Bowls Are Set

BCS Bowl games are set and most people feel the system got it right. Here's a quick breakdown of the match-ups and here is a breakdown of those.

Orange Bowl: Iowa vs. Georgia Tech

These two teams have very different styles in how they attack you. Iowa likes to mix up the run with the pass, while Ga. Tech likes the triple option or wishbone look and will pound you to death. Why the Orange Bowl took Iowa over Cincy is that they travel very, very well. Last year the Cincy faithful didn't show up and the Orange Bowl officials did want to embarrass themselves again. The great part about this game being so late it will allow the Iowa team to get Ricki Stanzi, their qb and host of other injured players back. How physical these two teams play should make it somewhat entertaining to watch.

Sugar Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Florida



The interesting part about bowl games is sometimes you get match ups where one teams wants to be there and the other doesn't. Florida expected to be in the National title game, New Orleans is not where they wanted to spend their New Year. This was the case last year when Alabama faced Utah, and got blasted. Its all about mindset, and the Gotors have the right guy leading them to face the Bearcats. Tebow will have his guys focused, I believe he will not want to leave college on a two-game losing streak. The game Cincy played over the weekend against Pitt showed how resilient this team is. I found it interesting that Brian Kelly let Pitt score so his offense would get the ball back with a lot of time left on the clock. Pitt should have recognized this and kicked a field goal. but they didn't and Cincy is BCS bowling for two years in a row. Hopefully Brian Kelly stays at Cincy. If he takes the Notre Dame job it will be a huge distraction to his team. Rumors have been circulating that he is meeting with them tomorrow. Building the Bearcats into a powerhouse is a good thing for college football. Kelly is not Notre Dame's first choice. They will hire him because the other big name's of Meyer and Stoops will turn them down. Would Kelly be a good fit? Sure, but its not what their rabid fan base wants. He should stay at Cincy where he is appreciated and he could dominate the Big East.


Rose Bowl: Oregon vs. Ohio St.




I just don't think Ohio St. can put up the points and can consistently stop the Ducks offense. This is not he typical finesse Oregon football team. These Ducks are physical and like to pound the football. Buckeyes offense is inconsistent at times and their defense has a tendencies to get ran over by teams that run the ball consistently. This is going to be a tougher game for Ohio St. than facing USC. Oregon may not have the talent of USC, but they are solid and play great team football. I think the Ducks are going to shock the Buckeyes. The Big Ten really needs to rethink its schedule because the long layoff ends up hurting their teams. Even though they can heal up, not playing for over a month causes their teams to come out flat. They might want to throw in bye weeks and move games until after Thanksgivings and into the first week of December.





Fiesta Bowl: TCU vs. Boise St.








I love these two teams, what I dislike is them playing in this game. This is just like the NCAA selection committee pitting Butler vs. Gonzaga. No one wants the mid majors to play against the BCS conference schools and beat them. It happened last year in the Sugar Bowl. Utah took down Alabama and the year before that Boise St. shocked Oklahoma. It makes it easier to pair these two schools together and have a loser so that at least only one non-BCS school is undefeated. These two teams played last year and TCU won 17-16. This year I expect a few more points being scored but TCU should still win.



BCS National Championship: Texas vs. Alabama





In a previous post I said that I believe Texas will win. The way that the Texas offense played in the Big 12 championship could make one almost change his pick. Positive for Texas is that Bama doesn't have anyone on the D-line named Suh. Wil Muschamp worked under Saban and knows his tendencies. Saban will try and make sure his team doesn't read their press clippings. McElroy played well and Ingram is a beast, but I just think the stars are aligned for Texas. Saban defense will get some pressure on McCoy. Texas needs to run the ball well to negate that pressure. Now if they can just score more than 12 points...

