Thoughts 11-29
The ACC needs to rethink having Jacksonville as its host city. The loser of the game is almost automatically out of Gator Bowl consideration. The host city does not think fans of the same team will go to the same city twice within the span of a month which may adversely affect ticket sales. Charlotte would be a great place for the ACC title game.
If Notre Dame goes to the Sugar Bowl against Florida they might actually stay in that game.
Florida does not have world-beaters on offense and ND might score enough to make it
competitive. LSU in the Rose Bowl. Nice matchup against Michigan but they are essentially the 3rd place team from their conference. But they will bring people.
Wisconsin is a one loss team that nobody talks about. How many people can even name their QB? RB? Any player? Preety amazing for a one loss Big 10 team.
Arkansas may have been my favorite team to watch all year. If they are playing with a lead the Wildcat offense is something else. McFadden is an absolute stud.
Michigan st. already raided the Big East by taking the head coach of Cincinnati. Will there be any more departures for coaches in this conference. Schiano may actually have a better gig at Rutgers than Miami right now.
UCLA - Florida St. - Down year for the Seminoles but the Emerald Bowl sure scored in name
recognition.
How many Miami football players are happy to have to practice to go to Boise? These warm
weather kids now have to practice for a couple of weeks to see snow for the first time in their lives. Wonder if they would have tanked the BC game in hindsight.
Wake Forest is fun to watch also. Who is going to be asking about Grobe?
Gotta Love Gene D's comments
http://sports.bostonherald.com/college/football/view.bg?articleid=169585&format=textCheck the bottom. All bowls are the same if you are not in the BCS.... He has no control over anything apparently. Funny thing is that the Music would be the best to get to play South Carolina.
Betting Winner
Oh yea, congrats to Moore on his title and congrats to Ferris for finishing in last with 7 losses. Let me know who wants in on the next round.
BC and Bowls
Sorry all, been away sulking and traveling. Can't believe that we lose a game when we have a pick 6 right before half. After seeing that I thought we were a shoo-in for a 10 win season but I forgot a few things again.
We can not run - thats the basis for all the other ills. Miami basically said our linebackers will beat your backs everytime in the hole. You will be having 3rd and longs all game so we will release our defensive ends to rush the ball instead of even thinking about the run. As good as some guys are on BC's line - when you do not have to worry about the run at all and just
have to worry about pressuring Ryan, do you think you will have some success?
One of the by-products of a loss like this is that I do not read any media for days. I have no idea why Brooks was in at the end of the game but he made a nice play on the ball. Of course, that made me hopeful that Ryan would have his signature game but he ended up throwing his worst pass of the year. I give him a bye for some of the in-pocket throws. They were hurried and
apparently no one was ever open so thats tougher to judge but outside the pocket with no pressure - just inexcusable.
Staying on Ryan for a second. It seems half his throws in 3rd down situations were to a receiver that had little chance of getting a first down. If that was the only possible read he had then fine but its probably not true. He also suffered from happy feet. He did not move around in the pocket well and maybe I was expecting too much but he has to learn how to make
plays out of nothing to take his game to the next level.
Now, on to coaching. God awful. Or maybe its just the offensive cooridinating. Why was there no attempt to do anything out of the ordinary? No end arounds? No Dan Henning wide receiver screens? No halfback options? Anything would be better than the garbage that was being run on the field. Try to find a way to win. If you lose, go down with some innovation. But the MO has
not changed. 3 years and we can not get the big win. Wake got theirs so the tired excuse of academic standards does not ring true. These losses are about football players making plays and poor coaching. Miami's offense was just as futile and we could not score 11 offensive points????Put the kids in a position to win.
Now, on to bowls. For BC to go to a really good bowl then Georgia Tech must win. If Wake wins, Georgia tech will take any Southern slot that BC still has designs for. Here is what I think is the most likely scenario. Georgia Tech wins and takes the Orange. The Peach (which I will always call it) and the Gator take VTech and Clemson. That leaves Maryland, BC and Wake for the last three bigger bowls. Champs is up first and the bet here is that Gene D does some magic and gets BC into that over Maryland's fan base. Since it is in Orlando even BC people not likely to make the trip will go to enjoy a family vacation. BC also has better marketing on their side for once and the domination over Maryland has to be worth something. Then the Music City Bowl will pass over Wake thus landing the Deacons back in North Carolina. A Maryland-Navy game does have some appeal also.
