It’s a statewide election day

in Louisiana on Saturday.  Based on my

unscientific early polling data, more people will be attending football games

in the state this weekend than will pull the lever for their favorite politicians!

Times are good for Louisiana’s football fans right now.  The New Orleans Saints are atop the NFC South Division – even with Drew Brees nursing an injury to the thumb on his throwing hand. 

For college football fans

around the Bayou State, the 2019 season has brought joy to fans from the

northern end of the state to the south.  

Let’s take a look at the state’s success stories:

Louisiana Tech

– The Bulldogs are off to a 4-1 start this season and currently sport the best

record in Conference USA.   This Saturday, Louisiana Tech will host one of

the worst teams in college football, the 1-5 UMass Minutemen, in Ruston.  Tech’s powerful offense is led by senior

quarterback J’Mar Smith.  With a

favorable schedule remaining, the Bulldogs should be a likely bowl candidate.

UL Monroe –

The ULM Warhawks are 2-3 on the season, but they have lost to powerhouse teams

like Iowa State, Memphis, and Florida State. 

With the remainder of their schedule against Sunbelt Conference foes,

Coach Matt Viator’s team has a chance to finish strong and be a bowl contender

this season.  ULM quarterback Caleb Evans

leads a balanced run and pass offense ranked #26 in the country this year.  If only they could finally beat…

UL Lafayette

– Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns are off to a fast 4-1 start this season and lead

the Sunbelt Conference at the midway point of the season.   If you

like teams which can run the ball, the Ragin’ Cajuns are for you!  They are #1 in the country this season

averaging about 315 yards per game on the ground. 

Tulane – The

Green Wave has rolled to an impressive 4-1 start in 2019 as well!  Tulane’s football fortunes have come full

circle.  After years of being part of the

national discussion, Tulane football hit rock bottom by the 1990’s.  After discussions about cancelling the

football program, a revival has occurred in New Orleans.  Tulane now sports a new “right sized” 30,000

seat football stadium which was completed five seasons ago.   The

Green Wave may be looking at a bowl berth this season, too. 

FCS – Small division

schools – Louisiana has no shortage of teams which are playing well in the

smaller division this season, too.

Both the Nicholls State Colonels (3-2) and Southeastern Louisiana Lions (3-2) of the Southland Conference are off

to a good start with both teams currently ranked in the FCS Top 25. 

However, most current and former residents of the state of Louisiana will have their attention focused on something other than election results this Saturday night.  The eyes, ears and vocal chords of the state will be laser focused on the happenings on the gridiron in the state’s capital city of Baton Rouge.

LSU fans LOVE playing night games at Tiger Stadium!

A match-up of top ten teams

will happen Saturday night as the #5 LSU

Tigers will square-off against the upstart and seventh-ranked Florida Gators.

A night game in Tiger Stadium

will bring forth 103,000 of your closest friends to loudly cheer and support

the LSU Tigers football team.   On Saturday night, Tiger Stadium will become

the fifth largest city in the state of Louisiana behind...

“There’s no need to fear – UnderDog is here”! That’s a line from one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoon shows while growing up.

As we follow the ins and outs of my Fantasy Football team (Swamp Gas), the Yahoo! Sports statistical prognostication was “Doom!” for my Methane Marauders last weekend.

My team was forecast to lose

last week by a 96-92 count.  That was

logical as my fantasy football team has been beset by concussions, turf toes,

and other assorted injuries.

Thankfully, my bench players rallied to support their proud owner in rolling to a 118-82 win over last week’s opponent and move our squad to a 4-1 record (third place). 

Who dat, baybee!

I’m so proud of this team that I might (consider) taking them to dinner this week for such a stellar performance!  Well done, indeed!    

Through the masterful player moves by our General Manager (me) and the deft game time decisions made by our Coach (me) to start the right players this week, our team was able to cobble together an improbable victory. 

OK – I was just plain lucky! 

But with starting QB Drew Brees (Saints) not expected back until Week 10 (uh-oh) and our top wide receiver Devante Adams (Packers) still nursing a turf toe (week-to-week) and our stellar defensive unit (Buffalo) having their bye week, we have many decisions to make entering Week #6 of the Fantasy Football season.

