Letters to Ramon: Week 2

"UCLA - Tennessee. How can you go against the team that Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS fame once quarterbacked??? I am going with UCLA. Besides, he is married to Pam Dawber -- had a crush on her when she was on 'Mork and Mindy.' SEMINOLE FACT OF THE WEEK: They actually started the spear thing my soph year -- ride up, rile up the crowd, spear the turf, and ride off. Well for the Florida game that year he mixed it up just a tad.... he rode up, jumped off the horse, put the spear over his head, pumped it, turned around, pumped it to the other side, and then jumped back on the horse from behind on the horse's honches. That place was absolutely maddening. We kick off, Fla fumbles it, we get it in the end zone for a touchdown. We kick off, on their first play, fumble, two plays later touchdown. We scored again, 21-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. Ok, so it was 21-21 at the end of the second quarter but we did win the game. Stuff like that is what makes college football so much fun." -- J. Kriz

"Notre Dame - I cannot for the life of me believe I'm picking ND. I still hope they lose! I hate picking all favorites but sometimes that's the way the ball bounces when you pick 1-4 each week." -- Trey D.

"Crap - Trey picked the exact same teams I did, which means my picks are destined to be wrong! Thanks Trey!" -- B. Reynolds

"As always, my strategy this year is not to win the contest, but turn in a better performance than my dear friend Tom Huber!" -- The Bizz

"I don't know how much time you spend administrating the pool, but it seems like there would likely be a CHS alum who could build an online interface that would streamline the process for us. I'm thinking of a system that allows you to input the games of the week, then each of us simply fills out an online form, checking the appropriate team we think will win. Then, you would punch in the winners, and the system would automatically calculate the results for each player (and keep a running tab of the overall stats of each player)." -- Jeff D.

"Yeah, I’m an ND hater and proud of it. You can add to that list, in no particular order, the Cubs, the Cowboys, Tony Kornheiser, and Kyle Busch. I don’t like picking the Vols (unless it’s their women’s basketball team. Candace Parker can take me to the hoop anytime) but I just don’t see UCLA coming into Knoxville and doing anything. USC-Ohio State -- This one is not a gimme. SC lost a lot of talent on D, so we’ll see if Pryor can move the ball. If I’m SC, I sit back and make him throw. I don’t think he’s far enough along to make consistently good decisions yet. And yes, I like the Song Girls too. But they need to lose the tights they wear. I want bare legs – like Candace Parker’s." -- Jeff G.

"I have been looking at a way to modernize the pool entry (end make it a LOT easier to run). I found this software for an NFL pool and am working to adapt it to our needs. Check this out: http://users4.jabry.com/CerneyPool/userLogin.asp. I will need to strip out a lot of the stuff that may be good for the NFL pool but suck for our pool (like listing the open dates and evaluating the winner based on the spread). But it is a good starting point. Since we have such a hodgepodge of talent in your pool, do you know if anyone is an ASP programmer? I’m a techie and am stumbling through it. But a real programmer might have an easier time of it." -- Mike G.

"Thanks for the shout out this week. It's at least two more weeks before I drop out, though..." -- Hilary D.

"Ohio state - freshman qb... On the road... National tv... Game over..." -- Ryan H.

"Not drinking the kool-aid yet with the Hogs! It does look a little promising, but let me see how our o-line holds up and Mallett delivers against an SEC defense. We will be better, just not sure how much it will translate into wins. Right now I see 7 wins, but am on hold a bit to see the GA game." -- Ron R.

"I dislike Thursday games. And I double dislike Clemson -- heads up, I am picking against Clemson so they are guaranteed to win." -- Kate D.

"I'm going to call the upset in the UGA/USCe game on the side. TOBC takes this one close... but I don't have the balls to call it on the pickem at a record of 2-3. UGA should win but are poised to start 0-3 if they can't handle the pressure cooker they are already under. Look for Joe Cox to come out of the game at some point putting the game squarely on the shoulders of the D." -- Mike P.

"And who is this Jeremy Peppas character? I was checking out Poolsville and caught his 'Bits and Pieces from Saturday' that should have been titled 'Bits and Pieces of my Shitty, Uninformed Opinions from Saturday.' I was with him until I got to the kool-aid drinker part... did he watch the same game I did on Saturday? Has his head been in an ass the past 5-6 years? I'll be the first to say I'm a homer, but to say Mallet looked wooden (despite no sacks, and his running out of the pocket to throw a nice alley-oop pass for a nice gain), and to call Petrino a poor coach is laughable. His resume at Louisville isn't enough? And what he did last year with a new system, bunch of freshman, and player dissention? Wow, that dude is a Hog hater big time. Can't wait to read his future Bits and Pieces of Shit. :-)" -- Jim D.

"Having done so well last week, I think I'll rethink my method for picks this week as I get ready to start eating those 30+ pounds of shrimp we brought back from Gulfport. They are as follows: 1) Georgia Tech (we're the only real tiger paw town); 2) Michigan (Catholic education has all my money I can afford); 3) Tennessee (Glad I don't have to listen to Rocky Top at their stadium this weekend); 4) Georgia (but certainly not by much); and 5) USC (the Big 10 isn't your Big 10 of decades ago). I'll wave to you from our end zone when we outscore last year's team against State by scoring the first of hopefully many TDs." -- Oscar

"Ohio State defeats USC - I just think all the hype about Mitch Mustain is overblown." -- Glenn B.

"Hinchey better be right." -- O'Brien

"Making my picks from sunny central Florida. I may be on vacation from work, but I'm not on vacation on my quest to win another Escobar Championship." -- the infamous Jeremy P.

"I noticed that you ignored the classic Iowa vs. Iowa St. matchup..." -- Yo Sal