First impressions of college football 2009

An enjoyable first weekend of college football is almost done (OK there are two games today)

Impressive wins
Alabama over Virginia Tech
Baylor at Wake Forest
Oklahoma State over Georgia
William and Mary at Virginia

Margins of victory I didn't see coming
Mizzou pounding illinois
Purdue whipping Toledo

What were the coaches thinking?
Two awful coaching decisions in the Ohio State-Navy game. Jim Tressel had a chance in the fourth quarter to take a field goal that would have put the Buckeyes up by three possessions and effectively ended the contest. Instead OSU went for it on fourth and two and took the ball out of Pryor's hands. Navy made the stop and quickly made the game VERY interesting.

Navy was impressive in getting the game back to a two point margin, wisely went for two, but then called a passing play! Navy runs a fantastic ball control triple option that gives you all kinds of choices on running plays. Why go away from your bread and butter with the game on the line?

Nice to have choices at Quarterback
Look no further than Oklahoma's new quarterback situation to understand the importance of having at least two quality options at the position. Michigan State and Michigan both have that luxury so it appears. Isn't it ironic that one of the QBs-Keith Nichol of Michigan State-is the guy that Bradford narrowly beat out for the OU starting gig two years ago? Oklahoma would certainly be 1 and o if Nichol was still on the team.

The don't read too much into it results
Ohio State's close victory over Navy- Navy is a solid college football program and they run a unique offense that is difficult to prepare for and defend. This game was never going to be a 20 point blowout. Next week is the true measuring stick for the Bucks.

Iowa's close shave against Northern Iowa- The Panthers were a 1-AA (I refuse to call it the silly name) semifinalist a year ago and beyond pumped for the chance they almost cashed in on at Kinnick Stadium. Iowa shoud be just fine and a blowout victory this coming weekend against Iowa State will be just what the doctor ordered.

Notre Dame's shutout of Nevada- The stats are impressive and the hype is back in South Bend, but let's wait and see how the next two weeks go before we give Jimmy Clausen the Heisman trophy.

Cause for major concern
Oregon's non existent offense
illinois' pathetic defense
Colorado's offense (Coach Hawkins- I think your guys should play intramurals brother)
Sam Bradford's injury

Worst non-calls or blown calls of the weekend (that I saw with my own eyes)
1) The missed facemask call in the NC State/South Carolina game cost the Wolfpack a real chance at pulling out the win.

2)An awful pass interference call against an Ole Miss DB who got shoved from behind by a Memphis wide receiver...

3) A missed helmet to helmet that should have been called against Colorado State when hitting a defenseless Colorado receiver. Not only was this call not made, but the hit resulted in a fumble and turnover. Hitting is a part of the game-I get it-but if this rule is a point of emphasis, get it right, and they should be able to review it...

Welcome back to college football
The Washington Huskies put up a fair fight against LSU, and it is good to see new energy in Seattle after a number of down years.

Pick 'em
I went 7-3 on my first weekend. (Losses by Oklahoma, illinois, and Wake Forest)

Kickoff is here!

I honestly don't know how often I will blog this season, but I want to get a few rambling thoughts out about college football season 2009 which is less than two hours away! I still LOVE
to watch as many games as possible, but I don't spend time analyzing strengths and weaknessses, schemes, and strategies. I just love the competition and the drama of it all. Here are a few broad stroke predictions.

I am picking Texas to win it all. Pasadena will serve as their championship destination once again...

Florida will miss their best player from the past few years- it is not Tim Tebow. His name is Percy Harvin and he now wears purple for the Minnesota Vikings. Tebow is a great team leader, but Harvin's speed and all around contributions will not be replaced.

Thumbs up to Alabama for the second straight year scheduling a tough opponent on week one! The win over Clemson was a launching pad last year, expect a tough low scoring game against VA Tech. I wish more schools would play meaningful non conference games, but it may not happen in full measure until the awful BCS system is changed.

The Big Ten will be a little better than it has been in recent years (except any school from the state of Indiana). There is no doubt the SEC has an overall higher quality of play, but just once, I want to see any SEC team play on the road in November at a Big Ten stadium, or in a bowl game for that matter. Snow, cold, and ice can neutralize speed, and it's the way football was meant to be played!!!!!

Lou Holtz is smoking something. Notre Dame will not be undefeated, and I'm talking just September, let alone the whole season!

Kudos to Minnesota for finally moving outdoors and on campus...

Preseason polls have and always will be hogwash. Let's wait until mid October for the first rankings please!

I am in a pick 'em league just for kicks where ESPN assigns ten games a week to pick and then we rank in order of our confidence level.

I do not remember the order, but my week one picks are:

Ohio State over Navy
LSU over Washington
Oklahoma over BYU
Cal over Maryland
OK State over Georgia
Wake Forest over Baylor
illinois over Mizzou
Stanford over Washington State
Alabama over Va Tech
Minnesota over Syracuse


Green colored glasses: I always declare my bias as my blood is Michigan State GREEN. The schedule maker was very kind to Sparty this year. No Ohio State, and Penn State at home. The turning point game will be the Big Ten opener at Wisconsin, if they can win there, it could be a very good season in East Lansing.

