#and i know how that loss of control and vulnerability felt internally combined with the obsession itself | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

typicalher · 4 years

Text

An Analysis of Will's Moral Conflict

One of the key struggles for Will throughout the show concerns his reluctance to fully embrace his darkness. I completely acknowledge that this is a struggle that he deals with throughout, but the reasons for this struggle are more complicated than him simply having too strong of a good moral compass. When you actually look carefully at Will’s pattern of behavior, what you see is that Will’s moral struggle is really more about what he thinks he should feel or possibly even what he thinks he should want to feel. It is often argued that Will struggles with his internal conflict because he also wants justice or to stop Hannibal (and himself) from killing or hurting people. If Will is fighting his darker urges because he wants to protect people then that would be valid, but this is usually not the case when you actually look at his actions and the fallout. Will’s struggles don’t actually protect anyone (in fact his indecisiveness usually leads to tragic consequences) and when others do get hurt, he doesn’t actually react with genuine guilt or even make true changes to his behavior for the better.

In the beginning of the series, we do know that Will has a desire to be normal and because he isn’t he largely hides from social interaction. At first he is also not interested in socializing or even talking with Hannibal, but once Hannibal gets him to confess to enjoying killing Hobbs and then offers him acceptance at this confession, we see Will become much more comfortable having serious and personal conversations with him. Will enjoys the acceptance that Hannibal is offering him despite admitting to enjoying taking a life. Will is still very reluctant to admit this to anyone else; however, so he does recognize that it isn’t a normal feeling for him to have despite Hannibal’s lack of judgement (and even encouragement). He tells Abigail that killing her father was the “ugliest feeling in the world,” which we know is a lie and near the end of S1 he later confesses the truth about how he felt to her.

S2 is where we really get to see Will’s struggle begin though because it is during S2 that he is much more “awake” so to speak and he actually starts actively embracing more of his darker urges and recognizing them for what they are. He is angry at Hannibal because of Abigail’s death and the betrayal of lying about his illness and framing him, as well as the death of Beverly, which eventually leads to Will sending Matthew Brown to kill him. Will does not appear to feel any regret for this attempt at murder by proxy, or the fact that he was sending someone else off to potentially be sacrificed for this cause, and when Hannibal frees him from prison shortly afterwards, he also begins to understand some of Hannibal’s motivations for his S1 actions. However, he still starts off on a plan to get revenge and presumably attempt to bring Hannibal to justice. This brings us to the question of why is Will really doing all of this. Jack certainly seems to think it is for justice, but we eventually see that Will is lying throughout the “investigation.” Will was, for instance, supposed to manipulate Hannibal into trying to kill Mason but arrest him in the act. At least that is what Will tells Jack. However, Will also doesn’t tell Jack anything about his personal connection to the Mason Verger plot and what happened to Margot. He also manipulates Mason against Hannibal, but in the end he frees Hannibal allowing him to kill his way out of Muskrat Farm. He also just ends up watching Hannibal snap Mason’s neck and doesn’t tell Jack anything about what actually happened, which is why they have to resort to the planned entrapment dinner. Based on his actions and not just on what Jack believes are his intentions, there isn’t really any indication that Will’s motivations are anything but personal. He is upset by Hannibal’s actions in S1, but he is mostly still upset about what happened to Abigail. He brings her death up to Freddie twice and questions Hannibal directly about it. Even before the rest of the FBI closes in and Will is forced to make a choice, he burns Hannibal’s psychiatric notes about him. The file even contains the real clock that Will drew when he was ill. Will burns it willingly when he could have attempted to keep it. Hannibal doesn’t seem concerned at all that Will has it in his hands. Why does he destroy valuable evidence if he wants justice? In the end, Will disregards even Abigail’s death when he calls Hannibal to warn him. Even if Will wasn’t planning to run with Hannibal when he got to the house (though we know he at least wanted to based on his later confession to Jack) he wanted Hannibal to leave. He wanted him to go free. This wasn’t about justice. It was about what had personally happened between the two of them and he was apparently okay with Hannibal leaving and going to potentially kill other people somewhere else. Later when Will is in the hospital and Chilton tells him this is his best possible world, Will imagines if he had killed Jack with Hannibal that night, which shows us that Will’s regrets over Mizumono aren’t that he failed to stop Hannibal and bring him to justice but that he didn’t commit to Hannibal sooner and that they didn’t get to go through with killing Jack together.

When we get to S3, Will’s conflict eventually shifts away from being about what Hannibal has done to hurt him and more about Will’s so called morality. This is where Will starts to get a bit more difficult to follow in terms of motivation because Will is pretty hypocritical about all of it. At the beginning of the season, Will is mourning the loss of the family that he, Hannibal, and Abigail could have been together. He is worried that Hannibal may just be playing with him, but he also wants to go to Hannibal. This is explicitly stated more than once when he talks to “Abigail” who is really just a representation of his own thoughts. At the end of the episode, he forgives Hannibal, and I think this is where we start to get a bit of a shift in Will’s conflict. Will goes to Hannibal’s childhood home, which is where he encounters Chiyoh. Will now sees someone Hannibal has “tested” and seemingly has left behind. Will was already worried in Primavera that Hannibal was simply playing with him, but now he sees someone that Hannibal was able to walk away from and he likely becomes concerned that Hannibal sees him the same way. Afterall, Hannibal gutted him and walked away and Will only has the broken heart as a sign that Hannibal hasn’t just moved on. What if Hannibal was just mocking him? Will’s insecurities are somewhat understandable here. What is telling though is how Will treats what he should logically see as another of Hannibal’s “victims.” He treats Chiyoh in a very Hannibal-like manner. He tests her to see if she will kill and she does in self-defense. While he does take the prisoner away from the castle initially, when Chiyoh screams, we get a shot of Will off in the woods. His reaction is stone cold and there is no surprise at all on his face, so he must have expected the prisoner to come back after her. Chiyoh also makes sure to call him out on his real intentions. Later when they are riding the train together, he still shows no remorse for what he did to her, and instead rather coldly questions her about taking a life. He asks her if she sees herself killing the prisoner over and over and she replies no that she sees him and his response is just to grin at her as if he enjoys the thought of what he has made her do. Later in the same episode, she states that he feels like he needs to kill Hannibal or he will become him and Will says yes. It is here that the story somewhat shifts from Will possibly wanting to go be with Hannibal again to feeling like now he needs to kill Hannibal in order to “save himself” from Becoming like him. What changed? I think Chiyoh and thinking Hannibal just saw her as disposable is part of it, but I think the fact that he was able to really forgive Hannibal for what happened between them before and Abigail is also apart of it. If Will can forgive Hannibal for killing their daughter and gutting him and still wants to go to him, what does that say about Will himself and the type of person he is? This isn’t the way normal people love. I think this realization, combined with the fear that Hannibal doesn’t really care about him, causes Will to get a bit spooked and regress in his own self-acceptance a bit. Seeing Bedelia and realizing she took his place also helped solidify this belief on his part.