General Manager Comments – We made a few moves last week to adjust the

roster.   Some worked and others didn’t.   With starter Devante Adams of the Packers

out of commission, we picked-up the third-rated Packers receiver, Geronimo Allison. 

After we grabbed him, though,

we learned that Geronimo may get scalped as Packer QB Aaron Rodgers didn’t “trust”

him very much.  That turned out to be

correct as Geronimo was nearly “scalped” with only 28 yards on just two catches

against Dallas.  Fortunately, our Coach kept

him on the bench last week.

We also traded Pittsburgh

Steelers wide receivers.  Our Second year

WR James Washington went to Oklahoma

State with Steelers QB Mason Rudolph.  It

was hoped that he would perform well with his old college quarterback, but it

just has not happened.  So, we dropped

Washington in favor of Steelers teammate, rookie WR Diontae Johnson.  Though Johnson

remained on our bench, he caught five passes (Yea!) but for only 27 yards

(Boo!). 

We will need to grab another

defense for this week (Buffalo is on

a “bye” week).  I’ll try to take

Tennessee – which plays at low-scoring Denver this Sunday. 

Also, we’re considering

adding Jacksonville’s exciting QB, Gardener Minshew, but we’ll have to see if he

remains available.  The rookie QB has

been very impressive. 

Coach comments – Though it rarely happens, nearly every decision as to starters versus bench players worked out quite well this week!  In hindsight, our only bad decision was to start QB Philip Rivers (Chargers) instead of concussion-injured Josh Allen (Bills).  Rivers scored a lowly 4 points at home against Denver compared to Allen’s 20 in a game at Tennessee. 

Otherwise, we awarded a game ball to back-up WR DJ Chark (Jacksonville) who came through with a whopping 28 points and starting WR Adam Thielen (Minnesota) who contributed another 24 for our squad Sunday.

Only sixteen teams remain undefeated after the sixth week of college football games concluded play during the first weekend in October.  Those sixteen teams are atop this week’s SwampSwami College Football Top 25 rankings for the week ending October 5, 2019.

That means that 114 teams are

now looking up at our leaders.  The others

are hoping that the second half of the college football season brings a one or

more timely losses to the teams now atop our weekly poll. 

Here is my Top 25 after week #6 of the college football season: 

Aloha to Hawaii, Cincy, and Oregon!

By virtue of my steadfast rules,

all undefeated teams are placed at the top of the board until they should lose

a game.  Seriously, what more can a team

do than win every game?

So, Auburn (which lost its

first game last weekend to undefeated #6 Florida) must patiently wait and hope

that some of their remaining SEC foes (such as LSU and Alabama) go down to

defeat in order for the Auburn Tigers to move back into contention for an elite

final position in my poll.

After our sixteen unbeaten

teams, we now have a big log jam with thirty

(!) one-loss teams vying to grab the final nine positions in this week’s Top

25 poll!

What shall we do?

By following our own rules,

of course! 

This group of one-loss teams has

been ranked based on their most impressive

win of this season (who have you beaten, and what is that team’s record

this week?).

That means “traditional”

names such as 4-1 Notre Dame (whose best win was over 3-2 Louisville) and 4-1 Michigan

(whose best win was in double overtime to 3-2 Army) were left out of this week’s

poll. 

Instead, a 4-1 Wyoming team (which handed 4-1 Missouri its only loss) and 4-1 Hawaii (which defeated 4-1 Arizona for the Wildcats’ only loss of the season) are in this poll at #18 and #19 this week.   

And welcome into this week’s

Top 25 poll:

Aloha to #18 ranked Hawaii of the Mountain West at 4-1(the only team to beat 4-1 Arizona)

#22 Cincinnati of the American at 4-1 (after taking down 4-2 UCF last weekend)

#25 Oregon of the Pac 12 at 4-1 (after defeating 4-2 Cal on Saturday night)

The SwampSwami College Football Top 25 poll values “Who have you beaten?”

this year more than “How big are your TV ratings and alumni base?” that the

other major polls seem to most impressed with.

In all seriousness, how can a 3-2 Texas A&M (who has lost to unbeaten Clemson @ Clemson and to one-loss Auburn at home) be ranked at #24 in the AP poll this week?

