Editors Note: Because of the bye week I moved Thursday’s with Raider to Friday just so I’d have something to write about. It’s also a two parter. This one talks about this weeks Pac-12 games and the other will be some great comments Raider makes about the rivalry.
Colorado v. Oregon State
RAIDER: I really, really, really want to believe that the Beavers are a team that’s for real. In part because I think it would make me feel better inside about losing in OT to them, but I always had a soft spot for Oregon State after I made an excursion to Corvallis for the season opener back in 2007. They remind me a little bit of the sympathy most people feel for the Pittsburgh Pirates, since they not only have a winning season this year, but are in the postseason for the first time since before Barry Bonds came back home. But do you think like I do that they are good enough to ruin somebody’s season or was the Mannion near-perfect game against us an aberration?
MAC: Yeah I think OSU is going to get someone else, like they did with us, into a shootout, Washington I’m looking at you. And yes Mannion to Cooks will end their dream. I too feel for Oregon St. I mean imagine living 50 miles down the road from Nike state. No matter what amount of money you come up with, you can’t match what they’re doing down the road. Thank God BYU is cheap.
Arizona v. Washington
RAIDER: Knowing how much you love the Huskies, and knowing how much I love to make historical references in these emails, I feel it necessary to mention that we are approaching the 15th anniversary of the heroics of one Ortege Jenkins.
As I have heard it, Jim Lambright is the Dawgs version of Gary Crowton, so it makes perfect sense that his team would lose a game like that. But I digress. Since this is the great Ka’Deem Carey v. Bishop Sankey, which RB gains more yards? Also, does it seem strange to you that a RB v. RB matchup would be the big story line in a game? I can’t remember a game where each team’s running back was the star player.
MAC: BTW I think I just saw Ortege Jenkins selling Sonoran Dogs from a street cart, but I digress. I must admit that I’m biased here because Ka’Deem Carey spent the off season beating his pregnant girlfriend for not giving him a lighter to smoke weed with while Sankey attended the same high school as John Stockton and my wife. And the offense Sankey’s high school ran, no QB, snap the ball to Sankey and let him run. They lost to the eventual State Champions and only after their other best player, who is now a Tight End at Stanford, tore his ACL. Aren’t you glad you know all that?
Stanford v. Washington State
Raider: Making fun of Wazzu just seems as though its an easy target. Too easy, in fact. So I do have to wonder why it would behoove them to play a game at the Place Formerly Known As Qwest Field Because I can’t imagine having to play one game every year in my arch-rival’s hometown. Even if a) they have enough of an alumni base in the other half of the state, b) it’s technically a neutral site, c) the 49ers won’t complain about them piping in extra crowd noise because they aren’t the Seahawks. Also, I feel dirty that I came to the defense of the Seahawks, because sometimes I still like to think they are still in the AFC West.
MAC: It isn’t that they have enough alumni in Western Washington, its that most of their alumni live there. Because if you want things like a job, you have to go to western Washington. Back in the day, kids went to Wazzu because Idaho had a drinking age of 18. Why they keep going there I don’t know. But honestly, if Wazzu played all their games in Seattle they’d draw more people. Hell if they played in Spokane they’d draw more people.
All that said, Stanford is going to treat them like a Thai hooker.
Cal v. Oregon
Raider: We are fans first and foremost and commentators a relatively close second, so allow me to look ahead with the Ducks. Clearly their three toughest games from this point forward are at Washington and Stanford, as well as at home to UCLA. Could they lose both of those aforementioned road games?
As for Cal, do you remember after Hill fired Ron McBride and Gordon Monson trolled the Wasatch Front by writing a column that the Utes fired the best thing that ever happened to them in football? Well, I think it might actually apply to Cal. Perhaps Sonny Dykes will make this conversation topic irrelevant in the near future, but Tedford didn’t have a QB he could trust since Aaron Rodgers left. Which is pretty similar to how McBride never had a consistent QB after Mike McCoy left.
MAC: Not to quote Colin Cowherd, but he is right on a rare occasion. He says if hippies can affect your athletic program, you don’t have a real program. It took billions of dollars for Oregon to get past the hippies and its a lesson Cal must learn to be good. You may be right.
USC v. Arizona State
Raider: Lane Kiffin gets to keep his job for a little while longer. I guess that’s a good thing. There’s always a chance he can win 9 games or so, thereby justifying his job there. But maybe I’ve been looking at this all wrong. The longer that he stays there, the less chance they will be so good that we have no chance against them. So maybe we need to get a Keep Lane Kiffin petition going?
And I’d really like for the Utes to find a way to beat ASU one of these seasons.
MAC: If Lane is fired it will be a sad day for me as I’ll lose a serious piece of comedy. But ASU, I really dislike the Sun Devils. I mean there is just something about them that is so, awful. BTW, there is a porn site called Casting Couch or something, that tricks girls into thinking they’re auditioning for porn. Almost all of the girls on it go to Arizona St. I don’t know what that means but it must mean something.