All this is for naught if wake wins which could see BC fall to the Music City. Additionally, do not count out Virginia Tech getting a BCS bid. There are 10 slots now and with the three slots going to Boise, Michigan and an undeserving Notre Dame team then that leaves one open slot. The Sugar gets the SEC winner and if they do not get ND then I doubt they match two SEC teams against each other which kicks LSU out of contention. Looking down the list of teams in the BCS standings VTech is right there. Virginia Tech is a natural for a SEC matchup.
Thoughts
--- I have a rooting interest in the Ohio St - Michigan game. As a few friends can confirm I picked Michigan to win it all back in September. Unlike some of my recent picks this prediction has a chance of coming true. Michigan has not been tested this season but has not been as impressive as a number 2 team should be in the final weeks of the season. A home scare to Ball St. was unexpected but may have refocused the team as they trounced Indiana the next week. Michigan's offense was hitting on all cylinders before the injury to Manningham and his ability to get open this week will be neccesary for Michigan to win.
On the other side it seems every time a team has a chance to hang in a game with Ohio St., Troy Smith does something that energizes his team and catapults them to victory. Whether it is with his arm or legs he seems to have a knack for making the right play at the right time. With Gonzalez and Ginn to throw to, he has two top targets at all times. If I could focus on one thing in this game, it would be Michigan's standout corner Leon Hall. How will he be used all game? Dedicated to Ginn or a little of both? If he truly is a lockdown corner than I expect more three wide sets from the Buckeyes and a third receiver to have to step up for the victory.
Staying true with my prediction. Wolverines 24-23.
--- North Carolina landed their big name coach in Butch Davis. A proven collegiate winner, Davis would have had his choice of schools over the next couple of years but decided on the fertile recruting grounds of North Carolina. Mack Brown made a name there before taking the Texas opportunity. Brown was on the verge of building a consistent winner at North Carolina with the likes of Dre Bly and Ronald Curry before he bolted. Now Davis gets to build on proven success a decade later. North Carolina is now in a prime position to become one of the elite teams in the ACC if Davis retains his magic. He should be able to capitilize on the coaching turbulences at Miami and Florida St to jumpstart his program. The Tar Heels have a young team and with a solid recruiting class headed by Mike Paulus at QB they appear to have the talent to compete almost immediately. Watch for Carolina to be competing for the ACC title sooner rather than later.
-- Central Michigan sits atop the MAC with 5 wins in a row with the smallest margin of victory being 11 points. It would be nice to see the MAC winner take on a BCS school in a bowl game. BC's narrow escape also does not appear to be too bad. John Beck anyone?
-- How is Hawaii not in the Top 25? They have scored 60 points in 4 of their last 5 games. Their 2 losses occurred early in the season at Boise and at Alabama by a combined 15 points. Good thing they are not on Bama's schedule now. Hawaii appears to have only gotton better.
-- West Virginia may just be peeking. Not this year but the next couple. The entire offense runs through White and Slaton and those guys will be around for another year minimum. The rest of the offensive cast is replaceable on the skill positions and the Mounties are always physical upfront. If their defense improves and matures, next year could be the year in Morgantown.
-- Tim Tebow can do no wrong. He comes in the game and he runs for a first down. He gets up and leads the cheers and the crowd adores him. I assume he can throw too so the job is all his once Chris Leak leaves town. Leak and Tebow in a room together by themselves has to be pure comedy.
This week against the line.
Well, a pretty poor outing to say the least but Moore managed to maintain his lead. Here are the standings through two weeks. The contest concludes before any postseason action. It is also obvious that Ferris needs something to do on Wednesday nights.