Strike up the band and let the games begin!

Charlie Hustle is a Hall of Famer

This past weekend another baseball Hall of Fame class was inducted in Cooperstown, New York. It included Jim Rice who was dominant in his era and deserved to be in long ago, and Rickey Henderson who was always good for a quote, and an outstanding baseball player with pure speed. Reports say that Hank Aaron has commissioner Bud Selig's ear and is nudging Selig to consider finally reinstating Pete Rose. I believe that Rose should be reinstated, only for the purpose of induction to the Hall of Fame. He should be barred from managing and anything to do with the day to day operations of a team, however to me the Hall of Fame is about the greatest to ever play the game, and Pete Rose is one of them. When they change the name to the Baseball Honor Society I will have a different opinion. Until then I say Pete Rose is a Hall of Famer for what he did ON the field as a player, but I fear that even after a possible reinstatement the egos of the baseball writers association will still not elect him.

Going for two

"On the banks of the Red Cedar..."

I attended my first New Year's Day bowl to ring in 2009. My alma mater Michigan State played the Georgia Bulldogs in the Capital One Bowl at Orlando's old Citrus Bowl Stadium. There is nothing better to me than the kickstep entrance of the Spartan Marching band and singing the fight song in person. It had been way too long since I had seen a game in person (the previous game was when this senior class were true freshmen in their very first game) and even though we were consensus underdogs (rightfully so) the program is on an upswing and I wanted to support the team. The Spartans had some early chances, but only came away with field goals from deep in the red zone, and the bottom line is an inferior team must score touchdowns to pull off an upset.

I love Mark Dantonio who has now been the coach for two years. He has restored class, stability, and about as much discipline as any college coach can to the program. However he provded me a a bloggable moment when he decided to go for a two point conversion with over 8 minutes to go in the game. MSU trailed 17-6, when senior Javon Ringer scored a touchdown making it 17-12. The Spartan team had completed an excellent drive and had momentum the fans were into it, the band, was into it, the team was into it and upset was within reach...and then...I saw the quaterback stay on the field and I stood up and yelled "No, it's way too early!" State went for two, and threw an incomplete pass that wasn't even close. A football version of a buzz kill. I say with that much time left you kick the extra point, you keep the momentum going and energy level up, an extra point is a positive play but a missed two point try leaves an unnecessary cloud of doubt. I wish coaches would burn those cards tehy have that tell them when to go for two. The situation and the feel of the game must be taken into account. Now if Georgia had come down and scored a field goal, MSU would have trailed by eight instead of seven. It was way to early to go for two, and I hope coaches will learn that an extra pont is a good play. Go for two only when absolutely necessary.

Monday Night Football...the experience

I had the good fortune to attend three sporting events in person in the past month plus. The first happened on the Monday night after Thanskgiving when my friend Steve invited me to join him for the Carolina Panthers/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game (I benefitted from an 8:30 start time because it was too late for his elementary aged son to stay up!). Both teams were 9 and 3 at the time and the atmosphere was electric. I enjoy the NFL a lot, but the fan experience is usually a bit lacking compared to the pomp and circumstance of college games. Not on that night. Knowing that the divsion title and playoffs would be a lot easier to achieve with a victory the energy in the stadium was at a high level all night. Quaterback Jake Delhomme has a silly local cell phone commercial in which he muses about seats should be called seats they should be called "sit occassionalies". Well the whatever-you-choose-to call-thems must have been the coldest things in the stadium because the entire crowd stood for at least 90 percent of the game. Running backs Deangelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran up and down and all around and it led to a big Panthers win...a few weeks later a division title and first round bye were secured and Tampa did not win another game. The fans had a sense of the moment. To finish it off their aren't too many people I know who can say they live in walking distance of an NFL stadium, so I walked home intoxicated by the experience (and the Coke I drank during the game).

WWNT? Happy birthday basketball!

What Would Naismith Think? Today is the birthday of basketball. Dr. James Naismith put up the peach baskets on this day 117 years ago. A soccer ball was actually used at the time which is ironic because professional soccer wishes it had the popularity of basketball in the United States. I wonder what the Canadian clergyman think of the economics, athleticism, and "Madness" the game has eveolved into? I would like to thank him for this great game and hope at least one college or pro team wins with a point total of 117 tonight!

A "fine" day for a league office

It is not often in professional sports that league offices right a wrong. Usually after a referee makes a bad call that costs a team a game there is a hollow apology made the next day, but the result still stands. Kudos to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for rescinding the $7,500 fine that league officials had given to Justin Tuck of the New York Giants. Tuck made a textbook football play that any Pop Warner or Junior Football League coach would be proud of. He came up the middle and hit Cowboys quarterback Brooks Bollinger square on but was wrongly fined in the name of overprotecting the quarteback position. The game is still football-a contact sport. I give credit to the NFL and the commissioner for due process and admitting they made a mistake and checking their ego at the door. Common sense prevailed. Maybe Bud Selig and David Stern can take lessons and apply it in their sports.