Saturday Football Fever

Today’s post is an homage to some of the idiots of college football.

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.

Filed under: Misc News and Thoughts

Tags: big 10, big 12, bo schembechler, charlie weis, cincinnati bearcats, conference usa, davon house, mark emmert, matt mauk, michigan wolverines, mountain west, nebraska cornhuskers, new mexico state aggies, notre dame fighting irish, pac 10, san diego state aztecs, stanford cardinal, tyrone willingham, wac, washington huskies

The question was posed to me today – “Can Georgia Tech succeed in the ACC running the triple option that Paul Johnson employed at Navy?”

I say yes it can.

Just about any offense can succeed in college football if you have the right players, the right coaching and excellent execution (except for the West Coast offense…but that’s another story).

We already know that Johnson can coach. Anyone who can make Navy football semi-relevant again has to have some coaching skills. He doesn’t have the perfect players to run the triple option, but that is easily remedied through recruiting (which will take a few years). And once he’s go the players, it’s simply a matter of repetition and good coaching and they will have the execution part down as well. So yes, you can succeed running the triple option.

The big knocks against the triple option are that A) you can’t recruit players for that offense (i.e. no one wants to play in that offense) and B) there is too much speed in the major BCS conferences to be successful.

The first point is ridiculous. Go watch any 5 high school games in your area on any given Friday night. You know what kind of offense they are running? A variation of the triple option. Nebraska was able to recruit top high school players to run that offense until they stopped running it in 2004. There are always going to be good players who will fit into and are willing to play in the triple option. And if Johnson can convince a kid to play football at Navy (and thus, enroll in the service) then I think he can convince a kid to come to Georgia Tech (despite the 600:1 guys to girls ratio).

The second point is even more ridiculous. Nebraska was successful up through 2003 (they won 10 games and even played in the 2001 BCS championship game) running a variation of triple option. The Big 12 has lots of speed and Nebraska was successful. If the speed thing were true, then all those spread options would fail as well. They are both based on the quarterback’s ability to read the defense and either pitch the ball or run with it. With the right QB, you can neutralize much of the speed issue with any iteration of the option.

What it boils down to is that Johnson can flat out coach, he’ll get the players to run the option and he’ll be successful in the ACC running the triple option.

If you don’t believe me, remember this: everyone said that Urban Meyer’s spread option wouldn’t work in the SEC because of all the speed on defense.

And I think things have turned out pretty well for Urban Meyer and his Gators thus far.

Filed under: Conference News

Tags: acc, bcs, florida gators, georgia tech yellow jackets, national championship, navy midshipmen, nebraska cornhuskers, paul johnson, sec, spread option, triple option, urban meyer, west coast offense

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.

Filed under: Conference News, Spring Practice

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