Its almost football time in Tennessee!

Oh, its almost here!!

In 20 short days the Volunteers Football season will start with a "warm up" against the Montana Grizzlies, followed by a rumble against the Cincy Bearcats, and a Gator Hunt in the swamps of Florida... That's gonna be a scary game!

Next up are 3 home games in row... Buffalo and Georgia, then the much anticipated game against LSU (Tennessee has defeated the Tigers 20 times, owning a 20-8-3 all-time series record. GO VOLS!) That particular game is on Oct 15 and I should be in Tennessee then, so maybe I will even get to go :)

If thats not enough excitement for ya, the rest of the season will be NON STOP DRAMA!

Alabama, S. Carolina, MTSU, Arkansas, Vandy, Kentucky! 

My head is spinning ...

Then, hopefully a bowl game or even... dare I say, a National Championship game?


I am so anxious for all of this to start! Watching the first game of the year, for me, is like getting a Coach bag on sale. Its really exciting, and gives me a rush, and something to talk about besides the bag I just bought on sale :)

Here's to another great season!

LET GO VOLS!!

Fem Football Week 12 review and week 13 trash talk

I am very sad to see this season coming to a close. It seems when you are away from something, you miss it and love it more than usual. While I am not 100% away from football thanks to the internet, satellites, etc... I am not as immersed in it as I am in the States. Getting up at 3, 4, 5 am to stream the games on the internet, following the gamecast from ESPN, is better than nothing, but I miss all the commercials, constant roll out of info on the teams and players, sports talk shows, and seeing the fans sporting the gear all season long out in public. Participating in the picks has helped me stay in the loop, and I feel a small sense of normalcy when it comes to football.

For week 12 I did pretty well, might be one of my best weeks yet. I called a few upsets, and came out 28/44 in the picks bringing me back in the top 10! And I can thank myself for that not the "not so magic" 8-ball.

Some notable correct picks

Tennessee over Vandy. Most years that is an obvious pick, but the few years it has been very much up in the air as to who is gonna win. Its a major in state rivalry, and a fun one. I still pull for them when they are not playing Tennessee.

Hawaii over San Jose State. They covered the 30 point spread plus 4 points.

Unfortunately I DID NOT call any of the major upsets! Boo on me!
Oregon State over USC 36-7
Connecticut over syracuse 23-6

there were others... I missed them.

Will try to catch them on this next round.
I am gonna take
ECU over SMU
Florida over Florida State
Penn State over Michigan State

52 games this week... gonna be fun!

Fem Football Weeks 8 - An F2 hits Texas

SO, as per usual this is in retrospect of the weeks games, instead of a preview of the upcoming games.

Week 8

Yet another average week in the picks for me. I do about as well as the coin toss on a weekly basis, with a 50% or better percentage, although I haven't actually resorted to the coin toss to help with my picks yet. 27/49 for 55% While there were small discrepancies in who would cover the spread, who would win outright, and who would lose

My big pick win was

- Iowa State over Texas. Texas was the favorite by 21 points. Iowa walked into Memorial Stadium and grabbed the Horns by the horns. They forced 4 turnovers in a tornado of fast and furious plays. Statistically they should not have won the game. They had fewer first downs, and more penalties, but made the most of their possession time. They scored first, and then held strong the whole game despite attempts by Texas to rally. Whether it was Garrett Gilberts inability to hit his target, or the fact that the Iowa State defense kept chipping at the Longhorns offense... one thing is for sure - It was a magic day for the Cyclones, and they left a trail of destruction on the horns home field, and giving Mack Brown his second consecutive home loss since 1997. Congrats to Iowa State on their first win over Texas, and on a ranked team on the road in over 2 decades!

Iowa State 28 Texas 21



I am predicting a week 9 upset of Baylor over Texas :)

Fem Football Week 6 - Murphys Law

After last weeks little experiment, I decided to go back to my usual science in my picks. Now as it is not really proprietary info, I don't mind sharing a bit of my personal picking logic.

I go to the teams ESPN page. I look at passing yards, rushing yards, previous scores, influential injuries, and a few other minor stats and weigh that against the same of the opponent. Then I take that and weigh it against the spread. While some think its an archaic way to to pick football, it definitely adds some extra oomph to the picks. Sometimes the spread is just outrageous, and you think there is no way the team can win by that much. Ya never really know. Teams have stomped a 3 point spread with a score of 60-0, or not come close to covering a 35 point spread and barely winning by a field goal. Regardless, the spread is part of the action in the betting world, and my little "upick" world. So with those factors all calculated, I pick my teams and hope for the best.

Week 6 had a few hard to call spreads. Michigan (favored +5) v Michigan State. Not only did they NOT cover a 5 point spread, they LOST 34-17! UGH.

