Sports Illustrated declares the Badgers's Madison, WI as the best college town.

Because of course it is.

https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/college-football-best-college-towns-cities

1. Madison, Wisconsin

Nestled around Lakes Mendota and Monona, Madison is about as picturesque as it gets, and the Terrace at Memorial Union on campus at the University of Wisconsin might be the most delightful spot in the Midwest—at least four months out of the year. And when it’s too cold to take advantage of the lakes, Madison offers a great food and bar scene—drink Spotted Cow while you’re within the Wisconsin state lines—plus, it’s worthwhile to freeze for a late-season football game here.

That list is completely legit..except for #5.

Columbia?

Um, no.

Madison is a great town. So much fun. I think years ago they were ranked number one in some magazine as the number one party school in the country.

Having gone to Michigan State for grad school I would say they could give them a tussle. A few riots when I was there.

I was surprised about Michigan being number four. I had season tickets there for several years and while it was fun, I wouldn't say it was THAT great. The campus is too spread out. Not self contained like the previous two I mentioned.

We're

Getting

Closer

!!

With this weekend behind us, there will be real live college football every weekend from next Saturday until mid January!!! Bring it!!!!

Lee, I think I might've read or heard or figured what you and Mr Khaki pants is doing at QB. Shea is no doubt the man to lead them this year. But they must be counting on McCaffery on being their guy next year and in this day-and-age of transferring - they need to keep him in the mix and engaged and invested in the program so they don't lose him.

We're

Getting

Closer

!!

With this weekend behind us, there will be real live college football every weekend from next Saturday until mid January!!! Bring it!!!!

Go Gators!

Bastards didn't cover.

Those games weren't the best played or executed Saturday, but it was real live meaningful college football.

It's back baby!

G A M E W E E K !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/college-football-best-college-towns-cities

2. Athens, Georgia
With 80 bars in a single square mile, Athens has more bars per capita than any other city in the United States. And when drinking there, you can feel the truth of that statement. On top of that, you’re going to be drinking great beer—the city is home to an emerging craft brewery scene.

The food is great—go to Mama’s Boy for breakfast—as is the music scene. R.E.M., the Drive-By Truckers, the B-52 and Widespread Panic all made their names in Athens.

Imagine going to see R.E.M. play for a $1 on Thursday nights @ Tyrones. Then watch Herschel shred people on Saturdays.

Gregg comes through town and plays the Mad Hatter in 1983. I got in free. Dangerous Dan on guitar and a whole horn section.

One of the greatest bands you never heard of - The Normaltown Flyers - playing Allen's. .25 beers!

Jason & The Scorchers, Marshall Crenshaw, English Beat, Los Lobos & The Fleshtones all played free concerts.

Pretty cool times to be in Athens GA.

Imagine going to see R.E.M. play for a $1 on Thursday nights @ Tyrones. Then watch Herschel shred people on Saturdays.

Gregg comes through town and plays the Mad Hatter in 1983. I got in free. Dangerous Dan on guitar and a whole horn section.

One of the greatest bands you never heard of - The Normaltown Flyers - playing Allen's. .25 beers!

Jason & The Scorchers, Marshall Crenshaw, English Beat, Los Lobos & The Fleshtones all played free concerts.

Pretty cool times to be in Athens GA.

Great time to be living the college life at a great place!

You still living in Tennessee? What is your schedule of events this Saturday's game at Vandy?

We are under 27 hours until the first Thursday slate to kickoff the college football season!!! 6 main games and maybe a dozen others involving FCS teams.

There are no Thursday games in our pick'em league, but there are a number of Friday games! We have a smaller group playing this year (7 signed up), so if any of you out there would like to join the college football fun this year...step on up!!

https://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/college/register/joingroup

Join private group by entering the following

Group ID#: 1259
Password: ABB

Great time to be living the college life at a great place!

You still living in Tennessee? What is your schedule of events this Saturday's game at Vandy?

Of course, there is the old joke "I live in Franklin. Well, it's about 20 miles....Oh crap! Yeah! Nashville, I live in Nashville!"

Not sure how much detail you want but, to err on the side of giving you way more than you actually want...I plan to wake up around 5:30a as usual. Spend time reading every single Blog about UGA that there is out there while noshing on a bagel...and when I say everyone. I mean EVERY one! I plan to NOT listen to American Top 40 rebroadcast on Sirius XM 70's on 7 as I normally do on Saturday's because it's totally bad luck for the Dawgs. Instead, spend about 4 hours or so driving everyone in the house crazy as I click between games - frequently. My little subtle way of telling the fam "don't f*** with my television on Saturdays during football season." Head to Stoney River Steakhouse around 4p with my dad and father in law. Watch Kirby go all Alice Cooper ("No More Mr. Nice Guy") on Vanderbilt in person with said Messrs. Not get too excited about a win (which I fully expect-in expediate fashion no less) because one day one of their fans could either a) operate on me and/or b) represent me in court.

