2007-08 CFB Bowl Picks and News
- Thread starter RJ Esq
- Start date
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Curious Index, 12/5/07
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</td> <td width="528"> Real men react unpredictably. According to sources of the Dallas Morning News, Paul Johnson visited SMU yesterday, officially making the Navy head coach linked to more jobs than Chopper Read. With Georgia Tech and Duke already eyeballing him, Johnson looks to be in the cat bird’s seat. (Hat Tip: Dave W., via email)
We approve. The 50-year old head coach has guided Navy to a 46-25 record, including five straight bowl appearances. More than that, though: he’s a real man’s ranter - a from-the-gut, I could give a shit about pussies who don’t share my world view, kind of guy.
Which begs the question: which job would expose him to the most obnoxious press corps? The football scenes at Duke and SMU are pretty tame these days, so we’re going to throw our endorsement behind Paul Johnson to Georgia Tech. After six years of too nice for his own good Chan Gailey, we imagine Johnson being an excellent main course to follow the Chan-Man aperitif (7.5% alcohol, natch).
In any case, we’ll be quietly rooting for Johnson to wind up some place where he gets a chance to shoot from the cuff. We think his rant ceiling approaches STFU levels of disdain.
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“Coach, any comment on the fans who think you’re too hard on the players?”</p> If he brings up any soft shit about bowl traditions… slap him. It’s not uncommon for a bowl apologist / playoff antagonist (your choice) to yammer on about what bowls mean to our great tradition and civic pride.
To which we say - Paul Johnson style - “Shut the fuck up.” As the Sports Business Journal explains in great detail, any notion that the current bowl system serves anything other than profit is simply nostalgic wishcasting:
He’s old. Still. Since Joe Paterno seems hell-bent on dying while coaching on the sidelines and all, the College Football Hall of Fame went ahead with his induction now. Actually, they did so in 2006, but Paterno was nursing a broken leg at this time last year and wasn’t available for the ceremony. Feel free to insert your own “hang ‘em up” joke here. We’ve come to believe that the well is - for all intents and purposes - dry.
Does this story make me look fat? Via Cal blog The Band Is Out On The Field comes this controversial story, in which we learn that quarterback Nate Longshore was more seriously injured than he and his coaches led on throughout the season:
Just because. There was at least one request yesterday for more “physical comedy.” Though we don’t claim to be as rubber-necked as Orson, we’re populists at heart.
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</td> <td width="528"> Real men react unpredictably. According to sources of the Dallas Morning News, Paul Johnson visited SMU yesterday, officially making the Navy head coach linked to more jobs than Chopper Read. With Georgia Tech and Duke already eyeballing him, Johnson looks to be in the cat bird’s seat. (Hat Tip: Dave W., via email)
We approve. The 50-year old head coach has guided Navy to a 46-25 record, including five straight bowl appearances. More than that, though: he’s a real man’s ranter - a from-the-gut, I could give a shit about pussies who don’t share my world view, kind of guy.
Which begs the question: which job would expose him to the most obnoxious press corps? The football scenes at Duke and SMU are pretty tame these days, so we’re going to throw our endorsement behind Paul Johnson to Georgia Tech. After six years of too nice for his own good Chan Gailey, we imagine Johnson being an excellent main course to follow the Chan-Man aperitif (7.5% alcohol, natch).
In any case, we’ll be quietly rooting for Johnson to wind up some place where he gets a chance to shoot from the cuff. We think his rant ceiling approaches STFU levels of disdain.
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“Coach, any comment on the fans who think you’re too hard on the players?”</p> If he brings up any soft shit about bowl traditions… slap him. It’s not uncommon for a bowl apologist / playoff antagonist (your choice) to yammer on about what bowls mean to our great tradition and civic pride.
To which we say - Paul Johnson style - “Shut the fuck up.” As the Sports Business Journal explains in great detail, any notion that the current bowl system serves anything other than profit is simply nostalgic wishcasting:
Those numbers, plus projections for the bowls that don’t file as nonprofits, combine to make the bowl system a $400 million industry. Not bad for a collection of 32 football games that covers a three-week period.
“The whole model of doing business has changed,†said Keith Tribble, athletic director at the University of Central Florida and CEO of the Orange Bowl until 2006. During his 13 years at the Orange Bowl, he helped generate revenue growth from $8 million to more than $30 million.
“You really have to be aggressive with your marketing and sales, of both tickets and sponsorships,†Tribble said. “We ran it like a business, like a major corporation. That’s how we found the dollar value in it.â€
If money is the name of the game, the last feeble arrow in the playoff haters’ quiver is that the regular season contests would lose a great deal of importance. As a fan of a Texas team which dropped its first two conference games before winning five straight, I can assure you that our season finale would have taken on a great deal more importance if there was a playoff berth - as opposed to a Fiesta or Orange Bowl appearance - at stake. Adding a playoff would make create more meaningful games, not fewer. For every Michigan-Ohio State 2006 that you lose, you’d pick up a dozen more meaningful games among teams fighting on the fringe for a playoff berth. [/preach]“The whole model of doing business has changed,†said Keith Tribble, athletic director at the University of Central Florida and CEO of the Orange Bowl until 2006. During his 13 years at the Orange Bowl, he helped generate revenue growth from $8 million to more than $30 million.
“You really have to be aggressive with your marketing and sales, of both tickets and sponsorships,†Tribble said. “We ran it like a business, like a major corporation. That’s how we found the dollar value in it.â€
He’s old. Still. Since Joe Paterno seems hell-bent on dying while coaching on the sidelines and all, the College Football Hall of Fame went ahead with his induction now. Actually, they did so in 2006, but Paterno was nursing a broken leg at this time last year and wasn’t available for the ceremony. Feel free to insert your own “hang ‘em up” joke here. We’ve come to believe that the well is - for all intents and purposes - dry.
Does this story make me look fat? Via Cal blog The Band Is Out On The Field comes this controversial story, in which we learn that quarterback Nate Longshore was more seriously injured than he and his coaches led on throughout the season:
Yesterday at a pre-Armed Forces Bowl press conference, coach Jeff Tedford admitted that, contrary to previous team reports, the injury was in fact more serious, something he has known since the injury occurred.
Aside from the ankle sprain, Longshore also suffered a chipped bone somewhere in the back of his ankle which has caused him continuous discomfort. Longshore has only missed one start since the injury and continues to play on the bad ankle…
Asked why he did not decide to sit Longshore in favor of the more mobile Kevin Riley, Tedford said that he has deferred to his veteran quarterback on those decisions. He has asked Longshore on several occasions if the injury has caused his poor fourth-quarter performances, and each time, Longshore maintained that it does not. (emphasis mine)
Cal fans are torn whether Tedford is deflecting heat from Longshore or just an idiot not keeping both hands properly on the wheel. We obviously don’t claim to know, but that Tedford star sure has lost a lot of its shine, hasn’t it?Aside from the ankle sprain, Longshore also suffered a chipped bone somewhere in the back of his ankle which has caused him continuous discomfort. Longshore has only missed one start since the injury and continues to play on the bad ankle…
Asked why he did not decide to sit Longshore in favor of the more mobile Kevin Riley, Tedford said that he has deferred to his veteran quarterback on those decisions. He has asked Longshore on several occasions if the injury has caused his poor fourth-quarter performances, and each time, Longshore maintained that it does not. (emphasis mine)
Just because. There was at least one request yesterday for more “physical comedy.” Though we don’t claim to be as rubber-necked as Orson, we’re populists at heart.
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RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Will Georgia Be Able to Run the Ball Against Hawaii's Defense?
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 07:26:01 AM EDT
You already know that the Hawaii Warriors are a solid team on offense. It may surprise you to learn, however, that June Jones's squad also acquits itself fairly well defensively.
For instance, Georgia's Sugar Bowl opponent ranks second in the W.A.C. in rushing defense, permitting 131.7 yards per game on the ground. The Bulldogs and the Warriors each allow 3.4 yards per carry.
This does not mean, however, that the Red and Black should be fearful of Hawaii's ability to stop the run. According to College Football Statistics, the Warriors' first eight games were against a pair of Division I-AA squads and the teams ranked 51st (Idaho), 55th (Louisiana Tech), 75th (U.N.L.V.), 94th (Utah State), 109th (New Mexico State), and 112th (San Jose State) in rushing offense. When two-thirds of your opponents can't crack the top 50 in the country at running the ball, it's really easy to put up good numbers against the run.
<center>
I think we all know where this is leading.
</center> The last four weeks have told a different tale, however. Fresno State, for instance, ranks 16th in rushing offense, and, despite trailing 31-7 in the second quarter in Honolulu, the West Coast Bulldogs still managed to gain 182 yards on 44 carries for an average of 4.1 yards per rush against the Warriors. F.S.U.'s Clifton Smith gained 105 yards on 17 touches.
The following week, in Reno, Hawaii faced a Nevada squad ranked 11th in rushing offense. The Wolf Pack racked up 216 yards on 48 carries, averaging 4.5 yards per rush. Nevada's Luke Lippincott ran the ball 25 times, tallying 140 yards in the process.
Next up for the Warriors were the Broncos. Boise State is the nation's 29th-best rushing team and the visitors from the Gem State outgained Hawaii on the ground as Jeremy Avery averaged 5.0 yards per carry and Ian Johnson broke a 50-yard run on the Warrior D.
<center>
I'm starting to sense a pattern here.
</center> Finally, and most recently, Georgia's Sugar Bowl opponent squared off with the country's 17th-ranked rushing offense, that fielded by Washington. The Huskies torched the Warriors, running the ball 50 times for 261 yards. U-Dub averaged 5.2 yards per carry and Louis Rankin carried the ball 21 times for 145 yards.
These results are far from aberrational. The last time Hawaii visited the Pelican State, to face another Bulldog squad in Ruston on September 8, Derek Dooley's Louisiana Tech squad rushed for 223 yards against the Warriors. On another of U.H.'s treks to the mainland this autumn, the outright W.A.C. champion gave up 4.8 yards per carry and 143 rushing yards to U.N.L.V. despite leaping out to a 42-7 lead on the Runnin' Rebels.
The lesson of those figures is clear: Hawaii is effective against the run only when facing teams that don't run the ball well. Georgia ranks 36th in the N.C.A.A. in rushing offense and boasts a thousand-yard rusher in Knowshon Moreno. Because Hawaii is capable of scoring quickly, one of the most effective weapons in the Bulldogs' offensive arsenal will be the ability to grind it out with the ground game, controlling the clock, keeping Colt Brennan on the sideline, and letting Georgia's talented tailbacks lead the Classic City Canines on long marches to the end zone.
Go 'Dawgs!
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 07:26:01 AM EDT
You already know that the Hawaii Warriors are a solid team on offense. It may surprise you to learn, however, that June Jones's squad also acquits itself fairly well defensively.
For instance, Georgia's Sugar Bowl opponent ranks second in the W.A.C. in rushing defense, permitting 131.7 yards per game on the ground. The Bulldogs and the Warriors each allow 3.4 yards per carry.
This does not mean, however, that the Red and Black should be fearful of Hawaii's ability to stop the run. According to College Football Statistics, the Warriors' first eight games were against a pair of Division I-AA squads and the teams ranked 51st (Idaho), 55th (Louisiana Tech), 75th (U.N.L.V.), 94th (Utah State), 109th (New Mexico State), and 112th (San Jose State) in rushing offense. When two-thirds of your opponents can't crack the top 50 in the country at running the ball, it's really easy to put up good numbers against the run.
<center>
</center> The last four weeks have told a different tale, however. Fresno State, for instance, ranks 16th in rushing offense, and, despite trailing 31-7 in the second quarter in Honolulu, the West Coast Bulldogs still managed to gain 182 yards on 44 carries for an average of 4.1 yards per rush against the Warriors. F.S.U.'s Clifton Smith gained 105 yards on 17 touches.
The following week, in Reno, Hawaii faced a Nevada squad ranked 11th in rushing offense. The Wolf Pack racked up 216 yards on 48 carries, averaging 4.5 yards per rush. Nevada's Luke Lippincott ran the ball 25 times, tallying 140 yards in the process.
Next up for the Warriors were the Broncos. Boise State is the nation's 29th-best rushing team and the visitors from the Gem State outgained Hawaii on the ground as Jeremy Avery averaged 5.0 yards per carry and Ian Johnson broke a 50-yard run on the Warrior D.
<center>
</center> Finally, and most recently, Georgia's Sugar Bowl opponent squared off with the country's 17th-ranked rushing offense, that fielded by Washington. The Huskies torched the Warriors, running the ball 50 times for 261 yards. U-Dub averaged 5.2 yards per carry and Louis Rankin carried the ball 21 times for 145 yards.
These results are far from aberrational. The last time Hawaii visited the Pelican State, to face another Bulldog squad in Ruston on September 8, Derek Dooley's Louisiana Tech squad rushed for 223 yards against the Warriors. On another of U.H.'s treks to the mainland this autumn, the outright W.A.C. champion gave up 4.8 yards per carry and 143 rushing yards to U.N.L.V. despite leaping out to a 42-7 lead on the Runnin' Rebels.
The lesson of those figures is clear: Hawaii is effective against the run only when facing teams that don't run the ball well. Georgia ranks 36th in the N.C.A.A. in rushing offense and boasts a thousand-yard rusher in Knowshon Moreno. Because Hawaii is capable of scoring quickly, one of the most effective weapons in the Bulldogs' offensive arsenal will be the ability to grind it out with the ground game, controlling the clock, keeping Colt Brennan on the sideline, and letting Georgia's talented tailbacks lead the Classic City Canines on long marches to the end zone.
Go 'Dawgs!
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
2 UF Players Arrested for Throwing Sandwich, Cups at Restaurant Employee
Posted Dec 5th 2007 3:51PM by Ryan Ferguson
Filed under: Florida Football, SEC, NCAA FB Scandal
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"Titletown," as Gator fans like to call it, is at risk of becoming known as "Thugtown". Police blotters in Gainesville got clogged in the preseason with a seemingly endless stream of incidents, which included assault rifles, 1st degree battery, drug stings and more. After a relatively quiet regular season in which the most notable incident was senior safety Tony Joiner's late night mishap with a local towing company, things are heating up again.
This time it's starting defensive end Jermaine Cunningham and "ex" linebacker Jonathan Demps, who despite being suspended from the team in the spring of '07, had a shot at eventually returning to the Gators.
This just goes to show you that nuthin' good comes from football players being out on the town at 2 o'clock in the friggin' morning.
Filed under: Florida Football, SEC, NCAA FB Scandal
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"Titletown," as Gator fans like to call it, is at risk of becoming known as "Thugtown". Police blotters in Gainesville got clogged in the preseason with a seemingly endless stream of incidents, which included assault rifles, 1st degree battery, drug stings and more. After a relatively quiet regular season in which the most notable incident was senior safety Tony Joiner's late night mishap with a local towing company, things are heating up again.
This time it's starting defensive end Jermaine Cunningham and "ex" linebacker Jonathan Demps, who despite being suspended from the team in the spring of '07, had a shot at eventually returning to the Gators.
An employee at Jimmy John's restaurant, 1724 W. University Ave., told police Cunningham and Demps began to cause a disturbance after he told them they needed to pay for a bag of potato chips, a police report stated. The two became verbally abusive toward the man and hit him with a sandwich and empty soda cups. The incident occurred at about 2:15 a.m. Cunningham and Demps fled shortly before police arrived, according to officers, but were located soon after on the UF campus.
Food fight! But it's not laughing matter... jail records are logging the incident as a first-degree battery charge.
This just goes to show you that nuthin' good comes from football players being out on the town at 2 o'clock in the friggin' morning.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
BREAKING: Reports say Arkansas Hires Jim Grobe
Jump to Comments KATV is reporting that Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe has been hired as the new Head Coach of the Razorbacks. Harry King is also reporting the same.
Arkansas News Bureau
This piece of an article dated from Nov. 20th by the Sporting News’ Tom Dienhart is encouraging…
Jump to Comments KATV is reporting that Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe has been hired as the new Head Coach of the Razorbacks. Harry King is also reporting the same.
Grobe has a 45-39 record at Wake Forest, including an 11-3 Orange Bowl team last year and 8-4 team this year headed for the Meineke Bowl. Following last year, he signed an extension through 2016 for what was believed to be about $1.1 million per year.
Details to follow…
Arkansas News Bureau
This piece of an article dated from Nov. 20th by the Sporting News’ Tom Dienhart is encouraging…
Is there a better coach in America than Wake Forest’s Jim Grobe? Of course not. The guy is a genuine genius. He will be a man in demand, as he was after last season. But I know this for a fact: Grobe won’t leave Wake to rebuild another program. He is content with his fiefdom in Winston-Salem. But he might consider a job at a school that is set up for big-time success.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
First Look: Arizona State Offense vs Texas Defense
by HornsFan Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 11:56:13 AM EDT
For the first time in their careers, long-time friends Dennis Erickson and Mack Brown will face one another on the field. Erickson has helped revive Arizona State with a 10-2 season with losses only to USC and Oregon.
Longhorn fans are appropriately anxious about the matchup after the loss in College Station, so let's take a first look at the ASU offense and Texas defense. First, the numbers:
I suppose Texas fans could have hoped to draw a more run-oriented opponent for their bowl game, but let's face it: Stephen McGee threw for 700 yards against this Texas defense. Whomever the Longhorns drew for this bowl game, the game plan wasn't going to differ - throw, throw, throw.
The bad news for Texas is that passing offense has been the Sun Devils' strength this year. Rudy Carpenter had a great season for ASU and if Duane Akina has any hope of ending the season on a high note, he's going to have to figure out a way to keep the passing game in check. Junior wideout Michael Jones is the receiver Texas will need to try to keep a handle on - the 6-4 two-sport athlete (baseball) averages a healthy 17.5 yards per catch, finding the end zone 8 times this season. Arizona State provides balance, however, as five different receivers caught at least 20 passes this season. There's just no way around it: Texas either fixes the pass defense for the bowl game, or we're in for a wild shootout.
by HornsFan Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 11:56:13 AM EDT
For the first time in their careers, long-time friends Dennis Erickson and Mack Brown will face one another on the field. Erickson has helped revive Arizona State with a 10-2 season with losses only to USC and Oregon.
Longhorn fans are appropriately anxious about the matchup after the loss in College Station, so let's take a first look at the ASU offense and Texas defense. First, the numbers:
I suppose Texas fans could have hoped to draw a more run-oriented opponent for their bowl game, but let's face it: Stephen McGee threw for 700 yards against this Texas defense. Whomever the Longhorns drew for this bowl game, the game plan wasn't going to differ - throw, throw, throw.
The bad news for Texas is that passing offense has been the Sun Devils' strength this year. Rudy Carpenter had a great season for ASU and if Duane Akina has any hope of ending the season on a high note, he's going to have to figure out a way to keep the passing game in check. Junior wideout Michael Jones is the receiver Texas will need to try to keep a handle on - the 6-4 two-sport athlete (baseball) averages a healthy 17.5 yards per catch, finding the end zone 8 times this season. Arizona State provides balance, however, as five different receivers caught at least 20 passes this season. There's just no way around it: Texas either fixes the pass defense for the bowl game, or we're in for a wild shootout.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Two Texas A&M players arrested
Babalola and Joiner charged in alleged armed robbery
Posted: Thursday December 6, 2007 10:06AM; Updated: Thursday December 6, 2007 10:06AM
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Two Texas A&M football players have been charged in an alleged armed robbery of a College Station apartment.
Yemi Babalola, 21, of Bryan was charged with two aggravated robbery counts and one of misdemeanor marijuana possession, according to a College Station police statement. Brandon Joiner, 18, of Killeen was charged with three drug possession counts, one of them a felony. Both men were in the Brazos County Jail in Bryan on Thursday.
The arrests were first reported by KBTX-TV in Bryan-College Station.
According to the police statement, one resident suffered minor injuries in the alleged Nov. 29 home invasion at the Callaway Villas Apartments. The investigation led to searches of both suspects' homes on Wednesday, where drugs and other evidence were found, according to the statement.
A call Thursday to A&M athletic spokesman Alan Cannon found his voice mail full, but he told The Dallas Morning News and The Eagle of Bryan-College Station that the school is aware of the situation and investigating.
Babalola started on the Texas A&M offensive line this season as a junior. Joiner is a freshman defensive end from Killeen.
Texas A&M (7-5) plays Penn State (8-4) on Dec. 29 in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
Babalola and Joiner charged in alleged armed robbery
Posted: Thursday December 6, 2007 10:06AM; Updated: Thursday December 6, 2007 10:06AM
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Two Texas A&M football players have been charged in an alleged armed robbery of a College Station apartment.
Yemi Babalola, 21, of Bryan was charged with two aggravated robbery counts and one of misdemeanor marijuana possession, according to a College Station police statement. Brandon Joiner, 18, of Killeen was charged with three drug possession counts, one of them a felony. Both men were in the Brazos County Jail in Bryan on Thursday.
The arrests were first reported by KBTX-TV in Bryan-College Station.
According to the police statement, one resident suffered minor injuries in the alleged Nov. 29 home invasion at the Callaway Villas Apartments. The investigation led to searches of both suspects' homes on Wednesday, where drugs and other evidence were found, according to the statement.
A call Thursday to A&M athletic spokesman Alan Cannon found his voice mail full, but he told The Dallas Morning News and The Eagle of Bryan-College Station that the school is aware of the situation and investigating.
Babalola started on the Texas A&M offensive line this season as a junior. Joiner is a freshman defensive end from Killeen.
Texas A&M (7-5) plays Penn State (8-4) on Dec. 29 in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Curious Index, 12/6/07
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</td> <td width="528"> A new pig in the blanket? Reports indicate that Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe has accepted an offer to become Arkansas’ new head coach. This seems like a fine hire to us, especially because Nutt Job stayed in the SEC, keeping him in the news and us in business.
Grobe was the 2006 ACC Coach of the Year when he led the Deamon Deacons to the conference championship and an Orange Bowl appearance. For his sake, we hope there are no skeletons in his closet because by God the people of Arkansas will dig ‘em out, if so. Good luck, sir.
There is one thing we can promise Mr. Grobe as he departs the ACC for a more… indulging… fan base. There won’t be any of this in the SEC.
UPDATE! Jim Grobe is staying at Wake Forest. I should know better than to nap on an Arkansas coaching hire… The drama continues. Soooooooey!
Fulmer Cup points? The arrests are trickling in, including two Aggies on drug and robbery charges, but we remind the eager readers that Fulmer Cup official scoring does not begin until after the season concludes. Certainly for teams heading to bowls then, these arrests are just unofficial warm ups. Orson will have to rule on whether teams not heading to bowls may begin accumulating points.
Make yourself comfortable, Jimbo. Florida State is set to announce on Monday that Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden when he finally decides to retire. This would normally qualify as exciting news for an assistant coach, but we imagine Fisher handled the news like he had been told he’d inherit Montgomery Burns’ estate upon his death.
AD: “Jimbo, we’re gonna promote you to coach when Bobby hangs ‘em up!”
Fisher: “Hoo. Ray.”
AD: “You don’t seem as excited as I’d hoped.”
Fisher: [mimicks waving pom poms] “Oh, no. I’m thrrrrrilled.”
AD: “What’s wrong, Jimbo?”
Fisher: “Bah. Nothing. It’s just… I dunno, a man hopes to make head coach before he turns 65.”
Professor, I have a question. With SMQ taking a week off to catch his breath and Orson chasing livestock in the southwest, the mean IQ of the CFB blogosphere took a pretty nasty hit this week. It’s sort of the opposite of what might happen to Sports Illustrated if they shipped out Stewart Mandel and Peter King.
Fear not, though, readers: we’re not totally doomed to an Oklahoma education this week. Others have picked up the slack. The M Zone asks a smart question about the utility of the “records against winning teams” statistic (it’s bunk, he says), prompting LD to respond with some interesting follow-up thought. Thus concludes our “The More You Know” segment for the week. Back to regularly scheduled snickering and rumor-mongering.
Any chance of a split? My good friend Adam Jones has written a guest editorial spot for CFB News with a paragraph at the end that caught my eye:
We are all left not quite knowing who reigns supreme in the college football world. I shudder to think what the newly independent and historically mischievous voters of the Associated Press will leave us with after this bowl season. The cacophonic clamorings for a playoff—at least of the “plus-one†variety—will continue, but likely on deaf ears; a 12-0 romp by USC next season will make everyone forget this ugly anomaly.
We’ve spent plenty of time discussing how wack the 2007 season has been, but we’re not sure we’ve seen anyone yet discuss the possibility of a split national title. It’s pretty difficult to imagine a situation where that would happen, but it can’t be discounted at this point. Question of the day: Is there any scenario that might tempt AP voters into casting votes for a team other than the LSU-Ohio State winner?
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</td> <td width="528"> A new pig in the blanket? Reports indicate that Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe has accepted an offer to become Arkansas’ new head coach. This seems like a fine hire to us, especially because Nutt Job stayed in the SEC, keeping him in the news and us in business.
Grobe was the 2006 ACC Coach of the Year when he led the Deamon Deacons to the conference championship and an Orange Bowl appearance. For his sake, we hope there are no skeletons in his closet because by God the people of Arkansas will dig ‘em out, if so. Good luck, sir.
There is one thing we can promise Mr. Grobe as he departs the ACC for a more… indulging… fan base. There won’t be any of this in the SEC.
UPDATE! Jim Grobe is staying at Wake Forest. I should know better than to nap on an Arkansas coaching hire… The drama continues. Soooooooey!
Fulmer Cup points? The arrests are trickling in, including two Aggies on drug and robbery charges, but we remind the eager readers that Fulmer Cup official scoring does not begin until after the season concludes. Certainly for teams heading to bowls then, these arrests are just unofficial warm ups. Orson will have to rule on whether teams not heading to bowls may begin accumulating points.
Make yourself comfortable, Jimbo. Florida State is set to announce on Monday that Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden when he finally decides to retire. This would normally qualify as exciting news for an assistant coach, but we imagine Fisher handled the news like he had been told he’d inherit Montgomery Burns’ estate upon his death.
AD: “Jimbo, we’re gonna promote you to coach when Bobby hangs ‘em up!”
Fisher: “Hoo. Ray.”
AD: “You don’t seem as excited as I’d hoped.”
Fisher: [mimicks waving pom poms] “Oh, no. I’m thrrrrrilled.”
AD: “What’s wrong, Jimbo?”
Fisher: “Bah. Nothing. It’s just… I dunno, a man hopes to make head coach before he turns 65.”
Professor, I have a question. With SMQ taking a week off to catch his breath and Orson chasing livestock in the southwest, the mean IQ of the CFB blogosphere took a pretty nasty hit this week. It’s sort of the opposite of what might happen to Sports Illustrated if they shipped out Stewart Mandel and Peter King.
Fear not, though, readers: we’re not totally doomed to an Oklahoma education this week. Others have picked up the slack. The M Zone asks a smart question about the utility of the “records against winning teams” statistic (it’s bunk, he says), prompting LD to respond with some interesting follow-up thought. Thus concludes our “The More You Know” segment for the week. Back to regularly scheduled snickering and rumor-mongering.
Any chance of a split? My good friend Adam Jones has written a guest editorial spot for CFB News with a paragraph at the end that caught my eye:
We are all left not quite knowing who reigns supreme in the college football world. I shudder to think what the newly independent and historically mischievous voters of the Associated Press will leave us with after this bowl season. The cacophonic clamorings for a playoff—at least of the “plus-one†variety—will continue, but likely on deaf ears; a 12-0 romp by USC next season will make everyone forget this ugly anomaly.
We’ve spent plenty of time discussing how wack the 2007 season has been, but we’re not sure we’ve seen anyone yet discuss the possibility of a split national title. It’s pretty difficult to imagine a situation where that would happen, but it can’t be discounted at this point. Question of the day: Is there any scenario that might tempt AP voters into casting votes for a team other than the LSU-Ohio State winner?
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RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
LSU <strike>Can and Will</strike> Should Beat Ohio State
Posted Dec 6th 2007 6:53AM by Ryan Ferguson
Filed under: Florida Football, LSU Football, Ohio State Football, Big 10, SEC, BCS, Bowl Games
Last year at about this time I dropped a little bomb here on FanHouse called "The Gators Can and Will Beat Ohio State". In December of 2006, that was an incredibly brazen, practically belligerent headline. Ohio State was heavily favored in the BCS title game, considered one of the greatest teams of all time, and no one believed Florida had even the slimmest glimmer of a chance to win.
It was a straightforward statistical breakdown of both teams, the schedules they played, and the schedules their competition played. My conclusion was simple: the Gators shouldn't just win the game, they should be favored to win.
The comment thread on that post was... memorable. I shudder to think of what would have happened had my prediction gone south. My home here in Orlando probably would have been overrun with Buckeye fans ala Pirates of the Carribean. You know, the Walt Disney ride, not the movie; the part where they ransack the town, set the houses on fire, and drink way too much rum in a sweaty, flame-ridden ecstasy of rape, pillage and torture.
That would have been my living room on January 9th. Yup, I'm pretty sure of it. Yo, ho, yo, ho.
This year, as your faithful SEC blogger, my boys are the LSU Tigers, playing a familiar foe in their own backyard. This year, although the title game will once again be played between the SEC's and the Big 10's best squads, things are different.
