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Saturday, College Football Odyssey embarked on its ninth doubleheader day in its 60-year history.   Perfectly mimicking the bizarro world that 2024 college football has become,  we witnessed the first ever ACC home openers for both Stanford and Cal.  Pappy Waldorf and John Ralston must be spinning in their graves!

In the wake of Stanford’s disspiriting 31-7 loss to Virginia Tech, the Odyssey again wonders if Stanford should even bother to stay on the football carousel.  If few are willing to show up on a beautiful (if warm) afternoon, why should the Cardinal bother? The Odyssey concludes that those in Palo Alto must have exciting weekend activities since said activities surely do not involve football attendance at both a beautiful setting and an attractive stadium.

If Stanford QB, Ashton Daniels, had not tweaked his ankle the previous Saturday against Clemson, Stanford would have had a fighting chance because Virginia Tech played an indifferent game, perhaps due to the combination of a mostly empty stadium, jet lag and the overruled Hail Mary the previous week against Miami.

Daniels’ standin, Justin Lamson, was simply not up to the job.  When Stanford was driving for a key first half TD, Lamson coughed up a costly  fumble near the goal line.  His passing ineptitude castrated the Cardinal’s #1 offensive weapon, wide receiver extroardinaire, Elic Ayomanor.  For Ayomanor to have been delivered the ball consistently in this snoozer, Stanford would have needed to hire FedEx.  Stanford’s tiny band was entirely in keeping with its football squad.  Eminently unimpressive.  In days gone by, the band was much more irreverant and fun:  Such as featuring a large placard showing the classes taken and grades of the fictional Mick Dumbstud when playing at USC.  There simply was no fun in Palo Alto Saturday afternoon.

The Odyssey made two key mistakes on Saturday.  The first was taking Lovely Liliane’s grandson to the Stanford game.  Oh no!!  His first college game.   Perhaps his last after this sordid saga.  Now if we had only taken him to the evening game at Cal!

For the Cal game experience will be imblazoned in the psyche of the Odyssey for the rest of our life.  As it will for the rare (and spirited) sellout crowd in Strawberry Canyon.  Gameday made its first appearance in Berkeley.  The supposedly laid back Cal fans turned Gameday’s appearance into an all-night rave as many camped out all night before Gameday took the air at 6AM PDT.

An undefeated Miam team made the 3,000 trip for a 7:30PM start time that had to be tough on their body clocks.  That Cal would take a 21-10 halftime lead only added to a festive halftime that included 155 alumni band members and an out-of-this-world light show.

The third quarter would only get better for the Cal faithful.  Two more TD’s made this a 35-10 affair that was almost a laugher.  ALMOST, being the operative word.  Miami QB, Cam Ward, a Heisman favorite going into the game, had been repeatedly harrassed by Cal’s pass rush and gifted the Golden Bears a Pick 6.

I almost pulled the ripchord and left at this juncture.  Due to a car snafu, I had to resort to a long Lyft ride from San Mateo and was very wary of getting a driver for a return trip late at night.  Staying proved to be as interesting as witnessing an 8-car pileup on I-880.

When you have a 25-point lead well into the third quarter, coaches face a dilemma.  How conservative should one get?  Cal was quite conservative.  The Golden Bears had not sprinted off to their large lead by a bulldozing rushing attack.  Instead, Jadyn Ott, star of the memorable “Ott To Go” spoof, had largely been held in check (Cal wound up with only 73 yards on 25 rushes).  Cal had ridden the wave of three 50+ yard gains and its Pick Six to its 35-10 cushion.

However, Cam Ward was far from done.  Toss in a tiring Cal D and the Golden Bears had a recipe for unimaginable disaster.  The pass rush vanished in the 4th quarter as did the Cal lead in the final 30 seconds.  Ward finished with a whopping 437 yards of passing.

For the 2nd straight week, the U benefited from a controversial call.  With Cal nursing a 38-32 lead, the officials reviewed a call for targeting.  If so, Cal would have had a vital first down and very likely the game.  When the partisan crowd saw the play on jumbotron, they wildly cheering an imminent targeting call.  The verdict: no targeting and a jeering crowd.

