College Football Week 12-13

Plenty has happened in the past couple of weeks, shame on me for being lazy....just a lot easier to watch football than find time to write about it. And I love Nathan Williams, a beast for OSU defense.

Notre Dame Finishes Strong...for once: It is all about how you finish. 7-5 looks a lot better when its due to a 3 game win streak than a 3 game losing streak. ND has not had a strong November in quite a few years, Weiss' run was notorious for having his team fall apart as the season came to a close. Kelly has had a rough year, that looked like it was about to fall apart when October turned nasty, but they held together. They found a defense and managed to play tough, old school ND football. And not to be forgotten, but that 8 year losing streak to USC was finally broken with a 20-16 win in LA. They will get some eh bowl, or maybe something decent cause ND brings money, and hopefully another win. It is all about how you finish.

I wonder what Urban Meyer is thinking: Last season, Florida was an offensive juggernaut that was poised to win a 3rd National Championship. Meyer and Tebow was an unstoppable team, well not totally, Bama rolled them over but then they came back to utterly destroy Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. It is jarring to see, this season, how incredibly inept and ineffective the Gator's offense is. Florida St is better but looked like they were in another class in the rival game and finally broke the 6 game winning streak of the Gators over Seminoles. When you see Florida's trio of QBs all doing badly, inceptions and fumbles, Urban Meyer must be thinking, "I wish Tebow was here." I think it is a rare thing for a coach and player to seem to be fundamentally link in all phases of the game. Meyer has been able to adjust and tweak his offense when it moved from Leak to Tebow but there was no answer to Brantley, Burton, or Reed. It will be interesting to see what happens in the off season and into next year, Meyer has things to change.

The Fallen Lone Star: It has to be a historic fall. Texas was really one bad throw away from winning the BCS National Championship and now they are not even ranked. They are 5-7, not going anyway to any bowl this year for the first time since the late 90s. Mac Brown is going to really look through his staff and heads will roll for whats happened. Texas has no issue with gaining talent so they will rise again but it might be harder than it was. The Big 12, or soon to be 10, has much more depth now with rising powers in Oklahoma St, Missouri, Texas A&M and possibly Texas Tech. I wouldn't be surprised if Texas reigns supreme next season over the diminished conference but its hold will be more tenuous than in past years.

The Big Ten's Big Three: Wisconsin, Ohio St, and Michigan St will all share the title of Big Ten Champions this year. Each of the teams will end with a one loss record in the conference and showed varying degrees of dominance throughout the year. Wisconsin put on another show of force and seemed to be on a totally other level than Northwestern. Ohio St and Michigan went at it again in "The Game" but its definitely not the same game. Ohio St has owned Michigan the last couple of years and the only real game of national consequence was in 2006 when the teams were ranked 1 and 2. And like last year, it wasn't competitive and Ohio St extends its winning streak. The only close game was Michigan St and Penn St where Joe Pa created a rally in the 4th quarter that ultimately failed. Wisconsin has the highest BCS rank and will then go out to the Rose Bowl and Ohio St will likely go to the Sugar Bowl.

BCS Busting Bronco's Busted: The Boise St Broncos have been always knocking on the door to get into the BCS championship game, they are the constant outsider. They had played perfect through 11 games, sometimes being challenged and sometimes just walking through weak teams. They got one final test against a ranked Neveda team but even that wasn't expected to be a loss. This is why we play the game, cause Neveda pulled off the upset mostly thanks to Boise St missing two field goals. They missed one to win the game and then missed one to win the OT, so Neveda comes out with the big win. TCU is now the only non-automatic qualifier school that can possible get into the Championship game is Oregon or Auburn loses.

Newton rolls back the Tide: I honestly thought that Alabama would beat Auburn and for the first half of the game if seemed like I was right. Alabama was rolling with offense and Auburn had no answers, so yea everything was going right. Of course there are two halves in Football and Auburn turned the game around. Cam Newton seems to have cemented himself as this year's Heisman winner, barring any real evidence coming out about a pay for play issue. I think its ironic that Alabama's starting qb gets knocked out of the game, and that ultimately is what causes them to lose. Alabama knocked out Texas' Colt McCoy in the Championship game and made that game much easier to win.

In the World of Sports

Its been a rather dark day in the world of Sports, or well, it has been in the world of Tommy Sports.

All of my teams are doing rather badly...

Florida is on a losing streak that has been going on for three games now...

Texas got dropped out of the 25, then sparked to upset Nebraska, and then got beaten by Iowa State...

Notre Dame had a nice win streak and then got smashed by Navy, so at best, we are looking at a 6-6 season.

Ohio State was ranked number 1 in the nation, and then got punched by Wisconsin...

The NFL isn't going so bad, but I get more emotional about college games. The passion is higher cause every game matters and you have these kids' futures on the line.

Browns are underwhelming as always but scored a massively awesome upset in New Orleans on Sunday. This continues the streak of the Browns beating the Super Bowl Champion, somehow they always do it...Giants, Steelers, and now the Saints. Go Brownies! McCoy definitely seems to be doing well, which is a nice change from his pre-season play.

Denver has continued to slide and hit rock bottom on Sunday with a 59-17 loss at home to the Raiders. The very idea of a team losing by that margin in pro football is astounding, let alone it being the home team. I only really root for the team cause of Tebow but even I felt embarrassed. Tebow did get his first NFL regular season touchdown against the Jets, thats really cool.

Patriots keep rolling along, and managed to hold on for a road win in San Diego that was mostly due to the Charger's turn overs.