LSU is favored despite being ranked #2 to the Bucks' #1. They're practically playing a home game in the Superdome. Many of Ohio State's potent weapons from '06 -- Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez, and Heisman Trophy-winner Troy Smith -- are gone.
The Bucks simply weren't supposed to make it to this point. Even with their schedule, which included teams like Akron and Youngstown State, the Bucks came in with a #11 pre-season ranking. But no one seriously believed that all of the teams ranked ahead of them would lose one or more games to drop the 1-loss Buckeyes into first place. For Bear's sake, Mizzou and Kansas even had a shot at winning a championship this year.
But here they are again, the Buckeyes; two national championship appearances in two consecutive years. Go Tressel.
LSU, meanwhile, came into 2007 with the most talented team in the SEC. Their roster was so loaded that their backups have NFL written all over them. Senior leadership. Coming off a BCS bowl appearance in '06. Head coach Les Miles has only lost 6 flippin' games in 3 years in Baton Rouge. Not too shabby.
Somehow, they lost two games, though, and could easily have lost two more were it not for the late heroics of LSU's football players. (Note that I'm being very specific with my praise.)
Saurian Sagacity broke down the numbers that matter this year, so I don't have to:
Not completely, anyway. Sorry, Henry.
Here's what bothers me the most about this matchup. If there's one team... I mean, one team that can walk into a BCS National Championship Game fat, happy, and complacent, it's a Les Miles-coached team.
How many times this year have we heard Les Miles proclaim how great his team is? I think he's ready to take on the New England Patriots with this bunch.
Make no mistake about it, this is a very powerful football team, even when they're injured or not playing well. But explain the slow starts against Tulane (?) and Ole Miss, the last minute comebacks against Auburn and Florida, the fumble recovery required to beat Alabama (who lost to Louisiana-Monroe!) and the uninspired effort in the first half against Arkansas?
In 2007, everything but a loss is forgiven. Actually, a loss -- even two, now, apparently -- is forgiven, under the right circumstances. I'm okay with close wins, with scrappy come-from-behind in the 4th-quarter games. Just win, baby.
I'm okay with it for just about any team in college football in 2007, except for the LSU Tigers.
They're just too loaded for this to make sense. No one expects an SEC team to run the table -- it's so rare that even the best of the best in this conference know they're likely to lose at least one game in the course of their season. But they still struggled in games they should have won decisively.
I wrote that LSU should have been dominant this year, back when they lost to Arkansas and their title shot appeared completely dead, and I still feel that way.
When a team plays uninspired football in multiple quarters throughout the season, it points to a coaching problem. LSU won most of their close games on talent alone, and fell short by the closest of margins to Kentucky and Arkansas.
You show me a football team that thinks they're all that and a bag of chips, and I'll show you one poised for a fall. I'm hoping that's not the Tigers. But with Miles running the show, I can't rule it out.
Meanwhile, Ohio State has to come into this game unbelievably hungry and pissed off. Bucks fans refer to last year's run-in with buzzsaw Florida as the "Debacle in the Desert" and the pain of that loss will take years to wear off -- unless they beat LSU in January.
Ohio State's players and coaches know that it will take an exceptional game on their part to beat the Bayou Bengals. They know they're the true underdog in this contest. It's them against the world.
You add it all up: the homefield advantage for LSU; the statistical advantages on offense and defense; they're wearing SEC championship rings, a conference which has 6 ranked teams at the end of the regular season compared to the Big Ten's 3; they're a team which has an extremely powerful ground attack in addition to a good passing game; and everything points to a big LSU win.
I'm not a fan of the Big Ten, but I do know a good coach when I see one, and Jim Tressel is a good coach. Despite all the naysaying about Ohio State's schedule and the Big Ten, the fact is that the Buckeyes have owned rival Michigan during Tressel's tenure and is the odds-on favorite to win the conference year in and year out. The Bucks know how to win a lot of games.
Tressel's been down this championship road recently. So have many of his players. They remember the result. If they come in hungrier than LSU, I believe they can win the game.
Les Miles, meanwhile, is not necessarily a "good" coach in the way that Jim Tressel is. Les Miles has proven himself to be a very good recruiter; but LSU has had phenomenal talent due to their in-state recruiting pipeline for years. A perception held by more than a few SEC fans is that Miles in some ways limits rather than helps LSU, and while I'm still on the fence on that one, I can certainly see the merit of the argument.
So this year, I'm softening my stance a bit. LSU should beat Ohio State. But they'd better come ready to play, because I know that Ohio State will.
Filed under: Florida Football, LSU Football, Ohio State Football, Big 10, SEC, BCS, Bowl Games
It was a straightforward statistical breakdown of both teams, the schedules they played, and the schedules their competition played. My conclusion was simple: the Gators shouldn't just win the game, they should be favored to win.
The comment thread on that post was... memorable. I shudder to think of what would have happened had my prediction gone south. My home here in Orlando probably would have been overrun with Buckeye fans ala Pirates of the Carribean. You know, the Walt Disney ride, not the movie; the part where they ransack the town, set the houses on fire, and drink way too much rum in a sweaty, flame-ridden ecstasy of rape, pillage and torture.
That would have been my living room on January 9th. Yup, I'm pretty sure of it. Yo, ho, yo, ho.
This year, as your faithful SEC blogger, my boys are the LSU Tigers, playing a familiar foe in their own backyard. This year, although the title game will once again be played between the SEC's and the Big 10's best squads, things are different.
LSU is favored despite being ranked #2 to the Bucks' #1. They're practically playing a home game in the Superdome. Many of Ohio State's potent weapons from '06 -- Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez, and Heisman Trophy-winner Troy Smith -- are gone.
The Bucks simply weren't supposed to make it to this point. Even with their schedule, which included teams like Akron and Youngstown State, the Bucks came in with a #11 pre-season ranking. But no one seriously believed that all of the teams ranked ahead of them would lose one or more games to drop the 1-loss Buckeyes into first place. For Bear's sake, Mizzou and Kansas even had a shot at winning a championship this year.
But here they are again, the Buckeyes; two national championship appearances in two consecutive years. Go Tressel.
LSU, meanwhile, came into 2007 with the most talented team in the SEC. Their roster was so loaded that their backups have NFL written all over them. Senior leadership. Coming off a BCS bowl appearance in '06. Head coach Les Miles has only lost 6 flippin' games in 3 years in Baton Rouge. Not too shabby.
Somehow, they lost two games, though, and could easily have lost two more were it not for the late heroics of LSU's football players. (Note that I'm being very specific with my praise.)
Saurian Sagacity broke down the numbers that matter this year, so I don't have to:
So here's a comparison between the 2006 and 2007 Buckeyes. The 2006 numbers are from the pregame notes for the BCS Championship game.
OSU 2006
Total Offense 409.8
Scoring Offense 36.3
Total Defense 296.7
Scoring Defense 10.4
OSU 2007
Total Offense 397.1
Scoring Offense 32
Total Defense 225.3
Scoring Defense 10.7
Now let's look at last year's Gator squad vs. this year's LSU team.
Florida 2006
Total Offense 398.1
Scoring Offense 28.8
Total Defense 268.8
Scoring Defense 13.5
LSU 2007
Total Offense 448.2
Scoring Offense 38.7
Total Defense 283.9
Scoring Defense 19.6
Of course LSU had 2 triple overtime games. Here's LSU's statistics in regulation:
LSU 2007 (in regulation)
Total Offense 439.5
Scoring Offense 36.4
Total Defense 274.2
Scoring Defense 16.7
Henry Gomez concludes:OSU 2006
Total Offense 409.8
Scoring Offense 36.3
Total Defense 296.7
Scoring Defense 10.4
OSU 2007
Total Offense 397.1
Scoring Offense 32
Total Defense 225.3
Scoring Defense 10.7
Now let's look at last year's Gator squad vs. this year's LSU team.
Florida 2006
Total Offense 398.1
Scoring Offense 28.8
Total Defense 268.8
Scoring Defense 13.5
LSU 2007
Total Offense 448.2
Scoring Offense 38.7
Total Defense 283.9
Scoring Defense 19.6
Of course LSU had 2 triple overtime games. Here's LSU's statistics in regulation:
LSU 2007 (in regulation)
Total Offense 439.5
Scoring Offense 36.4
Total Defense 274.2
Scoring Defense 16.7
Given all the numbers, I like LSU's chances to thump OSU. Whether you want to attribute it to speed, quality of competition, less of a lay-off, whatever I think OSU will once again be exposed as a fraud of the Bowls and Polls system we have.
Me likey... me likey. But me no agree.
Not completely, anyway. Sorry, Henry.
Here's what bothers me the most about this matchup. If there's one team... I mean, one team that can walk into a BCS National Championship Game fat, happy, and complacent, it's a Les Miles-coached team.
How many times this year have we heard Les Miles proclaim how great his team is? I think he's ready to take on the New England Patriots with this bunch.
Make no mistake about it, this is a very powerful football team, even when they're injured or not playing well. But explain the slow starts against Tulane (?) and Ole Miss, the last minute comebacks against Auburn and Florida, the fumble recovery required to beat Alabama (who lost to Louisiana-Monroe!) and the uninspired effort in the first half against Arkansas?
In 2007, everything but a loss is forgiven. Actually, a loss -- even two, now, apparently -- is forgiven, under the right circumstances. I'm okay with close wins, with scrappy come-from-behind in the 4th-quarter games. Just win, baby.
I'm okay with it for just about any team in college football in 2007, except for the LSU Tigers.
They're just too loaded for this to make sense. No one expects an SEC team to run the table -- it's so rare that even the best of the best in this conference know they're likely to lose at least one game in the course of their season. But they still struggled in games they should have won decisively.
I wrote that LSU should have been dominant this year, back when they lost to Arkansas and their title shot appeared completely dead, and I still feel that way.
When a team plays uninspired football in multiple quarters throughout the season, it points to a coaching problem. LSU won most of their close games on talent alone, and fell short by the closest of margins to Kentucky and Arkansas.
You show me a football team that thinks they're all that and a bag of chips, and I'll show you one poised for a fall. I'm hoping that's not the Tigers. But with Miles running the show, I can't rule it out.
Meanwhile, Ohio State has to come into this game unbelievably hungry and pissed off. Bucks fans refer to last year's run-in with buzzsaw Florida as the "Debacle in the Desert" and the pain of that loss will take years to wear off -- unless they beat LSU in January.
Ohio State's players and coaches know that it will take an exceptional game on their part to beat the Bayou Bengals. They know they're the true underdog in this contest. It's them against the world.
You add it all up: the homefield advantage for LSU; the statistical advantages on offense and defense; they're wearing SEC championship rings, a conference which has 6 ranked teams at the end of the regular season compared to the Big Ten's 3; they're a team which has an extremely powerful ground attack in addition to a good passing game; and everything points to a big LSU win.
I'm not a fan of the Big Ten, but I do know a good coach when I see one, and Jim Tressel is a good coach. Despite all the naysaying about Ohio State's schedule and the Big Ten, the fact is that the Buckeyes have owned rival Michigan during Tressel's tenure and is the odds-on favorite to win the conference year in and year out. The Bucks know how to win a lot of games.
Tressel's been down this championship road recently. So have many of his players. They remember the result. If they come in hungrier than LSU, I believe they can win the game.
Les Miles, meanwhile, is not necessarily a "good" coach in the way that Jim Tressel is. Les Miles has proven himself to be a very good recruiter; but LSU has had phenomenal talent due to their in-state recruiting pipeline for years. A perception held by more than a few SEC fans is that Miles in some ways limits rather than helps LSU, and while I'm still on the fence on that one, I can certainly see the merit of the argument.
So this year, I'm softening my stance a bit. LSU should beat Ohio State. But they'd better come ready to play, because I know that Ohio State will.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Hawaii gives back 4,000 tickets
Unviersity concerned it could not sell full allotment
Posted: Thursday December 6, 2007 1:47AM; Updated: Thursday December 6, 2007 1:47AM
HONOLULU (AP) -- Georgia's apparent home-field advantage at the upcoming Sugar Bowl just grew by 4,000 fans -- thanks to Hawaii.
The University of Hawaii decided against taking its full 17,500-ticket allotment for the Jan. 1 game because it was concerned it could not sell them all, so 4,000 tickets were gladly accepted by Georgia.
With Hawaii quickly selling out its reduced allotment of 13,500 tickets by Tuesday, many angry Warriors' fans and season-ticket holders were left scrambling to find tickets to the school's first bowl game outside the Aloha State since the 1992 Holiday Bowl.
Tickets, ranging from $125 to $145, were first made available to the Warriors' 23,000 season-ticket holders and sold out quickly. Tickets were supposed go on sale to the general public Wednesday, but that never happened.
The university has created a waiting list and is offering to buy back tickets if purchasers were unable to make travel arrangements.
Warriors athletic director Herman Frazier was traveling and unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said Hawaii elected to take fewer tickets based on its best estimate of how many it could sell, "and at the suggestion of the Sugar Bowl, who was trying to accommodate the SEC team with more tickets to satisfy their demand."
Sugar Bowl officials say it was Hawaii's decision.
"They chose not to take their full allotment. That was Hawaii's decision," Sugar Bowl spokesman Duane Lewis said. "We definitely didn't tell them not to take it, it was their choice."
Scalping apparently was also a concern.
"No one in this business wants to see tickets dumped in the secondary market," Benson said.
The 10th-ranked Warriors earned a BCS berth to face the fourth-ranked Bulldogs (10-2) after finishing as the nation's only unbeaten team at 12-0, led by quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Colt Brennan.
Despite the team's unprecedented season, taking fewer tickets may have seemed logical. The 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium was only soldout for two of Hawaii's seven home games this year.
At the 1992 Holiday Bowl, Hawaii's last appearance on the mainland, the school was only able to sell about 4,000 tickets.
John McNamara, Hawaii's associate athletic director, said a major concern was the possibility of losing money from the bowl payout.
"Georgia has been to multiple BCS games. They know what they're capable of doing. We had no frame of reference or history to fall back on," he said.
The good news is, help may soon be on the way for Hawaii fans.
"We're looking to help them get more tickets," Lewis said. "We understand there's great demand and we'll do everything we can."
Brennan was puzzled at the move to take fewer tickets.
"Why did they do that?" he said. "You know what, it's no surprise to me."
Georgia is also dealing with a ticket shortage and has had no problem drawing fans. All of its games at 92,746-capacity Sanford Stadium were sold out this year. The Bulldogs have about three times as many season-ticket holders as Hawaii.
"Our waiting list is less than 100," McNamara said. "Georgia's is more than 5,000. ... Georgia is dealing with disappointed fans. We're dealing with disappointed fans."
Unviersity concerned it could not sell full allotment
Posted: Thursday December 6, 2007 1:47AM; Updated: Thursday December 6, 2007 1:47AM
HONOLULU (AP) -- Georgia's apparent home-field advantage at the upcoming Sugar Bowl just grew by 4,000 fans -- thanks to Hawaii.
The University of Hawaii decided against taking its full 17,500-ticket allotment for the Jan. 1 game because it was concerned it could not sell them all, so 4,000 tickets were gladly accepted by Georgia.
With Hawaii quickly selling out its reduced allotment of 13,500 tickets by Tuesday, many angry Warriors' fans and season-ticket holders were left scrambling to find tickets to the school's first bowl game outside the Aloha State since the 1992 Holiday Bowl.
Tickets, ranging from $125 to $145, were first made available to the Warriors' 23,000 season-ticket holders and sold out quickly. Tickets were supposed go on sale to the general public Wednesday, but that never happened.
The university has created a waiting list and is offering to buy back tickets if purchasers were unable to make travel arrangements.
Warriors athletic director Herman Frazier was traveling and unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson said Hawaii elected to take fewer tickets based on its best estimate of how many it could sell, "and at the suggestion of the Sugar Bowl, who was trying to accommodate the SEC team with more tickets to satisfy their demand."
Sugar Bowl officials say it was Hawaii's decision.
"They chose not to take their full allotment. That was Hawaii's decision," Sugar Bowl spokesman Duane Lewis said. "We definitely didn't tell them not to take it, it was their choice."
Scalping apparently was also a concern.
"No one in this business wants to see tickets dumped in the secondary market," Benson said.
The 10th-ranked Warriors earned a BCS berth to face the fourth-ranked Bulldogs (10-2) after finishing as the nation's only unbeaten team at 12-0, led by quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Colt Brennan.
Despite the team's unprecedented season, taking fewer tickets may have seemed logical. The 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium was only soldout for two of Hawaii's seven home games this year.
At the 1992 Holiday Bowl, Hawaii's last appearance on the mainland, the school was only able to sell about 4,000 tickets.
John McNamara, Hawaii's associate athletic director, said a major concern was the possibility of losing money from the bowl payout.
"Georgia has been to multiple BCS games. They know what they're capable of doing. We had no frame of reference or history to fall back on," he said.
The good news is, help may soon be on the way for Hawaii fans.
"We're looking to help them get more tickets," Lewis said. "We understand there's great demand and we'll do everything we can."
Brennan was puzzled at the move to take fewer tickets.
"Why did they do that?" he said. "You know what, it's no surprise to me."
Georgia is also dealing with a ticket shortage and has had no problem drawing fans. All of its games at 92,746-capacity Sanford Stadium were sold out this year. The Bulldogs have about three times as many season-ticket holders as Hawaii.
"Our waiting list is less than 100," McNamara said. "Georgia's is more than 5,000. ... Georgia is dealing with disappointed fans. We're dealing with disappointed fans."
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Jimbo Fisher Next In Line At FSU
Posted Dec 6th 2007 12:46AM by Ian Cohen
Filed under: Florida State Football, ACC, BCS, NCAA FB Gossip, NCAA FB Rumors, NCAA FB Coaching
Thank God it's 2007 instead of 2006. If you were to tell Florida State fans that their offensive coordinator was next in line to take over for Bobby Bowden when he decided to ride off into the sunset, Tallahassee would have been burnt to cinders and the world at large might be moved to feel sympathy for the FSU program . But rather than witnessing the most eye-popping case of nepotism since Ghostface Killah let his son rap with him about "running trains for hours up in the Days Inn," in this case, we're talking about teh hotness coaching candidate Jimbo Fisher (see: Southern Miss, <strike>Arkansas,</strike> Georgia Tech) instead of chair moistener from Sector 7-G Jeff Bowden.
Chances are, the cred he accrued as LSU's offensive coordinator is probably the reason for all of this, as the Seminole offense he masterminded in 2007...kinda sucked, to be honest. Perhaps FSU is looking to prevent the next Mark Richt from slipping away by indicating that Fisher's next in line to coach the 'Noles- some will argue that they haven't really been the same since Richt's departure, and they'd be well behooved to have an in-house candidate instead of acting a fool in their first coaching search in decades (Lloyd Carr- very much available).
Or perhaps they're learning a lesson from Miami, who went with the ultimate company guy from within and already are being questioned about Randy Shannon's job security. The thing about this is how long Bowden plans on sticking around, and if this "Plan A, B and C" approach could backfire if Fisher can't get the offense up and running in the next couple of years. At the very least, Georgia fans can rest easier knowing that the Doomsday Scenario of Richt leaving for FSU appears to be shoved in the same dustbin of history that holds FSU's guaranteed slot in the year-end Top 5.
Filed under: Florida State Football, ACC, BCS, NCAA FB Gossip, NCAA FB Rumors, NCAA FB Coaching
Chances are, the cred he accrued as LSU's offensive coordinator is probably the reason for all of this, as the Seminole offense he masterminded in 2007...kinda sucked, to be honest. Perhaps FSU is looking to prevent the next Mark Richt from slipping away by indicating that Fisher's next in line to coach the 'Noles- some will argue that they haven't really been the same since Richt's departure, and they'd be well behooved to have an in-house candidate instead of acting a fool in their first coaching search in decades (Lloyd Carr- very much available).
Or perhaps they're learning a lesson from Miami, who went with the ultimate company guy from within and already are being questioned about Randy Shannon's job security. The thing about this is how long Bowden plans on sticking around, and if this "Plan A, B and C" approach could backfire if Fisher can't get the offense up and running in the next couple of years. At the very least, Georgia fans can rest easier knowing that the Doomsday Scenario of Richt leaving for FSU appears to be shoved in the same dustbin of history that holds FSU's guaranteed slot in the year-end Top 5.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Grobe Has Change of Heart, Will Stay
Arkansas is a dream job, but not if you're at a football factory like Wake Forest. Jim Grobe has backed out of the Arkansas job, becoming the second candidate in three days to do so.
If you have experience coaching any level of football — Pop Warner on up — you're urged to give the Arkansas search firm a call. The number is 867-5309, or something like that.
It was widely reported that Grobe had taken the job, but according to the Springdale Morning News, he had a change of heart after talking with his team during an emotional meeting. And as it turns out, an expensive meeting. He left an extra $1.1 million a year behind (who couldn't use that?), but you have to admire Grobe for having the guts to follow his heart.
Arkansas is a dream job, but not if you're at a football factory like Wake Forest. Jim Grobe has backed out of the Arkansas job, becoming the second candidate in three days to do so.
If you have experience coaching any level of football — Pop Warner on up — you're urged to give the Arkansas search firm a call. The number is 867-5309, or something like that.
It was widely reported that Grobe had taken the job, but according to the Springdale Morning News, he had a change of heart after talking with his team during an emotional meeting. And as it turns out, an expensive meeting. He left an extra $1.1 million a year behind (who couldn't use that?), but you have to admire Grobe for having the guts to follow his heart.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Know thy Bowl Opponent 2007: Central Michigan Chippewas
It is Joe Tiller's birthday, so it is appropriate that on this "date which will live in infamy" that we view the bowl opponent that will live in infamy; the Central Michigan Chippewas. The 2007 season is somewhat like the Pearl Harbor attack in that we knew something bad was brewing, but we never expected the season to collapse so suddenly in the final three games. Now we have the entire program smoldering like the USS Arizona and the fans are wondering how things can be fixed. Therefore, we must think of the Central Michigan game in the Motor City Bowl as the Doolittle Raid that occurred a few months after Pearl Harbor. On the surface the attack did not accomplish a whole lot, but it was the first step in the ultimate victory for the U.S. over Japan. A loss to the Chips would simply be the biggest setback the program has faced since the Colletto era.
The Motor City Bowl will be the first time in the program's history that that Purdue has not faced a major conference team in a bowl game, and if Tiller has done anything in his tenure he has proven that he can beat teams from non-BCS conferences. He has a 19-3 record against non-BCS foes, with the only losses coming to Toledo in 1997, Bowling Green in 2003, and Hawaii in 2006. What is the common denominator of these three? They were all ranked teams in the season that we played them, furthering proof he can't beat ranked teams. When you take those away we have very few games that were even close, with Miami (OH) in 2006 and Rice in 1998 being the closest. Central Michigan didn't even receive a single vote in any football poll this season, so the odds are in our favor.
2007 for the Chippewas
We all know what happened on September 15<sup>th</sup>, and quite frankly anything short of a repeat performance will be disappointing. We had our most dominant half of football on the season against Central Michigan, building a 31-0 halftime lead and preventing a good offensive team from doing much of anything. We then pushed the lead to 38-0 before turning on the cruise control and coasting to a 45-22 win. This is what we must do in Detroit. It's sad this that this game was one of the few times this season we totally dominated a team and put them away early.
Once the Chippewas got into MAC play they had a pretty good season, going 7-1 against conference opponents. The only loss to a MAC team came in a 48-45 shootout against Eastern Michigan. The Eagles aren't exactly the New England Patriots in terms of offense, so once again we should be able to what we want when we want to offensively.
When the Chippewas played outside the MAC the results weren't nearly so good. They went 1-4 with the only win coming against Army 47-23. The other four games were blowouts. 52-7 against Kansas, 45-22 against Purdue, 44-14 to 1-AA North Dakota State, and 70-14 against Clemson were results that don't exactly inspire confidence when playing someone else.
The only common opponent we have with the Chippewas, outside of our own game with them of course, is Toledo whom they pounded 52-31 just a week after we faced the Rockets.
Central Michigan offense:
Central Michigan knows how to score points. The Chippewas rank 26<sup>th</sup> nationally at 33.8 points per game, just ahead of our own 32.9 per game clip. They average more than 450 yards per game (ranked 21<sup>st</sup>) and that is fairly evenly balanced between the run and the pass. Most of this balance comes in the form of quarterback Dan LeFevour. He's a bit of a poor man's Tim Tebow, as he has thrown for 3,360 yards and 23 touchdowns and has run for 1008 yards and 17 scores. Since Tebow was college football's first ever 20/20 touchdown man this season it's not outside the realm of possiblilty that Lefevour could join him with a good Motor City bowl performance. He is also only a sophomore like Tebow, and will be better this time around. Against us the first time he threw for 364 yards and two scores while running for only 26, but most of that came with the Boilers already holding a big lead.
His top receiver is Bryan Anderson, who had 10 catches for 101 yards against us and has 83 grabs for 1003 yards and seven scores on the year. Antonio Brown also contributes to the passing game with 98 catches, 909 yards, and five scores. He had nine catches for 96 yards against us. Central Michigan has had 10 different players catch touchdown passes this year, so almost anyone can contribute.
Outside of LeFevour the running game is not particularly dangerous as Justin Hoskins is the next leading rusher with 649 yards and 10 scores. Central Michigan only ran for 101 yards against us the first time around, and 41 of those came from #3 rusher Ontario Sneed. Sneed had 484 yards and six scores on the year, but his production continued to drop after a 1,000 yard year in 2005 and 700 in 2006. It should be noted that Sneed did miss three games in the middle of the season.
The Chippewas' M.O. is to spread the ball around as much as possible, and they succeeded in doing that the first time around with nine different receivers and six different rushers getting involved. In order to repeat our earlier victory it will be imperative for us for us to not let their offense get rolling in the first half.
Central Michigan Defense:
The way that some teams blew through this unit the proper term might be, "What defense?" As seen above, the Chippewas were unable to hold a non-MAC opponent not named Army under 44 points this year. Against the MAC they weren't much better, giving up over 30 points in six of eight games. The only teams that struggled to score against Central were Army, Northern Illinois, and Miami (OH), and they each finished 3-9, 2-10, and 6-7 respectively. That's 10 of 13 games this year in which Central Michigan gave up 30 points or more.
Central Michigan can cause turnovers, forcing 27 this year led by Josh Gordy with four interceptions, but it's not like they have been able to stop anyone. Red Keith was a tackling machine with 139 stops on the year from his linebacker position, adding two picks and two fumble recoveries to his repertoire. Ike Brown also reached triple digits in tackles with exactly 100 stops.
That's really it for the defense, as you can't expect there to be a ton of standouts on a unit that would struggle to stop the French Army. We've already proven we can start hot against this team, so any kind of first half struggles would be a huge disappointment. I will say it now: If we make it out of the first quarter still having not scored in the opening quarter of a bowl game since Tampa we will lose this game.
Central Michigan Special Teams:
We have a solid advantage here with Chris Summers over placekicker Andrew Aguila. Aguila has missed four extra points this year while Summers is perfect on PAT's and Aguila has connected on just 7 of 12 field goals. He has made a 51-yarder, but is just 2 of 6 from beyond 30 yards. Central Michigan is usually a team that is end zone or bust on drives, so if we can keep them outside of the red zone we stand a good chance of stopping them from scoring.
Tony Mikulec only has a 37.5 yard punting average, so there isn't a big leg there. Antonio Brown is a decent kick returner averaging 11.4 yards on punt returns and 27.7 on kick returns. He also had a 90 yard kick return for a touchdown and a 58 yarder against us, but Bryant and Tardy are better weapons.
The kicking game will be a huge advantage if the defense can simply keep them out of the end zone. We can score from farther out than they can because of the improvement in Chris Summers. Jared Armstrong will need to get over his case of the shanks as well.
Intangibles:
While we should have huge advantages in terms of talent Central Michigan has a gigantic advantage in this area. Quite simply they have a whole lot more to play for than we do. We have an entire fan base that is demoralized, as well as players openly saying we should have declined this bowl invitation. We've already proven we can beat this team, so it won't even count as a good win if we finally break our bowl losing streak. The only thing we can salvage is embarrassment from losing to a team we defeated by 23 points just three months ago.
Central Michigan, however, is fired up to get another shot at a BCS conference opponent. They've already played in big games (two MAC title games and last year's Motor City bowl) at Ford Field and won them all. This is like a second home for them at this point. A win would also give them a nice springboard into next year, something we can't boast about.
Let's face it: for a team from the MAC they use any victory over a Big Ten team, no matter how bad that Big Ten team is, as a measuring stick. That's part of the reason they agreed to this bowl matchup that always sends the best from the MAC against the worst bowl team from the Big Ten. A win for Central Michigan would give them a ton of confidence to beat us next year when they receive most everyone back.
Game Outlook:
This will be a game won in the first quarter. We cannot afford to have another slow start to a bowl game, but coming out hot would be a stunning reversal of our past performances. If not for a slow start we would have had wins against Arizona State (2004), Georgia (2003), Washington State (2001), and possibly Washington in the Rose Bowl. The more we let Central hang around the more confidence they will gain. They're already itching to kick around a team that kicked them around, so we cannot give them any fire.
