Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Just a Thought

The past four national champions possessed scoring offenses ranked 17, 6, 8, and 3 respectively.  LSU only ranked 17th b/c of their multi-overtime madness against Kentucky and Arkansas.

Florida has the fifth ranked scoring defense.  Oklahoma has the fifty-seventh.  

Advantage?  You decide.

(Note: Bob Stoops is always conscious of pouring out libations for the football gods.)

New Year's Wishes...

Here's to all (four of you, thanks Mom) you readers having a safe and happy New Year.

And, guys, keep your girlfriends away from Devendorf.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

About Last Night: Georgetown Edition

I'd have posted this last night but the only analysis I couldn't think of an analysis without using the "f" word.  

We got outplayed.  Plain and simple, the Hoyas were the better team.  I initially wanted to place the loss on Thabeet, 2-4 from the field (and a missed dunk, what the fuck was that about?) will not cut it during conference play, but further review leads me to believe that we just aren't a good half-court offense.  Georgetown's defense rendered our transition game, a Calhoun trademark, nil and we lack the perimeter shooting to make anything happen in the half court.  

A 27% turnover rate didn't exactly help matters.   And then there was the 50% shooting by Georgetown in the first half.  Oh yeah, and then we surrendered 1.14 PPP (points per possession).

Ugh.  The defense.  John Thompson must have taken solid notes on the Gonzaga game, because he played Monroe/Summers near the top of the arc, drawing Thabeet away from the basket and thus opening up the E.A.S.Y. backdoor pass.  Chris Wright was like Steven Gray all over again, he just got around his man and went right to the bucket for lay-up after lay-up.   

The perimeter defense must improve.  Period.  We haven't been a good 3-FG defending team for four or so years now (fifth best at defending the 3 in 03-04, but we've not been better than eighty-first since then).  We're not going to win many games letting opponents shoot 46% from three.  It seemed like everything the Hoyas shot during the first half fell.  

I'd go a bit deep into the game, but I'm too busy smashing my head into my kitchen counter, hoping the concussive force will either kill me or erase all Georgetown oriented memories.  

At least Syracuse still sucks.  

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Tip Off Tomorrow, or: Fuck Hyperbole

I didn't intend for this blog to ever focus on basketball, but life is funny like that sometimes.  Who hasn't, at some point, done something they never intended to?  (I needed the money, I swear.  Times were tough and...oh...God.)

You may have heard we're a pretty good team; we have a freshman guard who's okay, a senior guard coming off some surgery of sorts, an "undersized" power forward who led last year's team in scoring and rebounds, and I hear we have a center who's reasonably tall.  Our coach is okay, he's won a few games in his day.

With the season opening tomorrow, I figured I'd give you a little preview of Western Kentucky-I mean Western Carolina. 

Pirates football started the year, with wins over (vastly over-) ranked Virginia Tech and West Virginia.  Led by an efficient, but unspectacular quarterback in Patrick Pinkney and a ferocious pass rush (5 sacks against the aforementioned VT and WVU) they rose in the polls before dropping three straight to NC State, Houston, and UVA.  Head Coach Skip Holtz, once mentioned as a candidate for (hypothetical) openings at Penn State and Clemson and a very real opening at Syracuse, has righted his ship; the Pirates have own another three straight against UCF, Marhsall, and Memphis.

Oh.

Oh wait.

You mean we're playing Western Carolina?  That was East Carolina?  Damn.  

Prop Bet of the Day, Western Carolina-style: Thabeet has more blocks than any WCU player has rebounds.  


Saturday, November 1, 2008

Please Stop Stepping on My Nuts.

Five turnovers.  

That is all.

(PS: How thankful are we all that Florida is absent from our schedule.)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

One Last Note from Homecoming...

The 42 passes thrown Saturday, by a redshirt frosh making his first start, against two NFL caliber corners, in a blustery wind, keep bugging me.  

I though, "why would we chance to pass so oft?"  
          (iambic pentameter...fuck yeah!)

The questions kept nagging at me so I went back and looked at the box score/drive chart/play-by-play from the game and found an interesting, albeit entirely unsurprising, correlation between sustained drives and passing.  

We went three and out 6 times (which isn't very good, by the way.  In fact, is pretty bad.) and those six three and outs consisted of 14 pass plays.  Half our three and outs went pass-pass-pass and only two of our three and outs are readily justified; one drive began with consecutive false start penalties, and I can reconcile trying to pass out of first and twenty (...sort of), and one began with a three yard loss by Donnie Brown. 

Make of it what you will.

I'm just going to say that I wouldn't shed a tear if Donnie was given 50 carries against WVU.  

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Mumme Poll, Week 9

Texas.  Colt McCoy.  Awesome.  

McCoy's excellence continues to be the story of the season; his numbers are gaudy, even by Big 12 standards.  I'm shocked whenever I see a ball hit the ground.  If this were baseball, we'd say McCoy is "locked-in" or "raking" (mmm...sports cliches).   To put this in some context: McCoy is completing 81.8% of his passes, the current single season record stands at 73.4% by Daunte Culpepper.  McCoy is currently on pace to complete 322 passes, a clip of (assuming 13 games) 25 completions per game.  Lets assume Culpepper was slinging passes at the same rate as McCoy; Culpepper, in this hypothetical scenario, completes 22 passes per game.  And I don't think Central Florida played the same caliber of teams that Texas does.  

On to the Mumme Poll

Top 5
Texas- I really have nothing more to say.  This team is an absolute steam roller with razors  on the rollers and laser guns in the headlights.  Driven by a shark.  With a lightsaber.  

Bama- Forced Tennessee (...sigh) into five three and outs and allowed only two drives of longer than 31 yards.  While Tennessee's offensive ineptitude has as much to do with these numbers as Bama's defensive dominance, we must give credit where credit is due.  In spite of the yardage numbers, Bama scored on 6 of 10 possessions and, had Saban felt like it, could have made that 7 of 10.  Jim McElwain's offense was, again, excellent. They were their usual ball-controlling selves, with four of their 10 drives going for more than 50 yards.  Tennessee had allowed a total of 11 such drives during the previous seven games, with three of those coming against Florida.  So yeah...Bama looks pretty good.

Penn State- This team, likely to win out, has zero shot at a National Championship.  The Lions likewise lack a National Championship caliber resume.  I'm as sentimental as the next fella and I would love to see Joe Paterno punctuate his career with a NC, but this team has done nothing to deserve it.  The relative weakness of the schedule is not entirely Penn State's fault (Coastal Carolina.  What the fuck?), the Big 10 just so happens to be down across the board.  The closest thing Penn State has to a marquee win is the blowout against Oregon State.  Who beat USC.  ...nope, not really feeling that one.  Kudos for the fine season boys, and I'll be rooting for you to beat Oregon State again in the Rose Bowl.  

Florida- The Gators have scored 110-ish points in the past two games, against teams whose prior worst defensive efforts yielded 24 points.  Lost somewhere in the Demps/James/Harvin quarkback meme is Tim Tebow's re-emergence.  His numbers, though still down from those of his Heisman campaign, belie a quarterback bent on ruthless efficiency.  Tebow's passing efficiency is 11th nationally and he has thrown all of two picks, and yet he's made nary a blip on the national radar.  Oh how callous can be capricious fate!  ESPN has exchanged last year's Tebow-mania for piles of Colt McCoy porn, and rightfully so.  
     Look out for this team, though.  They are just beginning to get humming.  My preseason expectations for the Gators were astronomically high, think 1995 Nebraska high.  And they are just now living up to my expectations.  

Georgia- I'm ecstatic that I no longer feel obligated to put USC here.  The Trojans get bumped for both a very meh-inspiring win over Arizona and a fantastic win by Georgia.  LSU, though they are clearly down from last year, is still a very good team, better than probably 105 other teams, and a win over the Tigers is still a feather worthy of any hat.  And that feather becomes even more precious when it comes to the tune of 52 points...in Death Valley.  Knowshon gashed the Tigers for 68 yard TD, during which Verne Lundquist exclaimed "[Moreno] doesn't have great speed," and Stafford went for 249 without an interception.  Ouch.  
     The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is once again one of the season's most important games and it may prove to be the defining game of 2008.  Florida and Georgia lock horns for the right to play Alabama for the SEC Championship and, likely, a berth in the NC Game.  Georgia and Florida come into the game ranked 6 and 8, respectively, by the BCS, but the winner, by virtue of an astoundingly strong win, could easily vault up to number 4.

The Rest of the Top 12

Utah
TCU
Boise State
USC
Oklahoma
Texas Tech
Oklahoma State

Notes:
-Tulsa has been bumped in favor of TCU, who has allowed 21 points during the past three games and has held BYU to their lowest point total since WEEK ONE OF 2005.  TCU is real, very, very real.  
-Ugh.  I don't want to rank Oklahoma State at all.  Their win over Mizzou has lost a considerable bit of luster and they lack a great win other than that over the Tigers.  They deserve credit for playing Texas tough, but then again Tulane deserves some credit for playing Alabama tough.  It came down to Okie State, Mizzou, or Ohio State for that last spot.  I couldn't rank Mizzou over Okie State if I hold that the Cowboy's win over Mizzou is merely okay and I can't move Ohio State into the poll fresh off a loss.  
-I was tempted to rank Florida State, but that 6 turnover game against a suddenly mediocre Wake Forest still stinks to high heaven.



