Mickey Goldmill knew a thing or two about underdogs. He was able to see the aura of greatness that surrounds those who are destined to achieve great things! He also believed, in his gut, that he was destined to guide someone to greatness. That belief requires an uncommon level of confidence, and it takes a lot of chutzpah to raise an underdog’s confidence to rise above expectations.
This iteration of the College Football Bowl season has given us an exciting playoff and a final matchup between two over-achieving, underdog teams who are also led by coaches who are lifting their teams up after crushing defeats and nudging them back towards greatness.
Chutzpah!!!
Just how do we know that Notre Dame and the Ohio State University are truly underdogs? Well, the SBBPA says so! Prognosticators were confident in picking Penn State (57%) and Texas (82%) to win their QF games. The opposite is true for the other two QF games. Just 12% of us picked Ohio State and 9% picked Notre Dame to win their QF games. And in the Semi-Final Games, only 6% picked Notre Dame and 9% picked Ohio State.
Usually, by now, we’re able to project a winner but NOT THIS YEAR! The winner of the final game between Notre Dame and Ohio State will determine the winner of this year’s MJM Memorial Award for Prognostication Excellence. Pete has the outright lead with 33 points and there are 11 prognosticators behind him that, mathematically, could equal or exceed him with the final eight points.
The end of this year’s challenge is going to be a HUMDINGER!
To get you ready, here’s a clip of the great Burgess Meredith’s Mickey giving Rocky some much needed encouragement as he prepares to face an impossible task and issuing one of the best vocal lines EVER captured on film!
that is a great post. I am all agog…well I am!!