Good Guy Of The Week

Kurt Warner

Its rare that an athlete can rise from obscurity to super stardom to a possible Hall of Fame career, but Kurt Warner has. Warner a former Arena Football qb, led the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl in 1999. He also is a two-time league MVP and all-pro. When the Rams and Giants let him go, Arizona picked him up and he was within 2 minutes of becoming a two-time Super Bowl winner. Kurt and his wife started a foundation back in 99 called First Thing First Foundation that helps single parents, children and adults with disabilities. He was named the NFL's 2008 Walter Payton Man Of the Year, which is dedicated to greatness on and off the field. What I find interesting is that Kurt was been gone from St. Louis for six years and yet the city still has a love affair with him and he with that city. The Warner's still do charity events and they are successful, and when Kurt comes to town the Rams sellout. It tells you that there is more to this guy than meets the eye. You know this is a good guy when he leaves marks in two cities.

Tiger Woods

I have reserved my comments about the Tiger Woods situation because I wanted to see the sports angle. he pulled out of his own tournament which is the sports part that I care about. The thing that sickens me the most about all of this is how we as a society have become slaves to tabloid journalism. When I was studying journalism in school, these type of stories were reserved for the seedy underbelly of journalist. Now people gladly watch and read the TMZ's, E! and Entertainment Tonight's of the world because they feel they need to know everything about a celebrity or in this case an athlete's life. I strongly agree with a part of Tiger statement, and that is somethings need to be kept in private so that a family can discuss, heal and move forward with it. Has our society become the sleazy that we want to know every salacious detail about ever person? Have we not learned our lessons from the Princess Di tragedy? These people need to stop trying to tear people down. It must make them feel better about themselves to try and destroy people. I did not know people lives were this bad where you would try and harm your fellow man.

I saw over the weekend how Yahoo had a headline about Elin, as if she was to blame for the accident. She was "the mysterious wife". It should not be about exposing spouses or children, they should be off limits. The irresponsible journalist out there really love to expose secrets lives instead of actually trying to find out facts about the story. With that said, Tiger's biggest mistake was trying to control the media and what came out. He is used to doing that with all the sports media outlets and rarely speaks in public forums. The media that is chasing him this time is a totally different beast he will stop at nothing to ruin him and his family. His wife is not a public figure. This is a daughter, wife and mother and these sleaze ball people should keep that in mind.

Tiger said he has personal failings and that he is working on those. He also promises to be a better husband and father and that is the most important thing for him. As children, we grow just wanting to make our parents proud. When you looked at him you saw a boy devoted to his father and mother. Tiger has now loss that innocence and he won't get that back from his public. He still has a chance with his children to keep that and that will make his parents proud.

I think people also saw perfection on the golf course and equated that to his personal life. Tiger Woods became a brand and when you saw the brand with the family, you saw perfection. He is still just a man and he fell. The brand will go on and he can still be perfect and do inhuman things on the golf course but now people see he is just a man. A lot of times, I believe we get those things confused when it comes to our athletes. They are not here to be role models to us or our children. They have faults and skeletons in their closets just like we do. You can celebrate the achievements, the wins and triumphs but remember to put it all in perspective. Their is only one perfect being and He is not on this earth.

To say I'm not disappointed in Tiger would not be truthful. As a black male its a little more difficult. Tiger introduced me to a game and a sport I never thought I could play. He broke down barriers for other minorities that encouraged us to play golf. He made golf more mainstream. I never watched a golf tournament until he won his first major at Augusta. I remember thinking how cool it was to see a person of color make history there. Will I still watch him play on Sunday's? Sure. Is there a little tarnish on his star? Yes. But I know that he can be forgiven and he can redeem himself because this is America and not everyone likes going through the garbage.

Championship Weekend

BCS Matchups


This week the fate of BCS teams will be decided. I am going to make my picks and give my BCS bowl breakdown.

The Civil War

Oregon State and Oregon play in the Civil War on Thursday night. In my opinion, this will be the best of all the match ups all weekend, especially if you like offense. Both team can light it up threw the air and on the ground. My pick is Oregon St. because no one really expects them to win. The thing about rivalry games is that the underdog can play more loose. That would send the Beavers to Pasadena and their opponent would be the Buckeyes of Ohio St. In a shocker, I do believe the winner of the Civil War will beat Ohio St. in Pasadena. Ohio St. can't score with these two teams.