For both teams, the consequences of the game’s outcome were colossal.  Miami gets to keep tightroping in its undefeated year.  For Cal, an immense opportunity lost.  The Golden Bears had not played in a Rose Bowl game since 1959 despite some megawatt stars.  During the Odyssey’s lifetime, consider Cal’s best quartet of QBs:  Steve Bartkowski, Joe Roth, Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff.  How many other programs can compare to this illustrious foursome?  Yet, Cal regularly figures out a way to shoot itself in the foot.

I contemplated massive frustration and loss while I stewed in downtown Berkeley past midnight.  I did finally get a ride and got to sleep by 2:15AM.  Regardless, I feel sure I wound up with more sleep than Justin Wilcox.

College Football Odyssey is scheduled for yet another doubleheader on Saturday.  Irony of ironies – this doubleheader will occur in the anti-hotbed of college football:  San Francisco’s Bay Area.  If that is not weird enough, both games will be ACC tilts.  In college football’s bizarro world, Virginia Tech and Miami will take long flights to the “woke” capital of the USA.

The appetizer will be Saturday afternoon at Stanford.   Believe it or not, there was a time in our lifetime where Stanford was not “woke.”  The Odyssey reminisces about 2 games from the early 1970’s we attended where Stanford played Michigan.  In those days, Stanford’s nickname was, GASP, the Indians!! If there is a team less prepared to face the NIL, insta-transfer portal world, it is Stanford.  Yet, if their QB, Ashton Daniels, can recover from an ankle tweak suffered late in last Saturday’s tilt at Clemson, the Odyssey views Stanford as a very live dog.  We hope that enough fans in the Palo Alto area will postpone their wine-tasting tours in Napa to actually attend the game.  In recent years, so many Stanford fans have disguised themselves as empty seats.

The main course will be Saturday evening in Strawberry Canyon.  Gameday is shockingly making a visit to Berkeley.  We will look to buy a “Coke vs. Woke” Tshirt!  Miami’s visit has all the makings of a sneaky, great game.  Miami is undefeated while Cal has one loss.  In another element of weirdness that is Berkeley, Miami should probably have one less and Cal be undefeated.  Was there really enough evidence to overturn Virginia Tech’s Hail Mary?  In Cal’s loss to Florida State, the Golden Bears roundly outplayed the Seminoles only to suffer massive Red Zone woes.

Will Cal’s great running back, Jadyn Ott, be back at full strength?  The Odyssey fervently hopes so.  A must do for all football fans is to get on YouTube for the following 2 videos.  First, watch the witty, suggestive video from Chappelle Roan, “Hot to Go.”  Then, the absolutely brilliant spoof of “Ott to Go.”  The Odyssey bows down to such absolute genius.

For one evening, the Odyssey can forgive the Bay Area for their laissez faire view of college football.  Go Cal!

It is pretty unlikely your last 96 hours have been as bad as those of Nick Lopez.

San Diego State was nursing a 21-19 lead at Central Michigan in the last 5 minutes of Saturday’s game.  Lopez proceeds to miss a 35-yard field goal attempt.  The miss turns out not to be fatal as the Aztecs defense stops the Chippewas and gifts the Aztec offense with the ball deep in CMU territory.  The Chippewa defense stiffens and forces a 28-yard field goal attempt by Lopez.  OOPS!  Another miss.

CMU drives down the field, which includes a 4th and 7 conversion.  Their field goal kicker, Tristan Mattson. converts a 46-yard field goal in the final seconds.  The Chips win, 22-21, as they win their 2nd  thriller in 7 days in Mt. Pleasant.

As for Nick Lopez, the Odyssey is truly feeling for you!

After Matthew Sluka announced that he would no longer be on the UNLV football team, the McCoys’ 1965 hit, “Hang On Sloopy,” kept playing in my head.  Sluka left the team because he had not been paid $100,000 in a verbal NIL agreement with a UNLV assistant coach.  The Odyssey notes that this is Sluka’s version of the story.  While we have no reason to doubt his version, we believed that leaving UNLV was not in the QB’s best interests.

Sluka bailed after 4 games so he could preserve his “redshirt” year.  Since Sluka had previously starred in his previous 4-year stint at FCS Holy Cross, this is not somebody with multiple remaining years of eligibility.  In 2025, who will pay Sluka for a 1-year gig after he bailed on the unbeaten Rebels in 2024?

The Odyssey felt Sluka’s best interest was to stay the course in Las Vegas, especially since this edition of the UNLV Rebels holds so much promise.  WIth 2 Power 4 scalps already in hand (Houston and Kansas), UNLV has a real chance to claim the Group of 5 slot in the upcoming 12-team playoff.

