Friday's Friggin' Awesome Film

Over @ EDSBS we love the chop block. Especially Auburn chop blocks. So here's a couple of great ones








Followed by some sweet cut blocks




And since we've had Jorvorskie Lane fever this week... the "knock a guy down 2x in one play" block (my personal favorite)

Hipness defined.

D-Mac. You could come to Dallas and play for this. You know you want to.

From WithLeather

Top non-conference games from CFN

Pete Fiutak (over at CFN) highlights some of the top non-conference games coming up this year.

A few pique our interest:




41. SMU at Texas Tech, Sept. 13
Gear it up. June Jones and SMU will have a little bit of time to warm up the engines for a game that should be one of the biggest displays of offensive fireworks this season. One thing to note: SMU was 116th in the nation in pass defense last year and gave up 473 passing yards and four touchdown passes in last year's 49-9 loss




31. USC at Virginia. Aug. 30
USC needs to use this as a tune-up before the showdown against Ohio State. In their last six road openers (Colorado in 2002, Auburn in 2003, Virginia Tech in 2004, Hawaii in 2005, Arkansas in 2006, and Nebraska in 2007), the Trojans are 6-0 against the highly-ranked teams by a combined score of 249 to 78 (41.5 to 13). This is the first meeting between the two programs.


28. Oklahoma at Washington, Sept. 13
Oklahoma's last venture into the Pacific Northwest didn't exactly go well, losing to Oregon 34-33 in one of the most controversial games in college football history. The week before the fiasco, the Sooners beat Washington in Norman.


27. Fresno State at UCLA, Aug. 30
For those of you desperate to see a sequel to the 2003 Silicon Valley Bowl, a scintillating 17-9 Bulldog win, your wish has come true. Fresno State has a good enough team to be a BCS at-large sleeper, while UCLA will be looking to come out roaring in Rick Neuheisel's opener.


19. Miami at Texas A&M, Sept. 20
Last year's showdown between the two big names was supposed to be among the biggest non-conference games of the season, but Texas A&M decided to blow off its running game in a strange 34-17 loss. Yeah, the Canes really got revenge for that 70-14 1944 loss.


12. Virginia Tech at Nebraska, Sept. 27
A rematch of the 1997 Orange Bowl, a 41-21 Husker win, it's also the first real test for Bo Pelini after starting out with Western Michigan, San Jose State and New Mexico State. With Missouri and at Texas Tech to follow, the Huskers can't afford a loss. This is the second road trip for Tech in a nasty stretch of four road games in five dates.


11. Arkansas at Texas, Sept. 13
Bobby Petrino, welcome to the old Southwest Conference days and your first really, really big game since leaving Louisville. He'll get a chance to tune up against Western Illinois and UL Monroe, and then reality sets in against the Longhorns, Alabama, Florida, at Auburn and at Kentucky, making this almost a must-win to get a little momentum going. A win for Mack Brown and Texas would likely mean a 4-0 start before dealing with the Big 12 season.


9. Tennessee at UCLA, Sept. 6
If the hoops teams play in March, will the showdown on the football field take a back seat? Tennessee got blasted at Cal in last year's opener in the first road trip against a Pac 10 team since a 30-24 win over UCLA in 1997. The Vols get a tune-up against UAB while UCLA has to get by a nasty first game against Fresno State. Beating the Bulldogs will be better than it might appear, if Rick Neuheisel can pull it off, but a win over Tennessee would really get the Bruin crowd moving. These two used to play all the time in the mid-80s and early 90s, but this battle will have even more intrigue than some of those classics.


5. Alabama vs. Clemson (in Atlanta), Aug. 30
Every once in a while, a non-conference game is just plain interesting. If Clemson is the power team it's supposed to be, it keeps the Alabama four-game regular season losing streak going. If Nick Saban's Tide program is ready to turn a corner, this would be a nice time to do it. The fan base is already nuts after one of the nation's best recruiting classes, and a win over the Tigers would send expectations through the roof. The Tide won the last meeting between the two 56-0 in 1975 and has won the last 11.


3. Auburn at West Virginia, Oct. 13
One team has mastered the spread attack, and the other is just starting to figure it out. If Auburn had Pat White, where would it be ranked? As is, West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart gets a shot to come up with a big, big win that would prove his program is among the elite of the elite. This is Auburn's toughest road test by far until ending the year at Alabama.



2. Illinois vs. Missouri (in St. Louis), Aug. 30
Who could've ever guessed that last year's 40-34 Missouri win over the Illini, with Illinois coming up with a big late comeback to make it close, would've been a battle between two teams that would've combined for 21 wins? As strange as it still might seem for the long time basketball rivals, this football showdown is far, far bigger with BCS implications.


1. Ohio State at USC, Sept. 13
It's the epic matchup of superpowers you really wanted to see over the last few seasons, and it could've been the 2007 BCS Championship game if the Trojans hadn't gagged against UCLA. These two have played each other in a slew of recent Rose Bowls, right? The last game between the two was in 1990, with USC winning 35-26. The last Rose Bowl matchup was in 1985, and the last Buckeye win over the Trojans came in the 1974 Rose Bowl. The winner will likely be the nation's No. 1 team, or at least No. 2, with full control of its national title destiny.


