The Dawgs Ramblings

Week 1 Picks

2009-09-04T12:52:00.001-05:00

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aq0Q9_7mQuiRdDNETlUyblJoSGR0dkV0c3FydEZ3cmc&hl=en

2009-01-29T19:00:00.000-06:00

Week 9

2008-10-24T18:24:00.002-05:00

Ferris:

Boise State -7.5 at San jose state
Bc +3 at unc
Alabama -7 at Tennessee
Florida Atlantic -2 at Louisiana monroe

POTW (Won)

Temple -3.5 v. Ohio

Moore:

Georgia +2.5 @ LSU
FSU -4.5 vs. VT
Penn St -2 @ OSU
Tulsa -22.5 vs. Central Florida

POTW: Texas Tech +2 @ Kansas

Schwartz:

Boston College +3 at North Carolina
Penn State -2 at Ohio State
Maryland -10.5 at NC State
Vanderbilt -9.5 at Duke

POTW: Boise State -7.5 at San Jose State

Dawg:

Bama -7 vs Tennessee
C. michigan -3.5 vs Toledo
Wake +3 vs Miami
BC +3 vs NC

POTW:

Flor St. -4.5 vs V Tech

Its a Sad Sad Day

2008-10-15T17:25:00.001-05:00

when I know more about women than college football. Coming off an 0-5 week, here are the standings. Picks will be out later this week.

Ferris:20.5
Jon:18
Dawg:15
Moore:14.5

Rules and More

2008-09-09T19:46:00.003-05:00

Make sure to check out the bet this year. Click on the 'Steak Dinner' link on the right for the contest between myself, Moore, Jon and Ferris.

It was not until 2:30 on Sunday that Simons asked me if I had seen the California score. So, when he told me that they won 66-3 I was a little shocked. California was not on anyone’s chart coming into the season but with Saturday's rout of Pac 10 foe Washington St. on the heels of an impressive victory against Michigan St. they have jumped onto the national radar. Next week they travel to Maryland, then are at home to Colorado St. and should be 4-0 before Arizona St. comes to town. The amazing stat about the game is that they only passed for 114 yards. I wonder if they even passed in the second half. The other impressive thing is that California’s out of conference schedule with the aforementioned teams deserves recognition. Two BCS schools and a solid non-BCS program. Apparently California does not believe that the rigors of the Pac 10 requires them to waterdown their schedule.

Larry Farina. That’s the crew I will be following this year. Larry Farina is the head of the crew that enforced ‘Rule 9, Section 2, Article 1’ of the rule book: A player commits unsportsmanlike conduct if, “after a score or another play, the player in possession” doesn’t “return the ball to an official or leave it near the dead-ball spot. Unfortunately for Washington Husky quarterback, Jake Locker, he committed the cardinal sin of throwing the ball into the air after diving into the end zone capping a late 4^th quarter drive that pulled them to within 28-27 to the BYU Cougars. For years, I have lamented the aggressive interpretation of unsportsmanlike calls as giving too much power and influence to referees in the outcome of the game. To some degree, unsportsmanlike calls need to be made but they should be called within the sphere of common sense. Most officials and people know when someone is hot-dogging after a play or disrespecting an opponent. That was not the case Saturday and Locker’s tremendous playing on that drive was negated by a call that did not need to be made. It simply inserted a rule into an athletic event when the game was being decided in spectacular fashion by the participants. It defied the spirit of the contest and demonstrated how games can be ruined by officials. The real sad part is that the crew and referees can hide behind the letter of the law. There is no disputing that the rule was broken. If it were any other institution than the NCAA then I would say that the drafter of the rule did not intend for its implementation to be the defining and most memorable moment of a football game. But, 10 years from now, this call will persevere

Oregon has officially reached national program status. I think if people see Oregon on the TV schedule their passing thought is decent football program and maybe I’ll check it out. They have moved beyond just a program that has a great year and absconds. (See Washington St.)

Was watchin the Godfather 2 and I was curious whatever happened to the child actor that played the young Vito Corleone. From the IMDB. He did some spot acting in Italy..

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0049764/

Remember that Shawn Halloran, BC’s starting quarterback post Flutie, was 1-3 to begin his college career. BC than rattled off 8 straight wins and ended the season by beating Georgia in a bowl game. I say this to at least encourage a little hope before we write off Chris Crane completely. He needs time to develop. Unfortunately, BC does not have the time for a 5^th year starter player making his first starts.

Florida St. scheduled the correct directional Carolina, Western not East. They hammered them 69-0 with Ponder getting the start at QB. They now play Tenn-Chattanooga before hosting Wake Forest. Are 2 games against awful teams going to prepare Florida St. for the well-coached Fightin Grobes? Doubtful. Mississippi gave Wake a great test and the Deacons will learn a lot from that game and be well prepared to handle a Florida St. team that will put up a fight but will not be able to execute.

2008 - The Birdseye Approach

2008-08-23T15:50:00.005-05:00

OK, it has been a long time since I have had something to say but I am finally getting around to my thoughts, which is annually prompted by the advent of yet another new year. Actually, I always have a lot to say but the gift of putting pen to paper inspires habitual laziness in me. Sometimes I wonder how I ever obtained a four year degree with my 20 word a minute typing ability but I persevered much like DiceK does after walking the based loaded but yielding limited damage.

But on to the season and the predictions. I have to state that I am no longer an expert. I feel like I have a limited grasp of the intricacies of all the teams this year. Then why read on you say? Because I still am in the upper echelon of pundits above the Mason-Dixon line and I will probably provide my audience with plenty of fodder for jests and barbs throughout the fall.

My initial approach this year is an examination of the AP Top 25. I will review each team and then add my surprise teams for this year that have not been included in the preliminary AP poll. My premise is what do I think of each team without incessant studying of college football magazines? What is my impression of each team that is leftover from the prior year? That is how I am going to determine my initial national champion and subsequent rankings.

1. Georgia (22) 0-0 1,528

Moreno, Stafford and a bunch of Dawgs jumping on the field after scoring a touchdown against Florida which fueled a Sugar Bowl win against overmatched Hawaii. Lost in the shuffle was that they did not win the SEC or the SEC East for that matter. They survived a couple of early season losses to roll down the stretch and with well known skill position players returning from a successful squad they were an easy choice for a top ranking.

I just don’t see it however. For starters, they have to go to LSU before they play the Gators. I see a loss in one of those two games. With Auburn, Tennessee and a trip to Arizona St. also on the schedule that is quite a bit to come though unscathed and unblemished.

Now, of course, multiple loss SEC teams are starting to make a habit of winning national titles but it will not be this squad and it will not be this year. I predict at least two losses for this squad but I do foresee a New Year’s deal bowl against the Big 10

2. Ohio State (21) 0-0 1,506

If there is one team NO ONE outside of Ohio wants to see in the title game it is the Buckeyes. Unfortunately, there is little to get in their way in the Big 10. The whole season boils down to USC. I say they take it. Their defense is stacked, Wells is a stud and they have to win a big game at some point don’t they? I actually can’t think of any receivers on their squad, but I will overlook that for the moment. Ohio St. beats USC and is my choice to lose in the BCS title game once again.

3. USC (12) 0-0 1,490

The problem with USC is that I just don’t think they have enough experience. They are reliant on Mark Sanchez who is just starting to figure out his game. I know Joe McKnight is a stud and Vidal Hazelton is back but I frankly just do not feel it with this team, at least right out of the gate. I think they will run into issues early while they forge an identity, at least on offense. The defense will be strong but I think a key Ohio St. defensive play catapults the Buckeyes to the early victory in this highly anticipated matchup. I also think a Pac 10 loss is in their future. No better than 2 losses for this squad.

4. Oklahoma (4) 0-0 1,444

Every year, its how good Oklahoma is and every year they seem not to live up to expectations. What’s the truth? I don’t know. I think they will be there once again but will falter at some point. I can’t back a team that seemed to give up while getting trounced by West Virginia last year. Will an internal leader emerge? Until I see a Josh Heupel clone I am not picking this team to make a run for the title. Only one loss though

5. Florida (6) 0-0 1,415

Tebow. Tebow. Tebow. He is supposed to have a running game this year too. They have LSU at home and no Auburn or Alabama. I say they hold serve at home and beat Georgia. I think their key game this season is at Tennessee in the 3^rd week. They may lose that but will rebound nicely. I see Florida as the SEC champ and finishing in 3^rd place in the BCS standings.

6. Missouri 0-0 1,266

Why is Florida 3rd? Behold your national champion, the Missouri Tigers. When I think about this team I think offense. I think Chase Daniel and the bevy of talent in that offense. Chase knows that system and is a winner. And most importantly, they don’t play Oklahoma. Their toughest game could be this Saturday against Illinois but without Mendenhall, Mizzou rolls and the Show Me State can continue to forget about the sad state of their basketball team.

7.LSU 0-0 1,135

A Harvard transfer as your starting QB? Good luck duplicating Matt Flynn. LSU will be tough but how many successful game managers can you ask for?

8. West Virginia 0-0 1,116

No Steve Slaton means too much pressure on Pat White. Noel Devine can’t handle the load. The Mountaineers will need a lot of some running back I have never heard of to remain in the Top 10.

9. Clemson 0-0 1,105

Right....

10. Auburn 0-0 968

I don’t know anything about them. Tommy Tuberville is still the coach I presume and they haven’t been on the national radar for a while so yea sure this seems to fit the mold of the SEC surprise team.

11. Texas 0-0 966

Gimme a break. Has Colt McCoy picked his ass off the ground yet? Didn’t Jamal Charles leave? Limas Sweed is gone, not that he was much of a factor, so there isn’t the possibility of a known stud receiver. Let me look at the schedule. Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas Tech. Definitely two losses there. At least they don’t get to be waxed by Kansas St. this year so they have that going for them. No better than four losses.

12. Texas Tech 0-0 786

I know that this team is everyone’s darling. They will probably lose to Oklahoma and to someone else so they won’t make the Big 12 title game but they will go back to a New Year’s Day bowl with a successful season

13. Wisconsin 0-0 771

Does it really matter? They will lose to Ohio St., lose a couple of other times, look average all year but Cheeseheads travel and they will go to a New Year’s day bowl at 11AM and hold their own. I will wake up on New Year’s day bowl and have a mermosa to celebrate this shoo-in.

14. Kansas 0-0 707

Eegh.. 2 years in a row? Doubtful. Good luck to you though. 5 losses.

15. Arizona State 0-0 631

Again, a team that always finds a way to shoot themselves in the foot. They may even beat Georgia but then Arizona will beat them by 20.

16. Brigham Young 0-0 590

Yes, Yes, yes. These guys are due. Move em up!

17. Virginia Tech 0-0 578

Lets see. They lost their one good running back and still have not decided on a quarterback. Their D will carry them as usual and they will have improved enough to beat Wake in the ACC title game by year’s end. Then, they can go chalk up another BCS loss for the ACC. Come on Noles and Canes. Win again already.

18. Tennessee 0-0 509

They came from this position when Tee (or is it T) was at the helm. I will bet a round on Tee. I think they finish in Top 25 but lose to Florida and wind up in a New Year’s Day bowl.

19. South Florida 0-0 496

Hey, South Florida, nice to see you. At least you don’t have to play Dennis Dixon and the Ducks again this year. That must be nice. You get to cruise all year before losing by 50 to a good team right?

Oh wait, you lost to an Oregon 3^rd string QB by 50 and are ranked ahead of the Ducks. Makes sense to me.

20. Illinois 0-0 483

I feel sustained improvement and another trip to the Rose Bowl or at least in that race till the end with the Spartans. What happened to Hall of Fame head coach Kirk Ferentz and Iowa by the way?

21. Oregon 0-0 366

No reason to quibble with this pick. Could be worse, could be better. They will be fine.

22. Penn State 0-0 293

Definitely missing something here. No idea.

23. Wake Forest 0-0 227

Wake will win the Atlantic division despite getting hammered by Clemson.

24. Alabama 0-0 89

I can’t get past losing to Louisiana Monroe at the moment or whatever school it was where I can’t name one player in ALL-TIME

25. Pittsburgh 0-0 85

Oh, stupid me. Wannstadt is finally turning around a program in his 15^th year after inheriting a team that went to the Fiesta Bowl. Or am I a year off? LeSean Mccoy is special. He better display it. 3 losses. Top 25.

The Dawg’s Top 10

1)Missouri

2)Ohio St.

3)Florida

4)Oklahoma

5)Georgia

6)BYU

7)Auburn

8)USC

9)LSU

10)Texas Tech

Frankly, I am feeling pretty uninspired by my Top 10 but as I scan the list of other teams, I can’t say that I have any confidence in them.

Now, who do I like as my surprise teams? Surprise currently being defined as not being in the Top 25. I have limited this list to 5 or else I could say ‘watch out for these guys’ all day.

a)Michigan St. – They seemed real tough last year and would have beat BC if they had a QB.

b)Arizona – Willie Tuitama receives his doctorate and the Cats win 8 games.

c)Mississippi – Houston Nutt is in town and everyone loves whats in the cupboard for him.

d)Florida St. – Now if Drew Weatherford can consistently play like as if he is playing BC then my ACC picks can be thrown out.

e)Kansas St. – Even if Texas is on a downturn, giving those guys good lickings the past two years means something is about to shake out there right?

Thoughts

2008-01-03T13:41:00.000-06:00

Can Oklahoma just officially be banned from BCS bowls?

South Florida was considered a good team? They got whacked by a 3rd string quarterback.

If BC could have had just one of Oregon's receivers.

Ohio St over USC. Anyone?

The Georgia game was unfair to judge Colt Brennan. No time to do anything.

I dont know what to make of Missouri now since they lost to Oklahoma twice.

Thank you Rose Bowl for keeping tradition alive. Illinios looked like a deserving candidate.

If the SEC is so good, how could Michigan put more pressure on Tebow than interior lineman in the SEC.

Wake smacked Uconn - the Big East co-champion. What does that say about the Big East?

West Virginia should roll to a national title if Pat White stays healthy.

ACC is not exactly stellar either before I criticize other conferences. Georgia Tech should bow out of bowls for the forseeable future.

What if Michigan St. had even average quarterback? That program is on the right track.

Bowl Picks vs Spread

2007-12-20T13:14:00.000-06:00

My job has been consuming so much of my time and I have neglected this site completely. I apologize for that. Hopefully Christmas break will allow me some time to reprioritize. Congratulations to Ferris for winning the regular season which means I have to buy him a bottle of Sambuca, the worst alcohol ever concocted.

Ferris’s picks:

navy +8.5 v. Utah
Memphis +2.5 v. Florida Atlantic
Cincy -11 v. S. Miss
Nevada +3 v. New Mexico
BYU - 6.5 v. UCLA
Boise St. -10.5 v. East Carolina
Purdue -9 v. C Michigan
Arizona St. +2.5 v. Texas
BC -3.5 v. Michigan St
TCU -3.5 v. Houston
Oregon St. -4.5 v Maryland
Wake Forest -3 v. UConn
Miss St. +3 v Central Florida
Texas A&M +5.5 v. PSU
Colorado +3.5 v. Alabama
AF +3.5 v. Cal
S Florida -6.5 v. Oregon
GT -4.5 v Fresno St
Kentucky -1.5 v FSU
Indiana +4 v. Ok St
Clemson -2 v. Auburn
Tennessee -3.5 v. Wisconsin
Arkansas +3 v. Missouri
Michigan +10 v. Florida
TT -6 v. Virginia
Illinois +13.5 v USC
Georgia -9 v. Hawaii
WV +6.5 v. Oklahoma
VT -3 v. Kansas
Rutgers -10 v. Ball St
Bowling Green +4.5 v. Tulsa
LSU -4.5 v. OSU

Moore’s Picks:

Utah
Florida Atlantic
Cinci
Nevada
BYU
Boise St
PurdueTexas
BC
TCU
Oregon St.
Wake
C. Florida
Texas A&M
Alabama
California
S. Florida
GT
Kentucky
Oklahoma St
Auburn
Wisconsin
Missouri
Florida
Virginia
Illinois
Hawaii
Oklahoma
VT
Rutgers
Tulsa
LSU

Dawg’s Picks:

navy
memphis
s.miss
Nevada
byu
boise
c. mich
texas
bc
tcu
oreg st.
wake
c. florida
a&m
alabama
cal
oregon
fresno
kentucky
ok st.
auburn
tennessee
missouri
florida
texas tech
usc
georgia
oklahoma
vtech
rutgers
tulsa
lsu

Standings

2007-11-26T16:29:00.000-06:00

Ferris on top.