Moore: 5
Ferris: 4
Myself: 3
Here are this week's picks:
Moore:
Auburn -3
Arkansas -14.5
Tenn -8
Penn St -17.5
Ferris:
Bowling Green -3.5
Kansas State -2
Michigan +7
Kentucky -19
Myself:
Iowa +3
USC -5.5
Va tech -1.5
Oklahoma St. +6
Ouch
Thats all you can say. I checked in on the BC score with about 3 minutes to go in the half and knew the game was over. The game was not on so I have little analysis to offer. What we do know is that we are lacking in the backcourt. Rice and Haynes are the only guards we have and neither is a pure point. They will have to learn by being thrown into the fire. The fire however should not be Vermont. Vermont has proven they are more than a capable mid-major but losing and getting blown out are not the same thing.
One thing about quality mid-majors is they generally have solid guard play. There is a bigger reservoir of six footers than six eight guys and all those kids are not going to get high Division 1 offers. I bet Vermont controlled the tempo and set up good half court sets that lead to open looks. With BC losing two front court starters to suspension, any advantage was negated thus placing more pressure on the backcourt to get the team in the correct sets. Thats my best guess as to what may have happened.
Hinnant may not have been flashy but he always got us into our flex offense and was a leader on the floor. Too bad there is not a stat for productive half court sets.
Has anyone heard some of the specifics regarding Kelvin Sampson's punishment for recruiting
violations? Sampson, the former Oklahoma coach, has taken over for the Hoosiers of Indiana.
For one year, he is not allowed to call recruits or leave campus to contact them. OK, I get that. What I do not understand is that he is still allowed to text them. Recruits are also allowed to call him. So, he can text a recruit to get a return phone call. I bet the decision makers at the NCAA do not even know what a text message is. I doubt Myles Brand is texting his boys while watching games at home.
BC basketball
Basketball opens tonight against New Hampshire without the services of Akida Mclain and Sean Williams. That leaves a lot of opportunity for Shamari Spears to show his stuff with the depletion of the frontcourt. Rumors are he is a smaller Craig Smith.
Its also the beginning of the Tyrese Rice era at the heights. He does not have Louis Hinnant to fall back upon for ball control and floor leadership. If he gets rattled or is in foul trouble then establishing a half court set becomes significantly tougher.
If you are an AD
If you are hiring for a head coach position right now, where would you turn? Would you turn to O'Brien? If he ran his program with a few better athletes would he be considered a great coach? I guess thats the question.
You know he can not win the big game with the talent he recruits to BC. But his teams are right there in position to win. Do players make plays or do the coaches just need to put the personnel in the position to succeed?
How much more is New Jersey willing to pay Schiano. Even if Rutgers stumbles down the stretch last nights win earned Rutgers credibility. If he has brought Rutgers this far with no history, how many 4 and 5 stars can he get from Jersey alone. William Green, Brian Toal and Glenn Foley all came from there. Maybe Callendar can go back.
First Thought Rutgers
Well, what can you say. Rutgers did what BC could not. They won with the spotlight on. Something that BC has yet to do. Schiano outcoached Petrino and Rutgers showed great heart by refusing to go away after the shots to the gut. The most important game in Rutgers history is complete. They are now 9-0. They move on.
The last time they had a program win could have been when they beat Michigan St. about five years ago which they promptly relinquished with a loss to New Hampshire.
Tennessee had the Clint Stoerner fumble, Rutgers got a field goal reprieve. Cincinnati, Syracuse and West Virginia remain. Rutgers has their fate in their hands. Can they follow up on the emotion that was reverberating in the stadium all night?
I'll eat crow. I am shocked. Congrats Rutgers.
Betting Lines 11-11
Last Week's results.
Ok, so I went 5-4 in the 9 games for a 55% average. Just need to stay above the better's mark of 53% to make money in this game.
However, Week 1 goes to Moore in the 3 person runoff. Moore won all 4 of his picks compared with 2 for Ferris and myself.
Here are the picks of the three contestants this week.