In the meantime, those are the same people who left two undefeated teams (Appalachian State and Minnesota) completely out of their Top 25!   

Balderdash! 

Never fear, Mountaineer and

Golden Gopher fans!  SwampSwami has you

covered this week!

Just in case you were wondering, below is a list of the remaining 1-loss teams who are just outside of my Top 25 this week after the conclusion of last weekend’s play:

Close but not quite there yet…

Next week will bring even more

changes as we take analyze the results of every game being played by the 130

FBS large division football programs in order to bring you the SwampSwami College Football Top 25!

It has been nearly twenty

years since Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)

ended a long-time wrestling battle in 2001 by acquiring its financially

strapped primary competitor, World

Championship Wrestling (WCW).

In 2003, the WWE then put a

final headlock on another national competitor named Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).  Vinnie Mac’s company purchased the assets of

its other remaining national competitor (which had already declared bankruptcy). 

In two quick moves, Vince

McMahon’s long-time wrestling company was able to extinguish his biggest competition.  His WWE brand has remained the proverbial “King-of-the

Ring” for nearly two decades.

Not so fast! 

On Wednesday night, TNT televised the first week of wrestling programming from the new All Elite Wrestling (AEW) for two hours.  This marks TNT’s first televised wrestling venture since Ted Turner’s WCW group bit the dust in 2001. 

Familiar ringside announcers like ol’ JR himself, Jim Ross (a long-time fixture with WWE until he “retired” a few years ago) and former WCW mainstay Tony Schiavone launched the broadcast Wednesday night to give television viewers a look at the AEW’s new wrestling promotion. 

The packed house in

Washington, DC this week certainly looked to be entertained as well.

Some of the new company’s wrestlers are quite familiar, too.  Cody Rhodes was one of founding members of this new group and is the son of WWE wrestling legend, Dusty Rhodes.  A former WWE champion, Chris Jericho, appears to be the biggest carryover “name” as he (for now) holds onto the AEW title belt as of week #1 of the program.

It takes a lot of money to launch something like this.  However, the fledgling wrestling company is controlled by the billionaire owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, Shahid Khan.  Reports are that Khan is worth over $6 Billion.

Yep, that’ll do for awhile.

Khan’s son, Tony, is also listed

as the founder and president of the AEW. 

So, what does WWE’s chairman,

Vince McMahon, think about the new competition?  

It’s hard to tell, but

history says that McMahon plays to win at all costs.  The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was

built by his father.  In the past 35

years, though, Vince has taken the company into stratospheric financial heights

after taking the company public (though he and his family still control the

majority of the stock). 

Speaking of WWE stock, the

company’s publicly traded stock reached a peak around $90 per share early in

2019.  As of this writing, the company’s

stock price was trading just below $70. 

According to public sources,

Mr. McMahon personally owns about 28 million shares of the company’s

stock.  A decline of $20 per share in

2019 would cost him about $560 million in net worth already this year.     

Ouch.

Compounding the issues for “The Chairman” of WWE is that he had already cashed-out nearly $500 million of his company stock to fund the start-up football venture XFL.  After the original XFL’s one year crash and burn in 2001, the second coming of the spring football league is slated to begin play in early 2020. 

Just like before, Vince

McMahon is the owner of the XFL. 

Could the new wrestling

For over six months, Major League Baseball fans have suffered through another extremely long (and generally boring) regular season campaign.  Many of us have snoozed through those 162 games (plus a wild-card game) played from April through September just to get us to the final eight teams.

It’s October (finally)!  That means it is time to start paying attention to baseball as the post-season has arrived (better late than never) for the eight survivors.   Let’s meet the contestants and preview the upcoming playoffs!

American League: (All games televised on FoxSports1 or

MLB Network)

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Houston Astros:

Tampa Bay – The Rays are your team if you love underdogs.  Tampa Bay’s 2019 team payroll was the lowest (by far) in the major leagues with only $54 million in salaries.  By contract, the most expensive team in MLB was the Chicago Cubs (who didn’t make the playoffs, ha ha) with $211 million.  Plus, the Rays play in a quirky 30-year old domed stadium called Tropicana Field (which has been reconfigured so many times that it now seats only 25,000 fans).    