However, lets look a little more closely at Will’s apparent motivation and the belief he needs to kill Hannibal for this reason. Is it to bring him to justice? Is it to stop Hannibal from killing others? No, it is all about Will and his attempts to possibly control his own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Keep in mind that at this point, Hannibal has left Will alone for eight months. He did leave the broken heart, but Will had to travel across the ocean to see that. Will is going after Hannibal; Hannibal is not going to Will. The idea that Will must kill Hannibal to stop his own dark desires is pretty illogical on Will’s part, and Chiyoh tries to point out to him that there are flaws in his thinking because she follows up by telling him there are means of influence other than violence, but this is also where Will really starts twisting himself up in knots to lie to himself. (For the record, I do think there is more to Will’s motivations than just wanting to kill Hannibal just like there was much more to Hannibal’s attempt at the head sawing. For one, I think they are both afraid of being the vulnerable one in the relationship because at this point in their relationship, there is a lot of violence, physical and emotional, between them. I also doubt Will would have gone through with it. He pulled a tiny knife in the middle of a public street and Will has never before or after this, been able to actually go through with killing Hannibal or letting anyone else do it, but I digress.) It should also be noted that Will didn’t go to Italy in the first place to attempt to bring Hannibal to justice. He goes to Italy to deal with his feelings for Hannibal just like he “resumed therapy” to deal with his feelings for Hannibal. We can see proof of this in his interaction with Pazzi who wants his help as an officer of the law to find Hannibal, and Will not only isn’t interested in really helping him, he starts to deliberately act creepy around him including taunting him by asking him if he knows whose side he is really on. When Will meets up with Jack later, even though he goes with him to the apartment where they find Bedelia, Will also slips out by himself and doesn’t tell Jack he knows where to find Hannibal, so again he sees finding Hannibal as something personal and not a matter of law enforcement.

Then we arrive at the Digestivo break up. Will is clearly exhausted during this episode. He does bite Cordell’s cheek and look to Hannibal for approval and help talk Alana into freeing them, but you can tell he is tired. This is when he tells Hannibal to leave and he doesn’t want to know where he is. Let’s break this action down. There are two valid interpretations to this: Will deliberately manipulated Hannibal into surrendering (which he later claims) or Will thought Hannibal would really leave and was surprised that Hannibal turned himself in. If Will did deliberately manipulate Hannibal into turning himself in, we can say from his later actions that he was essentially keeping Hannibal on the hook until Will was ready to return to him. Will is giving himself a break from the drama that is their relationship and giving himself some space (even though Will was the one to seek out Hannibal again and not the other way around). If Will didn’t manipulate him on purpose then Will once again is apparently fine with Hannibal leaving and killing other people. The implication then is that it would apparently be okay as long as Hannibal wasn’t killing people he knew and Will wasn’t tempted to give in to his own dark urges by being around Hannibal. Hannibal killing only seems to be an issue for Will when he is personally connected to it, and even then only to a point. The only one of Hannibal’s victims he really seems to care about is Abigail (who he forgave Hannibal for) and Beverly for a short period of time before he seemingly forgot about her entirely (and this is arguably Will being angry at Hannibal taking something else away from him. Will tends to get upset when he believes this is what Hannibal is doing. We see it with Abigail, Margot’s baby, and later when he accuses Hannibal of this concerning Molly and Walter during his conversation with Bedelia.) We can also see the way Will treats one of Hannibal’s surviving victims, Alana. Alana is manipulated by Hannibal, and unlike Will himself, is considered disposable. Alana actually does try to stop Hannibal by pulling the trigger and attempting to shoot him, but she fails. She is a victim of Hannibal’s manipulations and suffers a serious injury and almost dies because of Hannibal. And how does Will treat her? He doesn’t even want her around him. He would rather pine for Hannibal and Abigail in Hannibal’s kitchen than even talk to her. They could have come together to bond over their trauma, but instead he rejects her entirely and tells her to leave him alone. He doesn’t even have a logical reason to be so put off by her in their scene in the kitchen.

We then arrive at the Red Dragon arc where Will’s “moral conflict” reaches its most hypocritical levels. First, we have how he treats Bedelia. Will is blatantly jealous, but even setting aside his hatred of her as a potential rival, his attitude towards her is outrageously hypocritical. He was upset no one would believe him about Hannibal in the first half of S2, but he never even gives her story the benefit of the doubt for a second (even openly mocking her with his “I don’t believe you.”) He also tells her she would deserve to be eaten by Hannibal and later threatens her again in TWOTL. This is the man who tried to shoot someone in cold blood, mutilated a corpse, set someone up to kill and mutilated another corpse, and tried to help Hannibal escape at least once. Will has done more criminal acts and gotten away with them than Bedelia is even capable of doing in the first place. Remember when Will was going to be arrested for killing and mutilating Randall Tier? Apparently Will just got away with that completely once the FBI was distracted by Hannibal being the real Ripper. Bedelia has nothing on Will.

We also have Will’s family, which is often used as an example of Will trying to be a good man and resist his darkness, but let’s look at how this is presented. Parallels are actually drawn between Will choosing his family and how Dolarhyde chooses his victims. Hannibal points out that Dolarhyde is like Will and “needs a family to escape what is inside of him.” When Hannibal tells him he picked a readymade family “to serve his needs” because he knows better than to breed, Will is called out for basically having a beard family (in more than one way). It is worth noting that Will does not even try to argue with Hannibal about this, which is basically accepting the truth of the statement. Will doesn’t have a problem with calling Hannibal out when he feels he deserves it. What we are shown of Will’s relationship with Molly is also quite shallow. We have no reason to believe he has been honest about himself with her. She believes he is motivated by wanting to save lives, but as we have seen he is fine putting people in danger and doesn’t seem to care about Hannibal killing people he doesn’t care about. She also jokes about his criminal mind and he shuts the conversation down. There has been discussion about whether or not Will was purposely putting Molly and Walter in danger. I don’t think he did this consciously, but I do believe he was very selfish to use them for a “normal” life while he is essentially keeping Hannibal waiting in prison. It is also very odd that Will is supposed to be so good at reading killers, but he “doesn’t” pick up on the obvious hints Hannibal gives him about Dolarhyde coming after Molly and Walter next. By involving them, and not being honest with them, he at least was pulling them into a world they weren’t prepared for. We also never see them again after they are attacked. Will mainly seems upset that Hannibal tried to take something away from him again since that has been an issue for Will throughout their relationship and even in the scene where he confronts Hannibal about it he doesn’t even stay angry for the entire scene. (Also, the accusation that Hannibal gave Will three years to build a family just so he could take them away is pretty bizarre logic as well. Hannibal didn’t know what Will was going to do while he was in prison.) If Will actually wanted to be with them though, it is odd that this was enough to destroy the relationship. As if he wanted to live in an illusion and once the illusion is shattered he has no need for it. Some argue that Will’s motivations are to protect Molly and Walter in the finale, but if that is the case why do we never see them again? Molly is only brought up in the finale as a way for Will to try and hurt Hannibal. If Will truly cared beyond the destruction of his attempt at a normal life, then why do we not get more of a real moment between Will and Molly after the hospital scene? Instead, Will is back to focusing on the personal conflict of he and Hannibal’s relationship and the new confirmation that Hannibal is in love with him and what he feels in return and what he is going to do about it. In fact, Will was the one who decided to involve Hannibal in the case before it was even necessary. If Will believes Hannibal is so dangerous for himself and the world at large, why doesn’t he leave Hannibal to rot alone in his cell until it is absolutely necessary to interact with him? Bedelia calls him out for just missing Hannibal and wanting to see him, but you also have to wonder if Will wants to give Hannibal the chance to act in some way and get involved. Hannibal didn’t even need to know Will had a family at all for the purposes of this case, so Will agreeing with Bedelia that Hannibal was going to let Will have something knowing he could take it away is odd. The whole situation is another example of Will coming to Hannibal instead of Hannibal coming to Will. Will had to want Hannibal involved.

