Sporting Fools
Sporting Fools
Sporting Fools
Sporting Fools
Friday, November 11, 2005
Pre-Game ChatterThis story from the Washington Post [link] is a little inaccurate because Spurrier has faced the Gators before, as an assistant coach with Georgia Tech in 1979.
This AP story says that [link] Georgia will be pulling hard for their old nemesis because it makes the Bulldog's evening date with Auburn much easier. A South Carolina win gives Georgia the SEC East title.
"It's all pretty interesting," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "Well, I've got no problem cheering for Spurrier unless I'm playing him. And Auburn is going to rooting for Alabama? I'm sure that's for one day only. I doubt they'll be wearing red underneath their uniforms."
As for the Bowden Bowl, it's no more Mr. Nice Dad...It's been two years since a poor FSU performance saved Tommy Bowden's job in Clemson and a week since an equally poor performance saved Chuck Amato's job at N.C. State, thankfully no one else on the schedule is feeling the heat.
However the Bowden Bowl is becoming the the Bowden's burden...Someone has to lose, someone has to hurt and surprisingly, it's not the coaches. It's the woman who loves them both...Ann Bowden...
"Sunday morning, somebody is hurting," Tommy Bowden said. "It's going to be her husband. It's going to be her youngest son, (FSU offensive coordinator) Jeff, or it's going to be her favorite son, me.
"There's going to be pain. You see blood hurting, be it the father, the husband or son, probably more so the sons. There's pain for somebody nationally -- TV, radio, Internet. I think it reflects on her.
"We get paid well to hurt. She doesn't."
What about me? I hurt...I hurt when I watch FSU lay eggs like they did last week...Where's the solace for me.
Anyway, I should clarify myself on this whole Weatherford vs. Rix thing. I'll say that Chris Rix was the biggest pain in the ass to watch on TV...He did boneheaded things that were doubly annoying because he had the tools. Weatherford doesn't really have the tools so his mistakes should be more understandable.
But the problem is that he's making mistake because he doesn't have the tools. He can't avoid the rush, he can't sling the ball down the field. Rix could always break off of a run or just wing the ball 60 yards and get lucky. The luck element isn't there with Drew (unless you count dropped interceptions). He made a nice play against Maryland, but that's not something you can count on every day.
I might do something more on this later and add in the numbers. The numbers tell a story, it's a little depressing, but unlike Rix, I still have faith that Drew will improve.
Blogpoll This Week
Here's the poll.
Here's my ballot.
First questions first: Why Miami over Texas? Because I think Miami has the ability to be the best in the nation when they feel like it. Problem is they are generally a lazy team that half-asses it 70% of the time. Sad thing is that Miami's half-ass efforts can beat almost anyone's total efforts.
Doesn't mean it was a cut and dry decision. I agonized over it for a few hours, but people do silly stuff like place Alabama 9th and USC 7th so I figured I can have one area of controversy.
Otherwise UCLA took a major plunge and Virginia Tech and Florida State did to a less extent. Penn State rose significantly.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Boring BeltwayBut there girls are!
And a word on Free speech
Baltimore, Md.: Tony Kornheiser was complaining on the radio today that he couldn't write about the Carolina Panthers' cheerleaders because The Post had not written a story on it first. His premise was that he could not comment on a newsworthy item unless the readers of The Post were first made aware of that news in the Post itself. Apparently, we readers don't have the wherewithall to learn things in the media outside the confines of The Washington Post. Is this "policy" common to all columnists at The Post?
Gene Weingarten: No. I can't believe you heard him right. That makes no
sense.
Full link here.
It's a sad day in the business when one of our good columnists can't write about the sexual escapades of NFL lesbian cheerleaders.
I bet it would've been in the Post had they been WNBA players.
Advice for the former Top Cats...time to leak a sex tape :)
Monday, November 07, 2005
The Bowl Picture...We'll start with the Southeastern Conference first since they have all the best bids...Everything will pretty much be decided this weekend with LSU-Alabama, Auburn-Georgia and to a lesser extent Florida-South Carolina.
So let's start with the possibilities.
If LSU and Georgia win: Georgia clinches the East, LSU all but clinches the west (they still have Arkansas and Ole Miss left) and the winner of that SEC final would go to the Sugar Bowl while the loser goes Citrus (Capital One). The winner of Florida-South Carolina will probably get the Peach Bowl. Alabama-Auburn winner will take the Outback Bowl and the loser will probably go to the Cotton Bowl.