Not sure if/how much beer I will consume - Vandy will be selling it at the game. 70%ish dawg fans supposedly attending and I think selling beer at that game is just a slightly worse idea than new Coke. What do you think?

Would like to finish the evening with a cigar at home, however, something tells me that we'll be asleep not long after we get home. C'est La Guerre Pac12 football.

Enough? Should I have bullet pointed?
😉

Enough? Should I have bullet pointed?

Erring on the side of more info was the right call! I like to get a visual.

Man UCLA last night...Strat, your boys! They suck. Actually I thought the D played really well in that 1st H. The lack of O support seemed to deflate their side of the ball in the 2nd. Game wasn't as close as the score implies.

Rice gave Army a good game. USU - WF a good one. Rutgers was down 0-14, leads 38-21 HT! 3 more games yet to KO tonight. I'm excited for the battles of the OSUs.

Leafsfan! Get your picks in!!!!

Oregon sucks. 😮

Gamecock football

"that was a fast season"

dumpster fire, shit hole team claims the ACC sucks yet they can't beat anyone from the conference

Oregon sucks. 😮

That was a good game. I didn't think they would win.

Purdue blew it against Nevada. I saw my in laws from West Lafayette yesterday and my mother in law wouldn't even mention it. All she talks about is Purdue. 😮

Was bummed about Northwestern. Was hoping they could go out west and do something but they didn't.

North Carolina South Carolina was a good game. Had no rooting interest in it.

Michigan State and Michigan's offenses kind of stunk. I could have taken MTSU getting 37 against Michigan, I waited and they pulled it from the board. That was money in the bank.

Nice to see all those great SEC teams shoring up that body of work in Week 1!

So how did everyone enjoy week 1? Pretty well I imagine except for Alanwoods and Leafsfan.

I liked the Friday games. Saturday started and ended well. It's not like me to complain about a Saturday schedule full of games, but the middle of the day kind of left me a little blah. There was the UNC-SC and the GaState-Tenn games, but otherwise, I was....dare I say...a little bored.

But I really love the games this week! Several nice dogs lurking.

Two Georgia fans topped the pick'em this week.

Anyone who didn't play yet, you can still get in and play for week 2 and going forward. Since we drop everyone's lowest single week, you can start in week 2 and be on par with everyone else as your week 1 score of zero would get dropped and not counted.

Sometimes I question my allegiances. I cheer for 2 of the biggest let down teams in sports the Leafs and the Ducks. Fucken brutal!!

I feel bad for Oregon and Herbert but have to love it for Nix.

Man, that win would've done alot for Oregon. Ducks 2 RBs got injured and they were already down a few key receiving targets who didn't go. But credit to the Auburn D, they really adjusted and settled in after the 2nd qrt. Some blown plays for the Ducks...it's a tough one. Wonder if they will be hung over for Nevada this week? I tend to think not, they better not be.

Buckle up Mike. Run the table from here.

And make week 2 picks. Missing week 1 won't hurt you if you play every week from here out!

I admit my Sooner bias, but I hope LSU wins 348-0.

I admit my Sooner bias, but I hope LSU wins 348-0.

They won by enough.

I did pretty good with my picks. But I lost by one game. 🙁 There were some pretty good games. Every game I saw that went to overtime made me remember why I hate the college OT rule.

So A&M guys proclaimed there would bean upset but they forgot who they were playing. Per sports radio I thought Kellon Mood was the second coming and Jimbo was the greatest coach ever.

The game wasn't as close as the score indicates. A&M scores on 4th down with 10 seconds left. CU had true freshmen on D in the 4th to get reps.

Post game an A&M defender said they "let off the gas". How do you do that when you never got the engine going?

Take Oklahoma and the points over UCLA this weekend. The Bruins will get worked big time. Last Saturday's loss was the first ever to San Diego State. Fans are very disappointed in CCK so far in that there hasn't been any improvement on offense especially at QB. Basically the same team as last year.

What's up fellas, everyone enjoying the season so far - except stratdal. How bad does it get that you just stop watching strat?

Pretty good week of games coming up this week.

ND at Georgia. ND hasn't shown ability to compete with the elite teams from the south...except that one night game at Clemson where it was close in the rain, but last year vs Clemson - oh my. ND rolled by like 50 last week but only converted 1-of-10 3rd down? And their running game is exclusively on QB Book.

How about some Michigan at Wisconsin for a noon kick. Nice. Can't think of an early season bye more needed for any team than Michigan this year. Man they look pretty bad. Maybe they get it fixed this week.