Sunday, October 26, 2008

Post-Game Wrap Up: Cincy

- Two numbers in particular stand out, and I will wager that we'll hear much made of them throughout the week.  0-14, as in Cincy's third-down conversions, and 3-18, as in UConn's third-down conversions.
     Holding Cincy to an O-fer on third down is as impressive a stat as one could quell from this game, but UConn's third down offense was as terrible as the defense was fantastic.  
     By holding Cincinnati to 1.9 yards per carry, effectively eliminating all hopes they had of running the ball, we forced the Bearcats to try and convert on a number of 3rd and 6 and 3rd and longs.  Cody Brown didn't want that to happen, though, so he took it upon himself to play the wrecking-ball game.  Pike, and later Chazz Anderson, could barely drop back without Brown or Lindsey Witten or Julius Williams breathing down his neck.  Pressure like that is a vital necessity when you blitz as infrequently as we do (although, I can, off the top of my head, think of 5-ish blitzes we ran, an unusually high number for a UConn defense).
     After Cincy's only TD drive, which was punctuated by one of the best damn bubble screens that I've ever seen, Pike went 5-14 with a pick and was replaced by Anderson after the half.  
     A big hat-tip goes to the fellow running the jumbotron for replaying Pike's interception during the middle of the third quarter.  I'm sure that reliving that throw boosted Pike's spirits, he and his buddy's probably had a good, hearty, deprecating laugh at his expense.  

-Cody Brown is about to make some serious, serious NFL cash.  7 sacks, a blocked punt, and countless hurries will get you noticed.  If he continues at this rate, finishes with 10-12 sacks, we may see him join Darius Butler as a first day NFL draft pick. 
     As good as Brown and Butler have been, as many plays they've made for UConn over the years, their swan song may come in the NFL draft.  Not only would a pair of first day picks provide some much needed national exposure, but it would validate our burgeoning identity as a "football school."  While I doubt that we'll ever be a football school in the sense of a Penn State or Michigan, those schools whose names are intrinsically synonymous to college football, but we can realistically rise to the level of an Arizona State or Oklahoma State.  

-42 passes.  42 passes.  42 passes?  Randy, honey, come on.  Honestly.  I said after the UNC game that you don't want to pass when you have the nation's leading rusher and a quarterback making his first start.  Cody flashed a ridiculously strong arm, but he seems to have two settings: "off" and "Death Star laser beam."  He consistently overthrew his receivers by a solid foot or two; Edsall, during his postgame, chalked the overthrows up to Endress attempting to compensate for the win, but I'll wager nerves and inexperience were as much factors as the wind.  

-The direct snap/attempted Wildcat to Donnie Brown was suh-weet!  I've been waiting all season for something like that.  Our offense, at the risk of oversimplifying things, is so "conventional" (albeit effective) and I just love seeing new-fangled wrinkles like the Wildcat being thrown in there.  Dear UConn Coaching Staff-  More Wildcat, puhweez.  Love-Everyone.

-David Teggert is the man.  I've said enough.  

-At least WVU reverts to form right before coming to the Rent.  Next week's game will not be 66-21, not with Coach Gomer roaming the sidelines

Monday, October 20, 2008

Mumme Poll, Week 8

I begin this post like I tend to end sex...with a sincere apology and attempt at contrition (although I've never had to pay Blogspot).  Posting was weak last week.  It was exam week and we all know how that goes.  

This week, however, wants not for content as we have the first edition of the BCS poll (meaning the pro-/anti-playoff mobs sharpen their pitchforks), three legitimate undefeated teams, a realization that UConn might be mediocre (at best), and status quo in the ACC.  Of course, by writing about all of these potential/impending posts I pretty much accept that they will never be written and I'll begin the next post with the usual excuses (studying, Gossip Girls, invasive fungi).

But enough about me, let's talk about you.  Onto the Mumme Poll!  

Top Five:
Bama- Yeah I know: a win is a win is a win is a win.  They're in the top five because they won, however their boa constrictor grip is a little looser than it was last week.  The injury to the gargantuan NT Terrance Cody is the worst thing that could have happened to the Tide; Matt Hinton points out that it was not until Cody left the game that Mississippi found an offense.   The evidence is damning, Bama needs Cody in a big, big way.  With Cody, the Tide held the (formerly) vaunted Clemson rushing attack to 0 yards (that happened months ago and its STILL impressive) and the vaulting Knoshown Moreno to 34, and, until Ole Miss, the Tide gave up 0, 2.69, 1.91, 2.97, 3.13, and 1.75 yards per carry.  The Rebs mustered only 6 carries for positive yardage (for a whopping, 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, and 6 yards) and a total of 99 yards on 6 possessions, 5 of which went for three or fewer plays, while Cody was in the game.  But the Rebs went for 218 on 7 possessions after Cody went down.  The importance of Terrance Cody cannot be overstated.  Although...the Tide play Tennessee next week and a defensive line consisting of an third grader, my sister, and a half a box of Krispy Kremes could hold Tennessee to under 50 yards rushing.  
Texas- Wow...just wow.  Colt McCoy was perfect, enough has been said of that.  The offense scored touchdowns on 8 of 11 possessions (the 11th possession went 65 yards and ended the game, could easily have been a 9th TD) and had 3 drives of more than 80 yards...enough has been said of that.  Perhaps the most impressive bit from the Horns demolition derby, and there was a LOT of impressiving done by the Horns, is this: Mizzou had -6 yards through the first four possessions, three of which went 3 and out.  While the pass defense has been unsurprisingly torched, the run Texas run defense has only once surrendered 2 or more yards per carry, and they've held Oklahoma and Mizzou to 1.85 and 1.58 ypc respectively.  A cliche dictates that you win by running and stopping the run (see Bama, above), and Texas is certainly stopping the run.  Their porous pass defense makes me think that they'll trip up in a shoot out somewhere, probably Texas Tech or Okie State, but for the time being this is easily, easily the nation's best team. 
Penn State- The Lions were in trouble the first half.  The Lions were in business the second half.  So what changed from one half to the next?  Blogger Black Shoe Diaries attributes the successful second half to certain changes in the linebacking corps, not to take away from the follies of Nick Sheridan, who has absolutely no business playing quarterback at an FBS level, let alone at a program of Michigan's prestige.  Royster was his usual beast-tastic self and Clark went for his customary 200-250 total yards and a few touchdowns in a game that can be summed up as "easy-peezy-lemon-squeezy."  If the team gets by Ohio State this weekend then all that stands between PSU and an undefeated season, in what is undoubtedly JoePa's swan song, is a sneaky tough trip to Iowa City, the Hoosiers, and Sparty.  
Florida- I was tempted to put Georgia here, as Florida was off and Georgia's record is very comparable, if not slightly better.  Florida's dominating win over a s0-s0 LSU team is as good as the sum total of the Georgia's win over ASU and Vandy.  Both teams' have hung a half-dozen-ish mediocre pelts on their belts but get chances to really proves themselves during the coming weeks, with Georgia playing the same so-so LSU and the WLOCP.  
     But for whatever reason I consider Florida's loss to Ole Miss more reasonable than Georgia's prison raping by Bama.   The fact that I'm still high on Florida (sort of like Marcus Thomas!) and the emergence of the sprinting sprites Jeff Demps and Brandon James give the Gators the nod here.  If the LSU game was any indication, this team is only beginning to fulfill the expectations I laid down during the off-season.  
USC- There's nothing funny about a team who surrenders all of ten points in a three week stretch, and those ten coming all at once against Oregon.  That being said, you just know this team is going to slip up somewhere-you just know it.  The question with USC is always when?  They look unbeatable but, if you're aware of their trend of head-scratching losses, its a given that they'll drop a few that they shouldn't.  Will it be Arizona this weekend, Cal next, Stanford again? Who knows?  
     I'm hoping that loss comes soon because I really don't want to hear the talking heads of ESPN deem USC as "playing the best football of anyone right now."  What the hell does that even mean?

Rest of the Top Twelve:
Okie State
Tulsa 
Utah
Boise State
Georgia
Ohio State
Oklahoma

Notes and Musings
- Tulsa is in here only as long as they are undefeated.  I give them the nod based upon their record and the silly numbers they put up.  
-I'm glad Okie State beat Baylor as badly as they did as the win gave me an excuse to drop Texas Tech.  
-God have mercy if I have to rank Georgia Tech or Boston College anytime soon.
-Pitt/USF is bound to break the Big East shutout...aren't they.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Mumme Poll, Week 7

The Mumme Poll was devised by Senator Blutarsky over at Get the Picture, a Georgia and SEC -centric blog.  The Poll was inspired by New Mexico State (and former Kentucky) head coach Hal Mumme's wacky ass number one vote for Hawaii last season.  

What makes this poll worth mentioning, as opposed to your run of the mill resume ranking or arbitrary power ranking, is that it is based upon an "approval rating."  Basically Sen. Blutarsky has the 59 Mumme Poll voters submit a ballot of 12 teams, no rankings, with only the top 5 designated as such (again, the top five are unranked; they are simply labeled "top 5").  Teams will then be rated by how often they appear in each voter's ballots, with the top five designations being used as tie breakers.  Follow?  No?  Well then fuck you.  

