One is the loneliest number; two can be as bad as one since it’s the loneliest number since the number one.

This week’s blog was written by Rowdy Randy Haberl While Dan is on vacation. Randy is a Bay Area native and father of a Boise State graduate and an all around college football junky like the rest of us. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Blog owner.....but they are pretty darn close...Enjoy!


Who would have thought that Three Dog Night knew they were writing the theme song for the Nov. 17th, 2012 college football weekend? I’m now starting to think Dec. 21st may be for real.



Tailgate Update: When the King of Tailgate, the master of the College Football blog succumbs to pressure from his significant other and the rest of the family, and visits the tourist trap of Hawaii, we can only hope he is sporting a beautiful sunburn for the rest of us low lifes. He wasn’t quite smart enough however to plan the trip around a college football game. Denied he was, to be exposed to the unrecognized powerhouse of the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. Wait….. are they still the Rainbow Warriors? Or just Warriors? Here is a brief history I’m sure prompted by some in California.

Prior to the year 2000, the University of Hawaii's men's teams were all referred to as the Rainbow Warriors, complemented by an athletics logo featuring a rainbow. However, in a controversial marketing strategy over which many at the University and throughout Hawaii have misgivings, the school changed its athletics logo to a stylized "H" and allowed each team to pick its own team name. This has led to the current situation, where the basketball, swimming, diving, and tennis teams have retained the team name of "Rainbow Warriors"; the baseball team adopted the name "Rainbows"; and the football, golf, and volleyball teams have adopted the name "Warriors". No wonder they haven’t put a good team together in some time. The mighty team visited the confines of Air Force’s Falcon Stadium in another close 21-7 loss.

Anyway, let’s let Dan enjoy this history making trip while I try and put some sense to blogging and substitute for him. There is no way Danville Rowdy Randy can compete with his writing skills and observations. The questions is, do I do the blog from my home away from home down at Elliott’s Bar, established in 1906, or from the cold and rainy confines of my family room with the family all away. Either way, a great weekend to be by myself enjoying some uninterrupted time watching college Gameday. The pressure of these tasks has left me home alone. A crowd would have thrown me off my game.

Around the Country: The day started with the anticipation to see if the WSU (Washington State) flag is at Gameday. I got up early to tune in and sure enough, even on a very early rainy Saturday in Eugene, the flag was flying high. Wherever Game Day goes, so does the Flag. Someone out there is very dedicated to a hopefully soon to be contender.

The talk this week was the Pac-8, I mean 10, ok Pac-12, and the Big-12 with its 10 teams, and a bit of the Irish. Not so much drama for the rest of the country. What a nice change for those of us on the West Coast. As the day progressed, the feeling of fall was in the air, literally. On a night when the forecaster predicted the sky to drop a large amount of duck points and pile up on the limbs of the Stanford tree making them break, it actually became a hunter’s dream corralling the fleet of feathers for a late night rare delicacy of duck steamed in its own pond. Coach Shaw predicting they have a chance against all other odds makers, finally figured out a Defense to minimize the ducks fast paced attack. When was the last time Oregon was outdone in every category except turnovers where Stanford even minimized the consequences of fumbles and an interception?

And when the prudent didn’t see any obstacles in K-State’s way, there is Baylor who tried to simulate some RG3 moments and stunned the Wildcats with some darts in their side. K-State was totally outplayed right from the start. State proclaimed Heisman Bound higher being was brought back to mortality and is once again just another very good football player. This is why I love College Football where every week seems to baffle the so called experts of ESPN and others.

The luck of the Irish will now be the mythical #1, they’re in the national Championship again and all the little Leprechaun’s are dancing all over South Bend and their large following. Nothing can get in their way can it? Maybe a quarterbackless USC is doable now and Miami reservations can be made.

As the self proclaimed pro league SEC all seem to be playing their late regular season “Let’s don’t hurt our Ranking’s” second tier teams, we will ignore them. I mean no disrespect to Georgia Southern, Jacksonville State, Wofford or Alabama A&M. I know many of us enjoy these games also, and they are often very entertaining. When the SEC romps over these small schools playing for the money, Mark May and others drool on the statistics put upon these dynamic challengers. Some day College Football Live will give some Kudos to the rest of the country and recruiting will be spread out past the confederacy and to the rest of deserving teams.

Ok I can’t ignore the fact that the SEC fairies sprinkled doomsday dust over Eugene and Waco, and we will most likely have another SEC team joining in on the National Championship. The ESPN execs must have slept much better last night. The conspiracy folks believe those fairies paid Coach Chip Kelly buckets of duck feed since he was so calm on the sideline during the lack luster performance his team was displaying. Only once being flagged for complaining to the referee’s.

In other news, Ohio State and Penn State both win and lead the Legends Division of the Big-10, teams that will always be reminded of their appropriately named legacy division. So a 4-3 Wisconsin will represent against the socially awkward and beep-able Bo Pelini lead Huskers from the Leaders Division in another coincidentally named division. Way to go Big-10 Execs. Oklahoma defense must not be very good as they squeak out a nail biter against West Virginia 50-49, and Boise State rolls over Colorado State with only Nevada in their way for being tri-champion of the Mountain West. But Nevada always proposes a challenge to the Broncos.

Coaching news includes the firing of Tennessee’s Dooley, and a talk at Cal with Tedford and the AD after a close loss to Oregon State 62-14 and their 3-9 record. News from Bezerkley should radiate out shortly.

And how could we go this far without the change of Ownership in L.A.? UK-LA romps the Trojans right from the start. Building a big lead and holding off the USC late game efforts. QB Barkley being taken out of the game with a shoulder injury late may have ruined his last hurrah at the coliseum next week. I’m sure he is still thrilled he stayed another year and about his ego ran press conference last year announcing it so. No championship, no Heisman and probably didn’t get lucky last night. Could it be Stanford and UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship? Stanford has to win against them this weekend to force a second game and winner to Rose Bowl. I would like to meet anyone who predicted this one.

Barkley leaving in a sling after getting smacked by UCLA

Talking Heisman, Johnny Football is predicted to lead the way this week with lack-luster performances from Oregon and K-State. Manti Te'o and Braxton Miller are the only one’s left that I can see. Maybe we need to look past a major contender and consider some other great candidates.

Tradition of the Week: Pre-game hype is a wonderful tradition as the bands and the mascots arouse the crowd by displaying their powers and smash the thought that the visiting team has a chance against us. This week the tradition is being challenged as UCLA has told the mighty Trojans that they can’t stab the uck-La logo with a sword in the middle of the field as they do at every game. The threat is that if the Trojans go ahead and do this degrading deed, the band will not be able to play at halftime. Let me take a moment and think which I would rather see as a fan. A blog vote may be needed to decide this one. Makes me think for a moment, does anyone recall what a Trojan warrior does on a turf field? I know the smurf turf gods would display some recourse if they ever visit the landmark.

Gripe of the week: Spending much of my youth growing up down the road from Stanford, they too used to stab the turf with the Indian Chief doing his war dance before the game and spearing the sacred ground. But, the politically correct forced the Stanford Indians to a color and a tree. My color is better than your color, so take that Rainbow Warriors. So why do we still have the Seminoles and Chippewa’s let alone the Redskins and Braves? Please let tradition reign on some things in this glorious country of ours. And lastly, Oregon shouldn’t drop far if there is any reality in the BCS process. They lose a close game while K-State is thrashed. Alabama lost to a lower ranked team and they only dropped 3 spots.

So my feeble attempt to cover for Dan ends, and thank God I hear from everyone he returns to his rightful duties next week.

Thanks to all.

College Football Rules !