Indulge Me: College Football Random Thoughts

• Tech beat SMU on Friday night, and SMU QB Garrett Gilbert is simply awful. And I'll never forget him, as a Texas recruit who had yet to play a down, being on the cover of a UT magazine with the title "The Next Great Texas Quarterback."
• TCU's QB Casey Pachall is one tatted up guy. He was replaced in the third quarter against LSU, and I'm not sure he'll ever start again.
• I wrote a month ago that TCU would regret playing LSU on opening weekend. By that I meant they'd lose that game but might not lose another one. They lost 37-27.
• Cowboys Stadium seems like a morgue for an NFL game but the greatest venue ever when college teams play there. 
• I really, really dislike Gary Patterson. It's impossible to hate Mack Brown. I'm not sure what I think about Kliff Kingsbury, but I think I like him. Kevin Sumlin needs to get control of his scene. 
• Texas Tech is in great shape. They've got a true freshman quarterback who looked fantastic in his first game. And he may not be the NFL prototype which means he might be at Tech for four years. 
• I love this sport but, the older I get, the sight of young kids withering in pain when they tear up a knee or a shoulder makes me question the whole thing. 
• Baylor played Wofford (a replacement after SMU cancelled their scheduled meeting) and put up 692 yards of total offense. One thing Baylor is: An offensive machine. They led the nation in offense last year and were second in 2011.
• North Dakota State beat last year's National Championship contender Kansas State by scoring with 24 seconds left after going on a monstrous 18 play, 80 yard drive that took up eight and half minutes. As much as I love the wide open spread offense, that type of drive is the true measure of a beat down. 
• I've always used Yahoo! Sports to check on scores and get recaps. They've redesigned it so poorly that I have to use ESPN. 
• ESPN's College Game Day was four hours long. That's way too long. 
• Texas has joined the hurry up spread offense craze and put up a school record 715 yards of offense against a hapless New Mexico State team in a 56-7 win. Keep your eye on The Evil Empire -- they might be really, really good. 
• It's an Offensive World: 27 teams put up more than 500 yards of offense. 
• Johnny Football played great in the second half against Rice but got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after being taunted by a couple of Rice players. The guy is great. The guy is an idiot. But, man, ESPN's Sports Center is hard on that guy. 
• Three Aggie defensive starters are suspended for the first two games. Even more amazing is that no one knew it until seconds before kickoff. You'd think bettors would kind of like to know that a little earlier. 
• Because of Miami in the 1980s, the NCAA instituted very strict rules where any crazy celebrating would be penalized. And, man, was it enforced. At first, at least. I'm seeing stuff these days in every game which would get a 15 yard penalty just three years ago.
• North Texas drew 22,000 in a 40-6 win over Idaho. Not bad a bad win. Not a bad crowd. 
• I bought a University of Miami t-shirt the other day. When I showed it to Mrs. LL she broke out in song with, "I'm talking about the U!"  (There are a handful of guys that understand that and love her right now.)  
• There was a fake punt in the Villanova and BC game that I had to watch five times to figure it out.  I love the fake punt. 
• I don't understand the knew 'targeting' rule that got at least three payers ejected yesterday. (There were two Baylor players who delivered viscous hits which didn't even draw a flag.) 
• Beaten down moment of the weekend: FAU is being blown out by Miami but their head coach decides they should spike the ball in the final seconds to at least get another play off. You know, "play until the clock stops." One problem: It was fourth down. Video.
• Boise State lost to Washington. So? It's only the 13th time they've lost since 2002. Think about that. 
• Alabama's Christion Jones scored on a kickoff return, a punt return, and a receiving TD. No one has ever done that before. 
• In an upcoming movie, author Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, The Tipping Point) says that football will eventually be "ghettoized". What does that mean? It's hard to say delicately. Basically, once society finally understands the risks, anyone who is smart and has the resources, if need be, will not let their kid play football but steer him to other options.