I’ll admit, this week’s CFB liveblogging experience will be a little diluted, considering I didn’t make myself get out of bed until noon, and by then, Michigan was up three scores or so on EMU, and the UVA-Syracuse and (until late in the half) the Louisville-Oregon State games were threatening to put me back to sleep. Toss in BG not playing until Wednesday night, and I expect sporadic and completely random observations at best….

-To prove my point, my first thought isn’t even college football related at all. I’ve never been a huge fan of Jeannie Zelasko (or however the hell it’s spelled) on FOX Sports coverage, but is she knocked up again, or is she racing Kirstie Alley to earn the official nickname of “Hindenburg”? And if she is pregnant, is it still really a good idea to wear a slipcover when you’re hosting a nationally televised pregame show?

-If ESPN is going to continue to work with Jim Donnan as a studio analyst, can they at least not put his teleprompter on the floor? He looked almost like a blind man with the steady lack of eye contact during his “expert analysis” at halftime of whatever game that was.

-After seeing what Wisconsin did to Temple last week, and seeing ESPN’s Bottom Line report Toledo up on the Owls 42-0 with almost 11 minutes left in the first half, I started drooling for my trip to BG in two weeks. Then I double checked the score online, and it’s really only 28-7. They must have showed a clip of Curt Schilling bending over on the monitors in “Bottom Line Central” and the guy in charge of MAC scores got a little too excited.

-Not only does this Louisville-OSU game make a big ol’ statement for Louisville, but it also makes me wonder what BG really has in store at Boise State this week. Oregon State beat Boise (albeit at home), but aside from an early 10-0 lead, OSU has seemed non-existant in this one.

-I don’t know that I can come up with a proper analogy, but Eastern Michigan coach Jeff Genyk not only won the award for the best “Golly Am I Happy Just To Be Here Face”, but I think it should be named in his honor. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is the “extra regulars” on “Cheers”. The guys who were there every episode, but only had about two lines of dialogue a season, yet they always leaned in extra close and laughed like they were in on every joke.

-If I would have realized ESPN was going to have both John Cooper and Lou Holtz on their sets as studio analysts this year, I would have bought stock in Brawny paper towels. I wonder if they give the floor crew rain parkas before each show, like they were going on one of those boats at the foot of Niagara Falls?

-ESPN sticks to their story that Toledo is beating Temple 28-10. Problem is, everyone else (including their own website) is showing it as a 28-10 game. Temple just kicked a 29 yard field goal, which makes me hate them even more for not sticking it in the endzone.

5:58pm
-Dear Ohio University,
You still need an offense.
Love, The MAC

-Just when I was actually a bit happy for Michigan State to continue stomping Notre Dame, put an end to the Charlie Weis Love Train, and then go back to normal mid-season mode with the fumbling and floundering and QB drug abuse…

…they get to the fourth quarter, let ND right back in it, and while it might have been a call to the offensive co-ordinator, I think I just saw Drew Stanton on the phone with his dealer.

-While Ohio State looked alot more lethargic than they should have against a mediocre-at-best SD State team, their defense keeps answering any questions their offense might keep putting on the table.

-How long will it take Ryan Hamby to start selling Chansi Stuckey’s e-mail address to Clemson fans if the Tigers don’t come through in OT?

-It seems like just yesterday Oklahoma was playing for a national title (for 35-45 seconds at least). Then again, it seems like just yesterday they were a Top 25 team, too.

7:05pm
-Could someone at Boston College please turn on the lights? I feel like I’m watching continuous highlights of some game in the 80’s, its so dark. (Of course, FSU is about two drives and five minutes away from turning the lights out on this one anyway, so maybe my point is moot.)

-Pat Haden wins the ‘Pulling The Company Line Quote of the Day’: “Charlie Weis thinks of everything. He wanted to play this overtime in the end where his fans are, because it’s the loudest.”

-Nice class by the Spartans planting the school flag at midfield. Thought I was watching a Miami-FSU game there for a minute.