But Sluke chose not to hang on.  ESPN luminary Rece Davis felt the same way as the Odyssey about Sluka’s abrupt exit.

Sluka bailed before yesterday’s pivotal Moutain West game against Fresno State.   The football gods laughed uproariously!  Sluka was not missed at all.  His replacement, Campbell transfer Hajj-Malik Williams, actually proved to be a very competent passer against Fresno State.  Sluka, while an extremely adept runner, was not Dan Marino in the passing game as had been completing less than half of his passes.  This morning, UNLV fans are collectively saying to Sluka, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, sucker!”

The Odyssey is extra happy for UNLV because this is the 2nd surprise bailout by a starting UNLV QB in 2024.  In 2023,  the Rebel QB was Jaden Maiava.  He threw for 3,000+ yards and was honored as 2nd team Mountain West QB and league Freshman of the Year.  Maiava bailed for greener pastures (and probably some green) at USC.  OOPS!  Maiava is now catching pine time at the Coliseum behind stud QB Miller Moss.  Sluka should have called Maiava before making his fateful decision.  The grass is not always greener elsewhere.  Sluka chose not to hang on.

In January, Washington was riding a 21-game winning streak, which included a playoff win over Texas.

THEN, UW lost 34-13 in the Natty tilt.  They lost their brilliant head coach Kalen DeBoer to the Crimson Tide and virtually their entire 2023 team as only 6 starters returned.

Their 3-2 start is deceptive.  The Huskies probably should be 5-0.  A horrid play call at the Washington State 1 yard line (a QB run to the short side of the field by a non-runningQB) was pivotal.  On Friday, an inexplicable penalty and 3 missed field goals spelled doom in their 21-18 loss to Rutgers.

Their remaining schedule is a horror show:

Michigan

@ Iowa

@ Indiana

USC

@ Penn State

UCLA

@ Oregon

OUCH!  The Huskies now rate to be dogs in all but the UCLA game.  For those bettors who grabbed the Under 7.5 win total, congrats.  A 4-8 or 5-7 season looms.

Hello, Jake Dickert!

Against all odds, Washington State is coming off back-to-back absolute thrillers smelling like a rose.

How did the Cougars survive?

In the Apple Cup, WSU is clinging to a 24-19 lead in the waning moments.  However, those dreaded Huskes are knocking at the door, with 4th and goal from the Cougar 1.  4th and the season for Washington State!  Inexplicably, UW, with a non-running QB, elects to run an option to the SHORT side of the field..  Stuffed!  Cougar ecstasy!

After the game, Washington coach, Jedd Fisch, manned up and confessed that his play call was a bad one.

Six days later, San Jose State pays a visit to the Palouse.  Two surprises.  San Jose State has a much better team than anybody anticipated.  WSU fans did not expect to look at the scoreboard at the end of the third quarter and see SJSU winning by 38-24. If that was surprising, the 54 passes thrown by Cougar transfer, Emmett Brown, was shocking.  The new coach for the Spartans was none other than Ken Niumatalolo.  The same Niumatalolo who was the all-time winningest coach at Navy.  The Navy team that ran the ball, ran the ball more and kept running the ball.  54 heaves is as stunning as if Dolly Parton sang at a concert in a baggy, burlap dress.

WSU proceeded to rally behind their swashbucking QB, John Mateer, and forced overtime.  San Jose State immediately regrets one of their 54 passes, as WSU picks off an errant Brown pass.  The norm:  WSU would make a series of conservative play calls with a game-winning field goal attempt in its back pocket.

Such strategy makes even more sense because Mateer is a first-year starter who can be streaky:  a poor man’s Brett Favre, so to speak.  So, what does Washington State do?  Mateer passes and gets picked off.  Coaching malpractice of such a magnitude that easily trumped Fisch’s awful play call in Seattle in the Apple Cup.

Dickert gets off the hook when SJSU’s two-point conversion in the second overtime fails.

The Odyssey hopes that Dickert has not exhausted all his luck.  Because the most challenging game on their schedule occurs this Saturday when they make a short trip to Boise.  The Cougars are 7.5 point dogs to the explosive Broncos.  If WSU can figure out a way to pull off the upset, the Palouse will go nuts because the possibility of an undefeated season would have the locals jumping up and down.

