NCAA Week 10: Good Snark, Bad Snark

Published on 9-Nov-2015 by Alan Adamsson

Football - NCAA    NCAA Football Daily Review

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NCAA Week 10: Good Snark, Bad Snark

Former Milwaukee Brewers slugger Gorman Thomas had a unique take on getting the breaks.

He didn't believe they evened out.

According to Stormin' Gorman, the objective was to keep the break and never give it back. The only 50-50 involved was to win the next one, too.

Think of it as collecting borrowed time. In a sport like college football, where one upset can derail a season's worth of national ambitions, the Gorman Directive should become part of every contender's mental preparation. Michigan State could've used it. Maybe Alabama is.

Good Snark: The 'Bama Bounce ... If ever there was an anti-Gorman this season, it'd be the Crimson Tide's four-turnover follies in that loss to Ole Miss. Not to mention a doink or two.

Nick Saban's crew blew its margin of error then and there. Seems like the old bromide about an early-season loss being better than a late one hasn't been lost on the Tide. They're playing like their next mistake will be their last. It's thorough football, as LSU discovered.

Heisman this, No 7:

And that was 'Bama, all day.

Bad Snark: Ole Miss Missed. And Missed. And ... It was 4th-&-25 in OT, Rebs. How in the name of New Zealand Rugby do you let this happen?

After the inevitable TD, Arkansas opted to keep riding the karma train, went for two, got stuffed, and then got a mulligan due to a totally unnecessary face-mask penalty. Ole Miss either doesn't put a spy on QB Brandon Allen or said spy went MIA, and in only a couple of Hog footsteps, control of the SEC West swung back to the dudes in Tuscaloosa.

Oxford police tweet

Good Snark: Soooey, Baby! ... In the best interests of Jen Bielema, let's just hope it's a soft landing.

Jen Bielema

Bad Snark: Revelations Will Continue after This Message ... The first sign of the Apocalypse appeared at 6:13pm Eastern Standard Time on Sat 7 Nov when four games were in timeout for commercial breaks at the same time:

Florida St v Clemson TCU v Oklahoma St
Arizona St v Washington St Iowa v Indiana

Good Snark: What about the Irish? ... Notre Dame's survived a banged-up season in fine fashion, so far. Disposing of pesky Pittsburgh at the relatively minor expense of RB CJ Prosise's brain for a few days, the Irish have tune-ups against Wake Forest and Boston College before a CFP pre-playoff against Stanford on Sat 28 Nov.

If they win that one, the selectors will have the debate that everyone else has been having for a while, now:

And so it will go in that Dallas conference room:

Or at least an eight-team bracket.

Bad Snark: Authorship Paucity ... Were Alabama's English majors boycotting Game Day or something?

Zips golf

For the record ...

Good Snark: A Global Force for the Other Five ... The Navy may not make it to the Featured Four -- OK , the Middies won't make it to the Featured Four -- but they can make Power Five contenders squirm for a few more days if they advance to the AAC title game and win it. Their dismantling of Memphis makes this a real possibility.

If the Middies upset Houston and take down Temple in the title game, the CFP will be forced to delay their final rankings for a week, ie- after the Army-Navy game on Sat 12 Dec. It could disrupt much of the bowl-slotting process.

Who'da thought the United States Naval Academy would be the force sticking it to the system?

Bad Snark: Only One Job ... They say that the highest compliment an official can get is to go unnoticed, so this line judge must be ecstatic with the homage paid to him by Penn State's Christian Hackenberg:

Snarkalicious: Getting Their Sheets Together ... Leave it to Mike Leach to pull back the curtain on faux football jargon.

Fears of Arizona State stealing signals were such that Oregon brought sheets -- sheets! -- to Tempe to hide their play-calling gestures.

Oregon Duck sheets

Leach's Air Raid system is basically a read-and-react, so he basically wouldn't care all that much if signs were being swiped. But the Sun Devil post-game was the perfect time for trolling:

Leach tweet

And, of course, there are no rules regarding stealing signs as long as video equipment isn't used.

Incidentally, Washington State is now bowl eligible. At this moment, Arizona State isn't.