Moore
Wake Forest +7
Boise St. -13
Pitt -8
Texas -17
Ferris
Florida St. -7
Navy -12
Kentucky -2
Georgia Tech -13
Brendon
Louisville -6
Air Force +12.5
Tennessee +5.5
Alabama +17.5
Analysis of some games
Louisville and Rutgers - You know my thoughts. If Louisville brings any sort of game then this is not close. Fowler and Herbstreit will say 'Rutgers will use this as a builiding block for the rest of this year and for years to come.' I want this game to be a rout in no uncertain terms. Take care of the ball Louisville. Throw interceptions Teel. 35-14 Cards.
Air Force - ND - I think Air Force will be able to move the ball. I think ND will be able to move the ball. This game could be the BCS for Notre Dame. Win this and a loss to USC may not matter. Air Force puts a scare into the Irish.
Wisconsin at Iowa Pick Em - The Badgers continue their roll to a one loss season. Iowa is playing for its season so its critical the Badgers come out strong in the early going.
Navy at E. Michigan - Looks like Navy is regaining their ground game after the QB injury. Navy covers
Nebraska at Texas A&M Pick Em - Huskers are a completely different team on the road. Aggies win and bounce back from the Oklahoma loss.
Tennessee at Arkansas - Mitch Mustain shows why he is a freshman. Vols ride defense to victory.
Georgia a 13 point dog at Auburn - Georgia is only Georgia in name. Auburn has to turn it over multiple times to not cover 13 to a team that has lost to Vandy and Kentucky.
Alabama a 17 point dog to LSU. - Alabama is always good to play tough D but lose anyways. I would really like to see Alabama rejoin the football elite. Something about that crimson.
Cal and Arizona - Arizona covers the 13 in the desert. California needs a dominating outing to put its name at the top of the one loss teams but they have been slow in doing it the past couple of weeks.
Iowa St and Colorado - find someone who cares
Oregon at USC - The Ducks are a 7 point dog. USC is back at home after a road loss a couple of weeks ago and Stanford. Not a good time to be a Duck. Trojans reassert their claim to the Pac 10 title. A Ducks win would be huge for that program but USC covers.
The pain of being a fan
Losses hurt. Some more than others. After the BC loss Saturday night, I have gone on hiatus from all things college football. Usually Monday and Tuesday are reserved for reading through tons of college football articles and analysis from all over the country. But this past BC loss was worse than previous ones. A lot was at stake and with an ESPN2 production in the house, the entire country beared witness to yet another collpase by the BC football program. For the 3rd time in 3 years, BC had a manageable road to the BCS or to the ACC title game.
In 2004, they got blitzed by Syracuse who ended up losing by 50 in their next game, a bowl game against Georgia Tech. That was a Syracuse team that was starting a safety at tailback and ended up destroying BC. That was a Syracuse team that went on to a one win season the following year with the lone victory being over a hapless Buffalo.
In 2005, BC lost to North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In this era of bowl expansion, North Carolina was not even good enough to go to a bowl that year. The fate of this game held in the suspect QB play of Quinton Porter. It would be easy to blame Porter but its not his fault. Everyone knew his confidence was gone and that his favorite pass was the 5 yard out. He had started to play in a 'not to turn it over' mode instead of coming out and playing like a 5th year senior should. He should have never seen the field that day.
And then there is the debacle of this past Saturday night. Now, Wake is a solid team but injuries have continued to haunt them and in this game they were down to their third string tailback. Their offensive output was limited to say the least. Yet, they still managed to use enough misdirection to put up 21 points on BC. The only way Wake scores at all in this game is through keeping the defense off-balance and taking advantage of BC miscues. They succeeded on both accounts.
Three games against three inferior opponents with a lot at stake and the end result of each is a BC loss. The constant variable in this equation is coaching. The players have changed but Tom O'Brien and company have stayed. Is it enough to agree with the plethora of columnists that say O'Brien has done a great job? Every other week, the talking heads at ESPN agree to this assertion. But what has been accomplished?
BC has put the gambling scandal behind. They have won more games than they lost. They have won 6 consecutive bowl games including over such powers as Toledo, Colorado St and Arizona St. All to be applauded but is this the pinnacle of what BC football can achieve?
