Football 2024 (CFP National Championship)

I haven't spent much time watching the CFP games on television, since most of the playoff games matched teams I don't particularly care about, and most weren't close:

• Notre Dame defeated Indiana 27-17
• Texas U. defeated Clemson 38-24
• Penn State defeated Southern Methodist 38-10
• Ohio State defeated Tennessee 42-17 
• Penn State defeated Boise State 31-14
• Ohio State defeated Oregon 41-21
• Texas U. defeated Arizona State 39-31
• Notre Dame defeated Georgia 23-10

Those preliminary games narrowed the field down to Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and Texas. In the semifinal games played this week, Notre Dame beat Penn State 27-24. That left the semifinal game I was interested in seeing: Ohio State vs Texas U.

I'm not a fan of Ohio State, since the Buckeyes beat the last Texas A&M team to win a conference championship (Big 12 in 1998). On the other hand, Texas U. is to college football as Don Old Bump is to national politics - I hate their damned guts. The possibility that the longhorns might play in and win the CFP national championship in their first season as an SEC member was just too much to stomach, so last night, I turned on ESPN and watched the fourth quarter of Ohio State vs Texas U.

When I tuned in, the score was tied 14-14, and the Buckeyes were finishing a long time-consuming drive that ended in a touchdown and a 21-14 lead with about half of the 4th quarter remaining. The longhorns quickly drove into position to tie the score, but a fumble recovered by OSU and returned 83 yards for a TD and a 28-14 lead was followed by an interception that ended the final longhorn possession in a 28-14 loss. 

So it's Notre Dame against Ohio State in the national championship game. Notre Dame beat Texas A&M in the first game of the 2024 Aggie season, so I'll probably pull for Ohio State to kick some Irish ass.

Tuesday Tripe

Aileen (Loose) Cannon is in the same class as Smug Sammy Alito and Clearance Sale Thomas when it comes to open corruption and judicial incompetence. Why should we need to keep tolerating her silly, worthless bullshit? 

Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys gang, was convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy, sentenced to 22 years in prison, and is now seeking a full pardon from Demented Don Old. Setting the worst of the J6 criminals free won't win Don Old many new friends, since most Americans are against it. 

A Break from Football

Today is January 6th, 2025. Four years ago today, all hell was breaking loose in Washington D.C. at roughly the same time of day. 

Here's my thought on the fourth anniversary of J6: If there really was a supreme heavenly being blessing America, Demented Don Old would be completing his second year of a prison sentence, with several more still ahead.

He wouldn't be wasting time complaining about flags being at half-mast while he was being inaugurated as 47, since Section 3 of the 14th amendment would have permanently disqualified him from holding the office. God would've made sure that happened.

Added 5:48 PM: Demented Don Old is whining that if Merchan sentences him unconditionally on all 34 felony charges resulting in jury verdicts of guilty, it will mean "the end of the Presidency as we know it." 

Wrong, you worthless turd. Only the end of one.

Football 2024: Bowl Game (Lost in Vegas)

The long painful collapse of the Texas A&M football season that began with an embarrassing blowout at South Carolina in the tenth week, finally ended in the Las Vegas Bowl in the early morning hours (Texas time) against a different USC.

The bowl game matched A&M (8-4) against Southern Cal (6-6), with the Aggies as slight favorites (about 3.5 points). The game was carried on ESPN with kickoff at 9:30 PM (Texas time). The Aggies played reasonably well on both offense and defense in the first half, and were able to build a 24-7 lead in the third quarter (which was still going on at midnight, when I called it quits). 

USC outscored the Aggies 21-7 in the fourth quarter, and pulled off a 35-31 comeback victory. The winning touchdown was scored with just eight seconds remaining in the game.

Frankly, I'm glad the season's over for A&M. Now I can concentrate on the CFP games still to be played.

Football 2024: Conference Championships

The 2024 college football regular season has been completed, and this weekend's schedule consists mainly of conference championship games. The schedule looks weird because so much conference realignment occurred this year. For example, the ACC championship game features Clemson (9-3) vs SMU (11-1), and the Big 12 game has Iowa State vs Arizona State (both 10-2). In the Big Ten, the match-up is Penn State (11-1) vs Oregon (12-0). The Pac-12 was considered one of the five power leagues, but that one no longer exists. Its former members are scattered all over the map now.

This mumbling has mainly been an introduction to comments about the SEC championship game (to be shown on ABC at 3:00 Central from Atlanta). The competing teams are Georgia (10-2) vs Texas U (11-1). Georgia gets credit for handing the longhorns their only loss (30-15 in Austin), but Texas U is still favored to win today by 2.5 or 3.0 points, depending on where you look. 

Georgia's losses came against Alabama (41-34) and Ole Miss (28-10). Texas U has some wins that seemed sort of impressive at the time, against Michigan (7-5), Oklahoma (6-6), Vanderbilt (6-6), Florida (7-5), Arkansas (6-6), and Kentucky (4-8). The only longhorn wins against teams with at least eight wins came against Colorado State (8-4) early and Texas A&M (8-4) late.

I'm not in love with the Georgia Bulldogs, but I despise the Texas U longhorns. The realization that Texas U might win a championship in their first season as an active SEC member makes me want to puke. College Football News expects both teams will struggle, but predicts a 27-23 win for the Bulldogs. Texas U losing is the outcome I want to watch on TV this afternoon.