Key stats:  Tampa Bay’s pitching is tough with a 3.65

earned run average – 2nd toughest in the league.  The team doesn’t have a single player batting

over .300 for the regular season, but finds a way to win without big-name (and

highly paid) stars.

Houston –

The Astros are your team if you like seeing the top batting team in the playoffs

as the ‘Stros bat for a .274 team average. 

The team has seven (yes, seven) players who had twenty or more home runs

this season! 

Key stats:  The Astros feature several future

Hall-of-Famers on the roster.  What’s not

to like about MVP second baseman, Jose Altuve? 

The 5’5” smiling assassin bats nearly .300 and somehow bashed 31 home

runs (and who said that the baseball itself isn’t juiced?).  Add star pitchers Justin Verlander (21-6),

Gerrit Cole (20-5) and late-season acquisition, Zack Greinke (8-1), and this

team now sports a proverbial “Murderer’s Row” of pitchers.  The Astros are loaded and going for their

second World Series ring in the past three seasons.

Prediction: 

Houston in 6 games in the “Orange Juice Stadiums” series (Houston plays

in Minute Maid Park, while the Rays play in Tropicana Field.)

Minnesota Twins vs. New York Yankees:

Minnesota – This

is the turnaround team of the season. 

The team hired the youngest manager in the league, Rocco Baldelli, who

just turned 38.  The former Rays’ player

transformed a team which went 78-84 last year up to 101-61 in 2019 (+23).   The team features a confident attitude and

led the AL-Central Division from start to finish this season.

Key stats:  If you like home runs, then you’ll love

Minnesota!  The Twins are built on

“bombing”.  In addition to having the

second best batting average in baseball, Minnesota blasted a MLB record 307

home runs in 162 regular season games. 

Nelson Cruz led the team with a .311 batting average and 41 home runs.  The Twins pitching is tough, too, with an ERA

of 4.18 (8th best in the league). 

New York Yankees – The term “Bronx Bombers” has never been more appropriate to describe this year’s Yankees.  The team led the league in runs scored and finished a close second behind the Twins with 306 home runs for the season.  They have led the AL-East for most of the season and never looked back.

How many times are we going to see another savage, senseless head injury caused by a football player who uses his head and helmet to inflict a possibly life-threatening hit on another player? 

Yes, I’ve discussed this

before, and my position has not changed. 

I want to see this disappear

immediately. 

Right now.  No more waiting. 

I don’t want to hear about how players are bigger, stronger, faster, etc.  They are not instructed to tackle an opponent by utilizing their head and helmet as a battering ram.

I played football in elementary, junior high, and high school many years ago.  Young football players are still being taught to tackle with their head up (to avoid injuring yourself) and to wrap-up the legs of the other player to stop his ability to run.  That is the proper form.

To the best of my knowledge, today’s defensive football players are NOT taught to launch themselves head first into the opposing player in order to stop the play.

If they are, their coaches

should be fired immediately.

No, these head shots we have been observing in recent years on the gridiron are done with intent to inflict serious bodily damage to the other player (and, occasionally, to themselves, though inadvertently).   

If the game of football is

going to survive, this practice should be ended immediately to reform the game

we love to play and watch.    

I grew up watching hard-hitting linebackers such as 1960’s legendary tough guy Dick Butkis (Chicago), 1970’s fearless Steelers pain inflicting Jack Lambert, and 1980’s “Mr. Intensity” himself, Mike Singletary (also with da’ Bears).  These men and others of their era hit every bit as hard as the players you are watching in today’s game of football. 

To the best of my knowledge, though,

most of the hard tackles of yesteryear were made without the defenders using

their head as the primary weapon. 

Although it wasn’t uncommon for serious injuries such as broken ribs or limbs to happen which caused opposing players to be carried off the field on stretchers, you didn’t see players from the bygone eras purposefully launch themselves headfirst to make a tackle utilizing the crown of their helmet as a weapon and the primary method to stop the play and inflict punishment.

It was then, and remains

today, downright dumb and unnecessarily dangerous to all involved.

And it needs to stop.  Immediately. 