Big East

Cincy over their past two games have looked shaky and now they face an angry Pitt team coming off a loss to their rival West Virginia. Another issue hanging over the Bearcats is all the speculation of if Brian Kelly is a candidate for the Notre Dame job. Notre Dame's opening. I think all the Notre Dame rumors with the team slumping on defense is the perfect situation for Pitt. Pitt has a super freshman at running back and will slow down the game. The Bearcats undefeated season ends on Saturday and Pitt will go to the Orange Bowl to face the winner of...


ACC Championship

The ACC has been the worse conference in CFB. The only team worth talking about is Georgia Tech. Tech already beat Clemson earlier this year and should handle them easily again. Like I said, its tough preparing for the triple option in a week. At least Clemson has played them and can fix some of their mistakes. Both these teams are coming off losses to their rivals but Tech was at least in their game.

Big 12

This is Texas game to lose. The BCS is set-up to showcase the Big 12 vs. the SEC. Texas is a superior team to Nebraska. Colt McCoy can cement his Heisman trophy with a big game. Not going out on a limb with this one, even though Nebraska can make it a game with their defense. But the Huskers can't score and the whole object is to have more points than the other team. Texas will go to the title game but who will they face...

SEC Championship

Alabama and it pains me to say this. I want nothing more than the Crimson Tide to fall flat on Saturday night. They are the most overrated team in the country. They have no passing game and they have had the officials help them win a game against LSU, and Auburn brain cramp at the end of the game. Now Florida's best defensive player is out of the game. Alabama fans think it is their birth-right to play and win in the National Championship. Maybe Superman Tebow can put on his cape and will his team to a win. Hopefully he can because I don't think I can take a month of Bear Bryant, and Nick "Car Salesman" Saban stories.

I think Texas will win if they play Alabama. Bama would be favored in that game and if memory serves me correct the last time Texas was an underdog in the Rose Bowl...

Why The Spread Is Killing Football

The Spread Offense

Apologies for not blogging over the holiday. But its difficult to post at the in-laws. I will have a couple of post over the next few days, so keep on reading and I appreciate all comments.

The Spread Offense is killing football as I know. The whole object is to spread the defense out and use the the whole field to your advantage. Defense's have to be in nickel or dime situations and your depth at the defensive back position is suppose to be put to the test. The guy who gets credit for this is Rich Rodriguez who used it at Tulane, Clemson and West Virginia. The reason why I say its killing football is simple. Teams who use this can't seem to run the ball consistently or get the tough yards when needed.

Pass Happy

Teams used to use the running game to set-up the pass. Now everyone is so pass happy they don't even get the running game going. Its not only a college problem, you see it in the pros as well. Take a look at the Patriots and Colts. Brady and Manning easily throw the ball 30-40 times a game. But neither of these teams rank very high in the league when it comes to running the football. Defense's can sit back and jam their receiver's because they know what's coming. All the fuss about Belichik's decision to go for it on 4th and 2 could have been moot if they would have ran the ball. The Patriots aren't built to run the ball consistently. I have previously stated that Florida and Texas don't have great running games. Tebow and McCoy are the their teams best option at running the football. I agree that the ball should be in your best players hands to make plays. But what about having balance in your offense. The knock against the West Coast offense was that is was the short passes and all you had to do was crowd the line. However, Bill Walsh and the 49ers teams that ran the true version of the offense always had a great run/pass balance. Roger Craig, Ricky Watters, Tom Rathman and William Floyd would agree. You want to keep a team off balance. The Spread doesn't add an element of surprise.

Tough Yards

4th and 2 and you throw the ball to a back out of the backfield!?!? Or how about Kansas in a rivalry game on their own 2 and they call a qb draw that results in a safety and them losing the game to Mizzou. If KU could have or would have used a rb to get out of the end zone, they probably would have won the game.These situations are examples of how using the spread cripples coaches into making dumb decisions. You need to be able to get the tough yards, hard yards. Franco Harris, John Riggins, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, even Marhall Faulk could get the those tough yards when the game is on the line. When the Colts finally beat the Pats a few years, Peyton Manning audible out of a pass into a run and handed it off to Addai on a third and short, and it propel them to the win. It proved the toughness not only of the Colts but of Manning as well. Being able to break the defense will by getting that yard of two that can end a game is devastating to the psyche of a defense.

