CFB Week 9 MB-views

Clemson @ Wake Forest – Thursday, October 25 @ 6:30 pm CDT

Author: Ryan

A little FBS action this week with Clemson at Wake Forest.

Mascots

Clemson – Tigers.  The name came from their first football coach, who borrowed it from his old school, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (Auburn).  Someone has dressed up as The Tiger since 1954 and another as the Tiger Cub since 1993.  The all-time push up leader as The Tiger is Mike Bays, who was The Tiger from 1994-1997 and did 2,216 push-ups, about 2,000 more than I have ever done.  Clemson’s original colors were red and blue, but when the first football team was formed they decided purple and orange were much manlier colors.

Wake Forest – Demon Deacons.  Their athletic teams were originally known as Baptists and The Old Gold and Black, but the school newspaper editor used the term after a big win over Duke back in 1922, and it stuck.  The first Deacon mascot was some guy who decided to dress up and ride a ram into a game in 1941.  I bet he had all the ladies.  He is now terrifying.

Advantage – Wake Forest.  If you steal your mascot from Auburn you are not going to win.

Coaching Staff (Most Awesome Member)

Clemson – Not anyone named Dabo.  Clemson has a very fancy coaching page, but not a lot of info on each coach.  So the winner here is Robbie Caldwell, a former head coach at Vandy, who was an awesome guy to listen to at press conferences.

Wake Forest – OL Coach Jonathan Himebauch.  Hemebauch was a two-year starting center at USC who went on to spend time in the NFL, NFL Europe, CFL and XFL (that’s hitting for the cycle).  He also coached for a number of years in the CFL before coming to Wake, and was the O Line coach for two CFL Championship teams in Montreal.

Advantage – Wake Forest.  I mean, they have a coach who played for the Los Angeles Xtreme, who still have a working website.  You never know when it might come back.

Best Names

Clemson – LB Quandon Christian.  But enough of that.  Clemson may have hired the Glamour Shots chick from Napoleon Dynamite.  This is a freshman I guess.  This is a neck.  This guy’s smile is awesome.  Now way this is a kicker.  Holy shit.  And look who stopped going after high school girls and moved on to college chicks.

Wake Forest – NG Godspower Offor.  I’m not even looking for anything else after Gods Power.  Tommy want wingy!

Advantage – Wooderson’s suit and tie.

Location

Clemson – Clemson, SC.  Calhoun, SC bordered the Clemson campus, and in 1943 its name was changed to that of the university, Clemson.  The city is home to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens and pretty much nothing else other than the university.  Nearby Anderson and Greenville have many more attractions.

Wake Forest – Winston-Salem, NC.  The fourth-largest city in NC, it had a population of 229,617 in 2010.  Winston-Salem is known as the Twin City for obvious reasons, and Camel City for its tobacco history and serving as the home area for the RJ Reynolds company (Camel Cigarettes).  Salem was founed first in 1753 and Winston after that after Salem sold some land to newly formed Forsyth County in 1849 to form a county seat.  The towns were officially incorporated as Winston-Salem in 1913.  In 1929 the Reynolds Building went up in town and at 21 floors it was the tallest building south of Baltimore.  The building was the prototype for the Empire State Building, and each year on Father’s Day the Empire State Building staff sends the staff at the Reynolds Building a card.  Krispy Kreme opened their first donut shop in Winston-Salem in 1937.  Notable residents include NASCAR owner Richard Childress, Sportcaster Howard Cosell, Musician Ben Folds and Baseball Player Mark Grace.  Quite a few movies have been filmed in Winston-Salem, including Mr. Destiny, Eddie, and Leatherheads.

Advantage – Wake.  This one wasn’t even fair.

Notable Alumni

Clemson – Robert H. Brooks, founder of Hooters of America, which took the restaurant nationwide; golfers Jonathan Byrd and Lucas Glover; TV host Nancy O’Dell; former senator Strom Thurmond; and many many NFL players, including CJ Spiller, Brian Dawkins and The Fridge.

