This Week's Picks Week 13

Can you believe we are at Week 13 of the College Football Season?

Times flies, especially this week.  I've been kind of busy- watching "Jack Ryan" on Amazon Prime.

Jack Ryan is a character in a lot of the late Tom Clancey books.  He's smart. He's strong. He looks like Jim from "The Office".

Just for laughs, they should have called this show "Jim Ryan- Jack's Younger Brother". The show could be about a CIA analyst who marries the receptionist and whose boss is kind of a macho version of Stanley from Dunder-Mifflin

It is really a good show. It sort of reminds me of "24" except nobody is shouting (at least so far) about setting up a perimeter.
 

This Week's Picks!


Jawja vs Aggies:  Is it just me or does it seem wrong that Texas A&M is in the Southeast Conference?  They are 7-3 so far this year, so they can bite. Which reminds me, in certain parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas,  Aggie jokes are all the rage. For example: how many Aggie freshmen does it take to change a light bulb? None. That's a second-year course.  Why don't Aggies use  911 in an emergency?  Because they can't find 11 on their phone dial.  I shouldn't be hard on Texas A&M, after all, they don't serve ice in their cafeterias. The senior who knew the recipe graduated.  Oh yeah, the game.  UGA wins


The Ahia State vs The Lions of Nittany:  There was a story floating around the internet that some Buckeye fans had a few tweets for ESPN's Gameday when they announced it was coming to Columbus. It was all blah, blah, SEC, blah, blah, how come you don't show Ahia State twenty-four hours a day.  Basically, Ohio State is the Alabama of the North. If you don't run a thousand positive stories about them, there's something seriously wrong with you.  Anyway, Ohio State vs Penn State is the game this weekend. I've never been an Ohio State fan, but they have been mowing people down this year and their quarterback is from Kennesaw. This is business. Ohio State is for real.  Ohio State wins.


Ducks vs Deviled Sons:  The Quacks play Arizona State this week. They should win. They will. Oregon wins.


Aroused Lizards vs OK Boomer: Okay, I'll admit it. I cannot stay up late and watch the Prime Time game after watching college football all afternoon.  I have to hit the sack so I can go to church on Sunday morning. Don't hate me because I worship God. I went to bed last Saturday thinking Baylor whupped up on Oklahoma. I check the scores when I woke up Sunday morning and Glory BE! Oklahoma had won. The Lord works in mysterious ways.  This week, the Sooners play the Horned Frogs, which always makes me giggle.  Sooners win.


Kennesaw State vs Gardner-Webb. In the last home game of the season, My Beloved Owls play Gardner-Webb University. Gardner-Webb is where my youngest niece goes and she is on the Varsity Women's LaCrosse team. For real. Their football stinks. Owls win.

This Week's Picks Week 12

Whoa. I didn't see this coming. Honestly.

The latest College Football Playoff Rankings were released this past Tuesday.

LSU, where college men go in dumb and come out dumb too, jumped over Ohio State to land in the number one slot.  Since they beat Alabama, it makes sense.

THE Ohio State University (TOSU) is in the number two slot. They beat Cumberland College 222-0 last Saturday. Oops, I'm being told that TOSU played The University of Maryland and won 73-14.

The number three slot went to Clemson. Clemson and their long-haired hippie quarterback beat North Carolina State 55-10.

At number four was......HUNKER DOWN YOU HAIRY DAWGS.  Sorry, Georgia was placed in the number four slot,  which you got to admit is a little surprising.

I expected Alabama to be in the number four slot because they lost to the number one team in the nation (LSU) by only five points and that their name is Alabama.

There's also this little thing of Georgia losing to South Carolina, which lost to Appalachian State which lost to Georgia Southern which lost to Minnesota which hasn't lost a game.

But Georgia beat Notre Dame and Florida, so I guess that counts more than losing by five points to LSU.

Whatever. I'll take it.

I can't imagine the callers to Paul Finebaum are going to be too happy. To be honest, I'm not sure Georgia could beat Alabama.  I know they can't beat LSU.

This Week's Picks!

Jawja vs Wartigers:  UGA goes to "The Loveliest Village In The Ugliest Part of The State" for their annual game against Auburn which dates back to the late 1400s.  It is an intense rivalry of two fan bases who believe the same thing about their team: We Can't Have Nice Things. UGA is getting a little bit of their confidence back, but they are going into Jordan-Hare (pronounced "Jer-den Hayer") Stadium a little dinged up. I am worried about this game. UGA wins.


Tech vs Tech:  Ah yes, the game I can't pick wrong. Virginia Tech versus Georgia Tech. The Hokies (Have we ever found out what a Hokie is? Don't tell me) stroll into Grant Field with a 6-3 record. Georgia Tech, bless their hearts.   Tech wins.


Clem's son vs Possessed Deacons:  Wake Forest is actually having a pretty good year. Do I think they can beat the Tigers and the Long-Haired quarterback?  Not a chance.  Clemson wins.