All quotes from Fiutak

Pryor weighs his options... still.

It would seem that Pryor still hasn't made a choice as to where he wants to play football. The Wizard of Odds has linked this morning to an article with the Pros and Cons of each school.

None of these schools are going to be a bad choice for Pryor. Each one (well coach in Michigan's case) has shown some success with a dual-threat QB like Pryor.

A small recap

OSU

Pros:
- Current leader
- Likes Tressell
- Recent success

Cons:
- Won't start right away
- Not running an offense that calls for his "athlete" abilities


Mich:

Pros:
- RichRod has come after this guy hard before arriving in Ann Arbor
- Spread offense would be optimal for his skill-set
- Could start right away

Cons:
- Mich will be in transition. This ain't good.


PSU:

Pros:
- JoePa!!!
- Family
- Need a solid QB now.
- JoePa!!!

Cons:
- Hasn't had a mobile QB since Robinson
- JoePa!!!
- PSU isn't known for top notch player development


Oregon

Pros:
- Showed much success with Dixon last year
- Offense is made for somebody like Pryor
- Smaller market away from East Coast

Cons:
- Away from family
- Never visited


Deciding Factor you ask?

JoePa!!!

Players We're Friggin' Excited about

Demarco Murray, RB Oklahoma

Murray had a breakout season for the Sooners with fellow freshman Sam Bradford. What held back Murray back from an even better season was injuries as well as having to share the backfield with Allen Patrick and a stable of other reliable backs. 2008 promises more carries for Murray behind another Stoops-put-together O-Line.

Sherman is starting quickly.

We posted the video of all that is Jorvorskie Lane the other day but hopefully he's made some more news as Mike Sherman is thinking about doing what we all know should have been done (Thanks San Antonio Express News).

Lane has good hands as a receiver as well as GREAT speed for somebody his size. The problem with having him in as a running back is that his potential is diminished by sharing the back field with Michael Goodson (not to mention whitey QB Stephen McGee. ) You'd think that having the "Thunder & Lightning" option is great, but the two rarely saw the field together. The Aggies had a very solid FB in Chris Alexander which stopped the two from sharing the field as often as could be. Alexander is gone and this really puts Lane in a good position to move into the FB mode rather seamlessly.

This and he can stop worrying about watching his cheeseburger intake.

CFB Sportscaster Offseason (part 2)

We left off the previous installment of the Offseason after learning of Brent's search for a new boy toy, Mark's root searching extravaganza, and Kirk's victory lap.

Today we bring you more


Lee Corso

Lee, Lee.... Gosh I miss your smiling face hidden by the mascot of the week. Lee usually disappears after the thing where they invite graduating seniors to some sort of combinesque event where the winners of each event get a free TV.

After that you don't see the man until College Football Live begins in late July. What does he do in that time?

He tans the bejeezus out of himself according to EDSBS. You've got to imagine that Corso heads off to some remote location and watches Dickie V the entire off-season. The two get together after the B-Ball tournament to practice and create brand new shtick as well as find a new team to bandwagon upon. Well not Dickie. He's impermanently attached to Duke and their nether regions. The rest of the offseason with those two involve merkins, Hooters, and head gear. We can't get to into it as we're a PG-13 site.



Desmond Howard

We don't really know what Desmond does to be honest. We'd like to think that he practices sweet moves to show us whenever they roll out the huge mini-field (you see what we did there?) to show us, the common fan, how teams run plays. Personally this is my favorite part of GameDay. Tons of fans that know nothing about football other than their team rules and that your team sucks. Will scream and cheer like anything Howard makes sense to them.

Most likely the offseason is spent grumbling and sulking because he still has to listen to that ***** Herbstreit. He secretly waits for the chance to clothesline him someday when Herbie lines up opposite of him. They have both said that rivalry has to be put on the side when doing commentary. But we know they're both full of poop and would kill each other in a heartbeat.


Trev Alberts
Usually doesn't talk to much as he continues to heal his face each off season. Continually sticking a foot in your mouth will do that. Also getting b-slapped by Brian Jones on each and every Crystal Ball.

After an epic fail at the hands of the gameday crew he continues hoping and waiting for CSTV to overtake all things ESPN. Hope has grown dim as Fire Mark May is now down for the count.





He also has apparently an issue with Lord Swindle.



More to come

ESPN Has the First Part of the Fall Lineup Out

ESPN has released its tenative schedule for the fall here.

If you're like us, weekday football keeps us hungry for weekend football. So it's a must, of course.