LSU 33 v Florida 29 (favored +7.5)

S Carolina 35 v Alabama 21 (favored +8)

shall I go on?

TCU had a 35 point spread to cover over Wyoming, and did so with 45-0 win. Now, while I fully appreciate TCU's perfect record and expected them to win, I did not expect the little Horny Frogs to deliver quite so well. I sadly picked the Cowboys to not allow coverage! ACK. I am going to take TCU over BYU next week. GO FROGS

Out of pure loyalty I ALWAYS pick Tennessee to win. Part of me is afraid that if I don't, I could be the hex that makes them lose. Like not clapping for Tinkerbell, not believing in your team, could kill them. As the VOLS are still adjusting to the new coach (again), and the after math of Lane Kiffin, it looks as if we may have a few more "rebuilding years" to go. I keep clapping and believing, and am hopeful that it will all come together sooner rather than later.

In the end this week was below average. 21/45 But I was reminded of something this week, that I learned a long time ago.... the coin toss applies to more than just who starts the game off with a kick!

Fem Football Week 5 - Missed it by a Hair Cut

During week 4, I watched parts of the Penn State vs Temple game, and I noticed one of the players take his helmet off. His hair, although nicely kept, seemed to not be phased by the helmet. I do not recall his name or jersey number, just his hair. Looked like "going out" hair, not football hair. This led to an irrational line of thinking. Try to follow along.

I wonder how long it takes him to do his hair. Hair gel? wax? hmmmm. Penn State is not playing too well right now, wonder if he is more concerned with the damage the helmet is doing to his hair? hahahhah... I am sure a guy in a football game does not care about his hair.

That however, is how I decided to do the next weeks (5) picks. I will say for the record, I did not google every player, just the quarterbacks, and picked the team with the quarterback who had what appeared to be the most low maintenance hair. I went 25/47 in the picks -roughly 53% accurate even against the spread, while using hairstyles as my gauge. I would have fared only slightly higher with 27/47 if I had done the picks based on my usual routine of stats comparisons, and scores in previous games, etc. Not too bad. The competitive side of me wishes I had gone my usual route, so I could move up the ranks a bit in the picks. I am currently tied for 9th out of 70. But in the end, it was a fun experiment.

To fulfill your curiosity, here are a few examples of my picks using the first 3 games in the list

Oklahoma's Landry Jones vs Texas' Garrett Gilbert

Both are cute, and about the same length, so I had to delve a little deeper, and go with Texas, since Landry adds the "widows peak" to the front of his hair. Seeing the little extra he went with his hair, should have tipped me off to the extra he puts in the game.
OU 28 v Texas 20


Connecticut's Zach Frazer vs Vandy's Larry Smith

You can imagine my panic when I started googling this one. As much as I would love to see Vandy win, after all they are a Tennessee team, and one of the Nashville Home Teams, its not a likely outcome. I was pretty relieved to see Larry's Lovely Locks hanging out of his skull cap. Pretty hair. Not a pretty game
Connecticut 40 v Vandy 21



Ohio's Boo Jackson vs E Michigan's Alex Gillet

Eh. Ok. Confession. I cheated on this one after these photos. Sorry Alex. You look like you throw like a girl. So I cheated and rationalized that Boo doesn't do his own hair, so his maintenance is nil. :)
Ohio 30 v E Mich 17

Fem Football Week 4 part 2

So I finished out ok in the week 4 picks. There were 47 games selected for week 4, and I was glad to see I was not the only one thrown off by the match ups of the week. I finished with a middle of the road 23/47 There were a lot of surprising wins and losses - as there are every week. This set just seemed to be extra strange and WTF worthy. NC State over Georgia Tech?

Ohio State won 73-20 over Eastern Mich. I think they magically added time to the game, or doubled down on the shoe!! Impressive maybe, but I am giving them a penalty for excessive showboating.

I reveled in the Texas loss even though I had picked them to win. My husband is a Sooner which makes me a Sooner supporter by default. Speaking of, boy did I under estimate CINCY! Yes the Sooners won, but it felt less like an actual win and more like - when a big brother runs slower than he actually can, in order to make the little brother feel good about himself when he almost beats him to the finish line - Only to screw around too much and actually almost lose. While the Sooners were not trying to let the Bearcats win - it was hard to identify the real underdog in that game.

Bleh. Lets talk about a few of the upcoming games as this last week gave me a headache. All the teeth clenching and yelling, head shaking and banging against the wall has left me dizzy.

Which brings me to the Texas v Oklahoma game. Texas gets the sympathy vote after the shooting on campus, but after their succssful loss to UCLA, its a hard sell even with the spread in their favor by 3.5 Whats a girl to do?

