2018 e-Systems College Football Pool – Week 7 Results

One of the difficulties of writing this column is avoiding the negative. Even though this is a sport where half of the teams lose each week, I usually try to post the positive sides of the story.  However, this stat line is just too hard to pass up; we haven’t see one like it in 15 years!  In a 34-7 loss to Maryland, Rutgers’ starting quarterback’s stat line (before being pulled late in the third quarter) looked like this: 2-of-16 passing for 8 yards, 0 TD, 4 INT. That, according to the passing efficiency calculations, works out to a efficiency rating of -33.3%, the lowest such rating for player with ten or more passing attempts in a game since 2003!  I will spare the poor fellow’s dignity slightly by omitting his name here; if you really want to know, you can look the game up.

Okay, back to the positive. One of the best games of the weekend wasn’t played Saturday. Late Friday night, South Florida came back from a 14 point deficit in the fourth quarter to steal a 25-24 win at Tulsa with a  22-yard field goal at the buzzer. Florida transfer Jordan Cronkrite was the star, running 25 times for 151 yards and a score, and the Bulls’ defense held Tulsa to three three-and-outs in the fourth quarter (allowing only 5 yards total) to give the offense the chance to win. South Florida is playing with fire, but they are 6-0…

Ol’ Crimson is coming home. What is Ol’ Crimson, you might ask? If you’ve ever watched ESPN’s College GameDay program before games start on Saturday, you’ve most likely seen it. Every week for the past fifteen years, alumni of Washington State University have sent a handmade WSU flag (named Ol’ Crimson) to an alumnus close to that week’s on-campus show location, and they make sure the flag is flown and shown on-screen. The idea was that they would continue the tradition until College GameDay made its way to Pullman, Washington, the home of Washington State. Well, this week, after 15 years, 216 consecutive shows, 72 different cities and 34 different states, it’s happening! The Cougars, 5-1 and ranked #25, will host the Oregon Ducks, and College GameDay will be there! Expect more than one WSU flag to be flying, but for there to only be one Ol’ Crimson. The booster club in charge of handling and flying the flag have gone on record as saying the tradition will not stop after this week. It’s become part of the lore of the program, alongside the mascot headgear picks and (sometimes) funny signs.

In small-school news, the latest edition of a classic Division III rivalry had a bittersweetness about it. St. John’s and St. Thomas, Division III powers located about 1 1/2 hours apart in Minnesota, staged their annual game in Collegeville (home of St. John’s) this past Saturday. Both teams came in unbeaten and ranked in the top ten in Division III, but that wasn’t the big story. John Gagliardi, the winningest coach in football history and a coach for 60 years at St. John’s before retiring in 2012, passed away October 7 at the age of 91. Gagliardi, who won 489 games, 30 conference championships and four national titles, was an institution and a pioneer in many ways, especially in his coaching methods (for two, his practices were never longer than 90 minutes, and his players didn’t tackle in practice). His name was worn on the helmets of both the Johnnies and the Tommies as they played. St. John’s won 40-20.

Congratulations to CrimsonWhite, who wins week 7 with 101 points! Crimson Gator came in second with 99, and BEVO and Pachyderm each had 97.

Standings after seven weeks:

A couple of big mid-season rivalries highlight this week’s schedule. Alabama visits Tennessee on the “Third Saturday in October”, while Michigan travels to Michigan State for their annual grudge match. However, the first game this week is Stanford at Arizona State, Thursday, October 18 @ 9 PM ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!