So without further ado, I give to you my Ballot for the week

Top Five: 
Texas- This team has been more and more impressive each week.   The importance of their win over Oklahoma cannot be overstated; put simply, Texas has the inside track to the B12 championship game (brought to you by Dr. Pepper) and, by reason of the "B12-SEC rulzzz!!!" meme, the national championship.  Texas is certainly not without flaws, however, and their 98th ranked pass defense (244 ypg, yikes!) and that Colt McCoy is their only consistent rushing threat makes their stay near the top a precarious one, at best, especially given the quality of quarterbacks in their conference.   Games against Mizzou, Okie State, Texas Tech, and Kansas will all test their defensive mettle. 
Alabama- They have yet to trail this entire season.  That is all. 
Florida- If you all will recall, I was bullish on Florida throughout the preseason.  And although meh-tastic games against Miami and Ole Miss put a damper on my enthusiasm for the Gators, any team that can drop 51 on LSU is deserving of, at the very least, a "top 5" designation.  The offense has finally loosened up and, against LSU of all teams, resembled my expectations.  Jeff Demps has emerged as the running threat beyond the two headed monster of Tebow/Harvin and has rushed for over 100 in consecutive weeks, both times posting sick nasty ypc's of over 12.  
Penn State- It kills me that all signs point to Penn State being left out of the national championship.  Their curb-stomping of Wisconsin, in Camp Randall, cements their place as one of the nation's elite.  This team, unlike B10 teams of years past, is actually a lot of fun to watch; the continued emergence of Derrick Williams, Evan Royster, and Staphon Green and the consistent excellence of Daryl Clark makes this offense Penn State's best in a long time, perhaps even surpassing the Mike Robinson led 2005 squad in fantastic-acity.  I do not see anyone challenging this team the rest of the way, Ohio State will be hard pressed to score double digits and Michigan...well...no need to pour water on a drowning man.
USC- I really hate to give them a "Top 5" designation, I really do.  They won ugly against Arizona State, turning the ball over 5 times.  In fact, I don't even know why I'm putting them in my top 5-I've railed against the Trojans all season long, why begrudgingly bestow upon them respect now?  Ughhh, they wouldn't be here if I hadn't already submitted my ballot.  Damn you, Pete Carroll.  If only we weren't friends on FaceBook.  
     This team is painfully overrated and gets by more upon reputation than by actual on-field dominance.  Hell, look at me!  In spite of my notorious cynicism, even I am unable to resist!  I'd not be shocked if USC lost another clunker somewhere down the line.

Rest of the Ballot:
BYU
Tulsa
Georgia
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Texas Tech (another team I don't want to rank)
Boise State

Notes:
-Conspicuously Absent: LSU, Missouri
     With Auburn's slow demise (seriously?  Arkansas?  Dude, what the fuck?), LSU is without a stellar, or even solid, victory on which to hang their hat.  And they certainly didn't look like a "good" team against the Gators.  Missouri, while their offense is WHOOSH-BAM!, suffers from a terrifically mediocre defense and will likely drop another game before the season is done (probably to Texas next week).  Even their vaunted offense was stymied by the Cowboys (enter obligatory "I'm a man, I'm 40" reference here).
-Bullish on Mid-Majors
    No one has come even close to hanging with the Broncos; it took a furious 19-point fourth quarter rally for Oregon to bring the game within 5...and this was in Autzen!  Boise State will go undefeated without breaking much of a sweat, but unfortunately, their belt will probably lack a truly shiny pelt, as Oregon doesn't look like anything special this year.  They could still make it to a BCS poll depending upon movement above them, popular sentiment, and BYU.
    Tulsa has been dropping bombs all season long, tallying point totals of 45, 56, 56, 62, 63, and 37.  When your worst point total is 37 points, you're doing something very right.  And while their defense may be a bit suspect (see 342 yards to Central Arkansas) this team is still deserving of a vote based upon their flaming fireworks wagon of an offense and 6-0 record.  

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Louisvile...

Is not a very good team.  They looked great against UConn (and what does that say about the Huskies?) but, beyond that game, they've been thoroughly unimpressive.

Take a look at their game tonight against Memphis (before Doc Saturday does in his excellent weekly segment, "Life in the Margins):  not only were the Cards out-gained by 182 yards but they benefitted from 2 fourth down conversions and 3 Memphis turnovers.  Louisville was, on a play-by-play basis,  absolutely dominated.  In fact, the Cardinals would not have even been in this game had it not been for several marvelous Memphis miscues (see what I did there?  Pretty cool, huh?).

Louisville totaled a respectable 35 points, 7 from a fumble return, 7 from a kickoff return, and 7 more from a missed field return.  Were that not enough, they even managed to be unimpressive during their two legitimate scoring drives: one drive went all of 38 yards, leaving the Cardinals with but a single actual drive.  

Ughhh.  So much for UConn's one decent win.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Random Stat of the Week

Infrequent posting as of late, sorry.  Life has intervened and taken precedent over the blog.   

I did, however, notice this stat and thought it so amazing that it was worth noting on the blog.

Texas Tech has surrendered 1 sack in 262 attempts.   That means that TTech is sacked on only 0.38% of their pass attempts.  On the other hand we have Texas A&M (Mike Sherman...giggle giggle) who has been sacked 13 times in 145 pass attempts, thats a sack on 8.96% of their pass attempts.  

Saturday, October 4, 2008

UNC- Halftime Thoughts

- You have the nation's number 1 rusher and  a red shirt sophomore quarterback starting his first game, on the road, in front of a sold out crowd, so on 3rd and 2 you...pass?  Huh?

-You have fourth and two around midfield, you've had two punts blocked, and should have had another blocked, and you still have the nation's leading rusher, so you...punt?  Huh?

-Frazer looked great on the first and last drive of the half.  That second pick was totally on Kashif Moore.  

-Frazer needs to quit forcing the ball into double coverage.  

-How is this only a two score game?  

-Penalties.  I know how Matt Hinton, over at Doc Saturday, rails against the perceived value of a penalty, but honestly...what the hell?  Its like we've just shot our selves in the foot and then decided to shoot ourselves in the other foot-you know, just to even things up, brah.

-Having looked at the drive chart, our defense is playing a damn fine game.  UNC has really only had one good drive, and even that ended in a field goal.  Field position is killing us, right now.

-That option to Todman in the first quarter was awesome.  I've been looking for something like that all season.  

-If we want to win this game we need to give Donnie 20 carries, Todman 10-12, and Dixon/Frey/Butler another 10-12.  Frazer, though, for the most part, I've liked what I've seen, cannot carry this team.  21 passes to 15 Donnie Brown carries will not cut it.

On an unrelated aside: if you don't already know, I've followed the University of Tennessee for my entire life and to see the Vols in such a state of terrific disarray kills me.  

Monday, September 15, 2008

Wrap Up: UVA Edition.

Graphic Synopsis of the UVA game...here

Yeah.  It was that damn bad.

UConn could do nothing wrong.  Absolutely nothing.  Donnie Brown actually saved a kitten from a tree and help a blind elderly woman cross the street between gashing the Cavalier defense and Tyler Lorenzon was seen composing sonnets in the backfield.  The performance was so impressive that it forces us to raise the "Syracuse Conundrum".  Are we that good?  Or are they that bad?  

The truth, of course, is somewhere in between.

Onto the review.

The Good
Donnie Brown- 206 yds and 3 TDs on 20 carries.  Mmmhhhmmm, thats over 10 per carry.  Just think about that.  Impressive, no?
Jordan Todman- The true freshman from MA made his much awaited (by me, at any rate) debut against the Cavs.  And what a debut he had.  The 48 yard run he had to end the 3rd quarter showed that he can fill the Slash-type roll this team desperately needs.
Rob Ambrose- I knew that this game had promise from the very first play.  Brown lined up in the slot with Lorenzon directly under center, Brown went into motion and the ball was snapped as Brown fell in behind the near tackle, from there it was that familiar stretch-zone play...but with that funky motion wrinkle.  Ambrose ran that play again and again with both Todman and Brown to great success.  This was also the first time I've seen us use Steve Brouse effectively.   He lined up in the slot, he split out wide, he lined up at fullback, he lined up at H-back.  Ambrose had the creativity to move Brouse all around the field and, while the box score shows but a single 18 yd catch, he was able to exploit whatever mismatched linebacker he found covering himself.  
It pleased me to no end to see our offense line up in formations other than double-tight.  The four wide set looks to have potential.  
And we're damn certain to see more Darius Butler and Jordan Todman.
The Defense- While Mike Verica was able to go 22 for 30, the secondary kept the deep ball under lock and key (hence Verica's very pedestrian 5.3 yds per att).  While we were treated to a few blitzes (I'm used to a John Chavis defense, I'm sorry but I demand a hyper-aggressive hornet's nest of a defense), the d-line was able to generate enough pressure on its own to keep Verica off balance all night.
Jasper Howard seems to be coming into his own opposite Darius Butler; he batted down a number of balls, including one inside UConn's 10.  
T-Lo- His much heralded decision making, so sorely, and obviously, lacking against Temple and Hofstra, returned.  While, as was his wont, he was unspectacular, he turned in a rock solid 13/15 game with one touchdown and no picks.  His 29 yard bomb (yes, a 29 yard pass is a bomb by UConn's tight buttoned standards.  Tresselball what?)  
But most impressive were his 10 carries.  Lorenzon never panicked when a play broke down or he couldn't find an open man, rather he calmly scanned the field and tuck the ball and ran off like he stole something.  He has some wheels for a 6'4"-ish white boy from Iowa.  