Games of note bolded

Thu., Aug. 28	NC State at South Carolina	8 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Aug. 28	Oregon State at Stanford	9 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Sept. 4	South Carolina at Vanderbilt	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Sept. 5	South Florida at UCF	7 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Sept. 11	North Carolina at Rutgers	TBD	ESPN
Wed., Sept. 17	Kansas State at Louisville	8 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Sept. 18	West Virginia at Colorado	8:30 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Sept. 19	Baylor at Connecticut	8 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Sept. 25	USC at Oregon State	9 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 2	Pittsburgh at South Florida	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Oct. 3	Cincinnati at Marshall	8 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 9	Clemson at Wake Forest	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Oct. 10	Louisville at Memphis	8 p.m.	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 16	Florida State at NC State	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 23	Auburn at West Virginia	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Oct. 30	South Florida at Cincinnati	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Nov. 6	Maryland at Virginia Tech	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Nov. 13	Virginia Tech at Miami	TBD	ESPN
Fri., Nov. 4	Cincinnati at Louisville	8 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Nov. 20	Miami at Georgia Tech	TBD	ESPN
Thu., Nov. 27	Texas A&M at Texas	8 p.m.	ESPN
Fri., Nov. 28	West Virginia at Pittsburgh	Noon	ABC
Fri., Nov. 28	UCLA at Arizona State	9:30 p.m.	ESPN2
Thu., Dec. 4	Louisville at Rutgers	TBD	ESPN
Sat., Dec. 6	Pittsburgh at Connecticut	TBD	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat., Dec. 6	South Florida at West Virginia	TBD	ESPN or ESPN2

USF-UCF: USF showed some flashes of greatness last season reaching #2 early in the season. UCF won the Conference USA behind the running of Kevin Smith, who bolted for the draft. USF won this in a wash last year, but UCF keeps getting better.

KSU-Louisville: KSU started out hot last year almost knocking off Auburn as well as taking out a top 10 Texas. The season soon went into the tank after that. Louisville also started off hot with some huge offensive performances. Kragthorpe soon learned that high octane offense with out some defense doesn't win much. This will be a big game for each team to get a foot on the ground before conference races get hot and heavy.

WVU-Colo: Dan Hawkins and Colorado's non-conference slate has been pretty rough lately (FSU, Georgia, ASU.) They may be a glutton for punishment as they get Pat White, Noel Devine, and the 'Neers early in the season. I think this really might be Colorado's break out year.

Baylor-UConn: Only noted in that I can't remember the last time Baylor was on national TV.
Clemson-Wake Forrest: Grobe has got Wake Forrest not just decent,but borderline good. Clemson has got to start doing something in the ACC other than getting second in their division.

Auburn-WVU: Same story w/ WVU. Should be good but we'll have to see how the new coach turns out. Auburn will be Auburn. Of note, WVU better hope they don't come in this one ranked, because Tuberville's record vs. top 10 teams is phenomenal.

VaTech-Miami: VT looks to be good ol' VT this year with solid defense and a slightly lacking offense. Miami had an amazing recruiting class but Shannon needs wins now. The question is if Miami can start doing something on offense for the first time since their last BCS appearance.


Texas A&M at Texas: There have been some hard fought games the last four years and I don't expect anything to change in this rivalry. Mike Sherman will make his Lone Star Showdown debut. The small town duel between McGee and McCoy is also an interesting note.

Louisville-Rutgers: This has been a pretty exciting conference game the last few years. Expect similar results this year, but with some new blood.

USF-WVU: WVU will come out hungry after being embarrassed here last year. Leavitt also won't let this team get down after a slightly disappointing finish to end last season

Fulmer Cupdate

From EDSBS


This year is starting nicely. Already involved is robbery, felony level drug possession, a 4th alcohol related arrest for one player, an Uzi, and a hit-and-run. All that, and it's not even flippin' March yet. Who's excited? You're excited. I'm excited.

Illinois and Tennessee are making early surges for the coveted #1 spot.



As a side note:

I'm not a great writer by any stretch. I still have to proofread these things like 10 times and I still have typos and goofy word arrangements.

I like to think I'm moderately funny or clever at some points at least. If you have a chance read this article by Mike Freeman over at CBS.

I think Freeman is really trying to be funny and make a point here, but he's too busy taking a jab at everything under the sun to really seem very altruistic or even make sense. If you're going to be funny, that's fine. Go ahead and be funny. If you're going to make a point, then make your point. Freeman's article is so busy trying to be humorous about the "problem" and then be serious at the end that it's just plain goofy. I haven't heard that many cliche' lines since... well I'll hold off on the cliche' lines for propriety's sake.

Expect RTT on that in full force.

Texas and Texas A&M Moved Back to Thanksgiving

The Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies have moved their game back to Thanksgiving night.

Personally that's fine by us.

The two pro games are fine and all but college football on Thanksgiving usually gets all crushed into one or two days when there's about 10 good games on and they all seem to be at the same time (i.e. Texas vs. TAMU and Arkie vs. LSU last year)

I personally think Texas wanted the game moved because they are hoping to catch Jorvorskie Lane after some serious turkey action. If you don't know Jorvorskie Lane... here you go:



300 lbs coming your way

Just for fun

The Birmingham News ran an interesting piece detailing the pay of the commissioners of NCAA Division 1 Conferences.

At first thought before I even clicked I ranked what these guys would be making in my mind.

