumphantly carried down Broadway in Nashville and tossed in the river. Well, done I say!! 

Needless to say there are a lot of fans in America right now wondering if their team has what it takes to go the distance. With a playoff format of twelve teams taking place this year and the fact that we’re barely at the halfway point of the season I would say don’t panic but you never know. After this past week anything can happen.

Some teams of course remain strong and for a few brief hiccups look as though a solid season is going to be in the mix. Georgia, Ol’ Miss and Texas of course are all undefeated. Texas has a huge rivalry game the weekend against Oklahoma so it remains to be seen who will come out on top. Will Arch Manning remain the starter for The Longhorns? Will be an interesting game to watch, definitely must-see competition. 

For about the fifth time this season I have decided to change my strategy when picking football games. No more big rivalries. No

more marquee matchups in prime-time slots. I’m gonna start looking at the William and Mary’s, Hofstra’s and Texas Tech’s of college football. It might take more research time but what the heck, time is free right? It’s not like I was killing it with my latest methodology so obviously a change is in order. 

All in all, it been a fun year so far. Upsets aside there have been some great games early on with several young stars beginning to stand out. I have literally no idea how the new playoff format is gonna pan out so of course it’s a long shot trying to decide who will be in and who will be out. With a wide-open month of conference play coming up no one is being counted out. I’m sure if we all survive the hurricane season that in itself will be a major victory!! Play On I Say!’

Kev

Kev's Corner Our Staffs Weekly Sports perspective

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