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FOOTBALL
Week 2 prospects:
Iowa St. QB Brock Purdy: Wasn’t exactly the engine for ISU’s win over Oklahoma last week (the first for Iowa St. in Ames since 1960!). Obviously dealing with talent deficit around him in the passing game, but is certainly begging questions to be asked of his ability to elevate things around him since his strength was making plays out of relatively nothing.
Florida St. DEF: Didn’t exactly make a positive statement against Jacksonville State last week, but #5 Notre Dame looming tonight is an opportunity if nothing else. A poor showing though would exacerbate their trajectory toward…well, something we’ve never really considered for FSU.
Clemson LT Jackson Carman/Wake Forest EDGE Carlos Basham, Jr.: Both continuing to ball out. Wake’s off today, but Clemson has #7 Miami and Carman will have his hands full with their edge pressure.
Week 3 prospects:
Oklahoma St. QB Spencer Sanders: Not fully recovered from the ankle injury.
Notre Dame ? Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah: Key prospect to watch tonight against FSU.
Miami EDGE Quincy Roche: KEY KEY KEY prospect to watch tonight against Clemson. A big night tonight propels him into Day 1-2 discussions.
Week 4 prospects:
Florida QB Kyle Trask: A&M’s defense struggled last week against Alabama. If Trask continues his hot start, he solidifies his early stock escalation that had ESPN’s Mel Kiper putting him in Top 40 discussion.
Texas LT Samuel Cosmi: Texas-OU today. Fun. No fans at the State Fair of Texas. Not fun. Sigh.
Miami QB D’Eriq King: I’ll leave it to tonight has King has to lead the Hurricanes against the #1 Clemson Tigers, but he’s playing very good football. This challenge will be monumental. Let’s see how he performs under the brightest lights of his career to this point.
Week 5 prospects:
TCU S Trevon Moehrig & S Ar'Darius Washington: Both played well against a plus Texas offense in TCU’s upset win over the then #9 Longhorns that nonetheless put up four passing touchdowns (TCU’s cornerbacks didn’t have the best day…). Kansas State is actually humming on offense under Chris Klieman in his second season. Interesting test today.
Texas A&M S Leon O'Neal Jr.: Alabama just took apart A&M’s defense, and O’Neal was part of that. #4 Florida is a chance to bounce back, but the way they’re playing might actually work against him and the rest of the secondary.
Georgia S Richard LeCounte III: Richard LeCounte. THE THIRD!!! Auburn couldn’t get anything done last week against UGA. Wouldn’t be surprised if Tennessee struggles against them today as well. But make time next week for Alabama-Georgia. It’s an NFL game played in college jerseys.
This week’s prospects:
North Carolina ILB Chazz Surratt
(#8 UNC v. #19 Virginia Tech, ABC, 12pm ET/9am PT)
(Photo by Nell Redmond/USA Today)
One, his name is Chazz Surratt. Chazz. Surratt.
Two, he might not even be the first Surratt taken in the 2021 NFL Draft (if he isn’t the first Chazz taken, we riot). His brother, Sage, opted out of the season as a wide receiver for Wake Forest and has a shot at a first-round selection.
Oh BTW, did I mention he was a fucking quarterback coming out of high school and played there his first two seasons at UNC before moving to (checks again) INSIDE LINEBACKER?!?! Can you imagine Jared Goff playing inside linebacker? (please do not do this)
He’s a freakishly natural athlete. He’s going to find a way to play NFL football. Watch him. Enjoy him. Leave it up to his future coach to figure out what the hell to do with him.
Chazz and UNC are hosting #19 Va Tech today who Head Coach Justin Fuentes is struggling to help break through. They’ve loomed at the edge of the top programs since his arrival in 2016 from Memphis, and they could really use a big win here.
If not, Surratt and UNC are riding under HC Mack Brown who is recruiting as well as he did at Texas threatening to add a new contender in the ACC.
Tennessee RT Cade Mays/Georgia RG Ben Cleveland
(#14 Tennessee @ #3 Georgia, CBS, 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT)
(Photo by Kim Klement/USA Today)
Look at these big boys cook.
Clemson WR Amari Rodgers
(#1 Clemson v. #7 Miami, ABC, 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT)
(Photo by Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today)
Rodgers isn’t the best wide receiver on the Tigers, but Justyn Ross is sitting this season out. But aside from RB Travis Etienne (and also get ready for Frank Ladson, Jr.), Rodgers is the best weapon QB Trevor Lawrence has.
He’s in the mold of the new build of wide receivers shaped like running backs (LOOKING AT YOU, DEVIN DUVERNAY) that win easily in physical battles and can get into space over the middle and then just muck it up because, well, they’re not 6’4” sprinters.
How long is it going to take the NFL to incorporate these new kinds of athletes? They’re not going to play at RB; the game is moving away from that, and the pay scale is too. Something interesting to watch tonight as Lawrence, the to-be-#1-overall-pick-in-the-2021-NFL-Draft operates an offense with Rodgers as his primary go-to.
FOOD
Sigh.
It’s not not hot yet.
It’s mid-October. I want to cook fall food. It’s also going to be damn near 100 on Sunday here in North Texas. What the hell.
One more go of summer food to cap this year off. Burgers it is.
Talking about burgers in 2020 is perilous. There’s a lot going on. But what I like is how good the simplicity is. I’m down to get as funky as anyone with a burger, but a classic tomato-lettuce-onion build on a basic burger stack (patty, cheese, bacon) with the KMM (ketchup, mustard, mayo) options just never fails. It’s the combination of a hit of nostalgia since I’ve been eating hamburgers from birth along with the sheer enjoyment of a really good combination of flavors and textures.
We need to re-visit burgers at some point to talk about the ways the complexity thereof can make things more enjoyable, but at their root is the reality that something like this is really, really, really fucking good:
FUCKERY
Got some good feedback on steaks over the last two newsletters, so let’s keep it going re: Halloween-y content.
My wife’s big into horror movies and shows and whatnot (i.e. The Haunting of Hill House). I appreciate a good one, but (a) I don’t get anywhere near as excited for it as much as she does and (b) I don’t get anywhere near as excited for it as a random crap college football game. So I can’t claim much ownership here as much as passive participation.
But some of you are probably experts! Of the thousands of our newsletter’s readers, some of you are Halloween stans. You don’t have to admit it. I know it. And I get it. And you need not feel shame.
But you do need to share that expertise with us!
What’s your favorite watch this time of year? Obviously, Hocus Pocus is in the mix. The Nightmare Before Christmas always bangs. We got a cult following for the Worst Witch. And goddamnit, somehow we ended up with Spookley the Square Pumpkin existing:
Forget the damn main character. Why is there a sexy pumpkin in the bottom left wearing lipstick? We got two bats just hangin out along with a friendly anthropomorphic scarecrow…go fuck yourself, Spookley.
Anyway, hit us up with your non-Spookley Halloween content.
Georgia and Tennessee game: Mays and Cleveland used to be team mates right?
Miami and Clemson game is gonna be great. Gotta be 20 prospects there. I just got home gotta watch a replay so I can't watch the news.