Ferris: 27 27 1
Dawg: 24 29 2
Moore: 23 30 2

Standings

2007-11-07T12:28:00.000-06:00

Ferris: 19 20 1
Moore: 15 23 2
Dawg: 15 23 2

This Week

Ferris:

Michigan -2.5 @ Wisconsin
Tennessee even v. Arkansas
Kansas -6 @ Ok State
Hawaii -17.5 v Fresno
Vandy +3 v. Kentucky

Moore:

Kentucky -3 @ Vanderbilt
UConn +6 @ Cincinnati
Alabama -4.5 @ Miss. St
Florida -6.5 @ South Carolina
USC -3.5 @ Cal

Dawg:

Clemson -9 vs Wake
Florida -6.5 vs South Carolina
Air Force -3 vs Notre Dame
Kansas -6 vs Ok St.
Bama -4.5 vs Miss St.

11-2 Thoughts

2007-11-02T15:08:00.001-05:00

“AND LANE STADIUM GOES SILENT!!!!” – those words, authoritatively stated by Chris Fowler last week following Ryan’s second touchdown pass, perfectly captured the mood after the unbelievable drives that Matty Ice put together to keep the undefeated season alive while firmly establishing himself as a Heisman contender. For most of the game, Ryan spent his time running away from Chris Ellis in an attempt to get the ball to his ‘pedestrian’ receivers. And for most of the game he and his offensive mates failed in that endeavor. But those last 4 minutes were magical and produced intense scrutiny across the college football nation.

The ensuing debate revolved around the question of whether BC did what championship teams do – find a way to win – or that they just got lucky in a game that Virginia Tech dominated BC’s offense for 56 minutes. First of all, you don’t get lucky in producing two scoring drives at Virginia Tech. That takes talent, execution and confidence. Those last two drives demonstrated that BC is a good football team and a player on the national scene. They demonstrated that BC’s defense is good enough to keep BC in any game and it revealed that BC can compete with anyone when Matty Ice is dialed in. That’s what I feel confident in asserting. But that game opened the door to a lot of deserved criticism and highlighted some areas of weakness.

The main area of weakness made evident was that BC is unable to handle an athletic front four with just the offensive line. Anthony Castonzo was abused all night by Chris Ellis from the right tackle position forcing Ryan to unload the ball quickly and disrupting the timing of BC’s offense. With Florida St, Clemson and Miami forthcoming this is not a weakness that will be hidden any more. How will BC deal with this going forward? Will they keep a tight end in to block? Will they roll the pocket occasionally? Will Callendar stay in the backfield more? I feel BC got lucky that the domination Ellis showed did not hurt them more than it did. The teams’ that BC plays each have their own sets of problems but they all do have athletic defensive ends and how BC gameplans for them will be crucial to their success. My eyes will be focused on Castonzo right from the opening snap this week.

Wet weather, usually an aid to BC when playing athletic teams, hinders BC from executing its offense. BC’s mite receivers, who I love, rely on their quickness to get open in the timing patterns of Logan’s offense. BC is not a grind it out team on the ground which teams need to be able to do in poor weather. In poor conditions, BC really needs to rely on its defense to keep the game manageable. Of course, BC’s defense gets better with wet weather also as they will always give up short passes to stop the run and the wet weather plays right into that strategy.

But given those weaknesses, this team has accentuated their strengths to the fullest. Our mite receivers are a joy to watch since all of them have gone over the middle to catch the ball in traffic. Brandon Robinson was awesome in the final two drives at finding the seam in the defense and hanging on to the ball as Tech viciously tried to strip the ball. Ryan Purvis ran great routes in getting open out of his halfback position and Callender seized his opportunity by running an unplanned delay up the right side of the field out of sight of the Hokie defenders. These guys have been around the block and their maturity shows through every week. They have great chemistry and it is evident that a lot of them are always on the same page as Ryan when plays need to be made.

The other great thing about that comeback is that now resides on my DVR. I have watched the final 6 minutes dozens of times already. I am like a little kid with his favorite movie that he watches every day and knows all the words to. I say the words before the announcers even do. I revel in James, Blackledge and Fowler’s commentary of how Ryan’s Heisman hopes were certainly in trouble. I laugh at how BC did not look prepared and they just can’t handle the speed of the Tech defense. I crack open a beer when Blackledge continues to demean our receiving corps. Heap it on boys … throw another log on the fire …. This game … it is a changing. .. Matty Ice is about to look like the greatest scrambling quarterback this side of Doug Flutie and you are about to see why the Chicago Bears are going to trade up in the draft to grab him. Its must watch TV and it’s the happiest ending I have experienced since Niles and Daphne got together. (Of course, that took away Niles not so subtle overtures to Miss Moon from the previous decade and changed the complexion of the show but it made for a great moment).

Also, is Cavemen officially done? Missed it on my Tuesday night recordings.

Anyways, BC has their work cut out from them. Just win. Style points count but losses destroy so one game at a time is the only way to proceed.

What to make of Ohio St? Penn St is awful and the Buckeyes rightly put the hammer down on them. I have tossed and turned debating the question of just how good they are with Florida’s slapdown always on the mind and I think I have finally come up with something. They are good, not great. They are beatable and probably will not be beaten. They are too athletic on defense for the rest of the Big 10 and Boeckman is the most underrated quarterback in the country. This kid is a mature 23 year old and he has played like it. He does not have the name cachet of his predecessor but he has picked right up right where Troy Smith left off. He reminds me of Craig Krenzel, not getting his due but getting the job done week to week. I expect the Buckeyes to win out and stick it to the Wolverines once again therefore getting back to the national championship game. Critics will say Ohio St. will get steamrolled again by an SEC team in the national title but as you look across the national landscape does any team in the SEC truly scare you? LSU has lost and still looks beatable in their games. I do not see one team in the SEC where Ohio St. will not give a good account of themselves. Whether or not they are really good, I can’t say but I don’t think they will embarrass themselves if they get back to the national title game. Also, let me go on record and say I am firmly in the Buckeyes corner against any SEC opponent. College football needs a team to prove to SEC country that there is good football played elsewhere in the country.

Can’t wait for Oregon and Arizona St to clash on Saturday. I favor the Ducks in Autzen. I also think that the Gameday crew of Herbstreit and company is personally responsible for keeping the Ducks in the public’s eye. After Oregon lost to Cal, they still had Oregon in their top five stating that a close loss should not hurt Oregon too much since they are still a great ballclub. I do not disagree but I think their constant harping of that point influenced other voters in their ranking of Oregon. What was so different about Oregon losing than say West Virginia which dropped off the map after losing to South Florida. Remember, that was in South Florida and Pat White got hurt. The Mountaineers have also been destroying opponents since that loss but since the Gameday crew does not harp on them, they will need a lot of help to get back into the national title race. The point here is that the Gameday crew wields too much power and that the pollsters may have some lemming reflex. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from Oregon who appears to be a Top 5 team but they are the beneficiaries of a Maurice Cheeks dime right now.

Dennis Dixon may be the most valuable player to his team in the country. Where would the Ducks be if Leaf had to play? I can’t believe those two ever split time.

Connecticut is ahead of Florida in the BCS polls. Who predicted that? Really looking forward to watching Uconn again. Who predicted that?

Texas has a ranking of 0 in the computer polls.

I hope Hawaii wins out. Lets see if another non-BCS team can crash the big boys party. Colt Brennan against a real D. Lets do it. For anyone that has not seen Hawaii they have some studs at wide receiver also.

Off the main highway, Buffalo is at Miami-Ohio this week in a game that could determine the East division of the MAC.

Does everyone know who Todd Reesing is? He quarterbacks an undefeated team and is fun as heck to watch.

First Half - X rated commentary

2007-10-25T20:17:00.000-05:00

The Billy Flutie reverse throw is a Pontiac game changing moment. What an awful call. He fumbled with the ball like a teenager with a bra. He did not even look down field ensuring he did not fumble and that he had no chance for a completion. Not the time to try that play again (Wake Forest being the first) on a wet field at the 40. My Dad pointed out that almost any yardage puts you in 4th down territory and we promptly blew it.

Again, lets use replay effectively. Never had ball and possession on the VT TD. Not even close.

Two HUGE penalties. 15 yards unsportsmanlike for taunting and the false start when Callendar had a 12 yard run.

We need a dry turf. Tech is faster than us but our offense is based on precision routes and with our mite receivers we need that.

Look at prior blogs ... Cherilus allowing the end past him was as easy a call as Ferris yelling out for shots before 9PM.

Dry field ... I like our chances.

Right now, come on Jeff Smith!

Its Gameday

2007-10-25T13:59:00.001-05:00

Hawaii is 17th in the BCS standings in a year where they should be ranked higher with the constant upsets going on.

Seeing Connecticut in the BCS rankings is shocking. They can prove they belong with a win over South Florida. It’s nice to see the Big East apologize for the huge blown call that went against Louisville in Friday’s night game against the Huskies. For those who missed it, the Connecticut punt returner signaled fair catch but started to run regardless. All the Louisville players had stopped on seeing the fair catch signal. Only problem was the referees did not notice the fair catch and allowed the play to continue which resulted in a Connecticut touchdown. Of course, the play can not be reviewed which calls into question why there are rules at all of what can and can not be reviewed. If the ultimate purpose of a review is to call the game correctly, then any call should be subject to review especially if a team wants to use their red flag. Anyways, Louisville blew this game by failing to stop Uconn on two fourth quarter drives after taking a ten point lead. They have no one but themselves to blame.

Drew Weatherford is back in as the starter for Florida St. at QB. With him at the helm, I give them a shot at beating BC. With Lee, they had no shot. Lee threw three consecutive passes into the ground when trying to run the two minute drill in an attempt to rally the Seminoles against the Canes.

Possibly playing South Florida in the Orange Bowl would be like dating a girl that has all the right credentials; 6 figure salary, college education, well read, athletic … and all you can think about is ‘Why aren’t you sexy?”

South Florida and Mississippi St. have both beaten an Auburn team that has influenced the national title picture as much as any team could. Auburn’s victory on a last second field goal may be keeping the Gators out of the top spot.

Despite USC’s 37-0 nothing victory over Notre Dame, I am not sold on them. Notre Dame rolled over and gave up and can you really blame them? They weren’t going to come back. Some of the missed tackles by Notre Dame defy explanation. Hazleton is not Reggie Bush. Regardless, at Oregon will answer most everything.

Was thinking about Tyrone Prothro the other day and whatever happened to him. Here is a link to his site which states that his football days are probably over. This is really sad as the kid could have been a slot receiver in the NFL and garnered a couple of paychecks. I hope the young man gets his education and does not live just for memories of his catch.

http://www.tyroneprothro.com/

BC:

I can not help but think that this will be one of the most heavily watched Thursday night football games of all time. The whole college football nation will be tuned in to see if BC is for real or at least gain a level of understanding if BC is any good at all. The fact that BC is number two in the BCS and has a good shot of maintaining that ranking if they win out will not go over well, especially in the deep South. TV’s will be turned on in the bayous of LSU to the swamps of Florida to the rolling prairies of Oklahoma and to dorm rooms throughout the nation and everyone will have an opinion on a game that will be televised without college football competition. It is extremely ironic that the most anticipated BC game of all time will be bigger to people outside Boston than within the finest city west of Barcelona. I think you may have to go into a bar and ask for the BC game in Boston and you may not get it. Any TV not turned to the Sox could mean a loss of revenue… … The point is exaggerated of course but the game will not be front in center on the big screen TV’s nor front and center for a team that attempts to go where no BC team has gone before. The pressure for this BC team does not come from its fans or the local media but through a national prism consisting of ESPN, Sports Illustrated and anyone that spends their Saturdays rooting for a college football team. As long as BC keeps winning, they are no longer a nice little Catholic school from up North but a program that has a chance to drastically alter the college football landscape and the BCS formula.

The Dawg’s Top 10

1)LSU – Dramatic win against Auburn keeps them in the top spot.

2)Ohio St – Penn St. will be chomping at the bit for the upset but if Morelli maintains his track record, the Buckeyes will remain on the path to New Orleans.

3)Oregon – The Ducks are scoring and scoring and scoring. Who needs a defense. If Colvin holds on to the ball they would be the undisputed number one. Even though California has stumbled I think the Bears were hitting on all cylinders when they were up at Autzen so that loss should not hurt them too much. I do not want to rank them this high with that home loss but I need teams to prove they should be ranked ahead of the Ducks.

4)West Virginia – They have taken care of business since the South Florida loss and remain in the national title hunt.

5)Boston College – They know what they have to do.

6)Arizona St. – They get their shot to silence the critics.

7)Oklahoma – Struggling on the road against Iowa St. I almost don’t want to rank them. The Cyclones are awful. Ask Texas

8)Missouri – I like these guys. Oklahoma on a neutral field later.

9)Kansas – Boasts my new favorite quarterback.

10)Florida – These guys have just lost two games but boy are they scary and could shoot right up these rankings.

Lookin in: USC, Virginia Tech, South Florida, Kentucky.

Not exactly tearing it up.

2007-10-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

Standings:

Ferris 14 15 1

Moore 12 18

Dawg 11 19

I had an awsome time in Chicago!

2007-10-20T09:50:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a weekend! Not a great game but who cares. I did not. All I wanted was that win and we got it. It looked like a blowout was going to be in order as we marched right down the field on the first drive and scored a TD. However, missing the extra point always seems to take the wind out of the sail and we were unable to capitalize on the early success for ensuing scoring drives.

Thoughts on the game and season:

Our first round tackle, Gosder Cherilus, was beyond terrible. He committed five penalties and was uncomfortable in listening to the snap count. If he had problems at ND, you think he’ll have problems at Virginia Tech. I bet he was yelled at all week and it scares me that he might react to the defense and not the ball in the next game. If he reacts to the Virginia tech defensive ends, Matt Ryan had better hold on to the ball.

Andre Callendar is rejuvenated. He looks at ease catching the ball out of the backfield and is making the right reads to always pick up positive yardage. Those 3 and 4 yard gains allow us to have ‘on schedule’ drives. He has always been good at picking up the blitz and now must be considered an upper echelon back.

A lot of the fun that occurred on the weekend was after the game ended. Andrew had the brilliant idea of seeing if we could watch the Kentucky-LSU game by peering into the press box. Not only could we but the officials in the press box moved out of the way to allow us to have a clear view. The only problem was that the game just would not end and every two minutes the Notre Dame PA announcer became a little more hostile in his command to please leave the stadium. After 15 minutes and with the security guards approaching it was time to head down from the upper decks. I thought that was the end of our catching some of the game but right as we departed the stadium we noticed the concession room was open with a bunch of cooks and and service people gathered around the TV and they did not object to our brief campout at the door. It was with great pride that we left the stadium after Woodson pulled one out against the Tigers telling anyone that would listen, “LSU lost.” Little did we realize the grandiose dreams would continue …. …

And they continued on the bus. I think it was Moore who first shouted out that Cal was I in a dogfight with Oregon St. The Simons got a call from his brother …. Then my brother called me…. The updates kept coming until we heard the final score and everyone realized that we had just jumped up another position in the BCS. 2 or 3 who cares .. if we win, we’ll be there but the teams keep dropping like flies.

Lets give a shout out to Rich Brooks at Kentucky. What a job he has done. I want to know who their backup QB is as the momentum they have built from this year may rest on his shoulders if they hope to maintain their success. Losing to Florida today will not matter.

Troy got one vote in the AP Top 25. Who was that voter?

Once Matt Grothe gets a better haircut I think he will be my new favorite football player, well at least in terms of his Doug Flutie like running style. The kid needs to learn to throw however.

Ray Rice is tough. Boy does he lay the wood to tacklers. That is a man that I would love on my team.

OK, a shout out to Uconn. I think there a long ways away from bring a consistently good team but they are a lot better than I thought. They are more athletic and their offensive line impressed me against Louisville. Granted Louisville is nothing to write home about but the Huskies victory demonstrated a marked improvement from what I had anticipated. They now sit at 2-0 in the Big East. With 5 games left, they may have an outside chance of being in the Big East race at the end. Their 2-0 is against 2 of the 3 bottom feeders in the conference.

Why can’t ESPN Gameday have a new them song from year to year? Not a bad song but I expect more originality in their lead on song. They spend so much time working on their commercials so why not once a year for a song refresh.

ESPN has really lucked out this past Thursday and forthcoming Thursday with the number 2 and 3 BCS teams as part of their games with South Florida and BC. The funny thing about that is the headline teams for those games would have been the home standing Rutgers and Virginia Tech. All eyes will be on BC this Thursday. It will be the most highly opinionated game in the history of Boston College football - all coming from non BC fans

The Dawgs Top 10

This is how I would vote if given an AP ballot.

