We hate to start this week’s newsletter on a somber note, but can anyone confirm there’s been a welfare check on Gus Johnson after the catch of the year last week? Either that was a DMT release triggered from a near death experience or he impregnated Jenny Taft. There are no other plausible explanations. The next biggest takeaway last week was the big week for punting We started Friday night with USC pulling off the most bush league play of the year – newly crowned as “pulling a Malosi” – by disguising their backup QB as their punter and potentially saving their season on one pivotal play. Props to them for at least completely owning it. Then on Saturday we had quite possibly the best punt ever in football and Wisconsin pulled off a big upset against Washington in a game where their punter was their leading passer! On top of that we had hair on the field, a literal bench clearing brawl, and SHSU winning a game with 300 fewer yards and 20 fewer first downs than Oregon State.
Week 12 Pro Tips:
- While the official CFP doesn’t begin for a number of weeks, we’ve unofficially reached the playoff season! Imagine trying to convince yourself in the BCS era that you should care about 2-loss Notre Dame playing 2-loss Pitt. It’s now a must watch game (with ND fans not doing much to gain additional supporters). Couple that with two SEC playoff games, and we’ve got ourselves an incredible day without even changing the channel – don’t forget $5 Sling day pass to use for logging into ESPN app if you’re a YT TV subscriber with $20 burning a hole in your pocket. Yes, you can also use Sling directly, but it blows. Go ESPN app, just trust us.
- In case you haven’t heard, our friends (that we’ve never met but really appreciate their content) at UniWatch are on life support. After dying 2 weeks ago, there’s a fight to bring back the content. Many of our mentions about uniforms stem from their initial work. In a world where uniforms are an absolute mess, we need someone to bring brevity to the situation. If you see any opportunities to support them, let’s help keep them alive!
- Did anyone really think the most obnoxious state in the union was going to quietly end their tenure with Brian Kelly? Seriously, they’ve taken a process that should be as simple as a trip to the grocery store and turned it into a complete trainwreck we can’t stop watching. There’s no doubt this is likely to go down as the most entertaining firing of all time. Just to recap, LSU fires Kelly per orders form the Governor, Governor proceeds to publicly roasts AD before firing him too, LSU panics when no one steps up to cover the buy out so they claim Kelly was never formally dismissed – during a period of time where they played a game with an interim coach – and now they’re firing him (again) but this time with cause. We can only hope this story comes full circle with Brian Kelly in a court room breaking out his southern accent one more time.
TOS GAME OF THE WEEK
#10 Texas @ #5 Georgia (-6.5) 6:30PM CST, ABC
What we like about this game: This is the closest thing we’ll have to legit on-campus playoff games (better than some that can’t keep a spread within one score). Vibes are high in Athens as Widespread Panic makes a return home to be part of this game. Texas is yet to deliver on the shot they called back in 2023, it would be epic to pull it off under the lights at Sanford.
What we love about this game: The algorithms have this game pretty tight. The media is pretty split on who will win it. Texas is pretty brutal as an underdog under Sark, but the injury report certainly favors the Horns. The seat of whichever coach loses this one starts to get a bit warm with challenging games still left on the schedule. Neither of these fanbases is going to swallow a 4 loss season very well, so a win here goes a long way in avoiding any serious considerations of getting the hawk tuah from their program.
Our goal for this year is to continue growing our community, while providing intellectually insightful, err, casually entertaining content at a more consistent clip than the CFP rankings show. We greatly appreciate your support and patronage as we continue to develop this site into your one stop shop for winning the weekend! your support and patronage as we continue to develop this site into your one stop shop for winning the weekend!