Ok Boomer vs  Baptist Bears: Flying under the radar this year has been the Baylor Bears. Baylor has not lost a game all year but they are not in the playoff picture yet, mainly because they are Baylor. Oklahoma was breezing along until they ran into Kansas State. Baylor has the best defense in The Big 12, which is like saying "the smartest Kardashian daughter".  Oklahoma has the best offense in The Big 12,  due to having a forty-year-old quarterback.  This ought to be a good game. Oklahoma wins.


Kennesaw State vs Hampton:  My Beloved Owls travel to Hampton, Virginia to play the Hampton Pirates and stay at the Hampton Inn (I guess).  The Owls are battling to stay alive in the FCS playoff race. Owls win.

Okay Boomer (And Kids)

Back when I was growing up, in the '60s and early '70s there was something called "The Generation Gap".

The Baby Boom Generation (those born from 1946 to 1964) were becoming young adults, and man, they were rebelling against the older generation with their rules, regulations, and morals-everything that was keeping them from being "free". Which generally meant the liberty for taking as many drugs as they wanted and having as much sex a person could possibly have.

Other things were going on too, of course. There was the Vietnam War. You kids have no idea what a big deal the Vietnam War was. There were protests. There were songs. Our Presidents, while they were not as, um, unique, as our current one, Presidents Johnson and Nixon were still controversial and still sort of funny looking.

On top of all this, boys started to grow their hair long, like The Beatles.  Girls, for their part, stopped wearing bras, which sounded like a good idea, at least for some of them.

All of this caused the Boomers and the "Older Generation" to be at each other's throats.

Fast forward to the 21st Century. There's a new Generation Gap, this time featuring the Boomers versus the groups knows as "The Millennials" (those born from 1981 to 1996) and "Gen Z" (born between 1997-2010).  The group could be called "our children".

One of the first (money-making) salvos in this new Generation Gap is the phrase "Ok Boomer".  The phrase is the younger generation's retort to most of what we boomers have to say.  At least, that's what The New York Times says: "Teenagers use it to reply to cringey YouTube videos, Donald Trump tweets, and basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people — and the issues that matter to them." 

The Times goes on to report on a young lady named Shannon O'Connor who has cleared ten thousand dollars selling "OK Boomer Have A Terrible Day" t-shirts. (The kids sure did inherit our ability to be snotty.)

The Times quotes her as saying “The older generations grew up with a certain mindset, and we have a different perspective". (Gee, ya' think?)  “A lot of them don’t believe in climate change or don’t believe people can get jobs with dyed hair, and a lot of them are stubborn in that view. Teenagers just respond, ‘Ok, boomer.’ It’s like, we’ll prove you wrong, we’re still going to be successful because the world is changing.”

I'm not quite sure where Ms. O'Connor got her market research. For example, I've worked with a lot of women in my career and I'm pretty sure they had dyed hair, yeah come on.  But I do kind of like her plucky can-do spirit about making money by selling t-shirts. What's more American than that?

In regards to "climate change", Ms. O'Connor is 19 years old. If my math is correct, this means she was born in 2000.  At that time, "climate change" was called "global warming", which always got a push back when we had a cold winter. Before that, we had a hole in the ozone layer. Before that, we had the threat of global cooling.  This is in between various freakouts over nuclear power, oil spills, and overpopulation. Maybe the older generations have a "certain mindset" because we have heard it all before. The alarm bells, the warnings, the predictions that 20 years from now LIFE AS WE KNOW IT WILL END.   Maybe we just got jaded to it.

Many of the articles about "Ok Boomer" pointed to a reaction by Boomers called the phrase "ageist" and one person tweeted that it was just like a well-known slur.  This prompted the Dictionary to tweet that it was not a slur. I didn't even know The Dictionary had a Twitter account.

"Ok Boomer" may not be a slur, but it is not a term of endearment either.

Look, when I was young, I rolled my eyes at the stories of the generation before me. They walked to school every day. It was three miles and it was uphill both ways. They liked it. They loved it. They would do it again, unlike you hippies smoking your funny cigarettes and not Camel cigarettes like God intended.

Yes, maybe, you have been given the short side of the stick. College is expensive. That's life, kid.

But you have a lot going for you. You can understand all of the new technology, with ease. Y'all can text with ease. I remember the first text I sent out. It took me twenty minutes.

I  have just figured out how to use my key fob.

I promise you. Things will get better. When I was 24, I was living at home, with my parents. My father was dying of COPD. I was working, part-time, at a convenience store. I had three dates since I turned 20.  To top it off,  we were constantly told that we were on the edge of a real existential crisis: a nuclear holocaust. The President was a partially deaf former movie star.

By the time I was 31, I was married, had a good job, had a wife, had a kid, and had a house. The Berlin Wall, which was a wall to keep people in rather than out, had fallen.

Just keep plugging away. I know guys like me sound like Abe Simpson yelling at a cloud. But, we're not saying anything we didn't hear when we were your age.

Just stop saying The Beatles were "overrated".  Okay, kids?

This Week's Picks Week 11

ICYMI: The Collge Football Playoff Rankings came out this week.

Number 1:  The Ohio State.  This is not a surprise. The Buckeyes have been killing everybody this year.