1. SEC
2. ACC
3. Big Televen
4. Big XII
5. Pac 10
6. Big East

Why? Everything is bigger in the SEC. They have the last 2 national championships in football and basketball. A huge fanbase as well as tons of national exposure across the board.

I figured the solid football of the ACC and dominance of basketball would drive that position's pay up.


Here are the actual results from the 2006 year:

Jim Delany
Big Ten $959,236

John Swofford
Atlantic Coast $759,971

Kevin Weiberg (since resigned)
Big 12 Conference $699,700

Britton Banowsky
Conference USA $558,618

Mike Slive
Southeastern Conference $545,129

Tom Hansen
Pacific-10 Conference $513,891

Mike Tranghese
Big East Conference $468,446

Craig Thompson
Mountain West Conference $377,740

Karl Benson
Western Athletic Conference $370,568

Yeah, you read that correctly. The commissioner of the most profitable and successful conference makes less than one of the mid-major commissioners. You also read correctly that Jim Delany makes almost a mil. You should hate your life right now.

D-Mac is slightly, moderately quick

This is being slightly contested right now.... but regardless.








In case you didn't quite catch that:

4.27 seconds

40 yards.




Darren McFadden.

Yes you want him on your team.

This could last a while

Rodgate appears like it is headed for a long, long, looooooooong trial. Adding another tidbit to the long list of petty actions, WVU is attempting to get the judge to throw out all of RichRod's counterclaims according to ESPN.com.

While this will probably end very boringly (as WVU will probably win), I'm sure there will be more countersuits and ridiculously trivial information brought up as well as good old-fashioned mudslinging.

Friday's Freakin' Awesome Film

That catch STILL gives me the chills

As does this. But in a less awesome way.

DON'T WATCH UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SICK.

OU to get 2005 wins back. What's that? Like 7?

It's not like there were that many wins to begin with, but OU has had its wins from 2005 restored.

If you don't remember they were stricken from the record by the hammer that is the NCAA because of Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn's receiving of paychecks for "working" at a car dealership. By working, of course, I mean not showing up or doing anything. They received well over a 10k between them for minimal hours worked.

What was awesome about the whole story is that it was broken on a Texas A&M message board months before ESPN or SI were on that one.


*** On a completely unrelated note, Myles Brand has been seen driving a new Beamer with a big red tag sticking out of the trunk.

Congress Calls Sports to Steroid Meeting. Again.

After the day long debacle that was Clemensgate, congress has decided to spend more taxpayer money talking about steroids.

This time the NCAA will appear as well. It hasn't been as monumental an issue for the NCAA as of late as it has for the big leagues. That's probably because kids have the bejeezus scared out them from Lattimer from The Program.

Georgia continues to mandatorize their Football

Continuing to use the power of legislation for sports purposes, Georgia is trying to make sure that no vanity plates from schools other than Georgia are printed in state.

At first I was kinda shocked to read this till I read a bit further. Apparently

Alabama has a state law specifically banning plates labeled with out-of-state colleges.

Tennessee has a law similar to Georgia's, and plates are available for most Southeastern Conference schools, including the Volunteers' biggest rivals -- the Florida Gators and Alabama Crimson Tide.

Sometimes you just forget how much rivals hate each other. Especially in the Es-Eee-See

CFB Sportscaster Offseason (part 1)

If you're like me... you wonder what your favorite college football personalties and coaches are doing this off-season. Well of course you do, too. Well, we're bringing it to you in a two-part post.


Kirk Herbstreit
First off, Kirk sold his house to start the off-season.

After this he went into hiding on vacation after two epic failures great victories involving LSU. The first being his brilliant reporting skills. The second was his alma mater dominating the MNC game... well Again.





Mark May
Mark usually spends his off-seasons in Africa getting to know his roots and stuff. The first part of this trip is his annual visit to a the South African beach to dry off from the spit and slobber of Lou Houlthz from a solid five months of sharing a desk.

After that, he attends African sporting events to compare the success of Black coaches with White coaches in America. Expect him to bring up the fact that winning percentage of black coaches over there rival the winning percentages of White coaches here come December, when positions start opening up. (I'll let that one soak in)


Brent Musburger
Ahhhh.... Brent. Dandy of a day... Brent. Brent spends the first part of his off season doing court-side commentary of Basketball. This is usually a diversion as he's actually using this as a chance to scout out his boy-crush for the fall. Previous boy-crushes have included Colt McCoy and Chase Daniel.

This is also a chance to continue working on his rhetoric for his drinking game. Listen for foot races, dandies, and pardners.



Erin Andrews
When not with Kirk Herbstreit working the court or diamond, Erin usually hides under a rock.

The reason? People are obsessed with her. In a bad, bad way.








Lou Houlthz
Lou Houlthz has several activities during the off season. Most of it is spent in the shadow of Charlie Weis' stomach, which isn't difficult. There he recharges his shtick and passion for all things Notre Dame.

He then practices and rehearses speech to Sylvester and Tweety reruns....

(actually I think more sense is made in a Tweety and Sylvester conversation that Lou and Mark, but I digress)

The rest of the off season is spent locked in a cave somewhere near South Bend drawing up plays and Locker Room talks to deliver during the course of the season.