The Bad
This is all nit-picking.  Its difficult, if not impossible, to complain a game in which your recently beleaguered quarterback goes 13/15, you run for 382 (what the fuck?  382!) yards, and your defense surrenders a mere 31 yards.  Once again, this is ALL nit-picking.
T-Lo- He lacked any touch on the short passes and both Sherman and Brown had to make some pretty fantastic leaps to catch a few of his passes to the flats.  
Down-field tackling- Too much arm tackling by the secondary, UVA had far too many yards after the catch.  Again, nitpicking.
Kick Coverage- Now this isn't nitpicking and is close to becoming a point of legitimate concern.  Tony C should not be making the tackle on kick offs, ever.  Our kick off squad kept their lanes and played disciplined on special teams, they just failed to get off their blocks.  This could be a huge, huge, huge problem against UNC.


Grade: A+.
Truly impressive showing.  Let's shut down Robert Griffith (easier said than done, ask Wazzu) and get ready for a tough road stretch.


Friday, September 12, 2008

Couches Beware

ESPN just announced that WVU Head Coach Bill Stewart signed a SIX YEAR DEAL.  

Umm.  Huh?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Top 25: Insufficient Data are a Cold Bitch

Pre-season polls are difficult to create and almost impossible to rationalize.  There isn't any data with which to make any attempt at a resume ranking; thus we are left to struggle with bogus intangibles such as "momentum" and meaningless quantifications such as returning starters and we ultimately end up with either a poorly contrived power poll or a futile attempt at projection.  

That being said, it may be even more difficult to rank teams within the first three weeks of the season.  The issue is no longer a paucity of data but of the relevance of what little data we have.   With so many teams scheduling FCS teams or their functional equivalents (Syracuse, Duke, Utah State, etc), how do sort out all of the 2-0 and 1-0 teams?  Florida State beat Western Carolina 69-0, Penn State has blowout wins over Coastal Carolina and (a clearly down) Oregon State, Oregon has hung a combined 110 points on Washington and Utah State.  Who really gives a shit?  How are we to judge monumental blowouts by perceived "good" teams against blowouts by teams who are clearly amongst the dregs of FBS (Baylor's 51-6 win against Northwestern State and and Minnesota's 42-17 win over Bowling Green readily come to mind)?  And even after all of that how are we to compare the gimme games to those narrow wins over assumed decent, or even great, teams?  What are we to make of Cal's narrow win over Sparty, Wake's clutch win over Ole Miss, and Alabama's obliteration of Clemson?  

Now we see what a total cluster fuck is on our hands.  

I scoured the interwebs this past week searching for a solution to the Poll conundrum and fell upon cocknfire's BlogPoll ballot over at Garnet and Black Attack (a fantastic site for South Carolina and general SEC discourse).  Cocknfire filled out his ballot by first creating a poll off of the top of his head, he then created a spreadsheet listing the merits of "28 credible teams", he assigned appropriate point values (25 pts for the top spot, 1 for the 25th, etc) to each team in both polls and took the aggregate as his official BlogPoll Ballot. Mimicry is the most sincere form of flattery cocknfire, and I am fully prepared to mimic you...with one slight change.  

I'm reluctant to arbitrarily assign values to a team's wins and losses, that lends itself to too many inconsistencies and subjective measures.  To solve that I'm adopted Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings as a team's hypothetical "worth."  

Top of the Head Poll
1. Oklahoma
2. Florida
3. Georgia
4. Mizzou
5. USC 
6. Ohio State
7. Cal
8. LSU
9. Penn State
10. Texas
11. Auburn
12. Oregon
13. Wisconsin
14. ECU
15. USF
16. Arizona State
17. Alabama
18. BYU
19. Texas Tech
20. Wake Forest
21. Kansas
22. Utah
23. GTech 
24. Fresno State
25. UCLA

Resume-ish Poll
1. ECU (83.145)
2. UCLA (83.04)
3. Utah (82.14)
4. USC (76.93)
5. Cal (72)
6. LSU (68.97)
7. Bama (68.085)
8. Fresno St. (67.965)
9. BYU (67.515)
10. Auburn (67.045)
11. Wake Forest (66.5)
12. Texas  Tech (64.69)
13. Wisconsin (64.345)
14. Arizona State (63.73)
15. Oregon (63.57)
16. Oklahoma (61.935)
17. Georgia (60.255)
18. Ohio State (58.815)
19. Penn State (58.37)
20. Texas (58.34)
21. UConn (57.225)
22. Arizona (56.31)
23. Kansas (55.105)
24. USF (54.21)
25. Mizzou (53.285)

*Again the number in parentheses is Team's "Value"; Value has been computed as being the avg. rating (according to Sagarin) of the teams that Team has beaten.
** Remember this is not a rating of the BEST teams.  Its just a rating of who has done what this season.

Quick Observations from Resume-ish Poll
-Apparently a win over Illinois (70.75) isn't as valuable as a win over Washingto (72.25)...huh?
-The most valuable wins thus far have been VT, Tennessee, Michigan, WVU, and BC.  Boston College...huh?
-I'm surprised to see Oregon State and UVA valued right around Cincy.
-Is Utah's win over a depleted Michigan squad really that valuable?  Was it really that impressive?  

Final Poll
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Cal
4. LSU
5. ECU
6. OSU
7. Oklahoma
8. Auburn
9. Georgia
10. Bama
11. Utah
12. UCLA
13. BYU
14. Wisconsin
15. Oregon
16. Penn State
17. Mizzou
18. Fresno
19. Wake
20. Arizona State
21. Texas
22. Texas Tech
23. Oklahoma State
24. Georgia Tech
25. South Florida

Quick Observations
- I'm somewhat surprised to see Auburn ranked that high, though I'm fairly certain of their talent, they have yet to really impress me.  
- I'm actually VERY surprised to see Cal below USC.  Cal's wins over Sparty in week 1 was very impressive while their win over Wazzu was, in my eyes, at least, just as impressive as USC's win over UVA.  
- I'll work on a formula that will include such factors as margin of victory and home/away  for next week.  Bama's win over Tulane should NOT have gotten them as many points as it did.  

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Weekend Review, Week 2

To everyone's surprise, this weekend's slate of games, which was supposed to be tremendous weak, turned out to be fairly decent.  These games should not have been "fairly decent".  A weekend that should have been littered with atrocious, merciless blowouts was strangely competitive.  I got to watch BYU-Washington and was treated to both a tremendously tight game as well as a rare chance to watch UDub QB Jake Locker.  
Locker has been billed as Tebow-West: his combination of size/strength, cannon arm, and mobility make for a fairly easy comparison with the Golden Child.  After watching Locker in action, though, I'd sooner compare him to Matt Groethe than Tim Tebow.  Locker, like Groethe, is at his best on the move, improvising and salvaging busted plays with a dazzling command and artistry.  There were moments where I could swear I saw Locker give the camera a coy wink and mouth "Yeah, I meant to do that."  But, like Groethe, so Locker giveth, so Locker taketh away.  Faced with a 3 and 17 he can duck a sack, scramble out of the pocket, and throw a dart off his back foot as he's being dragged to the ground by three defenders for an "effortless" conversion...but on the next play he'll set his feet in the pocket and calmly throw the same dart into triple coverage for an easy pick.  

On to some of the week's observations.

Alabama playing down to their competition- Saban's bunch, coming fresh off a blowout win over, then, number 9 Clemson, plummeted back to Earth against Tulane in Tuscaloosa.  What was a ruthlessly efficient and powerful offense a week before became a sputtering and inconsistent mess against a CLEARLY inferior team.  Bama was handily out-gained 318-172 and tallied only one offensive touchdown and it only gets worse from there.  Looking at the drive chart, Bama had a single drive that went for more than 30 yards; their offense notched drives of 1, 27, 19, 1, -5, -1, 3, 23, 77, 17, 9.  Jesus that's ugly.  
This most recent performance seemed to fall in line w/ Bama's preseason expectations much better than their domination of Clemson, leading me to believe that, while unlikely to look that hideous, this is more the "real" Alabama.  

Penn State's Spread HD- Penn State looked many things against Oregon State that it never could have dreamt of resembling during the Anthony Morelli (disaster) era; namely efficient, explosive, completed more than half of its passes.  Darryl Clark's mobility has brought the PSU offense an element it lacked since Michael Robinson was busy finishing third in the Heisman voting.  Although Clark, much like Robinson, is a mediocre passer his mobility and knack for improvisation make one bitch of a Chimera-back.  
Clark, though, is not the whole story.  Evan Royster ran for 141 for an 8.3 ypc in essentially three quarters of work.  The Lions spent all of last season searching desperately for a back who could do what Royster has done thus far this season, Austin Scott was booted from the team for his well documented sexual assault charges and Rodney Kinlaw kind of sucked.  State looks like a legitimate B10 contender with the emergence of Royster as a top back and the departure of the aforementioned Morelli (lets face it: anyone would be a step up from Morelli, god-dammit he was awful).
The win itself bears little water, what with Oregon State losing to Stanford in week 1 and Stanford getting their head kicked in by Arizona State this past week.  We'll find out in a hurry whether or not PSU is for real or merely a product of a cheap win as they, after devouring back-to-back sacrificial lambs 'Cuse and Temple, dive headfirst into the thick of the conference slate: Illinois, at Wisconsin, at OSU, and at Iowa in a six week span.  

Locker's Celebration Call-  This has been beaten to all hell by now so I will touch upon it only briefly.  The call itself was garbage.  The NCAA's edict against "celebration" is garbage.  Pac-10 officiating, on the whole, is garbage.  And most importantly: UDub's PAT team is garbage.
Fifteen yard penalty or not, there is still no excuse for getting a PAT blocked in such a pivotal moment.  Ty Willingham, I hope you like daytime television.  

