{"id":2287,"date":"2014-12-22T18:40:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T01:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=2287"},"modified":"2014-12-23T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T04:39:20","slug":"hilltoppers-offer-plenty-of-offense-testament-of-james-is-shipping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/?p=2287","title":{"rendered":"Hilltoppers offer plenty of offense \/ ‘Testament of James’ is shipping"},"content":{"rendered":"

I suppose by now close observers have noticed the Great Swami’s crystal ball was clouded, a few weeks back, when it came to predicting the lineup for the inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl, set to kick off at noon local time (closer to dawn, in civilized time zones) Wednesday, Dec. 24 at Tom Robinson National Stadium, somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. I can only echo Rick Blaine, challenged on the claim he came to Casablanca for the waters: “I was misinformed.”<\/p>\n

We had been unreliably informed the match-up would likely feature the Toledo Rockets (not the Mud Hens, that’s baseball) and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, but the Blue Raiders lost a final game to the mighty Florida International Panthers (who knew?) in late November, 38-28, slipping to 6-6. And there was no joy in Mudville, nor in Murfreesboro, neither. Goodbye bowl bids.<\/p>\n

Things went the other way for the Rockets, who crushed Eastern Michigan 52-16 in the final game of their regular season. Suddenly Toledo was too hot a prospect to take the slow boat to Bermuda; they instead return to challenge Arkansas State of the Sun Belt Conference at another GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, Alabama on Sunday evening, Jan. 4. The Arkansas State Red Wolves (hey, they’re all<\/em> household names in this division), being the defending GoDaddy champions, are slightly favored.<\/p>\n

As for the Bahamas rice-and-beans bowl, look for the 7-5 Central Michigan Chippewas to take on the 7-5 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. (Should we call it the “Barely Made It Bowl”?)<\/p>\n

The Chippewas’ problem is that summer transfer Thomas Rawls, who led the team with 1,103 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging 122.6 yards per game despite missing three complete games, will sit out the post-season “due to an academic issue,” which presumably has nothing to do with those felony charges involving stolen credit cards. (He pleaded out to a misdemeanor.)<\/p>\n

\"NCAA<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Hilltoppers fifth-year quarterback (and going for six!) Brandon Doughty leads the nation with 44 touchdown passes and 4,344 passing yards. He threw five or more touchdowns in each of four games this season.<\/p>\n

So Kentucky has plenty of offense. But as to what the other 11 guys are supposed to do while the opponent has the ball, a desperate WKU defensive coordinator — if they have such a thing — must be reduced to whimpering, “Guys, couldn’t you at least get out on the field and stand in their way?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Western Kentucky defeated Marshall in their final game of the season — in football, not basketball — 67-66.<\/p>\n

This one ain’t gonna end up 6-to-5, believe me.<\/p>\n

BOOKS ARE SHIPPING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Signed, numbered first editions of “The Testament of James” began shipping Dec. 16, on schedule. More than 70 of the limited hardcover edition of 650 are already out the door; signed copies numbered 80 to 100 still available at www.abebooks.com\/servlet\/BookDetailsPL?bi=14453647811<\/a> .<\/p>\n

“The War on Drugs is older than you think.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suppose by now close observers have noticed the Great Swami’s crystal ball was clouded, a few weeks back, when it came to predicting the lineup for the inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl, set to kick off at noon local time (closer to dawn, in civilized time zones) Wednesday, Dec. 24 at Tom Robinson National Stadium, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,13,54,55,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-drug-war","category-entheogens","category-fiction","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-AT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2287"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2293,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2287\/revisions\/2293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}