I'm exceedingly delighted to inform you all that it is game week.
As my late father would say, Nebraska is officially on notice.
Word of the Day: Specter.
HOW TO GET THROUGH A SEASON. Just as the Big Ten is getting ready to start its season, a bunch of teams across the country have hit a snag in theirs, postponing games due to positive tests.
According to medical experts, that's a reality Ohio State and the Big Ten might have to face in the coming weeks.
“You have to prepare that the season will be disjointed and characterized by games being postponed and canceled,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who has advised the NCAA on COVID-19. “There's really no way around that.”
...
But (antigen tests) are considered less sensitive than polymerase chain reaction tests, according to the latest testing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raising the possibility for positive players to instead test negative.
Dr. Mark Cameron, an infectious disease researcher at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, referred to the lower sensitivity as the Achilles' heel of the Big Ten’s testing program. False negatives would put teams at risk because players not known to be carrying the virus during the early days of infection can spread it among teammates.
“It could take a few days for those tests to show up properly positive and confirmed,” Cameron said. “By then, you've lost a handle on how many people were infected, and you're going to get extra cases, simply because you couldn't find out fast enough, or reliably enough, that you had an infected team.”
Cool cool cool.
Just by sheer math, I'm nowhere close to optimistic that Ohio State finishes this season without a starter testing positive. I've made peace with the idea that CJ Stroud might be slicing up Rutgers this year – that's fine.
It may be arrogant, but I sincerely believe that almost any combination of players on Ohio State's roster could beat like, 75 percent of the teams on the regular-season schedule. That's not my concern.
I'm just praying we don't hit that dreaded 5 percent positivity rate and have to shutter the whole damn thing. But hey, we're at least going to give it a shot, and that's way better than where we were two months ago.
ARE WE SURE THAT'S A RECEIVER? A common criticism of freshman receivers is that they aren't big or physical enough for the college game right away.
That's uh, not going to be a problem for Gee Scott.
7 days away from everything I dreamed of as a kid. Many years of work all coming to a single moment. No team in the world id rather be doing it with! #beatnebraska pic.twitter.com/iyZAd5sGv0
— Gee Scott Jr. (@Geescottjr) October 17, 2020
Prayers up for the first DB that decides bump-and-run against him is a good idea.
BOSAS BACK TOGETHER. The Bosa brothers are hilarious to me because they're both unreasonable wealthy grown adults, yet they both seem to voluntarily live their lives like they're still in high school.
I can't hate though, cause this sounds like it rules.
Joey Bosa said his brother Nick Bosa is staying with him during his knee rehab. His parents are also around to help Nick. Its nice having them around. Theyre keeping the place tighty for me and food constantly running. I cant complain. #Chargers
— Gilbert Manzano (@GManzano24) October 14, 2020
In my mind, they have bunk beds and spend every evening playing video games together.
Though, if you know anything about them, the video games part is almost certainly actually happening, the bunk beds are the only thing in question.
“THE MAILMAN” PLAYS LIKE ACTUAL MAILMAN. Last year, Georgia got mocked relentlessly for rolling with Jake Fromm instead of Justin Fields, sending the single best quarterback to ever grace their program packing to Columbus.
You'll be shocked to learn that the latest iteration of Not Justin Fields – a former walk-on generously listed at 5-foot-11 – is not faring much better!
Stetson Bennett is going to have a tremendous career as an auditor or a PGA club pro and this will be a great story for him. He's doing fine
— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) October 18, 2020
They call Stetson Bennett IV The Mailman cuz hes a bit hit-or-miss these days, folks.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 18, 2020
When the Dawgs trotted out Stetson Bennett IV on the road in Tuscaloosa, everyone on Earth knew what was going to happen, and it happened. Dude threw three picks and couldn't even lead his team to a single point in the second half.
It wasn't pretty at all, but if you expected anything otherwise, that's probably on you, not him.
Which leads me to this:
I see a lot of Stetson Bennett slander today as if the man didnt help save Georgia QBs situation after being an afterthought and had the Dawgs competitive against arguably the best team in the country on the road.
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) October 18, 2020
Dawgs are lucky to have a damn leader like that.
Let me be clear: I am no Stetson Bennett hater. That dude rules. An undersized walk-on emerging as the best quarterback at one of the most elite programs in the country? Hell yeah. It's like if the movie Rudy was compelling and enjoyable with a likable protagonist who actually accomplishes something.
The Mailman deserves little criticism here. It's the fact that he was even in this position to begin with that's the problem.
As awesome as his story is, imagine this going down at Ohio State. After all the recruiting and development, the best option at quarterback is a former walk-on who was fourth on the depth chart two months ago. That would have been like Danny Vanatsky emerging as the Buckeyes' starter last year.
I'm glad he got his chance to shine, but how the hell does a perennial top-five program let that happen? Fix yourself, Georgia.
GILL GETS GOING. It was a rough night for Jeff Hafley and his Boston College Eagles, who I've affectionately labeled Ohio State Jr.
But there was one bright spot – Jaelen Gill finally looked like the weapon everyone's been waiting to see deployed.
The Week 5 Impact Performer: WR Jaelen Gill#ForBoston
— BC Football (@BCFootball) October 18, 2020
| @CambridgeBank | pic.twitter.com/untNCmVR6u
Save some fireworks for Halloween, Jaelen. Dabo needs dumped.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Certainty" by Temples.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. A man accused of masturbating in an LSU parking lot claims he was playing 'air drums' in his truck... Mexico's ex-defense chief helped ship tons of cocaine and heroin... Tokyo opens an adults-only theme park complete with porn stars... The hedgehog highway that knits a village together... Researchers are finding clues to autistic behavior in patients’ gut bacteria...
