Quick hits: College Football

I'm I the only one who thinks Tim Tebow should have not been in the game when he got sacked and slammed his melon on a guys leg? Florida was winning and had the game in hand, and apparently Tebow was so sick prior he was traveling on a different plane. According to some ESPN people, they think Florida can win a title with their backup QB, then why does everyone think Urban Meyer was OK with keeping Tebow in the game!........ LSU almost got knocked off by Mississippi State the past weekend. LSU's defensive line is quite a bit stronger than MSU's offensive line...... Illinois is terrible, absolutely terrible. They can't tackle, they have a lot of gifted WR's and play makers, but yet they can't move the ball. Ron Zook is officially the best recruiter that can not coach a lick of football. Rumors are he is afraid to bench Juice Williams because he won't receive commitments from the inner city Chicago school kids that are good. Well, you can either A: get fired and not be able to recruit them, B: be a losing team and watch them go to other schools, or C: you can be fair and do what is right, you owe it to the other players that committed to you...... So far my disappointments so far into to the season. Ole Miss, way over hyped coming into the season, yes you beat Florida last year, but its 2009, time to wake up......Michigan State is not very good, a lot of people had them as a sleeper team, in fact they went to sleep........Illinois, not going to talk much further on a worthless team.......Oklahoma and USC, both losing early in the year, but that may work for them as its better to lose early than late....... Its out of control this year, Boise State is not a #5 ranked team, when they played Fresno State it looked like Arena Football. BYU beat Oklahoma and got destroyed by Florida State who barely beat Jacksonville State. Oregon beat Utah, and California, but did lose to Boise State. My point is, I know the WAC and Mountain West Conferences can produce good teams, but they only play a few good teams a year, and that is their chance to shine in front of the nation. Put them in the SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Big 10 and see how good they do for the whole season.......One last thing, back to Florida, when did Division 1 football programs become so powerful that they can have sick players fly on separate flights? How much did that cost?

Winner, Winner, Nittany Lion Dinner!!!!!!!!!!

The Iowa Hawkeyes have done it again. They have knocked off #5 Penn State, but this time they did it in not so Happy Valley. This was to be Penn State's revenge for the Hawks ending their National Title hopes when they entered Kinnick a year ago at 9-0 until Daniel Murray kicked the winner through the up rights. Penn State has had this game circled on the calendar, it was a 7pm National game on ABC, ESPN College Gameday show was there, and the game was set for the WHITE OUT. Penn State forgot one thing, The Iowa Hawkeyes are a pretty good football team, and the even put their right shoe on the right foot. The game of football is played on a 100 yard field, both teams have to play by the same set of rules. My point is, you can want revenge, and you can circle your calendar. But once the football is kicked off, its football. As a player you are not going to play harder in this game than the game before, you should be playing hard in every game. The Hawks rolled into Happy valley, and yes it was a hostile environment, and the Hawks even let the Lions get one deep on them to be down 0-7 right away. But the Hawks are very solid on defense, and the offense is slowly but surely coming together and will get better. The defense kept the Hawks in the game, and will do that all year. And when you let a team hang around, they usually get you when it counts, and it did when Adrian Clayborn blocked the punt and took it to the house and turned Happy Valley into a 109,000 seat library. Hawks rolled Penn State 21-10 in their house. Bad news now is the Hawks are not flying under the radar, everyone is fully aware and it sets up for a Nationally Televised contest with Michigan in Kinnick on Oct. 10th.

Quick Hits from past week in College and NFL

This past weekend was crazy in both college and the NFL. Lets start in college first. USC goes down to Washington. Once again, USC struggles on the road early in PAC-10 play, and Pete Carroll's former assistant coaches beat him with their new program. Now I know why Carroll didn't want Sanchez to go to the NFL, instead he is beating the Patriots on Sunday. Miami Hurricanes look to be back as they are beating teams and have themselves back in the top 25, the U is back. Iowa State won a road football game for the first time since a man landed on the moon, ok it hasn't been that long, but it feels like it if you are a clone fan. The Hawks are the only Big Ten team to win a bowl game last year, they are the only team that has beaten a SEC team in a while, and apparently they are the only team that can beat a PAC-10 team too. Hawks played well and the Wildcats of Arizona couldn't handle Kinnick. USC beat Ohio State 2 weeks ago, and CAL beat Minnesota on Saturday. Auburn, AL looked like Niagara Falls Saturday night, some how Chizik is winning, still not sold on him. Before I switch over to the NFL, who is running the AP Top 25 this year, there are plenty of overrated teams in there. BYU, Boise State, Utah, and is Penn State really a top 5 team, really?
NFL recap, hey Packer fans! Ocho Cinco just did the Lambeau leap in your backyard, when is it Favre's turn? Hey Seahawks, Frank Gore just scored another TD on you. Seriously, this is the NFL and they let Gore break a run of 79 yards and one for 80 yards. The Bears should be licking their chops. The Vikes are not looking real sharp, but they are winning, and Favre is keeping it simple, and is protecting the ball. His ego had changed a bit, its about team, and not himself. He used to be a gun slinger and force things and throw interceptions, now he is playing smart football which I like to call winning football. His ego must just flare up in the off season. Cowboys opened up their new stadium only to lose to the New York Giants. Has anybody else noticed that Romo is good against the teams that are not so good, and when he is on the big stage he seems to struggle. Romo needs to stick with noon games against the Rams and Lions, and stay away from Sunday night or Monday night and teams like Giants, and Eagles.