The road to a BCS bowl has never been more open to BC than in the past few years. This is the time when a program capitilizes on the off years of the Miami's and Florida St's. This is when special coaches figure out ways to win games when there is a talent disparity. Too bad those coaches are the jobless Paul Pasqualoni, the soon to be jobless John Bunting and the soon to be 'hot commodity' - Jim Grobe.
BC football has come a long way. BC football competes and puts a good product on the field. But BC football does not appear to be able to take the next step up the ladder of college football programs. Of course, as one friend said to me, "BC will find a way to back into Jacksonville." Maybe, but this season should have been so much more. This season should still be brimming with anticipation for the Maryland game. This season should have been looking into flight tickets to Miami for New Year's. This season should not be how in the name of recruiting could I long for the days of Cedric Washington.
Still recovering
Many things to write but still not in the right frame of mind. Can Derrick Knight return already? LV and Andre need to go. A pathetic show of running that really leaves me at a loss for words.
Air Force
Its just Army but its 30-0 nothing for Air Force in the second quarter. Notre Dame's trip out there will not be easy.
Why is Gameday at Oklahoma and A&M? Its a second place battle right? A trip to Wake Forest would have been great because how many other times can you list Winston-Salem as a destination?
What we learned last night.
That I am getting it handed to me in betting and that West Virginia can't defend anything. We knew that West Virginia's defense was untested and susceptible but not downright awful. Louisville receivers were running wide open on crosses 20 yards down the field all night. Louisville now just has to win out and hope that a one loss team does not end the season with a higher BCS ranking.
The Remote
One of this site's comments produced the following link -
http://www.smarthome.com/8167.html.
This my friends is the answer to keeping hot sauce off of the remote control. Anyone with an LCD TV want to try this out and let us know how it goes? (It was also brought to my attention that I did not care about hot sauce and remote controls at one time.) Point taken, some maturity has set in.
Alas though, the world gained and lost a lot with digital cable. Sure, we have more channels and better resolution but let’s not forget what we gave up, the analog remote control changer. Remember the days when you could flip back and forth between two channels without waiting for the digital feed to load? The channel change was instantaneous. Now, it can take a few seconds to load and worst case has actually rebooted my box on me during the culmination of a few games.
Not only could you flip back and forth quickly but you could go up and down. For example, I could be watching three games, one on CBS (channel 4), one on ABC (channel 5) and one on ESPN (channel 25). I could go back and forth between either 4 or 5 and 25. When you did not use the last channel button (just using up and down) it would return to channel 25 regardless if you switched there from channel 4 or 5. The remote did not regard changing between channels 4 and 5 as a 'Last Channel' operation. The last channel operation remained in memory and you could flip to channel 25 at any moment. Nowadays though, when you change from 4 to 5, it sees that as a last channel operation. The 3 games that you want to be watching are now subject to constantly being entered manually.
Where the speed of loading a channel really comes into play is if you misfire. If I hit 28 instead of 25, now you have to wait for that channel to load and come up before you can quickly right the ship and return it to 25. This is all very critical when you are watching multiple games concurrently. One false move can cost you precious game time and big game changing plays. This matters. Last year, after what should have coroneted Matt Ryan as BC's starter with his comeback against Wake Forest, I returned home with my buddy Simons to catch the Penn St-Michigan and USC-Notre Dame games. Those games literally needed to be watched play by play and were within seconds of each other. Complete and utter attention to the remote control needed to be heeded. One false move and the Bush push might have been seen as just a replay.
The Betters - Round 1
Because Congress has clamped down on online betting my fellow morally challenged friends have sought out new forms of entertainment, betting against each other on the Las Vegas spreads. The prize? Drinks and Golden Tee to the winner and shame to the loser. The contestants; Moore, Ferris and myself. Each week we each select four games we like that will help us top the final tally. This week's picks.
Brendon team points
West Virginia +1.5
Maryland +16
LSU -3
Fresno +23
Moore team points
Virginia Tech -2
Arkansas -2
Georgia Tech -6
Boise St -23
Ferris team points
Boston College -4
Indiana +5.5
Navy -11
Southern Miss -7
Random Thoughts
My Dad's favorite pet peeve is the announcers talking about how the kicker was hitting 50 yard field goals in warmups. Seems every kicker in the country can do it but how often does this translate into game success? Maybe they should have a pregame kicking stat like he went 5-7 from over 50 yards and 1-2 over 55 then compare that with that game's production.
