Breaking the huddle on Thanksgiving weekend games
By Ivan Maisel
ESPN.com
(Archive)
Updated: November 26, 2008
Thanksgiving Weekend MenuThanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, next to the last Thursday in August, which college football has anointed Opening Day. A proclomation from President Abraham Lincoln set the precedent for the former; Lee Corso, who knew Lincoln, proclaimed the latter.
OK, I made up that bit about Corso. He never proclaimed anything about Opening Day.
But here's the thing about Thanksgiving -- if you don't have a plan, the holiday can overwhelm you. The food, like the college football, arrives Thursday and stays for the weekend. While I can't promise you won't get tired of the turkey and stuffing by Saturday night, I can guide you toward which games can't be missed. Here is the weekend's football menu, arranged by course, if not exactly by clock (all times ET):
APPETIZERS
UCLA at Arizona State
Friday, ESPN2, 9:30 p.m.
Both teams are 4-6, so the winner stays in the running to become the Pac-10's sixth bowl-eligible team. Since UCLA plays USC on Dec. 6, and Arizona State plays Arizona that day, neither team is likely to get there. But still, there is something at stake in this game, other than seventh place in the conference standings.
Miami at NC State
Saturday, ESPN360.com, noon
The Wolfpack (5-6, 3-4) need a win to become bowl-eligible. The Hurricanes (7-4, 4-3) need a win to claim a share of the ACC Coastal. But this is an appetizer because both of these teams have improved so much over the course of this season that by next season they should be making a lot more noise. If you like train wrecks, root for NC State to win and Virginia to beat Virginia Tech. That would mean eight teams in the ACC could finish with 4-4 records in league play.
Baylor at No. 7 Texas Tech
Saturday, 3:30 ET
This game is interesting because Oklahoma can't go to the Big 12 championship game if the Red Raiders lose and Texas wins. That would leave the Longhorns and the Sooners (with a win) in a two-way tie for the South Division. Texas would win that bake-off. Texas Tech should beat Baylor, provided that the Red Raiders are paying attention after they lost their shot at a national championship and, in all likelihood, a BCS berth this past Saturday night. The Bears are good enough to embarrass any team that doesn't take them seriously.
MAIN COURSE
All of the top four teams play their in-state, public-university rivals this weekend. These rivalries share many characteristics: passion, hatred, jealousy, etc. In other words, all the traits that make you get out of bed and put on your favorite sweatshirt, grab a cold beverage and open it with the bottle opener that plays your fight song.
Texas A&M at No. 2 Texas
Thursday, ESPN, 8 p.m.
The Aggies are still in transition, searching for an identity in coach Mike Sherman's return to college football. The Longhorns are fighting mad, angry that their victory over Oklahoma has been devalued and ignored as the Sooners try to go around them to get to the Big 12 championship game. We should see Texas at its best, which means junior quarterback Colt McCoy will put on a show that will make Texas A&M fans doze off long before the game is over. If nothing else, the story of how Bevo, the Longhorns' mascot, got his name is worth the time it takes the guys in the booth to tell it.
No. 4 Florida at No. 20 Florida State
Saturday, ABC, 3:30 p.m.
We get all of the rivalry and maybe, just maybe, a competitive game. The Seminoles have the speed on defense to neutralize what is usually one of the Gators' biggest advantages. The inexperience on the Florida State offense should be too big a hurdle for an upset. But given that the game is in Doak Campbell Stadium, where Florida's drive to the 2006 national championship nearly hiccupped against a mediocre Seminole team, an upset is plausible. In reality, Florida State is probably a year away.
Auburn at No. 1 Alabama
Saturday, 3:30 p.m.
The Iron Bowl rarely disappoints as spectacle, as theater and as a punishing but clean recital of the art of smashing one's opponent in the mouth. Again and again and again. Any thought of Alabama looking past Auburn to the SEC championship game disappears as soon as you recall that Auburn has won six straight games in this rivalry. A Tigers offense that couldn't find the red zone with a Garmin will have trouble scoring against the Crimson Tide's underrated unit.
No. 3 Oklahoma at No. 12 Oklahoma State
Saturday, ABC, 8 p.m.
