For just the second time in our teacher vs. pupil challenge, we saw a perfect week during Week 7. And for the second time that prediction perfection belonged to Tom Keegan.
I know. Troubling. And I’m pretty sure that does not just go for me, it’s probably true for the dozens of people on our plane down to Austin, Texas, who Tom told about his big week, too.
Oh well. Perfect is pretty so we’ll give the guy all the time he wants to enjoy it.
After a rough Week 6, we both enjoyed bounce-back weeks in Week 7, but Keegan’s zero-miss effort moved him into a two-game lead. With only one game different this week — Keegan picked Michigan State and I picked Michigan — Tom is guaranteed to hang onto that lead for at least another week.
At this point, I’m just hoping he doesn’t add to it.
Here’s a look at the rest of this week’s picks, including similar scores in a Texas victory over Kansas.
**OVERALL RESULTS**
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**Tait:** 8-2 in Week 7; 53-17 overall??
**Keegan:** 10-0 in Week 7; 55-15 overall
**Week 8 Games:**
Kansas at Texas
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech
Iowa State at Kansas State
West Virginia at TCU
Miami at Florida State
Michigan at Michigan State
Mississippi State at South Carolina
Navy at Notre Dame
Wisconsin at Iowa
Georgia at Florida
**Question:** Now that the weather is starting to turn cooler and more resemble “football weather” what’s your best weather-related football memory, be it as a participant, fan, reporter, whatever?
**Matt Tait**
Texas 38, Kansas 20
Texas Tech 42, Oklahoma State 33
Kansas State 35, Iowa State 19
TCU 24, West Virginia 20
Florida State 41, Miami 24
Michigan 27, Michigan State 23
South Carolina 30, Mississippi State 20
Notre Dame 33, Navy 23
Wisconsin 31, Iowa 17
Florida 33, Georgia 31
**Answer:** Although I have covered a bunch of great games in cold weather and been to plenty as a fan, the answer to this question is easy. The year was 1995, the fall of my senior year of high school, and with Lawrence High en route to another state football championship, one of the only major hurdles that remained was powerful Olathe North. North already had beaten LHS earlier in the season and had started to lay the groundwork for its incredible run of state titles that followed years of Lawrence High dominance. Now would be a good time to point out that I didn’t play football in high school, but on this night I did. In the snow. While wearing shorts. Without using an actual ball. Stone sober, too. Anyway, hours before my buddies who were on the team showed up and knocked off the Eagles 32-7, me and those of us who weren’t playing showed up for a little game of fake football on the snow-covered Haskell Stadium turf. We ran plays, made blocks, called penalties and even ran a dive play from the 1 yard line to win the game, which lasted so long that the O-North players actually waited for us to finish before they took the field for warm-ups. The shorts were worn (by a few of us) in honor of LHS assistant coach Jerry Skakal, who always wore shorts no matter what the weather conditions brought. The fake game was played because we were too young to know any better and plenty dumb enough to go through with it. What a good time, though. Thank goodness we won.
**Tom Keegan**
Texas 35, Kansas 17
Texas Tech 34, Oklahoma State 31
Kansas State 28, Iowa State 24
TCU 24, West Virginia 17
Florida State 38, Miami 21
Michigan State 24, Michigan 21
South Carolina 31, Mississippi State 10
Notre Dame 35, Navy 34
Wisconsin 20, Iowa 10
Florida 17, Georgia 14
**Answer:** Since nobody wants to hear about me wearing a No. 5 jersey in my back yard, scrambling in the snow, avoiding would-be two-hand-touchers, keeping my eyes downfield the entire time, extending the play so that one of my two super-fast brothers (six boys, four girls in my family) could spring open, and then putting it right over his shoulder and softly into his hands, a good 10, 12 yards from where I threw it and watching him go …. all …. the …. way, I won’t bore anybody with that story. So, my favorite weather-related memory has the snow falling at Arrowhead Stadium. Todd Reesing, looking like a certain No. 5 from a certain back yard some 40 years earlier, side-steps pressure and long after the play had broken, Kerry Meier breaks open, Reesing lofts a perfect touch pass to him and as Bob Davis put it, “TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN! TOUCHDOWN!” The No. 5 jersey worn in Rochester, N.Y. had Notre Dame on it back when Terry Hanratty was the quarterback. Reesing’s said Kansas. Other than that, only the sharpest of football eyes would be able to differentiate the quarterbacks.
Runner-up: The year was 1970, the Los Angeles rain turned the field into a mess and Joe Theismann, trying to rally heavily favored and undefeated Notre Dame to victory, threw for 526 yards. But eight turnovers — four interceptions and four fumbles — undermined the Fighting Irish, who lost to the Trojans, 38-28. Fortunately, given the conditions, I watched this one from the comfort of the tiny den where we used to cramp as many as 10 people to watch games. Monte the Milkman sometimes joined us and occasionally ate one of our dog’s milkbones, just to watch our jaws drop. But I digress. What was the question again?
