Dink & Dunk, Week 11

Once again, Wink Dinkins and Bud Dunkowitz chime in from the peanut gallery about another fantastic week in college football.

• First and foremost, congratulations to the Rice Owls and to the Buffalo Bulls, who both tossed the winless monkey off of their respective backs. Rice prevailed in a 42-34 shootout against 2-7 and underwater Tulane, snapping a 14 game losing streak that goes back to October 9, 2004. And Buffalo, God love 'em, found a way to outlast the Golden Flashes from Kent State, another team still searching for that first Division 1A win. In a game that featured 342 total yards of offense between the two teams, Buffalo was able to score the lone touchdown on a 14 yard drive following a fumble recovery.

  The most staggering stat? How about the attendance figures for thse two heavyweight matches? 9,142 fans showed up for the Rice-Tulane slugfest, and 3,151 absolute die-hards attended the Buffalo-Kent game, with the guarantee that one of the teams would win their first D-1A game of the season. Put into perspective, the attendance of those two combined was less than the population of Quispasmis, New Brunswick.
  
  

• While two teams managed to find their way off the list, there are still 5 teams in the spotlight that have yet to win a game against a 1A opponent. Here are the teams that are still looking for that win and their upcoming schedule:

  • Duke Blue Devils: North Carolina (4-5)
  • Temple Owls: Navy (5-4)
  • San Jose State Spartans: New Mexico State (0-10), Idaho (2-6)
  • New Mexico State Aggies: San Jose State (1-8), Utah State (2-6)
  • Kent State: Akron (4-5)

  The good news is that one of those WAC teams are guaranteed to come away with a win, but Temple, Duke, and Kent State are down to their last chance against teams that will be playing for bowl eligibility. We wish them all the luck in the world.
  
  
• Dink & Dunk give this week's game ball to LSU kicker Chris Jackson. There's a long list of reasons why he deserves such a prestigious award. First, he found a way to miss three critical field goals, all of them by the closest of margins. Second, he has his entire name, "CHRIS JACKSON" on the back of his uniform, which is awesome in our book. Dink & Dunk will always root for a guy with his whole name on his jersey.

  After his frightful kicking outing, he might just want to change his name. Let's see, LSU athlete, named Chris Jackson. I guess there's only one option for his new name: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
  
  

• We don't have a picture of the back of Chris Jackson's jersey to illustrate our point, but we have two fantastic action shots for our new favorite Tiger. First, let's take a look at Chris Jackson throwing for a first down on a fake punt during the ASU game:
  
  And now, the agony of being bulldozed by a Dawg
  
  
• The Cocks and the Gators had everything we want to see in a game. The old PAT-returned-for-two-points, the Old Ball Coach exacting some flaming revenge, and the classic comeback-crushing-12-men-on-the-field-penalty. Old coots like myself are reminded of Rick Neuheisel's gaffe in the 2002 UW-Michigan game, when a 12 men penalty changed a hopeless 59 yard attempt into a game-winning 44 yarder.

  We in no way endorse schadenfreude, but the folks at the Pancake House in South Bend put it best. We've all seen this great pic from Blue-Gray Sky, but let's look at it again for good measure.