THE HYBRID: JAMEIS ISN'T SUSPENDED YET, UH OH NOTRE DAME

The Hybrid is a weekly preview of every Big Ten game, plus relevant or whimsy games from the national slate.

Well, I whiffed on both Mississippis last week. But it's not like I was alone.

The poll numbers tell the exact same story. The fastest ascension from unranked to No. 1 in the history of college football.

In a sport already heavily dominated by the South, the state of Mississippi has become our new king. Well, for now. There are still games to be played and scandals to be avoided. This season might be at its halfway point, but so many more cards will be shuffled from here. Doubly so now that four teams are getting in the mix at the end of this damn thing.

Who's ready to Hybrid?

THE HYBRID

Thursday

Utah (20) at Oregon State: Utah has one loss. Wait, who did they even lose to?

/looks up

Oh yeah, Washington State lol. Well, look -- I think Utah is pretty damn good. They were relentless at Michigan and fearless in the UCLA upset at UCLA. They play defense, move the ball on O, and sure, they use some physical running to do it, but it's in a cool (read: not Stanford) kind of way. Their QB is fierce as hell and repeatedly puts his body on the line. Plus, their kicker has sick range and wears a captain C on his jersey, and that's funny. Very interested to see where their season goes from here. After this game, they play five straight ranked PAC-12 teams, so we'll know soon enough.

Friday Night Lights

Waubonsie Valley High School vs. Neuqua Valley High School: My alma mater takes on the Waubonsie Valley Warriors at North Central College (Naperville, IL) in a game they refer to as the 'War of 204' (if you're cool) or 'Crosstown Classic' (if you're vanilla). And look who's in the house?

Excited to be able to come home and watch my guys at @NVHS_Football take on WV! Best rivalry in the state! #GoCats

— Mikey Dudek (@MDFlash_7) October 13, 2014

Last year, in this exact game, he picked a squib kick off the ground, housed the damn thing, and won MVP. It was great.

Saturday

Baylor (4) at West Virginia: One hundred and nineteen combined points last week. 119. What a comeback. I didn't have time to read the SBN article scoring the game like a 12-round heavyweight fight, but man, that looked like an awesome concept. I know I'm branded as a defense hater because I sometimes say things like "I HATE DEFENSE AND THIS ISN'T A JOKE", but 61-58 is almost even too much for me.

Somewhere, Connor Halliday wakes up in a cold sweat, wondering why it all took place without him.

Kansas State (14) at Oklahoma (11): Ehhhh, they both have one loss. Still saying it's a game worth watching, though.

Iowa at Maryland: Had a damn nice time in Iowa City for the Iowa-Indiana game last week. We did the Airliner for a while before going to—sigh—Brother's for the second half. It's no matter. The Panchero's trip to cap the afternoon more than made up for it. I even found a 10 stamped burrito card in my wallet from years ago that they apparently still accept, so my food was free. The weather was also nice.

As for this game... BHGP has a Google Groups e-mail thing where we exchange messages to make sure we're staying on the same page with posting schedules and such. At the start of the week, Jacobi sent one out titled "TERPWEEK". My immediate contribution:

...no one acknowledged it.

Purdue at Minnesota: Just so we're clear, Minnesota is undefeated in conference and currently tied—with Iowa!—for first place in the West.

Texas A&M (21) at Alabama (7): Two years ago, A&M at Alabama caused Johnny Football (and some suspect 'Bama playcalling) to ruin this video game playing Tide fan's evening.

GEEV IT TEW LACEY, THANK YEEW.

YOUR A GOOD QUARTURBACK, BUT I HATE YEEW.

AH TOLD YEW TO RUN IT, WHY DIDN'T YOU FUCKIN' RUN IT.

That brought and continues to bring so much happiness into my life.

* * *

Also, it's a little out of the news cycle now, but Jamie Mac made a great point about AJ McCarron being "misquoted" the other week when he said Sabes likes to "handcuff" Alabama's OCs...

Don't think we are talking enough about AJ McCarron saying he was misquoted during a live radio interview. What a dork.

— jamie mac (@justcoverblog) October 10, 2014

Haha yeah, that's rich. Also, while trying to research if it was typed as AJ or A.J., I came across this picture. The cigar and hair are great, but do not sleep on the wrist tattoo.

Michigan State (8) at Indiana: Michigan State's schedule has so few cool games, and whenever they verge on having a cool game, the bottom kind of drops out. Enter: Nate Sudfeld's season ending separated shoulder. Uggggh. I feel even worse, as I was leading a "Fuck-you Sud-feld" chant (with four Indiana fans) only minutes before the injury occurred. I'm sorry, Sudfeld. We were just being obnoxious. I've always liked you and always thought you were funny. Here's to a speedy recovery, old friend.