West Virginia, DOA- I liked the Jeff Mullen hire.  I figured that Mullen would make an effort to replicate his offense from Wake Forest.  While he was never Dan Mullen prolific at Wake Forest, Jeff's misdirection based offense was extremely successful given both the athletes he had at hand and the general state of offense in the ACC.  Mullen's game was based heavily upon counters, traps, moving pockets, screens, and the quick passing game; in short it should have been readily applicable to the talent on hand at WVU.  
...yeah.  About that.  3 points: the worst output by a WVU team since 2001 against Miami.  That Miami team had 5 players drafted in the first round, amongst those drafted such stars as Ed Reed and Jeremy Shockey and Clinton Portis.  That 2001 Miami was excellent and while ECU may well be the cream of this year's mid-major crop it is by no means on par with that Miami team.  
More disheartening than the final score is the drive chart.  WVU mounted a mere three drives that went for more than 3o yards, and even then those drives ended in a fumble, a FG, and a punt.  Only once (once.  Take a deep breath with me and count to three.  1...2...3...ONCE!) did WVU find itself in the red zone.  Note my word choice, dear read, "find itself."  By no stretch of the imagine did the Mountaineers "put themselves" or "drive into" or otherwise "assert themselves" deep into ECU territory, they were a confused and listless bunch and looked wholly lost whenever they had the ball.  
West Virginia did not lose because of some flukey statistical anomaly; they did not lose because of some freak turnovers or marvelous trickery on ECU's part.  They did not lose gracefully, they got curb stomped.  WVU was out played and they knew it.  As poorly as they played the first half, they were even worse in the second.  If they imploded in the first half, the second half was like the Death Star exploding.  The team came out flat, dull, utterly lifeless; and that, more so than the 386-251 yard advantage by ECU or the 4 yards per attempt by White, is the blackest omen for Bill Stewart's bunch.  


Monday, September 1, 2008

Beating a Dead Horse

The ACC's failures the past weekend have been well document.  So well documented as to become as cliche as OSU=EPIC FAIL and ess-eee-see speed.  The WWL has covered it, the Sporting News has it locked down, and every blogger on God's green earth has at least one post on the topic.  I, however, will not be celebrating (or lamenting) the misery that was ACC football (really Maryland, 14-7 over Delaware?  What the fuck was that?). 

Well...maybe not.  

Were it not for the ACC's poor showing everyone would be hopping on the "drop the Big East from the BCS" bandwagon again (likely with a passion and vehemence not seen since the aforementioned SEC-Lite made off with Miami, VaTech, and BC).  

Pittsburgh loses to BGSU, Syraucse gets handled by Northwestern, and Louisville...oy fucking vey, where to start?

Even the BE's wins seem gilded at best.  UConn had 5 turnovers against Hofstra and WVU was actually outgained by Nova (the 'Cats had 45 more yards and 7 more first downs than the 'eers).  While Pat White's aerial renaissance overshadowed the latter, its still worth noting that the Mountaineer defense gave up nearly 400 yards to Villanova.  

While Cincy and USF certainly dominated this weekend, the rest of the league was lackluster at best.  RU has a chance to redeem the conference this afternoon against a pretty solid Fresno squad.  

That being said: Go Knights!

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Post-Game Wrap Up: Hofstra

I'd have put this up earlier were we not playing Hofstra.  Its so tough to get up for a IAA team coming off an under-whelming 7-5 season and replacing 14 starters.  Its ever tougher, however, to adequately judge a performance against such a team.  A win is obviously expected.  But what should we have looked for between the lines?

Aside from the W, I would have called the game a success if Donnie Brown notched 100+ yards in the first half (check), the defense shut out or otherwise dominated Hofstra (big check), and Lorenzon played mistake free and connected for at least three passes of 20+ yards (not so much).

First, what went right:
-Donnie Brown was an animal.  He exhibited excellent burst and hit holes hard.  While he didn't exhibit extraordinary power or elusiveness, Brown continues to prove that you simply cannot throw an arm tackle at him.
-Scott Lutrus.  Several TFL and a fantastic pick.  No point in beating a dead horse, Scottie was all over the field.  
-Pass Rush.  5 sacks, two of which were credited to JR DE Lindsey Witten.  I thought Lindsey should have been given another sack but I'm not going to cry about it.  Witten owned the backfield.  UConn has just found their situational pass-rusher extraordinaire.  

Now what went wrong:
-Lorenzon.  What.  The.  Fuck.  His three picks (should have been four, one was dropped) were HORRIBLE.  Not one of the balls can be attributed to great coverage or any fantastic defensive effort; they were just ill-advised throws.  The Courant, in an article this morning, echoes my sentiments that Lorenzon looked to be pressing.  While this does not portend good things for the offense, its the first game of the season so I won't read too much into it.  For everyone calling for Zach Frazier (like the guy sitting behind me at the game): its early.
-Offensive Play Calling.  Vanilla.  Plain-Jane.  Fucking Boring.  Pick and choose your adjective because the play calling was mind-blowingly unimaginative.  We must have picked up a copy of the playbook that Michigan scratched during the off season because I saw more stretch-zone plays in one half than I saw all of last season.  Five or six plays stand out as being run again and again and again: the aforementioned stretch zone, a toss sweep, a simple (manly) iso, and a waggle in which the backside WR ran a drag parallel to Lorenzon.  
      I'm willing (praying, actually) to believe that the play-calling was symptomatic of coach-paranoia; why give Temple more film than they need?  One could also chalk it up to the injuries to Dixon and Todman, with those two in the game one would expect we could/would open the offense up.

Final Verdict: Meh.  
                          -I still expect to beat Temple next week, but it will not be an easy game.  If Lorenzon can forget about Thursday and Todman heals up we may be able to pummel them, however I have no reason to believe that we won't do everything in our power to keep Temple in the game.  Five turnovers next week would be damning.  

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Keeping Up with the Joneses: Realists See the Glass as Half Empty Edition

Tom Luicci, Star Ledger-  Joe Martinek is still in the mix to replace Ray Rice  There are a few ways to look at this.  The optimists and Knight faithful would have you believe that for a lightly (if at all) recruited running back from the suburbs of Jersey, Martinek is pretty good.  Us realists see the glass as half empty; that Martinek is still poaching carries from Jourdan Brooks, Mason Robinson, and Kordell Young speaks volumes as to the caliber of tailback at RU.   

While I'm personally rooting for Martinek to wrest some carries away from the aforementioned three (he's a sentimental favorite of mine, being one of the best damned javelin throwers I've ever seen), his personal success does not necessarily portend success for RU.  

Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician- Brilliant tee-shirts!  Remember kids: its not pessimism if its a blatant truth!

Cincinnati Enquirer- On the heels of his (last ditch, desperate) lawsuit, Matt Mauk will be given yet ANOTHER appeal by the NCAA.  He will be given the chance to address the Reinstatement Committee in person

I wouldn't expect the NCAA to rule on Mauk's case for another 6-8 weeks.  The Committee has got to be pissed that Mauk would have the audacity to take their ruling(s) to court and I would expect retribution in the form of some lengthy delay and many postponements.  Mauk is about to get a first hand lesson in collusion when he is ruled eligible in time to practice for the bowl game!  

In unrelated news, Dustin Grutza has been named the starting QB.

Addicted to Quack- Another Pac-10 QB goes down!  Too damn bad that the conference's only healthy QB is Tavita Pritchard.

So far nothing specific on Costa's knee.  This could be a blessing in disguise for the Ducks.  I'm thoroughly convinced that uber-athlete frosh Chris Harper is the Duck's best QB.  While not as experienced as Costa and certainly not as polished a passer, Harper brings Dixon-esque speed to the table.  And if you'll be so kind as to recall, prior to the Arizona game, Dixon, en route to a sure-fire Heisman, had the Ducks on a crash course for the National Championship.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Looking Forward...

Sunday/Monday I expect to have preview up and running.  Check back Sunday evening!

Todman Update

Freshman RB Jordan Todman left practice last Saturday with some manner of shoulder injury.  He went for an MRI and a number of "tests" on Monday, thus far it seems unlikely that Todman will be available for Thursday's opener against Hofstra.  

Todman exhibit tremendous (ess eee see?) speed throughout fall camp and he was/is expected to provide an exciting wrinkle in UConn's offense this season.  His speed could prove to be a major asset as the season rolls on.  The offense's lack of a big play threat last season has been well documented and, likewise, lamented universally.  While the sudden development of WRs Ellis Gaulden and Kashif Moore are expected to allow the team to stretch the field, the addition of Todman could make this offense downright nasty.  

Well...that last sentence may be more hyperbole than fact.  However when your passing offense averages a very pedestrian 6.7 yards per attempt you really have nowhere to go but up.  

I'd expect Todman to play a Maclin/Harvin utility role in the offense.  Edsall would be remiss to limit him to a few spot carries off the bench.  His speed makes him so much more valuable than a mere "change of pace" back and I hope to see him split out wide or even put in the slot du temps en temps.  

Oregon State experienced tremendous success running James Rodgers on fly-sweep after fly-sweep...just a hint Coach Edsall...just a hint.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Keeping Up With the Jonses: Burns like Victory Edition

USA Today- Former Bearcat Matt Mauk continues his quest for another year of eligibility.  This time going as far as receiving an injunction against the NCAA's latest ruling and even filing a lawsuit claiming that his requests for a sixth year were "wrongfully, arbitrarily, and capriciously denied..."  