1)LSU – their only loss is a tough one on the road after beating Florida in a slugfest the previous week.

2)Ohio St. – They have hammered opponents albeit inferior opponents but they have taken care of business. Have not watched them too much so today’s game against Michigan St. will be a measuring stick.

3)South Carolina – Almost pulled the trigger on these guys at number two but I question their offense. Only loss at LSU. That’s fine.

4)Oklahoma – They have looked great at times and should be a team that improves as Bradford continues to mature though he has not been the problem.

5)Boston College – Win at Virginia Tech to move up

6)Oregon – Their injuries may catch up to them but they did not lose their QB which seperates them from California

7)Arizona St. – Undefeated at 7-0. Like BC, will have plenty of chances to prove themselves.

8)West Virginia – only loss was at South Flordia when Pat White was injured. They have rebounded well

9)Missouri – Tough to drop a team whose only loss is at Oklahoma.

10)California – Longshore is so key. Their ranking depends on his health.

Lurking: Kentucky/Florida winner, Kansas, Virginia Tech

USC does not even deserve to be lurking. They have as much to prove as BC and Arizona St. I have the Irish not only covering but pressing USC to win today. Why? Mark Sanchez playing for USC, 7 point win at home vs Arizona which is terrible when you were expecting a bounce back from the Stanford debacle. Also, I liked how Sharpley looked when given the reins last week.

Week 6

2007-10-19T22:56:00.000-05:00

Ferris:

Rutgers +2.5 v. S. Florida
Penn St -7 @ Indiana
Michigan St. +17 @ Ohio State
Kentucky +7 v. Florida
S Miss -4 @ Marshall

Moore:

South Florida -2.5 @ Rutgers
Louisville -3.5 @ UConn
Wake -3 @ Navy
Kansas -4 @ Colorado
Tenn +1 @ Alabama

Dawg:

Notre Dame +17.5 vs USC
Mississippi St. +25.5 vs West Virginia
Michigan St. +17 vs Ohio St.
Florida -7 vs Kentucky
Maryland -4 vs Virginia

Chicago Baby!

2007-10-11T22:41:00.000-05:00

Missouri – Oklahoma highlights the college football day. This is the toughest name game left on Missouri’s schedule with Texas not being on it. If they can get by Oklahoma, its then on to Texas Tech, Iowa St, at Colorado, Texas A&M, at Kansas St and at Kansas. Of that bunch only Iowa St. appears to be a pushover. Missouri dominated Nebraska as expected but they will have to be a very good team to run that table if they come out of Norman with a victory. With Missouri’s start and Illinois’s run, that first week game between them stands as the most meaningful game that no one saw.

Where is the hot seat in relationship to Bill Callahan?

When do you get respect as a coach? It’s not if you win a national title or lead a team to a great season. It’s when you do it year after year apparently. Else Larry Coker would be thought of as a great coach instead of being canned a few years after a national title. Even if BC does great this year, people will be knocking Jags real quickly when the players he recruits do not perform.

Who watched the Navy-Pitt game? Early in the fourth quarter, Lou Holtz commented that Navy would have the tailback wide open on an out and up along the sidelines whenever they wanted it. Rece Davis asked him, “Would you call it now”? Holtz replied “No”, that he would save that for when he really needed it if he were coach. Well, Navy head coach Paul Johnson must have been thinking the same thing as he called that play on Navy’s first play in the first OT. I thought it was a great insight into the coaching mind especially since the idea came to fruition in a touchdown pass.

Texas has 0 players from Oklahoma on their squad whereas Oklahoma raids Texas yearly for talent. Texas of course does not need to go out of state but its funny to see how many top players go across the state line to play for a top rival.

Kirk Herbstreit mentioned on ESPN what a homefield advantage Oregon really has at Autzen. Corso called it the best ‘pound for pound’ advantage in the country in terms of crowd noise. Despite hosting Gameday and having a top 10 team this year, I feel that most college football fans still do not think of Oregon in terms of a top program or having an enthused fanbase. I attribute this to the lack of big time games that are televised from the West Coast. If it does not involve USC, people don’t give it their full attention. Oregon may play big time games but most home games seem to be on Fox or a second tier network or part of a regional ABC broadcast. Only off hand comments by Herbstreit or Corso seem to give Ducks fans their due. The only reason I know people care so much is that Simons is from Eugene and has followed them for 30 years. When Simons and his brother were at BC’s whipping of NC St. my Dad said they were on the phone the entire time getting Oregon-Michigan updates. He said the two were riveted to their phone. So, I see the passion for Oregon football but I only can discern it from a personal connection. Maybe it has to do with me picturing ‘laid-back’ Bill Walton as what Oregonians are like.

There are going to be so many good moments this weekend in Chicago and South Bend that it will be tough to single out a defining moment. If we lose of course, it will be a long ride back from South Bend but that would be a monumental upset. But what I am really looking forward to is putting on my BC shirt and getting on that plane. There will be quite a few ND fans I presume for the short trip to Chicago so I think I will be in enemy territory. Makes for a fun walk down the aisle.

When did the phrase ‘Behind Schedule’ start? On schedule means that you have manageable down and distances like 3rd and 3. 3rd and 6 would be behind schedule.

I forget the name of Kansas quarterback but that kid made some big time throws last week.

OK OK. I think everyone in Oregon sits around and smokes all day.

A lot of people think USC will recover. I don’t think so. At Cal, Oregon and Arizona St? You think they will win all three? I don’t.

Does anyone know the full name of Ohio St’s quarterback? Well, maybe. What about spelling his last name?

Riley Skinner will be a Heisman candidate his senior year if he has any supporting cast.

Week 5 Picks

2007-10-11T22:22:00.000-05:00

Ferris

Navy +4.5 @ Pitt
VT - 13 @ Duke
Alabama -6.5 @ Ole Miss
Georgia -7 @ Vanderbilt
Boston College -14 @ Some team

Moore

VT – 13.5 @ Duke
BC -14 @ ND
Auburn +3 @ Arkansas
Miami -2 vs GT
Tennessee -7 @ Miss St.

Dawg

Miami -2 vs GT
BC -14 @ ND
Baylor +27 vs Kansas
LSU -9 vs Kentucky
California -14 vs Oregon St.

Standings through week 4.

2007-10-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

Not too good but who would have predicted Stanford to beat USC?

Standings:

Ferris 9 10 1
Dawg 8 12
Moore 7 13

Week 4 Picks

2007-10-05T15:20:00.000-05:00

Ferris:

North Illinois -4 @ Temple
WF -7.5 @ Duke
Kansas St -3 v. Kansas
Colorado -8.5 @ Baylor
Troy -18.5 @ Florida Int'l

Moore:

1. Miami -6.5 @ UNC
2. GT -3 @ Maryland
3. UVA -10 @ Middle Tenn St
4. Rutgers -3.5 vs. Cincinnati
5. Wisconsin +2.5 @ Illinois

Dawg:

Oklahoma -11
Maryland +3
Miami -6.5
Rutgers -3.5
LSU -7.5

The ESPN Thursday night crew made reference to Florida Atlantic as the 'Burrowing Owls'. I thought what a cool nickname and why hasn't Ferris told me about this yet. A quick search showed they were the Owls but I did not see any reference to burrowing owls on the official sports site of Florida Atlantic. Though it did raise the question of why I did not go to school in the south again. They also should change their nickname to Burrowing Owls.

Andre Woodson said people are actually talking about the Kentucky football program in the state and there might be some momentum. Tough to do when its known as a basketball school. Then I thought that Kentucky basketball has not been an upper echeleon team for a while now and I can't think of anyone on the team really. I don't even remember if Ranolph Morris was a senior last year. Times have changed which is why Tubby is up here in Minneapolis.

I think I am being non-biased in my praise of Flutie but I learn more from him than any other announcer during the course of a game. He is always taking about formations and how one play has set up another. Someone in the mainstream media should be picking up on this.

A ramblings reader had a great comment about the Miami-North Carolina line which is at 6.5. "Is this really the line? Did I miss the headline that a bunch of Miami players were arrested again?" - Great call and what could Vegas possibly know?

10-4 Thoughts

2007-10-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

Well, I am still in shock from the games this past weekend. No one could have predicted the upsets and the ensuing shakeup. A day that started with Oklahoma and Florida being part of a perceived top tier, ended with BC, South Florida and Kentucky all vaulting them in the rankings. Now, do I think that BC is better than those teams? Certainly not. But I do know that BC is 5-0 and has met the challenges laid out to them thus far. Win and move on appears to be the motto this year. Parity and competition lies everywhere and the difference between a win and loss may just be execution and avoiding critical turnovers. Ask Oregon and Oklahoma about turnovers late in games.

There was no question that Cameron Colvin fumbled the ball through the end zone for Oregon creating a touchback. I was just surprised that he was that careless with the ball.

OK, so Urban Meyer abided by the rules when calling a timeout to ice the kicker after this ploy had been done in the NFL just a few weeks before. Its bush league, pure and simple since no one even knows a timeout is being called until halfway through the play. This rule will be expedited through the change review process.

Illinois’s only loss is at the hands of number 17 Missouri. Missouri gets its first ‘test’ against Nebraska last week.

Oklahoma’s loss was the most surprising to me. They were up 17 and basically imploded. I expect them to rebound.

Texas has struggled going back to last year when they lost to Kansas St and Texas A&M. They almost lost to Iowa in their bowl game also. With that as their resume, is it really a shock that they continue to struggle? They might just not be too good right now. Did Vince Young cover up many flaws that are just becoming more apparent now?

I love planning my college football watching day. This week I have a disaster recovery exercise in the morning and if everything goes well I should be home by 1 or so which means that I can catch the 2nd half of most of the 11AM games. Illinois and Wisconsin should be great. This will be the first time that I get to see Illinois’ star freshman receiver Arrelious Benn. This is the kid that reneged on his Notre Dame commitment to attend Illinois. He torched Penn St. last weekend and has helped them get off to a 4-1 start as previously mentioned. Wisconsin has looked shaky in all their games but has won so here comes another test in an up and coming team. Also at that time is Syracuse and West Virginia. West Virginia could be without Pat White against the Cuse. I will just tune in to keep an eye on a possible upset as Syracuse does sit at 1-0 in the Big East. BC plays at the same time so that will divert my attention but that’s only available to the 3 subscribers of ESPNU. I do not know if Kansas and Kansas St is on but with the Wildcats crushing Texas last week and Kansas at 4-0, this also could be a quick hit on the remote. Georgia Tech and Maryland are on in addition to Miami and North Carolina so two more games to scout while enjoying the ACC games. That’s 6 games right there before 2:30. God, that’s great.

Now, on to the next set of games.

Lets start with North Carolina St. and Florida St.. The Wolfpack probably have zero chance to win but they are playing Florida St, who is in BC’s division, so if they keep this close then its worth flipping back to. Georgia and Tennessee is a worthwhile game but both teams already have in-conference losses so it gets thrown down the scale of need to watch games. The ‘big’ game is Oklahoma and Texas. With the losses last week, a lot of people say that this has lust its luster. But I disagree. Oklahoma still has a good shot of rebounding if they win out and this game will show if they can recover. Lots of interest in this game. At 3, we have Arizona St and Washington St and with an undefeated Sun Devils team, I will check in on this one also. So far, we have seven hours of must see TV!

As this set reaches the halfway point, Virginia Tech takes the field against Clemson. Interest? Yes. Which is then followed by USC and Stanford. USC dropped a spot in the polls and if they are the USC team from years’ past they cover easily. Then you have Ohio St. and Purdue and both are undefeated! Undefeated Cincinnati plays against Rutgers which will be fighting to regain respect after Maryland.

To end the night we get to laugh some more at Notre Dame and then take a first look at Missouri which starts at 8:15. That’s over 12 hours of scintillating football. I will have the wings ready and a couple of cold ones. How good is life?

Life in the SEC is tough. Tommy Tuberville was on top of the SEC world just a few years ago only to be almost down and out this year after losses to South Florida and Mississippi St. Then they rebound to beat Florida. It’s not tough for a team to get up to play Florida but Tuberville did a great job getting his kids to believe after what must have been a tough emotional start.

Ohio St. has looked very impressive so far. They dominated Washington where USC did not. I just can not get Florida running all over them out of my mind. Can that much change in one year?

I said after the Clemson game that Florida St. garnered some respect with the way they fought back, something that has been missing in past Seminole teams. Now they have wins over Colorado and Alabama. Not bad. I still don’t think they are playing their best ball.

Virginia is 4-1 and their next five games are M. Tenn St, Uconn, at Maryland at NC St and home against Wake Forest. I am thinking a couple of early turnovers from Maryland is all they need to be 9-1.

Many props to Maryland for their’s and the ACC’s big win. That is the way Maryland can perform if they do not turn it over. They shoot themselves in the foot more than any team I can recall.

What I liked about the last game – Gunnell 6 receptions for 97. What I did not – Challenger 1-1. Would need to watch game film to understand that one.

If Andre Callendar has to carry 32 times a game we are in serious trouble going forward. He can not take that pounding week to week.

Bowling Green passes a lot. I predict Dejuan Tribble gets a helmet sticker.

Remember Paul from Cheers? The short, fat guy that actually got a hot chick once? (There is one for every man by the way. Just have to find her.) He was actually called Glen in an early episode.

Here is the ACC bowl selection process. The Peach Bowl is in English to me but the Gator Bowl description is not the clearest thing I have ever seen.

http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footbl/archive/111306aaa.html

People in Syracuse might be getting delusional. I received an email from my uncle predicting an Orange victory. Would love to see it and the optimism coming from Central New York is great. (I actually read the email wrong. He predicted a WV victory). Now it makes sense. But will the cover 26?

It was reported in the Boston Globe that the ACC apologized for four illegal formation calls against BC on Saturday. None of them should have been called. Nice to have the apology but maybe it’s not a good idea if the referees can not call it correctly.

Brief Saturday Notes

2007-10-01T14:05:00.001-05:00

Its not fun watching BC updates online in a game where they will be ridiculed if they lose.

Gameplan is paying its weight today as I would not get the Oregon, Rutgers, Texas or Clemson games. That’s worth a night out to me.

Notre Dame is improving. I am not afraid of them but they are improving.

2:53 central time. Ron Zook must be smoking a cigar.

A 21 and 19 yard pass for first down for UMass. They are good but it will not matter if we lose.

Staring at Gamecast hoping we stop a 4th and 5. Looks like they missed the field goal.

They did. I would have gone for it.

The gamenotes say BC has not turned it over. Please do not throw an interception Ryan.

Lets run some clock.

We got a first! On our own 40.

Maryland doing OK so far. Rutgers is improved but to date they have only beat Louisville (last year) in their resurgence.

Gunnell – 17 yard completion – this kid is good.

Boy does Dennis Dixon have skinny legs.

Yes! The football is in BC’s possession on Gamecast. Whew!

The announcers are saying that Colorado has been the superior team in the 2nd half. If so, that’s not good for Oklahoma

Oklahoma muffs a punt!

We need to devise a system that measures how good Subdivision teams are. The top 20 in the former Division 1-AA are solid top 60

Oklahoma and Colorado tied. Hawkins has these guys on the right path.

Rutgers down 14-3. Finally they play a real team. If they come back, I will be so impressed.

Colorado coming out for the win…..Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9-28 Notes

2007-09-29T10:10:00.001-05:00

Some more thoughts for the weekend as Mike Gundy prepares himself for life after football as Al Pacino’s replacement in GodFather 4

Remember the first hit of Daisuke Matsuzaka? By our own Johnny Ayers? NCAA rules prohibit him from possessing the ball before he graduates. Explain that one to me ….

How long does it take you to remember who won the Stanley Cup last year?

It was almost a year ago that my flight landed in Panama, Fl in route to Tallahassee to watch the Eagles defeat Florida St. It’s a two hour drive from Panama City to Tallahassee, most of it along Route 10. (There is NO need to go to Panama City. It is one big eyesore of beachfront condos with no character and little to do). The drive up was memorable as we caught some college football talk coming from Tuscaloosa. They spent the whole show wondering if Bama would ever make it back to the big time, making fun of Tennessee and touching on the Florida St. game. When I say make fun of Tennessee lets just say nothing was off limits about the citizens of that state or the deeds they may participate in. I have never heard and probably never will hear anything like that up north so if you are ever in the area, steer clear of Panama City but find a sports talk show to listen to.