Wake Forest – Maya Angelou (faculty member); former senator Jesse Helms; many NBA players including Tim Duncan, Chris Paul and Muggsy Bogues; sportscasters Billy Packer and Dr. Jerry Punch; Super Tecmo Bowl superstar Ricky Proehl; golfers Arnold Palmer, Bill Haas, Jay Haas, Billy Andrade, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins and Webb Simpson; Sopranos creator David Chase (did not graduate); and actor Carroll O’Connor (Archie Bunker).

Advantage – I’m calling this one  a draw.  The Fridge, Arnold, Hooters.  Too much good stuff.

Decision

Unlike real life, Wake is the favorite to me.

Missouri Western @ Emporia State – Thursday, October 25 @ 6:00 pm CDT

Author: Bristol

Mascot

Missouri Western– Griffons. From the Missouri Western website – “A griffon is a mythical creature that is half lion and half eagle. It was chosen in 1918 as the mascot of St. Joseph Junior College, the institution which later became Missouri Western State University. The Griffon was selected because it was considered a guardian of riches, and education is viewed as a precious treasure. Its wings are spread in the shape of the state of Missouri to signify the union of the college with the state university system in 1977.” The current edition of This Week in Griffon Athletics has a good picture of Max the Griffon.

Emporia State – Hornets. The mascot is Corky the Hornet. The ESU website calls him a “somewhat humonized hornet”. I call him something you might see in a terrible movie on SciFi (not you SyFy, never you).

Advantage – Griffons. Sorry Corky but a half lion and half eagle whose wings form Missouri beats a “somewhat humonized” hornet. But, as they say, life goes on.

Best Player Name

Missouri Western – Tie – freshman DB Michael Jordan and freshman DL Arbanas Elliot. Other things I like: Tarrell Downing’s dreads, Shane Simpson’s multi-colored goatee, Sean Holloran’s Amish beard and Ben Pister’s beard.

Emporia State – Freshman WR Anthony Buffalomeat.

Advantage – Buffalomeat. The pictures are good but lots of teams have good pictures. No one else has Buffalomeat.

Coaching Staff (Most Awesome Member)

Missouri Western  – Head Coach Jerry Partridge is in his 16th season at Missouri Western and is the school’s all-time leader in wins. The school had never made the Division II playoffs he led the 2006 team there. He served as a graduate assistant at both Notre Dame and Missouri and was on the Notre Dame staff during its 1988 national championship season. Coach Partridge also spent time at Murray State and Austin Peay.

Emporia State – Head Coach Garin Higgins was a four-year letterwinner at QB for Emporia State, leading the team to 3 playoff appearances including a national runner-up. He has also spent time at Northeastern State, Northwestern Oklahoma State and Minnesota State. Northwestern Oklahoma won a national title in 1999 while he was the offensive coordinator and twice finished as runner-up while he was the head coach. He went 51-9 at NWOSU and coached future Dallas Cowboy Patrick Crayton. OL coach Matt Walter is known to his athletes as ‘The Punisher’ for his grueling strength, speed and agility training. Weird – he doesn’t have crazy eyes at all.

Advantage – Emporia State. The Punisher would tear Dr. Lou into tiny piethes.

Location

Missouri Western  – St. Joseph, MO. As of the 2010 census, St. Joseph had a total population of 76,780, making it the eighth largest city in the state and third largest in northwest Missouri. St. Joseph is located on the Missouri River, but is perhaps best known as the starting point of the Pony Express and the death place of Jesse James. It was the westernmost point in the United States accessible by rail until after the Civil War. In 1882, on April 3, the outlaw Jesse James was killed at his home, originally located at 1318 Lafayette, now sited next to The Patee House. The building is now known as the Jesse James Home Museum. It has been relocated at least three times, and features the bullet hole from that fateful shot. Notable people “born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with St. Joe” include news anchor Walter Cronkite, actor Timothy Omundson (Lassiter on Psych), Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder and actress Jane Wyman.

Emporia State– Emporia, KS. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 24,916. Emporia was founded on February 20, 1857, drawing its name from ancient Carthaginian Africa. In 1953, Emporia was the site of the first Veterans Day observance in the United States. The 1987 CBS miniseries Murder Ordained, which was the dramatization of an actual event in Emporia involving the 1983 death of Sandra Bird, was filmed in Emporia. Her husband, Rev. Tom Bird, was convicted of first-degree murder in her death and served 20 years in prison. The Braum dairy store chain, based in Oklahoma City, originated in Emporia in 1952 under the name Peter Pan. Notable people include NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer, former NFL QB Jim Everett, professional golfer J.L Lewis and legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith.