We then come to Chilton and Will’s role in what happens to him. Will does appear upset at seeing what happened to Chilton in the FBI office, but when we cut to him with Bedelia, the one he can be more honest with, we see a very different side of him, and when she asks if he wants to talk about it he responds with “the divine punishment of a sinner mirrors the sin being punished” and “Damned if I’ll feel.” When she asks if he has to wonder if he put Chilton at risk he says no and with a cocky eyebrow raise, he responds to her asking if she expected this to happen to Chilton by saying “I can’t say I’m surprised.” We aren’t seeing any real remorse here and after imagining himself lighting the match that burned Chilton, he easily lies to Jack in the next scene and blames it all on Hannibal, which is a deliberate attempt on his part to deflect the blame he was just taking responsibility for with Bedelia.

Will’s actions in The Wrath of the Lamb are ambiguous to a point, and there are multiple interpretations of what his intentions were. What we can say for certain is that Will lies to Jack and acts like he didn’t know Dolarhyde was alive until after the rest of them learn that news as well. He never reveals that he has already put a plot into motion involving Dolarhyde. So what is Will’s motivation? There are different options. None of them actually make Will look good or heroic at all. One interpretation is that Will has decided that too many lines have been crossed by himself and he needs to put an end to it, so he is going to have Dolarhyde kill Hannibal. If this is Will’s motivation, then it means that Will is essentially blaming giving in to his own darkness on Hannibal simply existing. Hannibal is in a cell and while he did find a way to be something of a danger thanks to Dolarhyde, that avenue is now cut off to him. It doesn’t make logical sense for Will to decide to use another serial killer to kill Hannibal because Will has given into his darkness enough to now be willing to do things like set up Chilton and not feel bad about it. If this is Will’s genuine plan, it also means he is willing to lie to Jack and the others and put many people in danger for his own personal issues. The officers escorting them are killed, and it can be easily assumed that Will helped Dolarhyde know where they would be (how else did he find out?) so that it would just be Will and Hannibal against Dolarhyde alone, which was not Jack’s plan at all. Even if Will didn’t intend for the police officers to die, he was deliberately endangering others with his plan and they die because of his manipulations. Will also shows no remorse over this (he even steals a gun off of a corpse) even though it is a much worse act than killing a family annihilator with Hannibal. If Will’s moral conflict doesn’t include caring about the lives of innocent officers, what exactly is he trying to stop himself from Becoming and how will Hannibal being dead help? The most “heroic” take on Will’s plan is that he wanted to put an end to Dolarhyde and Hannibal (and possibly himself) to end all the evil and maybe stop himself from becoming a killer. However, Will’s plan involves lying to Jack, manipulating people, and getting innocent bystanders killed. This isn’t logical and if this was Will’s conscious plan he is a hypocrite who is more concerned with saving a perception of himself that he believes should exist than actually being a hero. If Will really wanted to put an end to things, he could also have helped Jack find Dolarhyde and then turn himself in for his own crimes or had himself committed to protect others from himself. Will instead picks the most reckless and dangerous plan he could. Even his attempt at ending both he and Hannibal isn’t a full commitment to the act. There was still a gun available. He could have put a bullet in Hannibal’s brain when he was vulnerable and then ended himself. Instead, Will pushes them off a cliff that Hannibal already told him had an eroding bluff. He is leaving it up to chance, likely because he doesn’t really want to die, but he believes dying is what he should want to do. Keep in mind, this last push isn’t motivated by the fact that his plotting led to the death of several innocent people. He is motivated to do this because of how Good and Right it feels killing with Hannibal.

For the record, I believe that Will really wanted to free Hannibal and kill with him. I do think it is very possible that Will told himself his motivations were what I outlined above, but because those motivations are so illogical, I believe this was just his excuse to create a situation where he and Hannibal had to fight and kill Dolarhyde alone together because what he really wanted was that experience (after all, he tells Bedelia his plan and threatens her with Hannibal coming after her, which doesn’t make sense if he really plans for them to all be dead). However, if the above were his motivations, and Will truly wanted to let Dolarhyde kill Hannibal for him right up until the moment he couldn’t actually let it happen, then Will is someone who is willing to blame someone else for his own actions, unnecessarily endanger bystanders to “save” himself, and then attempt to use someone else for murder by proxy (again). None of that is heroic and none of that demonstrates that Will is driven by a genuine attempt to be moral. It is a surface level morality that doesn’t add up to much at all.

Even the narrative tends to tell Will that his fight to preserve his “morality” is dangerous to others. The more Will fights, the more indecisiveness he shows, the more he gets other people hurt. His insistence that he just kept lying to Hannibal (as he tells himself in Primavera) helped lead to the tragedy of Mizumono. While Hannibal is responsible for his own actions, Will is also responsible for the part he plays and his inability to pick a side until it was too late (and even then in a way ambiguous enough that Hannibal did not seem to get the message.) When Will is unsure of himself and gives into his impulses without being sure of what he wants, we end up with situations like Chilton and the unnecessary deaths in TWOTL. Will’s moral conflict never actually leads to anything good in the show, and a lot of the negative consequences are caused by Will’s inability to seemingly be honest even with himself. Will’s moral conflict is something he does struggle with, but ultimately it does not lead to him actually changing for the better or showing genuine remorse for his actions. His conflict only leads to him being more reckless and endangering even more people. It is a false conflict that is based on Will believing he should be a certain way because of society’s expectations (and it is in this that the closeted subtext makes the most sense) rather than real guilt or a desire to be good for its own sake. I do hope and believe that surviving the Fall was what Will needed to finally let go of these issues so that he can finally be happy with himself and Hannibal.

#hannibal #spoilers #will graham #meta #hannigran #hannibal lecter

188 notes · View notes

blog-sliverofjade · 3 years

Text

Of Doms & Subs 19: The End is Just the Beginning

Pairing: Angus Hopper x OFC

Summary: What’s a submissive female to do when she fights her nature and goes on the run as a Lone wolf to avoid being assimilated into a pack?

Word count: 2213

Of Doms & Subs Master List

Ellie anticipated a panic attack. It had been some time since she’d been underneath a man, and she expected to feel trapped as she had so often with Will. Maybe it was because there wasn’t much difference in their sizes but was more likely due to the fact that he was the polar opposite of Will. Unlike her ex-husband, he’d shown his teeth from the very beginning. Was that only four days ago? Her wolf didn’t care; she’d found their mate. She let herself settle into that easy bliss and release her human hang-ups, if only for a little while.