Coming up (Corso, Fowler, Howard, and much much more)

Bama's Jones to Testify in Murder Case. Lord Saban says "SEC, You're Next."

Nothing to see here.

Apparently, Julio Jones hangs with a bit of the wrong crowd. This week Jones testified in a murder case about his friend's uncle. It could be purely coincidental, but if I'm a Bama fan, I'm already a little worried about one of my players being within sight of a drug-related shooting.

However if you're in to victories, you may end up moving north here in the near future.

Players We're Friggin' Excited about

Jake Locker

This week's player is an interesting one. After coming out of the gate looking like a bad MoFo at the beginning of the year knocking off Syracuse and a ranked Boise State, Washington's season then went downhill in a hurry. Locker isn't necessarily to blame for this, but his erratic passing didn't help down the stretch.

As you can see in the video below... he's got moves for a white boy. But few passes mixed in there can be an issue.

Big and Pac 10's are still the most important conferences. Evar. Really.

While I don't really care about playoffs and plus-ones and minus-threes a whole-whole lot. I do have a problem with the 10's. Well Televens. Well one ten and one elev.... screw it. You get the idea.

According to another CBS Sports Article they continue to do everything they can to block anything that stops a Big 10/Pac 10 Rose Bowl. Even if it means creating an abortion of a game.

I love tradition in college football. Gosh I love it.

Sometimes, however, it has to change. Tribes sue. Bonfires fall (not to make light of the tragedy at all.) Conferences change teams. The 10's need to realize this.

The rest of the conferences are wanting something more legitimate to name a champion and Delany and Hansen continue to be a road block

Two (Pac-10's Tom Hansen and Big Ten's Jim Delany) are dead set against a plus-one, which to some seems to be the next logical evolution of the BCS..

My problem lies with this. Between the two conferences, three "outright" champions exist in the last 20 years. Three. USC, Michigan, and Ohio State each have an outright "we won it and nobody else" championship. Only two of those are in the BCS era and Ohio State's is still a questionable one. It's not like they have the corner on the market of dominating teams today.

I'm personally a fan of the four other commissioners (Big East, Big XII, ACC, SEC) and Myles Brand huddling together at the convention start whispering while Delany and Hansen sit there outside of the huddle trying to listen in.

The huddle breaks. Myles walks over and puts his hands on DeHansny's shoulders and says "We've decided to go another direction," and kick them both in the junk. Really. That would be awesome.

The blame game.

Since the NCAA last week announced that they had planned a few change of rules the CFB Blogosphere has been pretty adamant against it.

SMQ
The Wizard of Odds
EDSBS

The main thing talked about was the clock issues. The other things are fairly inconsequential except for maybe the facemask rule.

Here are the new rulings involving time:

The first is the implementation of a 40/25-second play clock, similar to that of the
NFL. At the end of every play, the 40-second clock will start, which is the rule in the NFL. The old college rules featured a 25-second clock that did not start until the officials marked the ball ready for play. On a change of possession, the first play will be run on a 25-second clock.

and

After a player runs out of bounds and the ball is made ready to play, the official will start the game clock. Under the old rules the game clock would not start until the ball was snapped. This new rule will not apply in the final two minutes of the first half and the final two minutes of the game.

You know the NCAA doesn't give a flying flip about if a game goes to long. It affects them in no way, whatsoever. The only people that are raising heck about this are the networks. We mean the big ones. What's going to happen to ESPN? They have to push back the repeat of Sports Center for 45 minutes?

What you have is the larger networks that want to get their three to three and a half hour games done and through in time to get to your reruns of Grey's Anatomy and evening news. I don't want those people to be denied their shows either. Personally, there hasn't been anything worth cutting away to on a Saturday night on network television since CBS dropped Walker, Texas Ranger. I digress.... (that's a whole other article)

That leads us to the elephant standing in the room that nobody wants to look at or talk about. Well at least the networks don't.

Our problem is that the networks wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to have the millions tune in to see the big game see, all of their advertisements pop up on the field, get in all of the contractually-obligated commercials, have Grissom from CSI come up from the bottom and let me know that CSI has changed nights, hear the announcers tell us about how great Samantha Who? is going to be, get a great game in, spend 45 seconds on an intro coming back from the commercials telling us who this game was brought to us by (after having seen their commercials just 20 seconds ago, and hopefully end the game exactly in time to get us to our regularly scheduled program.

It just doesn't work that way. College football is the only television program where I can actually tell that they haven't run the new Dodge Nitro Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots enough times during the three hours. I swear, I've seen them cut away just to show it one more time (and only that commercial) just to make sure we saw how tough that new SUV is supposed to be. I can say with a straight face that I have seen that commercial 4 times in 5 minutes of commercials.

Now the networks want to point a finger at college football and tell them to shorten game times?

How about this if you really want to speed up the game:

- don't spend the first 30 seconds back from a commercial break telling me that the game was just brought to me by the same companies that I just saw the commercial of.

