Clemson might be ranked a little too high

Last week, No. 12 Clemson needed a strong second half to beat Troy at home. I’m not kidding. They were down 16-3 at halftime and were able to come away with a 27-16 win.

After Saturday’s game at unranked Georgia Tech, it remains the Tigers only win on the season. Nobody loves a ranked team losing to an unranked team as much as I do, but maybe Clemson shouldn’t have even been ranked in the first place.

I have to admit when a ranked team isn’t very good it does take away a little bit of the fun of it all. Thankfully, there were some good games to make up for it and a legit upset with Vanderbilt destroying No. 11 South Carolina 31-7.

Speaking of good games, No. 6 Georgia was a missed field goal away from losing their first game of the season to No. 15 Tennessee and needed overtime to avoid taking the loss in one of the most entertaining games of the season.

Pack your bags, football fans! OutKick is sending one lucky winner and a friend to Athens for Georgia vs. Alabama. Travel’s on us, VIP tickets in hand, and bragging rights for life. Enter Now!

And we shouldn’t overlook No. 2 Penn State as they continue to handle their business in impressive fashion. Whoever is put in front of them, they’re not flinching, and the haters are starting to worry.

They’re not falling victim to the trap set by facing unranked opponents. Handling their business can’t be said for the rest of the Top 10.

Some teams are struggling to do so. Take No. 8 Notre Dame, for instance. They’re winless after losing a close one to No. 16 Texas A&M. But not everyone can start the season undefeated.

Big 10

– Jim T in San Diego writes:

Hey Sean,

Without defending Penn State (which I won’t do, being a native of the Buckeye State, albeit living on the beaches of SoCal the last 45 years), I’m wondering where Eric B. studied geography?

He wrote, “The Big Ten doesn’t have in state rivalries (other than Iowa) between different power 4 schools such as Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Kentucky-Louisville, South Carolina-Clemson, and Oklahoma-Oklahoma State.”

Um … UM – Michigan State? Indiana – Purdue? Northwestern – Illinois? And now (thought as a West Coaster, it pains me to write this) UCLA – USC?

Nevada is even a patsy out here – UNLV, its in-state sister campus, is a much better program, as we saw last night v. UCLA.

Painful watching my alma mater SDSU Aztes get stomped on by a bad Wazzou team – especially when Fresno State was taking care of business v Oregon State ..

One more thought

One item from today’s SC has been bugging me – the harsh judgmentalism of a kid daring to be unathletic at a ballgame.

So he missed the catch – he was a FAN at a game, not a participant. Are we going to have tryouts before you’re allowed to attend a game?

I’m against participation trophies in organized league sports, too – but being a fan is about a love of and appreciation for the game.

We have enough adults stealing balls and caps from kids at games these days without piling on this kid, too …

SeanJo

I don’t have a problem with being unathletic at a ballgame. Obviously, I’m not calling for tryouts before being allowed to attend games either.

I’m not even piling on the kid. If I remember correctly, Tatis or someone from the Padres gave the kid something after he missed the ball. That’s my issue.

You can show up and suck all you want, but let’s not hand out souvenirs to a kid because he sucks. That is participation trophy behavior, is it not?

Oregon Coast

– Glyn sends in:

SeanJo

This is great. There’s something calming about a sunset picture, isn’t there? Take a look at just about any sunset picture and try to get mad. You can’t do it. It’s impossible.

Airline Mistreatment

– Paul from St. Paul writes:

This type of “distraction’ is very welcomed on every and all occasions, Seanie!

Would you please mark me down in the column that strongly favors revealing cleavage and big boobs, please?  We need to keep score on this topic! 

Gracias!

SeanJo

Of course, I agree with you, Paul.

Some distractions are worth it and this is one of them. For those of you who missed it, I wrote last week about another airline staff member overstepping their bounds and telling a woman to cover up her cleavage.

We can’t have this. The “free the cleavage in the skies” movement might have to be organized. This is a matter I’ll be keeping a close eye on.

Saturday Lunch on Beech Mountain

– Chris writes:

Hi, Sean — Griling season never ends up here, you just have to want it more.

SeanJo

I love it Chris. The year-round grillers out there are an inspiration. We need more. Keep up the great work and keep sending me your meat.

“Do you have any Bigfoot stories and/or evidence of your own?”

– Kenneth writes:

Always been a believer, now I’m a member of the club of no return. My cabin practically borders a 58K acre WMA. The first experience was a smell, not quite fresh skunk strong but oh so very close to it. The moment we opened the front door that evening the almost overwhelming smell was that of a human feces. Not cow, horse, or chicken manure but undeniably human-like. 

Now for the best evidence (see attached). Observations: Pointed head, no visible ears, heavy eyebrow ridge, flat nose, greyish skin tone. Reddish brown hair, a massive muscular build, if you zoom in you’ll see some of the hair on the head appears to be turning gray as if getting older. Notice how what would be a human trapezius muscle attaches to the skull at the same level as the eyes? This matches a common description of no neck when a bigfoot is seen while walking away. Did you notice the color of the hair on the inside of the right forearm is a different color?

The image isn’t photo shopped, there are web sites that can analyze a uploaded photo and others will analyze for florescence levels. You can also convert the photo to a black and white image where a placed cut out will easily be detected. Finally, when I put this in an overlaid grid and I estimated from the top of the head to the hip was roughly five feet, with an overall height again estimated at nine feet tall. 

SeanJo

I wrote about a Bigfoot sighting last week and received a ton of emails about it, many of which I still have to go through.

The responses are probably going to be put into another post about Bigfoot. But I thought I’d share the first one I received.

This is what Kenneth believes is the best evidence he has of a Bigfoot. 

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——–

That’s all for this week. I’m going to grab another coffee and prepare for another disappointing Sunday of Carolina Panthers football.

Keep those grills going, give me a follow over on Twitter while you’re at it, and send me your meat and anything else to sean.joseph@outkick.com.

Numbers from:Stuff You Guys Sent In & Stuff I Like:

Actress Olivia Wilde is seen arriving at Michael Kors fashion show during New York Fashion Week at Terminal Warehouse on September 11, 2025. (Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

Actress Olivia Wilde is seen arriving at Michael Kors fashion show during New York Fashion Week at Terminal Warehouse in New York City. (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images)

Olivia Wilde attends the Michael Kors fashion show during New York Fashion Week at Terminal Warehouse in New York City. (Photo by TheStewartofNY/Getty Images)