Our reaction after watching Oregon State’s 21-0 win at San Diego State  two Saturdays ago was that neither team looked so hot.  Last week proved Confirmation Saturday!

Oregon State was inept on both sides of the ball in their epic 49-14 fail in the Civil War.  Potential salvation: Purdue, fresh off a program worst 66-7 thrashing by Notre Dame, pays a visit.

SDSU was humbled by a feisty Cal team.  We see no salvation for the Aztecs.  New coach and purported offensive guru, Sean Lewis, must have done some bad deeds earlier in his life.  For he is now being punished to have to watch the San Diego State offense.  Truly offensive!

Let’s hope that the next team these two teams meet as Pac-6 conference members, arrows will be pointing up.

Imagine that you made a wager that the total points scored in last Thursday’s South Alabama – Northwestern State game. would exceed 59.  Great contentment as the halftime score is 52-10 in favor of USA.  A total winner by halftime!  Until it wasn’t.  When South Alabama ran up the score to 87-10, the coaches agreed to not play the game’s final 9 minutes.

Uh oh!  Betting services have a general rule that a game must be played for at least 55 minutes for there to be action.  It seems beyond cruel for this ticket not to cash.  Believe it or not, USA had 6 touchdowns called back due to penalties.

This stoppage brought back memories of a Wisconsin visit to UNLV in 2002 for a night game.  With 7:41 to go, the electricity went out.  The coaches agreed to call it a night.  Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.  Conspiracy theorists had a field day with the outage but no villanous plot was ever uncovered.

Bettors are used to bad beats.  But for this wager not to cash takes bad luck to a new plateau.

Butch Jones returned to his native state as his Arkansas State squad paid a visit to the Big House.  Twice, with 4th and 1 in the first half relatively deep in Michigan territory, he opted for a field goal attempt.

When one is a 22-point underdog, it is difficult to imagine that the road to an upset is paved by field goals.  Maybe Jones was enamored because he had a stellar field goal kicker.  OOPS!  Past tense.  He had a stellar field goal kicker, Dominic Zvada, in 2023.  Perhaps Jones had a brain cramp.  No doubt Zvada was in the Big House but he was sporting a Maize & Blue uniform.  That damn transfer portal struck again!

Perhaps fittingly, Arkansas State’s first field goal attempt doinked off the goal post.  The Red Wolves wound up 1 for 3 on field goal attempts in the first half.  Why would Jones, the Prince of Platitudes, play it so safe?  Was his long game a respectable loss?  Would he have viewed it as a triumph if Arkansas State covered the spread?

One would think that a Michigan native such as Jones would be encouraged to roll the dice in an effort to pull off a major upset.  After all, Michigan looked very ordianary against Texas.  No dice for Jones.  However, he could at least be satisfied that his squad did cover the spread in backdoor fashion as the Red Wolves scored 2 late TD’s.

The name of Louisiana Monroe coach Bryant Vincent resonates with very few. After a 2-10 mark in 2023, the Warhawks let go of Terry Bowden after 3 years and hired Vincent.

Vincent was the interim coach at Alabama Brimingham (UAB) in 2022 after the surprising departure of Bill Clark. A 6-6 mark was not impressive enough to erase the interim tag despite a petition from the players to permanently hire Vincent.

2023 found Vincent in football purgatory as he was the Offensive Coordinator at New Mexico. When has New Mexico ever had a good offense?

Cynics will say that ULM’s hire of Vincent was purgatory continuation. Not only is ULM among the most under financed programs with a tepid fan base, the War Hawks had only 7 returning starters.

Last Saturday, fate had a major chuckle when UAB traveled to Monroe. Eschewing Vincent, UAB made an “out of the box” hire of Trent Dilfer. Dilfer’s big coaching chops were 2 state championships at Lipscomb Academy.  Dilfer has been a dud.  Last year’s record was 4-8.  The former Super Bowl winning QB has yet to win a road game.

Imagine how wonderful Vincent felt after ULM rose from the ashes and smashed UAB 32-6, thanks in part to 3 UAB turnovers.  ULM dominated both lines of scrimmage.   ULM’s roster includes a dozen former Blazers.  The Tymes’ 1963 hit, “Wonderful, Wonderful” should have boomed in the victors’ locker room. Ample evidence that UAB hired the wrong guy.

The Odyssey has a big smile when thinking of Bryant Vincent. Saturday night must have put him on Cloud 9.