Also, did you know Michigan State has the No. 1 best odds to win the national title in Vegas right now? Though that's clearly out of some respect for the Spartans, a lot of that has to be out of massive disrespect for the Big Ten as a whole. Pretty sobering.

Rutgers at Ohio State (13): We're about two weeks removed from it, but don't you think for a second we're going to bypass Gary Nova's magnum opus against Michigan. The credentials:

- Chest passed a ball (completed successfully)

- 80-yard bomb for a TD

- No interceptions

- Career high in passing yards (3 total TDs)

- And, lastly: caused a false start from the QB position (when does... that ever happen?).

Salute.

In conclusion, the Big Ten's most unpredictable QB is taking his talents to The Horseshoe to battle J.T. Barrett (very cool in his own right) and Urban Meyer (very terrible in many ways). Something's got. to. give.

/looks up spread

Buckeyes by NINETEEN holy shit! Nova is going to cover this thing. Or throw a football out of the stadium. I'd end this with "there's no in between", but honestly, there's probably a lot of room for some in between as well.

Nova.

UCLA at California: UCLA isn't even *ranked* anymore?

Georgia (10) at Arkansas: Do we have to talk about the Todd Gurley suspension? What's there to say? It's stupid. And making money is fine. Meanwhile, Jameis is cleared to play organized football? Is there no justice? #FREETODDGURLEY

In the meantime, the suspension itself has taken a relatively successful SEC team and turned them into an underdog of sorts. I hope Georgia continues to rally from this. And if not, I'm sure we'll do just as good of a job forgetting them. /washes hands, carelessly walks out of room

* * *

Last week, reader DoYouLoveHawksorHate'Merica? said this in the comments: "The more I hear about Bielemia, the awesomer he is."

And boy, was he or she clairvoyant:

Bret Bielema’s outfit is stupendous. RT @SECNetwork: pic.twitter.com/CHFAsGXEB0

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID) October 11, 2014

That outfit.

Oklahoma State (15) at TCU (12): Hopefully TCU went to the 2013 Kansas City Chiefs School For Coping With Big Lead Choking (that kinda rhymes) to erase the memories of that Baylor rally. Grab Alex Smith's tiny hand, Horn Frogs... he'll show you the way.

Marshall (25) at Florida International: Marshall's undefeated (and now ranked!), so why not? Also, any reason to link the Jack from "LOST" super seriously telling Matthew McConaughey "We're not honoring them, Jack -- we're disgracing them" clip from "We Are Marshall", and I'm in.

What's that? You're too lazy to click the link where I timestamped the part for you? No worries, I meme'd it as well.

Haha.

Marshall better win a few more games so I can keep posting that. To be clear, that is a threat.

Tennessee at Ole Miss (3):

Bo Wallace takes Heisman podium, a tear rolls down his cheek] "Bro," he says, his voice cracking. The program ends.

— Adam Kramer (@KegsnEggs) October 12, 2014

Nebraska (19) at Northwestern: Even though this was from over a week ago, I, uh, made a promise to the readership I intend to keep (watch with sound).

You better move, you better dance

Kentucky at LSU: Well, I mean... at least LSU finally did something interesting.

Notre Dame (5) at Florida State (2): Game of the Week. I know a few Notre Dame fans (they're awful), and they spent a good portion of the week banking on the Jameis suspension that never came to fruition. That said, Yahoo! lists no spread for the game right now, so never say never, Irish fans.

Also, did we realize Everett Golson's only loss ever was that fateful blowout in the Alabama national title game? He's undefeated outside of that.

Covered plenty of CFB. Don't recall a QB matchup where combined W-L as starters is 35-1. (34-0 reg season for Winston/Golson) #NDvsFSU

— Chris Fowler (@cbfowler) October 15, 2014

Did I mention how much I love Chris Fowler?

Speaking of good stats, here's a very stupid one.

At FSU Sat RT @SportsCenter: An undefeated Notre Dame has NEVER lost to the defending national champions in the regular season, going 4-0-2.

— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) October 15, 2014

Washington at Oregon (9): Really don't consider the Oregon unis trolling, but to each troll her own.

Stanford (23) at Arizona State (17):

* * *

Wrapping It Up...

/refreshes "is Jameis suspended" Google search

He isn't.

Bobby Loesch is a weekly contributor to Black Heart Gold Pants. Follow him on Twitter @bobbystompy or e-mail at bobbyloesch [at] gmail.com.