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| Tuesday, October 17 Mercer's case should have been booted By Gene Wojciechowski ESPN The Magazine | ||||||||
| From the home office in Bristol, Conn., the weekly Top 20 List. . .
20 -- A soapbox moment Let me get this straight: Heather Sue Mercer, who might be hard pressed to win the local punt, pass and kick competition, gets two million large in a sexual discrimination suit against Duke University. Duke attorney: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we believe Ms. Mercer's said allegations, while interesting, fail to warrant a financial judgment for the plaintiff." Duke president: "That's it? That's your big closing statement? How many of these discrimination cases have you tried"? Duke attorney: "Actually, you're my first. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night."
Has she considered walking on at Florida State? OK, that was a cheap shot. FSU place-kicker Chance Gwaltney converted all nine of his extra points in the Seminoles' 63-14 win over Duke. 18 -- Yesterday's headlines today The Los Angeles Times reports that UCLA star running back DeShaun Foster pleaded guilty to a July 7 misdemeanor marijuana possession, but says he never smoked the stuff. Both UCLA coach Bob Toledo and President Bill Clinton immediately offered their support. 17 -- "He tried to kill my son." That's what Wanda Charpring said about Georgia Tech coach George O'Leary and a Sept. 25 drill that featured her son, second-team offensive lineman Dustin Vaitekunas. You know about the drill: Vaitekunas had blown one too many blocking assignments, so O'Leary ordered four defensive linemen to take a running start at the 314-pounder, just so he'd know how it felt to be a quarterback when the protection breaks down. Problem is, only two of the defensive linemen heard the the part about not hitting Vaitekunas. Vaitekunas got blasted and now this: O'Leary being compared to Bob Knight or Marty McSorley. O'Leary screwed the pooch on communicating his intentions to his players, but is he Knight incarnate? At worst, he did a clumsy job of making a point to a player who needed a lesson in cause and effect. 16 -- Coach of the week Glen Mason, Minnesota. If you want to ruin a homecoming celebration, invite Mason. In recent seasons Mason has stuck it to homecoming crowds at ranked Penn State, ranked Illinois and now his alma mater, Ohio State. His Golden Gophers not only beat a Buckeye team that was undefeated and ranked No. 5, but they ended a losing streak at Columbus that stretched all the way to 1949. Mason played (Class of '72) and coached at Ohio State, but entered last Saturday's game 0-3 against his former employer. "They keep sending me stuff to send them money," Mason said earlier in the week. "If they don't start treating me better, I'm going to stop sending them money." Mason got his win, but even his checkbook can't cover the potential BCS paycheck Ohio State might have blown against the Gophers. A Big Ten championship would have automatically put the Buckeyes into the BCS mix and guaranteed some huge BCS money. An unbeaten record would have put them in the national championship. Honorable mention: Oklahoma's Bob Stoops. 15 -- Player of the week Ron Johnson, Minnesota. The Gophers wide receiver had eight catches for 163 yards and one touchdown, much of the yardage coming against the guy Ohio State coach John Cooper thinks is the best cover guy in college football, cornerback Nate Clements. Honorable mention: Purdue quarterback Drew Brees. Five touchdown passes, and it could have been six. 14 -- Question of the week How can Minnesota beat big, bad Ohio State, but give up 363 rushing yards in a loss to little Ohio? 13 -- Quote of the week ". . . After the way they beat us last year, if we can find a way to beat them, I would personally tear down the goal posts. I don't need any help. If I can't do it on my own, I don't want it done." -- South Carolina coach Lou Holtz, when asked about avenging last season's 48-14 loss to Arkansas, a game in which the Gamecocks privately said the Razorbacks ran up the score. Payback is a (insert naughty word), and that's what happened to Arkansas. South Carolina savored every nanosecond of its 27-7 Charley Steiner-like whuppin'. As for the goal posts, they live for another weekend. Holtz, who weighs less than a yard marker, was just sending a friendly reminder to Carolina students: enough with the goal post pulldowns. But can you blame the Gamecock fans? Saturday's win pushed South Carolina's record to 6-1, making it bowl eligible. The Gamecocks haven't been to a bowl game since the 1995 Carquest. 12 -- Hail, Herbstreit Difference between me and pretty boy Kirk: Did you see the once lovely Sanford Stadium field Saturday? With the famed hedges pruned down because Georgia's goober students stormed the field a week ago, all that's left is an unsightly chain-link fence. The place looks like a minimum security prison. 