Week 4 Preview: Michigan vs UConn; GameDay Goes to Fargo

Aug 30, 2013; Manhattan, KS, USA; North Dakota State Bison wide receiver Ryan Smith (4) runs by Kansas State Wildcats defensive end Alauna Finau (94) during the Bisons

Another Saturday, another unimpressive slate of games. I feel like this has been a topic every week this season. There is only one matchup between ranked teams, too much FBS-FCS intermingling, and huge point spreads across the country. But college football is still awesome so DEAL WITH IT.

I will be at the Michigan-UConn game in East Hartford. The fact that this is the 8:00 ABC game sums up Saturday’s schedule. By the way, the game time was not announced until Sunday. While it’s not a big deal for me or those I’m going with, I could see this being problematic for a family with young children, as it means keeping the kids up past midnight. It’s just another example of how the powers that be are showing less and less regard for its fans.

Sticking with Michigan, it was revealed that the UM athletic department paid for the writing in the sky above Spartan Stadium last Saturday. The University is claiming it didn’t instruct the pilot to write over East Lansing; the company that did the job says otherwise. Does anyone think this is a waste of money? More than that I see it as further proof that big-time athletic departments have more money than they need. They’re just spending for the sake it.

Have I been too depressing so far? Sorry. Let’s pick things up!

GameDay is going to Fargo. Given the lack of options this week, I think this is a great decision. You may remember the North Dakota State Bison from their Week 1 win over Kansas State. This week the two-time defending FCS champs host Delaware State. I hope GameDay features the DSU marching band, known as “The Approaching Storm,” because it is awesome. I was very impressed by its halftime performance at Michigan Stadium in 2009.

I regrettably didn’t include this amazing 45-yard punt return in my recap of last Saturday’s action:

It will officially go down as a punt block, but as you can see, that’s misleading considering the Bowling Green player takes the ball off the punter’s foot.

I will present this without comment. It is former Colorado/Washington/UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel singing a song he wrote about Johnny Manziel:

And to move completely away from the depressing into the cute, check this out: Urban Meyer responds to a two-year old recruit.