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.

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

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.