Well, I was wrong. Sure, I knew Ron Zook had terrible judgement, awful clock management and basically managed to underperform in every way, but I did not expect the Illini to come out looking that bad. Not the whole team, mind you. The defense was solid. It was the offense that sucked.
In some cultures, a performance like that would be followed with ritual suicides by those responsible.
I want to be clear - when i say the Big Ten is having a "down year," I do not mean that my favorite team is doing poorly and therefore the conference is weaker. This is what Skunk Bear and Buckeye fans do - especially when they find themselves losing games. They use it to deny other teams any kind of credit.
But the Big Ten is objectively down this year - the Penn State/Iowa game was horrid to watch. Same with the Penn State/Illinois game. Ugly, inept football by badly-coached teams unable to execute even basic fundamentals. Sad to say it, but if I want to see decent game play, I have to watch the cheaters in the SEC. It's that bad.
Making it worse is that the Wolverines are rolling along in the fetid wake of this Tsunami of suck, acting like their team has accomplished something. It hasn't, it has simply showed up to watch other teams self-destruct.
Tomorrow's game against Nebraska will be decisive. I expect the Huskers will stomp all over the Wolverines, who (as one would expect) are starting to buy into their own hype.
Beating Nebraska would be huge for the Skunk Bears because it would mark their first quality victory of the season. I think it says something that a team can go 8-2 without beating anyone ranked and still think they have accomplished great things. Oh well, time will tell.
PENN STATE'S HELPING HAND FROM ESPN: Well, that was fast. here I thought Penn State might pay some sort of price for its grotesque pederasty scandal, but the college-football-industrial complex can't let an institution like that go down without a fight.
It was all I could do not to vomit during the ABC/ESPN coverage last week featuring maudlin music and Paterno's sobbing kid saying "We miss you, dad." Yeah, I bet you do. And I bet those kids miss their innocence and not feeling violated. Shame how your football program self-detonated. Let the record show that this blog feels no sympathy whatsoever.
Indeed, the more I find out about Penn State, the more twisted the whole thing becomes. Joe Paterno is indeed a tragic hero in the Greek sense - a man with great gifts who is ultimately doomed by his own flaws. That's pretty much the definition of tragic.
But I do not have a lot of sympathy for a man who basically got to punch his own ticket for 40+ years. JoePa's supposed to be a Catholic, so he should remember the Seven Deadly Sins. Pride is the one that got to him.
Seriously, the time to retire is when the put up a statue to you. Honestly, they should at least wait until you are dead, but since we now live for the moment, having you totter over in your walker upon your well-deserved retirement is fine.
The problem with putting it up while you are still working is that if things go badly, they may want to take it down. Oh, the university is saying they plan to leave it alone, but it's still early yet. Wait till the trial starts.
Pride is what did in Paterno. He wanted to be the winningest coach evah, but what does that even mean in this day and age? We play 50 percent more games than teams used to, so it's an easy mark to make. Brady Hoke has an "unprecedented" eight wins already in his first year. Back when Michigan had nine games on the schedule, that was saying something. But now? It's hitting par, nothign more.
Indeed, despite the record, it's been clear for a while that Paterno doesn't really coach much. he's been sitting in the press box more often than not, and his assistants do all the recruiting. Things were different when he started, of course, and that's the point. Paterno's old enough to know that Bear Bryant didn't have platoons of grad assistants to cater to his every need, which is why his "milestone" is even more pathetic. He's old enough to know better, and that what makes this whole thing so tawdry.
GO STATE, BEAT INDIANA: Of course I cannot neglect my beloved Spartans and enthusiastically support their efforts against the hapless Hoosiers. No mercy! Give them nothing, take from them everything!
And start saving it up for Wisconsin.
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