Its cool to light up the scoreboard but you also have to go back to the roots of the game and play some smash mouth football once in a while.

You Are What You Thought You Were

Notre Dame is America's college football team. Notre Dame is another one of those teams that college football needs to be good. They have an easy path to play in the BCS game every year. They even have their own network. The problem is the last five years the Irish have not been nearly as dominant as the Irish and their fans thought it would be. Now it looks like the Charlie Weis era is coming to an end.

When Weis was hired he said at his first press conference " You are a 6-5 team, and you are what you are. If you hired me to be a .500 coach then you hired the wrong guy." Weis is a .500 coach and Notre Dame is who they are. A school that thought it was so superior that it could lure the offensive genius of the New England Patriots to their school and restore the Golden Domer's to the top of the college football world. What they did was dump Tyrone Willingham before his contract was up. That was wrong and now the school is suffering from that.

Weis, along with Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichik have all benefited from one player. Tom Brady. He has made and makes all these guys better coaches. Brady is the one who makes adjustments on play calls and throws the ball around the field. Weis was given so much credit as being the architect of the Patriots offense that Notre Dame people overlooked that he had one of the greatest qb's in history. Your play-calling looks a lot better when you have a super stud running your offense. Charlie Weis just couldn't coach up his stellar recruiting class.

To be a college football head coach, you are the face of the school, especially in South Bend. Being smug to the press and not being around in the community can definitely hurt you. Charlie didn't like all the responsibilities that come along with being the head guy. The NFL is a business and franchise's are run like such. You can isolate yourself completely with your players and in the complex. College football requires you to mingle with high school coaches, recruits and even alumni events. There are reports that Weis didn't like doing those things. You have to go to the chicken dinners and ice cream socials even if they seem cheesy.

Its one thing to be a great coordinator, its another thing to be a head coach. Even though head coaches have their specialities, you still have to know how to manage people and make sure you have the right people in place. Weis's offense have been pretty good but his defense's have been awful. They can't stop the run or the pass. As the head coach you can't be so concerned with one side of the ball. Some guys are just great coordinator's and not head coaches. Charlie probably should go back to the NFL and help some of the terrible offenses there.

Charlie Weis is who we thought he was. A great coordinator who didn't bring America's college football team back. Hopefully Notre Dame does the right thing and not let him off the hook.

The Rivarly That Was

Michigan-Ohio St.


Today is the 106th meeting between Ohio St. and Michigan and I barely remebered. This game always got the country set for the Thanksgiving holiday, but with these two teams struggling some what most of the nation won't be paying attention. The only drama is to see if Michigan can become bowl eligible with a win. The Buckeyes are already going to the Rose Bowl, but there will be no National Championship game in Columbus this year. How far have these two teams fallen in the past three years. Ohio State has won the last six up to this point and most of the games have not been fun to watch.




Ohio State




Ohio State have been thrashed, destroyed and man-handled by top 10 teams. USC, Texas, Florida, LSU to name a few have had their way with them. Coach sweater vest offense is so conservative that most feel that he plays not to lose. With as much talent as the Buckeyes send to the NFL, winning the Big Ten is just not good enough for Buckeye nation. Tressel recruits to win the Big ten, not to win BCS titles. His team can not compete with the other big time programs because of their lack of speed and quickness at all of their positions, not just the skill position.




Michigan



Michigan has been struggling for the last three years. The appeal of the Wolverines talent level has completely dropped off from where it used to be. Rich-Rod is only in year two of a six year deal. Rodriguez has a history of rebuilding programs but I don't know if the Ann Arbor faithful can wait. People in this area are used to competing for championships. Lloyd Carr got a pass because he did produce one national championship. Michigan is one of the schools that college football needs to be good. When Wolverines are competitive and winning, it brings national attention not only to the conference but to the rivalry.













I miss the days of Woody, Bo, Coop, and Lloyd. Where have you gone Troy Smith, Joey Galloway, David Boston? This game misses the flair of Woodson, Howard and Shawn Springs. Everybody paid attention when Ted Ginn, Rickey Dudley and Maurice Clarett were playing. If I am missing this game and its must-see attraction, I can only imagine what the fans of these two teams must be feeling.