Charlotte isn't going to challenge Clemson this week, but I'm a Will Healy fan. Appears to be taking that team to the next level, which they weren't all bad last year under the old coach, felt like he got them to this point and like Healy to continue their improvement. Think they can be a player in CUSA in next couple years.

Utah at USC Friday night. Man, this is THE game for Utah, can they do it? Never won in the Coliseum and had some pretty bad beats here (see 2017 QB failed to see wide open WR in EZ for would-be winning 2 pt conversion).

App St at UNC should be a good one.

Tide always rolls, but Southern Miss isn't your average "cupcake". SMiss might keep it closer than some might think. Given the personnel issues Bama is dealing with on D right now, half their starting front 7 might have to be frosh this week!

BYU is proving to be a pretty fun team. Can they pull a third straight upset?

Gundy has won a bunch of games vs Texas and a bunch in Austin. Spenser Sanders for Pokes might end up being the best QB they've had, and they've had some good ones. Kid is just young, but is pretty dynamic.

Lots of good games this week.

Enjoy!

ND at Georgia. ND hasn't shown ability to compete with the elite teams from the south...except that one night game at Clemson where it was close in the rain, but last year vs Clemson - oh my. ND rolled by like 50 last week but only converted 1-of-10 3rd down? And their running game is exclusively on QB Book.

What scares me most about this game is the out-and-out "ND has no chance" talk. I remember the last time I went into a UGA game thinking we were gonna roll like a wagon wheel. Jan 1, 2019 against Texas. And we all know what happened. We lost. TO TEXAS!!! Ugh.

The consensus is that, for your average UGA Fan, Kirby has changed the culture. Meaning, we're not hoping to win games like this, but expecting to. Count me among those old fart Georgia fans who can't really enjoy the ride because I'm too busy chewing my fingernails to stubbs. I'm also not an early tech adopter.

Never-the-less GO DAWGS!

How about some Michigan at Wisconsin for a noon kick. Nice. Can't think of an early season bye more needed for any team than Michigan this year. Man they look pretty bad. Maybe they get it fixed this week.

Can Harbaugh really win here? What I mean is if he looses - the train will leave the station without him. If he wins, he has to win convincingly. Will a close win over UW make a difference?

Gundy has won a bunch of games vs Texas and a bunch in Austin. Spenser Sanders for Pokes might end up being the best QB they've had, and they've had some good ones. Kid is just young, but is pretty dynamic.

Not only do I think OSU can win this game - they need to. Otherwise Gundy will only always come in 3rd in the Leach & Miles as the coach most likely to say crazy stuff. I don't like that it's in Austin, but, if Texas does the Texas stuff it's done in the past - this could be interesting.

Ahem...I think you left out A&M/Auburn. This will be a good game in my opinion. Check that, stand by, A GREAT GAME. I keep going back and forth on this one. In the end, I'm thinking the 12th man has got to be the diff here.

What you got for Florida/Tenn? Not only do I think UT will cover...they can win it.

Now you're thinking I'm dropping the mic here but oh no....Here's where I'm going....UCF is real folks. I am on that Band Wagon big time.

Encore....OK, one last one - I think we'll find out this weekend how real the Utes are this weekend too.

 

How about some Michigan at Wisconsin for a noon kick. Nice. Can't think of an early season bye more needed for any team than Michigan this year. Man they look pretty bad. Maybe they get it fixed this week.

Can Harbaugh really win here? What I mean is if he looses - the train will leave the station without him. If he wins, he has to win convincingly. Will a close win over UW make a difference?

To your questions:

1. Dunno but he needs some kind of a big win.
2. Yes it will. I don't think the score matters. Plus it's Wisconsin. They don't play high scoring games (usually Michigan doesn't either for that matter). He can't keep losing to the likes of Ohio St, Michigan State, et al.

My buddy was going to drive here from Michigan to go up there for the game and he basically said what you are saying. Their offense sucks. It's like watching the Bears.

Everything in Moderation. Including Moderation.

 

Regarding Michigan and Harbaugh, I have really been wanting and waiting for them to be good again, not the 'hey we won 9-10 games, we're back', but really winning the games that matter.

After I saw how lackluster they started this season with the new OC (who apparently never called plays at Bama...according to the guy who actually called the plays) - Michigan was way off to start this year. It's like on NASCAR when a team shows up on Friday for practice and they just suck off the truck. But the good teams can work on the car and they can get it driving better, get it faster. This MUST happen for Michigan, immediately. If their O from MTSU or Army shows up there is just no way in hell they win this game. Patterson supposedly has an oblique or some kind of injury that happened week 1. He has fumbled a bunch. I think Patterson is good enough QB to get the job done. But either he hasn't grasped what is asked of him in this system or he just can't do what is being asked of him, then there is the injury playing a role. People talk all this about DMC, but I haven't really seen anything better out of him this year, he just hasn't been bad like Patterson has.