Advantage – Emporia. I’ve been to the Jesse James Museum and it was very interesting, but Ryan will kill me if I pick Bill Snyder’s town over Dean Smith’s town.

Notable Alumni

Missouri Western  – St. Louis Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein; NFL TE Gijon Robinson; and Iowa State football coach Paul Rhoads.

Emporia State – Oklahoma State baseball coach Frank Anderson; Kansas State baseball coach Brad Hill; former Olympic champion and world record holder in the shot put Al Feuerbach; and former NFL lineman Leon Lett (did not graduate).

Advantage – Emporia State. Where I’m going, I don’t need Rhoads.

Decision

Emporia State dominates – I am SO PROUD of them.

Rhodes @ Sewanee – Saturday, October 27 @ 1:30 pm CDT

The Edmund Orgill Trophy is awarded to the winner of the annual football game between Rhodes College and the Sewanee: The University of the South. The rivalry between Rhodes and Sewanee is the longest continuously running rivalry in college football in the Southern United States. The game has been played every year since its inception in 1899. The trophy was not added to the series until 1954.

Author: Bristol

Mascot

Rhodes – Lynx. The Lynx nickname was selected as Rhodes’ mascot in 1923 by then college president Charles E. Diehl, who is said to have liked the cat’s uniqueness. With the exception of Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, Rhodes remains the only American college with the nickname “Lynx.”

Sewanee – Tigers.

Advantage – Lynx. If you are going to have some type of feline as your mascot, you might as well try to be original.

Best Player Name

Rhodes – Tie – WR Jonathan Wiener and QB Blake Box.

Sewanee – Tie – freshman WR Rutledge Schock and junior OL Atticus Frank.

Advantage – Rhodes. Wiener and Box are always a winning combination.

Coaching Staff (Most Awesome Member)

Rhodes – Offensive line coach Gordon Ellingsworth is in his 31st season at Rhodes. He is a 1970 graduate of Augstana College in Illinois (alma mater of MegaBracketeer Chris), where was a TE and OT, catching passes from future NFL Pro Bowl QB and 1981 NFL MVP Ken Anderson. Coach Ellingsworth was also a four-year starter on the baseball team and was named team captain and team MVP as a senior. He was the head baseball coach at Rhodes for 13 seasons and the women’s golf coach for 3 seasons.

Sewanee – Head Coach Tommy Laurendine was a two-year starter at QB for Lenoir-Rhyne and was named the 1988 and 1989 South Atlantic Conference Offensive Player of the Year and was a 1989 Domino’s NAIA Player of the Year Finalist. Before taking the head coaching job at Sewanee, Coach Laurendine made stops at West Georgia College, Northwest Whitfield HS, West Alabama, Southern Arkansas, Washington & Lee and Lenoir-Rhyne.

Advantage – Rhodes. Coach Ellingsworth’s connection to a MegaBracketeer and Ken Anderson win out.

Location

Rhodes – Memphis, TN. Memphis had a population of 646,889 at the 2010 census,making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee, the third largest in the Southeastern United States, and the 20th largest in the United States. The area was first settled by the Mississippian Culture and then by the Chickasaw Indian tribe. For 10,000 years they occupied the bluffs along the river, building a large mound on the bluff. Memphis was founded in 1819 by John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson.The city was named after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River. In 1857, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was completed, the only east-west railroad across the southern states prior to the Civil War. Into the 1950s, it was the world’s largest mule market. The Lorraine Motel in the city was the venue of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, the day after giving his prophetic I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech at the Mason Temple. The World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest held in Memphis is the largest pork barbecuecooking contest in the world. Memphis is the home of founders and establishers of various American music genres, including Memphis soul, Memphis blues, gospel, rock n’ roll, Buck, crunk, and “sharecropper” country music (in contrast to the “rhinestone” country sound of Nashville). Musicians like Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave and B.B. King all got their start in Memphis in the 1950s/60s. Novelist John Grisham grew up in nearby DeSoto County, Mississippi, and many of his books are set in Memphis. As you might imagine, Memphis has too many notable people to name.