Last weekend, there were several NFL players who received concussions as a result of dangerous hits on the field.  If you happened to watch what a New England Patriots defender did to Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen on Sunday, you give thanks that Allen isn’t laying in a Buffalo area hospital paralyzed by the senseless helmet-to-helmet hit caused by the New England defensive player. 

The quarterback (Allen) was

already on his way to the ground prior to the hit in question.  It was an intentional attempt to inflict an

injury to the opposing player.

On Monday, the NFL finally suspended its most frequent and savage offender, Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontae Burfict, for the rest of the 2019 season for taking a breathtakingly dangerous head shot on Sunday at Colts tight end, Jack Doyle. 

The league should also make

him (and any offenders) pay for any doctors and hospitalization required for

My fantasy football team (Swamp Gas) moved to a nifty 3-1 this

season with convincing 125-106 victory over the weekend. 

My Methane Marauders were led by a couple of L.A. Chargers players this week.  In addition to running back Austin Ekeler (24 points), I was able to grab quarterback Philip Rivers off the scrap heap on Friday (dropping Andy Dalton).  Ol’ Man Rivers (now 38) also chipped-in 24 points against the hapless Miami Dolphins’ defense.

Victory #3!

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the

injury bug hit my team hard again this week. 

Would you believe that our team suffered FIVE injuries this week –

including three with concussions?  Here

is the Swamp Gas hospital ward list

after this week’s costly win:

* Jarvis Landry

(WR – Cleveland) – One of our starting wide receivers was having a career day

for us into the third quarter against Baltimore with 167 yards (16 points).  Unfortunately, Landry suffered a concussion

in the third quarter to end his day. 

We’re waiting on a medical report on Landry.* Josh Allen

(QB – Buffalo) – Though we kept our Bills’ QB on the bench this week in favor

of Philip Rivers, Josh Allen suffered a vicious and unnecessary helmet shot

from a New England defensive player and was knocked out of the game in the

third quarter.  According to reports,

Allen is in the “concussion protocol” and likely out for at least the next

week.  I still can’t believe that the New

England player wasn’t tossed for such a dirty hit.* T. J. Hockenson

(TE – Detroit) – After scoring a first quarter touchdown for the Lions,

Hockenson suffered a concussion and a shoulder injury while attempting to

hurtle tacklers in Detroit’s game with Kansas City on Sunday.  Early reports indicate that his shoulder

injury may be the more problematic issue for our rookie tight end.  * Devante Adams

(WR – Green Bay) – Like Jarvis Landry, Adams was having a stellar game (18

points) until he suffered what is called a “turf toe” injury.  Despite the odd name, it is quite significant

for a speedy wide receiver if his foot is unable to push-off the field without

pain.  He is considered week-to-week.* Justin Jackson (RB – L.A. Chargers) – Jackson was a late-week pick-up (I dropped WR Deebo

Samuels after one week).  Unfortunately,

Jackson injured his calf during practice last week and may be out for several

weeks. 

Not trying to complain about our

newest injuries, but, remember, we had previously lost BOTH of our drafted quarterbacks

(Drew Brees of the Saints and Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers) during

Week 2 of the season. 

The rash of injuries over the

weekend certainly doesn’t make it easier to field a quality team in the weeks

ahead, but this is why your General Manager and Head Coach (me and me) make the

big bucks (ha ha).  Reminder – our

Fantasy Football league is played for fun only (no cash – thank goodness!).

General Manager’s thoughts – Our team was decimated by injuries (five this week

alone).  This week, two of our players (both

with Detroit) are on a bye week rest. 

What shall we do?

I will try to obtain the

services of Green Bay wide receiver Geronimo

Allison off waivers to cover the loss of our “franchise” wide receiver, Devante Adams.  We’ll send Chargers’ RB Justin Jackson back to the proverbial junkyard and hope that other

league teams with a worse record than Swamp Gas won’t claim him first.

This is one of the reasons I

started the SwampSwami College Football

Top 25 two years ago. 

The mainstream media has just

thrown the defending champions of college football under the bus in favor of

this week’s prettier girl.  Alabama has replaced Clemson at the top of those other two traditional

ratings services.

Why?

Alabama blasted another weak

opponent this week as the Tide (at home) obliterated 2-3 Ole Miss 59-31 on

Saturday.  Meanwhile, in Chapel Hill,

North Carolina, Clemson survived a 21-20 scare on the road as North Carolina

(2-3) failed to convert a game-winning two point conversion at the end of the

game.