- don't tell me about the new soon-to-be Emmy winning 5 times in 3 hours. Let me decide if it's a hit new show.

- don't feel the need to cut away to commercials every time there's a fumble, time out, score, interception, big 3rd down coming up, punt, big first down play, or coach scratching his butt.

About this point in the post you should be thinking "That's true, but these games aren't shown for the passion of the fans and goodwill of the networks bringing it to us."

You would be right. It's about money and it always will be. I don't expect differently from a
sport that has a PapaJohns.com Bowl or a Jones SBC AT&T Stadium, or even the Rose Bowl... you know... presented by Citi. The blow to me is that every time I heard the MNC game referenced it was the Allstate BCS National Championship Game.

Money is why we have sports teams and that's OK. I know that we can't have the games on TV for free and that free tickets don't keep pads on the players.

The problem is that you can't regulate a game. You can't stop a QB from spiking the ball on a 2nd and 10 on the 15 with 20 seconds left. You can't stop a team from delaying to the last possible second to run a play when they hold the marginal lead with five minutes to play. Do you think the running back streaking down the sideline is going to think, "I'd better not step out... CBS needs to get to their next show?" Teams are going to do everything possible to get the win and if that involves making the game last an extra twenty-five minutes they are going to do it.

People have to make their money, but the networks are going to have to stop whoring themselves and the marketing department out to everything under the sun for extra pennies.

If the networks want this fixed they need to realize the same hand that is pointing the finger at the NCAA has four more pointing back at themselves.

OSU Fans taunt RichRod, Police hot on the tail of suspects

According to SI.com's Truth and Rumors Rich Rod and his family were taunted by OSU fans. The fallout was unbelievable.

New Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez learned Sunday that he can't escape Ohio State. Holding a microphone while standing with his family at center court at Crisler Arena at halftime of the Michigan-OSU basketball game, Rodriguez received a thunderous ovation from the hometown crowd. But a small group of Ohio State fans in the last rows of the arena made the moment a bit awkward, chanting "Tressel" and holding a bedsheet with "1,548 Days" written on it -- the period since U-M's last football victory over the Buckeyes in 2003.

Dear Heavens. Smack talk? At a sporting event? Between rival colleges? Call the po-lice. Right now. Epic, I say. Epic.

How in the heck does this make a headline?

These probably should as well then


Racism:




Fatism:


Boogerism:




The list could go on forever.

In True Rivalry fashion

Several things to note here.

1. Guy in orange jump suit getting b-slapped
2. Girl in wife beater w/ the black eye. The shirt says I dated Dozier (accused of assault with his former GF)
3. Multiple birds.
4. Black cop completely missing the white-on-white crime going on above her. (Stretching it. I know.)


This is admittedly stolen from EDSBS.

But it's still as funny as heck.

Apparently, Pryor will not be going to Michigan

Apprently RichRod needs the warm bodies and is trying to get a walkon QB after getting the Heisman from Mallet and probably Pryor.

Well, not really.

But RichRod starts having tryouts for student walk-ons. Which is a cool thing to do in actuality. Several teams have done this and had some great results. It's always fun to see a guy who nobody recruited go and try out and make the team.

Except in Maize and blue. And less catholic. Or sucky.

Ima graduit

I love College Football. Why would I have this blog if I was not passionate about all facets of the game. One of my favorite parts of college football is the rivalries. Only because college sports can you decide to hate a person based on a decision they made when they were 17 or 18 years-old. Then when you're 40 you still hate those people as well as the 18 year olds that are still making the decisions to go to that trashy 4 year juco.

It seems to me, when you want to represent yourself and your school nationally by writing a letter to a well established, well-known website, you may want to calm down the 18 year-old-fresh-out-of-fish-orientation i-hate-all-things-that-other-school rhetoric.

As a Michigan State Alum, I hate Michigan. Is this the year when the skunk bears finally have a losing season for the first time since 1967? Also, will this be the first year since 1990 I can go to A2 and watch the Spartans win in the quiet house? Sparty On! x- Billy McSTAT

Message board smack in a letter? Sparty would be proud

I want to make it a good habit to bring to you the drivel written by passionate fans who supposedly have a degree from said fine institutions of learning. In fact it may actually be a regular feature now.

When you can't make up your mind....

While Pryor and Nevada's Kevin Hart are still the talk of the recruiting season one more bright shining spot may still be upon us.

Aggie fans were quite ticked when one of their 4-star recruits decided to go to Iowa State (Yeah. Really. Iowa State) at the last possible moment. Well, apparently the next day or so he went ahead and signed his letter of intent for A&M anyways.

Problem. You can't have two letters of intent at the same time, son. Different parents signed different letters and guardianship is involved. It's complicated really. So it looks like the kid may be headed to a JuCo or something of the like instead of at least playing D-1 ball.

We know he's a kid and all... but smooth move exlax.

Friday's Freakin' Awesome Film

This has been going around for quite a while... but we still love it. And we love Tebow.

And his choice in the ladies*










*Not really. But Internet rumors are always fun.

UConn Edsall talks adding additional team.