Look back at NFL week 1

It was nice to see the NFL season get underway. It was a very exciting opening week. You never know in the NFL what is going to happen. We saw the Bills almost beat the Patriots, I think the Bills are the only team still running prevent defense to hold a lead late in a game, because it doesn't work as they found out. The Raiders looked good against the Chargers. The Raiders were terrible last year against the run, but they were impressive in week one against the run. Raiders should have won as well, but let the Chargers off the hook. We also saw the Chiefs run with the Ravens which is crazy because the Chiefs coming in with a backup QB against the Ravens defense, thought it would be a blowout. We also had the Broncos unbelievable finish against the Bengals, and Adrian Peterson's run against the Browns were he showed that he is a machine. I do want to pass on one thing that always gets passed up, and that is the good things in sports. This past week Steve McNair's two boys had a breakfast with dad event at there school. The 2 boys had some anxiety about it according to the teachers because this is one of there favorite events of the year. Vince Young took the boys to school and filled in, and the boys had a great time according to the Nashville paper. Vince Young has been a close friend to the McNair's for a long time as he looked up to Steve when he was young. Vince signed autographs for all the kids and took jerseys to give away as well. Its one the good stories that athletes do and its not all over the news like Charles Rogers is who is a ex-NFL player and has a history of problems off the field and he gets an OWI and ESPN is all over it. Who cares, the Young story should been bigger story, its a good one, but it doesn't sell like the bad ones. Plus I don't think Young was doing it for publicity, he was doing it because he is a friend of the family.

NFC NORTH

This is going to be a dog fight (Sorry Vick), but you seriously have 3 good teams in this division. I truly believe the North gets 2 teams in the playoffs this year as long as Favre, Cutler, and Rodgers stay healthy. The Vikes, Bears, and Packers all have good defenses. As long as the Packers have their new 3-4 defensive set perfected, they will be pretty good on defense. The Bears have Urlacher and Briggs. The key for the Bears is the play of their secondary, seems like they are never healthy back there. The Vikes have an awesome Defensive line that stops the run and applies pressure to the QB (good luck Stafford). Vikes key will be Linebacker play and secondary staying healthy as well, Vikes have a decent pass coverage.

Offenses are pretty good. the Packers are very well balanced, they have been for many years. They don't have big name players, but they get the job done, and play very well in cold weather. For the Bears they have a great QB, the issue is who is catching it. The TE Olsen will have a great year, and Hester will do better, but he isn't a true WR, so he is more of the dangerous weapon underneath coverage and occasionally going deep. But they may have WR's step up this year, as they are one great WR away from making another run at the Super Bowl. Issue for them may be running the ball, but as long as Forte is healthy, they should be fine. For the Vikes its all about keeping Favre healthy all year. Favorable schedule, the Vikes only have one potential cold weather game, and that is at Soldier Field in Dec. The Vikes have good WR's and TE's. The Vikes also have one of the best if not the best running backs in the NFL. As long as Favre and Peterson are healthy, the Vikes have a good chance. This division is called the BLACK AND BLUE DIVISION, and that's because its a smash mouth division. Nothing to fancy, they just want to come out and punch you right in the mouth. Its nasty, these 3 teams dislike each other very much, and its going to be fun to watch it all year. You may have noticed the Lions got no love here, but when you go 0-16, I can't say much about your team, and if i try to pump up the Lions, I lose my credibility to my friends and family who read this. I will say this, the Lions have a good Punting team.

Week 1 College Football

Finally, the college football season has began, and it didn't disappoint one bit this past weekend. You had the Boise State/Oregon Game Thursday night that had more excitement after the game than during. Some very sloppy performances in week 1, but that is expected, its not the NFL. BYU took out Oklahoma, that was a shocker, but BYU was rated, but once again the Mountain West Conference appears to have talented programs. At this point I would say that the BCS should kick the Big East out of their tie in and give it to the Mountain West. My Hawkeyes were not too impressive, very many concerns. Iowa is getting one of the better offensive lineman back for the rivalry showdown with ISU. Iowa needs to run the ball better, and the passing game wasn't that bad, so that is good. Iowa's defense saw the same offense this past Saturday as they will this Saturday at Jack Trice. I hope Iowa rolls into Ames and dominates ISU, but that doesn't happen anymore, and my gut is telling me that the issues Iowa has right now are too much to overcome in one week, and I think ISU is going to get the Hawks again. But that is why you play the game.
Alabama looked impressive, and Miami/FSU game was a classic. One game that caught my attention and hooked me in was the Washington/LSU game. Wow, those husky fans know how to get there stadium a rockin'. The TV screen was bouncing on 3rd downs, and Washington didn't win a game last year, but they played well against a SEC power. Steve Sarkisian has the Husky program in the right direction, doesn't hurt that he was the USC offensive coordinator and brought the USC defensive coordinator with him. Its like USC north.
In Week 2 I will be looking at Iowa/Iowa State game, USC/Ohio State game, and any other shockers that may occur.