In spite of the injunction granting him the right to practice with the team, head coach Brian Kelly will have none of it. 

"Thats ludicrous to think that we would put him on the field and put our football team in harm's way," Kelly is quoted as saying.  If Mauk were to practice with the team and the lawsuit were to rule in the NCAA's favor, then one would assume they might be a little pissy about the whole bit.  The NCAA is as tired of Mauk's Sisyphian quest as you and I are and would doubtless love to hammer Cincy for having an ineligible player on the team.  (see: Oklahoma- Quinn, J.D. and Bomar, Rhett).  

L.A. Times- Part of me wishing I were making this up.  But the other part of me finds this hilarious.  

About a quarter of USC's team is sidelined by...wait for it...jock itch.  

Choice quote comes courtesy of wide receiver Travon Jefferson: "It burns."  (emphasis Jefferson's).  

The only thing that could possibly make this better is if somewhere in Palo Alto Jim Harbaugh is gathering up some hooker's panties to throw in with USC's laundry.  

Yahoo Sports- Matt Hinton, formerly of SMQ fame, has a profile on Rutgers OT, and rising superstar, Anthony Davis.  Hinton even goes as far as comparing Davis to Bama's Andre Smith.  
It seems like a legitimate comparison, as Hinton puts it Smith is only "a Gameday profile or a Thursday night close-up away from becoming a blue-chip stock."  Both with highly touted recruits, amongst the best in the nation at the time, both played early, often, and well, and both are all kinds of big (Davis tipping the scales at 6'3", 330 lbs and Smith weighing in at 6'4" 330 lbs).   

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Top 25: Justifications, Prognostications, and Hastily Put-Together Garbage

Conspicuously Abesent: Rutgers, Kansas, VaTech
-In case you haven't gotten it by now: I don't like Rutgers.  No sir, not one bit.  However, my bias is by no means responsible for their absence from my top 25.  To put it simply: Rutgers is not top 25 caliber.  I do not see how this offense will continue to produce without the pinball Ray Rice and All Big East tackles Pedro Sosa and Jeremy Zuttah (not to mention guard Mike Fladell).  Sure Mike Teel, Kenny Britt, and Tiquan Underwood put up some fabulous numbers but their outrageous production was due almost entirely to a miserable non-con schedule.  Look at Teel's conference vs. non-con splits (sans the Army game in which he threw a measly four passes).  Against OOC teams (the 82, 119, 44, and 90th ranked pass efficiency D's in DI...and D-IAA Norfolk State) Teel threw for 13 TD's against 3 INT's for 295.2 ypg and 62.6 completion pct.  Not bad.  Now look at his conference numbers.  7 TD's against 9 picks, 236.7 ypg, and 58.5 completion pct.  Quite the split there.  Do any of us think these numbers improve without Rice and three new starters on the o-line?
Kansas, oh Kansas.  Where do I begin.  Rock M Nation covered Kansas as well as anyone could hope here.  Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech rotate onto the schedule this year, and those three games, as well as a sneaky tough matchup against Colorado (a game the Jayhawks should have lost in 2007) and a trip to Columba, could all easily end in loses.  I'd be shocked to see Kansas stay home for the post season.  Likewise, I'd be shocked to see them win more than 7 games.
VaTech could win their division and still be unworthy of a top 25 ranking.  The only reason anyone lists the Hokies in their preseason polls are because of the belief that a Bud Foster D is a Bud Foster D is a Bud Foster D.  Unfortunately for the Hokies, Bud Foster is about all they have left on defense.  They've lost 3 starters on the defensive line, standout linebackers Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi, and stud corner Brandon Flowers.  While there is hope for the defense (like I said, Bud Foster is still calling the shots), not even the most optimistic of Hokies can reasonably expect much from the offense.  Gone is Brandon Ore, down go Jahre Cheeseman and Kenny Lewis, gone are the top five (breath deep, repeat: top fucking five) receivers, and gone is tackle Duane Brown.  The two highlights on offense are an inexperienced sophomore QB in Tyrod Taylor (the QB of the future is, sadly, not the QB of the now) and an incoming frosh RB Ryan Williams.  If you thought the Hokies had trouble scoring last year (see 7 points against LSU and ECU, 10 against BC, and 23 against Ohio), you ain't seen nothing yet.

Hey!  USC isn't your top 3!  Dude!  
It seems that everyone is pegging USC somewhere in the 1-4 range and they don't know why.  They do it because USC...well...they're USC.  Its as if they are entitled to a high preseason ranking.  Yet the Trojans are as vulnerable as they've ever been in the past seven or so years.  They return one starter from the o-line, are breaking in a new quarterback (who is out for a few weeks with a dislocated patella), feature a mess of unproven talent at RB, and a mess of yet to (and unlikely to be) realized talent at wide receiver.  Even last year the Trojan offense was by and large very average.  The few games they dominated (633 yards against Illinois to cap off the season, 509 against Wazzu, and 508 against ASU) came against clearly inferior teams. 

Against Arizona (a narrow 20-13 win) their drive chart from the middle of the first quarter until the tail end of the third looks like such: punt, interception, interception, end of half, punt, punt, punt.  All told, those "drives" totaled 28 plays for 65 yards, with 43 of those yards coming on one 12 drive that ended in that last "punt".  Even the Trojan scoring drives were thoroughly unimpressive; other than a 10 play, 85 yard march for a TD in the first and a 15 play, 95 yard drive ending in a field goal to put the game away, they mustered a 10 play, 21 yard drive resulting in a field goal (the mighty Trojans...21 yards in 10 plays) and a 25 yard touchdown pass from Sanchez (he of "hide the patella" fame) to the departed Fred Davis.  

Similar to the 'Zona game was the Trojans' win against Oregon State.  Again, look at the drive chart.  The longest drive of the game was 54 yards, resulting in a TD.  Other than that you have 9 yards in 7 plays for a FG, 47 yards in 4 plays for a TD (26 of those yards came on the TD pass),  and 14 plays in 3 yards for another TD.  Mind you this was entirely in the first half.  The second half was a completely different story, reading: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, end of game.  Their average second half drive was 4.5 plays for 19 yards.  I understand the Beavers had a wicked awesome defense (giving up only 70 rushing yards per game...yikes!), however a team purportedly possessing as much talent as USC should have done better than that.  

My point is: USC should expect to see their offense drop off (perhaps significantly if the o-line can't gell and the wide receivers continue to underachieve) from last year.  And when they did all of that last year...eesh.  Top 5, certainly not.  Top 10, certainly, by based entirely upon the strength of their defense

LSU?  Top 5?  But...but...that can't be!
Admit it.  If Perrilloux were still a Tiger, LSU would be a run away number 1.  Even without Perrilloux this team is still absolutely loaded.  In fact, they may well be better than they were last year.  

Consider this.  Gone is Early Doucet, but Terrance Tolliver, Demetrius Byrd, Brandon LaFell, and Richard Dickson all return.  Gone is the steady "war-daddy" Jacob Hester and with him his team leading 1103 rushing yards, but the explosive Keiland Williams, Charles Scott, and Richard Murphy all return.  Ciron Black and Herman Johnson continue to anchor the best left side of any o-line in college football.  And, in spite of the loss of all-everything Glenn Dorsey, the d-line is still the best in America...and may even be better than last year's! 

In fact, the only holes this team has are at quarterback, obviously, and in the secondary, where they lose Craig Steltz, Johnathan Zenon, and Chevis Jackson.  Personnel wise, the holes in the secondary will be filled the immensely talented Chad Jones (LSU's top recruit last year) and Patrick Peterson (top incoming recruit); schematically, however, expect any deficiencies in the secondary to be more than masked by pressure generated by a murderer's row of a defensive line.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Another Top 25...how cliche!

I feel obligated to apologize for my lengthy hiatus.  (Not that any read the blog in the first place).  Real life caught up with me for a bit.  But now that we are a mere 18 days from the beginning of the season its only appropriate I kick off the preseason the only way I know how...with a top 25!  

1. Florida
2. OSU
3. Oklahoma
4. LSU
5. Mizzou
6. Georgia
7. USC
8. WVU
9. Clemson
10. Auburn
11. Wisconsin
12. Oregon
13. USF
14. BYU
15. Texas Tech
16. Penn State
17. Tennessee
18. Wake Forest
19. Texas
20. Cal
21. Arizona State
22. Cincinnati 
23. Utah
24. Illinois
25. Arizona

Justifications, false conceit, admissions of inevitable contrition, and apologies to come later today!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I Hate Notre Dame and Would Love to Personally Hand Them a Loss.

As of almost half past four, the Norwich Bulletin is reporting that Notre Dame and UConn are nearing terms for an impending "home-home" series.  The deal was originally reported to be a ten year series with the first two games played in South Bend and alternating home and home from there on.  Notre Dame would be playing their home games at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ and UConn would play their home games in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA.  Several Connecticut legislatures made a stink about this deal for obvious reasons.  They claimed there was no reason for ND to be able to weasel its way out of a game or two in Rentschler.  Why, they asked, would UConn want to play a home game so far away from home?

I hate Notre Dame.  I cannot stress that enough.  I really, truly, deeply, fucking hate Notre Dame.  With a burning, white hot, sexual passion.  They are an arrogant and delusional fan base who their failures for much of the past 15 years with such cliches as "tradition", "honor", and other shit that hasn't been relevant since the first time your parents fucked.  