Texans were on a bye and are gearing up for their MNF with Indy, in Indy. A win there would give us fans some confidence in the team. Even if they are 4-2, they could easily be 2-4.

On a side not, I'm really tired of hearing about Big Ben, "alleged rapist", coming back to the NFL. I don't like them turning his return in some kind of redemption story, he fucked up. Can we move on and not go on about it like it some morality play?

Football Review 2010 1

So its Week 1 of the NFL and Week 2 of NCAA Football, so lets discuss.

My Fantasy Football team won a close game this week, all thanks to the beastness of Adrian Foster. I took him after the third pre-season game and it has paid off and the Chiefs' sudden defense helped me hold on to win 94 to 92.

NCAA Football

Heart Broken: Notre Dame lost to Michigan in another classic game, which included a Notre Dame 95 yard touchdown to come back. It might be one loss but looking at the schedule it seems likely Notre Dame will get a few more in this tough run. So I feel like the season is gone, which maybe I was too hyped.

Stomped: Alabama basically stomped all over Penn State and shows that they are still the best team in all of college football.

It's all about the....OSUUUU: Ohio State took on Miami FL in a rematch of the 2002 national championship game. OSU won though it was mostly a very sloppy game with two Miami touchdowns from kick returns. There is a really hot defensive player of the Buckeyes, that I need to learn more about, arms like wow. Update: I found out who he is, Nathan Williams.

NFL

Heart Restored: I didn't think I would be able to get over the Notre Dame loss, it was really getting to me. But lo, the next best thing happened, the Texans upset the Colts. It has only happened once in the series between the divisional rivals and could herald two big storylines for the year. Will the Texans finally get to the play offs? I really hope so. Are the Colts doomed to a post Super Bowl Loss slump? I really hope so

Dynasty Not so Declined: The Patriots had a lot of questions coming into the year, with defensive and offensive line questions. The Bengals came with Super Bowl hopes and some growing buzz. The Patriots showed what it means to be an elite team and just a good team by tearing the Bengals apart. Of course since its week 1 we can't really be sure if the Patriots are back to their high status or the Bengals were overrated.

Debut?: Tim Tebow debuted in his hometown with 2 one yard runs....real nice use of him McDaniels. Though that makes his debut only marginally better than Sanchez' awful opening against the Ravens

LOL moment: The Cowboys are first and twenty with 20 seconds at the end of the half, they aren't anywhere close to scoring. They are only down 3 so really, just take the knee and end the half. No, they decide to be real clever and do a option hand off to their running back...who fumbles and the Redskins score a touchdown. I laughed for awhile.

And Browns: My favorite team to root for began the season with a loss....another Brown's season off to a roaring state.

Pre-season College Polls

College Football, finally, starts next weekend. Much like in the world of politics, college football is ruled by polls. And much like the world of politics, pre election polls can be quickly worthless and mostly for chattering about. The pre-season college polls basically tells us what people think of these teams and what they will accomplish over the year. The only poll that really matters is the BCS rankings poll that decides which two teams will play each other in the Championship game. And the formula for that, is incredibly convoluted and stupid, and you have to wonder who came up with it.

1. Alabama

No real surprise, they are defending champions from last year. Its not been a stroke of luck of recent years to be ranked number 1 at the start of the season, they don't usually stay there.

2. Ohio State

Oh the Buckeyes, the rulers of the Big Ten, are in at second place. The Buckeyes finally won a big out of conference game at the Rose Bowl, so maybe the pattern of constantly losing the game that counts is broken. I don't think the problem will be the big game this year as much as it will be the gimme game that they lose, which usually happens when they play another Big Ten school like Purdue or Illinois.

3. Boise St, possibly.

While the first two teams seem to be unanimously at the top, the polls begin to differ at three. I will stay with Boise St since it is at 3 in the majority of polls. Could this be the year of the BCS Bronco Buster? They only have two real games to win this year and most of the time they show up for those spotlight games. Boise St comes from a non-qualifying conference, so they have to be undefeated just to get mentioned in the BCS conversation. They play a pathetic schedule and its not that hard to run the table, so their problem is the one they have had every year they have gone undefeated. Are they worthy of playing in the Championship game versus a one less team from a major conference like the SEC? Most people say no. What really could be a problem this year is if TCU, another non-qualifying school that is ranked at around 6-8, also goes undefeated. Would you put both schools into a BCS championship over one of the one less powerhouse conference teams?

4. Florida

Even without Tebow and much of their championship starters, Urban Meyer's team is still a contender. Florida has a new quarterback who is much more prototypical than Tebow was, so it will be a different type of offense. I don't think it will be possible for Florida to get the Championship game undefeated as they play Alabama at Alabama, and then possibly rematch them in the SEC championship game. A clean sweep of the Tide seems really unlikely, even for the Tebow ver Gators, so they would need to win the SEC championship game. Even then it would depend on where they are in the standings, the win would have to vault them to number 2.

5. Texas

The pride of Texas, Longhorns, could they repeat the win of the Big 12 and get back to the big game? They have a tough schedule to do it with thats for sure. Really, it will all come down to two games. The Red River Shoot out with Oklahoma, which Texas has taken control of in recent years, and then the Big 12 Championship which will be with Nebraska. They also have a new QB, who got his debut during the BCS Championship game last year when McCoy was knocked out of it. Texas is in the tougher Big 12 Division so its more likely Nebraska will be the winner of the Big 12, as I don't see much in Oklahoma to get excited about. Hook'm horns!

Not doing all 25 teams, but no Notre Dame ranking again, hopefully something happens with Kelly and his team this year. I just be happy for a strong performance and second tier bowl win.