2008 Woodie Awards
Wild day of college football full of shockers
Mike Miller
Issue date: 10/18/05 Section: Sports
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College football, to me, is more exciting to watch sometimes than the NFL.
College football is filled with skilled, unknown teams and upsets.
It's all about the polls and rankings. If a lower seed beats a higher seed, it's a pretty big deal. Since there are no playoffs in college football, teams need to be good and ranked high to contend for a national title, or just to get recognized for an invitation to one of the many bowl games.
This past weekend was filled with exciting games. I'll begin by talking about the home team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Going into the weekend at 5-1 with big wins over Michigan and Purdue, they were ranked number 22. Wisconsin, on the other hand, after losing to Northwestern last week, managed to get the number 23 ranking. Minnesota and Wisconsin have set a Division-I record for most games played against each other, meeting 115 times. They've played each other every year since 1907. The teams play for the Paul Bunyan Axe. The winner of the game keeps the axe at its school for the year. This year, the Badgers brought the axe to Madison, Wis. by recovering a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown with about 30 seconds left to play.
I am pretty disappointed in the Gophers. To let someone block a punt when you're punting from your own 5-yard line is just ridiculous. Not to mention the punter just bobbled the ball; it wasn't a bad snap. I've come to the conclusion that all Minnesota sports teams can be awesome, but are never good enough, and end up doing horrible in the end.
One of the most amazing games played last weekend was the University of Southern California versus Notre Dame game. Why was it so amazing? The game was down to about 12 seconds left when USC quarterback Matt Leinart tried running the ball in the end zone and fumbled it out of bounds. However, the referee on the sideline signaled for the clock to continue running. USC pleaded their case, and the referee put seven seconds back on the clock. Leinart then ran the ball in from the 1-yard line for the winning touchdown.
College football is filled with skilled, unknown teams and upsets.
It's all about the polls and rankings. If a lower seed beats a higher seed, it's a pretty big deal. Since there are no playoffs in college football, teams need to be good and ranked high to contend for a national title, or just to get recognized for an invitation to one of the many bowl games.
This past weekend was filled with exciting games. I'll begin by talking about the home team, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Going into the weekend at 5-1 with big wins over Michigan and Purdue, they were ranked number 22. Wisconsin, on the other hand, after losing to Northwestern last week, managed to get the number 23 ranking. Minnesota and Wisconsin have set a Division-I record for most games played against each other, meeting 115 times. They've played each other every year since 1907. The teams play for the Paul Bunyan Axe. The winner of the game keeps the axe at its school for the year. This year, the Badgers brought the axe to Madison, Wis. by recovering a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown with about 30 seconds left to play.
I am pretty disappointed in the Gophers. To let someone block a punt when you're punting from your own 5-yard line is just ridiculous. Not to mention the punter just bobbled the ball; it wasn't a bad snap. I've come to the conclusion that all Minnesota sports teams can be awesome, but are never good enough, and end up doing horrible in the end.
One of the most amazing games played last weekend was the University of Southern California versus Notre Dame game. Why was it so amazing? The game was down to about 12 seconds left when USC quarterback Matt Leinart tried running the ball in the end zone and fumbled it out of bounds. However, the referee on the sideline signaled for the clock to continue running. USC pleaded their case, and the referee put seven seconds back on the clock. Leinart then ran the ball in from the 1-yard line for the winning touchdown.