It pains me to say this.  But playing Notre Dame is the best thing that UConn could hope for.  Whether or not they play in Rentschler, Foxborough, or Mars, they will be playing in front of a national audience.  The name of the game is exposure.  The lawmakers who deride the deal as being unfair (and it sure as hell is!) fail to consider that the Huskies are still a very young program.  They've been DI for only 8 years.  8 years.  While the program has made great strides recently, especially last year's 9-4 season in which they knocked off ranked opponents for the first time ever, it is still experiencing those DI growing pains.  

By playing ND and thereby assuring themselves a Saturday afternoon on NBC, the Huskies open themselves up to a much wider recruiting base.  Most of the nation still considers the Huskies (and, on a larger scale, the Big East) a novelty, a flash in the pan type, and wonder when Edsall will leave for bigger and better things.  Playing (and beating) Notre Dame would go a long way towards dispelling the notion that UConn is a basketball school pretending it can play big boy football.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, would be sweeter than garnishing my autumn with a win over the Golden Domers.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Keeping Up With the Jonses

NJ.com- Cardinal O'Hara standout Tom Savage is expected to announce his commitment to Rutgers this afternoon. Savage is the highest rated player the Knights have recruited since Jersey boy Nate Robinson (who eventually transferred to Akron).
I'm surprised that Savage committed to RU.  He had offers from (amongst others) Penn State, Georgia, Tennessee, and UVA.  Not only does RU lack the 'tradition' [sic: money] and fan base of those schools, they lack the facilities.  I've lived in Jersey for eight years now and have been to RU on numerous occasions, I've even seen a few games there, and the campus is pathetic.  Think of Piscataway as the anti-Charlottesville.  Charlottesville is a veritable garden of Eden; Piscataway has a few trees.  
This extends even to the athletic facilities.  Schiano has been lobbying for improvements for years now, and for good reason.  You wonder why Florida snaps up Will Hill, USC grabs Antwine Perez, and FSU signs Myron Rolle?  Because RU doesn't make a very good first impression.  In order to recruit successfully you have to first look successful.  Florida does, USC does, Rutgers doesn't. 

Still, the Savage commitment is certainly a deviation from RU's historical norm.  Its even a step up from their more recent norm.  Unlikely, though, that Savage will start a new trend.  It will take more than a single blue-chipper to enable Rutgers to recruit nationally or even regionally.  While Savage ultimately lends a little bit of legitimacy to the Scarlet Knights and may even coerce another 4 or 5 star recruit towards Piscataway, it takes WINS.  Big time, nationally televised wins.  
Unfortunately, the Big East is an after thought for much of the CFB world and seldom gets to prove the nay-sayers wrong.  Bowl season offers the conference (by which I mean WVU) a chance to prove itself, but the regular season is where respect is earned.  Auburn comes to Morgantown this year, Cincinnati plays OU,  USF plays Kansas, Pitt plays ND, and Cuse plays PSU and Notre Dame.  Rutgers on the other hand plays Morgan State, UNC, Howard, and Fresno State.  Talk about not doing yourself any favors.
8-5 seasons and International Bowl berths will not move Rutgers into the national spotlight.  They need ten win seasons and prime time bowl berths in order to score points with recruits and garner "elite" status.  Beating WVU would be a huge step towards the elite, but playing legitimate OOC opponents is absolutely critical.  Not only do those games score brownie points with the all important MSM, but they expose foreign locales to the program.  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette- The Wannstache wants more cowbell...errr...spring practice.  With so many roster holes left to fill, Wannstadt feels that he needs more time.  That happens when you lose three starters from your o-line, including two first day (if not first round) draft picks.  
On the plus side, the article states that Bill Stull has begun to establish himself as the starting quarterback.  Stull must entrench himself firmly in this role in order for Pitt to go bowling.  While the Panthers have one of the Big East's most talented array of skill players (wide recievers Oderrik Turner, Derek Kinder, and incoming uber-recruit John Baldwin and running backs LeSean McCoy, Larod Stephens-Howling, and Shariff Harris) it all amounts to nothing if they can't find someone to give them the ball...or, for that matter, keep that person standing up.

AP- Three US Representatives want the US Justice Department to investigate the BCS for violating antitrust laws.  Oh yeah, those Reps are from Georgia, Idaho, and Hawaii.  Hmm...who has the BCS slighted from those states?  Oh yeah, The University of Georgia (2007), Boise State University (2006), and The University of Hawaii (2007).  I wonder what happened to the Reps from Alabama and Utah.  

I don't expect this investigation to so much as get off the ground.  Looks to be classic pork-barrel politics.  We're approaching a national election and here we have three US Representatives looking to both gain a little bit of national exposure and regional favor.  Oh yeah, that and its a waste of fucking time for the Justice Department.

Preseason Look Ahead- Louisville

Tennessee opened 2005 ranked third in the nation. This was a team that had all of the makings of a national champion. They were led by two experienced quarterbacks, senior Rick Clausen and sophomore and stud-to-be Erik Ainge, featured the only two running backs ever to rush for 1000 yards in the same season in UT history (Gerald Riggs and Cedric Houston), a talented young corps of wide receivers featuring Brett Smith, Jayson Swain, and future first round pick Robert Meachem. While the offense was shaping up to be great, the defense was shaping up to be truly special.

The defensive line featured standouts Jesse Mahelona, Justin Harrell, and Turk McBride. Kevin Simon and Dallas Cowboys starter Kevin Burnett led the linebackers. NFL Draft picks John Wade, Jason Allen, and John Hefney roamed the secondary.

What happened once the season kicked off with UAB is history. Ainge looked harried and rushed and his receivers couldn’t catch a cold, a theme that would repeat itself throughout the season. The defense did all it could to bail out an anemic offense en route to a narrow 17-10 win. The Vols would end the season 5-6, the only losing season in Phil Fulmer’s tenure.



Such was the case, to a much lesser degree, with the Louisville Cardinals last season. They opened the season ranked 12 in the country and a favorite to win the Big East and possibly even challenge for a berth in the national championship.

Murray State came to Louisville on August 30, the game played out much like you’d expect it to. That next week though, something very interesting happened. Middle Tennessee State (pause for a moment, let that sink in) posted 554 yards and 42 points on the U of L defense. They scored on plays of 78, 23, 24, 39, 1, and 79 yards. Not only did the Cardinals surrender points in bunches, they flat out broke down and gave up big play after big play after big play. This knack for giving up big plays would continue throughout the season. Hell, even Syracuse scored on plays of 79, 93, 42, 60, 26, and 17 yards.

Brian Brohm’s brilliance, consistent and thorough as it was, was not quite enough to outscore opponents (and that was Louisville’s game plan in a nutshell: score a shitload of points and hope for the best). Even in the Cardinal’s most stunning defeats, Brohm shined. In the aforementioned loss to Syracuse (once again, let that sink in for a minute) Brohm threw for 555 yards and completed passes to 10 different receivers.

The numbers Brohm accumulated were astounding; throwing for 335 ypg and 30 touchdowns on the season en route to finishing 8th in the nation in passing efficiency. Unfortunately those numbers were overshadowed by the sheer horror that was the defense.



Brohm is gone and with him his top four pass catchers (including All Big East picks Harry Douglas and Gary Barnidge, in addition to Mario Urrutia, and Patrick Carter). The losses on defense aren’t quite as significant; they lose four of their top ten tacklers and 24.5 tfl’s from last year. But when your defense surrenders over 420 yards per game, maybe that’s not such a terrible thing.



In spite of some fairly significant losses, the offense shouldn’t miss much of beat in their second year under Steve Kragthorpe. Hunter Cantwell takes the reigns from the departed Brian Brohm. And while Cantwell cannot be expected to match the stellar numbers that became the norm under Brohm, his experience and leadership does not lend itself to too much of a drop off.

For most of the season, the Louisville offense was completely and utterly one-dimensional. The per game averages are extremely misleading in this case, the numbers show a modestly lopsided 146 rushing ypg and 341 passing ypg. These numbers held up through the first three weeks of the season as the team passed for an average of 157 more yards than they ran. At that point Kragthorpe must have lost the “Running Plays” section of his play book because (other than a win over NC State, the most balanced game Louisville played all year) from then until the come from behind win against Rutgers to close the season, Louisville averaged 268 more passing yards than rushing yards. Imbalance was a cruel bitch for the Cardinals last year, as they went 1-7 in games in which rushing yards accounting for less than 40% of their total offense.

The Cardinal’s offensive imbalance was largely similar to that suffered by South Carolina (145 more passing ypg than rushing), Duke (143 more passing ypg), and Kansas State (152 more passing ypg). To be sure, none of those teams are very good. In fact Duke is really bad.

There was really no explanation for Louisville’s pass happy attack. Eric Wood and George Busey were All Big East picks along the O-line, and Anthony Allen, George Stripling, Bilal Powell et al were (and are, save Allen who has elected to transfer) capable running backs. Likewise, there is no reason to expect that trend to continue. Kragthorpe’s Tulsa teams were meticulously balanced; from 2001-06 his teams averaged only 39 more passing ypg than rushing.

Given Kragthorpe’s past tendencies and necessity (so many experienced running backs, so few experienced running backs). Look for an offensive predicated on 40-45 rush attempts per game and a wholesome number of screens and dump off passes into the flats. The strengths of the offense are painfully obvious: run, run, run, and run.