Apparently Coach Edsall hasn't read our previous commentary. It's the one telling Notre Dame to suck it, Randy.

In an ESPN article he's claiming that the league needs to add a team. To which, I agree. Eight teams? That's pretty weak all in all. A good portion of those teams were in Conference USA five years ago. (USF, Louiville, and Cinci)

It is unfortunate that the ACC had their raid a few years ago which ended up with Miami, VaTech and Boston College heading to the ailing conference. It hasn't helped too much as the ACC still is struggling to find it's niche. While it improved the ACC, it hurt the Big East deeply.

The Big East has had some moments of competitiveness. West Virginia was one decent offensive series away from the big show in the Big Easy last year. Louisville put together a nice season two years ago with a BCS win. WVU also had a 1 loss season with a BCS win the season before that. So it's not like there's NO good teams. There's just not enough. Or I guess you could say, just not enough parity.

Consider this, 6 of 8 teams were bowl eligible this last year. Wow. If anything the Big East needs to nab some more C-USA or MAC teams just to install their perverbial Bayfordukeandy ™ (I'm trademarking that one)

I'm personally a big fan of telling the Independents to shut up or join up. Being a member of a conference is just good in a lot of ways. Unless your a moneywhore of a school. But we're not naming any names. I think as the schools push more and more for some sort of elimination system to declare the champion of the college football season we'll see how the independents respond.

FSU drops bomb, puts itself on 2 years probation

Saaaaaayyyy Jimbo, can you start this year?

FSU is putting itself on 2 years of probation for a cheating scandal throughout the program. This was seen in FSU's bowl game where they were missing 20+ players.

Wow. That sucks. Nothing to add here. No witty one-liners. Just a Torbush Wow.

NCAA considering changes

Apparently the NCAA is considering a host of rule changes.
(Thanks Wizard of Odds and EDSBS)

Those mentioned:

1. dropping the 5-yard incidental face-mask penalty
2. adjusting the "chop block" rule to make it easier to understand and enforce
3. giving the receiving team the option to taking possession at the 40-yard line after an out-of-bounds kickoff
4. eliminating warnings for sideline control
5. administering a 40-second clock to start play after a preceding play ends
6. starting the clock on a referee's signal after a play goes out of bounds
7. instant replay would be allowed on fumbles leading to immediate recoveries.
8. a coach who successfully challenges a play would get to keep a challenge.
   
9. penalty for so-called "horse-collar tackles."
10. defining helmet-to-helmet
    

There's a couple I'd like to talk about here in particular

Facemask

This one I'm kinda perplexed on. I like the idea of dropping the clearly incidental face-mask. I can't count the amount of times a guy has made a good tackle and his hand just was a tiny bit high, grazed the face-mask and is called for five yards. It leaves me cussing a lot in close ones. Even worse, sometimes that gets called for a ridiculous 15 yarder. So it's good to get rid of incidental but I think that we could see an increase in the penalty of the 15 yard variety. Those in-between calls will probably go to the way of the penalty as opposed to being dropped altogether.


Chop Block

Only to comment that this was probably discussed specifically because of Glen Dorsey last year. I have a feeling that the Miles/Tuberville feud will escalate.


Horse Collar Tackles

I hate the idea of this one. Just like I hated in the Pros. Roy Williams found an effective way that tons of people before him had to stop people from an angle. Are they trying to hurt people? No. It's just a way to catch a guy from behind and it's stupid. They shouldn't have done it for the clothesline, Shaq, or Williams and it's dumb to bring it to the college game.







Sideline Warnings
I don't like the warning. Refs should just penalize the team or coach for getting to close. Obviously let the coach get out there and chew the ear off of an official and talk. Just don't need put up with that crap.

The time warnings are the same thing they try to do every year... shorten the games. Nobody wants games shortened except networks. They can suck it.

Aggies hire Kines, Bama says, "Again?"

According to The Birmingham News, Joe Kines is coming to Aggieland.

This is a pretty good hire all in all. Kines is just about everything I like in a coach. Mean-spirited, loud, firey and he sounds like a cat is trying to get out of his throat when he speaks

His last 3 teams at Bama were ranked 2nd, 2nd and 23rd defensively. Which is music to Aggies ears. He also held Texas Tech to 10 points in the Cotton Bowl during the 05-06 season. Aggies collectively crapped their britches and signed in blood on the spot.

Players we're friggin excited about

Hopefully this will be a weekly feature if my rear's not too lazy to keep doing it.

#25 Knowshon Moreno - GA

Moreno redshirted in '06 and had a breakout season in '07. While he was anticipated to be good he was on the verge of great most of the season. He had 6 games over 100 yards as a freshman. That's pretty BMF in our book. Georgia looks to start the season towards the top and Moreno is one of the main reasons.

It would also turn out that he's the man. Who knew?

I'll die on the sideline if I want to.

Things could be getting ugly up in Happy Valley.

Just a thought. (And this is not directed at any single person mentioned in the article at all. Just a general thought towards people saying anything about JoePa quitting)

When you have 50+ years of experience in your job and are regarded as one of the greatest college presidents, journalist, or board member in your career's field, you might be able to think about talk firing a coach that reflects the same accomplishments.

