Jami Jurich
Guest
If This Were a Movie: Which college football teams made it to their “Final Destination” this weekend?
Jami Jurich via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matt Cashore-Imagn Images
While the heavy hitters kept winning big, several of their counterparts seemed to dance with Death.
Each week, we’ll analyze the Ohio State game (and occasionally other games across the college football landscape as well) through the lens of cinema. If this game were the next “Remember the Titans,” “Space Jam” or “The Notebook,” what storylines would keep us talking? What would make us laugh, reach for the box of tissues, or have us on the edge of our seats? Grab your popcorn and get ready for pop culture references, a hint of snark, and a trip back in time to the Blockbuster Video days.
Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas excepted, college football this weekend was lawless, chaotic, and seemed to warn of trouble ahead for many teams—even ones who escaped by the skin of their teeth.
While the leaders of the pack stepped even further ahead—Georgia winning 48-3 against Tennessee Tech, Ohio State winning a whopping 56-0 over Western Kentucky, and then-No. 3 Texas (now No. 2) beating No. 10 Michigan, 31-12, in what should have been an exciting ranked matchup, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the rest of the NCAA.
It sort of serves me right for saying this was going to be a boring weekend of football, because in retrospect, it was anything but.
Watching teams either go down or narrowly eke out a victory felt a bit like watching Final Destination, the 2000 horror film that starts with a high school student named Alex getting ready to head to Paris for a class trip. Alex has a vision of the plane exploding, and while his vision starts to play out in reality around him, he and a few of his classmates miss the flight, instead getting a front row seat to Alex’s premonition playing out in real-time as the plane explodes without them on it.
Sigh of relief…temporarily.
Because in this case, the killer is Death himself, not a human force who can be stopped. He had plans for Alex and his classmates, and they disrupted the order of things when they missed their flight. So Death begins to course correct, while Alex and his classmates meet their untimely ends in a variety of memorable ways (you’ll have to watch the film to find out what they are).
Watching Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas play yesterday, it’s clear none of them were ever meant to be on the flight for Paris. While everyone else was getting ready for la vie en rose, the cream of the crop was headed for New Zealand on the opposite side of the globe.
As for the rest of the NCAA, some teams (Notre Dame, Iowa, and even to a lesser extent Michigan) boarded that exploding flight. Michigan’s loss to a ranked Texas team wouldn’t have necessarily meant imminent doom for them long-term—it’s still early, and Michigan has some other tough games on their schedule. But the level at which Texas beat them made Michigan look out of its element, sending them plummeting out of the top 10 to No. 17 after the loss.
Then-No. 21 Iowa fell, 20-17, to in-state rivals Iowa State in the Cy-Hawk Trophy game, ultimately dropping the Hawkeyes from the rankings and sending the Cyclones to that No. 21 spot in their stead.
Then-No. 5 Notre Dame? They were the captain of the exploding plane if we’re being honest. In a game they should have won, on paper, by a not-insignificant margin of victory, MAC team Northern Illinois put themselves on the map with a stunning 16-14 upset over the Fighting Irish. The Huskies, for their part, had never in the history of the program beat a top 10 team—that changed yesterday, as their win over Notre Dame sent the Fighting Irish’s season up in smoke and sent the Huskies to No. 25 in the polls.
No. 19 Kansas, similarly, decided they wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, falling, 23-17, to an unranked Illinois off a 4th quarter rally from the Illini, as did No. 23 Georgia Tech, who fell to former Buckeye Kyle McCord and his Syracuse team.
Other teams thought better of boarding that flight, joining Alex in trying to outsmart Death. Still, we saw enough of them to think maybe they still have an uphill battle ahead. Oregon has had two close brushes—after struggling in their Week 1 victory against Idaho, they nearly fell again, to an unranked (but albeit very talented) Boise State team yesterday, eking out a narrow three-point victory on a last-second field goal. The Ducks should probably be wary of falling signs, tanning beds, and trains, as they haven’t even hit the hardest part of their schedule.
Similarly, No. 17 Kansas State struggled against Tulane. No. 8 Penn State struggled against Bowling Green, winning by a mere touchdown.
It seems safe to say the chaos isn’t over yet—Mr. Death might have let a few people stay on the ground while the flight took off for Paris, but he’s taken the numbers of several other teams, who probably need to sleep with one eye open and look up, down, all around for malfunctioning equipment or large falling objects.
As for the Buckeyes, they made it look easy. Their flight left on time, they landed safely in New Zealand, and Mr. Death doesn’t perceive them yet.