Remember Ryan Ohligher’s fake field goal touchdown against North Carolina? That play was called by graduate assistant Ryan Day who then left for Florida to work under Urban Meyer before becoming the wide receivers coach at Temple last year. He is now doing the same job at BC and everything you read says this guy is a star on the rise. He’s leapfrogged from job to job thus far as he has climbed the ladder but you have to wonder if me might stay put as a wide receivers coach to learn under Logan for a while even if another job opportunity opens up. Unless of course Urban Meyer comes calling again. Its all speculation, I have no first hand knowledge of his ability but I do know that the North Carolina call caught me off-guard never mind North Carolina themselves.

Read into this what you will about Connecticut basketball.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20070927/NEWS/709270573/0/FRONTPAGE

We know Notre Dame is awful. Some people still take them on the spread however …. But my betting site has turned the moneyline off for Notre Dame to win…

South Florida linebacker Ben Moffitt is 22, married, with 2 kids. He commutes 55 miles to go to school so they can raise their kids in their hometown. I am 32, no kids and it takes me 15 minutes from closing the door in my apartment to sitting on my desk on the 5th floor. Pretty speechless.

Watching a game at South Florida and its sold out stadium makes you think here is the next Florida St.

6:12 left in the 2nd quarter and both West Virginia and South Florida have turned it over four times. Do national title contenders do this?

Why I bet on Northwestern? Cause I want to root for them and Michigan is not scary?

Yes, I do live a 20 minute walk from the Metrodome. But with Oregon and California going that will delay me from going anywhere.

So, Dick Vitale was at the South Florida game. He praised Tranghese for having the foresight to invite South Florida to join the Big East. Explain to me how you have to be a genius to invite a team from Florida to join an unstable eight team conference? Florida high school football? Simons and I were saying invite Central Florida and East Carolina 10 years ago. Maybe its good no one listened. Where would Steve Logan be then?

Noel Devine is fast. Repeat … fast …

Week 3 Picks

2007-09-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

Moore:

WVU -7 @ S. Florida
Wisconsin -7 v. Mich St.
Clemson -3 @ GT
Michigan -17 @ Northwestern
California +5 @ Oregon

Ferris:

Penn State -3 @ Illinois
Michigan State +7 @ Wisconsin
Ohio State -23 @ Minnesota
Kentucky -23 v. Florida Atlantic
Troy -13 v. UL Monroe

Dawg:

Northwestern +17 vs Michigan
California +5 vs Oregon
Alabama +2.5 vs Florida St.
Michigan St. +7 vs Wisconsin
Maryland +15.5 vs Rutgers

9-25 Thoughts

2007-09-25T16:35:00.001-05:00

Remember that scene in Rainman where Tom Cruise has to pull up to a farmhouse so that Dustin Hoffman’s Rainman character can watch ‘The People’s Court?” At first the housewife does not allow it but when Rainman starts to shake back and forth and mumble loudly on her porch she realizes she has to relent or see a full-fledged meltdown when a grown man does not get his way. I felt the same way when my cable went out on Saturday afternoon. Completely helpless, at the whim of an electronic box, and just praying that it would come back on before I flipped out. As I knelt in front of the LED screen, I raced through all my options for the rest of the day.

Read – Out
Go for a bike ride and enjoy the beautiful day – Out
Go to the gym – Out
Anything that did not involve football – Completely Out

And then I realized just how poor my day would be if that cable box did not flip back on. I only have the one TV; I have no college football friends whose house to rush to for the next ten hours and there is no way that Comcast would be here before Thursday. The only option would be to run out to the sports bar and its four dollar beers which would get pretty expensive right quickly in addition to leaving that valuable piece of real estate called my couch. It probably would have entailed changing out of my sweatpants and ripped t-shirt too but thankfully that big decision did not have to be made as the HALT button went away and the time reappeared on the console. It was back to being as happy as a clam at high tide with football back on and wings on the way.

Being in a technical position however got me thinking. My job, if done properly, ensures 99.99% uptime meaning that redundancy and availability is built into the solution for my customer, the business. I would think that the customer has a right to be mad if they were unable to do their work because of a system failure. Their inability to work causes deadlines to be missed, the boss to be on your case and a complete change to your schedule as it now infringes on your free time. Well, what is our recourse as Comcast (cable) customers? With internet and cable 100 or 150 dollars shouldn’t there be an attempt at instant restoration of service? Or, at the very least be able to purchase a cable package that allows for rush delivery of a cable box. That would be a good service to offer. I did not have to call the cable company but I bet there was no same day turnaround and I am sure there is no high availability package but I bet for anyone that plans their day around a single TV and sporting events, there is a market for quick restoration of service.

Anyways, on to more thoughts as I read the BCS user manual for how Notre Dame can still get a BCS slot …

Words I never thought I would utter, “I am more afraid of playing UMass then Notre Dame. Umass is a Top 10 team in the NCAA subdivision and we have seen what those teams are capable of doing. This team faced off against Appalachian in the title game last year so there is no way they should be overlooked. That does not even mention that a lot of the kids on the team would have been passed over by BC for a scholarship so they will be coming in with something to prove. These are the games that just aren’t fun from my perspective.

While watching the BC game Ferris texted me saying how he missed having the first down line. I thought it was weird that I was watching the game and had not even noticed.

Last week I wondered if Nebraska would ever be back. I did not mean will they field a team that can win the MAC.

Miami put on quite a performance against Texas A&M last week. The receivers looked the best they had in years and Kyle Wright played a great game. He must have been so bad in practice to have initially lost his job to Freeman. What really surprised me about Miami is how physical the receivers were over the middle. If they develop toughness along with their athleticism then Randy Shannon has the program on the right track.

Congratulations to Syracuse! I called my uncle, an SU supporter, after the game but he was out golfing. Him and the rest of Syracuse didn’t think they were going to win a game this year. Hopefully the Orange will build on this and get back to respectability.

I think the party is over in Louisville. They were never good pre-Petrino so why would they be good after his departure? I don’t want to pass judgment on Steve Kragthorpe yet but this is not Tulsa.

Speaking of Tulsa they were just 23 point dogs last week to Oklahoma. I thought that was a misprint and Vegas knew something I didn’t. Glad I outthought myself.

Announcers love to say that when facing fast opposing linebackers you should run a lot of misdirection. The thinking being that these guys are so fast they will run themselves out of the play. So, are we saying these guys are idiots and can’t read plays or that its good to have slow linebackers cause their lack of speed limits the offensive playbook?

Missouri is way off the national radar.

Bonnie Bernstein still does not have a ring on.

Chad Henne may have improved as little as any quarterback in four years. Do you want him or Mallett at the helm going forward.

I’ll say it. I can’t wait for Big East football this Friday. Or Saturday when Rutgers lines up against Maryland.

Hawaii really played Charleston Southern?

Matt Ryan REALLY needs to read the linebacker/safety on his slot patterns. The interceptions he has thrown for TD’s were about the exact same throw.

Is Bob Costas aging that well or are miracles being worked behind the scenes?

ESPN has to redefine their game-changing plays. By definition changing means to alter the way a game was being played. Game ending plays are fantastic finishes but did not alter the course of the game. Wake Forest’s nominee for a game changing play encapsulates what the award winner should be.

I was beyond shocked to see Kentucky come back to win at Arkansas especially after Felix Jones took back a kick in the 4th quarter. But Andre Woodson showed a lot of poise coming back and his receivers made plays. He’s my leader in the clubhouse for the Heisman.

And buried down this post is my version of the 2007 Yankees, off to a terrible start but you just know I will turn it around. …….

Standings:

Moore 6-4
Ferris 5-5
Dawg 3-7

Article on BC in ACC - Admissions

2007-09-25T07:47:00.000-05:00

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/09/25/boston_college_allure_spreads_southward/?page=1

Weekly Thoughts

2007-09-21T13:19:00.000-05:00

Some notes and thoughts from Saturday.

USC was only the second #1 team to travel to Lincoln for a game. I would have thought Oklahoma would have done that multiple times.

Poor Temple. They actually beat Uconn on Saturday but the referee would not overturn the call on the field. For those that did not see, Temple caught a deflected pass at the back of the end zone which was ruled out of bounds. The announcers and myself were convinced that the receiver actually caught the ball but the call was not overturned. So, a couple of thoughts, either the referee did not think the evidence was irrefutable or he wanted to get out of Connecticut alive. I vote for the later. (The Big East replay official of course said the former) To me there was no question about the catch and since we have replay, lets make sure that we use it for those tough calls no matter how unpopular they are. Even if the referee does not reverse it during the game it should be judged and validated by the league who represents those officials. In this case, both the MAC and Big East should rule on it after careful analysis and come to their conclusions. I want to know what irrefutable means or do we just have to acknowledge that officials and referees can hide behind this term?

You can count on hearing the term ‘Silence is Deafening’ whenever a big team is in trouble at home.

In case anyone has not noticed (and judging by the attendance you haven’t) Central Florida is a competitive team. Behind the coaching of George O’ Leary and running back Kevin Smith, they have beaten NC St. and gave Texas a huge scare. This begs the question, “Where would Notre Dame be now if O’Leary was the coach.” If he can make Central Florida competitive, you know he would have made Notre Dame competitive.

I think Notre Dame will be solid again next year unless Weis can not coach a lick. There will be no reason next year not to have a great ballclub on the field.

If Minnesota and Syracuse played would anyone show up? Glen Mason was not that bad was he? Or Paul Pasqualoni.

Remember when people tried to call Pitt .. Pittsburgh. Talk about an idea that never flew.

Notre Dame is getting lambasted for its handling of the Demetrius Jones departure. My question is, what is the procedure that schools have followed to this point? Have other schools set a precedent for ND to follow and Notre Dame is just getting the black eye for everyone. Simons sent me this article which discusses an in-conference transfer.

https://mail.glasshouse.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.dailynews.com/usc/ci_6942865

Where will Doug Flutie rank on the 25 greatest players of all time.

There are rumors floating around that Jeff Smith is done for not only the season but for his career. It would be a blow to the return team at the very least but in this day and age concussions are not treated lightly.

Nebraska got whipped by USC which in and of itself is no big surprise but makes me wonder if Nebraska will ever be back to the form they once had. If Oklahoma and USC can do it then Nebraska should be able to do it also but it just shows how long it can take to become a national powerhouse again once you lose it. It will probably be easier for Miami and Florida St. in a talent rich state.

There is a lot of quickness on the field when Challenger, Robinson and Gunnell go to the three wide set.

How bad must teams be for Syracuse to be number 9 in ESPN’s Bottom 10.

What’s so funny is listening to commentary about how Michigan could rebound. Reason #1 –they do not have to face the spread offense again. Essentially, it’s like an admission that the Big 10 teams can not play teams of such persuasion and are actually ‘good’ teams again when conventional smash-mouth football returns. As long as the Big 10 has their BCS slot things will be all right. Additionally, they have like 4 undeserved January 1st or better bowl tie-ins for their lack of speed conference. OK, they can still compete as there are quality teams but do you see anyone that can compete with the Big 4 teams in the national polls – Florida, LSU, USC and Oklahoma?

Why can’t Notre Dame fans just admit they suck right now. Many other fan bases can acknowledge that so what makes it so hard south of Chicago?

Things can change so fast in college football. Iowa was apparently on the verge of being a perennial Top 10 team, now they are losing to Iowa St. Oregon was amazing when Harrington was there and have spent the last six years wallowing in the middle of the Pac 10. Auburn should have been playing for the national title a few years back and has now lost to South Florida and Mississippi St. The fact that these programs were or are struggling is not surprising its that the same coach is running the program. Each of those coaches, Ferentz, Bellotti and Tuberville have been called great too.

Week 2 Picks

2007-09-20T10:39:00.000-05:00

Ferris:

Texas A&M +2.5 @ Miami
Oklahoma -23 @ Tulsa
Ohio St -22.5 v. Northwestern
GT -3.5 @ Virginia
Troy -10.5 @ Louisiana Lafayette

The Dawg:

Northwestern +22.5 vs Ohio. St.
Illinios -3 vs Indiana
Alabama -3.5 vs Georgia
NC St. +7.5 vs Clemson
Notre Dame +12.5 vs Mich St.

Moore:

1. Penn St -3 @ Michigan
2. Georgia Tech -3.5 @ Virginia
3. Oklahoma -23 @ Tulsa
4. Clemson -7.5 @ NC State
5. Ohio St -22.5 vs. Northwestern

Moore takes Week 1

2007-09-18T12:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, Moore has jumped out to a 3-2 lead over Ferris and I. Oklahoma St. might just be plain awful. Getting hammered by Troy? What does this say about South Carolina who beat Georgia who beat an Oklahoma St. team that I thought could at least score. I willl have to look at that Carolina line closely this week.

How bout BC? That may be the most impressive win in recent memory. Ryan had all day to throw and delivered accurately. Brandon Robinson looked great in his on again - off again war with his hands.

I l ike the fact we lost the turover battle 1-0 but that it did not factor into the game. Nice to see a win without being opportunistic.

9-15 Preview

2007-09-14T13:13:00.000-05:00

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.

Picks 9-15

2007-09-12T20:51:00.000-05:00

Allright, the 3 way race is on again. The second place finisher buys rounds of shots after the Miami game. The loser brings a bottle of the winner’s choice to Churchill Down’s next year.

Ferris’s Picks

TCU -8 v. AirForce
Texas -19 v. central florida
USC -10 v. Nebraska
Florida St -4 v. Colorado
E Carolina +1 v. S Miss

Moore’s Picks

1. TCU -8
2. Ohio State -4
3. Ok St -10
4. West Virginia -16.5
5. Boston College +7

The Dawgs Picks

Boston College +7 vs Georgia Tech
USC -10 v Nebraska
Fresno St. +16.5 vs Oregon
Navy -7 vs Ball St.
Oklahoma St. -10 vs Troy

Running Commentary 9-8

2007-09-11T16:34:00.000-05:00

Here are the Gameday Notes as I sat on the couch and watched until BC and a fast moving 12 pack got the rest of my attention

First thought of the day – Oklahoma looks great

Nebraska is not as wide open or as fluid as I thought they would be. I was expecting more from Keller.

One of the ESPN announcers felt that the player with the most to prove today was Sean Glennon. I don’t see how that is possible. I just think he sucks. If he proves anything to me, he will prove that he is mediocre.

Nebraska comes to town and Wake Forest is not even a sellout. Large chunks of open space seen in the upper decks.

Marshall University did their school promo with two or three of the shortest, chubbiest girls you can put together up front chanting the school fight song or whatever. No SEC cheerleaders there.

How in the name of Rob Johnson did Kirby Freeman beat out Kyle Wright?

The Big 10 network is not available on Comcast apparently. I knew that but I cant believe they won’t pick it up.

Erin Andrews is actually kind of bony in her shoulders.

Pam Ward has established herself as legit to me.

Why would West Virginia play at Marshall? Actually I think it has to do with politicians. Score one for the fighthing John Kerry’s.

3rd down conversions thus far. Wake Forest 5-9 and Nebraska 0-6. USC next week?

Can’t wait for Boise and Washington right now.

Its cold here today, like 60’s. Wearing my beat up sweatpants for the first time. Couldn’t be happier.

I am getting confused on the channels. All season major league baseball has been 771 and up and by default I keep switching back to this range for the GamePlan games which are 702-707 or something.

Kyle Wright is in. Bout time.

How many people born in MA are flipping to Clemson vs Louisiana “Insert Random City’ here? Yes ladies, I’m single.

I really think V Tech has no chance tonight.

Louisiana ‘Insert City’ takes a 7-0 lead.

Digital cable needs quicker reload channels. I will harp on this all year.

Miami’s freshman tailback Cooper will be a player.

Damn, hit 773 instead of 703.

John Parker Wilson. What a name for a football player.

Kyle Wright looks poised.

Booby Purify was arrested twice and is still on the football team? Or at least playing right now?

Cooper just needs to out on size.

Oklahoma eventually gave up a score but boy are they quick along that goalline.

West Virginia’s defense is still suspect. – “ya suspect’ – Ben Affleck is MIA now ha?

Bowling Green being competitive again.

I have not been to one Minnesota collegiate event. Basketball and football I have excuses for, but not hockey.

Hit 774 again.

Does the US Open really get more people to watch than a nice SEC game on CBS.

The West Virginia’Marshall ‘series’ was discontinued from 1922-1997. Discontinued is not the right word. 1922 – forever to be linked to Howard Carter in my mind.

Doing a Mike and Mike commercial. It is a pretty funny show.

I love the Miller High Life reclaim guy. “11 dollars for a burger, you gotta be crazy.”

Doug Flutie is much better this year.

Ohio St. leads Akron 6-2 in the 3rd in the Indians intrasquad scrimmage game.