I have been preaching this all year but no one will listen. The key for us will be the running game. Kory Sheets has his best game on the ground this season against Central with 144 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught four balls out of the backfield for 19 more yards. Jaycen Taylor went for 28 yards and a score before breaking his arm in the game. We more than doubled their yardage on the ground, and if we can contain LeFevour's running ability we should be fine.
A lot will depend on our attitude and leadership. If leaders like Keller, Avril, and Bick decide that the finish was embarrassing enough and want to go out with a bang we should be able to dominate like we did in September. If Dorien Bryant's piss-poor attitude prevails however we will lose. This is a highly important game because more than ever it sets the tone for next year. A win at least stops the bleeding and temporarily reverses the trend started at the end of the season. A loss means we could easily go 1-3 out of conference next year and the season would be over before it started.
PREDICTION:
Maybe I am delusional, but I still believe. I think that we can for once rise up to the challenge and pull this off. I have zero confidence in Central Michigan's ability to stop us, as they haven't stopped anyone all season who didn't shoot themselves in the foot. That will be the only way we should lose this game. Unfortunately we have shown of late that we are more than capable of doing so. Purdue 45, Central Michigan 30
It is Joe Tiller's birthday, so it is appropriate that on this "date which will live in infamy" that we view the bowl opponent that will live in infamy; the Central Michigan Chippewas. The 2007 season is somewhat like the Pearl Harbor attack in that we knew something bad was brewing, but we never expected the season to collapse so suddenly in the final three games. Now we have the entire program smoldering like the USS Arizona and the fans are wondering how things can be fixed. Therefore, we must think of the Central Michigan game in the Motor City Bowl as the Doolittle Raid that occurred a few months after Pearl Harbor. On the surface the attack did not accomplish a whole lot, but it was the first step in the ultimate victory for the U.S. over Japan. A loss to the Chips would simply be the biggest setback the program has faced since the Colletto era.The Motor City Bowl will be the first time in the program's history that that Purdue has not faced a major conference team in a bowl game, and if Tiller has done anything in his tenure he has proven that he can beat teams from non-BCS conferences. He has a 19-3 record against non-BCS foes, with the only losses coming to Toledo in 1997, Bowling Green in 2003, and Hawaii in 2006. What is the common denominator of these three? They were all ranked teams in the season that we played them, furthering proof he can't beat ranked teams. When you take those away we have very few games that were even close, with Miami (OH) in 2006 and Rice in 1998 being the closest. Central Michigan didn't even receive a single vote in any football poll this season, so the odds are in our favor.
2007 for the Chippewas
We all know what happened on September 15<sup>th</sup>, and quite frankly anything short of a repeat performance will be disappointing. We had our most dominant half of football on the season against Central Michigan, building a 31-0 halftime lead and preventing a good offensive team from doing much of anything. We then pushed the lead to 38-0 before turning on the cruise control and coasting to a 45-22 win. This is what we must do in Detroit. It's sad this that this game was one of the few times this season we totally dominated a team and put them away early.
Once the Chippewas got into MAC play they had a pretty good season, going 7-1 against conference opponents. The only loss to a MAC team came in a 48-45 shootout against Eastern Michigan. The Eagles aren't exactly the New England Patriots in terms of offense, so once again we should be able to what we want when we want to offensively.
When the Chippewas played outside the MAC the results weren't nearly so good. They went 1-4 with the only win coming against Army 47-23. The other four games were blowouts. 52-7 against Kansas, 45-22 against Purdue, 44-14 to 1-AA North Dakota State, and 70-14 against Clemson were results that don't exactly inspire confidence when playing someone else.
The only common opponent we have with the Chippewas, outside of our own game with them of course, is Toledo whom they pounded 52-31 just a week after we faced the Rockets.
Central Michigan offense:
Central Michigan knows how to score points. The Chippewas rank 26<sup>th</sup> nationally at 33.8 points per game, just ahead of our own 32.9 per game clip. They average more than 450 yards per game (ranked 21<sup>st</sup>) and that is fairly evenly balanced between the run and the pass. Most of this balance comes in the form of quarterback Dan LeFevour. He's a bit of a poor man's Tim Tebow, as he has thrown for 3,360 yards and 23 touchdowns and has run for 1008 yards and 17 scores. Since Tebow was college football's first ever 20/20 touchdown man this season it's not outside the realm of possiblilty that Lefevour could join him with a good Motor City bowl performance. He is also only a sophomore like Tebow, and will be better this time around. Against us the first time he threw for 364 yards and two scores while running for only 26, but most of that came with the Boilers already holding a big lead.
His top receiver is Bryan Anderson, who had 10 catches for 101 yards against us and has 83 grabs for 1003 yards and seven scores on the year. Antonio Brown also contributes to the passing game with 98 catches, 909 yards, and five scores. He had nine catches for 96 yards against us. Central Michigan has had 10 different players catch touchdown passes this year, so almost anyone can contribute.
Outside of LeFevour the running game is not particularly dangerous as Justin Hoskins is the next leading rusher with 649 yards and 10 scores. Central Michigan only ran for 101 yards against us the first time around, and 41 of those came from #3 rusher Ontario Sneed. Sneed had 484 yards and six scores on the year, but his production continued to drop after a 1,000 yard year in 2005 and 700 in 2006. It should be noted that Sneed did miss three games in the middle of the season.
The Chippewas' M.O. is to spread the ball around as much as possible, and they succeeded in doing that the first time around with nine different receivers and six different rushers getting involved. In order to repeat our earlier victory it will be imperative for us for us to not let their offense get rolling in the first half.
Central Michigan Defense:
The way that some teams blew through this unit the proper term might be, "What defense?" As seen above, the Chippewas were unable to hold a non-MAC opponent not named Army under 44 points this year. Against the MAC they weren't much better, giving up over 30 points in six of eight games. The only teams that struggled to score against Central were Army, Northern Illinois, and Miami (OH), and they each finished 3-9, 2-10, and 6-7 respectively. That's 10 of 13 games this year in which Central Michigan gave up 30 points or more.
Central Michigan can cause turnovers, forcing 27 this year led by Josh Gordy with four interceptions, but it's not like they have been able to stop anyone. Red Keith was a tackling machine with 139 stops on the year from his linebacker position, adding two picks and two fumble recoveries to his repertoire. Ike Brown also reached triple digits in tackles with exactly 100 stops.
That's really it for the defense, as you can't expect there to be a ton of standouts on a unit that would struggle to stop the French Army. We've already proven we can start hot against this team, so any kind of first half struggles would be a huge disappointment. I will say it now: If we make it out of the first quarter still having not scored in the opening quarter of a bowl game since Tampa we will lose this game.
Central Michigan Special Teams:
We have a solid advantage here with Chris Summers over placekicker Andrew Aguila. Aguila has missed four extra points this year while Summers is perfect on PAT's and Aguila has connected on just 7 of 12 field goals. He has made a 51-yarder, but is just 2 of 6 from beyond 30 yards. Central Michigan is usually a team that is end zone or bust on drives, so if we can keep them outside of the red zone we stand a good chance of stopping them from scoring.
Tony Mikulec only has a 37.5 yard punting average, so there isn't a big leg there. Antonio Brown is a decent kick returner averaging 11.4 yards on punt returns and 27.7 on kick returns. He also had a 90 yard kick return for a touchdown and a 58 yarder against us, but Bryant and Tardy are better weapons.
The kicking game will be a huge advantage if the defense can simply keep them out of the end zone. We can score from farther out than they can because of the improvement in Chris Summers. Jared Armstrong will need to get over his case of the shanks as well.
Intangibles:
While we should have huge advantages in terms of talent Central Michigan has a gigantic advantage in this area. Quite simply they have a whole lot more to play for than we do. We have an entire fan base that is demoralized, as well as players openly saying we should have declined this bowl invitation. We've already proven we can beat this team, so it won't even count as a good win if we finally break our bowl losing streak. The only thing we can salvage is embarrassment from losing to a team we defeated by 23 points just three months ago.
Central Michigan, however, is fired up to get another shot at a BCS conference opponent. They've already played in big games (two MAC title games and last year's Motor City bowl) at Ford Field and won them all. This is like a second home for them at this point. A win would also give them a nice springboard into next year, something we can't boast about.
Let's face it: for a team from the MAC they use any victory over a Big Ten team, no matter how bad that Big Ten team is, as a measuring stick. That's part of the reason they agreed to this bowl matchup that always sends the best from the MAC against the worst bowl team from the Big Ten. A win for Central Michigan would give them a ton of confidence to beat us next year when they receive most everyone back.
Game Outlook:
This will be a game won in the first quarter. We cannot afford to have another slow start to a bowl game, but coming out hot would be a stunning reversal of our past performances. If not for a slow start we would have had wins against Arizona State (2004), Georgia (2003), Washington State (2001), and possibly Washington in the Rose Bowl. The more we let Central hang around the more confidence they will gain. They're already itching to kick around a team that kicked them around, so we cannot give them any fire.
I have been preaching this all year but no one will listen. The key for us will be the running game. Kory Sheets has his best game on the ground this season against Central with 144 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught four balls out of the backfield for 19 more yards. Jaycen Taylor went for 28 yards and a score before breaking his arm in the game. We more than doubled their yardage on the ground, and if we can contain LeFevour's running ability we should be fine.
A lot will depend on our attitude and leadership. If leaders like Keller, Avril, and Bick decide that the finish was embarrassing enough and want to go out with a bang we should be able to dominate like we did in September. If Dorien Bryant's piss-poor attitude prevails however we will lose. This is a highly important game because more than ever it sets the tone for next year. A win at least stops the bleeding and temporarily reverses the trend started at the end of the season. A loss means we could easily go 1-3 out of conference next year and the season would be over before it started.
PREDICTION:
Maybe I am delusional, but I still believe. I think that we can for once rise up to the challenge and pull this off. I have zero confidence in Central Michigan's ability to stop us, as they haven't stopped anyone all season who didn't shoot themselves in the foot. That will be the only way we should lose this game. Unfortunately we have shown of late that we are more than capable of doing so. Purdue 45, Central Michigan 30
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Johnson to leave Navy for Ga. Tech
Posted: Friday December 7, 2007 1:58PM; Updated: Friday December 7, 2007 1:58PM
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Navy football coach Paul Johnson told his team Friday he has accepted the head coach job at Georgia Tech, Navy's associate athletic director for sports information said.
Johnson, who has coached the Midshipmen for six years, informed the team during a meeting at the service academy's Ricketts Hall, where the football offices are located.
Posted: Friday December 7, 2007 1:58PM; Updated: Friday December 7, 2007 1:58PM
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Navy football coach Paul Johnson told his team Friday he has accepted the head coach job at Georgia Tech, Navy's associate athletic director for sports information said.
Johnson, who has coached the Midshipmen for six years, informed the team during a meeting at the service academy's Ricketts Hall, where the football offices are located.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Also Not Michigan's Next Coach: Greg Schiano
Posted Dec 7th 2007 1:03PM by Brian Cook
Filed under: Michigan Football, Rutgers Football, NCAA FB Coaching
Sigh. Michigan made a run at Greg Schiano yesterday or the day before, apparently offering him the Michigan job in all ways but giving him an actual contract to sign. The result:
Les Miles! Which is crazy. But we're all a little crazy these days.
Filed under: Michigan Football, Rutgers Football, NCAA FB Coaching
Greg Schiano is staying as football coach at Rutgers, rejecting overtures from the University of Michigan.
An offer was never formally made to Schiano, nor were specific contract details discussed, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
But it was understood, the person said, the deal would have had roughly the same framework of one he passed up with Miami last year that would have paid about $2.2 million a year
With Schiano and Les Miles (probably) off the table, Brian Kelly never even getting a look, and Kirk Ferentz's on-again-off-again flirtation with the job at an end, where does Michigan turn? There is no name out there, but Michigan fans are getting excited about...An offer was never formally made to Schiano, nor were specific contract details discussed, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
But it was understood, the person said, the deal would have had roughly the same framework of one he passed up with Miami last year that would have paid about $2.2 million a year
Les Miles! Which is crazy. But we're all a little crazy these days.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
SORRY, CHARLIE
Breaking news out of South Bend today: There is still no interest from anyone in squiring Charlie Weis away from Notre Dame. Since their season concluded, Weis’ agent, Bob Lamonte is trying, desperately, to drum up interest in Charlie Chalupa but has had no luck. In fact, his calls have become legendary among athletic directors from Ann Arbor to Los Angeles. When Bob calls on behalf of Charlie, AD’s are ducking the calls like they owe him money.
There is a dark underbelly to this coaching tilt-a-whirl. That ugly underbelly has a face, and that face is property of Charlie Weis. You hear all about the success stories like Houston Nutt parlaying mediocrity into fortune and Paul Johnson getting paid, but what about the man no one wanted? What of the doughboy in the hoodie? What will become of him?
Lamonte denies he’s trying to get an extension for Weis, who’s already signed well beyond his life expectancy at Notre Dame. Lamonte claims his private calls with friends are not the business of the media. The media reminds Mr. Lamonte that agents don’t have friends. When we contacted athletic directors around the country, we were shocked at our results. Even discomfited Arkansas AD, Jeff Long, laughed when asked if he’d be interested in Weis.
Of the 118 Division I AD’s we contacted, only one (1) showed interest in Weis. Duke said, “Absolutely! We’d be happy to have Mr. Weis. He’s the most high profile morbidly obese coach in college sports right now. He’s the perfect candidate for us!” [when fact checking Jebus’ post we found he hadn’t contacted the Duke athletic department, but rather Duke’s world-renowned Fat Camp — Camp Rotund & Moribund.–ed. ]
When reached for comment, Charlie Cacciatore replied, “Syrup… I need more syrup on my eggs.”
Breaking news out of South Bend today: There is still no interest from anyone in squiring Charlie Weis away from Notre Dame. Since their season concluded, Weis’ agent, Bob Lamonte is trying, desperately, to drum up interest in Charlie Chalupa but has had no luck. In fact, his calls have become legendary among athletic directors from Ann Arbor to Los Angeles. When Bob calls on behalf of Charlie, AD’s are ducking the calls like they owe him money.
There is a dark underbelly to this coaching tilt-a-whirl. That ugly underbelly has a face, and that face is property of Charlie Weis. You hear all about the success stories like Houston Nutt parlaying mediocrity into fortune and Paul Johnson getting paid, but what about the man no one wanted? What of the doughboy in the hoodie? What will become of him?
Lamonte denies he’s trying to get an extension for Weis, who’s already signed well beyond his life expectancy at Notre Dame. Lamonte claims his private calls with friends are not the business of the media. The media reminds Mr. Lamonte that agents don’t have friends. When we contacted athletic directors around the country, we were shocked at our results. Even discomfited Arkansas AD, Jeff Long, laughed when asked if he’d be interested in Weis.
Of the 118 Division I AD’s we contacted, only one (1) showed interest in Weis. Duke said, “Absolutely! We’d be happy to have Mr. Weis. He’s the most high profile morbidly obese coach in college sports right now. He’s the perfect candidate for us!” [when fact checking Jebus’ post we found he hadn’t contacted the Duke athletic department, but rather Duke’s world-renowned Fat Camp — Camp Rotund & Moribund.–ed. ]
When reached for comment, Charlie Cacciatore replied, “Syrup… I need more syrup on my eggs.”
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
SEC Cleans Up College Football Awards
Posted Dec 7th 2007 12:11PM by Ryan Ferguson
Filed under: Florida Football, LSU Football, SEC, Arkansas Football, Arkansas, Florida, LSU
The SEC's impressive talent was on display at the Home Depot College Football Awards show in Orlando on Thursday night.
4 of the 9 achievement awards went to SEC players. That was easily enough to put the Southeastern Conference in first place; the Pac-10 came in second with two recipients, while the Big 10, Big 12 and ACC trailed at one apiece. Here's how it breaks down...
Doak Walker Award: given to college football's best running back.
Winner: Darren McFadden, Arkansas (SEC), for the second consecutive season.
Fred Biletnikoff Award: given to college football's best receiver.
Winner: Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech (Big 12)
Davey O'Brien Award: given to the nation's top quarterback.
Winner: Tim Tebow, Florida. (SEC)
Chuck Bednarik Trophy: given to the nation's best defensive player.
Winner: Dan Connor, LB, Penn State. (Big 10)
Jim Thorpe Award: given to the best defensive back in the country.
Winner: Antoine Cason, CB, Arizona. (Pac 10)
Outland Trophy: given to the nation's best interior lineman.
Winner: Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU. (SEC)
Lou Groza Award: given to the country's best kicker.
Winner: Thomas Weber, Arizona State. (Pac 10)
Ray Guy Award: given to the nation's top punter.
Winner: Durant Brooks, Georgia Tech. (ACC)
Maxwell Award: given to college football's best all-round player.
Winner: Tim Tebow, Florida. (SEC)
Additionally, 6 SEC players were named to the Walter Camp All-American team and LSU's Glenn Dorsey won the Lombardi Trophy, given to the country's best college lineman, earlier this week.
What's especially exciting is that two of the SEC's awardees (McFadden and Tebow) are finalists for the Heisman Trophy; chances are excellent that the stiffarm trophy will return to the SEC this year.
Congratulations to the SEC's finest players, who play for some of college football's finest teams; and congratulations to recipients from the Big 10, Pac 10, Big 12, and ACC for their achievements as well.
Filed under: Florida Football, LSU Football, SEC, Arkansas Football, Arkansas, Florida, LSU
4 of the 9 achievement awards went to SEC players. That was easily enough to put the Southeastern Conference in first place; the Pac-10 came in second with two recipients, while the Big 10, Big 12 and ACC trailed at one apiece. Here's how it breaks down...
Doak Walker Award: given to college football's best running back.
Winner: Darren McFadden, Arkansas (SEC), for the second consecutive season.
Fred Biletnikoff Award: given to college football's best receiver.
Winner: Michael Crabtree, Texas Tech (Big 12)
Davey O'Brien Award: given to the nation's top quarterback.
Winner: Tim Tebow, Florida. (SEC)
Chuck Bednarik Trophy: given to the nation's best defensive player.
Winner: Dan Connor, LB, Penn State. (Big 10)
Jim Thorpe Award: given to the best defensive back in the country.
Winner: Antoine Cason, CB, Arizona. (Pac 10)
Outland Trophy: given to the nation's best interior lineman.
Winner: Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU. (SEC)
Lou Groza Award: given to the country's best kicker.
Winner: Thomas Weber, Arizona State. (Pac 10)
Ray Guy Award: given to the nation's top punter.
Winner: Durant Brooks, Georgia Tech. (ACC)
Maxwell Award: given to college football's best all-round player.
Winner: Tim Tebow, Florida. (SEC)
Additionally, 6 SEC players were named to the Walter Camp All-American team and LSU's Glenn Dorsey won the Lombardi Trophy, given to the country's best college lineman, earlier this week.
What's especially exciting is that two of the SEC's awardees (McFadden and Tebow) are finalists for the Heisman Trophy; chances are excellent that the stiffarm trophy will return to the SEC this year.
Congratulations to the SEC's finest players, who play for some of college football's finest teams; and congratulations to recipients from the Big 10, Pac 10, Big 12, and ACC for their achievements as well.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Curious Index, 12/7/07
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</td> <td width="528"> The Admiral marches from Annapolis to Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Paul Johnson to Georgia Tech is all but a done deal. We noted on Wednesday that we fully endorse this move.
Georgia Tech fans wanting a complete profile on Paul Johnson are at the wrong site, of course; Orson’s the Jon Stewart of CFB news. But we’re happy to point you to someone who takes this stuff seriously: MGoBlog’s Paul Johnson file.
A tribute to Evil. Texas Tech has suspended the masked rider for a “banned stunt” performed during Tech’s November 17th win over Oklahoma in Lubbock. The Masked Rider Committee (who knew?) sanctioned the student mascot after he rode around the stadium with hands raised in the air and reins in his teeth. It’s not quite trying to jump an Ohio river in a motorcycle, but we salute the masked rider for his stuntery nonetheless.
awards. Orson and I vowed not to give a shit about these things this year, but Orson’s love for Tim Tebow far, far outweighs his love for keeping promises. Tebow was the main event last night in Orlando, picking up both the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards. The Maxwell Award is presented to CFB’s overall best player; the Davey O’Brien to the nation’s top quarterback. Other winners included:
Doak Walker Award (Best RB): Darren McFadden
Fred Biletnikoff Award (Best WR): Michael Crabtree
Chuck Bednarik (Best Defensive Player): Dan Connor
Outland Trophy (Best Lineman): Glenn Dorsey
Jim Thorpe Award (Best DB): Antoine Cason
Lou Groza (Best PK): Thomas Weber
Ray Guy (Best Punter): Durant Brooks
And last, this year’s Heisman Finalists were announced: Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden, Chase Daniel, and Colt Brennan. Four system quarterbacks. Huh.
10-4 That’s it for me this week; Holly or JHC may have some more for you later. Orson returns from vacation this weekend, so join us Sunday night for EDSBS LIVE if you’re around. It’s been a fun week, if not quite funny. Orson will take care of that upon his return.
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</td> <td width="528"> The Admiral marches from Annapolis to Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Paul Johnson to Georgia Tech is all but a done deal. We noted on Wednesday that we fully endorse this move.
Georgia Tech fans wanting a complete profile on Paul Johnson are at the wrong site, of course; Orson’s the Jon Stewart of CFB news. But we’re happy to point you to someone who takes this stuff seriously: MGoBlog’s Paul Johnson file.
A tribute to Evil. Texas Tech has suspended the masked rider for a “banned stunt” performed during Tech’s November 17th win over Oklahoma in Lubbock. The Masked Rider Committee (who knew?) sanctioned the student mascot after he rode around the stadium with hands raised in the air and reins in his teeth. It’s not quite trying to jump an Ohio river in a motorcycle, but we salute the masked rider for his stuntery nonetheless.
awards. Orson and I vowed not to give a shit about these things this year, but Orson’s love for Tim Tebow far, far outweighs his love for keeping promises. Tebow was the main event last night in Orlando, picking up both the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards. The Maxwell Award is presented to CFB’s overall best player; the Davey O’Brien to the nation’s top quarterback. Other winners included:
Doak Walker Award (Best RB): Darren McFadden
Fred Biletnikoff Award (Best WR): Michael Crabtree
Chuck Bednarik (Best Defensive Player): Dan Connor
Outland Trophy (Best Lineman): Glenn Dorsey
Jim Thorpe Award (Best DB): Antoine Cason
Lou Groza (Best PK): Thomas Weber
Ray Guy (Best Punter): Durant Brooks
And last, this year’s Heisman Finalists were announced: Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden, Chase Daniel, and Colt Brennan. Four system quarterbacks. Huh.
10-4 That’s it for me this week; Holly or JHC may have some more for you later. Orson returns from vacation this weekend, so join us Sunday night for EDSBS LIVE if you’re around. It’s been a fun week, if not quite funny. Orson will take care of that upon his return.
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RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
You'll thank me later.
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RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Sooners' Smith to miss Fiesta Bowl
By Jake Trotter
The Oklahoman
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://promos.newsok.com/adx.js"></script> NORMAN — Oklahoma cornerback Reggie Smith won’t play in the Fiesta Bowl because of a fractured bone in the big toe of his right foot. Sooner head trainer Scott Anderson confirmed Thursday that Smith won’t recover in time to play against West Virginia in the bowl. <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src=""); document.write ("http://promos.newsok.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random); document.write ("&what=zone:915"); document.write ("&exclude=" + document.phpAds_used); if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); document.write (""><" + "/script>"); //--</script>
<noscript>
</noscript>
Smith, out of Edmond Santa Fe, suffered the fracture against Missouri in last Saturday’s Big 12 Championship.
Smith, the preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, has started in all 13 games for the Sooners.
He is fourth on the team with 78 tackles and has three interceptions.
By Jake Trotter
The Oklahoman
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://promos.newsok.com/adx.js"></script> NORMAN — Oklahoma cornerback Reggie Smith won’t play in the Fiesta Bowl because of a fractured bone in the big toe of his right foot. Sooner head trainer Scott Anderson confirmed Thursday that Smith won’t recover in time to play against West Virginia in the bowl. <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> <!-- if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src=""); document.write ("http://promos.newsok.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random); document.write ("&what=zone:915"); document.write ("&exclude=" + document.phpAds_used); if (document.referrer) document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer)); document.write (""><" + "/script>"); //--</script>
<noscript>
Smith, out of Edmond Santa Fe, suffered the fracture against Missouri in last Saturday’s Big 12 Championship.
Smith, the preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, has started in all 13 games for the Sooners.
He is fourth on the team with 78 tackles and has three interceptions.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Big Ten Okays Bye Week
Posted Dec 8th 2007 8:45AM by Bruce Ciskie
Filed under: Big 10, BCS
Yay!!
The Big Ten Conference has finally come to their senses, giving the green light to an in-season bye week that will stretch the conference season past Thanksgiving.
It's not a conference championship game, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Instead, it takes a week away from that hideous layoff that teams have to deal with after the final week of league play. Some teams play two more games after the Big Ten season ends, and while it's not necessarily an advantage on the field, it's usually going to be an advantage for teams when it comes to polls and the BCS (exception: 2007, strangely enough).
While the Big Ten says teams can start doing this in 2008, a more likely scenario is that the bye weeks will be fully implemented by 2009. It will be difficult for all 11 teams to tweak their 2008 schedules and move a conference game to after Thanksgiving. Some might do it, but probably not all of them.
Filed under: Big 10, BCS
Yay!!
The Big Ten Conference has finally come to their senses, giving the green light to an in-season bye week that will stretch the conference season past Thanksgiving.
It's not a conference championship game, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. Instead, it takes a week away from that hideous layoff that teams have to deal with after the final week of league play. Some teams play two more games after the Big Ten season ends, and while it's not necessarily an advantage on the field, it's usually going to be an advantage for teams when it comes to polls and the BCS (exception: 2007, strangely enough).
While the Big Ten says teams can start doing this in 2008, a more likely scenario is that the bye weeks will be fully implemented by 2009. It will be difficult for all 11 teams to tweak their 2008 schedules and move a conference game to after Thanksgiving. Some might do it, but probably not all of them.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Ken Niumatalolo Named Head Football Coach At The Naval Academy Longtime Navy assistant head coach has been promoted to head football coach at the Naval Academy
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Dec. 8, 2007
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ANNAPOLIS, Md.-Longtime Navy assistant head coach Ken Niumatalolo has been promoted to head football coach at the Naval Academy it was announced Saturday by Naval Academy Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk. Niumatalolo, age 42, is the 38th head football coach in Naval Academy history and is believed to be the first Polynesian head coach in NCAA history.
"I have observed our program over the past six years and I attribute a large part of our success to the invaluable role Ken has played as the assistant head coach," said Gladchuk. "A consummate professional and unquestioned role model for our players, he has led on many fronts with impeccable loyalty and character. Ken brings us quality continuity with the highest level of expertise in the triple option. Our staff is extremely excited about the promotion and are anxious to support our new head coach in a manner that will continue to reinforce our "Expect to Win" attitude at Navy."
"It's an honor and a privilege to be named head football coach at the Naval Academy," said Niumatalolo. "I would like to thank Adm. Fowler and Mr. Gladchuk for supporting me and I am excited about the future of the Navy football program. I am in the process of putting together a coaching staff that will give us a every opportunity to continue the winning tradition at the Naval Academy."
Niumatalolo has had two coaching stints at the Naval Academy for a combined 10 seasons, including the last six where he has served as assistant head coach and offensive line coach.
Niumatalolo has been an integral part of a staff that has brought the Midshipmen back into the national spotlight with a 43-19 (.689) record over the last five years and has helped lead Navy to a school-record five-straight bowl games and five-consecutive Commander-In-Chief's Trophies.
Niumatalolo's work with the offense has helped the Mids lead the nation in rushing in four of the last five years, including each of the past three seasons, a first in NCAA history. Navy is averaging a school-record 351.5 yards per game on the ground entering the Mids Dec. 20 Poinsettia Bowl game against Utah.
In 2006, Navy averaged a then school-record 327.0 yards per contest. One of Niumatalolo's pupils, Antron Harper, was named to the ESPN.Com All-Bowl Team for the second-straight year as the Mids played in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against Boston College.
In 2005, Niumatalolo helped develop an offensive line that, despite having just one returning starter, paved the way for the nation's best rushing offense (318.7 yards per contest) as Navy went to a bowl game for a third-straight year, won a second-straight bowl game and won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy.
In 2004, Niumatalolo's efforts helped an offensive line that was hampered by injuries all year to perform well enough for the Midshipmen to finish third in the country in rushing (289.5), win a school-record tying 10 games (the most wins since 1905), go to back-to-back bowl games for the second time in school history, win the Emerald Bowl and win the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy.
Navy's offensive line was instrumental in the NCAA-record 26-play, 94-yard, 14:26 epic drive in the 2004 Emerald Bowl. Offensive guard August Roitsch was named to the Sports Illustrated All-Bowl Team, while the entire starting offensive line was selected to the College Football News All-Bowl Team.