Sewanee – Sewanee, TN. The population was 2,361 at the 2000 census. The university, formally known as The University of the South, hosts the Sewanee Writers’ Conference each summer. Nearby St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School, one of the oldest boarding-day schools in the South, is a private school for grades 6 through 12 with a student population of 100 boarding and 150 day students. The Sewanee Review, a literary magazine, has been published in Sewanee continuously since 1892. The Templeton Library, which is to be the repository of the papers of financier Sir John Templeton, a native of the area, was recently built there. It is no longer a library, it now houses several private apartments.

[Ed. Note: There is no official category for random university info, but this is too interesting not to include somewhere: The Sewanee Tigers were pioneers in American intercollegiate athletics and possessed the South’s preeminent football program in the 1890s. Their 1899 football team had perhaps the best season in college football history, winning all 12 of their games, 11 by shutout, and outscoring their opponents 322-10. Five of those wins, all shutouts, came in a six-day period while on a 2,500-mile (4,000 km) trip by train. Ten of their twelve opponents, including all five of their road trip victims, remain major college football powers to this day.]

Advantage – Memphis in the biggest rout ever in this category.

Notable Alumni

Rhodes – Joseph Williams Vance, Jr., an officer in the United States Navy decorated with the Bronze Star Medal for action in the Battle of Makassar Strait during World War II during which he gave his life; actress Dixie Carter; former NFL TE Tom Mullady (1979-84); and John Bryan, former CEO of Sara Lee.

Sewanee – Video game designer Brian Reynolds, who played a major part in designing Civilization II and led the development of FrontierVille on Facebook; former NFL GM Phil Savage; Samuel F. Pickering, Jr., Professor of English at the University of Connecticut and inspiration for Mr. Keating in the film Dead Poets Society; and former Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall.

Advantage – Sewanee.

Decision

Rhodes dominates as Sewanee barely avoids the shutout with a late point.

Wabash @ Ohio Wesleyan – Saturday, October 27 @ 12:30 pm CDT

Author: Bristol

Mascot

Wabash – Little Giants. Wabash first received the nickname “Little Giants” by an Indianapolis News sportswriter named Mellet. It came out of a discussion between Mellet and Francis Cayou, Wabash coach, on a train late that season. They were discussing the wonderful performances of the Wabash team of 1904 – nearly always against much bigger schools with much larger players. The mascot’s name is Wally Wabash. He’s on Twitter and wears striped overalls. Also, this.

Ohio Wesleyan – Battling Bishops. The nickname “The Battling Bishops” dates to 1925; before then Ohio Wesleyan University’s teams were simply known as “The Red and Black,” or sometimes as “The Methodists.” Ohio Wesleyan is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, and long has produced many of its bishops. By April, 1925, according to that issue of the alumni magazine, the present name had finally been derived. “Ohio sports writers have been at a loss,” the magazine reported. “There are countless colleges throughout the country claiming red and black as their colors, and 14 Methodist colleges in Ohio alone.” Pi Delta Epsilon journalism fraternity therefore sponsored a contest, and the winning nickname, “The Battling Bishops,” was “placed before the sports writers of the state as the teams’ official title.” Senior Harold Thomas of Lima submitted the winning entry. Here is a picture of their mascot. Is it just me or is that small child staring into the camera with a look like she knows this is the end of road?

Advantage – Tie. Despite the presence of the Annexation of Puerto Rico, I can’t go against a name as awesome as the Battling Bishops.

[Ed. Note: What happened to Rick Moranis? He hasn’t done a real movie since 1996 and only 1 since Little Giants. His IMDB page is incredible. I think I speak for most people when I say we need more Rick Moranis. Can we at least get Strange Brew 2?]

Best Player Name

Wabash – Tie – freshman OL Willie Strong (What is Willie? Willie Strong!) and sophomore DB Tadhq (needs a few more vowels) Hannon. Also, meet awesome, awesomer, and awesomest.