Not sure what to make of BC right now. Wake looks decent or was I just waaaay off on Nebraska.

October 2nd – Cavemen!

Miami’s FG kicker at least looks good.

There is a player named Iglesias on Oklahoma? Not Miami?

BC

TOB is back. I would have clapped for him but no love.

Squib kick on the opening?

Challenger comes across real well in his pregame introductions.

On a punt, how many do you think you could even fair catch out of 10?

I should move to the South. Just give me half an hour with a southern blond and I should then have a fighting chance the rest of the night.

Over/under on Cavemen seriously? Moore?

I have to bring up my punting theory again. There is no reason to send your punter out there when he attempts to pooch it. Send a guy out there who can only kick it 30 yards at most and who can keep it straight. You will be inside the 10 every time.

Raji’s loss is seen all over the field. Pass rush is not there.

Ryan is like Brett Favre but without the cannon. He tries to force things into places where there is little chance.

I am surprised more punters do not drop the ball, especially if they feel rushed.

And the notes just got too sloppy to read.

Initial Thoughts

2007-09-06T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry everybody, this little thing called work has gotten in the way of all my writing which is not an excuse as I do not have kids or a girlfriend or many dates so it’s not really an excuse but an admittance of laziness. Last week was a great college football weekend with the biggest upset of all time and Notre Dame getting trounced and managing three lousy points. I wish I had seen both games but tailgating is not a bad time either.

I was sitting at the bar before the tailgate saying to Simons that Appalachian was going to give Michigan a great game. They were a two time defending national champion of the ‘Sub Division of College Athletics’ and Michigan had to answer many holes on defense and an offense that always seems to not put inferior opponents away. And as the tailgate progressed, it was with great glee that everyone was checking their phones for an update on the Michigan score as Appalachian continued to hang in there. What is so bad about this is that for a Michigan fan you can never live this down. The moment that someone introduces themselves as a Michigan fan, they know that you are snickering internally and always have that ace in the hole if they start insulting you. It is the end of their trash talking days really. They can’t win. You almost expect the Detroit Lions to win now to help ease their pain. Wouldn’t it be fun to plan a road trip to Michigan in an RV with an Appalachian flag attached to it? Just sit out in the parking lot and booze the day away while listening to the call of the blocked field goal at the end by the Appalachian radio announcers and have it on repeat? Have a cornhole toss with Appalachian beanie bags? That, my friends, would be pure comedy. Videotaping that and putting it on You Tube may be the ultimate hit generator.

How about the Irish? Charlie is mum on his quarterback selection until gametime and then proceeds to use all three. I have to think with all that inexperience that it’s not all the quarterbacks’ fault. Sharpley even had pretty decent numbers. I can’t wait to see the game this weekend. Notre Dame has nowhere to go but up and they are playing a Penn St. team that improved greatly by the end of last season and trounced an inferior opponent like they were supposed to last weekend. What is seriously going through Weis mind right now? He has already been hailed as the savior and his team faces 7 more tough opponents before the Academy bowls. They still have to play Michigan, Michigan St., Purdue, Penn St, BC, USC and UCLA. 0-8 is a definite possibility. If that were to occur, a worst case scenario, what is left then for Weis? He would be near the same position as Willingham who was fired for his 3rd year record. That may not occur and Weis will retain his job but for 4 million a year and supposedly great recruiting classes, Notre Dame should never have to dwell on the possibility of that many losses to open a season. The thought here is that ND becomes much better next year and that Weis and team overachieved in their first couple of years at least from a national perception standpoint.

Quick hits:

Georgia Tech may just be seriously underrated right now. Real interested to see how their new quarterback adjusts. Their defense is near the top of the ACC.

Texas won by 8 points over Arkansas St? That’s not getting enough play.

Michigan will not be the last highly regarded team to lose to a ‘Sub Division of College Athletics’ opponent.

Syracuse is no good but Washington’s 42 points in the Carrier Dome bears watching. Wouldn’t it make for great drama for a declining Notre Dame and a rejuvenated Huskies program?

Florida St. lost their opener but showed a lot of guts in coming back at Clemson. This was missing from last year’s team. The in game adjustments by the coaching staff also were not seen last year. Attribute this to the upgrades at offensive coordinator and offensive line. Look for Florida St. to rebound and take the Atlantic Division title.

Georgia’s pasting of Oklahoma St. was impressive. Oklahoma St. will put up some points in the Big 12 this year but was kept in check by the Dawgs D.

How many lives does Al Groh have?

Handicapping the ACC

I can only take one thing away from this weekends’ past action. The race is WIDE open. The ACC’s darling Virginia Tech could not score against East Carolina and needed a defensive touchdown to put the Pirates away. NC St. lost to Central Florida despite its athleticism. Wake Forest had no plays except crosses over the middle. Virginia lost to Wyoming. We could look at each team but I want to focus on Miami. They had no trouble with against Marshall and now go on the road against Oklahoma. I will handicap this game later but the feeling I got was a renewed sense of optimism from the Canes and a Canes team that will improve as the year goes on. Talent is never the question and the defense has still been top rate but quarterback play has been missing at the U. If Kirby Freeman continues to improve, the Canes may be your odds on favorites to win the ACC. They do have to go to Virginia Tech but that was not a problem two years ago.

This Week Picks.

Nebraska favored by 8 at Wake Forest – Did Wake Forest do anything last week to show they could hang with a good team? BC gave them two defensive touchdowns and Wake had incredible field position all day since BC could not kickoff to even the 20 and still did not move the ball consistently. Nebraska on the other hand might be a little under everyone’s radar. Sam Keller brings a lot of experience into this and Bill Callahan may be ready to take the next step. I will be cheering for Wake but I like Nebraska.

Oklahoma favored by 10.5 against Miami – Aren’t people jumping on the Oklahoma bandwagon a little early since they still start a freshman at QB. I happen to think that Miami’s problems have been coaching and attitude. At Oklahoma is a big test but I feel good about the Canes D. Miami.

Boise St. favored by three against Washington – I wish Washington had not won by so much last week. To me, this is a statement game for Willingham and the Washington program. They get to host a Boise team on green grass. I like the Huskies to continue their improvement and Boise does not go back to the BCS.

Georgia favored by 4.5 on South Carolina – I liked Georgia’s victory last week. I know nothing about South Carolina right now. Between the hedges, got to go with the Dawgs.

Penn St. favored by 17! over Notre Dame. I like Penn St a lot but how much is residual from Georgia Tech. Can Weis live with one quarterback? I did not see ND so I am going blind again but ND seems to rally when their backs are against the wall. Somehow ND pride responds and they cover. If not, I won’t mind.

Auburn favored by 7 against South Florida. The Bulls are this years darling. Everybody is on their bandwagon and calling for a possible Big East championship. In case people did not notice, Auburn had a pretty tough opener against Kansas St. that I believe will prepare them well. Auburn is home at 9 at night. They cover easily.

LSU is a 12.5 favorite against V Tech. I feel Tech’s defense is overhyped. They scored 10 offensive points against East Carolina at home, now they go to Baton Rouge? I love LSU in this one although I have to pull for our ACC brethren.

Haden Commits!

2007-06-20T20:27:00.000-05:00

Over offers from Florida, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio St. amongst others. Works for me.

Katz's column

2007-06-19T13:23:00.000-05:00

• The buzz out of Chestnut Hill is that incoming freshman Rakim Sanders will be an impact player. Jared Dudley saw him and said he'll be a star for BC to go along with Tyrese Rice, who was somehow left off the Pan Am trials roster for next month in Philadelphia.

More on Haden

2007-06-18T15:00:00.001-05:00

This guy sounds like a difference maker.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/recruitinginsider/?hpid=news-col-blog-viewall

Easy Money

2007-06-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

Who says sitting on your but all day watching college football could not payoff? The other day, Jeopardy had Michigan football as one of the categories in Double Jeopardy. Thats 6000 dollars if you answer all the questions correctly.

The questions were:

Charles Woodson won this award.

This guy lead Michigan to a national title at QB and was the son of an NFL great, also at QB.

The Patriots have won Super Bowls with him at the helm.

Starred on the offensive line for the 1932-33 teams and dabbled in politics.

This guy named Bo coached for years xxxx-xxxx

All for tipping a few back on the Saturday 12 to pass out shift.

Fast Facts 6-13

2007-06-13T12:54:00.001-05:00

Dontrelle Willis is Florida's career win leader at 65. Kind of amazing when they have won two World Series titles and that they have no ten win pitcher for a period of 7 years or so.

Jeff Cirillo is Milwaukee's all time batting average leader at .307

BC is one of the last two for stand out running back Josh Haden. Their competition, defending national champ, Florida.

Jeff Samardzija not off to a great start.

http://cubs.scout.com/2/649263.html

Billy the 'Kid'

2007-06-06T15:58:00.000-05:00

You have to think that Billy Donovan’s ear was firmly attached to Rick Pitino’s yap in the last few weeks. Pitino has not been shy in saying that he should have never left Kentucky. He was happy there and now believes that when you achieve happiness in life you should not upset that equation.

I have always thought that Pitino’s analysis smacked of cowardice and denial. He took the Boston job because he wanted a challenge, he wanted to add another feather to his cap, he wanted people to say that this guy can win at both the NBA and college level. However, his spectacular failure with the Celtics has caused Pitino to forget that his success was due to his ambition, his desire to succeed, and thus the basis for getting the opportunity to even coach the Celtics. He took a swing for the fences and has never landed gracefully.

I feel that Pitino’s fall from “Success is a Choice’ played a large part in Donovan’s reversal of thinking. Somewhere in his mind, Donovan did not want to repeat the mistakes of his boss. Sure, Pitino probably said the decision is yours but Pitino’s recounting of that experience over the years must have resonated with Donovan as the process carried itself out.

The fact he took the job after much deliberation leads me to believe that Donovan has an itch he wants to scratch. He will go back to Florida and be content, be at one with his heart and think of how he lucky he was to have gotten out of Orlando unscathed. But, a few years from now, he will start to think about that next step. He will remember that he would like that next challenge just like he did in 2007. The question is, will anyone else give him that chance? The NBA’s 5 million dollar salaries are not for those that renege on signed contracts.

We all make choices about our professional life that are not easy. Most of us do not have nets to fall back into. If Donovan’s net allows him to continue his amazing work at Florida while being content then he made the right call. I just think the next chapter will be written in five years when someone sums up the courage to take that next step. Suitors may be another problem.

College Football

2007-05-22T11:42:00.000-05:00

OK, I have started the long and arduous process of relearning all the things I have forgotton since January in the wonderful world of college football. This consists of surfing the Web and reading team reports on both the national and local level. My first question of the year is "How in the name of missed extra points at LSU is Alexis Serna still in college"? Seems like 15 years ago this guy melted down in Baton Rouge. Now, he is almost automatic inside 50. If Oregon St. can move the links a few times here and there, 3 points will always be waiting for them.

National Title Game

2007-04-03T08:58:00.000-05:00

Horford leads off with a 15 foot jumper from the wing? I can't recall that shot in Florida's arsenal in their first five games.

Conley just made Humphrey look slower than a D3 guard on a simple crossover.

Noah is not NBA ready. Can't exploit his size and athleticism against Harris.

Then Noah gets tired within 4 minutes?

Great call by Packer on calling a tic-tac foul on Horford against Oden. Let the boys play.

Noah found himself three feet from the basket on a nice low screen and was able to draw a foul. He did not need to do more than a simple move to get that shot.

I have decided to focus on Conley on both offense and defense - writing this while Packer continues to berate the refs for calling this like a soccer game. Ferris would literally foul us all out in the summer if these guys were reefing at the Vineyard. By the way, we will have a 5 dribble limit next year so Ferris can't take 15 dribbles while backing himself into the paint.

Florida's looks are coming tough. Green gets to the line on a 3 point shot but it was not a wide open look. I disagree with Packer. Packer says the big guys are not hedging on the picks but Green took that shot because nothing else was developing.

So much for watching Conley. Refs foul calls are light and proving to be too big a factor.

Good perimeter D leads to a Noah 15 foot jumper which he bricked on queue.

For as long as Corey Brewer plays ball, we will always have that footage of Oden flat out embarrassing him on a dunk attempt.

This is the most aggressive that Oden has played offensively. Taureen Green has been palming the ball half the time out top.

Ohio St is going through Oden too much.. They have no other options in their half court set. Green hits a three timeout. Lets see what the Buckeyes do in this half court set.

1st possession - Conley penetrates and puts up a tough runner. Oden eventually jams it off a rebound. (lucky)

2nd possession - Conley is out of control, Brewer strips him and dunks it. Brewer has been the class of the game so far his facial notwithstanding. (Awful)

3rd - Oden receives the ball three feet from basket with single coverage. Noah could do nothing. (Great but no free throws) They come back one on one to Oden and he converts but Oden is all the Buckeyes have.

4th - Conley penetration leads to a wide open three which Oden snares and gets back to the line. Makes one.

5th - Butler penetrates and Oden jams again.

Butler penetrates and gets a good look.

1st half analysis - Florida is taking and making their threes. They are not all completely uncontested. They are mostly off high pick and rolls. They miss a couple and they will think twice about shooting them. Ohio St. finally got a little bit of a rhythm at the end by penetrating. Florida needs better perimeter defense or Ohio St. may get some good looks throughout the second half. I think I will document every Buckeye possession and see if those observations tell us anything by game end.

It pains me to have to root for Ohio St. just so we don’t have another blowout.

Oden - one on one - 2 more points. (Great)

Lewis - 15 foot step back - High degree of difficulty - cant count on it.

Florida turnover - Oh St. dunk. Horford another jumper - not the one Florida wants. Great start by the Buckeyes as they go back to transition.

Thad Matta will be the youngest to win a title? Matta is younger than Donovan?

Conley missed floater ....

The tempo has changed here. Butler missed three off high screen - good look. Ohio St. has not had a bad possession yet. Some tough looks but they were designed.

Horford 15 footer from the free throw line. That is where he should be taking it.

Humphrey hits a huge three as Ohio has come out playing well but Florida has responded.

Oden back to back, one on one moves. Unstoppable right now with one guy guarding him. Oden just appears to want it. I now have my doubts about Durant as the definite top pick. Horford and Noah are no slouches but cant do anything. What’s so impressive. is now quick Oden is.

Florida now changes to a zone. I think they are shocked at how they cant handle Oden one on one. I am also. He has been great.

Conley penetrates and had a floater but threw it away when looking for Oden

Open jumper for Ohio St. They are getting good looks now and seem confident.

Missed three but good look - Ohio St. just needs to make a couple and they are fine. They have made Florida work too get their points (still good looks) but neither team is dominating or controlling the game.

Take that back - Humphrey hits a three - Florida never loses when he is on. Rooting for another Ohio embarrassment now.

We all know Oden is old but he looks older than his Mom. If you saw the two together you must think they were married. Can birth certificates be forged?

Conley strips Hodge and packer called that right on. That’s what separates the egotistical one.

Humphrey nails a three after another Oden block. Oden has earned my respect tonight. packer agrees - the guy is a warrior.

I love the fat guy in the Cingular commercials.

Cruising around on the internet and got pissed off. Nice start Curt.

Ohio down 8. Oden rejects Horford big. Nantz with a good remark on how Ohio is not quick to the ball after an Oden block.
I did not go to the supermarket this weekend for more than a moment thus I am eating bacon at 10:08 Central Time. That’s not so bad but it kind of defeats the purpose of having fish tonight.

Oden - baseline turnaround. Nice. Don’t like Ohio St. but Oden is a guy you want on your team - and now back to the line he goes. Makes 2 free throws.

Brewer has been non-existent. Now Brewer gets taken to the rack.

Ohio St. just can not get stops when they need to. Horford pull up - 11 points. Florida cant be another Xavier right?

Quick Thoughts

2007-03-12T15:13:00.000-05:00

Here are some quick thoughts. Much more analysis to follow but cant give away all my secrets, though I have not gone to the winner’s circle in three years.

Questions:

Will Wisconsin have good home-court advantage in Chicago in its second round game? If so, will it be enough to get by?

Notre Dame gets to play everybody's favorite upstart this year, Winthrop. If they get past that a hot Oregon team awaits

Virginia Tech is as athletic a team as there is. They also could lose to Illinios or beat Kansas later.

We saw Eric Maynor in action last week in winning the Colonial. Duplicate performance on Paulus and boys?

Marquette has the athleticism to give North Carolina all sorts of fits in a second round game.

Oral Roberts over Wazzou - Book it.

BYU has size and patience but not much athleticism. They may make it tough for Oden on the inside if they get past Xavier.

Virginia and Tennessee could both make some noise but will live and die by the jumper.

