FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Monday Night Football's over and done til next week, but the weekend football games are still a few days away from kick-off. What's a girl (or guy) to do? Catch up on your college football and get ready for the next round with the Wednesday Weekly report, always featuring the best quotes from last week's coverage.

Yeah, I know it’s Thursday but better late than never, right?

I’m gearing up for the Wake Forest-Clemson game, which just kicked off. It’s the one game this week I’m not confident picking. Both of them were supposed to be at the top of the ACC, but both have flopped pretty miserably at least once this season. Alabama beat Clemson but ‘Bama’s shown it’s a better team than most people thought in Week One. Maryland beat Clemson, but just barely and come on, it’s Maryland. Who knows what’s going on there. Then again, Wake lost to Navy. Navy. Normally, I’d go with the Demon Deacons just because Clemson’s uniforms are obnoxious, but they’re rocking the all-white duds tonight so let’s just call it a toss-up, shall we?

Clemson at Wake Forest is just one of the big name games on this weekend’s schedule. Of course last weekend, when I had nothing to do all Saturday, boasted a really boring line-up but this week, when I had big plans to venture out of my college football cave, there are potentially good games from noon til night.

First up at noon is the Red River Rivalry. There’s pretty much nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said 5 million times so I’ll just say I’m looking forward to this game more than any games in the last few weeks. I’ll be glued to the screen, texting updates to my Sooner-and-Sam-Bradford-obsessed little sis, who’ll be otherwise occupied on the softball field.

That game’s the same time as East Carolina-Virginia, and I’m curious to see how that one turns out. While it’s definitely not on the same playing field as Texas-Oklahoma, it’ll be interesting to see if UVA’s as bad as they looked in every game except the one against Maryland.

Of course, Arizona State at USC isn’t televised in my area, but even though I’m not getting my weekly dose of Mark Sanchez eye candy, I’ll be keeping up online. How did people survive football season before the Internet??

Tennessee at Georgia is not as compelling as in years past. Shame. Tennessee’s pretty bad and Georgia’s great but not as good as people originally thought. If UT loses, they’re pretty much done. UGA’s already proven it’s a beatable team, but Tennessee hasn’t even looked decent against anyone of note. I think the Notre Dame – UNC match-up might actually be more exciting because they’re more closely matched (I could be proved completely wrong on this by Saturday afternoon).

LSU-Florida and Penn State-Wisconsin both at primetime means this is not going to be the weekend I finally make it out on the town. Are you kidding? These would both have to be complete blowouts before halftime for me to turn them off. I am tentatively picking LSU over Florida, just because I like them better and because Tim Tebow cannot beat the Tigers singlehandedly. Although I’m sure he’ll give it a good try. And I’m unequivocally picking Penn State over Wisconsin, which is something I never would’ve done in the last couple years. The Badgers, for at least the last two seasons, were the team that always seemed to be on the verge of losing but always managed to win. This year, they’ve been on the verge of winning but managed to lose. Very small but very significant difference. I don’t think the Lions are letting Wisconsin turn that around this week.

And finally, since it’s not Wednesday, there are no Rick Walker Wrap-up of the best quotes of the week. Actually, there are not Rick Walker quotes because whatever game he was covering was boring and I didn’t watch it. There are no other Quotes of Note because, well, there were no other Quotes of Note. The commentary was about as interesting as the games (so not very interesting). This week should be a lot better, for quotes and kick-**** football.