Ohio Wesleyan – Tie – sophomore DB Getner Fabe and sophomore TE Calvin Cagney. We might want to think about bigger jerseys next time on picture day.

Advantage – Wabash. OWU only had Cagney – if they had Cagney and Lacey, they would have won easily.

Coaching Staff (Most Awesome Member)

Wabash – Head coach Erik Raeburn is in his 5th season at Wabash after spending 8 seasons as the head coach at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA (if you can’t go to college go to Coe!). In 12 seasons as a head coach, Raeburn’s teams have won at least a share of a conference title 5 times and made 5 playoff appearances. He was an assistant at Mount Union for 6 seasons from 1994-1999, during which the school made 6 playoff appearances and won 3 national titles. Assistant coach Aaron Selby spent 3 years at Drake as an assistant coach and was a defensive graduate assistant at Texas last season.

Ohio Wesleyan – Defensive line coach Keith Rucker spent portions of 7 seasons in the NFL, playing for the Arizona Cardinals, Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Redskins, and Kansas City Chiefs. He was an All-America selection during each of his 3 seasons with the Bishops, highlighted by first-team Kodak honors in 1991 and Associated Press Little All-America citations in 1990 and 1991.  He also was a 7-time All-America honoree in track & field, winning 4 national championships in the shot put and discus.  He was inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003. Fellow assistant Todd Alles played at Ohio State and spent two different stints on staff there as well as time at Alabama.

Advantage – Ohio Wesleyan. Coach Rucker’s NFL experience (169 tackles, 6 sacks) trumps Raeburn’s D-III success.

Location

Wabash – Crawfordsville, IN. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 15,915. Crawfordsville was named in honor of Colonel William H. Crawford. In November 1832, Wabash College was founded in Crawfordsville as “The Wabash Teachers Seminary and Manual Labor College”. Today, it is one of only three remaining all-male liberal arts colleges in the country, and has a student body of around 900. Both the first official basketball game in the state (Crawfordsville versus Lafayette, March 16, 1894) and the first official intercollegiate basketball game (Wabash versus Purdue, also in 1894) occurred at the city’s YMCA. Notable people include actor Dick van Dyke, James W. Marshall (a gold miner who set off the California Gold Rush), New York Times puzzle writer Will Shortz and the Ultimate Warrior.

Ohio Wesleyan – Delaware, OH. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. The population was 34,753 at the 2010 census. In 1812, when the capitol of Ohio was moved from Chillicothe, Delaware and Columbus were both in the running and Delaware lost by a single vote to Columbus.Among some of the earliest settlers were the parents of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States. Ohio Wesleyan University was founded in 1844. During the Civil War, Delaware was the home to two Union training camps. Notable natives include Charles W. Fairbanks (26th Vice President of the United States – VP for Teddy Roosevelt), actress Clare Kramer (Bring It On, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and President Hayes.

Advantage – Crawfordsville. I’m giving Dick van Dyke and the Ultimate Warrior the edge over Rutherford B. Hayes. Also, the first basketball games were played in Crawfordsville and basketball is sort of popular in Indiana.

Notable Alumni

Wabash– Robert Charles, the inventor of the Happy Meal; James Bert Garner, inventor of the gas masks used in World War I; Thomas Riley Marshall (28th Vice President of the United States under Woodrow Wilson); Oscar-winning actor Dean Jagger (for Twelve O’Clock High); Union General Lew Wallace, who also authored Ben Hur; and former NFL TE Pete Metzelaars.

Ohio Wesleyan – Frank Sherwood Rowland, 1995 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry for his research on the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer; actress Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me); actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, and composer Melvin Van Peebles (and father of Mario Van Peebles); actress Patricia Wettig (City Slickers, thirysomething); actor Clark Gregg (Iron Man, The Avengers); Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking; and longtime baseball executive Branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers and then called up Robinson to break the MLB color barrier.

Advantage – Ohio Wesleyan. A solid list of Battling Bishops led by Branch Rickey and Mario Van Peebles’ dad.

Decision

A rare tie. The tiebreaker would be decided in a tag team match pitting Rick Moranis and the Ultimate Warrior against Rutherford B. Hayes and Branch Rickey.