Update 7:05 PM Saturday: There was a lot of back-and-forth scoring, and the game ended 16-16 in regulation. Georgia won the game in overtime 22-19, scoring a touchdown after holding Texas U to a field goal. It wasn't the type of ass-whipping I hoped to see Texas U suffer, but I'll take a Bulldog win any way I can get one.

Football 2024: Fourteenth Week (Texas U)

The regular season comes to an end tonight, and there are several rivalry games being played in various college football stadiums this weekend. One of them will see a bitter rivalry that lasted over a hundred years resumed at Kyle Field when Texas U (10-1) visits Texas A&M (8-3). The game will be televised on ABC at 6:30 PM Central.

About this so-called rivalry: Texas U has the upper hand with a 76-37-5 record. The most recent game was played at Kyle Field on 11/24/2011, Mike Sherman was coaching the Aggies, who lost the game 27-25. The most recent A&M win was the previous year (2010) in Austin, final score 24-17. Assuming the Aggie seniors are all about 21 years old, they would have been about eight years old when the most recent A&M vs Texas U game was played. Assuming the freshmen are all about 18 years old, they would have been five years old then. The point is, how relevant is this historic rivalry game to players who were children the last time it was played?

The Texas U longhorns are 5 1/2 point favorites, and A&M has been stomped at South Carolina (4-3) and lost in OT at Auburn (4-6). Texas U has lost only once, to powerhouse Georgia. Although the longhorns have a more impressive season record, College Football News has predicted the Aggies will somehow win tonight in a 24-23 squeaker. We'll see about that.

Update 10:58 PM Saturday: Texas A&M couldn't get much accomplished on offense or defense in the first half, which ended with Texas U ahead 17-0. We left the game and watched episodes of Cheers-Season One on DVD instead, which was much more entertaining. The final score was 17-7.

Update added Sunday morning: The only score in the second half of last night's game came with about six minutes remaining in the third quarter. Aggie DB Will Lee III (a junior transfer from Kansas State) intercepted a longhorn pass and returned it 93 yards for an Aggie touchdown. I saw it on a highlight video after the game, but it was too little, too late. That's becoming typical as the 2024 season crawls to another disappointing finish.

Football 2024: Thirteenth Week (at Auburn)

It's time to return my attention to football since Texas A&M (8-2) is playing on the road at Auburn (4-6) tonight (6:30 PM Central on ESPN). Based on their season records so far, this would seem to be a fairly easy win for the Aggies, but as an SEC West divisional opponent since 2012, Auburn has been formidable with twelve games split 6-6 for each team. Texas A&M earned one of its most meaningful wins after the 1985 season, defeating Auburn 36-16 in the Cotton Bowl. That Auburn team featured star running back Bo Jackson, too.

Back to the game tonight: The Aggies are still in the running for the conference championship with only one SEC loss (to South Carolina). Auburn is struggling, but could make their season with a victory against the Aggies. A&M is the favorite at 1.5 points. According to College Football News, Auburn is the better team when it comes to avoiding penalties and turnovers, and those could be factors contributing to an Aggie defeat. The CFN prediction is a 26-20 win for A&M heading into the showdown against former SWC and Big 12 rival Texas U. in their next game. 

Update 11:00 PM Saturday: Texas A&M fell behind 21-0 in the second quarter, but was able to get ahead 31-28 in the fourth quarter. Normally I would have turned off the TV when the score was 14-0, but for some reason I thought A&M might come back to win, with three quarters still left to play at that point. No such luck, though. Aggie penalties and turnovers kept them from scoring the points necessary to bury Auburn, and they eventually lost the game (43-41) in the fourth overtime period. Adios, SEC championship fantasies.

A Brief Break From Football

During football season, Hot Water Sandwich is devoted almost entirely to college football generally, and Texas A&M /SEC games particularly. I try to post my opinions on all five blogs in chronological order, and I've posted stuff on all four of the other siblings since the last time there was a football weekend discussed here. 

After the recent election disaster on November 5th, I was stunned by MVP's loss to Slobbo the HOT (Huge Orange Turd). I was sure Kamala Harris would win all three Blue Wall states, and at least two of the Sun Belt swing states, but it didn't happen. I'm still not sure there was no illegal manipulation of the voting in some of those swing states.

At any rate, being as stunned and disappointed as I was, I had no tolerance for the crap being reported at most of the liberal Alternative Media sources. Since I didn't keep up with things that were happening, I had nothing to express opinions about. 

When I'm reading articles at the liberal Alternative Media web pages about current politics, I visualize MAGA as thousands of lazy fat pigs who love to wallow around in shallow pools of their own biological waste. All red states have areas of a few hundred acres that are fenced in, where their lazy fat pigs can wallow happily in their own shit. 

The thousands of MAGA swine are led by an enormous orange pig called Covfefe, who weighs roughly 800 pounds and demands that the smaller pigs lick him clean after he joins them for several hours of wallowing in their excrement.

Update added 2:13 PM Friday 11/22: As soon as the election had been called in his favor, Slobbo the HOT began his victory gloating, insisting that he'd won a monumental landslide and an unprecedented mandate. What he failed to realize was that several blue states were days away from completing tabulation of the popular vote. Now that the counting is being finished, Slobbo has won the Electoral College - but he won less than fifty percent of the national popular vote for the third time in three tries. So much for his unprecedented mandate. 

(--- and the horse he rode in on. Maybe he enjoys looking like an ignorant asshole, because that's what he is if he thinks a majority of Americans want him to deliver on the horrible stuff he promised to do during his campaign pep rallies).