TERRY MOSHER
Do you wonder as I do about some of these early-season football games? There are so many names of teams I have never heard of now playing and they often wind up being on the same field with a team from a power conference. What is going on with that?
Take UT Martin. What are the Skyhawks doing going up against Mississippi? Ok, I know it’s about money. But why would you pay to see the game? You know what is going to happen.
Yes, Mississippi won. It was 76-3.
A couple other lopsided scores: California beat Gambling State 73-14 and Air Force edged past Morgan State 63-7.
Actually, I’m more fascinated with teams I never knew existed. What do you know about St. Anselm, which lost to Sacred Heart 43-19? I’ve heard about Sacred Heart, but St. Anselm?
Well, St. Anselm is located in Manchester, N.H. It has 1,913 students. That’s about the size of South Kitsap High School. It is a NCAA D-2 school.
What about Shaw University?
Shaw?
It has about 2,500 students and is a historical black school in Raleigh, N.C. It also is a D-2 school. It lost its season-opener football game 61-7 to NC A&T, which is in Greensboro, N.C. and is a D-1 school.
How about Bacone? Maybe if they renamed the school Bacon it would have had some sizzle to it in its first game against Lamar, which it lost 66-3.The Bacone Warriors are affiliated with the Baptist Church and are historically associated with educating American Indians. The school is located in Muskogee, OK and has an enrollment of about 1,000 students and plays in NAIA football.
I’m more than curious about the makeup of Incarnate Word. Is the school a division of Microsoft? I mean it does have Word in its name. But, no, it’s located in San Antonio, Texas and plays as a NCAA D-1 FCS in the Southland Conference. It is the largest Catholic school in Texas with an enrollment of about 10,000.
It showed its Word power last Saturday by beating Texas A&M-Kingsville, 18-16. Texas A&M-Kingsville is an NAIA school with an enrollment of 5,700.
Then there are schools like Mars Hill and Webber International. Mars Hill is in North Carolina and Webber International is in Babson, Fl and plays as a NAIA Division I school in the Sun Conference.
Washington State on Saturday found all about Portland State, falling to the Vikings 24-17 in its season opener. It was a stunning victory for the school that is tucked inside the city of Portland, Ore. But, you know, the school has almost 30,000 students and is the same size as WSU so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the Vikings beat the Cougars.
Besides, it wasn’t like Pac-12 teams dominated the first week of football. Four other Pac-12 conference teams also lost their first game of the season, Arizona State fell to Texas A&M 38-17, Stanford was stunned by Northwestern 16-6, Colorado lost to Hawaii, 28-20 and Washington was dumped 16-13 by Boise State.
Arizona had a tough time with Texas San Antonio, 42-32 and Oregon gave up 42 points to Eastern Washington (and still won). So misery had good company.
If there was one good thing coming out of the first weekend of college football it’s that NAIA school Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee won its game 33-26 over Georgetown College.
It was 99 years ago that Cumberland was on the wrong end of the most famous score in college football history. In 1916, the rambling wrecks from Georgia Tech subdued Cumberland 222-0.
And, no, Jim Harbaugh was not the coach that year at Georgia Tech.
That’s enough of this nonsense.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.