Mickayla had warned her that her sex drive would crank up to 11, but no warning in the world could have prepared her for this. A few minutes of a semi-naked make out session and her body felt wound to the breaking point. Heat washed over her like waves lapping at a shore. Excitement, wonder, and love burst inside her, deliciously sharpened by a hint of fear. The kind of adrenaline charged fear she felt when free climbing, knowing that no anchor kept her from falling. Only she wanted to dive off the precipice she teetered on and fly.

She disentangled her leg from his to cradle him between her thighs. Even through their underwear and his pants, he undoubtedly felt how damp her panties were. Though she was too far gone to feel embarrassed. A button on his shirt scraped against a nipple and her breath caught. Angus released her mouth and she nearly whined at the loss. The usual sternness dominating his features had melted away and he appeared vulnerable for the first time, soft even. His thumb brushed over her swollen bottom lip. She caught his wrist to press a kiss to his palm, which made him smile.

Cupping the side of her neck, Angus turned his attention to her breasts, heaving as she panted. The white mounds moulded easily to his hand even as they overfilled it; he lowered his head to a pert nipple that was practically sitting up and begging for attention. She jerked towards him as if a jolt of electricity shot through her. He licked and laved the rosy bud to a stiff peak and then moved to the next one.

When she settled again, he slipped a hand between her legs and brushed her clit. Her back bowed at the light touch. When did she become so sensitive? Was it the werewolf thing? Or was it because it’d been so long? He dipped a finger into her slick petals. Oh God, she was dripping. Her hips tried to follow him on the withdrawal. The need painted across her face resembled a grimace of pain. He stilled and pulled back to look at her.

“Are you all right, mo cridhe?” The hand on her neck moved to stroke her hair.

“Yes!” cried Ellie, squirming around his finger.

“Are you certain? We can stop.” Angus began to withdraw, but she gripped his wrist with supernatural strength, keeping him within her walls.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” she panted.

“Oh? What am I doing?” The hunger on his face was at complete odds with his innocent tone.

“You’re trying to give me an out,” she scowled.

“Well then, while we’re on the subject,” his dark eyes were lit with his sly humour that she was learning how to read, “Do you want this? Because I swear to God I’ll not stop until your legs are quivering and the neighbours are very well aware of my name, to say nothing of the pack.” She bit her lip, torn between arousal and mortification. His finger shifted ever so slightly and either she’d closed her eyes or her vision had short-circuited due to the pleasure from the minute movement.

“If you stop, I will bite you,” she hissed, glaring up at him.

“That’s hardly a deterrent.” The gleam in his bottomless eyes filled her mind’s eye with flashes of fangs and entwined bodies that had her tossing her head back, exposing her throat. He nipped at the velvety flesh and she thrashed under the overwhelming pleasure that washed through her, whining softly. He smiled into her pulse point and added another digit, crooking them and beginning to pump in and out. The knot low in her belly wound tighter and tighter. She gasped when he hit one spot in particular.

“Ah, there we are,” he whispered in a voice like dark chocolate and velvet. Rocking on his hand, she gripped one of his shoulders like it was a lifeline, nails digging into his skin through the shirt.

Her silken walls fluttered around his fingers and her mewls grew louder. He and his wolf were one in their smugness. Her reactions made him wonder if her ex had ever seen to her satisfaction. The thought that he would be the one to give her such pleasure had him grinning ferally.

“Tha gaol agam ort, m'eudail.” Long ago, he’d taught himself to use his voice like a tool: he could crack it like a whip or light fires in people’s hearts. Or he could intimately caress someone. She’d seemed particularly affected by it, especially when she first submitted to him. The carpet still smelled like her. “Cum for me, a leanbh.”

There was no need to draw upon his dominance, even if he was willing to use it in bedroom games. He curved his fingers again and she bowed off the bed with a scream that only died out when she ran out of breath, but her orgasm continued, drawn out by his deft hand. Blunt fingernails dug into his thigh. Though they would heal in moments, he purred internally at the possessiveness of it. In turn, he bit the juncture of her neck and shoulder, almost breaking the skin, but not quite. He laved at the small hurt as she came down, his strokes slowing.

Sitting up, Angus drank in her ample curves, her arms flung around her head, and unbuttoned his shirt. She drew one leg up so she could turn and ogled him in kind from a better angle. He stood and reached for his belt; white teeth nibbled a slick, pink lip. The way she watched him, as if in need, was a seduction unto itself. A faint clink of the pants falling to the floor and he was nude before her.

Werewolves quickly learned to shed any discomfort they had with nudity, but pink still spread across Ellie’s face, slackened in awe. He smiled with certain amount of male satisfaction in knowing that she was with him because she wanted to be, and not because she wanted to jump the hierarchy. Knowing that she worried about the pack and for him, even challenging his arguments, filled him with a pride and admiration.

“Hmm, I’m not terribly familiar with the mating habits of wolves.” Her voice was husky from screaming and hunger. “But how long are we supposed to stare at each other?”

“You’re going to have to learn to watch that mouth,” he rumbled and slunk across the bed with eyes that glowed wolf.

“Oh?” The shape of said mouth as she formed the sound made him wonder if she would manage such arch coyness if that same mouth was wrapped around his cock. In reply, he sank his teeth into her bottom lip, lapping at the crimson beads that welled up.

“You bit me.” If she was trying for indignation, her tone was far too breathy to be effective.

“You threatened to bite me first.” His shrug was met with bright laughter. She spread her thighs in welcome and he settled into the cradle of her hips, which pressed up against him when his length fell against her crease, brushing her clit. Panting, she threw her head back with a low moan.

Looking into her caramel apple coloured eyes when she could focus again, he pressed into her wet heat. Impatient, she wrapped her legs around his hips and squeezed him deeper into her channel. He resisted and chuckled at her frustrated pout.

“This is our first time together,” he smiled, propping himself up on one elbow and stroking her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “There’ll be plenty of time for animalism in the second round.”

“S-second round?” she blinked.

“Supernatural stamina means a refractory period of minutes.” He took advantage of her open mouth to caress her tongue with his, pushing deeper into her until he was fully sheathed. She snaked her arms around his neck and writhed under him, trying to coax him into moving faster.

Ellie rolled her hips, savouring the perfect fit as if they were made for each other, returning his kiss with interest only to pull away with a gasp as he moved again. He rocked into her aching core, kneaded the meat of a thigh curled around him, and the way he licked his lips was downright indecent.

Their slow, smooth rhythm soon had her squirming with bliss; Angus watched with a face slack in awe and lust, an expression which she no doubt mirrored. Yet he maintained a firm grip on his self-control and she wanted to snap the leash. Clenching around him as tightly as she could, she dug her feet into his marbled ass for leverage to drive herself up his shaft. He snarled at her impatience. Once, she would have shrank from the aggression; instead, she did it again and arched her head back to flaunt the line of her throat. The way he’d reacted whenever her neck was vulnerable hadn’t gone unnoticed.

With a roar, he sank his teeth into her sensitive flesh and slammed into her, the bed thumped into the wall in time with the snap of his hips. The knot in her lower belly snapped and she came with a scream, gouging furrows in his corded back. He didn’t let up, pounding into her quivering pussy, forcing her to climax again and again until it all blended into one. Only after she was a trembling wreck did he delved as deeply as he could, pulsing as he filled her to overflowing, their combined fluids painting her folds.