Number 2:  LSU.  I would have put LSU ahead Ahia State simply because I'm a Southerner and I'm prejudiced favor of the SEC.

Number 3:  Alabama.  Alabama is a really good team, I guess. Like The Ahia State, they've been killing everybody. Their soft schedule probably pulled them down to three. Plus, I think it is a law that Alabama has to make the playoffs.

Number 4:  Penn State.  It looks like Penn State has finally exorcised the ghost of JoePa and has made it back to the big time.

There you have it. Two Big Ten Schools and Two SEC schools.  Clemson was put in at 5 due to a soft schedule and the near loss to North Carolina. Georgia comes in at 6, which is the highest one loss team.

This Week's Picks!



Jawja vs Moo-souri.  After two ugly games, UGA looked pretty good against Florida last week. Now all Georgia has to do is win the rest of their games. Piece. Of. Cake.  Missouri is first on the list. Missouri started out strong this year but slipped back into the same old Missouri habits. UGA is just 14 1/2 point favorite against Missouri which begs the question: When did they start handing out 1/2 points in football? Dawgs win.



Wrecked vs The Hoos: Speaking of odds, Georgia Tech is a 16 point underdog against Virginia. However, Tech beat Miami which has beaten Virginia. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "It just goes to show you, Jane, anything can happen in college football.  But Tech beating Virginia won't happen. I mean they got them little bitty players and that big old husky punter. I mean what are they thinking down North Avenue" Virginia wins

The Lions of Nittany vs Minniesoda:  Flying under the radar this year is the University of Minnesota which hasn't lost a game all year. Really.  Neither has  Penn State. The coach of the Gophers (yup, there's a mascot to strike fear in an opponent) begged ESPN GAMEDAY to broadcast from their campus. Problem. There's a little game in Alabama that just a tad bit bigger. If Minnesota could win this game, people will finally take them seriously.  The problem is they won't.  Penn State wins.


Ellesyou vs Raw Tad. Number One versus Number Two.  The Game of the Year. The Bout to Knock You Out.  It is going to be interesting, but for some reason, I think this is LSU's year. LSU wins


Kennesaw State vs Campbell.  In case you didn't hear, My Beloved Owls lost last week which made getting to the FCS playoffs problematic.  The Campbell Camels (yes, Camels) are 6-2.  I think the Owls bounce back. Kennesaw wins.

This Week's Picks Week 10

The big news in college football is that "The NCAA's top decision-makers voted unanimously Tuesday to start the process of modifying its rule to allow college athletes to profit from their names, images, and likenesses in a manner consistent with the collegiate model."

It may surprise you but I think college athletes should be paid something. Especially football players since football players are the ones that are actually bringing in the money so the school can have a rowing team to attract the daughters of actresses that star in Hallmark Channel movies.

I realize it is a controversial opinion because college football is an amateur sport. Well, it is supposed to be. I'm not sure college football ever was an amateur sport. We just never knew about it. Unless you actually went to school with the star college football player and you saw him, the eleventh of fourteen children, tooling about town in a BMW. Of course, it was given to him by his dad, who was a professional scrap metal collector.

Social media has been its usual help with the issue. Some people imply that it is the end of college sports are we know it. While others don't see the big deal.

It will probably end up somewhere in the middle. I really don't see how you can prevent, an adult, from profiting from his name, his image, and his likeness. But then again, I'm sure it will be abused and a player will sign with a shoe company that isn't the school's show company and pretty soon everything is higgledy-piggledy.

The NCAA wants the "process" to be completed by 2021. That's only two years. It should be interesting to see what the rule modification will be.



This Week's Picks!


Jawja vs Floreduh:  One of the things about "The Largest Drunk Tank In The Southeast Game" that has always bothered me is that it is played in Jacksonville, which my Cobb County Public School education has taught me is in Florida. This is state the University of Florida is located. I have always heard that the game is held in Jacksonville because it is "between Athens, Georiga and Gainesville, Florida". Gainesville is 71.4 miles from Jacksonville.  Athens is 338.5 miles.  It turns out Jacksonville earns the game the old fashion way: they pay for it. Jacksonville pays both schools $2.75 million.  Wait, oh yeah, the game.  Georgia is not quite as good as was advertised and Florida is better than we thought.  I think this is a close game, but Jake will be the difference. Dawgs win.
 

The Pitts vs The Flats:  Georgia Tech won a game two weeks ago. You can't lose them all. Pittsburgh is a pretty good team. Sorry, Bees.  Pitt wins


Werewolves of Raliegh vs Demonic Deacons:  Ugh, the second ACC game in the blog. I guess N.C. State wins.


The Yutes of Utes vs Worshington:  Utah is one of those teams everybody says is good, but nobody  watches them because their games come on at 11:00 eastern standard time. Washington is meh. Utah wins


Kennesaw State vs Monmouth:  My Beloved Owls welcome Monmouth University to the Fifth of a Quarter State Mutual And A Third Stadium (Original name: Down The Street From Town Center Mall Stadium)  Monmouth has a 6-2 record.  It should be the Owls' biggest test. They'll pass.  KSU wins.