Vanderbilt is back to play like the little Rudy's we saw vs Mississippi. I am pulling hard for them in hopes this magic lasts - and I think it should go on at least a little while longer vs the huskeys.

Yes there are many a many more games in week 5, but I am going to end on Tennessee vs LSU

I am scratching my head. Logic says LSU should have this in the bag. I am pretty sure that Les Miles has a standing order to execute the weakest links of the team every week. So to be the under dog in this match up, I think these dogs are in a corner. I still take Tennessee in this game. I think its just crazy enough to be reality after last week. GO VOLS

till next time -

XOXO

Fem Football Week 4 part 1

We are right in the middle of the week 4 games. I am watching several of the games in shock and excitment as we speak. I am not doing so well, as many of my teams didn't cover the points spread. So regardless of if a team won the game, I lose the pick, and kick myself for not taking the opposing team. Out of 47 games this week - as of this moment 20 are completed, and I am 10/20. hopefully the next 27 games go better for me. To rub salt in my own wounds I will share some of my wrong picks :

Oklahoma vs Cincinnati - spread was 15.5 in OK favor, and they won by 3 - I should have known better.

Iowa vs Ball state - spread 28 in favor of Iowa. I had no doubts Iowa would win, but didn't they would cover. final score? 45-0 - Leaves me feeling like a pretty big goose egg myself!

And just to round out the humiliation with a good even number 3 -

One I NEVER saw coming, and apparently neither did they. The look on Coach Browns face was pretty priceless.
Texas vs UCLA - spread was 16. Should have been a cakewalk for Texas.

UCLA 34 Texas 12

I am off to see if my teams can salvage what little picking dignity I have left.

Fem Football week 3 replay

Ahhhh college football is again making my blood boil. I love it, and hate it and love it some more. My husband says its my competitiveness... that I am too competitive, too intense about it. Maybe, but like he's really one to talk. He took himself out of the picks this year, because of the valve replacement surgery he almost needed after an Oklahoma loss.

I try to use logic when making my picks. Who has the best rated defense, best quarter back, best kicker etc. You weigh that against the stats of the other team, and logically there is a winner. But truthfully, logic fails a lot when it comes to football. Math fails to account for heart, determination, or the all out "WTF" fluke. This is why we have upsets of the week, or an entire upset week. Its often a coin toss as to who will win, as much as we picksters like to think that it is our knowledge of the game, our keen insight into the workings of the coaches brain, or whatever, that helps make our choices every week. Regardless of how the Football gods smiled down or smited us, we pat ourselves on the back, and rah rah rah when we have a good set. Like I did in week 3 . Here is an excerpt from the newsletter sent out by our organizer:




Its pretty awesome to be awesome - even if for one small weekend.

Fem Football

Ahhh College Football. For those of us who love it, we crave it. We talk about it during the off season, we argue over Quarter Backs and Wide Receivers, coaches, penalties, assistant coaches - basically anything to keep the conversation going and the team spirit alive. We breath a sigh of relief when August rolls around, and get the grill ready for tailgating.

Something about the crunch of leaves, and cool breeze makes me want to crack open a beer and toss the football around. But alas, there is no cool breeze in Singapore. So I have to pretend its cool enough for my football sweater, and watch the games via stream on the net. I still enjoy the beer, and tailgate on my balcony.

I am one of the few women I know who participates in the picks. Games are selected every week, points spread, favorite vs underdog, home vs away etc is all mapped out.
We pick
*top ten - who we think the top ten will be when the season is over, and we do this before the season opener
*a sleeper - someone not in the top preseason rankings but we think will be at the end,
*a clunker - a team currently ranked that we think will fall out.

I am up against mostly men.

Men who played football in high school, some in college, all of them in the back yard. They know scores from 10 years ago, averages, yards rushing, height weight and the name of the girlfriend of everyone who picks up a ball in the NCAA.

I paint my toenails while looking over the stats I won't remember, and use weird female scientific rationale to choose my picks.

There are roughly 70 participants, 4 of us female. I am currently the only woman in the top 20, and am tied with 6 others for 9th place. I think I am rocking this thing!

I will keep you updated on my rise and fall. But so you know, my top 10, clunker, and sleeper

Team #1: Ohio State
Team #2: Auburn
Team #3: Florida
Team #4: LSU
Team #5: TCU
Team #6: Texas
Team #7: Oklahoma
Team #8: Boise State
Team #9: Nebraska
Team #10: Tennessee

Sleeper team Tennessee
Clunker Penn State
and I am in the SEC with the VOLS.

I bleed Orange, heart Peyton Manning, Smokey, and Rocky Top.