The strengths of the defense, however, are a little less obvious. In fact, the defense may not have any strengths. "It's hard to be positive about this performance today," defensive coordinator Ron English said of an April 5th scrimmage. (www.courier-journal.com)

The 95-play scrimmage began with both the first and second team offense on their own one-yard line. In spite of the field position, Cantwell led four consecutive scoring drives. Brock Bolen opened the scrimmage with a 34 run and Cantwell punctuated the drive with a 45-yard pass. Matt Simms and the second team scored even faster as Simms connected with Troy Pascaly for a 99-yard touchdown. English has yet to correct the defense’s unusual propensity for surrendering big plays. Over/under on pursuit drills done by the defense per practice until the spring game: 75. I’m going with the over

The Louisville Courier-Journal summarized the defense’s performance by saying this: “the defense struggled to contain runs on the outside, cover receivers and pressure the quarterback.” The editor apparently thought that sounded better than: “The defense can’t do anything right”.

Depth at linebacker might be at the heart of Louisville’s Achilles heel (anatomically nonsensical metaphor-score!). The top four linebackers are all gone (as is Willie Williams). The projected starters are a Miami transfer, a JUCO transfer, and a converted safety who has been described as “unremarkable” by the Courier-Journal. The inexperience at LB may or may not be a good thing, to be totally honest. Do you really want to return anyone from last year’s defense?



Way Too Early Prognostications

Projected Wins: Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Kansas State, Memphis, MTSU, Syracuse

Projected Losses: South Florida, Pitt, WVU, Cincinnati,

Swings: Rutgers

Thursday, April 3, 2008

I Don't Like Rutgers' Chances

Rutgers needed a 12th game on their schedule and they found it.  The Knights will play Fresno State at home to open their season on Sept. 1.  

Now I needn't tell you, educated reader, that this will be no cake walk for the Knights.  For starters, Fresno is a damn good team and is one of the mid-major darlings heading into the season.  This was a team who finished the season at 9-4 with a BIG win over Georgia Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl.  In the second week of the season, the Bulldogs took Texas A&M to the wire before losing by two.  

Fresno's offense could be an absolute nightmare for Rutgers, who is facing the season without their two best defense men (DT Eric Foster and S Ron Girault).  The offense begins with rising senior QB Tom Brandster, who's coming off of a season in which he was efficient at worst.  Brandster didn't throw multiple interceptions in any one game and in fact closed out the season with four consecutive games without a pick (oh yeah and his yardage totals for those games: 209, 313, 205, and 285...that last one against hard charging Georgia Tech).  Pat Hill's offense revolves around the nation's 14th ranked rush offense.  Scary to think that FSU returns almost 40 of their 43.3 rush attempts per game. 

Fresno's defense kind of sucked though.  They surrendered 27.7 points per game, although much of that can be attributed to playing Hawaii, Boise State, Oregon (before Dennis Dixon had the peg leg installed), and Texas A&M.  Lucky for FSU, Rutgers' offense probably won't light up too many scoreboards without Ray Rice.  Honestly, Teel has never proven to be a very bright QB and the yardage numbers he and WRs Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt posted can pretty much be chalked up to teams stacking the box in vain attempts to stop Rice.  That and losing three of five starters from one of the nation's most underrated lines won't help.

RU has the next week off before playing host to North Carolina.  Take note UConn fans: UNC will be a scary ass game.  The Heels return surprising effective QB TJ Yates amonst EVERY OTHER SKILL PLAYER OF SIGNIFICANCE.  The rushing nucleus of Greg White and Anthony Little could be one of the nation's most improved this year.

Navy...no Paul Johnson, no chance.  Like Navy has real life DI athletes, please.

And then comes WVU, Cincy, UConn, and Pitt.

Pending upon whether or not Rutgers schedules Howard between Navy and WVU, they could start the season 1-6.  3-4 would be the best case scenario for the Knights.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Keeping Up with the Joneses- National Edition

Gatorsports.com- Nothing of any real relevance to UConn or Big East fans in this video.  I just enjoy watching anything I can on this potential [sic: certain] juggernaut of a team.  
From HC Urban Meyer's comments it seems, for now, that the disappointment of Emmanuel Moody has only been eclipsed by the maturation of Chris Rainey.  While he didn't see much playing time last year (registering one 10 yard catch, a 22 yard punt return, and a 39 yard kick return) he has potential to excel in Coach Meyer's spread; at 5'9 and (listed around) 165 lbs, Rainey possesses Harvin-eqsue size, speed, and moves.  

Whether or not Moody comes to grips with the offense (Hey-what's this shotgun bullshit?) looks to be of little consequence for the Gators.  Sports Illustrated and ESPN touted USC's RB corp as being as talented and as deep as any in recent memory, but Florida's, while less heralded, looks to be better.  Mon Williams, Bo Williams, Keshtan Moore, Chris Rainey, Brandon James...oh yeah, and Percy Fucking Harvin.  Moody is just icing on the cake there, gentlemen.

Cornelius Ingram and Bristol native Aaron Hernandez have made strides enough to warrant implementing a double-tight package.  And Cam Newton has improved much from last year, meaning that Meyer can use Newton to spell Tebow much like he used Tebow to spell Leak in 2007.

Synopsis of post:  Gators=pwnzrs

Hurricane Sports- Freshman linebackers Sean Spence and Arthur Brown dominated the scrimmage, tallying two picks and eight tackles and a pick respectively.  As a unit the defense notched three interceptions and six sacks, as well as limiting sophomore quarterback Robert Marve to 93 yards on 10-22 passing.  Former Miami Northwestern standout QB Jacory Harris didn't fare much better, completing 53% of his passes for 64 yards and -17 yards rushing.  

This means one of two things: either Miami's defense is back to its 1990's form and Arthur Brown and Sean Spence are the next John Vilma and DJ Williams or OC Pat Nix still sucks at coaching.  

I'm with the latter, post later this week detailing why.

Mississippi State-  I'll bet no spring game in history has ever ended 6-0.  How very MSU.  
Apparently sophomore QB Wesley Carroll has adapted well to their new "Possum" offense.

Sportsline.com- Joe Paterno may be the only person around State College who ISN'T worried about his contract.  

"I don't even care if I get a contract.  I'll be very frank with you," Paterno said his eyes blazing with the passionate fire of the steel mill in which he was born.  

This off-season is shaping up to be one messy motherfucker for Penn State.   

Friday, March 28, 2008

Maybe UConn Should Run from the Bone...

DJ Hernandez, Ellis Gaulden, and Brad Kanuch will all miss spring practice in its entirety (or at best, the majority of it).  So thin are the Huskies' at WR that Coach Edsall has taken to trying CB Darius Butler at wideout.  

While this is not what anyone wants to see happen, especially considering that improving the passing game is a top priority for Edsall, it is ultimately irrelevant.  Hernandez has suffered a sprained ankle, Gaulden an unspecified left foot injury, and Kanuch an unspecified quadriceps injury; none of those injuries have warranted surgery (as all three have been working on rehab assignments with the S&C staff) and none will sideline anyone beyond spring.  By all means this untimely rash of injuries is a nuisance, but little more than that.  In fact, the extra practice reps for the Moores and Butler may benefit the team in the long run.  With the transfer of Terrance Jeffers the Huskies are short on experience (and fast) WR's.  Outside of the top two returning WRs, Hernandez and Kanuch, the Huskies return only 52 catches...only 5 of which were credited to a returning wideout.  

Giving the young guys some extra practice time and Butler's a fantastic athlete and he may well play himself into the third or fourth WR spot.  God knows this teams is hurting for a solid deep threat.

In the long run though, these injuries don't make much of a difference on the outlook for the coming season.  Unless someone (Kashif Moore, Butler, Kanuch? Who knows?) steps up in a big, big way and provides Lorenzon with a legitimate deep threat the offense will be predicated on the sturdy and capable legs of Andre Dixon and Donnie Brown and the efficient, albeit not spectacular, passing of Lorenzon.


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Keeping Up with the Joneses- OMG PRYOR!!!!!11! Edition

SMQ- Mr. SMQ has an excellent look at Pitt up on his site.  The only thing Mr. SMQ fails to mention is the frequent and sustained idiocy that is Dave Wannstedt.  Unfortunately even the Wannstache can't stymie the damned awesome that is Lesean McCoy, who will be a bastard for Big East defenses for years to come.  

Cincinnati Enquirer- OSU, Jim Delany, and Gordon Gee are douche bags.  Ohio State has decided to move their 2012 game from Paul Brown Stadium to Columbus.  The contract, signed when Cincy was still a member of Conference USA and therefore lacking any and all negotiating leverage, does in fact stipulate that OSU can essentially play the game where they damn well please.  

Brian Kelly wants to play Ohio State annually, something OSU clearly has zero interest in.  Kelly intends on becoming "such a pain in Jim Tressel's butt that sooner or later he's going to go 'We have to do something about it or move out of the state."  Later that day, Kelly was heard mumbling something along the lines of, "taking that fucker's [Tressel's] job, when he's busy chauffering Meyer around fucking Gainesville."

Syracuse.com- Orange O-line coach wants his unit to lose weight, or else.  

If you're going to lose every game by three scores you may as well look good while you do it.

And finally...

Sportsline.com- All-World QB and general dick head Terrelle Pryor has committed to play for Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes.  

In other news, Michigan fans hate sour grapes.