When Memphis does get into the second round, it will be the first time they play a good team in quite some time.

First recruit

2007-03-06T16:41:00.000-06:00

BC got their first 2008 recruit for football, running back Isaac Johnson, from Everett, MA. I do not know too muuch about Johnson but reopening the channels to Everett high is huge. Recent players from there have been Omar Easy and Diamond Ferri who ended up at Penn St. and Syracuse. Ferri's off the field problems aside he was the difference in preventing us from a BCS berth.

This is a sign that the new coaching staff is going after all local talent with programs that they have passed on recently.

Dudley

2007-03-06T16:14:00.000-06:00

http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/030607aaf.html

Article on Al and thoughts

2007-02-14T10:49:00.000-06:00

http://www.wral.com/sports/blogpost/1202396/

Some thoughts from last nights Vtech-NC game. First of all, North Carolina has not figured it out. Their rotation appears to have no flow to it and they rely mostly on players making plays rather than strategy and execution. They have limited on court leadership and I doubt all their young talent will carry them too far unless Wayne Ellington shows more consistency. When he is missing, NC does not appear to make the adjustments.

Ty Lawson is super quick. His and Brandon Wright's development should fuel them next year.

With Vtech up one and 15 secinds left, NC fouled Markus Salies, a 47% free throw shooter. Wht would Seth Grennburg have a role player that can not shoot in the game at crunch time.

Deron Washington is the best athlete I have seen this year.

When did the word 'schadenfreude' go mainstream? Pat Forde has it in his column.

I have a new drinking game for people. You have to take a sip every time an announcer refers to Tyler Hansbrough as 'strong'. I think most of us would be passed out by halftime.

BC's next 2 games are tournament basketball. Not necessarily because its Duke and North Carolina but because BC is no longer under the radar and they are going to get the Devils and Heels best shots. Duke is fighting for its life and NC will be ready to go after last night's loss. These games will prepare BC well for the games afterwards and possibly the NCAA tournment when they will be under the radar again.

Last I heard Duke has 4 or 5 McDonald's All-Americans. I would think Duke would be a little better with that kind of young talent.

MAC Football

2007-02-13T14:58:00.000-06:00

Should be played during the week after January through February. I would absolutely have Central Michigan vs Akron on in the background. Buffalo should be on all the time too with all the snow they get. Couple of whiteout games would be good entertainment.

BC's loss last night to BU is status quo of course. I did not see any of the game but heard BC was dominant and yet came away with nothing. Maybe hockey should have a scoring system like boxing to assess how a team has controlled the puck, how many faceoffs it has won and how many shots on goal they get. Come up with an equation saying the score should have been 5-2 and compare that to the actual outcome.

Football Recruiting

2007-02-12T16:13:00.000-06:00

BC recruited two run-pass QB’s in Chris Johnson and Dominique Davis. Neither had high Division 1 offers. BC may have taken flyers on both these kids based on their potential. If one of then works out then BC has found something. Davis is 6’4 and 185 from Florida and was going to Middle Tennessee St. Instead he finds himself with a full ride to a world class city as BC came in late in the process. Both QB’s would not have committed under O’Brien.

The steal of the class may be Dan Mulrooney a 6’1’ speedster from Connecticut. Committed early to BC and no one knew of him till his senior year.

The two big name recruits were OL John Elliott and DL Corey Eason. Both could have gone almost anywhere. Elliott hails from NY and Eason from Mansfield, MA

The known prospect that I think will become all-ACC is OL Nick Schepis from Ohio. Just get a good feeling about him from reading his quotes.

BC also landed OL Anthony Castonzo. He has only 260 pounds on his 6’7” frame and is already on campus majoring in biochemistry. He wants to go into cancer research after football. Guy sounds like a nut.

BC also got one of the nation’s top kickers in Billy Bennett who committed early and never wavered.

In summation, this is a typical BC class. A couple of real good players but mostly guys that are BC guys. A BC guy is someone who views BC not just for football but for academics and that will work hard and will not have off the field issues. Jags only wants guys who want to be here and who realize what the school has to offer. He pulled some offers from kids after they said they were committed to BC but continued to sniff around with other programs.

In this, Jags is a departure from O’Brien. O’Brien always looked at the negatives instead of accentuating the positives. He wanted to be in a college town and now has his wish. He wants 60,000 people in their seats for Akron – he has it. A big fan base is not and never will be BC’s calling card. BC will keep its academic standards and now has a coach that uses this as a selling point! The jury is out on his coaching ability but he appeared to be a closer on the recruiting trail.

Bball thoughts

2007-02-12T12:24:00.000-06:00

Arizona is one team that you don’t want to play come March. They have the talent to compete with anybody but lack the leadership and tough physical play that all teams need to compete consistently. But on any given night they have the ability to explode. Unless they improve they could be that 8 seed that a number 1 does not want to see.

As Sean McDonough stated, Kevin Durant is must see TV. What’s scary is that his freaky athleticism and long arms are combined with a high basketball IQ. He knows the game and has worked in depth on one-on-one moves with his back facing the basket from near the 3 point line.

I learn something every time I listen to Rick Majerus. He does not have a voice that projects itself so listeners may not pay too much attention but his comments on nuances of every aspect of the game are fascinating.

What’s bad for Duke is that Paulus has been shooting better and they are still losing. I do think this Duke ream will be a tougher out come NCAA time though. They are improving but just can not get the consistency throughout the game for the win. They also receive everyone’s best shot and they do not have the talent to win a lot of these games now.

Wouldn’t it be great if Uconn did not make the Big East tournament.

Not sure why BC is a 4 seed in the Bracketology projections. The Duquesne and Vermont losses are just awful.

Why is the name Sean have so many different ways to spell it? Shawn. Shaun.

Best part about Duke this year. Looking at Jon Scheyer’s Mom for the next 4 years.

Stanford has another pair of 7 foot twins. Haven’t they eclipsed their NCAA quota for a 5 year period?

I have flipped on the TV to see that Northwestern is on at least once a week out here. I know I am in Big 10 country but I think I could name one player for them in the last 10 years.

I got an email saying this’ Oregon re-worked their schedule to move the game at Arizona to a Thursday night for an ESPN broadcast. FINALLY the conference figured out a way to get Pac 10 v. Pac 10 matchup on ESPN (I honestly can't think of another one in recent history)’ – EXACTLY – bout time.

I will personally take Al Skinner to the Capital Grille (or restaurant of preference) once a year as long as he remains coach.

Tyrese Rice has to enter the discussion for 1st team all ACC. He is the only ballhandler on the conference’s first place team and is scoring at a great rate with few turnovers and does not take many ill-advised shots.

Still can’t believe Tommy Amaker has not been let go. They have not been to the tourney since 1998 and Amaker has been there since 2001. If Billy Gillespie can turn around Texas A&M anything is possible.

Bob Huggins has also made Kansas St. real respectable in a short time. Think Cincinnati has any regrets for letting him go?

How long will Calipari stay at Memphis? Conference USA is a joke.

Wright St. actually leads Butler in the Horizon League.

Yale lost to Cornell 60-59 to knock them out of first in the Ivy.

More Dudley

2007-02-04T14:36:00.000-06:00

Love this quote.

"He's different," said Virginia Tech senior guard Jamon Gordon. "He ain't no 2. He ain't no 3. He ain't no 4. He's just a basketball player. Basketball players can beat athletes any time."

I want to watch Dudley work the refs and players throughout the game. Here is another one.

'He even worked over Virginia Tech's trash-talking Deron Washington, who told Dudley he was incapable of guarding him. When Washington retreated to the Hokies' bench during a second-half timeout, the quick-witted Dudley shot back, "You guys need to be more worried about guarding me."'

I think its etched in stone that Dudley will be a coach someday. He does not have foot quickness but he will end up on someone's NBA roster.

Troubling quote

2007-02-04T08:25:00.000-06:00

Jared Dudley is a very measured individual. He thinks through most everything he does and says. This quote has to be based on something that he has heard or observed...From the Boston Herald.

“When Craig (Smith) left, I always wanted to be in a position to take over the game, and now I’m starting to shoot better,” said Dudley. “I worked hard over the summer, and I didn’t want anything to get in the way. Not all of the suspensions, or if coach Skinner ever resigned, would affect the way I was playing.”

MSNBC Article

2007-02-01T13:58:00.000-06:00

OK, I can see not giving Jags props but O'Brien better than Saban and Davis? So, a guy who never went to a BCS bowl vs guys who won national titles?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16895923/

Arenas - Duke

2007-01-26T10:36:00.000-06:00

Moore suggested a pay-per view event for Gilbert Arenas vs Duke. Pure genuis. Group of guys splitting a 30 buck fee to watch Arenas and 4 defensive stiffs play Duke. The other 4 guys could be like Division 3 players or something - all under 6'2". Thats entertainment.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2743071

Today's Thoughts

2007-01-24T14:56:00.000-06:00

Bobby Petrino’s leaving Louisville and the speed with which Steve Kragthorpe was hired demonstrates how both these deals were in the works for a while. Probably explains why Kragthorpe was hardly mentioned for an opening like Arizona St.

Old habits die hard. We all know what a precious commodity the remote can be when dealing with roommates. To this day, I still absent-mindedly carry the remote with me to another place in the apartment which leads to me looking around for it for a few minutes.

What is with all the athletic director’s hiring search firms for coaching candidates? Shouldn’t it be the top job of an AD to always have possible coaches in mind if one of their employees leaves? Why do they need a firm to say ‘maybe you should check out this guy’?

Anytime your football coach and basketball coach are fired in the same year that should mean an automatic firing of the AD. Minnesota athletics is just a mess.

I know the never graduate ads are humorous but lets get over the North Carolina – Duke and Michigan – Ohio St angles. There are other great under-publicized rivalries that would make that commercial funny and informative.

The best commercial on TV is the Manning family getting a tour of ESPN. The line about how you have to walk from the control room to the screening room is Niles Crane like understated humor. John Anderson simply has nothing to say. Cracks me up every time.

BC got a verbal commit from Chris Johnson – a dual threat QB from New Jersey. Think Jeff Blake for a comparison.

Have to give ND some props. Kicking McAlarney out of school showed the administration has their priorities straight also.

Kentucky basketball has officially fallen off the map. They have not competed for a title in years and are nothing more than a solid team this year. The press never discusses Tubby Smith as about to get the heave-ho though.

Many people know that Wisconsin guard Kammron Taylor looks like Chris Rock but he sure as heck sounds like him also.

The way Kevin Durant has been playing I would not be surprised to see a team take him over Oden.

Most raw, unheard of player that I have seen this year is Joe Alexander from West Virginia. Great athleticism and is just learning the game.

Thoughts on the National Title Game

2007-01-09T15:07:00.000-06:00

We need a boycott. We need a boycott that hits Fox hard. It is absurd that the national title game was on January 8th. I spend every Saturday in the fall watching college football so I am as involved as it gets in the beauty that is college football but even I was not enthusiastic about last night's game. My anticipation had waned to the point where if they canceled the game I would not have cared. Of course, since they did not stop the game, I watched or at least flipped channels as Ohio State got flat out embarrased. Lets get this game back where it belongs, on January 1st. Since I slept through the class on passive resistance in college any ideas as to how to proceed would be great.

Lets get back to the whooping that occurred last night. In retrospect why was this surprising? Outside of Michigan, who did the Buckeyes play? Texas was rebuilding this year so that does not count and Wisconsin was not on their schedule so they really did not play anyone else. The rest of the Big 10 was pretty pathetic to say the least. The Buckeyes lack of experience finally caught up to them on defense and without Ginn, they had no chance on offense. Florida was fast but I think Ohio St. had speed on their roster but could not use it as they were out of position the whole night. The BCS should be tweaked again. This time they have to take into account the SEC as the premier conference. Auburn being left out a couple of years ago makes continues to look worse. After watching all the bowls, I have to conclude that the next best team was LSU and they would have beaten Florida in Gainesville if they could have just held on to the ball. The even more scary thing is that the Florida program is only going to get better. Florida was athletic but they have had better athletes in the past than this year's team. When Urban gets those guys back its going to be theirs to lose. The only thing that may keep them from being a dynasty is the SEC itself where road games can lead to losses against teams that you may be better than.

Fox Sports as a whole just needs to go to . I do not know the announcers and they just end up pissing me off. The guys on Fox are second rate for the very fact that they work at Fox. If you could, wouldnt you work somewhere else if your job is to do college athletics. As one friend wrote me ,"Charles Davis needs to be banned from commentating on games. He spoke after every single play and claimed to have forseen the Florida blowout when Thom Brenneman asked the rhetorical question before the half - "did anyone see this coming?" Davis said "Not to this extent, but..." Shut up!" - Great call

USC has to be your leader in the clubhouse for next year. Florida and LSU have to break in new QB's so that may cost them a little. Tim Tebow may have to throw some instead of diving forward and jumping up in the air after every three yard run. Did everyone see that little Simms has decommitted from Louisville. He bolted hours after Petrino. Its safe to say he was going to Louisville strictly for Petrino's offensive skills and not for any collegiate experience. He may be just a name recruit but expect BC and Rutgers to be vying for his services.

Pac 10 Basketball

2007-01-08T14:39:00.000-06:00

With the emergence of Washington St. and USC, the Pac 10 looks solid from top to bottom. The national media is giving the conference their due also, going out of their way to say there is no East Coast bias.

There is an East Coast bias however and the reason has to do with television. If the Pac 10 could figure out how to get their football or basketball games on ESPN then maybe people would be familiar with their teams. Why can't they get a PAC Thursday night like the other conferences have with Big Monday and such?

I mean how many people are watching Fox Sports to catch any of these games? The Pac 10 needs to move into modernity and allow the sport elephant to broadcast its games.

Erin Andrews

2007-01-05T09:44:00.000-06:00

This was passed along to me. Poor girl.

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/stories/2006/12/25/1226andrews.html?imw=Y

Thoughts

2007-01-04T14:03:00.000-06:00

Everybody should be reaching out to all Notre Dame fans that they know to 'discuss' last nights ass-kicking. Even Domers must now wish they get a 3rd loss in the regular season to save the automatic shoe-in they get to the BCS and the ensuing embarrassment that comes with it. Here is a classic graph that was passed along to me from an unofficial BC site.

http://www.bceaglesfootball.com/ndfan.htm

How pissed are you if you are Wisconsin? They only lose in the Big House and now that most of the bowls have been played, they have a valid argument for the spot that Notre Dame took from them.

If you are up by 15 with like 9 minutes to go in the game, do you think going for 2 makes just as much sense as going for one? 3 scores vs two scores and the other team would still have to convert one 2 pt opportunity.

Nick Saban is making 4 million. Guaranteed. For 8 years. That’s insane. It’s probably worth it. I bet Alabama had heard that university donations might taper off.

Does Tom O’Brien really think he can win at NC St.? He is bringing more-conservative than-a-Christian radical offensive coordinator Dana Bible with him and if the mans MO has not changed in 10 years of play-calling then what are better athletes going to do if you are running fullback outs and draw plays all game long. Now, he gets to recruit against Spurrier and Butch Davis in his own backyard. If you were a recruit, where would you go?

Steve Logan is an awesome hire for BC. His teams at East Carolina were offensively exciting and produced David Garrard and Jeff Blake. He built that program to a level that had not been seen before and was let go. East Carolina has never recovered. Cant wait to see his wide open offenses.

Dwayne Jarrett is a punk. How he did not get called for taunting after his catches I do not know.

Name a team other than Oregon that gets worse as the year goes on. They start off hot and then completely collapse.

I think its great that one Catholic school has the longest bowl winning streak and the other the longest bowl winless streak. I heard that over 80 teams had won bowl games since ND last won one. If that’s true, that’s hilarious.

Poor Rutgers. They have their best season ever and the game is on the NFL network. Good work by the Big East commissioner.

The most improved player from the regular season to the bowls had to be Tony Morelli. The Penn St QB made his team a completely different animal.

Do not have to say much about Boise and Oklahoma. The emotional swings in those few minutes were like getting hit by Ferris when he is drunk only to be hit by his soft underbelly as he tries to make room for himself a moment later.

Cant wait to see how Jeff Smith gets utilized next year.

Lets also hope Matt Ryan does not continue his regression.

Looking back on my bowl picks, I can not believe I took Clemson with as much conviction. They have underachieved all year. Why would the bowl game be different?

Everybody geared up for the Cincinnati bowl game on Sunday?

I love how Charlie Weis gets mentioned for every job still. He has not done more than Willingham yet for crying out loud.

I wonder if Nebraska is near turning the corner. They have better athletes but probably a ways to go before competing with the big boys.