Let's see, Texas and Oklahoma scored 80 points. Texas and Texas Tech scored 72. Texas Tech and Oklahoma State scored 76. And Oklahoma and Texas Tech scored 86. What that means is the Bedlam Game won't be quick and won't be offering any tutorials on defense. There is no room for equivocation. The Sooners must dominate and hope that their momentum will carry them past the Longhorns. The Cowboys have allowed only two teams to score more than 28 points. But past performance might not mean much against the Oklahoma offensive machine.
DESSERT
South Carolina at Clemson
Saturday, ESPN2, noon
The fact that these two teams really don't like each other applies to this game, because some clichés are actually true.
Kansas at No. 13 Missouri
Saturday, 12:30 p.m.
Even without last season's hype, the game between the Jayhawks and the Tigers would be emotional. It has been for more than 100 years.
Notre Dame at No. 5 USC
Saturday, ESPN, 8 p.m.
An Irish victory would be a bigger upset than Stanford's shocker over the Trojans in 2007. Not as measured by the Las Vegas point spread, mind you. But given what USC still can achieve, and given that Irish immolation this past Saturday and, finally, given that the Irish have to carry that embarrassment across the country on a holiday weekend, the game's outcome is not at stake. Enjoy the spectacle.
BETTER-THE-NEXT-DAY LEFTOVERS
Mississippi State at Ole Miss
Friday, ESPN360.com, 12:30 p.m.
The Egg Bowl. It's not a smart idea to name a rivalry after food when your centerpiece meal of the weekend will pack a 5,000-calorie wallop (at least it does at Mom's house). But this rivalry becomes more relevant every year.
No. 22 Georgia Tech at No. 11 Georgia
Saturday, noon
Two wannabes bidding to be taken seriously. Georgia, the preseason No. 1, got overcome by injuries and the weight of the rankings on its shoulder pads. Georgia Tech seemed to be a year away, if coach Paul Johnson could prove that his option football could win in the ACC circa 2008. To quote Rachel Maddow, "Duh."
No. 23 Oregon at No. 17 Oregon State
Saturday, 7 p.m.
This is what a rivalry should have at stake: not just bragging rights, not just a Jan. 1 bowl berth, not just the Granddaddy Of Them All, but the Beavers' first trip to Pasadena since 1965. And the Ducks can take that all away just by winning the game. Calling this rivalry the Civil War is politically incorrect. And military terms are used in football way too much. But for the love of Rece Davis, let it go.
Garden PartyGeorgia will dedicate a walk-through garden to former coach and athletic director Vince Dooley on Saturday. The garden will feature a sculpture of Dooley on the shoulders of his players after they won the 1980 national championship and will serve as a focal point for the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex.
Allen Dean Steele/Getty Images
Vince Dooley coached Georgia to a 201-77-10 record, winning six SEC titles and one national title from 1964 to 1988.
That's what the university will call the physical plant that encompasses virtually all things athletic for the Bulldogs. It's a well-deserved and overdue tribute for the man who arrived as coach in 1964 and retired as athletic director 40 years later.
But, come on, a garden?
Yes, a garden. The fact is, Dooley has become so interested in horticulture in recent years that he helped design the garden that will house his sculpture. It's another piece of a man who not only won 201 games and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, but also holds a master's degree in history.
"The great thing about being at a university," Dooley said Monday, "is that if you get a curiosity about anything, you can satisfy it. You really can. There's an expert on everything. I have taken a lot of courses, leadership courses, about war, the Civil War in particular. I took some political science courses, which I enjoyed.
"I've always been interested in horticulture. All I intended to do was take a survey course. But a great teacher inspires his students."
In Dooley's case, professors Michael Dirr and Allan Armitrage led him to a passion he didn't know he had. Since taking that introductory course a decade ago, Dooley has traveled twice to England and once to Belgium to see gardens and attend a conference on hydrangeas (no word on whether he won the conference championship).
"It's been good for the body. It's been good for the mind, and it's been good for the soul," Dooley said.
Dooley's son Derek, who has done a masterful job of coaching a rebuilding Louisiana Tech team to a 7-4 record and no worse than a second-place tie in the Western Athletic Conference, said his family has shared in his father's passion, whether they at first wanted to or not. You see, Vince Dooley is known throughout every generation of his family for cooking up "projects" when the family assembles at its lake house.
"I'm 40. My brother is 45," Derek Dooley told me earlier this season. "It would be our fifth hour of pulling weeds. We'll look at each other and ask, 'At what age do you tell your dad you're not doing this anymore?'"
Whatever that age, Derek said, "We haven't gotten there yet."