If Alabama and Auburn win: The Iron Bowl will be for the SEC West title and Florida could take the East with a over over South Carolina, a loss will give the East to Georgia. Winner of SEC final goes to Sugar and the loser might go to the Citrus, but the Citrus could also choose Georgia early. LSU would probably go to the Peach and the loser of the SEC championship game could go to the Cotton Bowl. The Iron Bowl loser probably gets the Outback. But this is a tough scenario.
If Alabama and Georgia win: They will play in the SEC final, winner gets Sugar or Rose (in Alabama's case), loser gets Citrus unless they can sneak into an at-large BCS. Winner of South Carolina-Florida goes to the Peach Bowl. Cotton will take LSU and Outback will take Auburn.
If LSU and Auburn win: Florida can clinch East win with over South Carolina, LSU needs to win final two games for West title. Winner goes to Sugar, loser probably settles for Cotton. Georgia will return to the Outback Bowl and Iron Bowl winner probably gets Citrus while loser gets Peach. If Florida loses to South Carolina than revert to the 'if LSU and Georgia win' text.
Other conferences are considerably easier.
ACC: Florida State has clinched the Atlantic Division title while Miami has to win its final three games (at Wake Forest, Virginia and Georgia Tech) to win the Coastal. Any loss and Virginia Tech will win the Coastal. Winner of ACC title game goes to Orange Bowl or slim shot at Rose (if Miami).
Virginia Tech will probably grab the Gator Bowl since most expect FSU to lose to Miami and I doubt the Gator Bowl wants the Seminoles for the third time in five years. The Tire Bowl will get first choice between Boston College, Georgia Tech, Virginia or North Carolina.
Big 10+1: Penn State has the inside track to the Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State could get the at large in the Sugar Bowl if they can win at Michigan. If Michigan wins I think they will get Citrus and OSU gets the Outback. The odd team out appears to be Wisconsin who, despite beating Michigan, might be headed to the Alamo.
Minnesota, Northwestern and Michigan State should all be bowl eligible and will end up at the Sun, Music City and Motor City bowl games.
Big XII: It appears that Texas and Colorado are on a "collision course" for the Big 12 title. If Texas wins out, they get to the Rose Bowl, if Colorado wins, they go to the Fiesta and Texas probably goes to the Sugar. If Colorado wins, I'll be convinced that the Big XII fixes games to guarantee themselves two BCS slots every year :).
After that it's a bit of a mess. I believe that Texas Tech will end up playing in the Cotton Bowl however and I'd be surprised if the Holiday Bowl didn't grab Oklahoma and leave the Independence Bowl for Iowa State.
Pac-10: If USC wins out they go to the Rose Bowl. If they lose to UCLA, they go to the Sugar Bowl (???) and maybe UCLA goes to the Fiesta Bowl...If the Trojans lose we are in store for clusterfuck 101, believe that. I mean EVERYTHING changes because you HAVE to put USC in a BCS game and you have to put the Pac-10 champion in one. And who suffers for this? What if USC and Texas lose...Do you put them in the Fiesta Bowl against each other, send UCLA to play in the Sugar...Miami and who?? (Penn State??) play in the Rose Bowl and where does Notre Dame ended up?
If USC wins (please win) than it becomes an interesting choice for the Holiday Bowl. Do they take UCLA or Oregon? Doesn't sound like a big deal on the surface but the loser of that bid goes to the Sun Bowl in El Paso. I have a few friends who live in El Paso and hate it. I don't know anyone that dislikes San Diego.
Big East: I saved the ugly stepchild for last. West Virginia can win out, win the Big East title and save the conference a lot of ridicule. However South Florida also controls its destiny and if an 8-3 team in just its ninth year of production makes a big bowl, it's going to be havoc and unfair havoc for USF, which has done everything right to get on the fast track in college football.
The winner of the conference will play in the Orange Bowl because...well because the Orange Bowl has to take them. Second place gets the Gator Bowl. Now if USF finishes second, the Gator Bowl might reconsider and choose FSU (if they don't win the ACC title) so that the two in-state schools can meet for the first time. That would leave Louisville to choose the Insight or return to the Liberty Bowl, the bowl they'd have in Conference USA anyway. There's also a great chance the Gator would choose Louisville vs. Va. Tech over USF vs. FSU anyway since it's a better matchup. Rutgers will go to the Liberty or Insight Bowl.
