Separation Saturday wrap-up

After finally getting some much-needed cable into my folks’ house and waiting until the third quarter to get the DirectTV receiver to work, I felt that it was my God-given right to indulge in a sweet brickwood cigar and follow the key games from Separation Saturday.

In South Bend, the Michigan Wolverines stomped all over Brady Quinn’s dreams of winning the Heisman Trophy by destroying the Irish 47-21 this afternoon and in the process, quelling the belief that Lloyd Carr couldn’t win the big games against Ohio State or Notre Dame anymore.

For Auburn and LSU, their annual grudge match looked more like an Auburn-LSU baseball game at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge as LSU won 7-3 over Auburn in a game that normally determines who will represent the SEC West in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta later on in the season.

In Lexington, the Wildcats (pause for dramatic effect) ran roughshod over an undermanned Ole Miss squad that turned the ball over five times and got manhandled 31-14 to fall to 1-2 on the season.

And leave Coach O finding some more uses for profantities in the postgame press conference.

In Memphis, a couple of Tiger squad played another classic tonight at the Liberty Bowl as Tennessee State pulled off an overtime win by screwing up on an extra point try and then converting it to a two-point conversion by using the same shovel pass that I use sometimes when I quarterback street football games in my neighborhood to beat Jackson State 31 to 30 in the Southern Heritage Classic.

Meanwhile in Greenville, the Memphis Tigers were Jekyll and Hyde on the field tonight as a subpar second half doomed the Tigers in their game against East Carolina this evening as the Pirates beat the Tigers 35 to 20 and drop the Tigers to 1-2 on the season.

Wonder what DeAngelo’s doing these days, Tiger fans?

Neither am I.

In Bloomington, Indiana, my former school, Southern Illinois, beat a Big Ten school for the first time in school history by beating Indiana 35 to 28.

Which is not really any cause for celebration in Carbondale.

These are the Hoosiers.

In Nashville, my friend Kasi’s school almost pulled off a cardiac victory but came up two points short of beating the Razorbacks at Vanderbilt Stadium this afternoon.

Which means the pharmacists in Nashville will triple dosages of heart medications for patients at hospitals all over Nashville.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs scored points for the first time this season and still lost at home to Tulane by three points.

Same old thing in Starkville.

In Knoxville, another classic chapter was added to the Florida-Tennessee rivalry as Florida came from behind to beat the Vols 21 to 20 on a last-minute drive engineered by senior quarterback Chris Leak.

And another reason to explain to my 9 year-old playnephew that Florida wears the gayest uniforms in the SEC.

Now that these acts of this Saturday in football have been written, what will happen next Saturday?

Only time will tell.

This just in…………..

Thanks to the magic of Gametracker, I have some scores to pass along

Tennessee 17
Florida 7 3rd

Southern Cal 21
Nebraska 3

East Carolina 28
Memphis 20

Kentucky 31
Ole Miss 14 Final

Shocker of the day: Southern Illinois (my former school) 35 Indiana 28 in Bloomington

Message to Tiger fans:Ole Miss is not our rival

A long time ago, I was asked at a sports bar in Downtown Memphis about college football rivalries and who should Memphis consider as a rival in football.

Now first of all, I follow Tiger football because I grew up on the U of M campus. At heart, I am a Purdue Boliermakers fan (you can’t find that many here in town).

I said in the bar, either Southern Miss or Louisville (this was when the Cardinals were playing in Conference USA) should be considered a noteworthy rival.

Ever wonder why the University of Memphis built the clock tower near the University Center?

They wanted to rival the University of Louisville’s clock tower.

My point exactly.

Both Louisville and Memphis played in the same conference for a long period of time, including the Missouri Valley Conference during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Southern Miss has played the University of Memphis for all intents and purposes since the 1930’s every year.

Not Ole Miss.

In my basic lifetime, neither the Rebels or the Tigers (save 2003) were good at the same time in either college football or college basketball.

Ole Miss has only beaten the Tigers 10 times in 38 meetings between the two schools in college basketball.

Before 2001, the last time the Tigers had lost in Oxford was 1921-22 in basketball.

As far as football is concerned, these two schools in my lifetime have never acheived success at the same in football.

The Rebels have gone to eight bowls in my lifetime while the Tigers have only three bowl games, which is 75% of the bowl games that the program has gone to in 94 years of playing football.

Rivalries are supposed to be give and take affairs like Ohio State-Michigan, Auburn-Alabama, and Purdue-Notre Dame.

Of course, I’ve never seen that many Mississippians make their living up here in Memphis.

It’s usually the other way around.

Come to think of it, former Mississippi governor Kirk Fordice was from Memphis.