Saturday Football Fever

Mitch Mustain must be pissed.

First, he had his parents (along with some others) raise a stink about Houston Nutt at Arkansas. When he didn’t get what he wanted (namely, a new coach and a better offense), he transferred to USC. He sat out he entire year, thinking that he’d be able to land the starting job. Then spring rolls around and he gets beat out by Mark Sanchez.

From prep superstar and top recruit in the country to back-up QB for the mighty Trojans. Think he wishes he had stayed at Arkansas now that Petrino has showed up?

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Tags: arkansas razorbacks, bobby petrino, houston nutt, mark sanchez, mitch mustain, pac 10, usc trojans

Normally, I wouldn’t care about what happens in the Kansas spring game. But given their success last year on the gridiron, a little more attention will be paid to the Jayhawks this year.

I don’t think that you’ll see the same level of success from Mark Mangino and the Jayhawks again. For starters, they have a much tougher schedule this year. Their conference slate is much more difficult this season, as they play at Oklahoma and Texas and Texas Tech at home. Throw in a game at an improved (and pissed off) Nebraska and a tough game against Missouri and the Big 12 schedule is brutal. Add non-conference opponent South Florida and you can guess that Kansas won’t be 12-1 again next year.

You also have to consider that they lost a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. First team All-Americans Aqib Talib and Anthony Collins; second team All-American James McClinton; receiver Marcus Henry and leading rusher Brandon McAnderson. Even the USC’s and Ohio State’s of the world don’t bounce back easily from player attrition like that.

Finally, Reesing will have the weight of the offense and the team on his shoulders. If Reesing fails to deliver (like he did in the spring game), then Kansas will crumble. Their fate rests on his ability to take his game to a higher level. Not an easy feat.

Even if all goes poorly for Kansas this season, they’ll always be able to say they won the basketball national championship.

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Tags: anthony collins, aqib talib, big 12, brandon mcanderson, james mcclinton, kansas jayhawks, marcus henry, mark mangino, missouri tigers, nebraska cornhuskers, ohio state buckeyes, oklahoma sooners, south florida bulls, texas longhorns, texas tech red raiders, todd reesing, usc trojans

Urban Meyer took his goal of having the “fastest team in America” to new heights at this year’s spring game. He made the bold prediction that if a student from the Gator population could beat one of his players in a foot race, he’d give them a full scholarship.

After some shady race officiating, the Gator players came out on top. And Urban Meyer came up with another creative way of widening his recruiting base by having ESPN there to broadcast the whole thing.

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Tags: espn, florida gators, urban meyer

Ah, spring.

This can only mean the start of warm weather and spring games.

It’s a bittersweet time in the hearts of college football fans everywhere. Spring practice and games give us our college football fix following recruiting. But they also signal the down period in college football from May to August. Four months of rehashing recruiting and trying to figure out how the incoming freshmen will integrate into the game plans shown during the spring game.

For me, there is only one spring game that counts…Alabama’s.

Last year, with the start of the Nick Saban era, 92,000+ showed up at Bryant-Denny to watch a scrimmage. This year, 78,000+ showed up. Clearly, there is still some excitement in Tuscaloosa around Saban’s process.

The Crimson team (1st team offense, 2nd team defense) defeated the White team (2nd team offense, 1st team defense) 24-14. It was an aerial show, with John Parker Wilson throwing for 265 yards and 3 TDs.

To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of this. Has JPW improved so much that he can take over games like this? Did the loss of Simenon Castile and others decimate our secondary? We probably won’t get an answer for sure until the fall, but I know this. JPW looked more comfortable in the pocket and didn’t seem to bail out and throw off his back foot, which he did too much of last year. Add that to an offensive line that has had a year to gel and a solid running game and I think that Bama’s offense will be much improved and more consistent this year. I just can’t wait until Julio Jones and the rest of the freshmen class show up.

And that’s all I can do now. Wait for August to roll around.

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Tags: alabama crimson tide, bryant-denny, john parker wilson, julio jones, nick saban