Notre Dame: The Irish win out and they should be around the top 12 and that guarantees them a BCS spot unless a major catastrophe happen. If it does they screw the Big East out of that Gator Bowl slot.
So my BCS projections (if everything goes correctly):
Rose: USC vs. Texas
Fiesta: Penn State vs. Notre Dame
Sugar: Georgia/LSU vs. Ohio State
Orange: Miami/FSU vs. Big East #1
Saturday Rewind...
Hopefully SI on campus will put me on their docket again. I loved that hit count.
Anyway I didn't watch as many games this week, but what I saw I liked.
USF-Rutgers: My Big East matinee viewed because I'm quite the USF supporter on the side. I was worried about the Bulls' conditioning because they had only played two in five weeks (thank you Hurricane Wilma), but they came out the gate and took a 21-0 lead with a couple of defensive scores. Old school Rutgers would've quit, but Greg Schiano's team got tough and actually got to 37-31 as USF began to get fatigued. But turnovers have been Jim Leavitt's best friend since he stepped onto campus at Tampa and he got six of 'em from his defense to preserve a victory. If USF runs the table, they will win the Big East and go to a BCS bowl in their ninth year of existence.
Notre Dame-Tennessee: The Volunteers haven given up on Phil Fulmer and like I've said several times over the last month, the Tennessee coach might follow his offensive coordinator out of the door. Meanwhile Notre Dame just has to show up to its final three games to get into the Fiesta Bowl. But I'm not bitter at the Irish because they deserve it this year. They had a rough schedule and came through it ok.
FSU-North Carolina St.: I'll have more to say about this when
I hand out grades (will any unit on the offense get more than D?), but it's been depressing to watch the "Rixification" of Drew Weatherford. He was absolutely terrible in the second half and Xavier Lee couldn't do much because the FSU coaches were afraid to run on a three-man front. I should use this to give credit to N.C. State, who continues to play FSU tough and use unique and different formations. Andre Brown had a WHALE of a game and the Wolfpack deserved the victory on Sunday. Meanwhile FSU will have to work hard to win anymore games this season.Alabama-Mississippi St.: I suffered through 10 minutes of this terrible game to see if Alabama can hold off Miami on my blogpoll. They can't.
Vanderbilt-Florida: Fun little game with a terrible error at the end of it. The official that called a celebration penalty on Vandy was absolute garbage. First of all this time just rallied from 14 points back on the road and the kid isn't allowed to be happy with a game-tying TD? And it wasn't even CLOSE to excessive. That ref costs Vandy a shot at going for two and basically a shot at a bowl game unless they can beat Tennessee. Officials need to understand the situation of the game. It takes away from a gusty performance from Jay Cutler and a full, all-around game from Chris Leak. Took a couple of stanzas, but I caught a lot of good stuff.
Texas A&M-Texas Tech: Many of us overrated A&M, they are a disaster and Texas Tech still has proven anything other than the fact that they score a lot.
Miami-Va. Tech: HOLY....MOLY...(You know I want to type another word inste
ad of moly), I thought it was going to be an epic battle and it turned into an epic beatdown that was so impressive the voters decided to break them past Alabama [Wire]. Miami could eventually lose a beat without Tyrone Moss, but Charlie Jones looked better than good as his replacement. Hurricanes dominated every facet of the game and taught Mike Vick a major lesson in humility. This was an "everything" game for Virginia Tech, it held their BCS, championship and conference standings in the balance and the Hokies fell out. The ultimate choke job.USC-Stanford: Only saw the first half and it was more than enough to see why USC continues to have #1 locked down.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Blogpoll Early Look...1) Southern Cal
2) Texas
3) Miami
4) Georgia
5) Alabama
6) Penn State
7) Louisiana State
8) Ohio State
9) Auburn
10) Notre Dame
Alabama has a ridiculous schedule left (LSU, Auburn and possibly Georgia) so they can move around a bit.
Texas is still an uneasy #2 and to be honest, I feel fully justified if I push Miami above them as well. But I'm going to hold off for now.