In 2003, despite a lack of experience up front, the Mids led the nation in rushing (323.2 yards per contest) and set seven school records as Navy went 8-5, won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy and earned a berth in the Houston Bowl.
In 2002, the Navy offensive line helped the Mids to the third-best rushing average in the country (270.75).
Niumatalolo was also an assistant at Navy from 1995-98, serving as the offensive coordinator in 1997 and 1998.
As the offensive coordinator, Niumatalolo tutored Chris McCoy, who set the then-NCAA record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a season with 20 in 1997 and became just the 10th player in NCAA history to rush for more than 1,000 yards and pass for more than 1,000 yards in the same season. In addition, Navy finished among the nation's top five in rushing his last-two years and broke 38 school offensive records during his tenure.
Niumatalolo coached at UNLV for three seasons (1999-01) where he coordinated the option game for the Rebels and called the plays. He also worked with the kickoff return unit and under his guidance, UNLV ranked sixth in the nation in kickoff returns in 2001 and finished second in 1999.
A 1989 graduate of Hawai'i, Niumatalolo lettered three years as a quarterback and led the Rainbows to their first postseason bowl appearance in 1989. He was hired as a full-time assistant by his alma mater in 1992 and spent three seasons coaching on the offensive side of the ball.
A native of Laie', Hawai'i, Niumatalolo and his wife, Barbara, have three children, Alexcia (17), who attends Maryland and is a freshman on the women's lacrosse team, Va'a (14) and Ali'i (8).
A Closer Look At Ken Niumatalolo
Coaching Background
<bgraduate assistant=""> </bgraduate>
'90-92-Hawai'i
Assistant Coach
'92-94-Hawai'i
'95-96-Navy
Offensive Coordinator
'97-98-Navy
Assistant Coach
'99-01-UNLV
Assistant Head Coach
'02-07-Navy
Birthdate
May 8, 1965
Education
Hawai'i, B.S., '89
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Ken Niumatalolo will be the 38th head coach in school history
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Dec. 8, 2007
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ANNAPOLIS, Md.-Longtime Navy assistant head coach Ken Niumatalolo has been promoted to head football coach at the Naval Academy it was announced Saturday by Naval Academy Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk. Niumatalolo, age 42, is the 38th head football coach in Naval Academy history and is believed to be the first Polynesian head coach in NCAA history.
"I have observed our program over the past six years and I attribute a large part of our success to the invaluable role Ken has played as the assistant head coach," said Gladchuk. "A consummate professional and unquestioned role model for our players, he has led on many fronts with impeccable loyalty and character. Ken brings us quality continuity with the highest level of expertise in the triple option. Our staff is extremely excited about the promotion and are anxious to support our new head coach in a manner that will continue to reinforce our "Expect to Win" attitude at Navy."
"It's an honor and a privilege to be named head football coach at the Naval Academy," said Niumatalolo. "I would like to thank Adm. Fowler and Mr. Gladchuk for supporting me and I am excited about the future of the Navy football program. I am in the process of putting together a coaching staff that will give us a every opportunity to continue the winning tradition at the Naval Academy."
Niumatalolo has had two coaching stints at the Naval Academy for a combined 10 seasons, including the last six where he has served as assistant head coach and offensive line coach.
Niumatalolo has been an integral part of a staff that has brought the Midshipmen back into the national spotlight with a 43-19 (.689) record over the last five years and has helped lead Navy to a school-record five-straight bowl games and five-consecutive Commander-In-Chief's Trophies.
Niumatalolo's work with the offense has helped the Mids lead the nation in rushing in four of the last five years, including each of the past three seasons, a first in NCAA history. Navy is averaging a school-record 351.5 yards per game on the ground entering the Mids Dec. 20 Poinsettia Bowl game against Utah.
In 2006, Navy averaged a then school-record 327.0 yards per contest. One of Niumatalolo's pupils, Antron Harper, was named to the ESPN.Com All-Bowl Team for the second-straight year as the Mids played in the Meineke Car Care Bowl against Boston College.
In 2005, Niumatalolo helped develop an offensive line that, despite having just one returning starter, paved the way for the nation's best rushing offense (318.7 yards per contest) as Navy went to a bowl game for a third-straight year, won a second-straight bowl game and won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy.
In 2004, Niumatalolo's efforts helped an offensive line that was hampered by injuries all year to perform well enough for the Midshipmen to finish third in the country in rushing (289.5), win a school-record tying 10 games (the most wins since 1905), go to back-to-back bowl games for the second time in school history, win the Emerald Bowl and win the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy.
Navy's offensive line was instrumental in the NCAA-record 26-play, 94-yard, 14:26 epic drive in the 2004 Emerald Bowl. Offensive guard August Roitsch was named to the Sports Illustrated All-Bowl Team, while the entire starting offensive line was selected to the College Football News All-Bowl Team.
In 2003, despite a lack of experience up front, the Mids led the nation in rushing (323.2 yards per contest) and set seven school records as Navy went 8-5, won the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy and earned a berth in the Houston Bowl.
In 2002, the Navy offensive line helped the Mids to the third-best rushing average in the country (270.75).
Niumatalolo was also an assistant at Navy from 1995-98, serving as the offensive coordinator in 1997 and 1998.
As the offensive coordinator, Niumatalolo tutored Chris McCoy, who set the then-NCAA record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a season with 20 in 1997 and became just the 10th player in NCAA history to rush for more than 1,000 yards and pass for more than 1,000 yards in the same season. In addition, Navy finished among the nation's top five in rushing his last-two years and broke 38 school offensive records during his tenure.
Niumatalolo coached at UNLV for three seasons (1999-01) where he coordinated the option game for the Rebels and called the plays. He also worked with the kickoff return unit and under his guidance, UNLV ranked sixth in the nation in kickoff returns in 2001 and finished second in 1999.
A 1989 graduate of Hawai'i, Niumatalolo lettered three years as a quarterback and led the Rainbows to their first postseason bowl appearance in 1989. He was hired as a full-time assistant by his alma mater in 1992 and spent three seasons coaching on the offensive side of the ball.
A native of Laie', Hawai'i, Niumatalolo and his wife, Barbara, have three children, Alexcia (17), who attends Maryland and is a freshman on the women's lacrosse team, Va'a (14) and Ali'i (8).
A Closer Look At Ken Niumatalolo
Coaching Background
<bgraduate assistant=""> </bgraduate>
'90-92-Hawai'i
Assistant Coach
'92-94-Hawai'i
'95-96-Navy
Offensive Coordinator
'97-98-Navy
Assistant Coach
'99-01-UNLV
Assistant Head Coach
'02-07-Navy
Birthdate
May 8, 1965
Education
Hawai'i, B.S., '89
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
TIM TEBOW WINS HEISMAN, IS CONDEMNED TO MEDIOCRITY
Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy this Saturday in New York, an award all but ensuring an end to his lifelong streak of athletic excellence.
“First, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this award, and for giving me the gifts I enjoyed for so long. Before the awards tonight, I said that you never know when your ability to play the game of football could be taken away from you.”
“Thanks to the voters of the Heisman Trophy, I know that that time is now.”
Tebow could only hold the 25 pound trophy for a few seconds before dropping it. He then asked for some juice.
Tebow, who beat contenders Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan, and Chase Daniel for the award to become the first sophomore to win the trophy, said he plans on entering the clergy now that his career as an athlete is done.
“I’ll follow the example of my boyhood hero Danny Wuerffel and help those less fortunate by preaching the word and working in the community. It would also really help if I didn’t have to throw anything ever again, since I couldn’t toss a sandwich wrapper into a wastebasket with any accuracy now. I would also appreciate not being jostled or bumped.”
A chorus of chuckles rose from the Heisman voters, who included Troy Smith, Gino Torretta, Chris Weinke, and Andre Ware.
“It’s amazing, really, what he accomplished in such a short span of time,” said Eric Crouch, calling from his desk at Ameritrade Omaha. “Excuse me, I’m still at work, and putting the phone down is a complex task I used to perform like it was nothing…but that was before I won the Heisman, of course.” The phone clattered for several minutes before the phone call with Crouch ended.
Tebow’s campaign was, by any measure, an astonishing one: he became the first player to run for 20 TDs and pass for 20 TDs, and averaged an amazing 4.25 TDs a game. Yet even at the ceremony, the rapid dimunition of his physical powers became apparent. See this exchange between Chris Fowler and Tebow:
Fowler: Hey, are you sure you can pick up that trophy with one hand?
Tebow: No, sir, I’m sorry but I cannot. May I please have some help? Suddenly…so…weak…
The well-adjusted Tebow is expected to deal with the change, but past Heisman winners still offered their advice to him as he left the stage.
Charlie Ward: “I blame the Onthespot for my weakness, along with the ice-cold 2-18 shooting of John Starks in game 7 of the 1994 NBA finals.”
Ricky Williams: “I’d do some yoga, and perhaps some colonic therapy. Oh, and weed. Dude, he’s got to get some weed of the dankest and ickiest kind, and smoke it till his eyebrows fall out. That helps a lot.”
Jason White: “Buy more knee oil. You can never have enough of that stuff.”
Ron Dayne: “Mmmrph arghapgph figfff pizzaaphhh fwnd tpnnnddhhnphhh. I’m sorry, I’ll repeat that. My mouth was totally full when I was talking. I make that mistake a lot.”
Matt Leinart: “He should settle down and have a family, you know. It takes virtually no time off your hands, and when chicks hear you have a baby their panties practically evaporate.”
O.J. Simpson: “I suggest golf…AND DOUBLE MURDER!!! Ha, ha, I’m just kidding. I’m not, actually. I totally killed two people, and I’m not even a war vet or anything. They just let me walk around and shit. It’s UNREAL. Leinart! You said you want Warner done? Okay–I think I can get to him next week, but that’s pushing it. I’m swamped, dude.”
The only two-time winner of the award, Archie Griffin, was unable to comment for this story. Griffin has been on bedrest for 32 years following the awarding of his second trophy, after which he became so weak he could not stand or feed himself. He is said to be happy for Tebow and is also extremely fond of a nice, warm bowl of nutritious chicken broth.
We at EDSBS obviously congratulate Tim Tebow for being so undeniably awesome that even the cataract-eyed Heisman crowd gave him a meaningless award. Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan and the 37 year-old Domino’s Manager living the dream known as “Chase Daniel” also deserve congratulations for attracting the attention of the madding crowd. Badass needs no shiny endorsement, though, as Vince Young will be happy to show you on the day of your choosing.
Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy this Saturday in New York, an award all but ensuring an end to his lifelong streak of athletic excellence.
“First, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this award, and for giving me the gifts I enjoyed for so long. Before the awards tonight, I said that you never know when your ability to play the game of football could be taken away from you.”
“Thanks to the voters of the Heisman Trophy, I know that that time is now.”
Tebow could only hold the 25 pound trophy for a few seconds before dropping it. He then asked for some juice.
Tebow, who beat contenders Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan, and Chase Daniel for the award to become the first sophomore to win the trophy, said he plans on entering the clergy now that his career as an athlete is done.
“I’ll follow the example of my boyhood hero Danny Wuerffel and help those less fortunate by preaching the word and working in the community. It would also really help if I didn’t have to throw anything ever again, since I couldn’t toss a sandwich wrapper into a wastebasket with any accuracy now. I would also appreciate not being jostled or bumped.”
A chorus of chuckles rose from the Heisman voters, who included Troy Smith, Gino Torretta, Chris Weinke, and Andre Ware.
“It’s amazing, really, what he accomplished in such a short span of time,” said Eric Crouch, calling from his desk at Ameritrade Omaha. “Excuse me, I’m still at work, and putting the phone down is a complex task I used to perform like it was nothing…but that was before I won the Heisman, of course.” The phone clattered for several minutes before the phone call with Crouch ended.
Tebow’s campaign was, by any measure, an astonishing one: he became the first player to run for 20 TDs and pass for 20 TDs, and averaged an amazing 4.25 TDs a game. Yet even at the ceremony, the rapid dimunition of his physical powers became apparent. See this exchange between Chris Fowler and Tebow:
Fowler: Hey, are you sure you can pick up that trophy with one hand?
Tebow: No, sir, I’m sorry but I cannot. May I please have some help? Suddenly…so…weak…
The well-adjusted Tebow is expected to deal with the change, but past Heisman winners still offered their advice to him as he left the stage.
Charlie Ward: “I blame the Onthespot for my weakness, along with the ice-cold 2-18 shooting of John Starks in game 7 of the 1994 NBA finals.”
Ricky Williams: “I’d do some yoga, and perhaps some colonic therapy. Oh, and weed. Dude, he’s got to get some weed of the dankest and ickiest kind, and smoke it till his eyebrows fall out. That helps a lot.”
Jason White: “Buy more knee oil. You can never have enough of that stuff.”
Ron Dayne: “Mmmrph arghapgph figfff pizzaaphhh fwnd tpnnnddhhnphhh. I’m sorry, I’ll repeat that. My mouth was totally full when I was talking. I make that mistake a lot.”
Matt Leinart: “He should settle down and have a family, you know. It takes virtually no time off your hands, and when chicks hear you have a baby their panties practically evaporate.”
O.J. Simpson: “I suggest golf…AND DOUBLE MURDER!!! Ha, ha, I’m just kidding. I’m not, actually. I totally killed two people, and I’m not even a war vet or anything. They just let me walk around and shit. It’s UNREAL. Leinart! You said you want Warner done? Okay–I think I can get to him next week, but that’s pushing it. I’m swamped, dude.”
The only two-time winner of the award, Archie Griffin, was unable to comment for this story. Griffin has been on bedrest for 32 years following the awarding of his second trophy, after which he became so weak he could not stand or feed himself. He is said to be happy for Tebow and is also extremely fond of a nice, warm bowl of nutritious chicken broth.
We at EDSBS obviously congratulate Tim Tebow for being so undeniably awesome that even the cataract-eyed Heisman crowd gave him a meaningless award. Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan and the 37 year-old Domino’s Manager living the dream known as “Chase Daniel” also deserve congratulations for attracting the attention of the madding crowd. Badass needs no shiny endorsement, though, as Vince Young will be happy to show you on the day of your choosing.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Don't Bet On It: Bowl Edition (Part I)
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 07:39:53 AM EDT
I bounced back in last week's picks, posting records of 5-2 in national games of interest and 4-1 in league title showdowns to improve my forecasting records for the season to 62-23 in Southeastern Conference outings, 57-45 in non-conference games, and 119-68 in toto. That ain't half-bad, considering my recent track record, so I should hasten to reiterate my regular disclaimer: Don't Bet On It!
<center>
</center> How far off base are my prognosticating skills? I thought "Last Action Hero" would be the big ticket for 1993. I also thought that year's Georgia team would do all right, even without Andre Hastings and Garrison Hearst.
I know there are a lot of folks out there who don't care much for the bowl system. For example, Peter Bean recently took bowl apologists to task. Such criticisms, however, are shortsighted and misguided. Why, just take a look at the first few games of this year's bowl lineup:
Poinsettia Bowl: Navy v. Utah (December 20): See? The postseason kicks off in grand style as the Utes, who teetered on the brink of disaster after a 1-3 start but rebounded to reel off seven straight wins en route to an 8-4 ledger, take on the Midshipmen in San Diego. The U.S.N.A.'s recent resurgence has been among college football's feel good stories of the 21st century and has made Paul Johnson one of the hottest coaching commodities in the country. Utah has won six straight bowl games since falling to Wisconsin in the 1996 Copper Bowl, but Navy will put a stop to that streak in a fine exhibition of gridiron prowess to inaugurate the most wonderful time of the year.
<center>
</center> Some folks are against a system that allows the Midshipmen to compete in bowl games? That sort of thing is exactly why we used to blacklist people.
New Orleans Bowl: Florida Atlantic v. Memphis (December 21): After such a stellar start to postseason play, we move right into the first of three bowl games being hosted in the Crescent City as . . . aw, are you kidding me? Memphis can't be going to a bowl game, can they? The last time I looked, East Carolina was hanging 56 points on the Tigers in their own home town, dropping them to 4-5 and causing Elvis to roll over in his grave (assuming Elvis is dead, which he isn't, but that's a separate conversation). While we're at it, what's F.A.U. doing here? Surely Troy won the Sun Belt, right? You mean the Owls beat Troy last Saturday to finish 7-5 and win the league's automatic bid to the New Orleans Bowl? Oh, for crying out loud! What a joke! Who came up with this nonsensical system, anyway? By the time Memphis gets done taking care of business in a flash against Florida Atlantic, I'll be ready to join Peter among the playoff proponents, thank you, thank you very much.
PapaJohns.com Bowl: Cincinnati v. Southern Miss (December 22): All right, now this is more like it. Despite their having stagnated to the point that a successful U.S.M. alumnus was let go as head coach, the Golden Eagles remain a model of consistency and a fixture of minor yet respectable bowl games. Southern Mississippi's reputation as a giant killer may have faded, but the Eagles cannot be taken lightly by a Bearcat squad looking to cement its stature as a player in the reinvigorated Big East. Cincy's victories over Connecticut, Miami (Ohio), Oregon State, Rutgers, and South Florida paved the way to a successful campaign, which the 'Cats hope to cap off by registering their tenth win of the season. When Cincinnati emerges victorious from Birmingham, my faith in the sensibility of the bowl structure will be restored.
<center>
</center> Some folks are opposed to having a PapaJohns.com Bowl? Yeah, these are the same people who order their pizzas over the phone like Neanderthals instead of using the internet like a good American.
New Mexico Bowl: Nevada v. New Mexico (December 22): Off to Albuquerque we go, buoyed by the certainty that college football's unique postseason arrangement is among the crown jewels of the finest sport known to man, and there we will find . . . oh, that has to be a typo, right? The Wolf Pack's claim to fame is that the team's league losses to Boise State, Fresno State, and Hawaii all were nailbiters, but Nevada fell flat on its face in road losses against Nebraska, Northwestern, and San Jose State teams that all found mediocrity an unattainable aspiration. What is a 6-6 W.A.C. team doing in a bowl game in the first place and why is that squad facing a hometown Mountain West also-ran when it gets there? The Lobos opened the season with a Labor Day weekend snoozer in El Paso against a U.T.E.P. squad that sent U.N.M. home trailing a 10-6 setback. Later, New Mexico went to Fort Worth and absorbed a 37-0 drubbing from the Horned Frogs. Remind me again why I'll be glued to my television to watch Nevada beat New Mexico in a bowl pairing that could only have been inspired by the fact that the two teams follow one right after another in an alphabetical listing of all the Division I-A member institutions?
All right, so the opening stanza of bowl season presents a mixed bag for those of us who are proponents of college football's existing postseason structure. Nevertheless, I'll be offering picks on each and every bowl game, so be sure to stay tuned and, whatever you do, remember . . . Don't Bet On It!
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 07:39:53 AM EDT
I bounced back in last week's picks, posting records of 5-2 in national games of interest and 4-1 in league title showdowns to improve my forecasting records for the season to 62-23 in Southeastern Conference outings, 57-45 in non-conference games, and 119-68 in toto. That ain't half-bad, considering my recent track record, so I should hasten to reiterate my regular disclaimer: Don't Bet On It!
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I know there are a lot of folks out there who don't care much for the bowl system. For example, Peter Bean recently took bowl apologists to task. Such criticisms, however, are shortsighted and misguided. Why, just take a look at the first few games of this year's bowl lineup:
Poinsettia Bowl: Navy v. Utah (December 20): See? The postseason kicks off in grand style as the Utes, who teetered on the brink of disaster after a 1-3 start but rebounded to reel off seven straight wins en route to an 8-4 ledger, take on the Midshipmen in San Diego. The U.S.N.A.'s recent resurgence has been among college football's feel good stories of the 21st century and has made Paul Johnson one of the hottest coaching commodities in the country. Utah has won six straight bowl games since falling to Wisconsin in the 1996 Copper Bowl, but Navy will put a stop to that streak in a fine exhibition of gridiron prowess to inaugurate the most wonderful time of the year.
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New Orleans Bowl: Florida Atlantic v. Memphis (December 21): After such a stellar start to postseason play, we move right into the first of three bowl games being hosted in the Crescent City as . . . aw, are you kidding me? Memphis can't be going to a bowl game, can they? The last time I looked, East Carolina was hanging 56 points on the Tigers in their own home town, dropping them to 4-5 and causing Elvis to roll over in his grave (assuming Elvis is dead, which he isn't, but that's a separate conversation). While we're at it, what's F.A.U. doing here? Surely Troy won the Sun Belt, right? You mean the Owls beat Troy last Saturday to finish 7-5 and win the league's automatic bid to the New Orleans Bowl? Oh, for crying out loud! What a joke! Who came up with this nonsensical system, anyway? By the time Memphis gets done taking care of business in a flash against Florida Atlantic, I'll be ready to join Peter among the playoff proponents, thank you, thank you very much.
PapaJohns.com Bowl: Cincinnati v. Southern Miss (December 22): All right, now this is more like it. Despite their having stagnated to the point that a successful U.S.M. alumnus was let go as head coach, the Golden Eagles remain a model of consistency and a fixture of minor yet respectable bowl games. Southern Mississippi's reputation as a giant killer may have faded, but the Eagles cannot be taken lightly by a Bearcat squad looking to cement its stature as a player in the reinvigorated Big East. Cincy's victories over Connecticut, Miami (Ohio), Oregon State, Rutgers, and South Florida paved the way to a successful campaign, which the 'Cats hope to cap off by registering their tenth win of the season. When Cincinnati emerges victorious from Birmingham, my faith in the sensibility of the bowl structure will be restored.
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New Mexico Bowl: Nevada v. New Mexico (December 22): Off to Albuquerque we go, buoyed by the certainty that college football's unique postseason arrangement is among the crown jewels of the finest sport known to man, and there we will find . . . oh, that has to be a typo, right? The Wolf Pack's claim to fame is that the team's league losses to Boise State, Fresno State, and Hawaii all were nailbiters, but Nevada fell flat on its face in road losses against Nebraska, Northwestern, and San Jose State teams that all found mediocrity an unattainable aspiration. What is a 6-6 W.A.C. team doing in a bowl game in the first place and why is that squad facing a hometown Mountain West also-ran when it gets there? The Lobos opened the season with a Labor Day weekend snoozer in El Paso against a U.T.E.P. squad that sent U.N.M. home trailing a 10-6 setback. Later, New Mexico went to Fort Worth and absorbed a 37-0 drubbing from the Horned Frogs. Remind me again why I'll be glued to my television to watch Nevada beat New Mexico in a bowl pairing that could only have been inspired by the fact that the two teams follow one right after another in an alphabetical listing of all the Division I-A member institutions?
All right, so the opening stanza of bowl season presents a mixed bag for those of us who are proponents of college football's existing postseason structure. Nevertheless, I'll be offering picks on each and every bowl game, so be sure to stay tuned and, whatever you do, remember . . . Don't Bet On It!
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Don't Bet On It: Bowl Edition (Part II)
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 07:43:42 AM EDT
Bowl season is fast upon us, and, as Jake was kind enough to note, it is time for me to get down to the serious business of predicting (probably incorrectly) the outcomes of the various postseason tilts. Although there is a glut of bowl games, I'm not complaining, because, as my brother-in-law, Travis, likes to point out: "Every time there's a bowl game on, that's one more night I don't have to spend watching hockey."
Nevertheless, the large number of Division I-A postseason tilts necessitates that I break my prognostications down into increments, so that I can devote adequate time and special care to making the wrong prediction in each of them. Accordingly, I must warn you once again: Don't Bet On It!
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</center> How bad am I at predicting bowl games? A year ago, I actually thought Ohio State stood a chance against Florida!
I hate to admit it, but my look at the first four games of the bowl season didn't exactly do much to rebut Peter Bean's criticism of Division I-A college football's postseason structure, so, hopefully, the arguments of those of us who oppose a playoff will be bolstered by this latest round of picks; as we say in the law, to wit:
Las Vegas Bowl: Brigham Young v. U.C.L.A. (December 22): All right, see what I mean? Right off the bat, we have an intriguing matchup between a quality mid-major squad and an inconsistent yet talented B.C.S. conference team. This bowl pairing even makes geographic sense, as it's perfectly normal for a Pac-10 team from California and a Mountain West team from Utah to square off in the Sagebrush State. In fact, this matchup makes so much sense, it's almost hard to believe the Bruins and the Cougars haven't bothered to meet up in the regular season. Hold on a minute . . . these two teams did meet up during the regular season! Well, then, what in the world does a rematch prove? Yeah, all right, so U.C.L.A. won in Los Angeles and B.Y.U. is going to win in Las Vegas, but, honestly, what's the point?
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</center> Also, a city in which gambling and prostitution are legal will be hosting student-athletes from a university at which caffeine is considered sinful. Good call there, guys.
Hawaii Bowl: Boise State v. East Carolina (December 23): Here, on the other hand, we observe a fine example of what makes college football so special. Despite their disappointment at the outcome of their last trip to the Aloha State, the Broncos get to return to Honolulu for a postseason engagement that has the virtue of getting them the heck out of Idaho in December. Meanwhile, the Pirates will dock in Hawaii after having charted a course back to respectability in a season that ended with six wins in their last eight games. Just 32 contests separated the high-water mark of E.C.U. football (the 1999 victory over Miami in a game that had to be played in Raleigh when Greenville was demolished by Hurricane Floyd) from its nadir (the 2001 GMAC Bowl, which East Carolina lost in double overtime after leading 38-8 at the half), but the latter loss proved particularly devastating to the Pirate program, as the squad proceeded to lose 31 of its next 39 games before beginning an 18-14 run with a win over Rice in the middle of the 2005 campaign. While I believe Boise State rather clearly is the better team in this game, both mid-major squads will have a chance to demonstrate their quality as competitors and even the loser will have the benefit of getting to spend the holidays in Hawaii, which ain't a bad deal.
Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan v. Purdue (December 26): I've asked it before, but the question bears repeating. If the bowl game in Detroit is the Motor City Bowl and the bowl game in Nashville is the Music City Bowl, why isn't the bowl game in Las Vegas called the Sin City Bowl? Just curious. Anyway, another good one appears be on tap for the day after Christmas, when the M.A.C. champion Chippewas take on the Boilermakers. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Joe Tiller's famous Purdue offense takes on a surging Central Michigan squad. Given the Big Ten's penchant for playing Mid-American Conference opponents, I'm a bit surprised these two teams haven't butted heads already. Wait a second . . . these two teams have butted heads already! Dang it, what is wrong with these bowl selection people? When the Boilermakers and the Chippewas met in West Lafayette on September 15, they combined for 53 first downs, 1,048 yards, and 67 points. Now you know why "Motor City Bowl" contains a B, a C, an I, an L, an M, three O's, an R, two T's, a W, and a Y, but no D. Purdue won the first time, Purdue will win again, and no purpose will be served by playing this game at all.
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</center> Before presenting my Holiday Bowl prediction, I should point out that many Pac-10 fans have been critical of conference commissioner Tom Hansen for his mishandling of the West Coast B.C.S. league's postseason tie-ins, but Zac, Taylor, and Isaac think their uncle is managing the Pac-10 as well as he managed their music careers!
Holiday Bowl: Arizona State v. Texas (December 27): Now, this is more like it! A prime-time postseason game in San Diego with a history of seesaw shootouts pitting two solid squads from a couple of major conferences provides a fine example of what I love about college football. The Longhorns and the Sun Devils have been two of the most challenging teams to rank throughout the season, as it isn't at all clear to me how good either of these teams really is. How much credit does Texas deserve for, say, going on the road and beating a ten-win Conference USA champion Central Florida squad by a field goal? How impressive was the Burnt Orange's 59-point outburst against Gator Bowl-bound Texas Tech? How much goodwill did the 'Horns earn in a seven-point neutral-site setback against eventual Big 12 champion Oklahoma? Does A.S.U. deserve a pat on the back for beating by 19 points the Colorado squad that defeated those selfsame Sooners and the aforementioned Red Raiders? At what point do the Sun Devils' win over Cal and loss to Oregon lose all of their luster? How much dishonor was there in a 20-point loss to peaking U.S.C.? I believe Arizona State will have the last laugh, but I will be very interested to see how these two teams stack up against one another in what promises to be a barn-burner of a bowl game.
That's eight games down and 24 to go, so stay tuned for the next round of forecasts and, in the meantime, whatever you do, remember: Don't Bet On It!
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 07:43:42 AM EDT
Bowl season is fast upon us, and, as Jake was kind enough to note, it is time for me to get down to the serious business of predicting (probably incorrectly) the outcomes of the various postseason tilts. Although there is a glut of bowl games, I'm not complaining, because, as my brother-in-law, Travis, likes to point out: "Every time there's a bowl game on, that's one more night I don't have to spend watching hockey."
Nevertheless, the large number of Division I-A postseason tilts necessitates that I break my prognostications down into increments, so that I can devote adequate time and special care to making the wrong prediction in each of them. Accordingly, I must warn you once again: Don't Bet On It!