-Is John L. Smith allowed to drop three or more “thank Gods” in one postgame interview on the field at Notre Dame? Is there some kind of sacrilege involved there? And I didn’t see them interview any players this time. Maybe Tyler Palko was unavailable for comment.

-Speaking of Palko… Pitt should not be allowed to play football anymore this season. And Nebraska should be on double secret probation for their part in that game today.

-Akron holds on to edge Middle Tennessee State on the road, 17-7. I’m making two October trips to BG this year, for games against Temple and Akron. The over/under on margin of victory is now 125.

7:48pm
-Of course, Florida State’s OFFENSE was two drives from putting a stamp on BC. I forgot that FSU would have to run their defense out there, and it’s now 17-14 Eagles. This could be a good one.

-Assuming USC beats a weaker-than-weak Arkansas team, and does it handily, and seeing that Texas is (any adjective will do here other than “frying” or “cooking”, thank you) Rice pretty easily at home, the 3-thru-5 spots in next week’s polls will be very interesting. Thinking ahead of time in my entry, I don’t know that it’s all that fair to penalize LSU for not playing, but with Virginia Tech pulling down another impressive win, either Florida or Tennessee coming away with a big win, FSU struggling, Georgia waiting until the end of the third quarter to show up, and Louisville violating the daylights out of the Beavers, it looks like there might be about a half-dozen teams with a legitimate claim to three spots rounding out the top five.

9:27pm
-Damn this job. Keeping me away from watching football games I only care about because of a semi-fictional BlogPoll. Though now that I’m wrapping up for the evening, it looks like the UT-UF and FSU-BC games are going to come down to an outstanding little wire. (And I love the job, I swear. Just a little hairy today with hour-long shows that turn to nine minute speedfests thanks to ND overtime.)

-Despite the down-to-the-wireness, has this UF-UT game been a “good” 10-7 game, or a “someone needs to poke my eyes out with a rusty spoon” 10-7 game?

-Someone stop the Hoosiers! IU goes to 3-0, and Terry Hoeppner is the winningest first-year coach in the state this year! Should we let them enjoy the wins over powers like CMU, I-AA Nicholls State and I-AA…errr… I-A Kentucky? Or can we remind them that they hit the road for Wisconsin in two weeks? (A Wisconsin team that’s either going to be jacked up coming off a win over Michigan or pissed beyond belief coming off a loss to Michigan… whether or not the Badgers are undefeated depends on if they can hold onto a 7-3 lead in the fourth quarter at UNC right about now.)

12:07am Sunday
-Just about to wrap it up when UC-Davis beats Stanford. That’s a I-AA school beating a major, folks. USC has to be thanking their stars that they’re sitting #1 right now, because they’re getting NO help from their in-conference SOS.

-I was half-tempted to file my full BlogPoll tonight, just so I can get it in with reasoning fresh in my mind, and not have the benefit of peeking off the papers of the AP and coaches’ polls to round mine out. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I do, however, think I have the top portions figured out. USC and Texas stay the same, I didn’t want to do it, and it’s not their fault, but I don’t know if I can keep LSU at #3 having played only one game, and a close one at that. So Virginia Tech is my three team for now, up from number five, with LSU close behind at four, Georgia fifth (when everyone’s playing patsies, you need to put ’em away early, Dawgs), Florida a close sixth, FSU seven, Louisville #8, Ohio State #9, and Tennessee a very tentative #10, mostly because I don’t think anyone knocking on the door deserves to be above them. Miami(FL) gets points for the win in Death Valley, but the near come-from-ahead loss, only to be saved by a bad pass/catch and three OT’s negates that a touch. BC and ND lost, Purdue might sneak ahead a bit along with Cal, but I don’t know that either of them are Top 10 teams quite yet, either. The interesting part will be at the bottom of the ballot, with Clemson and Oklahoma likely dropping out, Texas A&M and Alabama making statements, and likely another Big Ten team (MSU) entering the poll. And where to put the 3-0 Hoosiers and Commodores!?!?