release

During our hospital stay for Nate’s arrival, I wore my Seminole slippers just about everywhere, including the elevator. One trip down to the culinary train wreck that was the hospital cafeteria, I held the elevator door for a rushed worker toting a heavy ladder. I was two days without meaningful sleep or satisfying nutrition, so I was totally unprepared for his opening conversational gambit:

You know your team is gonna get crushed in that bowl game, right?

I won’t even admit here how feeble my response was; just let’s say at that point I couldn’t remember what bowl game he was talking about or who our opponent was. If I hadn’t looked at my slippers to put them on, I might not have even remembered who my team was.

So tonight we play #3, Penn State. Will we be crushed? This season, if no other before it, has taught me to never say never. But I wasn’t optimistic about the ACC Championship, and look how that turned out. One thing I will say about Penn State is that they are overrated. Sure, they’re 10-1, but look at that schedule. The only really decent team they beat was Ohio State. The rest of the Big Ten was nothing special this year. Let’s look at bowl performances: Michigan, the only team to beat Penn State during the regular season, went down to an unranked Nebraska team in the Alamo Bowl. Minnesota, Northwestern, and Iowa all lost their bowls. Ohio State, already noted as the only decent opponent on PSU’s schedule this year, beat Notre Dame, and Wisconsin beat Auburn pretty handily. Not a stellar year for the Big Ten. South Florida, Penn State’s only out-of-conference opponent with a bowl big, got blanked by NC State in some bowl names after an auto-parts company. Judging by bowl results, winning the Big Ten is only as impressive as beating Ohio State. I think PSU’s #3 ranking may be somewhat inflated by a weak schedule.

Does that mean the Seminoles are a lock for tonight? Not by a long shot. I can tell you that Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno (who, according to ESPN Radio, hates the name “Joe Pa”) are two legends in the game, and neither coach will dare underestimate the other. Both have had some rocky times in the last few seasons, but for different reasons - Bowden because his presence elevated the games of everyone else in the conference, Paterno because he was slow to adapt to changes in the game.

It’s gonna be a good game. And hey, Mr. “Your team’s gonna get crushed?” Screw you. A guy in a hospital, coming out of the newborn ward and wearing a hospital-issue plastic bracelet, holds the elevator door to make your life easier and you trash his team? Screw you twice.