They lay there for awhile to catch their breath, still connected, foreheads pressed together. She shook occasionally, her inner walls fluttering around him.

“I think I love you,” whispered Ellie.

“You’re still capable of thought? Then I haven’t done my job properly,” he smirked. She laughed throatily; he kissed the bite mark, which was already fading. “If you change your mind and want to leave, I’m not sure I’m strong enough to watch you walk away.”

It wasn’t a flowery speech, or a grand declaration of his affection. He all but admitted weakness. To her. A wolf who’d been told since her Making that she would never have any power in their world. And an Alpha had placed himself in her hands. That knowledge stole her breath, her thought, and most of all, her heart.

The next day, Angus mobilized Ian, Jim, Mickayla, and Shane to pack up her little apartment. They picked up her brother, Peter, from Vancouver (Washington, not British Columbia) to help. He’d volunteered even after she’d confessed that she turned furry every full moon.

“She’s been through hell.” Peter’s growl was worthy of a werewolf, unaware that she overheard through the open window as she packed. Apparently, not all of their attributes were public knowledge otherwise he would have lowered his voice. “If you hurt her, I will pump you full of silver.”

Ellie peered down into the packing lot where they were supposed to be loading the SUV. Her brother loomed over Angus, using his larger size in a blatant attempt at intimidation. Angus nodded solemnly, and she had to stifle a laugh. Her Alpha could eat him for breakfast. Literally.

Later, she thanked him profusely for not murdering her brother for his temerity. He said something about “not disciplining foolhardy pups” for trying to protect their family, but he accepted her gratitude with fervour.

Her meager belongings looked shabby in Angus’s- their- condo, even with her new, albeit small, wardrobe. Yet he didn’t bat an eye at her tablet with the cracked corner, or her ancient laptop, instead placing them next to his own shiny devices to charge. Nor did he hesitate to place her dog-eared novels next to his first editions. He returned her keys and her lime green jalopy received a place of honour next to his Tesla.

The following days passed in a whirlwind and before she knew it she was standing in a conference room of sorts in the pack’s warehouse. Framed by a skylight, the luminous face of the full moon watched from above while she ritually consumed his flesh and was bound to the pack.

While they prepared to shift, several members handed cash over to Mickayla. Ellie arched a brow in her direction.

“They thought you’d mate our fearless leader tonight,” she shrugged and forked over a portion of the winnings, which disappeared into a back pocket.

“There’s no need to rush.” Ellie’s smile lit up her face as Angus came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her. “We have forever ahead of us.”

Tha gaol agam ort, m'eudail - I love you

15 notes · View notes

hiphopscriptures · 3 years

Text

Fresh Artist Fridays: Alex Harris Interview - DRAFT

Like most of us, Alex Harris’s life underwent some severe changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. He had to reevaluate his process for making music and hone in on the message he wanted to share through his work. His latest EP titled Frequency is his gift to humanity, an attempt at bringing positive vibrations and good feelings to a dark world. Read Hip Hop Scriptures’ interview with this week’s Fresh Artist Friday Alex Harris below.

conducted by Willow Rose, transcribed by Priscilla Guadarrama

My name is Willow Rose and I’m an intern at Hip Hop Scriptures. I’m focusing on PR and social media management. I know our audience may or may not be familiar with your work so I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your background. When did you become interested in music and realize you wanted to perform and create new music?

Willow thank you so much for having me on the show. Yeah so basically I started music when I was 7 years old. In my family, we are a big family - five boys three girls eight of us, and I'm in the middle. I've been singing and doing my thing with entertainment since I've known pretty much I could communicate with people. But I started in my parents' church. My father is a pastor of a small congregation in rural Georgia, in the city of Manchester. Over the years my brothers and I, and my sisters initially (the sisters were a part of the group, the family group), and then it evolved to just only being the brothers. And we were known as A7, we called ourselves Inspiration Urban. We travelled all over and then as time progressed, each brother got called to do something very specific, whether it was in the law or authoring books. {two of his brothers continued in the music industry as well}. My roots run deep into music, all the way back to Manchester.

That’s brilliant. You started to touch on my next question. I read that you graduated from Boston University with a masters in Theology and Social Work. I wondered how your background in Theology influenced your music?

What I do - I call it new age soul music. And I think my background, both in social work and I have a minor in psychology undergraduate and a theology degree, which was focused on ethics - that eclectic exposure in learning beyond the roots of Georgia and Manchester, all that experience pours into how I interpreted the power of music. How I use its power and how I allow it to also speak to me and through me to the world. That is the reason why I call what I do new age soul because it is embedded into more of a spiritual element of music itself. I think that we are all spiritual beings, every human experience, and so I think that music is one of the three powerful elements of the universe. Fire and water being two, music being the other because that is how our life begins - with the beat of the heart.

I love that philosophy on the three powerful elements. Listening to your EP, Frequency that just came out, I really felt there was universality in your lyrics and a lot of passion. It is so clear in how you are forming your lyrics and the beat. Would you say that your religious influence and growing up in Georgia - is what drew you to the soul genre?

I think so. I think that was my initial introduction to soul because soul music as a genre, as we have known it, was developed as a combination of gospel, R&B, and some rock and roll too because it comes out of the African American experience as well. But as I grew, because all we listened to was gospel and quartet and gospel choirs and then later people like Al Green and his gospel music and Pastor Shirley Caesar and Caravans and all the groups that our parents loved. But as I became a teenager I started to explore other genres of music: jazz and country music. Georgia has a lot of country stations. And once being introduced to Ray Charles’ story, his country album - music has no boundaries. Regardless of your faith, you don’t have to have a particular sound to do a style. You could bring yourself and your own experience to that particular genre and allow it to evolve to whatever it evolves to. And so it really started to open my thought around how can I bring my whole self, my personal experience - African American, growing up in Georgia, in the rural South, from a big family, from a Gospel background, singing with my brothers, academic experience - what is it that I can bring beyond just saying, “Oh I can sing, oh you can sing” and sing a song or write a song because I’ve been entrusted with a gift to do so? But how can I utilize this gift for the better good of the human experience? So that's where I really come from. And what you hear on the Frequency EP is with intentions to raise our frequency - and not just my own in creating it with the great producers I worked with and writers - but also to those who listen and to be invited to this experience together. So it is not just me sending out waves through the frequency or the vibration of the music itself but also it’s an invitation to the hearer to participate in this rising of positive vibrations that are exhumed from us. That’s what the record is all about.

That’s brilliant. I love the idea of raising vibrations. I feel like this is a tumultuous time for a lot of reasons and having positivity out into the world is something that we need right now. I was reading about the background of the EP, that it was born out of personal experiences. Would you say there was a particular experience that kind of started the creation of the EP as a whole?

