I miss the days of some of those games from days gone by (I have a great idea on this for a post next week), but it is still a great day and the perfect setup for the next day with even more rivalries-especially The Game.
I've been working a lot of late, so I've been pretty tired, but I took a nap and got up at noon to see the newest team that I pull for as the Houston Cougars hosted the Navy Midshipmen.
I've been very effusive in my praise for Cougar defensive lineman Ed Oliver, who I think deserves the Lombardi and the Outland trophies for the top lineman in the nation.
Oliver is just a sophomore and is so dominant that I love watching Cougar games just to see him play.
Oliver was the dominant force in this one, a 24-14 win finishing with 14 tackles,3.5 of those for losses and two sacks and forced Navy to run away from him and run almost exclusively to the outside because they couldn't get the fullback to do anything against Oliver.
Oliver is so dominant that there is talk of a rule change involving blocking below the waist when a player is being blocked by multiple players because Oliver is being double and triple-teamed on every play!
Oliver injured his knee against Temple on one of these blocks and played through an injured ACL for a few games (This video is the week AFTER the MCL injury and Oliver is running downfield chasing down running backs!), so it has only been the last few games that he is back to full speed.
My favorite two Oliver plays are plays that I have to find a video of, but here's a description-
Against Texas Tech, late in the half, Houston put TEN guys back to defend against the deep pass and rushed only Oliver.
Oliver vs the Tech offensive line and yet it's Oliver who forced a hurry and just missed a sack-1 on 5!
The other came in the loss to Tulane (I think anyway) where Oliver is being blocked by multiple blockers, gets held and dragged to the ground, gets up and chases down the quarterback for the sack anyway!
If you like football and couldn't care less about Houston-watch their bowl game anyway, just for Ed Oliver.
I'm already making plans to see the Cougars when they visit Navy next year.
I always talk about when Ryan and I saw Randy Moss when he played for Marshall against Kent State live.
I want to say the same about seeing Ed Oliver live too.
It's been an interesting year to watch Houston. They finished 7-4 and will be in a bowl game, but it has been an odd 7-4 in the first year under Major Applewhite as the replacement for Tom Herman.
Big wins over South Florida on the road and this win over Navy at home are countered by inexplicable losses to bad teams on the road in Tulsa and Tulane.
And had they not collapsed against 25th ranked (as of today) Memphis in blowing a ten-point lead with less than seven minutes to go -it would be the Cougars traveling to Orlando next week for the AAC title game and an attempt to ruin the undefeated season of Central Florida.
I'm a newer Cougar fan because going back to their days in the SWC, my team there was always the Red Raiders of Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders have slotted into every other year's Thanksgiving game against the Texas Longhorns since Texas A&M left for the SEC.
The Longhorns insist on always being at home for their Thanksgiving day game since the Aggie's departure, so Texas Tech plays Thanksgiving at Texas in odd years with TCU getting the slot in even years.
Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury was thought to need a win to possibly save his job as the Red Raiders entered at 5-6 and needed a win to be bowl eligible.
I've never liked the Longhorns, although with Tom Herman taking the job as head coach there, my fondness for Herman has lightened the dislike for now.
I've been critical of the Big 12 for teams playing video game football with little defense, but there are some signs that there are a few steps in the right direction as TCU and Iowa State are playing decent defense and suddenly I'm seeing Tech play better on the defensive side of the football as it was the defense that stepped up made the plays (twice holding the Horns to field goals with drives that had first and goals inside the Tech five) to keep Tech in the game and then an interception by Justus Parker with just over two minutes to go that was returned 56 yards to the Texas 14.
That play allowed Nick Shimonek, the regular starter that didn't see the field until the 4th quarter to hit Cameron Batson for the game-winning score and a 27-23 Red Raider win.
After the game with Tech now 6-6 and bowl eligible, it was announced that Kingsbury would be returning for 2018.
I think that's a fair thing to do with the requirement to Kingsbury that 6-6 next season will not be enough to return for 2019.
Kingsbury's teams have never had problems scoring points, the problem has been a very porous defense even for the Big 12, which says a lot about the state of the Red Raider defense.
The tide may have turned in Lubbock with a defense that will return 10 starters and might be a sleeper team for 2018.
The question is which do I root for in September when the Cougars travel to West Texas for a rematch with the Red Raiders after this season's 27-24 Tech win.
I'll be back later with a quick boxing challenge for tonight's HBO tripleheader and of course later, we'll have our recap of "The Game"...
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