When will announcers use another adjective to describe a tight end? Think to yourself for a moment...... What word do they always use?..... Big. If every tight end is big then you are not adding something that helps describe him to me. My buddy Ferris and I have been talking about this for 10 years. What about the 'severely underutilized' tight end? Or the 'svelte, graceful' tight end. Heck they are college kids. The 'Shakespearean scholar' tight end. Anything.
Love the stats where a program has not gone to a bowl or something in like 20 years. Inevitably, the insightful sideline reporter says, "These kids were not even born at that time." Indicating the kids age apparently helps provide us with a frame of reference of just how long its been. Reagan was president, the Who were big. I get it.
Herbstreit and Fowler are so well prepared and knowledgeable. They bring a lot to the table and are critical when they have to be. The Thursday night telecast is worth watching just to listen to them. Herbstreit was right to call out Virginia Tech's sideline display at BC. A few days later, I saw that he somewhat defended his comments by explaining why he made them. Did not see the context of the comments but sad to see he had to offer anything more than a one sentence answer to an accurate, knowledgable and interesting take on the game.
What has Texas done wrong? Check out the latest computer rankings in the BCS standings. Texas has a .560 and Rutgers has .690. How does this work when a schedule with Ohio St, Nebraska (who is overrated) and Oklahoma is judged to be better than a schedule with Pittsburgh, Navy and Illinois as the best opponents?
Maybe there is an East Coast bias. A one loss team like California that has been killing people would usually move up the polls quicker. It also could be that the Pac 10 does not know how to market itself. No games on ESPN means no one is talking about you and your conference.
A Georgia Tech vs Clemson matchup is what Jacksonville wants right now. Can't imagine BC or Wake Forest having a bigger economic impact than Clemson.
This week against the lines - 11/04
Every week, I will pick out some games and bet against the line. Here are this week's picks taken from LasVegas.com
Louisville vs West Virginia (Louisville favored by 1) - The week's premier game and a huge one for national title implications. The winner is BCS points away from the national title. I happen to think too many people have jumped on the Big East bandwagon but there is little doubt that both these teams are good ballclubs. An impressive win by either team earns them the legitimate right to play for the national title. Louisville has looked vulnerable lately and Brian Brohm is still trying to get back to form which means they may not be able to score at the rate they need to. And they need to score. West Virginia is good for at least 30 in this game and Pat White has looked comfortable throwing when he has had to. West Virginia's defense is nothing to write home about but against an injured Louisville team, it may be good enough.
West Virginia 34-27
Northwestern at Iowa (Iowa favored by 20) - Have a weird feeling about this one. Just do not see Iowa winning by that much.
Purdue at michigan St. (Michigan St. by 2) - Really. Who wants anything to do with a Michigan St game?
Indiana at Minnesota (Minnesota by 5) Indiana is underdog to a team that was destroyed last week by ohio St. and almost lost to North Dakota St. The betters must know something I do not. Indiana covers.
Georgia Tech at NC St - (Georgia Tech by 6) NC State is a much better team at home. Georgia Tech has all but locked up its division and may not show up 100%. NC State.
Maryland at Clemson - (Clemson by 16) Maryland is the most rapidly improving team in the conference and Clemson is playing for its life. Clemson has destroyed bad teams but the Terps are not Temple. Terps cover.
North Carolina at Notre Dame (Notre Dame by 28) - Brady Quinn and boys looked good against Navy last week but they seem to allow big dogs to hang around at home. North Carolina plays inspired and keeps it from being a rout.
LSU at Tennessee - Volunteers favored by 3. LSU does not shoot itself in the foot and wins the game outright.
UCLA at California - California by 17. Longshore and company make a big BCS statement and jump back into the national spotlight.
Ohio St at Illinios - Ohio st. favored by 27. Illinois may not win a lot but they have not been getting blown out. Illinois just needs to avoid early mistakes to cover the line.
