Week 6 is already off and running with so much pettiness. Is there anything better than old college football grudges?
Stick around with us on Saturday for the best stuff.
Fair game
It’s a big day at the State Fair of Texas, where Texas and Oklahoma meet on Saturday in one of college football’s greatest rivalries.
Baker Mayfield has already weighed in with his version of an “on this day” memory.
What a delicious dish by the Baker. Speaking of, here’s’ this year’s State Fair of Texas winner for Best Taste in the savory division, Fernie’s Hoppin’ John Cake with Jackpot Sauce.
What is a Hoppin’ John cake, you ask? Well, lemme tell you. It’s described as a “traditional New Year’s Eve ‘good luck’ dish,” combining black-eyed peas, white rice, spicy smoked sausage, green onions, and a blend of spices, bread crumbs and eggbeaters to form a cake. It’s then deep fried and topped with a black-eyed pea relish, garnished with a pickled okra, and served with a side of Jackpot sauce. OK, now what is Jackpot sauce, you ask? Yeah, I don’t know about that one.
This cotton candy taco was a big winner, claiming Best Taste in the sweet category, and Most Creative. It’s graham cracker waffle-cone batter that formed into a taco shell, coated with a marshmallow glaze, then stuffed with chocolate, toasted marshmallow, and organic cane sugar cotton candy. It’s topped off with chocolate cookie crumbles and two chocolate cream-covered biscuit sticks with marshmallows.
It’s always a big game, but it’s a low-risk proposition to attend, because even if your team gets wrecked, you can head out, dip your sorrows in some Jackpot sauce and go stare at the Mattress Firm Illumination Sensation.
The @MattressFirm Illumination Sensation is about to start! Head over to the Esplanade for one of the best shows at the Fair 😍 #BigTex #StateFairofTX pic.twitter.com/cfuLAFzeJk
— State Fair of Texas (@StateFairOfTX) October 4, 2018
Running it up (and down the field)
that little smile from Paul Johnson at the end lmao pic.twitter.com/l3Q6vPHJmW
— Sam Cooper (@SamDCooper) October 6, 2018
Georgia Tech completed one pass against Louisville on Friday night and won 66-13. The Yellow Jackets also ran 65 times for 542 yards and eight touchdowns and scored on every offensive possession.
It was a clinic in the triple option, perfect for the history between two of the coaches involved.
Our David Hale wrote in 2015 about Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson’s seeming distaste for Brian VanGorder, now Louisville’s defensive coordinator.
Johnson served as the offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern in the mid-1980s and as head coach there from 1997 through 2001, running his trademark option offense. Following the 2005 season, Georgia Southern hired VanGorder, who swiftly ditched the offense in favor of a pro-style attack. Around a proud program that had won six national championships in the FCS (including two under Johnson), VanGorder’s breaks with tradition were extremely unpopular.
“He said something about bringing them into the 21st century,” Johnson recalled. “And I said, ‘There’s a [scoring] record there, shoot for it.’ So that was it.”
He even made a commercial for the Eagles’ 2006 season that ended with him pointing at the camera, saying “there is no option.”
Johnson tries to downplay his feelings now. Back then, not so much.
“The guy who took over acts like they’ve got to go back to Ground Zero,” Johnson, then the coach at Navy, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during VanGorder’s first season at Southern. “It’s not like it was broke, but if you listen to him, it’s like they’re starting from nothing.”
USA Today reported that Johnson even called a Georgia Southern official that year and told him that he wanted to schedule them “because I want to beat the hell out of Brian VanGorder.”
He didn’t get that chance. VanGorder lasted one 3-8 season, the worst in school history. His offense averaged 22 points per game (a steep drop from the 38 ppg the previous season). Then, he abruptly left with three years left on his contract three weeks before signing day to be the Atlanta Falcons’ linebackers coach.
On Friday night, Johnson got another shot and ran wild, piling up the most rushing yards Louisville has allowed since 1932.
“We didn’t have any answers for their offense,” Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said.
The best games
-
No. 19 Texas vs. No. 7 Oklahoma, noon ET, FOX
-
Maryland at No. 15 Michigan, noon ET, ABC
-
No. 5 LSU at No. 22 Florida, 3:30 p.m. ET, CBS
-
Indiana at No. 3 Ohio State, 4 p.m. ET, FOX
-
No. 13 Kentucky at Texas A&M, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
-
No. 8 Auburn at Mississippi State, 7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network
-
No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 24 Virginia Tech, 8 p.m. ET, ABC
-
Utah at No. 14 Stanford, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Hey, check out these uniforms
As part of a retro weekend theme, Pitt is wearing their old-school unis across sports, which should always be their unis anyway, for a home game against Syracuse (12:20 p.m., WatchESPN)
#PittRetro Weekend coming soon👀#H2P pic.twitter.com/yeINQzD49C
— Pitt Athletics (@Pitt_ATHLETICS) October 1, 2018
Minnesota is gonna wear some some shiny helmets against Iowa (3:30 p.m., BTN). Word is they’re going to wear them all day, too, according to this.
Gold
Maroon
MaroonAll day. pic.twitter.com/AVAyd5i9B8
— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) October 4, 2018
No. 9 West Virginia is going with the yellow helmet/jerseys/pants trifecta, which they call their “Gold Rush” getup, against Kansas (noon, ESPN2).
Game 5. #HailWV
Gold Rush.
Presented by @BookExchangeWV. pic.twitter.com/t0K5181TkM
— WVU Football (@WVUfootball) October 4, 2018
It’s a throwback kinda thing on Saturday when Texas A&M and No. 13 Kentucky meet for the first time since 1953 — the season before Bear Bryant left Lexington for College Station. Texas A&M is honoring its 1998 Big 12 title team with replicas of the jerseys from that season, complete with mesh-look numbers, a BCS sticker on the helmets and a fauxback SEC patch.
Take a closer look at Texas A&M’s 1998 throwback uniforms https://t.co/OCMF5FlwOB pic.twitter.com/nO6ofht3Fe
— Travis L. Brown (@Travis_L_Brown) October 2, 2018
Haskins for Heisman?
I cast my Heisman ballot for #DwayneHaskins! Click the player you think deserves the Heisman House vote. (📍@NissanUSA)
— Joey Burrow (@Joe_Burrow10) October 5, 2018
Joe Burrow lost the Ohio State quarterback derby to Dwayne Haskins, before transferring to LSU. But he’s doing his own campaigning for Haskins, who is completing 70.8 percent of his passes for 1,464 yards, 19 touchdowns and just two interceptions this season.
Eyes on the prize
A few weeks ago, we highlighted the mesmerizing spectacle of the UCF fan who had a knack for staring through the television camera into your inner being.
L̶o̶o̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 into the future of tomorrow’s @UCF_Football game 😳https://t.co/TMVY8fN295
— UCF (@UCF) October 5, 2018
Now it can be told that he is a freshman civil engineering major named Anthony Allan, and that if the “Ellen” show would give him a call “that would be so sick.”