So, the major ratings

services have now deemed Alabama better than Clemson.   I

guess that the polling contributors have a very short memory, because Clemson

obliterated Alabama 44-16 in last season’s championship game. 

In the SwampSwami College

Football rankings, we start with the premise that the final AP Top 25 should be

a fair way to begin team rankings for the new season.  Therefore, until a team loses their first football

game in the current season, I believe that they deserve to be ranked ahead of

any other undefeated newcomers. 

Clemson (which has already

beaten two 3-2 teams, Texas A&M and at Syracuse) went on the road Saturday

to play conference rival, North Carolina. 

 Alabama scored an impressive

season-opening win against 3-1 Duke (in Atlanta) and a road win at 2-3 South

Carolina. 

Both Clemson and Alabama are now 5-0, but the Clemson Tigers were the team which won the most recent match-up of the two juggernauts. 

Remember this game?

And that’s why Clemson will remain atop my poll until someone

beats them this season.  The champ is

still the champ until someone knocks them off the perch.

If the other two polls were

looking for the most impressive wins thus far in 2019, they should have ranked

Ohio State (my #3 team based on last season’s final rankings) as the #1 team

after they steamrolled Nebraska 48-7 in Lincoln Saturday night.  On a game-by-game comparison, Ohio State’s

wins in 2019 have been more impressive than either Clemson or Alabama.

Let’s now reveal the SwampSwami College Football Top 25 for the week ending September 28, 2019:

Moving out of this week’s poll

were Kansas State (lost at 4-1

Oklahoma State), California (lost to

4-1 Washington), Virginia (lost at 3-1

Notre Dame), Navy (lost at 4-0 Memphis),

UAB (lost at 2-2 Western Kentucky),

and USC (lost at 4-1 Utah).

Moving into the SwampSwami

College Football Top 25 this week are #20

Oklahoma State, #21 Air Force, #22 Colorado, #23 Wyoming, #24 Missouri,

and #25 Arizona State.  These are all one-loss teams whose only loss this

season has come against a one-loss opponent. 

Before we close for this

week, a brief “Sa-lute!” to two teams which picked-up their first win of the

season last week.  The UMass Minutemen (now 1-4) shot down Akron

(now 0-5) to avoid a winless season. 

Likewise, Vanderbilt grabbed

their first win in 2019 with a 24-18 victory over Northern Illinois.

That leaves the following three teams as the only teams without a victory out of the 130 FBS large division schools:

Through four games in the 2019 college football season, the LSU Tigers are 4-0 and ranked #4 in the latest national polls (FYI – they are current ranked #6 in my latest SwampSwami College Top 25 poll).

LSU being ranked within the Top 10 after four games is certainly not surprising to most college football fans.

However, seeing that LSU’s quarterback, Joe Burrow, is currently considered to be the leading candidate to win this season’s Heisman Trophy as the nation’s best college football player is worth taking a few moments to discuss.

Burrow, who transferred from Ohio State after two seasons waiting for his turn to play for the Buckeyes, came to Baton Rouge and immediately won the starting quarterback job for the Bayou Bengals last season in 2018.  He led the Tigers to a 10-3 season mark and a top ten ranking to end 2018.

The 6’4” quarterback for LSU

is from a football family.  Joe’s father,

Jimmy, was a long-time defensive coordinator for Ohio University (the Bobcats)

until he retired before this season to enjoy his son’s final year at LSU.  Two other brothers played football at the

University of Nebraska.

Joe Burrow was also a

standout basketball player in high school and garnered All-State honors as a

point guard.  His leadership abilities as

a playmaker are also quite evident on the gridiron as he functions as the field

general of the offense. 

In a surprise (but overdue) move

to nearly everyone in Tiger Nation, LSU’s offensive coordinator, former LSU quarterback

Steve Ensminger, brought in a young New Orleans Saints offensive guru named Joe

Brady to help upgrade the Tigers’ passing game beginning this season.   Brady, who worked in New Orleans with future

Hall-of-Fame quarterback Drew Brees for two seasons, has immediately

transformed the Tigers’ traditionally run-heavy offense into a modern run-pass-option

(RPO) which grants the quarterback a significant number of throwing options at

his disposal. 

