Another Friday during football season. I suppose we’ll keep with the Friday Football Forecast, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll keep this feature up during October. There are more important things to discuss then. Anyway, let’s get started, shall we? First off, we have the Colts. This will be short, because the team is off this week. Still, I wanted to write a bit about Austin Collie earlier in the week, but just didn’t feel I had enough for a full post. What better time than now, then? For the unaware, Collie was placed on injured reserve following the Jacksonville game. I didn’t see the injury, but I’m told it looked fairly bad on the field. The conclusion was a torn tendon in his right knee, which all know from Robbie Hummel will take a year or two to fully heal. Combined with his concussion issues, it seems a foregone conclusion that Collie is done as a Colt. This is a real shame, but I don’t blame the Colts. They are a football team, and if you can’t be a football player, it makes it hard to justify spending the money on you. Collie has seemed nothing but awesome every time I’ve heard him on radio or TV. He already gave up a few years of football for his Mormon missionary trip.* And now his football career is cut short on the other end because his body just apparently won’t hold up to NFL hits. *I’m sure somebody has come up with a sex position with that name by now. Doesn’t it seem a little bit ironic, though, that a knee injury is what will put Collie out of football? Or at least out of the Colts? He’s had, what, three or four concussions. You would think with all the added emphasis on head injuries, Collie would have already been looking at his coaching options. But, no, it was an old-fashioned knee injury. I know everybody responds to concussions differently, but this just seems like another point in favor of Roger Goodell being all talk when it comes to player safety. I really question how much longer he can be NFL commissioner, because it seems like everything he touches falls apart. In happier news, Purdue is back on the field this week against Marshall. I said last week that I expect Purdue to win in a little bit tight contest. The bigger news for Purdue this week is they suddenly have hopes for playing for the Big Ten title. I mean, seriously, have you seen the rest of the Big Ten? The only teams that haven’t had a major let down are Purdue, Northwestern, and Minnesota. Who would have guessed that before the season started? Add to it all the problems at Penn State and Ohio State, and suddenly it doesn’t seem like such a stretch. Wisconsin has not looked anything like the teams of recent years. Both Michigan schools were beaten handily by Notre Dame in Michigan.* Nebraska looked very mortal as UCLA, who recently dropped out of the poll, beat them without too much problem. Iowa has dropped a couple games nobody really saw coming in Iowa State and Central Michigan. Illinois was flattened by Louisiana Tech. Indiana is, well, Indiana. If I’ve counted correctly, that covers the conference. *I know the Michigan score was closer than the Michigan State score, but you don’t get to turn the ball over five straight possessions and say “We were right there!” In contrast, Purdue had their game in South Bend, and really should have brought the Irish into overtime. They played a couple directional schools in Eastern Michigan and Eastern Kentucky and did what they were supposed to do. No other schools can say that outside of Northwestern, who has been pretty good for a couple years, and Minnesota, who definitely has not. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Minnesota has been Purdue’s homecoming the past few years. Add to that Northwestern and Minnesota being in the other division, and Purdue might even be the favorite to be in Indy come championship time. Penn State and Ohio State aren’t eligible, which leaves Purdue to best Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The first two Purdue would have felt good about even before the season kicked off. Wisconsin, though, has been a pleasant surprise, at least as far as the Boilermakers are concerned. Stay tuned, folks, this might get interesting. That brings us to Wabash. After such a disheartening loss, I am downright scared for this weekend. I don’t know the last time Wabash has lost homecoming, but I’m sure it’s been a very, very long time. Unfortunately, on this 100th homecoming, that might be the case. Carnegie Mellon has been steamrolling through NCAC teams, including Allegheny. I don’t want to tempt anything, but all I’m hoping for is that last week was just an especially bad day with especially windy conditions, which threw off the team. Maybe they’ll look like the team that was ranked seventh tomorrow,* but that would make the first time I’ve seen that team all year. *Rather than seventeenth like they are now. And, frankly, that’s probably overrated. So, sadly, most likely there won’t be any playoffs in Wabash’s future this year. I suppose you can’t go every year. But, hey, at least I can console myself with baseball playoffs while Wabash makes it way down the stretch. Comments are closed.
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