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I hate to admit it, but my look at the first four games of the bowl season didn't exactly do much to rebut Peter Bean's criticism of Division I-A college football's postseason structure, so, hopefully, the arguments of those of us who oppose a playoff will be bolstered by this latest round of picks; as we say in the law, to wit:
Las Vegas Bowl: Brigham Young v. U.C.L.A. (December 22): All right, see what I mean? Right off the bat, we have an intriguing matchup between a quality mid-major squad and an inconsistent yet talented B.C.S. conference team. This bowl pairing even makes geographic sense, as it's perfectly normal for a Pac-10 team from California and a Mountain West team from Utah to square off in the Sagebrush State. In fact, this matchup makes so much sense, it's almost hard to believe the Bruins and the Cougars haven't bothered to meet up in the regular season. Hold on a minute . . . these two teams did meet up during the regular season! Well, then, what in the world does a rematch prove? Yeah, all right, so U.C.L.A. won in Los Angeles and B.Y.U. is going to win in Las Vegas, but, honestly, what's the point?
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Hawaii Bowl: Boise State v. East Carolina (December 23): Here, on the other hand, we observe a fine example of what makes college football so special. Despite their disappointment at the outcome of their last trip to the Aloha State, the Broncos get to return to Honolulu for a postseason engagement that has the virtue of getting them the heck out of Idaho in December. Meanwhile, the Pirates will dock in Hawaii after having charted a course back to respectability in a season that ended with six wins in their last eight games. Just 32 contests separated the high-water mark of E.C.U. football (the 1999 victory over Miami in a game that had to be played in Raleigh when Greenville was demolished by Hurricane Floyd) from its nadir (the 2001 GMAC Bowl, which East Carolina lost in double overtime after leading 38-8 at the half), but the latter loss proved particularly devastating to the Pirate program, as the squad proceeded to lose 31 of its next 39 games before beginning an 18-14 run with a win over Rice in the middle of the 2005 campaign. While I believe Boise State rather clearly is the better team in this game, both mid-major squads will have a chance to demonstrate their quality as competitors and even the loser will have the benefit of getting to spend the holidays in Hawaii, which ain't a bad deal.
Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan v. Purdue (December 26): I've asked it before, but the question bears repeating. If the bowl game in Detroit is the Motor City Bowl and the bowl game in Nashville is the Music City Bowl, why isn't the bowl game in Las Vegas called the Sin City Bowl? Just curious. Anyway, another good one appears be on tap for the day after Christmas, when the M.A.C. champion Chippewas take on the Boilermakers. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Joe Tiller's famous Purdue offense takes on a surging Central Michigan squad. Given the Big Ten's penchant for playing Mid-American Conference opponents, I'm a bit surprised these two teams haven't butted heads already. Wait a second . . . these two teams have butted heads already! Dang it, what is wrong with these bowl selection people? When the Boilermakers and the Chippewas met in West Lafayette on September 15, they combined for 53 first downs, 1,048 yards, and 67 points. Now you know why "Motor City Bowl" contains a B, a C, an I, an L, an M, three O's, an R, two T's, a W, and a Y, but no D. Purdue won the first time, Purdue will win again, and no purpose will be served by playing this game at all.
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Holiday Bowl: Arizona State v. Texas (December 27): Now, this is more like it! A prime-time postseason game in San Diego with a history of seesaw shootouts pitting two solid squads from a couple of major conferences provides a fine example of what I love about college football. The Longhorns and the Sun Devils have been two of the most challenging teams to rank throughout the season, as it isn't at all clear to me how good either of these teams really is. How much credit does Texas deserve for, say, going on the road and beating a ten-win Conference USA champion Central Florida squad by a field goal? How impressive was the Burnt Orange's 59-point outburst against Gator Bowl-bound Texas Tech? How much goodwill did the 'Horns earn in a seven-point neutral-site setback against eventual Big 12 champion Oklahoma? Does A.S.U. deserve a pat on the back for beating by 19 points the Colorado squad that defeated those selfsame Sooners and the aforementioned Red Raiders? At what point do the Sun Devils' win over Cal and loss to Oregon lose all of their luster? How much dishonor was there in a 20-point loss to peaking U.S.C.? I believe Arizona State will have the last laugh, but I will be very interested to see how these two teams stack up against one another in what promises to be a barn-burner of a bowl game.
That's eight games down and 24 to go, so stay tuned for the next round of forecasts and, in the meantime, whatever you do, remember: Don't Bet On It!
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Don't Bet On It: Bowl Edition (Part III)
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Sun Dec 09, 2007 at 08:10:01 AM EDT
As the bowl breakdown continues, it behooves us to recall before proceeding that I am consistently wrong in my efforts to predict the outcomes of college football games, in the postseason every bit as much so as during the regular season.
Bear that in mind when evaluating the following prognostications and, please, whatever you do . . . Don't Bet On It!
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</center> While I'm busy making the wrong calls on the next four bowl games, though, you should make the right call by voting for Mark Richt for 2007 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. This has been a public service announcement.
Champs Sports Bowl: Boston College v. Michigan State (December 28): Any denizen of Bulldog Nation who is still grumbling about Georgia's draw in the Sugar Bowl need only look to the team from Chestnut Hill to see just how much more a team may have a right to gripe. The Eagles put together their best season since Doug Flutie was lining up under center, yet, despite making it all the way to the A.C.C. championship game, B.C. finds itself toiling in the shadow of Epcot in a contest christened after a sports apparel store against a consistently middling Big Ten team that, true to form, imploded after a 4-0 start and limped to a 3-5 finish. Should the Spartans find a way to get by the Eagles in Orlando, though, it will mean Michigan State has overcome its midseason slump by registering three straight victories to close out the campaign. Ending the season on a three-game winning streak is something Sparty has done exactly once since 1990, so I'm guessing a disciplined Boston College squad will find a way to extend its seven-game bowl winning streak against Meltdown State.
Texas Bowl: Houston v. Texas Christian (December 28): You have to hand it to the folks who put this one together. The Cougars and the Horned Frogs competed as league rivals in the Southwest Conference for 20 years and in Conference USA for four years. During those periods of common affiliation, the balance of power distinctly shifted, as Houston was 9-1 over T.C.U. from 1976 to 1985 and Texas Christian was 8-1 over U.H. from 1991 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2004. The Horned Frogs have hopped from one conference to another since the breakup of the Lone Star State league in which they competed for nearly three-quarters of a century, leaping to the Western Athletic Conference in 1996, to Conference USA in 2001, and to the Mountain West in 2005. Since making the latest of those multiple moves, Texas Christian has been especially rough on opponents with ties to its former conference homes, building up a double-digit halftime lead on Texas in Austin and registering wins over Baylor (twice), Iowa State, Oklahoma, Southern Methodist, and Texas Tech since the start of the 2005 campaign. The Horned Frogs were done dirty when the Big 12 took the Bears instead of them and T.C.U. will not pass up an opportunity to underscore that fact, even at one remove.
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Meddling Baylor alumna Ann Richards, I hope you're satisfied.
</center> Emerald Bowl: Maryland v. Oregon State (December 28): If ever you needed evidence for the proposition that the critics of Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen are correct that the bowl tie-ins he negotiated for the West Coast B.C.S. league stink, the showdown in San Francisco provides all the proof you would ever need. The Terrapins are a .500 team with a losing record in conference play who faded down the stretch, losing six of their last ten games after opening up with a pair of gimmes against Division I-AA Villanova and an F.I.U. squad that went winless until December. The Beavers, by contrast, won six of their last seven games to post an eight-win regular season that included victories over Cal, Oregon, and Utah. Three of O.S.U.'s losses were to quality Arizona State, Cincinnati, and Southern California squads on the road. What are the Beavers doing playing below their ability level by the Golden Gate Bridge? I like Oregon State to win big beside the Bay before their fans write justified letters of complaint to the Pac-10 home office over such a substandard bowl berth.
Meineke Car Care Bowl: Connecticut v. Wake Forest (December 29): Remind me again . . . is this a conference game? Maybe these are even the same team . . . they both lost to Virginia in Charlottesville by a 17-16 final margin, after all. The defending A.C.C. champion Demon Deacons doubtless found it disappointing to follow up their league title run with a postseason date in Charlotte, but what did they expect after losing at home to the worst Nebraska team any of us can remember? The Huskies' claims to fame are dubious, as well, as UConn got to 9-3 by beating Duke and Maine, being awarded unearned victories over Louisville and Temple on obvious officiating gaffes, and losing the team's last two road games to Cincinnati and West Virginia by a combined margin of 93-24. This is a clear-cut case of the resistible force meeting the movable object, and, when push comes to shove, absent a declaration that this is the national bowl of disinterest, I have to go with Connecticut as the slightly more credible parvenu, since the Huskies at least beat South Florida, which is a good deal more than the Deacs can claim.
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</center> Granted, Wake beat Florida State, but holding F.S.U. in higher regard than U.S.F. is so 2005! (Note: Just to make certain there is no room for misunderstanding, my purpose in posting the foregoing picture is not to get you to gawk at Jenn Sterger, but to mock her for her fair weather fandom. This, too, has been a public service announcement . . . and one that meets with Orson Swindle's approval!)
You now know my picks on the first dozen bowl games, yet we aren't even halfway through the postseason! As we inch steadily nearer to New Year's Eve, I would caution you that, the higher the stakes of the game, the more likely I am to miss the call completely. That being the case, as you await the next round of picks, please make certain to heed my regular disclaimer: Don't Bet On It!
By T Kyle King Section: Football
Posted on Sun Dec 09, 2007 at 08:10:01 AM EDT
As the bowl breakdown continues, it behooves us to recall before proceeding that I am consistently wrong in my efforts to predict the outcomes of college football games, in the postseason every bit as much so as during the regular season.
Bear that in mind when evaluating the following prognostications and, please, whatever you do . . . Don't Bet On It!
<center>
Champs Sports Bowl: Boston College v. Michigan State (December 28): Any denizen of Bulldog Nation who is still grumbling about Georgia's draw in the Sugar Bowl need only look to the team from Chestnut Hill to see just how much more a team may have a right to gripe. The Eagles put together their best season since Doug Flutie was lining up under center, yet, despite making it all the way to the A.C.C. championship game, B.C. finds itself toiling in the shadow of Epcot in a contest christened after a sports apparel store against a consistently middling Big Ten team that, true to form, imploded after a 4-0 start and limped to a 3-5 finish. Should the Spartans find a way to get by the Eagles in Orlando, though, it will mean Michigan State has overcome its midseason slump by registering three straight victories to close out the campaign. Ending the season on a three-game winning streak is something Sparty has done exactly once since 1990, so I'm guessing a disciplined Boston College squad will find a way to extend its seven-game bowl winning streak against Meltdown State.
Texas Bowl: Houston v. Texas Christian (December 28): You have to hand it to the folks who put this one together. The Cougars and the Horned Frogs competed as league rivals in the Southwest Conference for 20 years and in Conference USA for four years. During those periods of common affiliation, the balance of power distinctly shifted, as Houston was 9-1 over T.C.U. from 1976 to 1985 and Texas Christian was 8-1 over U.H. from 1991 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2004. The Horned Frogs have hopped from one conference to another since the breakup of the Lone Star State league in which they competed for nearly three-quarters of a century, leaping to the Western Athletic Conference in 1996, to Conference USA in 2001, and to the Mountain West in 2005. Since making the latest of those multiple moves, Texas Christian has been especially rough on opponents with ties to its former conference homes, building up a double-digit halftime lead on Texas in Austin and registering wins over Baylor (twice), Iowa State, Oklahoma, Southern Methodist, and Texas Tech since the start of the 2005 campaign. The Horned Frogs were done dirty when the Big 12 took the Bears instead of them and T.C.U. will not pass up an opportunity to underscore that fact, even at one remove.
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</center> Emerald Bowl: Maryland v. Oregon State (December 28): If ever you needed evidence for the proposition that the critics of Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen are correct that the bowl tie-ins he negotiated for the West Coast B.C.S. league stink, the showdown in San Francisco provides all the proof you would ever need. The Terrapins are a .500 team with a losing record in conference play who faded down the stretch, losing six of their last ten games after opening up with a pair of gimmes against Division I-AA Villanova and an F.I.U. squad that went winless until December. The Beavers, by contrast, won six of their last seven games to post an eight-win regular season that included victories over Cal, Oregon, and Utah. Three of O.S.U.'s losses were to quality Arizona State, Cincinnati, and Southern California squads on the road. What are the Beavers doing playing below their ability level by the Golden Gate Bridge? I like Oregon State to win big beside the Bay before their fans write justified letters of complaint to the Pac-10 home office over such a substandard bowl berth.
Meineke Car Care Bowl: Connecticut v. Wake Forest (December 29): Remind me again . . . is this a conference game? Maybe these are even the same team . . . they both lost to Virginia in Charlottesville by a 17-16 final margin, after all. The defending A.C.C. champion Demon Deacons doubtless found it disappointing to follow up their league title run with a postseason date in Charlotte, but what did they expect after losing at home to the worst Nebraska team any of us can remember? The Huskies' claims to fame are dubious, as well, as UConn got to 9-3 by beating Duke and Maine, being awarded unearned victories over Louisville and Temple on obvious officiating gaffes, and losing the team's last two road games to Cincinnati and West Virginia by a combined margin of 93-24. This is a clear-cut case of the resistible force meeting the movable object, and, when push comes to shove, absent a declaration that this is the national bowl of disinterest, I have to go with Connecticut as the slightly more credible parvenu, since the Huskies at least beat South Florida, which is a good deal more than the Deacs can claim.
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You now know my picks on the first dozen bowl games, yet we aren't even halfway through the postseason! As we inch steadily nearer to New Year's Eve, I would caution you that, the higher the stakes of the game, the more likely I am to miss the call completely. That being the case, as you await the next round of picks, please make certain to heed my regular disclaimer: Don't Bet On It!
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Raising the bar
Two Heismans? Three? Tebow could reach rare status
Posted: Saturday December 8, 2007 11:53PM; Updated: Saturday December 8, 2007 11:56PM
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Florida coach Urban Meyer (right) saw a Heisman Trophy in Tim Tebow's future with the Gators.
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</td><td class="cnnietitle" width="99%">RELATED</td></tr><tr><td class="cnniecontent" colspan="2">• RECAP: What's your take on Tebow' win?
• Florida's Tebow claims 73rd Heisman Trophy
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</td></tr></tbody></table>NEW YORK -- Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made history Saturday night by becoming the first sophomore ever to win the 73-year-old Heisman Trophy. In doing so, he accomplished what may be an even more impressive feat this age of media saturation and message-board fanatics: He managed to live up to, if not exceed, the "hype."
Ron Powlus. Brock Berlin. Chris Leak. Jimmy Clausen. All, like Tebow, and like so many others, were anointed saviors before they ever attended a college class. None came close to living up to the overwhelming expectations placed on their shoulders (though Clausen still has a chance), because, quite frankly, not too many could.
Even before Tebow pledged his services to the Gators, as a high school senior, the bar had been set exceedingly high not only by the notoriously rabid Gator Nation but by his future coach. Urban Meyer, college football's most relentless text-messager (before the NCAA banned them), reportedly wrote the following in one of his near-daily texts to Tebow that year: "TT: ... National Championship, Heisman, it's all waiting for you."
Two years later, just as Meyer predicted, Tebow has both his national championship and his Heisman -- and he's still got two more seasons to add to the trophy collection. At least one person predicted the possibility before it even presented itself.
"During Timmy's junior year [of high school]," said Craig Howard, Tebow's coach at Nease (Fla.) High School, "I told his dad, 'If Urban Meyer gets the job at Florida, and Timmy and Urban get hooked together, Timmy will win two, maybe three Heismans."
It's been a long time since a college football boasted a star with so much staying power. USC's Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush set the modern standard with their decorated three-year runs. Adrian Peterson might have eclipsed them if not for injuries. But to find a guy who shined at the highest level for a full four years, you'd probably have to go back to Tennessee's Peyton Manning (1994-97).
Manning, however, won neither a national title nor a Heisman. Tebow, who accounted for 3,970 yards and a staggering 51 touchdowns in 2007, has the opportunity to do both, multiple times. It would be a truly astounding feat -- because the next ones are going to be even more difficult to attain than the first.
If there's one thing we football followers do even better than build a guy up, it's knock him back down. The backlash against Tebow began well before Saturday's coronation -- from Florida State LB Geno Hayes promising to "take down" the Gators star to Hawaii coach June Jones dubbing him a subpar passer to fans of the other candidates (Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan, et. al.,) firebombing e-mails to Heisman voters decrying Tebow's purportedly inflated statistics ("how many of those 51 touchdowns were 2-yard runs?!").
The bullseye on Tebow's back just grew tenfold with Saturday's announcement. He knows it. Meyer knows it. Howard knows it. None of them seem particularly concerned, however, because he's already been playing under a microscope since high school.
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Tebow accounted for 51 touchdowns this season, including an SEC-record 22 rushing scores.
AP
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</td><td class="cnnietitle" width="99%">RELATED</td></tr><tr><td class="cnniecontent" colspan="2">• REACT: What's your take on Tebow's win?
• Florida's Tebow claims 73rd Heisman Trophy
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</td></tr></tbody></table>"If anybody could win a Heisman as a sophomore and not let it go to their head as a junior, it's Timmy. He's so grounded," said Howard. "Winning the Heisman may be a life-changing moment, but it won't change Timmy. Tomorrow morning, he'll be in church. Tomorrow afternoon he'll be watching film."
At a jam-packed post-ceremony press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe (where, even in New York City, a throng of orange-and-blue-clad faithful stood outside the room chanting "TE-BOW!!), the first-ever sophomore Heisman winner said he'd already been asked about winning a second trophy "a bunch of times." His response: "I won't think about that much. I have to think about [Capital One Bowl opponent] Michigan."
"He's handled [the hype] as well as anybody I've ever been around," said Meyer. "Coming into this year, he was the most decorated quarterback to never start a game for Florida.
"He's always going to be measured on winning championships. We've got to go out and get them."
The way the Gators go about winning those titles may go a long way toward determining whether Tebow ultimately hoists a second (or even third) trophy.
It's no secret Tebow's undue role as a runner the past two seasons has had as much to do with Florida's thin backfield as it has the quarterback's abilities. In Meyer and offensive coordinator DanMullen's ideal world, some of those 26 carries Tebow had in his signature performance against South Carolina would go to an actual tailback, and the Gators will have a pretty good one -- USC transfer Emmanuel Moody -- suiting up next year. Meanwhile, speedy receiver/part-time tailback PercyHarvin's role in the offense only figures to grow.
Meyer, asked if those factors might make it "harder" for Tebow to repeat in 2008, replied, "We're not concerned about winning another Heiman. We're trying to win another SEC championship."
Tebow's biggest obstacle of all, however, will be the same one that doomed other recent underclass winners like Leinart and Oklahoma's Jason White -- that is, the same voters who dubbed him Heisman-worthy one season will invariably hold him to a far greater standard the next.
Just look at last year's runner-up, McFadden, who put up even bigger numbers (1,725 yards, 15 touchdowns) than he did a year ago (1,647 yards, 14 TDs) only to finish in the bridesmaid's role once again (though he did make it much closer this time, collecting 291 first-place votes -- second-most ever for a runner-up -- and coming within 254 total points).
Whether or not Tebow eventually joins Archie Griffin as the award's second-ever repeat winner, he's still going to achieve rare status over the next two years. Like Manning a decade ago, his stardom will reign over all of college football, making him a hero to millions -- and, as comes with the territory, a villain to millions of others.
"It would be great for our country, great for the youth of America, to see a real American hero [win a second trophy]," said Howard.
Anyone who knows the story of Tebow's background -- his faith, his work with children, his annual pilgrimages to the Phillippines -- would undoubtedly agree. Unless, of course, that person roots for Georgia. Or Tennessee. Or USC. Or ...
Two Heismans? Three? Tebow could reach rare status
Posted: Saturday December 8, 2007 11:53PM; Updated: Saturday December 8, 2007 11:56PM
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Florida coach Urban Meyer (right) saw a Heisman Trophy in Tim Tebow's future with the Gators.
Chris Trotman/Getty Images
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• Florida's Tebow claims 73rd Heisman Trophy
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</td></tr></tbody></table>NEW YORK -- Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made history Saturday night by becoming the first sophomore ever to win the 73-year-old Heisman Trophy. In doing so, he accomplished what may be an even more impressive feat this age of media saturation and message-board fanatics: He managed to live up to, if not exceed, the "hype."
Ron Powlus. Brock Berlin. Chris Leak. Jimmy Clausen. All, like Tebow, and like so many others, were anointed saviors before they ever attended a college class. None came close to living up to the overwhelming expectations placed on their shoulders (though Clausen still has a chance), because, quite frankly, not too many could.
Even before Tebow pledged his services to the Gators, as a high school senior, the bar had been set exceedingly high not only by the notoriously rabid Gator Nation but by his future coach. Urban Meyer, college football's most relentless text-messager (before the NCAA banned them), reportedly wrote the following in one of his near-daily texts to Tebow that year: "TT: ... National Championship, Heisman, it's all waiting for you."
Two years later, just as Meyer predicted, Tebow has both his national championship and his Heisman -- and he's still got two more seasons to add to the trophy collection. At least one person predicted the possibility before it even presented itself.
"During Timmy's junior year [of high school]," said Craig Howard, Tebow's coach at Nease (Fla.) High School, "I told his dad, 'If Urban Meyer gets the job at Florida, and Timmy and Urban get hooked together, Timmy will win two, maybe three Heismans."
It's been a long time since a college football boasted a star with so much staying power. USC's Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush set the modern standard with their decorated three-year runs. Adrian Peterson might have eclipsed them if not for injuries. But to find a guy who shined at the highest level for a full four years, you'd probably have to go back to Tennessee's Peyton Manning (1994-97).
Manning, however, won neither a national title nor a Heisman. Tebow, who accounted for 3,970 yards and a staggering 51 touchdowns in 2007, has the opportunity to do both, multiple times. It would be a truly astounding feat -- because the next ones are going to be even more difficult to attain than the first.
If there's one thing we football followers do even better than build a guy up, it's knock him back down. The backlash against Tebow began well before Saturday's coronation -- from Florida State LB Geno Hayes promising to "take down" the Gators star to Hawaii coach June Jones dubbing him a subpar passer to fans of the other candidates (Darren McFadden, Colt Brennan, et. al.,) firebombing e-mails to Heisman voters decrying Tebow's purportedly inflated statistics ("how many of those 51 touchdowns were 2-yard runs?!").
The bullseye on Tebow's back just grew tenfold with Saturday's announcement. He knows it. Meyer knows it. Howard knows it. None of them seem particularly concerned, however, because he's already been playing under a microscope since high school.
1 of 2
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Tebow accounted for 51 touchdowns this season, including an SEC-record 22 rushing scores.
AP
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• Florida's Tebow claims 73rd Heisman Trophy
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</td></tr></tbody></table>"If anybody could win a Heisman as a sophomore and not let it go to their head as a junior, it's Timmy. He's so grounded," said Howard. "Winning the Heisman may be a life-changing moment, but it won't change Timmy. Tomorrow morning, he'll be in church. Tomorrow afternoon he'll be watching film."
At a jam-packed post-ceremony press conference at the Hard Rock Cafe (where, even in New York City, a throng of orange-and-blue-clad faithful stood outside the room chanting "TE-BOW!!), the first-ever sophomore Heisman winner said he'd already been asked about winning a second trophy "a bunch of times." His response: "I won't think about that much. I have to think about [Capital One Bowl opponent] Michigan."
"He's handled [the hype] as well as anybody I've ever been around," said Meyer. "Coming into this year, he was the most decorated quarterback to never start a game for Florida.
"He's always going to be measured on winning championships. We've got to go out and get them."
The way the Gators go about winning those titles may go a long way toward determining whether Tebow ultimately hoists a second (or even third) trophy.
It's no secret Tebow's undue role as a runner the past two seasons has had as much to do with Florida's thin backfield as it has the quarterback's abilities. In Meyer and offensive coordinator DanMullen's ideal world, some of those 26 carries Tebow had in his signature performance against South Carolina would go to an actual tailback, and the Gators will have a pretty good one -- USC transfer Emmanuel Moody -- suiting up next year. Meanwhile, speedy receiver/part-time tailback PercyHarvin's role in the offense only figures to grow.
Meyer, asked if those factors might make it "harder" for Tebow to repeat in 2008, replied, "We're not concerned about winning another Heiman. We're trying to win another SEC championship."
Tebow's biggest obstacle of all, however, will be the same one that doomed other recent underclass winners like Leinart and Oklahoma's Jason White -- that is, the same voters who dubbed him Heisman-worthy one season will invariably hold him to a far greater standard the next.
Just look at last year's runner-up, McFadden, who put up even bigger numbers (1,725 yards, 15 touchdowns) than he did a year ago (1,647 yards, 14 TDs) only to finish in the bridesmaid's role once again (though he did make it much closer this time, collecting 291 first-place votes -- second-most ever for a runner-up -- and coming within 254 total points).
Whether or not Tebow eventually joins Archie Griffin as the award's second-ever repeat winner, he's still going to achieve rare status over the next two years. Like Manning a decade ago, his stardom will reign over all of college football, making him a hero to millions -- and, as comes with the territory, a villain to millions of others.
"It would be great for our country, great for the youth of America, to see a real American hero [win a second trophy]," said Howard.
Anyone who knows the story of Tebow's background -- his faith, his work with children, his annual pilgrimages to the Phillippines -- would undoubtedly agree. Unless, of course, that person roots for Georgia. Or Tennessee. Or USC. Or ...
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Laurinaitis Steals Butkus
December 08, 2007 11:16 PM -- Filed in: Football | Awards
James Laurinaitis walked away with the Butkus Award last night beating out Penn State's Dan Connor and Colorado's Jordan Dizon. Presented annually to the top linebacker in the college game, Laurinaitis is only the second Ohio State player to win the award. The junior linebacker led the team in tackles, second in interceptions and third in sacks. Andy Katzenmoyer was the first Buckeye recipient in 1997.
Winning the award was a surprise to many, including Laurinaitis himself:
December 08, 2007 11:16 PM -- Filed in: Football | Awards
James Laurinaitis walked away with the Butkus Award last night beating out Penn State's Dan Connor and Colorado's Jordan Dizon. Presented annually to the top linebacker in the college game, Laurinaitis is only the second Ohio State player to win the award. The junior linebacker led the team in tackles, second in interceptions and third in sacks. Andy Katzenmoyer was the first Buckeye recipient in 1997.
Winning the award was a surprise to many, including Laurinaitis himself:
I feel like I've stolen it from these two guys and am taking the trophy back to Columbus.
Perhaps. His numbers were the lowest of the finalists and that has perturbed some Penn State fans who think Connor was jobbed. But there's a healthy dose of poetic justice here. Two years ago, AJ Hawk was egregiously passed over in favor of Paul Posluszny for Butkus. Wrong righted.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
<table><tbody><tr><td colspan="3" class="storytitle"> Tebow Wins... Along With Common Sense </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="primaryimage" valign="top">
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</td> <td valign="top"> <table bgcolor="#f5f5f5" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" width="60%"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="middle">By Matt Zemek
Staff Columnist
Posted Dec 8, 2007
</td> <td nowrap="nowrap">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Somewhere, Rex Grossman is smiling. For once, the John W. Heisman Memorial Trophy was actually handed to a sophomore. The fact that the winner of the award was a Florida quarterback will allow a six-year-old injustice to finally fade away.
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Somewhere, Rex Grossman is smiling. For once, the John W. Heisman Memorial Trophy was actually handed to a sophomore. The fact that the winner of the award was a Florida quarterback will allow a six-year-old injustice to finally fade away.
Saturday night at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, Tim Tebow deservedly received the greatest honor college football can bestow upon an individual player. After doing something unprecedented in his sport's 139-year history (namely, rushing and passing for at least 20 touchdowns apiece in the same season), Florida's force of nature became the third Gator to win the Heisman, after Steve Spurrier (1966) and Danny Wuerffel (1996). Urban Meyer's star quarterback should have been the fourth Florida player to receive the award, but that's where Rex Grossman enters the picture. You see, the true testament to Tebow's excellence lies in the fact that Heisman voters couldn't deny him his rightful place in the sun, in a scenario oh-so-different from 2001.
Six years ago, Grossman--also a sophomore and a brilliant Florida quarterback who presided over a great offense on a team that somehow failed to win its division in the SEC--clearly fashioned the best season of football in the United States. Yet, the Heisman's longstanding and notorious bias against sophomores--along with the award's equally entrenched bias in favor of senior quarterbacks on national title-contending teams--lifted Nebraska's Eric Crouch into the winner's circle. Never mind the fact that Crouch's signature play from the 2001 season came on a pass the quarterback caught. Never mind the fact that Nebraska's season-defining win over Oklahoma was built on the back of the Huskers' Blackshirt defense. Someway, somehow, Heisman voters determined that Crouch was not only a better player than Grossman, but a better quarterback. The laughably bad decision severely reduced the Heisman's credibility and prestige in the eyes of serious football observers, as was the case when Geno Torretta made off with the trophy in 1992 instead of Marshall Faulk. Everyone in America with some semblance of a pulse knew that if Grossman and Crouch had both been juniors, Quarterbackus Rex would have won comfortably. Had Grossman been the senior and Crouch the junior, an electoral tsunami the size of Reagan-Mondale or Nixon-McGovern would have emerged. The message from 2001 was a simple yet stupid one: sophomores can't win the Heisman, even if they ought to on the merits of the case. When Pittsburgh receiver Larry Fitzgerald stood on his head in the 2003 season but lost to Oklahoma's Jason White, it seemed that sophmores would continue to get exiled to the land where only seconds were served, not firsts.
