I was getting tired of all the “Who is USC going to play in the championship game?” articles and talk.  They had only played 3 games!!  And this is a USC team that has managed to lose at least one game a year that they had no business losing the last 3 years.

You also have to consider that with the Pac-10 being in the crapper so far, whose to say that USC would have even made it to the title game after the computers chewed them up and spit them out?  There are several Big 12 and SEC teams that play tougher schedules and have the ability to run the table.  You could very well see a Big 12 – SEC title game.

Bottom line – now people can stop talking about USC’s and their automatic spot in the title game.

Post from: Saturday Football Fever

Fall of Troy

The announcers have said that Reesing was not heavily recruited by “the big boys”.   Why?

Reesing, Joe Hamilton, Pat White, Doug Flutie and others have proved time and again that height is not as important at the QB position in college as it is in the pro game.  You don’t have to be tall to be a successful QB in the NCAA.  That being the case, why don’t schools like Georgia take a shot on Reesing (5-11, 200, stats) rather than Matthew Stafford (6-3, 237, stats)?  To this point, Reesing has been the better QB, despite being 4 inches shorter than Stafford.

At some point, someone will be able to explain to me why height is such a big deal in college, despite evidence to the contrary.

Post from: Saturday Football Fever

I don’t get it

I am watching the UNC-Rutgers game on ESPN.  It’s halftime, and a segment has started up called “Dr. Lou.”  It’s Lou Holtz dishing out college football advice.

Is this for real?  He’s some of the agonizing highlights:

- He starts off stating that he gets asked all the time when is he going to retire (I hope to God its soon).  His answer “When you retire, you never get a day off.  Think about that.”  No shit?  I’ll keep that in mind, Dr. Lou.

- Pete Carroll asks about the effect that history has in these big games (like USC-OSU).  Dr. Lou’s answer:  After rambling on about some crazy guy named Jim, he boils it down for us – “History helps the team that blocks and tackles the best in a game like this.”  WTF?  Way to drop some knowledge on us, Doc.

- James Laurinatis asks how his coaches sweater vest will be received in southern California.  Dr. Lou’s response: “When I went to USC, I didn’t want wear a sweater vest, I wanted to wear a bullet proof vest.”  Was that a thinly veiled racist comment Lou?  Are you the reason Tyrone Willingham was fired from Notre Dame?

He goes on to talk about the end of the Washington vs. BYU (not sure how sweater vests got us here).  He offers an excellent suggestion (foolproof, according to the good doctor) on how to avoid controversy like what happened at the end of the game: don’t keep score.  GENIUS!!

At that point he said something about closing, but I didn’t catch it since I had gotten up to pour a drink (Lou Holtz has that effect on me).

I can’t believe that they continue to let this guy be an analyst.  As an analyst, you are expected to be able to analyze the sport (generally one that you’ve been involved in for your entire life) and offer some sort of meaningful analysis about the game, teams and players.

I am still confused as to how Holtz meets these criteria.  He and Corso are the reason why I am slowly moving away from watching ESPN’s college football coverage.

Post from: Saturday Football Fever

Dr. Lou

Notre Dame Head Coach, Charlie Weis

Weis has a standing rule with his football team: don’t provide the opposing team “bulletin board” material.  So what did Charlie Weis do this summer?  Provide Michigan with bulletin board material.  Weis is of course now back tracking, saying he did it out of respect to Bo Schembechler.  Sure.  I have a slightly different theory.  Take a look at what Weis says before the Michigan comment.  He  says that they will make a statement against San Diego State.  Sadly, the statement they made was “Notre Dame football is a giant turd”.  He goes on to talk about the excuses that Michigan will have when they arrive in South Bend.  Now Weis is making excuses for his lame ass comment.  What he’s really trying to do is cover his incredibly large ass, so that after Michigan beats Notre Dame into the ground, he’ll be able to tell people, “I said that out of respect.”  If his defensive backs could back-pedal this well, then maybe SDSU wouldn’t have put up 274 yards in the air during Notre Dame’s statement.

New Mexico State cornerback, Davon House

What did Davon do to make it on this list?  He boasted that the NMSU DB’s would be well prepared to face the Nebraska receivers, since the receivers they see in practice everyday are “10 times better than their receivers”. Smart move, Davon.  Your team has won 8 games in the last 3 seasons and you decide to give Nebraska some motivation for beating the crap out of you.  It’s like the smallest kid on the playground telling the 6-4 kid with a beard who’s repeating 8th grade for the 3rd time “Your mom’s a whore.”  Before, he would have just beaten you for the fun of it – now he’s got a good reason to beat you within an inch of your life, drag you back a few feet and beat you some more.  I’m sure Davon’s secondary mates are real excited to face the Nebraska receivers on Saturday.

Former Cincinnati QB, Matt Mauk

For the love of God, Matt, let it go.  You’re not getting another year of eligibility.

University of Washington President, Mark Emmert

If there’s one way to assure that your son will get beat up at school, it’s to ask the bullies not to beat him up.  Suddenly, he weeping and trying to protect his head as the big kids punch him and yell “Mama’s boy!”  Well, that’s basically what Emmert has done to Tyrone Willingham.  I can understand what Emmert is trying to do, but he’s only making life worse for his coach.  The average Husky fa will see this as yet another person making excuses for Willingham’s poor performance.  To be honest, I’m surprised Washington hasn’t shown much improvement since he arrived.  He did much more with much less at Stanford and he had a respectable record at Notre Dame (basically the same record as Charlie Weis through 3 years – just a different skin color).  You can point to the schedule as being tough (and it is brutal), but at some point, Willingham has to take some responsibility for not producing.  And having his president making excuses for him won’t help with the already blood thirsty fans.

Post from: Saturday Football Fever

Idiots