Wow. What a College Football Saturday that was.
The biggest news is that 1 Alabama got knocked off its perch by unranked Texas A&M in a 41-38 upset. Jimbo Fisher became the first former assistant to beat Nick Saban. Bama’s loss, combined with 4 Penn State’s loss to 3 Iowa, blows the doors wide open for Cincinnati to step into a playoff spot.
I would have preferred Arkansas to beat Ole Miss, but you can’t argue with 60 minutes of exciting football. I watched the game with friends at Max’s Sports Bar and as early as the first quarter we were saying, “This could go down to the very last minute, the very last play,” and that’s exactly what happened. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman opted to go for 2 following a touchdown with no time left on the clock. Ole Miss’ defense shut the play down to win 52-51.
Then there was the Red River Rivalry, in which Oklahoma looked dead on arrival by the end of the first quarter. Their backup quarterback rallied late in the game to pull out the 55-48 win over Texas. Let me tell you, between that game and Arkansas-Ole Miss, I bet the crowd at Max’s Sports Bar could be heard a few blocks away.
One college football game that was NOT a highlight was the Memphis Tigers’ third straight loss in a row, to Tulsa 35-29. Even worse, this time the Tigers don’t have a full week to identify what went wrong and fix it. The Tigers host Navy in a Thursday night game at 6:30 on ESPN. I’m sure decision-makers in the Big 12 will be watching that game, Tigers, so get it together.
The DM has a preview of the autonomous robots and logistics conference coming to the convention center Tuesday-Thursday of this week. Here’s the official conference website.
The 7-day rolling average of new COVID cases per day in Shelby County continues to fall. Yesterday it was down to 211 and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us drop into the 100s this week. Here’s a link to James Aycock’s always-excellent COVID Week-in-Review.
Memphis 901 FC has an away match against San Antonio FC today. Every point in the standings counts as the club pushes toward the playoffs with 6 matches left in the regular season.
I visited the Farmers Market for the first time since June yesterday. I started to put my mask on, but then saw a “Masks required for the unvaccinated” sign so I took it back off and put it in my pocket. A completely reasonable policy for an outdoor market. I am so happy to see live music back at the Market. There are only 3 Saturdays left in the Market’s regular season.
If you want to drink some beer outside, today’s is the Memphis Zoo’s Zootoberfest. I’ll have news on another beer festival in the coming days as well.
You never know where I might pop up today. Back tomorrow with more news.