College FB '13 Dread News - Week 12

In Week 6 they trailed at Memphis 17-10 with less than 3 minutes to play ..... They won 24-17. Two weeks later they trailed at Louisville by 4 with less than 30 seconds remaining .....  They won 38-35. In Week 11 they led by 5 with 40 seconds to go, but Houston had the ball 1st and goal at their 10-yard line ..... They won 19-14. And in Week 12 at Philadelphia they trailed Temple 36-29 with less than 2 minutes on the clock ..... Of course, they won 39-36. By now you likely have figured out that "they" are the Central Florida Knights. And being a fan of the 2013 Knights means you better not have a weak heart. UCF's latest escape act kept them undefeated in the AAC (5-0) and moved them another step closer to the AAC's automatic bid to one of the major bowl games.

Don't even think about saying that UCF is lucky. When the Knights have needed to make a play, they've gone out and done it, and there's nothing lucky about that. Making a lot of those plays have been their four standout receivers. Two of the four have dreads, but for a moment it looked like neither was going to be of any help this week. Sophomore Breshad Perriman wasn't even in uniform while recovering from a concussion suffered in the Knights' previous game. And it looked like junior Rannell Hall (photo below) would join him on the sideline after being injured in the 2nd quarter against Temple. But Hall wasn't out for long, and that was a very good thing for UCF.

Jason the Babarian

It was Sunday, November 17, and I was about three fourths of the way done with my weekly three hours of suffering watching the Falcons stink it up again (I mean, they can't even beat Tampa Bay). But, as always, I had two other televisions on too, with the sound down, so that I could keep an eye on other games during all the breaks and timeouts in the Falcons' game. Since the Bears were in a weather delay and the Chiefs weren't playing until later, that meant I was following the Jaguars more closely than usual, as they took on the Cardinals. And that meant I saw something that at first was hard to believe.

Just before going to a commercial break after a Cardinals punt in the 3rd quarter, there was a brief replay on the Fox telecast of a Jaguars player holding up what appeared to be a handful of dreads that apparently had been ripped away from somebody's head. Well, that's exactly what it was. Now I don't normally freak out and do a post every time someone gets his dreads yanked during a game; but this wasn't just one or two strands of dreads this guy was holding up - it looked like a whole bunch. And when he let go of them and they fell to the ground, it became evident that it was close to a dozen dreads that somebody had just lost.

College FB '13 Dread News - Week 10

As South Florida fans watched the Bulls' offense look better than it has all season in their ESPN Thursday night game at Houston, I know what their reaction was: Where did all this come from? And while watching freshman QB Mike White throw the ball much more accurately than the other three quarterbacks who have played for the Bulls this season, no doubt they were thinking: Why has this guy been on the bench all year? In the Bulls' first 7 games their feeble passing attack averaged 10.6 completions and 132 yards. Making his first start, White passed for 311 yards on 26 completions. And if not for a questionable offensive pass interference penalty that nullified a 27-yard TD that would have given the Bulls the lead with 4 minutes to play, he might have led USF to the upset. But instead Houston held on for a 35-23 victory in a game that featured a lot of players with dreads.

That feeble offense is the main reason I for the most part have avoided watching South Florida this season, even though this is a team loaded with a lot of great dreads. Arguably the sickest of those dreads belong to junior WR Chris Dunkley, who made more of an impact in this game on special teams than on offense.