Important KankaNation Announcements
- KankaNation Hall of Fame ballots are due to me by email by 5pm eastern on Friday, December 31. You may vote for up to 10 people, but remember that Gary Godsey, Bill Simmons (Sports Guy), Snoop Dogg, and Coach Yonto have already been inducted. To see some of the runners-up from last year, click here.
- Entries for the Bowl Prediction Contest are also due by 5pm on the 31st. This is the first component of the 2005 KankaNation Championship, so participation will definitely help your standing.
- We're still accepting signups for KankaMatic Baseball 2005. Nick? Andy? Anyone else? Klondike, I know the girlfriend is very fired up about baseball - see if she wants to play.
NCAA Football
Oregon State 38, Notre Dame 21: The team played hard, but could you really expect a lot from Kent Baer against a passing team when he fared poorly before having to handle head coach responsibilities. The game started 14-0 OSU, and all I could think was, "I have to commend these coaches. They were controversially fired, and yet the way this game has started, they're trying their hardest to make the University look good by proving the firing was the right decision." I don't know if anyone noticed, but there was a young blonde girl standing behind Baer the whole game, wearing headphones and holding a clipboard. She was probably a manager, but for all I know, she could have been Baer's 10-year-old daughter. Heck, maybe he even had her calling the plays - she couldn't have been any worse than Bill Diedrick. During the game, ESPN flashed a graphic on Chalie Weis. Apparently, he's the "1st alumni to become head football coach." First of all, "alumni" is plural. Of course, ESPN does seem to enjoy the fat jokes. Second of all, Ara Parseghian was the first non-alumnus to be head football coach. In case you were wondering about the quote in today's subtitle: in high school, a friend said something incorrect and caught himself. When he realized his mistake, he blurted out, "I've never been more wronger!" Um, are you sure about that? It became a very early catch-phrase. Today, ESPN seems to continually redefine "I've never been more wronger!" Maybe one day I can go on ESPN and call Trev Alberts a dick.
Wyoming 24, UCLA 21: Wow, somebody didn't show up, huh? On a side note, I know absolutely nothing about fashion (my sister's even given up on me), but I could tell Wyoming's uniforms were about as ugly as possible.
Iowa State 17, Miami U 13: Hey, let's schedule this game for 2 hours and 45 minutes. It's not like Miami's a MAC team that passes the whole game! Brilliant!
tOSU vs. OSU: (in progress at the time of this writing) The game they're playing is the Alamo Bowl, of course near The Alamo. Apparently, one of the Ohio State assistant coaches asked freshman star Ted Ginn if he'd gone to visit The Alamo yet. "The what?" Ginn had never heard of it. Good, good. Ginn is obviously too young for Pee Wee's Big Adventure, too.
The NFL
Dolphins 10, Browns 7: How much did ESPN despise covering this game? I was 65% sure Paul Maguire was drunk, and about 95% sure Suzy Kolber was drunk. There was a point where Kolber was interviewing Don Shula, and I was waiting for her to say, "I want to kiss you."
Broncos 37, Titans 16: So, it's better to have a stockpile of good offensive linemen than a stockpile of ok running backs? I didn't know that.
Rams 20, Eagles 7: Oh, Mike Martz is crazy! He's running the football! No, you morons, he's smart. Philadelphia has an atrocius run defense, but only Cleveland and St. Louis have figured that out so far.
Transaction Wire
- Cardinals sign David Eckstein. Wow, if St. Louis plays both Eckstein and Bo Hart at the same time, I may experience "small on talent, big on firedupedness middle infielder" overload.
- Reds sign Eric Milton. Indians president and ND grad Randy Lerner has been critisized for not wanting to spend money. But, do you really want to spend $10mil+ a year on a crappy starting pitcher?
Finally, a great anecdote reprinted from the Message Board
A girl who's a senior at ND this year works as a teller here in Lorain during her breaks. So, I'm coming back from lunch. As soon as I come in the door, she stops me and calls me over to tell a story, trying to stifle laughter. She was wearing a giant ND button in honor of the game today. Apparently, the customer she just had had noticed the button and talked to her about it. He said he goes to games 3 or 4 times a year. But here's the best part. He actually took his honeymoon in South Bend, just so he wouldn't miss a game!Emily (the teller) asked me, "why would anyone want to do that?" (honeymoon in South Bend for an entire week). I said that I could see not wanting to miss the game, but other than that "I got nothing." Maybe this guy was just really fired up about The Backer.
OK, I lied when I said "finally." For those ladies who have been googling the site, here are some pictures of Brady Quinn.
