Dirty-Dawg: College Football Page

by Shudda Cudda Wudda

Most College Football teams build in a "Bye Week", or open date, to rest and recharge, often prior to tough game with a rival. Then there are weeks like Week 12, in which numerous Power 5 teams build in an unofficial bye against Group of 5 or even Division II teams to rest and recharge before Week 13's "Rivalry Week". With this being the case for many teams, our slate of games for Week 12 was generally pretty lame. Okay so some of the "real" conferences that play nine or ten games don't do that unofficial bye! There were a few good matchups for Week 12, like Michigan v Wisconsin; UCLA v USC; UAB v Florida (Ha Ha!), but not the high-end matchups from last week or next week.

As for Dirty Dawg Play--another tough week, with the average score 44.5, but with only four upsets. The biggest upset was a fast-improving Purdue Boilermaker team (only four DD players picked Purdue!), upsetting Iowa in Iowa. Also, a couple of Texas upsets as the UT Longhorns upset West Virginia in Morgantown, and Texas A&M upset Ole Miss at The Grove. (Not sure the A&M upset has saved Kevin Sumlin's job though.)

For players, HOLY COW, Johnny Vegas, for the first time in Dirty Dawg history, has moved into first place. Johnny is simply the "Vegas Line" (confidence by point spread) that is put in each week as a measure of how "good" our picks are. So, yes, we all suck this year--not one of our other 431 players can outpace the Vegas Line! Isn't this like Baseball's "Mendoza Line"? Step it up Dawgs--somebody step it up! One interesting note--it if you have ever heard that Vegas "learns" as the season goes along, JV's scores in Dirty Dawg support that notion, as Johnny has reeled us in during the season as he started to make his move after Week 4--watch his march forward: Week 4 63rd place, Week 5 #40, Week 6 #20, then 13th, 12th, 6th, 5th two weeks ago, 2nd place last week, and now #1.

Behind Johnny we have a lot of players within striking distance, with Josh Boustead in 2nd Place and only 6 points behind, and Linda Lininger, Becky Pritt, and Kent Kuyper tied at 10 points back, and there are a total of 12 people within 30 points of the lead, certainly possible with the explosive nature of the Bowl Blowout.

For this week, Dale Parra scored a respectable 86, missing five games, but limiting losses with low confidence on those games. In 2nd place was Kyle Newman with 84, and tied for 3rd were Alisha Mize and Cuss Rudder with 82.

For Group Play, the Florida Dummies, BoomerBacks, and Dawgzilla remain 1, 2, 3, all within 18 points of each other, and with a 28 point gap to 4th Place, where the BuckNutz surged forward from 6th Place last week.

Ok, so as we head down the backstretch, here comes Rivalry Week! Come on football fans, look for some "Targets of Opportunity" to knock Johnny Vegas back into the pack. Good luck with your picks! AND REMEMBER THE EARLY DEADLINE!