Thoughts From The Valley: A Fake Field Goal. And a Fozzy.

The Hangover

HOW I AM FEELING: Exhillerated. Still. Yes, still exhillerated. A full 14 hours after the conclusion of that Michigan State-Notre Dame thriller, Your Editor is still reveling in All Of That Game's Awesomness. Not to mention The Ongoing And Umatched Awesomness Of College Football. Also not to mention the Slightly Less Awesome 24-0 win My Beloved Nittany Lions enjoyed over Kent State on Saturday. Take that, Flashes; 7-5, here we come. I miss having linebackers.

WHAT I AM DRINKING: Martini. Olives. Etc. Viva return of college football season.

WHAT I AM LISTENING TO: Neil Young, Harvest Moon. Wrote Rolling Stone reviewer Greg Kot of this classic back when it was released: "Harvest Moon ... sounds as if it was made for lazy hammock-swinging afternoons. But beneath its placid surface are the craggy scars of middle age, when holding onto and cherishing love is a lot more difficult than finding it." Good stuff there, folks. And a very fine album for, if not hammock-swinging afternoons, then at the very least, for college football-writing afternoons.

VILLA UPDATE: Aston Villa FC, Official Barclay's Premier League Football Club Of TCFA, suffered through a rather undignified week, losing 2-1 to Stoke City on Monday night, then battling to a 1-1 draw with Bolton on Saturday. These are matches the Villa should be winning, folks. I'm sure you're just as concerned as I am. I apologize once more to the good folks of Birmingham for inflicting them with The Cleveland Curse.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE WEEKEND: It is currently 77 degrees and sunny here in The Beautiful Wissahickon Valley.

There is hardly a cloud in the sky.

There is a nice little breeze. No humidity. No trace of anything that might be termed "annoying," weather-wise.

In other words, today is, in the realm of Philadelphia-area weather, just about as good as it gets.

So, no, i'm not going to spend a whole lot of time writing here today. Sorry, folks. Because, you see, 77-degree, sunny and generally perfect days aren't all that commonplace. At least not here in The Beautiful Wissahickon Valley.

I choose to enjoy this day.

And besides, there is nothing that I could write in this space that would speak more directly to college football's greatness than this video right here.

[And by the way, don't you wish now that you made the effort to stay up and watch that game, folks? Don't you? Of course you do. I stayed up to watch it. And I am a happier/better man for it.]

Click. Watch. Enjoy. Savor.

Savor the moment.

Because it's moments like these, folks, that make us love college football.

It's moments like these, too, that make college football The Greatest Game The World Has Ever Seen.

Viva college football, folks. Viva college football.

THREE YARDS AND A CLOUD OF DUST

THREE: OK, a few more thoughts on The Greatest Fake Field Goal Ever, Or At Least The Best Once Since This One. I have to admit: I didn’t see that one coming. To be honest, a fake wasn’t even on my radar. It apparently wasn’t on Brian Kelly’s radar, either. And Mark Dantonio, to his credit, apparently knew it—and exploited it. The Notre Dame-Michigan State series has been one of the most entertaining (and for some reason, underappreciated) in the nation over the past few years, but even the classic 2006 edition (the one that saw Sparty collapse in spectacular fashion and eventually led to this wonderful Sparty-fan moment) didn’t compare to The Utter Awesomeness of Michigan State-Notre Dame 2010. The game was a true back-and-forth thriller, and even without that gloriously successful and perfectly executed fake field goal, it would have been an all-time classic. But thankfully, well, this one did that gloriously successful and perfectly executed fake field goal. What a call, folks. What an outstanding call. [And, by the way, we here at TCFA want to send our best wishes to coach Dantonio and his family; turns out the coach suffered a mild heart attack hours after knocking off the Irish. By all accounts, he’s doing fine.]

TWO: Texas has a running back named Foswhitt Whittaker. He goes by "Fozzy." He is allegedly the Longhorns' "starting" tailback now (though this changes almost every day), and I would just like to let you all know that we here at TCFA—Your Editor, TCFA Podcast Co-Host Mike Unger, Young Jack, LaVar (No Last Name Necessary)—are officially rooting for "Fozzy Whittaker" to hold onto that starting job. For the simple reason that there are not enough Fozzies in college football; in fact, I can't recall another Fozzy in college football, ever. If anyone knows of any others, please . Because I honestly would like to know how many Fozzies there have been in Our Great Game. And how many have been better than Fozzy Whittaker (this is not a very high bar, folks).

ONE: Stephfon Green is a better tailback than Evan Royster is right now. Silas Redd is a better tailback than Evan Royster is right now. And I'm willing to bet that Curtis (Enis) Dukes is a better tailback than Evan Royster is right now. My suggestion to Evan, who seems like a good kid, is simply, then, this: Start showing a little more fire. Star showing a little more interest. Start showing a little more, you know, passion. Because unless you do so, bud, you're going to endure the worst season that any so-called Suzuki Heisman Trophy candidate has ever endured. Time to show us what you're made of.

TOUCHDOWN: The Big Ten has six teams ranked in both the USA Today and Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2004. As I have been saying for the past five years, folks ... conference strength is cycical. Except in the case of the Big East.

OVERTIME: So as you know, folks, we were at TCFA this year launched ... a podcast. Yes, a podcast. The podcast, co-hosted by Your Editor and Baltimore-based writer/bar and tavern afficiando Mike Unger, is now four episodes old, and the consensus here at TCFA Headquarters is that we're getting better. We think we've got, you know, potential. But we also realize that we can get better. Our goal (and I'm being serious/honest here for a moment) is to make the TCFA Podcast a must-listen for Truly Intelligent College Football Fans. To get there, though, we need your feedback. So please, drop us a line, won't you? Let us know how we're doing by emailing us at . We're open to all feedback—positive, negative, or otherwise. And thanks again for reading/listening. That is, if you've been reading/listening.

For more searing college football insight, please check out my work over at About.com, where you can read my weekly Power Rankings, ponder the About.com Heisman Trophy Watch, get darn-near daily blog updates and more.