The Big 12 got flat out embarrassed in their bowls. This conference needs to be derided more.

Riley Skinner is a gamer. I love this kid. He is so cool in remaining in the pocket. Wake Forest wins that game if they can just hang on to the ball.

I would love to see a Hawaii—Boise St. rematch. They should make this the end game for both teams in that conference each year.

How does a team beat USC and then get blown out by Florida St? I don’t get that one.

I have zero rooting interest in Florida and Ohio St.

Early call – BC beats North Carolina in the ACC title game.

Rumors on the Internet say that Mark Whipple was told that he would need to retain Spaziani which he did not agree to. That opened the door for Jags.

I think a safe pick in this year’s NFL draft is anyone from LSU. So many big, fast guys.

Next year will be the 3rd in the Ron Zook era at Illinois. How fast has he fallen?

Where will ND be in the final rankings? Where would you rank them?

The announcement I am looking most forward to in the offseason is that the clock will not start on a change of possession now.

Replay has changed so many things this year and reversed some terrible calls but I still want it to go away. We are watching games that often hinge on momentum. Some calls took 5 minutes to overturn. By that point, I have forgotten who has the ball.

Kind of funny that Miami hired internally with Randy Shannon. You usually don’t promote from within when the program is in turmoil.

You know what stat I hate? Larry Coker’s track record. How he is one of the five winningest coaches in 5 years or something. They are missing the point. The program was on a downcycle and there was no sense for optimism. This is not your older brother’s Miami team. By the way where did would be brawl-basher Lamar Thomas end up?

Flor St - UCLA

2006-12-27T09:51:00.000-06:00

I am beginning to think that UCLA wins this easily. Their defense has been top notch lately Florida St. may have gave everything they had in trying to beat Florida. But, I have been wrong more often than not this year.

Not bad press for BC

2006-12-27T09:48:00.000-06:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2704947

From Green Bay's head coach on Jags

2006-12-19T16:55:00.000-06:00

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200611180417/PKR07/611180315

Jagodzinski

2006-12-18T15:13:00.000-06:00

Looks like Jags is the man. The source here is Mark Blaudschun. This is the Globe's top man and not just a rumor if it is up on boston.com ...... I hope we keep Spaz.

Source from Milwaukee

2006-12-18T12:33:00.000-06:00

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=543067

Most media outlets

2006-12-18T08:48:00.000-06:00

Still report Jagodzinski or Whipple as the leader. BC has played this one close to the vest. I honestly am not sure what to think. I think would have liked Nebraska's offensive cooridinator.

Spaziani

2006-12-18T08:34:00.000-06:00

Spaziani is reportedly interviewing with Leahy this morning. Spaziani would do anything to get this job like allowing DeFillipo to have a say in his staff personnel. This means that DeFillipo could 'suggest' an innovative offensive cooridinator like Dave Clawson at Richmond..... All rumors and innuendos but its the hot one. This would allow us to maintain continuity and the defensive schemes that have worked well as of late but not sure as to anyone's ability as a recruiter.

Dave Clawson

2006-12-14T07:18:00.000-06:00

Is the name that continues to be mentioned. He is now the head coach at Richmond. Apparently he is an offensive innovator. Looks like he wants to also make the jump from 1-AA to 1-A. He is a Williams grad and turned the Fordham program around. Attached is his bio.

http://richmondspiders.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/clawson_dave00.html

BBall Thoughts

2006-12-13T10:12:00.000-06:00

BC basketball has improved by leaps and bounds since an embarrassing home loss to Vermont. Any time you lose a player like Craig Smith who was the centerpiece of the offense for years it will take time for players to adjust to their new roles and find chemistry with each other. It looks like they might be making that transition.

We all knew Dudley was a marked man and that he would be counted on to provide the stability that this young group would need. (I would never say Sean Marshall can be counted upon to provide stability). But two positives that have become evident in the last few games are the emergence of Sean Williams and Tyrese Rice. Williams’ role to this point has been to rescue teammates with his shot blocking prowess when penetrators got into the lane. Now, his game is starting to expand. He has not only shown some basic interior moves but has been assertive in asking for the ball and looking for his shot instead of panicking and throwing up some off-balance floater. The improvement we have seen from last year has been huge and it begs the question, ‘What is his upside for the remainder of the year? If he continues to improve BC will become a multi-faceted team where Dudley may not see as many double teams. I do not see why he will not continue to emerge on the offensive end as he logs more playing time and feels more comfortable as an option..

Tyrese knows that there are no other options to replace him. Simply put he is the only member of the team that can handle the ball. Sure Dudley is adept at handling pressure and bringing it up but he is by no means a distributor in the open floor that can get into the lane by blowing by defenders. That’s what Rice can do and thus far he has handled it well. That sense of Tyrese rushing his decisions and making questionable passes has yet to be seen this year and for the most part he has been able to setup his teammates to run their half court sets. I have been impressed by his maturity as to when to launch the three pointer versus continuing to run the half court set to obtain a higher percentage shot. Last year he may have felt he needed to make the big play to stay on the court, now he just needs to run the team intelligently.

-Dudley is great at maneuvering in the low post. He feels the defenders on him and knows how to maneuver to get a good look. He also knows when the double team is effective on him and where he can look to get the ball to another teammate for a shot or a secondary pass.

-No idea what to expect to Akida when he returns. He has shown some ability to score and rebound but nothing consistent. If he returns as a solid contributor BC’s frontline has to now be one of the best in the nation.

-Haynes might not be suited for our offense. He seems like a player that always needs to be on the go to maximize his skills. His athleticism is great to see when he makes a good basketball play.

Why does Sean Marshall always seem to double clutch on his foul line jumper? It is never smooth to look at.

BC needs to work on its flex offense amongst particular members of the team in the high post. Sean Williams and Shamari Spears throwing bounce passes to each other against aggressive defenders is downright scary. They both need to seal their men with their legs and backside to avoid defenders shooting the gap.

Oh, and this Red Sox and Matsuzaka thing is insane.

Coaching Update

2006-12-12T15:23:00.000-06:00

Since the abrupt departure of Tom O'Brien (to the fan), it appears that Gene has been quite busy interviewing and determining candidates for the vacant head coaching position. Mark Whipple was interviewed this past Sunday and reports say that Green Bay Packers offensive cooridinator Jeff Jagodzinski was as well. Jagodzinski was the former offensive cooridinator at BC before the arrival of O'Brien.

Other candidates being thrown out now include Kevin Gilbride, Charlie Strong and Jay Norvell.

Kevin Gilbride would quickly make me sell my tickets and the other two candidates are current assistants in the collegiate ranks. Strong is the defensive cooridinator at Florida and Norvell is the offensive cooridinator at Nebraska. I do not know too much about either candidate so do not have any real opinion. Strong is a minority candidate that people have been saying is head coaching material for the last few years but no one has pulled the trigger.

As it becomes more apparent that Gene knew this was happening, he has been able to contact his short list and obtain interviews without a problem. Most reports think Whipple is the guy to beat and that Gene is going through the motions to show due diligence and to ensure that his decision is the right one.

I have no problem with a search that takes a couple of weeks if we hire the right guy. The heck with a class of recruits if it buys you the correct man at the helm. In no sport is coaching as valuable as in football. I thought the Patriots were crazy to trade a first round pick for Belichick but that seemed to work out.

Also, I do not care if we hire a man with NFL ambitions. If he can get an NFL head coaching job from stopping off here then so be it. That most likely means a BCS bowl at some point so that works for me. A career BC person would be nice but how many non-hockey head coaches could BC hire that fits that description.

BC as poor travelers

2006-12-12T13:37:00.000-06:00

If people can not make the bowl game they can still purchase and donate a ticket to Charlotte area youth groups. Below is the link. This sales number is the figure that future bowl committees will be looking at in judging BC's ability to sell tickets.

http://ev9.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3AIBM%3AF06%3ACBD%3A&linkID=bostoncoll&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode=

Way to go Beekman

2006-12-12T13:03:00.000-06:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2695097

More Rumors

2006-12-08T23:06:00.000-06:00

Sources from Pittsburgh, Boston and Amherst are reporting BC will be talking to Mark Whipple this weekend. We'll see how this plays out.

Possible Coaches

2006-12-08T15:54:00.000-06:00

Here is a list of coaches that I have seen thrown around as possible candidates.

Randy Edsall – The current Connecticut coach has done a good job of bringing Uconn to the point of being competitive. During the Dan Orlovsky years, the Huskies hung with some decent ballclubs and scared BC. During BC’s departure from the Big East he was quiet and never criticized BC but just stated he would like to continue playing against them. Uconn is a tough sell to football recruits with its lack of tradition. It took Schiano a long time to turn Rutgers around which has been playing Division 1 football forever in a fertile recruiting ground. BC has the base in place and Edsall has proven that he can field a competitive team with just a couple of recruits.

Paul Johnson – The Navy coach makes a boatload of money and has taken Navy to multiple good seasons. He has been successful at implementing his option offense which either indicates he plays to his players’s strengths or that he may not be as successful coaching a pro style offense.

Jim Fassel – The former coach of the New York Giants is out of football at the moment. Not sure if he is a college coach but his son did attend BC and his professional resume would have instant credibility with recruits.

Steve Kragthorpe – The hot mid-major coach right now. Brought Tulsa to respectability in a short amount of time.

Mark Whipple- Won the national championship at UMass before departing for the quarterbacks coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Coached Big Ben to the title. Has desperately wanted a head coaching position at a Division 1 school but has not been given the chance.

Bob Davie – Do not want a Notre Dame castaway. TOB beat him with inferior talent. Gene and him go back to Youngstown where DeFilippo coached him so there is a long standing relationship.

Mike Ditka – Because watching Ferris light up like a school girl with him on the sidelines would be worth bankrupting the future for the most overrated coach of all time.

Mike Kruczek – Former BC quarterback is now the offensive cooridinator of the Arizona Cardinals. If ever there was a dead end franchise.

Johnson ain't coming

2006-12-08T12:40:00.000-06:00

You think BC will give a million more to him? He may not need that much but here are our tax dollars at work.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bal-sp.navyfoot08dec08,0,4907511.story?coll=bal-sports-headlines

Who will be the interim coach

2006-12-08T12:05:00.000-06:00

With O'Brien taking the job at 5PM today and DeFilippo calling a 7PM conference it will be interesting to see who gets named the temporary head coach. In addition to that will O'Brien announce what assistants will be accompanying him to Raleigh?

I will miss Spaziani who showed what he could do with some decent athletes. I have no love loss for Bible who should have been gone years ago.

O'Brien leaving

2006-12-07T11:21:00.000-06:00

In O’Brien’s tenure at BC, he not only turned around the program but brought it to a level of respectability where opponents knew that they could no longer just show up and blow out BC. However, compensation did not follow his on the field success. His salary puts him 10th in the ACC amongst head coaches as of the start of this season despite fielding one of the top 3 products over the last two years. If you are O’Brien that has to be seen as a slap in the face when considering Al Groh, Chuck Amato and John Bunting all made more than he did.

The question is was O’Brien forced out or did he just take a better opportunity? If BC acts quickly and hires their new guy then I would take that as DeFilippo having a short list of candidates in hand waiting for this day. If the search takes time then it would appear that BC had no idea that this was coming.

I would be surprised if BC was caught off guard by this move. If BC has a financial threshold that it will not cross for any head coach than this institutional decision would definitely have been communicated to O’Brien in the past. With O’Brien’s recent success, DeFilippo probably knew that eventually a school would offer O’Brien a substantial increase and that O’Brien would take it. He then knew he was dealing with a fluid situation where a school had to only make O’Brien an offer before his replacement search must begin.

I also find it hard to believe that BC has a maximum amount that they will pay their football coach. If BC believed that they had the right guy and the right staff, then an increase in pay for the coach would not be tough to justify for a guy that literally took BC out of the cesspool of college football. BC and DeFilippo may have been happy with O’Brien but may have suggested some staff changes that the head coach did not concur with. (Replace Bible and you get your salary increase). If that was the case, then the AD also knew he was dealing with a short-timer. This put DeFilippo in a position where he could not replace a guy that was being praised throughout college football without BC looking bad in making that decision. O’Brien would have to look like the instigator of this breakup.

For O’Brien, who just proved that he could smash that salary barrier, why would he not leave BC? Why would he want to coach for a school at a low pay rate when his teams do not even get considered for better bowls? If he had gone 9-3 at NC St. this year then the WolfPack would have been a lock for a good bowl with their traveling capacity. His 9-3 down there would be seen as a success even if the team underachieved because the school would still receive positive exposure from an appearance in a lofty bowl. That does not even get into the facts that NC St. may be able to recruit without BC imposed restrictions and the better facilities that NC St. is reported to have. He gets to recruit in a more fertile area instead of having to recruit kids to come to Boston and play in the cold. Those factors right there are tough to ignore even if the salaries were similar.

BC’s speed in making this hire and the salary given to that newcomer will help shed some light on the backroom conversations that may have taken place.

So, on to the next coach. The names being tossed around include Jim Fassel, Bob Davie, Mark Whipple and other known names. The hot name of the college football world is Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe. Attached is his bio. Not sure if he is a fit but he did coach at BC as the QB coach.

http://tulsahurricane.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/kragthorpe_steve00.html

NC St. Rumor

2006-12-06T15:41:00.000-06:00

Rumors are all over the internet saying that O'Brien to NC St. is a done deal. I have seen nothing more than innuendos however.

This is not a good move for BC. Despite not coming away with more this season he has done a great job in rebuilding the program. We are in every game and have won some high profile ones. With the small salary that BC gives its coaches it will be tough for this program to not be a stepping stone for other coaches.

If O'Brien does leave, BC will signal its institutional direction with the next hire based on his experience and salary. Bring in a big name coach and we are players, if we don't, we can only hope that the next coach can make an Orange Bowl every ten years.

Stanford Job

2006-12-04T15:54:00.000-06:00

Yet another job that O'Brien will be mentioned for. He has brought our program back to respectability both on and off the field. He has proven he can win at an institution with academic standards and Stanford is a university that can additionally recruit itself.

Rutgers goes from the BCS to playing in a bowl on the NFL network. The Big East's bowl affiliations show through mightily.

There may be no more undeserving bowl team for their bowl than Iowa. 6-6. Are you joking me? Against Texas in the Alamo Bowl. The Big 10 knows how to contract its teams.

Bowls - Playoffs

2006-12-01T16:09:00.000-06:00

I remember the joy of New Year's Day when I was a young kid. Would wake up, do God knows what but eventually settle in and watch college football games all day long with my Dad. Once in a while I think I would return to my own tackle football game in the backyard, jumping over piles of snow until I tired of dive plays up the middle. When I did return to the house, there was always soda and pizza to drink and eat. The pizza has remained, the wings have been added and the drink of choice is usually fluid based on what is still open on the countertop.

1985 is when I was hooked for good. Doug Flutie brought BC to the Cotton Bowl and a victory over the then powerful Houston Cougars. BC has never returned, but I have, countless times to witness college football's grand day, an absolute blowout of bowls from morning till night providing the college football fan with all the memories he needed to live his life during the eight months that college football is not a part of his routine.

But slowly things changed. First the number of bowls on that day decreased. Then the bowls started being spread out on the days after New Year's. Now we have a system where the title game is 7 days after New Year's. The reasons are of course financial in addition to attempting to pit the top two teams against each other. As much as I detest losing that day, the matchups that the BCS produces have given us some great games. Ohio St. would have never played Miami (or should have won because of pass interference) in the double OT thriller in the Fiesta Bowl. Texas would have never brought 50000 cowboys to Los Angeles. And Notre Dame would not be routinely slaughtered due to an undeserved invite. I only wish they could all play them on the same day now.

This system also has its own share of flaws. An undefeated SEC team should never get left out of the national title game but that occurred with Auburn just a few years ago. Inevitably, this reignited the argument that the bowl system should be modified and replaced with a playoff system. Division 1-AA currently has the system in place which produces a consensus
national champion on the field, not in the polls.

The argument against a playoff system is of course a lie, that this would adversely effect our student-athletes who would not be able to juggle the additional football games in a playoff scenario vs the one game bowl scenario with their academics. The real reason is the financial power of the bowls who do not want their historic system altered. People have full time jobs working for the Sugar, the Rose or the orange Bowl. And these situations have been in place for years.

I am not one for abolishing the bowls but why not use the bowls as part of the playoff system? Why not figure out a way to allow the bowls to get their money while providing college football with a system that is fair to all parties that think they have a right to lay claim to the national title. Do you think Florida wishes that Auburn had come calling to the Swamp? Or that Michigan might be number one if the game had taken place in Ann Arbor? Those can be described as part of the uniqueness of college football but it also does provide merit to the argument that home field should not be the only factor in determining who the best team in college football is.