I had been writing with several writers (LA, NY, Nashville) over the last couple of years, with them developing a body of work. However, the personal experience, as we all have experienced, but each had a different take on it, was the national lockdown/pandemic. This is when I really start to hunker down. I started to hunker down, the team did. But at the same time, before hunkering down and really honing in on what was created and the opportunity I had to create, there was this enormous wave of, ‘Ahhh!’, of fear come over me, and I was sitting in my living room and all kinds of thoughts - what’s gonna happen, afraid to leave the house - I mean we didn’t know what was going on, no one knew. We only knew what was being fed through the frequencies of popular media and social media. It started to control my environment, my own climate, and I had to settle down and say ‘be still my soul, be still everything my mind and everything about me’ and really say ok - what is it that I can do? Where can I draw from? How can I draw from what I have to create something positive? I reset my own thought process and start to re-engage my team and start to write new music. And really look at the different experiences I had personally participated in or personally observed. It’s really about finding love, being in love, social justice. The song “Humanity” was written and released on Juneteenth and re released on the Frequency, as it relates to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the many senseless -isms: racism, sexism, ageism - that exist and how I felt that at some point in time I had to play by the rules in order to be accepted, especially growing up in Georgia, in the rural South, and I start to say this is what I have to do and start reflect on other people’s stories, friends and of my family as well. It kind of drove the narrative for that piece, “Feel Some Kind Of Way”, the senseless killings in schools and it’s just so much that we’ve seen all the time and we’re saying that there is peace. Peace can be with us. Peace can be in our environment. Unless we start to allow that exude from us and reverberate in some way or another then I don’t think we will ever experience it in a person. But we can’t wait on some external force to do it. We have to bring it to the environment, the universe, to ourselves.

Listening to the EP, my favorite track was “Humanity”. I love that you were going in depth on you reasons for writing it. How has the pandemic shaped the creation and production of your new music? I think the universal condition of all of us being in this situation together is a unique opportunity.

It’s a very unique experience for us to really reflect and to value the humanness of humanity. Just look at all the losses. It was an awakening to say, you can be this way, feel this way, or be in this place and then in the next moment, the next day, the next 24 hour period, everything is taken away, or everything is paused. And it was really an awakening moment. “Falling For You” comes from that space where we can be vulnerable and fall in love again and again and everyday allow and discover something because all we have is this moment. Allow time to stand still and it really helps to encourage to love who you love and love hard. Don’t be afraid to do it because we never know what the next moment will bring. This was very awakening. It’s a very emotional record around everything that was going on and everything that is going on.

Do you have a favorite track on your EP?

That's very hard because I think it just depends on a lot of things — because I think when we chose the body of work it was like out of all the writing I’ve done over the last couple of years, I was trying to develop something to create this body and not really creating it until the lockdown. Ordering equipment and having it sit on the porch for a while and the patio and then come back and get it cause we weren’t sure if we were supposed to touch it or let it sit out there. So all those things but also, each represent me in so many different ways, and my thought process around the human experience. It’s a very hard question but if I absolutely had to I think it probably would be “Humanity”. I think because of where we are. Second to that would be “Falling For You”. I love love.

I can relate. I think with “Humanity”, obviously it is presently relevant but I feel like it’s timeless in the sense that we all need to have strength within us to then stand up and speak out for things that are important to us. What has been your most impactful moment in your music career thus far? Have you had any moments where you were starstruck of just surprised at everything going on?

I don’t think I’ve been starstruck but I have met some stars- cause we grew up in the industry around since we were younger so it became a part of our way of life, my brothers and I and sisters. However, I think certain opportunities are amazing, I’m so grateful. I’m always grateful but sometimes the gratitude is in a different category. When I think about that I came from a small town, I was born in a trailer that my dad bought when he first started teaching, and then he got married, and then that trailer burned, and we moved in with our great aunt for a short while until he was finally able to build a house. So just the struggles and challenges of the path that we’ve taken. And then to ride with our parents really promoting education and faith and music in our family. It led to all of us graduating from high school, all of us going to college, two or three times. I think among the family there are over 20 college degrees. I know that it is not the path for everyone. It doesn’t have to be but it is special to me because it’s a testament to my parents who were the first to be educated, to receive post-secondary education in my family. It really is important to me that I share that and I value that experience and it speaks to where I am today.

I can definitely relate to the idea of just getting an education. I’m in school at the moment and I’ve read recently that just for undergraduate degrees only about 30% of Americans even finish their bachelors, let alone going into higher education. I think that’s really amazing that so many people in your family have been able to get an education.

My family and I have been very blessed and with lots of gratitude and humility. We are a testament because I share often how my parents, my father and mother, were the first to go to college, receive a post-secondary education. For them, education, faith, and of course the arts (music), were the elements of our development. I know the impact of the arts and music first hand on not just my life but on my siblings. I’ve seen it also on my foundation which I think my background certainly is the foundation of my thought process, so I try to share that experience not just through my recordings but also with the foundation that I have in helping a lot of underprivileged, underserved young people and teenagers in our community.

How long has the foundation been around?

The foundation has been around for more than two years. I started that in the interim of the brothers to figure out my own rhythm and sound and the direction I felt very passionate about.

Do you have any final message to tell our audience regarding your work or a cause that you’re passionate about?

I thank you first, again. Let me just say thank you again in my last words to you for having me on. I want one of those who are listening to of course check out the record Frequency. It’s a 6 song EP and I’m really super excited about it. It’s got a vibe and the vibe has all to do with raising the vibrations and love, romantic life. Also a raise in vibrations around social justice, raising vibrations around just loving family, whoever and however you view family and close friends, biological connection. It comes from those three angles. The intention is that we all find another place or space to love ourselves and those around us. A space and place for healing and a space or place of hope. This kind of soul revival or renewal of the human spirit is what the Frequency EP is about. So far, it’s getting great reviews. I’m really super excited about it. We were just number 1 on one of the largest stations. Also we are doing well in Europe. We went number 2 last week on the largest soul/R&B station out of Italy. So we are super excited about the response we are getting and we just want to keep raising the frequencies and the vibrations through the music. Please follow me on social media. You can go to my website and find all my social media handles there at alexharrisofficial.com. I’d love to connect and be a part of a global community making things happen through positive work.

ABOUT ALEX HARRIS:

Alex Harris is a modern soul singer with Gospel roots and is revered as one of the leading creative architects and performers of ‘New Age Soul’ music. ‘New Age Soul’ music offers a spiritual revival to uplift humanity ensconced in healing, hope, renewal, freedom, and love. “I believe that music is one of the three most powerful elements of the universe because it has the power to raise the frequency of humans through rhythm, melody, and sound.”

Alex runs A.C.T. (Arts Conservatory for Teens) and lectures worldwide. He has shared the stage as a performer with Al Green, Aretha Franklin, John Legend, H.E.R., Brandy, and Lionel Richie. Label Cross The Line Music, Ltd is a joint venture between 2 producers -Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, The Go Go’s, Raveonettes) and GRAMMY Award winning producer and songwriter Swagg R’Celious (H.E.R.). His “Frequency” EP is available now on all streaming platforms, and is a unique sonic blend of southern soul, alternative grooves, and Gospel grit.

STAY CONNECTED WITH ALEX HARRIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram - Facebook - Twitter - SoundCloud- Spotify - YouTube - Amazon

STAY CONNECTED WITH HIP HOP SCRIPTURES ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

#alex harris #frequency #fresh artist fridays #georgia #new music

0 notes

silence-ion-om · 6 years

Text

Weight Just a Minute: Thoughts on Family, Food and Addiction

After a whirlwind weekend visiting with family, I send a quick email to my grandfather, thanking him for the visit & Christmas gift he sent. He responded today with a general statement to “keep my chin up as better days are coming,” followed by (yet another) comment about my aunt’s recent weight loss and how I need to start exercising more and lose weight.