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow has responded to the new passing scheme with amazing success early this season.  Burrow is the second leading passer in the country (yes, you read that correctly) with over 380 yards per game via the air. 

Longtime LSU fans will advise you that, in past seasons, 380 yards of passing yardage might have taken the Tigers up to two full games to achieve!  In fact, the 2018 LSU team’s TOTAL offense only accounted for just 387 yards per game (ranked 70th out of 130 FBS teams).

LSU’s meteoric rise in offensive proficiency has given the Tigers and their rabid fans hope that they can, indeed, return to the national championship conversation once again.   

This year, LSU’s newfound “Geaux, Joe!” pass-happy total offense is currently ranked #5 in the country!  It certainly presents a new challenge for LSU’s upcoming SEC opponents in the weeks ahead.

The Southeastern Conference is widely known for its bruising style of defensive football.  Teams like Alabama, though, have added a more pass-oriented offense in recent years to keep them competitive and winning national championships.

Speaking of Alabama, the Crimson Tide has functioned as a blockade to LSU’s national championship goals for the past eight consecutive match-ups.  Not since 2011 have the Tigers been able to take down a Nick Saban-led Alabama football team. 

In fact, the Tigers have failed to score more than 17 points against Alabama in any of those eight games and have been shut-out three times during the span. 

With less than one week until

the end of the 2019 Major League Baseball season, a new record for futility is

about to be established.

There are currently four baseball

teams who have ALREADY lost 100 or more games during the 2019 season.   Since modern

day baseball records began in the year 1900, this year’s quartet of incredibly lousy

teams will secure a record as the first season with four teams losing 100 or

more games. 

It has been 80 years (1939)

since two Major League Baseball teams have both cracked into the “All-Time

Worst Records” list in the same season. 

Two-team futility also occurred in 1911 and 1909. 

With 119 years of baseball played, the 2019 Futile Four will add three names to the “All Time Worst Records in the History of Major League Baseball”:

Without further ado, let’s

meet our biggest losers of the 2019 MLB season:

* Detroit Tigers

– Through Tuesday night’s games, Detroit has already racked-up 110 losses, but will fall short of the

all-time record 120 losses compiled by the 1962 New York Mets.  * Baltimore Orioles – After last year’s O’s established the fourth-most losses of all time

(115), the 2019 Orioles continued to frustrate their fans and have already

accumulated 106 losses.  * Miami Marlins

– Sporting a spacious new (mostly empty most nights) baseball stadium, the

former Florida Marlins are leading the National League with 102 losses as they stumble down the

home stretch.  * Kansas City Royals – The third member of the American League trio in this

unique  century club for 2019 is the team

which won the World Series just four years ago in 2015.  Royals fans are getting used to it.  KC lost 104 games in 2018.  As of Tuesday night, the 2019 Royals have racked-up

100 losses and still have a chance

to match or exceed last season’s losing total. 

What does having four

100-loss teams say about baseball?

Like most major league

sports, baseball needs to contract from 30 teams and reduce the number of

franchises. 

While the Houston Astros will (for this season) trot-out three All-Star starting pitchers for the post-season next week, pitchers for our Futile Four franchises have struggled getting anyone out.  By giving up five or more runs per game (on average), our Futile Four teams would need their batters to score as many runs as the teams entering the playoffs just to earn a .500 record. 

What about the home

attendance for the 100-loss Futile Four teams in 2019?

Our Futile Four were all ranked among the six worst draws in Major League Baseball this season.  Sadly, Tampa Bay (who may sneak into the playoffs) and Pittsburgh (home of the long-time futile Pirates) also made the bottom grouping.

Attendance slides for MLB’s worst teams

What can be done to prevent

this from happening in the future?

Apparently, not very

much!  These teams can’t afford to get

into bidding wars with the wealthy New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox for

talent.  They must invest in drafting

quality young baseball talent and pack their farm systems with exceptional coaches,

too.

The Houston Astros are a

recent “bootstraps” success story, but their willingness to invest in obtaining

top-level pitchers has made them a World Series champ and consistent contender

of late.  With the team winning again,