This year, however, the stars seemed ready to give Tebow and all sophomores their due. Heading into Thanksgiving weekend, an injury to Oregon's Dennis Dixon had paved the way for Tebow to claim first place in the Heisman race. Nothing stood in the way of justice--a second-year player was about to end one of the Heisman's more shameful legacies.
But then, out of nowhere, one awesome performance by Arkansas' Derek McFadden against LSU suddenly created one of those undeniably strong media groundswells, a signature surge in hype that grabs eyeballs at a time in a college football season when more people--especially the ones holding Heisman ballots--are paying close attention to the sport's top players. Forget the fact that McFadden was AWOL during the final minutes of Arkansas' loss to Alabama due to injury. Forget the absence of No. 5 from the huddle during short but crucial stretches of a loss to Kentucky. Overlook the fact that McFadden was shut down in a crushing loss to Auburn and contained at Mississippi State. Solely because of McFadden's name recognition--gained in 2006 when the stud running back deserved a higher ranking in the Heisman race--one great game late in the 2007 season produced a tidal wave of media-fed momentum that put McFadden into the thick of the race. A number of national commentators--generally astute men who should have known better--outwardly professed on national television that the race was essentially too close to call. Heisman awards had been intellectually hijacked by similar forces in past years. Florida fans and sophomores everywhere had particularly intimate historical knowledge of the situation that was unfolding in slow motion.
Two things, however, helped Tebow hold off McFadden in this Heisman race. First, Missouri's Chase Daniel came up short in his team's regular-season finale against Oklahoma. The lack of a major third contender ensured that the race would come down to Tebow and McFadden alone. This enabled voters to compare the two players, who both played in the same conference. Given that backdrop, it became that much harder for Tebow to be denied. Had Daniel confused the issue and created a three-way horse race, McFadden could have stolen the award in the end. But when the Missouri master got socked by the Sooners, Tebow gained an extra advantage.
The second reason Tebow won the 2007 Heisman Trophy is that he was able to play the day after McFadden strutted his stuff in Baton Rouge. One more stylistic statistical showcase (against Florida State on Nov. 24) enabled Tebow to get the last word in his duel with McFadden. The fact that Arkansas failed to make the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 1 ensured that the heroic Hog would not be able to upstage the gridiron Gator in this Southern-flavored sprint to the Heisman finish line. In the end, justice was served and sophomores were saluted, relegating the events of 2001 to the dustbin of history. A black mark on this award was--if not removed--allowed to die a natural death. A school that lost one Heisman winner six years ago was finally able to claim another one.
Rex Grossman has had a brutal Autumn in Chicago, but you know the injured Bear will heal more quickly now that an old psychological wound has been soothed. Six years after one Florida sophomore signal caller was denied the Heisman Trophy, Tim Tebow--on the strength of an historic, one-of-a-kind season--cradled college football's biggest individual prize. The restoration of common sense and fairness to the Heisman voting system just put the "gains" back in Gainesville, where they'll celebrate loud and long on a night when their hero, No. 15, assumed a special place in the college football pantheon.</td></tr></tbody></table>
</td> <td nowrap="nowrap" width="3">
</td> <td valign="top"> <table bgcolor="#f5f5f5" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" width="60%"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="middle">By Matt Zemek
Staff Columnist
Posted Dec 8, 2007
</td> <td nowrap="nowrap">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Somewhere, Rex Grossman is smiling. For once, the John W. Heisman Memorial Trophy was actually handed to a sophomore. The fact that the winner of the award was a Florida quarterback will allow a six-year-old injustice to finally fade away.
</td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="3">
Somewhere, Rex Grossman is smiling. For once, the John W. Heisman Memorial Trophy was actually handed to a sophomore. The fact that the winner of the award was a Florida quarterback will allow a six-year-old injustice to finally fade away.
Saturday night at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, Tim Tebow deservedly received the greatest honor college football can bestow upon an individual player. After doing something unprecedented in his sport's 139-year history (namely, rushing and passing for at least 20 touchdowns apiece in the same season), Florida's force of nature became the third Gator to win the Heisman, after Steve Spurrier (1966) and Danny Wuerffel (1996). Urban Meyer's star quarterback should have been the fourth Florida player to receive the award, but that's where Rex Grossman enters the picture. You see, the true testament to Tebow's excellence lies in the fact that Heisman voters couldn't deny him his rightful place in the sun, in a scenario oh-so-different from 2001.
Six years ago, Grossman--also a sophomore and a brilliant Florida quarterback who presided over a great offense on a team that somehow failed to win its division in the SEC--clearly fashioned the best season of football in the United States. Yet, the Heisman's longstanding and notorious bias against sophomores--along with the award's equally entrenched bias in favor of senior quarterbacks on national title-contending teams--lifted Nebraska's Eric Crouch into the winner's circle. Never mind the fact that Crouch's signature play from the 2001 season came on a pass the quarterback caught. Never mind the fact that Nebraska's season-defining win over Oklahoma was built on the back of the Huskers' Blackshirt defense. Someway, somehow, Heisman voters determined that Crouch was not only a better player than Grossman, but a better quarterback. The laughably bad decision severely reduced the Heisman's credibility and prestige in the eyes of serious football observers, as was the case when Geno Torretta made off with the trophy in 1992 instead of Marshall Faulk. Everyone in America with some semblance of a pulse knew that if Grossman and Crouch had both been juniors, Quarterbackus Rex would have won comfortably. Had Grossman been the senior and Crouch the junior, an electoral tsunami the size of Reagan-Mondale or Nixon-McGovern would have emerged. The message from 2001 was a simple yet stupid one: sophomores can't win the Heisman, even if they ought to on the merits of the case. When Pittsburgh receiver Larry Fitzgerald stood on his head in the 2003 season but lost to Oklahoma's Jason White, it seemed that sophmores would continue to get exiled to the land where only seconds were served, not firsts.
This year, however, the stars seemed ready to give Tebow and all sophomores their due. Heading into Thanksgiving weekend, an injury to Oregon's Dennis Dixon had paved the way for Tebow to claim first place in the Heisman race. Nothing stood in the way of justice--a second-year player was about to end one of the Heisman's more shameful legacies.
But then, out of nowhere, one awesome performance by Arkansas' Derek McFadden against LSU suddenly created one of those undeniably strong media groundswells, a signature surge in hype that grabs eyeballs at a time in a college football season when more people--especially the ones holding Heisman ballots--are paying close attention to the sport's top players. Forget the fact that McFadden was AWOL during the final minutes of Arkansas' loss to Alabama due to injury. Forget the absence of No. 5 from the huddle during short but crucial stretches of a loss to Kentucky. Overlook the fact that McFadden was shut down in a crushing loss to Auburn and contained at Mississippi State. Solely because of McFadden's name recognition--gained in 2006 when the stud running back deserved a higher ranking in the Heisman race--one great game late in the 2007 season produced a tidal wave of media-fed momentum that put McFadden into the thick of the race. A number of national commentators--generally astute men who should have known better--outwardly professed on national television that the race was essentially too close to call. Heisman awards had been intellectually hijacked by similar forces in past years. Florida fans and sophomores everywhere had particularly intimate historical knowledge of the situation that was unfolding in slow motion.
Two things, however, helped Tebow hold off McFadden in this Heisman race. First, Missouri's Chase Daniel came up short in his team's regular-season finale against Oklahoma. The lack of a major third contender ensured that the race would come down to Tebow and McFadden alone. This enabled voters to compare the two players, who both played in the same conference. Given that backdrop, it became that much harder for Tebow to be denied. Had Daniel confused the issue and created a three-way horse race, McFadden could have stolen the award in the end. But when the Missouri master got socked by the Sooners, Tebow gained an extra advantage.
The second reason Tebow won the 2007 Heisman Trophy is that he was able to play the day after McFadden strutted his stuff in Baton Rouge. One more stylistic statistical showcase (against Florida State on Nov. 24) enabled Tebow to get the last word in his duel with McFadden. The fact that Arkansas failed to make the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 1 ensured that the heroic Hog would not be able to upstage the gridiron Gator in this Southern-flavored sprint to the Heisman finish line. In the end, justice was served and sophomores were saluted, relegating the events of 2001 to the dustbin of history. A black mark on this award was--if not removed--allowed to die a natural death. A school that lost one Heisman winner six years ago was finally able to claim another one.
Rex Grossman has had a brutal Autumn in Chicago, but you know the injured Bear will heal more quickly now that an old psychological wound has been soothed. Six years after one Florida sophomore signal caller was denied the Heisman Trophy, Tim Tebow--on the strength of an historic, one-of-a-kind season--cradled college football's biggest individual prize. The restoration of common sense and fairness to the Heisman voting system just put the "gains" back in Gainesville, where they'll celebrate loud and long on a night when their hero, No. 15, assumed a special place in the college football pantheon.</td></tr></tbody></table>
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Texas Tech v. Virginia: Conference Statistic Comparison
By Seth C Section: Football
Posted on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 03:59:05 PM EDT
It only took me an hour or so, but here are the numbers comparing the Big 12 averages and the ACC averages. Rather than just save my spreadsheet on my computer, I thought I'd share it with the class via Google, thus, if you want to do any comparisons on your own, feel free to copy and paste until your heart's content.
<center> <table cellpadding="4"> <tbody><tr bgcolor="black"> <td>Big 12 Avg.</td> <td>Texas Tech</td> <td>Statistic</td> <td>Virginia</td> <td>ACC Avg.</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>158.72</td> <td>61.42</td> <td>Rushing Offense</td> <td>126.17</td> <td>128.12</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>279.82</td> <td>475.58</td> <td>Passing Offense</td> <td>203.00</td> <td>220.82</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>137.00</td> <td>159.70</td> <td>Passing Efficiency Offense</td> <td>114.36</td> <td>123.00</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>438.54</td> <td>537.00</td> <td>Total Offense</td> <td>329.17</td> <td>348.94</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>33.35</td> <td>41.75</td> <td>Scoring Offense</td> <td>24.08</td> <td>24.89</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>141.50</td> <td>171.00</td> <td>Rushing Defense</td> <td>113.00</td> <td>123.54</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>254.00</td> <td>196.08</td> <td>Pass Defense</td> <td>210.42</td> <td>220.35</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>130.50</td> <td>159.58</td> <td>Passing Efficiency Defense</td> <td>114.36</td> <td>119.10</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>395.49</td> <td>367.08</td> <td>Total Defense</td> <td>323.42</td> <td>343.89</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>27.61</td> <td>25.75</td> <td>Scoring Defense</td> <td>18.75</td> <td>22.56</td> </tr> </tbody></table></center> <!-- poll box -->
By Seth C Section: Football
Posted on Sat Dec 08, 2007 at 03:59:05 PM EDT
It only took me an hour or so, but here are the numbers comparing the Big 12 averages and the ACC averages. Rather than just save my spreadsheet on my computer, I thought I'd share it with the class via Google, thus, if you want to do any comparisons on your own, feel free to copy and paste until your heart's content.
<center> <table cellpadding="4"> <tbody><tr bgcolor="black"> <td>Big 12 Avg.</td> <td>Texas Tech</td> <td>Statistic</td> <td>Virginia</td> <td>ACC Avg.</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>158.72</td> <td>61.42</td> <td>Rushing Offense</td> <td>126.17</td> <td>128.12</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>279.82</td> <td>475.58</td> <td>Passing Offense</td> <td>203.00</td> <td>220.82</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>137.00</td> <td>159.70</td> <td>Passing Efficiency Offense</td> <td>114.36</td> <td>123.00</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>438.54</td> <td>537.00</td> <td>Total Offense</td> <td>329.17</td> <td>348.94</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>33.35</td> <td>41.75</td> <td>Scoring Offense</td> <td>24.08</td> <td>24.89</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>141.50</td> <td>171.00</td> <td>Rushing Defense</td> <td>113.00</td> <td>123.54</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>254.00</td> <td>196.08</td> <td>Pass Defense</td> <td>210.42</td> <td>220.35</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>130.50</td> <td>159.58</td> <td>Passing Efficiency Defense</td> <td>114.36</td> <td>119.10</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>395.49</td> <td>367.08</td> <td>Total Defense</td> <td>323.42</td> <td>343.89</td> </tr> <tr style="background: rgb(211, 211, 211) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td>27.61</td> <td>25.75</td> <td>Scoring Defense</td> <td>18.75</td> <td>22.56</td> </tr> </tbody></table></center> <!-- poll box -->
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Marvin Lewis to Michigan?
Posted Dec 8th 2007 2:10PM by Sportz Assassin
Filed under: Bengals, AFC North, Michigan Football, Big 10, NFL Coaching, Cincinnati
With Rutgers coach Greg Schiano out of the mix, Michigan treks on looking for a head coach. Someone that could be in their sights: Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis.
This is still in the rumor stage, though some have heard about this on radio and it is mentioned in the New York Times.
Of course, this would assume that Cincinnati and Lewis divorce. Lewis' current deal runs through to 2010 season ... so despite the Bengals down season, it is unlikely he'd be fired. Owner Mike Brown has never been known to eat any contract. He is to make over $3M a year now, so heading off to Michigan would mean a big pay cut.
Lewis' last college job was linebackers coach for the Pitt Panthers in the early 1990s. He spent 1981-1991 in the college ranks as a LBs coach at Pitt, Idaho State, Long Beach State and New Mexico before getting the same gig in the NFL with the Steelers.
The only way I'd see that is if Lewis really thinks he need to get the heck out of the Queen City that bad. The Bengals are having their worst season in his coaching tenure and people are calling for his job. Plus, there are signs that he has lost this team. Again, Lewis would have to be the one to leave because ownership isn't firing him. Look for Lewis to decline or flat out take his name from the running.
This isn't the only NFL coach that Michigan is looking at. The Saints' Sean Payton says he's not interested despite rumors Michigan has expressed interest. Oakland's Lane Kiffin is also on the Wolverines radar.
Filed under: Bengals, AFC North, Michigan Football, Big 10, NFL Coaching, Cincinnati
This is still in the rumor stage, though some have heard about this on radio and it is mentioned in the New York Times.
Of course, this would assume that Cincinnati and Lewis divorce. Lewis' current deal runs through to 2010 season ... so despite the Bengals down season, it is unlikely he'd be fired. Owner Mike Brown has never been known to eat any contract. He is to make over $3M a year now, so heading off to Michigan would mean a big pay cut.
Lewis' last college job was linebackers coach for the Pitt Panthers in the early 1990s. He spent 1981-1991 in the college ranks as a LBs coach at Pitt, Idaho State, Long Beach State and New Mexico before getting the same gig in the NFL with the Steelers.
The only way I'd see that is if Lewis really thinks he need to get the heck out of the Queen City that bad. The Bengals are having their worst season in his coaching tenure and people are calling for his job. Plus, there are signs that he has lost this team. Again, Lewis would have to be the one to leave because ownership isn't firing him. Look for Lewis to decline or flat out take his name from the running.
This isn't the only NFL coach that Michigan is looking at. The Saints' Sean Payton says he's not interested despite rumors Michigan has expressed interest. Oakland's Lane Kiffin is also on the Wolverines radar.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Bowl-o-Rama: Debunking Crappy Analysis
Did any of you guys watch Bowl Mania last night? I'm yet again still trying to understand Mark May. And......
I'm also willing to get him an appointment with Dr. Phil to figure out what the Big 10 did to him as a child and if his emotions about it early in his life were suppressed. What is his deal with this conference? Argh, I'll just get to that a little bit later. Let's debunk the top 10 crappy analyses that you'll have to put up with this bowl season.
1. New Mexico Can't Lose to a Mid-Tier WAC Team at Home.
Uh, let's just rewind back to 2006 when San Jose State owned New Mexico. The final score was 20-12, but the Lobos scored a touchdown late in the game to make the score appear closer than it was.
Now, Jesse Palmer putting 25 points on Nevada is another story in and of itself, but the notion that New Mexico can't lose to Nevada would require totally blanking out the 2006 New Mexico Bowl.
However, you can rebut that with the fact that this Lobo team is a lot better than the one that went 6-6 last year and lost to Portland State. Nevada is the team that is 6-6 this year, so picking New Mexico wouldn't be a bad idea. Regardless, all I'm saying is that it's an evenly matched game between the great offense of Nevada and the stifling defense of New Mexico.
2. Michigan Can't Stop the Spread.
Wait just a moment here. Doesn't Northwestern run the spread? Doesn't Minnesota run the spread? Doesn't Purdue run the spread?
The answer to all of those questions would be yes. The problem here is that none of these teams have super-mobile QBs. Purdue's system has more of a Texas Tech-taste to it where Painter sits around in the pocket. Northwestern's is similar. Adam Weber isn't Vince Young even though he is somewhat mobile. So doesn't this analysis hold water?
Well, there's one teeny-tiny game that people seem to forget about: Illinois. Juice Williams and the Illini offense were held to 253 yards of offense.
Mark May says Ohio State has trouble defending the spread because of what Illinois did to them. He then doesn't mention anything about Michigan's dominance of that same Illinois spread offense.........on the road. Am I missing something?
And by the way, Mark May doesn't have an ingrained bias towards the Big 10; he sincerely believes that the conference sucks. The guy is just not looking at the situation from all of the angles.
3. Missouri's Defense Has Improved Down the Stretch and Their Offense Will Explode Against Arkansas.
I'm not hearing this as much as I was last week. Before the Oklahoma game, I was told that Missouri's defense had really improved since the beginning of the season. Perhaps OU maybe changed that.
But there does seem to be a number of people who think that Missouri's offense will roll against Arkansas. We're talking about the 5th ranked pass efficiency defense. Plus, the Hogs are on a roll offensively as proven with their games against Mississippi State and LSU.
Just take my advice: Never count out Darren McFadden! Missouri has a good rushing defense though. The Tigers are 100th against the pass but that doesn't really matter because of how bad Arkansas is passing.
Anyway, all I'm trying to get at is that Missouri will give up points and Arkansas will play better defensively than many expect them to. It still should be a close, semi-shootout.
4. Wisconsin Will Get Crushed Against an SEC Team.
The pundits have fun with this one. At least Ed Cunningham gave them a shot and Jesse Palmer did pick the Badgers again. So how is this "crappy analysis"?
Well, our ol' pal, Mark May, comes back into the scene. His reasoning is that Tennessee is on fire coming into this game. He thinks Phil Fulmer will have the team ready.
71% of America selected Tennessee. Not so fast, my friends, let's take a look at the history of Wisconsin vs. the SEC in bowl games.
The Badgers are 3-1 vs. the SEC over the last four bowl seasons. Their only loss came in the Outback Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs in 2004.
Every year it seems, Wisconsin is the underdog against the almighty SEC. The Big 10 heathen that are slow and large never match up against the speedsters of the Southeast. There's no bigger thorn in the side of SEC Lovers/Big 10 haters than Wisconsin which has routinely defeated their SEC foes.
5. Tulsa Will Smoke Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl.
This one probably has the most credibility of any of these claims presented. Let's not forget, we are talking about the nation's #1 offense.
But I'll go against the grain here and give the Falcons a little bit of a shot. The MAC needs one bowl victory, do they not? Ball State won't beat Rutgers and Central Michigan won't beat Purdue.
I have a few reasons. First, Bowling Green has the 26th ranked pass defense. They'll give up 400+ through the air, but at least they won't let Tulsa move the ball at will.
Secondly, let's not forget how horrible Tulsa's defense is. The Golden Hurricane are 108th against the pass and 97th against the run. This is a team that's giving up 35 points a game and Bowling Green has averaged 38 points a game over their last four.
Look, I'm not even saying Bowling Green will win this game because I placed one point on them in my ESPN picks. But, if you look at the stats, it probably won't be a total blowout.
6. West Virginia Will be Too Emotionally Drained to Beat Oklahoma.
The Mountaineers have had to endure their doubters over the past few seasons. They apparently had no chance when they faced prominent powerhouse Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. There was even a group that didn't think they would score enough against Georgia Tech.
Oklahoma is a great team and they will probably beat West Virginia, but you're nuts if you don't think they'll come to play. Rich Rodriguez usually has this team motivated and there is one factor that played a part in both of the Mountaineer's losses: Pat White injuries.
White will have another month or so to get healthy for this huge game against the Sooners. And, as long as West Virginia takes care of the football, they should give Oklahoma their best shot. Another thing that's underrated about the Mountaineers is their defense. Even if they lost to Pitt, they were great defensively against the Panthers. Oklahoma will have a tough time scoring more than 30 points; these guys are that good.
7. Illinois Has No Chance Against USC in the Rose Bowl.
You want to talk about people putting too much stock into one game, has USC really looked that great down the stretch?
At the risk of sounding like USC apologist, Mark May, USC is a great team and when they are healthy, that defense can be mean and nasty. But Illinois has some weapons of their own and one factor is working for the Illini: Motivation.
No matter how much Pete Carroll has his team ready, they won't be able to match the excitement of Illinois. Ron Zook has this young team playing way over their heads and you get a sense that this is a team of destiny.
With leaders like J Leman and Juice Williams, they do have a lot of things working for them. Will it be enough to win? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing is for sure, Illinois will play well.
Sorry if that isn't good statistical analysis and I'm not sure I debunked the myth, but it's just my personal opinion of Illinois.
8. Bowl Season Coaching Changes Are Apocalyptic.
One prevailing theme to this bowl season is all of the departing coaches. Whether it be Navy, Southern Miss, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, or Arkansas, the fact that their coach is leaving always puts an interesting spin on things.
But what about the last two bowl seasons? It's been a mixed bag of treats. This may not be 100% accurate, but I've got teams with coaching situations at 5-4 during bowl season over the last two years. Those winners were: 05 Wisconsin (Alvarez announced this would be his last game), 06 Central Michigan (Kelly went to Cincy), 06 Boston College (O'Brien left for NC State), 06 Miami (known that it was Coker's last game), and 06 Cincinnati (Dantonio left, Kelly took over and coached the bowl game). Those losers were: 05 Boise State (Hawkins took the job before the bowl game), 05 Colorado (Barnett resigned), 06 ASU (Koetter was fired), and 06 Bama.
Any rhyme or reason? I dunno. It just doesn't seem to effect the players that greatly which is why it doesn't, or at least hasn't over the past two seasons, have much of an effect on the outcome of the game.
9. Hawaii Doesn't Have a Chance.
Well, we'll see about that.
The Warriors closed out their game against Washington on a 35-7 run over the last three quarters. This made the first quarter look like an aberration.
This team has an improving defense which may or may not hold Georgia in check. We'll get to find out whether or not McMackin has really turned this unit around or if it was just a product of the schedule.
Plus, it would be impossible to ignore the fact that the non-BCS teams are 2-0 vs. BCS teams. There is a matter of motivation here. Georgia would get pumped up to play USC in the Rose Bowl, but no, they're facing Hawaii in the Sugar.
10. Ohio State is Slow, LSU is Fast, so There.
This is ridiculous. Yeah, that's why Ohio State consistently puts up NFL players like regular SEC powers do. Of course.
Tressel and his coaching staff will have learned from last year's experience. It will be a top priority to make sure that this team remains at full speed (sorry) during the layoff. It was apparent that this team got a little arrogant thinking they could waltz into Glendale and take care of business.
I think Corso's point about the Ohio State front five is very legitimate. They will knock you on your ass. Michigan learned this front-and-center a few weeks ago.
Say what you want about defending the spread, but LSU doesn't really run their offense like an Illinois, Oregon, or West Virginia would. May tried the non-sensical argument that Flynn is "fast". He's got some good speed, but he's no Dennis Dixon. The Buckeye defense is at its best when the opponent just goes straight at you and shys away from doing fancy stuff.
I'm actually picking LSU, but again, the people seem to think that the Tigers will hand Ohio State the championship. I'ts not going to happen.
Did any of you guys watch Bowl Mania last night? I'm yet again still trying to understand Mark May. And......
I'm also willing to get him an appointment with Dr. Phil to figure out what the Big 10 did to him as a child and if his emotions about it early in his life were suppressed. What is his deal with this conference? Argh, I'll just get to that a little bit later. Let's debunk the top 10 crappy analyses that you'll have to put up with this bowl season.
1. New Mexico Can't Lose to a Mid-Tier WAC Team at Home.Uh, let's just rewind back to 2006 when San Jose State owned New Mexico. The final score was 20-12, but the Lobos scored a touchdown late in the game to make the score appear closer than it was.
Now, Jesse Palmer putting 25 points on Nevada is another story in and of itself, but the notion that New Mexico can't lose to Nevada would require totally blanking out the 2006 New Mexico Bowl.
However, you can rebut that with the fact that this Lobo team is a lot better than the one that went 6-6 last year and lost to Portland State. Nevada is the team that is 6-6 this year, so picking New Mexico wouldn't be a bad idea. Regardless, all I'm saying is that it's an evenly matched game between the great offense of Nevada and the stifling defense of New Mexico.
2. Michigan Can't Stop the Spread.Wait just a moment here. Doesn't Northwestern run the spread? Doesn't Minnesota run the spread? Doesn't Purdue run the spread?
The answer to all of those questions would be yes. The problem here is that none of these teams have super-mobile QBs. Purdue's system has more of a Texas Tech-taste to it where Painter sits around in the pocket. Northwestern's is similar. Adam Weber isn't Vince Young even though he is somewhat mobile. So doesn't this analysis hold water?
Well, there's one teeny-tiny game that people seem to forget about: Illinois. Juice Williams and the Illini offense were held to 253 yards of offense.
Mark May says Ohio State has trouble defending the spread because of what Illinois did to them. He then doesn't mention anything about Michigan's dominance of that same Illinois spread offense.........on the road. Am I missing something?
And by the way, Mark May doesn't have an ingrained bias towards the Big 10; he sincerely believes that the conference sucks. The guy is just not looking at the situation from all of the angles.
3. Missouri's Defense Has Improved Down the Stretch and Their Offense Will Explode Against Arkansas.I'm not hearing this as much as I was last week. Before the Oklahoma game, I was told that Missouri's defense had really improved since the beginning of the season. Perhaps OU maybe changed that.
But there does seem to be a number of people who think that Missouri's offense will roll against Arkansas. We're talking about the 5th ranked pass efficiency defense. Plus, the Hogs are on a roll offensively as proven with their games against Mississippi State and LSU.
Just take my advice: Never count out Darren McFadden! Missouri has a good rushing defense though. The Tigers are 100th against the pass but that doesn't really matter because of how bad Arkansas is passing.
Anyway, all I'm trying to get at is that Missouri will give up points and Arkansas will play better defensively than many expect them to. It still should be a close, semi-shootout.
4. Wisconsin Will Get Crushed Against an SEC Team.The pundits have fun with this one. At least Ed Cunningham gave them a shot and Jesse Palmer did pick the Badgers again. So how is this "crappy analysis"?
Well, our ol' pal, Mark May, comes back into the scene. His reasoning is that Tennessee is on fire coming into this game. He thinks Phil Fulmer will have the team ready.
71% of America selected Tennessee. Not so fast, my friends, let's take a look at the history of Wisconsin vs. the SEC in bowl games.
The Badgers are 3-1 vs. the SEC over the last four bowl seasons. Their only loss came in the Outback Bowl against the Georgia Bulldogs in 2004.
Every year it seems, Wisconsin is the underdog against the almighty SEC. The Big 10 heathen that are slow and large never match up against the speedsters of the Southeast. There's no bigger thorn in the side of SEC Lovers/Big 10 haters than Wisconsin which has routinely defeated their SEC foes.
5. Tulsa Will Smoke Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl.This one probably has the most credibility of any of these claims presented. Let's not forget, we are talking about the nation's #1 offense.
But I'll go against the grain here and give the Falcons a little bit of a shot. The MAC needs one bowl victory, do they not? Ball State won't beat Rutgers and Central Michigan won't beat Purdue.
I have a few reasons. First, Bowling Green has the 26th ranked pass defense. They'll give up 400+ through the air, but at least they won't let Tulsa move the ball at will.
Secondly, let's not forget how horrible Tulsa's defense is. The Golden Hurricane are 108th against the pass and 97th against the run. This is a team that's giving up 35 points a game and Bowling Green has averaged 38 points a game over their last four.
Look, I'm not even saying Bowling Green will win this game because I placed one point on them in my ESPN picks. But, if you look at the stats, it probably won't be a total blowout.
6. West Virginia Will be Too Emotionally Drained to Beat Oklahoma.The Mountaineers have had to endure their doubters over the past few seasons. They apparently had no chance when they faced prominent powerhouse Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. There was even a group that didn't think they would score enough against Georgia Tech.
Oklahoma is a great team and they will probably beat West Virginia, but you're nuts if you don't think they'll come to play. Rich Rodriguez usually has this team motivated and there is one factor that played a part in both of the Mountaineer's losses: Pat White injuries.
White will have another month or so to get healthy for this huge game against the Sooners. And, as long as West Virginia takes care of the football, they should give Oklahoma their best shot. Another thing that's underrated about the Mountaineers is their defense. Even if they lost to Pitt, they were great defensively against the Panthers. Oklahoma will have a tough time scoring more than 30 points; these guys are that good.