I have no idea how to respond to his message. I have always been in awe and honestly, a little afraid of my grandfather. He is a learned man, an engineer who has traveled the world and experienced many losses. I do not think he knows quite what to do with his firstborn, right brain dominant, bleeding heart liberal, queer, therapist granddaughter, but I have no doubt that he loves me. And I am really proud of my aunt and I support the steps she is taking to better her health. But I wish my grandfather could understand that her journey is not mine.

My journey starts like this: Growing up, my father owned a vending machine business and I was named his “official product testor.” (I had an airbrushed uniform shirt with my name and incorrectly spelled title and everything). I had unfettered access to all the Twinkies, Snickers and Cheetos a kid could ask for. I was an academic, not an athletic kid, which meant a lot of indoor, sedentary activities. I fell easily into the habit of mindless eating when I was bored or tired or lonely or upset. To their credit, my parents did an excellent job of instilling body positivity and a strong sense of self-esteem. The world is harsh to a chunky nine year old girl with short butch hair, but I grew resilient-- in large part because of the efforts my beautiful, imperfect parents.

My father was an artist who romanticized the Rubenesque female form; full-figured naked ladies adorned almost every corner of our home in various mediums of oil pastel, charcoal, mosaic tile, wood, and clay. (This was only slightly embarrassing when friends were over, since I didn’t really know any better.) My mother was often the subjects of these works of art, much to her chagrin. I now realize she was constantly managing her own insecurities about her weight in order to avoid projecting them onto me. We had plenty of tense and tearful dressing room moments, but she did her best to model confidence. She also raised me to be a foodie and taught me love of good cooking, traits I continue to appreciate to this day.

Because weight is something my mother struggled with most of her life, I can’t help but see parallels in how my grandfather discussed both her weight and mine. The thing is, I know his comments are ultimately well-meaning. I also know that I could spend the rest of my life seeking his approval, just like my mother did. Yet this is the most elusive goal because it is ultimately unattainable. No amount of external validation can fill a void created from lack of self-acceptance.

This is not to say that I don’t want to improve or be healthier, because I do. But being an alcoholic, I have difficulty with doing anything in moderation, including healthy things. I was probably in the best shape of my life in 2013, which coincides with my last attempt at sobriety. I was finishing grad school and quit my job in order to complete the hours for my graduate internship from hell. I was either interning and at the gym as much as possible to avoid my mother’s erratic behaviors while drunk. I was drinking a lot of smoothies and not eating solid meals consistently. In between workouts, interning and studying, I started sleeping with my personal trainer--and the rest is blurry history.

Sure, I was skinnier but I also felt small and uncomfortable in my body and out of control. I was checking every other -ism off the list without even realizing it. And that, friends, was cross-addiction at its finest. I must remember that I have a strong propensity for this. A part of me avoids serious contemplation of an exercise routine because I worry it will snowball into another manic mess like last time. And I’ve worked too hard to get to where I am now mentally, emotionally and spiritually that I don’t want to mess with the physical and potentially fuck everything up again. Even writing that statement feels contradictory and yet still partially, distortedly true. But I am writing about this now precisely because I am tired of maintaining the shame spiral that has hijacked my life by remaining silent.

The past three years have probably been the most difficult I have ever experienced. They have also been tremendous catalysts for growth and change, twin aspects in the process of living. When my mom died, I was miserable and shell-shocked and I wanted to put as many layers between myself and my emotions as physically possible. My fat functioned as insulation and armour. Then my father’s slowly developing dementia worsened, and driven by the intense fear of losing my last remaining parent, I took over caring for him. I felt a new kind of vulnerability, a self-imposed isolation that grew in direct proportion to the weight I was gaining. I took care of myself half-heartedly, often relying on my then-fiance to take care of the rest of me that was left. I have learned that this, combined with other factors, puts irrevocable stress on a relationship. So naturally, the typical post breakup binge montage behavior ensued. And that brings us to today.

If there is anything I have learned from all of this, it is that true and lasting change comes from within. I am still recovering from so many things, being patient and compassionate with myself is a necessary part of the maintenance. Understanding and humor go a long way too. So with that, I will keep my (double) chin up, continue telling my stories and writing my way towards meaning.

#body positive #fat #family #addiction #foodies

1 note · View note

footballleague0 · 7 years

Text

Oklahoma State Cowboys, Mississippi State Bulldogs can make College Football Playoff statement Week 4

In November 2014, Mississippi State was undefeated at 9-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country by the College Football Playoff selection committee. It was quite the surprise, considering the Bulldogs had been picked by the media to finish fifth in the SEC West that season. Instead, they landed squarely in the playoff debate in the inaugural CFP after defeating three top-10 teams in succession: LSU, Texas A&M and Auburn.

Can they do it again?

The Bulldogs, who were picked by the media to finish sixth in the SEC West this season, upended No. 12 LSU last week and have another opportunity to knock off three straight ranked opponents, as they head to No. 11 Georgia this week and travel to No. 15 Auburn on Sept. 30.

“I don’t know if we’re quite at that point with this year’s team,” coach Dan Mullen said of 2014. “… We come away with a win this past week. We won the game, so we get a little bit of attention. If we win again this week, we get a little bit more attention.”

Nick Fitzgerald and Mississippi State face another ranked opponent on Saturday in No. 11 Georgia. Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Probably a lot more.

The Bulldogs aren’t alone. Week 4 is a chance to evaluate the state of the States. Among teams in the top 50, the 17th-ranked Bulldogs and No. 6 Oklahoma State have made the biggest leaps in ESPN’s Football Power Index since the preseason. On Saturday, they face ranked conference opponents in games that could help propel them further into consideration for a top-four spot. While Mississippi State visits SEC East favorite Georgia (ESPN & ESPN App, 7 p.m. ET), Oklahoma State hosts undefeated TCU (ESPN & ESPN App, 3:30 p.m. ET), a team playing the best defense the Cowboys will have seen yet.

FPI IncreaseRankMississippi St.+9.710thOklahoma St.+9.68thMaryland+8.736thDuke+6.730th

Coach Mike Gundy is well aware of his team’s potential. The Cowboys have scored more first-quarter points (59) than their opponents have scored in three games combined (52). But he knows there is still much to prove.

“They’ve been committed ever since the bowl game last year in January,” Gundy said. “They’ve been very committed to each other. We don’t have a lot of issues. They understand the importance of preparation and focus. There’s just not a lot that’s surprised me right now. I felt good about them coming into the year. It doesn’t mean it’s always going to work out that way, but at this point, they’ve done very well.”

For each AP top-10 team, potential pitfalls — on the schedule or within a team’s personnel — loom large.

The Cowboys are that perfect mixture of talent and experience, power and precision. It has taken Mike Gundy, Mason Rudolph & Co. several years to get the formula right.

