The Dawgs Ramblings

9-15 Preview

There are so many interesting stories this weekend but the one that really piques my interest is Washington and Ohio St. The Huskies can signal to the nation that the program has returned to national prominence with a win on Saturday. Even if they do not win, a competitive loss will demonstrate that the program is going in the right direction under the leadership of Tyrone Willingham. Willingham is a guy I can not help but root for. The Notre Dame debacle has been discussed to death with most people believing that he received unfair treatment and now he is in the position of definitively restoring his credibility and embarrassing Notre Dame, not that Notre Dame needs assistance in that department though.

When I was growing up, I always pretended that I was a D1 prospect thus allowing me to have five official visits to the schools of my interest. The selected schools rotated but Washington always made the cut. I think most of it had to do with Puget Sound which just looked so appealing for a college football setting. Thus, Washington has always been a team that I feel partial for. I suspect that if I were to move to Seattle I would become a big fan.

Now, if I were a prospect today, here are the five schools I would have on my short list, excluding BC.

a)Washington
b)Vanderbilt
c)California (I hear the bus ride out to the zoo is memorable)
d)UCLA
e)Navy

When did I become a West Coast kid?

Everyone is talking about Notre Dame and Michigan being a must win for both teams but in actuality it is not. If Michigan loses they can still win the Big 10 and that Big 10 schedule starts the following week against Penn St. Penn St. appears like the class of the league thus far but a loss at Michigan next week could be devastating to the Big 10 and remove any team from top tier consideration. Ohio St. and Wisconsin have a lot to prove to me especially on the road. Even if they are quality teams, does either scare you?

The Big East continues to win the games they are supposed to win leading into this weekend’s action. South Florida and West Virginia both did the league proud in out of conference play. The Big East may be its own worst enemy for this year however. The teams at the top could all knock each other off once thus negating the chance of a Big East team playing for a national title. However, the status of the conference has definitely been elevated and is not a national laughingstock anymore. That’s good for the short term and perhaps long term for the conference. Long term may be in jeopardy though. Once the Big 10 gets its 12th member, how stable will this conference be? Two of the league’s doormats Pittsburgh and Syracuse both have proud traditions and if they could ever be recovered then Eastern football is back.

Have you seen the GameDay commercial with the team working out? Fowler is pretty jacked. It’s also pretty funny how they now work with Corso’s advent into maturity.

As I said last week, Doug Flutie is much improved in the booth this year. On Thursday night football, Craig James and him display banter and have a good connection. Have you noticed each week that Flutie has slipped in a line from a movie to capture a situation? Last night, he made a reference to Wedding Crashers with his ‘we do football and crabcakes in Maryland.” I caught it immediately and thought it was great. I wonder how many other people were amused by that. Fowler also demonstrated his beyond sports presence by reengaging the viewer to capture the context of Flutie’s comment. As Simons and I were discussing, Fowler could easily make the transition to the network news booth with his talent.

One last thing about Flutie is that I am enjoying his commentary from the perspective of a former quarterback. For some reason the comments he has recently made have increased my knowledge of the quarterback position. When Pat White dropped a snap, he said it was probably due to White still thinking about his pre-snap reads to get rid of the ball quickly in a 3rd and 8 situation. I thought it was plausible and demonstrated that Flutie had been in that position many times before.

One other thing about last night’s game. The telecast went down to the field to interview Ray Lewis whose brother plays for Maryland. Usually these sideline interviews are pointless and boring (unless Joe Namath is involved) but Lewis was quite a character. He was really into the game and yelled at the quarterback for not making the correct read. Flutie ageeed with him and both were delighted that the other caught what was apparently a big oversight. Anyways, Ray Lewis may have a career in broadcasting football as his defensive knowledge shown through in just a couple of minutes.

The battle of Kentucky happens this weekend with the Cats and Louisville doing battle. Everyone knows about Brian Brohm but very few know about Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson. This could be his national coming out party and entrench him as a top tier quarterback. I wonder what his other collegiate choices were and why he decided on Kentucky. I would be hard pressed to name more than two players in the history of Kentucky football.

Does everyone know the Steve Slaton and Ralph Friedgen story? Slaton wanted to go to Maryland but Maryland already had enough running backs committed so they took away his scholarship offer. Friedgen now has a ‘Slaton rule’ that if someone has the grades and speed he will have an offer waiting.

Why all the love for USC as a number one team? Many people switched their votes to LSU following the V Tech debacle and I am right on board with them. USC has not done anything yet. Last I saw of them they were struggling against Idaho. And before that they pounded Michigan (ha, ha) in the Rose Bowl and were coming off a loss to UCLA. That does not allow you to lay claim to number one in my book. Now, USC may grow into that team but LSU can only get better on offense and the fact they are so good right now with their depletions to the NFL is unbelievable.

ESPN now includes an ‘XM Radio’ column in its schedule for upcoming games.

I don’t think Cincinnati is as good or Oregon St. as bad as the score of their game indicated. I expect Corvalis to come up with a big win this year.

Ohio and Virginia Tech. Why do I think this will be close? V Tech’s offense?

If Rutgers wants to schedule an easy game they can’t find much easier than Norfolk St.

You have to hand it to Oregon. Their out of conference scheduling was Houston, Michigan and now Fresno. No pushovers there. I have respect for all west coast teams that schedule Fresno who will always play with the “I was passed over by the Pac 10’ chip on their shoulder.

Why in the world would Minnesota incur the expense of traveling to Florida to play Florida Atlantic? Shouldn’t you at least play a team whose mascot you know?

Where is Lamar Thomas going to be for the Miami-Florida International rematch? Thomas was broadcasting during last year’s brawl and remarked how he wanted to get down there and join the fray.

BC Preview

Well, the loss of Raji will hurt this week against Tashard Choice and a Georgia Tech offense that has been overpowering on the ground. Playing Notre Dame and Samford is not exactly difficult but they have dominated both games and I don’t care who you are playing, 69 points with starters on the bench against Samford is impressive.

What scares me about this game is Georgia Tech’s defensive line pressure. Chan Gailey has already said they will be blitzing so 5th year senior Matt Ryan and his receiving corps must make the correct pre snap reads. On top of that, they must catch the ball. 6 drops will not cut it on the road against a good team. What also concerns me is the alligator arms that our small receivers demonstrated last week. NC St. hit those guys hard a few times and you have to think Georgia Tech will do the same. If those hits prevent us from going over the middle then it could be a long game.

I do not think it will however. Our defense has been opportunistic with turnovers for over a year now so I think we can chalk that up to a good defense. If we can stop Choice early in the game and make Georgia tech throw some I think we will be fine but if Choice is rumbling for 5 yards a pop from the start of the game then Tech will win.

We will defend the run and Tribble will pick six one. BC 20-17.

posted by oceanjay @ 1:13 PM