Thursday Night Vindication

Big ups to Andy Gresh in yesterday's ESPN U College Football Insider Podcast for calling out the disrespect to Boise State after their coming-out season last year.

Quoth Gresh: "... and finally in the Top 25, Weber State at #24 Boise State. I hope Boise crushes, I wanna see them win a ton of games this year because I think it's disrespectul that Boise State, off of last year's finish, is #24 in the country.... Maybe I'm honking out for the small conferences, but I don't care: HOW can Boise State only be ranked 24th!!?!?! How can that happen? It's embarrassing!!"

And 'crush' they did. In fitting style last night they pummeled (admittedly I-AA) Weber State to the tune of 28 first quarter points en route to a 49-0 tally at half time, before calling off the dogs big time and crusing to a 56-7 victory. In any case they lived up to Gresh's call and made a fine statement going into next weekend's contest up in Seattle.

But signs of vindication were everywhere last night. Rutgers and LSU also lived up to the hype making their opponents look inept in convincing, cruise-control victories that also happened to safely cover the enormous spreads set in both games.

It was an auspicious evening for me, if not the Vegas bookies, and a great way to set the tone for this weekend's gambling picks which will be forthcoming later in the day.

Mainly, I'm torn on the Cal/Tennessee game. I bought into the West Coast hype last year and am still feeling the burn. Switters ran into the UT Vols in an Oakland hotel last night and confirmed that they are big and wear a lot of orange. So they're going to show up. Stil Ainge has a broken pinkie finger in his throwing hand. A sign of the apocalypse for the Vols? Thoughts? Advice? I'm ruminating.