7. Illinois Has No Chance Against USC in the Rose Bowl.You want to talk about people putting too much stock into one game, has USC really looked that great down the stretch?
At the risk of sounding like USC apologist, Mark May, USC is a great team and when they are healthy, that defense can be mean and nasty. But Illinois has some weapons of their own and one factor is working for the Illini: Motivation.
No matter how much Pete Carroll has his team ready, they won't be able to match the excitement of Illinois. Ron Zook has this young team playing way over their heads and you get a sense that this is a team of destiny.
With leaders like J Leman and Juice Williams, they do have a lot of things working for them. Will it be enough to win? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing is for sure, Illinois will play well.
Sorry if that isn't good statistical analysis and I'm not sure I debunked the myth, but it's just my personal opinion of Illinois.
8. Bowl Season Coaching Changes Are Apocalyptic.One prevailing theme to this bowl season is all of the departing coaches. Whether it be Navy, Southern Miss, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, or Arkansas, the fact that their coach is leaving always puts an interesting spin on things.
But what about the last two bowl seasons? It's been a mixed bag of treats. This may not be 100% accurate, but I've got teams with coaching situations at 5-4 during bowl season over the last two years. Those winners were: 05 Wisconsin (Alvarez announced this would be his last game), 06 Central Michigan (Kelly went to Cincy), 06 Boston College (O'Brien left for NC State), 06 Miami (known that it was Coker's last game), and 06 Cincinnati (Dantonio left, Kelly took over and coached the bowl game). Those losers were: 05 Boise State (Hawkins took the job before the bowl game), 05 Colorado (Barnett resigned), 06 ASU (Koetter was fired), and 06 Bama.
Any rhyme or reason? I dunno. It just doesn't seem to effect the players that greatly which is why it doesn't, or at least hasn't over the past two seasons, have much of an effect on the outcome of the game.
9. Hawaii Doesn't Have a Chance.Well, we'll see about that.
The Warriors closed out their game against Washington on a 35-7 run over the last three quarters. This made the first quarter look like an aberration.
This team has an improving defense which may or may not hold Georgia in check. We'll get to find out whether or not McMackin has really turned this unit around or if it was just a product of the schedule.
Plus, it would be impossible to ignore the fact that the non-BCS teams are 2-0 vs. BCS teams. There is a matter of motivation here. Georgia would get pumped up to play USC in the Rose Bowl, but no, they're facing Hawaii in the Sugar.
10. Ohio State is Slow, LSU is Fast, so There.This is ridiculous. Yeah, that's why Ohio State consistently puts up NFL players like regular SEC powers do. Of course.
Tressel and his coaching staff will have learned from last year's experience. It will be a top priority to make sure that this team remains at full speed (sorry) during the layoff. It was apparent that this team got a little arrogant thinking they could waltz into Glendale and take care of business.
I think Corso's point about the Ohio State front five is very legitimate. They will knock you on your ass. Michigan learned this front-and-center a few weeks ago.
Say what you want about defending the spread, but LSU doesn't really run their offense like an Illinois, Oregon, or West Virginia would. May tried the non-sensical argument that Flynn is "fast". He's got some good speed, but he's no Dennis Dixon. The Buckeye defense is at its best when the opponent just goes straight at you and shys away from doing fancy stuff.
I'm actually picking LSU, but again, the people seem to think that the Tigers will hand Ohio State the championship. I'ts not going to happen.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
ECU fans give bowl tix to military
Posted: Sunday December 9, 2007 10:59PM; Updated: Sunday December 9, 2007 10:59PM
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- East Carolina University football fans are buying tickets to their team's bowl game in Hawaii, but they are donating them to military personnel who expect to spend time there during the Christmas holiday.
Assistant athletic director for ticketing and marketing Scott Wetherbee said ECU wants to be sure someone will sit in its seats for the Sheraton Aloha Bowl on Dec. 23 in Honolulu by buying tickets and donating them to active members of the service.
"We know were not going to take 5,000 fans to Hawaii," Wetherbee said.
Hawaii Bowl Executive Director Jim Donovan had contacts with all five branches of the armed services, Wetherbee said, and the idea was to give those stationed on the islands -- preferably those not from Hawaii -- a chance to request tickets to the game.
The five branches of the military have 45,564 active, reserve and National Guard troops and sailors stationed at 13 installations throughout the islands, according to the Hawaiian government. If there are not enough takers from the military, Wetherbee said, tickets will be offered to firefighters, police officers and local charities.
In exchange for their donations, ECU fans will receive a commemorative bowl ticket. As for the ECU followers buying and using their own tickets, Wetherbee said the number grew slowly last week.
"Right now, we're pushing 200 that have ordered," he said. "If I had to guess, I would hope we would have 400 or 500 make the destination. We told them to send us about 1,000 and the rest of our allotment we would try to donate."
Wetherbee confirmed some fans have chosen to be more charitable than others. The biggest givers since the donation process began Monday include one fan who donated 25 of the $40 tickets, and a company that tried to confirm seats for a handful of employees in Hawaii with ECU ties.
Posted: Sunday December 9, 2007 10:59PM; Updated: Sunday December 9, 2007 10:59PM
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- East Carolina University football fans are buying tickets to their team's bowl game in Hawaii, but they are donating them to military personnel who expect to spend time there during the Christmas holiday.
Assistant athletic director for ticketing and marketing Scott Wetherbee said ECU wants to be sure someone will sit in its seats for the Sheraton Aloha Bowl on Dec. 23 in Honolulu by buying tickets and donating them to active members of the service.
"We know were not going to take 5,000 fans to Hawaii," Wetherbee said.
Hawaii Bowl Executive Director Jim Donovan had contacts with all five branches of the armed services, Wetherbee said, and the idea was to give those stationed on the islands -- preferably those not from Hawaii -- a chance to request tickets to the game.
The five branches of the military have 45,564 active, reserve and National Guard troops and sailors stationed at 13 installations throughout the islands, according to the Hawaiian government. If there are not enough takers from the military, Wetherbee said, tickets will be offered to firefighters, police officers and local charities.
In exchange for their donations, ECU fans will receive a commemorative bowl ticket. As for the ECU followers buying and using their own tickets, Wetherbee said the number grew slowly last week.
"Right now, we're pushing 200 that have ordered," he said. "If I had to guess, I would hope we would have 400 or 500 make the destination. We told them to send us about 1,000 and the rest of our allotment we would try to donate."
Wetherbee confirmed some fans have chosen to be more charitable than others. The biggest givers since the donation process began Monday include one fan who donated 25 of the $40 tickets, and a company that tried to confirm seats for a handful of employees in Hawaii with ECU ties.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Morning Coffee Pauses From Studying 
by HornsFan Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 09:48:34 AM EDT
Maybe he needs a raise. USA Today has published their annual cost per win breakdown, dividing a head coach's salary by the number of wins on the field. This year's ignominious champ is former Longhorn assistant coach Tim Brewster, who guided Minnesota to one win. His price? A cool million. Number two, not surprisingly, is Nick Saban who earned $583,867 for each of the Crimson Tide's six wins.
Mack Brown? Only sixteenth with his $305,667 per win, two spots behind Bob Stoops, who netted $329,091 for each of his 11 wins.
The lesson is clear: We're not paying Mack Brown enough money.
Ain't nothin' in a name no more. Kirk Bohls has been watching the 2007 coaching carousel and concludes that the landscape in college football is changing. Bohls' thesis is that there exists less and less incentive for coaches to jump "up" to a Big Name program. As less traditional schools continue to raise salaries and the mine of talented players wanting to see the field right away increases, parity - the argument goes - is setting in.
Perhaps, but it's worth asking if the 2007 season was more aberration or, as Bohls suggests, indicative of a more fundamental shift in the game. At least in terms of winning the biggest prize, I tend to think this season was a bit of a fluke. Though West Virginia and Missouri had a title game berth within their grasp, at the end of the day we're left with LSU and Ohio State. Hawaii was eliminated before the season even kicked off. The 10 BCS National Champions? Tennessee, Florida State, Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, LSU, USC, Texas, and Florida.
The deck is essentially stacked before the season begins, and barring total chaos, the odds of an underdog getting its day in the sun are relatively paltry. Unless, that is, Bohls is right and we're shifting into an era of greater parity in which games like Stanford over USC become more and more commonplace. Or, of course, we get a college football playoff. Then all bets are off.
Buck up, Big 10. Speaking of the national title game, I'm going to be curious to see how the spin cycle goes on this one. A prediction: After the onslaught of "Ohio State can't match the SEC speed" takes we'll hear, there will be a wave of pundits looking to take the contrarian view and we'll see a rash of pro-Buckeye sentiment.
Though LSU hasn't played great football in a long time now, there's no question in my mind they should be solid favorites in this one. And when you hear the talking point that Ohio State is 7-10-1 all-time against the SEC, remember that six of those wins came against Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Assuming LSU is fully healthy for the title game, my early feeling is that I won't be surprised one bit if the Buckeyes are in for more than they can handle.
With that in mind, Big 10 fans who spend 365 days a year hating Ohio State need to bite the bullet and cheer for the Buckeyes this time around. Another embarrassment for Ohio State in the title game will scar the conference for the next few years, to the point where any time the title game berths come down to a beauty contest for the voters (which is most every year), the Big 10 won't get the benefit of the doubt. The Big 10 needs this one.
Bowl Mania! Reader <ins>chief</ins> was kind enough to set up a bowl pick 'em league for BON. Click through for details. We'll have some sort of prize for the winners.
by HornsFan Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 09:48:34 AM EDT
Mack Brown? Only sixteenth with his $305,667 per win, two spots behind Bob Stoops, who netted $329,091 for each of his 11 wins.
The lesson is clear: We're not paying Mack Brown enough money.
Perhaps, but it's worth asking if the 2007 season was more aberration or, as Bohls suggests, indicative of a more fundamental shift in the game. At least in terms of winning the biggest prize, I tend to think this season was a bit of a fluke. Though West Virginia and Missouri had a title game berth within their grasp, at the end of the day we're left with LSU and Ohio State. Hawaii was eliminated before the season even kicked off. The 10 BCS National Champions? Tennessee, Florida State, Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, LSU, USC, Texas, and Florida.
The deck is essentially stacked before the season begins, and barring total chaos, the odds of an underdog getting its day in the sun are relatively paltry. Unless, that is, Bohls is right and we're shifting into an era of greater parity in which games like Stanford over USC become more and more commonplace. Or, of course, we get a college football playoff. Then all bets are off.
Though LSU hasn't played great football in a long time now, there's no question in my mind they should be solid favorites in this one. And when you hear the talking point that Ohio State is 7-10-1 all-time against the SEC, remember that six of those wins came against Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Assuming LSU is fully healthy for the title game, my early feeling is that I won't be surprised one bit if the Buckeyes are in for more than they can handle.
With that in mind, Big 10 fans who spend 365 days a year hating Ohio State need to bite the bullet and cheer for the Buckeyes this time around. Another embarrassment for Ohio State in the title game will scar the conference for the next few years, to the point where any time the title game berths come down to a beauty contest for the voters (which is most every year), the Big 10 won't get the benefit of the doubt. The Big 10 needs this one.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Hill's status for Outback Bowl in doubt
Brown, Smith expected to share load at running back
By JEFF POTRYKUS
jpotrykus@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 8, 2007
Madison - The University of Wisconsin appears to be moving on without running back P.J. Hill as it prepares for the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1.
Hill, who missed 13 of the last 15 quarters of the regular season because of a leg injury suffered in the first quarter against Indiana in Week 9, continues to be a spectator at practice.
And with freshman Zach Brown and sophomore Lance Smith capable of sharing the workload, UW seems prepared to start either player in place of Hill.
"He hasn't been able to go and it doesn't look like he's going to be able to go for a while," said Bielema, who also revealed fourth-string tailback Quincy Landingham is transferring. "It's not really a concern of mine. It's a concern for P.J. and obviously I'm concerned about P.J., but with the way our offense works. . . it has been very hard for us to go beyond our second running back during the course of this whole season no matter who those two were.
"Zach will be the starter unless Lance continues to do some good things during practice. One of those two guys will start, and I probably won't go much beyond that."
Hill leads UW with 1,080 yards and 14 touchdowns but has just four carries in the last three games, all in the second half of the victory over Michigan after Smith suffered a shoulder injury.
Brown started the last three games and rushed for 421 yards and four touchdowns in 76 carries.
Smith, who was suspended for UW's five regular-season road games, has rushed for 406 yards and three touchdowns in seven games. His 6.2-yard average is No. 1 among the team's tailbacks.
According to Bielema, Hill has been cleared to practice and play. It is a matter of whether he can tolerate any pain in the leg.
"He is basically in a position where we've been able to let him decide if he can go or not," Bielema said. "The medical people have run every test that they can."
Meanwhile, freshman John Clay, who spoke with reporters for the first time this season, talked candidly about his work last summer to become academically eligible and the lessons he has learned while redshirting this season.
"At first I was kind of upset about it," Clay, an All-American at Racine Park High School, said. "But later on after I thought about it, it was a good idea because I need the time to focus on my schooling first and foremost and then me getting adjusted to college life."
Clay, who rushed for a combined 3,517 yards and 45 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons at Park, will have to wait until the 2008 season to battle for a spot in the rotation.
The Journal Sentinel reported in July that Clay had failed to meet the NCAA's initial eligibility requirements to play as a freshman.
However, Clay was able to meet those requirements, in part by attending summer school in Racine. He eventually was cleared to play by the NCAA Clearinghouse but didn't report to pre-season camp until Aug. 17.
"It was a lift off my back that now I could say I was going to this university to go to school, so I was proud of that," Clay said. "So when I came in here, everyone was encouraging me and being behind me 100%, and so I appreciate that."
By the time Clay was able to report to camp, however, he had missed 11 days of practices and meetings and was far behind the other tailbacks.
"They threw the whole playbook at me just to see if I could handle it," Clay said. "I did good, I believe. They helped me at every step that I needed help on. I would stay a little later and do extra drills by myself, or other teammates would come help me with the extra drills to prepare me. . . .
"It helped me out, but it was just me just not picking up the offense fast enough. But I'm doing it now and it's helping me prepare for next year."
Brown, Smith expected to share load at running back
By JEFF POTRYKUS
jpotrykus@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 8, 2007
Madison - The University of Wisconsin appears to be moving on without running back P.J. Hill as it prepares for the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1.
Hill, who missed 13 of the last 15 quarters of the regular season because of a leg injury suffered in the first quarter against Indiana in Week 9, continues to be a spectator at practice.
And with freshman Zach Brown and sophomore Lance Smith capable of sharing the workload, UW seems prepared to start either player in place of Hill.
"He hasn't been able to go and it doesn't look like he's going to be able to go for a while," said Bielema, who also revealed fourth-string tailback Quincy Landingham is transferring. "It's not really a concern of mine. It's a concern for P.J. and obviously I'm concerned about P.J., but with the way our offense works. . . it has been very hard for us to go beyond our second running back during the course of this whole season no matter who those two were.
"Zach will be the starter unless Lance continues to do some good things during practice. One of those two guys will start, and I probably won't go much beyond that."
Hill leads UW with 1,080 yards and 14 touchdowns but has just four carries in the last three games, all in the second half of the victory over Michigan after Smith suffered a shoulder injury.
Brown started the last three games and rushed for 421 yards and four touchdowns in 76 carries.
Smith, who was suspended for UW's five regular-season road games, has rushed for 406 yards and three touchdowns in seven games. His 6.2-yard average is No. 1 among the team's tailbacks.
According to Bielema, Hill has been cleared to practice and play. It is a matter of whether he can tolerate any pain in the leg.
"He is basically in a position where we've been able to let him decide if he can go or not," Bielema said. "The medical people have run every test that they can."
Meanwhile, freshman John Clay, who spoke with reporters for the first time this season, talked candidly about his work last summer to become academically eligible and the lessons he has learned while redshirting this season.
"At first I was kind of upset about it," Clay, an All-American at Racine Park High School, said. "But later on after I thought about it, it was a good idea because I need the time to focus on my schooling first and foremost and then me getting adjusted to college life."
Clay, who rushed for a combined 3,517 yards and 45 touchdowns in his junior and senior seasons at Park, will have to wait until the 2008 season to battle for a spot in the rotation.
The Journal Sentinel reported in July that Clay had failed to meet the NCAA's initial eligibility requirements to play as a freshman.
However, Clay was able to meet those requirements, in part by attending summer school in Racine. He eventually was cleared to play by the NCAA Clearinghouse but didn't report to pre-season camp until Aug. 17.
"It was a lift off my back that now I could say I was going to this university to go to school, so I was proud of that," Clay said. "So when I came in here, everyone was encouraging me and being behind me 100%, and so I appreciate that."
By the time Clay was able to report to camp, however, he had missed 11 days of practices and meetings and was far behind the other tailbacks.
"They threw the whole playbook at me just to see if I could handle it," Clay said. "I did good, I believe. They helped me at every step that I needed help on. I would stay a little later and do extra drills by myself, or other teammates would come help me with the extra drills to prepare me. . . .
"It helped me out, but it was just me just not picking up the offense fast enough. But I'm doing it now and it's helping me prepare for next year."
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
CURIOUS INDEX, 12/10/07
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</td> <td width="528"> Still headless. Please, do not panic. He got divorced after thirty years of marriage. Took off a few pounds in a fit of gym visits and hasty low-carb controlled starvation. Back in the saddle, as it were.
And yet…the clothes. He’s wearing a collarless shirt. He’s considering growing a ponytail. He’s a bit too aggressive with the shirt tucking. In fact, it sometimes appears he’s trying to fold his upper body into his pants one frantic tuck at a time. And he bought a sports car to show he’s, you know, still virile and all that, right down to the emergency Viagra he keeps in his pocket and the spoiler package he had put on the thing.
He’s no good at it. He’s dated two women in the past forty years. And frankly, he doesn’t do this often, and doesn’t care to, not even needing much in the looks department, favoring devotion over quality.
The sum of this: Michigan still doesn’t have a coach, and could hire anyone from Brady Hoke to Mike Debord as their new head guy. A commenter asked why the Alabama job search got so much publicity and criticism last year, while Michigan’s getting the soft pedaling here. The short answer is because no one like watching stunted and awkward, while everyone likes watching agitated and desperate.
South Carolina defensive end Jordin Lindsey is recovering after being stabbed in the neck with a beer bottle during an altercation in the wee hours of Saturday morning in the Five Points district of Columbia, South Carolina. We don’t spend a lot of time in South Carolina, having no interest in peaches or cockfighting (well known that our preference is for bear-baiting, people,) but football players seemed to get stabbed, fought with, or shot at there than in most places.
Lindsay, btw, will be totally fine, despite losing massive amounts of blood through the four-inch gash in his neck.
Ohio State has 51 days between their last game and the national championship game, while LSU only has 37, meaning that when one team wins, the other will claim they had not enough/too much time to prepare/get out of shape/out of rhythm for the game.
Mike Price, former Washington State Coach, will not be returning to Pullman. Price was a prime candidate for the job he vacated to take the Alabama head coaching job before SI published a Mike Yaeger fanfic erotica piece about a fictional encounter involving Price, a stripper, and the phrase “It’s rolling, baby!” As in, 20 million dollars for defamation rollin’, baby!
Price, according to the Post-Intelligencer, will only be coming back to Pullman for retirement.
Price, the only coach to guide WSU to two Rose Bowls, confirmed Sunday he has withdrawn his name as a candidate for the Cougars’ head coaching job.
“I’ve got my place on Lake Coeur d’Alene,” Price said by phone from El Paso, Texas. “I’m going to support the Cougars and get season tickets and be contributing to the Cougar Club and be up there second-guessing the coach.”
One of the leading candidates for the WSU job makes our heart sing with joy.
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<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RlUO-7m9RuA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></object></p> Awwwwww. East Carolina fans unable to make it to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl are donating their tickets to military personnel stuck in the islands for the holidays.
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</td> <td width="528"> Still headless. Please, do not panic. He got divorced after thirty years of marriage. Took off a few pounds in a fit of gym visits and hasty low-carb controlled starvation. Back in the saddle, as it were.
And yet…the clothes. He’s wearing a collarless shirt. He’s considering growing a ponytail. He’s a bit too aggressive with the shirt tucking. In fact, it sometimes appears he’s trying to fold his upper body into his pants one frantic tuck at a time. And he bought a sports car to show he’s, you know, still virile and all that, right down to the emergency Viagra he keeps in his pocket and the spoiler package he had put on the thing.
He’s no good at it. He’s dated two women in the past forty years. And frankly, he doesn’t do this often, and doesn’t care to, not even needing much in the looks department, favoring devotion over quality.
The sum of this: Michigan still doesn’t have a coach, and could hire anyone from Brady Hoke to Mike Debord as their new head guy. A commenter asked why the Alabama job search got so much publicity and criticism last year, while Michigan’s getting the soft pedaling here. The short answer is because no one like watching stunted and awkward, while everyone likes watching agitated and desperate.
South Carolina defensive end Jordin Lindsey is recovering after being stabbed in the neck with a beer bottle during an altercation in the wee hours of Saturday morning in the Five Points district of Columbia, South Carolina. We don’t spend a lot of time in South Carolina, having no interest in peaches or cockfighting (well known that our preference is for bear-baiting, people,) but football players seemed to get stabbed, fought with, or shot at there than in most places.
Lindsay, btw, will be totally fine, despite losing massive amounts of blood through the four-inch gash in his neck.
Ohio State has 51 days between their last game and the national championship game, while LSU only has 37, meaning that when one team wins, the other will claim they had not enough/too much time to prepare/get out of shape/out of rhythm for the game.
Mike Price, former Washington State Coach, will not be returning to Pullman. Price was a prime candidate for the job he vacated to take the Alabama head coaching job before SI published a Mike Yaeger fanfic erotica piece about a fictional encounter involving Price, a stripper, and the phrase “It’s rolling, baby!” As in, 20 million dollars for defamation rollin’, baby!
Price, according to the Post-Intelligencer, will only be coming back to Pullman for retirement.
Price, the only coach to guide WSU to two Rose Bowls, confirmed Sunday he has withdrawn his name as a candidate for the Cougars’ head coaching job.
“I’ve got my place on Lake Coeur d’Alene,” Price said by phone from El Paso, Texas. “I’m going to support the Cougars and get season tickets and be contributing to the Cougar Club and be up there second-guessing the coach.”
One of the leading candidates for the WSU job makes our heart sing with joy.
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<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RlUO-7m9RuA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></object></p> Awwwwww. East Carolina fans unable to make it to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl are donating their tickets to military personnel stuck in the islands for the holidays.
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RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
<b><blogitemurl>Boilers got what they deserved</blogitemurl></b>
Now that the shock of Purdue having to settle for the Motor City Bowl has somewhat worn off, it's been interesting to hear the players' perspective on the situation.
Initially, many of them were hearing that the Insight Bowl was maybe in their future. Then they feared that they might be left out of the bowl picture and have to stay home for the holidays.
When word came down that they were headed to Detroit, many of the Boilermakers admitted that their first reaction was one of disappointment, but that was soon replaced by one of just being grateful they had received any kind of bowl invitation.
The reality, just looking at what happened on the field, is that Purdue probably got what it deserved.
With the Champs Sports Bowl and the Insight Bowl getting the first two picks between Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue ? all with 7-5 records ? the performance issues were pretty clear cut.
1. Michigan State had easily defeated Indiana and Purdue, and the Spartans finished the regular season with a 35-31 victory over Penn State.
2. Indiana, of course, wrapped up its season with a dramatic last-second victory over Purdue. The Hoosiers, playing for their late coach, Terry Hoeppner, and trying to get to their first bowl game since 1993, were an emotional story all season. Plus, Insight Bowl scouts were on hand for the Bucket game and saw first-hand the electric atmosphere that enveloped Memorial Stadium that day.
3. Purdue, besides losing to the Hoosiers, finished the season on a down note, dropping their final three regular season games.
While bowl scouts look at more than wins and losses and head-to-head competition ? like how many fans each team will bring and how many tickets will be sold ? it's really not a surprise how the selection process played out.
While the Motor City Bowl was hoping for a Michigan State-Central Michigan matchup, it made sense for the Champs Sports Bowl to take the Spartans and for the Insight Bowl to select the Hoosiers.
Even Purdue coach Joe Tiller said he was not surprised that the Insight Bowl committee opted for Indiana over the Boilermakers.
"I?m not totally surprised, in the sense that Indiana had a really memorable season for them," Tiller said. "There was a lot of emotion at IU. They were on a real mission from the get-go. They are appealing to a bowl because of the human interest story, and the fact that they followed up with a vision, or a dream, that coach Hoeppner had when he first came to IU.
"So that?s not a surprise to me at all. Matter of fact, I would have been surprised if they had not selected them."
Now, all the Boilermakers have to do is make sure they have their game faces on when Dec. 26 rolls around ? and hope that there will be a representative number of Purdue fans in the stands at Ford Field.
Now that the shock of Purdue having to settle for the Motor City Bowl has somewhat worn off, it's been interesting to hear the players' perspective on the situation.
Initially, many of them were hearing that the Insight Bowl was maybe in their future. Then they feared that they might be left out of the bowl picture and have to stay home for the holidays.
When word came down that they were headed to Detroit, many of the Boilermakers admitted that their first reaction was one of disappointment, but that was soon replaced by one of just being grateful they had received any kind of bowl invitation.
The reality, just looking at what happened on the field, is that Purdue probably got what it deserved.
With the Champs Sports Bowl and the Insight Bowl getting the first two picks between Indiana, Michigan State and Purdue ? all with 7-5 records ? the performance issues were pretty clear cut.
1. Michigan State had easily defeated Indiana and Purdue, and the Spartans finished the regular season with a 35-31 victory over Penn State.
2. Indiana, of course, wrapped up its season with a dramatic last-second victory over Purdue. The Hoosiers, playing for their late coach, Terry Hoeppner, and trying to get to their first bowl game since 1993, were an emotional story all season. Plus, Insight Bowl scouts were on hand for the Bucket game and saw first-hand the electric atmosphere that enveloped Memorial Stadium that day.
3. Purdue, besides losing to the Hoosiers, finished the season on a down note, dropping their final three regular season games.
While bowl scouts look at more than wins and losses and head-to-head competition ? like how many fans each team will bring and how many tickets will be sold ? it's really not a surprise how the selection process played out.
While the Motor City Bowl was hoping for a Michigan State-Central Michigan matchup, it made sense for the Champs Sports Bowl to take the Spartans and for the Insight Bowl to select the Hoosiers.
Even Purdue coach Joe Tiller said he was not surprised that the Insight Bowl committee opted for Indiana over the Boilermakers.
"I?m not totally surprised, in the sense that Indiana had a really memorable season for them," Tiller said. "There was a lot of emotion at IU. They were on a real mission from the get-go. They are appealing to a bowl because of the human interest story, and the fact that they followed up with a vision, or a dream, that coach Hoeppner had when he first came to IU.
"So that?s not a surprise to me at all. Matter of fact, I would have been surprised if they had not selected them."
Now, all the Boilermakers have to do is make sure they have their game faces on when Dec. 26 rolls around ? and hope that there will be a representative number of Purdue fans in the stands at Ford Field.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
FSU's Bowden agrees to new contract
Offensive coordinator Fisher identified as successor
Posted: Monday December 10, 2007 12:50PM; Updated: Monday December 10, 2007 5:47PM
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When Bobby Bowden (right) finally decides to hang it up, Jimbo Fisher (left) will take over as the Seminoles' head man.
AP
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</td></tr></tbody></table>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden as Florida State's next football coach -- someday.
President T.K. Wetherell designated offensive coordinator Fisher as "head coach-in waiting," but skipped out of a somewhat unusual news conference Monday without answering questions about the contracts that are not yet finalized.
Bowden, major college football's winningest coach, agreed to return for a 33rd season with options to stay longer.
"Every year I'll just re-sign it and tell 'em if I want to coach another year," Bowden said. "I couldn't ask for anything better than that."
Bowden, Fisher and interim athletic director Bill Proctor all skirted questions about what Proctor described as "agreement(s) in principle" that give "stability to our program."
Bowden, 78, said he supported the plan brought to him last week by the president and Proctor, who have both known the coach since the early 1960s.
"I think it's a great plan," Bowden said. "Hey, you get 78 years of age, it's hard to say how you're going out, but we've got a plan. It kind of all started with my contract."
Bowden, whose present five-year deal with the school expires in three weeks, made just over $2 million in 2006, state records show.
"My position hasn't changed. As long as I'm healthy," he said, "(and) if I can win enough games."
It's the falloff in wins in recent years that has increased focus on Bowden's age.
"I do have an obligation to the university to win enough ball games," said Bowden, who is 14-11 the past two seasons heading into a Dec. 31 Music City Bowl game against Kentucky.
Fisher, a disciple of the Bowden coaching family who played and coached for Terry Bowden, spent much of his time praising the family patriarch and avoiding details on what exactly he agreed to.
"This gives me some peace," said Fisher, who has not been a head coach before. "I'm content to wait for it."