But the play calling has been bad. The OL execution has been bad, really bad. One starter has been out there, but it shouldn't matter vs who they've played. And their super talented and hyped WRs haven't lived up to any of that. We've heard how good Black is for how long now? Where is it?

I think Michigan can win this game because their defense should matchup very well vs Wisconsin. Even though they are many new faces and even though some of those new faces are not as good as the guys they are replacing - this style of offense is one that Michigan absolutely should matchup with. But that is the game. Wisconsin is going to do what they do, and they do it well, and are better at the skill positions this year and maybe (we'll see) improved at the QB position this year. So that will fun to see, who gets the advantage UW O or UM D?

Michigan can win this by 1 or 30 (they won by 25 last year), it won't matter as long as they win. Like Lee said, what really matters is winning the division and beating Ohio State.

It's going to be a good one to see how it plays out, I can't decide who to pick really. I want Harbaugh to do well at Michigan still, but man, he loses this game...and really if that happens and then they still underperform the rest of the expectations this year - I don't know, Michigan will just have to come to terms with being a second tier B1G program, because facts will say (continue to say) that is all they are.

What scares me most about this game is the out-and-out "ND has no chance" talk. I remember the last time I went into a UGA game thinking we were gonna roll like a wagon wheel. Jan 1, 2019 against Texas. And we all know what happened. We lost. TO TEXAS!!! Ugh.

The consensus is that, for your average UGA Fan, Kirby has changed the culture. Meaning, we're not hoping to win games like this, but expecting to. Count me among those old fart Georgia fans who can't really enjoy the ride because I'm too busy chewing my fingernails to stubbs. I'm also not an early tech adopter.

Never-the-less GO DAWGS!

You know me, I'm pretty much the eternal underdog has a chance, upset guy. And....I don't know how ND does it. Book will need to have a legendary type game. ND does have some WRs and a TE who's good (guy hasn't played this year yet). And I do think there are unknowns about Georgia that we kinda just assuming they will be ok...playmaking and dependable receivers, pass rush and QB pressure. Really though, ND lost more impact players I think, atleast off their D. More unknowns for ND than UGA. Not sure ND have what it takes for this game. Dawgs win, Irish might cover.

Not only do I think OSU can win this game - they need to. Otherwise Gundy will only always come in 3rd in the Leach & Miles as the coach most likely to say crazy stuff. I don't like that it's in Austin, but, if Texas does the Texas stuff it's done in the past - this could be interesting.

Ahem...I think you left out A&M/Auburn. This will be a good game in my opinion. Check that, stand by, A GREAT GAME. I keep going back and forth on this one. In the end, I'm thinking the 12th man has got to be the diff here.

What you got for Florida/Tenn? Not only do I think UT will cover...they can win it.

Now you're thinking I'm dropping the mic here but oh no....Here's where I'm going....UCF is real folks. I am on that Band Wagon big time.

Encore....OK, one last one - I think we'll find out this weekend how real the Utes are this weekend too.

I have zero idea what will happen in the Texas - Okie Lite game. I like Herman, I like Orlando, I like Elhinger. I suppose what it comes down to is that I just don't trust OSU's D, but who ever has? And they've beat Texas plenty before.

Yeah, I was just kind of skimming down through when I was typing games out, but maybe I skipped over Auburn at aTm because...I just think aTm is better, pretty much everywhere except probably DL, but Brown is a little dinged up. It usually means trouble when I don't even want to or consider trying to make the case for the other side, but I feel like I'm 99.9% sure Aggies win this one. Means I should bet Auburn probably! Ha!

I do like Tennessee with the pts. And I agree, they can win it. They are just so young on D, those guys can make mistakes and get pushed around. Think that Trask is better than Franks really. But Mullen does always seem to lose a game he shouldn't, happened at Miss St and happens to him at Florida. I don't care that this is the same team that lost to GaState or BYU, really, if Tennessee plays to their potential and plays a CLEAN game (last year Vols lost 6 turnovers! Including 3 straight fumbles home vs Florida)...this game should be competitive. Interesting that the Game Of Year line on this in August was UF -16.5. Now it is 14. And I know Franks is out, but alot of people think that might be addition by subtraction, I would think there'd be a bigger adjustment for UT getting outrushed big time by GaState and blowing it vs BYU, but the spread has gone down a couple pts. That tells me Tennessee is still respected in the point spread power rankings.

I like Pitt's D better than anything UCF has played yet this year, but it likely won't matter because Pitt can't keep up with them on O.

This has to be Utah's time. I just wonder and worry if they are ready for it because they have really not tried very hard vs Northern ILL and Idaho State, talk about just rolling the helmet out there. Utah's O has some proving to do for me. Utah's D, no proving necessary, they should be lights out. We'll see soon enough.