1 Related

So have TCU and Georgia. They’re all undefeated. The perception of conference races in both the SEC and Big 12 could change quickly this weekend. Everyone wants to know which team could beat Alabama. If it’s not LSU, Auburn or Mississippi State, maybe it’s Georgia in the SEC title game.

There has also been so much talk about Bedlam on Nov. 4 and a potential rematch between No. 3 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the renewed Big 12 title game. But No. 16 TCU might have something to say about it.

“I’m excited about my team,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “We’ve got ourselves to 3-0. We’ve got ourselves in a position where we feel like we have a very mature football team, and so we’re excited for the challenge. You always want to play against really good people. You can find out what you’re like and what your level is and what you play at. Definitely Oklahoma State puts us in that category.”

We’ll find out more about what category they’re all in during Week 4.

Are we in store for a wacky Week 4?

This is the kind of September weekend that elicits either a shoulder shrug or a complete overhaul of your preseason perceptions. Maybe, just maybe, Kentucky (3-0) and Vanderbilt (3-0) are the teams to beat in the SEC East. Maybe Cal will be 4-0. Maybe TCU, not Oklahoma State, will be Oklahoma’s biggest challenger in the Big 12.

Hold your snickering.

While upsets are unlikely (that’s why they are called upsets), it takes only one weird weekend, and this one has that kind of potential from coast to coast:

ACC

What if: NC State beats No. 12 Florida State (ABC/ESPN2, noon ET)?

Nobody has seen Florida State play since its Sept. 2 loss to Alabama. The Noles were derailed by a season-ending injury to starting quarterback Deondre Francois, and then Hurricane Irma forced them to cancel one game and postpone another.

Now NC State, with its senior-laden defensive line, comes to Tallahassee to face the first true freshman starting quarterback at Florida State since 1985. How James Blackman fares will determine whether the Noles can rebound from their season-opening loss and play their way back into the CFP debate. FSU’s defense is national-championship caliber. The offense is a mystery.

“Nobody’s ever been through this,” coach Jimbo Fisher said. “They never went 21 days without playing before. In that regard, you worry about rust. Can it be like an opener? Yes. Could it not be? Yes. All you can control is how you practice and your mindset going into the game, looking forward to playing well and being able to execute what you do, and that’s what we’ve got to be able to do.”

FPI says: NC State has a 14.4 percent chance of winning.

Kentucky has a chance to improve to 4-0 and 2-0 in SEC play with a win over Florida on Saturday. Todd Bennett/GettyImages

SEC

What if: Kentucky beats No. 20 Florida (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m. ET)?

The Gators have done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt in this one. They are last in the SEC in scoring offense (21.5 PPG) and 12th in scoring defense (26.5). Only Missouri has allowed more yards per game in the SEC. The Gators haven’t been able to run the ball or stop the run. Kentucky’s biggest area of improvement, meanwhile, has been stopping the run. Yet history reminds us that the burden of proof is on Kentucky, which has lost 30 straight to Florida, dating back to 1987.

“It’s fair to say we’ve come a long way,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “… With every opportunity our players do become more confident, but it’s every seven days you have a new opportunity to prove yourself, and that’s how we look at it.”

FPI says: Kentucky has a 42.9 percent chance of winning.

Pac 12

What if: Cal beats USC (ABC & ESPN App, 3:30 p.m. ET)?

It’s not that Cal looks like a juggernaut (though wins over North Carolina and Ole Miss are better than what a lot of teams can claim right now); it’s more that No. 5 USC looks vulnerable. Cal has forced three or more turnovers in three straight games, while USC quarterback Sam Darnold has already thrown six interceptions this season. The Golden Bears’ defense has been one of the most glaring improvements, as they allowed 42.6 points per game last season compared to 22 through the first three games this season.

“Sam Darnold is as good as there is at playing his position,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “He’s arguably the best player in the country, so a ton of respect for him. It will be a great challenge for us.”

Cal hasn’t beaten USC since 2003, when Aaron Rodgers was the Bears’ starting QB. A win Saturday would be an upset of epic proportions.

FPI says: Cal has a 17.2 percent chance of winning.

Big Ten

What if: Purdue beats No. 8 Michigan (Fox, 4 p.m. ET)?

According to Purdue coach Jeff Brohm, “our guys are feeling it right now.” And they should be. Purdue has been one of the biggest surprises this month, pushing No. 19 Louisville to the brink before losing 35-28 and recovering for back-to-back wins against Ohio and at Missouri. Michigan’s offense has been underwhelming, particularly in the red zone. Still, Jim Harbaugh knows how to win with defense and special teams as the offense works to improve.

“We’ve got our hands full,” Brohm said. “In these type of games, you have to go in internally believing that you can get it done. You’ve got to be willing to fight the entire game. You have to be able to do the small things and not beat yourself so that you can get in the second half and be close. Then if you can do that, a few things go your way — you never know.”

FPI says: Purdue has a 22.1 percent chance of winning.

The post Oklahoma State Cowboys, Mississippi State Bulldogs can make College Football Playoff statement Week 4 appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from http://ift.tt/2jORd7n from http://ift.tt/2xl8Ezh

0 notes

giantsfootball0 · 7 years

Text

Oklahoma State Cowboys, Mississippi State Bulldogs can make College Football Playoff statement Week 4

Can they do it again?

Nick Fitzgerald and Mississippi State face another ranked opponent on Saturday in No. 11 Georgia. Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Probably a lot more.

FPI IncreaseRankMississippi St.+9.710thOklahoma St.+9.68thMaryland+8.736thDuke+6.730th

For each AP top-10 team, potential pitfalls — on the schedule or within a team’s personnel — loom large.

The Cowboys are that perfect mixture of talent and experience, power and precision. It has taken Mike Gundy, Mason Rudolph & Co. several years to get the formula right.

1 Related

We’ll find out more about what category they’re all in during Week 4.

Are we in store for a wacky Week 4?

Hold your snickering.

While upsets are unlikely (that’s why they are called upsets), it takes only one weird weekend, and this one has that kind of potential from coast to coast:

ACC

What if: NC State beats No. 12 Florida State (ABC/ESPN2, noon ET)?

FPI says: NC State has a 14.4 percent chance of winning.

Kentucky has a chance to improve to 4-0 and 2-0 in SEC play with a win over Florida on Saturday. Todd Bennett/GettyImages

SEC

What if: Kentucky beats No. 20 Florida (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m. ET)?

FPI says: Kentucky has a 42.9 percent chance of winning.

Pac 12

What if: Cal beats USC (ABC & ESPN App, 3:30 p.m. ET)?

Cal hasn’t beaten USC since 2003, when Aaron Rodgers was the Bears’ starting QB. A win Saturday would be an upset of epic proportions.

FPI says: Cal has a 17.2 percent chance of winning.

Big Ten

What if: Purdue beats No. 8 Michigan (Fox, 4 p.m. ET)?

FPI says: Purdue has a 22.1 percent chance of winning.

The post Oklahoma State Cowboys, Mississippi State Bulldogs can make College Football Playoff statement Week 4 appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from https://dailystarsports.com/2017/09/21/oklahoma-state-cowboys-mississippi-state-bulldogs-can-make-college-football-playoff-statement-week-4/ from https://dailystarsports.tumblr.com/post/165593810936

0 notes