The reason for bringing this up now is just to point out some of the hypocrisy of the system. The college presidents just agreed to have a 12 game season. What does this added game bring us? Buffalo for crying out loud. Half the leagues also have a title game. That brings us up to 13 games. Add a bowl to that and you now have 14 games. So, if we revert to an 11 game season and introduce a 16 team playoff the actual title game participants are the only ones playing more games than what some teams do now. Do you think that the presidents of those schools would care one iota about their student-athletes with that type of exposure? This present state just goes a long way towards proving that it has nothing to do with academics but everything to do with finances. Then we could have a big bash on New Year's day again. Put the semifinals on that day and have a bunch of other bowls to reward good seasons to teams that did not quite make the playoffs. This year the non-playoff teams could include Tennessee, California, Virginia tech, Texas, Nebraska, West Virginia ..... Not too bad for some bowls.

Thoughts 11-29

2006-11-29T14:43:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-29T09:06:00.000-06:00

http://sports.bostonherald.com/college/football/view.bg?articleid=169585&format=text

Check 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

2006-11-27T17:15:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-27T17:04:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-16T23:49:00.000-06:00

--- 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.

2006-11-14T18:19:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-13T22:08:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-10T11:38:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-10T10:57:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-09T22:14:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-09T14:22:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-08T15:15:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-06T15:06:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-03T20:22:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-11-03T14:24:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-02T10:05:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-01T16:06:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-01T14:24:00.000-06:00

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

2006-11-01T10:39:00.000-06:00

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.

Rutgers - Uconn game thoughts

2006-10-30T20:23:00.000-06:00

There is no doubt that Rutgers football has improved in leaps and bounds. The fact that they are 7-0 says a lot about the tremendous job that Greg Schiano has done with the program. A few years ago, the mere suggestion that Rutgers would be 7-0 and have a legitimate chance to win the Big East conference and obtain a BCS bid was laughable and the stuff of dreams. Yet, here they are, basking in the national spotlight and receiving compliments at every turn. Sunday nights’ game at home was supposed to be a coming out party for the Scarlet Knights but it revealed that Rutgers still has a long way to go to deserve its Top 15 ranking.
Connecticut was a team that Rutgers was supposed to hammer. The Huskies had been playing a QB shuffle over the prior few weeks and their top tailback was out for the game. The game started out as scripted with Rutgers going right down the field and scoring on a Ray Rice touchdown. They later added another TD and a FG to go up 17-0 and looked well in route to a big win. However, it could have been more. Uconn looked like an inexperienced high school team with dumb penalties killing the chance for any sustained drive. The score could well have been 24-0 or 30-0 with the way Uconn was playing but Rutgers failed to capitalize. Just before the half, a Uconn miscue opened the door for Rutgers to put the proverbial nail in the coffin if they could cap off a short drive but Rutgers QB Mike Teel was picked off and Uconn stayed in the game. What was concerning about the interception was not it was picked off but it was just an awful read and decision by Teel. The receiver was between the linebacker and corner on a 15 to 20 yard out pattern on the right side making it a tough pass to complete over the linebacker coverage. (It may have been a safety and not a linebacker but the coverage was there). It was a pass that should never have been thrown and opened up some questions about Teel and the Rutgers offense. The questions being, was Teel a top QB? Could he be counted on to make the right reads? Would he be able to lead the team down the field against better defenses?
The second half lead to more doubts than answers. Rutgers had 6 possessions in the second half, 5 if you throw away the last drive which was in run out the clock mode. In those 5 drives, they ran 21 plays for 52 yards. There were 4 punts and a turnover on downs and 0 points. They did this against Connecticut. Name one defensive player on Connecticut. Name the unanticipated defensive scheme that Uconn befuddled Rutgers with? As far as the naked eye could tell, the Huskies said let’s take away Ray Rice and make Teel beat us through the air, which he could not. Half his passes were not near the receiver or were bad decisions. Is this really a top tier offense that will be able to move down the field against a Louisville or West Virginia? Based on its second half performance against Connecticut, it did not appear to be. Conversely, the Rutgers defense made freshman tailback Donald Brown look like an All-American. The kid ran for 200 yards with a non-existing passing game. He single-handedly kept Uconn in the game until Rutgers blocked a Uconn punt that effectively ended the game. Rutgers knew the run was coming but had trouble stopping it. Any sort of play action pass from a better offense would have sustained these Uconn drives but no such weapon was available in their arsenal.
All teams have bad games. Win and move on being an apt saying for many situations. A lot of those games can be explained away by turnovers and disastrous penalties. Rutgers won the turnover battle by 1 and only had 3 penalties for 25 yards. One penalty lead to nullifying a 25 yard gain but Rutgers rebounded to score a touchdown. Neither of these stats explain why Rutgers kept Uconn in the game. Plain and simple, Rutgers could not move the ball against Uconn at home. Rutgers prevailed and has a week and a half off before taking the field again at home against Louisville. The crowd will be fired up regardless of how Louisville performs against West Virginia this week. They will need the emotion to win this game. They may stay in the game for a while with their athletes but at some point Mike Teel may have to lead a big drive and nothing last night indicated he could do it against a good opponent.

Game Notes:

Rutgers has let it be known that are going to recruit South Florida heavily. Apparently, they even have billboards down there. How much does this cost the state of New Jersey?

Let’s give credit where credit is due but Gary Thorne, Rod Gilmore and crew went a little over the top in their praise of Rutgers last night. Guys, lets critique the game and offer your analysis. Rutgers is better but the program has not arrived.

One question the announcers did debate was who would you prefer coaching if you were Schiano; Rutgers or Miami. The consensus was that Schiano was better served at Rutgers. Fewer expectations and no need to inherit the mess in South Florida. Valid points but if Schiano is that good of a coach a few years of restoration may not be a small price to pay when within 5 miles of your house is all the talent that you need.

Ray Rice is good but don’t you have to win some games against real good opponents to be considered a top 4 Heisman candidate?

Love Brian Leonard. Maybe if they used him a little more last night, they could have moved the ball more effectively.

Running comments from 10/28

2006-10-30T09:17:00.000-06:00

Well the marquee game of the early day is of course Notre Dame and Navy more for the chance of an upset than the expectation of two evenly matched teams. Notre Dame has an impressive couple of series end in a field goal which should keep the game interesting for a little while. The key here is how will Navy's QB run? What has he learned in the last few weeks of practice?

By the way, what was CBS doing in the lead in for this game? A mission impossible theme? Come on Navy; don't participate in this Hollywood related lead in. You flip to that after watching Corso to do his usual pregame pick in which he impersonated the devil based on a South Carolina cartoon depicting him as one. Thus, he predicted the Volunteers to win countering Herbstreit going with the Gamecocks. It would be interesting to see Kirk's reaction week by week over the season when Corso announces his pick. He seems to display a mix of fake laughter, real laughter and just general acting.

Back to the game and Navy is on the move and Michigan has scored an early touchdown. Let’s see if the Wolverines can get their offense back in gear this week. I predicted a Michigan national championship in preseason but they will not get there by scoring just 20 points a game.

Navy ends its drive with a missed 32 yard field goal from the center of the field. They moved the ball well but teams always look off balance against that attack early in the game.

Two technology advances I would like to see. Better replay angles. Now can cameras not zoom more effectively today? It appears from a few glances that Samardzija did not catch it but it should be easier to tel. The other is voice activated remote control. When you are eating chicken wings it would be nice to yell out 'Channel 25' to get back to ESPN instead. People now say "How did we watch TV without a remote control", soon they will say "People actually physically changed the channel" or some derivation of that.

Illinois and Mississippi but up early. May have to flip to those games in a while. Big first down by Navy maybe they can parlay that into some momentum. I have to find out who the color commentator in this game is. He has misfired a few times ... Navy drew them offsides, offensive pass interference, failure to pick up on his partner's analysis that Navy's running game 3 and 4 yard runs were not the 7 and 8 of the previous drive.

Indiana may actually be improving for real. They have some real athletic receivers. Navy in for the touchdown! We may have a game here.

21-3 Illinois. Wow. Does not look good for the Badgers. Actually, who does a bowl take if both Michigan and Wisconsin are 10-1? Probably Michigan. So a 10-1 Wisconsin program that travels and will make the bowl money will be left out. Michigan always will be a sexy pick. Who would be the 2 at large teams right now? The Michigan-Ohio St. loser, ND obviously and then? An SEC school or the loser of USC-Cal? Obviously, the bowl will decide but as a fan who do you want to see?

OK, now flipping it to ESPN 360 to watch BC-Buffalo. Just a lose, lose game. There is a monsoon in New England and one of the worst teams in the country is coming in so there will be no one there. Nice 12th game addition by BC. They are not making any money on this one. Maybe schedule a real D1 team. Of course, DeFilippo's thoughts on this are well established and here is the end result. Enjoy Gene!

I think Gene is great but our OOC football schedule once ND comes off it is brutal and unexciting.

Notre Dame's tight end John Carlson is going to be a great one based on his pass catching and run after the catch skills.

24-17 Illinois and they miss a WIDE open 4th and Inches on one man delayed pass out of the backfield. Reminiscent of the Mackovic call against Nebraska in the Big 12 title game years ago which to this day is one of the gutsiest calls I have ever seen.

We need a federal oversight committee to figure out Michigan St. Down 30-7 to Indiana. Indiana's improving but come on.

So, now that ND is up big it’s down to the Wisconsin and Auburn games. First play I see in the Auburn game is a Brent Schaefer interception. Auburn now with good field goal position and only down 10-7. 14-10 Auburn. After seeing that last Schaefer pass not too sure he will stay mistake free the rest of the game and keep Mississippi in it.

One hour to the Minnesota - Ohio St. game. Love the caption on the StarTribune's website today. "Underdog Minnesota draws inspiration from last week's opponent, North Dakota State, which almost upset the Gophers." Someone out there must have fallen off a stool after seeing that one but hey it would be the upset of the year or decade for that matter.

BC goes up 31-0. Breathing a little easier. On a wet field after a program enhancing win, this had letdown all over it. Still don't think they will cover the 37 points.

Had a trip planned to Madison today but my friend back out. Would have been fun to see this game and then watch the BC hockey game tonight.

Mississippi is 1st and goal after a huge holding call on Auburn. Tied game.

If Crane does not catch that high snap, we have a 31-7 game. Instead Sid vicious hits again and the shutout is intact.

With ESPN Gameplan, you would expect that the Wake Forest game is on, but it’s on ESPN U. Who has this? What area of the country do you have to be living in? Wake Forest has its destiny in its hands and that’s not Gameplan worthy? Why is the U not included in Gameplan? How does that work? The amazing thing is that I am upset about not watching Wake Forest on the last weekend of October. BC's win makes them 7-1 and if Wake wins it means that next week's game is a top candidate for Game day. But Game day probably needs to do a Big 12 thing so would not be surprised if they go out there but I will have to recheck the schedule.

Reggie ball fumble ... right on queue. Touchdown Canes.

Virginia won 14-7. They are improving. 2007 sleeper right there.

As expected, the crowd in Corvallis is going nuts. Good first drive so far, the Beavers need to cash in. Ohio St. scored without trying on their first possession.

NC just tied up Wake Forest at 7. I have not watched a second of the biggest outside cocktail party. Georgia is terrible right? OK defense but unless Florida self destructs I do not see this as being a game.

Johnson finally catches a ball - 43 yard gain. Every play - throw to him. As the announcer was pointing out, he went and got the ball. That’s receiving.

Oregon St. had a chance to go up 10-0 on a field goal. But of course, it’s a big game and Alexis Serna does not get enough air under it. Meltdown coming or later LSU redemption?

So, I call my Dad to complain that I do not have ESPNU and he remembers he has it and is just as interested in the game as I am. Dumb luck for him.

One of the scores on the bottom of the page was between LaSalle and Husson. Now, a lot of us know LaSalle basketball with the L train and Tom Goal but Husson? I will have to research this school later. May be a good school but how many Husson alums are glued to the bottom line?

BYU is crushing Air Force. The Cougars are way under the national radar but fans in Boston know the quality of that team.

Why Eastern football is different than the Pac 10/ Oregon St. When you have the ball inside the 1 one second down, you pound it in. Unreal implosion by the Beavers. No East Coast bias here. But every team in the Northeast runs it there.

Alexis Serna - 53 yarder. The kid is good. Knocking him earlier but congratulations to the kid for having a great career after an awful start.

Roughing the punter on G Tech. 81 - Maguire. If I were a coach, the kid would be sitting. Could there be a worse penalty. Though, it was that very penalty that helped BC in Tallahassee last week. And then Miami gives it right back. This conference really is BC's to lose. No great teams. Just don't turn it over and they can do it. 21-0 Florida. As predicted, no contest.

Great stuff right now. Nebraska, Miami and USC in great games. USC down 13. California has smoked people. Cal looking like the class of the conference.

Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers do not make the Big East a great conference. Blows my mind that a few 'top' teams can skew a leagues perception. Throw any of these teams into the other 5 BCS conferences and would they go undefeated?

But, up 8 with 6 to go, Serna misses a FG

Great call by the USC game announcer calling this the defining moment of Booty's young career after a big completion to Jarrett and yes I have now checked in on Georgia. 4th and 2 and not only does USC convert but that was the play? (Down the sideline to Smith) Guts, guts and maybe some stupidity.

Florida gets lucky on a non face mask call. Professionals do not like small QB's but what is to be said when 6'5" Booty gets his last pass knocked down?

Texas Tech looking good on a drive already up 7-0. Maryland up 7-0 also. At this moment I do not see Texas coming back and thinking Maryland is one of the more underrated teams in the country. Whoever watched the Maryland-West Virginia game saw a Maryland team with talent that just had lots of early bad turnovers. By the way, no good Big East games on a surprisingly good day of football.

Florida St. ties it up 7-7 and Ron Franklin completely misses the TD call by the ref right in front of the play. How does he miss that? It is OK to miss a call but what is he looking at?

Replay hurt Texas Tech. That whole area needs to be really analyzed. I am not just saying right and wrong but its complete impact on games this year. Is this better for college football? I think not. Regardless in the Texas game, pick six for the Raiders so the overturn does not hurt them.

OK, time to get away from the TV for a bit...

Initial Thoughts Headed Into this College Football Weekend

2006-10-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

Last thing I expected in Blacksburg last night was a complete lack of offense by Clemson. Herbstreit nailed it straight on by saying that Clemson had to at least try to look down the field. The Hokies D just feasted on the predictable running game. Interested to see how Clemson rebounds from that tough defeat.

Lets see what the off week did for the youngsters at USC. They are a few notches below usual in the experience department but have taken the best shots of decent teams in their conference and have survived. If USC wins big tomorrow then the rest of the country should be on watch out later. If they do not then I would be surprised if they beat Cal.

Wish Navy had their QB. Despite that I expect Navy to give the Irish a decent test but for ND to once again extend their winning streak. People knock ND's schedule but going to Air Force in November will not be a walkover for the Irish. There is no excuse not to blow out North Carolina. They may be the worst BCS team in the country off the top of my head.

Wisconsin could be the most underrated team in the country right now. There only loss was in the Big House to a Michigan team before Manningham went down. If they go 10-1 are they a BCS crasher? No one is discussing this but you know the people from Madison will travel.

Miami - Georgia Tech? No idea what to expect here since its at Georgia Tech. The whole stadium will be watching to see if Tech goes to Johnson on the first play. Put him in the slot - throw it 5 yards. Do something, anything to put the ball in the hands of a future top pick. Also to be watched ..... Miami's pregame attitude. Will they be stomping? Will Lamar Thomas be in attendance? Prediction - Canes 24-7. Canes smother Reggie Ball.

Baylor has improved slightly. Texas A&M has done nothing to impress. Bears in a shootout?

Looking forward to Sunday night football. Connecticut (awful) against Rutgers. Rutgers is a lot better but they are not a top 15 team are they? Its tough to tell since they have not played a real good opponent. Pittsburgh is competitive and Illinois can hang in some ball games but when the best team you have played is arguably Navy then there is a lot left to prove. They'll have their chances though but this is West Virginia's league to lose. Everytime I watch the Mountaineers I think they are going to score. Do not see Louisville or Rutgers outscoring them.

Why is Wake Forest not on gameplan? Who gets ESPNU? This is a team that is a botched field goal away from being undefeated. They are like Rutgers but with that tougher game on their schedule. They too will have their chance to shine.

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2006-10-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

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