But you don't.

Till then...

Shut your mouth.

Paterno can still kick your butt up and down the sideline and he will for mouthing off.

Bush flashy, likes guns

Major news sources are reporting that apparently during deposition in Lloyd Lake's suit against Reggie Bush that one of Bush's bodyguards flashed a firearm.

I'm not saying he did or didn't. But it just seems like a bad choice to even bring that in there, permit or not.

Not that Bush shows the greatest flare for good choices.

He is currently engaged to :

I'm not implying she's not attractive or anything. But she's not exactly the cat's meow when it comes to brains. Less than 6 months ago Kardashian was seen attending a Nicole Brown Fundraiser just to socialize. In case you can't or don't remember, Kardashian's father got OJ of of the murder charges for Nichole Brown. She also aligns herself with Paris Hilton. That's two strikes before you even step up to bat.

A Commentary if I May

He is big and rich. But he's not coming to your city.

News sources are reporting that Notre Dame and UConn have agreed to a 10 year deal to play games between them. Sounds good. UConn just had a good year with 9 wins and secured Randy Edsall for a few more years after some other schools (Georgia Tech in particular) tried to lure him away.

Most anybody would love to schedule Notre Dame at any point in any season. It's a good deal. Their a national team with national exposure. You're guaranteed to be on TV to boot.

A 10 year deal with them is even better. You're guaranteed a game each year (scheduling just got easier), money (you'll get a good cut or bring in a good crowd), and it's Notre Dame.

Scratch that. How about you just get to play there, but they won't come to your house? It makes the deal bittersweet. Yes you get the game and the money, but your fans and players don't get the game in their stadium.

I've never understood the fascination with Notre Dame. Yes, they're the nation's Catholic school. Yes, they are in the top five teams in all-time wins. What I don't get is why the nation and the nation's teams feel the need to jump all over the chance to play them.

I'm sure most AD's would fall out of their chairs in order to get that deal. If I'm an AD, I'd normally say something witty and clever like "Don't let the door hit 'ya where the good Lord split 'ya." But I would hope the door did hit them where the Lord did split them. So as to make more room for noses to be stuck up there.

A deal like that is disrespectful and insulting to your fans and players. They deserve better than to have a 10 year deal with another school that will never come to your stadium (but demands you come to theirs.) What makes this worse is that UConn is a BCS school. It's not even a mid-major and they're being treated like it or even a 1-AA.

I hope UConn shows some cajones, stops kissing Notre Dame's butt and rejects this proposal. I actually wish nobody in the Big East would play them for the time being, just to make a point. If the idea of a playoff or a plus-one system gets kicked around long enough it just might happen and I would love it if the the Bigs (Televen, XII, and East) tell them to go kiss a pig when they come running for a conference to join.


[/rant]

Rich Rod screwed.

Rich Rodriguez's request to have his case tried as an intrastate case has been denied.

This doesn't bode well for Rodriguez. The case being heard in West Virginia all but assures the university/state will not only get the $4 million, but also Rich's boat house, cars, and use of his wife every other weekend.

Fulmer Cupdate

EDSBS current standings

The Zooker continues to rise above all others in finding players with upstanding character. Interestingly Mizzou and Illinois points are from one player respectively.

I'm not saying....

it'll happen, but if Appy pulls out the win here, I think the NCAA Div 1 FCS/FBS sub league of extraordinary gentlemen will need to think long and hard about where we are in the terms of parity today.

If I'm the NCAA, I'm begging and pleading with LSU to drop this one. I don't think ASU will win it, but the fact that they're just scary enough TO POSSIBLY win it should be enough reason for them not to play it.

The first thing I thought of when I read that was Rocky II when Duke says,

"He's all wrong for us, baby. I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man kept coming after you. Now we don't need no man like that in our lives."

A team like Appalachian State is all wrong for the big dogs in division 1. They have a lot of talent, speed (which as it turns out, kills), and good coaching, and most frighteningly, heart. Teams that are good enough to pull of that win are scary enough. One with the heart and desire to do it should scare the poop out of LSU and the NCAA.

I'm not saying LSU should drop them, as that would poonesque. But they're a team I don't really want to play. Ever.

This may get ugly,

NCAA violator?

What started with some mudslinging is looking like it will end up with even more mudslinging.

It was reported that recruit Darrell Scott had received "improper benefits" from Colorado, which helped him to choose the school. (Thanks Wizard of Odds)

Now according to some other links, Colorado may not have been the only one with some infractions.

You would think with the turmoil Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow have been caught up in over Meyer's recruiting of Carl Moore (which is minor) would have served as a warning against having your players text recruits.

Most likely this will blow over, but I find it interesting that ESPN, SI, and the like aren't all over this like a fat kid on a free buffet.

Friday's belated Freakin' Awesome Film

Terrell Pryor's highlight film. Still no word on where he's leaning.

He can also play some slightly, moderately decent thump thump to boot.

LOLCRUITS

This is just the first rushed batch. More to come!