Big Stan Names a Sandwich After a Freshman, and Middle Tennessee Gets the Leftovers
Cleveland State38
Middle Tennessee15
- Game
- 2026 Week 5
- Date
- 2026-10-03
- Site
- Home
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 4-1
Vikings 38, Middle Tennessee 15, at home, four and one, and I’d like to talk about the sandwich.
Big Stan has added a second sandwich to the board at Wojcik’s. It’s called The Jamie Cleveland, after our five-star freshman lineman with the city’s name, and it’s so big it comes with a second plate “for blocking.” Corned beef, pastrami, a potato pancake, Swiss, coleslaw and two slices of rye that are holding on for dear life. You need two hands and a plan. Chester tried to eat one Tuesday and had to take the second half home in a box, which he carried out like a casket.
Stan says a sandwich board is a hall of fame you can eat. I’ve never heard anything truer from a man holding a salami.
As for the game, our guys took care of business against a Middle Tennessee team that came to play, and won by twenty-three without much drama. That’s the kind of week you want before a run of road games. And friends, we’ve got a run of road games coming.
Three pierogi, and half a Jamie Cleveland in my fridge for Sunday.
A twenty-three-point home win over Middle Tennessee. Efficient. The defense allowed its fewest points of the season, which I note mostly because it’s been an anxious September for anyone who watches defense.
I tried The Jamie Cleveland. I’d like to report that it’s structurally unsound and delicious, which is also my scouting report on the Vikings so far.
Here’s the schedule note nobody’s talking about: after the bye, the Vikings play five straight games on the road. Texas Tech, Miami (OH), UCF, Utah and Arizona. Five road games in a row is a test of a program’s whole personality: the travel, the hotel food, the hostile crowds, the 6 a.m. flights out of Hopkins. Good teams survive it. Great teams come home better.
At trivia, Nadia asked if I was “ready for Oxford.” I said I’d been ready since last November. She said the bobblehead “remembers.” I’m choosing not to think about what that means.
Back and forth
A sandwich named after a freshman, Kenny!
It’s the best thing on the menu. That’s not a compliment to the freshman.
Four and one!
And five straight road games coming. Pack a lunch. Maybe a Jamie Cleveland.
Four and one, a two-plate sandwich, a box carried out like a casket, and a five-game road trip looming like November weather.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.