Continue reading...
Jami Jurich via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Matt Cashore-Imagn Images
While the heavy hitters kept winning big, several of their counterparts seemed to dance with Death.
Each week, we’ll analyze the Ohio State game (and occasionally other games across the college football landscape as well) through the lens of cinema. If this game were the next “Remember the Titans,” “Space Jam” or “The Notebook,” what storylines would keep us talking? What would make us laugh, reach for the box of tissues, or have us on the edge of our seats? Grab your popcorn and get ready for pop culture references, a hint of snark, and a trip back in time to the Blockbuster Video days.
Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas excepted, college football this weekend was lawless, chaotic, and seemed to warn of trouble ahead for many teams—even ones who escaped by the skin of their teeth.
While the leaders of the pack stepped even further ahead—Georgia winning 48-3 against Tennessee Tech, Ohio State winning a whopping 56-0 over Western Kentucky, and then-No. 3 Texas (now No. 2) beating No. 10 Michigan, 31-12, in what should have been an exciting ranked matchup, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the rest of the NCAA.
It sort of serves me right for saying this was going to be a boring weekend of football, because in retrospect, it was anything but.
Watching teams either go down or narrowly eke out a victory felt a bit like watching Final Destination, the 2000 horror film that starts with a high school student named Alex getting ready to head to Paris for a class trip. Alex has a vision of the plane exploding, and while his vision starts to play out in reality around him, he and a few of his classmates miss the flight, instead getting a front row seat to Alex’s premonition playing out in real-time as the plane explodes without them on it.
Sigh of relief…temporarily.
Because in this case, the killer is Death himself, not a human force who can be stopped. He had plans for Alex and his classmates, and they disrupted the order of things when they missed their flight. So Death begins to course correct, while Alex and his classmates meet their untimely ends in a variety of memorable ways (you’ll have to watch the film to find out what they are).
Watching Georgia, Ohio State, and Texas play yesterday, it’s clear none of them were ever meant to be on the flight for Paris. While everyone else was getting ready for la vie en rose, the cream of the crop was headed for New Zealand on the opposite side of the globe.
As for the rest of the NCAA, some teams (Notre Dame, Iowa, and even to a lesser extent Michigan) boarded that exploding flight. Michigan’s loss to a ranked Texas team wouldn’t have necessarily meant imminent doom for them long-term—it’s still early, and Michigan has some other tough games on their schedule. But the level at which Texas beat them made Michigan look out of its element, sending them plummeting out of the top 10 to No. 17 after the loss.
Then-No. 21 Iowa fell, 20-17, to in-state rivals Iowa State in the Cy-Hawk Trophy game, ultimately dropping the Hawkeyes from the rankings and sending the Cyclones to that No. 21 spot in their stead.
Then-No. 5 Notre Dame? They were the captain of the exploding plane if we’re being honest. In a game they should have won, on paper, by a not-insignificant margin of victory, MAC team Northern Illinois put themselves on the map with a stunning 16-14 upset over the Fighting Irish. The Huskies, for their part, had never in the history of the program beat a top 10 team—that changed yesterday, as their win over Notre Dame sent the Fighting Irish’s season up in smoke and sent the Huskies to No. 25 in the polls.
No. 19 Kansas, similarly, decided they wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, falling, 23-17, to an unranked Illinois off a 4th quarter rally from the Illini, as did No. 23 Georgia Tech, who fell to former Buckeye Kyle McCord and his Syracuse team.
Other teams thought better of boarding that flight, joining Alex in trying to outsmart Death. Still, we saw enough of them to think maybe they still have an uphill battle ahead. Oregon has had two close brushes—after struggling in their Week 1 victory against Idaho, they nearly fell again, to an unranked (but albeit very talented) Boise State team yesterday, eking out a narrow three-point victory on a last-second field goal. The Ducks should probably be wary of falling signs, tanning beds, and trains, as they haven’t even hit the hardest part of their schedule.
Similarly, No. 17 Kansas State struggled against Tulane. No. 8 Penn State struggled against Bowling Green, winning by a mere touchdown.
It seems safe to say the chaos isn’t over yet—Mr. Death might have let a few people stay on the ground while the flight took off for Paris, but he’s taken the numbers of several other teams, who probably need to sleep with one eye open and look up, down, all around for malfunctioning equipment or large falling objects.
As for the Buckeyes, they made it look easy. Their flight left on time, they landed safely in New Zealand, and Mr. Death doesn’t perceive them yet.
Continue reading...