10 -- Career choices Poor Mike O'Cain. Last year his favored North Carolina State team gets stopped on the final play of the game and loses to archrival North Carolina. O'Cain gets the pink slip and embattled Carl Torbush hangs on to his job with the Tar Heels. OK, so Torbush hires O'Cain as his offensive coordinator (it's the least he could do) and what happens? Carolina loses to State Saturday, dropping the Tar Heels to 3-3, which instantly starts the Carl-Must-Go movement again. And if Torbush is canned, guess who will probably go with him? 9 -- Bad timing award Duke having to play Florida State at Tallahassee a week after the Seminoles blow a last-minute lead to Miami. Final score: FSU 63, Duke 14. Indiana having to play Michigan at the Big House a week after the Wolverines blow a lead against Purdue. Final score: Michigan 58, Indiana 0. 8 -- TCU That small sigh you heard Saturday was from the Fort Worth campus of TCU, where the 10th-ranked Horned Frogs were rooting hard for their purple brothers in the Midwest, Northwestern. TCU needs lots of help to squeeze its way onto the BCS short list, beginning with an unbeaten season (doable). But it also needed Northwestern to keep winning. TCU beat Northwestern earlier in the year, so the better the Wildcats looked, the better the Frogs looked to poll voters and those BCS computer formulas. One problem: Purdue beat Northwestern Saturday, and did it convincingly. 7 -- Heisman Trophy race
Keep name on DAC Palm Pilot: Nebraska's Eric Crouch, Kansas State's Jonathan Beasley. Can tell the kids he was a fringe Heisman candidate: Northwestern's Damien Anderson, Wisconsin's Michael Bennett, Michigan's Anthony Thomas, Washington's Marques Tuiasosopo. Thanks for stopping by the booth: Mississippi's Deuce McAllister. We love the guy, but injuries have hampered his run at the stiff-arming statuette. 6 -- Stat of the week Weinke entered the game against Duke with two career 400-yard passing performances. He had 446 yards and four touchdowns in the first half against the Blue Devils. Weinke finished 37 of 47 for 536 yards and five TDs. 5 -- Stat of the week -- Part II Southern California is 0-3 in the Pac-10 for the first time since 1957. 4 -- Dumb and dumbest It's a safe bet that Florida State backup quarterback Marcus Outzen won't be named to the GTE all-academic team. A day before the Seminoles played Duke -- the one opponent where Outzen would be guaranteed serious playing time -- the knucklehead got into a fight, got charged with simple battery and then got suspended by FSU coach Bobby Bowden. That forced Bowden to play Weinke for three quarters (he didn't want to waste the redshirt seasons of Jared Jones and Chris Rix) and use freshman walk-on Stephen de la Motte in a mop-up role. Good for de la Motte, a California kid who walked on at FSU because Bowden answered a letter from him when de la Motte was 11 ("What would it take to be a quarterback at FSU?" wrote de la Motte. "Work hard," Bowden wrote back.). 3 -- Whatever happened to. . . Michigan State. The Bobby Williams Love-a-thon is officially finished. After a 3-0 start the Spartans have lost to Northwestern by 20 at East Lansing, been stunned by then-winless Iowa, been beaten by struggling Wisconsin on last-minute play at East Lansing. 2 -- Moment to remember A tossup: Minnesota quarterback Travis Cole absent-mindedly stopping on his way off the Ohio Stadium field to hug a cartoonish school mascot. . . or Florida coach Steve Spurrier shaking his head in disbelief as Rex Grossman and Jabar Gaffney scored on a play that apparently isn't in the Gators' precious playbook. Spurrier tried to act upset during a halftime interview, but his heart wasn't into it. Grossman later made lots of friends with the Auburn folks by saying that at least Florida's scout team stopped the Gators offense on occasion. One hack's weekly elite Nebraska (6-0) -- Road warrior Huskers won big game at Notre Dame and still have bruiser trips to Oklahoma and Kansas State. Clemson (7-0) -- Had next best thing to a bye week: Maryland. Oklahoma (6-0) -- The Brothers Stoops get a game ball to cherish. Virginia Tech (6-0) -- Thanks to Michael Vick, Hokie officials consider acquiring the phrase, "Human Highlight Film" from Dominique Wilkins. Oregon (5-1) -- Ducks observe moment of silence for USC coach Paul Hackett. Miami (4-1) -- Hurricanes and Dolphins off during the same week. What does it mean: absolutely nothing, but it does fill out the ranking, doesn't it? Mississippi State (4-1) -- LSU must be thrilled. Off week gives Mississippi State defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn an extra seven days to prepare for next Saturday's game. Florida State (6-1) -- Biding time until Oct. 28 game at North Carolina State and Nov. 4 game at home against Clemson. Win those and Seminoles are back in BCS mix. Southern Mississippi (5-1) -- Best team you've never seen. Florida (6-1) -- Welcome back. Waiting list: South Carolina (6-1), TCU (5-0), Minnesota (5-2), Ohio State (5-1), Washington (5-1). Honorary Elite: Ball State (2-4). Two consecutive wins. Gene Wojciechowski's Movers and Shakers appears every Monday. | ALSO SEE Harig: Where are all the great teams? What you might have missed Heisman watch: Saturday's numbers | |||||||
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