Terry Bowden, who has been out of coaching for a decade since being fired at Auburn, helped persuade Fisher to take the offensive coordinator's job earlier this year. The job opened when younger brother Jeff Bowden was bought out by dissatisfied boosters late in the 2006 season.
A West Virginia native, Fisher was paid roughly $420,000 as offensive coordinator this year. He is receiving a $200,000 annual raise to wear the successor title and will be paid $2.5 million if for some reason Wetherell changes his mind about Bowden's successor, said an individual familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity.
The individual said Bowden could earn up to $2.5 million with incentives included in the agreement being finalized by Florida State's general counsel, Betty Steffens, and attorneys for the coaches.
Bowden has 300 wins at Florida State, where he has won a pair of national championships and a dozen Atlantic Coast Conference titles.
Bowden's 373 career wins overall are two more than Penn State's Joe Paterno, who turns 81 on Dec. 21.
"If I'm the head coach here for 37 years and win 10 games a year, I still haven't caught him," Fisher said. "That kind of puts it into perspective."
But he too recognized the uncertainty that goes along with a head coaching job in an era of million dollar contracts that create a "win-now" mentality among boosters and fans.
"One of these days I'll be sitting there and you'll be trying to kick me out the door," Fisher said.
Offensive coordinator Fisher identified as successor
Posted: Monday December 10, 2007 12:50PM; Updated: Monday December 10, 2007 5:47PM
<table style="clear: both;" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="300"><tbody><tr><td width="10">
When Bobby Bowden (right) finally decides to hang it up, Jimbo Fisher (left) will take over as the Seminoles' head man.
AP
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</noscript>
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</td></tr></tbody></table>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Jimbo Fisher will succeed Bobby Bowden as Florida State's next football coach -- someday.
President T.K. Wetherell designated offensive coordinator Fisher as "head coach-in waiting," but skipped out of a somewhat unusual news conference Monday without answering questions about the contracts that are not yet finalized.
Bowden, major college football's winningest coach, agreed to return for a 33rd season with options to stay longer.
"Every year I'll just re-sign it and tell 'em if I want to coach another year," Bowden said. "I couldn't ask for anything better than that."
Bowden, Fisher and interim athletic director Bill Proctor all skirted questions about what Proctor described as "agreement(s) in principle" that give "stability to our program."
Bowden, 78, said he supported the plan brought to him last week by the president and Proctor, who have both known the coach since the early 1960s.
"I think it's a great plan," Bowden said. "Hey, you get 78 years of age, it's hard to say how you're going out, but we've got a plan. It kind of all started with my contract."
Bowden, whose present five-year deal with the school expires in three weeks, made just over $2 million in 2006, state records show.
"My position hasn't changed. As long as I'm healthy," he said, "(and) if I can win enough games."
It's the falloff in wins in recent years that has increased focus on Bowden's age.
"I do have an obligation to the university to win enough ball games," said Bowden, who is 14-11 the past two seasons heading into a Dec. 31 Music City Bowl game against Kentucky.
Fisher, a disciple of the Bowden coaching family who played and coached for Terry Bowden, spent much of his time praising the family patriarch and avoiding details on what exactly he agreed to.
"This gives me some peace," said Fisher, who has not been a head coach before. "I'm content to wait for it."
Terry Bowden, who has been out of coaching for a decade since being fired at Auburn, helped persuade Fisher to take the offensive coordinator's job earlier this year. The job opened when younger brother Jeff Bowden was bought out by dissatisfied boosters late in the 2006 season.
A West Virginia native, Fisher was paid roughly $420,000 as offensive coordinator this year. He is receiving a $200,000 annual raise to wear the successor title and will be paid $2.5 million if for some reason Wetherell changes his mind about Bowden's successor, said an individual familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity.
The individual said Bowden could earn up to $2.5 million with incentives included in the agreement being finalized by Florida State's general counsel, Betty Steffens, and attorneys for the coaches.
Bowden has 300 wins at Florida State, where he has won a pair of national championships and a dozen Atlantic Coast Conference titles.
Bowden's 373 career wins overall are two more than Penn State's Joe Paterno, who turns 81 on Dec. 21.
"If I'm the head coach here for 37 years and win 10 games a year, I still haven't caught him," Fisher said. "That kind of puts it into perspective."
But he too recognized the uncertainty that goes along with a head coaching job in an era of million dollar contracts that create a "win-now" mentality among boosters and fans.
"One of these days I'll be sitting there and you'll be trying to kick me out the door," Fisher said.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Am I A Bowl Team?
By SMQ
Posted on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 07:08:55 PM EDT
Dude, it's so coming.For decades, Big Ten powerhouses were shut out of the postseason by the league's strict prohibition against such reward for all but the conference champion. Well screeeeewww that! In the 21st Century, everyone gets rewards! Live! On ESPN Classic!
So much so, in fact, it can be difficult to determine just who is and is not going bowling these days. Below is the detailed resume of a Bowl Subdivision program which may or may not have accepted a gracious invitation to a postseason contest. Your challenge, knowledgable reader, is to put yourself to the test: can you tell whether or not the program described below is scheduled for a bowl game, without looking? Give it your best shot, then click 'Read More' to reveal the secret identity of today's contestant. Good luck!
- - -
<table> <caption align="top">Who Am I?</caption> <tbody><tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Avg. MOV +/-</td> <td align="center">-1.84</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Rush Offense</td> <td align="center">150.0 (63)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Pass Offense</td> <td align="center">227.0 (56)</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Total Offense</td> <td align="center">377.0 (72)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Rush Defense</td> <td align="center">127.7 (32)</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Pass Eff. Defense</td> <td align="center">128.0 (70)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Total Defense</td> <td align="center">389.4 (64)</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">TO Margin</td> <td align="center">-4 (83)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Wins over >.500</td> <td align="center">Two</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Best Streak</td> <td align="center">W3 (9/22-10/06)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Worst Streak</td> <td align="center">L2 (multiple)</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Am I a conference champion? No. Not even close. I finished three games back of the conference champion in a four-way tie for fifth place. Though I did beat said champ... The other three teams with the same conference record all made bowl games, but two of them had better overall marks. Was I humiliated on multiple occasions? Yes. Oh god, yes. Two-thirds of my losses were by double digit margins, including getting hammered by 27 points on the road in October by a team that would finish behind me in the standings and, still very much in the conference race, being mercilessly thrashed at home by 45 two weeks later to a supposed equal. I lost to two different teams that finished at least two games below .500.
The high point: Beating the eventual conference champion was sweet, but not as sweet as hanging 60 on my fiercest conference rival for the second time this decade. Of course, I allowed 600 yards total offense in the same game, but victory is victory. No regrets.
The low point: Losing four division games in five weeks is a bummer, man, I can tell you. You don’t ever want to go through that. Turning the ball over four times in one afternoon, blowing a second half lead at home against the division leader, getting outgained by 400 yards on your own field, blowing a three-touchdown lead at halftime to the worst team in the conference...I’ve seen it all, man, and it is not pretty.
Close calls: I opened the season by beating a rival in overtime, in dramatic fashion, coming back from 11 points down in the second half for my first come-from-behind win since, well, since I scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to beat the same team by the same score two years ago. Albeit not in overtime then, so, less drama. FWIW. This was big, because a few weeks later, I downed the second-ranked team in the country – yes, I was one of those; the charter member, actually – by scoring 20 unanswered in the second half, the last three to break a tie on the last play of the game. At the end of the year, in the process of rallying from ten points back in the closing minutes, I was <strike>screwed</strike> unsuccessful in converting the tying field goal in a devastating upset loss.
So: you have the facts. Am I a bowl team?
AFFIRMATIVE!
If you said "Yes, that is a bowl team," right you are! Colorado defeated archrival Nebraska 65-51 in a winner-take-all season finale to finish 6-6 and secure a bid to the PetroSun Independence Bowl in <strike>beautiful</strike> mostly nontoxic Shreveport. The Buffaloes will play another 6-6 squad, Alabama, on Dec. 30 in a collision of once-proud teams that combined to lose eight of their last ten regular season games.
That's Division I football, brother!
By SMQ
Posted on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 07:08:55 PM EDT
Dude, it's so coming.For decades, Big Ten powerhouses were shut out of the postseason by the league's strict prohibition against such reward for all but the conference champion. Well screeeeewww that! In the 21st Century, everyone gets rewards! Live! On ESPN Classic!
So much so, in fact, it can be difficult to determine just who is and is not going bowling these days. Below is the detailed resume of a Bowl Subdivision program which may or may not have accepted a gracious invitation to a postseason contest. Your challenge, knowledgable reader, is to put yourself to the test: can you tell whether or not the program described below is scheduled for a bowl game, without looking? Give it your best shot, then click 'Read More' to reveal the secret identity of today's contestant. Good luck!
- - -
<table> <caption align="top">Who Am I?</caption> <tbody><tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Avg. MOV +/-</td> <td align="center">-1.84</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Rush Offense</td> <td align="center">150.0 (63)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Pass Offense</td> <td align="center">227.0 (56)</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Total Offense</td> <td align="center">377.0 (72)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Rush Defense</td> <td align="center">127.7 (32)</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Pass Eff. Defense</td> <td align="center">128.0 (70)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Total Defense</td> <td align="center">389.4 (64)</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">TO Margin</td> <td align="center">-4 (83)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Wins over >.500</td> <td align="center">Two</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">Best Streak</td> <td align="center">W3 (9/22-10/06)</td> </tr> <tr></tr><tr style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"> <td align="right">Worst Streak</td> <td align="center">L2 (multiple)</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Am I a conference champion? No. Not even close. I finished three games back of the conference champion in a four-way tie for fifth place. Though I did beat said champ... The other three teams with the same conference record all made bowl games, but two of them had better overall marks. Was I humiliated on multiple occasions? Yes. Oh god, yes. Two-thirds of my losses were by double digit margins, including getting hammered by 27 points on the road in October by a team that would finish behind me in the standings and, still very much in the conference race, being mercilessly thrashed at home by 45 two weeks later to a supposed equal. I lost to two different teams that finished at least two games below .500.
The high point: Beating the eventual conference champion was sweet, but not as sweet as hanging 60 on my fiercest conference rival for the second time this decade. Of course, I allowed 600 yards total offense in the same game, but victory is victory. No regrets.
The low point: Losing four division games in five weeks is a bummer, man, I can tell you. You don’t ever want to go through that. Turning the ball over four times in one afternoon, blowing a second half lead at home against the division leader, getting outgained by 400 yards on your own field, blowing a three-touchdown lead at halftime to the worst team in the conference...I’ve seen it all, man, and it is not pretty.
Close calls: I opened the season by beating a rival in overtime, in dramatic fashion, coming back from 11 points down in the second half for my first come-from-behind win since, well, since I scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to beat the same team by the same score two years ago. Albeit not in overtime then, so, less drama. FWIW. This was big, because a few weeks later, I downed the second-ranked team in the country – yes, I was one of those; the charter member, actually – by scoring 20 unanswered in the second half, the last three to break a tie on the last play of the game. At the end of the year, in the process of rallying from ten points back in the closing minutes, I was <strike>screwed</strike> unsuccessful in converting the tying field goal in a devastating upset loss.
So: you have the facts. Am I a bowl team?
AFFIRMATIVE!
That's Division I football, brother!
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Wulff to take over at Washington St.
Source: Cougars will name coach at Tuesday presser
Posted: Monday December 10, 2007 9:50PM; Updated: Monday December 10, 2007 9:59PM
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) -- A Washington State University source confirms that the Pac-10 Conference school has selected Eastern Washington head coach Paul Wulff as WSU's new head football coach.
The source close to the hiring process spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make the announcement.
The Pullman school has scheduled a Tuesday news conference to announce its new coach.
Washington State athletic department spokesmen did not immediately return phone calls for comment and Wulff was not immediately reachable by phone.
The Cougars have been looking for a replacement for Bill Doba, who stepped down last month.
Source: Cougars will name coach at Tuesday presser
Posted: Monday December 10, 2007 9:50PM; Updated: Monday December 10, 2007 9:59PM
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) -- A Washington State University source confirms that the Pac-10 Conference school has selected Eastern Washington head coach Paul Wulff as WSU's new head football coach.
The source close to the hiring process spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make the announcement.
The Pullman school has scheduled a Tuesday news conference to announce its new coach.
Washington State athletic department spokesmen did not immediately return phone calls for comment and Wulff was not immediately reachable by phone.
The Cougars have been looking for a replacement for Bill Doba, who stepped down last month.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Texas still has tickets to the Holiday Bowl, but....
ASU's bowl tickets are gone
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 10, 2007 04:30 PM
Arizona State University has sold out of its allotment of 2007 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl tickets, Vice President for Athletics Lisa Love announced Monday.
ASU received 11,000 tickets to the bowl game, which features the No. 12 Sun Devils in their first-ever meeting with the University of Texas Longhorns. The game is at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on December 27th at 6 p.m. Arizona time.
The game is nationally televised by ESPN, and will air locally on the radio on 620AM.<!-- BOXAD TABLE --> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="10"> <tbody><tr> <td style="color: gray;" align="center" valign="top">
</td> <td rowspan="3">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td><script language="JavaScript">OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1')</script><script language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N3880.azcentral.com/B2156650.32;dcadv=1134329;dcove=o;sz=300x250;click0=http://q.azcentral.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.azcentral.com/sports/asu/articles/1210asutixgone.html/795481871/ArticleFlex_1/OasDefault/gmc_phoenix_sports_300/gmc-sports-300.html/34636230353561333437356464306530?;ord=795481871?"> </script><!-- Template Id = 290 Template Name = Banner Creative (Flash) - Multiple clickTag URL --> <!-- Copyright 2002 DoubleClick Inc., All rights reserved. See comments in code to assist with trafficking. --><script src="http://m1.2mdn.net/879366/flashwrite_1_2.js"></script> <object classid="clsid
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</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!-- END BOX AD TABLE -->
ASU began selling tickets to the game one week ago.
Tickets that remained for the general public Monday morning sold in a matter of hours.
If a Sun Devil fan wishes to purchase tickets for the game they are encouraged to buy through the University of Texas ticket office online or by phone at 1-800-982-BEVO (2386).
ASU's bowl tickets are gone
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 10, 2007 04:30 PM
Arizona State University has sold out of its allotment of 2007 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl tickets, Vice President for Athletics Lisa Love announced Monday.
ASU received 11,000 tickets to the bowl game, which features the No. 12 Sun Devils in their first-ever meeting with the University of Texas Longhorns. The game is at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on December 27th at 6 p.m. Arizona time.
The game is nationally televised by ESPN, and will air locally on the radio on 620AM.<!-- BOXAD TABLE --> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="10"> <tbody><tr> <td style="color: gray;" align="center" valign="top">
</td> <td rowspan="3">
27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="FLASH_AD" height="250" width="300"> <embed src="http://m1.2mdn.net/1138074/GMC_RT_XM_300x250a.swf?clickTag=http%3A//ad.doubleclick.net/click%253Bh%3Dv8/3625/17/db/%252a/c%253B161011427%253B0-0%253B0%253B20306362%253B4307-300/250%253B23688796/23706649/1%253B%253B%257Efdr%253D135918965%253B0-0%253B0%253B20268305%253B4307-300/250%253B22576412/22594295/1%253B%253B%257Esscs%253D%253fhttp%3A//q.azcentral.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.azcentral.com/sports/asu/articles/1210asutixgone.html/795481871/ArticleFlex_1/OasDefault/gmc_phoenix_sports_300/gmc-sports-300.html/34636230353561333437356464306530%3Fhttp%3A//www.valleypontiacgmc.com/offerdetails.aspx%3FcontentID%3D15706%26LanguageCode%3Den-US&clickTag1=http%3A//www.valleypontiacgmc.com/dealersearch.aspx%3F%20&clickTag2=&clickTag3=&clickTag4=&clickTag5=" quality="autohigh" swliveconnect="TRUE" allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" height="250" width="300"></object> <noscript>
ASU began selling tickets to the game one week ago.
Tickets that remained for the general public Monday morning sold in a matter of hours.
If a Sun Devil fan wishes to purchase tickets for the game they are encouraged to buy through the University of Texas ticket office online or by phone at 1-800-982-BEVO (2386).
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
COACH EXCITE-O-PANTS IT IS
Will Muschamp, excitable defensive coordinator for the Auburn Tigers, will indeed likely be the next head coach at Arkansas. He’s naturally going to be called Boom! Motherfucker for life, but we’ll throw a few other possible nicknames out there just for the hell of it in a vain attempt to be family friendly, you thieving horde of goose-raping assholes.
–Coach Excite-o-pants
–Spanky the Indomitable
–Coach Mustyfist
–Mr. Babychimp
–Hyper-hypo.
<object height="355" width="425">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K4N45h5wsX0&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></object></p> UPDATE! We didn’t mention that this is potentially a really, really good hire, and a bonus for us as Florida fans since we won’t have to face a Muschamp defense every year now. We should have done that, so…um, yeah. It’s potentially a really, really good hire.
Will Muschamp, excitable defensive coordinator for the Auburn Tigers, will indeed likely be the next head coach at Arkansas. He’s naturally going to be called Boom! Motherfucker for life, but we’ll throw a few other possible nicknames out there just for the hell of it in a vain attempt to be family friendly, you thieving horde of goose-raping assholes.
–Coach Excite-o-pants
–Spanky the Indomitable
–Coach Mustyfist
–Mr. Babychimp
–Hyper-hypo.
<object height="355" width="425">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K4N45h5wsX0&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></object></p> UPDATE! We didn’t mention that this is potentially a really, really good hire, and a bonus for us as Florida fans since we won’t have to face a Muschamp defense every year now. We should have done that, so…um, yeah. It’s potentially a really, really good hire.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
A lot of questions for Auburn, as they may have 2 replacement coordinators for the Chik-fil-a Bowl. Borges and Muschamp are gone.
Al Borges: A class act and a good man
Posted by Phillip Marshall, The Huntsville Times December 11, 2007 4:17 PM
Categories: Football
You know what they say about the best-laid plans.
Early in the fall, when my wife and I were planning this vacation, it seemed this would be the perfect week. It is finals week at Auburn, meaning there is no bowl practice and there are no basketball games. It seemed there would be nothing of importance happening.
Well, it didn't turn out that way at all.
As I write this from my stateroom at 40 cents per minute Internet time, the Carnival Inspiration is docked in Calica, Mexico. I've made numerous cell phone calls at $2.50 per minute in an effort to keep up with what's going on.
But, hey, the weather is beautiful and I love cruises. I could have it a whole lot worse.
Auburn football faces three, potentially four, big issues as it approaches the beginning preparation for the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Clemson:
The departure of Al Borges
It couldn't have been an easy time last week for Borges, who was near the end of his fourth season as Auburn offensive coordinator, or for Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. In college football, sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. In this case, things just weren't working. That doesn't mean Borges isn't an outstanding coach.
I'll leave the evaluation of coaching issues to others, but I will miss Al Borges. He was never too busy when this inquiring reporter stuck his head in the door. He is a class act and a good man. He'll land on his feet and move on.
The arrival of Tony Franklin
It will almost certainly be announce in the next day or two that Franklin has moved from Troy to take over as Auburn's offensive coordinator. He is considered one of the nation's foremost experts on the spread offense. His hiring marks a dramatic change from the offensive approach Tuberville has taken in the past. It should be interesting to watch. It'll be interesting, too, to see how much of his offense he can implement in time for the bowl game.
Will Muschamp's future at Auburn
At least one news outlet has reported that Muschamp, in his second season as defensive coordinator, could be named Arkansas head coach as soon as Wednesday. On the other hand, Muschamp has neither interviewed nor been asked to interview with Arkansas officials. In the bizarre world of college coaching searches that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Considering the trouble Arkansas has experienced in its search for a replacement for Houston Nutt, locking down Muschamp would be a terrific move. He's going to be a big winner somewhere. Will Arkansas make the move? We'll know in a few days.
Who would replace Muschamp?
I have no clue who would be on Tuberville's list as a possible replacement for Muschamp. Reggie Herring, the Arkansas defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, would seem to be a good candidate, but that's just me talking. I'm sure Tuberville has a plan, but I couldn't begin to guess what it is.
Al Borges: A class act and a good man
Posted by Phillip Marshall, The Huntsville Times December 11, 2007 4:17 PM
Categories: Football
You know what they say about the best-laid plans.
Early in the fall, when my wife and I were planning this vacation, it seemed this would be the perfect week. It is finals week at Auburn, meaning there is no bowl practice and there are no basketball games. It seemed there would be nothing of importance happening.
Well, it didn't turn out that way at all.
As I write this from my stateroom at 40 cents per minute Internet time, the Carnival Inspiration is docked in Calica, Mexico. I've made numerous cell phone calls at $2.50 per minute in an effort to keep up with what's going on.
But, hey, the weather is beautiful and I love cruises. I could have it a whole lot worse.
Auburn football faces three, potentially four, big issues as it approaches the beginning preparation for the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Clemson:
The departure of Al Borges
It couldn't have been an easy time last week for Borges, who was near the end of his fourth season as Auburn offensive coordinator, or for Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. In college football, sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. In this case, things just weren't working. That doesn't mean Borges isn't an outstanding coach.
I'll leave the evaluation of coaching issues to others, but I will miss Al Borges. He was never too busy when this inquiring reporter stuck his head in the door. He is a class act and a good man. He'll land on his feet and move on.
The arrival of Tony Franklin
It will almost certainly be announce in the next day or two that Franklin has moved from Troy to take over as Auburn's offensive coordinator. He is considered one of the nation's foremost experts on the spread offense. His hiring marks a dramatic change from the offensive approach Tuberville has taken in the past. It should be interesting to watch. It'll be interesting, too, to see how much of his offense he can implement in time for the bowl game.
Will Muschamp's future at Auburn
At least one news outlet has reported that Muschamp, in his second season as defensive coordinator, could be named Arkansas head coach as soon as Wednesday. On the other hand, Muschamp has neither interviewed nor been asked to interview with Arkansas officials. In the bizarre world of college coaching searches that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Considering the trouble Arkansas has experienced in its search for a replacement for Houston Nutt, locking down Muschamp would be a terrific move. He's going to be a big winner somewhere. Will Arkansas make the move? We'll know in a few days.
Who would replace Muschamp?
I have no clue who would be on Tuberville's list as a possible replacement for Muschamp. Reggie Herring, the Arkansas defensive coordinator and assistant head coach, would seem to be a good candidate, but that's just me talking. I'm sure Tuberville has a plan, but I couldn't begin to guess what it is.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
AUBURN’S GETS SPREAD-UCATED
The replacement for Al “Gorgeous” Borges this season won’t have to pay more for moving expenses, as he’ll be trundling his goods right down the road 61 miles from his current home Troy, Alabama to Auburn: Tony Franklin, offensive coordinator for the Trojans and Leach/Mumme pass fiend, will be taking his four and five wide sets to Auburn this season.
Auburn fans who saw the words “Mumme” and just passed out, please pick yourselves up off the floor and note that Franklin is the pilot of the Omar Haugabook offense that scared the daylights out of Georgia in 2007 and were 17th in the nation in total offense. They also lost to Florida Atlantic, but when you fight Schnellenberger, you fight ten men in one. Ten men in snazzy ties, man.
You can’t beat this kind of sexy, boy.
The replacement for Al “Gorgeous” Borges this season won’t have to pay more for moving expenses, as he’ll be trundling his goods right down the road 61 miles from his current home Troy, Alabama to Auburn: Tony Franklin, offensive coordinator for the Trojans and Leach/Mumme pass fiend, will be taking his four and five wide sets to Auburn this season.
Auburn fans who saw the words “Mumme” and just passed out, please pick yourselves up off the floor and note that Franklin is the pilot of the Omar Haugabook offense that scared the daylights out of Georgia in 2007 and were 17th in the nation in total offense. They also lost to Florida Atlantic, but when you fight Schnellenberger, you fight ten men in one. Ten men in snazzy ties, man.
You can’t beat this kind of sexy, boy.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
More Cowbell? Memphis WIll Have Plenty as Bulldog Fans Pack Liberty Bowl
Posted Dec 11th 2007 3:00PM by Andy Katzer
Filed under: Conference USA, SEC, Bowl Games, UCF Football, Mississippi State Football
My old high school football coach was fond of saying he couldn't make chicken salad out of chicken... excrement, but there's a reason Sylvester Croom was named SEC coach of the year: he can come close. Not long ago, like a couple of months actually, the only time we'd post about Mississippi State here at FanHouse would be to tally their blowout losses, speculate on the next Crooming, or mention in passing that their next opponent could take the day off. Things change quickly. In Sylvester Croom's fourth season, State ended up being a solid football team on their good days and tough out at worst (OK, at worst they were picked off six times and blown out by LSU, but after that).
The Bulldogs' reward for putting together a pretty good year is a trip a couple hundred miles north to Memphis to play Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. Many SEC teams see the Liberty as just a little better than the Independence Bowl in Shreveport and overall a pretty "meh" consolation prize. But for MSU fans who haven't seen their boys in a bowl game since 2000 and haven't even won more than three games in a season over the last six years, this trip to Memphis might as well be the Sugar Bowl. State fans have bought more than 30,000 tickets to the game, and many more than that will probably show up in Memphis on Dec. 29. State AD Larry Templeton says Bulldog fans "now look forward to coloring the city of Memphis maroon." Good, Memphis could use a fresh coat of paint.
What the Bulldog faithful might find when the game kicks off, however, could be something completely different than what they expect. Central Florida features the nation's leading rusher in junior Kevin Smith (188 yards/game, 29 TDs), while State gives up a middle-of-the-road 159 yards rushing per game. MSU also gave up over 4.5 yards/carry in games against Auburn, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Arkansas. State's ability to stop UCF's running game could be the main factor in how this bowl game turns out.
Filed under: Conference USA, SEC, Bowl Games, UCF Football, Mississippi State Football
The Bulldogs' reward for putting together a pretty good year is a trip a couple hundred miles north to Memphis to play Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. Many SEC teams see the Liberty as just a little better than the Independence Bowl in Shreveport and overall a pretty "meh" consolation prize. But for MSU fans who haven't seen their boys in a bowl game since 2000 and haven't even won more than three games in a season over the last six years, this trip to Memphis might as well be the Sugar Bowl. State fans have bought more than 30,000 tickets to the game, and many more than that will probably show up in Memphis on Dec. 29. State AD Larry Templeton says Bulldog fans "now look forward to coloring the city of Memphis maroon." Good, Memphis could use a fresh coat of paint.
What the Bulldog faithful might find when the game kicks off, however, could be something completely different than what they expect. Central Florida features the nation's leading rusher in junior Kevin Smith (188 yards/game, 29 TDs), while State gives up a middle-of-the-road 159 yards rushing per game. MSU also gave up over 4.5 yards/carry in games against Auburn, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Arkansas. State's ability to stop UCF's running game could be the main factor in how this bowl game turns out.
RJ Esq
Prick Since 1974
Possible changes for Troy, Auburn, and Arkansas for the bowls:
Franklin ready to take over as Auburn offensive coordinator; Muschamp's status uncertain
Posted by Phillip Marshall, The Huntsville Times December 11, 2007 2:21 PM
Categories: Football
Tony Franklin, the architect of the spread offfense that made Troy a juggernaut in the Sun Belt Conference, is poised to become Auburn's offensive coordinator. The announcement is expected before Friday, when practice begins for Auburn's Dec. 31 game agaisnt Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Whether Will Muschamp will still be Auburn's defensive coordinator is uncertain. Some reports say Muschamp could be named Arkansas head coach as early as Wednesday, but sources close to Muschamp say he has neither interviewed nor been asked to interview. That could obviously change at any time, and Muschamp would certainly take the job if offered.
The hiring of Franklin to replace Al Borges will mark a dramatic change in Auburn's offensive philosophy. Franklin spent four seasons at Kentucky working for Hal Mumme, and was offensive coordiantor in 2000. He is considered one of the nation's foremost experts on the spread offense.
In two seasons at Troy, Franklin transformed the Trojans' offense. After averaging just 12 points per game in 2005, they averaged 25 points per game in 2006 and 34 points and 452.8 yards per game this season.
Franklin ready to take over as Auburn offensive coordinator; Muschamp's status uncertain
Posted by Phillip Marshall, The Huntsville Times December 11, 2007 2:21 PM
Categories: Football
Tony Franklin, the architect of the spread offfense that made Troy a juggernaut in the Sun Belt Conference, is poised to become Auburn's offensive coordinator. The announcement is expected before Friday, when practice begins for Auburn's Dec. 31 game agaisnt Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Whether Will Muschamp will still be Auburn's defensive coordinator is uncertain. Some reports say Muschamp could be named Arkansas head coach as early as Wednesday, but sources close to Muschamp say he has neither interviewed nor been asked to interview. That could obviously change at any time, and Muschamp would certainly take the job if offered.
The hiring of Franklin to replace Al Borges will mark a dramatic change in Auburn's offensive philosophy. Franklin spent four seasons at Kentucky working for Hal Mumme, and was offensive coordiantor in 2000. He is considered one of the nation's foremost experts on the spread offense.
In two seasons at Troy, Franklin transformed the Trojans' offense. After averaging just 12 points per game in 2005, they averaged 25 points per game in 2006 and 34 points and 452.8 yards per game this season.
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